Fight for Oneness - Luke Humbrecht

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at the lookout.church.

You want to come up real quick, Gary?

Emily, bring you can you bring up Wyatt too?

Come on, let's bring these guys up.

This is a big week.

It's a big week.

We're sending off our junior high and high school students to Camp Golden Bell in uh in uh Woodland Park, uh, Colorado, at the end of this week for three or four days to be with each other in the presence of God, um to just spend time together just like we did on the camping trip, but more focused time with each other in worship and in the word.

Guys, welcome our fearless leaders, Gary and Emily Lee.

Gary, do you want to uh either one of you want to share just a little bit about what what you're looking forward to this next week?

Sure.

So uh we've got about 25 of us heading up to camp and we're gonna worship our faces off and have a blast and uh fall in love with Jesus and have a little bit of fun while we're at it.

So um the camp that we're going to is a newer one and they've got all kinds of fun activities, but um part of of what we do and and why we do it is um you know Emily and I Emily grew up in Young Life and and that's how she grew up to know the Lord, and um you know some of the camps that I went up went to as a kid back in the Midwest were were huge in just developing my relationship with God.

And um, you know, even I remember being in Willville and just questioning my faith and wondering if I I still believed in God, and I and in those moments I leaned back on um times I had at summer camp and connections that I made with with God in worship, and I was like, well, that was pretty real, and I can't deny that.

So I know God's real and I'm gonna stick through this, even though I'm the only one that I know on this entire campus who's who's following God right now.

And so um it's part of what we're doing is we're building those those moments um through doing camps, and um the the things that happen are are really things that are are just you you can't make up, you can't dream up.

It's it's just God doing things with our students that um are are just uh like a page out of the Bible and are really just moments that are are God moments and are something that God sets up just between Him and that student.

And that's one of the things I love most is I can't even take credit for a lot of it because it's just it's just God just doing God.

Thank you, buddy.

Yeah.

A little bit of the good stuff, but I love you too.

So uh that's that's what uh next week of our life looks like.

Hey bud.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Um Emily, is there anything you wanted to share?

No, please.

Okay, he got it?

Yeah.

Well, we want to take a moment and pray for our students.

Do you guys think that'd be a good idea?

Yeah.

Okay, so if uh I know not all of our students are here, but we see some of them over here.

If you're a student going to camp, um, could you stand up across the room over here?

Just wherever you're at.

Um we've got a few over here, over here, over here.

Okay.

Um, and then how many other leaders do we have uh that are going to camp?

Who else is in the room here?

Tiana, right down here.

And then maybe some others that aren't here.

Come on up.

Um yeah, or what we can do is if you're around some students, just uh if you're around them, just lay your hands on their shoulders.

Maybe a few of you can come over here and get these guys over in the corner.

Uh but we want to bless these guys.

We want to bless the work of God.

And and uh these, like Gary said, these moments are monumental.

For me, these are some of the most defining moments of my entire life.

Happened up on a mountain or up in a retreat center, locked away with Jesus for a few days.

In an age that steals our attention towards all kinds of purposes, it's a time to refocus and harness the attention of our heart towards our Maker.

So let's just join in prayer.

God, we lay our hands and we bless each of these students, and even as we lay our hands, we impart faith to them in their hearts and expectation for what you're going to do this weekend.

Not an expectation in particular outcomes uh uh that that um you know that that weren't of you, but expectation that however you want to meet them, that you are going to meet them.

And God, I pray even now uh for a Daniel generation, I pray for a generation of young people that as they live in a Babylon kind of age, a Babylon kind of city, an age that does not congratulate them for their faith, that does not encourage them in their faith, does not does not uh spur them on, but God, that you would spark something so deep in their heart that they would get a picture of you that would become the rudder, it would become the indexing of the rest of their life, Lord God.

Would you do something so significant and so profound that it changes the course of their entire lives and generations to come, God?

We believe it and we lend our faith, God, and we say thank you for everything that you have prepared for them up on the mountain this week.

We God, we pray that for ease and transportation.

It would be a safe time, it would be a time of ridiculous fun and great memories, God.

We bless them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Come on.

Lastly, I want to say this.

Um, we have some some uh some funds to to still raise.

How much do we still need to raise, Gary?

So we we raise quite a bit for these camps.

Um part of that just goes into making it affordable.

Um I don't know if anybody's felt like prices of things have gone up in the last couple of uh years here, but uh camps are no different.

So we do our best to make them affordable.

Uh and so usually for for camps, we usually raise about five to seven thousand dollars.

Um this one we're we're raising seven thousand.

We have about five left.

Um so if if you're able, and what we ask is for you guys to be able to not yet, but soon.

Uh we're we're just asking for folks to just be able to sew into this.

And and what it does is it helps scholarships, uh, you know, for families who need a little extra help, um, but it also helps just cover some of our leadership costs.

And uh, you know, we're we're bringing up a handful of leaders, and those are gonna be the ones who are teaching and and walking with our students towards some in some of those moments where they're not sure what God's doing.

And and some of the most monumental times of my life are are when a you know an older person threw their arm around me and said, Hey, this is this is what God's doing, this is how you pray, this is how you walk into that.

And so uh we want to make sure we cover those leaders and and cover transportation, and so um that's what this remaining 5,000 is going towards is just the scholarships for students and um it's just some of those back end costs that uh we don't pass on to families, but uh we we lean on the community to help us with that.

So yeah, um really it's it's huge.

And I know some of you have given in the past, and and that's that's amazing, and and some of you have already given into this.

So yeah, thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

So if you want to contribute, if you want to help them kind of bridge that gap of the 5k that they're trying to rage raise, um the easiest way to do that is when you go online to the lookout.church slash give or just look for the give button out there, you're gonna see on the drop-down menu one of the categories now.

It's called youth summer camp.

So you just select that, and whatever you want to contribute is is uh we thank you.

And uh just trusting God's gonna make up the rest of that so our leaders can be uh cared for.

All right?

Sound good?

All right, let's give it up again for these guys.

Come on, a little eye.

Love you, bro.

Um, so uh today, get a word of encouragement for us today.

Um uh uh but over the next two weeks, just a little preview.

The next two weeks, we're gonna have some friends in um uh to to speak.

Uh so next week you're gonna be hearing from uh one of our friends.

He's in Norway.

He's uh he's out of Norway, his name is Steve Bruns.

Um he uh he him he and his wife Anna Kristen have been good friends of the lookout for years now.

In fact, several years ago, they they were leading uh uh this whole boulder church community effort where all of our pastors and teams would go up to the mountains together for a couple days, and they do this beautiful church network thing all around the world where they they gather groups of pastors in cities to dream together for the heart of the city.

Anyways, we invited Steve.

He's gonna be in town next week.

We invited him to come and share what God's doing around the world and share a specific message from his heart.

You're gonna love him.

Um and then the week after that, uh, our good friend John Peterson will be here from Castle Rock.

He leads city transformation groups.

He has a ministry called City Table, where they go again into cities and gather government leaders and education leaders and and uh people from different fields of work and and uh and they they they dream and pray together for what is God's plan and purpose for the city and how can we work together towards that end.

And it and he has some amazing stories of what God is doing all around the world.

I think you're gonna be really encouraged over the next couple weeks.

Uh, a little bit later, um, August 6th, uh a friend Andrew Aaron Zeller is gonna be here from Virginia Beach, uh, Virginia, and uh he's gonna be leading worship on August 6th and speaking, and we're just gonna take the whole morning and just again uh raise, uh raise an Aller, raise a shout to Jesus.

It's powerful every time he's with us.

And following that later in August, he's actually hosting an event um near Glenwood Springs, kind of deep in the mountains called Restore the Roar.

And he's doing these events all around the country called Restore the Roar, believing that God wants to reawaken the roar of praise in his church again.

Come on, somebody needs to get on that.

And so you'll hear more about that.

That's coming in August.

That'll be a great one to go up to the mountains for um later.

So, some fun stuff coming up over the next few weeks.

Obviously, you heard from Josh some cool stuff happening, some events happening around the lookout.

Um but let's uh let's just pray together, let's enter into the word together today, and let's quiet our hearts and uh invite the Holy Spirit.

So, Lord, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you for all you're doing in us, around us.

And Jesus, it's our joy to be with you.

To be here not just talking about you, but to be in the fellowship with the Father.

So would you awaken our mind?

Would you fold us in the end of the reality?

Remind us of reality.

We love you, Jesus.

Amen.

So, you know, we we say it every week.

Our vision is Jesus.

Um, and and like Josh said uh wonderfully a little bit ago, uh, that means that the center point, the center point of us as a church is not a place, it's a person.

Which means everything we will ever do, both in this room and as we go to work and as we go to our neighborhoods, as we live our lives, every detail is our life, everything we do is about becoming one with him, right?

So our ultimate destination is not just a place that's somewhere else, it's a person.

Everything we do is about oneness with the person of Jesus Christ.

Are you guys with me on that today?

But not only is Jesus our vision, which means uh He is He is our destination, but we discover that as we turn our attention to Jesus, that He has his own vision.

A vision for the kingdom of God, a vision for the renewal of the whole world, a vision for healing broken lives, a vision even for his church.

And I would say his vision is jet is is pretty good.

That might be an understatement, but his vision, like what he sees, what he has in mind, is pretty good.

Uh there's a pastor in New York City who wrote a book called Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.

His name escapes me, but he had some people in his church ask, hey, what's the vision of the church?

He's like, he's like, you don't need, I don't need a vision for the church.

Jesus already has his own vision for the church.

It's like, it's not my church, it's his church.

So he's like, did I die for the church?

Did I resurrect for the church?

No, ask him what his vision is for the church.

And it's really a good thing because the reality is that Jesus has something specific in mind for the church.

And he has a vision for your life, he has a vision for your family, he has a vision for your business and your field of work.

Does that mean that he is trying to dictate every single decision and detail and control everything of your life and hope that you don't screw it up?

No, that's not that's not how walking with God works.

We we're invited into a co-partnering, co-dreaming life led by his spirit for the good of the world, for the building of the church.

And whatever we are able to accomplish in this life, when we're led by the Spirit, there is one thing that is for sure.

It always leads to more of him.

It always leads to more of him.

So that's how we know when we look to Jesus, he fills us with his thoughts, he fills us with his mind.

And all of a sudden, every component of your life you begin to see through the lens of how does Jesus see my life?

And this is actually really good news.

Some of you need to be reminded of that of that today.

If you feel like God is distant from the details of your life, he's not.

He's not distant.

He's actually longing for you to ask him, he's longing for you to ask the question and to invite him in and to see what's possible.

So, but how do we know what Jesus' vision is for our lives?

We know partly by paying attention to the things that Jesus prays about.

What do we mean by that?

For all the time that we spend praying, and I'm sure you're like me, there's things that are on your list that you've been praying for.

Things that you need breakthrough in your life or things that you have requested, you've requested of God, maybe healing in your life, maybe relationships that need to be restored, maybe just for an explosion of something awesome in your life or in the church or whatever.

Um, for all the things that we pray into, it's actually way more fascinating to pay attention to what Jesus prays into.

And one of the seminal passages that we see we catch what Jesus actually prays about in the scriptures, we know is John 17.

And so you can just, we're gonna start there today.

If you have your Bibles, you can open up to John 17.

And Jesus actually prayed like we pray.

He actually prayed like we had a relationship with the Father.

Him and the Father were one, and he would say often, I only do what the Father's doing.

Which means that he would just, you know, the crowds of people would be there, and he would just leave from time to time.

He had that kind of introvert side to him, so which makes me feel better about myself.

Where he'd see a crowd of people and be like, all right, peace, and he'd be out.

I'm going for a hike.

I might not come back tonight.

Yeah, exactly.

All our introverts are, yes.

Um Jesus cultivated the same dialogical relationship with the Father and with the Spirit.

The three, the original three musketeers, right?

The original trio, the triad, right?

The trinity from which all of creation came.

And so in John 17, when he's preparing to depart, there's this really vulnerable snapshot that John was able to capture in his gospel of Jesus' conversation with the Father.

And I would say this, what makes this so special, what Jesus is praying about, is you can hear the intimacy, you can hear the longing.

It's one thing to ask the question, what did Jesus say or what did Jesus do?

But it's it's a really interesting question to ask to ask.

What did Jesus long for?

We learn a lot about God and his thoughts by asking, what did he long for?

What did he feel when he prayed?

I'm just going to read a couple short sections here.

John 17, verse 9.

John 17:9

It says, I'm praying for them.

I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I'm coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

We're gonna skip down to verse 20.

He says, I do not ask these I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I had a conversation with uh an older couple I met for the first time really um uh over the weekend up in Steamboat, and uh um this woman I found out, they found out I was a pastor, and every time people find out I'm a pastor, the conversation just kind of gets a little weird.

People feel like they need to stop cussing, you know.

I'm like, no, it's not all cuss too.

No, no, no.

Like they need to start changing the way they're talking or whatever.

And but when she found out I was a pastor, she naturally wanted to tell me all the reasons that she wasn't going to church, which is not a question I asked her.

It's just people feel like they need, I'm a confessional now.

Like they need to, you know, like you you seem to represent God.

Let me confess my all of my shortcomings to you.

I'm like, I'm not looking for that.

But sure, if you if you want to.

Um, and she talked about how over the years their friend circle has grown a lot smaller because it's they found that it's been really difficult to talk about certain topics without every single conversation blowing up and everybody getting angry.

And what she was describing was that in almost every circle of their lives, they were losing friendships, or you could say their friendships in community couldn't could no longer bear the weight of complex conversations or disagreements.

And you know, and she was mostly talking about politics, that was mostly, but she was talking about faith, she was talking about other cultural topics, and and uh and and I think what she was describing is is what a lot of people are experiencing right now: shrinking communities, shrinking circles of friends, because everything is becoming more polarized and divisive.

And it makes sense because politics in our day has become the what some a lot of people would regard as the new religion of the West.

And many in our culture have actually diverted our God-given intrinsic passion and zeal that was meant for worship.

It was meant to be actually directed towards God, and we've channeled that into political discourse and political arena.

And that's why more and more people view political conversations these days more as primarily moral conversations.

And when this happens, it becomes nearly impossible to disagree well.

Do you guys hear me?

And so when we channel our God-given zeal and passion and we start to find other ways to release that in ways that um that are actually important, politics are actually very important.

Um, being involved in the in the social sector and lawmaking, all of that, the the ordering of the people, um, that's all actually very important, but it's not our primary call.

It actually, when we take the deepest level of passion and zeal inside of us and we start to channel it into other areas besides the worship of God and the in-breaking of the kingdom of God, wonky things start to happen, and actually it starts to pull people apart.

And so, because of this dynamic, this what the woman shared that the relationships that they still do have, the community is shrunk, but the relationships they still still do have been forced to avoid all kinds of these complex, nuanced conversations in order to preserve the friendship.

So the friends they have only vacation together, but really can't talk about anything consequential that's slightly controversial, or else the relationship stands the chance to implode.

And so they're stuck, they're they're the new reality is the friends that they have are stuck in perpetual shallowness.

So if they want to hold on to the friends they have, they've had to just avoid getting into the weeds and all kinds of different things.

And and what she was describing was a this loss of community that I think a lot of people are going through.

And it's probably a lot of people in the room have experienced that over, especially escalating over the last two years.

All stats would show that people are disconnecting from communal.

Events at an alarming rate.

And that's not just church world, that's a lot of different kinds of communities.

Things are fracturing off, and certainly that was sped up by the pandemic for health concerns.

Everyone would kind of cloister off.

That's been accelerated by technology tech uh technological device and new advances in technology.

So you don't have to go to the restaurant with people anymore.

You can have DoorDash bring it straight to you and Amazon bring it straight to you.

I don't have to even go anywhere anymore.

And so I don't have to even bother knowing who the barista is or who the cashier is at this store because we can kind of break off into that area.

But then, you know, also the just the privatized life, the thing that my life is my own and it's my individual expression of my life.

So we've lost what's happened in our culture.

We've lost a huge sense of what it means to be a part of a people and this oneness that Jesus is talking about, even on a very surface level, it's stats show it's declining and declining and declining.

And what's happening is that declines, isolation and loneliness and polarization continue to increase.

And it's left us as a culture in a little bit of a quandary.

In fact, uh a lot of people are saying now that loneliness is one of the chief health concerns of this generation.

It actually is a severe health concern on par with smoking cigarettes.

Which is why in Europe, they uh in the great the UK, I believe they uh they uh they created a position for the Minister of Loneliness.

It's an actual governmental position because it's that much of a health crisis in the UK.

And and maybe you felt that, maybe you felt that over the last couple years it's been difficult to talk to family members about certain topics, so your relationships have kind of grown apart, you've grown distant.

Maybe even, maybe even in the church, you found it difficult to be deeply knit in with Follower Jesus because either you felt judged or you fear being judged.

Or maybe you are the judge.

And it's something that we have to contend with because I believe what Jesus is doing in his prayer, he's praying out his vision in John 17.

He's praying out his vision for the kind of church that he actually died for.

And so the question I'm asking and posing today, and the question I believe that we can all just hold before us and even wrestle with, contend with, how do we become the kind of community that Jesus has in mind?

One that is resilient, one that doesn't avoid complexity, and one that doesn't get blown apart with every cultural swing, political storm, and petty difference.

And I'm not talking about an artificial unity or surface level, can't we just get together and hold hands?

We're not talking about kumbaya, but we're talking about a deep covenant commitment to each other.

One that the world would actually be able to experience and say, this is exactly what I have been longing for and searching for.

This must be the reason that Jesus came.

This must be why Jesus came, because this is what what Jesus seems to indicate in John 17.

He says, He prays to the Father, they may be one.

That the Father, that they may be one in you and may also be in us, so that, what?

So that the world may believe that you sent me.

So according to Jesus, the way that the world actually will believe that he came from the Father is by the quality and the substance of oneness specifically exhibited by the ones who have given themselves to be followers of Jesus and caught up into the kingdom of God and following with deep heart commitment that we've left other identities behind to take up our identity into the house of God.

According to Jesus, our greatest witness is the quality of our love and our oneness.

Are you guys alive today?

Because this is this is the opportunity before us.

And what's really interesting, yes, how did Jesus actually cultivate this?

How did he get away with this?

How did he actually assemble the twelve dudes that he got together?

How did that even work?

There's a lot we could go into.

I just want to read another passage out of Mark 3 that gives us an indication of how it all started when he called his first disciples, okay?

So Mark 3, 13 says this.

It says he went up to a mountain and called to him those whom he desired.

And they came to him.

And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

He appointed the twelve.

Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is Sons of Thunder.

Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew.

By the way, Sons of Thunder looks a lot better on a t-shirt than Boanerges, alright?

Let's, if you're gonna go with one of the two, let's go with Sons of Thunder.

That's a way better ministry name than Boanerges International.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

So different Gospels talk about his first invitation to these twelve men in different ways.

Matthew really talks about how he actually went about the Sea of Galilee and would go pluck them out of the sea and find them in their different places and then invite him to come follow him.

It's really beautiful.

In the Gospel of Mark and Luke, it indicates that there was some part of the process for Jesus where he actually went to a mountain all night and he prayed.

And he he pulled an all-nighter as he does from time to time and he prayed and he asked God, Who have you given me?

Who has the Father given me?

And he seemed to get 12 names.

And he came down from the mountain and he immediately started calling these particular individuals, probably individuals he'd already built some relationship with.

And he invited them to become the first tribe, the first kind of church, the building block of this new kind of community.

And so after an all-nighter, after praying for the Father, after laboring in prayer and probably fasting, what he got was some uneducated fisherman, a tax collector, a zealot, which we'll come back to, a betrayer, a doubter, and a couple of guys who seem to have some anger problems.

Okay.

And it's like, all right, so did you do any personality profiling?

Did we do some Enneagram work before we started the selection process, little strengths finders, little Myers Briggs?

That could have helped.

Is there any kind of compatibility between these guys?

Did you think about that, Jesus?

So we've got that mapped out in our culture.

You can start a new job, man.

You're going through all kinds of profiles.

Got to make sure you fit.

Gotta make sure you're the guy.

Jesus is like, hey, these are the ones, these are the names.

These are the ones I desire.

That's what it says.

He called to himself those who desired to be with him.

But how how is that going to work?

Because we talk about differences in in our culture.

We feel that in our culture.

This isn't like this is the first time this has ever happened.

We're feeling it uniquely in our time and day with different types of hot button conversations.

But come on, this is there's nothing new under the sun here.

This is not the first time we're experiencing this.

This has been happening thousands of years, in a lot of ways, more intense.

And in fact, I think this is a little bit of the tongue-in-cheek thing Jesus was doing as he was calling these guys.

He's thinking, listen, I'm going to pull the most absurd group of guys that you've seen, and I'm going to show you.

I'm going to show, I'm going to show the world what's possible.

I'm actually going to pull these guys together and prove to the world that there is a kingdom, there is a way of living and a way of life and a way of being together that doesn't depend on them to agree on every level, on every particular thing.

And it's going to be the starting point.

And I'm going to do this as a big social experiment, but almost as a big, it was kind of, he kind of started his ministry with, it's kind of a joke, too.

It's kind of humorous.

Because you gotta, you gotta see this.

He calls a tax collector and a zealot.

And that might not mean much to you because, again, in our culture, it just doesn't mean a whole lot.

But a zealot, Simon the Zealot.

So according to Britannica.com, the zealots were an aggressive political party whose concern for the national religious life of the Jewish people led them to despise even Jews who sought peace and conciliation with Roman authorities.

So if you were a Jew who was somehow even friendly to the Roman Empire, you were an enemy to a zealot.

So this was a group in complete opposition to Roman imperialism and anyone connected to it.

Understandable, right?

Extremists among the zealots turned out, turned to terrorism and assassination and became known as the sicari or daggermen.

They frequented public places with hidden daggers to strike down persons friendly to Rome.

Okay, so in Jesus' top 12 is a guy who's walking around with a dagger to shank somebody who smiles at a Roman.

Jesus is like, I like that guy.

There's something about that guy.

He's mine.

Let's do it.

Let's do it, Simon.

Come on.

And to drive it home, he finds a I'm sorry.

This is just so funny to me.

Um he finds a guy named Matthew, who is a tax collector.

Again, no equivalent, but tax collectors, as some of you know, were reviled by the Jews of Jesus' day because their perceived greed and collaboration with the Roman occupiers.

Tax collectors amass personal wealth by demanding tax payments in excess of what Rome levied and keeping the difference.

It just goes from bad to worse.

So you're a Jew who is now friendly with the Roman government.

Roman is already oppressing the Jewish people, taxing them heavily.

Tax collectors would set up their booths, not only ask for the Roman taxes, but a tip kind of beyond what the Romans were wanting, and just to drive at home.

And so you can understand what the Jews were feeling as they would go and pay these taxes, and they would see this person who's claiming to be a Jew sitting behind this tax booth.

And uh and and your feelings for them as a commoner would not be friendly.

But if you're a zealot, you're ready to throw down.

Like this is not going to go well.

So, how did Jesus grow a tight-knit community out of individuals with such differences?

We can say such contradictions, we could even say out of enemies.

Well, in this little snapshot, if we just take this little snapshot, as he called, he went to the mountain, he called, or he was given the names of these twelve men, and it says this in the passage we just read.

He appointed twelve so that they might be with him.

Pause, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

And this is very this is so important that we understand that there's a couple details that it gives us, and I believe it's it's a short verse, but the sequence is important.

Jesus' first invitation to his disciples wasn't to go out and do something and go do a project or to go build something or either launch something new or launch a church or commission to build a ministry.

His first invitation for them was to come and be with him.

And this is this is so this is so simple, guys.

But this is the crux of everything it means to follow Jesus.

His first invitation for you is not to go do something, it's to come and be with him.

To come and be with me.

I'm inviting you.

I want you to come and be with me.

Jesus did know his mission and he was very serious about it.

He was very focused.

He said no to a lot of things, he said yes to a few things, but he always prioritized his relationships over getting the work done.

It's important about what Jesus did with his disciples, and it's important about what we do.

See, the kingdom of God moves at the speed of relationships.

We can't do anything that's fruitful outside of growing a community of people that are being with Jesus together.

And as he called them to himself, he called them into a new identity.

They were called to forsake their identity and to become apprentices to a rabbi, to leave their identities behind, not that they aren't important, not that they wouldn't shape their experience or their upbringing, but to follow him into a new kind of life.

See, Jesus was the center, but as they followed Jesus into a new kind of kingdom, their identities would shift in the process.

This is so important that we get that being a part of a church, following Jesus, is not about just taking your current identities and just and just cramming them into a room on Sundays with other people to be a part of another club on Sunday mornings.

Being a part of following Jesus is allowing everything else that's defined us in our lives to become secondary matters to living as sons and daughters in the new kingdom of the beloved son Jesus.

Which means that all of us, what stands a chance for all of us to be together is that we're able to look each other in the eyes and not see each other by your political party, not see each other by your vaccination status, look at each other, not see each other based on any other standard, except are we f our lives following and response, hearing and obedience to the voice of the Father?

Are we able to do that together?

Are we able to look into each other's eyes and see the divine image of God and who we are becoming together in his presence?

And what that does and what Jesus shows us is as they responded to that, something began to shift, which changed the work that they do.

It changed the actual substance of everything they would do from there on out.

As they were with him, they were with each other.

And it's so true that we cannot become ourselves by ourselves.

We need each other to even discern the work of God that He's doing in our lives.

Ephesians 4 12, which you'll hear at almost every wedding ceremony, that doesn't just have to do with marriage.

This is important for us too.

It says, though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves, but a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Jesus called, he called his disciples to himself first, and in his presence, everything shifted within them.

Their identity shifted, and it gave them the foundation from which they could project out.

So first he calls them to himself, but then he called them to preach and to demonstrate authority over the demons.

He called them to be with himself, and then he sent them out.

You guys know that out of intimacy of relationships comes authority over the demonic and over sickness and over disease.

Our authority in the kingdom of God does not come by just going and doing good things.

Our authority comes by becoming people who are committed to being in his presence together and then living out of his presence into the world.

Our first call is just to really enjoy being with him together.

Which means that even during worship on a Sunday morning, even this morning, it just felt just such a sweet sense of the presence of God.

Guys, you guys realize how supernatural it is to come in and to just enjoy Jesus together.

You don't even have to learn anything out.

You don't even need a teaching after that.

To enjoy Jesus together is fundamental for us growing up into the kingdom of God and having lives of consequence and substance as we leave this place.

By virtue of being in his presence, everything about us changes and it changes the quality of how we leave this building.

Do you understand?

And as we're together, as we prioritize the presence of Jesus, we move in power.

When we are together in the presence of Jesus and the affection of the Father and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, God blesses that kind of unity.

And this is why Satan loves to divide, to isolate.

Why?

Because there is no power in isolation.

There is no power when you're by yourself trying to have quiet times with God all the time and not knit in with those he has called to himself as well.

There's no power in that.

The enemy would love that because the power in the kingdom of God is when God draws together disparate groups and people who don't naturally belong together, and he brings us together in a spirit of unity and a bond of peace.

He unleashes blessing that becomes a force in the world, a force of renewal and restoration in every place that we go to.

Can you guys see that?

This is so critical, especially in our day and age where a lot of people are asking, what is the point of this or that?

What is the point of being with other believers?

It's because God commands blessing where there is unity and agreement in the Spirit.

God commands his blessing, it says in Psalm 133.

And I love it.

I love being with believers and discerning the heart of God.

I love coming into pre-service prayer on a Sunday morning, and everyone comes in on the third floor as we're coming in, and everyone's just bringing different things.

We take time to wait in prayer, and we're not even, I don't even tell them what I'm speaking about.

We just take time to wait in prayer, and everyone just shares what they're getting, and we're all coming from wildly different weeks and experiences, but somehow God starts to weave together his thoughts and his mind and his heart, and we begin to see something together as we take time to just be with him, to first be with him, and then listen to what he has to say, and then it starts to shape the trajectory of even what you're experiencing right now, is because some people take the time to come and pray.

And you're always welcome to come and pray early on a Sunday morning.

And I know that many of you are praying during the week, you're getting together with believers, you're in the word, you're studying, you're you're you're spending time listening to the Lord.

I'm telling you guys, this is where the life of God is, and this is what Satan works day and night to separate you from, to tell you it's not worth it, it's not worth your energy, it's not worth your strength, it's not you worth you showing up at that next lady's prayer night, it's not worth you showing up at this event or that event or that equipping thing.

It's too much.

Nobody actually knows you, anyways.

They don't remember, not gonna remember your name, they're they're not gonna invite you to lunch or any of those kinds of things.

Just don't even bother investing your energy because it's not going to pan up.

I'm just telling you, that is a lie.

It is a lie.

Because Jesus calls his believers to come and be with him.

And out of our being with him, he sends us in his power.

This is, this is why the church has the potential to be a prophetic witness in a time of polarization and division.

No other community is called to be a unifying force except the Church of Jesus Christ.

I believe that with all of my heart.

I know that pickleball is the rage right now, right?

I mean, of all the community groups that are growing that are decreasing in the U.S., pickleball is woof right through the roof.

But I'm telling you, man, the oneness of the Spirit, it happens, it happens with those who can see each other and be with each other in the presence of God together.

That was not a that was not a uh I love pickleball, by the way.

I just I just want to clarify that.

I've nothing against pickleball.

So a couple a couple words of encouragement this morning, guys.

First of all, we need to be reminded that this is a war.

It's a war for hearts and a war for minds.

Oneness has to be contended for.

Oneness does not happen.

It has to be embraced and fought for.

You have to call somebody and call them to pray with them.

You have to invite them to your home.

You have to open the word together when you don't feel like you have to show up to serve in kids' ministry, in the host team, in somewhere.

We have to do things to purposefully interrupt our life for the sake of oneness with others.

Because why?

Because this is a spiritual war.

And I'm not trying to just make this more dramatic than it is.

This is actually a thing.

About a year ago, I took a sabbatical for three months, and you guys, some of you remember about three months at this time of year, from July to end of October, I took a sabbatical.

I remember coming back in a couple, like about a week before I came back, I started to have some meetings with some of the leaders and started to reintegrate.

And you know what?

The first thing I noticed when I came back, I started to feel the weight in my soul, in my spirit.

I started to remember, oh wait, this is a battleground.

And I started to feel a heaviness.

No, I'm not saying a heaviness like I was coming under this big weight and pressure.

I was just saying, no, no, no.

I had realized I was coming out of like, I was almost, I was on respite in a in a green meadow, a field with Jesus for a few months and my family.

When I came back, I started to feel like, oh, the sobriety of uh we're not contending with flesh and blood, we're contending with powers and principalities and heavenly places, that this is actually, we're not just playing church, this is a spiritual war of light and darkness, where the kingdom of light is overcoming the kingdom of darkness.

And I started to realize that.

And I want to suggest that to you.

You may have not even thought about that recently, but but what's happening in your life, the war for your thoughts, the war for your affections, the war for your zeal and passion, do not be mistaken.

It is a battle.

And God has given you the armor.

He's given you the armor of God.

It's all in Ephesians 6.

He's given you his armor, he's given you the weapons of his warfare, he's not called you to fight alone.

It's not just up to you to fight.

He's given you the power of his resurrection, his life, but he has called you to be with him in undoing the works of darkness, not only in your own life, but your own family and the and in the world.

He's called you into a co-laboring, a co-battling, which means that we don't have to get depressed about that, but just don't forget, you're a soldier in the army of God.

You're not a civilian, you are a soldier.

Ephesians 4 says this walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

So in the as we walk in a calling worthy of what God has called us to, that means we need to be eager to find ways to become one in the Spirit and to hold the bond of peace with each other.

Paul says it to me, fight the good fight of faith.

Jude 1.

In Jude 1, Jude talks about contending for your faith.

There is a contending that's involved in oneness.

But then also don't forget that you're in a war, but to fight for the relationships.

Who are the ones that God has given to you?

Now Jesus went up to the mountain and he was concerted about it.

And in that season, as he was starting his ministry, he asked, God, who have you given to me?

Every single person in this room, listen, every single one of us, God has given people to you.

You are the only one of you that they have in their life.

If you're willing to pray about it, to see God, God has given people to you that need the Spirit of God inside of you to speak into their lives.

And it's important that every that we all stop and we ask God, who have you given to me in this season?

And take it seriously.

And you're thinking, who?

Me?

What do I have to get?

I'm just telling you.

God has adopted you and his family.

If you have responded to Jesus, if you have not responded to Jesus, today is your day.

Come into the family of God.

He has plans and purposes for your life, and they're really, really, really good.

And he has called you into a new identity, and part of that identity is to join him in undoing the works of darkness and moving out into the world with joy and his goodness and the fruit of the spirit.

But I'm telling you, he has given you people, if you are willing to make a list, willing to seek the Lord, become clear, get clear on who God has given to you in this season and fight for those relationships, fight for a unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

Call them to be with you and to be with God.

And why?

Because, like we've already talked about, if there's ever been a time more ripe to demonstrate a new kind of oneness, I believe it's now.

I believe that's the opportunity before us.

I don't think we have to do anything spectacular.

We just have to actually be a people of all-inspiring love, which means responding to Jesus in an age of skepticism, in an age which where people aren't sure if they want to join a new thing.

They don't want to be recruited into a church, they don't want to be advertised to.

Trust is lower than it's ever been, especially with leaders.

But people are longing for a true and a better alternative to what the world is offering.

They want to see a oneness, the oneness that Jesus dreamed of, the oneness that Jesus prayed for, the oneness that Jesus died for.

Do not grow weary in doing good.

Do not grow weary in showing up.

There is a power in showing up.

You guys hear me?

Sometimes we can get fatigued by showing up to the next thing or the next Bible study, the next group, or whatever.

Resist the temptation to back out.

Resist the temptation to take a backseat.

Keep showing up.

Keep showing up.

Keep showing up.

Keep what?

Showing up.

Because Jesus is here.

Jesus is among us.

Jesus is doing a new thing in our day.

And we have an opportunity for us.

Let's pray together today.

Let's close our eyes.

God, today we turn our attention to the things that are on your heart, to your longings.

Jesus, we look at your prayer, we look at what you died for, we look at your vision.

Which in your vision, you imagined, you imagined a vibrant, resilient, endurant, buoyant church.

That did not buckle under pressure, that did not buckle under disagreement, but they found a way to fight for each other in strength and in weakness.

They found a way to be together, defined in your love and in your presence.

And as we turn our attention to that, God, I just pray for a response in our hearts.

God, our desire is to be an answer to your prayer.

Jesus, we want to be together in your presence, enjoying you together, just like we did this morning.

We want to enjoy you together.

But God, as we leave as well, I just pray for each of us that we know the ones that you've called us to fight for, the ones that you've called us to draw in close to ourselves, the ones that are supposed to surround our tables, Lord God, and that you would give us your heart and your energy and your spirit and then the spirit of love, Lord God, that we can extend your goodness and your mercy.

I pray for the ones here this morning, God, that have felt the loneliness, have felt the isolation.

And I thank you, Lord God, that you surround them right now.

You surround us right now with your loving presence.

And I pray, Lord God, that as we come into your family, that we can be, we can extend that life and that fellowship to every person that we meet.

That as we say every week, God, as every person comes into this community, as we make communities in our homes, in our living rooms, and other groups that we do, God, that people would experience your awe-inspiring love, the oneness of the Father, and they would know, Jesus, that you've been sent by the Father.

I bless the lookout family in the name of Jesus.

I bless you to be filled with all of the fullness of God, to walk in the unity of spirit and the bond of peace, to be a force of love in the days that you've placed us in, God.

We love you today.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm gonna invite the ministry team to come forward, our prayer ministry team.

You're gonna see them maybe on the side walls and in the front.

One of the things that during worship, I a picture I saw today was during worship as we were uh enjoying our time together.

I just I just picture Jesus actually going around to every single person in the room and just grabbing each one by the head and almost forcing you to make eye contact with them.

Say, look at me.

I love you, I bless you.

And if you're here this morning and you need someone to just, you need you need a blessing today.

You need someone to pray with you to bless you.

Maybe you need healing or prayer for something.

Uh maybe you just uh just want to talk to somebody.

The people that are kind of standing in the front and on the sides over here, you can come up to them, get a blessing today, pray with them, and uh and let's all stand together today.

Um, as we leave here today, you can go pick up your kids.

First thing, just go rush out, get your kids, bring them back in, have some conversation.

I want to bless you guys in the name of the Father and Son and the Spirit.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May He make his face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you and give you rest.

I love you guys.

Be blessed in Jesus' name today as you go.