SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Refinery Church Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: We're so glad you've joined us today.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your pursuit to love and follow Jesus for 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: Good morning.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, uh, one more thing.
SPEAKER_02: We've got some staff transition taking place.
SPEAKER_02: We've mentioned that, and uh, we're excited.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Pastor Drew is going to be joining our team, and he'll be with our youth pastor.
SPEAKER_02: Uh his wife Alyssa is just finishing up finals last week or this week, so they'll be moving here in a couple of weeks from Illinois.
SPEAKER_02: Super grateful to get them on board and kind of take the leadership of the student ministry in this next chapter, and so we'll be welcoming them.
SPEAKER_02: One of the things I told First Service, I would tell you the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: They're moving from out of state, so they don't know anything like Columbus is not their space, anything like that.
SPEAKER_02: So sometimes we want to make like restaurant recommendations, things like that.
SPEAKER_02: One of the easiest ways to do that is just buy a gift card and hand that to them, be like, hey, this is a great restaurant, you should check it out.
SPEAKER_02: Um you might be like, but I don't even have teenagers.
SPEAKER_02: That means you have more disposable income, so you should buy a larger gift card.
SPEAKER_02: Those with little kids, you're like, maybe I'll just buy them a blank gift card and say it's there's nothing on it, but it's a reminder, right?
SPEAKER_02: Token.
SPEAKER_02: Um but no, we're we're super excited to get them on.
SPEAKER_02: And then uh Scott or Ryan Harmony, sorry, has come onto board as our early childhood coordinator.
SPEAKER_02: My wife had actually done that position for the past three to four years, and she stepped out of that role into another position um at another space.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're so excited.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Scott and Ryan have been a part of the life of the church for about three to four years now, and we're incredibly grateful to have them here.
SPEAKER_02: And Ryan's gonna do a great job in leadership, and so we're just man, we're just appreciative uh for everybody how they pour in.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, let me start this way.
SPEAKER_02: Um, everyone has the capacity to light up a room.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone.
SPEAKER_02: Some it's when they enter, others when they leave.
SPEAKER_02: You know it.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm grateful, like there's so many people in my life that have just you get a you know, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02: Like you get a text message and you see it's from some sometimes, you're like, yes.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: You're like, I wonder what they want, or man, I hope they want to hang out.
SPEAKER_02: Or you get a phone call and you're like jumping on that, and it's even a rescue, maybe sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's other people, you know.
SPEAKER_02: They text, they call, and that's why they make the button on the side.
SPEAKER_02: Nope.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go ahead and send that one to voicemail.
SPEAKER_02: You have people you work with, you have people in your neighborhood, you have family when you get together.
SPEAKER_02: Some people, man, do they just have this way of just there's just something about being with them that's encouraging, refreshing, like you're grateful, and then there's other people?
SPEAKER_02: Not so much.
SPEAKER_02: Presence matters.
SPEAKER_02: Who is it that you really enjoy spending time with?
SPEAKER_02: Who is it that you go out of your way to calendar to spend time with them?
SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_02: Where you may have like something booked up and somebody reaches out and says, Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna happen to be in town.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, yeah, you want to get together.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, do you have any open space?
SPEAKER_02: It's like I'm about to, because I'm gonna cancel some things.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's somebody else who says, Hey, can we get together sometime?
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, oh, let me check the calendar.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, busy, b yeah, lots of things going, lots of maybe next year or in two or never.
SPEAKER_02: You know, like you pick you pick.
SPEAKER_02: Who is the person you try and avoid?
SPEAKER_02: You have everybody in your life where it's just like, I just can't?
SPEAKER_02: This morning, as we begin this new series, the idea that you've heard before is that practice makes perfect.
SPEAKER_02: We apply it to music, we apply it to sports, we apply it to education.
SPEAKER_02: We want to have a slight wrinkle on it in that practices make perfect.
SPEAKER_02: When we talk about practices, we're talking about the spiritual practices, the spiritual disciplines.
SPEAKER_02: And cultivating the spiritual disciplines or practices bring about perfection in the biblical sense of completion or wholeness.
SPEAKER_02: Not that I do it flawlessly, not that I always get everything done right all the time, but rather there's this sense of peace, there's this sense of calm, there's this sense of, man, this is what I was made for, this is who I was meant to be.
SPEAKER_02: And so the overarching idea is we want to continue to lean into the presence of God through these practices.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Brother Lawrence is an author from the 1700s who wrote a book called Practicing the Presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: And in that book, the whole concept is really about we lean into the practices just to be in God's presence.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the overarching idea: to trust God, to be in his presence.
SPEAKER_02: There is nothing more worthy of our pursuit than the presence of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Consider that for just a moment.
SPEAKER_02: There is nothing more worthy of our pursuit than the presence of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Not our job, not another relationship, not some good acts we could do, not some nonprofit we could start up to revolutionize or change the world.
SPEAKER_02: The presence of God is the most impactful thing any of us could pursue in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Last week, Lamoris and Megan came to the church to pour into us through date night and then through Sunday, Lamoris spoke.
SPEAKER_02: I had a friend from the church reach out and said, Man, I wish you would have told us Lemoris is kind of dry.
SPEAKER_02: I could have used two cups of coffee just to stay awake.
SPEAKER_02: And I listen, he tries, so you know, like he's just he lacks energy.
SPEAKER_02: I tell him, I'm like, Lemoris, you gotta, these people are used to like shouting and yelling and stomping.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna need you to.
SPEAKER_02: And he tries, he tries.
SPEAKER_02: Now I I heard a lot of folks say they loved having Lamoris with us and Megan, and Lemoris and Megan both appreciated getting to be with us as well.
SPEAKER_02: But Lemoris was in the book of Revelation last week.
SPEAKER_02: That's actually where we're picking back up again today, with this idea of seeking God's presence at the forefront of our mind.
SPEAKER_02: So I'd invite you to turn Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_02: Revelation, the very last book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: We're in the next to last chapter of the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Chapters 21 and 22 say where everything's going.
SPEAKER_02: This this is how all things will culminate, how all things will end.
SPEAKER_02: And so this is where we're at to start our series this morning.
SPEAKER_02: It reads this way: It says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
SPEAKER_02: I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.
SPEAKER_02: And we this was mentioned last week that the imagery of marriage is incredibly profound for understanding what it means to be in relationship with God, for the relationship that God has with the church, not just this local church, this local church is one of many local outposts of the kingdom across the city, the state, the country, and the world.
SPEAKER_02: And it says, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, pay attention.
SPEAKER_02: You gotta see this.
SPEAKER_02: God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.
SPEAKER_02: They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
SPEAKER_02: He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_02: There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
SPEAKER_02: God longs to be with his people.
SPEAKER_02: It's the story of Scripture, literally from the beginning to the very end.
SPEAKER_02: That God longs to draw near to his people.
SPEAKER_02: He's present.
SPEAKER_02: After the fall of man with sin, with the rejection of God's ways, and says, I'm gonna go do my own thing.
SPEAKER_02: What does God do?
SPEAKER_02: God seeks humanity by walking in the garden in the cool of the day, calling out, where are you at?
SPEAKER_02: And the story has continued to unfold that way.
SPEAKER_02: Generation after generation, across the nations and through the languages, around the world, through time.
SPEAKER_02: When we reject God, God comes seeking us out.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, where are you at?
SPEAKER_02: Let me remind you who you are.
SPEAKER_02: Throughout the story of Scripture, we see that God seeks to be present with His people.
SPEAKER_02: God calls Abraham to Himself.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Listen, I want to bless you, I want to make you a great nation, and here's the reason so that all nations will be blessed through you.
SPEAKER_02: I want everybody to know the fullness of life that they've been called to.
SPEAKER_02: That's theirs.
SPEAKER_02: In the good times and the bad, God longs to be with his people.
SPEAKER_02: When God's people are faithful and when God's people are faithless, God extends relationship again and again.
SPEAKER_02: In the story of the Christian faith, there's this kind of key moment.
SPEAKER_02: We celebrate it every December.
SPEAKER_02: Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_02: At the very end of the story where we see everything is headed someday, the purpose of all things, the telos, the purposeful end of all things, God's increasing proximity to humanity, presence is the end game.
SPEAKER_02: That's where it's headed.
SPEAKER_02: Why wait?
SPEAKER_02: Why wait for someday?
SPEAKER_02: Why not lean into the presence of God now?
SPEAKER_02: That's what God has in mind for you and me.
SPEAKER_02: That's what God has in mind for people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all languages, all beliefs.
SPEAKER_02: God longs to draw near to his people and to be with his people, and the cross makes all of that possible.
SPEAKER_02: God longs to be with you.
SPEAKER_02: God longs to be with me.
SPEAKER_02: God goes out of his way to make it happen.
SPEAKER_02: I want us to consider this morning: do you and I long to be with God?
SPEAKER_02: Not to receive blessings from God, not to receive gifts from God.
SPEAKER_02: Do we long for God's presence in our lives?
SPEAKER_02: To just be with him.
SPEAKER_02: Because again, this is where the story begins, God's presence.
SPEAKER_02: This is where the story ends, God's presence.
SPEAKER_02: All throughout the middle of the story, it is telling us God longs to be with us.
SPEAKER_02: Do you and I?
SPEAKER_02: Do we shape our lives?
SPEAKER_02: Do we order our lives?
SPEAKER_02: Do we structure our days?
SPEAKER_02: Do we structure our calendars?
SPEAKER_02: Do we structure our families?
SPEAKER_02: Everything that's about is our bucket list, top of list, the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Brother Lawrence has been deeply helpful to many Christians learning how to walk with God in everyday life.
SPEAKER_02: He's a 17th-century Carmelite monk from France.
SPEAKER_02: He washed dishes and peeled potatoes.
SPEAKER_02: And famously came to know the deep, abiding presence of God in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_02: Even in the most ordinary tasks, they could be done in loving awareness of God.
SPEAKER_02: And Brother Lawrence wrote this about the desire for God's presence above all us.
SPEAKER_02: He says, our only business is to love and delight ourselves in God.
SPEAKER_02: Our only business.
SPEAKER_02: Not like, yeah, once I knock out these five things, like once I can get these, our only business is to love and delight ourselves in God.
SPEAKER_02: The chief aim of all humanity is to be in the presence of God, to invite God into our presence time and time and time again.
SPEAKER_02: And I love this perspective how he shares that it can all get swept up in.
SPEAKER_02: He goes on to write this.
SPEAKER_02: He says, The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Catch this, okay?
SPEAKER_02: The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: He says, And in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament or communion or the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_02: So what he's saying is, listen, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, in the midst of just the grind of life, I am telling you, I have found that God's presence is with me in that moment, the mundane minutiae, as much as in the sacred moments of my life.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know God in that way?
SPEAKER_02: Your work might be different.
SPEAKER_02: When you go to school tomorrow, students, when you go to school, educators, do you possess God in as great of tranquility in that moment, when the kids are all yelling for something different, when the administration disagrees with what you're trying to do, when the teachers don't want to get on board with what you're trying to do as an administrator, whatever it looks like, when you go into the finance sector, when you're when you're trying to figure out the restaurant pieces that you're working with, in the business industry, within your law practice, in the hospital, if you work in tech, I assume you're all building robots, when you're building your robots, do you possess God in as great of tranquility at the firehouse, at the police station?
SPEAKER_02: Do you possess God in as great of tranquility as you do in the most sacred moments of life?
SPEAKER_02: Because Brother Lawrence says that we can?
SPEAKER_02: How rooted are you and I in our day-to-day living in the presence of God?
SPEAKER_02: How rooted are you?
SPEAKER_02: Intentionally, purposefully.
SPEAKER_02: Your life individually.
SPEAKER_02: If you're married, your life is a couple.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got kids, your family.
SPEAKER_02: How rooted is your family, your calendar, your schedule, your budget?
SPEAKER_02: How rooted are you in the presence of God?
SPEAKER_02: As an employee at the bottom rung of the ladder, how rooted are you when you go to work in the presence of God?
SPEAKER_02: If you're somewhere in the middle and you got pressure from top and bottom, how rooted are you in the presence of God in your work?
SPEAKER_02: If you're at the very top of the ladder and you're leveraging that leadership, how rooted are you in the presence of God in that moment?
SPEAKER_02: The story begins with God being present.
SPEAKER_02: The story unfolds throughout all of Scripture with God's clear desire to be present with people.
SPEAKER_02: And the story concludes in the way we just read.
SPEAKER_02: God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them.
SPEAKER_02: He will be present.
SPEAKER_02: God's presence from beginning to end is what we're invited into.
SPEAKER_02: Our mission as a church is to help people love and follow Jesus for life.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because that's the whole narrative of Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: The whole arc of the story of Scripture is that God longs to be in close relationship with His people.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that we memorize all the books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: It's helpful to know the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that we pray so many hours a day.
SPEAKER_02: It's helpful to pray.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that we give so much of our resources and time away.
SPEAKER_02: It's helpful to invest in the lives of other people and live generously.
SPEAKER_02: The whole arc of scripture is about God's longing to be in close relationship with his people, to be in covenant relationship with his people, to be in a committed, faithful, transforming closeness.
SPEAKER_02: Does the arc of our life mirror the arc of the story of Scripture?
SPEAKER_02: Do we long for God's closeness above all else?
SPEAKER_02: God, I don't even need to hear from you if you would just sit with me.
SPEAKER_02: You ever been in the hospital room when somebody's going through something?
SPEAKER_02: In those really bad moments, they really don't need you to say anything because there's nothing you can say.
SPEAKER_02: It's enough that you're just with them.
SPEAKER_02: You ever been with somebody when they're just going through just a tough time, a personal tragedy, whatever?
SPEAKER_02: What do they need?
SPEAKER_02: Just to be with them.
SPEAKER_02: You ever have a kid a little bit scared at night?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a storm, maybe there's just some anxiety, maybe there's something.
SPEAKER_02: What do they need?
SPEAKER_02: Just for you to be with them.
SPEAKER_02: God longs to be with his people.
SPEAKER_02: Are we ordering our lives in such a way where proximity to God is our priority?
SPEAKER_02: It's a good thing, a time to stop and consider our priorities.
SPEAKER_02: You see, we make choices of what we'll prioritize in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: There's really good choices that we can make, and there's lesser choices we can make.
SPEAKER_02: Where am I positioning myself in life presently?
SPEAKER_02: We can position ourselves to learn through classes, right?
SPEAKER_02: If I sign up for the right classes, I can learn and grow.
SPEAKER_02: With our hobbies, we can we can get better at them if we I love to shoot clays, sporting clays.
SPEAKER_02: Like if I would go shoot sporting clays, like more often, like that's a way I can position myself to get better.
SPEAKER_02: My kids do music and athletics and things like that.
SPEAKER_02: If we sign them up for classes or we sign them up for competitions, or we sign up for lessons or leagues, we can position them to get better at those things.
SPEAKER_02: In your workspace, you have an opportunity maybe to sign up for leadership tracks and opportunities for growth.
SPEAKER_02: You can position yourself for growth.
SPEAKER_02: How much so are we positioning ourselves to be in the presence of God?
SPEAKER_02: To root our lives in his presence.
SPEAKER_02: Where we choose to spend our time says a great deal about what we most value.
SPEAKER_02: My neighbor, I forgot to tell the story in the first service.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and uh like I feel like our second summer we were here, like Dave's lawn is like immaculate, looks amazing, like he's out working doing the thing.
SPEAKER_02: Like, and my lawn's like less than immaculate.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and like we had some of the weeds, and like I'm trying to fight them, you know how it is.
SPEAKER_02: Like weeds grow without anything, grass refuses to grow for some reason.
SPEAKER_02: I believe it's sin.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I remember I was talking to Dave one, I said, Hey Dave, sorry, I'm trying to be a good neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Dave, hey, listen, I'm sorry, I'm trying to get the weeds, like, bro, your lawn looks amazing.
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, dude.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say it this way.
SPEAKER_02: This is the Landon translation.
SPEAKER_02: He said, dude, you're fine.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I'm retired.
SPEAKER_02: I'm keeping my lawn good, you're raising kids.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, preach, Dave.
SPEAKER_02: Priorities.
SPEAKER_02: Where we choose to spend our time says a great deal about what we most value.
SPEAKER_02: How much of my time do I choose to spend on my work?
SPEAKER_02: To climb the ladder, to get to the next position.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm just trying to position my family, I'm trying to get all the things set.
SPEAKER_02: How much of my time do I choose to spend in my leisure, my hobbies, my activities?
SPEAKER_02: How much time do I choose to spend in the presence of God?
SPEAKER_02: And it's true what Brother Lawrence says that, man, we should be able to encounter the presence of God in all the spaces we do, but there's something about the intentionality.
SPEAKER_02: Am I prioritizing God first and then putting the other things in so that when I go into my work environment, like I go from the presence of God, I go with the presence of God, and I find that God is present with me.
SPEAKER_02: Or if I only go to God when things get really sideways and I'm just trying to catch up.
SPEAKER_02: As I thought about this idea, Jesus actually commented on this once about how we should prioritize.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to look at this scripture with you.
SPEAKER_02: If Revelation shows us kind of the end of the story of God dwelling with his people, then this passage out of Luke shows us what it looks like in just ordinary life.
SPEAKER_02: And it says this, it's in Luke chapter 10, verses 38 to 42, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the four gospels.
SPEAKER_02: It's a story that might be familiar to you if you're familiar with scripture.
SPEAKER_02: If not, it's just a beautiful story, but don't jump to the end if you know it.
SPEAKER_02: If it's a first time, just kind of catch with me.
SPEAKER_02: It says this it says, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him, and hospitality is always important.
SPEAKER_02: If you have somebody into your home or something like that, you offer them a drink or make something to eat or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: But hospitality in this day and age would have even been more significant.
SPEAKER_02: And it says, She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he had to say.
SPEAKER_02: But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
SPEAKER_02: Again, hospitality is important.
SPEAKER_02: If we're gonna have them into our home, like we've got to make sure we do all the things.
SPEAKER_02: You know how it is sometimes when you have somebody be coming over, like they're not super close to you, so you gotta pretend like your house is always clean.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the super close people are like, oh, it's just them.
SPEAKER_02: We're fine.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, come on in.
SPEAKER_02: This is how we live.
SPEAKER_02: But the people you're like casually close.
SPEAKER_02: This is how you know how close you are to somebody.
SPEAKER_02: You go up to go to their house, like just kind of text them, hey, I'm gonna be over in 15 minutes, I just want to drop by.
SPEAKER_02: If they clean everything up, they don't like you that much.
SPEAKER_02: If they leave it as a dumpster fire, like we're like best friends.
SPEAKER_02: So you know.
SPEAKER_02: When you walk in dumpster fire, just give them a big hug.
SPEAKER_02: I knew it.
SPEAKER_02: But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
SPEAKER_02: She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?
SPEAKER_02: Tell her to help me.
SPEAKER_02: Martha, Martha, the Lord answered.
SPEAKER_02: You're worried and upset.
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you.
SPEAKER_02: Does that characterize your life much?
SPEAKER_02: Worried and upset?
SPEAKER_02: You're worried and upset about many things.
SPEAKER_02: A few things are needed, or indeed only one.
SPEAKER_02: Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.
SPEAKER_02: What is getting my attention most in life?
SPEAKER_02: Where am I focused?
SPEAKER_02: Am I distracted, worried, and upset about all the things that I've got to do?
SPEAKER_02: Because if I don't keep all these plates spinning, somebody may not care.
SPEAKER_02: Or do I find myself just regularly sitting quietly at the feet of Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: If I find myself in a relentless chase, I find myself more worried and upset.
SPEAKER_02: Because if we root ourselves in all the things that we can do as though we're holding this whole thing together.
SPEAKER_02: We'll find that we're not enough, but if we'll root ourselves in Jesus, to sit at his feet, so then when we go off to work, to sit at his feet, so then when we seek to love our spouses, to sit at his feet, so then when we seek to love our neighbors or love our kids or invest in if we'll sit at his feet first, everything just seems to fit.
SPEAKER_02: The posture of the women could not be more different.
SPEAKER_02: Martha, like she's concerned with all these things, and they're not bad things.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, when Jesus responds to her, he doesn't say, Martha, you're doing stupid stuff.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't say, Martha, these things don't even matter.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Martha, listen, you're distracted.
SPEAKER_02: Like you're upset, you're worried, because you're dealing with so much.
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, this is what's more important right now.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, why don't you just come and have a seat for a minute?
SPEAKER_02: We'll deal with this stuff together later.
SPEAKER_02: Which one better describes your life and more often?
SPEAKER_02: Do you feel more distracted and upset?
SPEAKER_02: Or are you more often leisurely reclining at the feet of Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe your initial pushback is this well, yeah, if I was a pastor, I could sit around and just talk to Jesus too.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, I work on Sundays.
SPEAKER_02: But Lannon, I've got I've got a family, I've got this, I've got an important job, like I'm busy, I've got to take care of this stuff.
SPEAKER_02: If I don't let me ask you, before you did it, who did it?
SPEAKER_02: After you're gone, it is gonna stop.
SPEAKER_02: Firehouse won't run without you.
SPEAKER_02: Unless they hire somebody else.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, a hospital couldn't do it without you.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, they did before you and we'll do it after you.
SPEAKER_02: Do you feel distracted and upset?
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to.
SPEAKER_02: If your job is more important, I'd tell you you need more time with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And to just rest in him, to work from that space.
SPEAKER_02: Our phones can distract us.
SPEAKER_02: A phone's a nice thing, right?
SPEAKER_02: But it's not a nice thing with if you're sitting at the table, you're not even bothering to connect with people around you because you're so distracted by that, right?
SPEAKER_02: We tend to see it better in others than ourselves, though.
SPEAKER_02: Shows are nice things, hobbies are nice things, right?
SPEAKER_02: But it's probably not the best idea to binge watch over and over and over.
SPEAKER_02: Hobbies are good things.
SPEAKER_02: To be intentional, like to grow and develop in that, but honestly, are you growing more in Christ or your golf game?
SPEAKER_02: If golf's not your thing, substitute something else in.
SPEAKER_02: Is your primary aim in your work to glorify God or to increase the bottom line?
SPEAKER_02: If it's to increase the bottom line, you better get grinding at it because everybody else is trying to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: But if it is to glorify God, then God will meet the desires of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: It takes the pressure off.
SPEAKER_02: Are you distracted by the news?
SPEAKER_02: Did you see the latest article by the way?
SPEAKER_02: I'm just kidding, I don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_02: It's important to be aware of the news.
SPEAKER_02: But if your mood is set by the news in the course of the day, then you're distracted by many things.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got a comment on every single thing, you're distracted by many things.
SPEAKER_02: Your to-do list, your projects?
SPEAKER_02: It's important.
SPEAKER_02: I I'm a big believer that we should always leave things better than we found them.
SPEAKER_02: It's uh something that was instilled in me from a young age.
SPEAKER_02: But there's always going to be something else to do.
SPEAKER_02: Well, Lana, once we just get through this phase, once once we get through this thing, once we get through that idea, I just need to get through that.
SPEAKER_02: Then I'm gonna have more time.
SPEAKER_02: No, you won't, because you have 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that never changes.
SPEAKER_02: Seek the presence of God above all else.
SPEAKER_02: Seek first his righteousness, his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all the other things get sorted out, is what Matthew 6.33 says.
SPEAKER_02: Mary modeled something different, and Jesus affirmed this way of being.
SPEAKER_02: Brother Lawrence described it this way: our only business is to love and delight ourselves in God.
SPEAKER_02: Is that like the number one thing on your to-do list?
SPEAKER_02: To love and delight yourself in God.
SPEAKER_02: I uh have this wish list of success.
SPEAKER_02: I mention it every time we do uh child dedication here at the church.
SPEAKER_02: When I think about my boys, like I would like my boys to do well, like in academics, I think that's important.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but for me, to do well is just to give the best you have and just to enjoy the process of learning.
SPEAKER_02: It's rooted in scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Do everything is unto God.
SPEAKER_02: That's the idea of doing your best, and we're meant to live life to the full.
SPEAKER_02: Life to the full is fun.
SPEAKER_02: And so, like, give your best.
SPEAKER_02: And academics are important, but they're not the most important.
SPEAKER_02: As you get older, right, it becomes your work.
SPEAKER_02: School is their work.
SPEAKER_02: I think arts and athletics are important.
SPEAKER_02: I've got a son who's a fantastic musician.
SPEAKER_02: Um, all my sons like to compete in different athletics and stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And I want them to learn and grow, give their best, and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_02: And so we try and position them well that way.
SPEAKER_02: I think relationships matter, and I want them to have healthy relationships with friends and with family and with their teachers.
SPEAKER_02: But more than anything else, my desire is for my boys to prioritize faith.
SPEAKER_02: And so as a family, we we try and model that, we try and set up our rhythms for that, we try and budget for that financially, we try and budget our time for that.
SPEAKER_02: Because if my boys are straight A students and captain of the team and varsity lettering and everything and have fantastic relationships but don't know God, all the other stuff just doesn't matter to much.
SPEAKER_02: It's a distraction, it's a chasing after the wind, as the author of Ecclesiastes would say.
SPEAKER_02: And I would contend it's no different for any of us.
SPEAKER_02: If you're the number one at your job, congratulations.
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
SPEAKER_02: If you are, man, if you are improving in your hobby and it's just getting better and better, man, that's that's wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got some really strong relationships in different places, but you don't know God, my guess is you feel distracted a lot.
SPEAKER_02: You feel upset a lot.
SPEAKER_02: Because faith is meant to be the priority.
SPEAKER_02: And so I want to just ask you, what are you prioritizing in your life?
SPEAKER_02: Is God's presence the most important thing to you?
SPEAKER_02: If it's not, and you say, Lennon, listen, my life is good.
SPEAKER_02: I don't feel distracted, I don't feel upset, everything's moving along at a great pace, then you've maybe just found something I've not seen before.
SPEAKER_02: But my I'd have an inclination to believe, because I've seen it enough, I've experienced it enough, that when we lack God, when we've not been in his presence, when we've not rooted ourselves in him, if we root ourselves in achievement, root ourselves in chasing after, root ourselves in acquiring, if we're not rooted in him, we lack the peace that he alone can give.
SPEAKER_02: And so this morning, as we we head into this series, I want to invite us just to make room for Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: In a world full of choices, I want to encourage you to choose Jesus first.
SPEAKER_02: Not, oh yeah, he's one of my top priorities.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: He is my priority.
SPEAKER_02: And then shape every other choice from that primary choice.
SPEAKER_02: Who you are in relationship with other people.
SPEAKER_02: With your friend group, with your spouse, with your kids, with the people that you love when they text or call and it lights the room up with the people that honestly you hope they don't text or call.
SPEAKER_02: Operate from a place of being rooted in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: When you go into your workplace to go in and say, God, how do I glorify you in the midst of this?
SPEAKER_02: Help me to be rooted in you that I'm not chasing after and frantically everybody else, but I just want to model this sense of peace that I've found in you.
SPEAKER_02: Choose Jesus first.
SPEAKER_02: I'd like you to stand with me.
SPEAKER_02: We're fast Bailey to close us out with this one song one last time, but to just, I'm just gonna make room for you.
SPEAKER_02: It's a conscious choice.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna prioritize you, God.
SPEAKER_02: I am going to root my life, I am going to root my relationship, I am going to root my family, I'm gonna root my academic pursuit, I'm gonna root my work pursuit, I'm gonna root myself in you.
SPEAKER_02: I believe it is the best way to live.
SPEAKER_02: There's a love, there's a joy, there's a peace, there's a patience, there's a kindness, there's a goodness, there's a gentleness, there's a faithfulness, there's a self-control that you will find will just flow out of those things.
SPEAKER_02: If you ever find yourself lacking any of those things, just be reminded of who you are: a beloved, chosen, seen, known, called, gifted, son or daughter of the King.
SPEAKER_02: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we thank you for this day.
SPEAKER_02: Your love, your grace, your mercy, your kindness.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, help us to be wise, to make the choice to root ourselves in you.
SPEAKER_02: So that we might be faithful in relationship to one another.
SPEAKER_02: That we might be equipped for the task of the challenges and opportunities you present our way, whether vocationally or through organizations just doing meaningful work.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, for I pray for anybody that's feeling like Martha, just frustrated, upset, feeling like they're spinning all the plates and wondering if anybody cares.
SPEAKER_02: And you kind of would ask them to stop and just wait for a minute to say what's most important.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be distracted by so many things.
SPEAKER_02: Choose what's most important, and everything else will fit.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that we would be a people rooted in you.
SPEAKER_02: Practicing your presence in our lives, cultivating the spiritual disciplines to be reminded again and again that we are yours and you are ours, and we would live from that place.
SPEAKER_02: And all God's people said, 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.