SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna begin our time in the scriptures, not with scripture, but with a quote from Neil Cole.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing, its disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Your church is only as good as its disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how good your praise, preaching, programs, or property are, if your disciples are passive, needy, consumeristic, and not radically obedient, your church is not good.
SPEAKER_00: Dang.
SPEAKER_00: We're being stacked like living stones to hold and house his presence.
SPEAKER_00: So it's fun to get new carpet, fun to create space for our youth, but ultimately we've got to focus on who we're becoming together.
SPEAKER_00: Every church exists for one reason, and that's to make disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How they do that, if they do that, kind of changes from place to place.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been to other churches and they kind of have another plan to have this take place, but how it looks, if it happens, that changes.
SPEAKER_00: But the church is called to go into all the world and teach people to obey all that Jesus commanded.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't just teach people what Jesus commanded, we teach them to obey what Jesus commanded.
SPEAKER_00: And how many know there's a little bit of a gap between knowing what he said and doing what he said?
SPEAKER_00: So the whole point of church is to create a community where we don't just talk about what he said, but we actually do what he said.
SPEAKER_00: We work out our salvation with fear and trembling, going like, well, I got I'm gonna give this a go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna work on this.
SPEAKER_00: If you were asked, have you been discipled?
SPEAKER_00: How would you answer?
SPEAKER_00: If someone came up to you and said, Have you been discipled?
SPEAKER_00: How would you answer that?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what I get mostly from people.
SPEAKER_00: I was in a book study once.
SPEAKER_00: I had a mentor in college.
SPEAKER_00: I was a part of crew when I was on campus.
SPEAKER_00: Answers like that.
SPEAKER_00: If I were to ask you right now, are you a disciple?
SPEAKER_00: How do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: How do you know if you're doing it or not doing it?
SPEAKER_00: What are we going for?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be a disciple?
SPEAKER_00: It really helped me to realize that it's typically not one setting that makes a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: It's not one place.
SPEAKER_00: It's usually settings.
SPEAKER_00: It's places.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not typically one person who disciples you, it's different people at different times, a cast of characters contributing to your formation.
SPEAKER_00: It also helped me to realize that it's not typically one season of your life or one conversation, because you need to be discipled through the seasons of life, and there's many conversations that take place over the course of your life.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not on one person and it's not on one place to make a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Discipleship for us is an ongoing commitment to being formed into the image of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that church word means.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply learning how to live your life if Jesus were living it.
SPEAKER_00: There's something to that WWJD bracelet you wore.
SPEAKER_00: How would Jesus run this company?
SPEAKER_00: How would Jesus parent these kids?
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus were me, how would he attend this school?
SPEAKER_00: How would Jesus show up for this person, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so we as a church live inside this question of like, well, how?
SPEAKER_00: How are we transformed to live and love like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And we we gather to explore this question.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us have been fed a very steady diet of cliches such as you're enough.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to say it over and over again because deep down we know we're not enough.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter how many times they tell us, we know.
SPEAKER_00: And we tell ourselves things like you're perfect just the way you are.
SPEAKER_00: But we're keenly aware of our inadequacies, and we don't just simply want to be ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: These cliches are no match for the deep desire that we have to be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be different.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to dip into self-hatred, and that's not what God would have for us.
SPEAKER_00: But certainly there's some areas of our lives that need to change.
SPEAKER_00: I was driving past a church and it was advertising, come, be yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, I don't want to be myself.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be different.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the huge promises of Christianity that we can be made new, that we can leave the past behind.
SPEAKER_00: And preachers play on this deep desire that we have to be something different, and they play on it with the backing of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Bible itself that promises that you can be transformed to live and love like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul would write to a church that wasn't doing great, and he would say, We all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, we're being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who's the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And the word transformed here in this passage speaks of a metamorphosis.
SPEAKER_00: As in, we're all going from caterpillars to butterflies.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we want.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be a better caterpillar because I tried harder.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be something new.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be made new.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that something's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: God, thankfully, has a plan to restore you, to restore you to glory through his grace, not your effort.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a plan.
SPEAKER_00: And the question I want to ask you this morning, and we'll live in it all morning, is do you have a plan?
SPEAKER_00: To participate with his grace as it restores you to glory.
SPEAKER_00: How we're transformed to live in love like Jesus is a great question.
SPEAKER_00: Underneath that question is one that we often ask, which is, how exactly do we change?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody who sought to change something in their lives knows that it's not simple, it's not easy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not as easy as trying harder.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We've done that.
SPEAKER_00: It can be really discouraging to attempt to change your life.
SPEAKER_00: It can be even more discouraging to try to change your spouses.
SPEAKER_00: It's really, really difficult to change.
SPEAKER_00: It's not easy.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor John Tyson talks about the different approaches to change like this.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us in the church go through a season where we think it's going to happen in a flash.
SPEAKER_00: Like, zap me, God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you've prayed that prayer before.
SPEAKER_00: Take this from me now.
SPEAKER_00: If you, God, hate this so much, I hate this so much, take it from me.
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll be the guy at church next week that grabs the mic and says, I flushed my drugs down the toilet and I never had another craving again.
SPEAKER_00: Change me in an instant.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that desire gives birth to the next thing that happens when it comes to change is a sort of fatalism.
SPEAKER_00: I think many Christians are deconstructing their faith because they feel like the Christian scriptures and pastors have overpromised and underdelivered.
SPEAKER_00: They can't be made new.
SPEAKER_00: I asked God to take it away.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He's not real.
SPEAKER_00: And then we slip into a sort of fatalism.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always going to be this way.
SPEAKER_00: My therapist and the Enneagram says I'm going to live like this for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: There's not enough time left in my life to see the change I'm hoping to see.
SPEAKER_00: It'll probably take four decades from now.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible talks about change and it uses the idea of fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It uses the idea of agriculture, and I think it's really, really helpful.
SPEAKER_00: It uses agriculture to describe the way that you change, and it talks about seasons, but when we think about how plants grow, know this.
SPEAKER_00: It's invisible to the naked eye.
SPEAKER_00: I've never seen anything grow.
SPEAKER_00: But I've definitely come back to a tree to see that it's grown.
SPEAKER_00: When it happened, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's also really incremental.
SPEAKER_00: It's not actually huge steps or strides, it's a day-by-day thing.
SPEAKER_00: But it is inevitable if you create the context for something to grow.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't bring the growth, but the scripture says you can plant, the scripture says you can water.
SPEAKER_00: You can bring the context that causes growth, but it's God who causes the growth.
SPEAKER_00: God who grows a tree, but you can participate, create the context that'll cause something to flourish or to die.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to talk to you today about is this idea of formation that we are being formed and shaped whether we like it or not.
SPEAKER_00: So my invitation to you this morning will not be hey, do you want to be shaped?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to be formed into the image of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Opt in.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm going to tell you that you will be shaped this year.
SPEAKER_00: You will be formed.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, do you want that to be by accident or do you want that to be by intention?
SPEAKER_00: We're all going to be formed.
SPEAKER_00: Our marriages are going to be shaped, our friendships are going to be shaped, our discipleships are going to be formed.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is going to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is going to be shaped.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want that to be an accident or do you want that to be by intention?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to decide the direction in which you're heading?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not an accident, because you're formed by God, knit together in your mother's womb, because you're a part of his plan and he has a plan to restore you with his grace to glory, I would encourage you to have a plan for how you'll be formed as a disciple this year, and not just plan on floating downstream into Christ-likeness.
SPEAKER_00: Not many people who have something that you want to have have it by accident.
SPEAKER_00: They have it by intention.
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking at a marriage and you're going to yourself, I'd like to have a marriage like that.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have that marriage by accident.
SPEAKER_00: They have it by intention.
SPEAKER_00: Not many people have the teeth you want to have by accident.
SPEAKER_00: They have them by intention.
SPEAKER_00: They floss, they brush.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have the tummy you want.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't get a six-pack by accident.
SPEAKER_00: They got that by intention.
SPEAKER_00: They aren't set up financially and they don't holiday the way they do on accident.
SPEAKER_00: We don't float downstream into this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So we can't just go through this year thinking, well, I hope by the end of the year to love my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: I have no plan to see that happen.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I'm just going to keep going to church, hopefully to the first service, but if I sleep too late, probably the second.
SPEAKER_00: And by the end of the year, I think I'll be blessing those who persecute me.
SPEAKER_00: Dallas Willard says this imagine if you can, a person wondering, imagine if you can, a person wondering day after day if he or she is going to learn Arabic.
SPEAKER_00: Or if he or she is going to get married to a certain person, just waiting to see if that would happen to them.
SPEAKER_00: That would be laughable.
SPEAKER_00: But many people actually seem to live in this way with respect to major issues involving them, including spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a plan for your work life?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a plan for your marriage?
SPEAKER_00: Are you hoping that it'll be shaped in a certain way?
SPEAKER_00: I don't think most listen, like your neighbor doesn't have the lawn you want by accident.
SPEAKER_00: He's not, I don't I just didn't do anything and look at it.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's got like a plan.
SPEAKER_00: He's very particular about his lawn.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll find that out when your pet finds its way onto his lawn.
SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, I set out to define discipleship with the elders of this church, and I wanted to define discipleship at Radiant so that we could know if we're doing it.
SPEAKER_00: I read that quote from Neil Cole, and it's like, hey, if your disciples aren't good, your church is no good.
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, wow, that seems pretty serious.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd like to know if we're growing as disciples.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to know if we're taking ground, and I'd like to attempt to define what we're doing in a more specific way than something like living and loving like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you supposed to do with that?
SPEAKER_00: Loving God and loving others, you know, and I'm like, I don't know if I did that this year.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: I know that for some of us we've been taught in like our corporate workshops to make smart goals, right?
SPEAKER_00: Those goals would be specific, they'd be measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound.
SPEAKER_00: And I think because so much of what we do with our spiritual lives is pretty hard to get your hands on.
SPEAKER_00: I was hoping for something that we could actually talk about.
SPEAKER_00: The first question we asked ourselves as leaders is that is our definition of discipleship biblical?
SPEAKER_00: Is it true?
SPEAKER_00: Then the second question we asked ourselves, is it true for us?
SPEAKER_00: Does it represent the unique calling and stewardship that God's placed on this church?
SPEAKER_00: Because I do think that God has unique assignments for certain churches.
SPEAKER_00: The next question is: could it be used cradle to grave?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want our definition of discipleship for our nine-year-old to be different than the 90-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted our kids, our junior high, our high school, our young adults, our adults, our really old adults.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted everyone to go, no, this is what it means to be a disciple, and this is applicable in every stage of life.
SPEAKER_00: I also wanted to see it on the calendar.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to see it on the calendar because anybody who tells you they value something and it's not on their calendar and it's not in their bank statement is lying to you.
SPEAKER_00: What we value shows up in the way we spend our time and in the way that we spend our money.
SPEAKER_00: And I was also asking myself this question I want to confront a cultural trend.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that what we do and the practices we have and the rhythms we embrace should confront some sort of drift or idol in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: The first work of discipleship is usually to confront the ways where we've been discipled by the crowd and not Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have realized that?
SPEAKER_00: That you had learned to do money, that you had learned to do conflict, that you had learned to do your sexuality, that you had already been formed and shaped in certain ways, and you were like, oh no, there's gonna be a collision.
SPEAKER_00: There's a point of contention here because the Bible's talking about doing conflict this way, and my whole life it's been flight.
SPEAKER_00: So, Robert Moulhollen Jr.
SPEAKER_00: says it this way in his book, An Invitation to a Journey, which is about discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: If indeed the work of God's formation in us is the process of forming us in the image of Christ, obviously it's going to take place at the points where we're not yet formed in that image.
SPEAKER_00: This means that one of the first dynamics of holistic spiritual formation will be confrontation.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be going against the flow.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what we came up with after we ran it through a grid.
SPEAKER_00: Disciples at Radiant celebrate big, they connect small, and they're marked by moments.
SPEAKER_00: They engage in spiritual disciplines, they serve with their spiritual gifts and sacrificially give.
SPEAKER_00: We bear witness to Jesus with our words and our actions, and we make disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is the definition of what it means to be a disciple here.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to walk you through this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna move as quickly as I can.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just warning you right now that each one of these eight things deserves a sermon of its own.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we'll just keep working these things.
SPEAKER_00: This won't be the first time you hear this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, we'll repeat it over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: You received when you walked in a flyer that's written these things down in a sort of spider web looking thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to actually think about your last year and go, how did I do celebrating big?
SPEAKER_00: Did I feast with the people of God or did I only fast?
SPEAKER_00: How'd I do connecting small?
SPEAKER_00: How did I do being marked by moments?
SPEAKER_00: Did I encounter the power and presence of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How did I do engaging in spiritual disciplines?
SPEAKER_00: What about operating in my spiritual gifts?
SPEAKER_00: You get the idea, right?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of rate yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Be kind, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we hold a value that we celebrate big.
SPEAKER_00: It's glorious when we all get together.
SPEAKER_00: This looks like our Sunday service.
SPEAKER_00: This looks like conferences and holidays and events.
SPEAKER_00: We want to celebrate big.
SPEAKER_00: We we experience God's presence in a really unique way when we're all together.
SPEAKER_00: It matters.
SPEAKER_00: I often think about this on Easter because everyone shows up on Easter, and I think to myself, wow, this is us.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like when everyone shows up.
SPEAKER_00: It matters that you come.
SPEAKER_00: It matters that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: It changes things when we show up and when we celebrate the resurrection together.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what we're asking you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Could you choose a meeting?
SPEAKER_00: Could you come?
SPEAKER_00: Like, come?
SPEAKER_00: It matters that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Could you come on time?
SPEAKER_00: That's a way of honoring not just the worship team, just honoring the Lord and saying, This is important that we're here.
SPEAKER_00: Could you engage with the people that are sitting around you, even if that cast changes and it's not the same person week to week?
SPEAKER_00: If you're planning on missing from A long time, reach out and say, I'm not going to be here for the next four weeks.
SPEAKER_00: There's some biblical backing to what we believe and hold.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10 23 says, Let's hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
SPEAKER_00: Questions I want you to ask this morning to just kind of figure out where you're at.
SPEAKER_00: How many times do you attend a worship service per month?
SPEAKER_00: And how has the Sunday service shaped you as a disciple?
SPEAKER_00: Look, I know Sunday morning doesn't make disciples, but it's certainly a part of making disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It has a role to play.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when you neglect gathering together?
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: What's gained when we gather corporately?
SPEAKER_00: The weapon formed against us, the point of contention in this area is our individualism.
SPEAKER_00: And everything in our culture is pulling you in this direction.
SPEAKER_00: Historically, institutions like the church, like civic groups, like the family, they were seen as formative.
SPEAKER_00: They shaped individuals.
SPEAKER_00: They instilled moral virtues.
SPEAKER_00: They would bind people together with a shared obligation.
SPEAKER_00: And today we see those institutions not as shaping us, but we see them as stages, as platforms for us to express what's true for us.
SPEAKER_00: Every person, says individualism, is their ultimate authority, and true fulfillment is found in charting your own path rather than conforming to these external traditions.
SPEAKER_00: What a burden to be bound by what the other people around you think.
SPEAKER_00: So when we gather together, here's the power of it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of gathering together.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, nah, this is the worst part of gathering together.
SPEAKER_00: The power of gathering together is you got to get over yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I'm super sad.
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like clapping along to this song.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't even want to sing.
SPEAKER_00: But in order to be a part of what we're doing, you've got to clap your hands and sing.
SPEAKER_00: Some mornings you come in all happy clappy, like I hope they start with a banger.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to sing my lungs out.
SPEAKER_00: But the person next to you is weeping.
SPEAKER_00: And the call in Scripture is that you would mourn with those who are mourning, and you would rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and that you would move beyond yourself and be a part of something bigger than you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is brilliant because the world around us is saying there's nothing more important than you.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone should revolve around you, they should orbit around you.
SPEAKER_00: And we say, no, we want to subject ourselves to the whole.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to be a part, even if we're not feeling it, we're gonna jump in.
SPEAKER_00: We hold a value that we should connect small.
SPEAKER_00: So we celebrate big, we connect small.
SPEAKER_00: The idea is that life is shared and you're known.
SPEAKER_00: Not Sunday morning, I'm in a polo shirt known, but Monday morning, I'm known.
SPEAKER_00: We see that being facilitated through our packs and classes and other ways that we connect.
SPEAKER_00: We want to grow in a relationship with Christ, and we want to grow in relationship with one another.
SPEAKER_00: Like really be known, really be loved.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture that I want to point you to to back this comes from Acts chapter 2, where it's very clear that the church is succeeding because they're meeting daily, not weekly.
SPEAKER_00: They're not waiting for Sunday to be with one another.
SPEAKER_00: They're breaking bread daily.
SPEAKER_00: The questions I want you to consider: are you a part of a group?
SPEAKER_00: Like a pack or a class?
SPEAKER_00: Is your life known?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a church within this church?
SPEAKER_00: Like you won't make it unless you have a church within this church.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to get a church within your church.
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe just a few people that you're actually doing life with and know what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Do you participate in men's and women's events?
SPEAKER_00: This is honestly a really great way to be known.
SPEAKER_00: And do you feel connected in this church relationally?
SPEAKER_00: Why or why not?
SPEAKER_00: The weapon formed against you in this area, and you better believe it's real, is isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Isolation is coming for you.
SPEAKER_00: The world, the flesh, and the devil are all inviting you to isolate.
SPEAKER_00: They're inviting you to hide.
SPEAKER_00: And all kinds of carnage happens in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: And God's kingdom is calling, saying, come into the light, be known, bring what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: I ran across this, uh, believe it or not, on social media, which is kind of an indictment.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to watch.
SPEAKER_00: This is from 1930.
SPEAKER_00: This is the time that we spend.
SPEAKER_00: Look where family, school, friends, neighbors, church are at.
SPEAKER_00: Watch what happens by 1950.
SPEAKER_00: Still connecting with people a fair amount.
SPEAKER_00: Church is slipping fast.
SPEAKER_00: So are your neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: We got these things called garages.
SPEAKER_00: 1980, you're still smoking with your coworkers.
SPEAKER_00: But now you've realized that causes cancer.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and here it comes.
SPEAKER_00: Two thousand ten, eleven, twelve, two thousand twenty.
SPEAKER_00: You're being invited to isolate.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing good.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing grows in isolation.
SPEAKER_00: I found myself reading a 2023 Surgeon General's advisory on the epidemic of loneliness and isolation.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't read it if I were you.
SPEAKER_00: Sad.
SPEAKER_00: It said that loneliness and isolation are more widespread than many other major health issues in our day, including smoking, diabetes, and obesity with comparable levels of risk to our health, and it leads to premature death.
SPEAKER_00: We're dying of isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Another value that we hold is that we want to be marked by moments, transformed by encounters and experiences.
SPEAKER_00: We don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be in the presence of Jesus and experience his power in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: These encounters and these experiences sometimes are seen in the mundane, like the sacraments of communion and baptisms, we encounter him in a beautiful way.
SPEAKER_00: And they're also seen in the suddenlies.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we find ourselves and we have a sense that we are in the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And there's power as he speaks to us.
SPEAKER_00: Disciples are transformed by encountering the risen Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible talks a lot about this.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter him for sure at the table each week.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter him in the tank when we hop in and get baptized.
SPEAKER_00: But we're also pursuing mountaintop experiences, experiences where we're transformed.
SPEAKER_00: These are really pivotal, even though they're not predictable.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have set out to meet with God and then found out that he didn't answer?
SPEAKER_00: I've set aside these three days, God's going to change my life, and you find yourself there going, Man, I talked to myself.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't experience his presence.
SPEAKER_00: He can't be manipulated.
SPEAKER_00: But we still want to be a people who are like, man, if you want to speak to me and you want to meet with me, I'm ready for that and I'm hungry for that.
SPEAKER_00: We can't control when God pours out his presence or spirit in our lives, but we can position ourselves under the spigot.
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes on, we can be ready to receive.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Here's a question that I want to ask.
SPEAKER_00: You can read about a powerful transfiguration that happened in Matthew 17.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question: Have you been baptized?
SPEAKER_00: Do you participate in communion?
SPEAKER_00: And when you do, do you have a sense that you're going to encounter and experience the presence of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Can you recall moments in the last year where you touched the power and presence of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And do you have an expectation, like a deep knowing that God can suddenly shift any situation?
SPEAKER_00: Or have you just given yourselves over to a sort of deism, like he wound up the clock and here we are down here trying to figure it out?
SPEAKER_00: We want to stay in a place of believing that through God all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: And he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants.
SPEAKER_00: And the weapon formed against us is a cynicism.
SPEAKER_00: Cynical people are just passionate people who got disappointed and then developed a hard candy shell.
SPEAKER_00: They were hoping, they were believing, they were contending that God could meet with them and shift this situation, that they would pray and mountains would move, and the mountains didn't move.
SPEAKER_00: And a sort of cynicism and unbelief sets in for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to contend, we want to stay in that place.
SPEAKER_00: With you, God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to confront the cynicism of our age, that we want to see through things because we don't want to be hurt or set up for disappointment again.
SPEAKER_00: We value and hold that a disciple should be engaged in spiritual disciplines.
SPEAKER_00: We hold this because disciple means disciplined one.
SPEAKER_00: That's the etymology of the word.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be with Jesus, be like Jesus, do what he did in prayer and Bible reading and solitude and community and all of these disciplines are a means to make space for him in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We're adopting his lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: They're not a way of twisting God's arm.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do this, and then you're going to do this for me.
SPEAKER_00: Many of these disciplines happen privately and they enable us to have a hidden life with God.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 6 talks all about the practice of these disciplines.
SPEAKER_00: Talks about giving to the needy, talks about prayer, talks about not doing it like the religious leaders who do it to be seen, but going into your closet, not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing when you give.
SPEAKER_00: Talks about fasting, talks about storing up treasures in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about not being anxious about anything.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to do this to make space, to be with Jesus and be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So the questions to ask: do you have practices and rhythms that provide you a place to connect with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Can you connect with God on your own?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what's that looking like in your closet, in your car?
SPEAKER_00: What's worship like look there?
SPEAKER_00: What's one discipline that you've added to your life in the last year?
SPEAKER_00: It might be gathering corporately.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, man, I've always been a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I've never hung out with fellow followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I've added the discipline of being part of Sunday morning to my diet.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, here's the weapon formed against us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the counterattack.
SPEAKER_00: We live in an instant everything culture with immediate gratification.
SPEAKER_00: Fast food everything.
SPEAKER_00: And these disciplines cut against that and invite us to be formed over time.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that our fast food restaurants they have two-lane drive-throughs now?
SPEAKER_00: Will they go to three or or four?
SPEAKER_00: Will it not be fast enough?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you understand that you're being formed already by Prime?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Three days?
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait for that.
SPEAKER_00: You're being shaped.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're being formed right now into an instant everything culture.
SPEAKER_00: And it'll keep you from developing.
SPEAKER_00: It'll keep you from growth.
SPEAKER_00: Because the growth that comes in our lives is sometimes slow.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have the patience for it.
SPEAKER_00: We value, we hold a desire to serve with spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: We want our serving to be propelled by the gifts that God's giving us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't think we can be like Jesus in our own strength.
SPEAKER_00: And we want our efforts to be propelled by His grace?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 4.10 says each of you should use whatever gift you've received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.
SPEAKER_00: Here's questions to consider.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what spiritual gifts you've been given?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how those gifts serve inside and outside the church?
SPEAKER_00: Are you currently serving in the church?
SPEAKER_00: What areas are you serving in?
SPEAKER_00: The weapon formed against us here in this area is just pride and self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_00: We want what we can control, and we don't want to be dependent on or sourced by another.
SPEAKER_00: We want to operate in our own strengths, and then we want to get the glory.
SPEAKER_00: You should have seen what they did.
SPEAKER_00: But the gifts are things that we receive, and then we can't take glory for it because it's God who's given it.
SPEAKER_00: And it confronts our pride and our self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to dip down in this because this is Serve Sunday, and just kind of remind us of this value we have to serve one another.
SPEAKER_00: Two stories I want to tell just to emphasize the priority of serving.
SPEAKER_00: The first is that it's 1934.
SPEAKER_00: Mordecai Ham is preaching at a tent revival in North Carolina because that's what you do when it's 1934 and your name's Mordecai Ham.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be a tent revival preacher.
SPEAKER_00: And he's preaching, and the tent is full, and two 16-year-old boys come late and they can't find anywhere to sit.
SPEAKER_00: The two boys are kind of overwhelmed with kind of the intense praise that's happening in this tent.
SPEAKER_00: So they bolt.
SPEAKER_00: They leave.
SPEAKER_00: One usher spots them and goes, No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not letting two 16-year-olds leave this meeting.
SPEAKER_00: He chases them down and he says, I'll find for you a seat.
SPEAKER_00: He asks some people to move and he seats the two 16-year-old boys near the front of the tent revival.
SPEAKER_00: The boys end up responding under the preaching of Mordecai Ham, because that's what you have to do when Mordecai Ham is preaching.
SPEAKER_00: They hit their knees in the sawdust and they repent.
SPEAKER_00: They give their lives to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: One of them was Billy Graham.
SPEAKER_00: The other one is Grady Wilson, who was also ordained and ran the back end of Billy Graham's ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He facilitated all the tent revivals that Billy Graham was a part of.
SPEAKER_00: What's awesome about this story is that the usher remains unnamed.
SPEAKER_00: No one knows who the guy is who chased him down and said, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Two 16-year-olds are not leaving this meeting.
SPEAKER_00: You need to get saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: We just have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: We have no idea the impact that we're having.
SPEAKER_00: Second story is this Jesus is in Cana.
SPEAKER_00: He's at a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard the story?
SPEAKER_00: Turns the water into wine.
SPEAKER_00: What's really powerful about that story is that we know he turned water into wine because John writes about it in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: No one at the wedding knew.
SPEAKER_00: They just were like, wow, this wine's great.
SPEAKER_00: And man, what kind of a party animal brings out the best wine last?
SPEAKER_00: That's what they said.
SPEAKER_00: Those who were attending the wedding were like good wine.
SPEAKER_00: It was those who were serving that saw what happened.
SPEAKER_00: They saw something of God.
SPEAKER_00: They saw one of Jesus' many signs.
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that were like, Did you see that?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus just got in an argument with his mom.
SPEAKER_00: That was kind of crazy to see.
SPEAKER_00: Then he turned water into wine.
SPEAKER_00: They just marveled.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to say, you may come on a Sunday morning, you may attend, you may leave going, good wine.
SPEAKER_00: That was great.
SPEAKER_00: There's something of Jesus that can only be seen when you serve.
SPEAKER_00: There's a camaraderie that can only be had here at the church when you serve.
SPEAKER_00: There's something that you see and it's more than good wine.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I saw the miracle.
SPEAKER_00: I also saw the argument.
SPEAKER_00: They got pretty heated.
SPEAKER_00: We hold a value to sacrificially give.
SPEAKER_00: Generosity is a priority for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's emphasized in a lot in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 8 was a passage I was thinking about, but we encourage our church to intentionally sow into the mission.
SPEAKER_00: Giving demonstrates our belief that everything belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: And here's questions to ask.
SPEAKER_00: Is giving a priority, or is it like, man, if there's anything left over, I'll be sure to give it?
SPEAKER_00: Do you give first?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a percentage?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a personal value of tithing?
SPEAKER_00: What interferes with you giving more consistently?
SPEAKER_00: The weapon formed against you, the point of contention here is consumerism.
SPEAKER_00: We live in the richest nation in the history of the world.
SPEAKER_00: I've never had one person come up to me and repent of greed.
SPEAKER_00: We just don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: Greed is something that somebody else has.
SPEAKER_00: We have bills.
SPEAKER_00: Last two, we hold a value to bear witness to Jesus, not just with our words, but with our deeds.
SPEAKER_00: We want to point people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3 says, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
SPEAKER_00: Bear with each other and forgive one another.
SPEAKER_00: If any one of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity.
SPEAKER_00: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace, and be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms and hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with a gratitude in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And here it is whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
SPEAKER_00: When is the last time?
SPEAKER_00: You shared your faith in word.
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time that your deeds caused someone to consider the validity of Christianity?
SPEAKER_00: What are the names of three people that you're praying for, hoping that they're gonna come to faith in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: You're a witness to someone or something.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me.
SPEAKER_00: If you're like, no, I'm not that evangelistic, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: I hung out with you the week the Odyssey came out.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't really talk about stuff.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're just not excited about it.
SPEAKER_00: When you get excited about something, it's pretty easy.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty easy to bear witness to the value of a new restaurant if you really enjoyed your experience.
SPEAKER_00: The weapon formed against us, the cultural trend that we're up against, is one of hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: That you can say one thing and live another.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody's faced with this.
SPEAKER_00: This idea that you can say Lord, Lord, with your mouth and not live like he's Lord at all.
SPEAKER_00: The idea that you can come to church on Sunday and just like live like hell on Monday, that's what we're up against.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want it.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, worship team, would you come?
SPEAKER_00: We have a desire, a value to make disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The idea would be that we're faithful to pass on what we've received, which is expresses itself in a willingness to multiply and make room, which is really hard.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about it just the other day.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about it's been one year since we sent 40 people to Exeter, and I just miss those people.
SPEAKER_00: And those gospel goodbyes are really tough.
SPEAKER_00: But we think it's a part of the multiplying desire that God has for his church.
SPEAKER_00: And I do get to see those people, and times are sweet, just don't see them on a weekly basis.
SPEAKER_00: And this happens at a corporate level, but it also may happen with your pack.
SPEAKER_00: Man, we had some sweet times together, but we multiplied so that more guys could have sweet times together.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a part of who we are as disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the first 12 being like, hey, let's just stick together, guys?
SPEAKER_00: We saw some things, we've been through some stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Let's hunger down, let's care for one another.
SPEAKER_00: No, they multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas is in India and he's like, man, I kind of miss my bros.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like this food.
SPEAKER_00: Questions to ask?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, are you giving away what you've received?
SPEAKER_00: Not what do you still need to receive before you start giving it away?
SPEAKER_00: Are you giving away what you have received?
SPEAKER_00: Are you investing in someone?
SPEAKER_00: Because you do know more than someone.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you look up to and then who looks up to you?
SPEAKER_00: And are you stewarding that and taking that seriously?
SPEAKER_00: The weapon formed against us here is just us.
SPEAKER_00: Or the sort of us for no more.
SPEAKER_00: The sort of tribalism that's so prevalent right now.
SPEAKER_00: That not many of us would have a single friend who thinks differently than we do.
SPEAKER_00: There's a tendency in each one of us, and I know this is how this is ending.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like looking at the chart, and you're just like, dang, I don't know where to start.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a tendency for every one of us to make discipleship about us.
SPEAKER_00: And here comes the call to mission, here comes the call to multiply.
SPEAKER_00: Because we can so often think that it's about how I'm doing, my time with Jesus, that my kids keep interrupting.
SPEAKER_00: It's about me growing closer to Jesus, and it's about me becoming a better caterpillar.
SPEAKER_00: And it's about me feeling like I know God more.
SPEAKER_00: But it's actually about more than you.
SPEAKER_00: It's about more than me.
SPEAKER_00: It's about this mission He's given us to go into all the world and make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to do two things.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to score yourself in each of those areas and kind of make a circle.
SPEAKER_00: Or if it's not a circle, just the shape of discipleship for you.
SPEAKER_00: And before we come to the table right now, and as we worship, would you just share?
SPEAKER_00: This is one area where I took some ground this year.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to keep us away from the condemnation that the enemy brings.
SPEAKER_00: There's an area where you took some ground.
SPEAKER_00: Just own it.
SPEAKER_00: And say, I feel pretty proud.
SPEAKER_00: I talked to one couple in the first service, and they were like, This is our first time here in a year.
SPEAKER_00: We've got two kids under two.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: That's you guys are killing it.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's an area where you feel like you've grown?
SPEAKER_00: And then in the year ahead, what's an area where you want to grow?
SPEAKER_00: In the year ahead, like this is where I genuinely want to take some ground.
SPEAKER_00: Would you share that with a person before you come to the table?
SPEAKER_00: And as you come to the table, having just thought about your commitment, let's ponder the commitment of Jesus Christ to us.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're anything like me, the eight ways aren't going great.
SPEAKER_00: But as we come to the table, we remember that we receive mercy and we remember that God's way more committed to us than we are committed to these eight ways.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus, for making a way for us to go again.
SPEAKER_00: I would love it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're up for this, but I would love it if you would share your answers with someone other than your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: I would actually love it if you had a friend beside your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: My wife is my best friend.
SPEAKER_00: Just you gotta get another one.
SPEAKER_00: Just one.
SPEAKER_00: You need one other friend, okay?
SPEAKER_00: She can't handle it.
SPEAKER_00: You need to have another friend.
SPEAKER_00: So let's try to make one.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna isolate ourselves this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe pick someone and say, look, I took some ground here.
SPEAKER_00: And this is an area I'd like to take ground.
SPEAKER_00: And then come to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Let's surrender to him.
SPEAKER_00: Get cleansed up, get washed up, and get ready to walk out in his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: You guys good with that?
SPEAKER_00: You ready to mix it up awkward like a junior high dance?
SPEAKER_00: Find somebody.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be someone you don't know, but don't go to the person that you want to go to.
SPEAKER_00: That person.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go to that person.