This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.
Speaker — Luke Humbrecht
Visit Our Website — https://thelookout.church
Take Your Next Step--- https://thelookout.church/connect
Connect with Us --- https://thelookout.church/new
Give to Support the Ministry --- https://thelookout.church/give
The spiritual blueprint of the early church in Acts serves not only as an inspiration but also as a call to rediscover the awe that comes from communal devotion and prayer. Our dialogue is a gentle invitation to join hands and hearts in a shared life in the Spirit, preparing ourselves for the transformative mission that Jesus has laid before us.
The episode culminates with personal testimonies to the power of saying "yes" to the Holy Spirit's subtle nudges. From the poignant story of a dream that traversed continents and connected lives, to the Zimbabwean woman who felt the tender gaze of God on her through a personal message, we are reminded of the intricate ways in which God speaks to us. As we close, we encourage each other to take that leap of faith into the vibrant river of God's work, embracing both surrender and adventure, with the hope of clarity and courage to navigate this journey.
Visit our website
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.
Speaker — Luke Humbrecht
Visit Our Website — https://thelookout.church
Take Your Next Step--- https://thelookout.church/connect
Connect with Us --- https://thelookout.church/new
Give to Support the Ministry --- https://thelookout.church/give
The spiritual blueprint of the early church in Acts serves not only as an inspiration but also as a call to rediscover the awe that comes from communal devotion and prayer. Our dialogue is a gentle invitation to join hands and hearts in a shared life in the Spirit, preparing ourselves for the transformative mission that Jesus has laid before us.
The episode culminates with personal testimonies to the power of saying "yes" to the Holy Spirit's subtle nudges. From the poignant story of a dream that traversed continents and connected lives, to the Zimbabwean woman who felt the tender gaze of God on her through a personal message, we are reminded of the intricate ways in which God speaks to us. As we close, we encourage each other to take that leap of faith into the vibrant river of God's work, embracing both surrender and adventure, with the hope of clarity and courage to navigate this journey.
Visit our website
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in His presence, growing in His family and living on His mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Visit us online at thelookoutchurch.
Speaker 2:Good morning. How are we today? We're doing good. It was a sweet time of worship today. Oh, thank you, jesus. Let's pray, let's pray as we jump in. Let's honor the presence of the Lord together. I don't want to taint what God's doing with words. So, jesus, we honor your presence in this place. We thank you, god, we breathe you in and bless you, god, we thank you. We thank you, jesus. You're worthy of our praise, god, you're worthy of our very lives. Would you be honored in this place, jesus, holy One, be honored with our worship, with our prayers, with our lives, god. We love you, jesus, we love you today, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:For some of us that might be the most silence you've had all week, and it's a good place to be. Quietness before the Lord, space in your life to let God be God and you be you. It's a beautiful thing Today. A couple things I want to bring attention to. First of all, it is Sanctity of Life Sunday, and it's a day nationally where we recognize as believers, as those who believe in the story we've been invited into, that God created the heavens and the earth and he fashioned us in His image and His likeness, and all human life carries in it the Amago day. The image of God, all human life, of every nationality, tribe, of every age, is dignified in value and worth and has nothing to prove about their value and their worth. Every human life before God. He died for Jesus died for us humanity and even the unborn, and today we hold that space in our prayers. I just want to let you know that we are involved with some of the local pregnancy centers we believe in, we pray for, we support. We even resource some of our pregnancy centers as a church to continue to walk with single mothers, to help them with free screenings and just the resources needed to care for young ones, so that they can be actually resourced to bring these young lives into the world. And I just want to declare that, as a community, we believe in the sanctity of human life. Last week, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr and his work with the Black American experience, which is very important. This week we celebrate the unborn, and so together can we just pray again, god, we thank you, jesus, for every life, and I thank you, god, for single mothers across Boulder County, lord God, who are making a decision whether or not to give birth to their children. And, god, we thank you, father, just for your strength, for your wisdom, god, that you would surround every single mother, god, with the right people and that the church would be at the forefront, lord God, of an adoption movement, even, god, a foster care movement. That we would, father, not be just prayerful about this, but we would be involved in this, lord Jesus, and I thank you, father, for a generation of young ones that you want to bring into this world to be carriers of your presence, lord God, to be light and dark places. We thank you for your purpose in every human life and we just ask as a church, lord Jesus, that we would be found faithful with this call to dignify every single one, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen. Last week, we made you guys aware of a unique opportunity. It was a very quick turnaround, but last Saturday, if you're on our text message list, you probably got a text about a need in Denver and we became aware that something really unique is happening in Denver in 2023.
Speaker 2:About 36,000 Venezuelans arrived to Denver. Migrants have come across the border from Latin Americans, all kinds of American cities, namely Denver, chicago, new York City. Denver has received an unbelievable amount of Venezuelans in particular, but also Colombians, Puerto Ricans, and they would bust them up, even in December, every night, about one or two. In the morning, a couple hundred Venezuelans would come and be dropped off in the middle of Denver. It was nowhere to go. They're just fleeing the corruption. There's an unbelievable amount of corruption in these countries, in South and Central America, and so they came up through the border really with no plan. Denver didn't have a plan. Denver still doesn't have a plan.
Speaker 2:There's no federal, not a lot of federal aid, and so the mayor of Denver has been reaching out to a lot of churches, in which case we became involved through friends of friends of friends and pastoral network, and we became aware of this need and we learned of a church that was actually created an emergency shelter overnight, and this is Denver Friends Church. It's kind of North Denver and I got to go down to this last week because I put down a text message to all you to bring in coats and warm stuff. We were able to bring all those coats to them. We also purchased several hundred pairs of socks and underwear from the church on behalf of the church several hundred pairs of socks and underwear, because that was a huge need for these migrants and we were able to bring that down and spend time with this pastor who it was just a very just.
Speaker 2:In the last month they decided to make their church facility an emergency shelter, especially during the cold weather. They're able to house about 29 guests each night, which is honestly a drop in the bucket. There are thousands upon thousands just roaming Denver. There's thousands upon thousands in hotels packed in hotel rooms and it really is a disaster, and so there's a lot of ways to be involved, but I just wanted you to know that we did. Thank you for everybody who brought in the clothing last week and we added to that and hand delivered it to them. I wanted to show you a quick video from Pastor Keith, who's the pastor of Denver Friends Church. He just wanted to thank you personally and then pray a blessing over us and tell you about a couple more needs. So let's take a look at this video.
Speaker 3:Hey, my name is Pastor Keith and it's so good to hear that your church is wanting to get involved. So I'm at Denver Friends Church down in Denver off of 46th and federal, and we said yes to Jesus about a month and a half ago to a crazy adventure, and you guys are a part of that. You guys gave some amazing donations and I love it. Thanks so much to your pastor Luke here, and I just am so appreciative of what God is doing in your midst and how you're able to partner with us. So about two months ago we had a crazy town hall meeting in our church. It developed into a yes which meant we're going to do an overnight emergency shelter. So as a result of that, now we have people as you can see all these mats that are right here. We can house up to 29 people in the evening. They have tables, they're all sitting here. They're fellowshiping. There's family units, there's lots of single adult men. They come in. They're able to just walk in our doors. We're able to let them take a shower. We're able to let them get some fresh food that has just been cooked for them it's hot right off the stove at 7pm and then they're able to just mingle till about 10pm.
Speaker 3:So as a result of that, we're seeing people ask for a lot of help, and here's some ways you can pray. So these people need a lot of legal help. They have a lot of paperwork, a lot of it's in English and a lot of the phone calls they need to make are really difficult and they don't know what to do. A lot of the things that they're dealing with are just humanitarian rights, Like how do I even go through the right steps, the right process? Because they want to work, they want a house, but it all takes money and that's what it comes down to. I'm going to send you the sign up genius If you want to get involved. Beautiful, I would accept any and all volunteers that want help. It takes an army. It takes about 12 people, from the beginning of the work shift all the way to the next morning, From some set up to clean up to overnight to kitchen staff. So, as I'm praying, I just want to see such a revival without all across this nation.
Speaker 3:So that every church is saying who's our one? How can we adopt them? How can we serve them? How can we help them? So let me pray for you, church, to look out. I ask that you would bless them. I ask that you would encourage them today, as they are sitting, listening, hearing this, maybe for the first time, that they would be acknowledged to the fact that they gave a beautiful gift. They give it because they want to see you, jesus, glorified. For these people to have a warm clothes on their back, for these people to have some dignity to be able to shower. Lord Jesus, I pray a sincere blessing over their building, over their people, and that the kingdom of God would be opened up and advanced as a result of the ministries that they have, and I pray that they would be sending out people to be ambassadors of the good news. I thank you so much for Look Out, church. I thank you on Ask a Blessing in your holy name, jesus. I pray, amen. God bless you guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on. So good. It's fun to be able to partner with other churches with this kind of work. One of the interesting things is when I visited Keith the first time I actually met him. He's just full of life. He was explaining to me everything that was happening over this last month. To me it sounded like it was exhausting. Even when I was with him, people were showing up to the church. Phone is ringing off the hook. He's in the middle of doing all of these interviews with all the local news stations. Even CNN was interviewing him because they just said yes to God. But he was still full of life.
Speaker 2:It was interesting because when I was talking to him, he said you know, he's like honestly, when this opportunity came up, I wasn't looking for another job. He's like I didn't really want to say yes to this because I already have a job. I'm a pastor of a church. I already deal with complicated people all day long, right. But what happened is, as a church, they came together and they held this opportunity before the Lord and they prayed into it and it was clear that God was bringing this into their lap. It wasn't something they planned, but it was something given to them and as they said yes, he said it just unleashed beauty and favor and support and just the flood of it opened up a floodgate, like they were stepping into a river, of what God was doing among them. And I was just. I was thinking about, as I was with him. I was thinking about what he said that really it all hinged on their willingness to both see what God was doing and be willing to say yes.
Speaker 2:How many of you guys know that sometimes, when God brings something your way, it wasn't part of your plan? Sometimes God's plan wasn't part of your plan. But he gets your attention, he drops something in your lap and he's looking for those willing to be rearranged. Can I ask you this morning, is your life rearrangeable? Are you so determined to live out your days with your plan that you're not able to shift focus, shift, course, course correct, to be in the flow of what God is doing? Because I believe, even in the story, there's a subplot here and it's that God is looking for those with a yes in their heart. Are you guys with me this morning? And as we're starting this year, I believe that's a word for us as a church like God is looking for those with a yes in their heart.
Speaker 2:Now, in this particular opportunity, before I move on from that, I just want to let you know if you do want to be a part of what's happening and if they need interpreters, they need translators, they need those just willing to sleep overnight down there, and I know for some of you that would be, you know, a sacrifice to go and actually, you know, spend time or like, give a single night. Some of you maybe, as I'm talking, you do feel called to that. You can come talk to me after the service. I'll get you the information. But this is just one way we can partner with it, but it's a way that we can together say God, is this something you're calling us to be a part of Now?
Speaker 2:The last several weeks, if you've been with us, we've been kind of unpacking, exploring a little bit of what we call our vision statement and something that we hold before us regularly. I just want to take a moment and read it together Again. Can you put this on the screen? Let's read this together. As a people, our vision is Jesus, abiding in His presence, growing in His family and living on His mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Our vision is Jesus. Now we break this up. The way that we hold this before us is really in three parts. It's we believe this starts with a commitment the priority of giving ourselves to the abiding life in Jesus. That's where all of this starts for us, and that's why we spend so much time in worship. That's why we take prayer very seriously here. That's why we cultivate rhythms of life that allows us to orient ourselves around the head of the church, which is Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:I am not the head of the church. I hope you guys know that. Whoever is speaking here is not the head of the church. Whoever is leading here is not the head of the church. There is only one head of the church. It's Jesus Christ. We take our instructions from Him. The church doesn't need another vision because he has His own vision.
Speaker 2:Some people are like what's the vision of the church? Well, listen, don't ask me. I didn't die for the church. I didn't resurrect for the church. There's only one person who did that and he sent to us His Holy Spirit to remind us of everything he did and said, to bring to remembrance truth in our lives. There is only one head of the church. So if you want to know what the vision is. We search none other but Jesus. What is your vision for your church?
Speaker 2:It's really clear in the Scriptures, it's really clear that we are participants in a story unto the restoration, renewal of all things, that the loss would be found, that the church would be a beacon of light and beacon of hope and embodiment of the kingdom of God on earth and a concentration of the kingdom of heaven that can be seen and felt, tangible experience that can be exported all around the world. Not that we're experts in anything, but we're learners in everything. We are one's dependence on Jesus as our head. I'm not dependent on myself, and I hope that you're not either. We are dependent on Christ in the very presence of God, when we sing about Him, as if he's not in the room. He is here even as we share this space together.
Speaker 2:Is somebody waking up this morning? This is the life that we've been given. What other life do you want? It doesn't get better than the presence of Jesus, because when we come into the presence of Jesus, he, then we find he surrounds us with others. He surrounds us with His other kids, his sons and daughters that he calls His family, and we find out that in the presence of Jesus there are no lone rangers, because what he's actually doing is adopting sons and daughters to Himself, which means that that's why you're sitting next to the weirdo, you're sitting next to alright. We're all a little bit strange, and that's what makes the church the church.
Speaker 2:We wouldn't have picked each other. Can we just settle into that for a second? If it was up to us, we probably wouldn't have picked each other. But the Lord has done such a great work in us. He's transformed us. He's transformed us from the inside out. We're no longer orphans, we're sons and daughters. We're recipients of belovedness. And when that happens, when that happens inside of us, it transforms the way we see each other. My brother and sister is no longer somebody else and it somebody out there, a side character in the story of my life. My brothers and sisters are now equal participants in the beautiful, explosive life of the Spirit, and that we get to sharpen. We've been given to each other to call one another up into the fullness of life in Christ. How wild is that.
Speaker 2:And so we do that by serving each other. We do that by laying down our lives for each other. We do that by not preferring our needs above another. We do that by listening to and giving preference to, by holding open the attention of our heart to one another, to know what is God doing in your life. How can I be a part of that? What is God doing in this church? How do we find ways to actually serve? We're not just volunteering because we're in need. It's out of the gladness of my heart that I laid down my life to build up and to strengthen the church of Jesus Christ. It's the family of God. This is what we do for each other.
Speaker 2:And it doesn't end there, right, because in the presence of God and the flow of the Spirit, we've been given to each other and he equips us to be a part of what we're doing. And there's something about togetherness that unlocks. It, unlocks a new storyline. There's something about our togetherness that God doesn't just call us to be one here. He envisions us with His purposes, he envisions us to go beyond ourselves.
Speaker 2:And I believe that even this year, it's a year of expansion. It's a year, I believe, that God is wanting to stretch us, to push us, to move us out into brand new ways. Why? Because Jesus, we believe, is still on a mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring loves, and so all that means is that we keep our eyes and ears on Him to enjoy Him, to enjoy Him through each other and then together we discover what he's doing, what he's creating and developing in us and what he's developing in us. I believe this is for church everywhere. But I just want to speak this into your heart what I believe God wants to do is create such a concentration of His love that it has no other direction but to spill over, to leak out, to flood our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our cities, boulder Valley. I always see Boulder Valley as a big bowl that God is wanting to fill up with His love. Can you guys see that? And I believe that's what he wants to do through the church? He wants to love the world through us. He doesn't love the world through somebody else. He loves the world through those who have been loved. So when we say awe-inspiring love, that's what we mean and this is what we see in the early church.
Speaker 2:If you have your Bibles with you, you can turn to Acts, chapter 2, bibles and, hopefully, notebooks. Today, if you don't have notebooks, you can always use your phone. Just be ready when God speaks to you today to write it down, be ready to write it down. So we use this phrase awe-inspiring love and it's not just because it's a cool phrase that we came up with. It actually is born out of what we read in the Scriptures, so Acts 2, 42.
Speaker 2:Many of you guys know that the birth of the church happened in Acts 2,. It's on Pentecost Sunday, and the Holy Spirit came. They were waiting in the upper room. They had no idea. They had no idea what they were doing. They were just waiting because Jesus told them to wait. Holy Spirit came and it was considered the birth of the church Because they left that place, empowered by the Holy Spirit, they went out to the streets. Peter preached, he preached a knockout sermon, let's just put it like that. And it just so happened that hundreds of people were in. Thousands of people were there from out of Israel, from all across the region, and they were here. And as the people left the upper room, they started to hear the gospel in their own native language. People were starting to respond. Something new was happening, something never before seen was happening, and here's what it said.
Speaker 2:Acts 2, 42 is this early church is just trying to make sense of this new life. It says this and they devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching and the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers and awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and, day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the number, day by day, those who were being saved, and all God's people said Amen, that's beautiful. Right, that's it. That's the picture. Now it's important we understand.
Speaker 2:When we read the book of Acts. There's a couple things Let me just point out. These believers, this early church, they didn't know that their lives were going to be part of the Bible, the Bible, right, the Holy Scripture. They didn't know that Luke was doing a documentary on them, right. They didn't know there's going to be a Netflix special about the Acts of the Apostles, right. They didn't know it's like that's not even what was. They weren't thinking about writing a template for the next couple thousand years of Christianity in the church. And what was supposed to happen? They were literally just doing what they could do with what they knew at the time, which wasn't much. But something of devotion started overflowing in their lives.
Speaker 2:And so when we read the book of Acts, it's important sometimes. You know, some books we can read prescriptively, some books we read descriptively. So in the book of Acts a lot of it is descriptive. It describes it in the church, not all of it. We can just prescribe and say let's do the exact same thing right here. Some of you have tried that before. Doesn't always work like that. In fact you can get really disappointed. Some people get really disappointed. Why doesn't the church look more like Acts too? Right, so we can get really disappointed. That's not the point here. But when we can read here we can see where was the high watermark of their experience, what was normal for the life of the early church, and what we see is a couple of particular words I want to point out.
Speaker 2:Their life was built upon simple devotion. They devoted themselves. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the breaking of bread, to the fellowship, to the prayers. There was no production or programs. They weren't signing up for things. There's no sign up genius. There's no registration for the next breaking of bread. Right, it was just like all right. What are we doing today? We're going to overflow. There's a yes in our heart and it's going to bring us together in these particular ways. And so this Greek word for devoted proskottario. It means to join, to adhere, to be ready to give attention to, to be faithful, to spend much time together, to be fully committed to.
Speaker 2:So, as this new church was being birthed, what was happening? It was being birthed namely through a new devotion, a devotion that was coming up. It was being attentive to the work of God and God's work in each other, taking care of each other's needs, being willing not preserving their lives, not counting their life as their own, but laying it on the line. And there was a yes to God in each other. And they committed. What happened was they committed to a way of life that prioritized the presence of God and an overflow of love? And what was the result? We see it after this. It says verse 43,. It says all came upon every soul. So they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers and all came upon every soul.
Speaker 2:See, there's something about the environment of simple devotion that was awe inspiring and it's really important. We see that. You know, just after this it starts talking about all the signs and the wonders and all the stuff that really gets people going Woo. But that's kind of I read this passage and that's kind of more buried in the middle. It starts with these simple devotions. We're just going to get together, we're going to take communion, we're going to share fellowship around a table, we're going to pray, we're going to open the scriptures. The apostles teaching was just basically a read just being established in the scriptures, the story of God. We're just going to spend our time, we're going to absorb our time immersing ourselves in the scriptures. So if you look at those simple acts none of those four things particularly look awe inspiring, right, right. When you think about these kinds of things, it's like sweet, they read the Bible and they got together, but it's not like whoa. It's like that seems pretty simple.
Speaker 2:But there's something about the simplicity, there's something about the yes in their heart that it caused all of them to say what in the world is happening, and we have to remember that, as they were there, they were entering into uncharted territory. Together, it's a group of people who had, some of them, for the first time, had heard the gospel, some of them, the first time, had received Jesus as a Messiah. And so what would happen? Is they, as they heard the gospel, the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ, something inside them turned towards the Lord and it allowed their life to be rearranged and it caused everybody to take notice. Do you see the new thing that's happening? Because our lives are being rearranged, and what it does? It created a sense of awe and a fear of the Lord among them.
Speaker 2:One of the things I love about the book of Acts is it's really in about six sections. They call it, scholars call it six panels, and every now and then about six different times throughout the book of Acts it's almost like a just kind of a summary statement, and a lot of the time it summarizes as and they walked in the fear of the Lord and awe came upon them and see, for the early church, the high watermark. Regardless of anything they were doing, the high watermark was that awe was a part of their normal experience. How many of you believe that awe needs to return to the church of Jesus Christ. Awe a fear of the Lord that we're standing on holy ground. Because that's the thing, awe.
Speaker 2:When awe comes upon us, awe has a way of stopping us in our tracks. Awe has a way of taking our breath away. Awe has a way of bringing us to our knees. Awe has a way of getting us to untie our shoes as fast as we possibly can so that we can get them off of our feet. Awe wakes us up into a new reality, because there's this thing of surely. What is happening here is miraculous.
Speaker 2:Now, the thing with awe as you guys know, awe can't be manufactured. It's not just really good worship songs performed perfectly, it's not just really good church services, it's not just really good sermons, but awe when it's received, when it comes from a devout hearts of devotion, hungry for God, saying yes to God, it's a God-breathed reality. But what awe does is? It unearths us, it rattles us a little bit, it shakes us from the norm and it seats us back into a current of the flow of God, always receptive, always looking, always attentive to God. What are you doing? How can we be a part of what it is that you're doing.
Speaker 2:See, the thing is, when awe-inspiring love marks the church, it starts with simple devotion for Jesus. That moves into a way of being together as a family and ultimately, surprisingly and unexpectedly, when we do those things together, god moves us out. God positions us for that love to be shared. Nothing he does in us is only for us. The work of God in your life is good and it's powerful, but it's not only for you, it's for the sake of the world. Are you guys with me? I want to invite DeeDee to come up and share a story from this last week that I think will encourage you all, from something that came out of our community that was, I would say, awe-inspiring. Everybody welcome, deedee Peck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's on here we go. Not yet. Let's see if we can get it.
Speaker 2:Is it muted, Piper?
Speaker 4:So in November, nancy Jeanette our very own Nancy Jeanette was on the computer and she was reading about Africa and all of a sudden the computer screen started to move and she started to have a vision. And in the vision, the letters of the screen began to move and move into a name, and it spilled out a name, and the name was Amelia Ciswala Peterson. So that's an unusual name, and Nancy had no idea who this person was. And so, a couple days later, nancy has a dream, and in the dream she has a screen being held in front of her and she knows that Amy Joyner is the one holding the screen. And in the picture that she's holding is Amy Joyner, a little black girl and a black woman. And as she's looking at the black little black girl, her eyes were brilliant, blue, and they began to swirl, all these different colors and they began to come into one eye. That was brilliant and it just kind of kept going, swirling, and kept going and engulfed Nancy. That was the dream. And so then, nancy, she begins to investigate who might be this Amelia Ciswala Peterson, and she gets online and she finds her on Facebook. Actually, people in this room know her. Actually, she used to go here 14 years ago. But so she sees that the black woman in the dream is Amelia. And so, anyway, long story short, nancy submits this dream to us. We don't get to it for a couple days.
Speaker 4:How many know that we have a dream interpretation seminar that Jeanette leads? On Tuesday of this past week, we chose Nancy's dream for all of us to interpret, and so all of us were working on this dream, interpreting the dream, and then that night I just talked to Nancy. I had an urgency in my spirit. I said I think we need to reach out to her. I reached out to her on Facebook and she had a friend request in for me. So I accept the friend request and I messaged her that night and I said a woman in our church has had a vision and a dream, a vision of your name, which is an unusual name. It's a blend of races name.
Speaker 4:And anyway, we interpreted a dream tonight. It's about your daughter and she's going to reach out and give it to you, but I want you to know there is a God in heaven who sees you. And so this is what Amelia writes back to me the next day, because she lives in Zimbabwe now. The next day is her birthday and she says El Roy, el Roy, el Roy. I am in tears. There are no words, only tears. After so so many years, god who sees me? He sees me, my father sees me.
Speaker 4:And so we, then Nancy, sent the dream interpretation to her for her daughter and we're connecting. The amazing thing about it is, you know, amy Joyner, she, you see a sign here that says connect with us. And so that's part, that's really part, of the dream interpretation. But the connection is astounding. My husband is in a Zimbabwe and banned every single one of that ban. That ban is friends with Amelia. So many of you actually know her because she came here 14 years ago. But it's still unfolding and there are many layers to this and it is an awesome. It is an awesome connection. But she was so blessed I messaged her last night. I said is it okay if I use your name because we want to show the testimony? She said, of course, you know, vine life, or rather the lookout, is my church.
Speaker 2:So, dee, dee, the word. You sent it to her, did you say this? It got to her on her birthday. So on her birthday she woke up to find that a crazy group in Colorado was interpreting a dream. Okay, guys, get how wild this is For a second.
Speaker 2:We have one person has a dream. No, most of us. What do we do with our dreams? That was weird. Let's go to work today. I need more coffee. Okay, we had one person that said what if, what, if? God is speaking? Hey, graham, could you turn off that alarm out in the hallway? That'd be great. So we have one person that says man, god might be speaking. I'm going to pay attention to this stream.
Speaker 2:She writes down the dream in November and holds that and in God's timing. He knew that this church would be holding a dream seminar this last week on a Tuesday night and that there was a group of people who were trying to practice. Not saying we're experts at any of this kind of stuff, but practicing. We see it in the Bible, dreams and visions. We don't always know what to do with them, so, but we're going to be people who kind of practice what to do with these dreams. Sometimes we don't know what to do. Sometimes God speaks very clearly and so this last Tuesday night, they bring open this dream, they interpret it, they look at it. Another person in the class decides, hey, we need to message this person right now and let them know this is a dream. The person gets a message that lets them know that God was thinking about them and she gets the message on her birthday and she responds Elroy Elroy, which is translated the God who sees me. Guys, okay, let's just break this down one more time. And the vision and the vision of the name, the dream of vision of the name, all shows up on her birthday the God who sees me. Now listen, it wasn't like last November. Nancy Jeanette woke up and said you know what? Today I'm going to change the life of somebody in Zimbabwe. Right, it's not like she got up and decided I know exactly what to do. I know exactly how God is going to move through my life today.
Speaker 2:I believe this is a really good example. It starts with an open-heartedness to how is God uniquely coming to me, showing up to my life? Am I being attentive to and saying yes and meaning obeying and responding to the promptings of my heart, be it in a dream or a vision or whatever it may be. She responded to that and it just so happens, I got seated into a family who were able to help her carry that dream and vision, help her know what to do with it, to help move it into action. And all the while, somebody in Zimbabwe who needed to know that God sees her woke up to an email and saying we have a message for you, hand delivered, signed by God himself. He sees you and he loves you. And the only response in her heart was to cry out Elroy, you are the God who sees me, the God who sees me See.
Speaker 2:This is how I believe that this is the normal life of the church. The normal life of the church is all of us being aware that we are walking. We are living in the current of the kingdom of God and it's active all the way around us. The Holy Spirit is alive and the Holy Spirit is moving. He's moving in your life, whether you're attentive to it or not. He is closer than your next breath and a belief. He's looking for a people who are willing to be moved by His heart, willing to obey, willing to be moved out, even if it looks silly, even if it looks dumb, even if you don't get it right, even if you fall on your face. Are we willing to be a people that are moved by God's heart to go love the people that he wants to love, no matter where they live, especially in Zimbabwe? Is this what we want, people?
Speaker 2:And my prayer this morning? What I just believe is I was kind of moving through these stories this week, both with what's happening in Denver and then hearing this beautiful unfolding. My prayer this morning is that faith arises in our heart. You cannot plan that kind of story. You cannot plan it, you cannot manufacture. All you can do is make sure that you're staying in the current of what God is doing and that you're open and receptive and obedient to everything God is doing in your life. So what does that mean this morning? I believe God is looking for a people, not who are trying to do great things, but willing to bring small yeses to Him.
Speaker 2:Mother Teresa, I think, said it the best. She said it like this not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love. No, listen, I believe that's a word for us here today, some of us thinking how am I going to do anything awe-inspiring? You're not supposed to do anything awe-inspiring. Your only thing that you are called to do today is to say yes to Jesus in whatever the next step he has in front of you Is to say yes to Jesus. You don't have to be great. He's great enough as he is. His love is just fine. He's good. He doesn't need you to be awesome, he doesn't need me to be awesome. He wants us. He's inviting us to be receptive and to be obedient and to say yes when he speaks to us.
Speaker 2:So I just want to ask this morning some of us here today. It's a word for us, because you know that God has been trying to speak to you about things in your life. There's certain things that just keep coming back and you maybe push it to the side, and I'm just telling you there is an invitation for you today. It's not worth ignoring, because the life of God is only in the yes to Him. That's where the life of God. See, some of you are here today. You've never said yes to Jesus to begin with, and I'm just saying friends, friends, friends, there is power in the name of Jesus, there is life in the name of Jesus. There is forgiveness in the name of Jesus. There is grace, there is mercy, there is favor. There's strength. Where you need strength, some of you need strength in your life. You need to say yes to Jesus, whatever it takes to say yes to Jesus. Today, this is your day to say yes to Jesus, but others maybe you've said yes to Jesus in a general sense, but I'm saying there are things that God is wanting to birth in your life. There's things that God is wanting to birth. That requires a simple devotion, doesn't require anything great. It just requires you to say God.
Speaker 2:I think that you're doing this and I'm willing to step out in faith, and it could be as simple as, first of all, yes, saying yes to Jesus. It could be as simple as forgiving somebody that you need to forgive, releasing judgment from somebody that you have judged in your life. God's saying would you say yes to me? Because your judgment on this person in your life is not just about them, it's about you and being bound up by your judgment as well. Judge not lest you be judged Some of you.
Speaker 2:Your yes to Jesus is about allowing your heart to move for your neighbors to actually go across the street, maybe to open up your table and you've kind of you know, maybe you haven't been open to that possibility because you feel like you're an introvert and you're not really Martha Stewart-ish and you don't know how to host people. Well, listen, those are all excuses. God's not asking you to be amazing at everything. He's asking you to say yes, because his favor goes where there is a yes Some of you. He's inviting you even today to walk across the room to pray for somebody that you've been noticing all service or maybe doing worship and your heart was moved towards them. And you're thinking I'm not the person, I'm not that guy, I'm not that woman, I don't do those kinds of things. I attend a church service and then I leave and after a little golf clap, right, that's what I do and that works for me.
Speaker 2:Listen, the limitations that we put on ourselves. I'm just telling you this morning God doesn't care as much about those limitations. He says do you want to be a part of the flow of what I'm doing? Do you want to be a part of the kingdom of God? Are you willing to be inconvenienced and rearranged, to be a part of where there is life? Some of you need to get up and pray for somebody across the room. Some of you need to confess your sin to one another.
Speaker 2:There's all kinds of ways to say yes, but this morning, I believe just the simple invitation is we turn our eyes to Jesus, guys, as we turn our eyes to Jesus, as we seek to become a people that go where Jesus is going, it requires humility, it requires willingness, and it requires not greatness but simple devotion to stay attuned to what he's doing, and I believe he wants to release more wild stories among us. And so this morning, could you close your eyes with me? All of this is seated in the worthiness of God. The only reason we have to say yes to Jesus is because he's worth it. So, god, this morning I pray for all of us here today, god, I pray that we would be a community of all inspiring love. I pray that we would be a community where the high water mark is the fear of the Lord, and that we'd be a people in the flow of what you're doing.
Speaker 2:And so this morning, lord Jesus, I thank you, holy Spirit, for each one here to remind us, and maybe to even invite us for the first time, of what you want us to do. And together we say God, you're worthy, you're worthy of our praise, you're worthy of our worship. Thank you, jesus. I just echo that Believe. That's a word for some of you here today. You need to know that God sees you. He sees you, he loves you. He loves you. Receive His love. Say yes to His love.
Speaker 1:Thank you Jesus, thank you God. Andy, could you come up?
Speaker 2:I asked Andy to share. Just wanted to ask you to share what you shared earlier this morning.
Speaker 5:Hi, my name is Andy. I was coming to the pre-service prayer this morning and we start by just seeing what God is saying and listening in silence. And I was really fighting the picture in my head Because, as I often look to Jesus and pray to Jesus, just remember that he's the river of life and he flows through me. And when I walk into a room often when I pray, go into a room or into a space, I just pray that the river of life flows through me. And so I was praying that I was coming into the room and so when I was sitting in silence, I kept having a picture of a river. I'm like, no, no, no, that's not for this group, that was for me. What do you want me to have for this group?
Speaker 5:But as people were sharing, I was like, oh, maybe this picture of the river is important. So I shared and I often go and pray by rivers and moving water just because there's just life in it and it just reminds me of the river of life and God flowing. What I love about moving water is it renews every second, every moment. It's always renewing, it's always refreshing and you can't stop it. It's the other thing. It just flows, it keeps moving. And so when I shared the picture, I kept getting this picture of a river that was flowing and raging and moving. But a big river often has eddies on the sides where the water just kind of circulates and moves, and I kept trying to force that picture again and it's like no, I want a straight river where just all the water is moving, because eddies is where the junk can build up and it's moving water, but it can be stagnant water.
Speaker 5:But as I was sharing and as we prayed into it, I just picture like the reality is God is moving, jesus is moving and he's doing a work and we're not starting it. God's already moving, we're just. We have an invitation to get into the movement of what God is doing. And so my prayer is that I see, like a moving river and I see there's different stages of a river, and we could be, we could be on just the shoreline watching this moving water. We could maybe be, have our feet in it, but not be overtaken by the water. We could be stuck in an eddy and just it's moving. We think something's happening but it's stagnant. But the invitation is to just get into the center where God is doing the work, and release and let God take you, and so so, yeah, this is just my prayer for myself, but for for this church and for everybody who this word might be for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's see this. Listen, if you're here this morning and that's your heart's desire to be in the center of the river, maybe you've been watching from the banks or you've been stuck in an eddy, but your heart's desire is to have a full yes in your heart, in the center of what God is doing. And again this morning, if that's you today, I'm going to have Andy pray, pray for us here today, just to jump into the river this morning. Would you pray for us, andy?
Speaker 5:Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are moving. I thank you that your work cannot be stopped.
Speaker 5:It is not relying on us starting something, but that you're, that you're moving, you're alive, you're at work and you have a call to us, and you have an invitation to us, to the cannonball, into the center of the, to the river, to to receive the invitation of adventure, receive the invitation of, of letting go. There's not much you can do when you're in the center of a moving, fast flowing river. We can only be engulfed by, by what you're doing, god, and so I just pray that this invitation moving to our hearts in different ways this week, May we have eyes to see the ways that you're calling us into the center of the river. We have eyes to see where we're maybe afraid and we're on the shoreline, or we're stuck in an eddy, or maybe, as we're flowing, we see people stuck in an eddy and we need to go into the eddy, reach in and pull them in with us.
Speaker 5:Remember, this picture of this river is but this is your flowing river of life, jesus, and we just want to be part of that and we open ourselves to that and we ask you to to take us wherever you have us go and pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. Come on, do you guys agree with that? Amen, amen. Come on, do you guys agree with that? Amen, amen, amen.