1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,040 Well, you may have noticed some things are different. 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:11,560 I told Cindy, I talked to Jen, I said, you know, I never wanted to get to a place where 3 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:15,120 we get 10 years down the road and everything seems the same. 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:22,320 And we were even talking that we are now the age of the church leaders that we wanted to 5 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,400 change things. 6 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:26,840 We were early in our 20s. 7 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:30,360 We looked at these people in their middle 40s approaching 50 and go, why won't they 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:32,960 change things? 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:38,160 And we want to make sure that we as a church are a church that is willing and ready to 10 00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:45,320 change, to adjust to what our city needs, to what our congregation needs, to what the 11 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:50,920 younger generation that's coming up behind us needs, because God is always ready to meet 12 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:53,160 people in the way that they need to be met. 13 00:00:53,160 --> 00:00:58,520 And so it may seem like a small change to some, may seem like, well, this is an old 14 00:00:58,520 --> 00:00:59,520 idea to others. 15 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:06,040 It may seem like, I hate this, but we're going to do tables for a while and see how it goes. 16 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:14,200 One, because we want to try to, Cindy and I like way back in Jen, we bristled against 17 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:20,000 the idea that church was, let's come and sit in rows and listen to the teacher. 18 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,800 And instead, like, why don't we express ourselves through art? 19 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:29,560 So there's notebooks on every table and there's colored pencils and you can draw and you can 20 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:30,560 express yourself. 21 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:37,200 And you don't have to stand to saying you can sit and write or journal or draw, regardless 22 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:43,120 of your level of ability to draw, just draw whatever. 23 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:47,400 And I think like, if you leave those behind, I want to take a bunch of those and take pages 24 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,600 out of it and turn them into other things. 25 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:55,000 Maybe put some artwork up on the wall that is some kind of collage of the artwork that 26 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,160 you've created. 27 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:02,080 So I want to encourage you that we're open to see what God has for us, but we also want 28 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:06,520 to make sure that community happens in a lot of different ways. 29 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:12,440 But sometimes community happens when we go like this, when we turn towards each other, 30 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,600 when we face each other. 31 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:17,080 And sometimes there's going to be someone talking up front and so you're going to turn 32 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:19,000 your chair. 33 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,520 But this is just one of those little designs that more than just saying it with our mouths, 34 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:27,560 we're saying it with the way things are set up, that we want you to be toward each other, 35 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:31,880 for each other, in this with each other. 36 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:33,220 Because that's what church is. 37 00:02:33,220 --> 00:02:35,840 It's not listening to songs and sermons. 38 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:40,480 The church is the people turning towards each other as they have turned towards God and 39 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:42,360 living life together. 40 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:50,200 I know that's redundant to live life together, but it is what we're meant to do. 41 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,000 And some of that happens around tables. 42 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,440 Some of that happens in community tables. 43 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:57,200 And some of that happens while singing songs. 44 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,480 And some of it happens while drinking coffee in the lobby. 45 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,800 And some of it happens by meeting up with the people that you found here outside of 46 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:12,320 a place like this and developing family beyond the walls of a building. 47 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:19,760 So welcome to the beginning of the next 10 years. 48 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:24,440 Right? 49 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:25,720 My name is Greg Hampton. 50 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,160 If we've never met, I would love to meet you. 51 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:29,480 I'll buy you a cup of coffee. 52 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:31,760 We'll sit around a table. 53 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:32,760 Maybe not here. 54 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:33,760 We'll go somewhere. 55 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:35,360 I'll buy you a cup of coffee, buy you lunch, something like that. 56 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:36,760 I would love to get to know you. 57 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:42,320 I would love to hear your story, hear what God has been doing in your life and what you're 58 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,400 hoping that God will do in your life. 59 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,880 And like some of you, I grew up here in the Quad Cities. 60 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:49,880 Yeah? 61 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:53,280 Round of applause for if you grew up in the Quad Cities. 62 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,280 All right? 63 00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:00,960 But like some of you, I never planned on living here as an adult. 64 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:05,120 Round of applause for people who never planned on living here as an adult. 65 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:06,120 Yeah? 66 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:08,720 I grew up here, but it wasn't my plan. 67 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,040 And I'm not sure why just as a kid. 68 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:13,520 Grade school, middle school, high school. 69 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:15,240 I just never thought I would end up here. 70 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:18,040 And especially in high school, I started thinking like, oh, I want to live in Colorado. 71 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,320 Like if that's not heaven on earth, I don't know what is. 72 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:21,960 Like it's gorgeous there. 73 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:22,960 It's beautiful. 74 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:25,000 It's all the best of all the different seasons. 75 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,240 And there's mountains. 76 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:28,240 I don't know. 77 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:33,200 I just never pictured myself being here when I was grown. 78 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:42,960 So I was surprised as anybody back in 2013 when I started literally crying for Rock Island, 79 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:47,200 feeling like we needed to move back here and plan to church. 80 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:49,800 So let me back up a little bit. 81 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:52,920 In 2010, we moved back to Colorado. 82 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:54,920 We'd been in Colorado for a year for school worship. 83 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:56,840 We went to Georgia for three years to help plan to church. 84 00:04:56,840 --> 00:05:01,760 We went back to Colorado in 2010. 85 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:06,480 And I was hired on at the North Campus of New Life Church. 86 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,080 At that time, it was just called New Life because they didn't have a bunch of other 87 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,760 campuses that you had to call it the North Campus. 88 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:16,360 But it was the North Campus, and it was all the way up pretty much as far as you could 89 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:19,400 go in Colorado Springs and still be in the Springs. 90 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:23,040 And in 2012, I helped them start their downtown campus. 91 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:26,640 There's about 20, 20-ish minutes downtown. 92 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:31,680 And even once you got to downtown, you weren't to the end of Colorado Springs on the bottom. 93 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:36,120 If the Quad Cities is like this, Colorado Springs was like this. 94 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:41,360 It was very long because it was landlocked on one side by the mountains. 95 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:45,440 And so it just kept growing this direction. 96 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:51,120 And I would drive 20 minutes down the highway from the North Campus, and I would get off 97 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:56,120 to go downtown on an exit called Bijou Street. 98 00:05:56,120 --> 00:06:01,640 Once you exit on to Bijou Street, that road was this hard S-curve that would drop you 99 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:06,320 into the downtown area of Colorado Springs. 100 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:09,960 And it would always remind me of Rock Island. 101 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:11,080 Why? 102 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,600 Because of this road right here. 103 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:22,520 Because when I was a teenager back in the 1900s, I worked at a place called the Ford 104 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:24,680 Armstrong. 105 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:26,640 I worked in the cafeteria. 106 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:30,440 I was a dishwasher at first, and then I was a glorified waiter, which basically meant 107 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:35,840 you just carried pre-planned meals to the certain tables they belonged at. 108 00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:42,880 And I would drive my little brown Toyota through this curve as fast as I possibly could. 109 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:49,480 It was not a sports car, but I treated it like it was. 110 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,800 And then in Colorado, when I would drive that S-curve, I would be reminded of this, and 111 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:58,080 I would find myself praying for Rock Island that, God, I pray that Rock Island has healthy 112 00:06:58,080 --> 00:06:59,080 churches. 113 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:01,800 God, I pray that people in Rock Island would feel a sense that you love them. 114 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:05,040 God, I pray that they would have everything that we're trying to accomplish here. 115 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:09,600 God, I pray that people in Rock Island, that you would have people plant churches that 116 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:16,040 are meaningful to them, that they would find a sense of family, a sense of belonging. 117 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:20,700 What I didn't know was that God was setting me up. 118 00:07:20,700 --> 00:07:25,760 Because that next January in 2013, when Cindy and I were praying, she said, what do you 119 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:27,520 think about moving back home? 120 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:35,280 And God, we'll do it right now, took all those prayers from the last year and dumped them 121 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:39,320 out of my eyes like rivers. 122 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,720 Seven months later, we moved back here to Rock Island. 123 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:47,920 Five months after that, almost a year to the day within five days of when we had first 124 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:53,000 prayed about it, this church launched. 125 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:58,360 Since the beginning, we have said that we want to be a church that would exist to invite 126 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:06,080 people in, call prodigals home, and adopt the spiritually homeless. 127 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:09,480 If I say nuns, do you know what I'm talking about? 128 00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:12,240 Some of you might think I'm talking about nuns. 129 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,840 They go to the Catholic Church? 130 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:19,500 No, no, N-O-N-E-S. 131 00:08:19,500 --> 00:08:23,060 It is now a religious category. 132 00:08:23,060 --> 00:08:32,560 The number of nuns as in they have no affiliation to any religion at all is growing exponentially, 133 00:08:32,560 --> 00:08:34,760 year by year. 134 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:41,120 It is a sense of spiritual homelessness. 135 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:45,080 We said we want to create a place for those people to belong. 136 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:50,920 We said we wanted to rest, live, work in a great house and that that rest needed to come 137 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,640 first because we didn't want to burn people out. 138 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:58,160 We didn't want people to feel like they were being used. 139 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:03,800 We said that we wanted to be a church that believed no one should be left out. 140 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:09,820 We said we hoped to see a massive shift in our lifetimes from spiritual homelessness 141 00:09:09,820 --> 00:09:18,280 to a strong, undeniable sense of spiritual family here in the Quad Cities. 142 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:21,000 Maybe you've come here and you've found a lot of that. 143 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:22,600 Maybe you found rest. 144 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,320 Maybe you've started feeling a sense of spiritual family. 145 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:32,880 Maybe you are someone that didn't know you could still belong in a church. 146 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:39,540 Ten years and we have seen so much of what we set out to see, but ten years in, I'm also 147 00:09:39,540 --> 00:09:48,320 a realist that knows that that massive shift we hoped for hasn't happened. 148 00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:54,000 That massive shift from spiritual homelessness to a strong, undeniable sense of spiritual 149 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:03,920 family in Rock Island and the Quad Cities, that's still to come because people don't 150 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:09,680 know that they can belong. 151 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:16,560 There was probably a day where a lot of you didn't know you could belong. 152 00:10:16,560 --> 00:10:20,280 I was at the pancake house yesterday. 153 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:24,760 Pastor Ross was in town and so anytime I can introduce someone to the pancake house and 154 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,640 cinnamon roll pancakes and everything, I took them there and we were sitting and there was 155 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:35,760 a table behind us and at one point someone kind of accidentally elbowed Pastor Ross and 156 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:37,400 so we turned around and kind of had a little joke about it. 157 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:42,440 I was like, oh hit him harder, you know, like that and they laughed and there was like eight 158 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:48,960 young ladies all easily under 25 sitting at this table and so the young lady immediately 159 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:53,240 behind me, she says, what are you all having a business meeting? 160 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,560 And I was like, no, no, no, we're having like a church meeting. 161 00:10:56,560 --> 00:11:04,680 We're talking about Jesus and the girl across the table goes, oh, you need to go there and 162 00:11:04,680 --> 00:11:08,760 she was like, well, maybe I do and so we start talking and we turn back around but then she 163 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:14,640 asks me another question and she goes, she keeps giving me a hard time and she goes, 164 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:18,520 well, it's because you're a lesbian, you don't think you can go to a church and she goes, 165 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:21,640 you're giving me such a hard time, you have a baby by a drug dealer, what are you talking 166 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:22,640 about? 167 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:28,360 And I go, and I said to both of them, I said, well, you belong at our church, 100% you belong 168 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:32,040 at our church and I said, you come with her and bring the drug dealer, I don't need anything 169 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:36,420 he's got but bring him with too. 170 00:11:36,420 --> 00:11:41,600 Because this is a church that defies the physics of the size of a building, everyone belongs 171 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:43,480 here. 172 00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:52,400 We can't fit 400,000 people in this building but everyone belongs here. 173 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:58,800 All of that because someone accidentally elbowed my friend. 174 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:05,560 These are the moments where people are testing you to find out if they will belong. 175 00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:11,680 Where the friend is going, you can't go there, did you tell them this? 176 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:12,980 Do they know that? 177 00:12:12,980 --> 00:12:17,200 What if they found out about this and the other? 178 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:23,580 I'm telling you right now, from A to Z belongs. 179 00:12:23,580 --> 00:12:32,160 In the English alphabet, in the French alphabet, in the urban alphabet, in the every group 180 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:38,240 category that you can come up with alphabet, you belong. 181 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:47,140 The thing is that the same barriers to belonging that existed 10 years ago still exists for 182 00:12:47,140 --> 00:12:50,840 people today. 183 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:59,680 Life is hard, life is messy, so there's plenty that gets in the way of people connecting 184 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:02,360 and belonging in a spiritual family. 185 00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:07,200 So I want to say some things today that I said 10 years ago on that first Sunday. 186 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:10,520 Is that alright? 187 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:15,220 Let's open up our Bibles to John 16, 31. 188 00:13:15,220 --> 00:13:19,680 If you do not have your own Bible, we have blue Bibles that are out on the bookshelf 189 00:13:19,680 --> 00:13:21,320 in the lobby, please take one. 190 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:23,120 It's yours, it's free. 191 00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:26,840 Otherwise download a Bible from any of the digital app stores. 192 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:31,840 I use the U version or the Bible Project app pretty often. 193 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:34,320 We're going to be in John 16. 194 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:36,640 That's in what's called the New Testament, the Second Testament. 195 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,560 It goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. 196 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:42,920 See any of those, you know that you're in the right neighborhood. 197 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:48,400 We have a tradition here at the house of just giving the Scriptures our full attention when 198 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:50,740 we read them during the message. 199 00:13:50,740 --> 00:13:52,400 You can do that any number of ways. 200 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:57,200 One of the ways is if you'd like, you can join me in standing while I read it. 201 00:13:57,200 --> 00:13:59,240 Let's give the Scriptures our attentions now. 202 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:03,640 John 16, starting in 31, says this. 203 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:08,200 Jesus replied, verse 32, a time is coming when you will be scattered and go to your 204 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:09,200 own homes. 205 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:11,400 In fact, that time is already here. 206 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,520 You will leave me all alone, but I am not really alone. 207 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,520 My Father is with me. 208 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:21,440 I have told you these things so that you can have peace because of me. 209 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:25,720 In this world, you will have trouble, but be encouraged. 210 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:32,040 I have won the battle over the world. 211 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:33,440 Let's pray. 212 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:40,400 God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, every people, we thank you that 213 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:42,400 we have the Scriptures. 214 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:46,440 They persisted throughout the millennia, and I pray that whatever we need to learn today, 215 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:51,040 whatever you have to stir up in our hearts and our minds, I pray that it would stick, 216 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:56,600 that it would become a part of the framework of our faith, that our faith, that our very 217 00:14:56,600 --> 00:15:01,360 selves would become stronger as we become more like your son, Jesus. 218 00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:02,360 Amen? 219 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:03,360 Amen. 220 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:04,360 Y'all can have a seat. 221 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:05,360 Thanks so much. 222 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:09,720 All right, so if you've heard it, finish this phrase with me, yeah? 223 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:14,120 So, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. 224 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:20,400 Right, Jesus is teaching that when the tough gets going, you're all gonna start running. 225 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:21,700 That's what he says. 226 00:15:21,700 --> 00:15:22,700 He says it to his disciples. 227 00:15:22,700 --> 00:15:26,760 He says, hey, it's gonna get tough, you guys, you're all gonna run. 228 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:28,660 None of you are tough. 229 00:15:28,660 --> 00:15:30,740 You're all just gonna run. 230 00:15:30,740 --> 00:15:37,480 I think verses like this are so important because they illustrate that Jesus knows that 231 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:39,120 we will run. 232 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:44,080 He already knows. 233 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:51,680 Believing in Jesus does not guarantee a problem-free life, and he knows that we are not all so tough 234 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:58,600 that we'll never run from any of our problems or that we'll never run from him. 235 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:03,680 And it's not an accusation, and it is not unkind to say, guys, Jesus knows that you're 236 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:07,000 probably gonna run at some point. 237 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:12,120 Something's gonna happen, and Jesus is gonna be there, and you're gonna be like, ah. 238 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:13,640 He knows. 239 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:14,640 He already knows. 240 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:22,360 He knew his disciples would abandon him when times got tough, and so he told them, even 241 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:27,760 when you run, even when you run, what did he say? 242 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:35,560 He said, do not worry, for I have overcome everything you're running from. 243 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:41,920 I think one of the most important things we need to learn about belonging is that even 244 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:47,360 when life gets hard and we run away from God, run away from the church, run away from our 245 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:54,120 spiritual family, hear me, that we still belong. 246 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:59,440 Everything that will ever make you want to run, he says, I've already overcome that with 247 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,680 who I am, with my life, with my love. 248 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:08,280 So when you run, your spot is reserved. 249 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:13,840 I'll say that again. 250 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:21,800 When you run, your spot is reserved. 251 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:22,800 Quick question. 252 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:27,600 Did anyone else have the police called on them this last week, or is that just me? 253 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:29,640 Just me? 254 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:31,980 All right. 255 00:17:31,980 --> 00:17:36,600 Last week, as you know, we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 inches in the span 256 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:42,840 of five days, 24 inches of snow, maybe more in your neighborhood. 257 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,800 Everything was getting canceled. 258 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:46,800 Everything was getting canceled. 259 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:51,680 So my oldest son, he didn't have to go anywhere for a few days, and so his car, it just sat 260 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:57,600 out front of the house, and it was covered and surrounded with snow, not just from the 261 00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:03,160 snow that fell, of course, because then the plow comes by, and it gets your car even more 262 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,720 stuck, and then people drive, and it gets it even more stuck. 263 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:09,600 So Monday morning, I wanted to be a good dad. 264 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:10,600 I wanted to help him out. 265 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:14,160 He had something he was supposed to be at around 10, so I was like, oh, I'm going to 266 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:15,160 be a good dad. 267 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:16,160 I'm going to go out. 268 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,960 I'm going to start, I'm going to dig him out, and I spent about an hour digging him out 269 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:24,440 of all of the snow and trying to make sure it was level enough to get up onto the four 270 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:28,440 or five inches of packed snow that was there. 271 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:29,440 I got in. 272 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:30,440 I started it. 273 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:34,200 I drove it around the block a couple times, made sure that the battery was all charged 274 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:38,640 up, that the engine was just at least maybe a little warm by the time he came out, and 275 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:43,600 I took a couple of orange cones, and I put them there so that when he leaves, that there 276 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:48,540 would be a spot for him, because regularly no one parks in front of our house except 277 00:18:48,540 --> 00:18:54,160 for us, but I was like, no one else has dug themselves out either, and maybe if they leave, 278 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:58,640 maybe they'll end up parking here, because I've actually dug it all out, and so I was 279 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:02,840 like, I'm going to put a little cone here so he knows it's still here when he gets back, 280 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:07,520 and he won't have to park a block away, right? 281 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,000 The cops got involved. 282 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,960 Tuesday 1030 a.m., I get a call. 283 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:23,040 Someone anonymously had complained that I had saved a public parking spot outside of 284 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:32,160 my own house with the orange cones, because that is apparently not legal, so I'm talking 285 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:33,160 to the officer. 286 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:34,640 It was very nice, cordial. 287 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:40,000 I explained to him, basically, I told him the whole story I just told you, and he was 288 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:43,560 like, yeah, under the circumstances, it's fine. 289 00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:44,560 I get it. 290 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,600 He said, you know, if they call and complain again and a different officer calls you, I 291 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:49,680 can't guarantee that they'll say the same thing. 292 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:53,280 He's like, but, you know, for a few days, don't worry about it. 293 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:54,280 It's fine. 294 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:55,280 All is well. 295 00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:58,760 But listen, when life gets hard and someone either leaves their spiritual family or runs 296 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:02,640 from the relationship of God or thinks they can't darken the doorway of a church, some 297 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:06,680 people have a theology that says that that spot is gone. 298 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:09,240 You can't save that spot with cones. 299 00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:11,320 I'm calling the police. 300 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:14,680 And I say, fine. 301 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:21,600 I can't save their spot with cones because Jesus already saved that spot with His blood. 302 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:23,680 It's there. 303 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:25,760 It is there. 304 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:27,680 It is here. 305 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:32,920 It does not matter if you've been gone since the first day 10 years ago or if you went 306 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:33,920 to another church. 307 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:38,600 You belong in the body of Jesus Christ. 308 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:48,440 Your spot will not be taken by somebody else, will just make more room. 309 00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,800 Life is hard. 310 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:53,280 We're gonna run. 311 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:55,640 But God is loving. 312 00:20:55,640 --> 00:21:00,720 And no one should be left out. 313 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:07,080 You cannot belong to God for even a second and lose your spot. 314 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:11,440 Because the work of Jesus is irrevocable. 315 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:17,920 Jesus said to His disciples, no one can snatch you from My hands. 316 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:22,360 You belong. 317 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:24,600 The skeptic will say, well, fine. 318 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:25,600 Life is hard. 319 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:28,680 But life is also messy. 320 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,480 What if that person is just too much of a mess? 321 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:32,400 Or someone might say that themselves. 322 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,120 What if I've just done too much? 323 00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:37,200 What if I'm too much of a mess? 324 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:42,040 Let me read something. 325 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:43,040 Galatians 6-1. 326 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:48,200 Brothers and sisters, even when you meet someone who has a baby by a drug dealer, they can 327 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:52,200 come to your church. 328 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,200 That's not what it says. 329 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:56,200 Sorry. 330 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,160 Galatians 6-1 to 1 and 1 and verse 2. 331 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,320 Brothers and sisters, what if someone is caught in a sin? 332 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,040 And you who live by the Spirit should correct that person. 333 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:06,200 Do it in a gentle way. 334 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:07,480 Be careful. 335 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:12,000 You could be tempted to carry one another's heavy loads. 336 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,320 If you do, you will fulfill the law of Christ. 337 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:21,760 The writer of Galatians is saying, hey, people are going to be messy. 338 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:24,640 Things will never be perfect. 339 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:26,720 So be kind. 340 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:28,360 Be gentle. 341 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:30,160 And understand. 342 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:39,560 Being means you will probably always have someone else's mess on or near you. 343 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:47,960 You don't have to do what they did, but you do have to help them carry it. 344 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:53,040 I think that if we are Christians, that a willingness to deal with the mess that comes 345 00:22:53,040 --> 00:23:01,360 with living in community with other people in the church is a part of the deal. 346 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:05,760 Because the church isn't a utopia. 347 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:11,400 It's not a sanitized center of perfection. 348 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:18,700 It's a house where people leave dishes in the sink and clothes on the floor and remnants 349 00:23:18,700 --> 00:23:21,080 of lunch on the counter. 350 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,120 People are going to come in the back door muddy from the backyard. 351 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:27,480 They will sin and break promises. 352 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:31,840 You are going to step on a Lego and you're bare feet. 353 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:33,320 Addicts will relapse. 354 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:35,640 Judgy folks will judge. 355 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:45,200 And you and me, we will probably always feel a little bit messy. 356 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,400 That is okay. 357 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:55,000 Because when we follow Jesus, we are made right with God. 358 00:23:55,000 --> 00:24:04,680 Internally, every bit of sin and mud that got on us is washed away down to the purity 359 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:12,280 of the imago Dei, the image of God, the presence of who is, was, and is to come. 360 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:14,880 It's clean. 361 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:16,660 Internally. 362 00:24:16,660 --> 00:24:23,780 But externally, there might be no such thing as a clean Christian. 363 00:24:23,780 --> 00:24:28,560 Because we will always be carrying each other's burdens. 364 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:33,520 We will always be helping each other with our mess. 365 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:37,200 You cannot clean up your kid from the mud in the backyard without getting some of it 366 00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:39,680 on you. 367 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:41,680 And that is love. 368 00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,560 It is love that you now have mud on you. 369 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:54,840 Not that you did the thing that you ought not to do, but that you helped clean it up. 370 00:24:54,840 --> 00:25:00,860 Few things go so far to show someone they really do belong than an active willingness 371 00:25:00,860 --> 00:25:03,040 to get dirty with the mess they've been covered in. 372 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:09,240 For you to embrace someone that thought they were not embraceable. 373 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:17,600 To call on someone that thought they had gone out of reach of your self-service. 374 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,260 Life is hard. 375 00:25:19,260 --> 00:25:20,840 Life is messy. 376 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:24,680 And yet, you still belong. 377 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:30,720 There's one more barrier that I think that lives under the surface for most people. 378 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:32,840 Listen to this. 379 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,120 John 3.16. 380 00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:37,840 God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. 381 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,840 Someone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life. 382 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:48,900 It's beautiful, but I wish that when people shared 3.16, they'd keep going to verse 17. 383 00:25:48,900 --> 00:25:55,280 Because it says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but 384 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:59,780 to save the world through him. 385 00:25:59,780 --> 00:26:03,500 I think a common thread that goes through the belief that I can't belong because my 386 00:26:03,500 --> 00:26:08,080 life is hard or because my life is messy is the idea that I can't belong because I must 387 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,720 already be condemned anyway. 388 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:12,200 Why? 389 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,680 Because we think Jesus came for the people that believe in him. 390 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:20,640 It says whoever believes is saved. 391 00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,840 But I didn't or don't believe in Jesus. 392 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:25,120 Not every minute. 393 00:26:25,120 --> 00:26:29,520 I left or I never arrived or I question all of it all the time. 394 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:32,080 So I must be condemned anyway. 395 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:37,720 Listen, Jesus did not come to condemn us. 396 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:39,560 Life is hard. 397 00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:42,520 Life is messy. 398 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:48,600 But God so loved the world. 399 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:51,800 Jesus has drawn a circle of grace. 400 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:56,660 So many of us think that we are outside that circle, but you cannot stand outside a circle 401 00:26:56,660 --> 00:27:01,960 that is wrapped around the entire world. 402 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:06,160 Psalm 139. 403 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:10,800 Where can I go from your spirit? 404 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,340 Where can I flee from your presence? 405 00:27:14,340 --> 00:27:20,280 If I go up to the heavens, you're there. 406 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:27,320 If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 407 00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:34,920 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your 408 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,600 hand will guide me. 409 00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:39,480 Your right hand will hold me fast. 410 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:44,080 If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even 411 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,480 the darkness will not be dark to you. 412 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,840 The night will shine like the day. 413 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:54,700 The darkness is as light to you. 414 00:27:54,700 --> 00:27:59,440 Some of us, we run from God, we run from our spiritual family, and we cover ourselves with 415 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:06,020 every kind of darkness that we can possibly find, thinking surely this will be too much. 416 00:28:06,020 --> 00:28:12,040 God won't love me now. 417 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,020 But even darkness is not dark to God. 418 00:28:15,020 --> 00:28:20,400 God can make our darkness shine like the light of day. 419 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:30,520 The darkness that you have tried to bury yourself in, He has risen you from it. 420 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:32,920 In the name of Jesus. 421 00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:34,280 Hear me. 422 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:39,040 You are raised in the name of Jesus. 423 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:43,100 You are raised in the name of Jesus. 424 00:28:43,100 --> 00:28:50,320 There is no darkness or dirt that is too dark that He does not make it light and lit up. 425 00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:51,320 Woo! 426 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:56,320 Wish someone could hear me. 427 00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:57,320 Preach! 428 00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:02,480 Say it again, preacher. 429 00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:18,560 There's a prayer that we wrote back in the beginning. 430 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:22,200 We don't really buy into the idea that you have to have this moment where you said a 431 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:26,800 prayer and now everything is fixed. 432 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:33,000 But we do think that it's important to acknowledge moments with God. 433 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,920 So I wondered if maybe some of us for the first time, but all of us together, could 434 00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:45,720 just pray this prayer together, ten years in, at the beginning of what's next. 435 00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:52,480 Oh God, our heavenly Father, I am finding I want to be in your family. 436 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,480 I am finding I want to belong in you. 437 00:29:55,480 --> 00:30:01,040 I know I have made mistakes, I have sinned, and I thought I couldn't belong. 438 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:07,040 But now I believe Jesus is your Son, that He died for my sins and has given me life 439 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:09,680 forever in your family. 440 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:15,920 Now I can see my mistakes and sin can't keep me away from, yeah, can't keep you away from 441 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:16,920 me. 442 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:23,800 You have found me, you have forgiven me, you have told me I belong in your family, and 443 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,000 I believe you. 444 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,480 Amen. 445 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:28,920 Amen. 446 00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:40,040 I love you.