Speaker 1: Oh
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 2: Well, Hey, we're glad you're here.
Speaker 2: And we are continuing on in our sermon series right now for January called
Speaker 1: Sacred spaces.
Speaker 1: The word sacred
Speaker 2: Can be applied to almost anything, right?
Speaker 2: Because sacred simply
Speaker 1: Means set apart.
Speaker 2: Just being set apart in today, there are a few things in our lives that are truly set apart in a way where it's level of importance and significance makes it truly significant and special and untouchable in every way.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about the things that God calls sacred and how we then make those choices to call those same things sacred as well.
Speaker 2: Week one, we talked about that every part of my life
Speaker 1: Is sacred to God.
Speaker 2: And then we started to unpack some of that and say, and we to your time is sacred to God.
Speaker 2: And in week three, your resources are sacred to God.
Speaker 2: I love last week, pastor Mike unpacking the ideas of ties and offerings.
Speaker 2: There's a great message there to go back and listen to if you miss that last week, today's big idea is this is that your plan
Speaker 1: Places are sacred to God.
Speaker 2: Your places are sacred to him.
Speaker 2: Now God is accessible everywhere.
Speaker 2: And yet there are some places that seem to be set apart and special is in our connection with him, right?
Speaker 2: People feel close to God and all sorts of different places.
Speaker 2: When I was in college, I was working in a couple of the theaters on campus.
Speaker 2: And so I had sort of the keys of the kingdom, at least to my campus.
Speaker 2: And so I could get into a lot of places.
Speaker 2: And, and then the theater was a place that I knew I could get into in a big open space, Rockabye alone in the middle of, uh, you know, thousands and thousands of students.
Speaker 2: I could have a spot that was alone.
Speaker 2: And that became a place that was, was special to me to connect with God.
Speaker 2: My roommate in college was an avid hiker.
Speaker 2: And for him climbing up to a mountain top, that was, that was where he felt closest to God was camping on his own, up in the mountain.
Speaker 2: I've talked to family members who were in a boating who sitting on a boat late at night, under a star filled sky, ends up being a place where they feel close to God for some it's a conference environment or for some it's church.
Speaker 2: And for church that could be a cathedral or it could be a small environment.
Speaker 2: I love walking into the rosary cathedral and seeing all the stained glass and the spires, the ceiling and, and being in that environment.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, my wife and I were a part of planting a church in Indianapolis, where we set up in tore down every week in a little conference room.
Speaker 2: It wasn't exactly cathedral.
Speaker 2: Well, man, that was a special place during that season for us to connect with God today, we're talking about the things that set these places apart and the role they play in our lives.
Speaker 2: And I want to talk about two decisions that are essential in establishing sacred places in your life.
Speaker 2: Here's the first decision today.
Speaker 2: The first decision is that I will set aside
Speaker 1: Places for God,
Speaker 2: All set aside places for God's specific places, my life for God.
Speaker 2: Now there are places that God calls sacred and set apart within the scriptures.
Speaker 2: And we see that in outside locations.
Speaker 2: And we see that in inside locations outside, it's often on a mountain.
Speaker 2: We see Mount Sinai as a place where Moses receives the 10 commandments.
Speaker 2: And then later on Elijah encounters God in a meaningful way there or Mount Zion, which became known as the city of David.
Speaker 2: And then the place where Solomon built the temple.
Speaker 2: There's the Mount of olives, which is the place where Jesus was arrested and then, or prayed before his arrest.
Speaker 2: And then later ascended into heaven from that place.
Speaker 2: There are outside places that are significant.
Speaker 2: And then there are also inside places that are sacred and set apart.
Speaker 2: We talked about this a little in week one about the tabernacle, and then later the temple and the role of those played in the people of God that God gave these specific instructions of how to build the temple, how to put together the tabernacle of what materials should be used and, and who should put them together and how it should be made and who should touch this and who shouldn't touch that.
Speaker 2: And when this should be done and when this should not be done, and all of these roles dictated this place that was set apart, and the people who wanted to have a relationship with God would honor those, those rules that God set in place.
Speaker 2: It was a place that was uniquely set apart for God's people to connect with him.
Speaker 2: Now God continues to meet with us uniquely in sacred spaces today.
Speaker 2: It's a little different than it was then because in all of my reading of the scripture, I have yet to find a place that has set apart as sacred, an area of greater Toledo.
Speaker 2: I keep looking, I haven't found it yet.
Speaker 2: It's not, I don't think it's there.
Speaker 2: And yet it's similar in that when we set aside a sacred place, when we say this is a place where I'm going to uniquely connect with God and, and do that consistently, oftentimes God works in unique ways there.
Speaker 2: See consistency is the greatest catalyst for expectancy consistent since he is the greatest catalyst for expectancy, when we're consistently doing something and going somewhere, it builds an expectancy of what we're going to experience there.
Speaker 2: Lindsay and my, my wife and I have weekly date lunches.
Speaker 2: Now, sometimes that's usually been Friday's when our kids have been in school, we're trying to figure out some new rhythm right now.
Speaker 2: But, but when we're doing these, these weekly date lunches, my kids have no idea how we can spend two or three hours at lunch, right.
Speaker 2: They get like 20 minutes and then they're running to the next thing.
Speaker 2: But, but for Lindsay and I, it's something that we take time together because one it's a day off for both of us.
Speaker 2: I'm not here at the church and she's not teaching piano lessons.
Speaker 2: And it's a time that we've set aside and we've looked forward to, we've identified a place where we're not going to bother them.
Speaker 2: If we sit, sit there forever, a couple of hours, we're looking to talking about with one another, we're looking forward to sharing what's happened and, and talking about what's happening today and to thinking of what's going to go on tomorrow or the next week or next month or next year, even it's a time where we expect to connect together where we expect there to be intimacy, where we expect to be able to talk about things that are on our hearts.
Speaker 2: And so, because we do that consistently, it builds an expectancy.
Speaker 2: I'll give you another sample at work.
Speaker 2: When you walk into a work environment, when you go there the day after day after day, it starts to build an expectancy within you of what you're going to experience there, of what you're going to hear or see who you're going to interact with and what you're going to receive from them.
Speaker 2: It builds your expectations of what you're going to experience and to see how you'll be treated and how you'll treat others.
Speaker 2: It's interesting.
Speaker 2: When we do consistently walk into a place, it also builds their expectation of us and sometimes someone that what they're thinking of us as well, the greater the investment and the more consistent the investment, the greater the return.
Speaker 2: And this is true with our relationship with God, the more we draw near to him, the more consistently you draw near to him, the more expectant you'll become a finding him.
Speaker 2: And you will find him, right?
Speaker 2: One of the central tenants of Christianity is this idea.
Speaker 2: That's almost crazy that we have access to God, that when we draw near to him, he will draw near to us.
Speaker 2: And it's a story that the scripture unfolds from, from cover to cover.
Speaker 2: I'm going to walk you through some verses, cause I want you to see this in the scripture, not just for me.
Speaker 2: And I'm not going to spend a ton of time on all these verses, but I want you to see how the Bible sets up this idea, that when you come to God, when you draw near to him, he will draw near to you.
Speaker 2: Look at Deuteronomy four 29.
Speaker 2: It says, if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him notice that says, you will find him.
Speaker 2: This is not a cosmic lottery.
Speaker 2: That's going on.
Speaker 2: That you're just hoping you might win.
Speaker 2: This is a promise that when you draw near to him, he will draw near to you that when you search for him, you will find him.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah 29 13 takes the same verse and says it a little differently.
Speaker 2: So if you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
Speaker 2: So I'm one 45 says the Lord is close to all.
Speaker 2: Who call on him?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 2: To all who call on him in truth.
Speaker 2: When you call on him, he's close or Proverbs eight.
Speaker 2: I love all who loved me.
Speaker 2: Those two search will surely find me this.
Speaker 2: Isn't something you have to wonder about.
Speaker 2: When I, when I draw near to God, or when I, when I set aside a place to, to come before him, I have to wonder if he maybe he's there or not.
Speaker 2: There's certainty that he is there with you.
Speaker 2: Jesus and John 15 says remain in me and I will remain in you for a branch, cannot produce fruit.
Speaker 2: If it's severed from the vine and you cannot be fruitful, unless you remain in me, remain in me and I will remain in.
Speaker 2: You draw near to me.
Speaker 2: I'll draw near to you, Hebrews 11.
Speaker 2: And without faith, it's impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe.
Speaker 2: Not only that he exists, but he rewards those who seek him.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 2: This is not.
Speaker 2: When you draw near to God, he's not going here saying, Oh, it's about time.
Speaker 2: I've been waiting for you.
Speaker 2: Now you rewards those who seek him.
Speaker 2: His presence is good.
Speaker 2: James four eight says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you creating places in your life where you consistently draw near to God are essential for your spiritual health.
Speaker 2: And today I want to challenge you.
Speaker 2: As you walk into the rest of 2021 to set aside three places in your life for God to set aside three types of places here.
Speaker 2: And the first one is a place for worship challenge you to set aside a place for worship in 2021.
Speaker 2: This is a place to look up for what down can't offer you.
Speaker 2: It's a place to remind you, not just of, of what you need, but of who God is.
Speaker 2: It's a place to remind you of his strength and character of his authority and power of his goodness, his greatness.
Speaker 2: It's a place to remind you that he knows what you're walking through and it, and it will take care of you in the midst of it.
Speaker 2: And when you're feeling weak, he's still strong.
Speaker 2: When you're doubting, he is still faithful.
Speaker 2: It's that place.
Speaker 2: That's going to point your eyes up and remind you of his heart and his love for you.
Speaker 2: Now there's a lot of places you can experience this.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of places you could set aside for worship, but I'm going to suggest that the best place for worship, this is going to blow your mind is a church
Speaker 3: I know was shocking, right?
Speaker 2: It's a church we've been challenging our last few weeks for you to, to commit this year to attending church regularly for a year.
Speaker 2: If you're a guest with us here, whether online or on site, and maybe you've been a guest this week or, or for a month or for, uh, for a few months, but commit to being here for a year, committed to investing time here in a place to worship.
Speaker 2: A lot of people will dig holes in their spiritual life for, for many, many years, and then expect a month at church to fill it all back in it doesn't often work that way.
Speaker 2: Think about a football player that looks at his coach and says, you know, a coach, a game every week.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of games.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to be at one or two of them.
Speaker 2: I might throw in a couple of practices as well, but when I'm there, feed me, give me the ball.
Speaker 2: Wanna make a difference.
Speaker 2: I want to be the impact player on the field, right?
Speaker 2: It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2: There is transformation takes time, investment into things, take time.
Speaker 2: And we do get out of things.
Speaker 2: What we will put into it.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about my time here in Sylvania.
Speaker 2: And I've been here about 10 years now, which on one hand feels like a short amount of time.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, this is the longest I've lived in an environment actually throughout my life, but about eight or nine years of several places.
Speaker 2: But here in 10 years, and in a one hand, we've done incredible things.
Speaker 2: I'd like to think that my presence here and what I've done here has made an impact that, that we're doing some good things for God.
Speaker 2: And on another hand, I feel like I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2: I feel like after 10 years, I'm just starting to understand the environment here and in some of the, the rhythms of things and so of why things are the way they are, why they're not the way they're not.
Speaker 2: And who has conversations about what or who should I talk to about this or that, or who influences these decisions?
Speaker 2: I'm just starting to understand it.
Speaker 2: And it makes me excited about the future.
Speaker 2: And what's ahead for our church and the places we'll continue to have an opportunity to build the kingdom.
Speaker 2: Transformation takes time, right?
Speaker 2: Sometimes we get a one-time shot of something that feels good and that's good.
Speaker 2: It's not a bad thing, but, but if we really want to change our lives, it takes a deeper commitment.
Speaker 2: And so on challenge you to find a place to worship, set aside a place to worship for this year.
Speaker 2: And I believe this is a no better place than this one to make that call second place.
Speaker 2: I challenge you to set aside a place for fellowship, a place for fellowship.
Speaker 2: This is for God honoring relationships for friendships that will, will help you to move beyond where you're at today and grow closer to God.
Speaker 2: We say here that the Christ center community is a conduit for life change, right?
Speaker 2: Events may awaken, but relationships transform where we have a momentary experience at times in life.
Speaker 2: That that sets our thinking in a different direction or sets us doing something differently.
Speaker 2: And yet, if, if that doesn't anchor into the relationships that are around us, it'll be a one-time experience.
Speaker 2: Those relationships are what transform over time, time and relationships happen in a regular place and develop in a regularly visited place.
Speaker 2: You think about sitcoms that you watch on TV, you, whatever sitcom you're watching.
Speaker 2: Usually the, the action, the environment will take place in some place, right?
Speaker 2: It's a backyard or a living room or a basement or a coffee shop, or even a work environment where relationships form consistently, right?
Speaker 2: Set aside that place for fellowship to develop.
Speaker 2: Now, again, there's lots of places this could look like, but one of the best places I believe is within our life groups.
Speaker 2: Pastor Mike had talked about that a little earlier in the video, but if you're wondering what a life group is, that's a new phrase for you.
Speaker 2: Uh, let me demystify life groups for you.
Speaker 2: Life grips are simply groups of people that come together to do life together.
Speaker 2: It's, it's not an overly complex idea.
Speaker 2: It's, it's fairly simple here, but it's a place where people come together to connect, to build friendships, to protect, to, to help them build accountability and, and also to grow, to grow in their faith.
Speaker 2: And our life groups are as varied as we are.
Speaker 2: I love that we are in a diverse church here with diverse people and interests and, and our life groups will form around all those interests.
Speaker 2: I'll mention a few of them that are launching here into this semester.
Speaker 2: We have a men's exercise group.
Speaker 2: Now this is not a like boot camp for the military.
Speaker 2: This is a place where they're going to get together and walk the Metro parks or spend some time together.
Speaker 2: But, but look, to be healthy physically together, as they're looking to grow spiritually together, we have a moms group that's together that meets together to both, to do some fun things and also to build into their faith and to read some things together.
Speaker 2: I know for my wife, Lindsay, when she had younger kids and even in early elementary school, a group like this was essential for her just to stay grounded and to go, man, I don't know what to do about this.
Speaker 2: What would you do about this?
Speaker 2: And then to gain some perspective from others, we have a women's book club that's launching as well.
Speaker 2: Just reading together.
Speaker 2: We have a, a midlife madness couples group.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to put an age range around what mid-life is, that's called wisdom.
Speaker 2: But if you're in that span, you know who you are.
Speaker 2: And this is a couples group of couples getting together to walk through that together.
Speaker 2: Some are experiencing what it means to be in an empty nest for the first time, or others are walking through other dynamics with work family and good environment there.
Speaker 2: We've got a group called life after loss.
Speaker 2: There's was a group of people that are getting together.
Speaker 2: Who've experienced loss of any kind, maybe a loss of relationship, maybe a loss of, of someone actually physically was spouse or a close friend, a child, a parent, but as they walked through that, so we're going to walk through this together, not alone.
Speaker 2: We have outreach oriented groups and, and study oriented groups and fellowship oriented groups and group oriented groups side.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 2: We have so many different groups of people getting together.
Speaker 2: And I will say as many groups as there are, there is always someone who will walk up to me and say, I looked at your groups.
Speaker 2: I did not see a group at two o'clock on Tuesdays for people who like cats.
Speaker 2: And I say, praise God.
Speaker 2: I throw that out there because maybe you're someone who loves cats and wants to meet in a group with people with Tuesday at two, call our office and schedule some time with me.
Speaker 2: And let's launch one, right?
Speaker 2: We're always open handed to what God wants to do to build community within the church.
Speaker 2: Don't allow physical distance to keep you from spiritual connection, create a place for fellowship in your life.
Speaker 2: This year three is, is a place for prayer.
Speaker 2: I got a place for worship, a place for fellowship, and then create a place for prayer in your life as well.
Speaker 2: This is a place where you can be alone.
Speaker 2: Did you know you can be alone without being lonely, right?
Speaker 2: Jesus is a single guy and he still took the time to set aside, to pull us out of the wilderness and to be alone with his father.
Speaker 2: This is a place for focus.
Speaker 2: Prayer.
Speaker 2: It's a place that you can pray out loud.
Speaker 2: It's a place where you can be real with God about the stuff that's going on in your life.
Speaker 2: You read through the Psalms and, and you see some of the emotion that's there.
Speaker 2: And David is he's praying to God.
Speaker 2: And there are times where he's going, God kill them.
Speaker 2: Not that any of you have ever prayed anything like that before, but there are moments where you come before God, you say, Lord, I don't know what to do about this.
Speaker 2: And I don't.
Speaker 2: I need you to intersect in this environment.
Speaker 2: I need you to do something here.
Speaker 2: Cause I, I want to do something here, but I don't think it's right for me to do something here.
Speaker 2: So I need you to do something here.
Speaker 2: Create a place where you can have that conversation with God.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's in my car, you know, with the radio off and just a place where I knew I can pray out loud and be demonstrative with God right now in this season of life, it's in my basement, right?
Speaker 2: The rhythm of life in my home right now, a lot of times we'll put our kids to bed and then Lindsay will fall asleep on the couch.
Speaker 2: And my basement's wide open.
Speaker 2: It's all good down there and spend some time, invest some time in prayer there for you.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a closet.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a, maybe it's a walk somewhere, a per walk.
Speaker 2: You're going to take regularly, but a challenge you to set aside that place for prayer place, for worship, place, for fellowship and a place for prayer.
Speaker 2: Choose to set aside a few places in 2021 and yet here's decision number two.
Speaker 2: So decision number one is I'll set aside some places.
Speaker 2: This is number two is I will give God access to all my places.
Speaker 2: There's number twos.
Speaker 2: I will give God access to all of my places as I was preparing for this message.
Speaker 2: I was reading through the gospel of Luke and just looking at some of the places that Jesus went and something hit me as I was going through that.
Speaker 2: Now Jesus did take, make, take some of those set apart places.
Speaker 2: He did take time in the temple.
Speaker 2: He did take time to pull us out of the wilderness.
Speaker 2: But the thing that hit me reading through that gospel is that most of what happened around Jesus, this happened everywhere.
Speaker 2: He went, he was addressing crowds.
Speaker 2: And then, then he'd be addressing his disciples and they'd be dressing of a person or two around him.
Speaker 2: He was, he would be crossing a sea or going from one place to another.
Speaker 2: And something would happen there.
Speaker 2: He'd be eating at a wedding or eating with his disciples or eating with the Pharisees or eating with 3000 people or eating with 5,000 people by the way, Epic fish fries.
Speaker 2: But these were the contexts that we find him sharing stories and, and, and communicating truth.
Speaker 2: They're the environments that we see him encouraging people and challenging them sometimes rebuking or correcting them where he's teaching and exhorting, where he's healing and doing miracles.
Speaker 2: It happens everywhere.
Speaker 2: He goes, it's almost as if every place Jesus goes, becomes a sacred place.
Speaker 2: And I think that's exactly the way that it is and has meant to be for us as well.
Speaker 2: The same can be true for us.
Speaker 2: You see, we talked before about the temple and the tabernacle.
Speaker 2: Well, what made the temple special?
Speaker 2: What made it a set apart place was not the, the curtains was not the walls.
Speaker 2: Wasn't the gold work that was in there.
Speaker 2: Wasn't the Juul walls.
Speaker 2: It wasn't even the people.
Speaker 2: It was the person, the presence of God, God, within that place, that set it apart.
Speaker 2: And you think about Jesus.
Speaker 2: Then what set him apart again was not the clothes he wore or the beard that he grew.
Speaker 2: What set him apart was the presence of God.
Speaker 2: Colossians two says that in him, all the fullness of God dwelled in bodily form it's God's presence to set aside the temple and Jesus and God's presence that sets aside.
Speaker 2: You look at Saint Corinthians.
Speaker 2: Six says for, we are the temple of the living.
Speaker 2: God, we're now the temple of the living.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 2: And God said, I will live in them and walk among them.
Speaker 2: I will be with their God and they will be my people and Paul saying, Hey, understand this.
Speaker 2: If you believed in Jesus, a savior, I'm going to live in you and set you apart in all the places then that you're in will also then can be set apart.
Speaker 2: And first Corinthians six, he says, don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God, you don't belong to yourself for God bought you with a price.
Speaker 2: So you must honor God with your body.
Speaker 2: In both of these scriptures, he's definitively definitively saying you are sacred.
Speaker 2: You are set apart and he sets you apart, not just for any old cause before a purpose so that you can live the life that he's designed you to live.
Speaker 2: And so that you can live out his purposes in a way that points people toward him as well.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I last week, we did some baptisms here.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I told folks backstage prior to the baptism is that in second Corinthians five, it says that in Christ, you're a new creation that the old is gone in.
Speaker 2: The newest come and the language is being used.
Speaker 2: There is the language of the creation of the earth.
Speaker 2: That once there was nothing, and now there is something in Christ, you are a new creation and he's doing something new in you.
Speaker 2: That's never been done before.
Speaker 2: It's unique its application to you and the people that are around you and the places you find yourself.
Speaker 2: So anywhere you go can move from an ordinary space, into a sacred place.
Speaker 2: Anywhere you go can move from an ordinary space to a sacred place.
Speaker 2: You get a couple examples of this.
Speaker 2: We we've been doing the Daniel fast as well, and, uh, cutting meats and sweets out of our diet.
Speaker 2: So I've been, I am a little bit of a foodie.
Speaker 2: I enjoy cooking.
Speaker 2: It's become a hobby for me.
Speaker 2: And over the course of this time, it's sort of fun for me because I, I learned to experiment with vegetables in new ways that I never knew existed.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the creative things that I did, uh, the other week was, was I made, I made a dish.
Speaker 2: I'll show it to you in just a moment here, but, but I was over a solders market that they're going to, there you go.
Speaker 2: That's what it was.
Speaker 2: I'm over solders market.
Speaker 2: And I saw Jim solder there and I just felt led to encourage him.
Speaker 2: I said, Jim, you know, we've been eating lots of vegetables this month.
Speaker 2: And I just want to thank you for having such an amazing array of vegetables here.
Speaker 2: And I want to show you something I did with him last week.
Speaker 2: And he looks at this and he goes, what is that?
Speaker 2: Some of you are wondering that now.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I said, Oh, it's not no big deal.
Speaker 2: My wife made this a, you know, whole wheat crust, tart crust from scratch.
Speaker 2: Then I laid in a bed of caramelized onion, mixed with Gruyere cheese, and then, and then layered in a butternut squash and sweet potatoes and red onion with a little time butter on top.
Speaker 2: He said, did it taste good?
Speaker 2: I said, my, my son, Gavin said it was the best thing he's eaten on the Daniel fast.
Speaker 2: So I think it turned out all right, but that place, that produce aisle became a place of encouragement because of my presence there.
Speaker 2: Now, as we're there, uh, another member of the church was a few, a couple miles over and looked over and says, Ben, are you boasting about your cooking?
Speaker 3: So maybe
Speaker 2: Yeah, the produce aisle, you know, it was a place of on wonder for a minute there.
Speaker 2: And then it became a place of accountability, but my presence changed.
Speaker 2: Some things give you another example.
Speaker 2: I was talking to a couple from the church here that a few years ago I was on a cruise and they took this cruise.
Speaker 2: I asked him what the cruise was because in all the times, cruises will have names or cruise lines.
Speaker 2: And he said, well, this was the seven day.
Speaker 2: Get away from roles and responsibilities of the day to day and put the world on hold crews.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if that was in the marketing material or he just made that up.
Speaker 2: But, but this was the, Hey, this has been a crazy season of life.
Speaker 2: And I'm just going to put everything on hold and we're going to go on a cruise together.
Speaker 2: So day one of the cruise, he's in a buffet line and he says something encouraging to an elderly lady that was beside him in the buffet line.
Speaker 2: And they kind of hit it off talking.
Speaker 2: Now this is someone I'll be it.
Speaker 2: This is someone to whom there are no strangers.
Speaker 2: They're just friends.
Speaker 2: They haven't met yet.
Speaker 2: But he ends up with this encouraging conversation with them there.
Speaker 2: And it it, and he and his wife get invited to this table of people to sit for dinner.
Speaker 2: So they went there and what they quickly realized is that they're like at the high rollers table like this, these are the people that cruise like 200 days a year.
Speaker 2: And everyone's looking at this table saying, how do I sit there?
Speaker 2: How did you get a seat there?
Speaker 2: Well, they started to get to know these people.
Speaker 2: And what happened over the next seven days was that they didn't exactly escape from everything.
Speaker 2: They got to know these people and they listened to these people's stories that consoled them.
Speaker 2: And there were moments of laughter and there were moments of tears and something unique happened in that place where by the end of the cruise, he said, they were literally on their knees, praying with each of the eight people around this table, sharing the love of Christ with them and praying for them.
Speaker 4: I think
Speaker 2: I would have a difficult time doing that on a cruise.
Speaker 2: I was just inspired by this.
Speaker 2: But when you allow God access to all of your places, you never know how he might use that.
Speaker 2: And I love what this guy said.
Speaker 2: He said, God doesn't do anything in you that he can't use through you.
Speaker 2: God won't do anything in you that he can't use through you.
Speaker 2: The key is this is that we never check our faith at the door.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes you walk into an environment with a coat and it had come out from the cold and you check your coat at the door and go into a place.
Speaker 2: We as Christians, we never check our faith at the door.
Speaker 2: Before we go into another place, we never check our faith at the door, the cruise or the door of the club, the door of the restaurant and the door of the bar, the door of the church or the door at home.
Speaker 2: You don't check your faith.
Speaker 2: When you open up whatever app you have on your phone,
Speaker 4: [inaudible],
Speaker 2: You don't check your faith.
Speaker 2: When you go into social media sites and decide to post there, we never check our faith.
Speaker 2: And when God gets access to all of your places, there starts to become a unity of life, a consistency of life.
Speaker 2: That's good for you in this glorifying to him, there's an old leadership picture.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've heard it before that says, you can be a thermometer or you can be a thermostat, right?
Speaker 2: You can be a thermometer that reflects the temperature of the room that just reads it and knows what's going on there.
Speaker 2: Or you can be a thermostat that changes it in my home.
Speaker 2: We just got one of these fancy digital thermostats that goes on the wall.
Speaker 2: And along with it, I, that ability to change the temperature in my home from right here, if I wanted to.
Speaker 2: But when I'm within my home, I have a little temperature sensor that I can move around to different rooms.
Speaker 2: As I move around and that temperature central will read the room and then tell the thermostat what to do and how to change the environment of the house.
Speaker 2: So that anywhere I go in my house, my presence changes things there.
Speaker 2: And not just for the room, but for the entirety of the house, anywhere you go, if you're allowing God to access your presence, changes that place.
Speaker 2: And the challenge is to allow him to do that.
Speaker 2: Romans 12 says, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, then you will learn to know what God's will is for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Speaker 2: It says you allow God access to all your places that suddenly you start to determine and decide and, and find what his will for you, which is good, pleasing.
Speaker 2: Perfect.
Speaker 2: And does it take some measure of sacrifice?
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: It takes some measure of dying to self.
Speaker 5: And yet, as you do that, you discover something better.
Speaker 5: And sometimes it'll take a minute before that locks in, but you discover something better.
Speaker 5: One last encouragement for you today, before we wrap things up here and that's this for some people, when we talk about a topic like this, our sacred places ended up becoming faith silos.
Speaker 5: Sometimes we too narrowly define the, the, the environment that we're, that we want to make a sacred place, a silo.
Speaker 5: You think about it as a long cylinder, maybe above ground or maybe below ground, but it's made to store things.
Speaker 5: And the silo's whole goal is to keep what's inside separate and independent from what's outside it's to keep the things inside from interacting with the outside and the outside, from interacting with the inside.
Speaker 5: So the inside doesn't see the outside on the outside, doesn't see the inside because who knows what might happen.
Speaker 5: If those two might mix some of us.
Speaker 5: When we talk about creating a sacred space, we create this faith silo that these are the spaces.
Speaker 5: These are the places where my faith is going to be open.
Speaker 5: I'm going to be open with that and it's going to grow.
Speaker 5: But sometimes that gets walled off from the outside, right?
Speaker 5: Some of us, we clean up stuff on Sunday for a service, but then life's kind of a mess.
Speaker 5: On Monday.
Speaker 5: I grew up in an environment like that, where with a lot of people who I saw who they were on Sunday, and then I saw who they were on Monday.
Speaker 5: And I saw that they treated people and said things and talked in ways that were a lot different on the weekend than they did in other times, as I was growing up, I was one of those people.
Speaker 5: I was someone who, for me, church was a moment when opportunity in that week to come and ask for forgiveness and receive it, maybe to get a little hope for what's ahead.
Speaker 5: But that one day a week did not change my life.
Speaker 5: See, I didn't allow God to change some of the ways I was thinking of the patterns I was living in and the day-to-day, I didn't allow him access to all my places.
Speaker 5: And so that was a one day a week.
Speaker 5: And the rest of the day I lived as I wanted.
Speaker 5: And it didn't really transform my life.
Speaker 5: You can ask my mom, she could tell you some stories.
Speaker 5: The challenge here is that this is real and there are moments.
Speaker 5: I know, you know what I'm talking about here.
Speaker 5: I know I don't need to belabor this, but there are, for us, there is a real temptation to live in a different way at church or a different way in a, in a sacred silo, in a faith style than we do outside of that.
Speaker 5: And when you do that, there's a whole world looking at you going, you know what?
Speaker 5: It's okay to not be okay.
Speaker 5: At least you're trying, at least you're in church.
Speaker 5: At least you, you have this, this moment, at least you're, you're watching the service good for you.
Speaker 5: And on one hand, I want to affirm that and say, you know what?
Speaker 5: It is okay to not be okay.
Speaker 5: And I hope this is always a place where it's okay to not be okay, because we walked through some stuff in life where we need to be open and transparent.
Speaker 5: And with some other people that are helping us walk through it, I hope that's always the case here.
Speaker 5: It's okay to not be okay for a time for a season, even, but, but I want to let you know, you don't have to be not okay for the rest of your life.
Speaker 5: See, God has something better for you than that.
Speaker 5: God loves you right where you're at, but he also loves you too much to leave you right where you're at.
Speaker 5: And so he's constantly drawing you in to something better, something more consistent, where the chronic reality of your life is not inconsistency, but it's love it's peace.
Speaker 5: It's joy.
Speaker 5: It's goodness.
Speaker 5: It's faithfulness gentleness.
Speaker 5: It's self-control, it's those fruit of the spirit living within me, not just one day, we've been every day of the week.
Speaker 5: And today, as we talk about sacred places, the bigger has the big idea here.
Speaker 5: The, the, the goal here is ultimately not defined a place for God in your world.
Speaker 5: It's about finding your place in his world and making that decision.
Speaker 5: I'm going to live for him every day of the week, every week of the year, every month that I, that I experienced every year for the rest of my life, I'm going to cling to him.
Speaker 5: I'm going to draw near to him consistently and allow him to draw near to me what to pray for you here.
Speaker 5: And as I do this, I invite you to pray with me today.
Speaker 5: Tonight, tomorrow is you're pondering these things, but I invite you to pray a prayer of Lordship of saying, God, I'll allow you to be the Lord of my life in every facet of my life.
Speaker 5: I'm going to give you access to all my places.
Speaker 5: And yeah, I'm going to set aside a few.
Speaker 5: There are going to be a few places I'm going to consistently go to this year.
Speaker 5: But more than that, even I'm going to give you access to all my places today.
Speaker 5: Let's pray together.
Speaker 5: Lord, we love you.
Speaker 5: And how just believe you have more in store for us that there's more potential in us than probably most of us realize.
Speaker 5: And so we come before you and just want to give you access to all my places.
Speaker 5: Or there are those few places that are set aside and I look forward to continue to worship and the worship you and these chairs every week.
Speaker 5: And I look forward to building relationships and fellowship and look forward to times of prayer and to some specific places.
Speaker 5: But beyond that, I just give you access to it.
Speaker 5: All I choose to live for you.
Speaker 5: And Lord is one of your people said to you a long time ago here am I Lord use me as pray.
Speaker 5: We'd live open-handed and live open-handed with all of our places before you help us to find our place in your world.
Speaker 5: I pray that in Jesus.
Speaker 5: Amen.
Speaker 5: Just stay with us.
Speaker 5: Let's worship together.