The Power of Toil | Is This Thing On?

Hey, um for the last um six weeks or so we've been I think trying to communicate where we feel like we're supposed to go as a church for the next year.

Our hope in describing where we're headed is that you would go with us.

And so we've been leaning into a theme that we have as a church, and um we're we have a sense that God's inviting us into a season of harvest.

He's placed a burden on our hearts for people who aren't here and for seats who aren't that aren't filled, and we're trusting him that he's gonna add to this family over the next year, and he's gonna do that through us.

We want our church body to be mobilized, uh to reach our communities, reach the world, but but really reaching the world feels like a bit much.

We're actually asking people to just consider one, reach the one, the one person who's close to you but far from God.

We're asking you to serve, love, pray for, and reach out to that person this year.

We've been running with a theme, it's called Every Believer Makes a Believer, Every Leader Makes a Leader.

I actually got that from Madon in Nepal.

It sounded better when he said it.

Um even in his broken English, I was like, that's so profound.

And Madon seemed so sure that this plan of discipleship was gonna change his nation.

So he continues to tell his church, hey, every believer, make a believer, every leader make a leader, and in time we'll see the kingdom come in Nepal.

And so that line, that simple line in his broken English just really got stuck uh in my head.

And we're leaning into it uh this year.

This sense of direction was confirmed in many different ways over months of seeking God together.

Um, but one of the things that came and confirmed God's word to us was something that God put on Lori Riley's uh heart out of Colossians 3.

And so I asked her if she'd be willing to share that with us.

She's shared it with our staff, she's shared it with our leaders, and I was like, you know what, I think the whole church needs to hear what God's placed uh on your heart.

And so I've asked her to do that, and then I'll close our time uh together.

But if you've not met Lori, she directs our next gen ministries here at the church, and she's gonna share with us.

Thanks, Travis.

Um, yeah, so like Travis said, uh near the end of the school year, I was reading in Colossians, and I felt really stopped in my tracks at a certain um passage.

It's out of Colossians 1.

And um it threw me off because it didn't seem like the kind of passage that I'm attracted to in any way.

It wasn't one I've ever seen written on embroidered on a blanket or, you know, hung on someone's living room wall.

It was not one of those passages.

Um, so let's read it.

It's in Colossians 1, and it says, Christ we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me.

And I didn't quite know why I couldn't shake this.

I wasn't clear on what God was asking me to do with this verse.

Um, like I said, toil and strive wouldn't be my favorite Christian words.

And I just honestly don't feel like I've heard them for a while.

Um, we usually are like, don't strive, you know, don't get too tired.

Those are the things I'm kind of used to hearing.

So I'm like, what is this?

What is Paul asking us to do?

And what on earth does it look like to toil and strive, not in our own strength.

I definitely know what that feels like, but what does it look like to toil and strive with God's strength and energy moving through us?

So these were the questions that I'm just kind of mulling around.

Um the context of this passage is Paul, and he's talking about his sufferings, he's talking about his ministry to the church and his desire for the gospel to go forth, his desire to see believers brought through into maturity, to see Christ formed in others.

And this goal and charge that he had was something that he deemed worth suffering for.

He was willing to receive abuse from this, he was willing to be persecuted for this, he was willing to give his whole life up for this goal.

Um, so God kept bringing me back to this passage, and I just, you know, made some little notes like what does this look like this year for us to struggle and toil with his energy for others?

What's the struggle we're called to take on this year?

And um Trav has shared this previously, but there was a group of our elders and leaders that went to a conference that's held every year with our network of churches, Confluence.

And when they got back, um our staff was sharing this message that Trav shared, like this every believer makes a believer, this call to intentional discipleship, that every disciple would be making a disciple.

And um it just kind of clicked with this uh Colossians passage for me.

And I just felt like this was the invitation from God, like this is the struggle, and this is the fight that we're supposed to sign up for this year.

There are a lot of fights we can pick, there's a lot of ways we can spend our energy, tons of ways we can get tired in life, but this is one that God is saying, like, this is a good tired, this is the right kind of fight to pick, this is the struggle I want you to take on.

And it's seeing people um brought into his kingdom and family, it's seeing Christ formed in others, and it's worth giving our lives to.

Um, we're gonna look at that passage again, and I like looking at words, it helps me like get the meaning of what God's trying to say.

So it says, for this I toil, and that word toil means to labor with a wearisome task.

Again, I'm kind of used to hearing that that's something maybe I should avoid.

But here Paul is saying, this is good.

This is a good kind of weary to enter into.

It says that we're gonna be struggling, which means to enter a contest, to contend with adversaries.

When we're trying to see Christ formed in others, or we're trying to see someone who's been living in darkness brought into the light, there's opposition to that.

That is not something that the enemy is like really excited that we're doing.

So it is like entering an arena to fight on someone else's behalf.

It's to endeavor with strenuous zeal.

And the good part of this is that while it's asking us to do something really hard, to toil, to labor, to get weary, we get to do it with his energy.

So that um word for his energy is the same word that's used in Ephesians when it says his incomparable great power for us who believe.

It's the same word used for when it describes Jesus being raised from the dead.

So this is not just like, I'll give you a little boost.

This is the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead and brought him to life.

That is the same power that Christ has promised to put inside of us when we get in the arena to fight on someone else's behalf.

That is the kind of energy he wants to put in us when we are trying to bring people through into maturity and see people saved and see people discipled.

That is what he's promised to give us as we sign up for this fight is that kind of power, that kind of energy.

Um, so my sense for us is not that we're like, hey, this year we're gonna get really tired together, but also just that actually we're gonna be tired in the right kind of way.

So we're gonna be tired either way, right?

We know that, right?

Okay.

I'm in my 40s, I'm tired all the time.

Um, so but God's calling us to be tired for the right reasons.

There's a good tired when we lay our head on our beds and we're like, like, I partnered with God today.

I did the good work, I fought the good fight.

That's the right kind of tired to lay our heads down on our pillows with.

And we know the feeling where we just like expended senseless energy in a lot of unproductive, unfruitful ways, too, right?

We know that feeling as well.

So God wants to invite us into a good tired this year where we're partnering with him to bring his kingdom, and also he wants us to take an honest look at where he's going to lovingly bring us away from using our energy in the wrong directions and the kind of tired that's just tired in vain, right?

So, my sense is just um this question of who over what this year.

Who am I going to toil and struggle for this year?

What can I not be toiling and struggling over to make space for that who?

There are a lot of fights we can pick, and this is a fight that's worth fighting.

As I sat with um God on this passage, um, I got some like images and pictures that were helping me kind of flesh this out.

Trav talked last week about how God uses our imagination so we can partner with him to bring the kingdom.

So as I sat with these passages, a few images came to mind.

One is out of um 1 Corinthians 9, 24, and this is Paul talking again, and he's talking about like we're runners in a race, and we're actually wanting to run in a way where we win the prize.

And he's exhorting us, don't run aimlessly.

Um, running is gonna make you tired.

If I I could not think of anything more tiring than running, I'm not a runner.

Just the thought of running down the street makes me feel very tired right now.

But imagine, like, when you run, you want to run, I would assume, I'm not a runner, but in a straight line, right?

Like that would help.

Having a goal, having a mark, having something you're running after.

And that's what Paul is like exhorting us to.

Stop running in 50 directions.

You're expending all this energy and it doesn't have a purpose.

He also says, I don't fight like a boxer that just beats the air.

So we're called to be intentional and deliberate.

We're gonna be focused and persistent.

We want to have a target and a bullseye that we're aiming towards.

Um, there's this uh story in 2 Kings that God brought me to.

It's in 2 Kings 15, 18.

And the prophet Elisha is telling this king to like do this prophetic act.

And he tells the king to strike the ground with arrows.

He doesn't tell him, he gives him, that's the only instruction, just strike this arrow on the ground.

He doesn't tell him how many times to strike it, how long to sustain that.

He just says strike the ground.

So the king only strikes it three times and gives up.

And Elisha rebukes him because he gave up too quickly.

And he says, okay, because you only struck the ground three times, you'll win three battles.

But if you would have kept striking the ground, you would have won the entire war and you would have decimated your enemies.

And I mean, it oh, that story was interesting to me because it feels kind of unfair.

Like he didn't tell him how many times to do it, but that's the kind of invitation we have is we get to partner with God in faith.

We're not in charge of outcomes, we're not in charge of producing life in anyone else.

We can't do that.

And we're not told how many times it's gonna take to knock on that neighbor's door.

We're not told how many conversations we get to have with our kids about the same thing until the breakthrough happens.

We're just called to persist by faith in what God's asking us to do.

We're called to keep loving, to keep going, keep showing up, keep praying, and we don't know when that moment is a breakthrough.

And so I feel like that is part of the invitation for us to just keep going.

There's a promise of harvest when you sow.

That is what God has promised.

Our job is to sow.

We're not in charge of the outcomes or what is produced or even when it happens.

We put that seed in the ground and then we're like waiting and waiting.

And then we're like, it's ripe.

We get to come harvest.

And God is calling us to a season of persistence and deliberate going after it with people.

Um, once I saw this, um, I kind of kept seeing it all over Paul's letters.

So it's like when you get a new car and you think you're the first one to have that car, and then it's the only car you see on the road.

Maybe because Eric and I's first car was an orange Honda element.

But I was like, no one's ever owned this car ever before.

And then everywhere you go, you see your car.

You weren't that original, but I read that verse, Toil and Strive, and I'm like, never heard of that.

And then it just everywhere, all of Paul's letters, that's the theme.

So I'm just gonna hit a few of those for us real quick.

Um, he says, I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you.

He was always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in the will of God.

He has worked hard for you.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and our toil.

We worked day and night.

For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God.

We endeavored all the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face because we wanted to come to you.

We pray most earnestly, day and night, that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.

In Paul's letter to Timothy, he's like using words over and over again: train, toil, strive, put this into practice, persist in these things, fight the good fight.

He's using images like boxing and running and physical training.

So we're called to intentionally toil as partners with God.

And in order to do that, um, we we gotta stop running and expending our energy in all the wrong directions because God wants our labor to not be in vain.

There is a harvest promised, there's a goal to this, and we get to partner with him, and he wants to invite us actually into a life that is yes, there's labor and toil, but we're actually experiencing his energy, his power, the joy and partnership of getting to bring his kingdom.

Um, so as I was reading Paul's letters, you know, when he's talking about toil and strife, there's usually some other things kind of surrounding that that he's like, hey, stop doing these things.

These are the things that are actually causing you to run in all these other directions.

And um none of them are that easy to hear.

I'm gonna be honest.

Um, but as I was thinking about that, you know, there's a proverb that says, it's I'm gonna mess it up because I'm not reading it, but it basically says, like, it's better to receive a blow from a friend than a kiss from an enemy.

So here, let's just hear these blows, these little kicks to the shin from Paul, as him coming to us like he did the churches in all these letters, as like an affectionate, loving father who wants to see us run the race well.

He wants to see us um get to partner with God.

He wants to see us get to partner to bring God's kingdom.

So it's not him just saying hard things to us.

He wants to like help us that all of our energy and labor that we're doing is not gonna be in vain, that we get to see a harvest from it.

So here's a couple things he wants us to stop doing and that are gonna get in the way of the good kind of tired he's called us to.

One is um the fear of man and people pleasing.

We just can't reach people or win people when we're operating under a people-pleasing fear of man spirit.

Um, when Paul's referencing toiling for people, he specifically says, We speak not to please man, but to please God.

We never came to you with words of flattery, nor did we seek glory from people.

I'm gonna do these fast, okay?

Because Travis is still talking after me.

Um, the next one, I really didn't like this one the most, is um out of 2 Thessalonians, and it's idleness and the word busybody.

And I haven't heard that for a long time, and I do not like that, and I do not want to be called a busybody, that's horrible.

But let's just hear the verse.

Uh, 2 Thessalonians says, Paul says, um, with toil and labor we worked day and night, but we hear some of you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.

And that word busybody, I'm used to hearing that as like a gossip, but actually the meaning of that word here is bustling around in useless things, busying oneself in useless matters.

And I, for one, can relate to that.

Um, you know, I just was starting to think of how much maybe I know about people's lives, not because I had coffee with them or because they were on my couch, but because I saw that, saw their life through a screen.

I think that could be the definition of busybodiness.

Um, maybe unintentional, but how many times maybe I would be quick to send the prayer emoji hands on as my response to someone's need or hurt rather than get in my car and drive straight to their house.

Or, you know, reach out in person, get into someone's space.

We're living a lot of our life disconnected from people.

We're living behind a screen, and we need to be in each other's business.

The right kind of busybody, I guess, if there is a right thing.

I also was just thinking, man, this is wild, and I'm sure there's like a book written about it, but how are we the busiest culture ever?

Yet there's an idleness to our busyness too, right?

Can't you kind of relate to that?

Like there's almost a busyness and a boredom because we're maybe really busy doing a lot of things, but not a lot of it is like bringing a lot of fruit or meaning.

So somehow those can exist.

We can be really busy with our schedule and then bored.

And I don't hear any boredom coming out of Paul's mouth.

Like he is in the arena, he is fighting and contending for people, like he is in it, and there's also this crazy amount of joy and satisfaction that he's experiencing getting to partner with God and be about God's work.

And I know that that's what we want for our lives.

Like we want that kind of satisfaction, we want the joy of getting to be in on the action with God.

Um, the other thing uh that gets in the way of this is in 1 Timothy, as Paul is exhorting Timothy, and he said, Timothy, you need to aggressively fight the love of comfort and money.

Um, don't run after these things.

He says, Those who want to get rich fall into To temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmless desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

So Paul just says it like it is and exhorts Timothy, like he actually says, don't run after money, flee it.

Like run as far as you can away from that love of money.

Fight the good fight.

Take a hold of the real life.

Keep your focus and don't spend your energy here.

The next area I was seeing is just operating out of your own strength.

So again, we have all experienced a type of toil that has come from trying to make things happen on our own.

We can get very tired operating in our own strength.

And that's not what God is asking us to do here.

He's asking us to work with his energy that powerfully works within us.

So there's a grace and a partnership when we say yes to the things of God and we lean in, his power and grace is right there to give us what we need to do what he's asking us to do.

And I feel pretty called out on this one too.

Like I'm a mom, I'm called to disciple and toil and labor over my children's lives to see Christ formed in them.

When I get tired, it's not because of that.

I mean, there's a lot of things tiring about being a parent, but when I'm most tired, it's because I'm actually my toil is in worry.

I'm toiling in control.

I'm toiling in trying to fix or make something happen.

I usually am not tired from like praying too hard.

Does that make sense?

So this is the invitation.

Like, you God never asked you to do anything in your own strength.

And as we say yes to him and enter this contest for people, he's promised to give us his Holy Spirit to empower us to do the work.

But it's not in our own strength.

It's actually, he's doing all the heavy lifting.

So he's saying toil, but what that really is is like plant seeds.

We're not producing it, we're not bringing the life, we're not doing the heavy lifting here.

Um, the last thing I wanted to uh just think about here is uh self-preservation.

Um I think this is like a big one because I think this is the cultural soup that we're swimming in.

Um I don't know like if you've heard some of these phrase phrases, uh protecting your peace.

There's a lot of cultural mantras around this idea of living a life with big boundaries, protecting yourself.

Um if it costs you your peace, it's too expensive.

That's a phrase I've been hearing.

Um, we hear a lot about toxic people, toxic relationships.

And I don't think all that's bad.

I think we were like way over here, maybe, and then we swung that pendulum and we just went way too far in this direction.

So I feel like this is just like in we've overcorrected, and God's word wants to bring us back to reality and the truth.

And um the truth is we're called to lose our lives.

Like he said, if you if you really want life, you've got to lose your life in order to save your life.

And he's not called us to a life of self-protection and self-preservation.

We can't move away from everything that drains us.

Um I mean, Trav and I were talking about, let's think about who Jesus hung out with.

There were some toxic relationships going on.

Um, Jesus allowed a betrayer that he knew was going to betray him, and he got to stay in his company for all of that time.

So don't take this where I'm not taking it.

You know what I'm saying, but there is a bearing with one another that God has called us to.

We're we're Christians.

We get to, we have God's energy and strength that we're bringing into relationships.

So we read about Paul's life.

He suffered abuse, he suffered misunderstanding, he suffered accusation.

Two times he described his life and he used these words.

My life is being poured out like a drink offering.

And he actually said he was glad about it and rejoiced in it.

He was finding so much joy and satisfaction, not in like protecting and saving his life, but in actually pouring it out for the sake of Christ and others.

So our peace and our rest, they're found in abiding in Christ and doing this with God, not in self-protection, not in isolation, not in self-care or like thick boundaries around our life.

And I mean, Danny was reading that verse about like, who could separate us from the love of Christ?

And like this peace that God's given us, it isn't fragile.

It's really sturdy.

This is like what enabled Christ to do wild and crazy things and be with hard people.

And it enabled this energy and peace and joy that Paul's operating out of.

That's the same thing being offered to us.

So this isn't a fragile thing that we need to hoard and protect, but it's actually a joy when we get to give our lives away.

The sturdiest people I know are giving their lives away.

It's true.

Um, and I think some of us, uh, myself included, us, um, we're we're missing out on that, you know, those words where it says his energy, meaning the energy that raised Jesus from the dead, that power that Jesus performed all of his miracles with, we're missing out on those experiences because we're not extending ourselves to the point of needing to see Christ come through for us, right?

If we're only doing what we can do in our own strength, we don't get to see his power show up in crazy ways.

He has promised that out of our weakness, we get to see his power and strength.

That's how that works.

So it's not us pulling up our bootstraps at all.

That's not ever the message, but in jumping into the deep end, in extending ourselves, we get to see Christ show up in our lack and we get to see him move in miraculous ways.

So that the toil and the strength get to go hand in hand.

So Trav's gonna keep talking about Paul's message to us.

I'm not really good at transitions.

So let's let's do it.

You were so scared people were gonna hate you for saying all this.

Wild, it's been met with wild applause.

As Lori shared with me what God was talking to her about, I mean, I could tell she was convicted.

I started to feel convicted, and then I thought I'd pass that on to you guys.

So you're welcome.

I didn't want to have all that conviction, so I'd love to pause.

I don't really want to put a sermon on top of a sermon.

That was really meaty.

So why don't you just close your eyes for a sec as a way of digesting what we just took in and want to ask you one question?

What's something that God's been speaking to you about for months that you're supposed to eliminate because you're weary for the wrong reasons.

Or maybe you're busy being idle.

Something that's trivial, but it's making you tired.

It's not a good tired, it's a bad tired.

And God's been speaking to you about it even before you got here this morning.

What's that thing?

And who's someone?

Who's someone you want to see Christ formed in?

Who's someone that you want to strive to see mature in Christ?

You want to see them take the step of faith and belong to the body of Christ.

You want to see them mature and become more like Jesus.

And God's given you a heart for them.

They're close to you, but they might be far from God.

But you've got real equity in their life, and God's inviting you to struggle, to strive, to contend, to persist, that Christ would be formed in their lives.

And I have something real similar uh happening for me, and the reorientation that's happening for Lori personally is having effect on who we are corporately, and some of the reorientation that's happening for me, a recalibration maybe, is having an effect on our church corporately as well.

So I just wanted to talk about it briefly.

It's a bit of a theme this morning.

I noticed initially Robbie stood up and he said, Hey, when we think about testimony, we think about reaching people who are outside the church with our testimony.

But what if our testimony is also meant to strengthen people inside the church?

And we all went, hmm, that's a thought.

And then Lori did something similar.

We hear the word struggle, we hear the word strive, we hear exhaustion, and we go, no thanks.

But what if the Christian life involves these things, not just avoiding these things, like God wants to give you peace.

What if God wants to give you the energy to really struggle, contend, and strive?

Hmm, interesting.

I've been going through something similar because I have thought so highly of innovation.

We prize it in Western culture.

And I've also been repulsed by the idea of imitation.

We're encouraged to be an original, we're can we're encouraged consistently to express our individuality.

We're told often to put our own spin on it.

And when I think about imitation, I think about the oak leys that my mom wanted to buy me in Tijuana that weren't real oakleys.

And I was like, no, I want the real ones.

She's like, you can't tell the difference.

I was like, everyone in middle school can tell the difference.

Trust me.

When I think of imitation, I don't think about the crab that I want, I think about the crab that I can afford.

And it's fake.

And I don't do fake real well.

I hate fake, and you can spot fake.

And my mom would be like, those stucy shirts are three for ten dollars.

And I'd be like, no, those aren't real Stussy shirts.

I've really thought innovation is where it's at, and I've overestimated the importance of innovation, and I've underestimated the importance of imitation.

And what's reorienting me or adjusting my understanding is the scriptures.

I still think innovation is a really important thing.

But I'm also now starting to see the power of imitation.

Like I'm not talking about fake, I'm talking about imitating someone else, of not doing your own thing.

I started this church when I was 25.

I'd been on staff at other churches, but in a really small way.

So I love storming and forging and creating.

But rarely do we talk about how much trust it takes to follow, to submit, to obey, to run the play.

It requires us to trust God in some pretty profound ways.

And I'm discovering for me personally that it maybe requires more faith for me to stay than to go.

Does that make sense?

So here's what happened.

My story is similar to Lori's.

God rarely speaks to us one time in one way, He usually speaks to us in multiple ways over a season of time.

And like pieces of a puzzle, we start to put it together.

Unfortunately, we don't often get the message the first time.

So he'll hit it from a lot of angles.

Can I get an amen?

A lot of angles, a lot of suffering, a lot of going around the mountain.

So here's what starts to happen for me.

We've been leading these mountain events for the last few years, and they're like a four-day freedom intensive.

And there's nothing that, you know, I was talking to someone this week and they were like, what the heck happens up there?

You just keep inviting people to go, and you don't tell us anything about that thing you do.

What happens up there?

And I'm like, well, there's really no magic to it.

There's not.

We do together what the Bible tells us to do, and there's incredible freedom that comes from it.

So here's the big idea: 12 men, because I don't go to the women's one, but 12 men go up to the mountain and they do exactly what they're told.

You should gasp at this point.

You should be like, wait, what?

My husband?

Yeah, your husband.

We tell him when to wake up, we tell him what to eat, we tell him when he can go to the bathroom.

And he does it.

It's crazy.

It's crazy.

And here's what I'm discovering at the mountain, because at the end of the at the end of the four days together, there's so much life that comes from submission and obedience.

And there's so much death that comes from doing your own thing.

Basically, freedom happens when men say, I'm not in charge.

And destruction happens when they say, I think I got it.

That's it.

That's the mountain.

I just described it to you.

You should come.

Okay?

So I'm I'm up there and I'm watching this happen and I'm thinking, hmm, maybe there's something to this submission deal.

Maybe I shouldn't be in charge of my own life.

And maybe these men shouldn't be in charge either.

Maybe other people should tell them what to do.

It seems to be going better for them.

Okay.

Second piece is in Viselia here, we've adopted this leadership pipeline.

And I'm usually really resistant to programs, especially programs that make big promises.

So this leadership pipeline is a way of raising up leaders in your church.

And it's put together by a guy named Mac Lake, and he has a southern accent, and it he sells it all, you know.

And I'm just like, the more I'm hearing about it, I'm like, no, thanks.

We'll cook from scratch, you know?

Well, you could have community groups.

No, we're gonna call them packs.

Put our spin on it.

So I'm re I'm resistant to anything that kind of promises if you do this, then you'll get this.

Anyone else struggle with this?

Anyone else think it's holy?

So anyway, I'm I'm I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna do that.

And then I start reading one of the books, and I'm like, dang, this is like super helpful.

And then I start reading another one, and I'm like, oh shoot.

Then we start doing some of it.

It's been really life-giving around here.

A ton of health has come to our teams.

We didn't cook it up, we bought the package, we ran the play.

And I found myself thinking, hmm, I wonder why I'm drawn to things that are new and novel, things that I came up with and I designed.

Why can't I just run the play?

What's my problem?

Why, when people tell me to see that movie, is it almost certain that I won't see that movie?

What is going on in me?

And I don't think it's God.

Okay.

Then my third, I end up with a conversation with Alan Frau.

Alan Frau spoke at our 20th anniversary.

Alan Frau leads a church in Los Angeles.

Alan Frau is a musician.

Alan Frau is creative.

Alan Frau's covered in tattoos.

Um, Alan Frau would be a fellow lover of putting your own spin on things or making it your own.

So one of my other buddies who lives in the Midwest, he lives in Kansas City, his name's Dylan, and he's not creative.

He has no tattoos.

He's not a musician, and he just wants something to work.

He's more pragmatic in that way.

He calls Alan.

And Alan tells me, Your buddy Dylan called me, and I'm like, oh yeah, what did he say?

Well, you won't believe what Dylan said.

Dylan asked me what we do.

I'm having to reorient myself because this feels like a longer fall.

And I am toying with the hedge here.

So Alan's like, hey, your guy Dylan called me.

And I'm like, oh yeah, what was that about?

And he was like, Well, it was the craziest conversation.

Dylan asked, What do you guys do to raise leaders at your church, Alan?

And Alan told him, This is our elder track.

This is what we do to raise leaders.

And then at the end, Dylan goes, Okay, I'm gonna do that.

And Alan goes, No, no, no, no, no.

You have to like make it your own, dude.

You have to like put your spin on it.

And Dylan goes, but I thought you said it worked.

And Alan was like, Yeah, it does work.

And he goes, Well, I'd rather have it work than put my spin on it.

And Alan was like, Can you believe he said that to me?

And I was like, No, I can't believe he said that to you.

Because Alan's used to talking to pastors like me on the West Coast that value creativity, individuality, expression, who insist on being unique.

And it was like the creativity and the individuality of the West Coast, which is our value, met the meat and potatoes of the Midwest.

And Dylan was like, why would I reinvent the wheel?

That's dumb.

And it was like, well, so you could be a, you know, an original.

I don't want to be original.

I want to be faithful.

And I want the church to work.

That got me thinking, man, what is it about me?

Why do I prize innovation, individuality, these kind of things?

Then I started reading my Bible and going, huh?

Paul never asked me to put my spin on it.

Jesus never told me to make it my own.

Not once.

He never asked me to do my thing.

He asked me to do his thing.

Over and over again.

And I'm bringing this up because I'm all for creativity, but there's a reorientation happening here because there's a fine line between creativity and independence, and there's an even finer line between independence and rebellion.

Cloaked, and that's not what God has for me.

Don't tell me what to do.

I'll cut the sleeves off any dang shirt I want.

Is the world we're in.

And uh I just wanted to share this.

This this was shared at our celebration event, but I wanted to make sure the whole body heard this because it's changing the way that we do things around here, and I want you to know why.

Um you're like, why does Trav just want us to run the play now?

And that's not where I'm at.

I still love creativity, but man, I'm just noticing like we're a part of a body of believers.

We're a body of believers.

And I don't like it when certain body parts of mine do their own thing.

Do you?

I've got one eyelid that's just quitting altogether.

I smile and it just goes, I don't know, like a sock that all the elastics out of it.

It just falls.

And then it twitches, and I'm like, I wish you would just do your what God designed you to do.

Why don't you just do what don't make, don't put your spin on it.

Do what you're told to do.

I don't want, I don't want, I don't want body parts that do their own thing.

You don't either.

And now I'm in charge of thousands of people who are like, I think I'm gonna put my spin on it.

And I'm like, eh, this is hard.

We're a part of the Lord's army, and as you can tell by looking at me, I've never been a part of an army.

But I know for sure, I know for sure no soldier is told to put their spin on it or make it their own.

You take this helmet, I don't know, put a mohawk on it.

No, that's not what's happening.

Paint it whatever color you want.

You paint your helmet, they're gonna take your head off.

We're the temple, the temple of God.

He's stacking us like living stones, and he's coming to dwell inside of us with his Holy Spirit.

There's been construction in every building we own.

Our kids' building, the sanctuary, amigo row.

We're getting visited by building instructors all the time.

Not once has a building instructor told us to put our spin on it.

Like, you guys do what works for you.

No, they're like, those stairs better be seven inches tall and no higher, or else no one gets to go up those stairs.

I just wonder sometimes, again, if we've over-emphasized innovation and forgotten how powerful it is to imitate what's what's imitable, like what we see in others and go, I want to do that.

I don't want to make it my own.

I want to do exactly tell me how tell me how to do exactly what you did, and I'm gonna do it.

I think it requires a lot of faith.

Paul praises the church in Thessalonica for becoming imitators of him.

And then guess what?

The church imitated him, and then others begin to imitate them, and they affected the entire region.

This church became a base church and filled the region, not through innovation or individuality, but through imitation and doing exactly what Paul did.

And Paul says, I want you to imitate me.

I want you to imitate me.

And he says, these three things in my life are imitable.

He says, I want you to imitate my message.

My gospel is God's gospel, and so it's our gospel.

I didn't make it up, I received it, so you give it faithfully.

Don't take the gospel and make it your own.

Don't put your spin on it.

We usually accommodate our idols instead of throwing down our idols when we take it and make it our own.

It empties it of its power.

And Paul would say, imitate my message.

My message is the message, it's our message.

Don't take it and make it your own.

Then he talks to this church about his method.

He actually says, This is how I did it.

I wasn't out for personal gain.

Lori read it actually.

I wasn't using flattery, I wasn't deceiving anyone, I wasn't in it for the money.

There was actually nothing in it for me.

Do it like that.

Don't lord over others with your position.

And then he says, I actually have a motive.

I have something driving me that he says, imitate it.

I want it to drive you.

And he says, I was with you like a father.

I was with you like a mother, not just a mother, but a nursing mother.

I was willing to give you my life, not just to talk.

So here's what I want you to imitate, church.

Make this message your message, make my method your method, make my motive your motive, and run the play.

We're gonna close our time together by lifting up Jesus.

We're gonna take communion and we're gonna do what's been done for thousands of years.

We're gonna remember Christ, his body broken, his blood shed for us.

And I'd love, if you would be willing, if God's put someone on your heart that you want to contend for this next year, would you write their name on that baptismal back there?

We're about to cover it up, but I know a lot of people have added names to it because you're believing God for this person to come through.

You can add their name in Sharpie.

That teal plastic gets covered up with a black um, I don't know.

Cover shell.

Neither of those are great options.

What's the word I'm looking for?

Liner.

A liner.

A black liner goes over that.

Would you stand with me?

I could have just run the play, but I had to make it my own.

Jesus, thank you for this opportunity on Sundays to be reoriented and to reconsider things, and and especially to do that in light of your word.

We get so caught up, so swept up in the trends that are pulling us in a certain direction, and we're just really thankful for the dry ground, the rock that we get to wash up on, and the way you help us think through things.

Would you continue to lead us?

Thank you for your commitment to us, even when we're pretty wrong-headed about things.

Thank you for your blood, your body, your mercy that's not fragile.

Thanks for going again.

Continue the construction in us, Lord.

We don't want just new carpet or a place to meet.

We want you uh to work on the layout inside of us and tear down things that would hinder us from becoming who you've called us to be.