Our Rule of Life - An Introduction

Well, let us get into it this morning then.

So our scriptures for this morning as we kick off this new series.

Let's begin with Matthew six verses nine to 10, and that little super paper in

there, we will get to that, so stay tuned.

That will make sense in a moment.

All right.

This then says, Jesus is how you should pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is.

In heaven.

And now we go right to the end of Matthew's Gospel with Jesus' final

recorded words in his, in Matthew's gospel here, and he's speaking to his

disciples and he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name.

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to obey everything I

have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

All right, before we dive into Jesus's words here in these two

passage passages, I just wanna take a moment to talk about hope.

So, earlier this week, I was listening to a podcast interview with a man whose

life has been devoted to the mission of saving the Amazon Rainforest.

Now, in this.

Two and a half hour long interview, which you know, you speed up so it

doesn't actually take that long.

Um.

He didn't sugarcoat anything.

He spoke very honestly about the brutal environmental reality that we're

facing, the disaster that is potentially not far away if things don't change.

And yet what struck me wasn't so much the urgency of his message.

It was his posture.

He spoke with hope, not denial.

Not naive opt optimism, but a steady ground of confidence that there is still

time for transformation, that things can turn, that change is still possible.

And I actually realized as I was listening to him, how rare

that posture is these days.

So much of what we hear, the news podcast commentary carries

an undertone of inevitability.

Decline feels certain, collapse feels assumed.

The future often sounds closed, but to hear someone speak with genuine

hope, it was like a balm to my soul.

I really feel it was a spirit highlighting something to me through the posture

of this man who was being interviewed.

And I found myself thinking, I need more of that.

We need more of that.

We need more hope.

And here's what struck me even more.

As the interview unfolded, it became clear that this man was

actually a follower of Jesus.

His hope wasn't floating in some vague optimism.

It was anchored somewhere deeper than the immediate reality in front of him.

Which brings us to this morning.

So if you're a follower of Jesus here this morning, hope is not something

that you have to manufacture.

Hope resides in you.

It is part of your inheritance in Christ.

The question is not whether hope exists.

It's whether we will activate it or not.

So as we come to this word today, I wanna invite you to

lean in with eager expectation.

Do not approach this like an interesting TED Talk on the subject of a rule of life,

which we will explain more in a moment.

Approach it with the conviction that transformation is actually possible for

that is the point of this whole series that God can form you, transform you,

that your life can change, that the world around you can be touched through your

obedience to Christ, that there is hope.

For transformation here.

So if we approach, if, sorry, if we apprehend what God is saying to us today.

We can be changed and we can participate in the transformation then in the lives of

those around us, in the world, around us.

And that is not a small thing.

That is not theoretical.

That is the promise of the kingdom at work.

That is what Jesus is talking about in those two passages there.

And maybe hope feels hard for you right now.

Maybe the place you find yourself in makes hope, feel really distant.

But let me ask you, what do we gain by being hopeless?

We may as well posture ourselves towards an eager expectation of God's goodness.

A posture of hope blesses our own souls.

It blesses the world.

I was blessed by listening to this man, have a posture of hope about the state

of the world, not one of despair, and ultimately, our hope glorifies God.

So let's begin there.

Let's begin this morning with hope and with that posture, let's

return to these two scriptures that we began with this morning.

And so why am I drawing your attention to these two passages specifically?

Well, they actually form what we understand here at Red Door as to be our

purpose, our vision as a church community.

So if we've just got that next slide up there.

Thanks Sabrina.

And this is our vision here at Red Door and it's.

Plagiarized, but it's from the Bible.

So that's okay to see his kingdom come and his will done on earth as

it is in heaven by making disciples.

That is why we are here.

So in Matthew six at the center of the Sermon on the Mount,

Jesus teaches his disciples.

To pray.

And in doing so, he reveals what burns in his own heart.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And that's how he begins in the Lord's prayer.

And then in Matthew 28, Jesus has now been crucified.

He's now risen.

He stands in resurrected authority and he commissions his disciples now

in the fullness of their apostleship into their central task, which is what?

To make disciples.

So the kingdom mission of Jesus is what is about disciple making, inviting

people into a lifelong apprenticeship to Jesus within his kingdom community

where they are baptized, taught to obey his commands, and then themselves become

disciple makers in that same pattern.

And so this morning we're beginning this series, our Rule of Life,

and the purpose of this series is not to introduce a program.

It's not to create hype.

It's not to add more religious activity to your already full lives.

The purpose is to stir vision and desire within us for a life

of transformation in the grace.

Of God, a life of abiding, a life of ness with Jesus so that we would become

salt and light for the glory of God, for the good of the world, and for the deep

delight and satisfaction of our own souls.

And hear me in this, I'm not saying that this isn't already

present in our church family.

It is in so many beautiful ways, but I know for many too, there is a

disconnect between the promises of God and what you are experiencing

in your daily lived out reality.

And so really what this series is about, it's about the how often in

church we can get really good at talking about the what, and sometimes

we can be a little bit remiss.

In talking about the how, well we talk about loving God, but how do I love God?

We talk about loving our enemy, but how do I love my enemy?

We talk about following Jesus, but how do I actually do that?

What does that practically look like?

And that's really where we're going in this series.

How do we see his kingdom come?

It's a great thing to say it.

It's a staring thing to say, your kingdom come, your will be done.

How?

'cause not by shouting it really loud that it's gonna happen.

How do we do this?

How do we participate in his disciple making mission?

How do we experience the deep transformation that is needed for

our belief and our practice to align?

'cause I think some of us really struggle in that space too.

There's a cognitive dissonance we can feel because what I believe, and yet what

I'm practicing, what I'm experiencing, there's a lack of alignment there.

So what is the kingdom of God?

Let's start with answering this question.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

He's not giving us abstract religious language here.

The kingdom of God is wherever the risen Jesus' Lordship is

acknowledged and it's lived out.

It is wherever the will and the way of the king is done.

The kingdom is not merely future.

It is present.

Wherever lives are surrendered to Christ, wherever lives are

surrendered to the will of God.

Often in church, we can get the message a little bit messed up.

You, Jesus prays Your kingdom come on earth as is in heaven.

But often the gospel is portrayed as actually how to

get us from earth into heaven.

But it's actually the other way around.

It's how do we become this great thought.

As I was reflecting on my message during the week, or maybe it's not

great, maybe it's just amusing to me.

Um, but as I was praying through this message and I was just

like, oh, the phrase containers for change came to mind, right?

That's all we're meant to be.

Containers for change.

Yeah.

For the glory God and for the good of the world, and just for the,

the good of our own souls as well.

This is what life and life abundantly actually is.

That we would be containers for change.

Recycle us, Lord, recycle us.

Oh gosh.

I really like and appreciate this, um, particular definition

of the kingdom of God.

It is the rule and reign of God advancing here on earth, bringing healing and

wholeness by pushing out the chaos.

Oh, I like that.

Say that again.

All right, say it again.

Thank you.

It is the rule and reign of God advancing here on earth, bringing healing and

wholeness by pushing out the chaos.

So good.

So how do we know?

And how do we do God's will, as Jesus would say, by being

disciples And what is our disciple?

This might feel a little bit 1 0 1 to some, but I think it does us

well to often come back to what we think can think of as the basics.

But actually they are just so much the foundation of who we are

as Christians, and so a disciple is an apprentice to Jesus.

One who is with Jesus with the desire and intent to become like him and

to do the things he did to bring the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

So Jesus says in John 14, six, I'm the way, I am the truth.

I am the life.

Discipleship is learning the way of Jesus being formed in the truth of

Jesus and living from the life of Jesus and helping others to do the same.

And at the end of it all, this is about life being discipled and discipling

others into true life, abundant life.

But apprenticeship requires formation.

So an apprentice and mal, you will know this very, very well.

Mal lives in the world of apprentices, don't you, Mao?

It's wonderful, isn't it?

Mao Apprentice.

Chippies, an apprentice to a qualified carpenter is one who

is being formed into a carpenter.

An apprentice to a qualified hairdresser is one who is being

formed into a hairdresser.

An apprentice to Jesus is one who is being formed into the likeness of Jesus.

So I think that language of apprenticeship can be really, really helpful.

So, which means the real question becomes for us, this what is forming you?

Is it Jesus?

Or is it the world around us?

Who are you actually apprenticed to?

Uh, not just in word, but in actually the actual reality of your life.

Who or what is forming you, Jesus, or the world?

And there are powerful forces shaping us every day.

Really, really powerful ones and not good ones.

Cultural narratives, the media ambition, fear, success, metrics, consumerism.

These forces are all at work around us.

And so let's for a moment.

Ask a deeper question.

What is the tell us of your life?

I've used this word before, but what does it actually mean in

case you're not familiar with it?

So, Telus is an ancient Greek word referring to an ultimate

end purpose or fulfillment.

So Aristotle used this word to describe the final cause, the highest

good towards which something moves.

So to say you believe in Jesus is to say that the tell us of your

life, the ultimate aim of your life.

Is Jesus, and it is to become like him and to do the things that he did, but

saying it and actually believing it.

Two different things.

So what is the tell us of your life.

Is it christlikeness?

Is it seeing his kingdom come through?

Surrendered obedience.

Or is it Comfort financial.

Security, affluence influence, contentment without surrender.

And Jesus says in Matthew 6 33, but seek first his kingdom and

his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Seek first the kingdom.

Life aligns.

Seek first the things of this world, the soul empties.

So we often feel a gap between what God has promised and what we experienced.

I said this little moment ago.

And what do we do when we experience that gap?

Okay?

It's best not to go into denial.

It's best to actually feel it and bring it to the Lord, but when we

sense that gap, and I know many of us do at times, you know, sometimes we

wanna eliminate that desire, convincing ourselves to not hope too much.

Sometimes we can drift into hype, exaggerating, spiritual experiences

to try and control outcomes.

We've all been there, haven't we?

And sometimes we slide into idolatry and we just try to use the things

of God to make our lives run well according to the way we want them to go.

But the gospel offers something better.

Not denial, not hope, not control, but formation transformation.

Which then leads to the next question, how do we become people of the kingdom, this

kingdom that Jesus spoke so much about?

So for better or for worse, this slide here, these are the key forces that have

a transformative effect on our lives.

Sorry, if you're struggling to read that Le, let me read that to you.

So we've got the narratives that we believe, the stories that we

live into, they form us whether they are true or not true.

The stories we believe, the stories we tell have a deeply

formation impact on our life.

The habits, the practices that mark our lives form us.

We all know this.

If you have good, solid habits of exercise, you will be formed

into a fit person, right?

Habits form us.

This is not rocket science at the end of the day, and the community

that we make ourselves accountable to, the people around us have

an enormous capacity to form us.

You know, for those of us who are parents in the room, we know what it's like to

have our kids be unhelpfully formed.

By other children sometimes, you know, and they, they make

poor choices around friends.

You know, this is often the journey parents will experience as they're

watching it, watching your kids go, oh yeah, that's not great.

I'm starting to watch that community rub off on you in ways that are

not good for your formation.

So community has a powerful formative.

On us.

So how do we believe and embody narratives that are true?

How do we cultivate and engage in community and in relationships that are

sanctifying for ourselves and others?

And how do we cultivate habits of sanctification?

So that word sanctification.

A bit of a Christianese word, but it's just a way of saying

formation into Christ's likeness.

How we become more like Jesus.

And so how do we cultivate habits and relationships and stories that

are true and good that form us in ways that are good and godly.

And into the likeness of Jesus that we would become true containers

for change in the world around us.

Well, a rule of life is a really helpful way, and we'll go define

that more in a little moment.

But first, I just wanna offer up this model, and it's a model that's, um,

I have mentioned before, comes from Dallas Willard, it's called Vim.

I have found it very, very helpful and a very practical, pragmatic person.

So I like things that are very practical, audit and pragmatic.

And uh, so this model is called Vim.

What does Vim mean?

Energy life, enthusiasm.

But it stands for vision, intention, and means.

So anytime we're setting ourselves towards something, what he's saying

is we need all of these things.

Three things functioning, a vision.

Do you have a clear picture?

Of the life in Christ that you are being called into, that

scripture calls you into, that the Holy Spirit is leading you into.

So we begin by cultivating a clear and true understanding of the gospel.

The gospel tells us that Jesus went to extraordinary lengths so that you could

be with him and that he could be with you.

He did not have to suffer and die to unite you to himself.

He chose to, and it was his joy to make a way for you to know him and to

be known by him to be loved like that.

Shapes, reshapes everything and then intention.

We will not drift into constant companionship with Jesus, a

life of abiding with Jesus.

We must decide that this is what we truly want God present with us

in our relationships, our work, our rest, our ordinary rhythms.

Intention is the settle resolve of the heart.

But we all know the saying, don't we?

The road to hell is paved with good intention.

Intention alone is not enough, man.

It's amazing how that word.

Intention gets used and abused in our culture.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't intend to do that.

And that wasn't my intention.

Like, like just because we can say something's not our intention, it absolves

us of some sense of responsibility still.

However, in this sense, do you have a settled resolve of the heart to wanna

follow Jesus in your every day, to see his kingdom come in and through your

life to be a container for change in the world, not because you have to.

Remember this.

This is not about earning God's love, earning God's favor.

You already have this.

So because you have this, right, because this is what you have been called

into, and again, this is something that goes a little bit awry in the church

sometimes, this understanding of the gospel, it's like when the gospel is

just presented as a ticket to heaven.

Then discipleship just falls away, and I come to church because it meets

my felt needs, but I don't actually identify myself as a follower of Jesus.

I just identify myself as somebody who's been saved, and that one

day when I die, all will be well.

But that's not what Jesus talked about.

That's not what Jesus said.

That's not even what Paul says in the epistles when he

is talking about the gospel.

It is a life of followship with Jesus for the sake of the world.

It's taking on the heart of God for the sake of the world.

All of this, right?

And when we talk about this and a lot of what we're talking about, I'm gonna talk

about over the coming weeks would fall into the bucket of spiritual formation.

And some people hear that when and go.

All right.

It can, it can get a little bit put on by certain branches of

the church and, you know, and sometimes for good reason, right?

Because it can have the tendency to become all a little bit introspective, right?

But that's not what I'm talking about.

This is formation for the sake of the world.

This is formation for the glory of God.

This is not about your own self-actualization journey, although

seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to you as well.

But the end goal isn't a self-improvement program for each

of us, that we would just become the very best versions of ourselves.

We've gotta submit and surrender all of this under that phrase, for the

sake of the world that God loves.

For God so loved the world.

And because God so loved the world, I will now seek to do all that I can because

I love God to become a con container for change in this world as well.

It's outta love.

It's for love's sake.

It's not out of guilt, shame, condemnation.

It's not out of a self-improvement journey.

It's for love of God and for love of the world.

All right.

It finally means, 'cause intention is not enough when we all know this.

How many of you started off with a massive load of good intentions at

the beginning of this good year?

I cannot tell you how long Adam and I have been talking about joining a gym.

Intention has not got us there, people.

Anyway, moving on.

Um.

Intention is not enough.

We must arrange our lives accordingly.

The secret is not in trying harder, the secret is in training wisely, and

this is where a rule of life comes in.

You know, Paul says in Ephesians, be very careful then how you live, not

as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity redeeming

the time because the days are evil and in a sense that this is what.

What we're gonna go into is all about, it's about living

wisely in the here and now.

It's about how we redeem the time that we have and live in ways that honor God

and cause us to truly, truly be not out of effort, but out of transformation,

salt and light in the world.

And so what is this rule of life that I've been banging on about all morning?

Finally getting there.

So the word rule, we're not talking about laws here, we're

talking about more like a ruler.

Okay?

So this comes from the Latin word, regular, a measuring rod, a guide.

So, um, or think of like a, a, a trellis for a vine to grow on.

What we're talking about is how do we form our lives, structure our

lives in such a way that there is a distinct trellis, a distinct rhythm

of practices that help our lives.

Form and grow in ways that are fruitful for the kingdom

of God, for the glory of God.

And so a rule of life is a structured guide that orders life

toward God, a shared pattern of practices forming us in obedience.

What was Jesus say?

What did Jesus say there in the Great Commission teaching them to obey?

We don't like that word, but that is where life is found in obedience to Christ.

That is where life is found and shared and known.

An intention, a rule of life is an intentional plan for spiritual growth.

Relational rhythms, creating space for abiding a training structure,

not a checklist, a holistic pattern integrating prayer, work, rest,

relationships, and mission, a counter structure to cultural formation.

It's how we resist the formation pressures in the culture around us.

It's a live theology of sanctification.

So a rule of life at Red Door, how we would frame it is a shared rhythm of

practices that help us live the way of Jesus together, ordering our time,

relationships, and habits around abiding in him and participating in his kingdom.

And then there's this one here, which is actually on your slip of paper as well.

A shared commitment to order our lives around being with Jesus, so that over

time we become like Jesus, living in the reality of God's kingdom.

Rather than being deformed by the patterns of the surrounding culture through

shared rhythms and practices, we resist formation by the cultural pressures

of performance, self-sufficiency and consumerism, and are instead shaped

together into mature followers of Jesus.

Man.

And that's, that's the goal.

That's always been the goal here, to see this community of Jesus as

followers become mature in Christ.

You know, there's this beautiful promise, um, that Paul talks about in Ephesians.

Four.

Um, you know, Jesus says, Jesus gives the apostles prophets, evangelist

shepherds teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body

of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and then the

knowledge of Son of God and become what?

Mature, mature man.

It's, it's, it's an underrated word, but don't you know it when

you're around a mature saint.

And there's just so much life in them and peace in them, and joy

in them, and they're just such a joy and a delight to be around.

May we all come to be like that.

Hey, grounded, mature followers, Jesus who know their Lord, not abstractly.

But know him so deeply and relationally and they just,

and it just flows out of them.

Like there's a great little passage in Acts where it talks about, um, you know,

that they knew that they had been, even though they were ordinary unschooled men,

they knew that they had been with Jesus.

There was an aroma of Christ about them.

We wanna smell like Jesus, sound like him, have his kindness, his

humility, his gentleness, his posture of peace in the world.

We all wanna be that, don't we?

Nobody wants to be miserable and anxious and caught up in all the fears of the

world and just contributing to the mass anxiety and despair that is like

saturating the oxygen in our culture.

We have every resource at hand, the spirit within us to be so and light

in this world that they would see our good deeds and glorify our father in

heaven, that we would be these little beacons out there and the darkness.

Oh, it's good, isn't it?

Yes.

So just in case you're still a little bit skeptical and just quietly,

I'm nailing the time thing today.

I don't.

Oh gosh.

Pride cometh before a fall, doesn't it?

Yeah.

All right, here we go.

Just a quick little history about this 'cause you're

like, this is not a new thing.

This whole idea of a rule of life, actually, I've heard this phrase recently.

The future is ancient in terms of the church, and this is really just turning.

Back to what the church has practiced for centuries.

So even if you go back to something like the biblical roots of a rule of life,

even though you don't see that phrase in scripture, you go to Acts 2 42, right?

Classic passage about what the early church looked like, what

they practiced, the practices they gathered around, and so.

They talks about teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread

and prayer and generosity, right?

These were the practices that the early church gathered around.

This was their rule of life.

And then I've talked about this before, the diday or the ade, potato potato,

depending on how you pronounce it, which is one of the earliest New Testament

non-biblical documents that we have.

And it frames these two ways of living in the world, the way of

life versus the way of death.

And it's essentially the set of practices at the early church to

gather around things like praying the Lord's Prayer three times a day.

Very, very intentional, regular fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, baptismal

instructions, how to pray Eucharistic prayers, guidelines for leadership

and community discernment set.

Of key, very intentional practices.

This is what we are gonna gather around as a community.

This is how Jesus is gonna be formed in us through these practices.

And this is not legalistic, right?

'cause this is not a gospel.

This is not how we get saved.

This is how we practice the way of Jesus and become like him.

Then there's the desert movement.

When Constantine kind of legalized Christianity and everybody

became a Christian and the church just got full of corruption.

There were the desert fathers and mothers who were like, you

know, we need to get out of this.

And then they began to gather around sets of practices of prayer and fasting

of silence and manual labor, wanting to purify their hearts for the sake of Jesus.

And then we got the early monastic rules that started to come through

in the fourth and the sixth century.

The rule of St. Basil, the rule of St. Augustine, the rule of St. Benedict,

which is probably the most well known one.

You can Google all of these and look them up for yourselves.

And they all had different emphasis.

And they said this monastic movement began to form and, um, expanded

through the medieval period, the seventh to the 15th century with the

Franciscans, the Doans, the Carmelites.

And they all had distinct rules around which these communities gathered

rhythms of life, which formed them.

But then there was the Reformation area, which is era, which is a really

interesting time because what we saw then was the rise of the Protestant church.

Yeah.

And then what happened is, interestingly, I don't dunno if anyone

else finds this interesting, I find this stuff all super interesting.

But anyway, we started to move towards Catechisms.

Who's done Catechism class?

Anyone here?

Yep.

See those hands?

All right.

And it started to lean, move away from practices towards

this teaching of doctrine.

Yeah.

And that was good, right?

But then the practices kind of got lost and it became all about

knowing the right doctrine.

We're so bad at just sitting on the horse or the bike, whatever your

preference is, and just holding equal weight in grace and truth.

Yeah.

And yet we seem to go, oh, we're all, it's all about truth, and we need

more truth, and we need more doctrine.

Oh, it's all about grace and all.

And it's like, oh, we gotta hold both.

Jesus came full of grace and truth, grace and truth.

All right.

So now we're seeing a real resurgence around this.

Across the church.

There's this deep longing to just wanna be with Jesus, to make him

known in deep relational ways, not in legalistic, not in law-based,

but in ways that are deeply authentic.

All right.

And so that brings me to that, um, that little slip of paper,

um, that was with the journals.

And so this is what we are, this is where we're gonna be going.

So what we have done, what we have formed is three key set of practices,

each one relating to one of our three values here at Red Door.

So we have three core values here at Red Door.

We try and lean into that.

We would be people who are reliant.

Upon God that we would be deeply real, honest, transparent,

and deeply relational as well.

And so let's just have a look.

I mean, you can have a look at your slip of paper, but if you didn't get

a slip of paper here on the slide, so reliant, what do we mean here?

So we resist self-reliance, which is always that temptation,

isn't it, to be in control.

But we resist self-reliance by abiding in Christ through the

practices of prayer and fasting.

Communicating, being with God through Sabbath weekly, ceasing

from work and striving and scripture feeding on the word of God.

And so over the coming weeks, we're gonna go more into each one of these practices.

And the next slide there real.

We resist performance by living honestly before God.

And one another through the practices of confession, naming sin, naming

our limitations, naming our needs through forgiveness, releasing

others to God, choosing grace over resentment and through worship, turning

our whole selves to towards God in praise, in gratitude and obedience.

And then finally.

And I think we might actually start here, uh, when we pick this up again in

March after House Church next Sunday.

Did you mention that there's House Church at Hammond here next Sunday?

Oh, I must have tuned out.

Sorry.

Um, relational, we resist individualism and consumerism by the sharing of

our whole lives through the practices of hospitality, opening our homes,

our tables, and lives to others.

Yeah, just on that hospitality one, I've just been researching

that a bit for what's coming and you know, what would it look like?

Church to not, our culture tells us our homes need to be places of retreat, right?

Where we retreat from the world, but as disciples of Jesus know, and

what would it be like to see our homes as outposts for the kingdom?

Of heaven instead.

Isn't that a far better vision for our home than just a personal retreat where

I retreat and I dwell on my couch and I stream endless hours of mind numbing goop?

You know, I just, sorry Ben Elise, but I look at Ben and Elise here

and you know, and look, I know Ben sometimes we just like that place

of retreat, wouldn't you, Ben?

But, um, because, you know, they're well and truly immersed in the world

of fostering now, their home is an outpost for the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom is coming on earth as it is in heaven through their home.

And that is not easy, and it comes at a cost.

But it is stuff and good, isn't it?

It is good.

It is hard, but it is good.

And what if we had that kind of vision, that sense of hospitality

for our homes, that our homes would be those kind of places?

Oh, that's inspiring.

All right.

I need to be challenged in that.

'cause quite frankly, I love that I drive into my carport and my

roller door goes down behind me and I don't have to talk to anyone.

But I don't think that's what Jesus had in mind for my home.

I think he had more so witness sharing the good news of Jesus

in Word indeed, and service and generosity, giving time, resources,

and energy for the good of others.

So we're gonna dive into each one of these in the coming weeks ahead.

And so let me bring this to a close with this.

So this ultimately is about becoming people who.

Abide deeply, who live honestly, who love generously.

Not because we have to, but because we get to

and we have the spirit of the living God within us to form

us into people who can do this.

Who are trained to do this, but who are formed to be into,

to be this kind of people.

Not have our own human effort, but out of the grace of God, working

in and through us, abiding deeply, living honestly, loving generously.

Are people shaped by grace?

Are people formed?

In Christ are people who carry something real into a fractured world.

And over the coming months, we're gonna build on this together not to

manage behavior, but to experience deep true transformation for the glory

God, for the good of the world, and for the deep joy of our own souls.

And so I just wanna just take a moment now just to enter into a time

of actually allowing the Holy Spirit to minister to us, to bring, to

bear specific truths, uh, that are relevant for you and where you are at.

And so just to go back to the two scriptures that we

began with this morning.

This then is how you should pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What might the Holy Spirit be saying to you through these words of Jesus here?

What does this reveal about the heart of Jesus?

The desire of Jesus?

What is this to reveal about the heart of the father?

What is coming to light to you through this passage?

How might the spirit be illuminating

the truths of God through this word, through these words of

Jesus, and then in Matthew 28.

Jesus comes to disciples and he says, all authority in heaven and

on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to

obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

What a promise not.

If you get this right, I will be with you.

Not.

If you do well enough, try hard enough, but I am always with you.

So what family, friends this morning, what might the spirit be saying to

you through this passage this morning?

What might he be highlighting to you?

What word or phrase might be coming to be brought to bear

upon your heart and your mind?

Maybe it's a word of encouragement.

Maybe it is a word of conviction correction.

Maybe there's a call and maybe some of you are really like, wow, I'm really

sensing a call of God through this word.

You know, Armit talked about this last week and he made, you know,

a, a really strong point and that all he would hear would hear that

every single person here is called.

Every single person here is called by God.

Have you heard that call?

And maybe there's a call for you through this word this morning, and maybe it

is a call to let go of certain things and to move deeper into the things

of God that he's calling you into.

All right, and just finally, we just got some questions here.

And so Sade, would you mind coming popping up?

Are you there?

Sade?

Oh, there you're Sade.

Hi.

Would you mind just coming up and playing for us, because I would love

to give you an opportunity and we're gonna try and do this more and more.

'cause we realize we don't often get spaces to just sit and to allow

the Holy Spirit to minister to us.

And so is there a question here?

For you, what is, what is currently forming you, perhaps more than you

realize or deforming you perhaps, where do you feel perhaps the

tension between desire and reality

when it comes to the things of God, the calling of God?

What small faithful adjustment might the spirit be inviting you into right now?

And so Shana's just gonna play for a bit.

Let me just pray for you and then we're just gonna sit and allow the

Holy Spirit to minister to you.

And some of you'll find this hard, right?

But my hope is that as we practice this more together, it was

something that you'll get used to.

'cause one of the things that we get, we are all, um, have been deformed

by, in this culture is distraction.

Yeah.

And so we find it really hard just to sit and be still because these

little devices that beep at us and bleep at us and demand our attention

have trained us for distraction.

And so you might find cage full of monkeys going on in your brain during

this moment of quiet, and that's okay.

Just like, all right, monkeys.

Don't get mad at the monkeys.

Don't get stressed by the monkeys.

Just say, okay, off you go, monkeys.

I'm listening to Jesus right now.

Say, Lord, would you come?

Would you be present in our midst as you already are, but in ways

that are deeply tangible, deeply relevant for each person here?

Would you minister through the power of your spirit illuminating each

one of us to your precious truth?

I may have ears to hear sensitive spirits to respond to what it is that

you are calling us to respond to.

Thank you, Lord.

I.