When follow Jesus, we shift from an earthly perspective to an eternal perspective. Rather than focusing DOWNWARD and INWARD, God changes our perspective to UPWARD and OUTWARD. In the sermon, Pastor Luke shares how we are living into that perspective as the Lookout family.
This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.
Speaker — Luke Humbrecht
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When follow Jesus, we shift from an earthly perspective to an eternal perspective. Rather than focusing DOWNWARD and INWARD, God changes our perspective to UPWARD and OUTWARD. In the sermon, Pastor Luke shares how we are living into that perspective as the Lookout family.
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
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:Hey, good morning everybody. Great news today. Great news we saved the daylight Another year in a row. We did it, guys. Earth won today. We paid a massive prize for it. But hey, we saved daylight, so we've already won today, and it just keeps getting better and better.
Speaker 2:You know, during worship, you know, we take moments like that and we linger. Some of you are used to doing things like that. Others maybe you're new to the community you're like why are we singing so long? Why do we take so much time to do that? Because there's something happens when hunger and thirst starts to deepen in our hearts. For the Lord, it's it's. The worst thing possible is to rush through that.
Speaker 2:Cs Lewis, I think, worded it best. He said if we find ourselves with the desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. The truth is, we were made for another world. You were not made to be easily satisfied, so, as a people, we need to become used to lingering with God. Some of you are like well, I have attention deficits, that's hard. Well, the good news is this when you spend time with Jesus, he gives you attention surplus. He's got more attention that he wants to give you, because we were actually created to behold. To behold God it's actually how we're transformed into the image of God is by beholding, and so I I do think that we're living in a time where the greatest tactic of the enemy is to actually eliminate our capacity for attention, because attention is the only thing we have that can lead to transformation when we aim it in the right direction. Are you guys hearing me today? So if you keep telling yourself, yeah, but I have ADD, yes, but I can't pay attention, you're you're speaking over yourself something contrary to the design that God made you with. You were made to behold the beauty of God. You were made to behold the goodness and the love of God. This is the capacity that he has given to you and he wants to grow you up into it. Amen, come on, I could keep going if you want me to. It is good, it's good to be with you this morning.
Speaker 2:I just came from a couple days down in Castle Rock. So I was gathered with a few hundred leaders for a couple days down in Castle Rock for something called the Converge Conference, and there was leaders from churches across Colorado. I just I'm not going to go into detail here. I just want you to know that God is moving across our state Hunger.
Speaker 2:People of God are rising up with a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a hunger and thirst for the presence of God, and status quo is no longer becoming an option, and I believe we're in a time where God is inviting his church to say listen, I am availing myself to you for as much as you want me, but the truth is that God comes where he's wanted and where there's complacency or where there is a status quo or where there is a. I have my life kind of ordered how I want it. God, I will just fit you in. That is not the kind of environment that God loves to inhabit. He's looking for those who are hunger, hungering and thirsting for him. What that doesn't mean is that we have to just strive and just kind of work up our emotions all the time and get things hyped up. It just means that our prayer as a people, I believe, should just to be God, deep in my appetite for you, deep in our appetite for you. And it was a beautiful thing to gather with hundreds of leaders, and it's something that separates the Church of Jesus Christ from every other kind of institution, because in the church we're all actually on the same team. God is only coming back for one bride, not many brides, and in the Church of Jesus Christ we only win if we all win. And so there's something about praying for our brothers and sisters, and I encourage you, when you guys drive by other churches in the area, be it Longmont or Erie or Gunbarrel or Nyawa or wherever you're from I just want to encourage you, when you drive by a church building, to stop and to pray and to bless them in the name of Jesus, because that is what we are called to do that we all might attain to the unity of the faith, the maturity to the Son of God. Man, that was my preaching is already better than your amends, alright, alright, we can do that if you want to do it like that. We can end early if you guys need a nap, but I don't think you dragged yourself out of bed to sleep through a service. We don't have to do church today, right? So if you have your Bibles, let's open up to 2 Corinthians. We're going to start there today.
Speaker 2:What Gary didn't mention is next week will be special because the youth are going to be spotlighted next week. It's going to be kind of a youth Sunday. They're going to be the whole worship band, it's going to be youth and we're going to be sharing testimonies. It's going to be a real spotlight on what God is doing among Gen Z, what God is doing in this next generation, and let me just give you a hint, it's awesome. Alright, so you don't want to miss that next week because I believe they're not in the room right now that Gary took them back. But our youth are carrying something that our church needs, okay, so don't come with low expectations next week, alright, so we're going to hop into just a little word. It'll be a little bit different today. We're not in a series. Right now. I'm not really going to teach as much as to share a little heart and then cast a little vision for a couple things coming up that I just want to be on the radar for everybody here, a couple things we're doing as a church. Okay, so that's kind of the nature of where we're going.
Speaker 2:Let me just read from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. He says this so we do not lose heart though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Can somebody say amen? This is the Word of the Lord, so we do not lose heart.
Speaker 2:I have just been very aware recently of how important it is that the Christian life really, at the end of the day, it's a battle of perspectives. We are in an everyday tug of war regarding which kingdom we are to live in, what reality we choose to make our own, what has more weight or bearing on our lives, what we can see or what we do not see. And every day we wake up to this decision point of today am I going to live into what I can see or live into what I cannot see? Will I live from a temporary perspective, a limited perspective, or will I live from an eternal perspective that is given by God to be a part of what he is doing? I believe that this is like the core. This is the core of kingdom. Life Is what will we wake up? What did you wake up into today and what story are you entering into today?
Speaker 2:One of the things that I love about Colorado, that you love about Colorado too, is that you can see things in Colorado. See, I grew up in Indiana. You don't see a lot in Indiana you can't see more than like 50 feet in front of you because there's trees there. It's so flat. There's trees everywhere. When I brought Megan to Indiana the first time, she was shocked because she couldn't see anything. I mean, it's like I'm used to knowing exactly where I'm at. You have the mountains. That are the way finders. You always know where you're at in Colorado.
Speaker 2:In Indiana, you have no idea where you're at, no idea. You have, like, what direction is that? I have no idea. I'm just going to walk this way. I have no idea where that is and you don't even know what weather is coming. Like here you can see weather 10 miles away. In Indiana you cannot see a tornado. That's 200 feet away, can't see it. It's like oh, I guess we're done. Man, that's a bummer.
Speaker 2:Indiana, all you see is trees and waffle houses. That's all you have Trees and waffle houses. But here you can see a lot further and I like that. You can see. I like that. Not only can see, you go up the mountain a little further, you can. You get this broad perspective. You can see a lot of things.
Speaker 2:I love going up to the Flatirons here, going up into Boulder, because when you go up just a little bit higher you've got to wind up the road. It takes a little bit. If you're hiking or driving or whatever you're doing, you go up a little further. But when you look out over, you can see everything across the front range. You can see your home, you can see the church building, you can see Boulder, you can see the university, you can see Denver, you can see all the roadways and the connective tissues, that kind of like this whole. You know just all the road, just everything that connects the whole land together. And you're up there like, oh, this is where I live, this is the space that I've been called to, right, and it's a beautiful thing. But even more than that, when you even get higher, things begin to change.
Speaker 2:Now, none of us in the room have done this, but back in the 60s, when the first astronauts were going to space, something unique was happening. We have some of the first photos of the Earth from outer space taken back in the 60s, and before that there was never a photo. Nobody quite knew what the Earth looked like from afar. And so, on the first mission to the moon, astronauts were caught off guard by something they weren't expecting. When they got far enough from Earth, they looked back to the entire planet, hovering and on a black canvas, right, perfectly round, suspended in darkness.
Speaker 2:And when they returned back, as they were doing these exit interviews and debriefing, this new view of Earth actually very deeply affected them. It affected them emotionally, mentally, spiritually. They left the planet and looked back and somehow this elevated perspective actually changed the way they viewed their entire lives and existence, all of humanity. Because from that view everything looked very fragile. You realize, oh, we live on a blue dot hovering in space and that does something to you. And when they looked back they realized nothing is as separate as we thought. They didn't see dividing lines between nations, they weren't as connected to the wars or the political parties or the disputes. Everything seemed connected, unified. Everything seemed really small too. And so, upon returning the astronauts, it actually changed the way that they were living and it was called the Earth Overview effect.
Speaker 2:Upon returning, these astronauts were reported to have more kindness, patience, less anxiety and depression, Because they went up high enough to say, oh, oh, we all live there. That's where all this is, the Earth that God loves so much. They didn't probably say it like that, but, for the sake of today, yes, there's something that happens when we go up, and so, according to Paul, there's something that we change when we change the way we think. It actually affects us deeply, it affects our perspective and it affects our behavior and our action, and this is the key to not losing heart. It's not looking at what is seen, but what is unseen. So an earthly perspective.
Speaker 2:I'm going to talk just for a minute about the difference between an earthly perspective and an eternal perspective. An earthly perspective has limited vision. An eternal perspective gives us broad vision. An earthly perspective? An earthly perspective we walk by sight. It's based on what we can see with our eyes. And an internal perspective we walk by faith.
Speaker 2:An eternal perspective or, I'm sorry, an earthly perspective we listen to the world. We're just paying attention to what our people are saying. From an eternal perspective, we listen to God. And what does God say? From an earthly perspective, we choose a comfortable lifestyle. That is the aim, but from an eternal perspective, we choose a courageous lifestyle. We live into what God calls us to, even if that means less comfort and convenience. From an earthly perspective, we live for self-preservation, but from an eternal perspective, we live for self-sacrifice based on what has been shown to us in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2:From an earthly perspective, we are driven by fear, but from an eternal perspective, we are motivated by love. That's one of the most fundamental differences between an eternal perspective and an earthly perspective is our motivation and our operating system. Really, this is the operating system of the kingdom of life. Are you driven by fear or are you motivated by love? Are you driven by fear or are you motivated by love? I think this question for this year, in 2024, this is a fundamental question. Are you, is your life ordered around fear, or propelled or compelled by the power of God's love?
Speaker 2:See 1 John. 1 John, chapter 4, the apostle John. He elaborates on this further and he also contrasts the difference between fear and love. Here's what it says. We're going to start in verse 15. Here, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, god abides in him and he and God. So we have come to know and to believe that the love to believe, the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected in us or with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because, as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loves us.
Speaker 2:So, according to John, what's happening as we're living into the love of God, as we're living with the confession of our mouth as Jesus is Lord, what's actually happening as you're following Jesus is he's perfecting love in your life, that God is committed to the perfection and the completion and the maturity of love in your life and in my life. You know that's what he's doing with you. That is what he's committed. If you're wondering, what is God up to today, he is perfecting love in your life. He is sending people to you in order to perfect love in your life. He's sending annoying people to you, frustrating people to you. He's sending you into inconvenient, uncomfortable situations. Why? Because he wants to perfect love in your life, because perfect love has no room for fear.
Speaker 2:God has called us, as sons and daughters, to not walk in an operating system of fear, but an operating system of perfect love. And what does that fear have to do? It has to do with, ultimately, in this passage, it has to do with judgment. What is it going to be like to stand before the judge one day, which we all will. And he's eliminating that because he said God will judge you the same way he is. Judge Jesus. God loves you now, the same way that he loves Jesus as he is, so are you in this world. He's perfecting his love. He's casting out fear. There is no room for fear. We ain't got time for that. We ain't got time for fear because he's perfecting us in his love, and it's really not that complicated.
Speaker 2:According to John, the way that love is perfected is that we confess that Jesus is God's son, we believe in his love, and then that what leads us to the end of the story? We believe in his love, and then that what leads us, that's what leads us to abide in him, if we confess him and actually believe that he loves us. That is the abiding life. That's it, wait. Just confessing the name of Jesus all day, every day, believing that we are living in his love. And what happens is, over time, we are made mature, we're made complete, and fear starts to get evicted from our very souls. And I believe that today, some of you here, you need to know that you came in and you're gripped by fear. I felt it during worship, I felt it this week. For some of us, the operating system is fear. I'm just telling you, god is committed to perfecting you in his love and he's letting fear melt off even today. And he said be free, my son, be free my daughter. I've made you to live in my love.
Speaker 2:So when we contrast these two things though eternal perspective and earthly perspective, fear and love what happens is when we gravitate towards, there is a magnetic pole towards an earthly perspective. This is part of the battle, part of our spiritual warfare is choosing which perspective we live from. And so when we live under the weight of this magnetic pole of this world, what it does is it leads our perspective to go downward and inward, downward and inward. What do I mean by that? When fear is running your life, you turn downward and inward. We focus on what is temporary versus what is eternal. This happens when our attention is hijacked by the deadlines and we're programmed to see everything wrong in the world. You have to understand that the operating system of the media these days is fear-based. Why? Because they know that our earthly, our fleshly being is actually more motivated by fear. Our carnal nature is actually very motivated by fear, which is why all the news is based off of fear, because they know it's the quickest way to get you to respond and to continue to pay attention. So people buy ads. This is how the entire thing works. It's the system of the world and they're making money based on your fear. And so when our attention is hijacked by the deadlines or headlines, we're programmed to see what is wrong in the world.
Speaker 2:When your imagination is linked to your checking account, what is very temporary, you allow yourself to be limited in your generosity or your abundance. When you wake up and the only thing you know about your provision is what you see in your checking account, you think I am a dead man. I do not have what I need to survive. I don't have what I need to overflow and to be generous. Somebody's into the sermon today, I'll take it.
Speaker 2:When our imagination is linked to what's temporary we limit. When your emotions for parents are attached to your child's present behavior rather than their future destiny, then you will invest more in fixing what's wrong than for praying them up into what is right. You guys hear me, when we're more concerned with how they're behaving in the moment versus what God has designed for them, it changes the way we even parent. When we are focused downward, we start to live into a downward place, and when we go downward, we actually go inward, which means that when our thinking is too low, our thoughts and our emotions go inward. We are then given to fear and to worry and to anxiety. Fear leads to self-preservation and survival.
Speaker 2:So when we're afraid of what's happening in the world, when we're afraid of what's happening with world powers, when we're afraid of who's going to be in charge, when we're afraid of what's going on with the economy, when we're afraid of what's happening in the schools, when we're driven by fear of what happens as we start to shrink in and the name of the game becomes Look Out for Number One, we begin to be hoarders instead of givers. We begin to conserve instead of serve. We judge instead of love. We hold grudges instead of forgiving, we consume rather than overflowing. This is what that way of thinking leads to. It's a natural progression.
Speaker 2:When we're given to fear, we start to shrink and we start to cling and we start to get small you guys hearing me today but as followers of Jesus, the way that when we come into the family of God, he actually reparents us into the way of His family, this is what God does in the family of God. He trains us to live from a different perspective. We call this the kingdom of perspective. This is the kingdom of God. It's a present reality, the kingdom of God. Jesus is already ruling and reigning in His kingdom and those who are given to His kingdom, who are free to live into this kingdom under His Lordship and His rule, begin to think differently. We're no longer thinking downward and inward, we're thinking upward and outward. This is what happens. We become reprogrammed, we become the operating system from the inside out becomes different. It's a different set of rules and properties.
Speaker 2:Now I'm going to read another passage from Paul. This is what Paul says in Philippians 2. And as he gets at this, he gets at this, this upward lifestyle that goes into an outward lifestyle. It's an upward point of view that roots us into how we are to live, into this world. Catch this, okay. This is so important. You hear nothing else.
Speaker 2:Listen to this passage Philippians 2. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and in one mind. Okay, let's pause there. He starts the thing off. He's like listen, have you been encouraged? Have you received any sympathy? Has God done anything for you? Have you seen anything good in Christ? Has that produced any fruit in your life? Let's just start there. Have you seen anything worth giving your life to? Has God done any great thing for you? That's just kind of the basis, this kind of upward. You feel that upward call right there. Right, if you've experienced the work of the spirit in your life, if you've been encouraged in heart, then what? Here's what he gets into.
Speaker 2:Verse three Do nothing from selfless ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourself. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also the interests of others. Have this mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus, which is whose Whose is this? Yours, ours, it's in Christ Jesus, it's yours in Christ Jesus, to be grasped. Yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant Everybody say servant being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient, to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of the Father. So when you follow this passage through, you follow it through.
Speaker 2:It starts with what have we received? Have you experienced Christ? And if so, what that ought to do. When we live from a higher perspective, a Godward perspective, what that does is it results itself first of all in unity and love, agreement, a spirit of humility, a spirit of deference. We move from self-interest to self-sacrifice. Why? Because we have been given Christ's mindset, not an earthly mindset. We've been given Christ's mindset. It's now the genetic of those who are born into the kingdom of God. So if you have confessed Jesus as a Lord, you've received him as a Lord of your life. Your spiritual genetic is completely changed. It's no longer the way of the world, it's no longer the way of sin, it's no longer the way of flesh. We have left those things behind and we have a new genetic. And, yes, from time to time we are in the flesh.
Speaker 2:Most of us were this morning when the alarm went off right. From time to time we sin, we sin, we do these things and it can get dark. And I'm not saying that we are exempt from sin. I'm saying that our new default in the Lord is to be pulled into an upward calling, because God's nature is now our nature. It's natural for us to think like he does.
Speaker 2:And so how does Jesus think? He didn't use the power given to him for himself. He emptied himself of power, he became a servant of all, he came as a man and he subjected himself to death. He laid down his life for all. And why is that so important today?
Speaker 2:Again, like I said, I just we have to remember when we wake up, when we leave this place, when we wake up tomorrow morning that we are of a different kingdom. We are of a different way of thinking. The way of thinking that we've been given to you is not downward and inward, it's upward and outward. It's upward, believing that God is more than enough. The government is on his shoulders. His kingdom has no end. He will come to establish his rule and his reign and his peace. He will abolish sin for all time. In the right time, in the right place, he will restore everything that's been broken. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He is the one who cares for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. How much more the sons and daughters of God. Hallelujah, so we wake up into that. That's what we wake up into. Woo, it's a good day.
Speaker 2:And the way that affects us, the way the gospel affects us, is that I'm no longer given myself to. I got to wake up today and keep what's mine. Now I'm waking up to say God, who are you sending me to? Who do you want to overflow to? He forgives me so that I can forgive. I don't have to be the kind of person who gets offended easily. I don't have to be the kind of person who gets defensive because God is my defender, because God is the one who fights for me, so I can actually go out and I can have conversations without being reactive or defensive. I can serve and I don't have to calculate how much I'm giving or how much time I'm spending. I can serve because? Why? Because Jesus has served me. He bent down and washed my feet, so now I can serve others. This is the fundamental shift that Jesus came to show us. When you live upward and outward, you become a servant in your core and he served us by becoming a man and subjecting himself to death to take away our sins.
Speaker 2:I was talking to Pastor Tyler Burns in Pensacola, florida, a couple of weeks ago an amazing young black pastor, and he was talking about some of their justice work in Florida and people were asking him why do we do justice stuff? Why do we do stuff out on the streets? He said because? He said I like this. I don't want to butcher this, I'm just going to read this. I don't know where it is, so I'm going to just butcher it. He said justice is making somebody else's problem my problem. It's making somebody else's my problem, their problem, my problem. He said why do we do that? Because God made our problem his problem. God made our problem. So the thing is we turn outward and we wake up in the day and say, how can I take on somebody else's problem as my problem? Why do we do that? Because God has made our problem his problem. It changes the way that we think. Now a couple of practical things.
Speaker 2:Today, all of that was a little bit of a setup for two things that just feel really important this season. This came out of prayer. We, just as we're thinking about this year, praying into this year. We just believe it was a year of both turning our hearts to the Lord and then also turning to the ones around us and reaching out. So I want to talk just for a moment about something we're doing upward focused, even in the sixth month.
Speaker 2:Many of you guys know that prayer as a community, as a look at community. God has called us to be a house of prayer, and what that means is to be the house. Not just the physical building yes, the physical building but us as the house of God, the temple of God, that we're to be a house of prayer, and what that means is to be the kind of people who live in an ongoing communion with God. We're not talking about stale, boring conversations with God. We're talking about loving friendship with the Holy Spirit, and this has manifested itself in different ways over the years. Some of you guys know this.
Speaker 2:Last year, we relaunched our prayer room on the third floor. Some of you guys have been up there not enough of you have been up there but it's actually a place designed with about 30 stations, interactive prayer stations, all designed to help you connect with Jesus in the Scriptures and lead you in prayer. You guys, some of you didn't need to go up there after the service day. Go up there and spend 20 minutes. You think what am I going to do for 20 minutes? I'm just telling you, sit at a station, do exactly what it says and you will find yourself praying and communing with God. This last year, we had about at least 436 visits, representing well over 375 hours of prayer just up in that prayer room.
Speaker 2:Now, that might not mean a ton to you. Obviously, we're all praying in our homes, but there's something about a set-aside place that is designed to catalyze prayer that is special to God. It's important for us that we have a place, and so some of you guys need to know that prayer room is still open. It's open for hours during the week. If you go to the website you can look at open hours and see when it's going to be. But we want to encourage you to make use of that space, and so what that did for us this last year is it increased a lot of individual prayer. Many of you individuals came up there during the week or during a lunch hour or before church or after church. Different times, people from the community came in and used that space and were blown away, and it's awesome. We're going to continue to leave that prayer room open.
Speaker 2:But this year, on top of individual prayer spaces, we just believe that God wants to heighten our expression of communal prayer. What are we doing together to pursue the Lord together, to create a Godward focus together? And so at the end of this month, march 29th and 30th, we're actually hosting a 24-hour period of unbroken prayer and worship back in our theater on the other side of the building. A 24-hour period of unbroken prayer and worship. Now, why would we do that? Why is that important? And so one, as I already said, it's communal rather than individual. We have to be reminded that who we are as a church is not just about your personal, private relationship with God. It's about who we're becoming as a people, becoming a people that are a house of prayer, and it's a chance for us to agree with one another in prayer. It's communal, but it's also extended, more than momentary For much of us.
Speaker 2:Our lives with Jesus are very episodic. I have 90 minutes here. I have five minutes in the morning. Here I have 15 minutes. We have chunks that we give to God of Godward focus, and there's something about a place and a time set aside to be extended that allows that kind of permeation, that soaking, if you want to use that word I don't like that word, I never liked that word but just to be in a concentrated time where it's unrushed. It's an unrushed time with God. Most of our lives are rushed. This is an unrushed time with God. So it's communal, extended and, like I said, it's eternal. There's something about unbroken prayer and worship that actually roots us in our future, because the reality is in heaven. The throne of God is surrounded by 24-7 prayer and worship and right now, 24-7 prayer and worship. God has created angels and beings and we read this in the book of Revelation, that before His throne, right now, they're just crying out this guttural cry holy, holy, holy is the Lord, god Almighty. And they are captivated in the beholding of God. And so when we give ourselves to these times and these moments, what it does is it actually roots us in a more eternal story. And so this is going to be a little different time, because we're going to have nonstop worship the entire time. We're going to have our artists out there doing creative expression During this whole 24-hour period. There's going to be moments of worship, and then we're going to have prayer leaders take us into prayer points, both for the church, for the community, for the nations, and we're going to have a specific set of prayer points. And so here's what I'm asking you to do, to consider, here's what we're asking everybody in the Lookout community Over the course of that weekend, march 29th and 30th we're at 24, it's going to be noon to noon.
Speaker 2:It's starting on Good Friday, noon to noon. Set aside a two-hour block of time, a two-hour block of time to come and to be before the Lord and to worship. I mean, you're thinking like what am I going to do for two hours? I'm just saying just do it. Come and pray, come and be with others. Some people are going to be here that Friday night at 7 o'clock. It's going to be more of a Good Friday focus and probably more people on that Friday night.
Speaker 2:Like Gary said earlier, it's going to be an action-packed weekend because we have a couple of days like a little overlap. This room is going to be full for this musical, this play, pilgrim's Progress, which is going to be awesome, by the way. For that Thursday and Friday this room will be full. You guys should come to that too, if you're able to come on Thursday night. But Friday noon to Saturday noon you can come for two hours, come for 12 hours, come for 24 hours. That's what we want to do and allow the space to pull you into a God-word focus. So what you can do. You don't have to sign up, but we are encouraging some people to sign up. We want to make sure all 24 hours are filled with a handful of people that are committed to be here. Some of you are nightbirds. You can come in the middle of the night. Some of you are early in the morning people. You can come in the early morning. I'm going to be here as much as possible during that time, but it's going to be a fantastic time because we're orienting ourselves towards the Lord. So you guys got that, got it Okay.
Speaker 2:So an upward focus, but also we believe that this year that God has led us to give more intentionality to our outward focus as well. And I want to talk to you about one expression that's new for us that we want to invite you into. We're calling it serve day. Now, pastor Alan Scott said this. He said gathered environments can grow the church, but only scattered servants can bring life to our broken cities. Gathered environments can grow the church, but only scattered servants can bring life to their broken cities. And listen, we as a people. I just believe God is very serious about this with us. Yes, we're giving ourselves to prayer, but as we come up higher, we look further and we look beyond ourselves what God does in us, he wants to do through us, and when we come with the Godward focus, we actually move out with an outward focus. There's a lot of ways this is developing and growing. Right now. I want to talk to you about something we're calling serve day.
Speaker 2:We're setting aside Sunday, april 28th to, as a community, engage our neighbors and when I say neighbors, I'm not just talking about all of our neighbors everywhere you should be doing that as well but our neighbors here on Gun barrel. We're actually surrounded by neighborhoods on every side. Basically, the south of us is a neighborhood called Heatherwood, okay, and in Heatherwood it's a neighborhood of 689 homes, representing roughly 1869 people. That was impressive, wasn't it? I haven't met all of them, I didn't count personally, but that's an estimation. And the driving question is this we meet people all the time. That said man, I've driven by your church for years and never quite knew, you know what was going on inside of there. We meet people. Some of you are here because you were driving on the road and God felt, you felt a tug to come in here.
Speaker 2:We've heard that story. I've heard that story the last couple of weeks, but how disappointing would it would be if our actual neighbors never knew that we were here and never knew that we were actually for them. We believe that the church, the local church, should be the kind of community that the, or it should be the kind of church that the surrounding community if we were just to cease to exist, that the surrounding community would actually be disappointed. Sometimes I wonder about that. Would our actual neighbors in Gunborough, nyawat be disappointed if we weren't here? Sometimes I wonder about that and that's why I think this is such a huge opportunity.
Speaker 2:We feel like God is highlighting us to say listen, I want you to take this seriously. So what we're gonna do on Sunday, april 28th we're actually working right now to make some connections in the Heatherwood neighborhood. We're inviting some of the neighbors to nominate single mothers to elderly people, people that need resource in the community that we can go in and do some light yard work, some service projects. We've already been in contact with Heatherwood Elementary School. They need some help on the outside, just kind of fixing up some of their landscape and nothing too crazy, just kind of the kind of stuff that you probably do in your home. Anyways, we're asking you to take an extra day this spring and we're gonna take our energy and move it to our actual neighborhood to send a big message that we see you and that we love you and your problem is now our problem, because God has made our problem his problem and we are here because we want you to know that God sees you and God loves you and, whatever you need, we wanna partner with you in your life. Okay, you guys here catching the vision for that. So we're actually here's how it's gonna go down that Sunday morning we're going to all meet here for the 15 minute service and what we're gonna do is we're gonna sing acapella, we're gonna lift up a shout before God and then we're gonna pack up in our cars and we're gonna go over there and we're gonna have. The idea is that we're going to have homes and locations where we're gonna be assigned to do some work.
Speaker 2:Now, some of you are saying I don't do yard work kind of stuff. I just can't physically do that. That's fine. There'll be other opportunities. Some of you will be called to prayer, walk the neighborhood. Some of you will be there just to get in conversations with people and pray for people in the streets, and we might even post up at a park there and do some games and that kind of stuff. Possibilities are endless. Here's what I want you to know right now. First of all, know it's coming and this is something you wanna be a part of. Second of all, we do not have all of this figured out. We haven't done this expression before. So here's where we're asking for your help, as I'm sharing about this kind of vision to be good neighbors to our actual neighbors. Some of you are like I'd love to be a part of making that happen. I'd love to be a part of organizing that, administrating that, maybe even leading a team. I want you to email me personally, luke at thelookoutchurch. Email me personally and say I want to be a part of helping this go really well and serving our neighbors really well.
Speaker 2:We believe again, guys. We believe that there is life when we go upward and we go outward. It's where the power of God is released is when we look further beyond ourselves into what he's doing in our neighborhoods and our cities. Amen, amen. Is that exciting to anybody here? Yes, ha ha ha. People need to know that God loves them, and those people aren't often the people who are going to show up here to hear about that. The power of the church is we don't wait for people to show, but when we go ourselves. This is the gospel that God sent his only son to us. He didn't expect us to come to him, he came to us and this is what we believe God wants to do.
Speaker 2:I believe that God wants to establish this as servants, a scattered servants in the community, a servants in the house. We have needs in the house With our lookout kids. I just want to encourage you guys. We've talked a little bit before in our kids ministry. As it's grown, we have more and more kids that are showing up, and it's awesome. We love our kids. We also need those who are willing to just go and post up and say I am here to sew in and invest into your life. I'm here to do check in, I'm here to be a teacher or even just an assistant.
Speaker 2:We have an amazing team down there. They're so amazing that they end up serving almost every week, and some of these guys serve multiple weeks a month, and they are not complaining about it either, because it's a joy of their heart, and I'm just so grateful for our teachers and those who are here every week. We also want them to be able to participate in the life of the body. So here's what I'm saying For in-house servant hood. I'm just telling you guys some of you we need to add our team to another five or six people who are willing to do like once a month, once every six weeks and to be a part of what God is doing among our kids. Because, why? Because it's a joy to serve our kids. It is a joy to serve your kids and to our kids, and you're not actually missing out on anything, because God promises His presence among the children. All right, okay, all right, let's do this. Let's do this. Everybody. Stand up. I feel like you guys are getting sleepy now. On me, let's stand up. So drop a lot of seeds your way upward and outward.
Speaker 2:Eternal perspective, not a limited perspective, being perfected in the love of God, letting fear be cast out. About a year ago is when we changed the name of this church, and we believe it was something God led us to do, because he wanted us to be reminded that when we actually came up to this hill, it was almost like, as David, as the Psalmist, would write about ascending the hill of the Lord, that we come up to this hill. There's a thing of we are coming for an appointment with the God of the heavens and the earth. That every time we come up here, we're coming up to meet with God, but not just to meet with God, but to expand our vision. Just like you would climb a mountain, just like you're looking out these walls or these walls or these windows that when we would come up here, we'd be drawn closer to God. But we'd be drawn closer, we'd be extend our vision outward.
Speaker 2:I just wanna bless us today, as we leave this place, that God is sending us as ones who are upward and outward. He's sending us out as scattered servants of God. He's changed the way we think. He's changed the way we behave. It's our joy to move out in love. So, across the room, just put your hands out in front of you. I'm gonna pray for you. I wanna bless us as a people.
Speaker 2:So, jesus, as we end this time here today, I thank you, I thank you for your church, I thank you for your body and I bless my friends. I thank you, lord, god, that you're changing the way we think, you're taking us to a higher perspective, a higher elevation, that the concerns and the worries and the anxieties of this world will no longer have a hold, but we are being perfected in your love, which means that, across the room, you're freeing us up, you're letting your gospel power do its work, lord, god, to let us rise into the calling that you have placed before us. I thank you, god, that in this next couple months, god, as we set aside time for you and time for our neighbors. Lord God, that you are going to release, I believe, a new measure of your power and your glory, as we're faithful with what you've called us to, we're faithful with what you've put in front of us. Lord Jesus, I bless my friends to leave with the mind of Christ on mission and the power of the Holy Spirit to be everything that you've made them to be, and it's only in Jesus' name we pray together.
Speaker 2:Everybody said amen, come on, somebody, give it up for Jesus today and listen as we leave. Today. If you're new or here and you want to connect, you're gonna see a connect with this sign. Don't rush out. We'd love to meet you. We have a gift for you. We're gonna have our ministry team up forward. Anybody you see with the purple badge Listen. If you wanna talk about what a relationship with Jesus looks like, if you wanna talk about giving your heart to the Lord, if you want prayer over fear, if you want prayer over any discouraging thing happening in your life or a physical condition or healing that you need in your body, come forward and get prayer. Meanwhile, everybody go in the peace and the strength of the kingdom. I bless your nap this Sunday afternoon. Okay, we've saved daylight, let's go.