If you would open up your tablet, your phone, your Bible, flip over or punch in the reference
of John chapter 1 verses 19 through 18.
And we're going to look at this, we're going to call this part one this morning.
Because there are a couple of themes, there are a few handful of themes in this section
that it just is so difficult to choose which ones to leave on the floor and which ones
to talk about.
So, I narrowed it down to two and we'll kind of look at it over the next two weeks.
So, there's one particular theme this morning, we'll talk about that in just a moment.
If you would, in honor of the scripture, and all those who died so that this book could
be placed in our hands, would you please stand with me as we read our text this morning.
John chapter 1 verses 9 through 18.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
He was in the world and the world was created through him and yet the world did not recognize
him.
He came to his own and his own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive
him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name,
who were born not of natural descent, nor of the will of man, but, nor of the will of
the flesh, or the will of man, but of God, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only son from the father, full of grace
and truth.
John testified concerning him and it's claim, this is the one of whom I said, the one coming
after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.
Indeed we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given
through Moses and grace came, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God, the one and only God who is himself God and is at the father's
side, he has revealed them.
We ask that you would open up the eyes of our heart and give to us, share with us, a spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you.
As we meditate upon the scripture this morning, we pray that the Holy Spirit would cause
it to come alive so that in looking at the written word, we would come face to face with
the living word in Jesus name I pray in and in.
So this morning what I want us to do is I want us to look at a theme that's throughout
scripture and I am not saying at the next and 35 minutes it is my desire that everyone
believe exactly like me.
What I want to do is for you to just be open to a survey of the scripture and just
entertain with me an idea for a moment.
Upon entertaining that idea and investigating it and maybe talking about it with someone
you trust, you might find that you don't necessarily see or agree with this particular
idea and that is fine with me.
I am simply trying to be a faithful I can to the truth that I see and bear witness to it.
Rather than try to indoctrinate other people with the arrogant assumption that you should
all believe the way I believe that is not my desire.
But I do have a burden on my heart and I would have to steal from the words of Dallas
Willard who wrote a book over 20 years ago called the Divine Conspiracy.
And in that book he coined a phrase that came alive and my soul has grabbed a hold of me
and hasn't really let go every sense and the phrase that he coined was the Gospels of
sin management.
And the point that he was making is this we have truncated the Gospel and shrink it to just
one aspect of the Gospel that the scriptures talk about and by and large ignored the significance
of the larger message.
And we've made the Gospel a set of affirmations about Jesus when we forget that Jesus himself
is the first one who preached the Gospel.
So whatever our understanding of the Gospel is we have to understand that if it begins with
the death of Christ we've missed a significant portion of the Gospel message.
And unfortunately most of us are taught to begin there or if not begin with the bad news
that someone's a sinner and therefore separated from God and that's why Jesus died to
pay that penalty so that they then could be forgiven.
Some kind of version of that.
But if that's our primary version of the Gospel we have to understand that actually is not
anything that Jesus said.
Now I am not saying that it's untrue.
That aspect of the Gospel was very meaningful to me especially when I was in the dark days
of my shame and my guilt and the only way that I could feel comfortable approaching God
was that I was told because of the death of Jesus.
I'm covered by his blood therefore I need no fear of his presence because I've been
clove with the righteousness of Christ.
And I appreciate that I am not denying that.
But I am saying it's an aspect and what we have to remember is that the Gospel is themselves
teachers that Jesus came teaching the Gospel and that is not his primary message.
Jesus came to bring the revelation of the Father's heart.
He is God in the flesh so that He's tangible, touchable, experiential so He could clarify
our misunderstandings about Him.
And if you read to the Gospels which we will highlight in our journey through John what
we will see oftentimes, well I would say every time Jesus was never clarifying disbelief
in God.
His message was a consistent clarification of misunderstood belief about God.
And he highlights in his speech and we can see it.
He over and over acknowledges that some of that misunderstanding came from a misunderstanding
of their religion and even their scripture.
He is even so bold to make statements like you've heard it said that he'll quote from
the sacred texts and then he has the audacity to say, but I tell you as though he's confessing
I, the higher authority over the words in that book, I tell you this.
So Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father and to bring forth this announcement of
good news which did not begin with your ascender, cut off from God.
But rather God is drawn near to you and this kingdom is here and it is within you and
you if you choose can live from your citizenry of heaven right now.
You don't have to wait to begin after you die but you can live your life as a citizen of
heaven in whatever country we all find ourselves living.
It is not bound by politics and geography.
The kingdom is driving all over the world and Jesus invites us to participate in the life
of the kingdom which means we can either choose to live in the rhythm of the world.
We can do that two ways.
We can live from the rhythm of the world by pursuing a life of selfishness, greed and
the pleasures of sin.
Or we can live to the rhythm of the world by trying to consequence and mitigate the negative
circumstances on our life by living a religiously moral life.
That keeps us busy, keeps us feeling guilty, keeps us tired and exhausted.
But we gotta hang on to it because that's the way we've been taught to manage our sin until
we're free from the presence of sin.
But we don't have to live in either of those rhythms.
We can live in the rhythm of the kingdom of God responding to his very present spirit that
has been given to us as a gift and if we are pulling air and life into our lungs, that
alone is evidence of the manifest presence of God.
And we need no mediation of religious systems or religious experiences in order for that
to be real.
Now our systems and our experiences, if they're doing their job, then they're increasing
our awareness of this truth.
But we all know that sometimes they go in a different direction and they actually create
obstacles to the joy of living in that truth.
So what I want to suggest is that the gospel is not primarily about sin management.
It deals with sin as one of the variables are aspects of the gospel.
But that's only to set us free from those things that we perceive as an obstacle to us.
Not that they're an obstacle to him.
I've been taught to teach the gospel in ways that begins with people being enemies of God.
What Paul clarifies is, no, you were his enemy, but only in your mind, think that's a
fusions, many collections.
I was going to mix up every similar.
What I am suggesting is from beginning to end, this is always about God's longing to
dwell with his creation.
That's what it was about from the very beginning, all the way down to the last bit of ideas
that we encounter in the book of Revelation.
It is as if the theme of God's dwelling provides the bookends of the story of creation,
reconciliation, and restoration.
It is about God's dwelling.
It is not.
The primary question is not, have your sins been forgiven.
The primary question is not, are you a believer?
The primary question is as your life characterise by a radical intimacy with the Almighty
as you walk with Him as though you were walking with Him in the garden in the cool of the day.
Even the garden of Eden itself is about the separation of a space for intimacy.
It was the place of unhindered fellowship with God and with one another as the man and
the woman were naked but not ashamed.
This is what God's after.
We want to be a community of the burning heart.
It is not about a community that we are primarily preoccupied with the sins we are managing
and overcoming.
The management, the overcoming of sin is never the goal.
It could be a means to the end because your sinfulness might be hindering a life of free
enjoyment of intimacy with God because of the consequences and what it is building up in your
mind and the damage it is doing to yourself and the damage it is doing to the people who
love you.
Certainly it is a significant topic that can't be brushed under the rug.
I am just saying it is not the main point because even if I get free of sin just to take
up a more positive idol that in which I express my greed and self-centeredness, I am not
living in the freedom of the gospel.
Gospel freedom is very simple.
It is knowing that you are loved, that you will always be loved, that the main response
of who are you is I am the beloved of God.
That's God's believe and then this awareness we don't need discipline to live gospel
principles because the one who successfully lived the gospel life has given his life to you.
To live the gospel is an expression of trust, not discipline.
It's yielding to the life of who you already are, not trying to improve who you think
you are, who doesn't measure up.
That's the invitation.
But if that's true, then it needs to be true and I want you to see it in the scripture.
Fasten your seatbelts, Christ, give me the church.
I just built water all over myself.
Call it a reception of a noointing.
The theme of God's dwelling provides the bookends of the story of creation and restoration.
The theme of God's dwelling is the good news of the gospel.
If we won't look at it, we won't go back.
I actually had to do a little cutting pasting.
Actually, no, let's just jump in here.
I don't need to give you explanations because you don't know what I left out.
Revelation, here's where the story ends.
Read you over Revelation 21 and here is the celebration.
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne.
Look, God's dwelling is with humanity and he will live with them.
They will be his peoples and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
Now I believe there was a time in history when this revelation might not have been accessible.
But I also believe that what it's describing is now.
It is not describing what happens when we fly away from here.
That doesn't even really make sense to me.
Because all the scripture points to the fact that right now, God's removed every obstacle
and is dwelling is with us.
This is the goal.
This is what we're moving toward not to get people to stop doing bad things, not to get
them to live a different kind of lifestyle.
I mean, all of these things may happen.
But the ultimate goal is to help one another understand we are never alone and we're never
isolated the way we think we are.
This God has made his dwelling with humanity and the ultimate expression of that is God's
dwelling and the incarnation.
So my thought this morning is that to be saved or to have faith is to recognize that
you are the dwelling place of God because humanity is the dwelling place of God.
Now let's see how this lines out in scripture.
And if you are maybe your mind is already going, maybe you are a bit of a thinker and you're
going, wait a second.
I see, but think about reflect upon the story, there seems to be places in there where that
doesn't seem to be true.
Where does that work in?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Because God is the same yesterday today and forever.
But human awareness is not.
Human discovery and knowledge and wisdom.
It is not the same yesterday today and forever.
It is constantly changing and evolving as we have new experiences and new data that we bring
into our thought system and causes that awareness to expand.
In the same way what we have in scripture is not a beginning single statement about God
that just as the end understanding.
There is a progression of humanity's awareness about the nature and character of God that
you can see transpire through the narrative of scripture until it crescendos with the word
became flesh and dwelt among us.
And then the author of Hebrews will celebrate the fact that this is the final revelation
of God.
Because Jesus is the exact imprint of His nature.
So if you want to see God most clearly peer into the life of Jesus and listen to His words.
So we begin with this.
We begin with the creation story that says that there was a moment in time when there was
nothing that we see but rather there was chaos.
There was something like an earth but it was primarily filled with water.
This is what kind of the first chapter of Genesis describes.
Now again, it's not a science textbook.
I'm not trying to make a case scientifically of how the earth was once water and then this
or that that's for other people with other different amounts of time on their hands than
myself.
I am just celebrating what is there in this great poem.
I don't expect my poetry to teach me neurobiology.
I expect my poetry to reveal beauty to me in ways that I cannot see it through the study
of biology.
And so these two poems are but begins with two poems, chapter one and chapter two.
And so what we're told is that there was this sense of chaos but it was not separated
from God because He chose to be there.
In fact, the word that the poet uses is a fantastic word.
It is hover, hover.
And so we see in Genesis chapter one verses one and two, in the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the
spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Formless and void, darkness over the face of the deep and the spirit hovered over the
waters.
And if God is love as John reveals to us, then it means it is
in love's nature to not be satisfied with just inward awareness but to move outward and to
extend that love to cover others.
And at the very beginning before the poet celebrates the bringing forth of humanity at all,
even in the chaos of that original creation, God was not disconnected.
He was there and He was hovering.
And He has and has intent, the creation, first of a place for his creation to dwell and
that light in.
And then the creation of his humanity so that he then shares forth his love with us.
So then we see He's hovering over the face of the earth.
Now if you were raised in church, you're probably familiar with the story.
If you weren't, I'm asking you to extend a little moment of trust with me, but you have
the Google just fact check me after as all I asked, not during.
But I'm fine with being fact checked.
But as the story moves on, there is a story in the course.
We know the tragedy of the story.
Genesis chapter 3, which I have said before, I've tried to make the case.
I actually don't think it is a moral tragedy.
I think that is a relational tragedy that takes place in the garden because,
that man and the woman are harmed by the deception to not trust the love of God.
It's as simple as that.
You can either be nourished by the tree of life, by walking with God in intimacy or bypass
intimacy for knowledge of the systems so that you can master it.
This is the choice that they're given.
And tragically they choose poorly.
But immediately God begins to chase after them.
I mean, in simple terms, the point of this sermon is his heart will never stop chasing
you, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.
It will never stop chasing after you to reveal his love for you.
So immediately there's this plan in place to bring them back and it begins with the man
who's the father of a nation.
And that nation itself is given at the beginning these magnificent promises of conquest
and size and wealth and yet what they find themselves in is in bondage and slavery to another
power in a foreign nation.
And yet God's heart is for deliverance.
To chase after them, to set them free so that He could be their God and they could be his
people.
So what does he do?
We talked about a few weeks ago.
He finds a human being.
And he speaks to Moses.
And Moses says, I'm not qualified for the job.
And this is our first revelation.
If you're nourished from the tree of the knowledge of good naval, you've got to have mastery.
Just to know how to reject the bad and embrace the good and work the system.
But if you're trusting God and walk with Him, He will be your source.
And Moses learns this.
He learns that his weakness serves two purposes.
He allows him to deepen his dependence on the power of God and to recognize his interdependence
in community.
Because what Moses can't say, Aaron can't say.
So once again, we see this revelation of the heart of God.
He wants to reveal Himself to us, but He doesn't want to do it in isolation.
He doesn't in the context of community.
Even in the very beginning, I know I'm kind of ranting here.
But even in the very beginning, I find it fascinating that you see this refrain.
It's good.
It was good.
It was very good.
And do you remember the first time the opposite phrase is he used not good?
In that creation narrative, is anybody recall where the one time it's used of something
not being good?
Anybody remember?
It's because the man was alone.
And that wasn't good.
And so he's revealing Himself in community and even with Moses.
But Moses is what he does as he is ready to lead the people.
He's brought them out of Egypt and they're wandering through the desert.
And we're going to pick this story up in Exodus 33 because in order to lead the people,
he had to first be led Himself.
He had to be led by God.
And so he sought radical relational connection with Yahweh and here was the plan.
We see first the hovering of God over the earth, then we see the dwelling of God in a tent.
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside of the camp.
Far off from the camp and he called it the tent of meeting.
And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside
the camp.
Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and each would stand
at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent.
When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance
of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses.
And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all
the people would rise up and worship each at his tent door.
Unless the Lord used to speak to Moses, what's it say?
Face to face.
As a man speaks to his friend.
When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of nun, a young man,
would not depart from the tent.
Now surely we all know the Almighty sovereign creator cannot be contained in a tent.
So what does it mean that he chose to manifest his presence and meet with people in a tent?
It shows us that God condescend to the limits of our understanding.
He condescends down to the limits of our awareness because the people could understand
a tent where you met with a friend and spoke face to face.
So there is an awakening of the awareness of what this God is like.
He manifests his presence this time in a place of intimacy.
Again, intimacy is the key.
This is why it's emphasized.
It's a way from the people.
It's a way from the hustle and bustle.
It's a way from the noise.
It's outside of the camp where to create this place of intimacy where a man could meet with
God and speak to him as a man speaks with his friend.
So we see the presence of God hovering over formless creation.
Then we see the presence of God in a tent called the tent of meeting.
And eventually Israel would get a revelation that we can make the tent larger.
So more of us will fit in it.
That tent was then called the Tabernacle.
And we picked the story of that up over in Exodus 40.
So we have God hovering over the earth.
Then the dwelling of God in the tent.
Then the dwelling of God in a Tabernacle.
Exodus 40, 34th through 38.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it.
And the glory of the Lord did what it filled the Tabernacle.
And they actually experiences as a physical manifestation of smoke saturating all of the
atmosphere of the Tabernacle.
Verse 36 throughout all their journeys.
And they were the cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle that people of that Israel
would set out.
But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken
up.
Why?
Because the point, I mean, I'd say these wisdom pity things to you.
And I'm not poo pooing them.
I agree with the sentiments as far as they're concerned.
But it actually was not about the journey.
Nor was it about the sin management.
It was about remaining in the dwelling of God, remaining in this place of deep, relational
intimate connection.
So if he was in the Tabernacle there were going to be in the Tabernacle.
If he leaves the Tabernacle and lives on, they're packing up their things, including
the Tabernacle, which that Tabernacle could be moved.
And they would follow the cloud to where it hovered again.
Verse 38 for the cloud of the Lord was on the Tabernacle by day.
And the fire was in it by night.
And the side of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
So then let's move forward 300 years later.
And now they have a land and a kingdom and a king and armies.
And they fight against enemies and they conquer enemies.
And they shrink their boundaries.
And they expand their boundaries.
Now they're ready for the permanent dwelling of God.
Not a tent, not a Tabernacle, but now a temple.
And here's what's interesting.
The same thing that happened in the tent to meaning that happened again in the Tabernacle,
now happens in the temple.
Second Chronicles, chapter 7 verses 1 through 3.
As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt
offering and the sacrifices.
And the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord, which just like Moses, because the
glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house.
When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the
temple, they bow down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and
gave thanks to the Lord saying, for He is good and for His steadfast love endures forever.
The presence of God hovered over unformed creation.
God was present in the creation.
Then we see the presence of God in this intimate meeting place called a tent.
Then we see the presence of God drawing near to the people in this temporary dwelling called
the Tabernacle.
And then once again we see the presence of God in this permanent dwelling called the temple.
However, 285 years after that, one of Israel's most famous prophets will question this.
And here's what he prophesies.
As A66 verses one and two, thus says the Lord, do you see what's happening?
You see the progression, tent, Tabernacle, temple, God acquiescing with His presence as the
people's awareness of His nature and His heart is increasing over time.
And now we have this little crescendo with Isaiah.
And he says, that says the Lord, heaven is my throne.
And the earth is my footstool.
So now we're gone from tent, Tabernacle, temple to the stratosphere.
Heaven is my home.
Earth is just my footstool.
What is the house that you will build for me?
And what is the place of my rest?
All these things, my hand has made.
And so all these things came to be, to clear the Lord.
But this, this is the one to whom I will look.
He who is humble and can try and spirit and tremble at my word.
So now we have a hint of a deeper revelation.
The presence of God hovering over the unformed earth.
The presence of God dwelling in a tent.
The presence of God dwelling in a tabernacle.
The presence of God dwelling in a temple.
And then Isaiah says, it's not enough.
Why want to dwell with the humble and the contract?
There is nothing you can build for me.
But there is one to whom I will look.
So as we track the history of the story, what we learn is that Nebuchadnezzar destroys
that first temple in 586 BC.
And he also takes off with the arc of the covenant.
And if you have been taking your Bible seriously and watching all the Indiana Jones movies,
then you understand the significance of that lost arc.
Because what it means is not only as the simple destroyed, but the presence has departed.
The glory of Israel is gone.
Never to be rediscovered in that context, ever again.
Then finally in the fullness of time, in around 20 BC, they began King Harry begins to
construction on a second temple in Jerusalem that's now occupied by Rome.
And it started in 20 BC and the second temple is built with one significant exception.
We have no testimony of the cloud and the fire filling that temple.
It's the heart, the arc, is not returned.
So there is no symbolic gesture showing that God has chosen to make His dwelling in that
second temple.
And in fact it becomes a very different beast altogether.
And in time in 70 AD, that temple is destroyed by the Emperor Tides.
His presence hovered over the uncreated chaos of the earth.
His presence was seen in a tent.
His presence was then seen in a tabernacle.
His presence was then seen in a temple and it was lost until His presence came to earth
in the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus.
There is a day where the presence of God enters that second temple.
And it's when Mary and Joseph carried this infant into the temple.
And we have these celebrations from Simeon and Anna because they understand what this means.
Hovered over creation in a tent in a tabernacle in a temple in John 14 and the word
became a lash and dwelt among us.
And we have seen His glory glorious the only Son from the Father, full of grace and
truth.
You know what?
Here's another way it could be said.
But if this phrase isology doesn't work for you, I'm not claiming that it's the way
you have to believe in talk.
One way I've come to read this over the years is that the connection point of heaven and
earth was once over a formless void where the Spirit hud.
Then the touching place of heaven and earth was in this place called the tent of meeting
where they could see the presence of God come down and meet with humanity and speak with
them as a man speaks with his friends.
And then it expands in the meeting place of heaven and earth is a tabernacle that once again
is celebrated with the nine of this presence of God.
And then we track the story and we see the meeting place of heaven and earth is in
a temple that eventually is destroyed.
Now the meeting place where heaven kisses the earth is humanity.
That is a significance of the incarnation of the Word of God.
Make flesh.
Now we're starting to see you're that tent.
You are that tabernacle. You are that temple and you can walk outside and see an
infinite host of other image bearers that have become the dwelling of God.
My friends, we are not abandoned and regardless of how dark it seems, we are never
away from the presence of God.
What's a Psalmist say, even if you go make your bed in shill, you travel to the furthest
seas.
There he is.
Which I think it's pretty powerful because I think there were some believers that would
assume God's presence is in fact not in shill.
That even in the place of the dead he is there.
But we're not done.
God's plan moves even beyond that.
Dwelling in creation, in attenentenentenable in Jesus and the crescendo revelation, the
presence of God dwelling in us in humanity.
Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what was
lacking in Christ of the afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church of which
I became a minister, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to
make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations.
But now revealed to his saints to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles,
which means everyone else in the earth other than Israel.
Are the riches of the glory of this mystery?
What is a mystery Paul and glad you ask?
It is Christ in you the hope of glory.
This is the mystery to which we have been invited to look and peer into.
God's dwelling is in us as people.
If we go back and look at the more clear teachings of Jesus, let's just take a couple of
of them that we are going to eventually get to, John 14.
We should be there about 2034.
John 14.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
God will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even
the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him, nor knows
him.
You know him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Get your guilt taken care of.
Recognize that in Christ the principle of sin is destroyed.
Epistle celebrate this truth, but sin management is not your goal.
It's living from a revelation that that God who hovered and you met with people intense
and in tabernacles and in temples and then walked the earth as the incarnated Son of
God has made His dwelling place in you, my friends, that is the mystery.
Again, John 14.23, Jesus answered him.
If anyone loves me, He will keep my word and my Father will love Him.
Look at this.
And we will come to Him and make our home with Him.
What does it mean to be saved?
It means that you are living from a conscious awareness that you are the home of the Almighty.
It is nothing less than that.
If you eradicate all your cussing, all your notties shows on Netflix, all your bad
attitudes and you only address it.
You only dance if it's not sensual, which I have not mastered yet.
And yet you have never awakened to the dignity that you were the dwelling of the Almighty.
Then I might very humbly suggest that you've missed the point.
Because this is what this is all about, this is the invitation.
And then as Christians as we come to a close, that's a trick phrase.
We may or may not be closing, but now you think we are.
That's true of you.
You can, in front of you, look behind you, look to your right, and to your left, because
it's also true of all of these individuals you see.
When you leave here, and you go to Poppa's and obey the Apostle Paul to buffet your flesh.
It's a piece of basicly solid bar that has some pizza on it, so it's okay.
When you're enjoying your food, you're in the holy of Holies.
Do you realize sitting in your restaurant this afternoon, you could easily take off your
shoes because you are walking on holy ground why because containers of the presence will
be all around you.
This is what we're supposed to see, but if we're nervous from the knowledge of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then we see categories, some fit in good, some
fit in evil.
Those categories allow us to assess and evaluate people, to judge others, to reward some,
to punish others.
We get to entertain this whole system and we've missed the point of walking together
in the garden, in the presence of God, in the cool of the day.
He reminds us in Matthew 2540.
We won't go into the whole story.
We talk about it here quite a bit, because it's as formed this particular story, Matthew 25,
really speaks to the ethos of this community.
Matthew 2540, and the King will answer them.
Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brothers, and the
least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
I love it that we can come in here and see these wonderful songs.
I love this worship team.
And when I say that, I don't just mean as a unit and as a concept, I know these people, some
of them have laughed some of my deepest belly laughs with, and some of them I've set with
them and wept.
So I love worship.
I love this, but we can never forget the quickest way to God's presence.
It isn't in songs we sing or in services we attend, but it's when we touch the broken.
That is the most direct access point to the presence of God.
What we do to the least of these, his brothers and sisters.
So as we get ready, the clothes, trick phrase number two, I want us to take this in for
just a moment.
I want you to take a moment to create some spaces we get ready for common communion, to
really hold space to think about what it means that God wants you to be his dwelling, and
he wants you to treat other humans as his dwelling.
Now in order to begin to walk this out, it takes practice.
It's not going to happen because of one sermon or a book.
It takes practice.
We have to return to this over and over again, but I was always praying, I really wanted
to think about two things.
When we talk about being the presence of God, most of us were raised in the systems that
told us, here are the ways you get into God's presence.
You read your Bible, you pray.
Maybe you memorize some scriptures, maybe you go door to door, maybe you don't dance,
you don't custer to, or run around with men and women who do whatever it may be.
And so when they hear that, there is a reaction that's rooted in fear, woundedness, exhaustion,
and being beat up.
I am not saying you have to do X, Y, Z in order to be in the presence of God.
I am saying you're already there.
Our work is not one of achievement or accomplishment, but just awareness of what's already
been achieved and accomplished.
That's where our discipline comes in.
So, it might be that you are in a very active season.
So walking out this revelation is going to look different for you.
Is there times in seasons where you leave and go away and get an isolation?
Sure there are.
But have you ever been in a season where something like that is just a big fat pipe
dream?
Probably we're all in different places here.
So, if you're in a particularly active season, I'm not saying overhaul your life and
start looking like a monk.
What I am saying is it begins by acknowledging the presence of God in the chaos itself.
And I am exhausted taking care of toddlers.
When I'm exhausted because the increased demands at work, when I'm exhausted because there's
tension and miscommunication in my home.
And when if I do get quiet, I know I'm going to fall asleep because I'm exhausted.
Within, become aware how you bring God into that chaos with you.
What am I favorite ways was the discipline I learned or I practiced.
I learned called breath prayers.
It might just be that right now in the season of your life, your devotional looks like
a series of breath prayers that you pray throughout the day.
Now because we're a trinitarian here at Christ's minute church, my illustration will be
a trinity of breath prayers.
But my hope is you eventually begin to cultivate your own.
So here you are in the midst of the craziness and you're exhausted.
But you remember your dignity is a dwelling place of God even you don't feel like it.
So maybe all you've been utter is Jesus Christ have mercy on me.
Oh, I pray that a lot when I'm busy.
In fact, if you say pray for me and I say I will, that used to mostly be lies because I never
really went back and prayed for anybody.
But now it is 100% true because if I'm busy and I'm forgetting, forget and I get to have
a momentary conversation with NAN and she says, already pray for me, you know what I do?
I will go to my truck and I'll say, Lord Jesus for, for NAN May Lord have mercy.
Jesus for my friend Derek, Lord have mercy.
For my friend Rachel, Lord have mercy.
Or maybe you'll pray this risky breath prayer.
You've got your chaos, you're losing your patience.
You don't feel Christian nor really even spiritual.
And you breathe in and you say, Holy Spirit, you're welcome here.
I want to know your intuitive wisdom that's already in my heart.
I don't even have to seek it, but help me be aware of it.
Or maybe you're exhausted and you're heartbroken and the only thing you can amunt master
because your circumstances are insane and because your faith is weak is you just say,
I'm yours.
There's a great story of a saint that blended both extended time in the Lord and breath
prayers.
One of my favorite saints, Saint Francis of his CC.
This was a testimony of one of his brothers that he was traveling with and it came time
for them to go to bed and the brother went to bed and he said, he felt the legality
of it, but he peaked over to see what Francis was doing and Francis was at the side of his
bed kneeling with his arms saying, I got my all, my God, my all.
And the testimony of the brother is the next morning when he woke up, he opened his eyes
and rolled over, looked at Francis's bed and Francis hadn't moved.
He's still there at the side of his bed, eyes closed and as if he's looking at an angel,
just in my God, my all, my God, my all, that may be it and that is fine.
That's what will bring your awareness into the reality that you are the dwelling place of
God.
And I inverted the time, I thought it said 12, but it says 21.
So we will close with this, but if you have time to slow down, you have time to carve
out that space.
I would encourage you, one of the ways that this conviction has grown in me is in praying
the liturgy.
Written prayers are mostly reciting scripture.
So you might consider taking time to slow down, pray the liturgy.
Most of the elders do on Sunday mornings now.
We've got a four-page liturgy that we sit around and we just take terms praying through
the liturgy.
Sit with Jesus.
Be still and listen.
Don't just quickly read scripture, prayerfully read scripture.
Write more walks and practice loving kindness.
For when you do, this is your real offering to Jesus.
If you would open up your tablet, your phone, your Bible, flip over or put it in your