Partnering with God

welcome welcome back welcome to woodland hills and thanks for tuning in we hope that both your both your heart and mind are inspired today and that you enjoy and that you enjoy our service here in minnesota and around the world [Music] good morning welcome to woodland hills i am so i so got caught off guard there uh welcome we are so glad that you are here with us we're so glad that all of you in the room are with us and let's all unite and come together and do the one thing that we can do right now together and that is worship so if you can would you please rise to your feet and let's get into some worship [Music] be thou [Music] say that thou art [Music] my presence [Music] is [Music] in my heart [Music] wow [Music] may [Music] i [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] god be our vision be thou my vision put your vision for us in our hearts for our lives you are a good father thank you for being a good father god we understand that there are some that think of the term father and don't always have a pleasant vision or picture in their minds god you fill the voids in our lives you are our father our mother our sister our brother our friend and we're so grateful for your constant companionship you are you are so loving and you pursue us and you're faithful to us and you do not let us go you are incapable of letting us go and we thank you for that god let's lift our voices and let the king of my heart be the mountain where i run you guys declare the fountain i drink from oh he is my song let the king of my heart be the shout of where i hide the ransom for my life oh he is [Music] you are good you're good you are good yes you're good [Music] let the king of my heart be the wind inside my sails the anchor in the waves [Music] [Applause] let the king of my heart be the fire inside my veins the echo of my days oh he [Music] [Music] in the is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] you're good [Applause] you're never gonna let me down gotta sing it to claire you're never gonna let when never gonna let me down you're never gonna let you're never gonna let [Music] you're never gonna let me down again [Music] you're good [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're never gonna let me [Applause] he's never going to let us down we need you to continue the praise party we're going to clap our hands we're going to sing we could really use your help all the way to the back the rocks aren't going to cry out in our place today we're going to do it we're gonna say we're gonna sing praises to our king you make a wave here we go [Music] god [Music] jesus you are here come on everybody [Music] we will not [Music] [Applause] [Music] in jesus name [Music] [Music] covering our shape [Music] jesus you are here [Music] [Applause] [Music] in jesus name i will live i will not die i will declare and lift you hearts christ and i am here in jesus name before the lord are you ready here we go [Applause] [Music] that cannot be shaken in the name of jesus [Music] god is fighting for us pushing back the darkness [Music] [Music] god is [Music] is [Music] [Music] alive [Music] [Music] i am [Music] that cannot be shaken in the name of jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] amen amen amen lord over every problem every dark place that anyone in that's hearing this is facing we come against satan and we say you must leave you must take your hands off of your children and father in the name of jesus come fill us with your spirit bring your healing bring your restoration to our to our situations to our bodies to our relationships lord thank you father for your love amen amen you may be seated thank you worship team i have just a couple of quick announcements i want to share with you and one of them is that today in our children's ministry they are plum full and so we have a real need here and it's and it's for you all to to consider some sacrifice so here's one of the dynamics that has happened when we went to 10 o'clock service people who used to be able to serve um had to really make a sacrifice and some people have actually stepped away because they want to be here and they aren't serving there so it's what i'm asking for is a true sacrifice not going to kid you about that but would you be willing to take a a weekend and give up your live service to minister to the kids that that are in children's in a hero's gate the children's ministry because as i look into my very christian crystal ball and i anticipate september it clove it's only going to get worse right schools are going to throw these parents into whiplash and and it's going to be just like last year i think maybe not as bad but schools are going to be throwing parents back and forth and if there's any place that i would love for parents to get a little time to be refreshed it's here on a sunday morning so would you be willing to to sacrifice for those parents if you were thinking last year all those poor parents i hope you'll think about that again and consider volunteering there we really do need that help and you know what maybe you live an hour away maybe once a month you'd be willing to say you know what i'm willing to make the trip in and and minister to the body at woodland and and help out in that way so if you are at all able and willing or even considering it please check out slash bulletin and there's more information there and i tell you what even if you've got a question about the possibility send that to info whchurch.org just email them reach out and and we'll get that answered for you i'm telling you teenagers are are doing this ministry so teens on up we would love to have you get engaged in that ministry as well so we really appreciate your help with that um hey we gotta circle the date for you we are gonna have a picnic out on that beautiful front lawn of ours september 12th and so circle that day come after the service join us for lunch and hopefully we will have a beautiful sunny day and be able to fellowship together and we will be starting a spiritual friendship uh series and so that'll be a chance for you to maybe meet some folks and start up a conversation so uh one more thing i wanted to bring up and that's these gathering groups you know we talk at the end of the service we always talk about you know join us for gatherings join us for the newscast well what's the gathering group the gathering groups are online so wherever you may be you can be a part of a gathering group and it's simply sermon discussion it's getting to know a few people it's not a deep theological uh you know dissertation anything like that it's it's it's folks like you and me having discussion about the sermon let me admit something to you i'm the kind of person who i can go to a movie laugh my head off at the movie walk out to my car and go i can't remember any of the funny stuff in that movie that i just watched but i know it was really funny and greg i'm sorry but it happens here too you say amazing things and then i go to lunch and i've kind of forgotten some of it gathering groups is a fantastic way to revisit the material to learn from other people so i highly highly encourage you you know we're getting some really good uh stuff on sunday mornings this is a chance for you to really engage with it and get some perspectives from other people maybe other folks around the world as well so hop on zoom and join us for that uh tuesday nights and then uh we do it on wednesday mornings so those of you in england could actually do it at a reasonable hour on a wednesday morning which is like six o'clock for you so with that uh this is a time where we want to take up our offering so i want to invite you to get on the the uh website whchurch.org give you can go to the um the app on the phone and for those of you here on site we've got the boxes in the back so we're so grateful for your commitment to this ministry financially and why don't we take a second and just pray for that offering and pray for the for the ministry of the church so jesus we thank you so much for the work that you're doing in this church the ministry that's happening here the community that's being touched and now around the world and so jesus we pray that you would take this offering and that you would multiply it that you would meet every need that we have here financially and that you would help us to be freed up and open to just moving further into what you have for this body and that finances would not be a hindrance to that and and so jesus we thank you thank you for the gifts that these people sacrificially give to help sustain the work that you're doing here bless them and and bless this ministry father in jesus name we pray amen amen as christians we know that jesus is good news and we want to share his love with others in the past we'd simply invite a friend to church and let the sermon do the work however times are changing and we're learning that church invitations might not be enough anymore today jesus is using his people to invite others into their homes and ultimately their lives and by others we mean seekers saints and sinners all of the people who make up the body of christ [Music] good morning good morning padressters i thought of a new word this morning and it's inevitable it's going to be become official at some point and i just wanted to this is the first time that it started here but we have pod listeners instead of parishioners okay people are podcasts so what do you call a congregation that that podcast would be a progregation because we're not congregating right coming together we're we're coming together but on podcast so pod pod now i got congregation congregation there you go everyone say it congregation so hello congregation and hello congregation hallelujah i'll tell you okay i just want i want credit when that comes out so now we know that rob um he's admitted that he forgets everything i talk about uh when i'm preaching here and he uses a crystal ball how he what kind of pastor is this we do not condone the use of crystal balls rob um and i hope you're all enjoying your your uh this coming to the end of summer it's uh try not to think about what's coming in the future just put that on your mind january and try to enjoy these last days of summer um i don't know if any of you have full allergies but uh if you do that you know that last couple days at least for me it's kind of hindering a little bit the enjoyment of the last days of summer you know i i i don't know i'd be interested in finding this out but but i i had cloven uh you know last last year and i keep on discovering new things about me and it seemed to be the results of that and one of them seems to be an intensified reaction to allergies because i always have a little bit of allergies in the fall but um this last week man it's been coming on me and the main symptom is that my my eyes get all puffy and scratchy can you tell they're all puffy and scratchy and you can't tell them scratchy but they're puffy i i okay i i i i i i feel like my eyes look like joe biden's eyes you know he's he's always squinting he's a good looking guy okay he's good looking out uh they they fit him well but but yeah it always seems like he's squinting to read that you know the the teleprompter there but he's like that even when he's not on the teleprompter he just he has he's kind of like that's how i feel so there you need to know that didn't you um the other thing and this is the kind what i want to warn you is that that sometimes go have these sneeze attacks and when you have those things to text for textbook this last week one point i and they're always worse in the morning but i started sneezing and and it went on for about a minute and you can't control it there's nothing you can do about it you've got to sneeze it out and i thought to myself what has that ever happened in the middle of a sermon so if that happens you know just sort of go and check your phones a little bit just let me go for it for a minute and i it'll get out of there but uh they prayed for me before the the service and i'm claiming that i'm applying to myself so hallelujah i'm in the protection zone glory so we're in this series uh center seekers and saints and um we're just kind of looking at the new reality of where the church is at and the new you know this is the dynamics things have changed and we're looking at this as is how can god use this to the for a kingdom advantage and one thing that that that has happened is the the attractional church has been not it kind of brought down a couple of notches it's just not as attractional as it used to be but that presents an opportunity if we will step into this for the church maybe to be empowered the church which is all of us together congregation and congregation for the church to begin to step into our calling as ambassadors that we are the church we are the body of christ now this is the time for for looking at how we can bring the kingdom to every social network that we're in so last week we looked at the family and it was such a joy and a whole lot of fun to have bill doherty here uh we had a blast probably had a little too much fun actually but i i we talked about the importance of rituals in families uh if you didn't hear that message i encourage you to to check it out it's it's a it's an important one um and we'll be saying more about that as we head into the future for today i wanted to look at acts 17 i'm entitling this partnering with god because that's what the church is all about we're called to work join god and what god's doing in this world and i want to read from the book of acts chapter 17 uh verses 6 and 22-28 paul had uh already talked to these guys these athenians they're kind of philosophical types and they're going to have a meeting at the uh ergopogus which was this kind of a stadium thing where they held debates and stuff and so here's what it says while paul was waiting for these guys to show up in athens he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols so then you go down to verse 22 and now paul's just beginning his talk with these these uh gentlemen and he says then paul stood in front of the aeropagus and said athenians i see how extremely religious you are in every way for as i went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship i found among them an altar with the inscription to an unknown god what therefore you worship as unknown this is what i want to proclaim to you and this is positive for a moment i'll pick up the passage uh in a second here but i just want to know something about paul's evangelistic style here paul is a monotheistic jew and to first century monotheistic jews idols were like the number one sin uh jews were offended by a lot of behavior of the gentiles their drunkenness debauchery they had origins they repulsed by all that but no more so than their revulsion towards idolatry so paul and seeing all these idols would have been grossed out but knowing how paul responds to this he um he doesn't assume a position of moral superiority and talk down on them he doesn't go out a tirade against the grotesqueness and the sinfulness of idolatry he doesn't try to guilt these people out or shame them in any way in fact to the contrary paul compliments him he compliments them he says as i looked around it at your objects of worship now what paul's thinking is your grotesque i do your those grotesque idols but what he says is your objects of worship because that's what they are to these people and and then he says i see that you're extremely religious in every way so paul takes his own convictions about idolatry his own revulsion about idolatry and he sets it aside and having done that now he he can see and he affirms the motive behind it you guys are trying you're religious in every way you're doing all you can to reach out to god he compliments them and then he he finds a point of agreement there's a lot of things he could disagree with here all those items he could have railed against any one of them but instead he finds the one that presents an opening for discussion and it says so you this idol to the unknown god um now the athenians who had that they're probably just covering their butts it's like okay we we don't know all the gods that are out there so we better have to the unknown god in case we're missing one because we don't want to take off any of the gods but paul sees it as a confession of humility obviously acknowledge that there's something you don't know you you acknowledge that there's an unknown-ness out there well that unknown god i i'd like to talk to you about that one he finds an opening to say instead of coming against all the negative he finds something positive that he can affirm and he can build on so here's the situation folks i i'm here a teacher talking to ambassadors around the globe we are all if you're a jesus follower called to be an ambassador of christ which means we're called to represent the character of our king and we're called to live in a way where we can invite people to meet our king and enter into relation with our king uh it's what we're all called to do and so here's lesson number one ambassadors uh when you're dialoguing with non-believers i implore you to put all your personal stuff your personal convictions the feelings that you have the opinions that you have the judgments that you have and put them all aside like paul did instead of going against whatever you disagree with or whatever upsets you or you don't like it instead of going after that set that aside and be looking for where god is at work where there's something positive whether there's an opening there something you can affirm something you can agree with because the truth is you got no business judging people anyways right we're supposed to be doing this with everybody we've got no business judging anybody looking down on anyone assuming moral superiority over anybody and who gives a rip about what your opinions are about anything anyways the only thing that matters is when we're talking with people is that that that we are agreeing with god that they were with jesus dying for which means we're agreeing with god that they have unsurpassable words which means we're agreeing with god that we're going to love these people and do everything we can to bless them and enter the relationship with them and that's exactly what will not happen if the first thing out of the gate is you're disagreeing with them no you got to build a bridge and get into in the inside of the world and see what god is already doing uh he said i just if that's lesson number one i won't charge you any extra for that but remember it rob remember that one all right all right let's go back to the passage so here's what paul says the god who made the world and everything in it he was the lord of heaven and earth he doesn't live in shrines made by human hands nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything and paul's referring there to being served in the shrines he doesn't need your sacrifices and all those other things that you do in the shrines he doesn't need that since he himself gives to all mortal life and breath and all things from one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live so that listen to this so that they would search for god and perhaps grope for him and possibly find him though indeed he's not far from any one of us for in him paul says we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we too are his offspring powerful passage so what paul's saying here's this from the very beginning god has been working in the nations the rising and the following of of kingdoms uh as kings go to war with one another and all that god's been putting parameters around that and he's he's providentially orchestrating things and whatever motives the kings might have for trying to table another nation and all that whatever's going on there god's motive in his providential working with all the nations of the world his motive is to get people to hunger for him to search for him to yearn for him to grow for him and possibly even find him though that would look different probably from culture to culture to culture and it would depend on insofar as the culture and and the other circumstances around it make it possible but that's what god's always up to in this world and then to prove his point he quotes two pagan philosophers when paul says in him we live and move and have our being and and and we too are his offspring he's quoting pagan poets and taking philosophers there um and and so what he's doing there is he's illustrating his point uh that that god is at work everywhere in every human heart even in these pagan philosophers and so so it's he's affirming this truth that that shows up here that guys that work at all times in all places to bring people into a as much as possible a relationship with him now but if you study pagan philosophy and you study world religions and all that you'll find a whole lot to disagree with a whole lot that's wrong and what's that erroneous and even stuff that's sinful but you'll also usually find if you're looking for some truth uh truths that that line up with with who god is as you as is revealed in jesus christ and what god wants in our life and uh he's always at work and doing that so so he he quotes these these philosophers saying kind of illustrating like guys are working on places even in your own you're your own philosophers and it's interesting that paul when speaking to the pagans he doesn't quote his own bible you know he quotes the bible when he's talking to jews because jews acknowledge the authority of the bible but when he's talking to pagans he doesn't quote his bible because they don't what does that mean to them that's not their authority instead he quotes their authorities people they look up to some who they regard these folks as divinely inspired like homer and he appeals to them he finds truth in their sources of authority because that's what has meaning to these folks that will impact them quoting your own source of authority you see but by affirming that you're you're showing respect not only for them but your respect for their authorities you're honoring that and that's the bridge you're building to them but if you come out of the gate quoting your own authority what does that mean to them who cares with what your bible says unless you already respect the bible it's like um several years ago i went to the winter carnival and and they had this downhill this ridiculous sport where you skate as fast as possible downhill it goes from the the cathedral down i just had to see what this looks like and what it looks like is very dangerous uh but uh there's a guy there on one of the corners and god bless him i know he means well he's doing the best he can do he believes this is right but he's just quoting the bible and he's holding up some you know john 3 16 stuff like that and he's going the bible mainly about how sinful everybody is and and you've got to repent now and i've observed him for a little while and and there's one girl who stopped and listened to him for a little bit kind of nodded and then walked away but everyone else just ignored the guy and some were kind of embarrassed frankly now god bless the guy but so far as i can see nothing of kingdom value comes from that in fact so far as i can see that kind of way of going about things at least maybe there was a time where that worked because there's enough agreement with a broader culture where you could people are interested in that but that time has passed and so far as i can see this is just giving people one more reason why they shouldn't pay any attention to the bible or the christians no see according your own authority just doesn't it the bible says no fight when we when in dialogue with a non-believer uh be asking the question how does god show up in their life what what are the things they look up to and that minister them it's okay to give your testimony about how god shows up in your life but you can't quote your authority or think that that's how god's gonna show up in their life i ask the question what music ministers of them uh what what books what what movies what with performances what art uh really ministers of them whether they identify that as god or not you know who god is you know what god is like so be looking for him and whatever's ministering life and and wholeness and goodness and improving their life that's something to build on that's a god thing either that or it's pure deception but uh uh unless you have reason to think otherwise that's a god thing and and that's what you want to be appealed to start a discussion about that song or that movie or or whatever source that they look up to affirmative you can affirm that so remember god's always at work everywhere getting the people to hunger for him you can assume that with every person you talk to now people can suppress that for sure but you know that guy's at work pulling people in that direction and um and our job is to join what god is doing he's at work everywhere i think a lot of christians think that because we know who god is in jesus christ because we've got a divinely inspired bible that is designed to post into a relationship with jesus christ they think that because of that we have a corner on the truth we have the whole truth and nothing but the truth and so then you assume the superior position that you're always the teacher and they're all supposed to be the student but you know what folks think of jesus follower does not mean you have a corner on the truth because you don't have a corner on god and god is working everywhere pulling people in the direction of truth and that's why you can find truth all over the place when jesus christ is your standard of what truth is about who god is and who we are you can see god showing up all over the place now see here's the thing our bible doesn't tell us a story about how god is at work in all the nations of the world it tells us a very it's a it's a mustard seed story because god always works as a mustard seed starting very small and so he starts with abraham it's the story about all the descendants of abraham and how god used them and and and tried to get them to be ministers and servants of the whole world and how he laid the groundwork for the coming of the messiah and it's a story about how when the messiah comes he inaugurates this radical beautiful upside down kingdom it's a beautiful story it's the most important story that's being told on the planet but it's not the only story in fact there's millions of stories that could be told about god working in millions of different ways maybe even trillions uh as as working through the times and the seasons and boundaries and the rising and the followings of all the different nations getting people to hunger and growth for him so the bible just remember this it doesn't give us an exhaustive account of what god's doing in the world it gives us account of this one storyline that is a saving storyline but remember it's only one storyline once in a while though you get little little uh reminders that god is the lord of the whole earth and he loves every person on the planet he's working every human heart you get little reminders acts 17 being one of them another one is amos 9 look at this passage it's just remarkable here's what the lord says to his people israel he says are you not like the ethiopians to me o people of israel says the lord did i not bring israel up from the land of egypt yes and the philistines from cathedral and the arameans from kur think about this we're saying there's israelites they got all haughty and they're morally superior and they started judging the people that they're supposed to be serving serving and so god says do you think that that i think of the ethiopians any differently than i think about you i i no you're human i love you equally you're they're just i called israel first for a unique mission but my love for for for people is the same everywhere and then he says yes and i i delivered you from egypt and you celebrate that that's like the foundational act of israel being liberated from egypt but don't because i also delivered the philistines from kaftar and the arameans from kerr now you don't read about that in the bible you read about being free from egypt in the bible but you don't read about what happened with the philistines and that's not part that because it's not part of that one storyline except for that one verse here we get a little hint that god's working there but god was working and unlike the jews the philistines i'm sure didn't know that yahweh was liberating them from the oppression of of kaftar the armenians didn't know that they're being liberated from the oppression of kur but god was involved in that and some people want to hear that but here's what's really interesting about this is that throughout the old testament the philistines and the arameans are israel's arch enemies so what it tells us is that and you may not want to hear this i hope you do but we got to know that whoever you would identify as your worst enemy it will do you're so good to remind yourself of this and exercise this phenomenon every now and then that god loves them as much as god loves you regardless of what they do and god is at work in their heart as much as possible just like god that work in your heart as much as possible he's not a parochial god and it and so what this tells us is that wherever when we're looking at history and what's going on in the world wherever you see where wherever you see people being set free from bondage god is present there that's knowing who god is we should be able to identify god on different sides of the kind of polarities and the movements of of world history wherever you see justice confronting injustice god is there wherever you see love beca overcoming hatred god is there god's that's a that's that reflects the character of god so you know god is present pushing in that direction he doesn't coerce anybody he always works by means of influence and people are free to suppress that but we can see where god is at work wherever you see marginalized people being included and being regarded more equally well that's god is that working that that's the kind of thing that god does wherever you see truth replacing error wherever you see people diluting rather than shooting at one another god is there and whenever you see people beginning to move in a christ-like direction or having a conception of god that gets more christ-like well that's the holy spirit luring people in that direction because god's always working to give people hunger for him and search for him grow for him and possibly find him in so far as that is possible given where they're at and our job folks as ambassadors as the body of christ is to observe what god is doing and and discern how god wants us to weigh in on that to partner with god to further that process have your eyes open before god's moving that's why paul calls us god's co-workers several times one of them being uh first corinthians 6. he says as god's co-workers he uses the word sinner gale we urge you to not receive god's grace in vain this word sinner gale um it comes from the combination of the prefix sin s-y-n which means alongside him or or together with a synonymous for example and then the word ergos it's it's a word we we get uh uh energy from i mean it's it's where that means energy we don't get energy from that word it means energy okay sorry about that uh ergos or energy or work and so we sing is that we have an ergos we have we have a time and a certain talents and and say so and and things like that that we bring to the table and our job is to bring our ergos alongside of god's ergos so that god's will will not be done on earth as it is in heaven that's the that's the whole program and see by god's own design now hear this this feels really important by god's own design god needs us to play that role god needs our ergos to come alongside his ergos to see his world done on earth as it is in heaven and the reason is because we are the body of christ and christ is the head but we are the only body that christ has right now we are his hands we are his feet guys that work everywhere but in terms of building his kingdom specifically we're like i said last week the front we are the front lines and god needs us to join him in doing that ask this question how much of your will would be done on earth as it is in your head if your body was a would would cooperate with you think about that the answer is not much uh if your body's not cooperating you're not getting anything done if your body's not cooperating you can't even talk you can't you ever try to walk when your feet have fallen asleep it's embarrassing no you're not if your legs aren't cooperating you're not going anywhere well folks that is god that that that's how god needs us his body to be in line with him to be cooperating with him be partnering with him to get his will done on earth as it is in heaven by god's own sovereign design he doesn't want to do everything no he wants to partner he's always a relational god he empowers us to join him in the task of bringing his kingdom on this earth maybe that strikes you as like whoa that seems like heavy responsibility especially if you're one of those who always was like god does everything and that relieves you of any responsibility question whatever's gonna happen that's god's will you've always thought like this and this can really feel awesome that you have this responsibility and it's true you do have this responsibility but see folks that's what gives our life meaning that's what gives it significance it gives us purpose our lives get to count our lives matter they make a difference things hang in the balance on what we choose to do god has given each of us this ergos i sometimes put it like this we have a say-so we we there are choices we make a difference in this world we have a say in what comes to pass genuinely and and uh our job is to bring our say so under god say so so that now his will is being done on earth as it is in heaven our job is things really hang in the balance there are people thinking there are people who could be impacted for christ who won't be impacted if we don't align our will with his there are people who wouldn't feel loved but who will feel love if we align our will with his if we align our gospel with his uh there are things that will be done that otherwise wouldn't be done but if we fail to bring our ergos alongside of his our energy our time our talent submitted to him then then things won't be done that ought to have been done things genuinely hang in the balance our job is to be looking for where god is at work in every social context we're in and to be seeking the spirit as to how we should join him which leads me to this one last point before i want to introduce you to a friend of mine to partner with with god and what god's doing in this world it means we've got to follow the spirit of god got to walk in step with the holy spirit a big emphasis put on this in the new testament staying in step with the spirit walking in the spirit if we're the body of christ each one of us we we're we're part of the body of christ if that's true and it is and christ is the head then you can think of the holy spirit as the nervous system that connects the head to the body he is one author called him the goal between god uh he christ intercedes between us and the father but the holy spirit is the go-between between us and christ and so listening to the spirit is absolutely imperative uh listen to this passage from paul it's in first corinthians two he says the spirit searches all things even the deep things of god the spirit searches and that's one way that you know the spirit is personal some people think that the spirit is an it not a who but uh it's don't search whose search so the spirit is the who who searches and what he searches is the deep things of god and then paul says this who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them in the same way no one knows the thoughts of god except the spirit of god and then he says who has known the mind of the lord so that he so has to instruct him and the answer is it's rhetorical question no one no one knows that he says but we have the mind of christ so note here no one knows the thoughts of god except the spirit of god so if you want to know the thoughts of god which include the plans of god and what god's up to and what god's plans are for you what is god thinking right now if you want to know that you've got to be tapped into the holy spirit and that's why he says that if we have the holy spirit we have the mind of christ because we have the holy spirit we have access to the mind of christ if we're listening and if we're seeking to stay in step with the spirit so it brings me to this what that means it and i feel this more stronger than i ever had before that you know the job of teachers and pastors and apostles and prophets is to equip the saints for the work of ministry ephesians 4. no who does the ministry the quip the saints for the work of ministry the church for the work of ministry it strikes me now at this juncture in history when so much is up in the air and there's so much unrest those foundations are being shaken we're in a kairos moment here it's a really unique time in history so many things converging right now and it's causing a lot of misery and stress but but but one advantage is that the less we're the less things are predictable the less we can control them and the less we can control them the more the easier it is to depend on the holy spirit which was what we should have been doing all along anyway somebody say amen amen staying in step with the spirit in this season it seems like the most important thing that pastors and apostles can do to equip the saints for the work of ministry is to empower them to hear the spirit and to listen to the spirit and and to contextualize the kingdom on how to bring the kingdom into whatever situation they're in it's very much like they're the early church the first christians you know when the spirit was poured out on the day of pentecost um no one had a manual about how you're supposed to build the church here's the four steps we can do to do this and here's how here's the plan that everyone's going to do so we can all get the kingdom done it was all they were they were shooting from the hip but they were following the spirit so they just start meeting each other's households because the spirit led them to do that and they go out and share the christ in the marketplace or solomon sports because the spirit of god led them to do that and sometimes we read that they planned on going to a certain city but the holy spirit said no i want you to go this way instead so they allowed the spirit to disrupt their plans to inconvenience them that's how the early church was and that folks i think is the kind of situation we're in right now uh we're going to have to flex for some of us it's going to be a brand new muscle the muscle is is knowing how to hear the spirit and listen to spirit and step into what spirit is doing as the spirit reveals to us what god is doing all around us and we get to join so i thought one of the best things to do here is instead of trying to roll out a plan that's going to apply to everybody which we don't have we've got all sorts of things that we can support people with and and educate people with and all that but but in terms of how this is going to apply to you that's something you're going to have to find through talking to the holy spirit and and so i thought one of the best ways for me to do this is to uh look at some illustrations of of what does it look like when people really start to walk in step with the spirit just the kinds of things that get produced uh the spirit is so creative and we find that when people are in step with them sometimes they they they they come upon a church that doesn't look anything like church they are the church but it's a unique fresh way of looking at it so to this end i want to uh introduce you to my friend chris becker i've known christopher for oh it must be 10 years now and she's just a wonderful human being got so much integrity she's so smart she was going to be a marine biologist and then god called her into ministry she's now the senior pastor at table life church which is just outside harrisburg and she's a mission strategist and a trainer for this organization called fresh expressions and what this whole organization is about is is teaching people how to hear the spirit uh and to join what god's doing in their ca and their context and what always results is a fresh expression of what it means to be church and so uh uh i'd like to turn this for the next 15 minutes over to my friend chris uh she's not here live sorry disappoint you but we do have her via video which is the next best thing so take it away chris hey woodland hills greetings from central pennsylvania it's so great to be with you today and a special hello to all our pradrishners who are joining us from everywhere so greg has given me the task of stirring up some holy imagination today especially as we talk about this time in the life of the church and the culture that we find ourselves in and as greg shared this is not to make your church experience easier or less strings attached but it's really an opportunity for us to be on mission this time we find ourselves in is an opportunity to create church as never before it's an opportunity to connect with spiritually curious people our friends our neighbors our community and this is really near and dear to me not just because i do this as part of my calling as a pastor as well as a leader a trainer with fresh expressions us but because i was one of them i i had a church background but i stopped attending because basically it made no difference in my life maybe you've been there before maybe you are there now and i tried a bunch of places but i felt like an outsider that's about 15 years ago and i was working at a marine science lab in university and i remember going to the grocery store one day it was on the holidays time and i ran into the office administrator who was a friend of mine from the lab and somewhere in the paper towel aisle she told me about something that she was starting at lunchtime at the lab at work and she invited me to come and she said if i was interested the things that they do they pray together they'd read something and they talk about it and they'd eat lunch and if you've ever met my friend mary ann you would know and she would say this she's not one of the most outgoing or extroverted people she's quite the opposite so i joined this group this motley crew of all people who are curious about jesus some who have been attending church others not from all walks of life from the professor and the student to the mechanic and that lunchtime group became my church it's what we call a fresh expression of church and i want to point out here that marianne was not a pastor she had never been to seminary or to bible college she was just obedient to what god had put on her heart to start a form of church in a place in a way that was different for for people that otherwise wouldn't join her on a sunday morning and she identified a need and she met people there the cool thing is because she took that risk and she initiated this holy experiment i am where i am today as a pastor as a church planter and as a as a follower of jesus and and that story is not the only case that that here in our work with fresh expressions us we're all by the way we're all like pastors and normal people and doing all kinds of crazy stuff around the united states but we're seeing these fresh expressions of church bubbling up around the the country here in the states and also in the world we're seeing them bubble up from the margins the place where the church of jesus ironically has always been the strongest and so a fresh expression of church is the words that we used to define that's basically a form of church for our changing culture where we're taking the church jesus loves closer to the people that jesus loves but in order to to kind of comprehend this what this could look like what this could mean especially in our our time and place we need to take a holy shift let me just say that i know greg probably is laughing right now but but it's a holy shift from church in here to church out there and we usually think of as a worship service in a building dedicated to that purpose to church out there that might look a lot different so let me litter your brain for just a minute here things like yoga church church in a mexican restaurant one called burritos and bibles a tattoo parlor church a church among neighbors who get together once a week even a church in a dog park do you believe there is a church in a dog park and and they're kind of like liturgical right they do this thing called the passing of the piece where humans shake hands or say hello in a greeting well they do also something for the dogs they do the sniffing of the butts and of course they have to designate the humans do one thing the dogs do the other thing but but these are all forms of church that are led by normal people just like you people who work day jobs stay home with the kids have life and your own stuff to figure out a good friend of mine it has a passion for crossfit he's a kind of gym rat maybe you're one of those who just like enjoys lifting weights and all that well he started a crossfit church at his gym they meet together it's not a worship service as many of us think of instead a workout is a part of their gathering and they also have initiated a part of serving others collecting things for a local shelter even food items for the food pantry uh and even through the pandemic they've been gathering outside and also on zoom we have to just shift our mindset to the possibilities what could it be what could it look like a shift for those of us in in church life from seating capacity to sending capacity where we're measuring the number of people that we're sending out not consumers right not not that we're just consuming church and materials and great messages and and all that but that we're deploying the people of god to do the work of god we're sending people we're excited when we hear those stories so and think for think for a minute it's it's thinking of yourself differently it's training and deploying missionaries thinking of yourself as a missionary who is cleverly disguised as a student or a nurse or a teacher or a manager it's it's thinking of yourself differently and and this is all relational based relationship based it's all relational so imagine imagine what could a jesus community look like for spiritually curious people in your context in a different place than you might think of that church could be could that be you could god be calling you in this unique place and time in history to be a part of the radical shift and reformation of church that's taking shape and let me just clarify this this is not a means of getting people to attend church or to listen to church online or even as outreach but it's rather fully forming church where you are i remember a conversation i was having with a pastor about this idea i was in a coffee shop with him and we were talking about this hiking church that i started called happy trails and it was basically for people for those of us who find god outside and experience god in outdoors we go on hikes together even kayaking all sorts of those types of things and there was a guy that was sitting behind him and he had apparently been eavesdropping which was fine in this case because he leaned over and said hey i'm not religious so a church person but i would be part of something like that see the good news is that god's always at work ahead of us contrary to some old school evangelistic techniques we don't bring jesus to anyone he's already there he's working in people's lives and hearts you know that from your story we just get to join him and be a part of it so you might be asking though well where do i start how would i begin to start something like this well the most important thing is to remember that we need to start with listening start with listening that we talk about in with fresh expressions us and some of our trainings that there's like a three-part listening going on here it's first listening to god listening in your prayer time through scripture it's also listening to your context not just taking somebody else's great idea and boom doing it but listen what are the the things going on in your context and also the third part is how you're wired who are you uniquely wired to connect with so often when we talk about evangelism we take this posture of kind of a downward approach that we're we're up here and we're colonizing others dare i say and that's just not right and not only that is it's a total turnoff to people instead it's important for us to take the posture of a student not a teacher a posture of humility to humble ourselves as apostle paul reminds us it's taking time to to pray for and with our communities maybe you might try something like prayer walking super easy to do you might pick a location whether you live in a neighborhood or even like a shopping center location and just go for a walk walk by yourself maybe invite a friend or a spouse bring your dog with you if you have one and just begin to walk and observe observe pray pray for the people you pass pray for the cars that pass you pray for the people living in houses asking god to show you who lives there what's something in the lives of those people that that that breaks your heart what do you observe in their driveways and in their yards what needs do you see maybe your eyes are open to a place that you've driven by multiple times before and also you can begin to ask people questions ask them what would you change in this community what do you love about this community and that's where it's important to start with a need a network or a neighborhood as your focus so there's this story of a a gal named amani who moved back to her hometown of knicker hickory excuse me north carolina after college and she got her degree her grandparents apparently left her a house in the city and she knew the area she knew her contacts she knew that there were high rates of preventable disease in that area and so what she did was after she's been listening and in conversation with people she started a community wellness house she planted a garden she held gardening work days and invited people to it and and also held events in that house one titled as a black man another as a black woman for people to share experiences and their discussions and and enabled her to build relationships a church i served at previously uh i was in the process of discerning needs and doing lots of listening and one ways i did that was to go to our local elementary school meet with the principal and the guidance counselor and i just simply asked like what are the needs of the families here uh tell me about the school tell me about the the kids tell me about parents tell me about grandparents tell me about just everything here and they revealed in that conversation that they they knew that there was a lack of family time families just never were together especially they didn't eat together so it was cool because together we decided to create this thing called family dinner it's a kind of dinner church we invited everybody anybody to come and join us for dinner from 6 to 6 30 families kids just everybody it's totally free and it was followed by by a program at 6 30 to 7 and people could opt in or opt out of that and nobody was forced to do it in the program we shared a bible story and a craft and a discussion and it was really neat because people started showing up to this and over the course of a couple months that we held this once a month the guidance counselor approached me with a story about a gentleman that she knew had kind of been problematic in parent-teacher meetings before she didn't see him interact well with his children and he had been attending the dinner she watched him begin to interact and do this do crafts with the kids and everything and they had recently had a parent teacher conference and that parent-teacher conference went so well she said she said it was just like amazing like so who knows right who knows what the impact could be there's a gentleman named francisco garcia velasquez he's in california and he found uh personally hardcore punk rock to really be something that connected with him he found a sense of healing in it it's rawness and because of that that was how he was wired he started attending shows and events with people who shared his love for that music and they formed relationships he got to know them and it basically led to this joining of forces to create a venue a place for faith and music to intersect who knew right there's a fresh expression of church in florida who gathers movie lovers together once a month to attend a movie and then they have an option afterwards to go out together to meet to discuss the movie and about how it speaks to their lives and elements of faith it's it's this necessary part of of ministry that means we have to shift from safety to experimentation a spirit of experimentation is an amazing place to approach our mission it's always easier to do nothing it's always easier to do what you know and what you've done in the past but as greg says we're seeing everywhere that the attraction model of church to just invite your friend to church to hear the pastor preach the gospel that's less and less effective we have to give people permission to fail you have permission to fail you might try something you want to begin gathering with people and it might not work but that means that we tried something right it means that we're involved with this great big missional experiment because you know what it could work so maybe maybe the holy spirit's stirring something inside you maybe it's your breakfast or some bad coffee of course but but maybe it's there's something else that's stirring so let me ask you this have you ever thought that you might be right here right now because you're here for such a time as this it's time to dream again folks it's time to dream again because our god is a creative god who is in the process of forming and reforming church and the amazing thing is we get to be a part of it well thanks so much everybody it's been a joy to be with you today and so i'm gonna hand it back to greg amen i told you she was great i told her she was great she was such a gift holy shift uh holy that's what we need hallelujah hallelujah it should have been the title maybe but really i just wanted to leave this with us we did paradigm shift a holy shift from thinking of church only as some place where we come god uses that together that's great but primarily churches what happens when we go out uh and we are being the church i want to encourage us it will be unique to you you may be looking at some of the things that these folks do and you're like oh i could never do that um well first of all i'd like to encourage all of us to not box god in at the start often we think like we come to a conclusion i could never do that i couldn't well you know what why'd you listen first uh and be open to where the spirit might lead you this is the time of the season where where i think god's moving all of us outside of our comfort zones and so don't don't don't bring don't conclude too quickly that you can't do something be open to the holy spirit he always works with with how we're wired and and and all that so i'll be natural to you but but but don't foreclose possibilities uh always be listening walk with your eyes open but the most important step is that first step just start walking this direction maybe maybe it's worth praying around your block but be looking for the need or the network or the neighborhood where is god calling you to be um and what we are the leadership of what the hills of church is all about is resourcing that and encouraging that and i also encourage us you know we have this bulletin i encourage if if this is your church sign up for that bulletin because we're going to be telling stories there we already are and some of the stories are really beautiful about how people are are being bringing the kingdom to their context and politicians which is the vast majority of our congregation is a pod creation uh the beautiful thing about this is that you know the spirit will contextualize it for where you're at i mean what it looks like to be building the kingdom in china won't be exactly what it looks like to be building the kingdom in america and what it looks like to be building the kingdom in your neighborhood will look different from maybe in a different neighborhood but the spirit always particularizes it so let's start really really leaning in on what how's the spirit calling us and don't just think individuals it might be that you and your network of uh you have a little community of christians you together discern this and you're together to go out and and and do a ministry be open to all the possibilities here i i want to just end with this this word i i have been and i've shared this before but um uh the last year and a half has been the hardest by far the hardest year for shelly and i on a number of different levels i don't want to go into all that but it's been really difficult really challenging but i wha what god's been doing at woodland hills has been like the biggest positive in my life and i just love you guys for it thanks for being a pa and i just feel amen i i feel that i sense there's so much potential here that just if we just unleash as each of us doing our part there's the potential for the progregation of woodland hills in the congregation of woodland hills to make a difference in this world is enormous just release to step into it we are the body of christ the hands and feet of christ let's be connected to the head listening to that central nervous system who is the holy spirit amen okay uh if you're here um uh what's the order supposed to say this then i always get this mixtape oh first of all on tuesdays we've got the newscast you can go a little deeper with the message dan does a great job of kind of just you know unpacking things i encourage you to check out that if you're interested in ken uh we also have these gathering groups that rob talked about uh in his crystal ball and uh despite the crystal ball i encourage you to check that out i get to know other people here and and some of them will be local and a lot of them will be not local but but get together and discuss things uh if you have any need that could use prayer this morning i encourage you to uh if you're in if you're part of the congregation we've got prayer of ministers who will be up here at the front of the auditorium and if you're part of the pod congregation uh you can just get on a a prayer team on the app or the website and finally uh if you're going to be here next week and you have children that you would want to have in hero's gate you need to let us know ahead of time so we can do as much as possible to prepare uh for the number of kids that will be coming in and as rob shared during our announcements uh encourage folks uh whether you're part of the pod congregation or congregation uh to consider uh once a month coming in and and helping the uh heroes gate to minister to our kids as we go out of this place first of all i encourage you to greet one another by waving i you know i go to my grandkids games now they no longer give high fives they just sit on the other side of the field and wave to each other so make sure you wave to one another on the way out but as we leave here i i i commission you to go out as as good soldiers who are always having their walkie-talkies on listening to the spirit walking with your eyes open and being willing to join what god is already up to in whatever context he he's leading you to be involved in go forth in jesus name and all god's people said god bless you guys love you you

Channel: Woodland Hills

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Length: 71min 49sec (4309 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021