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You see God's plan, His vision, is and always has been, to prepare a people for himself in the midst of whom he can dwell. Every aspect of our character, our spiritual formation if you will, contributes to that ultimate goal, that ultimate vision. Jesus is planning on riding through the gates of your life. So ,your renovation matters. Not just be cause it makes your life better. Not just because it benefits the people around you. It matters because you are a part of God's city, God's temple, God's people God's kingdom, that He is building for all eternity.  So, when you work to develop a deeper prayer life it matters for God's Eternal Kingdom. When you work on getting deeper into community or being reshaped by the word, it matters for God's Eternal Kingdom. When you seek to make every aspect of your life an act of worship doing everything in the name of Jesus for the glory of God, it matters for God's Eternal Kingdom. When you care for the vulnerable, put others first, learn to see the world through the eyes of a child, make space in your life for others, be meek, and humble in spirit, celebrate with joy, interact with goodness, and kindness, and gentleness. Whatever renovation that you feel God calling you into, you can be sure it's not just for your benefit. It's a part of God's grand vision for his Eternal Kingdom, that he might dwell with his people, for all eternity. That's what the renovation is all about.   

In Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out his disciples on a short-term mission trip. As they go out and experience God working through them, and they come back. They come back Luke says, “full of joy”, because of what they had experienced. God working through them. And so, then they tell Jesus about their trip. And you know what their story about their trip generated in Jesus? If filled Jesus with joy. Jesus already knew what was going to happen and still just hearing about what God was doing, fills Jesus full of joy. This is why the celebrations of the church are all about telling the story of what God has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. Our gatherings on Sunday, our weekly celebrations, are about telling God's story. 

God is at work behind the scenes of everyday life stuff, but his name is rarely mentioned. He's working, through all these things. Kind of behind the scenes. So, then we come to the crux of the matter, in verses 16-18, but Ruth replied don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you in me. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. That's the courageous action that unlocks and unleashes all kinds of Kingdom goodness. And throughout the Bible people come to a crossroads where one path is the clear winner. It makes the most sense. It's the obvious choice. But the person makes an unexpected move. They choose the unexpected path. They courageously act for God's sake and for the good of the Kingdom, even though in practical terms it doesn't seem to make sense. 

See, when we come to worship that is a very different thing than going to church. Coming to worship is categorically different than going to church. Because when we come to worship, we come thinking about the offering we are going to give. We come ready to do the work of worship. We come ready to pour out our hearts and our minds and our emotions in adoration and praise to our beautiful King with our brothers and with our sisters. We come and we are willing to risk vulnerability for God's sake and each other's sake. And when this happens, when we come in this mindset, you can try this out, but when we start to come in this mindset, I promise you this worship gathering will change in ways that I am incapable of describing. 

Prayer may be the most important practice for co-operating with God as he tenderly pulls up the old carpet in our lives and installs his new creation version. But the triggers around prayer are real. I have a bunch of them myself. You may as well. Prayer may be the most important practice, but in some ways it is also the most challenging and the most confusing. It is challenging, we might say, because it is so confusing. Prayer can be so challenging and confusing that our prayer life sometimes becomes part of the old carpet of our lives, meaning our prayers become rote; somewhat meaningless, boring. We think of prayer as a duty lacking much delight and in either the front or in the back of our minds, prayer raises hard questions for which there does not seem to be very many satisfying answers. Questions like, if God knows everything already and knows what is going to happen, why in the world does prayer even matter? Or, if prayer is so powerful then why do so many prayed for people suffer and get sick and die instead of being healed? There are dozens of these graduate-level questions and there's not too many of them that have an easy answer or any answer. So like most things in life, and most things in the life of faith, prayer is a thousand-piece puzzle.

Paul commands us to not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Because then we will be able to discern God's good pleasing and perfect will. And I do not believe it is possible to resist conforming or to be transformed or have our mind renewed or discern God's will unless we are regularly and consistently interacting with the Bible in ways that shape our inner core in the way of New Creation. If we are not consistently engaging with scripture and being shaped by it then inner transformation is a pipe dream and the renewal of our mind just ain't going to happen. 

This is America, where we are free to actually arrange our own gatherings, our own dinners. It's a constitutional right. You can do it. There's opportunity for you to connect with folks during the week, on your own. But whatever form it takes there's just no way to effectively love one another or any of the other one another's, in theory, or in general, you know from a distance. So maybe for you renewal or renovation or tearing out the carpet in this area of one another for you might mean that you need to show up. That you need to make yourself known. Contact Ashley and let her know you're interested in a small group. You need to commit to coming to church on Sunday, not just anonymously ducking in and out but expectantly. Praying to the Holy Spirit that he might direct you to someone who needs “one anothering” today. Maybe you need to commit to serving with our children or our youth or our impact or hospitality teams. A place where you can be on mission with others. Maybe you need to pick up the phone and grab dinner with someone you haven't connected with in a while. Or maybe even with someone that you just met last week. You see it's really easy to look at our interactions and say, “aaah, we're just to shallow, it's just too shallow. They need to go deeper," and you're right, they do. Here's the thing, the only way to get to the deep end is through the shallow end. Standing outside the pool only ensures you'll never get wet.

“In a word, what I'm saying is, grow up. Your kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” ~ Matthew 5:48 MSG The other day I was walking through this room. No one was here, and I was on my way to that kitchen right there to see if anyone had recently had a meeting where there were more sandwiches than people. And as I strolled in here on a food finding mission, it occurred to me that pretty soon people will be in here, slicing, and cutting, and pulling, and tugging, and prying up, this old carpet. And it might come up easily or the years of foot traffic, and basketball games, and chair legs, might mean the glue underneath the carpet hangs on for dear life. And the challenge of getting this up and out might be extreme. And then this thought, just jumped into my head, where is their old carpet in me that God wants to replace? Where is there a door in the building, that is me, that needs new paint, a chair that needs softer cushions, or some other aspect of my interior world that the Holy Spirit wants my permission to renovate and my cooperation on the project? I mentioned earlier the importance of eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that are open to what God might want to say and do in us. My experience in my Christian journey and my experience as a pastor suggests that it is most wise for you and me to assume we don't have eyes that see, ears that hear, or hearts that are open, and I realize that's harsh, but I think it's true.

It'd be a lot easier if we all pulled the same lever, just a lot easier. I'll trade that in any day of the week. There's only one problem, if you have that you don't have the church you've got a group, you've got a click, you've got a hobby club, but you don't have the church. Because, the church by definition is this mess of messy people all over the map going, we're coming to be this, the table holds us together. Jesus Christ is King. We're going to orient to that and we're going to trust that the bond we have in Jesus being King is bigger than our differences. That's the plan. We're held together because we believe Jesus is bigger than our differences. Unity in our differences points to God's power. Pastor Mike Lueken finishes up our "Send Me" series with an interview with Shawn Young who shares how we can recharge and refuel as we go out into the world on mission together for God.

“Our life together as the community of followers of Jesus is the most powerful proclamation of Jesus we can make” ~ Mike Lueken For people to hear that proclamation they have to be invited in. And so, Jesus sends us out to be hosts, to practice hospitality. The practice of hospitality has been one of the most foundational practices of the church since the beginning, two thousand years ago. All throughout the New Testament, over and over, we are told we are commanded to offer hospitality. In addition to that, we know from the history of the first centuries of the church that hospitality was a mark of the early Christians where they welcomed people into their homes, they cared for them regardless of who they were or whether or not they could pay them back. And while hospitality and practice can take many forms and shapes at its core, hospitality is a spiritual posture. It is an attitude. Hospitality is the posture of making room for the outsider whether this is in our homes, in our work places, in our social circles, in our church community. To practice hospitality is to assume responsibility for the care of the guest. To make sure they feel at home and have what they need. Really it is the spiritual act of adoption. Even if only for a short time so that the guest feels like part of the family. And when we open up space in our Christian community for those who do not know Jesus, they are able to experience the reality of Jesus and not just hear about it. And for a world that is reluctant to talk about Jesus, creating spaces where they can experience it, is essential.

The Bible tells us that God deeply cares for people. He wants none to perish. He wants all to know him and live with him; rulers of Rome, thieves on the brink of their own death, Roman guards, Jewish peasants, the blind, the rich, the sick, the powerful, the person you named when we started. None is too far gone. No one is outside God's loving reach. His heart breaks for those who want nothing to do with him. One day his judgment will come in its full expression. He waits because he wants people to turn to him and his plan A is to send you and to send me to be guests who demonstrate the beauty of the Kingdom.

What better way to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, who changes lives, than to have people in our life actually see Jesus transform us. Actually, see Jesus transform our character. I mean imagine when the people to whom I have been sent notice that where I used to be consumed by worry there actually now is peace. When the people who could see my addiction to work, my addiction to performance, and success, all of a sudden experience me being free from that. Imagine the power of the people in our lives, who have known us to gossip, or be judgmental of others, finding us being, I don't know, encouraging, thinking the best of others. You get the picture right? I mean this is how awesome the redeeming power of Jesus is. That when we continue in an ongoing process of transformation. When we allow him to do his transforming work in us. Even the rough edges, even the blatant cracks in our character, can be used to declare the praises of him who brought us out of darkness and into his glorious light. So, what comes to mind for you? What has the Holy Spirit been stirring in you during this message? Is there an area in your life that is getting in the way of you proclaiming Jesus?

Paul writes, "and so it was with me brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power." - 1 Corinthinas 2:1-5 Paul, here in this passage, is writing to his friends in Corinth at the church that he started there. And he's reminding them about the very clear, focused purpose that he had when he went there. I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Which when you think about it, realistically, is an astounding statement. Corinth, we know from history, was a pretty spiritually derelict city. Paul would have had any number of Shalom-destroying issues to talk about when he goes there. Anything from slavery to temple prostitution, to pagan witchcraft and worship, to economic injustice, to ethnic discrimination. There was a lot of Ten Commandment breaking going on in Corinth in those days. Along with that, of course, we could imagine there was the humanitarian crisis that was typical to any City in the Roman Empire; the poor, the sick, the widows, the orphans. And yet, Paul characterizes his focus, his mission, in the city, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Of all the things he could have been talking about, of all the problems he could have been addressing, Paul, was laser-focused on this singular message, Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Why?

It's the picture my friend sent me of the flames at the end of his street, that keep me up at night. And again, this is not just the case for the people that I know in Southern California. It is the case for people everywhere, all around the world, all the time. Every major catastrophe, every downward trend, every systemic issue in the world from human trafficking to racism, to road rage, to sickness, and economic uncertainty. All of them are made up of individual people, with individual lives, individual experiences, individual circumstances, and they are in in trouble. And it's not just the people in the crises that are being covered in the news either. Turn off the radio close your laptop and simply scroll through the images in your mind of the people you know, the real people. The person in the house next to you. The person you sit with on the sidelines of your kids' games. The people in your class in the cubicle next to you, or on the other side of the zoom call. Even those in your own house. An honest look at their lives would reveal trouble and devastation that though unseen on the outside, if we could see inside, we'd see it burning at the same rate and heat as the center of the hottest wildfire. An honest look at the people that we interact with every day, would find them harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. To borrow Matthew's words, and the question in all our minds at this point, is does God even care? He sees the destruction. He sees the pain. He sees the fear. He knows the stress. The anxiety pulsing through the psyche of our friends, of our family, but does he care?

Epiphany sets in front of us the reality that Jesus Christ claims to be King of everything, and everywhere, and every person, and every moment. And all of His truth, goodness, holiness, righteousness, love, mercy, grace and beauty saturates every square inch of His reign. That's just a really good reminder to savor and soak in here at the beginning of a new year. And to do that, today, I'd like for us to consider what I'm going to call, Three Worthwhile Investments in 2025. And each of these investments is ultimately an investment of our most treasured, precious, important commodity; time. If Jesus Christ is King. If He is Lord of all. If He's the sovereign One. And if He's more than a plastic Jesus sitting on the dashboard of our car. If we are someone who is seeking to orient ourselves around Jesus as King, Lord, Sovreign One. Then these three investments of time seem not only reasonable and wise, but I would suggest necessary, for those who profess to follow this King.

All the time, Jesus the Messiah, the one born King of the Jews and of the entire universe for that matter, lay helpless as a baby born to a poor unimportant family, lying in obscurity, literally just a few miles away from Jerusalem. And however tempting it might be to look at Herod, and the Magi, and Snicker, and comment, like the emperor that wasn't wearing any clothes. Probably better, is to see ourselves in this meeting. This meeting between these fake kings. You see, our whole society is like that. People trying to impress each other, with their money, with their degrees, with their accomplishments, their sports team affiliations, how well their portfolio is doing, how attractive their boyfriend or girlfriend is, how smart their children are. And us religious people, we're probably worse of all. Constantly trying to pretend that we are better than we actually are. That we know more than we know. That we are certain, more than we are actually certain. We are half breeds and frauds pretending to be kings. The good news of course is that we don't have to live that way.

Advent, in other words, is a time for wondering and marveling at the Christ child and a time for wrestling with the mystery of life's hard questions like, how, and why, and when? And just to wrap this up, this is not some psychological cathartic purge so we can really enjoy Christmas dinner. This is our faith in action. This is the Christian faith; not sugary, not phony, not surface level, not dabbling here and there, not, oh yeah God's cool, it's not that. This is our faith in the action of real life, where there's real pain, no matter what time of year it happens to be. Confidence we might say, in the reality of God's presence with us. Confidence in the knowledge, and I use that word on purpose. Confidence in the knowledge, the reliable knowledge, that in Jesus, as Simeon said, “our eyes have seen our Salvation”, a light for revelation.

God speaks to whomever he wants to speak, about whatever he wants to speak, whenever he wants to speak to them. The message isn't about how to make God speak to us more. What we're talking about here is how to put ourselves in a posture to listen. To hear when he speaks. And I don't know about you, but if I am predisposed to not want to do what God says, and yes sometimes I'm not. Did you hear that, he's a pastor? The pastor doesn't want to do what God asks him to do sometimes, shocking! But when I am predisposed to not want to do what he says, I'm more inclined to avoid him. Like take literal steps to avoid him. To make myself unavailable when his number pops up on my phone. I'm much more likely to let it go to voicemail, and then conveniently forget to check it. But I've also experienced the opposite. I've also experienced those times and seasons where I've practiced saying yes. Stepping out in faith when I think I hear God asking me to do something, even when it's scary. Even when it feels, at first, like I'm actually losing something. And every time I do, I relearn the lesson, that truly His yoke is easy, His burden is light, He does not lay anything too heavy or unfitting on me. And every step of obedience I've taken, always ends up leading me in the right direction. Sure, God comes and asks these people to do some pretty crazy things in these stories, but man, when they said yes to Him, what a ride! What an adventure! And I believe that those adventures, those experiences, those encounters with God, are available. Available to us, right now, right here, where we are, if only we would listen.

Seems to me Jesus, by his example, prefers a table at the back of the restaurant. He prefers the obscure. The small places. The small people. The small things. So, he works his plan through a carpenter named Joseph. A teenager named Mary. Some Shepherds working in the fields. A little town called Bethlehem. An atmosphere of poverty, powerlessness, and oppression. He prefers the simplicity and the humility of a baby. These are the actors and the factors in the Advent story. Not a random or meaningless group of details. Rather this is the Jesus way and God did it this way because this is who he is, and this is how he works. He is found in the small places. He dwells in the unspectacular. He sneaks in the back door. He prefers the shadows. We find God on the back roads, off the beaten path. So, we find God in children. We find him in the elderly. We find him in the Forgotten. We find him amongst the hurting. He's a community theater God, not a Broadway God, we might say. Big and flashy and loud and impressive are not his way. He can be found there, but often the big and the flash and the loud are distractions that keep us from seeing and hearing and encountering the humble God, who puts on flesh and shows us God's heart.

The story that Luke chooses to begin his telling of the coming of Messiah with, is the story of a couple waiting. And sure, like with everybody else, they are waiting for the coming of the Messiah. Like everybody else in the Jewish Community was in those days. But more personally, Zachariah and Elizabeth are waiting for something else. They're waiting for a baby of their own. And as those who have experienced it know, infertility is a special kind of waiting. When you're waiting in infertility, it's not like waiting in a long line at Costco, where you know eventually it will be your turn. Waiting to conceive, it's waiting for something that you really, really, really, really, want but there is no guarantee that you're going to get it. And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Oh, I know, there's lots of options for fertility treatments out there. There are tons of things that you can try. But for all our fertility treatments, have only served to further prove the point, getting pregnant isn't something you can control. And so you wait. Of course getting pregnant isn't the only kind of waiting that fits that category, right? There's tons of things that fit the waiting for an uncertain outcome list.

This Faith thing is a we thing not just a me thing. But today we remember that Jesus breathed on each of his disciples. John, Peter, Simon, Matthew and all the rest were filled with His Spirit. Each had a transformational encounter with God and ongoing experiences with him for the rest of their lives. Their lives were never the same. Everyday life was never the same because the Holy Spirit now inhabited each of them. He was at work in and around them. So if you are a follower of Jesus, he has breathed His Spirit into you. And when Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into us we experience God. And the key word is experience. The key emphasis is experience. This isn't the transaction in triplicate form. You know sign here, initial there. The spirit lives in you. You interact with him. He speaks to you and you to him. He teaches you. He reveals things to you. You hear his voice. In The Bible or through another person. He nudges you to take action. He stirs in you when you stray off the path. See, we're talking about an interactive relationship with God, through the Holy Spirit, who right now lives in you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Yes we received him when we first believed and when we first asked Jesus into our lives, but we're not talking about just one experience. We're not talking about an experience with God back then. There are fresh experiences with the Spirit, in the course of everyday life, that without a doubt, hear this really loud and clear, without a doubt, are usually small and unspectacular. Not wild or wacky kinds of things, but real experiences, real encounters.

Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit judges the world and the verdict is guilty and that has implications for the particulars of our lives here at the end of 2024. If Jesus and his way, and His Kingdom, truth, and goodness are true north, the way things are supposed to be. The way God intended them to be. The way God wants them to be. Then the world, that is wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment is morally, intellectually, ethically, and spiritually headed south. When the New Testament uses the term world, there's a whole lot of meaning packed up in that. When it uses the term world it often means, maybe even usually means, that the world and its systems are bankrupt. They're not slightly off course, they are completely off course. Instead of heading toward true north, they are heading toward false South. In every single way, a train bound for nowhere, literally. And the Holy Spirit's job is to alert the world that it's traveling this train bound for nowhere.

Sometimes we wish God spoke more often and more clearly to us about the specifics of our lives. What major should we take in college? Is this the right job? Is this the right marriage partner? Should we move to a bigger house? What President should we vote for? Should I retire? What should I do after I retire? And a million other particulars that we might wish God would just stand in front of us and say, “Do this and don't do that.” But here's the thing, the Holy Spirit's primary goal in guidance is not to give us the answers, but rather to shape us into people who follow and honor God even when the questions remain unanswered. His goal is not to give us specific guidance in every situation. His goal is to guide us to become a certain kind of person who is mature in the character of Christ, so we don't need his specific guidance in every situation. Or put it this way, we don't need to constantly consult the “All Trails App”, because we are an experienced and mature hiker, and we know where the trail is even when it's not obvious.

Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/3UE4wXf Susan Pendergrass speaks with Martin F. Lueken, Director of the Fiscal Research and Education Center at EdChoice, about the findings of his report Fiscal Effects of School Choice: The Costs and Savings of Private School Choice Programs in America through FY 2022. Marty shares insights into how school choice programs have financially impacted state and local budgets across the United States. He explains the methods used to estimate both short- and long-run savings from these programs and discusses the disparities in per-student funding between public and choice program students. Lueken also addresses the funding context and long-term fiscal implications of choice programs for K–12 education systems, shedding light on common misconceptions and more. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

The other thing that Jesus points out here, is that the focus of the Holy Spirit's communication, his speaking, isn't in the direction of the Father, but it's in our direction. In verse 26 Jesus says, “But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” If the Holy Spirit, Advocate role, was on our behalf before the Father, you would think that Jesus would be emphasizing that the Holy Spirit is saying to the Father. Instead, Jesus is emphasizing what the advocate will be reminding us of. How he will be reminding us of the things that Jesus said. And then there's the fact of who exactly the Advocate is testifying for, on behalf of whom, the advocate is testifying for. Jesus says in John 15:26, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father -- the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father -- he will testify about me.” Jesus is saying that the advocate testifies about Jesus. Which when you put all of this together sure makes it sound like the Holy Spirit isn't so much our Advocate before the Father, but rather Jesus's Advocate before us, before humanity. That in the definition of "paracletos," that I read earlier, you know this definition of a person of high social standing who speaks on behalf of a defendant in a court of law before a judge. That the defendant in this case is Jesus, and the things that he has taught us about the Kingdom of God. That the courtroom is the court of human will. And that the judge, the judge is us.

The holy spirit is here with us right now, comforting us, guiding us, teaching us, challenging us, and yes even correcting us and telling us when we have missed the mark. You see, the Holy Spirit isn't simply God's afterglow or Jesus's afterglow. We'll talk about people in our lives who aren't with us physically, but we'll say stuff like, “well, you know they're here in spirit,” which is really a way of saying that they're not here. They're really gone, but we kind of, sort of can remember them, sort of thing. I mean, sometimes we think about the Holy Spirit that way, God's afterglow, the things that we remember about him, kind of a passive presence in the corner. A reminder that at some point Jesus walked the Earth, and yes, at some point in the future we'll see him again, but until then, I guess we have the Holy Spirit to remember Jesus by. That's not who the Holy Spirit is! The Holy Spirit is a fully alive, fully present, fully active, member of the Trinity.

A scandal in the Bible is something that causes us to stumble, to trip. A scandal in the Bible then is a rock sticking up ever so slightly, in the middle of the trail, and we don't see it, but our left foot clips it as we walk by, and we stumble, and we might even fall down. 1 Corinthians 1:23, Paul writing, “…. we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block, a scandal, to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Christ crucified, a scandal, scandalous to Jews, and foolishness to Gentiles, why? Because no King, no one with power, no one of importance, no great leader, no one claiming to be the Messiah, claiming to be from God, claiming to be God. No one would die willingly, on a despicable Roman cross. But love the way God does, it is scandalous.

Christian hope is bound to the resurrection of Jesus. When you read the Bible on hope, you find hope very close to language about the resurrection. 1 Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…..” The New Testament's rallying cry is, Remember The Resurrection. It's a good word of encouragement. Kind of a good thing to say to one another, “Hey remember the resurrection.” Remember God raised Jesus from the dead. Remember his power brought him back to life. Remember that the God we follow has that kind of power. Remember the God we follow is greater than the sin, death, decay, and all of the old that author such horrific pain in this world. Remember the God who raised Jesus from the dead is in charge of this world, and he is moving this world toward his will and purpose. And one day he's going to finish the job and all will be well. Remember The Resurrection.

From Mark 5:24-34, “So Jesus went with them. A large crowd surrounded and pressed around him.” Feel the claustrophobic crowd pushing in. Hear the cacophony of voices calling out. Smell the bodies pressing together and sense the excited uncertainty about what Jesus will do next. “A woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.” Twelve years of hoping and of hopes dashed. Twelve years of misery, of pain, of weakness. She is without resources; financially, physically, emotionally, mentally. She is destitute and discouraged beyond words and worst of all she is alone. Belonging nowhere and with no one. I know what it feels like to feel alone even in a crowd, so do you. I wonder what this Woman's name was, despair, hopeless, outcast. Twelve years of an ailment that made her unclean and outside of society and even left without a place to meet with God. She can't go to the synagogue to seek out Jesus where he often taught. She can't even go there to pray. From Leviticus 15:19….“when a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.” But she has not been unclean for seven days but twelve grueling years. Unlike Jairus, who has a position of standing, she is nothing and she has lived this reality every day, year after year. Maybe you've tasted this kind of despair. Perhaps you know pain and doubt is an ever-present companion. You wonder where you belong. If you belong. We all carry our own feelings of unclean, outcast, alone. When God seems distant and faith bleeding, but we are not alone. And somewhere deep inside this broken woman she finds a mustard seed of faith and takes a risk, an audacious risk. She works her way through the crowd until she is close enough to touch Jesus.

Matthew 13:31–32, “Jesus told them another parable: “” The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”” There are a whole bunch of things we could say about this short parable. But one will suffice for our purposes today, and it's this: when flawed and broken people take action in The Power of Jesus, for the sake of his kingdom, however small or insignificant that action may seem, God starts to move. And in ways I don't know how to describe, because I don't fully understand, the Kingdom activates, often slowly, often imperceptibly. We can't see what God is doing. Just like we can't see all that is happening under the ground when the Mustard Seed gets planted. But as God moves, good fruit eventually begins to emerge. And again, it may take a long time to even notice, and we may never notice. But as God's kingdom is established and this good fruit begins to grow, it extends in many directions and as it extends it impacts people. It rescues people. It redeems people. And it changes people. This little mustard seed that sometime in the past was put in the ground by flawed and broken people eventually becomes a kind of shelter. A kind of home. A place of restoration. And that's how the Christian story keeps moving through history toward its ultimate culmination. God moves through the small actions we take in his name and the goodness, and the grace and the truth of his kingdom expands. And as it does, it impacts people, it rescues people, it changes people. And many of us who are here today have a story to tell of how God did this in us and is still doing this in us.

This particular service is different than most in that there was no sermon on this day. Instead, we had an extended time of interactive prayer, Sonos Divina, “interacting with the Holy Spirit through music”, and worship. We invite you to find a quiet place as you enter into this space and listen to this podcast with us. We'll use guided prayer and musical prayer to simply hang out with God; meaning, converse, commune, communicate with God. So, we'll hear from him at first by taking a look at a passage of scripture together. And then we'll take a trip into whatever God is saying to each of you individually. So, you'll be in conversation with God. You'll be speaking to him. You'll be listening to the Holy Spirit trying to see what God is showing each of us about whatever we're bringing before him. And my role is to guide you towards those things.

Grace has much to say about these things, but Grace encompasses more than sin and forgiveness and post-death destinies. Grace is the beginning, middle, and end of the biblical story. In John 1:16, Jesus said, “out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” Now I don't really know what that means. It's kind of confusing, but it seems to imply Grace is the start of the story, the point of the story, the theme of the story, and the end of the story. Throughout his letters Paul describes the power of Grace actively at work in the details and particulars of life and hardship and difficulties and relationships. Grace is a dynamic force in other words in the real-life stuff we deal with. So, Paul had some sort of weakness in his body. Literally some kind of weakness, brokenness, something or other in his actual body. Some think it was bad eyesight. Others think he had a bad leg, and he walked a certain way. Maybe he had a proclivity toward depression or discouragement, so it was emotional or psychological. Or some other kind of persistent Frailty plagued his mind or his body or his circumstances and the point is he was burdened by this pain. So, we read in our reading, he earnestly prayed that God would heal him by removing this, “thorn in his flesh”, as he calls it in our passage, but God didn't heal him. God didn't heal the Apostle Paul of this thorn in his flesh. I think it's good to pause here. If all this Grace talk feels nice and churchy, but its tad bit removed from reality. We are now standing at a door that leads into the real lives we actually live in this broken and fallen world. Paul experienced pain and he prayed fervently for it to be healed, but it wasn't. Now who of us sitting here can't relate to that?

Now my prayer of asking God to search me turned to one of repentance. I saw how easily I felt superior as the wronged one and saw the other as one dimensional in terms of their offense. I remembered how I appeared to offer mercy but sometimes knew it was self-righteous mercy. How perhaps I'd made a little comment or remark here or there in the guise of warning people or me seeking Sympathy by sharing my hurt. And I saw how sometimes these little hurts were as much about my insecurity and wounded pride as they were about the actual perceived wrong. I drew a big cross over the list the names and I asked for God's help to truly forgive. In Luke 17 when the disciples were told they were to forgive 70 times 7, meaning indefinitely, they cried, increase our faith. I needed to pray that over and again. See we can't just start with prayer we must live in prayer. That is part of becoming the kind of people who readily forgive. Only as I live in continual communication with God can the words of Matthew 5 earlier in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, become not just a dream but a reality. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That's not easy, there is a price. And on my own forgiveness will usually only result in empty words while I replay the recordings of the wrong. I need the cross. I need Jesus.

Our wealth isn't just the money that we have, right? Our influence, our connections, our voice, our position in society, yes even our vote, all these contribute to the worldly wealth that we have. And it's interesting to me that Jesus refers to this concept in terms of the mammon of unrighteousness, unrighteous Mammon. It makes me think of this phrase, that we have dirty money. You guys heard of that phrase? Like money or wealth that is acquired in unjust or unrighteous ways. Some of you, other people I've talked to over the years, maybe because the industry that you're in or the cutthroat win-lose nature of the business that you're in, like when you're working for the man, right? Sometimes it feels like what we earn is dirty money, unrighteous mammon. Or even when we take an honest look at our nation's history. An honest look at what we've done over the centuries to become the wealthiest nation in the world. How we've subdued the competition, unjust nature of a society, white privilege, you know stuff like that. It can feel sometimes like the wealth that we have, unrighteous mammon. What do I do with that knowledge? Well, it would appear that Jesus has an idea. Jesus says, make friends with your unrighteous mammons so that when it is gone, when it fails, when it burns out, when it ceases to exist, they, meaning the friends that you made with your unrighteous mammon may welcome you into heavenly dwellings.

Now, in the midst of Hebrews describing Jesus as the ultimate high priest. The author pauses, and says this, we're going to start from Hebrews chapter 5:11. The author says this, We have much to say about this, regarding Jesus as our high priest. But it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant. Is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from Evil. Therefore, let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God instruction about cleansing rights, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and the Eternal judgment. And God permitting we will do so.” Now I don't know if you caught it, but there's a tone of frustration in the author's voice here in this letter to the Hebrews. Like, he would really like to dive deeper into the significance of Jesus as our high priest, which is a very significant image for folks, that coming out of the Jewish tradition. And it would really, really help them in their life with God to understand how Jesus fills this role as the high priest. And how the role of the high priest had always been to pointing towards Jesus and the author was really, really excited to talk about this. But he feels like he can't because he's stuck. He's stuck going over what he calls basic things. He feels like his readers are still hung up on stuff that the author feels like they had explained over and over and over and over again. Again you teachers in the room might be able to relate with some of this frustration. And one of the basic things that he is trying to get past is talking about repentance from acts that lead to death. Now this little phrase is actually key to help us understand what he's referring to later in verses 4-6, so here comes the tactical part.

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Do I believe my life depends on hearing from God? Wow! Like we all believe that we need food for our body to survive, right? This is why a regular part of our daily life is, run around scrounging for food. We plan our day around it. We get up early to make sure we have time for breakfast. Our school or our job will actually let us stop working so that we can go and eat. We gather with friends and family for dinner, so that we can make an experience out of filling this very basic need for food. We follow a diet plan to make sure that we're getting all the right kinds of food. We plan menus for the week ahead and on and on and on we could go talking about all the ways that our belief, our conviction, that our body needs food to keep functioning, affect how we plan and go about our days. Do I do the same for my spirit? What can we do to put ourselves in a position to regularly hear from God? And while of course there are many different habits or spiritual disciplines that we could develop, and help us in that area, and we talk about a lot. There is one that throughout the history of the people of God has really served as the anchor, as the foundation to hearing from God.

Certainly, the Garden of Eden was not some place where Adam and Eve strolled around going, oh my gosh look how pretty that tree is, I'm so sick of looking at that! There's none of that. There's a sense of renewal and growth and they worked with their hands. They took care of things. It seems to me the future involves discovery and learning and working. The Bible calls it reigning with God. The perishable will put on the imperishable as in 1 Corinthians 15, but I don't see anything in the Bible to indicate we instantly get a brand-new character, and all the crud Gets zapped out. Again, maybe that's what happens, but since that's where we're heading it makes more sense to me to start now. And perhaps, some seem to think so, who we are becoming and who we will be when all is said and done is part of our offering of worship to God. We offer him the life that we have lived and the person that we have become. God the Holy Spirit at work in us to form his character in us is preparation for an eternity with him. Life before death matters. What we read, what we watch, how we spend our time, who we become and are becoming, life is the practice field for eternity. Heaven before we die, and Jesus is our example.

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I suppose in some isolated Chambers at Nassau or Space X, gravity is not currently at work. But in nearly every other square inch of this planet, if I throw a ball up into the air it will come back down. Or if I jump out of an airplane without a parachute the fall might be fine, but the landing will be a tad messy, because gravity is present and working everywhere. And in a similar fashion God is present and working everywhere. I wonder if we believe this. Everywhere we go, every single day, every single moment of every single day, God is already there. And he's already at work bringing the reality of his Kingdom to those who inhabit those spaces. And if we are his follower then our primary vocation, if you don't like vocation insert job, if you don't like job insert calling. Our primary vocation is to be his agent and Ambassador in those spaces where we go. Verses 5 and 11 of our passage, Moses the servant of the Lord who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt. Servants are sent to do things for the one they serve and a life well-lived is one spent in service to something bigger than self, bigger than success, bigger than comfort, bigger than safety. A life well-lived is one poured out in service to God and the work of his kingdom. And of course, we still do our jobs and build our careers and go to school and raise our families and celebrate along the way as much as possible. But we do all this remembering that as followers of Jesus our primary vocation, job, calling, is to serve God and be about his kingdom work right where we are.

So, tell me, how do we look family when in the eyes of God we hold on to titles like democrat or republican or any other title to save us instead of the presence and will of God. We may look to these titles to save us but trust me every time we are met with the sinful grasp of humanity, none of these titles can save us. Only the presence of God in our own lives can do that. And I don't know about you but the Jesus I know isn't a Democrat, and he isn't a republican either. In fact, I'm not even sure Jesus is American. The Jesus I know has his own kingdom. This is why I love the kingdom of God. See the kingdom compels us to trust in God and lean on one another in community. The kingdom, both holds us accountable and holds us as beloved, within the presence of God. The kingdom isn't just a title or a label it is a living reality and it is grounded fully in what God is doing right now, right here.

Believe It or Not prisoners had to finance at least a portion of their incarceration. They had to pay for it. So, they needed money to buy food and clothes and other supplies or they went hungry, and they got cold, and as you can imagine nobody really cared. So The Philippian Church sent Paul money and maybe some other gifts. And they sent them with a man named Epaphroditus, who traveled from Philippi to Rome, found the Apostle Paul and delivered these gifts. And Paul was thrilled, and he was thankful that they showed him their Love by providing for his practical needs. And he says in verse 14, by doing this, he says this marvelous thing, “they share in his troubles.” And once again we can see, and we can feel, Paul's love, and Paul's connection with the people in this church. Relationship, connection, partnership in the work of the kingdom. And it reminds us that this thing called church, this thing we do, is not a machine. It's not a program. It is not a weekly event. And it is not a building. Church is people connected to God and to each other through Jesus Christ. It is about relationship. It's about togetherness. It's about using this phrase, “sharing in each other's troubles.” It's about caring for one another. It's about investing in each other's lives. It's about journeying together on this adventure with God. In a word church is family. Certainly, an imperfect family and in all sorts of ways a dysfunctional family, but still family.

But all that said, Paul's real passion, just like my professors many years ago, was never merely to inform his readers, but to transform them. His interest was not that they and we would know our Bibles, important as that is, but that they and we would know that, using words from Oz Guinness; “Spirituality for the follower of Christ is a matter of a different world, with a different reality, different energies, different possibilities, and different prospects.” The goal is not to know our Bibles, but to live as a citizen of the kingdom of God whatever our circumstance. Or in the words of Philippians 1:27, “Whatever happens conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Live it out in the daily grind of your everyday lives.” See the words in these Bibles that we look at, read, and cherish, are inspired by God, to inspire us and to empower us to live as his people no matter the situation we are in. And one way we live as God's people in this unhinged world is by experiencing his peace regardless of the turmoil and regardless of the tough circumstances we might be facing. Verse 6 of Philippians 4, “Do not be anxious about anything.” Now just sort of contemplate the last few days, contemplate the world, contemplate your life. The Apostle Paul says to not be anxious about anything. Here's my response, “Are you serious Paul? You losing it there buddy?”

In the new Climate at a Glance video series various climate crisis claims are debunked by Linnea Lueken in an eminently watchable, short, fact filled format. The goal is to reach younger audiences, being mislead on social media about climate change, with quick climate facts. The video's readily accessible on The Heartland Institute's Youtube channel address topics ranging from the so called climate change consensus to the fact that increased CO2 is leading to a beneficial global greening.

In the new Climate at a Glance video series various climate crisis claims are debunked by Linnea Lueken in an eminently watchable, short, fact filled format. The goal is to reach younger audiences, being mislead on social media about climate change, with quick climate facts. The video's readily accessible on The Heartland Institute's Youtube channel address topics ranging from the so called climate change consensus to the fact that increased CO2 is leading to a beneficial global greening.

I don't know about you, but I'll just tell you I am stirred to the core about what the Apostle Paul reveals about himself in this passage. I mean this brilliant biblical scholar is showing us his raw self. He's cutting himself open right in front of the Philippians and right in front of us and he is saying, “this is who I am, and this is who I am not.” I am stirred to the core by the Apostle Paul's vulnerability and humility. He is showing the people of Philippi who he is and he's showing the people of Philippi who he is not. He's showing them his desire to grow, and I'm stirred by his mindset. My answer to the question is that I have had both mindsets. I've had seasons of fixed growth where my attitude about my Christian growth, in a word is, “whatever.” I am what I am. And I've also had seasons of Greater intentionality where I felt like I've embraced the challenges that God has set before me. I've had a kind of curiosity to continue to learn who I am and who God is. I've had this passion to grow and have his character formed in me as the spirit does that work. See, we have this rather amazing power, each one of us. You have it and it was given to you by God. You have the power as do I, and you have the Freedom as do I, to set our minds on whatever we want. Think about that. We decide what we're going to give our attention to. This is not to diminish the thousands upon thousands of things at any moment that are clamoring for our attention, but we get to decide what we're going to give our attention to. We get to decide what we're going to focus on.

So even though we're just talking about confidence, what's at stake here, what you have to lose, is actually very very real. Paul is not exaggerating this passage when he says, “that he had lost all things for Christ's sake”. It's the very real cost that the Young Rich Man encountered in the story that Mark tells in his gospel in chapter 10. When this rich young person comes to ask Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, essentially, “what must I do to be righteous?” And Jesus says, “you could just go do what all the religious people are telling you to do”. The young man responds, “I've been doing all that you see”. Even though he'd been doing, he'd been on the performance plan and he'd been killing it on the performance plan. This young man still feels that I still don't have this thing that I'm looking for. He knew he was standing on Shaky Ground and Jesus diagnoses his issue immediately and says, “go sell everything that you have, give it to the poor, and come and follow me." Now wait, is Jesus suggesting that righteousness can be achieved by selling everything that we have and giving it to the poor? Of course not. Selling everything and giving to the poor, that's just another achievement. That's just another performance plan. But this man's issue was his confidence in his wealth. And that misplaced confidence was keeping him from the one thing that would bring him the Eternal kind of life. That would bring him righteousness, and that is following Jesus, which is where of course Paul has landed. Everything else on his resume he considers garbage like quoting your GPA from kindergarten. Paul's only interested in one thing, verse 10, I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of his resurrection, participation in his suffering, to become like him in his death, and so somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead. To know Christ, not just about Christ, not just his teachings, not just the historical facts about his life. Not just the various interpretations and applications of his words to today's issues. No, knowing how to live well. Being in right standing with God and man. Living rightly in the world comes from knowing Christ. The power of the resurrected Christ. To follow Christ into suffering. To allow Christ's death to become our death, so that his life becomes our life. And there is nothing on our resume good or bad. Nothing that we've accomplished. Nothing that we failed to accomplish that compares to knowing Christ. That's where righteousness comes from.

GUEST OVERVIEW: Linnea Lueken is a Research Fellow with the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy. While she was an intern with The Heartland Institute in 2018, she co-authored a policy brief ‘Debunking Four Persistent Myths About Hydraulic Fracturing'. Lueken graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2018 with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering, and a minor in geology. In college, she was active in her sorority, the UW Shooting Sports Team, and College Republicans, as well as a variety of engineering organizations. Before coming to Heartland, she worked in the Gulf of Mexico on deepwater drillships as a logging geologist. Lueken grew up in Kildeer, Illinois, and currently lives in south Louisiana.

Paul says, “have the same attitude as Christ Jesus” or “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” That can be kind of abstract for me. It can seem impossible and so I feel free to ignore it. But then Paul says look at Timothy. This is what serving Christ, prioritizing Christ's interest means. It means caring for others. That simple. That real. Serving Christ's interest is caring for others, not winning them, not having all the right answers for them. Not fixing anything per say, but genuinely caring about others well-being. How does this orient our vision of next level discipleship like Paul's? Caring, that's the work. Easier said than done, yes, but also doable. We can train to become a person who can listen. Who has the space for others brokenness and isn't overwhelmed by it. Who can see needs and doesn't imagine they are the Savior, but a friend. Who can celebrate another's wins and grieve losses while putting away our own insecurities and our sense of scarcity. Who can speak out for someone who is bullied. Or make a meal when someone's sick. Or the call when someone's scared or grieving. Or speak a word of truth when a friend is lost or stuck. And in it all we can learn how to speak of our Jesus. And won't we also find our own loneliness unraveling. So, Timothy's going to come to Philippi and make a web of connection and relationship between the Philippians and Paul's work that much stronger. It's going to be awesome, but not yet. Because Paul needs him with him in this dark stinking prison.

And I would suggest to you that Anthony's adventure in football very much resembles our Christian experience. It's a long process, of gradually learning the way of Jesus. And gradually becoming the individuals and the church community that he wants us to be. And through the process there are forward and backward steps, but even the backward ones are often forward. There are advances by inches and retreats by feet, but the retreats are often in a strange sort of way, advances as well. And our job through the process is to continue to take another step in the process. Philippians 2:12-18, what we read a moment ago draws our attention to this dynamic process of growth. Formation as we call it. Becoming individuals in a church community that increasingly displays the humility and goodness and character of King Jesus.