What's In Store For '24?

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 that from the message for ways to

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

Happy almost new year. It is December thirty first, twenty twenty three,

and I hope you've had an awesome year. It has been a monumental

year for the Movement Church. On September twentieth this year, a bunch of

leaders got together right here in this house, at John Crestman's house, and

we made a decision that will forever effect the course of history for this church.

We decided to be an independent church. That night and for the next

fifty days, we just experienced really one of the most incredible seasons I did

at least of my life. Many of you walked through that season with me

as your pastor, and I've felt your love, i felt your encouragement,

and it was an amazing season, I think about Psalm twenty three. In

the year of our Lord twenty twenty three, What could be more appropriate than

Psalm twenty three. It says this, It says, the Lord is my

shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. It leads

me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are

with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a

table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with

oil. My cup overflows. I love that phrase. Surely goodness and mercy

shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in

the house of the Lord forever. Now here's what I love about Psalm twenty

three. It's kind of the story of the genesis of the Movement Church.

It's kind of what we experienced this year as the church became the Movement Church.

First, God is the one who shepherded what happened in our lives this

year. He is the one who led us. He's the one that led

us through the process. He's the one that made the whole thing happen,

wasn't any of the people that gathered on September twentieth. All of us were

making sense of the decision that He had made for us. He had made

it so clear to us he said go, and we said yes. And

really, in all of the conversations that I had with all of you,

every conversation that I had with every person, as I talked with you about

what the Lord was speaking to us, each of you kind of confirmed with

me that this is the same thing that you had felt, that you were

resonant with the idea, which further makes it clear that God is the one

that shepherd us through that process. So that's the first thing. Here's the

second thing. I love that He makes us to lie down in green pastures.

I don't know if you remember this or not, but the decision that

we made meant that we were starting this church, this movement church, with

zero dollars, zero assets, and zero clue where we were going to have

our first worship service. Let me tell you something that was scary as a

lead pastor, that was frightening for me to lead our church through that process

was absolutely terrifying. It was exhilarating. It was exciting because I felt the

Lord leading us, but oh my gosh, I was scared to death.

And our first service was in a green pasture, well as green as you

can get in October in Colorado and Palmer Lake, I was kind of more

brownish green, but it was in a pasture. We were out in a

field. And what was so cool was that we already knew that morning that

the building that was right behind us was the building that was going to be

our new home in the Twilight Center for the Arts. He made us to

lie down in green pastors. I love that. And the third thing is

that goodness and mercy have followed us every step of the way. It's been

incredible. You know, there was a moment, I think it was around

October second or third, when there were people working for the Movement Church volunteering

to help us get this thing going all across the country, people in California,

in Texas, in Nashville, in Florida, in Denver. There were

people all across the country working to help us make this thing happen. When

we made the decision on September twentieth, we were told that it might take

months for us to get all of the work that we had to get done

behind the scenes to make it happen. We had to get our five oh

one c three, We had to get our bank account, we had to

get a tax id. We had all of this work ahead of us.

We got all of it done in six days. And that is a testimony

to God's goodness and mercy. That has everything to do with how He led

us through the process. Credible. So he led us every step of the

way. It's been an incredible journey this year as the Movement Church has experienced

Psalm twenty three in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty three. I wonder

about you. I wonder about your year twenty twenty three. Would you be

able to juxtapose this year against Psalm twenty three. Would you be able to

look back and say, you know, as I think about my life this

year, as I think about how God led me, how he guided me,

how he shepherded me. As I think about what He led me through,

I can see his goodness, his rod and his staff. I can

see how he comforted me, he led me, He got it even through

the hard things, even through the scary things. God led me, and

he guided me. We've made a lot about this comment, this phrase,

that's sort of our theme phrase. We say it a lot that God is

not a monument. He's a movement and we get to be a part of

it. But you know, in the old days, in the Old Testament,

they made a practice of making monuments to God. They were called standing

stones. And what they would do is they would go and take big rocks

and they would stand them up out in a field and it would be a

memorial to commemorate some of the big and great things that God had done for

them in a given season or time of their lives. And I wonder if

you would do that this year. I wonder if you would look back on

your life and commemorate some of the things that God has done. Mary Mackenzie,

who is one of my favorite people. She's the one that came up

with the name the Movement Church. And when we talked about that, when

I told her, hey, listen, we're going to go with your idea

with the Movement Church, I asked her, would you like a plaque?

It seems to me like we should put a plaque up in the building somewhere,

and she told me, you know, I think I'd prefer a statue.

And so I said, well, would you like a miniature statue or

a life size statue? And she said, I think you know the answer

to that question. And so at some point we're going to have a life

size statue of Mary McKenzie in a building that we own, at some point

at the Movement Church, and that'll be a standing stone to that moment.

But I wonder if you would do that. I wonder if you would resonate

with the song, Come Thou Fount of every Blessing. I love the lyrics

of this song. It says, come thou Fount of every blessing. Tune

my heart to sing thy grace, streams of mercy, never ceasing, call

for songs of loudest praise. When I think about what you did, it

calls for me to sing songs of loud praise to your goodness. Teach me

some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above, praise them out. I'm fixed

upon it. Amount of God's redeeming love. He says here, I raise

my Ebeneezer. And what he's saying is my standing stone my rock. Here

I raise my commemoration of what you did for me. Here, by thy

great help, I've come, and I hope, by Thy good pleasure safely

to arrive at home. I wonder if you would do that. When you

think back on twenty twenty three, it's interesting to me that the first day

of twenty twenty three was January first, and the last day of twenty twenty

three is January is December thirty first. Both of them are Sundays, and

so as a preacher, my responsibility is to bring a message on both of

those days. On January first of twenty twenty three, at like five thirty

am, I woke up with a poem. I woke up that morning.

I was going to preach that day a sermon called Resiliency in twenty three.

And I woke up that morning and I felt like the Lord gave me this

poem. I'm going to I'll read it to you. This is what the

Lord gave me that morning. It said this. It says, the dawn

of days mark ceaselessly, so often without ponder. As one year more increases,

we do stop to think of squander, what have I done? Who've

I become? Our minds give space to thought, and should we choose to

silence them, our questions are for nought. In twenty three, Dear twenty

three, let fullness fill this soul. Let love and life and family and

faith affixed me whole. This was prophetic. I didn't know what was coming

when I wrote this. When troubles rise and fears surprise my heart, I

pray I'm ready to seek the one who's overcome and loves to hold me steady

when morning breaks a year from now, I pray have no regrets. If

asked of me in twenty three, it was my best year. Yet Now

I can't say that twenty twenty three was my best year yet. I don't

know that that's true. I think for sure that I'm walking into twenty twenty

twenty four believing that I don't have any regrets. I'm believing that I did

everything the Lord asked me to do, faithfully, honestly, earnestly, And

I hope that's true of you too. But it's time for you and me

to turn the page to twenty twenty four. It's time for us to look

at what's coming. And so I think, why not look at song twenty

four and read it and just get a sense for prophetically, what is it

maybe that the Lord might be calling us to think about in twenty twenty four.

I've always been this way every time I get into a new year,

especially in the last ten or twelve years, it's mostly been connected to weight

loss. I've connected like a year thing, like I'm trying to get lean

in seventeen. Like this has always been a thing for me. I've always

like attached something to that. Like in fact, in twenty nineteen, I

tried to trademark twenty and twenty because I thought somebody wants to lose twenty five

in twenty twenty. I had no idea that we were all going to gain

twenty pounds in twenty twenty because we're going to be stuck at home doing nothing

but eating. I didn't know. But anyway, the website was taken.

So anyway, as we look into twenty twenty four, I want us to

look at Psalm twenty four and just get a sense for what might be coming

and how we might prepare ourselves for it. So what's in store for twenty

four? Let's read this. In Psalm twenty four says this the Earth is

the Lord's and everything in it, The world and all its people belonged to

him, For he laid the earth's foundation on the seas and built it on

the ocean's depths. Who may climb the mountain of the Lord, Who may

stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure,

who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord's

blessings and have a right relationship with God, their savior. Such people listen

to this. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, Oh

God of Jacob, Open up ancient gates, Open up ancient doors, and

let the King of Glory enter. Who is the King of Glory, the

Lord strong in mindy, the Lord invincible in battle. Open up ancient gates,

Open up ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter. Who

is the King of Glory. He's the Lord of Heaven's army. He is

the King of Glory. So a good preacher always gives you three points.

So I'm going to close this out. I'm gonna give you three big declarations,

three big statements. Now listen. None of us know what's coming in

twenty twenty four. None of us have any idea what we're going to be

up against. You might have some vague ideas of some of the battles that

you've faced in years past. I know, maybe you might even be bringing

some battles with you into twenty twenty four from twenty twenty three. None of

us knows exactly what we're going to be facing in twenty twenty four, So

you might not know what you're up against, but you can know what you're

for in twenty four. So that's the name of this message, what I'm

for in twenty four. I know it's cheesy, that's okay. I want

you to hear these statements what I'm for in twenty four. So the first

one goes with this first section. He says, the Earth is the Lord's

and everything in it, the world, and all this people belonged to him,

for he laid the Earth's foundations on the seas and built it on the

ocean steps. So what if you would say in twenty twenty four, what

if this was a huge declaration that you just say every day as you walk

into your year, that you declared this my life is yours in twenty four,

all of it it already belongs to him anyway. So it's really about

your attitude and your spirit and your decision to say to him, I'm yours

God, I'm choosing to just give it all away to you. I'm choosing

to relinquish my life to you. Your Psalm twenty three said your rod and

your staff comfort me. How often would you say that that's true? In

your life? A shepherd very often has to use his rod and his staff

to get his sheep in line, because why because they're being disobedient, they're

not falling in line. They have to do the right things. Sometimes a

shepherd has to say, hey, get back over here, get back over

here. The rod and the staff are supposed to bring comfort because we decide

that we belong to him. So my life is yours in twenty four.

What if you decide that his rod and his staff would bring you comfort and

non aged. What if you decide that his guidance and his opinion, and

his ways and his statutes and his ordinances, his heart, his values,

his leadership was going to bring you comfort in this year. Let that be

the story of your life this year. My life is yours in twenty four.

Look at this in verse three. Who may climb the mountain of the

Lord. Who may stand in his holy place. It's not our holy place,

it's His holy place. Only those whose hands and whose hearts are pure,

who do not worship idols, and who never tell lies, they will

receive the Lord's blessing and have a right relationship with God their saviors. Such

people may seek you and worship in your presence. Let me give you the

point. We'll talk about it. Second statement that I want you to make

in twenty twenty four, I'll seek the Lord in twenty four, I'll seek

the Lord in twenty four. You see, fight, that's so obvious.

That's so easy, man. I gotta tell you from my perspective as a

pastor connecting with and talking with and interacting with so many people on all spectrums

of faith, who've come from all sorts of different denominations and growing up in

different understandings of Christianity, it's not that obvious. There are a lot of

people who have come to know the salvation of Jesus Christ and who have stopped

seeking him altogether. Listen. It is such a privilege, It is such

an opportunity for you and I to continue to seek the Lord. What if

we just decided that this year we were just going to do a bunch of

good stuff for God, but never seek him. What if we decided this

year that we were just going to be moral people, but never spend time

with Jesus. Man, I want this year for every good idea, every

grand vision, every meaningful impact that we make in our community, I want

it to be sourced from the time that we spend with Him. That's what

it has to be about. We could spend lots of time doing meaningful things,

but we can miss out on the most important thing. And what the

Psalmist is saying is that all of that work that you do to have clean

hands and clean hearts, to not worship the idols, and to not tell

the lies, all of that stuff that you do, to try to make

yourself clean before the Lord, what that does for you is it earns you

the right to seek the Lord. So man, seek the Lord, speak

after him, find him, because the Bible says that they. It says

that ask and it will be given to you. Jesus said this, seek

and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. One

of the great promises of your Bible is that if you seek him, You're

gonna find him. So we don't know what we're going to be up against

next year, but we can know what we're for. I'll seek the Lord

in twenty four. And here's the last one. I love this. David

switches from this language about worship and this language about seeking God. He speaks

in this prophetic moment. They start speaking about these ancient doors and these ancient

gates. Listen to this. He says, open up ancient gates, open

up ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter, who is the

King of Glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord invincible in battle.

And then he says it again in the second couple. He says,

open up ancient gates, open up ancient doors, and let the King of

Glory enter, who is the King of Glory, the Lord of Heaven's armies.

He is the King of Glory. Now here's what's cool. David is

talking about two different sets of ancient doors. The first set of ancient doors

he's talking about is the ones in heaven, the ancient gates, the ancient

doors in heaven. And what he's saying is, look, God, what

we're begging to happen is for those ancient doors to be opened and for you

to come on in the second set of ancient doors that he's talking about,

the second set of ancient gates that he's talking about, are the gates and

the doors that are protecting his own city. And what he's saying is,

the very things that we use in our lives to protect evil from getting in,

harm from getting in are the very things that's keeping healing from getting in

the very things that we do to protect our hearts from allowing good from getting

in because we don't want to get hurt is the very thing that's keeping God

from having access to us. And so the walls that you've put up to

keep you safe are keeping the help you need on the outside looking in.

And so what David is saying is, and what I'm saying to you is

then a statement that we need to decide to make in twenty twenty four.

What I'm for in twenty four is fling wide the doors. In twenty four,

fling wide the doors, fling wide the doors of heaven. Let the

King of Glory enter in. Fling wide the doors of my heart, Let

the King of Glory enter in isn't it time? Isn't it time that you

let him fight your battles for you instead of you just continuing to own the

fight. Isn't it time that you trust him to be the lord of your

whole life instead of sixty three percent of it? Isn't it time that you

take him up on his offer? Isn't it time that you let the King

of glory? Invincible in battle? What a promise? He hasn't lost a

battle yet. Isn't it time that you let him be the one that fights

for you? Your walls aren't keeping you safe. They're keeping you sick.

They're keeping you weak, They're keeping you stuck. So what if you just

allowed yourself to experience what victory feels like? This year? Who is the

King of Glory? He's invincible in battle? Let him in? Let him

in this year, Join a growth group, Join a d group, find

a place to serve this year. Start giving some of you have never chosen

to take the risk to give generously this year. Open up the doors,

fling wide the doors, take a risk, share your faith. There are

people in your life who you have never told that you believe in Jesus.

Fling wide the doors this year, share about who Jesus is to you and

what he's done in your life. Let the King of Glory in and let's

see what he could do with your life. So we don't know what we're

going to be up against in twenty twenty four. I didn't know what was

coming in twenty twenty three. I had no idea that the Movement Church was

even going to exist this time last year. Absolutely not. So I have

no idea what's going to happen in twenty twenty four. I don't know what

I'm up against, but I'll tell you what I can know what I'm for,

and so can you. These are the three statements I would encourage you

to make in twenty twenty. My life is yours in twenty four, I'll

seek the Lord in twenty four and fling wide the doors in twenty four.

I pray that those statements would lead you as you go throughout your year next

year. I love you, guys. I can't wait to worship with you.

I can't wait to see what God does in our church, in our

community. I think this is going to be an incredible year. God bless

you guys. We'll see us soon. 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 like to give to the number

eight four three two one, or look us up online at Movementchurch dot C.

You can in 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.