SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you that you welcome us into your presence.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, thanks for making that possible once again.
SPEAKER_01: And we're humbled to be here with you today, God.
SPEAKER_01: And we welcome you by your spirit to do in us that which we can never do on our own.
SPEAKER_01: Change us.
SPEAKER_01: Make us more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Make us into the people you meant for us to be in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: We ask God today that your kingdom would come and your will would be done in and through us.
SPEAKER_01: I particularly think of our country today that is struggling because there are people that feel disenfranchised and not hurt, and people who feel empowered in ways that they probably shouldn't, and the clash that that brings emotionally and sometimes physically, we ask God for your kingdom to come and your will to be done in our country.
SPEAKER_01: We ask for the wisdom, God, as your people for how you can use us to be instruments of peace and blessing in our world.
SPEAKER_01: So we now, God, because we want to be your people, we submit ourselves to your word.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask that you give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: That Holy Spirit, you would come and do the work you want to do in us.
SPEAKER_01: For your glory, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome to Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Rick.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_01: And uh before I jump into the message this morning, I just want to give a quick shout out to one of our community groups.
SPEAKER_01: We have community groups that meet throughout the area a couple times a month.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the groups, uh, when there was a fifth Sunday, the Golfson groups, the group that Ryan and Christie lead, they took it upon themselves to go to one of the neighborhoods of the folks in their group and just throw a party and just let people know hey, um, it's all right to just have fun and love and love on each other, and this is free because God's love is free, and we want you to know that.
SPEAKER_01: So we did I just want to say well done to those guys.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I want to point that out to all of you is really, we believe that we are to be Jesus' hands and feet wherever we are.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: We value being on mission and being a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And while we as a church organize some of those things, our hope is that when we organize things, you get a taste and go, oh wow, I can do this.
SPEAKER_01: And we love it when people just kind of do it on their own.
SPEAKER_01: So we wanted to highlight that to you today and just encourage you to be thinking about how I can be a blessing to my world this week as we head into a holiday season.
SPEAKER_01: And as I just prayed, in our world, that's um some of you might be really happy, some of you might be not so happy with how things went down this week.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but regardless, um God's called us to be instruments of peace and shalom and to be a blessing to the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: So how can we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, um, I think is a good thing for us to be wrestling with.
SPEAKER_01: All right, well, we're we're almost done with Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: You excited?
SPEAKER_01: I've only been here on staff for nine months, and you've we've been in Exodus longer than I've been here.
SPEAKER_01: When did it all start?
SPEAKER_01: Was it like last September?
SPEAKER_01: Seven years ago?
SPEAKER_01: It seems like it, right?
SPEAKER_01: So the natural question that comes to mind when we look at Exodus is, are we there yet?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I I think that's what they were asking actually in when Exodus was happening is aren't we there yet?
SPEAKER_01: It was this journey that was supposed to take, if you look on the map, 11 days to get from Egypt to the Promised Land?
SPEAKER_01: Should have taken eleven days?
SPEAKER_01: Took 40 years, right?
SPEAKER_01: Took 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what we'll see today, one of the reasons that it took 40 years is because God wanted them to get something that was much more important to get than the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think of that, are we there yet?
SPEAKER_01: When I was a student ministry pastor right out of college, I was a youth pastor, believe it or not.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and one of the things that every time we took a trip, whether it's a retreat or camp or some kind of conference or whatever, inevitably you get going just down the road and somebody starts asking, how much longer are we there yet?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So I got frustrated with that question really quick.
SPEAKER_01: So I had a standard answer that I said right away, I would just say, ten more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't matter if we had just pulled out of the church parking lot or we're just pulling into our final destination.
SPEAKER_01: My answer would always be ten more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And the kids would pick up on it pretty quickly, especially the veterans.
SPEAKER_01: So a new kid would be on a trip and they'd say, How much longer are we there yet?
SPEAKER_01: And the entire van or bus would go, ten more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And they go, What?
SPEAKER_01: No, it can't be ten minutes because their brains would kick in, and they can't be ten minutes, and they go, dude, I'm just telling you, doesn't matter how many times he asked, all he's going to say is ten more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: So just don't ask and don't worry about it, which is what I wanted.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because the truth of the matter is, what I was trying to communicate to them, and I did this as a father with my own kids when we'd take trips, how much longer?
SPEAKER_01: Ten more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Um the reason I would say that is like, listen, sometimes what happens with us, starting with me, is we get so fixated on the destination, we miss everything between here and there.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We miss what could happen in this car, in this van, in this bus, because the truth of about how God wired us is it's not really about the destination as much as it's about who you're with on the way to the destination.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I wanted them to get.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what's happening in our text today.
SPEAKER_01: I was teasing Neil when he said, Hey, we're coming near the end.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna finish it up next week.
SPEAKER_01: You take these four chapters.
SPEAKER_01: He gave me four chapters in Exodus to talk about today.
SPEAKER_01: And you can thank me because I'm not gonna read any of it to you.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna read any of these four chapters.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason isn't because it's unimportant, it's because actually we've heard a lot of it before.
SPEAKER_01: Um, chapters 36 through 39 of Exodus chronicle the building of the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant and all the furnishings.
SPEAKER_01: Um, earlier we saw God tell Moses, here's what I want you to build.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to build me a tabernacle, an ark of the covenant, and the furnishings for the tabernacle, and here's what all the dimensions and the materials need to be.
SPEAKER_01: This is actually, here's the dimensions, here's the material, and they built it, and then seven times it says, All it was all done just as the Lord commanded Moses.
SPEAKER_01: So, just in case you want to feel like you were in Exodus for a little bit, we brought pictures.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what they built, at least an artist's rendering of it, the tabernacle and the whole um altars and court and all that stuff, and this is what they filled the tabernacle with is these kinds of things, the Ark of the Covenant, which you might remember from Raiders of the Lost Ark toward the end, and um, you know, tables and of incense and bronze altars and all those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: And I I we could spend a lot of time kind of dissecting what all those things are, but we've already talked about those things, so we're not going to talk about that today.
SPEAKER_01: What I'd like for us to do is zoom out a little bit and ask why.
SPEAKER_01: Why did God go to the trouble of saying, build me a tabernacle?
SPEAKER_01: Why did he even bother doing that?
SPEAKER_01: I think the answer is pretty straightforward.
SPEAKER_01: God wanted his people to know that despite their sin and failure and their wandering, they hadn't scared him off.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He hadn't changed his mind about moving into the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh literally had his people pitch a tent for him.
SPEAKER_01: A tabernacle was a tent, right?
SPEAKER_01: Notice it's a tent.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a castle with a moat.
SPEAKER_01: He had them pitch a tent for him right in the middle of their camp because God wanted them to know he was not going back on his promise to be with them.
SPEAKER_01: And while the promised land was clearly this strategic piece of dirt at the crossroads of the ancient world, I mean, it was the prime property to have in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: The crossroads of the world went through Palestine.
SPEAKER_01: God's like, even as awesome as that is, that's not what this is all about.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about who holds that land, it's about who inhabits that land and how you inhabit it.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you'll inhabit that land with me, God says, not only will you have the best property, you will actually be a city on a hill from which you can fulfill the mission I've given you to be a blessing to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: See, what God wanted them to get, and I think what he wants us to get loud and clear through the building of the tabernacle, is that with God is our ultimate destination.
SPEAKER_01: Life with God is our ultimate destination.
SPEAKER_01: And that might be news for you.
SPEAKER_01: When you look at Scripture, a lot of times people think the main promise of Scripture is something like forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: That's there, but that's not the main promise of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Or they think it's this promise of life after death.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great perk, but that's not the primary promise of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: When you read from Genesis to Revelation, the primary promise of Scripture is God saying, time after time after time, in a thousand different ways, I will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01: This happened in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: Before Adam and Eve sinned, Genesis 1 and 2, by the way, those of you who really are into depravity, which is true, the Bible starts in Genesis 1, not Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis 1, it talks about how God created the heavens and the earth and men and women to be in it and to be like him, and they walk with him in the cool of the day.
SPEAKER_01: We see all throughout the Old Testament a guy named Enoch, who actually, we the Bible says didn't die.
SPEAKER_01: He just kind of walked with God into the sunset.
SPEAKER_01: God promises to be with Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and David and Amos and Mary and Paul and so many others.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout Exodus, what we've seen is that God gives Israel manna and water from rocks, right?
SPEAKER_01: And a pillar of cloud and another of fire and a tent of meeting, and now the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant and all of its furnishings.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he's giving them post-it notes to remind them that he's with them.
SPEAKER_01: He's with them.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually God comes to us in person, in Jesus, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_01: We're about ready to enter the Advent season where we we build the anticipation of God coming to be with us, Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus, when he ascends back to the Father, he sends his spirit to not only be with us, but to be in us.
SPEAKER_01: That's as close as with gets, right?
SPEAKER_01: To be in us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said this, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: And then he sends his spirit ten days later.
SPEAKER_01: And then at the end of time, when when sin is a distant and defeated memory, and the need for hope and the need for forgiveness is as obsolete as eight track tapes.
SPEAKER_01: We will sing forever, along with all the people God created who dwell with him.
SPEAKER_01: God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
SPEAKER_01: See, God pitched a tent among his people because as our creator, he knows how we function best, and we function best with him.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we flourished when we do life with him.
SPEAKER_01: This is the story of Scripture from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: God in Genesis 1.26 says, Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.
SPEAKER_01: So we're made in God's image.
SPEAKER_01: We're made to reflect the triune God to the rest of creation.
SPEAKER_01: And if you think about the mechanics of that, that's only possible when when A, we're with God, so we can reflect Him.
SPEAKER_01: You can't reflect someone you're with, and B, we're with others so that we can reflect God to somebody.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, to kind of sum up why we were made as image bearers means we were made to be like God with God.
SPEAKER_01: To be like God with God.
SPEAKER_01: The problem came when our ancestors Adam and Eve decided we'd like to try to be like God without God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's essentially what the temptation was.
SPEAKER_01: The temptation was, God doesn't want you to be like him, is what the serpent said, but you can be like him if you eat of this tree, and you can do it without him.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna die.
SPEAKER_01: He's just afraid you're gonna be like him and pass him.
SPEAKER_01: So they embarked on this journey of, hey, we like being like God, but we'd like to do it without God.
SPEAKER_01: So let's be like God without God, or at least try.
SPEAKER_01: And we followed suit.
SPEAKER_01: And God gave them what they wanted.
SPEAKER_01: I think that would be the definition of hell is God giving us exactly what we wanted.
SPEAKER_01: He gave them what they wanted, and because of their choice to try to make life work without him, they could no longer stay in the garden because that's where God hung out.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to hang out with me, then you have to relocate.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what happened.
SPEAKER_01: They were banished from the garden because the garden is where people flourish with God.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to do life without God, you have to live someplace else.
SPEAKER_01: And the Old Testament story is a story of God's people vacillating from being empowered agents of blessing who do life deeply with God to people who flounder and make messes and end up in ditches when they try to do life without God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the cycle, the entire Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That's the history of the human race.
SPEAKER_01: When we do life with God, we flourish.
SPEAKER_01: When we do life without God, we flounder.
SPEAKER_01: Flourish, flounder with, without.
SPEAKER_01: And when you read the story of Scripture, by the time of the exile, when the people of Israel were carried back to Babylon as prisoners, it becomes clear that outside intervention is needed if they're ever going to experience this life with God they were meant to live.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where the good news of Jesus comes in.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This is where Jesus comes in because Jesus did two things for us.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, he came to show us this is what life with God actually looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture describes Jesus as the perfect image of the perfect image of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's the perfect image bearer.
SPEAKER_01: He's also the second Adam.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who actually gets it right.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus comes to show us, this is the kind of life you were made to live.
SPEAKER_01: Look at my life.
SPEAKER_01: Live the kind of life I live.
SPEAKER_01: But not only does he say, dangle this in front of us, but also I'll make this possible.
SPEAKER_01: He shows us what it looks like and he makes it possible by bearing our sin and guilt and shame on the cross, by paying for our covenant breaking, Jesus makes it possible for us to have this life with God once again.
SPEAKER_01: And the hope of the gospel is that when Jesus returns, he will make everything new, starting with us.
SPEAKER_01: He comes to make all things new, not all new things.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll live together in this incredibly restored new heavens and new earth with God and with one another, finally experiencing the fullness of life we were created to live.
SPEAKER_01: The refrain of Scripture is that with God is our ultimate destination.
SPEAKER_01: We flourish when we do life with God, and when we don't, we flounder.
SPEAKER_01: So here's our challenge.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't want to be people who flounder, right?
SPEAKER_01: We want to flourish.
SPEAKER_01: Our challenge, and I'm speaking primarily to those of us who find ourselves in churches on Sundays more often than not, who would call ourselves Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Our challenge is this: when we don't embrace life with God as our ultimate destination, what we often settle for is a life for God.
SPEAKER_01: There's a big difference between life with God and a life for God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, life for God on the surface sounds very noble and very spiritual, but believe me when I say if for God is the driving force in your life, it very quickly can become the opposite of good news.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, there are these four chapters at the end of Exodus chronicle what God's people do to prepare this place for God, but let's be honest.
SPEAKER_01: God created the heavens and the earth in six days, right?
SPEAKER_01: You think he could have pulled off a tent and a golden ark and a few furnishings in like a couple minutes without breaking a sweat?
SPEAKER_01: God did not need them to do that for him.
SPEAKER_01: I picture one, I'm my kids were little and they want to help me do the lawn or clean up the garage, right?
SPEAKER_01: It takes a lot longer that way.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Or when my daughter wanted to help my wife in the kitchen, when she's little, now it's the opposite these days.
SPEAKER_01: But but the idea is sure it takes longer and it's a lot messier, but the what happens with them is just it's priceless.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's what our our father's doing.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, let me help you be a part of this.
SPEAKER_01: Here, build this for me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it needs to look like.
SPEAKER_01: Build this for me.
SPEAKER_01: And that builds anticipation and it increases their ownership, and they're like, wow, God's gonna live with us.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna live with us because that's what he wanted them to get.
SPEAKER_01: See, the danger of allowing for God to push a life with God to the back burner is that it can rob us of the abundant life for which we were created to live with God here and now.
SPEAKER_01: Because a for God mentality ends up that story about Jesus encountered Mary and Martha, you know, his friends Mary and Martha, he just pops in on one day, and Mary sits at Jesus' feet, and Martha's running around like a crazy person and gets all resentful at Mary for not helping.
SPEAKER_01: And what does Jesus say?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Martha, relax.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't come because I needed you to prepare me a meal.
SPEAKER_01: I came because I just wanted to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary gets that.
SPEAKER_01: And Martha was missing out on what Jesus had.
SPEAKER_01: We can miss out on the life that God has for us, but it gets even worse than that.
SPEAKER_01: It can actually be harmful to those we're trying to help, or we think we're blessing along the way if we think we are here to do things for you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: See, in for God mode, it's easy to begin to see myself as a savior, and I often miss being with those I'm actually trying to help.
SPEAKER_01: And in doing so, I can inadvertently rob them of their dignity as fellow image bearers.
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend who works in developing countries with a relief organization.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't be called a relief organization, he works for Living Water International.
SPEAKER_01: And he calls it this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, We've got to be careful when we go to these other parts of the world to not be whites in shining armor.
SPEAKER_01: See, when we exclusively do things for people, because in our mind we say we're doing this for God, what we can do inadvertently is treat them like they're projects instead of people.
SPEAKER_01: And we can lose sight that they're equally cherished by God, even though they aren't blessed in the same ways that you and I are blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And we stopped and stopped noticing them and listening to them as we should.
SPEAKER_01: I remember um a few years ago I spent two weeks in Africa in a country where I spoke at about 20 different schools over that period of time, and so um these big assemblies and all these kinds of crazy things.
SPEAKER_01: And I would at each school I'd meet with the administrators and the teachers, and I would always begin with, what are your greatest concerns for your school and your community, and and how do you how can we help?
SPEAKER_01: And then without exception, and I'm not exaggerating, there was dead silence every time I asked that question the first time I met with people.
SPEAKER_01: Then I would nudge the people that I was with that worked for Scripture Union in Uganda, and they're like, I'm like, what did I miss?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, oh, they're waiting for you to answer your question.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, What?
SPEAKER_01: Like, no, usually when white Americans come here, when they ask questions, they also answer them because they're that's their way of telling us what they think we need to do.
SPEAKER_01: And it broke my heart because that's what we inadvertently do sometimes, and it kind of we kind of treat people lesser than just because we don't know their world and we make all these kinds of assumptions.
SPEAKER_01: I noticed this a few years ago at the church where I was pastor before we moved here.
SPEAKER_01: At this time of year, we were gearing up um for an Angel Tree program party.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've heard of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's in conjunction with prison fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: So with Angel Tree, we would throw this big party for families who had a parent who was incarcerated, or they just didn't have enough resources to provide a Christmas for their kids.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of these families were a part of a food pantry that we ran that we fed about a thousand families a month out of.
SPEAKER_01: So it was a big deal, and so we bought these presents and we threw this party and we patted ourselves on the back and we thought this was awesome, and everybody gave lots of money and presents, and the church was excited.
SPEAKER_01: But then we noticed a couple of years in at the party, in particular, the dads.
SPEAKER_01: The dads in this case either didn't come at all, and it wasn't because they couldn't, they just didn't, or when they did, they would stand on the sidelines like a junior high dance, or they'd wait outside by the car.
SPEAKER_01: And we started getting to ask why.
SPEAKER_01: And the more we peel back the layers of that, what we recognize is us buying presents and giving it to them, their kids for them, threw in their face they were unable to do that for their kids.
SPEAKER_01: And as a dad, I went, ooh.
SPEAKER_01: Ooh.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Is that what we're trying to accomplish here?
SPEAKER_01: So we went back to the drawing board and we invited the people that we were actually throwing the party for, a few of them to come help us figure this out.
SPEAKER_01: And we prayerfully said, God, how do how do we do this?
SPEAKER_01: Well, how do we pay attention better to the people we're wanting to bless?
SPEAKER_01: How do we are we more sensitive to them?
SPEAKER_01: And how are we more sensitive to you?
SPEAKER_01: Feels like God, we had this idea and we just did it and said, God bless it, instead of God, what are you doing and how do we join you in it?
SPEAKER_01: So we began to retool the thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so the next year, we've had a party, but it was a lot better than before.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason was, along with the folks that we were throwing the party for, we came up with this idea of let's put a system together year-round where people can serve in our storehouse, that was our food pantry, and earn some credits or tokens along the way so that they can buy the gifts themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They pick them out and they give them to their kids.
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll just have this party together and they can give it and they're a part of the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: And it was actually a party then.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone participated.
SPEAKER_01: And it ended up we retooled our storehouse that way because we thought, wait, we're just giving people stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We're just doing for them instead of doing with them.
SPEAKER_01: And so they began to, those who we considered our clients or our guests, now we're a part of the storehouse family, and they began to serve alongside of us and stocking shelves and praying with people and all those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: And you could just see their countenance change and the dignity come back to their face, right?
SPEAKER_01: It was unbelievably powerful.
SPEAKER_01: And then that kind of culminates in this upcoming week, uh, we'll be back there, and we we may very well be a part of the Thanksgiving lunch that we threw every year, and it wasn't just for the storehouse guests, it was with the storehouse guests.
SPEAKER_01: So we're like, everybody in the storehouse family come.
SPEAKER_01: We decked out the whole gym, 500 people showed up.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, everybody's got to bring something.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't care if you're here every other week getting your groceries, bring some of that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just a can of little cranberry sauce, it doesn't matter to us.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's got to bring something.
SPEAKER_01: And we all set up and we all tear down and we all serve each other, and it is so full of life.
SPEAKER_01: The reason I tell you that is because we learned that that's what being an image bearer looked like in our context.
SPEAKER_01: As conduits of grace, we can actually become what we could not become on our own.
SPEAKER_01: And we helped them, and they helped us because we decided we want to do life with God, not just do things for God.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's not to suggest that we don't do things for people.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you got that along the way.
SPEAKER_01: The scripture's really clear.
SPEAKER_01: Paul tells us in Ephesians, we are his workmanship created for good works in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're created to do good things.
SPEAKER_01: But the key is in Christ, which is another way of saying with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We get in on what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: We see ourselves as Jesus' hands and feet, right?
SPEAKER_01: And we're not amputated hands and feet, kind of on our own.
SPEAKER_01: We have to be connected to actually be helpful.
SPEAKER_01: That's the whole idea here.
SPEAKER_01: We can't just do things without Jesus or assume that God's in it because we've asked him to bless it.
SPEAKER_01: When we do that, we lose the plot and we fail to be the blessing we are created to be.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, every time Israel got in trouble is because they went off thinking, well, this is what God wants us to do.
SPEAKER_01: And God was like, nah, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01: And it cost them dearly a lot of times.
SPEAKER_01: See, being locked in a for God mindset can be really harmful to people.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not just harmful to people, it can also crush us.
SPEAKER_01: It can crush us.
SPEAKER_01: Um when we're locked into this for God mindset, what I found is this subtle you owe me, a form of works righteousness can easily creep into my heart.
SPEAKER_01: And I start to think, come on, God, I pray, I serve, I tithe.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I give more than 10%.
SPEAKER_01: I go to church, I'd go even if I didn't get paid.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I raise my kids in the way they should go.
SPEAKER_01: I don't drink, I don't chew, I don't go with girls who do.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So, God, you should bless me.
SPEAKER_01: You should bless me.
SPEAKER_01: I read a book about 15 years ago by Larry Crabbe.
SPEAKER_01: It was one of the most formational books in my journey.
SPEAKER_01: The book is called The Pressure's Off.
SPEAKER_01: And he describes this for the language I'm using for and with God as this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, it's the difference between living a better for a better life of blessing rather than a better hope of intimacy with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Living for a better life of blessing versus a better hope of intimacy with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And what I've discovered over the these years is, wow, when I'm living for God, I'm very close, if not over the line, of using God to get or enjoy something else.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just using God to get or enjoy something else.
SPEAKER_01: And if you think about that, that's a lot of pressure.
SPEAKER_01: Because that means I better perform.
SPEAKER_01: I better obey.
SPEAKER_01: I better get it right if I'm gonna get from God what I want to get from God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the equation there, right?
SPEAKER_01: And this for God life can lead to a performance-based relationship with God, and where I obey in order to earn favor from God rather than my obedience flowing from embracing my core identity as a beloved son or daughter of God.
SPEAKER_01: Light years difference in terms of how we live and the pressure that kind of builds on us.
SPEAKER_01: See, I know you all know this.
SPEAKER_01: We all know God's not an ATM, God's not a vending machine, don't treat him like that.
SPEAKER_01: But I would say, look at how you pray.
SPEAKER_01: I think our prayers betray what we really think about how this relationship with God works.
SPEAKER_01: Because way often, I think more often than we would care to admit, when we pray, petition takes precedence over surrender.
SPEAKER_01: And requests nudge aside worship, and our gratitude depends on blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayers often take some form of God.
SPEAKER_01: Will you change this or change him or change her or bless this or do this so that I can be fulfilled and satisfied?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, some of us might be wondering, are those prayers wrong?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I would say this.
SPEAKER_01: When those prayers are expressed as the deepest passion of my heart, yeah, that's the wrong way to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And too often when we put in our performance or obedience and we don't get the blessing, or we don't get the answer we thought we earned, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: We get ticked.
SPEAKER_01: Often at God.
SPEAKER_01: I've lost count of the number of people I've known in my 30 years serving in the local church, and even my family, who prayed a certain way, it didn't go the way they thought it should go, and they're out.
SPEAKER_01: I tried God, that doesn't work.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't give me what I wanted.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Krab suggests there's a better way.
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, this is a way that the children of Israel learned earlier when we talked about the tent of meeting, when God told them, hey, you can have the promised land, but I'm not going with you.
SPEAKER_01: And they went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want those blessings if we don't get you.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Krab is getting at.
SPEAKER_01: He says there's a way of being with God that's not about doing, it's not about getting, it's about being.
SPEAKER_01: Where I simply say, Lord, I come to you just as I am.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing I ask is just let me see your beauty, right?
SPEAKER_01: And in seeing your beauty, let me love and live like you love and live.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that doesn't mean we don't make petitions.
SPEAKER_01: Petitions can often follow because God still is really into healing and restoring and delivering.
SPEAKER_01: But those prayer requests are not the priority.
SPEAKER_01: The priority is not the destination of blessing because we recognize the ultimate destination is being with God.
SPEAKER_01: God, let me draw near to you, whether through blessing or trial, let me draw near to you as an instrument of your shalom, which is your wholeness and peace and grace and love in my world.
SPEAKER_01: And my requests of God are subordinate to my greater passion just for God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: What I want more than anything is for his glory to be, to shine through me as I treasure him more than I treasure anything in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Crab calls this the papa prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to share this with you because it might help frame how you talk to God sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know about you, if I don't think about this, sometimes I just start right in with God with, okay, God, I need this and I need this, and I need this, and I want this and I want this, and I'm like, man, if my kids talk to me that way, I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Is that in here?
SPEAKER_01: Good to see you, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing like that, you know?
SPEAKER_01: And that's sometimes what we do.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, think about praying this way.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, present myself to God just as I am.
SPEAKER_01: Be honest about it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to get the words right, you don't have to be pretentious in any way.
SPEAKER_01: Say, God, here I am, good, bad, and ugly.
SPEAKER_01: Blah.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, that's what two-thirds of the Psalms are.
SPEAKER_01: They're laments.
SPEAKER_01: And they're essentially God, people saying to God, God, this sucks.
SPEAKER_01: And God's really okay with that.
SPEAKER_01: He's not threatened by that.
SPEAKER_01: And then attend to where I notice God's presence or absence.
SPEAKER_01: God, where am I noticing?
SPEAKER_01: Where am I not noticing you?
SPEAKER_01: And then that leads me to go, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: And then I need to purge myself of whatever at the moment might be keeping me from noticing and experiencing more of God.
SPEAKER_01: Is it some sin on my part?
SPEAKER_01: Is it some stubbornness?
SPEAKER_01: Is it that I think it should go this way and I'm not submitting?
SPEAKER_01: And then approach God with abandon and confidence, waiting to just, wanting to just be with him so that I can know and enjoy him, not just to use him to make my life better.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the irony in this, and I'm going to say this clearly, I've said this when we, our soulmates class I teach, we talk about marriage a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And I've said many times, borrowing from a friend of mine, Gary Thomas, who says, marriage isn't to make you happy, it's to make you holy.
SPEAKER_01: And then the rest of that is because the holier we are, the happier we are.
SPEAKER_01: And what I found is if I can lean into the Father, and this is not why you do it, but I just lean into intimacy with the Father, I'm much more content with my life.
SPEAKER_01: Life is just better.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what I was made, how I was made to live in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: See, being an image bearer means that my identity, my joy, and my purpose are completely wrapped up in this relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: Not the blessings of God, but God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Augustine meant when he so famously penned, our souls cannot rest until they find their rest in thee.
SPEAKER_01: This is what John Piper means when he so often says, God is most glorified in us.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: When?
SPEAKER_01: When we are most satisfied in Him.
SPEAKER_01: This, friends, is the mission of Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: We exist to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For God, if you think about it, leaves very little room for knowing, enjoying, and runs the risk of us competing for God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: Resting, knowing, enjoying, and glorifying God are only available when we're with God.
SPEAKER_01: With means we cooperate with God.
SPEAKER_01: We follow His lead.
SPEAKER_01: We get in on what He's doing, on what He's blessing, rather than just doing things on our own or asking God to bless the things we're doing or expecting a blessing in return for our doing.
SPEAKER_01: Life with God is not only our ultimate destination, it's enough.
SPEAKER_01: It's enough.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just challenge you today to try it.
SPEAKER_01: To give it a shot, if you haven't to this point, just to try it.
SPEAKER_01: There's a couple questions I think would be really important for us to begin to wrestle with.
SPEAKER_01: And the first is this if you find as I'm talking, you recognize, yeah, I really don't live with my life orientation to be with God.
SPEAKER_01: It's it gives more of this for God category.
SPEAKER_01: What would it look like to kind of make that shift in your heart and mind?
SPEAKER_01: And then what would it look like to live with God more intentionally this week?
SPEAKER_01: As I thought about this, just to kind of stoke our imaginations a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Um a time when I we lived here before, and I was a baseball coach in New Territory Little League came to mind.
SPEAKER_01: I was an assistant coach, and um the head coach I just met and the other assistant coach, they were friends, and we practiced at this church.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm not gonna tell you his name because he's not here, but you may I don't know if you know, but I'm gonna say his name anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so he we were practicing at this church, and the other guy's like, hey Ed.
SPEAKER_01: His name wasn't Ed, but hey Ed, how'd you get this practice feel?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Oh, I go to church here.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Seriously?
SPEAKER_01: I never kind of took you as the church going type.
SPEAKER_01: And Ed says, quote, I'm not, man.
SPEAKER_01: I'd worship Satan if it kept my wife off my back.
SPEAKER_01: She drags me here every week.
SPEAKER_01: I was really glad at that point he hadn't asked me what I did for a living.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Kind of kept that close to the vest for a while.
SPEAKER_01: So, long story short, he eventually figures out that what I do for a living, I'm a pastor at a church.
SPEAKER_01: And he was as surprised that I was a pastor at a church as the other coach was that he went to a church.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if that's a good thing, but I'll take it as one.
SPEAKER_01: Um, long story short, Ed and I became really good friends, right?
SPEAKER_01: We love baseball, and and our boys hit it off, and we did lots of barbecues and hanging out, and and then about once a month, he and I would get together for breakfast, and we just talk about life and sports and whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And about nine months into doing that, I'll never forget, sitting at this diner, he looks at me and says, Hey, can I ask you a question?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, sure.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Man, you're not like any pastor I've ever met.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You're not mad all the time, you seem kind of happy, and the God you talk about, he doesn't seem mad, and you actually talk about him like you know him.
SPEAKER_01: What's up with that?
SPEAKER_01: And I and I had the chance to lead my friend to get to know Jesus right there in the little booth.
SPEAKER_01: And I have to tell you, that was not the reason I became his friend.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't.
SPEAKER_01: We just liked each other.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, nothing personal, but I like non-church people better than church people a lot sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: You know, um I don't you know it's not the political game sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: You just kind of know where they stand.
SPEAKER_01: So it just, I got to be a part of him coming to know Jesus, and it was one of the coolest experiences because again, he wasn't my project.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't my friend because I'm like, I gotta get this guy converted.
SPEAKER_01: It was, I we just did life together.
SPEAKER_01: And along the way, the more I leaned into doing my life with God, the more I reflected God to my friend.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't all me by any means.
SPEAKER_01: But being doing life with God was a part of him coming to know God.
SPEAKER_01: And I did, I tell you that simply to help you have an imagination for this reality that God wants to do the same kinds of things with all of us, right?
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to get in on his kingdom coming and his will being done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And that only happens when we say, you know what, my core identity is an image bearer.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I was made to be.
SPEAKER_01: And I can only reflect God to my world when I hang out with God.
SPEAKER_01: And I hang out with the world.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, may your kingdom come in me so that your kingdom can be known in the world in which I live.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna invite Lindsay to come on back.
SPEAKER_01: And we won't have you look at these two questions again, number six and seven.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty straightforward this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The ultimate life is the one with God.
SPEAKER_01: I probably, this question isn't up there.
SPEAKER_01: Do you really believe that?
SPEAKER_01: I think I can make the case from scripture if you want to go in more depth that that's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: But what would it look like for you to shift from a for God life to a with God life if that's where you are?
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, you might need to just confess, God, that's just where I am.
SPEAKER_01: And I've missed it.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to do life with you, and God will meet you right there.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us need to, so okay, God, what would it look like for me to lean into doing life more intentionally with you this week rather than just on my own asking you to bless things or doing things and asking you to bless me in return?
SPEAKER_01: Just think about that as Lindsay sings over us.
SPEAKER_01: Father, help us to trust that with you is enough, that with you we can flourish.
SPEAKER_01: With you is the best life possible, and that grasping after all these other things, doing things to try to get you to do what we want.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to be like you without checking with you.
SPEAKER_01: This leads to frustration and heartache and flounderies.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to really trust that with you is the ultimate.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to believe that in how we live this week.
SPEAKER_01: God, I just ask that you would do that in our hearts and give us an imagination for what life with you could look like in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_01: I pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I would invite you to stand, if you would, please.
SPEAKER_01: Before we leave today, we want to extend an invitation to pray with anyone who would like for us to pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it could be what I talked about, and you're realizing, hey, I've never really done life with God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's possible.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you want to talk with someone about that and pray.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be up here to pray with you, me and some other elders and pastors and small group leaders if you'll be available to pray with folks.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe there's something you came in the room with and it's just weighing heavy on you.
SPEAKER_01: It's a physical thing, a relationship thing, something at home, financial pressure, job is miserable, those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: And God wants to meet you right in the middle of that and wants to be with you in that.
SPEAKER_01: So we'd like to pray with you about that so you don't feel like you'd have to deal with that by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You don't.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're here to walk with you in that.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we can be Jesus' hands and feet to one another.
SPEAKER_01: So let's pray for that.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you're with us today for the first time, thanks so much for coming and worshiping with us.
SPEAKER_01: We hope that you, since God was in this room, whenever we come together in Jesus' name, we believe He's here.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible teaches us.
SPEAKER_01: So we we act like it when we get in here.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we we'd love to know you're here just to say thanks and offer to help in any way we can.
SPEAKER_01: So if you can complete the connection card, which is a tear-off portion of your bulletin, and you can place that in each of these wooden boxes on the way out.
SPEAKER_01: Those wooden boxes are where we joyfully give back to God every week.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've come prepared to worship God and giving, um, I want to encourage you to do that and to do it with joy and thanksgiving in your heart, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak a blessing over you so that we can go out with God.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_01: May He make His face to shine upon you.
SPEAKER_01: May you experience the peace and the joy that comes from doing life with God, from intimacy with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: May your heart be satisfied in Him alone, and may that shine through to the world around you for His glory.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Have an awesome week.