SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Refinery Church Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: We're so glad you joined us today.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your pursuit to love and follow Jesus in your life.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to learn more about the refinery, find ways to get connected, share a prayer request, or explore resources to help you grow deeper in your walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Visit us online at refineryohio.com.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's dive into today's message.
SPEAKER_02: I turned my mic on, then I cleared my throat.
SPEAKER_02: Should have cleared my throat, then turned my mic on.
SPEAKER_02: So public speaking 101.
SPEAKER_02: Public speak.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't eat the scooter today.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody said, doctor, cleared you?
SPEAKER_02: Didn't ask.
SPEAKER_02: Um so somebody's like, how long are you gonna be in the boot?
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully just this week.
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, doctors say that?
SPEAKER_02: Not yet, but maybe.
SPEAKER_02: I tend to lean towards optimism.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, um, thanks so much for everybody that participated in Big Serve week this past week.
SPEAKER_02: If you had a chance, uh Friday, I didn't think I was gonna be able to get to do anything, obviously, since I've been hobbled because I was playing kickball with teenagers and apparently I'm too old now.
SPEAKER_02: Um but I ended up getting to go to Bridge, which is one of my favorite organizations um in the city.
SPEAKER_02: They do just such amazing work.
SPEAKER_02: We partnered with seven different organizations doing incredible work, Hilliard Food Pantry Plus, two elementary schools, Freedom Collective, which is an anti-trafficking organization here in the community, um, Bridge, and I know I'm missing one or two.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but they just did great work.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you got to be a part of that, there's some pictures on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: If you missed a chance, you're like, oh, I meant to sign up, or hey, I wasn't able this week because, man, kids ball game, or I was out of town for work, whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we intentionally partner with organizations in the community to really drive the work they're doing rather than just kind of making one um emphasis week only.
SPEAKER_02: It's really it meant to be a catalytic opportunity to help connect people to organizations that are doing really important work year-round.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'd encourage you.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's an individual thing, maybe you go with your family, maybe as a life group you say, hey, what would this look like?
SPEAKER_02: Um I just think that's a really, really great thing to do.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'd encourage you to give it a shot.
SPEAKER_02: And so thankful for everybody that's able to participate.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, this morning we're continuing in our series talking about change the game, and I want to lock into kind of one one idea essentially, is that I don't want us to mistake milestones for the mission.
SPEAKER_02: Don't mistake milestones for the mission.
SPEAKER_02: Uh education, I think, is incredibly important.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and it it's been important to me for a number of years.
SPEAKER_02: You know, when I was a kid, not as much maybe middle school or whatever, but through the years, it really, I don't know, it's when I was young, I I kind of felt like I was playing a game when it came to school, right?
SPEAKER_02: If you could get a certain test score, you could get a certain grade, you could advance to the next level, right?
SPEAKER_02: And if you keep advancing to the next level, you get past the big boss, the principal, um, or whatever it might be to the next thing.
SPEAKER_02: But I I realized it's really not how it's meant to be.
SPEAKER_02: You could kind of win the game of school, so to speak, and lose it learning.
SPEAKER_02: And so I don't remember exactly when it happened.
SPEAKER_02: I think it was even after my undergraduate work, but I came to realize that education's not quite the thing that we that I was sometimes making it out to be.
SPEAKER_02: And here was the change.
SPEAKER_02: What I would go on to teach my sons, what I would go on to, as a youth pastor, tell kids about, what I continue to counsel families about is this.
SPEAKER_02: The goal of education, the purpose of education, it's not just getting a grade, it's not advancing to the next grade level, it's not being a certain rank in class or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02: The primary of edge aim of education is learning to be a learner.
SPEAKER_02: That's what you're trying to do.
SPEAKER_02: You're trying to learn to learn.
SPEAKER_02: So that throughout a lifetime you can learn, because if you just like memorize the facts, like, yeah, I just I memorized them, crammed them real well, then I forget them instantly.
SPEAKER_02: I got an A.
SPEAKER_02: But it doesn't help you.
SPEAKER_02: Because we're trying to learn to be learners.
SPEAKER_02: If we see education as a series of finite games, we may work towards those key milestones, those tests, getting that certain rank in the class, getting a certain ACT score, whatever it might be, graduation.
SPEAKER_02: And you can win or lose in those metrics.
SPEAKER_02: However, there's something more.
SPEAKER_02: There's something missing if we see education as purely just kind of these series of small goals rather than learning to be a learner.
SPEAKER_02: And so we want to celebrate markers, we want to celebrate milestones along the way, but in the end, we want to learn to learn.
SPEAKER_02: And here's the danger.
SPEAKER_02: We can approach our faith in Jesus in much the same way.
SPEAKER_02: To where it becomes more about the milestones than it does about the process.
SPEAKER_02: Here's how that works.
SPEAKER_02: So the end goal of following after Jesus is not just being saved in a moment.
SPEAKER_02: Like it's an important milestone, it's an important marker to, man, to ask Jesus into your heart or to choose to love and follow Jesus, like that's a huge thing, but it's meant to be more of a launch point than it is an end point.
SPEAKER_02: And if you make it all about, oh yeah, you a Christian, oh yeah, I asked Jesus in my heart ten years ago.
SPEAKER_02: Well, what's he been speaking to you lately?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: Don't talk anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Got saved, so I'm good.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: I figure I'll work that stuff out in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: That's not the way it works.
SPEAKER_02: The same idea with like baptism.
SPEAKER_02: Baptism's a tremendous marker along the way, but it's not an end point.
SPEAKER_02: Even hearing, well done, good and faithful servant someday, like that's not the end point.
SPEAKER_02: Like they're all milestones or they're all markers along the way of learning to grow in Christ, to grow in relationship.
SPEAKER_02: At any point in our lives, we can give our heart to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We can say, Man, I want to be a follower of you.
SPEAKER_02: It could be in your car driving to work one day, it could be by your bedside, it could be in a McDonald's over coffee with a mentor or somebody who's like, hey, listen, you need to just make a choice.
SPEAKER_02: Are you in with Jesus or are you not?
SPEAKER_02: It could be in a church service, it could be literally in your seat right now.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, I've never made that choice, I guess, explicitly.
SPEAKER_02: So make the choice.
SPEAKER_02: It matters to choose to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But it's a marker, not an end point.
SPEAKER_02: It matters to be baptized.
SPEAKER_02: In a couple weeks, we're gonna be celebrating baptism.
SPEAKER_02: I was talking to a guy at the end of the first service, and he's he's excited to man make that step.
SPEAKER_02: He said, But listen, I don't want it to just be a thing.
SPEAKER_02: Like I want to continue to grow in faith.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, that's really what it's all about, it's about setting direction in your life.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you've not made that choice, we'd love to celebrate that marker with you, but it's a milestone, not an endpoint.
SPEAKER_02: There's incredible milestones in our lives, and the journey of faith has so many different significant points along the way, but they're not meant to be stop points.
SPEAKER_02: The life of faith is meant to be more than moments, but the danger sometimes is that we look for the moments.
SPEAKER_02: We look for an encounter, we look for a moment, we look for an opportunity, and then we try and live off those things in the past, and that's not how it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_02: Let me give you a brief reminder from the first week just to kind of frame this idea of the finite versus the infinite game.
SPEAKER_02: And if you weren't here a couple weeks ago with us on Easter Sunday, uh it's kind of going to be a new setup for you.
SPEAKER_02: A finite game has fixed rules, it has known players, and there's a clear endpoint.
SPEAKER_02: The objective is to win.
SPEAKER_02: You're that's what you're trying to do.
SPEAKER_02: You know when the game's over because someone won the game, right?
SPEAKER_02: And so it could be a quarterly sales competition, it can be a basketball game, football game, chess match, a race, whatever it is, like you know there's a fixed start, there's a fixed stop, everybody knows who won in the end.
SPEAKER_02: But an infinite game is different.
SPEAKER_02: In an infinite game, like there's so many more variables, there's evolving rules, it changes.
SPEAKER_02: In an infinite game, there's known and unknown players.
SPEAKER_02: Players can leave and enter at any time.
SPEAKER_02: There's no defined endpoint, and the objective is you just want to keep playing the game.
SPEAKER_02: Years ago, I thought of this story the other night.
SPEAKER_02: Um, my oldest son, he was in second grade and he was playing basketball.
SPEAKER_02: His coach Rick White, uh, kind of an old school coach and man pouring into the boys, this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_02: And he, we were gonna sign up for a rec league, but we were a little bit behind the eight ball and getting the team together, and so Rick signed us up for a competitive league.
SPEAKER_02: And so, if you've done youth sports at all, competitive and rec tend to be pretty different.
SPEAKER_02: And then we were second grade, but all the second grade leagues were full, or the deadlines were passed, so he signed us up for a third grade league.
SPEAKER_02: So he signed us up for a grade older than we were and competitive when we met Rec.
SPEAKER_02: You can see how that would go.
SPEAKER_02: But let me tell you a story.
SPEAKER_02: We were playing this uh team one day, and we'd gone down to the gym, and I mean it's you know, just a bunch of gym rats running all over the place, and this other team was good.
SPEAKER_02: Like they could handle, they could shoot, they could do all these things.
SPEAKER_02: And the game, you know, like we're playing, it's unfolding.
SPEAKER_02: We come down to the very end of the game.
SPEAKER_02: And Jamari, this was one of Aiden's friends, um, man, he brings the ball across, gets it across just half court, launches, heaves it, sinks the three.
SPEAKER_02: Fans like we go nuts, the kids are like jumping all over the place, having a blast.
SPEAKER_02: Their fans are kind of like stunned, like, what on earth?
SPEAKER_02: Because we lost by 40.
SPEAKER_02: Um, they didn't understand the type of game we were playing.
SPEAKER_02: We were playing an infinite game of just developing our kids and maybe getting a few buckets along the way.
SPEAKER_02: They were actually trying to win the finite game.
SPEAKER_02: We knew we had no prayer of that.
SPEAKER_02: It's different.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know what kind of game you're playing, it you treat it differently.
SPEAKER_02: Same thing, you know, I know Jay mentioned date night.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, if you're married, you can win an argument with your spouse and lose.
SPEAKER_02: It's not what it's meant to be.
SPEAKER_02: Like we're always learning, we're always growing.
SPEAKER_02: How do we keep understanding what it looks like to be in this game?
SPEAKER_02: There's no final win in an infinite game.
SPEAKER_02: And if we want to understand the implication for this idea on our faith journey, I think it's important to listen to Jesus at one of the most important moments in his life.
SPEAKER_02: And I'd invite you to look with me to the book of John, chapter 17.
SPEAKER_02: We're in the third gospel of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
SPEAKER_02: And this is leading up to the crucifixion, the resurrection, all of these moments.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what it says.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to break the text into a few parts, but we're going to start with John 17, 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_02: It says, after Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is praying, Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_02: There's finite moments along the way.
SPEAKER_02: This is why there's milestones, markers.
SPEAKER_02: Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you.
SPEAKER_02: For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is what eternal life actually is.
SPEAKER_02: This is what it looks like.
SPEAKER_02: It's that they know you.
SPEAKER_02: The only true God that they live in relationship with you, to know God and be known by God.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_02: I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
SPEAKER_02: The hour has come.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is talking about his impending betrayal, the crucifixion, his resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: But you notice that the focus of this isn't just that moment.
SPEAKER_02: It's not one of those things when, and God, be with me, help me to get this moment done, so then we can check that off the box, the list, and we're good.
SPEAKER_02: He goes beyond that.
SPEAKER_02: He says, look, it's not a matter of arriving at this one place.
SPEAKER_02: The crucifixion, the resurrection, while literally the most significant moments in all of human history are moments.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus looks beyond that to say the emphasis is on eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: This is why the crucifixion and the resurrection took place.
SPEAKER_02: Because eternal life was what God longed to afford to all people.
SPEAKER_02: And what is eternal life?
SPEAKER_02: It's to be in right relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: And relationship with God doesn't end.
SPEAKER_02: It's something we continue to grow in.
SPEAKER_02: When you got married and you made your vows, it doesn't mean anything unless you live them out.
SPEAKER_02: And directions can always be adjusted, can always be modified.
SPEAKER_02: If you said a prayer one day and then you didn't walk in relationship with God, like what's it mean?
SPEAKER_02: If you got the job at the company and then you never showed up to work, like it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, listen, I the hours come.
SPEAKER_02: I know this is a big moment, but I don't want the disciples to miss what this thing is really all about.
SPEAKER_02: It's about life.
SPEAKER_02: Life to the full.
SPEAKER_02: Life afforded to anyone and everyone who would receive it.
SPEAKER_02: So a couple questions come to mind.
SPEAKER_02: First, do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Have you chosen to love and follow him?
SPEAKER_02: It's not something you stumble into, it's not an accident, it's just one of those things where it's like, yeah, this is what I want my life to be about.
SPEAKER_02: This is the direction I want my life to be lived.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you've not made that choice, today's a great day.
SPEAKER_02: You just say, God, this is what I want.
SPEAKER_02: I want to walk with you.
SPEAKER_02: And the second question is this if you've chosen to love and follow after Jesus, are you continuing to grow in relationship with him?
SPEAKER_02: Or is it one of those things where you're like, well, yeah, five years ago, ten years ago, what 20 years ago, or yeah, I grew up in church, or yeah, my grandma taught me, or what's God been teaching you of late?
SPEAKER_02: How's God been challenging or stretching, encouraging?
SPEAKER_02: How's God been forming?
SPEAKER_02: How's God been calling you of late?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, I remember when I was a teenager.
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
SPEAKER_02: I'm thankful for that story.
SPEAKER_02: But you're not a teenager anymore.
SPEAKER_02: What's God doing in your life this week?
SPEAKER_02: How's God been molding you the past few?
SPEAKER_02: Well, listen, Lane, I'm busy season.
SPEAKER_02: Like I got a job and married and kids and running around.
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm gonna get back to that someday.
SPEAKER_02: No, you won't.
SPEAKER_02: Because your direction is already set, and it's either taking you along the way God would have you to go or away from the way He would have you to go.
SPEAKER_02: I have a I had a friend years ago, um, we've been disconnected for some time just geographically.
SPEAKER_02: And we were sitting in a meeting one time and we were talking just about life of faith and the journey of faith and how it unfolds, and we were talking about kind of uh significant markers, so to speak, like in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And he talked about this time where he started reading the Bible every year, the whole thing through in a year.
SPEAKER_02: And if if you've done that before, um for most people it proves to be pretty challenging.
SPEAKER_02: It's if like on a Bible like this, it's only three pages typically.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's just there's something about it.
SPEAKER_02: One, I believe we have an enemy fighting against us to keep us out of the word.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but just life and everything else, and the book of Leviticus and Numbers, right, and some of those things.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Yeah, but I was I was reading every year, and I did this for a year, and then man, I was like, I found such profitability.
SPEAKER_02: He did it a second year.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I felt like I could hear God so clearly, and there was just such greater clarity in my life.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I went ahead and did it a third year and a fourth year, and he did it for 10 years straight.
SPEAKER_02: Ten years straight.
SPEAKER_02: And he he spoke with such fondness, like about this season of his life and this time in his life and everything else.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_02: So, like, so what happened next?
SPEAKER_02: He's like, Well, I mean, eventually I stopped after about 10 years.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, when was this?
SPEAKER_02: He said, about 10 to 15 years ago.
SPEAKER_02: It was this past moment.
SPEAKER_02: And he looked with such fondness on it, but he wasn't sowing any new seed.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, uh there was another time I was in a meeting with somebody and I offended him pretty well.
SPEAKER_02: Then I realized I was going to.
SPEAKER_02: Uh if you're ever in a meeting with me and I offend you, you have to let me know.
SPEAKER_02: I don't always get it.
SPEAKER_02: And uh he was talking about this time in his life when he was growing up in high school and what he was doing and how he was living, and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh yeah, I must have just not made a big difference, though.
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, you're not doing it anymore.
SPEAKER_02: He did not like that.
SPEAKER_02: He was really angry, actually, because it was such a precious time in his life.
SPEAKER_02: But he was still trying to live off the past.
SPEAKER_02: We can't live life backwards.
SPEAKER_02: We have to live forward in the journey of faith.
SPEAKER_02: The direction we're traveling is crucial.
SPEAKER_02: If if someone says, Hey, tell me, man, why do you follow Jesus and all of your stuff is from the past?
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't seem like we're following, it seems like we once followed.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is praying.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Listen, I want him to understand it's not about a moment, it's about an eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: It's about a direction of how we live, all of our days and beyond.
SPEAKER_02: Look with me to John 17, 11 through 19.
SPEAKER_02: Reads this way.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus continues the prayer.
SPEAKER_02: We're skipping down a bit.
SPEAKER_02: It says, I will remain in the world no longer.
SPEAKER_02: This this part is coming to a conclusion.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, this there's a moment coming, there's a time coming.
SPEAKER_02: But they are still in the world, and I'm coming to you.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
SPEAKER_02: While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.
SPEAKER_02: None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction, so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_02: Says, I'm coming to you now.
SPEAKER_02: But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because they're meant to keep going in this way.
SPEAKER_02: So that they'll have it within them.
SPEAKER_02: I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, this is not the culminating moment of the ministry where we, okay, we did it, we're out of here.
SPEAKER_02: There's more yet to be done.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.
SPEAKER_02: They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
SPEAKER_02: Sanctify them by the truth, set them apart, make them other.
SPEAKER_02: It's an ongoing work, this sanctifying work of God.
SPEAKER_02: God is always intentionally calling us to a sanctifying work that is done by the power of His Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Not I was sanctified in a moment, I was set apart in a moment, but literally God is doing this ongoing, sanctifying work in me.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody feel like you've just arrived and you've got it done?
SPEAKER_02: You're just kind of, I'm just biding time right now.
SPEAKER_02: I could teach a few things if you want me to.
SPEAKER_02: Continue to sanctify them, God.
SPEAKER_02: As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
SPEAKER_02: For them I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is preparing his disciples for this significant moment.
SPEAKER_02: He's about to leave.
SPEAKER_02: He's about to head out.
SPEAKER_02: It's a milestone marker, it's a major event.
SPEAKER_02: They don't fully get what's going on, it's going to take them some time to realize it.
SPEAKER_02: But he's laying the groundwork nonetheless that eternal life is grounded in a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: And relationship is infinite language, it's ongoing language.
SPEAKER_02: It's not, I did that once.
SPEAKER_02: It's what's the relationship look like today?
SPEAKER_02: The beautiful thing about that is our past bad moments don't derail us because direction can always be altered.
SPEAKER_02: Our past great moments don't settle us because direction can always be altered.
SPEAKER_02: That's real.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prayed that his disciples with relationship with God would be strong, that they'd navigate the hardships, the challenges yet to come.
SPEAKER_02: He knew significant moments in the faith journey were going to continue to unfold, and he said, Keep going forward.
SPEAKER_02: The way that was revealed in Jesus, when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, was still meant to be traveled.
SPEAKER_02: They could continue to learn to know God and be known by God, to love God and be loved by God.
SPEAKER_02: They could move in that direction.
SPEAKER_02: And in the closing verses we just read, Jesus sends his followers out.
SPEAKER_02: He sends them out to share the good news.
SPEAKER_02: It's uh the phrase we use is evangelism.
SPEAKER_02: It just means to share the good news.
SPEAKER_02: You can be an evangelist for anything.
SPEAKER_02: You can share the good news about a restaurant, you can share the good news about it.
SPEAKER_02: But in this, he said, I want you to share the good news of God with others.
SPEAKER_02: Never end.
SPEAKER_02: It never ends for the people of God to just share the good news.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because we've not been called to just some milestones and markers, then we bide our time until we're out of here.
SPEAKER_02: We're in this eternal mission that God has called.
SPEAKER_02: Because he says, listen, all of this, it's about eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: It's an ongoing thing.
SPEAKER_02: So whether it's family, it's coworkers, it's neighbors, it's friends at school, or anyone else we might come in contact with, God, how do I stay on that mission?
SPEAKER_02: How do I keep my life in the direction you're saying?
SPEAKER_02: Rather than, yeah, I got saved, I got baptized, I'm good, I gave a few bucks, I got a place served, like I've hit all the milestones, so I'm good.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what's the direction of my life?
SPEAKER_02: Because if I mistake the milestones for the mission, I'm in trouble.
SPEAKER_02: Look with me to one last passage here in John, John 17, 20 to 26.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer is not for them alone.
SPEAKER_02: I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.
SPEAKER_02: You catch that?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer is not just for them alone.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer is not just for the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer is for anybody who will believe in me through their message that will reverberate around the world for the next two millennia plus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prayed for you.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prayed for me.
SPEAKER_02: Do you have people in your life that their prayers just seem to count for more?
SPEAKER_02: This is a safe place, right?
SPEAKER_02: You got some people like, hey, I'll be praying for you.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, all right, sure, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you don't say that to them, you say, Oh, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02: But but then there's other people like, hey, I'm gonna be praying for you.
SPEAKER_02: Like, well, listen, if you're gonna take some words to the Father, you mind if I leave you a couple notes?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prayed for you.
SPEAKER_02: My prayer is not just for them alone.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for the anyone.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what you're dealing with right now.
SPEAKER_02: I know some obviously, just by the nature of the relationship we have with one another, we share prayer requests and praises.
SPEAKER_02: I know.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what everybody's dealing with, but I'm going to tell you this: Jesus prayed for your situation.
unknown: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that they would know what it looks like to live in relationship with us.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that they would look know what it looks like to live in relationship with other people, in healthy, life-giving relationship.
SPEAKER_02: So that someday on the other side of the world, in a nation not yet established, where they've declared multiple times loneliness as an epidemic in their nation, that they would recognize they can live differently because they've been invited into a God relationship and they are invited into relationship with one another.
SPEAKER_02: Help them know, God, that they can live different, that they can be different, that the direction of their life is not the same as everyone else around.
SPEAKER_02: And so they can live in that direction and invite others to the same.
SPEAKER_02: So when they say, I've got nobody, say, I've got some people, you should be with me.
SPEAKER_02: It's a different way to live.
SPEAKER_02: It's not I got saved, I did this thing.
SPEAKER_02: It's I'm living in relationship with the one true God.
SPEAKER_02: I and them and you and me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.
SPEAKER_02: Then the world will know.
SPEAKER_02: How's the world gonna know?
SPEAKER_02: Us living in relationship with God and one another.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know all the answers.
SPEAKER_02: You don't need to know all the answers.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, Listen, the world's gonna know when they live in right relationship with us, and when they live in right relationship with one another, they'll be known by their love.
SPEAKER_02: Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory.
SPEAKER_02: That's future language, not past stuff.
SPEAKER_02: The glory you've given me because you love me before the creation of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_02: I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known.
SPEAKER_02: But but crucifixion, resurrection, I will continue to make you known.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit of God will continue to inform and educate and form and shape and empower.
SPEAKER_02: I will continue to make you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I may myself may be in them.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prayed for everyone who would ever believe in him.
SPEAKER_02: Because the mission takes precedent over the milestones.
SPEAKER_02: I hope I never get over that.
SPEAKER_02: I hope you never get over that.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus pointed the disciples and everyone who would read and hear these words about them in a direction.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, listen, this is the direction we're to go.
SPEAKER_02: Don't check off the list.
SPEAKER_02: This is the direction you're to live.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus doesn't point to an event.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus doesn't point to a stopping moment.
SPEAKER_02: He points to a relationship, a way to live life.
SPEAKER_02: I think about this when I counsel couples, premarital counseling.
SPEAKER_02: I'm doing some right now for a wedding that we'll be doing later this fall.
SPEAKER_02: And we always just talk about where are you going, like what's the direction you're heading.
SPEAKER_02: Because a wedding ceremony is an event, it's a finite game.
SPEAKER_02: And I always tell couples the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: In case you're getting married soon or you're stressing about it, I said, listen, I can meet you at a Sheets gas station when we get you married.
SPEAKER_02: It'll be real quick, no problem.
SPEAKER_02: Literally takes nothing.
SPEAKER_02: The wedding is just the way that you want to tell your story of love.
SPEAKER_02: The marriage, that's the infinite game.
SPEAKER_02: That's the priority.
SPEAKER_02: And too often we prioritize the event as opposed to the longer story.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus promised.
SPEAKER_02: He says, This good news that I'm telling you about, listen, this isn't just some event.
SPEAKER_02: It's going to keep spreading, drawing more people to the truth and grace that is found in God's love.
SPEAKER_02: It's an infinite mindset.
SPEAKER_02: It's quite remarkable.
SPEAKER_02: There's going to be critical moments along the way.
SPEAKER_02: There's going to be betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: There's going to be the planting of the early church.
SPEAKER_02: The early church is going to gather together in the book of Acts, chapter 2.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit is going to fall upon them.
SPEAKER_02: Literally, one day, like thousands of people will be saved in that one event.
SPEAKER_02: Like they'll be sent out and scattered in all these incredible ways.
SPEAKER_02: It'd be this milestone moment where they'd say, hey, listen, we just got to do that same thing over and over and over again, but that's not how the way God works.
SPEAKER_02: God keeps sending them out.
SPEAKER_02: Sends them out and they go into dangerous places.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen becomes a martyr.
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, oh, we've got to stop this thing.
SPEAKER_02: They're killing us, but that's not how the way God works.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, if anything, every time they've tried to kill the Christians, it only accelerates the gospel faster.
SPEAKER_02: Then Paul, he tries to persecute them, so God's like, I'll just get you safe too.
SPEAKER_02: So then Paul, he goes to Galatia, he goes to Corinth, he goes to Ephesus, he goes to Philippi, he goes to all these places.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, I gotta get to Rome and then I'm going to Spain.
SPEAKER_02: Never made it to Spain.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because the gospel keeps going forward.
SPEAKER_02: It's not just an event, it's not just a moment, it's not just one thing that I checked off my list.
SPEAKER_02: It's not showing up to church Sunday, but it's showing up to church Sunday to rally, to huddle together and say, okay, how are we going to live our lives this week?
SPEAKER_02: Who are we going to be this week?
SPEAKER_02: In the marketplace and in our homes and in our communities, in our schools.
SPEAKER_02: Who are we going to be?
SPEAKER_02: What's going to be the direction of our lives?
SPEAKER_02: And the gospel has shown no signs of stopping, even though people have been killed for it, and literally people have declared God to be dead.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: The good news of life to the full that's found in Him.
SPEAKER_02: The love God has for you, for me, and for everyone else.
SPEAKER_02: It's not something that can be stopped.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a finite game.
SPEAKER_02: You can't put the pieces back in the box.
SPEAKER_02: You can't limit the number of people who can be a part of it.
SPEAKER_02: It's an infinite game and an infinite mindset.
SPEAKER_02: It's eternal life that Jesus specifically prayed, we would know.
SPEAKER_02: So let me ask you: is that your mindset today?
SPEAKER_02: Where's your life actually moving right now?
SPEAKER_02: Directionally?
SPEAKER_02: Your life personally, your commitment to Christ, or what's most important to you?
SPEAKER_02: Matthew tells us if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things they can be sorted out and they'll be in good shape.
SPEAKER_02: But you got to seek him first.
SPEAKER_02: What about the nature of your relationships?
SPEAKER_02: Your marriage?
SPEAKER_02: Your friendships?
SPEAKER_02: Are you seeking the direction Christ would have in your professional life?
SPEAKER_02: Is the objective to just retire early and be able to do what you want?
SPEAKER_02: Or is there the direction, God, how do I honor you with everything you've given me, the opportunity you've afforded me?
SPEAKER_02: If nothing changed, if nothing changed in your life, where would my current direction take me?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus prayed for you, and Jesus prayed for me.
SPEAKER_02: That the gospel truth would permeate every facet of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: So that the direction of our feet, the direction of our minds, the direction of our words, the direction of our dreams, the direction of our hopes, the direction of our ambitions, the direction of our aspirations would all be set on right relationship with God and right relationship with one another.
SPEAKER_02: Don't mistake milestones for the mission.
SPEAKER_02: Where are you at?
SPEAKER_02: You're playing a finite game?
SPEAKER_02: I'm just, you know, trying to make a paycheck.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just trying to get through this season.
SPEAKER_02: We're just trying to get the kids out of diapers.
SPEAKER_02: We're just trying to get the kids out of the house.
SPEAKER_02: We're just trying to figure out where the kids are.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: Just trying to get through this season.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just trying to get just get the raise.
SPEAKER_02: If I can get the raise, if I can just get this advancement, if I can just get through this busy season, if I can just get through.
SPEAKER_02: But the infinite mind says, what direction am I traveling in the midst of all the seasons?
SPEAKER_02: Am I honoring God in all those things?
SPEAKER_02: The band's gonna come out and they're gonna lead us in a song as we close.
SPEAKER_02: And we're just gonna spend a little bit of time talking about, God, we want you to send us in the direction you would have us to go.
SPEAKER_02: And as we sing this, I would ask you maybe you just need to take a minute and just say, God.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know that I could say this with full confidence, but I want to.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to send me wherever it is, whatever it is, wherever you'd have me to go, whatever you'd have, God, I want you to send me.
SPEAKER_02: You set the direction, you set the tone, you set the agenda.
SPEAKER_02: I've been playing these finite games, trying to get my 401k to a certain spot, or trying to get to the certain neighborhood, or get to the certain whatever this thing is.
SPEAKER_02: God, I just I need you.
SPEAKER_02: God, I've been playing games in my relationships and God, I need you to set the direction of what it means to be a husband.
SPEAKER_02: God, I need you to set the direction of what it means to be a wife.
SPEAKER_02: God, I need you to set the direction of what it means to live in right community with my neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: God, I thought the job was about me and I've complained about the benefits, I've complained about the pay, but God, I need to, God, you set the direction so that I see my coworkers not as obstacles, but as an evangelistic field to share the good news of you.
SPEAKER_02: Would you stand with me?
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_02: And then uh at the end of the service, uh, Tara Madigan, my friend Scott Cowall, uh, people I have great confidence in, they'll be up here a couple times every month.
SPEAKER_02: We just got some folks that would be available to pray.
SPEAKER_02: And so maybe you need direction.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a work thing, maybe it's a relationship thing, maybe it's just you, and you're saying, I've been dancing around the idea of God.
SPEAKER_02: I've got some past stuff I'm trying to live on, but I need him to set the direction.
SPEAKER_02: I know either Scott or Tara would love to pray with you, and that'll be after the song.
SPEAKER_02: But if you maybe just need a minute to pray by yourself, you'd be welcome to pray at an altar of prayer, pray in your seat, allow the words of the song to be your prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we thank for this day.
SPEAKER_02: Your love, your grace, your kindness.
SPEAKER_02: Wherever you would have us go.
SPEAKER_02: Bandage and broken people, comfort and weary people, in the midst of just our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, may we be able to say, send me, God, I want to live my life in the direction you're calling me.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll celebrate the milestone moments along the way, and I'll grieve the hard markers along the way, but I'm gonna keep setting in the direction you would have me to live.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna mistake the milestones, Lord, for the mission.
SPEAKER_02: We want you to set the direction.
SPEAKER_02: I pray that for each and every person in this room, and far more significant than that is the fact that Jesus prayed that for us.
SPEAKER_02: None of us are too far gone.
SPEAKER_02: Direction can always be changed.
SPEAKER_02: None of us should get so comfortable like I've done it all because direction is movement language, it's continuing forward.
SPEAKER_02: And so, God, bind up broken-hearted people today.
SPEAKER_02: Help them make a change of direction.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, if there's anybody that's grown comfortable or complacent and prick their heart, call them into the next journey.
SPEAKER_02: May we allow you to set the direction of the entirety of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: It's the name of Jesus, we always pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast.
SPEAKER_00: If you're ready to take a next step in your faith, please reach out to us through our website, refineryohio.com, or you can email us at office at refineryohio.com.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have a blessed day.