The Divine Preposition // Let's Get Moving

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from one

of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your faith

is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as you

engage the Word of God. Stay tuned back from the message for ways to

get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in. So

good morning, Welcome to the Movement Church right here at Bear Creek Elementary.

Who's excited about this new space? Anybody I want? It's exciting. We're

pumped up about it. Yeah. You know what's funny is whenever we went

looking for a space, when we first went looking for the bar, and

in fact, the barn was the only place that we could find, and

every elementary school that we looked at was closed and was like, dancer is

no We're like, oh okay, So the barn back in those days was

the only space that we could find. And then September and October happened last

year and we found the Trilad Center for the Arts and that was amazing.

But even while we were looking during that time, we were asking all the

schools. In fact, we asked Bear Creek can we get into Bear Creek

Elementary? The dancer was no. And then I guess sometime this year they

got a new principal and some new staff and at the moment that this thing

happened with the TLCA, when the doors got shut, we made a phone

call. We said, look, we know you guys have said no,

but would you be interested in having us? And they're like, yeah,

absolutely, it'd be great. And we came and we visited and they welcomed

us and they are actually really excited about us being in this space with their

school. And so we aim for as long as we're here to be great

partners with Bear Creek Elementary. We're going to work with their teachers, We're

going to bless their students. We're going to find ways to communicate to them

that God is for you and so will we. So I'm pretty excited about

that. It's going to be fun, really really fun to be here.

So we're finishing today our sermon kind of business as usual, but we're finishing

our sermons series called Let's Get Moving, And to do that, we're going

to get into uh, this this subject called parsing prepositions. Parsing prepositions,

Okay, we're in an elementary school. Elementary school is when you learn about

prepositions. Do you anybody remember learning about prepositions? Does anybody here remember it?

Okay? Well, then who who do you think could tell me a

good definition of what a preposition is? Does anyone have one? You won't

have? Can anyone say it? Does anyone know what a preposition is?

Huh, that's right, I know, I know what it is. I'm

asking you if you know what it is. Anybody here feel like you could

give me a good go ahead? Nancy it is You're correct. And the

way to say that would be this a word governing and usually preceding a noun

or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the claws,

exactly what Nancy said. This morning. I was telling Dana what today's sermon

was going to be about, and I said, it's going to be about

prepositions. And she said, oh, okay, what's a preposition? And

I said, well, let me give you a quiz, And so I

said. We were sitting at McDonald's and I said, okay, we are

eating at McDonald's. What is the word in that sentence? That's the preposition?

She said, we. I said, no, that's a that's a

noun. R No, that's not are eating? Come on, Dana,

that's a verb. And then she said McDonald's and I said, no,

that's the subject. She said, well, there is no preposition in this

sentence. So you forgot a word. The word at at is the preposition.

So now let me give you just a quick quiz. Are you ready?

Here's some words, and I want you to tell me what the preposition

is? Ready? The Chiefs play against the forty nine ers tonight? What's

the preposition against? This? The preposition? The Chiefs need to go down

today? Anybody agree with that sentence? Any Broncos fans come on. I

know we have a whole family of Chiefs fans back here, and I love

you, but this is Bronco nation, okay, And so anyway, the

chiefs need to go down? What's the preposition down? Is the preposition good?

The forty nine ers are in trouble? Anybody agree with that? The

forty nine ers are in trouble tonight? And what is the preposition? And

is the preposition? That's right? I'm sick of looking at Taylor Swift.

Anybody else here today sick of looking at Taylor Swift every five seconds? What's

the preposition? Good job, Dana. It's at tonight. Tonight, during

the halftime show, Fight will be singing along with Usher. That's going to

happen. I'm probably going to sing every word with Usher. I'm gonna try

all the dance moves. It's not a game. Yeah, yeah, it's

listen. Usher is my guy. This is a true story. One time

we went on a cruise and they had a karaoke contest on the cruise and

these people were getting up there singing these sad, tragic songs like there was

no fun happening. And so I walked up and I told the lady that

was running the karaoke, I said, we're going to do Usher, let

it burn. And so so I got up there and I get up on

the mic and I said, you know, tapped on the mic and I

said, I need all the ladies to report to the dance floor just like

that. And there was this whole table in the front and they were filled

with like all black women from the South, and one lady actually real loud,

so that I could hear it. She said, we'll see just like

that. And so the song came on to do the thing, and I

did this run. I went, it's like that, and she said,

Lord Jesus, and she grabbed all our friends said get up on the stands,

slow girl, and they got up on the looks. So anyway tonight

I will be singing along? Is the preposition with usher? Okay, let's

make a Christian. Jesus is on his throne. What's the preposition on?

Okay? Good? The devil is under my feet? What's the preposition?

Good? Job? You're seeing your learning? Isn't this good? We're smarter

than fifth grader's people? Come on? How about this one? Fike's sermon

went over my head? Anybody ever feel that way? Fike's sermon just went

over my head? What's the preposition under? Come on? Bill? And

there's no hair top Steve's head? Is there? Anybody know what the preposition

is? Now? We've said a couple of weeks ago that the Lord has

counted all the hair on our head, and Steve wanted me to tell you

that includes mustaches. He knows exactly how many hairs are in Steve's mustache.

Okay, the word is a top. How about this one last week we

did church at Chick fil A. Come on, somebody, that was amazing,

Right, So what's the preposition at that's right, and Fike needs to

move ahead. That's the last preposition, right, We've got it. It's

all clear. The reason I'm talking about prepositions is because I believe that for

very many Christians in the world, we have used the wrong preposition and it

has caused us to bring the wrong proposition to God. The wrong preposition has

led to the wrong proposition that we've brought to God. Many of us pass

our Christianity through the filter of a proposition. It really didn't start off all

that sentence. It's really not an evil or and ugly. Sometimes it comes

from a really, really good place. And here's what the proposition is.

And maybe you've felt this, Maybe you've had this moment in your faith life

where you've thought this thought, communicated this idea. You've said something like this,

Somebody tell me what God wants from me. Somebody tell me what God

wants from me? What does he want from me? What does he want

from me? And what's the key preposition here? From Somebody tell me what

God wants from me? What do you want from me? What is it?

God? What must I do to please you? Lord? What does

it take to make you happy? God? What can I bring as an

offering to satisfy you? Or how do I get you off my back?

God? Right? And at the root of these questions and propositions is a

questionable proposition, Sorry, a questionable preposition. And that is the word from

What does God need or want from me? From you? From us?

What's the answer? God wants absolutely needs, absolutely nothing from you. Do

you know that? Do you believe that that God does not need anything from

you? Because God is complete, He's complete. He's the alphae in Omega.

He's the beginning in the end. Before one day was he knew them

all to be. God is complete. He's not up in heaven saying if

I could just get Beth to do this one thing, then I would be

complete. If I could just get Marty to obey me, then I would

be complete. That's not what God's doing in heaven. God's not thinking that

way. He is complete. He lacks nothing, he needs nothing, He's

missing nothing. But is there a such thing as a fair trade between a

human being and a holy God would talk a lot. In fact, last

year we talked about this idea of winning the trade that we bring our mess

and God gives us his best. Is that a fair trade? Absolutely not.

It's not a fair trade. What could I give to God in order

for him to give me what only he can give? There is nothing that

you and I can do to get from God what we want from him.

So from is a really bad theological preposition. And that's really really good news

because I bet that many of you grew up in traditions of Christianity where you

felt put upon, where you felt like in order for me to be a

quote good Christian, I have to look a certain way, behave a certain

way, act a certain way. And if I don't live up to those

things, then I better at least pretend that I have. And so we

have this whole Christian circle of people that are trying to live from this terrible

preposition from But it's good news that God doesn't need anything from you, because

what that means is that He only wants good things for you. And you

ought to say God only wants good things for you. Look at this in

Romans. It says if God is for us. Who could be against us?

Since He did not spare even his own son, but gave him up

for us all, won't he also give us everything else? God is for

you. Look at the person next to you and tell him God is for

you. Come on, tell them God is for you. And look at

the other person, your second choice, and tell him, I think he's

for you too. Come on, tell him I think he's for you too.

God is for you. And so what does that mean? It means

that we need to change the way that we think about the Bible. We

need to change the way that we approach the Bible, because I bet that

many of you have approached the Bible through the preposition from what does he want

from me? What do I have to do to please him? What do

I have to do to make him happy? Let me read the Bible to

find out. Man, God's word is what God wants for you. Word

is about him saying I have prescribed a life for you, your best life,

how you handle your soul, your family, your finances, your home,

your future, your neighbors, and your church. It's all there,

and it's all good. The life that God wants for you is I love

this phrase, it's his very best version of human life. He said,

Okay, there is a best way, a best practice to live your life,

a way to be a human being that will bring you joy and peace

and sustenance and life. And I've prescribed it for you. And that's what

the Bible is all about. It's God's prescription for your best life. And

so the question that all of us should be asking when we think about our

Christianity is this one. What does the life that God wants for me look

like? What is the life that God wants for me look like? What

is it supposed to be? Now? Our answer, as we've tried to

be really succinct as a church to come up with our core values, and

it's the whole point of the Let's Get Moving series, Our answer to that

question are our core values. So the first one is growing in groups.

And this word growing is really important. If you think that you have learned

enough about Christianity, that you have learned enough about humanity, you've learned enough

about the heart of God, then you're doing it wrong. Okay, growth

is not a bug but a feature of the Christian experience. If you're not

growing, then you're doing it wrong. And so this is the life God

wants for you. And I believe that God absolutely wants you to grow not

in rows, but in circles. We believe that God wants for us to

be in community with one another because we can learn about ourselves and each other

by being around each other. So growing in groups is something He wants for

us. Serving in sincerity. You heard a great sermon from Melissa Janis about

this serving in sincerity, and I think we get hung up on this word

serving and we miss out on the beauty of that word sincerity because God doesn't

want you to serve in a way that He didn't make you to serve when

he came up with you. He said, you are one of one,

and there's one really specific way that you're going to serve that's going to bring

you joy, peace, susten its life. And when you find that sincerity,

man, you're onto something. So serving insincerity. Last week we heard

a sermon about giving in generosity. Beautiful sermon. This idea that God doesn't

want us to live from a scarcity mindset, but from an abundance mindset,

and that he wants for us to be free. Why does God love a

cheerful giver because he's free and God wants that for you. And then the

last one living on mission. And this is the idea that I preached a

few weeks ago, which is that ministry was taken out of the hands of

the professionals by Jesus Christ. He said, no, no, it's no

longer preserved just for the professionals. Ministry is going to be for everybody.

You're all going to get to participate in the growth of the Kingdom of God.

The greatest gift that God ever gave humanity was Jesus Christ. He gave

himself on the cross for us. But the second greatest gift that Jesus ever

gave humanity was the opportunity to participate in what He's doing on the earth.

He says, hey, come with me. I want you to see what

I'm doing and I want you to help me do it. Come work with

me living on mission. So those are our metrics as a church as we

think about what is this thing that we're building, who are these people that

we're trying to pour into, What is it that will be the DNA of

the movement church? These are our metrics, those core values, and it

works both ways. It's how we want you to evaluate us. It's how

we want you to evaluate me as your pastor is Fike and the Wisdom Table

and the staff and the leaders of our church. Are they working hard to

make sure that I'm growing in groups, that I'm serving in sincerity, that

I'm living on mission, that I'm giving in generosity. Are they providing opportunities

for me to grow in those ways? That's how we want you to evaluate

us. I know that you have lots of other ways that you would like

to evaluate me. I get that that's fine, you can add them to

the pile. But what I'm telling you is that this is how we want

for you to evaluate us, and it's how we are working to equip and

evaluate you because we want for you all to produce all of these core values

in your life, because it's what God wants for you, not from you.

That's what the Movement Church is fighting for. I love that preposition,

for it is probably my favorite preposition, or at least it was until I

wrote this sermon. Something has happened in my heart and my life in the

last two three months, and I'm going to tell you about it that has

changed. I still love for But there's one that's a little better, and

it's the one we're going to talk about today. Because when I think about

all of the things that the Lord did for me, I remember my life

before Jesus. Do you do you remember the hopelessness? Do you remember the

questions? Do you remember wondering where you fit? You remember thinking about what's

my life going to be about? What's my legacy going to be about?

I remember all of those things, and I remember the day that the Lord

grabbed me by the shoulder and said, come with me, Come with me.

I have a better life for you than you can even imagine. And

when I think about all the things that the Lord has done for me,

you know what it makes me want to do. It makes me want to

go do a lot of great things for him. It makes me want to

go, Okay, God, I'm going to suit up. I'm going to

go earn this salvation that you've given me. I'm going to go prove you

right. I'm going to go nuts. I'm going to go crazy doing all

the things I can to do things for you. I'm going to just run

myself ragged to do things for you. And I think about that, Father,

son relationship that father daughter relationship that we're all supposed to have with the

father. And I think about my two boys, Justice and Judah. This

is a picture we took in Breckenridge this summer and Justice was very very proud

of his guns, and he wanted me to show you a picture that displayed

them. And so sons out, guns out. But Justice and Judah are

just so precious to me that they mean so much to me. I love

these boys and a lot that I have done as a father, I've done

for them right. I've provided a home for them, an education, I've

provided quality time with them. I've provided a lot of things for them.

I've done all this because of how much I love them. Right, Moms

and dads, we do the things that we do because of how much we

love are kids. And I can't imagine how I would respond, because it's

never happened. If my kids were to come to me and said, Dad,

we've been thinking about all of the great things that you've done for us

as children, and the way that you've loved us and provided for us and

protected us. They don't say these things to me. I'm saying if they

did, and if they were to say to me, Dad, what can

we do for you? What can I do for you? Now? Some

of you are like, I've got some thoughts the dishes your room. Right,

I'm sure that you could think of some things. But man, I

didn't give the love that I gave to my kids so that they would do

something for me in return. Right, That's not why I did what I

did. I did it because I love them, And that's the way the

Father is with us. And so my prepositional priorities are changing. Obviously,

we've talked about the fact that from is bad theology, and I believe that

for is good as long as you keep it one sided. God wants a

life for you, and he's not in heaven wondering when you're going to do

great things for him. Okay, that's not what he's doing. He did

everything that he did for you because he loves you, period, and you

do not. There is no obligation on you to return that and to earn

that and to prove him right. That's bad theology. And so I'm going

to tell you what I think is God's favorite preposition, and then we're going

to unpack it. And I think it's the preposition that as a father matters

the most to me, especially now that Justice is in college. Whenever he's

home, I think about this preposition because it matters so much to me,

and it's this word with. I believe that with is the Lord's favorite reposition.

The Lord loves to be with you. Do you know that he loves

when you're with him? He loves to be with his children. With is

the very nature of God. With is the core of who he is,

and it's at the core of what he wants. It's why he did what

he did. It's why he sent his son on the cross for you,

because he wanted to be with you, in relationship with you. God's favorite

preposition is with. And just for the purpose of today, because I like

the way it sounds, we're going to say that the word with is the

divine preposition. Then that sound epic, Then that sounds big with the divine

preposition. And so I'm going to give you three pieces of evidence that I

think support this idea, and then we're going to talk about something pretty cool.

So here's three pieces of evidence that support the divine preposition. Number one,

God has never been alone. Did you know that God has never ever

been alone, you say, right, But at the beginning it was just

God. Right. But God has never been alone. Listen to what John

says. In the beginning was the Word, and the word was say with

me with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning

with God. All things were made through him, and without him there was

not anything that was made. So in the beginning, we have this Father,

we have this son, we have this Holy Spirit. There's a passage

in Genesis that says at the beginning of time, the Holy Spirit of God

was hovering above the face of the earth. God is plural. God has

never been singular. He's always been plural, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Now what's interesting about that is after Jesus left and after these early church

fathers started making sense of the things that he had claimed that he had said,

and then they juxtapose it up against the Old Testament, they began to

realize, we need a word for this, We need a word for this

idea that God has never been alone. And so it took three hundred and

twenty five years. It was introduced in two thirty five by a gun named

Tertullian. This is a polaroid of him, and it was finally agreed upon

by the Council of Nicea in three twenty five. So think of that.

It took three hundred and twenty five years for these people to come up with

a word that describes this concept that I'm talking about. To you. Now

you've heard this concept before, so it makes sense to you. But it

was blowing their minds that in the beginning was this singular God who had three

distinct parts, and so God was never, ever, not ever alone.

In that word, of course, is Trinity, Trinity, Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit, three distinct and important persons, but one complete God

in fellowship with himself. With is the divine preposition. God has never been

alone. Here's the second point. The promise of Messiah was the promise of

with Think about this. It was pretty clear pretty quick that human beings weren't

going to be able to live up to the standards that God had for them.

So Adam and Eve messed it all up for all of us. You

know, one day we'll all kind of say thanks a lot, Adam,

thanks a lot of Eve, Right, we'll have that moment in heaven.

And so then there had to be a new solution. And the solution was

that God was going to send a Messiah. It took seventeen hundred years before

he did, but he sent Jesus, and Jesus was promised in the Book

of Isaiah. Listen to this, It says, then he said, here

now, o house of David. It is a small thing for you to

weary men, But will you weary my God? Also therefore the Lord himself

will give you a sign. This is what we talk about every Christmas.

Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his

name Emmanuel. Now what Bible scholars, does the word Emmanuel mean God?

With us? God said, okay, here's the deal. I'm going to

send a part of this trinity, a part of myself to you to be

with you. With is the divine preposition. The promise of Messiah was the

promise of with. Now that's pretty cool. So for thirty three years,

this man, Jesus, who was one hundred percent God and one hundred percent

man, walked in a certain region of the world and touched and communicated,

and everybody that met him and came in contact with him were changed. They

were affected by him. But that was such a brief time and such a

small geographic portion of the earth, and so Jesus couldn't be with us all,

but the Holy Spirit can. And so Jesus has this incredible claim.

Now you got to think about this. These guys have been waiting seventeen hundred

plus years for the Messiah to come, and Jesus says this crazy thing to

him. He says, I did not say these things to you from the

beginning because I was with you. But now I am going to him who

sent me, the Father. And none of you asked me where are you

going. But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled

your heart. Listen to this, it says, nevertheless, I tell you

the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if

I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But

if I go I will send him to you. The Holy Spirit is to

our advantage. It was good that Jesus would go away, because Jesus could

only be with a certain amount of people for a certain amount of time.

The Holy Spirit can be with all of us. In the Book of Acts

Is they're kind of scratching their heads, going, Okay, WHOA what just

happened? Jesus died on the cross, he resurrected, and then he's about

to send into heaven like that. They're freaking out of all all of this.

And it says in Acts one, verse four, once when he Jesus

was eating with them, he commanded them. They're remembering this moment. Do

not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift promised. As I told

you before, John baptized with water, but in just a few days you

will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now this is absolutely the spookiest part

of Christianity. It's the hardest part to explain to people who are confused or

who are like atheist or agnostic. Because inside of each of you, who

have confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, is the living God. Should I

repeat that, inside of each of you is the living God. God didn't

just want to be with twelve guys. He wanted for all of us to

be with God. And by the way, this is so important. We're

going to talk more about the Holy Spirit as the year goes on. But

the Holy Spirit is not an it. Do you know that the Holy Spirit

is not an it. He's a person, and he's with us. He's

so with us that he's within us. Maybe that's his favorite preposition, within

within, That's a beautiful preposition. The Holy Spirit is within each of us.

He's so with us that he's within us. God's favorite preposition is with

So the third piece of evidence, Jesus couldn't be with us all, but

the Holy Spirit can. So that's what this series has been about. The

series has been about our core values. It's been about who we are.

It's been about growing in groups, serving in Sincerita, living on mission,

giving a generosity. And again, all of those ideas answer a question,

what is the life that God wants for us look like? That's what these

core values are supposed to answer. So what does he want? What does

the life look like? It looks like growing in groups, serving in Sincerita,

living on mission, giving its generosity. But over Christmas, as I

was preparing for this series, I'm really we were going to end last week.

Last week was going to be the end of the series, but I

just felt so convicted that there's something missing. There's something missing in that list.

There's something that's very very crucial, something assumed that simply cannot be,

something presumed that simply must not be see, there's this scene in the Gospels

where Jesus is speaking to a group of people and he tells them what I

believe are the seven most tragic words in the whole Bible. These seven words

should haunt us, these seven words should convict us, These seven words should

remind us of what preposition matters the most. We're going to talk about it,

But what I realized in thinking over Christmas is that there is a core

value that is missing from our list, our list of who we're trying to

produce. These people that do for God, these people that live on mission

and serve in sincerity and grow in groups, and you know, these people

that are that are living for God, there's something missing. So I want

to show you this. In Matthew, chapter seven and haunting, haunting scene,

Jesus says this, Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord,

will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of

my Father, who is in heaven on that day, many, how many,

many, many will say to me, Lord Lord, did we not

prophesy in your name? Have we not cast out demons in your name?

Do we not do many mighty works in your name? And then I will

declare to them, here's the seven words, I never knew you, depart

from me, you workers of lawlessness. Seven tragic words. And here's why

it's tragic, because the people he's talking to are us. He's talking to

Christians. He's talking to people who would say, Lord, Lord, I

did so many good things in your name for you. I did so much

for you, and Jesus says, uh huh, But I never knew you.

I never knew you. We didn't have a with relationship. You did

a lot of four and you understood the from but man, you missed with

I read this book over the Christmas break. It's a little book. I

actually gave it to Mackenzie and she was supposed to bring it to me today

to hold it in my hand, and she forgot it. So it's her

fault. But it's a book called The Practice of the Presence of God.

It's written in the seventeenth century by the sky named brother Lawrence. If you're

looking for a book to use for devotionals this spring, I would say get

on Amazon and buy this book. It's tiny, but it's weighty, it's

powerful. The book is all about this idea. It's all about this concept

that God's favorite preposition is with that he wants to be with you, and

he wants you to be with him, and that you've got to figure out

how to make that a part of your life. You've got to figure out

for you how to do that. I bet every person in this room has

opened up their Bible at some point in their life read whatever they were supposed

to read. Maybe you're the one year Bible. Maybe you're in one of

our men's groups and you're supposed to read five chapters in a week, and

so this week you read Acts chapter three and you go, yeah, I

got nothing out of that. Right, No one's going to confess with that

in church, I understand. But all of us have had that experience where

we've read the Bible and Gough, I mean, it's just words. I

didn't get anything out of that. There was nothing for me in that.

Today, I didn't get anything from that. You're hearing my prepositions in that

experience, and Jesus what he wants to communicate to each of us is it's

not about getting something from it, and it's not whether there was anything for

you in it. It's about spending time with him because he is the living

Word, and so Jesus, he just wants, He just wants us to

be with him, because the more we're with them, the better. The

more we're with him, the more we understand him. The more we're with

him, the more we understand ourselves, the more we understand this life,

the more we're prepared for the traps of life, the more we're equipped for

the mission God has set before us. Each of us must make space for

God's favorite preposition, spending time with him. And so I'm gonna now reveal

to you our fifth and maybe final. Maybe we'll keep adding core values to

this list as the church goes. We're only four months old. Who knows,

But right now our fifth core value is practice His presence, Practice his

presence. And I would just ask you do you do you practice the presence

of God in your life? You say, fight. It's so hard for

me. My life is so busy. You don't understand my life, so

chock full of stuff. I'm up at five am. I'm dealing with the

kids. I drop them off, I go to work, I got work

all day. I get home, I pick them up, I cook dinner,

we get them to bed out. Then we collapse right, So,

did you spend any time today God world? Did you spend any time today

with ing? H? I like to use it as a verb. Have

you you spend any time today you know, with God? Even if it's

just five, seven, ten minutes? Where you go? Okay? Lord,

I have a one hour lunch break. Ten minutes of this lunch break

is you and me, whatever it is, do you spend time with him?

Because I'll tell you what would be a tragedy if the only time you

ever spend with God is here at church on Sunday. That the only time

you ever worship Him is when somebody's up on a platform singing songs that you

can sing along with. But that's the only time in your week that you

worship God. That is a dysfunctional relationship. Okay, If that is the

only time that you spend time connecting with him. Can you imagine if the

only time you ever talked with your wife was on date night. If the

only time you ever actually communicated with your husband was on date night or on

a vacation, man, your relationship's not going to make it right. We

have to spend quality of time with each other. Karen Murphy loves to go

on hikes. Karen, I didn't have any pictures of you on a cliff,

so I used this one instead. But I know from talking with Karen

that those moments for her are so important, and that is a with moment

for her. She's with God and nature, experiencing his creation and communicating with

him. Maybe you need to get a loan with a Bible and just be

by yourself in a still quiet room. Maybe you need coffee first. I

get it, I understand, and some of you should say amen to that.

But the point is, is prayer a part of your life. And

by prayer, I don't mean just that you're speaking to God and telling him

everything you think, but that you're listening, that you're communicating with the Lord.

Christianity is a relationship with God and not a religion, and you ought

to say and that's good news. Guys. People that you know that are

religious are not your favorite people. You don't have to admit that in church,

but it's true. People that are like super hyper rules oriented. Those

people are living in kind of a system that's causing them to live on the

wrong prepositions either for or from But they're not living with God. I don't

want anybody who's a part of the Movement Church to ever hear these words.

I don't want any of you to ever have to hear Jesus say this to

you. But Lord, we did a Easter egg hunt for you. Okay,

depart for me, you workers of iniquity. Right. It reminds me

of the story of Mary and Martha, and we'll close up with this.

You know the story of Mary and Martha. These are two women in the

ministry of Jesus that very precious to Jesus. He was often at their home

for dinner and he was often connecting with them. And Martha and Mary were

very different people. They had very different perspectives on Jesus. Look at this

in Luke chapter ten. As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to

Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him

into her home. So she's got the gift of hospitality. She's welcoming him

into the home. And her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to

what he taught. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that, right, except

Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing She came to Jesus and

said, Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits

here while I do all the work. I love that Martha presumes to tell

the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords how he should lead Mary.

He says, tell her to come and help me. Tell her to get

up off of her. We'll leave it there. Tell her to come and

help me. Nobody ever feel this way, anybody ever kind of like you

are the Martha in your home and nobody's helping you. Okay, you can

relate, all right. Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus. Martha is

cooking Verse forty one. But the Lord said to her, my dear Martha,

you are worried and upset over all these details. There is only one

thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not

be taken away from her. Mary has discovered the one thing that matters.

And what's the one thing that matters with Mary is sitting at the feet of

Jesus, just connecting with Jesus. She's right there with them. She has

a relationship with Jesus. Now, I would also just say, as a

parenthetical thought, if it weren't from Mark Martha, nobody's going to eat tonight.

Okay, So, like I don't want us to bag on Martha,

not Martha Taylor, but Martha. We don't want to bag on Martha,

right, But there is something that Martha needed to learn in this moment.

She's so busy doing for God that she hasn't spent any time with God.

We have to be so careful as Christians not to fall into that trap.

We need to practice his presence. We need to learn how to dialogue with

him, how to talk with him about everything, how to let him into

every corner of our hearts and our minds, how to cherish and value our

time with him. We need to learn how to practice his presence. I

want to show you this clip. This is from my favorite TV show of

all time, The West Wing. I love the show and these are two

characters, Danny and CJ. Now, I got to give you some context

of this clip makes a little sense to you. Danny is he's in the

press, he's a reporter, and CJ used to be the press Press secretary.

Now at this point in the season, this is season seven, she

is actually the chief of staff for President Bartlett and they've just had an election

and a new president has been elected. I won't tell you who it was,

but it's twenty years ago. It doesn't matter, like spoiler alert,

it's you know, Matthew Santos, who cares anyway. So this guy,

Matthew Santos has come along and offered CJ a job. Now they are trying

to figure out their relationship. They're trying to figure out how to be with

each other. And earlier that day she has sprung it upon him that she

got offered a job in the White House, in the next White House.

And part of this story that you need to understand is that CJ's life does

not belong to her. When you work in the White House, your whole

life is built on serving at the White House. She gets five hours of

sleep a day and the rest of it is completely in the servitude of the

president. That's the way her life works. So how's she going to fit

Danny into her life? How's she going to do with Danny if she's working

in the White House. So they had a huge fight and now they're about

to talk with each other. Now that's the setup for the scene. Here's

how I want you to think about this. I want, for the purpose

of this scene for you to be CJ. Okay, everybody in there are

male or female. You are CJ and Danny is God. Okay, so

when you watch this scene, that's how I want you to understand it.

Yes, what is it? They're not married yet they're figuring it out.

Yeah, good question, Richard. Here we go watch this scene and remember

you are CJ and Danny is God. Watch this. I miss the that's

what's going on here. I missed the window to figure out how to do

this, how to share my life with another person, how to be a

partner, or whatever condescending way you put it this out time. I wasn't

trying I know how to do it. Maybe at one point I did,

maybe I never did. But it's over now. It's too late. This

and skiing. It's too late. It's not gonna happen. You said yourself.

It's not an accident that this hasn't come together. This is who I

am. I'm good at my job, Danny, I'm good at working.

I'm not good at this. You're right, you're gonna need a tremendous amount

of training. You're not gonna I am actually me. Well, I'll call

it something else that sounds bad, but we'll deal with it. I don't

need training. Of course, that's not funny. No, it isn't.

You're gonna get good at it. We're gonna get good at new things.

You don't know that I do. Don't make it sound like it's nothing.

It didn't miss it. What if I did it, didn't miss it.

If we can, we'll figure it out, all of it. You can

be scared, that's okay, But you're not gonna walk away from me because

you're scared. I'm not that scary. So do you want me to take

one of the board of directors jobs? I want you to do what you

want, take the job at the White House. I just want you to

talk to me about it. I want to talk about what it will mean

and I will make it work. I want us to talk like we're going

to figure it out together. I want us to talk because I like the

sound of your voice. I just want to talk. Franklin Hollis wants me

to take ten billion dollars and go and fix the world. That sounds like

fun. Does that sound like fun to you? Do you want to work

at the White House? There's a typo in the Constitution. Well, someone

should look into that. Toby's going to deal with it. Okay, what

else? What are they learning how to do? They're learning as a relationship

how to practice each other's presence. And by the end of it, once

they've gotten past all the fear and the insecurity of I don't know how to

do this, I don't know how to open my life to someone else,

he just says, well, you know, tell me about your day.

Well, Franklin Hollis offered me ten billion dollars to fix the world. That

sounds fun. Yeah, it does sound fun. That's kind of the relationship

that we can have with God. That's what it is. Are you willing

to open your life to him? Are you willing to make sure that you

don't let Sunday mornings the only time that you practice His presence? Guys,

if there's one fear that I have as a pastor, it's that we build

this Sunday centric experience that is the central and most important part of your week

with God. Man, this is supposed to be And I'm glad that it's

the Super Bowl because I get to say this this on Sunday mornings. Is

supposed to be the pep Rally, not the super Bowl. Our time together

on Sundays are raw. Rah there, Let's get fired up about what God's

going to send us out in the world to do. And we can't accomplish

anything for God, Jesus said, abide in me for a part for me,

you can do nothing. We can't accomplish anything that we want to accomplish

for God unless we practice His presence. So what is the life that God

wants for me look like? It looks like growing in groups, serving in

sincerity, giving and generosity, living on mission, and practicing His presence.

And by the way, he doesn't need that from you. Do you know

that God doesn't need you to practice his presence. He doesn't need that from

you. He wants that for you. There is nothing on this side of

heaven that is better for you than time with God, time with Jesus.

Nothing else is going to satisfy you. Nothing else is going to heal you,

nothing else is going to bring you peace, nothing else is going to

bring you hope. But time with Jesus. He said this. I love

the message translation of Matthew eleven. It says, are you tired? Are

you worn out. Are you burned out on religion? Nobody say yeah,

I am, I'm sick of religion. Come to me, Get away with

me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a

real rest. Walk for me and work for me. Is that what it

says? No, walk with me and work with me. Watch how I

do it. Learn the unforced of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or

ill fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live

freely and likely. That is the life that God wants for you, is

that you would live your life with Him practicing his presence. Amen. Amen,

let's pray Jesus, thank you for wanting to spend time with us.

Thank you Lord, that you desperately want for us to just tell you about

everything, tell you about our hearts, and tell you about our fears,

and tell you about our dreams and our concerns, and to tell you about

what's going on inside of us and helping us to make sense of ourselves in

the process. I pray for my friends here today that as we go out

this week into the world, all of us wanting to do so many great

things for you because of how much you've done for us, that we would

not forsake time with you, that we would practice your presence, that we

would start each day looking up to You, fixing our attention on the author

and the finisher of our faith, and saying, Lord, this is the

day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad and it

have your way in my life in my heart today, God, I pray

even for myself, Lord, that you would help me to do this.

I get so busy in my life doing for you that I don't spend nearly

enough time with you. And I just confess that that is the church that

you want for us to be, a church that practice is the presence of

God. We love you. We thank you for this beautiful place that we

get to do worship in, and thank you Lord for the gifts that You've

given us and the gift of the Holy Spirit that is within each and every

one of us. I pray God that each of us would spend quality time

not just today, but every day of our week with you in Jesus' name.

In that So, what's God leading you to do next and how can

we help? Would you send us an email to info at Movementchurch dot co

and tell us how we can pray for you and help you take the next

step in your spiritual journey. If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry,

text the amount you'd like to give to the number eight four three two

one, or look us up online at Movementchurch dot c. You can find

the Movement Church on all social media platforms, and we hope that you'll give

us a follow God bless you, and remember God is for you, and

so are we.