The Speed of God

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good morning, Awakening Church.

Great to be with you.

My name's Ryan.

We're absolutely thrilled to have you join us.

Welcome to those who are joining us online as well.

As you find your seed, but you know, we're in a series called Ecclesia.

When Jesus named his new movement, he called it the help me out.

Wow, that was just full robust early morning.

He called it the what?

Ecclesia, yes.

It literally means called out ones.

It's not a religious term, it was a political one, actually.

It referred to the civic assembly of citizens, shaping culture, influencing the city.

And so when Jesus said, I'll build my church, he wasn't thinking about a building, he wasn't thinking about a brand, and he certainly wasn't thinking about just a gathering on a Sunday.

He was thinking about a people.

He was thinking about you.

He was thinking about me, a people summoned, empowered, and unleashed to shape the world through introducing the kingdom of God.

And so we've said this last few weeks.

You don't go to church, you are the church.

The church gathers, yes, but then we scatter when we say amen and leave.

The church doesn't stop.

No, the church is on the move.

He wasn't interested in starting a new religion.

He was launching a revolution.

We said this that there were actually three distinctive marks of this new movement, this ecclesia, the church, uh, the first followers, and it was a radical generosity.

We spent two weeks talking about that, a bold faith.

We just completed two weeks talking about that.

And then they had this sacrificial love.

We're going to spend the next couple weeks talking about that.

A radical faith, a bold, uh radical generosity, a bold faith, and a sacrificial love.

Now, Silicon Valley has a distinct speed and pace, doesn't it?

You feel it the minute you get here.

It's the speed of efficiency, of optimization, of squeezing more productivity out of every single moment.

We've built an entire culture around bigger, faster, better, faster technology, integrated, immersive, always connected, always on.

Your commute, you have to get in the fastest lane possible, zigging and zagging to save those precious seconds.

Coffee, why wait in line?

Why talk to a human when you have an app and you can go in and sidestep all the mess of conversation and grab your cup of Joe and get on your way?

Email, remember when it used to be a 24-hour response?

That was, yeah, you're doing great.

And now it feels almost as if it's instant, doesn't it?

Whether it's day or night or the weekends.

Dating, well, just swipe right as fast as you can.

Friendships are measured by snapstreaks and TikTok friends.

Silicon Valley can be summed up in these two words: grind culture.

We celebrate the grind.

Whether your students, an athlete, whether you're single, your parents all live with this pressure to perform, to produce, to keep up.

What if?

What if speed is the very thing sucking your soul dry?

Here's the crazy part.

The crazy part is that we continue to believe that bigger, faster, better are the solutions for finally getting ahead, finding margin, and slowing down.

And yet we keep living at breakneck speed.

What if speed is the very thing sucking your soul dried?

And here's for us, here's for us, in a world of bigger, faster, better, how do we become a church known for love?

How do we become a community where people, when they think of awakening, the first word that comes to mind is, wow, they love well.

How do you become, how do I become a person?

That our brand isn't how cool we are, how much we know, or you know, what job we work at, our brand.

Man, she is so loving.

He is so loving.

Uh, the sermon title today is uh The Speed of God.

Would you say that with me?

There's a Japanese theologian, Kusuki Koyama, he wrote a book in 1979 as life was speeding up, called The Three Mile an Hour God.

Three miles an hour is the speed of walking.

And he notes that Jesus walked everywhere.

Three mile an hour is the speed of relationships, he talks about.

It's the speed of love.

The speed of God, he would say, is three miles an hour.

What if the speed of God isn't light speed or wharf speed, but three miles an hour?

And how do we, instead of moving at the speed of Silicon Valley, begin to move at the speed of God?

Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, has one final moment with his disciples.

You can only imagine what he must be feeling in this moment.

He spent three years pouring his life into these twelve, and he's just got a few moments, it's almost like a cram session.

I would feel like I want to get it all in.

And to make matters, you know, maybe even more intense, his disciples heading into what we call the Last Supper, get into an argument.

And do you know what they are arguing about?

Yeah, who's the greatest?

As if three years they still haven't got it.

Who is the greatest?

And he's in this moment, he doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't like give them this lecture, he doesn't shame them.

They're arguing about who is the greatest.

No, he gets up from the table, takes off his outer garment, wraps the towel, the towel of a slave around his waist, and he washes his disciples' feet.

The dinner completed.

Judas slipped out to betray him.

And now it's just Jesus and the leaven with a precious few hours before literally all hell breaks loose.

And this is what Jesus says to them.

A new command I give you.

Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

A new command.

This isn't a suggestion, by the way.

This isn't a nice idea, this is a command.

Love one another.

Now, loving one another is not all that new.

It's actually a really old thought, but he's gonna, it's new and kind.

It's not like you get to define what love looks like.

He says, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Now notice this by this.

Huh.

Everyone will know that you're my disciples if you what?

The distinctive mark of a follower of Jesus is love.

Period.

The distinctive and distinguishing mark is to be a people of love of those that love others the way Jesus has loved you.

In fact, radical generosity, bold faith all flow from love.

They all stem from it.

So, how in the world do we become a people of love?

How do we live that out in Silicon Valley and grind culture in bigger, better, faster pace of life?

At Awakening, the way we are attempting to do this as a community, as a body, as a church is what we call the discipleship pathway.

It's not a program, it's a pathway.

It's helping us begin to step into the rhythm and the ways of Jesus.

And the discipleship pathway simply uh begins this way.

The first step into this discipleship pathway is come to know Jesus.

I'm gonna have you say all these with me because we're gonna get it.

Remember, last week we got them, all right.

So you ready?

Come to know Jesus.

Yeah, you gotta first come to know Jesus.

Notice how Jesus said it.

He said, New command, I give you, love one another.

How?

As I have loved you.

Isn't this amazing?

The foundation of your relationship with Jesus isn't your love, isn't your ability, isn't how much you can muster up or how well you've done.

The foundation of your relationship is Jesus' love for you.

We love, John would say later, because he first loved us.

We understand what true, pure love is because of the way Jesus loved us.

It is the very foundation.

No.

How in the world do we step into that love?

How do you get to know Jesus?

It's very simple.

He said, follow me.

Hey Ryan, I'd love to hang out with you.

That's awesome.

I'm headed this way.

You want to come?

Yeah.

Who would you like to be around?

And if you that you want to learn from, that you like, I would really love to get to know, that I'd love to hang out with.

And they said, fantastic, that would be great.

I'm headed this way.

Wouldn't you want to walk with me?

Wouldn't you go like, oh yeah, sure.

See, here's one of my concerns in the church when we're talking about come to know Jesus.

Far too many of us know about Jesus, but we don't really know him.

We've bought into this religion, a checklist mentality.

You know facts about Jesus.

You might even know verses, you maybe even memorize John 3.16.

It's fantastic.

There's nothing wrong with it.

That's great.

But do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?

Have you come to know him?

Have you heard him say, follow me, Tim?

Follow me, Janet, follow me.

And you go like, I'm gonna start following you.

I don't know what it looks like, but I'm just gonna start to follow after you.

And I want to know you.

It's not about some religious activity, it's about a relationship with Jesus.

And he invites you in to know him personally, and it's powerful, and it changes everything.

For us at Awakening, we kind of have two environments that we want to help you like start this relationship, come to know him.

First is just the Sunday service, Awakening and 101.

You just heard about it.

Like for so many people, honestly, uh last week there's two different people at different services that came up to me.

They're like, hey, you know what?

Um, it's almost an identical story.

Don't know Jesus, uh, don't have a faith background, really curious, want to investigate more, checked you out online.

In fact, more people watch us online to before they come because they got to figure out what's going on here.

Super wise, by the way.

And then come and they're in this process of like they're feeling something.

I we would call it the Spirit of God, drawing them to themselves.

They're curious and they're just starting to follow Him.

This environment is a strategic pause in your week to lift your eyes from everything that you're on and going through, to lift them up to Jesus so that you just remind yourself, oh, that's right.

That's right.

I all I need is Jesus.

101 is that next step.

We're gonna do it uh today, right after the services.

It's just like, how do I get to know a little bit more?

Is this the community that I need to grow and become more like Jesus?

So the first environment that we create to help people experience the love of Jesus is this environment.

That's why we're saying, like, hey, invite people in.

Try to create spaces where we have a life-changing encounter with God through worship, through the word, through his people.

The second is then Alpha.

Alpha is this incredible environment, and here's the reality: there's many of you that are searching, that are wrestling with Jesus, like you haven't personally come to know him.

Maybe you know things about him, and this environment is a safe space for you to experience like wrestle with Jesus, ask questions.

It's an eight-week-ish uh, basically small group.

You watch this great video, you get around a table with people all with similar questions, no questions off the table, and you begin to wrestle, like, okay, who is this Jesus?

Is he really God?

What does it mean?

And ask all of your questions.

Alpha's awesome.

It's launching at Santa Clara.

We're gonna do it hosted at Santa Clara University.

You don't have to be a student to go there, but we want to make it so easy for students to go.

Uh, that's gonna happen on the campus there.

Maybe you have a friend that's been searching or a coworker that's been asking some questions.

This is an opportunity where you get to bring them with you to come to know Jesus.

And you you show up with them.

Would you do that?

How do we begin to slow down, to move at the speed of God?

First, come to know Jesus.

These strategic pauses that we allow our hearts to remind ourselves of like, oh, Jesus, it's your love, it's the foundation for everything else.

Secondly, then grow as a disciple.

You say that with me.

Grow as a disciple.

Perfect.

Jesus said this: a new command I give you, love one another.

Like you said earlier, it's a command, not a suggestion.

If you're a follower of Jesus, this is not like, hey, I don't know, take it or leave it.

Jesus says, if you're gonna call me Lord and Savior, this is my command.

This is what you are to do.

This is non-optional, it's not up for interpretation, explanation, or adaptation.

So let me ask you, real sincerely, and just wrestle with this for a second.

Are you a disciple of Jesus?

Grow as a disciple of Jesus.

A disciple is an apprentice, one who trains under, one who is arranging their lives to learn from and to be able to do the things that someone does.

We are arranging our lives under Jesus, our master.

A new command.

He says, Well, what is the command?

Love one another.

So, a couple thoughts here.

First, the Christian life isn't difficult on your own, it's impossible.

Not only do you need community, it's impossible to live out the Christian life this way.

There are all these one another that Jesus has called us to that you can't fulfill on your own.

You can't love one another all by yourself.

And discipleship happens in community, not isolation.

Life change happens best, not in rows like this.

This is wonderful, and this is a place for inspiration.

Transformation happens in circles.

When we get into small groups together, when we begin to do life together, we begin to share what's going on, the real things.

A small group, the way we say it around here, is just a community growing together to become more like Jesus.

It's just a small group growing together to become more like Jesus.

We want everybody at awakening in a small group, committed to growing, saying, you know what?

I'm coming together, I'm hearing from the teachings of God's Word, and then I'm intentionally moving slower with people to grow together.

We're kicking off all of our groups with a new series, Dreaming Wide Awake, our uh is gonna be a great series that launches on our birthday through the life of Joseph.

Joseph, how do you discover a God-sized dream for your life and begin to live it out?

Now, here is the problem with small groups.

You ready for this?

There are chances that a chance that you will have people in your small group that you don't really like that annoy you.

In the church, we kind of call them EGRs, extra grace required people.

The problem is you probably are an EGR for someone else.

Especially in a culture where it's all about choosing your family.

What if I don't really like the people in my small group?

Theologian Scott McKnight in his book A Fellowship of Difference uh writes this Love is a great idea until you're called to love uh happens to be until the one you're called to love happens to be unlike you.

Love is a great idea until you discover who your neighbors actually are.

Love is a great idea until you see who actually attends your church.

I think sometimes we we don't want to dive into a small group because, like, oh, they're different, they're not my vibe.

You know, they couldn't they vote differently than me, they're older or younger than me.

Do you know what this first small group looked like, by the way?

Jesus' small group?

The twelve?

Jesus gives this command, and he's looking in the eyes of Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot.

Simon the Zealot, he was a revolutionary.

He they would use all means necessary to try to overthrow the Roman governments.

From assassinations to uprising riots.

It was deeply military, and depending on what side of the aisle you were, they were either revolutionaries or terrorists.

Simon the Zealot.

And then you had Matthew, the tax collector, we talked about him a few weeks, corroborator with Rome.

Like abandoning his people, not only that, but ripping them off.

And here they are around the circle with Jesus.

This is way worse than Republican-Democrat, by the way.

They hated each other.

Outside of Jesus, these two would want to kill each other, literally.

And Jesus says, A new command I give you.

Love one another.

And then you had James and John, Jesus nicknamed them the Sons of Thunder, these blue-collar fishermen that apparently had anger issues.

And with James and John in this kind of, you know, kind of explosive duo, then we had doubting Thomas.

It's kind of funny, you could see just even some of the friction because the only time we really hear about Thomas is in the Gospel of John.

As he wrote about him, and almost all the words that you know Thomas spoke, that we find that he spoke, at least recorded, were negative.

He was the Eeyore.

Aw.

Poor Thomas.

This was the first small group.

A group of difference and unlikes that had little to nothing in common, in fact, on their own, would not want to have anything to do with each other.

But Jesus is the one thing they had in common that overcame all of it and galvanized them together and took this group of different and unlikes, and they began to love the way Jesus loved them, and it revolutionized the world.

And it can once more if we begin to love one another rather than just love the people we like in the places we like and define it on our terms.

So let me ask you who in your life really knows you right now?

And who do you really know?

What if God actually wants to grow you right where you are with the people he's placed around you?

Love, by the way, is deeply inconvenient, profoundly inefficient, and obnoxiously refining.

And it is the distinctive mark of a follower of Jesus.

Come to know Jesus.

Grow as a disciple of Jesus.

Serve in the name of Jesus.

Serve in the name of Jesus.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Jesus didn't leave the definition of love up to us.

We're to love others exactly the same way Jesus loved us.

How did Jesus love us?

Shout it out.

Gave his life, he has sacrificed his life.

What else?

That's primary, good one.

Huh?

Yeah, he washed his disciples' feet.

He got up and served them.

How else?

He healed them.

He took time along wherever he was going, allowed interruptions of people calling out, and he turned and focused to them, didn't he?

Gave them his not just his attention, but then through that healing.

Yeah, really good.

What else?

Unconditional love, what was over there?

He fed them?

Very practical, right?

Which is part of unconditional love.

Like sometimes it's just meeting the needs.

Jesus looks into the eyeballs of his disciples and says, This is my command.

You're to love one another the way I loved you.

I love my dad's definition of love.

He says, love is giving another person what they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.

What they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.

This is what Jesus did for you and for me.

He simply took up the towel of service.

He did.

He got up and washed his disciples' feet.

When he was asked about who is the greatest, he said, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom.

Didn't come to get, but to give.

And yet, what's gifted in the church, friends, is this we've become spectators where we watch instead of participants.

We've become consumers where we go, what can I get?

How can I get mine?

How can I feed?

Like, feed me, meet me, serve me.

I just wonder if your experience is lack here or any church, you're just not feeling like you're quite connected.

I wonder if we just switch the question instead of like, how does this church serve me?

If you flip the question, how can I serve?

I so I wasn't planning on sharing this, but we'll just we'll go there anyways.

I have heard people complain about different pastries that we have on our coffee cart.

Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

Or why why don't we have Code Brew?

I want a Cold Brew or this.

Go buy your own coffee.

Go buy your own pastry.

Like what kind of mentality is it that we show up and we think everything should be served for us and we should not give anything of it, and yet we serve and we come and worship.

Jesus, you gave it all, so I don't have to give anything.

Your experience on Sunday will profoundly change when you show up asking the question, who can I minister to?

Who can I serve?

Oh, the worship, it really just didn't hit me.

Or, oh, the worship, it really hit me.

Ryan, he was a little angry today.

I like it when I like funny Ryan, but angry Ryan, I don't know, you know.

I'm not angry by the way, I'm just passionate.

Anyway.

And it translates into groups.

See, small groups is where you bring a meal when someone's sick, when you show up when someone's hurting, when you pray when someone can't find words, and when you serve when it's inconvenience.

Because you came to know him, you're committed to growing as a disciple, and now you're serving in the name of Jesus, your brothers and sisters, where he's placed you.

This last week we got that experience.

A couple that has been in our small group for a decade, and we've gone through different people in small groups.

I got a text.

They're out of the country visiting their family.

She's had uh two different brain surgeries.

She's really struggling.

Would you pray?

I get up early.

I gotta, you know, we're on a different time zone.

And I'm like, you know what, I just don't have time to pray for you right now.

I'm too busy.

I'm writing a sermon about love.

What an honor.

What a joy that you would invite me into your world, that you wouldn't call and ask, and you would have like that I could be able to pray for you absolutely.

And then just got a text this morning of how God is answering that prayer and she's feeling better and able and engaged.

And we're like, oh my goodness, that's what community's for.

But we come expecting our face wiped instead of taking up the towel.

Okay, I'm off my hobby horse now.

Finally, share the love of Jesus.

Share the love of Jesus.

By this, everyone will know you're my disciples by how you love one another.

Philip Yancey in his book, Vanishing Grace, said this our confused society badly needs a community of contrast, a counterculture of ordinary pilgrims who insist on living a different way.

I want to argue that different way is loving others the way Jesus loved you.

It is the distinctive mark.

What if the greatest apologetic today is how we love one another?

What if the greatest threat to your soul isn't sin but speed?

Because to love one another, we need to slow down enough to be with one another.

Theologian Ksuki Koyama writes this Jesus came.

He walked towards the full stop.

He lost his mobility, he nailed, he was nailed down.

He is not even at three mile an hour as we walk.

He is not moving.

Full stop.

What can be slower than full stop?

Nailed down.

At this point of full stop, the apostolic church proclaims that the love of God to man is ultimately and fully revealed.

God walks slowly because he is love.

If he is not love, he would have gone much faster.

Love has its speed.

It's an inner speed.

It's the speed of love.

It goes in the depth of our life, whether we notice it or not, whether we're currently hit by a storm or not, at three miles an hour.

It is the speed we walk.

And therefore, it is the speed, the love of God who walks.

The speed of God is the speed of love.

We can only love one another if we actually slow down to be with one another.

I want to invite Shanu up just to share his story of slowing down, stepping into community, and how God's used that over the years.

Will you please welcome Shanu up?

Come on, step.

First, introduce yourself a little bit, Shanu.

Who are you?

What do you do?

How long have you been at awakening?

Can I say a little quick?

Oh, yeah, you're good.

No.

Let's try this one.

Hello.

Ah, there we go.

There we go.

Yeah, I gotcha.

Thank you.

All right, yeah.

First of all, thank you so much.

I mean, it's great to just talk about what God's been doing in the community around us and um in the life of the church.

So if I haven't met you, my name is Shanu, and um I've been part of Awakening for the past four years, and I'm using the gifts that God's given me to serve in like the kids' ministry and the worship team, and also like um host a small group.

So yeah.

That's awesome.

So thank and thank you for sharing, absolutely, too.

First, just kind of share kind of this whole small group, stepping into the community journey.

How did that start for you?

Where were you at when you first started coming to awake?

Yeah, I mean, my whole life I've been like moving around, you know, and every time I I'm in a new place, I just feel hesitant or like passive almost stepping into small group.

And I'll and I'm always the kind of guy that'll be like, if it happens, it happens and it's amazing.

If it doesn't, then it's like, you know, whatever, right?

And then, but fast forward like a year at awakening, I got to, um, by the grace of God, got to host a small group at my house that I lived in.

And I remember sitting, you know, right here one Sunday um thinking about canceling group.

I felt tired.

I felt um, I don't know I just felt didn't feel like doing small group.

I was thinking to myself, I don't think anybody would care if I cancel small group, you know.

So while I was sitting there, a friend of mine came up to me and uh we just started talking about a bunch of things.

And when we started talking about small group, I still remember this one thing that she said.

She said she was so excited to be part of small group tomorrow and just um I don't know, just be with everybody, talk with everybody, pray with everybody.

And when I honestly, when I heard that, I was like, wow, this is so great.

But no, that's not true.

I mean, I was like, I was like, uh, I don't know why you're so excited about what are you so excited about?

Um so as I was sitting there, I was walking back to my car and I was having this inner monologue of you know our conversation, and God just slowly revealed the truth uh into my heart that you know it's just not a casual place where people just come to hang out and talk, but it's a place where you know they belong, and it's a place where lives are changed and lives are touched.

And um yeah.

That's awesome.

So, what did you start this small group and then it's going like what's been your experience kind of over the last you know couple years and how has God changed and worked in your life?

Yeah, I mean one of the I just want to share this one story.

I mean, I was, you know, like typical small group fashion, we had this um, you know, we do prayer requests, and after prayer requests, we pray for everybody, and you know, that's that.

So one uh one small group time we were uh doing prayer requests and one of our one of our um somebody in the group was like, um, I have this prayer request and I'm unable to, you know, maybe pay rent for the next month, right?

So we were there and like typical small group fashion, we come together and we pray, and all of that's done, right?

It was all good.

You know, we asked God to provide, we ask God to like be with her, comfort her, all that kind of stuff.

And after that, I just remembered so and even to this day, my heart just swells up with like joy when this happened, when a group of people just come together and they're like, you know, I think we should just pitch in a little bit and help pay rent for her next month.

I was sitting there thinking about how these guys, these group of people that came together and are living their faith, just changed my life.

You know, it reminds me of like Acts 2, when like the new church, the early church, when they heard the gospel of Christ and like the good news of how he rose up from the grave, um, they came, they sold all their possessions, and they helped those that were in need in their community and in their church.

And to me, um I think you know, God uses people like ordinary people like you, like me, like Pastor Ryan, to do some amazing, extraordinary things together.

Yeah.

So that's awesome.

I love that.

Thank you for sharing.

And then do you have maybe like uh kind of one encouragement for the rest of us, uh, you know, or something you want to leave with us about your experience?

Yeah, I mean, I'd love to, you know, we're all part of the body of Christ, you know, and when we show up, the entire body of Christ is strengthened.

And I think that, you know, your presence matters, right?

The way that you use your gifts uniquely matters.

And when you show up, you know, Christ being the head of the church, um, you start to reflect him, uh, both to those around you, but also to the entire world.

So that's what I encourage you to, you know, if you were like me that was you know hesitant or like passive or unsure about stepping into community, uh, to really just take a small step of faith into the community around you and uh do not despise the day of small beginnings.

You know, God will take your faith and your trust in Him and bless it and use it to do amazing and great things uh for his kingdom.

That's amazing.

Thank you, Shaniu.

Can we thank you?

Thanks, buddy.

Great job, great job.

Discipleship pathway.

Come to know Jesus, grow as a disciple of Jesus, serve in the name of Jesus, share the love of Jesus.

The speed of God is the speed of love.

Three mile an hour walk.

What's your next step?

Maybe it's a step into following Jesus.

You're searching, you're questioning.

Maybe you've wandered away from the faith and you're trying to wander back and you want to go to Alpha.

Maybe it's a step into groups.

A new command I give you.

Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this, everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another.

Oh God, I ask for us, your local body, your community of called-out ones, that you would make us a community that is just known for how we love.

A community of tons of small groups like Shanus, where they're gathering together, praying, supporting, serving, uplifting, encouraging, growing closer.

Where the church is just being the church.

God, we don't want to go through the motions.

Forgive us where we just turn this into a thing that we do on a Sunday when there's so much more.

So we ask in this moment, would you overwhelm us with your love?

That we might be your people of love to a hurting and broken world.

In Jesus' name.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

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