Right Now

[Music] well welcome to Valley Creek we want to say thank you for joining us online today for our online service we're gonna jump right in and worship Jesus together see the Bible says this it says enter into his gates with Thanksgiving into his courts with praise in other words every time you come together start with Thanksgiving start with praise start with worship so we're gonna worship Him in this place today so wherever you're at wherever you're watching let's eliminate all distractions that are around you and let's come and worship Jesus together for all that he has done and all that he is we worship Him in this place [Music] there's a sling in my voice and a stone in my praise that pushes back when the darkest weapons fall there's a power on my lips even death can defy when the name of our God is lifted huh cuz there is resurrection power when we sing the name of Jesus resurrection power when we raise a mighty sound so come on let the make that empty he's out cuz there is resurrection power they have days I have seen [Music] that my heart [Music] your theory is [Music] we [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] come out of that grief come now that I crave when we say captives they go with those sheets that go with those sheets when we praise man that come down to that [Music] as they go in those suits they go in those when we play [Music] when [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] that grave comes out of that grave when we say cap tips they go those shades let go in those chains when we [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] that's Jesus we worship you today and we thank you that when we give you our focus and our attention although you are always faithful to bring hope and freedom in life into our hearts and so today Lord we give our focus you're seeing all that you have for us you are here all I can do is work [Music] now face to face all the responses praised its praise so behold behold as power and I we crown you Lord of all behold our and folding to see you know we crown you Lord [Music] [Music] my only response [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] or Almighty who was who is in this to call with glory power all and wonder Jesus we crowned you Lord [Music] Oh [Music] with glory [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he's enthroned in majesty and honor we crown now one of the reasons why we worship and we praise is to remind ourselves of God's faithfulness and His goodness and how we have so much more to celebrate and speaking of celebrating today we want to recognize and celebrate a special group of people and that's our graduates we want to say to our graduates we are so proud of you maybe you graduated from elementary or middle school or high school or maybe you earned your undergrad degree or your graduate degree or maybe your doctorate degree we want to tell you we're so proud of you and we have a special group of people that we want to recognize that spent a year of their life learning how to become better leaders and that is our fourth and fifth grade kids leadership experience graduates and we want to recognize our high school and middle school HS LX which is our hub student leadership experience graduates and our young adults which is our Valley Creek Leadership Academy graduates we want to tell you well done we are so proud of you and so if you are with a graduate right now can you do this can you just lay your hand on them and we're gonna pray for them in just a moment if you don't have a graduate with you can you do this in faith just extend your hands and begin to pray for our graduates together right now thank you Jesus for every one of our graduates we thank you so much for them enduring and walking so faithfully through this season of their life God it may not be exactly the ending that they want in this season but God we know that you are faithful and we know this that their best is yet to come for them and so father we bless them and we pray God that your hand will be upon them and Lord that this coming here will be the best year of their lives we love you and we are grateful for you that God thank you so much for your faithfulness Jesus name we pray amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] welcome everybody to our online service today we are so glad that you are with us from wherever you're watching from can we just take a second and welcome each other together come on let's go ahead and hop for each other right now so glad to be together today and I bet you're wondering like why have we been doing that why have we been clapping in to start our times together well it's because you're not alone we're not alone we are in this together we really are better together and we're so glad that we get a chance to be together today I want you to know that right now there are thousands of people that are watching along with you right now there's hundreds of leaders and serve team members that have been praying for you and right now Jesus is with you you see he's with us right now today is a great day to be together so I just want to kind of start off with this question what have you been doing right now like how's life how's it been going what have you been working on do you have your honey-do list completed have you checked off all those boxes are you starting to maybe feel a little bit antsy in this season have you have you learned to become an amazing first grade teacher which I think nobody knows how to be an amazing 1st grade math teacher but like what have you been doing right now and maybe a little bit more difficult of a question to answer what is God been doing right now like in your mind in your heart in your home what has God been doing in this season you know I think questions like that are simple and yet sometimes they're really difficult to answer because for a lot of us we spend our time in our mind living in the past or maybe looking forward to the future but it's hard to discern what's happening right now right during this season I have a an 8 year old daughter my youngest is named Naomi and she loves to have fun in fact she loves to have so much fun that if she had a t-bird she would have fun fun fun all the way until I took it away like she loves that fun and so in the morning time she'll get up almost every morning in this season and she'll start the day by just saying mommy what are we gonna do today now of course my wife looks at her and she has basically the same look in her face almost every time that question gets answered and she responds back with a well basically the exact same thing that we did yesterday which was the exact same thing that we did the day before that and then the day before that and so on and so forth so the conversation will continue and then they'll begin to start to negotiate homework versus screen time but I got to thinking about that question what are we gonna do today I think that's actually a really really important question that we should be asking our Father in Heaven father what are we gonna do today what's happening right now like what's happening in my life who do you want me to connect with what adventure are we gonna go on what are we gonna do today I think there's an opportunity for all of us to take a moment in this season and begin to ask God what he's doing right now I want to take a look at Isaiah 43 a passage you may be familiar with check this out it says forget the former things do not dwell on the past see I'm doing a new thing now it springs up do you not perceive it that might be a passage that you're familiar with but I want to look at it with a little bit of different eyes with fresh eyes today as we think about this season check out verse 18 it says forget the former things do not dwell on the past I think if we were honest with ourselves there's a lot of us that have been dwelling on the past and I think there's probably two different kinds of people that are watching right now there's the kind of people that are as excited to get back to the past as they've ever been like to open sporting events and open season and open restaurants and everything available and then I think there's another entire group of people who are kind of terrified about going back to the past they don't want it to be stressed out they don't want to miss family dinner times they don't want to the overly busy schedule that they used to have it and well both of those things are real I think both of those ways of thinking about the past are actually missing an opportunity you see the season isn't about returning back to what was it's about going to a whole nother level of the abundant life that Jesus offers so what's he saying he says saying don't dwell on the past forget about those former things so if your past was bad and stressful man look to Jesus for hope and joy if your past was awesome I'm talking like like tableside guacamole and chips and queso awesome and I do love some tableside guac if it was great it's not just about going back there it's about going to a whole new thing the new thing that Jesus wants to do right now and maybe that's not you maybe you're not going on the past year like hey I'm a futurist I'm looking forward to what's gonna happen coming up well it's not even about going there either in fact check out verse 19 it says see I'm doing a new thing now it springs up do you not perceive it it's really not about the past or the future it's about the new thing that Jesus is doing right now when I read this verse earlier this week it struck me I was like imagine what it is to take out the exclamation point right there and to read it all the way through I am doing a new thing now right now in this moment in this season there is a new thing that Jesus wants to do in our lives what if we have actually missed it what if what feels like a shelter in place every day blends together nothing is happening what are we going to do today the same thing that we did yesterday is actually one of the most exciting seasons of transformation and revelation and insight that Jesus ever wants to give any of us it's a right now kind of season what if God is doing a new thing right now inside of you and inside of me how do we begin to perceive it it's springing up on the inside when I when I thought about that it springs up it made me think of the story of the woman at the well talking with Jesus in John chapter 4 it's a similar kind of conversation in John for this woman at the well is talking to Jesus when he's gone to get a drink and as she begins to have the conversation with him it becomes really clear that she's not just physically thirsty she's spiritually thirsty she's dry on the inside and then I got to thinking I wonder if a lot of us are experiencing dryness in the season not just because of a virus but because we're missing the new thing the springing up that Jesus wants to do on the inside of us look at what Jesus says to her in John chapter 4 he says everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life now it springs up do you not perceive it I think we don't I think we missed it a lot of times because we failed to see that Jesus is working right here right now in our life even that woman in the story she missed the fact that she was talking to the Messiah face to face she kept having this conversation with Jesus like oh yeah someday we're gonna have a messiah and it used to be that our ancestors worshiped on this mountain but she failed to see that Jesus was right in front of her right then right now when she finally figured it out she left her water jar and she walked and she ran into the new thing that Jesus was doing in her heart and her mind in her life so I don't want to miss what Jesus is doing while I'm waiting for things to change later I don't want to miss what Jesus is doing now while I'm hoping the things do or don't return back to normal I don't want to miss what Jesus is doing right now because it's not about going back to how it was or springing forward to something different in the future it's about experiencing the new thing now that he's doing in each one of us and I don't want you to miss it either so what I want to do today is I want to ask the question what does God want to do right now in this moment in this season and how do we tap into it how do we begin to experience the new thing that he's doing now so what I'm going to do is give us three practical ways you can experience what God is doing right now father what are we gonna do today and begin to experience that in your own life here we go three practical ways you can experience what God is doing right now and listen listen we're probably never going to have this season again it's really unlikely that it's ever gonna look like this again this is a point in time opportunity to experience then now that Jesus wants to do in our life here we go the first thing you could do to experience what Jesus is doing right now is just ask him just go ahead and ask him it's amazing how we want to ask everybody else except for God what's actually going on like we'll go to the news we'll go to our friends we'll check out a social media feed but what if we just ask him God what are you doing right now in my relationships how are you working in my mind and my heart and my thoughts what new thing are you doing in my life right now we can just ask him James for says it like this it says you don't have what you want because you don't ask for it that's about the simplest way to describe what's going on it's saying that we missed so many daily and relational opportunities in our life because we just don't ask God what's happening right then god how do you want me to connect with my wife in this season God how do you want me to reach to my son who's having difficulties right now God what new friendships do you want me to invest into right now just ask him jesus said ask and it will be given seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you but notice that he didn't say ask later seek tomorrow knock when the shelter-in-place eases up he says right now ask me right now I have amazing things that I want to reveal to you there's a fascinating passage in Jeremiah 33 and I think it a lot of what's happening in our life right now and it talks about why it's so important to ask God what he's doing in any given season check this out in Jeremiah 33 it says well Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard that sounds all too familiar the word of the Lord came to him a second time call to me and I will answer and I will show you great and unsearchable things you do not know Wow so in a season where Jeremiah had to wait he couldn't go back to what he wanted in the past he couldn't go forward to the future he was in the waiting season he was in a now season when he was confined in the correr to the palace God says call to me ask me and I'm gonna show you great and unsearchable things you do not yet know as I was thinking about this this verse I believe that there's somebody who's listening right now who's been waiting on a dream that's been in your heart for years you've actually been waiting for God to reveal it to you and you don't know how he's going to do it I think what he's saying is ask me right now I have an a way to reveal that dream to you the thing you've been hoping for about that job that relationship that thing asked me I'm gonna show you great and unsearchable things you do not yet know about so I encourage you lean in and ask him what he's doing right now you see the dream maybe later but the way to make that dream a reality may come to your mind your heart right now so ask him great unsearchable things you do not yet know so what if you just ask him all kinds of things he wants to reveal the new thing that he's doing right now if we'll just ask so that's the first thing so the second thing then is this the second way to experience what God is doing right now in your life is just write it down just write it down can I just tell you I am horrible at doing that so I have so many friends that have these like libraries of journals and they're all like meticulous and they've been writing every day of their entire life and so they use those journals to turn them into blogs and they use blogs turning like New York Times bestsellers and then there's me and I'm not very good at writing things down but I encourage you if that's like you take a moment to write down what God has been doing even if that's in a note in your phone or on your social media account or just in a text to a friend because when you write down what God has been doing when you when you sense it and then you begin to write it down you value his voice in your life you value the voice of God and you write it down and you begin to discover more of what he's doing and showing you I mean can you imagine what what if Matthew Mark and Luke and John wouldn't have written down what Jesus was doing like the answer is we'd have no Gospels we'd have no first four books of the New Testament like they wrote down those moments that Jesus had they wrote down what he was doing in that time and they saw him at work and then they wrote it down and now we can read about it and it encourages our heart in fact check this out in John chapter 20 it says the disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book but these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name that's so good what is saying here is that the disciples wrote down the right now real time things that Jesus did and because of that it helps us continue to believe and have life by the power of his name now I'm not saying you're right in Scripture but I am saying that you can write down these real time revelations that God has given you remember revelation something that was was covered has been uncovered revealation something you didn't know about before he's starting to show you in a new way when you write that down it's going to help you continue to believe and you will experience life by the power of his name that's awesome I want to believe more I want to believe more that he's doing amazing things in my life I want to write it down so I can experience life by the power of his name and I want to experience that also so so what's he been doing in the season has he been moving come on write that down begin to think about all the ways that he's moved in your life how is he provided for you how is this church family encouraged you how those sweet moments with your family been for you like write those things down because someday you're gonna want to be able to reflect on this right now season and it's going to give you everything you need for the next season in fact check out this this verse in Habakkuk 2:2 Habakkuk that's a great name where do you think that name is on 20/20 baby names list that's a that's an excellent name right these here goes have a cue to to write the vision make it plain on tablets so that he may run who reads it so what it's saying here is when you write down what God is doing it's going to help you sprint into the next season run into the next thing that Jesus wants to do in your life write it down why so you can run with it write it down why so his faithfulness today gives you the faith you need for tomorrow write it down why because someday when this is all over and you move into what is either a new normal or the same kind of normal whatever the season looks like you'll be so thankful that you took hold of what God revealed to you in this season so you could take it into the next season that when you read it you can run with it write it down value the voice of God in your life and begin to see how that encourages your heart going forward so there you go two things so far two ways you can perceive what God is doing right now in this season ask him and write it down and here's the third one the third one is just express gratitude look at psalm 118 says this is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it this is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it maybe even say that first line with me again this is the day the Lord has made yeah it is this one right now but this is the one we got this is the day that we have and we can express gratitude to God for today for how he's moving for what he's done for His goodness in our life in fact using the last one we just talked about write it down what if you wrote down three things that you're thankful to God for come on what are you thankful to God for in this season like I'm so thankful that the weather has been beautiful so that we can take walks outside in his creation I'm so thankful for things to slow down a little bit for some family time for some memories to be made I'm so thankful that if I'm kind of a person has like a fear of missing out the basically there's nothing to miss out on so I have no more fear there but but what about you what do you want to express gratitude for in this season you can write it down you can speak it out you can express gratitude to God because remember gratitude is only gratitude once it's expressed until that it's just a nice thought like it's not actually gratitude until it's spoken out loud or it's or it's written down and so that's a great way to vertically connect with God thanking him for who he is and what he's done maybe even think about that this week three things that you're thankful for about this season right now now I've got another one for you that's another challenge and this is another gratitude challenge that's more of a vertical challenge like like thanking God for what he's been doing this one's more of a horizontal challenge so here's my horizontal challenge for you what if you took time this week to write an old-school thank-you card to someone so like writing to them I think I'm talking like a Nana Green Gables like put a stamp on it put an address like a thank-you card because it's amazing what that can do to Center your heart in this right now a moment and encourage the person that you can write it to in fact I got to see a response from somebody this week who'd received a card from another Valley Creek er this person is a first responder and so here's what they said regarding a card that they got in the mail this week they said I was tired and I was worn out from patient care this week your card gave me the boost that I needed you could express gratitude to somebody in an old-school kind of card written you know handwritten card and I think what that would do is it would help Center your heart and the right now and would help encourage them in the season ahead so who is that in your life that you're thankful for like who raised you who has invested into you who has prayed for you who spoken life into you it's that kind of it's that person when they come to your mind come on write them a card express gratitude because it's good for you and it's good for them and part of what that's going to do is it's going to teleport you back to right now it's really hard for your mind to be as stuck in the past or or over pushing forward into the future when you express gratitude and so I'd encourage everybody write a card this week and bring yourself back into this moment you always hear people say oh I want to live in this moment I want to live in the moment well expressing gratitude is part of how you live in the moment I think that's part of what Jesus was why he always always expressing gratitude out in public and out in the open you'd hear him say things like father I thank you that you've hidden these things from the wise and you've revealed them to little children or say like father I thank you that you always hear me and he was saying those things out loud to encourage other people but I believe he was also saying those things to encourage his own heart and bring him back into the presence of his father see Jesus was a master at living in the moment Jesus was a master at being in the presence of his father and in the presence of God it's really only ever experienced in the present that's why he can do a new thing in your life right now that's where the spirit can move that's where the spirit can join you there so I encourage everybody you have really three great encouraging ways for you to experience that right now things that Jesus is doing ask him write it down and then Express attitude I think those are excellent ways for all of us to come back into this right now moment so let me just kind of ask you the same question I didn't we got started what has God been doing and what have you been doing but how's life how's this season have you taken the time to actually consider it have you taken moments to ask God and then write down what you sense that he's saying and then express gratitude to him for everything that he has done in your life back to isaiah 40:3 you see we got to forget the former things we can't dwell in the past because God is doing a new thing now it springs up do you not perceive it Church maybe we always perceive the right now thing that Jesus is doing in each of our lives will you bow your head and will you close your eyes and pray with me so Jesus right now we just invite you into right now into our season into our life into our situation and we believe by faith that you are doing new amazing unsearchable things that we do not yet know and we want to perceive those we want to just be so in tune with how you're moving in our relationships and in our heart and in our in our day-to-day that we don't miss a thing we don't miss one thing that's happening right now is we're waiting for something of things to change as we're thinking about the way that things were we don't want to just go there we want to be here so for each one of us Lord will you show us the new thing now will you show us how to live in the moment can we be people that will just go and ask you quickly how you're moving and and value your voice by writing it down and then begin to express the gratitude that's so in our hearts for who you are and what you have on you are so good to us you're so good to me you're so good to each one of us and we are so thankful for these moments to experience your goodness and we never take it for granted we want to perceive it with our whole heart we love you Jesus in your name Amen well thanks so much for being with us today we're so glad that we got this opportunity to be together if you want to give you can go ahead and do that online here at Valley Creek door giving is just a response to the goodness of God and your life and so you can give online and and just after we finished there's going to be actually a few questions on the screen that we would love to invite you to pause and then begin to answer see answering questions and just thinking about way God's speaking is a great way to experience the right now thing that he's doing and so we want to invite you to do that right after we finish but we are so glad that we had this time together we look forward to seeing you back here on our online campus next week blessings to you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Valley Creek Church

Views: 3,752

Rating: 4.9365077 out of 5

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Length: 40min 4sec (2404 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020