Mission Friends: A Pietist Way To Be Human - Living Faith | Pastor Pastor | February 12

Lake Ridge Community Church Podcast

[00:00:03.130] - Speaker 1

Hi there. My name is Preston Pouteaux. Welcome to the Lake Ridge Community Church Podcast. This is where we share some of our messages from Sunday mornings. So we're glad you're here to listen.

[00:00:14.210] - Speaker 1

We'd love for you to join us in person. We meet on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m at Our Lady of Wisdom School here in Chestermere. At our core, we're a community of people, so we gather on on Sundays, but we also do a lot in the week. Together. We are people learning to follow Jesus and love our city.

[00:00:31.080] - Speaker 1

So to learn more, visit lakeridgecommunity.com. Hope to check in and visit with you soon. Take care. Thanks for listening.

[00:00:44.340] - Speaker 1

I feel like I'm going through a bit of a renaissance of Jesus. Have you ever had those moments in your life where it's like, Jesus means more than he did before? Something is moving in you? Have you ever had that season of life? They're precious seasons because I've also had the seasons where it's kind of wintry and dry and you wonder if Jesus is anywhere.

[00:01:02.760] - Speaker 1

Some days I feel like I was explained to somebody, was like, what's it like to be a pastor? And I was like, sometimes it's like standing in a shower that's a hot water and cold water coming out of two direct faucets. So you're grateful that you're standing under hot water, but you're also standing under cold water. Do you kind of get the picture there? There's a lot that comes at us and I think Jesus meets us in it all.

[00:01:27.010] - Speaker 1

Hey. We are on a journey where we are, I called it Mission Friends. This is a phrase that is ancient in the covenant and piatism who we are. It was a phrase that was used and we are wrestling with what it is to be human, and it's hard to be human sometimes. We're standing under the hot and cold tap of life.

[00:01:46.030] - Speaker 1

There's something good and cold coming at us at the same time. We're like, how do I hold all these things? So we're taking a look a little bit here at Scripture and we're deeply diving in and we're going to be also exploring some wisdom, I think, from those who have gone before us. I'm a bit of a space nerd. I like spaces in my room growing up.

[00:02:06.330] - Speaker 1

My kids want to ask me all the time, like, what was your room like growing up? And I had Mum and dad put a big mural on the wall and it was like a spaceship overlooking Earth. And I would lay there pretending that I am like a spaceman or something, right? It was really cool and I loved it a lot. One of the things I really loved too, was space.

[00:02:27.870] - Speaker 1

Learning about space probes. Going to Mars as a young boy would track with every single one that would happen, and I still do. I have a little, like, notification to know if something's launching because that means I got to wait a few months and it's going to eventually get there and then I can follow up with this and it's really cool. Do you know how violent it is for something to travel, launch off, travel and then land? It is a multimillion dollar, sometimes billion dollar project to get something.

[00:02:55.330] - Speaker 1

It's the most important mission that some people spend their entire lives working on. And then they blast it off, hope it doesn't explode, hope it survives radiation and everything. Then it has to land in some violent way and stop on the planet. And when it gets there, do you know the first thing almost every single probe does when it lands? It puts out its solar panels and soaks up the sun.

[00:03:22.580] - Speaker 1

What an interesting thing. One of the first things that this thing, which has a very important mission to do, it has a long list of things it's to accomplish, but what's its first thing it does? It stops and soaks up the sun. It does a whole check of its systems and they run everything through and they do the smallest little things to make sure this thing is ready. The biggest challenge to anything going to Mars is dust, something that would build up over time on its solar panels, because the second those solar panels can't receive the sun anymore, the ticking time bomb is on, that this mission is over.

[00:03:58.000] - Speaker 1

I think we are people who are called to sit and soak up the sun. Your life is so important, what you are called to do here vital. There's no one else doing what you are doing right now. You are the one occupying your life. You are the one who's important to those around you.

[00:04:14.390] - Speaker 1

And your mission is vital. And yet sometimes we get on with it too quick before we know that we have to sit and soak in the sun, but to sit and find our place of rest in Jesus before we begin. This is not the way that the people of Israel were worshiping and coming close to living this one and beautiful life. In the Bible, Elijah was a prophet in a time of deep chaos, a time when there had been some good kings and then a series of bad kings, people named a kings named Ahab and Omri, his father. These were two leaders who were regarded terribly in the Bible for their leadership.

[00:05:00.340] - Speaker 1

They were kings that were on a mission of almost destruction. They disregarded God so deeply it led to assassinations and suicide and war. And at the end, these two were considered, it says in the Bible, they did more evil than all who were before them. There's a brutal vision of leadership that happens in the book of first Kings.

[00:05:28.800] - Speaker 1

Here they were a father and a son, Ahab and Omri. And one of the things that they did was they set up the nation to be economically stable for the first time, in a long time, they had established some trade routes and they were pretty good. For the first time ever, they were maybe rolling in some of the cash. They could build some things, they were building cities, and these cities were prospering. But these leaders were not going the way of god.

[00:05:57.160] - Speaker 1

They set up new places of worship. They actually were no longer just worshiping in Jerusalem, but they set up some new temples and some high places. High places were like these shrines, places where you could go and pray no longer with the whole community, but off to the side. You could go and have your own personal experience of god. But these gods weren't enough.

[00:06:19.120] - Speaker 1

These gods, the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Yahweh, this this god was not, not exciting enough, actually. So they came up with they found two other gods that they could kind of come alongside, the god Ball and the god of Astreth. And I've been to some archeologists, have found some of these shrines and you can see there's like a rock for Ball of us. And they would often have a place where they'd put up a stick for Ashworth. And these are this, these are the types of gods that they would worship.

[00:06:49.960] - Speaker 1

It's one thing to be worshiping an idol, but these gods, these gods suited their every need. You see, Ball and Ashworth, they were ashworth was a sex goddess. And they would set up this sex goddess beside and they had a whole new way of worship. You see, it's the first time worship is given as a consumable experience. Worship is not coming and sitting beside god and saying god, I love you, shape me, let me follow you, let me live this one and beautiful life with, you know, Ball and Asterisk.

[00:07:22.500] - Speaker 1

These gods of this time, these were gods of convenient consumption, a consumable experience. Instead of prayer and songs of trust, it was self gratifying products. You were coming to get something out of these gods, not coming to set yourself before them. Eugene Peterson put it like this. He says, when you are terror stricken, you offer a sacrifice.

[00:07:48.300] - Speaker 1

When you're anxious about your crops, you make a visit to the temple prostitute. When you're joyful, you ingest the wind god feelings called the tune. Fears of panic, of terror, of desire and enthusiasm. You see, you were in charge of your worship experience under ahab and omri. These gods were simply there to appease your anxiety, meet your needs of your self governed life.

[00:08:14.970] - Speaker 1

You were in charge. They didn't care about you, they didn't want you around, but they were there. And if you brought something to them, they might see you for a second, but they don't like you. It's an ultimate religion for a world in chaos, actually, a world of wealth, a me world. It's perfect for those who want to get something out of their worship experience at their own pace.

[00:08:40.070] - Speaker 1

On their own terms and their own pleasure. As a result, the nation was in freefall. They finally had everything that they wanted. They had homes, they had gardens, they had all of these things. But they forgot that it wasn't all about him.

[00:08:54.960] - Speaker 1

And it says in one King 16, it provoked the Lord to anger. I sometimes get angry. I sometimes do. I sometimes do for the wrong reasons. Sometimes I do for the right reasons.

[00:09:07.070] - Speaker 1

I'm like, no, you smacking your sister around. That is not allowed in the putto home. That's not how we do things, right? God was angry because he's like, you guys treating each other like this, you guys treating this beautiful thing of faith into something that's just consumable. No, that isn't going to work here because it's going to destroy you.

[00:09:27.810] - Speaker 1

And it already was. God intended a better way. Not a frenetic religion reacting to a world in chaos and negotiating with these transacting idols, but a relationship that establishes peace, creates a land and a place of fruitfulness, a community of people who came together and trusted God and each other. A place where wrongs are set right, where love for God flourishes. Worship was always meant to be about awe and wonder, about beauty, with God leading the conversation and us responding, not the other way around.

[00:10:10.920] - Speaker 1

God imagine sex and food and friendship and money and work and government as a garden that flourishes when God's people have a right relationship with him, not to take what you can while you can and spit out the rest kind of world. So in comes Elijah into this story and we get a sense that he's called by God and he gives a sermon. It's the best sermon you've ever heard because it's only 17 words long in the original one, right? I bet you guys are like, man press. You can really take a page out of Elijah's preaching here, right?

[00:10:47.460] - Speaker 1

Quick and easy. Let's take a look here at what his sermon was. So he goes to Ahab and he preaches. The sermon is quick, it's easy. In, out, done.

[00:11:00.070] - Speaker 1

And he tackles a big topic here. This is what happens now, Elijah, who is from Tischbe in Gilad, in Gilead, told King Ahab, here's a sermon. As surely as the Lord God of Israel lives, the God I serve, there will be no due or reign during the next few years until I give the word full message. Amen and close, right? I'm going to read it again.

[00:11:27.520] - Speaker 1

As surely as the Lord God of Israel lives, the God I serve, there will be no due or rain during the next few years until I give the word. Here he is giving his sermon. And you can imagine, well, if you lived in this time, you would know what that is because did you know that Ball was a God of rain? This sermon is directly related to his God, this God that has utterly turned everybody's hearts away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's saying, a drought is coming.

[00:12:06.220] - Speaker 1

You see, this is the one thing that no idols or no new cities or no thriving economy could do without, and that was rain water. It would, in the words of Eugene Peterson, a drought would advertise the barrenness of these fertility gods. It would utterly show them up and say, this is a barren way to relate with God. It does not work. No orgies or fertility gods here.

[00:12:34.760] - Speaker 1

No life without God's provision. You see, life was on God's terms, not cheapened, destructive, selfish religion on my terms. Something that would masquerade as life. No, the masquerading is over. And Elijah comes with this message to say, party over.

[00:12:55.180] - Speaker 1

Instead of sticking around to see if the king likes his message, he gets out of Dodge. This is what I do after most of my sermons, right? Drop the mic, I'm out of here. Right? I get a lot of texts after, and they are often very awesome, but he was not on it.

[00:13:13.140] - Speaker 1

You see, he just said that everything about their whole scheme of anxiety driven, seeking to get something from God for them alone, without loving others and using up what they have in front of them, well, it led to this one. King 17, two to six. I'm going to read what happens next. And the Lord said to Elijah, go to the east and hide by Kerath Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you.

[00:13:44.930] - Speaker 1

Pride commanded them to bring you food. So Elijah did as the Lord told him and count beside Carth Brook, east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. He goes out. God sends him to this little hideaway place, a brook, little campsite where he's going to go, and something kind of interesting happens.

[00:14:12.260] - Speaker 1

God provides for him with, of all things, ravens. This is a Halloween decoration that I put outside of my home, but I pulled it out of my stuff because I think it was really, really cool. Ravens. Ravens are considered dirty animals. A good Jew would not ever eat a raven, for sure.

[00:14:31.330] - Speaker 1

Probably not want to be touched by one. And in the Bible, these birds are bringing something. They're probably not bringing chicken McNuggets. Right? What are they finding?

[00:14:41.400] - Speaker 1

I don't know. I don't know. Some people think that they might have been bringing carrion stuff that they found. Right. They might have been bringing meat, something that they found on the side of the road.

[00:14:53.110] - Speaker 1

Roadkill, right. But they were bringing meat to Elijah, and here he was with his raven friends. I have some art here by an artist that has done several pieces around this. I wonder if he could put it up. I love this picture of these ravens.

[00:15:09.410] - Speaker 1

And they come in with, like, a ton of character in this art, don't they? They're, they're kind of bouncing in. And here's Elijah gave his big sermon and said, well, the way of the King is not working here. God's way is going to be better. And here's this like hoard of ravens coming in with their treats.

[00:15:26.080] - Speaker 1

God commanded them. God said, go and bring some food over to Elijah. I think I have another one similar to this one's. Quite beautiful too. There's a lot going on in it.

[00:15:37.620] - Speaker 1

But here he's sitting and he has these books beside him and this raven who's coming gently. I just like the way that the artist has kind of captured these ravens who seem to be holding this holy space, holding together his humanity. They're feeding him, they're giving him food so that he can live, providing for him. God gives Elijah what he needs to live. And more than that, God talks with Elijah.

[00:16:11.740] - Speaker 1

He's telling him what to do. Go east to the kerath brook, drink from the book, eat from the ravens. I've commanded them to bring you food, provision and conversation. In a world where religion has been cheapened, where worship is something selfish, God is reestablishing. I think with Elijah real worship isn't he something relational, where people come, where Elijah comes and he receives from this dirty raven who turns out to be the one that's restoring his life.

[00:16:45.640] - Speaker 1

God's doing this life and love, friendship and hope, care and faith. It's here at Carthbrook. Have you ever had a kerath brook in your life? A place where you had to run and flee to, where you maybe something happened in your life and you shrunk down and you felt like everything was taken from you and suddenly God was the one who provided for you a little safe haven.

[00:17:12.720] - Speaker 1

Those are precious moments. Maybe right now you are in a place where you're wondering if you have a kerath brook. You're wondering if you have a safe place to go and flee to Elijah. He gets his relationship with God. He knows God provides.

[00:17:29.720] - Speaker 1

He does not need to free coat every day. He knows God is a table setting God who loves to be hospitable with his friends. Imagine having ravens that come. Just imagine sitting there and every day having this little guy hop over with you. Hop, hop, hop, hop.

[00:17:47.420] - Speaker 1

Spit something out. It would be a reminder. You would probably start to giggle a little bit and go, how did I end up here with this little raven bringing me a little I didn't plan for this. I thought my life might have been over. The God or the King is after me and here hop, hop, hop.

[00:18:06.240] - Speaker 1

I got fresh water, got these ravens and I'm fed. I think this is a tremendously beautiful way that God is providing. Surprising way.

[00:18:24.170] - Speaker 1

I remember once I was very broke. I went to seminary. Anybody goes to seminary? Anybody here? Yeah.

[00:18:30.450] - Speaker 1

That means you were broke for a good chunk of time. And I was and I remember I had nothing, like, very, very little. And I remember I was out and my car had hail damage, and I remember just being like, no, right? And the prayer of sometimes people in my position is we think that God should treat us a little bit better because, well, we are working for the big guy, right? Working for the big guy.

[00:18:56.390] - Speaker 1

I at least ought to be within his, like, inner rolodex of people. But here I am sitting under hail, and my car is just getting pounded. I'm going, Duh. Couldn't the hail have gone around me? Couldn't God have done that?

[00:19:10.840] - Speaker 1

And I prayed all those prayers. Maybe you prayed those two, and guess what? Insurance kicked in and I got money. It was a little moment. And I was like, what a funny thing.

[00:19:25.150] - Speaker 1

It wasn't a Kerath Brooke moment, but it was definitely this silly little moment that snapped me out of my selfish little myopic view of what God is doing, that if I just pray a certain thing, god will help me avoid all the hard stuff. God's like, no, no, you're going to go through the hard stuff and I'm going to cover you. I'm going to meet you. Psalm 34 says, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. It's not going to be easy.

[00:19:51.270] - Speaker 1

Even now, Kelly is quite sick, and it doesn't look like it's getting better. And yet we were laughing this week, even in the middle of it all, because we came across some new things that doctors are doing to help her get better. And we're laughing. We're like god always seems to meet us everywhere we turn. This is bad, but we're laughing in this.

[00:20:11.340] - Speaker 1

We're being met. We've been met more than halfway. Ways that I didn't expect to be provided for, ways that I didn't think Jesus would still talk to me. And God is sending me ravens in the midst of my sorrow. I think it is elegant.

[00:20:28.290] - Speaker 1

I think God meets us in elegant ways. I think ravens are an elegant way. And I think God meeting Preston and Kelly in our story at this time, it is elegant. And we need to have a moment to stop and go, wow, how is God meeting you elegantly and going, wow, I was here and now I am here. I'm grateful for it.

[00:20:49.690] - Speaker 1

Has God met you with ravens? Maybe you're in a season where you do not know what you are doing next. Has God prepared a brook and ravens for you?

[00:21:00.430] - Speaker 1

I think it's interesting that Jesus, he built into some of his messages this story, the story of Ravens. And we read it earlier and Shay read it for us. Luke 1224. I love what Jesus says, and I think anybody that would have known their history would have known about a raven showing up.

[00:21:24.550] - Speaker 1

He says, this. Look at the ravens. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns for God feeds them and you are far more valuable to him than any birds. I think people have been like, oh, ravens. Jesus's friend Elijah was cared for.

[00:21:46.590] - Speaker 1

The early Piatists are people who I think characterize this living faith in Jesus. We come from this roots of Piatism and there's a person named Philip Spinner who is kind of the grandfather, the granddaddy of Piatism. And he came to faith in the faith of Jesus like Elijah. He said it's by no means enough to have knowledge of the Christian faith. For Christianity exists rather of practice.

[00:22:13.830] - Speaker 1

Practice. He wanted to become a practicing Christian. You know what a practicing Christian is? It's a have a conversation with God by the brook kind of Christian. That's what a practicing Christian is.

[00:22:27.450] - Speaker 1

Somebody who knows how to find themselves at the brook and receive from God not frantically fussing around, worried about if we can peace God enough or if he will be there or if that hailstorm is going to leave lasting damage. No. A practicing Christian. What what Philip Spinner wanted was he wanted to be one who was like Elijah, who could sit with Jesus in peace and walk to this world in peace. And this is a guy who did not know peace.

[00:22:55.250] - Speaker 1

He was born near the end of something called the 30 Years War. All of Europe, the 16 hundreds, was inflamed. They say between four and a half and 8 million people died. Half of all of Germany was dead by the end of the 30 year war, catholics and Protestants were at each other. But at that point it didn't even mean anything anymore.

[00:23:15.730] - Speaker 1

These religious groups were just symbols for political fighting. There was so much fighting, so much fighting, in fact, that it had torn everything apart. And here just after this comes a guy named Philip Spinner and he decides that he's going to become a pastor. Fool to become a pastor in a time when everything is divisive, no one's going to pay any attention to what he has to say. Who wants to turn and sit with Jesus when the whole world is in fire?

[00:23:47.170] - Speaker 1

Well, here he goes. And he was known as a very well known guy in this time polarize Christopher Gertz. He writes that he says he had seen neighbors turn violently upon neighbors. He knew what it was like for people to be inclined towards vengeance rather than neighborly love. So it's in this context that he says, I think we should be a better church.

[00:24:11.290] - Speaker 1

I think we should. And so he actually comes up with six simple things, the most simple things. And we are actually my sermon series is based on this. First one is we have to read the Bible. We have to give the story of God into us again, we need to inhabit that story.

[00:24:25.680] - Speaker 1

Second one, it's not just a priest. We're all priests and that means we're all servants for one another. And the third one, the one that I'm preaching on today, is we need to know what it is to be loved by God so that we can love others. He asks that the church awaken in his words, a fervent love among our Christians, first towards one another and then towards all and put this love in practice. He says we got to accustomed people first to work, that is, inward to the laying out of the solar panels and then awaken love of God and neighbor.

[00:25:05.410] - Speaker 1

And so for him, his first thing was rest. After chaos he says we are frenetic in our seeking of what God wants. We need to rest. Like Elijah by the brook, pietis began turning to God to rest in his faithful care. Rest is not the antithesis of work.

[00:25:22.690] - Speaker 1

They had to rebuild so many things and pious were not lazy people. They worked hard. But rest is the start of our work. We can only rest after we put our solar panels out. We must be receptive to the presence of God if we're going to do the mission that's before us.

[00:25:41.430] - Speaker 1

I present myself to God and practice being present to the One who is always present in love for me. If we turn to God, then we can turn out to the world with God. I'm going to end with this story. Jesus had some friends too and he was trying to help them understand how to relate to him. And I think that they were pretty thick headed, probably a lot like me.

[00:26:07.710] - Speaker 1

Takes a long time to get through to me. It takes a lot of experiences for me to trust Jesus with my life. And so this story is one of Jesus taking his friends and he does something that I think is very profound. The story of the transfiguration says that six days later jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as light.

[00:26:43.310] - Speaker 1

Suddenly get this suddenly I love this suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.

[00:26:59.870] - Speaker 1

I was thinking about this in the shower. I was crying again in the shower, but good thing I'm covered in water so I didn't have to. Here's Jesus. Can you imagine this? Jesus is here as a full human and he's trying to get his friends to come along.

[00:27:14.120] - Speaker 1

And his friends can barely understand Jesus. In fact they're often James and John. Not long around this time they were trying to call down firing brimstone on some of Jesus'neighbors. He's like no, you don't get it. Stick with me, I'll show you.

[00:27:30.990] - Speaker 1

We'll take another go at this. And here Jesus goes on a hill. Do you know who I think Jesus wants? To talk to. I think Jesus wants to talk to his friends.

[00:27:40.670] - Speaker 1

You know who Jesus friends were? Moses and Elijah. I think he's like, Man, I think he goes up and I'd love to hear what this is all pressed and filling it in here, but if Jesus is showing up with Moses and Elijah, two people who the Old Testament says talked to God, who sat by the brook, who Jesus fed with ravens, and they've had long conversations. They're friends of Jesus. And I think Jesus needed a moment with his friends.

[00:28:09.430] - Speaker 1

I think he's like, I got these yahoos with me. I miss you guys. I've been down here helping them understand what it is to love and sit with me, and here they are, wanting to destroy the world around them as though I'm some superpower to destroy things. I'm here to heal what is broken. And I think Jesus is there going, Guys, I need to talk to you.

[00:28:31.550] - Speaker 1

I need some sanity here. And the lie just like, Y'all, man, do you remember the time that I sat by the brook with the ravens? I was that was elegant. Yeah, I know. And I'm trying to provide for these guys.

[00:28:40.710] - Speaker 1

We're doing loaves and fishes and all this, but they don't understand. And guess what? In the middle of this conversation that they're having that's not recorded. But you can imagine Jesus is loving a little reprieve with his buddies, right? His buddies are probably comforting him, saying, Jesus, I know you're about to go through something hard.

[00:28:59.270] - Speaker 1

I know you're about to die for these people who you so love. Be encouraged, Jesus. Be encouraged. You I know it's going to hurt, but you're doing it for them and for us and for us all. And for those that aren't even here yet, jesus is like, I know.

[00:29:14.170] - Speaker 1

I know what my father's asked me to do. And here we are. And I think that they're chatting and then hearing it all. I love this. The absolute idiot.

[00:29:21.700] - Speaker 1

Peter. Peter exclaimed, Lord, it's wonderful for us to be here. And I think Jesus is like, can you see what I'm working with here? They can't even give me a moment peace with you guys and your peers. Like, if you don't hear me, Lord, it's wonderful for us to be here.

[00:29:40.000] - Speaker 1

If you want, I'll make three shelters. Yeah, we've got three shelters as memorials. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Yeah. Is that good?

[00:29:51.510] - Speaker 1

Yeah. Is that yeah. Three. We're gonna make three shrines here. I think Jesus like, they don't get it.

[00:29:59.450] - Speaker 1

They want to pop up a shrine. They want to come and transact as though that's what we're doing here. It's not what we're doing here. We're in a relationship of trust and love and provision and conversation, and they love popping up shrines everywhere. They don't know that we can have this friendship.

[00:30:22.540] - Speaker 1

I got a feeling Jesus came down well even as. He spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy. Listen to him. Listen. Come and sit by a brook and receive provision and listen.

[00:30:48.820] - Speaker 1

Listen to what he says. He knows the way. He says, love God and love neighbors. He says, turn the other cheek. He says a whole bunch of things and you just listen to him.

[00:31:00.780] - Speaker 1

He brings me so much joy that we're having a moment, Peter. And so shut your yap for a second and enjoy the beauty of being with Jesus. So many people would love to be in the position you are in and so many, the Bible says so many are going to come after who will not see Jesus. But their faith will be so much richer because they believe. Listen to him.

[00:31:28.150] - Speaker 1

Spender or Elijah could have been stirred up in a frenzy of chaos around them. But instead they both came to rest in God conversation, provision and ultimately love and life found in Christ.

[00:31:47.380] - Speaker 1

I want to invite Kate up to play and we're just going to pray and wrap up here. Where is your carth? Creek. Where is the place where God is saying come and have a nap and have a snack. I got you.

[00:32:03.980] - Speaker 1

Come and sit and get away with me. I got you your mind. Don't worry about setting up some temple for me. All I want to do is be here with you. I want to be your friend.

[00:32:17.920] - Speaker 1

I want to be your friend first. I want to be your Lord. I want to provide for you when you don't know which way it is. You see, these ravens, I think, were for Elijah an epiphany moment, that God was always working for his people, that God would always provide for his people because they are gifts from a giver who wants to know his people today. And I think that if we want to follow along and be these people who are mission friends, I think we need to find what it is to be loved first by a friend who loves us.

[00:32:57.980] - Speaker 1

I think when this happens, when you are friend with Jesus, you can learn what it is to be a friend to somebody beside you. You can learn how to walk with them. You can see the provision in their life. You can see the Kerath creek that God has brought them to and maybe you can go sit with them in that and point it out and say, man, you're loved, man you're provided for, you cried out and God met you more than halfway.

[00:33:27.220] - Speaker 1

Many of the afflictions of God's people, we always get delivered from the wrong. We are not frenzied by the noises that promise that we will get what we want. Rather, we are people who are at peace with God, who is our everything. Can you stand?

[00:33:51.340] - Speaker 1

I think God hears your prayers and I think God knows what you're going through. And I think God wants us to sit with you and talk to you before he says to you, can you go and do some great thing for me? I think he says, maybe the greatest thing you can do is come and sit with me. Spread out your hands and receive from me. Be recharged by me.

[00:34:12.580] - Speaker 1

I do not need a great performer. What I need as a community of people who trust me and who join me, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you his peace by the brook of Kerath with some beautiful hopping ravens who've come to you and says you're going to be okay. Amen.

[00:34:35.540] - Speaker 1

Amen. Have a good week, everybody. Bless you. Amen.