Vision Month: Get Love

We're starting 2018 off in a different way than we've started any year off as a church.

I know that right now a lot of us consider his hands our home.

This is our church.

And if that's you, uh I did something I've never done before.

I asked everyone who considers this their home to be here every Sunday in January, to come to church for an entire month.

I know it's crazy.

I'm sorry.

Um but no, seriously, I think it's really important that we begin this year on the same page because I think as a church, we're gonna take some big steps this year, big steps forward into our calling and our understanding of what it means to be his hands.

I know that there are some of us here who who this is not our church, we're checking it out.

You know, maybe you're here for the very first time, maybe you came at Christmas and and you're just here to see what's going on.

It's a great month for you to be here as well because you're gonna find out what we value, you're gonna find out what we really believe, you're gonna find out what's in our DNA, and I think you'll discover whether or not this resonates with you.

Because we we are a family of people that are called together by God for a purpose.

I believe that we are here on purpose.

I believe that you are here on purpose.

I believe that we're all together for a reason.

I believe God has things for us to do.

The Bible says that we're his workmanship.

Some translations say his masterpiece, that we've been created in Jesus, that we've been given new life in Jesus for a purpose, so that we can do the good things that he created us to do.

And I think that we're going to discover more of those good things in 2018.

And so we're beginning our month talking about our vision as a church.

Or beginning our year, rather, talking about our vision as a church.

Every single week this month, we're gonna be talking about the vision that God has given us here.

But it's not just gonna be like a business meeting.

This isn't just us talking about ourselves corporately, because our vision in so many ways is to help you know God better, to help you go further in your relationship with Him, to help you understand the life that He has for you.

So every week, as we talk about our vision, we're gonna be talking about deeply personal things.

This is a month that you'll grow.

I promise that.

But I am so excited for the chance to get together and talk about what is next, about what God has for us, about what we're supposed to do, who we're meant to be, because we're his hands church.

And that's actually a really powerful name if you if you stop and think about it.

We didn't come up with the name His Hands in some marketing meeting.

It wasn't like we had a whiteboard, and here's some potential names, and we came up with like a cool, buzzworthy name.

His hands actually is not a cool name at all.

It's a very confusing name to many people.

It's just like his hands?

Like hands, the things on your arms?

Yes.

And it's by the way, a very difficult name to tell someone over the phone if you're giving your email address.

My email address is Justin at HisHandschurch.com, and I always have to spell it.

I always have to say it's Justin at HisHandschurch.com, H A or H-I-S-H-A-N-D-Schurch.com.

I'm, you know, I do know how to spell it.

So it's it's I wish we had like a cool word, you know, just like one word and be like, it's this.

But we're his hands.

And we're his hands because we're supposed to be his hands to this community.

We're supposed to be an extension of Jesus to the community that we're part of.

We're supposed to be people who bring Jesus to the people around us in every interaction that we have.

And so we're here right now because Jesus has something for us.

He has something for us to be part of.

At the end of the day, a church is not something that you attend.

A church is something you have the opportunity to be part of, to take part in.

And so this year we're gonna take part.

And we're gonna take steps forward into who we're meant to be.

And I am so excited to talk about all of that.

So if you don't mind, I'd like to pray, and then let's just dive in.

Jesus, thank you so much for bringing all these people here today.

This is a family, Lord.

There's so many of us here from different places in life.

So many of us here who have grown up with very different experiences.

But no matter what we've been through, no matter what we're going through, you are you are God.

You say in your word that you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You are stable, you are dependable, you are someone that we can rely on, you are someone we can build our lives upon.

And right now, at the start of our 2018, Lord, we want to have vision.

We want to understand what you have for us.

We want to hear from you.

So I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to every person in this room, that you would give each of us, each of us just a glimpse of what you have for us this year.

And that we would leave this room not only more excited about the life that you have for us, but more equipped to live it.

And we pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Well, if we're gonna talk about our vision as a church, our vision as a family of people, we've got to start with the word love.

It's in big letters behind me on the screen.

That's on purpose, that's for emphasis.

Our vision as a church, ultimately, if you're gonna boil it down to one phrase, is to love people to Jesus.

To love people to Jesus.

And again, this isn't something that we just came up with because it sounds good.

This is like straight from God's word.

If you spend much time in the Bible, you realize that love is a really big deal to God.

The Apostle Paul, this leader in the early church in the first century, he put it this way: 1 Corinthians 13, 1.

He says, if I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.

Um, anyone here willing to say that a gong is your favorite instrument?

You're a huge gong fan.

I think it's amazing.

I think it's just evidence that the Bible is God breathed, that 2,000 years ago the Holy Spirit made sure that Paul used an instrument that would still exist 2,000 years later and still suck.

So that's really good.

That shows us that God knows what he's doing, you know?

Gongs.

No one likes gongs.

And Paul says, I don't want to be a gong.

If I had the gift of prophecy and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains but didn't love others, I would be nothing.

I mean, think about what he's saying, I would be nothing.

It would be worthless.

He said, if I gave everything I have to the poor and I even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.

Like love is a really big deal to God.

Jesus made it so clear to us in John 13, 35, he says, This is the way the world will know that you belong to me.

The way you love one another.

The way that we love each other, the way that we love people, that is meant to be what defines us in this world.

That is meant to be what separates us.

That the world should look at a church and see so much love and so much care and so much generosity and so much passion for helping people and serving people that it goes, that's weird.

But I I want that.

It's attractive, it's good.

In fact, in the New Testament, there are times where the early church is described with the word good and the actual Greek word that's used, we could translate charming.

That the church is meant to be charming because the church is meant to be full of love.

Love is a really, really big deal to God, and so our vision is to love people to Jesus.

We want to love people in such a way that they get a taste of God's love for them because there are a lot of people in our community who have heard about Jesus, who have been told about Jesus, but they have not experienced the love of Jesus.

And someone may have walked up to them one day and said, Hey, you need Jesus in your life, and they may have even been told the truth.

That without Jesus, there's really not hope.

That without Jesus, we don't have what we need.

Without Jesus, we're in a lot of trouble.

But they may have been told the truth without love, and the truth without love, it's like repulsive.

It just bounces off.

But the truth in love, it's a whole different thing.

That's something you can receive, that's something that you can take in, that's something that changes you.

We are called to love people to Jesus.

But the word love is it's kind of a hazy word.

At least in our culture, it's not a very specific word.

Like we love lots of things, and there's a lot of different ways to show love.

And so if all we said was, hey, let's go love people, well, what does that mean?

Right?

How do I do that?

Am I supposed to go hug people?

Am I just supposed to walk around and give people hugs?

Some people would enjoy that.

I would not.

You know?

Like it's it's like you can tell the the the way a person is at his hands based on which door they walk through on a Sunday morning, right?

Because if you come in through the left door where Al stands, you like hugs.

You don't have personal space issues.

How many left door people do we have?

Any left door people?

If you come in that right door, you're like me, and you're like, love you, Al, I love you from afar, you do your thing.

I'm gonna go over here.

Any right door people?

You liars.

There's like all of you like, oh no, I love.

Love to be hugged.

Right?

The word love is just hazy.

And so if all we say is let's love people, what does that mean?

How do we put that into action?

We need to clarify that.

And so for the last several years, we've had three words that all begin with the letter G also conveniently located behind me on the screen.

And these have been how we have used, like how we've put into categories, how we've how we've put into action what we're going to do with love.

We want people to get, grow, and give the love of Jesus.

And who knows, maybe on January 28th there will be a fourth word that begins with G that we'll be adding to that for this year.

I don't know.

I'm not saying yes or no to that.

I cannot confirm nor deny.

I'm just saying maybe January 28th is a special day and you should be here.

I don't know, we'll see.

You'll have to be here.

Okay.

But these these three words behind me, they're they've been the words that we've used to really put into context everything we're doing.

Is this intended to help people get more of God?

Is this intended to help people grow and take steps and mature in their relationship with God?

Is this something that's intended for us to give back the love that God's given us?

Everything we do here, it fits into one of those three categories.

And so for the next few weeks, we're gonna talk about each of those words.

And how as a church this year, and and remember, when I say church, I don't mean an organization, I mean us, a family, how we're going to do those things together this year.

And I'll be honest, I a part of me wishes I could just fast forward to January 28th when we may or may not be adding a fourth word to that list.

Because that's gonna potentially be exciting, maybe.

And I wish that I could just do that.

I wish that I could actually go two weeks from now where we can talk about the word give, because as a church, I'm just gonna tell you this.

We're gonna give back the love of Jesus in some very new and very exciting ways this year, in ways we've never done before.

And I cannot wait to talk about that.

I kind of wish I could go ahead to next week and talk about the word grow because look, there's so much more for us.

There's so much more for us to experience with God that there's so many different ways that we can all grow and mature in our faith.

I don't think there's anything that gets me as excited personally as seeing someone take a big step in their faith, in their relationship with Jesus.

To mature and to grow.

I love that.

I can't wait to talk next week about new ways that we're gonna, as a church, be committed to each other's growth.

But we're gonna start today with that first word, get.

And we're not just doing this to be like selfish and egocentric and say, oh, this is all about me receiving.

But the simple truth is, you cannot give what you do not have.

You cannot give what you do not have, and many of us have tried.

Like so many of us have experienced, probably all of us have experienced, what it's like to try to give out of a deficit.

Energy, patience, joy.

And usually when we try to give out of a deficit, we just fake it, right?

We just act like we're happy when we're not, we just act like, oh yo, I'm good.

And it's exhausting and it's draining, and we cannot live like that.

You cannot give what you do not have.

And so, because I believe that this year, as a church, we're going to give love to our community in ways we've never done before.

We're gonna give back to our community in bigger ways than we've ever done before, that means we need to get something from God.

That means we need to receive from God like never before.

We need to be filled, we need to be filled with what God has for us.

Because here's the reality: whatever fills you is what fuels you.

Whatever fills you is what fuels you.

And so if you want to look back at 2017, you want to look back at the last few years and ask yourself some hard questions, what has fueled my approach to life?

What has fueled my view of the world?

What has fueled my view of myself and the people around me?

What has fueled my thoughts?

What has fueled my attitude and my behaviors?

Have I been fueled by hope and faith and love?

Have I been fueled by an expectation that God's gonna show up and God's gonna do something?

Or have I been fueled by worry and fear and anxiety?

Have I been fueled by an expectation that things are going to get worse?

Like maybe you believe Alabama's actually going to win tomorrow.

You know?

And they're not.

They're not.

Just like the Patriots didn't win last year, you know, it's gotta be our year.

It has to be.

Some of you are like, no, you're jinxing it.

And that's because you don't have faith.

Come on, you know?

That's not how it works.

We don't talk about that anymore.

We don't talk about the there was no Super Bowl last year.

It was a year that the Super Bowl took off.

We just pretend like, no.

And what fuels you?

I mean, if you honestly ask yourself that question and take it in and think about it, what fuels you?

Is it is it hope or is it fear?

And I can tell you that whatever fuels you is directly connected to what fills you.

So if you want to be, if you want to be fueled by God, you need to be filled by God.

And the incredible thing is that we have the opportunity as people to be filled by God.

More so than we really even imagine most of the time.

I want to read something that it's written in Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

I'm gonna start in verse 17.

Paul wrote, I pray that you being rooted and established in love, and I love that phrase by the way, because that is our church.

His hands have been rooted and established in love.

We we have things to add to that.

We have to add truth to love, we have to add action to love.

We have to grow up, we have to mature.

But we also need to remember that we have been rooted and established in love.

That's the foundation that has been has been laid here, and everything we do builds on that.

And Paul said, Hey, since you've been rooted and established in love, I pray that you may have power.

The power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

And to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

I love the wording there.

Paul says, I pray that you have the power to know the unknowable, to know the love of God that surpasses all knowledge.

I pray that you have that.

And then this next phrase, and this is pretty massive when you really think about it.

I love the wording.

This is totally the Holy Spirit.

He says that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

To be filled to the measure, to the brim by the fullness of God.

If I if I'm gonna look at my life and ask myself, am I filled with the fullness of God?

Is that the experience that I've I've had in life?

Is that the experience I've had in the last couple of years?

If someone asks me, hey, how's your year going?

Do I say, Man, it has been full.

It has been so full of God, it's been full of everything that God has for me.

I feel so filled, that's really not what comes out of my mouth most days.

Like, usually the word I use is busy.

And then I qualify.

Like it's all good, which it's not, I'm lying.

But you know, someone will say, How are you doing?

Oh, I'm good, I'm busy, oh I'm busy, I'm busy.

It's good, you know, busy with good things.

But do I actually feel filled?

Or do I feel like I'm running on empty?

I'm just gonna be honest with you.

2017, not my best year.

Not my best year.

I I ran out of steam big time last year.

There just got to a certain point, probably September or so, where I was just out of steam.

And stuff started to slip, you know, responsibilities that I have, I was like, oh man, I forgot about that.

I'm going here, there, and everywhere.

You know, it's been a long last few years.

Megan and I stepped into this role here four years ago.

And we've had three children in those four years.

You know, so our life has gotten full.

And our house has gotten way more full, and our schedule has gotten full, and I'm I'm I'm doing this, and I've got kids that for the first time are doing things, they have activities, and I have to get them places and take them places, and I'm like a chauffeur, and then oh yeah, I have a job to do.

And it's just sort of like this was the year where I just man, I ran out of steam.

And I finished 2017 on fumes.

Absolutely on fumes, because I was running on my flesh.

And when I say flesh, I mean like my own strength, my own willpower, my own creativity, my own drive, my own ideas, my own intelligence, whatever you want to use.

I was running on my own strength, my flesh, and when you run on flesh, you run on fumes all the time.

And so I ran out of steam last year, and I kind of limped to the finish line.

Christmas Eve was great.

If you were here at Christmas Eve, I'm so glad you were.

When Christmas Eve was over, I was like, I'm done.

You know, and that's not how I want 2018 to be.

I'm just being honest with you, that's not how I want 2018 to be.

I don't want to run on fumes because I don't believe I'm meant to run on fumes.

I don't believe you're meant to run on fumes at all.

In fact, the book of Isaiah tells us what it's like to be filled by God, and it is the opposite of running on fumes.

Chapter 40, verse 31 says, Those who trust in the Lord, those who are fueled by God, they will find new strength.

They will soar high on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.

That is not running on fumes.

That is being filled, that is being full.

And I want 2018 to be a year where I'm filled with the fullness of God, and I hope that you want 2018 to be a year where you are filled with the fullness of God.

How amazing would it be at the end of this year if you could say, I experienced the fullness of what God has for me.

You're meant to.

Believe that you are meant to because our God fills us.

We have a God who fills, but but sometimes it's hard for us to remember that.

It's hard for us to experience that.

Like we get in the way of God filling us so easily.

Our human nature makes it really hard for us sometimes to receive from God, to receive what God wants to give us, to be filled by Him.

I have a two-year-old son, he's not two yet, but he will be really soon, Judah.

And I love this kid, which is good because he's my son.

And like, and it's been awesome the last few months, especially.

We're really starting to see his personality.

Um he's really funny, he's super mischievous.

Uh he can be kind of a jerk sometimes.

You know, he's two.

And more than any of our other kids, he just has these tendencies to do things that I'm like, what?

I our other kids didn't do this.

Sometimes he just punches his sister for no reason whatsoever.

And she screams and cries and he laughs.

Like I can see in the rearview mirror, we have all three kids are in one row, okay?

So they're all right next to each other.

And sometimes you'll just see a hand just reach to Lily and Judah just scratches her.

No reason.

I haven't taught him this, right?

He just, it's this is what he does.

He's two, he's hitting that stage.

And one of the things that's that's happened over the last few months is he's developed this scarcity mentality.

Part of our human nature is that we have a scarcity mentality.

We believe that we're gonna lose things.

We believe that whatever we have, we better hold on tight because something could happen, it could go away, it could all fall apart, it could be taken from us.

And so Judah has really developed that scarcity mentality that we all experience in life, and his favorite word because of that is the word mine.

Right now, that is what he says all the time.

Mine.

He walks around our house and he says that everything is his.

As I was working on this message, I'm working on my computer at home, and Judah just walks up to me very nonchalantly, walks up to me, sits right next to me as I'm typing.

I kind of look down at him, and he points to my computer and he says, My pooter.

That's what he calls computers.

These are the conversations you have with two-year-olds, which in your home are very normal, but on stage sound very odd.

And uh, and I'm I'm at this point where it's a dad where I'm not about to, I mean, like some things are funny, but this is when you tell your kids, you're not the boss.

You need to understand how things work.

And so I don't yell at him, but when he says something's mine that is actually mine, like it's mine, I we butt heads a little bit.

And so I just kind of look at him and I said, My pooter.

And for about three minutes we had an exchange and an argument about whose pooter it is, and it's my pooter, and finally I'm just resolute, and he does what he does when he he's understanding that he is lost.

He runs away, screaming at the top of his lungs the word mine, like runs down a hallway going, mine! That's what he does.

And this happens all the time.

Christmas morning, our kids come down the stairs and there's the presents.

We don't put our presents out until Christmas morning.

Anyone else like that?

Because we don't wrap our presents until Christmas morning or the night before.

This is procrastination at its finest.

And so I see people like high-fiving each other, like, yeah, we're irresponsible too.

It's awesome.

You know?

When people say, like, have you gotten your Christmas gifts?

And I say, we got a few things left, what I mean is haven't bought anything.

A few things is all the things.

And so we're wrapping Christmas presents, we're trying to get it done, and we put our Christmas presents out for the first time the morning of.

So they come down the stairs for the first time they see it.

And Judah, you know, he's just about to be two.

Last year, there's no way he remembers Christmas.

He didn't understand anything.

He was more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts.

This year, he's like, oh, these are things that I like, this is cool.

But what he did this year is he walked to every single present, regardless of whose it belonged to, and said, Mine.

Like my son Liam got a bicycle that's five times the size of Judah.

And Judah walked up to it and went, My bike.

And Lily, Lily got things and like really girly things that are pink and fluffy, and Judah's still mine.

If he's a dog, he would have walked around and peed on everything that we had for Christmas.

Like that's all he was doing.

He was marking his territory, you know?

He's just saying, mine, mine, mine.

Because in his mind right now, it's like it's all his.

And what's funny is if you try to take something away from him, that scarcity mentality, that thing in him right now that's just like taking hold.

Ooh, if you try to take something away from him, you see a rage and an anger.

Like nothing I've ever seen.

It's funny because he's small, but if he was like adult size, it'd be terrifying.

You'd be like, we need to leave right now.

Even if it's something that's it's not good for him.

Like I was putting together furniture from IKEA, one of my three least favorite things to do in the entire world.

Every time I go to IKEA, I tell myself it won't be that bad.

It won't be that bad, it can't be.

And then I we get the thing and I'm like, this is this is terrible.

Freaking Sweden, you know, like, come on.

And so I'm putting the if you've never been to IKEA, you'll you'll just go and buy buy a shelf that somehow is 75 pieces that's gonna be put together with three wooden pegs and 15 screws that are smaller than anything you've ever seen in your life.

And then you drop them in the carpet, you're like crap, and it takes forever to find them.

That's my experience every time.

I hate IKEA.

And so I'm putting together this furniture from IKEA, and I turn around, and there's Judah, and he's got this screwdriver.

And it's a really small screwdriver because of the small screws.

It's tiny, which makes it like really sharp.

It's actually kind of creepy because it looked like a shiv, and he was standing behind me like he was thinking, you know.

Like in his mind, he's like, I could just write in the kidney.

And I see him, and after I get over my own self-preservation fears, I'm like, oh, this could really hurt him.

This is a weapon.

And he could really hurt himself.

He could fall, he could trip, he could, he could puncture himself somewhere, and and I take it from him, and he screams, you know, mine! And he runs down the hallway screaming at the top of his lungs because I took a sharp object out of his hands.

And I was just doing it to protect him and myself.

And two days ago, this this is like this is the big one where I had this moment where I went, oh wow, that is like that's so like how I am with God sometimes.

Two days ago, he's holding his sippy cup.

He's got this one cup that he loves, and we put milk and juice and all kinds of things in it.

Not at the same time.

We don't make cocktails, it's just like milk or juice or water.

And so we've got the stuff in it, and he's watching his favorite movie.

He's in that phase where he watches the same thing over and over.

We watch the movie Moana three or four times a day.

Have you seen Moana?

I have.

And uh, and I look and his sippy cup is clear, and I see that the milk is gone.

He's he's drank all the milk, and I think to myself, I should give him more milk.

I love him.

He's my son.

I want him to be filled, I want him to be full, I want him to have what he wants, and I go, Oh wow, I'll get him more milk.

So I walked up to Judah.

I didn't just grab the cup from him, I wanted to preface it, I wanted to give him context, and he understands a lot.

And so I said, Hey Judah, you're out of milk.

And he looked at his sippy cup.

And he's he's got a pa, he's all about the passy, he's got a pacifier, so he just kind of like nodded his head.

And I said, Well, Daddy's gonna get you more milk.

He's fine at this point.

And then I took the cup from him and he freaked out.

And he did the same thing he's doing right now.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, mine! And then he ran screaming, like literally screaming around the living room, just screaming at the top of his lungs, mine, mine, mine.

And I'm sitting there like, you little jerk, I'm just trying to give you milk, you know?

All I'm trying to do is fill your cup, like not even metaphorically speaking.

I literally want to fill your cup with milk.

You know?

What is wrong with you?

And I'm I'm even sitting there, I'm pouring milk into the cup, like making eye contact.

Like, don't you see this is what you want?

And he's still freaking out.

Because he he suspects that I'm gonna take from him.

And and maybe I won't give it back.

And his two-year-old mind, that's what he suspects, that I'm a taker.

Even though it's his father, I've done nothing but give to him.

Like it is not a two-way relationship right now.

There has been no receiving on my hand, right?

And it will be years if ever that happens.

It's been all give, and I just give and give and give to him, and yet there's a suspicion that he has that he can't really trust me because I will take things from him.

And all I want to do is fill his cup.

And how easy is it for us to be like that with God?

To forget that our God does not take without replacing.

That when our God asks us for something, when our God asks us for us, for our lives, for some part of our lives that maybe we've been struggling to trust him with, when he says, Hey, would you give that to me?

Do we just trust him and go, oh, absolutely, because I know whatever you've got for me is good.

So here's my finances, God, here's my relationships, here's my career, you just take it.

I can't wait to see what you're gonna give me.

Or do we go, whoa, hold on.

You know, God, let's talk for a few seconds first.

What do you got in mind?

What do you want me to do?

I'm just gonna hold on to this for a few minutes.

Mine.

Right?

We have a scarcity mentality, it's part of our human nature.

And it deeply affects our ability to receive from God.

It affects how we how we understand what God asks us to do.

It affects how we understand his word.

Take scripture like Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18.

Ephesians 5:18

It's a good one to read before a football game.

Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life.

Some of us are like, it does not say beer.

I am all about taking the Bible really seriously, so it doesn't say beer.

Don't be.

However, the Bible is full, like full of verses and scriptures and proverbs that say, hey, with alcohol, be really careful, because it's dangerous.

And it says, Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life.

I figure there'd be like one amen.

Instead, like no experience, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your hearts.

Now we read this and do we see this, like, let's be honest.

Do we see this scripture as restrictive?

Or do we see it in the context of God wanting to give to us?

Like we read this and we get fixated on that word don't.

Like, what is this?

What is this verse about?

This verse is about not drinking.

No, it is not.

This verse is about receiving, this verse is about being filled.

He says, don't be drunk with wine instead.

That instead is important.

In other words, he's saying, save some room.

Make room because I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

To be filled, that's what this verse is about.

It's about God filling us with what we truly need, the Holy Spirit, God's actual Spirit in our hearts, teaching us and affirming that we're his children and empowering us and equipping us to live the life that we want to live, to live the life that we're meant for.

This is not about God taking, it's about God giving.

And he's saying, be filled, but we don't see that.

It's so easy for us to get hung up on that.

Don't.

That's kind of what got us tripped up in the first place as people in the story of Adam and Eve, first people, their interaction with God.

In Genesis chapter 2, verse 8, it says that the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.

Genesis 2:8

And the Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground, trees that were beautiful, that produced delicious fruit.

And in the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And the Lord God placed the man, this is verse 15, in the garden of Eden to tend and watch over it, but the Lord God warned him, You may eat freely.

You may eat freely the fruit of every tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

If you eat its fruits, you're sure to die.

And again, do we see this as God giving or God taking?

Do we see this as God giving to us or God restricting us?

It's so easy to see that restriction.

Oh, don't eat from this one tree.

Satan took advantage of that and he came and he used that scarcity mentality that we have, that fear that God might be holding out on us, that God might be holding back from us, and he used that and he twisted God's words, and he got Adam and Eve all messed up, and we've been dealing with the consequences ever since.

But what God says here is in no way restrictive.

Like he says, hey, here's a thousand trees.

Eat whatever you want.

Eat freely.

Like the reason I go to buffets is because they're biblical.

Okay?

I'm just obeying God.

Not so much with fruit, it's more like bacon wrap things, but I think it still applies.

You know, it's a bit of a stretch, but eat freely.

That's what God said.

We don't see the eat freely.

We get so fixated on the don't.

Because we have a scarcity mentality, it's built into our human nature.

We are worried to death about losing something.

And that keeps us.

That keeps us from being able to receive from God.

Because when you have a scarcity mentality and you live with that fear of losing, you live like this.

You hold on so tight to whatever you have.

And how can God put something in your hand if your hand is like this?

Where is he gonna put it?

There's no room.

We have to understand that our God fills, that our God gives, that he does not hold out on his children.

When I look at my life and I think about the blessings that I have, I don't deserve any of them.

I don't deserve my wife, I don't deserve my kids, I don't deserve, I don't deserve this church, I don't deserve to be part of this.

It's all been a blessing from God because every good and perfect gift comes from God.

Everything that's good.

And when I look at the areas of my life where there's a lack, where there's something that's missing, it's not the result of God holding out on me.

It's not God going, you know, I'm not gonna give Justin what he needs in this part of his life.

I just don't feel like it today.

He gets on my nerves.

You know?

And I'm sure I do sometimes, because I'm a child and it's part of what kids are supposed to do.

But no, no, it's not, it's not God holding out on me, it's me holding back from him.

It's me refusing to trust him, it's me refusing to open myself up to him so that he can fill me.

I'm like Judah holding on to an empty sippy cup, worried that he's gonna take it away.

When all he wants to do is fill me up.

All he wants to do with any of us is fill us with what we need.

He says that he wants us to be filled with his fullness.

Do you want the fullness of God in your life?

Because you're meant to have it.

You are absolutely meant to be filled, to be filled by God Himself.

There is so much in this world promising to fill you, and almost all of it is a lie.

But what would it be like this year if you got more of God than you've ever had before?

If you received more of his presence and his power and his love and his truth in your life.

What would it be like this year if you could say at the end of 2018, I have experienced the fullness of God?

I want that.

I want to be filled with the fullness, and I believe that that's meant for us.

I believe that this is a year that we can have that, so let's be filled.

Right?

Let's be filled this year.

Let's get filled up with God all the way to the brim, all the way to the fullness that He has for us.

Let's get filled.

This would be a great point to stop.

You know, like, woo! Let's get filled.

Because it's exciting to think about that, right?

Isn't it exciting to think about God filling us?

And what would it be like to not have a lack?

Like, think about all the mistakes that we make in life because we're trying to fill some emptiness inside of us with some material thing, some earthly thing, some experience, success, achievement, money.

How much of that stuff is just trying to mask an emptiness that we don't like?

And if you're truly filled by God, all that other stuff, it fits into its proper place.

But the reality is, we can't just leave today excited about being filled by God.

We need to actually be equipped to be filled by God.

He's the one who does the filling, but but we have to do some prep work.

And I want to make sure that we leave with a strategy, understanding how on earth can I experience that.

Like, yeah, that sounds great.

I want to be filled with God.

I want all the fullness of God, I want all that stuff.

Yay, woo-hoo, all right, let's go.

What do I do?

So I want to give you four really simple things real quick.

I don't expect you to remember all four, but that's why we have a podcast.

Um, this is gonna be really quick, and then worship team, you guys can come out and we'll worship and we'll celebrate, and we'll we'll ask God to fill us up before we walk out of here.

Four strategies, steps, whatever word you want to use.

I'm telling you, you do these four things, you do one or two of these four things, you're gonna experience more of God this year.

Number one, be hungry.

Be hungry.

Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, verse 6 blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

I love how simple that is.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because they will be filled.

Whatever you hunger for, whatever you thirst for, that is what you seek out.

That is what you seek out.

That's why sometimes we make mistakes in life and we're like, I don't know, it just happened.

Well, uh not really.

Like so much of the time, whatever I'm I'm doing is what I've kind of sought to do.

Whatever I hunger and what I thirst for, that is what I will seek.

And Jesus promises that if you hunger and thirst for God, you hunger and thirst for righteousness, that word righteousness means right standing with God.

Jesus has made us right with God.

But we can still grow in our relationship with Him.

We can still develop a deeper relationship with God.

And if that's what you hunger for, if you say, Yeah, I actually I really want to know God better, I want to hear from Him more clearly, I want to, I want to know Him more intimately, I hunger and thirst for a deeper understanding of God, you will be filled.

So be hungry.

And whatever wets your appetite, whatever, whatever activities you do that make you want more of God, that kind of add to that hunger that you have, do those things.

If you want to be filled, number one, be hungry.

Number two, be surrendered.

Be surrendered to God.

In other words, let go.

Let go of your sippy cup, whatever it is.

Let it go.

Maybe this year you know some things that you need more of in your life.

You might be really aware right now that you need more of this and this and this.

Maybe it's more faith, maybe it's more patience, maybe it's more knowledge, more knowledge of God's word.

You need to grow in that this year.

Maybe it's more prayer, it's more time with God.

Maybe you know the things you need to grow in, the things you need to get more of and experience.

And so ask God for those things.

That's great.

That's healthy, but a step beyond that, this is where it gets kind of dangerous.

A step beyond that is instead of just saying, God, here's the things I want to experience more of this year, it's you going, God, what do you have for me this year?

And I want that.

David wrote this in Psalm chapter 139 Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, point on anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Psalms 139 · chapter mention

In other words, he's saying, I surrender.

He's not going to God with a list of requests.

He's saying, God, what do you what do you want?

What do you want to change in me?

Point it out, I'll change it.

Where do you want to take me?

You lead me, I'll go there.

Man, if you surrender like that to God, if you get to the point where you can be like Jesus, as he prayed in the garden before he went to the cross, he said, Not what I want, but what you want.

If you want what God wants for you more than what you want for yourself, man, get ready to be filled.

If you surrender to what God desires, he will fill you.

And you can trust him.

So be hungry and be surrendered.

Number three, be opportunistic.

It's a good thing to be opportunistic.

That's a word that we usually associate with like a negative, with someone that's scheming.

You know, he's a very opportunistic person.

But Jesus says, my favorite quotes, because it doesn't sound like something Jesus should say, he says, be innocent as a dove and shrewd as a snake.

Jesus tells us to be like snakes.

There you go.

Like be opportunistic.

Um, one of the things I enjoy in life is playing basketball.

I enjoyed it more in my 20s than I do in my 30s, because in my 20s, I was a different kind of player.

You know, things didn't hurt.

I had some speed, you know.

When I was like 21, 22, that was really fun.

Now in my mid-30s, a little bit of a different experience, but I found this thing in the second half last year, this magical thing here in Woodstock.

There's a group of guys that play basketball, and the rule is you have to be 30 and above.

It's amazing.

I haven't gotten any better, I just moved the goalposts.

And now I'm one of the young guys, and it's like I'm fast again.

I'm actually not any faster, but they're so much slower.

It's uggs great, you know.

Ten years from now, I'm like, is there a 50s and up league?

Like that, you know, is okay with a 42-year-old or something like that.

But I gotta be 44, but whatever.

Uh and so I started to go every once in a while and play in this you know league for older guys, and and it's great.

The only negative is that it's at a church.

Hear me out.

And uh, and and I don't, it's just the way they do it.

First few times I went, you play for like 30, 45 minutes, and then you all have to sit down, and a guy comes out and he gives a message, and you have to like share prayer requests, and it's stupid.

That's how I felt the first few times I went.

Like, why are we doing this?

You know, and I'm like a pastor, so I'm sitting there, I'm realizing this is dumb, but I'm sitting there like, oh my gosh, can we please play basketball?

Because you know, we're all at this age now where guys you know who are older, you you know what this feels like.

You start to move and you get loosened up.

If you sit for more than 30 seconds, it's all over, right?

It's like your body goes, lock things down, and you stand back up, and you're like, whoa.

It's a whole different experience.

And so every time we go, it's like 30, 45 minutes in, we all have to sit and like, oh, okay, yeah, I love God, that's cool.

Um, when are can we just can we share prayer requests as we like run up and down the court?

Can we come up with another system?

You know?

That's how I felt the first few times I went.

I had a really bad attitude, like I said last year, running on fumes.

And then a few weeks in, God sort of slapped me across the face, like he does sometimes, and he's like, You idiot, in a loving way.

He said, I mean, I really heard him speak this to me.

You're a fool for not taking advantage of an opportunity to have people pray for you.

You know?

And all of a sudden I started realizing, oh my gosh, I'm sitting here and I'm I'm frustrated that we're stopping to pray because I just want to play basketball.

I didn't come here, you know, to pray.

I do plenty of that in my own time.

Uh I came here to play.

And all of a sudden I realized, you know what?

Yeah, the Bible says that the power of a prayer is real.

Like the Bible says that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

So if I have an opportunity to be prayed for by someone, I'm gonna take it.

And so now I always share like multiple.

I'm always like, uh, this, this, and this, because you know what?

Maybe God's gonna answer it.

And I don't want to be the one that just didn't say anything.

I'm gonna be opportunistic, I'm gonna take advantage of a chance to be prayed for.

What I'm saying is if you want to be filled by God this year, take advantage of every opportunity that you have to be filled.

So much of what we do as a church is just designed for you to be filled.

We have experiences that are designed for you to grow, for you to take further steps, for you to mature, but we have a lot of experience that are designed for you just to receive, just to get more.

Like, for example, Parents Night Out.

We have one of those coming up at the end of January.

Parents Night Out, it's an exciting experience.

If you have young kids, you bring your kids here, you drop them off, you go somewhere, you have a date, you have time with friends, you have an experience, you just rest, you get recharged, whatever.

We watch your kids for three hours for free.

Yeah.

True story, and if you're in the room, I'm not meaning to offend you.

Um, I do realize what time it is.

We're almost done, I promise.

The uh the last time we had a parents' light out a few months ago, someone posted or sent an email or something, and they were like, why can't we do a parent's night out for people whose kids are all grown and or don't have kids?

And I was like, isn't that every day of your life?

I don't understand what you're asking for, you know?

I'm like, why don't okay, just do this.

Pretend like you, if you don't have kids or your kids are grown, parents not out, pretend like you have children.

Come and check your invisible children in.

Go have a date, go get some things done.

Same exact experience.

So you can take advantage of Parents Not Out even if you don't have kids.

Or you can just go wherever you want to go and skip the project.

Whatever.

So Parents Not Out, it's just a get experience.

We're gonna have several of those this year.

The first one is this month.

If you have young kids, take advantage of it.

Take advantage of it.

Because it's for you.

We have an experience called More that we do several times a year.

It's on Wednesday nights, it's a worship night, it's it's different than Sunday mornings, it's not like a few Sunday.

And a message, it's a whole different format, and it's awesome.

The last few more, oh my goodness, has God showed up.

And it's for you.

So come.

Be opportunistic.

If there's an experience that's allowing you to receive from God, to get more from God, be here for that.

In the summer, we have these things called summer block parties, and it's just a chance for you to come and hang out with friends and laugh and enjoy and eat good food and be with your church family and have, you know, this church word called fellowship, where you're enjoying each other's company, so that you're not anonymous, so that you're known, so that you have relationships here.

Take advantage of that because it's just for you.

Ladies, when sacred comes around this year, take advantage.

Come to Sacred.

Sacred is this amazing experience that we have every year for women.

It's designed to give you a sacred time with God because, as ladies, you spend so much of your lives making sure everyone else has sacred time.

Making sure everyone else gets to do what they value most.

You need some sacred time for yourself.

That's what it's all about.

When it comes around, do it.

Take advantage of it.

Be opportunistic.

Men, we've got an experience this year, something new.

We haven't had something for a few years, but we have something this year called taking ground.

And I'm so excited about this.

We haven't had like a men's thing.

It's been several years, and we've been waiting for God to give us clarity on what men really need.

You know what men need?

Men need to win.

Sometimes in very unhealthy ways.

But no, no, here's the truth.

Men, there's something that God put inside of us that we're supposed to win.

But often we feel like we're losing.

We feel like we're losing time.

We feel like we're losing our youth, we're losing our energy, we're losing our passion, we're losing our drive, we're losing so many of the goals and things that we set out to achieve when we were young.

Maybe those things haven't happened, and so we've we've lost desire.

Maybe we're losing the respect of people that we love.

And as men, we feel like we're living life, losing a little bit at a time, but we're not supposed to live that way.

We are supposed to take ground.

And so this year, guys, we're gonna have an experience that's about taking ground.

And when that experience comes along, do it.

Be opportunistic.

One more thing.

One more thing before we get to the next thing.

So two more things.

I just want to, I think this is important.

Sunday mornings, every Sunday is an opportunity.

And we some of us don't know this.

We meet every single Sunday, except for the last Sunday of the year where we take off.

But every Sunday you have an opportunity to come.

And look, this is not a church where there's pressure, you have to be here every single week or anything like that.

But I'm telling you, from experience, be here every week if you can.

Sometimes, you know, we get in this rhythm with church where we're like, oh, you know, I go once every two weeks, and that can become three and once a month.

And that's that's fine.

Like, it's good that you're here.

I'm here every week in part because I'm required to be.

Even when I'm not speaking, I'm here.

And I'm so glad that I am.

Because what it does is it creates a rhythm in my life that is very healthy.

Because like anyone, I get fixated on myself, I get fixated on my problems, I get stuck, I have weeks where two or three days goes by and I'm just I'm in a rut, but but I get to be here every Sunday and it gets me out of the rut, it gets my eyes back on Jesus, it gets me filled with faith again, and I'm glad that I don't have to go 14 days like that before I have that experience.

I'm glad that it's not once every 21 days I get my eyes back on Jesus.

Take advantage of every Sunday.

If you volunteer, don't just come and volunteer at a service and then go come to the next service or come early and go to the first one.

That's why we went to two services.

It wasn't a growth strategy, it was to bless our volunteers and give them a chance to serve and be served.

And if you have small kids and you're like, oh, what about them?

That's why we built the lounge, which is this insanely awesome place that volunteer kids get to hang out at another service so that they don't have to do the same thing twice.

Like, take advantage, be opportunistic.

Be hungry, be surrendered, be opportunistic.

One more thing, I swear.

Be intentional.

Philippians 4 8.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Keep putting into practice all you've learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you.

When it comes to what we fill ourselves with, most of the time we have a lot of say in that.

Sometimes we're filled with environmental things that we can't change.

But a lot of the time we are the ones deciding what's going to fill us.

Every time I sit in front of my TV, I decide what will fill me for that hour.

That's my choice.

And so this year, fix your thoughts.

Be intentional.

Decide what's going to fill you and fill yourself with the things that make you more sensitive to God, not things that dull your sensitivity to God.

Not things that get you fixated on this world and the troubles in this world and the problems in this world and material things and all the things of this life that don't really matter, that will fade away and turn to dust.

Fixate your thoughts on God and fill yourself, intentionally fill yourself with what will fill your spirit.

Worship team, you guys can come out.

That means we're finished.

You guys can clap.

That's good.

We're done.

Would you guys stand with me real quick?

We're gonna close with a song, and it's a great chance to hang around and get filled up a little bit more.

There's a verse that we read a few minutes ago.

I want to read this again.

Isaiah 40, 31.

Those who trust in the Lord, do you trust God today?

Do you trust that He wants to fill you?

Do you trust that God is not going to take away something that is precious to you just for the sake of taking it?

Do you trust that God wants to fill your cup?

That he wants to fill your life and your spirit with everything that you truly need.

Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

Could anyone use some new strength this year?

Like the strength you've been relying on, maybe it hasn't been enough.

You need something new, you need something fresh.

God promises new strength.

They will soar high on wings like eagles.

I don't know if you've ever seen an eagle fly.

They get up there.

Right?

They're powerful.

You will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary.

The reason I hate running is because I grow weary.

Exceptionally fast.

This means that you don't have to run out of steam.

This means you don't have to limp across a finish line at the end of this year.

This means that you can run your life.

You can run the race that God has set before you, and you can run with passion and with intensity.

And if you're filled up with the fullness of God, you will not grow faint.

I will walk and not grow faint.

That's what it says.

So as a church, we've got a chance to start our year off in a powerful way.

As a group of people, we have a chance to say, hey, you know what, God, this year, I want you to fill me.

And I'm gonna be hungry and I'm gonna be surrendered, and I'm gonna be opportunistic, and I'm gonna be intentional, and I want you, God, to fill me with your fullness.

Do we want to get filled with God this year?

Then let's do it.

Let's be filled, let's get filled up, let's trust that He'll be the one doing the filling.

Pray with me, please.

Jesus, thank you so much for this day.

I thank you so much for this church.

Thank you, Lord, that you've brought us together for a purpose, that you've given us a vision to love people in such a way that they experience you.

We love you, Jesus.

We want to experience you in all your fullness.

We want to be filled up with all the things that you have for us, God, because we believe, we trust, we need to be reminded that what you have for us is better than anything we could seek out for ourselves.

So we are surrendering to you right now.

We are open to you right now, and we are saying at the start of our year, we're saying, God, fill our cup.

Fill us to the brim with the fullness of your presence and your power and your truth and your love.

Thank you, Jesus, for all you've done for us.

We love you, we love you, we love you.

Amen.