A Layer One Relationship

Today, we are this close to wrapping up a series that we've been in for a few months now called What Jesus Wants.

In fact, my goal today is to sort of wrap it up, and then next week, hopefully, we'll tie a bow on it in case we missed anything.

But this is a really interesting study of John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

John 17 is a chapter in scripture that there's really no parallel for.

There's nothing else like it.

It is a fairly long prayer of Jesus to God the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before he gets arrested.

This is not Jesus praying, Lord, if there's any way to avoid this, take that away.

This is Jesus praying specifically after he's already like doubled down and going, I am going to the cross and I'm fine with it.

It's your will, Father, not mine.

This is Jesus praying for us.

He's praying for his followers.

He decides to use some of his last moments of freedom to pray for you and for me and the life that he wants us to experience through our faith in him.

And so we've looked at this from all these amazing different angles, all the things that Jesus has prayed for us for.

And today I want to sort of focus on what I believe would maybe be the core of his desire for us.

What is the thing he maybe wants most?

And obviously, I'm it's hard to get in the mind of Jesus and tell you exactly what that is, but but what jumps out to me, what seems to be sort of the foundation of his prayer, is John 17, verses 1 through 3.

John 17:1–3

He says, Well, it says, after saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and Jesus says, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you, for you have given him authority over everyone.

He gives eternal life to each one you have given him, and this is the way to have eternal life.

To know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

To know you, to know God, to know Jesus.

Everything that Jesus came and did for us, everything that we just sang about that we celebrate, his death on the cross, he defeats sin, he defeats death.

He did not just do that so that a thing could be done for us, like some anonymous gift.

He did that so that we could be reconciled to the God who created us and we could have a relationship with God.

That we could know God, not just be believers in God, but be knowers.

That we could know the God who created us.

And so I want to talk today, and this is kind of the phrase, and I'll explain it.

It's we are meant to have a layer one relationship with God.

I'll explain what that means as we go through this.

A layer one relationship with God.

So to help teach this, and I gotta give a big shout out uh to a guy named Joel Kramer, who I've never met, who's done a ton of research on this and published a book about this, really cool thing, and also my wife Megan.

Megan is like as much of a Bible nerd as a human being can be.

She studies scripture like you cannot believe, and she's always studying like archaeology.

Sometimes when I get home, I'm tired, and she's just like, Justin, I learned something today, I gotta show you this.

And like 30 minutes later, I'm like, I am, wow, this is a lot.

Uh but Megan has an unbelievable knowledge of scripture, and so all week long we've been talking about this stuff, and it's been really fun.

We're gonna we're gonna explore this idea of a layer one relationship with God, to really know God, uh, by looking at some archaeology.

So just think Indiana Jones, but only the boring parts, okay?

So I need you guys to like, you know, let's let's just pretend like we are deeply intellectual people.

I'm not saying some of you are, okay.

I'm not saying that you're not.

But for all of all of us, for a few minutes, we're gonna nerd out together.

Okay, so when I say layer one, what you have to understand is ancient cities are are different than the cities we have in America for the most part.

They're sort of built in layers because there's just been so much history in those places.

So, for example, if we take a look at uh Jerusalem, for this is like a top-down view of Jerusalem for the most part, kind of a higher-up shot.

You can just tell in this city, this is modern Jerusalem.

It's like modern but also ancient.

You'll see buildings that are every bit as modern as something we would see in a city today, but then also clearly all of these things that are much older and truly ancient.

It's like layer upon layer.

Ancient cities are like that, especially in the Middle East and in places where human civilization has been for a very, very long time.

You have you have underneath the ground, to this day, they'll be digging somewhere and find a building that's just completely buried underground.

When I was in high school, I got to go uh with my dad overseas for a little bit, and I was in France for a little bit in Belgium.

And when we were in Belgium, I remember they were excavating a church.

They found a church buried underground that just no one knew was there.

And you're like, how's that how does how does an entire building get buried underground and no one knows that it's there?

It's crazy.

So the ancient world is it's all about layers.

And specifically today, we're gonna talk about this one ancient site.

It's so fascinating.

If you want, you could go there and visit this.

It's in a place called Hebron, and it's known as the site of Mamory.

And so here's kind of where that is.

Again, look at this.

It's like a modern city, right?

But in the middle of a modern city, you have this just ancient site.

And this site, you could visit it today.

Uh, it was excavated in the 1920s by a German archaeologist.

And this is the site where for thousands of years it is believed that this is where God met with Abraham, who at the time was called Abram, at a place that Scripture refers to as the oaks of Mamre.

In fact, we'll look at Genesis chapter 13, verse 18.

Genesis 13:18

It says, So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Okay, so what's interesting about this place is there's there's like six layers.

As they excavated it, they noticed this was a really interesting site.

It seemed as if the ancient city had been built around this site instead of on top of it.

So they were like, something significant is here because everything is sort of built around it.

And in ancient cities, if something wasn't important, you just built on top of it.

And as they began to excavate it, you know, layer by layer, they found that this is something truly, truly special.

This is the site of an ancient church, of uh ancient Islamic like buildings are there as well, all the way down to from the time of Abraham, an altar.

And it's in the exact place that scripture describes Abram setting up an altar to the Lord.

And altars in their days were just rocks, big rocks set next to each other.

That's what an altar was.

And so I want to explain the six layers really, really quick.

So layer one, layer one, that's that's Abraham's altar.

Abram's altar.

It is some stones, and the thing is when you do ancient archaeology excavations, different time periods cut stone differently.

Like their tools were more advanced, they could be more precise.

And so you can even tell as you as you study these ancient sites, like what time period they're from, based on how the stones are cut, how they're arranged.

And when we talk Abraham, we're talking 4,000 years ago.

Okay, so we're talking, this is the Bronze Age in modern historical terms.

And they found things, not layer one, layer two, they found things from like the time of David.

This would be the time of the kings of Israel.

Um this is often known as the Iron Age in historical terms.

They found pottery and and they found uh building materials and set up in a way that was consistent with the time of the ancient Israelites and the time of the Israelite kings.

Okay?

And then the next layer they found was ancient Roman, and there were some things there that were uh well, actually, sorry, I'm incorrect.

The next layer they found was actually also Israelite, but more like the time of King Herod.

So the Romans were in the area, but the Jewish people still had their own unique culture.

This is like Herodian era.

Layer four is purely Roman.

Layer five is something called Byzantine.

If you guys know the history of our faith, oh, you guys are are you doing okay right now?

I'm just realizing how boring this is.

Are we good?

Can you chill with me for a second?

All right, so layer one, Abraham, layer two, King David era, layer three, the Herodian Temple era.

This is the time of Jesus.

Layer four, the Romans, layer five, the Byzantines.

Byzantine basically means Roman Empire, but on the east, Emperor Constantine in the 300s became a Christian, and then he sort of made Rome Christian and had churches built and all that kind of stuff.

There's actually a church that was built there, uh directed by Constantine himself to be built there.

Really interesting.

In layer six, in the 600s, uh, the Islamic people came and conquered that area, but Abraham is an important person in their faith as well, and so they built some things on that very site.

Are we good?

Super fun.

Like you came to church this morning going, man, have I been missing some Byzantine talk in my life.

So here we go.

Let's let's try to make it more interesting.

Let's look at it visually, though, okay?

So here's kind of the here's the top-down view we have of this ancient site.

Really, really cool.

In fact, you kind of see in the we'll go closer up with some holes in the ground.

You see those big hole in the bottom left corner of the site.

Um, just go to a closer-up picture, guys, of some of those circles.

Yeah, there you go.

So you can see like that big circle right there on the left and all that rock.

And there's another big circle you can kind of see on the right over there.

Those are actually footprints from ancient trees.

Like ancient, ancient trees.

So the trees are totally gone, everything underneath it's gone, but but they left that imprint, and so those would be like the oak trees, okay, of that time, of the time of Abraham, which is super cool.

Okay, we'll go back to our big picture.

So um, this is the site, and there, like I said, there's all these layers.

As they excavated, they found all these artifacts, pottery, and and building materials consistent with different eras of history.

And so um, I'll show this with like yellow.

We've got uh that would be the the ancient Islamic things.

This would be the 600s and beyond.

Okay, the Islamic people came and there was this huge empire that came in and conquered this area and built on this site some Islamic uh structures.

And so that's layer six.

We're gonna go from layer six to five.

Layer five, this would be the Emperor Constantine stuff, the Byzantine stuff.

These are the remnants of an ancient church that has um structure and style consistent with the churches built during that time period.

In fact, this is where it gets really cool.

We actually have some of the writings of Constantine preserved, including him ordering this church to be built.

And so we can read that.

Um Constantine wrote that she, and he's talking about a woman named Eutropia, this would be his mother-in-law.

Okay, so Constantine was doing what his mother-in-law said.

Smart man.

So it says, she, Eutropia, assures me then that the place which gains its name from the Oak of Mamre, where we find that Abraham dwelt, is defiled by certain of the slaves of superstition in every possible way.

There are pagan things happening there, basically.

She declares that the idols which should be utterly destroyed have been erected on the site of that tree, that an altar is near the spot, and that impure sacrifices are continually performed.

So basically, Constantine, who's this new Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, he finds out that at this ancient site where Abraham was said to have met with God and built an altar to God, that it's kind of been taken over by false religions, by pagan religions, and they're making sacrifices there.

And he ordered that to stop and then ordered a church to be built on that site.

In fact, there were only four churches that Constantine ordered to be built in that part of the world, and this is one of the four, and this is like a rendition of what the church probably looked like that Constantine had asked to be built there.

Okay, and so we still have some of the remnants of that.

All right, here we go.

So we're we're we're still layer five right now.

Layer five is that stuff.

Layer four is some remnants of like the Roman time.

In fact, we have some channels that are in the ground at this site that look a little bit like this.

And these were but these are totally Roman.

They were built by the Romans.

This is for water, but probably in the case of a site like this, this is for blood, because when they're sacrificing animals, just animal after animal, hundreds upon hundreds of animals, there's a lot of blood, and they would they would build these channels to drain the blood out of uh of these temples.

And so that is a Roman thing that was probably part of the pagan worship that was happening there.

So that's layer four.

Okay.

Uh layers three and two, I'll give you one image that shows these.

Layer three, you see this kind of like blueprint overlay on the site.

These outer walls would have been built by Herod the Great, the same Herod the Great that tried to have Jesus killed when he was a baby, that same Herod the Great who was in charge of the second temple, if you know the history of Israel, like he would have commissioned these walls to be built to commemorate this site.

And in the bottom right corner, all right, you've got those two little purple squares.

That would be um that would be gates from the time of like King David.

There was a gate that was built there, and it's consistent with that time period.

So that's all the way layer two.

Now we're talking about a thousand years before Jesus.

Okay?

And then obviously, layer one.

Layer one, right around here, is what they believe is Abraham's altar.

The stones are consistent with the altars of that time.

Um, it's in the spot that Abraham would have been, where it's described, and this is a place that's been recognized by the Jewish people for thousands of years, as this is where it was.

You have to understand when God would do something big, they would build an altar at that spot, and and then the people would have celebrated, commemorated this, protected this for thousands of years.

And here's what it what it looks like, what they think that altar is.

There you go.

Super exciting.

Some rocks.

Abraham's like, God met me, I'm putting some rocks here.

That's what I'm gonna do.

Right?

I never want to forget this.

Okay.

Wouldn't it be cool to go there?

I've never been to Israel.

How many of you, by the way, have been to Israel?

You've been to ancient Israel, have you visited a handful?

Anyone?

A couple people, wow.

I want to go, it'd be cool.

If you went there, if you could, and you could visit that spot, what would you want to see?

Like what would be most interesting to you?

Layer six, layer five, layer four, layer three, layer two, or layer one?

Layer one.

Right?

Because let's be honest, that's the only reason that spot matters.

Like the only reason there's a layer six is because there's a layer one.

If God showed up there and spoke to Abraham and had this moment with Abraham, that's all that matters.

That's the only reason it's important.

That's the only reason that there ever was a layer two, where at the time of the Israelite kings, someone put a gate there and said, Hey, we need to kind of block this off, and this is a special place because of what happened here.

God showed up here.

And then layer three, let's put some walls around it.

Let's really protect it.

Because again, God, I mean, this is a special place.

This is where God met with Abraham.

And layer four is a little messy, it's like, uh, it's a special place, but let's use it for our own purposes.

But it's still a special place.

Layer five is whoa, whoa, whoa, cut that out.

This is a really special place.

Let's put a church here.

Okay.

In layer six, the Islamic period is like, let's take this church out and let's repurpose it for our faith, but something really important happened here that's still something we recognize.

Like, it's just the only reason any of the other layers matter is because of layer one.

And honestly, those rocks, as cool as they are, they're they're rocks.

Like that's all they are.

They're just rocks.

They're not holy rocks.

You know, if you touch those rocks, you wouldn't, you know, guys, you wouldn't regrow your hair.

I'm just gonna be honest with you.

If you touch those rocks, nothing, nothing would happen to you.

You would not you would not receive a bigger portion of the Holy Spirit because your hand touched those rocks.

But those rocks were just rocks that Abraham put there so that everyone would remember what happened is that the God of the universe came and met with a man and spoke to a man and had a relationship with a man, with a human being.

And that is significant enough that Abraham said, This needs to be remembered.

So, layer one, layer two, all the way to layer six.

There you go.

And I share all of that because what I believe Jesus desires for us, what he prays for us in John 17, what he wants, that's been the whole name of this series.

What does Jesus want?

How can we experience what he actually wants?

He wants us to know God, he wants you to know, to have a relationship with the God who created you, with Jesus Christ the Son.

You can know him, you can be like Abraham, you can have a layer one relationship with God.

That's something that every single one of us can experience, and Jesus prays for it.

He says, Lord, Father, I want them to know you and know me.

This is how to have eternal life.

To know him.

That's why Jesus once says, in a very challenging to some find this very scary teaching, that he says, Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, like we did miracles in your name and we preached and we did all these things, and I will say to them, Depart from me, for I never knew you.

It's not about a resume with Jesus, it's about a relationship.

And he wants us to know him.

And I'm telling you, you can have a layer one relationship with God, provided you never settle for less.

And that's the funny thing about that site.

That's the funny thing about how even the different layers work is we as people are very comfortable settling for the higher layers.

Like, how crazy would it be if you went there and they're showing you layer six, and then they get to layer five, layer four, layer three, and you're like, I'm good.

I'm gonna go now.

Like, whoa, whoa, we haven't even shown you like the first thing, like the the God thing.

Like, yeah, but I was really just I was kind of mainly here to see the gate.

You know?

That'd be dumb, right?

That'd be so dumb.

You know, that would be like, I don't know, I'm thinking about my kids if if they got tickets to see, oh my gosh, if they got tickets to see the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry was in town, and we go to the stadium, and we go inside, and we go get a hot dog, and then I'm like, let's go.

I just came for the hot dog, right?

It'd be like the dumbest thing in the world.

But we as people, if we're honest, we we can settle for the higher layers.

And there's a temptation for that.

And it's sneaky and it's subtle, but we are compelled by Jesus Himself to desire knowing God.

I think about some of the things that we settle for.

We can settle for a place.

We can settle for a place.

Instead of knowing God, we just we think about being in a place where God has done something, where God has been, where we we maybe feel God even.

But it's the place that becomes important.

It's a huge part of history.

That's why the temple was such a big deal to the people in Jesus' time, and they they basically worship the place.

They were obsessed with the place, and Jesus once said, Look, tear down this structure.

I could rebuild the temple in three days.

He's talking about himself.

It's not about a place.

Jesus says in John 17, verses 20 through 21, a really interesting response to a Pharisee.

John 17:20–21

It says, The Pharisee asked Jesus, When will the kingdom of God come?

And Jesus replied, The kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs.

You won't be able to say, Here it is, or it's over there, for the kingdom of God is already among you.

It's not a place.

Sometimes we get so fixated on places, and this place is holy, and and this place is special, and oh, I just gotta get to that place.

Like I I love his hands.

I love this place.

I have worked here since 2007.

Guys, that's I mean, come on.

That was a long time ago.

There were no iPhones in 2007.

Let's just talk.

I I worked here pre the invention of the smartphone.

That's how old I am and how long I've been here.

This is a special, would you say that this is a special place?

I agree.

It's a very special place.

Over 2,000 people have been baptized here in the last 20 years.

That's pretty cool.

That's very, very cool, yeah.

Very neat.

Did you know that Shaquille O'Neal was once here at our church?

That happened.

That's right.

He went to the restroom over there.

Second stall.

NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence was once here on a Sunday morning.

Came and visited our church one time.

That's right.

Not as many claps because you know the Jaguars haven't done so well.

But that's two number one draft picks.

I just want to throw that out there.

We got basketball number one, football number.

We just gotta get a baseball number one here, round it out.

So that's pretty cool.

Some cool things have happened here.

This is a special place, but it's also not.

Sorry.

It's also not.

Like, okay, think about it this way.

Let me explain this.

One of one of the most powerful spiritual experience I have ever had in my life, one of the times of my life where I would say that the Lord like met me face to face, so to speak, um, and I felt his presence, and something sort of categorically changed in my heart toward him.

Happened over in what is we call the student center.

I was the youth pastor, I was by myself, and I was just praying.

Praying and I had an encounter with the Lord, and I it was just it was amazing.

That place that I was used to be the automotive center of a Kmart.

The place that I was meeting with God and He was speaking into me is where like a Chevy Equinox got its oil changed, okay, in the year 2000.

It's not necessarily like a holy site.

Okay?

Like worship was great this morning.

I don't know.

I just this morning felt really special worship-wise.

I had a blast worshiping with you guys, you know.

And if you're sitting over here in this section, you're like, man, I felt God this morning, and that's awesome.

But someone purchased underwear at a Kmart where you are.

That happened.

That is a thing that happened in this space.

And then in our worship space, this is a place where people bought dog food, right?

Our basketball court is the former lawn and garden center of a Kmart.

I mean, it's just it's funny, right?

Like it shows us that it's not the place.

You know, Kmart wasn't holy.

It would have lasted if it was.

I mean, that's that's the truth, and and yet and yet this is a holy place.

Because a holy God, the person of God, has has moved here.

But it's not the place.

It's not the walls.

That doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter, which which by the way is why.

Just put this out there.

If you if you've been at church for a long time, you know, we we get a little funny about church, like if we change things.

Like one day we'll probably have to knock some walls down and we'll move something, and and someone will, you can't move that.

That's I mean, that's a sacred but no, nothing in here is sacred.

None of the chairs, none of the walls.

It's the same foundation that Kmart had.

But it's the God who makes it holy.

It's the relationship, it's the it's Him.

So so never never settle for a place.

Even with church, don't make it about the building, the place.

It doesn't matter.

That's not the layer to think about.

That's where you you don't want to settle.

That's why Scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 3.16, don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God, that the Spirit of God lives in you.

I'm telling you, I'm here all the time.

I have put more, I've been here in this building more hours than I could even count.

And when you guys aren't here, it is different.

I'm here a lot when no one else is.

And I'm not saying it's I mean, I still love the Lord.

I still think it's special, but it's it's different when you guys are here.

You know why?

Because you're the temple.

You're the temple of the Holy Spirit, not the walls.

So never settle for a place.

But it can be more than just a place.

We can we can settle for a system.

We can settle for a system, even if it's quote unquote the right system.

You know, when Jesus came and he taught, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, like they had picked the right system of belief.

They really had.

They weren't worshiping pagan gods, they weren't worshiping the Roman gods, they were worshiping the right God.

They had the right system, but the problem is they had settled for the system and they had missed the person of God.

That's why in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus uh reaches this man named Matthew.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

He calls him to be a disciple.

Matthew was a tax collector, tax collectors were were nefarious sinners, hung out with a pretty rough crowd, and it says that in verses 10 through 13 later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked the disciples, Why does your teacher eat with such scum?

And when Jesus heard this, he said, Healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.

Then he added, Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture.

I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.

For I've come to call not those who think they're righteous, but those who know they are sinners.

That's a bold thing for Jesus to say to the Pharisees.

Go learn the meaning of this scripture.

In other words, he's saying, You guys have missed the point.

You've missed the point.

You've got all this memorized, you've got the right system, but you've missed the point entirely.

Later, Jesus would say that you search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life.

But the scriptures point to me.

The way to have eternal life with God is not even to know the scriptures.

The Pharisees knew the scriptures.

In fact, Jesus said, you search them because you think they give you eternal life, having the right answers, having the right system of belief.

No, no, no, no.

What's the way to have eternal life?

Jesus said it in John 17.

To know God.

To know God, to know Jesus.

That's why it's depart from me, I never knew you.

Not depart from me, you didn't have all the right answers to all the right questions.

Depart from me, you didn't use the right translation.

Depart from me.

It's not about the system.

Now it's important what we believe, it's important that we believe what's right and good.

That's why we teach scripture here and take that really seriously.

We try to teach it responsibly.

But you could actually have the right system of belief and still miss it entirely.

Because ultimately it's about Jesus.

It's about knowing him, it's about having a relationship with him, which is why we have children here at his hands.

Kids who have given their lives to Jesus, and man, we some of us could crush them in a Bible trivia contest.

Like I would love, I would love to take the average third grader on in a Bible trivia contest and just be like, idiot.

Wrong.

I win.

And Jesus look at the third grader and go, I like that one.

Right?

Because you can know God without knowing all the right answers.

And we want to learn the right answers, we want to grow in our faith and knowledge.

But many people settle for the system.

They settle for the denomination, they settle for the doctrine.

And if you settle there, you're just not going deep enough.

That's not layer one.

That's not layer one.

Don't settle for a system.

Don't settle for a person.

Ooh, this one's tough.

This one's tough.

We looked at this, I think last week or the week before, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

There was a lot of division happening in the church, a lot of arguing, and people were kind of picking their leaders.

And he said, Some of you are saying, I follow Paul.

Others are saying I follow Apollos or I follow Peter or I follow only Christ.

Everyone was like, I like this one better, this one better.

And Paul just takes him to task and says, That's all foolishness.

What are you guys doing?

What are you doing?

I remember years ago, we had this uh this awesome trip for our high school students.

We called it the road trip back in the day, and uh it was a blast.

And one year we had this unbelievable encounter with God in worship.

It was the it was like a breakthrough for our students.

I'd never seen anything like it.

I'd been the youth pastor for a few years, and I'd kind of been waiting for something like this to happen for the students to experience the presence of God in such a way that was obvious, and it like changed them, and that happened.

We were on this trip, and it was like, whoa, that was it.

And so it was incredible, and man, the the person that was leading worship for the students did such an unbelievable job, and God really used that person, and it was powerful.

And so the very next year I was planning the next road trip.

And uh, and like I intentionally made sure not to have that person lead worship the next year.

And I had to meet with that person, and I had to say, hey, listen, I'm not scheduling you for worship this year for the road trip.

And at first they were hurt, which I could understand.

They did a great job the year before, and God used them, and and there was this breakthrough that happened, and they were at the helm of that, and God used them for that, and they're like, Why?

I don't understand.

I said, Because I need the students, I believe that they will have a similar experience, and I need them to know that it wasn't you.

You know what I'm saying?

I need them to know it was the Lord, that it's not you, because I know about our tendency to settle for the person.

And so I know they're gonna be disappointed, like, oh, where's where's this guy?

He's why is he not here?

But then they're gonna have the same encounter and they'll know, oh, it's God.

And look, we we live in a time where you can settle for a lot of really talented, amazing people.

I mean, truly, you can you can settle for some awesome pastors, even.

I mean, we live in like a celebrity pastor culture where there's you know YouTube videos and and just social media, and there's a lot of really great speakers and gifted teachers and all of that out there, and there's a lot of people who settle for that person.

And a lot of it's really gross, to be honest with you, you know?

Because there's a lot, look, let's be honest, there's a lot of people who will gladly be that person you'll settle for.

Because they can make a lot of money and be celebrated and have fame, and and I'm not gonna give you guys a list of who I think those guys are.

Um, talk to me privately, I'll tell you who, whatever you want to know.

You'll be like, it was that guy, right?

Like, it was, it was that guy.

Um, no.

But I'll tell you this: be very careful.

Be very careful spending much time listening to any pastor, leader in the Christian world who seems very comfortable being celebrated.

Like Paul was really uncomfortable being celebrated.

That's why he always took the low position.

I am, he would describe himself as a slave of Christ.

Paul did his best work, not on a big stage.

He did his best work in prison.

And so just be very, very careful.

Being putting yourself underneath the influence of someone who preaches in the name of Jesus or teaches in the name of Jesus, but is very comfortable being celebrated and and adored and positioned highly and just kind of if it seems like they milk that, that's a bad sign.

You know.

I I have a filter for my my own personal, because I listen to guys and I learn from lots of people.

But if someone has more swagger than I imagine Jesus had, I'm like, nah.

You know, I just won't.

If someone's on stage and they're just and they just like, I don't think Jesus had that much swagger, then I'm like, you shouldn't have more swagger than Jesus.

So that's kind of a filter I have.

Um, just be careful, don't settle.

We we can not only settle for a place or for a system or for a person, we can settle for an experience.

I mean, our Christian world in America is kind of funny.

If you've grown up in the church, you'll know this.

Like, think about think about Pentecost, for example.

If you know the story of Pentecost, okay?

Jesus raises from the dead, and then he tells his disciples, hang in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes in power, and then he ascends to heaven, and they're just there.

Can you imagine being the disciples?

They didn't live in Jerusalem, they lived in Galilee to the north, and Jesus is like, hey, don't go anywhere until the Holy Spirit comes.

Bye.

And he goes up.

And they're like, How will we know?

What will that feel like?

What will that look like?

I don't, and then they're just looking at each other.

That'd be a weird moment.

Well, all right, guys.

I guess something's gonna happen.

Don't know when, don't know what, and they just kind of had to hang there.

But then it happened and they knew when it happened.

And that's a day of Pentecost, and Jerusalem was filled with people because that's that's a big Jewish festival and celebration, and the Holy Spirit comes and comes upon them, and they're able to speak in languages they can't normally speak in, and this crazy thing happens, and all these people over thousands of people give their lives to Jesus in one day, and the church just kind of explodes, and and that's really how the momentum of the church started.

And in our culture, in our world today, this is how that would go in like American church, it'd be like, guys, Pentecost was awesome.

So make sure you pre-register for Pentecost 2 next year.

It's gonna be even bigger, even better.

We're bringing in this person, and this guy's gonna speak, and it would just be this giant because we try in American church, we try to manufacture and replicate experiences.

And you can't do that with God.

And I'm gonna talk about this for a minute because it's uh something I have a real like passion about, but I am aware of the time.

Um 1115 to 1120, that's what we shoot for.

Sometimes we miss.

But no, no, like the experience thing is important.

Don't settle for an experience when you can know God.

And so, you know, um we have a phrase or kind of an illustration we use on staff, and I think I may have talked about this once before, but I I call it um building wave pools.

Like, I don't ever want us to build wave pools.

If you've ever been to a water park, you've been in a wave pool, and it simulates the ocean, and it does a pretty good job.

But it's not the real thing.

And very often in church we can do that.

We can we can create manufactured experiences.

We're trying to simulate the Holy Spirit, we're trying to simulate the feeling and trying to re-recapture that and make sure that it happens on the clock.

You know, I I wish I could tell you that I promise you, every Sunday, 10 a.m., worship is gonna blow you away, and the message is gonna, wow.

I mean, sometimes I see pastors online, sometimes they're like, you cannot miss Sunday, because I have never been more excited about a message in my life, and you've got to be here.

And I just don't post those because I mean a lot of times on Saturday, I pretty much hate the message.

And I'm like, I don't want to do this this week, God, and I'm really tired, and I need you to, I don't feel that way all the time.

And we'd be liars if we promise you, oh guys, you don't you don't want to miss it, it will be epic.

Like, that's not how the Holy Spirit works.

It's like you go to the ocean, you go to the beach, and sometimes you're like, oh, it's pretty calm today.

All right.

And other times you're like, holy cow, it is crazy today.

You can't control the ocean.

And there's a lot of belief in kind of the church world, like, well, we'd rather have a wave pool, we'd rather have a simulation that we manufacture to create a feeling and an experience because at least then it's on the clock.

It's something that we can make happen.

I don't know about you guys, I would rather just wait for God to move.

And if he moves, let's be like, yeah, that was awesome.

And I don't know when he's gonna move like that again.

Because that's how he works.

That's how he works.

Look at the story of 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

Elijah is this prophet, and he's in a really precarious situation.

It says that he got up and he ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.

He goes to Mount Sinai because something happened there, kind of like the Oaks of Mamre.

There was a layer one moment at Mount Sinai.

God showed up, met with Moses, Ten Commandments, all that kind of stuff.

There, that was the layer one moment of Mount Sinai, and Elijah's like, I'm going there.

I'm going to Mount Sinai.

It says, There he came to a cave where he spent the night.

But the Lord said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?

Like, why are you here?

That's awesome.

Elijah replied, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, killed every one of your prophets.

I'm the only one left.

And now they're trying to kill me too.

Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him.

And Elijah's probably thinking, Oh, I'm about to have the Moses experience.

You know, Moses was on that mountain.

God was like this giant cloud, and there was like lightning and fire.

It was crazy.

As Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain.

It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And a voice said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

You can understand Elijah trying to go, I'll go to Mount Sinai, I'll go to where God once was, and maybe he'll recreate that experience for me.

And he doesn't get the thundercloud with lightning and all of that.

And God's teaching him something and teaching us something.

He gets the gentle whisper.

Because you can't force God's hand.

You can't make him do what he's done before, the same way that he's done it before.

He doesn't play like that.

And we either have a humble heart that says, Lord, I will wait, I will wait on you until you move and then I will respond, or we go, we just try to make it happen, we just try to manufacture it.

Kind of personal example of this, and then worship team, you guys can make your way out, we'll we'll wrap up.

A personal example of this is um before COVID, I preached differently.

Um I was younger, had more hair and confidence.

Um, now all jokes aside, like I don't know, I grew up watching, you know, preachers, guys who brought it.

And so I wasn't like yelling the whole time, but if you I'm not recommending you do this, I kind of wish they didn't exist, but it is what it is.

But you can listen to recordings of me years ago, and I was just more like emphatic.

I was louder, and I would like you know get into it, and I liked that because people respond to that, and that's just kind of what I grew up seeing modeled was you know, you yell and people clap.

That's how it works.

Um maybe they're uncomfortable, they want you to stop.

I don't know why, but they do.

But then COVID hit, and we had to, you know, like every other church around, figure stuff out.

And so I remember I was standing on this very stage, and instead of a bunch of people, there was a camera, and I started yelling.

And I was like, who am I yelling at?

And then I was like, why do I yell?

Where else do I yell and it's a good thing?

Every other place I yell, I'm like apologizing afterwards.

Like when I yell at my kids, I'm like, I'm so sorry, I should I lost my temper.

And when I like yelling is not generally something I do that I'm I'm why do I why do I do that?

And it just something changed inside of me, and I'm not saying that pastors who preach like that are doing it wrong, it's just something hit for me where I was like, you know what, tone it down a little.

Because I think part of it for me, I realized in that moment, this is personal.

Again, this doesn't necessarily apply to other guys that do it this way, but I think for me, oh, I'm trying to get a reaction.

I'm I'm trying to teach in such a way where if I bring it with this volume and this kind of energy and I and I'm yelling a little bit, people are gonna like, yeah.

And I'm like, I don't want to do that.

I just don't want to do that because it doesn't feel genuine and it doesn't, it feels like borderline manipulation.

And so ever since then, I kind of just don't do that.

I mean, I guess if God moved and he's like, yell, I'm like, okay, I'll yell.

But he's not, he hasn't told me to yell.

I get excited, and that comes through, I hope.

But the point is, I just I want to make sure that here we're never trying to manufacture a feeling or an experience because we'll settle for that.

And that's not layer one.

Like layer one isn't the place, it's not the system, it's not the people in charge, the people up in front, the people on a stage.

It's not the experience, it's not the feeling.

It's not a feeling, it's a relationship.

You are known by God, you can have a relationship with God, you can know him intimately, you can talk to him, you can you can you can be in the former automotive center of a Kmart and have a deeply intimate encounter with God.

You could be at home, you could be in your car, you could be anywhere, and you can just be in his presence and know that he knows you and he loves you, and you need him, and you can just talk to him and say, Lord, I'm yours, and you're mine, and I love you, and I need you right now, and I'm struggling with this, and I'm going through this, and I want to be closer to you, and and you can have layer one encounters and relationship with God anywhere and everywhere.

Not he doesn't have to be here because it's a relationship, and he's everywhere, and he's in you, you're the temple.

Now, the challenging part about those encounters is that they tend to change us, if we're honest.

I mean, a few last scriptures, John 15, 4, Jesus says, Remain in me and I will remain in you.

For a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine.

You cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

This isn't something we can just do from time to time.

We can't just go live however we want, do whatever we want, and then you know, once a week or once every couple weeks, be like, Alright, God, me and you time.

Doesn't work like that.

We're called to remain in Him.

That it's a daily connection, that it's like we we live there.

In fact, some translations say, abide, live, live in me.

It requires us to change, it requires us to let go of things.

James, ooh, James put it pretty bluntly, but that's kind of James's MO in James chapter four.

He says, Humble yourselves before God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

That's very simple.

Wash your hands, you sinners.

Purify your hearts.

For your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Let there be tears for what you've done, let there be sorrow and deep grief, let there be sadness instead of laughter and gloom instead of joy.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

James is saying, guys, you're you're living as a friend of the world.

Your allegiance is to the world, not to God, and then you're like, why don't I feel God?

He's like, get rid of that allegiance.

Repent from it, wash your hands, purify your hearts, and recommit everything you have to God and live connected to him.

Live where he is everything to you, and that's that's how you live a layer one life.

Not just a moment here or there, but an entire life, but it has to be, it has to be the thing that you refuse to be without.

That you just you say to yourself, I will never settle for anything less than layer one.

It's not a place, it's not a person, it's not an experience, it's not a feeling, it's not the system of beliefs, it's God Himself.

And I want to know Him, I want to talk to Him, I want to walk with Him, I want to live with Him, I want to dwell with Him, I want to abide in Him, I want to feel His presence in my life, but I'm not gonna dictate that, I'm not gonna manufacture it, I'm not gonna try to make it happen in my own way.

I'm just gonna be obedient and say, Lord, I'm here, I want to meet with you, come and meet with me, and I have faith and trust that you will do that because of who you are.

That is how we're called to live.

That is a layer one life, and you can have it.

Praise God.

Praise God.

So, with that said, we're two minutes past the target.

I'm so sorry.

Let's take Lord's Supper together and wrap up.

All right.

If you're new, we take this every Sunday.

And there's uh some bread and juice at the tables in the back when you made your way in.

And it's okay if you want to go grab one if you forgot, no big deal.

But we take this because this is this is everything we're talking about.

I mean, it doesn't get more layer one than Jesus.

I mean, you want to see what a layer one life looks like?

That's Jesus.

He lived in that relationship with the Father every step of the way, and it's powerful and it's amazing, and now we can know him because our sin has been taken care of.

Any barrier that would exist between us and God in terms of our ability, I don't think there's ever a barrier between God's love and us, but our our ability to experience that love was very much held back by the weight of sin and death, and Jesus dealt with that on the cross.

So let's pray for the bread.

Father, we thank you for this bread and what this represents.

This is your body, Jesus, that was given up as a sacrifice, nailed to a cross to pay a price, to cover our sin, to cover our shame, and to open the way.

You opened the way for us to know our God and become restored as sons and daughters, not just distant followers, but friends and family.

Help us trust this, Lord.

Help us seek you, help us desire more than anything to know you, to follow you, and to experience your presence in our lives day by day.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

What it represents.

This is your blood spilled, cleansing us, making us pure and holy.

Now when we pray, we know there's there's nothing in the way.

It's all been taken care of, Lord.

It's just you and us.

You know us and you love us.

Help us trust you.

Fill our hearts with a desire to be people who never settle for anything less than a life knowing you.

It's in your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.

Let's take the juice.