SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, Alderwood, it's great to be with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is Vision Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
SPEAKER_00: One Sunday a year.
SPEAKER_00: We take a step back and we try to look at the big picture.
SPEAKER_00: We try to ask the question, Jesus, where are you leading our church right now?
SPEAKER_00: What are you calling us to?
SPEAKER_00: And we call it Vision Sunday, and it's today.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to do just that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to try to see the big picture.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I think honestly, seeing the big picture is not something that human beings are great at.
SPEAKER_00: We're much better at just the small details of what's right in front of our face.
SPEAKER_00: I was kind of laughing at that in this last season.
SPEAKER_00: I was assistant coaching T-ball for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: My son Thatcher was playing T-ball.
SPEAKER_00: We did a really bad job of taking photos this year.
SPEAKER_00: So here's one at the back of his head.
SPEAKER_00: And I just, it was so funny doing T-ball because it's the hardest sport for kids to grasp at this age.
SPEAKER_00: Like all the other ones you just kind of get, you know, soccer, kick it in the goal, basketball, shoot it in the hoop, golf, hit it in the hole.
SPEAKER_00: Baseball, it's like there's runs, there's not points, there's bases, home plate, where do I stand?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just all the stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's just such a big thing that you don't grasp at all.
SPEAKER_00: And so defense turns into something that is just unrecognizable if you know the game of baseball.
SPEAKER_00: Like what happens is the kids, some kid hits the ball, and on defense, every kid from every position, the outfield, the infield, everywhere, just runs to be the first one to get to the ball.
SPEAKER_00: And they run into the ball, and then the kids hate their gloves and they just put it on top of the ball like this to keep their own teammates from getting the ball away from them.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: There's no throwing to first base.
SPEAKER_00: There's no one standing on first base to throw it to.
SPEAKER_00: The first baseman ran to where the ball was, too.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's just this funny thing where they're just obsessed with the ball, like whatever's in front of their face, that's what they care about.
SPEAKER_00: The big picture of the game, of the of what they're supposed to do with it, of what the, you know, it just no one knows.
SPEAKER_00: No one knows.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so funny to see that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's fun to kind of poke fun at our kids in at this stage of life in particular.
SPEAKER_00: But this really is a human trait.
SPEAKER_00: And we get more sophisticated as we get older, but we still have this propensity to really just focus on the here and now, on what's in front of our face, to miss the big picture often.
SPEAKER_00: And as followers of Jesus, what that means is often we miss the story of God that is all around us, uh, the amazing, beautiful truth of this God of this universe who created us and knows us intimately, who made us in his image, who has a purpose for our lives here and now, who's wanting to work and is inviting us in to what he's doing all around us.
SPEAKER_00: And so often we we just don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: There's an amazing story of that reality that I want to share with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's in John chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a very well-known story.
SPEAKER_00: You may have heard it before.
SPEAKER_00: It's the story of the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this moment where Jesus is doing something incredible, and his disciples are completely missing it.
SPEAKER_00: And he uses the moment to teach the disciples about life with him, about what he's inviting them into.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to share it with you because I think what Jesus has to say to his disciples is also what he has to say to us today through his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look at that together.
SPEAKER_00: But first, I just want to share with you the story before we look at what Jesus has to teach.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus and the disciples, they're they've been traveling, they're teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is teaching, and huge crowds are coming.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing miracles, he's become very famous, and they're going all over the region.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus has led them through an area right now called Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: And the Samaritans live in Samaria, and this is kind of hostile territory for Jesus and his disciples because the Jews and the Samaritans, uh, they are enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Religiously, they're at odds with each other, ethnically, they're at odds with each other.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they do not associate, they don't talk to each other, they ignore one another, they're they're not friends.
SPEAKER_00: But that's where Jesus has led them at this point.
SPEAKER_00: And as they've been traveling, uh, they've apparently been out for some time.
SPEAKER_00: They're out of supplies, they have no more food.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus sends his disciples into town to go buy what they need.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus sits down to rest, and he finds the village well, and he sits down at the well, and he's by himself.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when this Samaritan woman arrives.
SPEAKER_00: And as she's approaching this well, no doubt, she expects Jesus to ignore her.
SPEAKER_00: That's how Jews and Samaritans treat each other.
SPEAKER_00: They they pretend like they don't exist.
SPEAKER_00: And she expects that from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: She expects him not to look her in the eye, she expects him certainly not to talk to her.
SPEAKER_00: But you know Jesus, that's not how Jesus rolls.
SPEAKER_00: And she gets there, she's she puts her bucket down the well, and Jesus speaks up, and he actually asks her for a drink of water.
SPEAKER_00: And she's shocked that Jesus is engaging with her at all.
SPEAKER_00: But she's even more surprised that he goes on.
SPEAKER_00: He he starts an actual conversation with her.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus asks her for water, but he also offers her water as well.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I have living water to give you.
SPEAKER_00: Water that when you drink of it once, you'll never be thirsty again.
SPEAKER_00: And she doesn't know what to make of Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she she thinks he might be kind of a crazy person.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, You don't even have a bucket.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, where are you gonna get this living water from?
SPEAKER_00: And she doesn't know what, of course, but Jesus is talking about eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And she might dismiss him until she realizes that Jesus knows her more deeply than any stranger could possibly know her.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Are you married?
SPEAKER_00: And she says, No.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Yeah, I I know that you're not married.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, you've been married five times, and the man that you're living with now isn't your husband.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you can imagine her eyes getting wide at that point.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus is putting his finger on probably what is like the deepest shame in this woman's life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in in our culture today, which is very sexually permissive, uh, even in our culture, being married five times is not something you would wear as a badge of pride.
SPEAKER_00: But imagine in that culture, I mean, that conservative culture, uh, you know, that sort of sordid sexual past is something that would make someone an outcast.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus calls it out, but not to shame her.
SPEAKER_00: He calls it out to say, I know you, I know your story, and I still have something to offer you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This woman has an encounter with Jesus that day that changes her life, and it's unfolding right there at the well.
SPEAKER_00: And that is when the disciples show up.
SPEAKER_00: They encounter Jesus and this woman, and they don't know what to make of it.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 27, John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: It says, just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman.
SPEAKER_00: Yet no one said, What do you want?
SPEAKER_00: Or why are you talking with her?
SPEAKER_00: They show up and, you know, from the distance, they see Jesus in this figure, and as they get closer, they realize there's a woman.
SPEAKER_00: As they get even closer, they realize this is a Samaritan woman.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we don't know if they know anything about her, maybe not, but if they did, they'd be even more surprised that Jesus is putting his reputation at risk by talking with a woman with, you know, such a bad history.
SPEAKER_00: They're amazed that Jesus is having this encounter at all.
SPEAKER_00: But what's so interesting is that we're told that they don't ask about it.
SPEAKER_00: They see Jesus doing something.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is at work here, and they're not curious.
SPEAKER_00: They see this woman as uh, I don't know, an inconvenience, a threat of some kind to Jesus' reputation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and they've got their own thing going on.
SPEAKER_00: And so they just wait for the woman to leave.
SPEAKER_00: And she does.
SPEAKER_00: The woman leaves, she goes back to her village, and she's actually going to tell everyone she knows about Jesus, but the disciples don't know that.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, their mind is elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the the woman leaves, and and while she's gone, this is what we're told in verses 31 and 32.
SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, the disciples kept urging him, Rabbi, eat something.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, I have food to eat that you don't know about.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Jesus is doing this amazing work in the life of this woman.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and what's on the disciples' mind?
SPEAKER_00: Lunch.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're thinking about.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can laugh at them, but I know a lot of the time when I'm up here talking, you're thinking about lunch too.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so uh we've all been there and they haven't eaten in a while.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know, maybe many days actually.
SPEAKER_00: They know Jesus is hungry, they're trying to be good friends, actually.
SPEAKER_00: It's like Jesus, you you need to fuel up, man.
SPEAKER_00: You need some nourishment, like eat some bread.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying that he's got food that they don't know anything about, and they're like, Jesus, where's what food are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: He's been holding out on us.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the secret stash, man?
SPEAKER_00: Uh they they they totally miss what he's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: But see, what Jesus is actually doing here is he's saying, Look, you guys are so consumed with the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: You're consumed with what we're eating today, and that's that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a bigger story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm about something here that is beyond what you're even thinking right now.
SPEAKER_00: I have food that you know nothing about.
SPEAKER_00: And he takes this moment to teach, and he teaches them about what life is like with Jesus, about what it means to follow him and to see the reality that God is at work all around us, and he's inviting us into it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus teaches this point, and I want us to get it this morning as well, that God is writing an amazing story of redemption, and he wants us to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: He turns to his disciples and says, I want you to be a part of this story.
SPEAKER_00: Will you have eyes to see it?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing he he tells them is this reality that God is already working.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do you get why we're here?
SPEAKER_00: God is doing something.
SPEAKER_00: So open your eyes, look around.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus says in John 4, 34.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This food that I have that you don't know about, well, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work, Jesus told them.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus' view of himself, of the world around, that God has been at work, the work of his Father who sent him.
SPEAKER_00: From the very beginning, God has been at work.
SPEAKER_00: From the fall on, God has been pursuing humanity with his grace, with his mercy, with his love.
SPEAKER_00: He's been working to redeem us.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I've been sent to finish that work.
SPEAKER_00: His disciples don't know it yet, but he's talking about the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to bear our sin on himself to pay the penalty we could never pay, to uh to give us eternal life that we don't deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He's finishing the redemptive work of God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, That's why I'm here to complete the work that God's already been doing.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus goes on and he says, Look, and it's not just me who has a part to play in God's plan and in the story of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's you too.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Don't you say there are still four more months and then comes the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_00: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Now that obviously just resonates with all of us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, don't you always say there's four months and then the harvest?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm saying that all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm why not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is uh an agricultural saying, okay.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a world where almost everybody is a farmer at this point.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a saying about patience.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean that there's still four more months and then comes the harvest?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're a farmer, you work super hard, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You you till the ground, you plant the seeds, you water, you do all this work.
SPEAKER_00: But then actually, a huge part of the job is waiting, is patience.
SPEAKER_00: Like once you've done the hard work, you've just got to wait and see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this saying about patience of like, look, there's four more months until we're really gonna see the fruit of any of our labor.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know this personally very well, but I did get a glimpse of it this summer.
SPEAKER_00: My my mom started growing uh tomatoes in her backyard, and she has been trying to get my kids to understand the patience of way for things to grow because my kids will run in that backyard and pick any tomato they see.
SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't matter if it's ripe, green, red, whatever, like they're just picking it.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this part of like things growing of just chill out and wait.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But what Jesus is saying here is actually the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you know, the saying, there's four more months until the harvest, but no, no, no, listen to what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: Open your eyes and look at the fields because they are ready for harvest.
SPEAKER_00: The time is now.
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus talking about?
SPEAKER_00: He is talking about the reality that God has been at work for a long, long time, and he has been preparing people to respond to what he's about to do through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, the moment is now to call people to respond in faith, to repent and believe, because the kingdom is here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come, and you have a role.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes on, he says, This the reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper can rejoice together.
SPEAKER_00: For in this case, the saying is true: one sows and another reaps.
SPEAKER_00: I sent you to reap what you didn't labor for.
SPEAKER_00: Others have labored and you have benefited from their labor.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get what he's saying here?
SPEAKER_00: Says, I'm sending you out right now.
SPEAKER_00: And your job is to bring the news of the kingdom of God that's arrived.
SPEAKER_00: Your job is to invite people to respond to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And basically, Jesus is saying, look, you get the fun part of all this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: God has been working for centuries, for millennia, to get us to this point.
SPEAKER_00: He's been preparing the way, other people he's used to sow the seeds to get us here.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, your job is to go and reap, and you get to be a part of this beautiful thing that God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: You get to see people's lives changed by just being faithful and going into the harvest to reap what's already been sowed.
SPEAKER_00: If we're gonna follow Jesus together, and that's our mission here at Alderwood.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be a community that walks together and we follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We have to understand about something that it means to be a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That that metaphor that Jesus uses, it's not an accident, that life with Jesus is following him.
SPEAKER_00: It implies some things.
SPEAKER_00: It implies that life with Jesus is about movement, that Jesus is going somewhere, that he's not gonna leave us where we are, that Jesus is at work around us in the world right now, that he's on a mission, that he's going, and he's inviting us to come with him.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, are we gonna stay put or are we gonna go?
SPEAKER_00: If we want to follow Jesus together, then we need to become people who have eyes to see what he's doing in the world and who who go to join him in it.
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like for us?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's so easy to miss, like I said at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's the point of this story is that this this story of redemption, this amazing work of Jesus, it's happening right in front of the disciples' face.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this Samaritan's woman's life is being changed.
SPEAKER_00: They don't they don't know it yet, but she's just run back and she's told her whole village about Jesus, and many more people are gonna believe in Jesus and receive salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this incredible thing is happening.
SPEAKER_00: And they show up and they're like, yeah, so let's eat lunch.
SPEAKER_00: How does that sound?
SPEAKER_00: You know, they just miss it.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's so easy in so many stories of the Bible to kind of laugh at the disciples until we realize the disciples are us.
SPEAKER_00: Like in every story, basically, the disciples are us.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're the ones who can miss the work that God is doing right in front of our face.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so easy to do.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I I have a lot going on in my mind right now.
SPEAKER_00: I have a lot going on in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I have a long list of things I'm trying to get done.
SPEAKER_00: I have a long list of things that I that I worry about, long list of things that I want to see happen in my world.
SPEAKER_00: How long is the list of things in your head right now that you're concerned with?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'll just give you a glimpse into my mind right now.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just a random assortment of things like school starting in a couple weeks, my kids are starting first and second grade, and so we've got school supply lists we're trying to check off.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're doing the school clothes inventory, we're deciding whether or not it's appropriate for my son to exclusively wear Pokemon branded shirts to school.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we're getting emails about, you know, back to school night, parent volunteers, the PTA, all of that.
SPEAKER_00: We're acting like we might be interested.
SPEAKER_00: And we've got other things, you know, on our mind as well.
SPEAKER_00: We've got friends we're reaching out to right now that want to get dinner and we feel horrible because we've rescheduled twice and we want to see them, but we just don't know when it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: My wife is at a job.
SPEAKER_00: We're wondering if that's the right place for her right now.
SPEAKER_00: We're not sure.
SPEAKER_00: There might be something else.
SPEAKER_00: Should she be looking?
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to get a house ready to sell, and that's a whole saga that I won't get into.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to build another house, and and again, don't need to get into all the details.
SPEAKER_00: I just hope you never ever have to learn the process of trying to build a house in the city of Edmonds.
SPEAKER_00: Just stay away.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I mean, just on and on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting ready to respond to all the angry emails or the service times changing.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just the long list of things in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: I'll stop there because you don't care.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and also, you know, your list is just as long and probably more stressful.
SPEAKER_00: But this is life, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like the here and now can be overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing um Jesus isn't like frustrated with you about that.
SPEAKER_00: The the disciples aren't in trouble because they were thinking about lunch.
SPEAKER_00: Lunch is good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, God wants you to eat lunch, okay.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus wants is for the here and now to not blind us to the bigger story, to the more important, to the eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Because when lunch is getting in the way of you caring about the life change and the spiritual reality of what's right in front of you, that's the problem because we're missing out on what God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look ahead to what God's doing right here at Alderwood, as we look to be people who follow Jesus together, I want to ask that question how do we not miss it?
SPEAKER_00: And there's really two questions I want to ask uh this morning, two questions I want you to ask yourself as we look at what God might be doing here at Alderwood.
SPEAKER_00: And the first is this who has God sent you to?
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus tells the disciples, look, I have sent you into the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a follower of Jesus, he has sent you into the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Not he might or he, you know, someone may come into your life.
SPEAKER_00: He he has.
SPEAKER_00: He has put you around people right here and right now who don't know Jesus but who do know you, and he has a purpose in that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a story going on.
SPEAKER_00: God is already pursuing the people in your life who who you know that don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He started long before you ever even asked the question of if he had a role for you to play.
SPEAKER_00: But he does.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you see those people, do you have eyes to see the bigger story?
SPEAKER_00: See, that's what the disciples missed when they saw the Samaritan woman, they saw an inconvenience, they saw a threat, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: They saw like, ooh, this wouldn't look good if Jesus was seen with her.
SPEAKER_00: Like they wanted to kind of pull Jesus aside and tell him about the Billy Graham rule.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and they just missed this amazing work of God right before them.
SPEAKER_00: Are we missing it?
SPEAKER_00: When you pull into your driveway and you lock eyes with your neighbor, when you show up to work and you you engage with the people that you work with, like, do you just see the stuff in front of you, or do you realize that these are people made in the image of God, that God desperately is pursuing with his grace and with his love, that God has a story that's playing out in their life and he wants you to be a part of it?
SPEAKER_00: Can we have eyes to see that as a church?
SPEAKER_00: I would love for you to make a commitment this morning as names come to mind, as those relationships uh are brought to you by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Um, would you make a commitment this morning to be a part of their story?
SPEAKER_00: And here's what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Would you commit to pray, invest, and invite these people that Jesus has already sent you to?
SPEAKER_00: Would you start by saying, I'm gonna pray for them every day?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray for their relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray that they would be drawn to Him, I'm gonna pray that they would place their faith in Jesus, I'm gonna pray for opportunities to be a part of their life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for the people that God has sent us to.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, would you invest in In them?
SPEAKER_00: Would would you pursue relationships with these people that God has sent you to?
SPEAKER_00: Would you show up in their life and be an example of the love of Jesus and the way they know you?
SPEAKER_00: Would you ask them how they're doing?
SPEAKER_00: Ask them their story.
SPEAKER_00: Would you invest in these relationships?
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, will you invite, will you invite them to take a step of faith?
SPEAKER_00: And that step of faith, it might just be having a spiritual conversation.
SPEAKER_00: It might be the invitation to come to church with you and to check this out and hear the word of God preached.
SPEAKER_00: And the invitation it might be to respond in faith to who Jesus is, if you have the opportunity to share that with them.
SPEAKER_00: But you have a part to play in the story that God is writing right now all around you.
SPEAKER_00: Will you go?
SPEAKER_00: Will you be sent?
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray, invest, and invite?
SPEAKER_00: Can you just imagine the stories that we may get to celebrate, that we may get to be a part of?
SPEAKER_00: If it as a church, as a community, we take this on together in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Second question that I have for you is from a little bit different angle.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we all have our own stories, we have our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: You know people that I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: God has sent you places that I will never go.
SPEAKER_00: But also, God is writing a story right here at Alderwood, and there is something that he has for us as a community in his plan for redemption all around us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, when when Jesus talks about how the world is gonna come to know who he is, how the world is gonna believe that that God really sent him, it's interesting how Jesus thinks that's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus says when he's praying in John 17 is he said, the world is gonna believe that I sent you because of the unity of his followers and because of the way that we love one another.
SPEAKER_00: That the world's gonna see this community of people who are loving one another in a way that Jesus has loved us, and that is gonna be the thing that catches the attention of the world.
SPEAKER_00: That they're gonna see there's something there, there's something real about this that I need to lean into.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we think about who we are as a church and what God's calling us to be right here, right now, the question I would love for you to ask yourself is how can you help make Alderwood a community that reflects Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: There's already a story of what God is doing here at Alderwood.
SPEAKER_00: It started long before any of us, you know, uh more than a hundred years ago, Alderwood was planted right here and it was chicken farms.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it was.
SPEAKER_00: There was no train yet that came this way.
SPEAKER_00: There was no certainly no freeways, uh none of that.
SPEAKER_00: Just some faithful followers of Jesus starting a Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that he wanted this community to be here now, in this moment, as Linwood is growing up around us, as 405 and i5 drive right past here, as as countless people know that there's a community of Jesus followers here.
SPEAKER_00: And he has a purpose that he's inviting us into, that we would be a city on the hill, that we would be a light in darkness, that our community, that our neighbors would get to see a reality, that we get to see a glimpse of the eternal, not just in our individual lives, but in our community, in the way that we love each other like Jesus has loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what is your role to play in that?
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to be honest with you, I think it's gonna, it's gonna take more from us than what has become the normal way that Americans engage with church.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Um we do surveys all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who the we is, people do surveys all the time of just the church life of what's going on in church world.
SPEAKER_00: And and so uh, you know, they ask questions, do you go to church?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a church person?
SPEAKER_00: What religion do you believe in?
SPEAKER_00: You know, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And when people say I'm a church-going person, one of the follow-up questions in these surveys is okay, if you're a church-going person, how often do you go to church?
SPEAKER_00: And the American average is 1.6 Sundays a month.
SPEAKER_00: That's how often church-going people go to church.
SPEAKER_00: And um by the way, that might be you.
SPEAKER_00: No, no shame.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, if your relationship with Alderwood is that you come every once in a while, uh, no shame.
SPEAKER_00: You know, following Jesus is just about taking one step of faith at a time.
SPEAKER_00: And if the step of faith for you right now is just showing over to church, praise God, uh, keep doing it.
SPEAKER_00: But I also can't hide from you the reality that God has more for you than that.
SPEAKER_00: He has more for us than that.
SPEAKER_00: When we think about a community that's gonna show the world the reality of Jesus, it's gonna take more than just something we attend on occasion.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna take uh real life together, it's gonna take actually loving one another.
SPEAKER_00: And love takes time.
SPEAKER_00: Love takes sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Love is more than just being in a room together at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question for you is what's your role to play in making this truly a family here that reflects the love of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Have you found your place to serve yet?
SPEAKER_00: Have you found where you're gonna pour your life out for the good of this church family?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, have you found your place where you're gonna share your life with others?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's you know, midweek and that's life group, or maybe it's not even a church program at all.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the relationships that you're pouring into here.
SPEAKER_00: But but have you found where church is gonna become more than just a service that you attend?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you reflecting the self-sacrificial pursuing love of Jesus and making this a place where the world can see who he really is?
SPEAKER_00: Alderwood has uh a big part in God's plan right here, right now.
SPEAKER_00: We've been sent into the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: The time is now.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't want us to miss it.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's have eyes to see where he's calling us and let's be faithful to go where he sends.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you for your love of us that is so faithful, that is so patient.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the way that you are gentle with us, that when we miss the big picture, when we are just consumed with the here and now, you love us, but you you love us enough not to leave us there.
SPEAKER_00: And so would you open our eyes, God?
SPEAKER_00: Would you give us a bigger view of why our lives matter, of what we're doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Would you show us the ways that you're inviting us to be a part of your story?
SPEAKER_00: And God, we we want to see your name lifted high.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see people respond in faith to who Jesus is and what he's done for us.
SPEAKER_00: We we want to be a part of that, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so use our lives and use our church in whatever way you want to be a part of your kingdom work.
SPEAKER_00: We give it all to you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.