Follow Me Pt. 1 :: Walking with Jesus

Jesus called his disciples that they might be with Him and that he might send them out to do the work of the kingdom. 

The core invitation was simple: Follow me. Do what I do. Learn how I see. Repent and Believe.

But how do we recognize the work of the Kingdom in our lives? How do we know what it is Jesus is up to so we can join him as disciples?

With countless bible studies, accountability groups, workshops, books, sermons, methods, and formulas, sometimes it all feels complicated. But if we can stay rooted in the basics, we’ll find that Jesus is all around us, forming us into his likeness.

But it requires a new way to pay attention.

In this series, we’re going to explore 6 axioms that will help us stay centered in the love of God as disciples of Jesus Christ.

• God is always present and at work.
• God is like Jesus.
• God meets us in reality.
• God cares more than we do.
• God does in you what he wants to do through you.
• The goal of discipleship is divine union.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Thanks for joining us today as you listen to a portion of a message recorded at Vine Life Church in Boulder, Colorado. If you'd like to connect with us further, you can visit us online at www.vinelife.com.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Um this last week was a special week. My family and I had the privilege and opportunity to go to the happiest place on earth. Subjectively, right? The happiest place on earth. That's a subjective comment, but we got a chance to go to Disneyland, which was awesome. My first time ever Disneyland. Anybody been to Disneyland before? The Promised Land. And uh it was an amazing time. It was my first time being there after all these years, growing up, hearing about this magical place of wonder. And so being able to take my wife and kids, it was awesome. And we had a little bit of fun. Uh we uh we did some rides together. I think we have one photo here that might have some kind of indication. So you see me in the front there. Um this is on Splash Mountain, and uh this this was my moment of wonder, right? This is it right here. Uh Splash Mountain, you see Noah in the back and uh some of her friends that we were with. I could show you tons of photos, but I'll just tell you this. My wife is a much better documentarian than I am, and uh she's probably she she takes photos uh more than you can imagine and posts them on Facebook. So if you want to see all the photos, you can hop onto Facebook or Instagram, you can find them all there. But Disneyland, um, it was amazing, and it would be a terrible missed opportunity if I didn't talk about Disneyland, at least just for a moment here. Um loved the most about Disneyland is you know, like growing up, I heard so much about this man, Walt Disney. And uh even you know, for my childhood and even for my kids' childhood, and probably for for pretty much everybody in this room, probably a lot of our lives, whether we know it or not, maybe subliminal, you know, more nuanced or more explicit, have been shaped by the thoughts and ideas of this man, Walt Disney, because he had he uh very early on um tapped into this whole idea that when we can capture the imagination of a generation, there's something about it that begins to form and to shape them, right? And so not only did that start with cartoons and that ended up in movies, but it ended up in these theme parks because of a man who had this unbelievably clear vision of what if we created this world of possibilities that people hadn't seen before and then invited people into it. And so I was really excited to go to this first. This is Disneyland was the original, right? This is the original park before all the Disney World stuff and all the Disney Tokyo and all the you know the stuff all around the world. Disneyland was kind of the first place that Walt Disney said, let's form a place that will be like unlike every other place. And so as you're coming into Disneyland, I noticed this little plaque above this bridge that we were walking through. And here's what the sign said It said, Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy. And it was like kind of this marking point as you're walking into this land, here you leave today, like whatever you brought with you up to this point, you're gonna leave that, and you're gonna enter a land of yesterday, today, and fantasy. And I was just, I spent, I took a photo of that, and then I spent some time reflecting on that. I'm like, oh, that's a pretty bold claim. Like, what does it mean by that, really? And so I you know, it was a little cynical at first, like, here you leave today, really, because I'm pretty sure on the other side of this line are still crowd or the other side of this bridge are still crowds and long lines and overpriced Mickey ears and whatever food. Food you should, nobody should ever eat, right? I mean, uh there's all kinds of things that aren't quite fantasy, right? I mean, that's not quite what I expected. But, you know, upon further reflection, as I kind of sat in here and just thinking, thinking about what was happening in this whole experience. Regardless of whether you think Walt Disney can deliver on this promise, regardless of whether you think that you know Disney Parks or any of these movies or this whole new world of possibility that they're creating is actually going to, you know, you know, deliver on this promise. I I upon reflection, I started thinking about what he was actually tapping into, regardless of whether it actually it could actually be fulfilled in this particular place, he was tapping into something that was true of the human heart and the human condition. What he was tapping into was this longing that is that is intrinsic into human beings, which is a longing that there must be something more than just living for today. Right? And so his thought was let's create a land where you can forget about the cares of this world and you can you know come into this thing and and have your mind exploded, right, and just new possibilities and dreams. And if that's all it was, right, that would be a little bit disappointing. But I think what he was tapping into was he knew that in the hearts and the minds of people that would become that would come to visit this park to the tune of about 44,000 a day in just this park, there is a deep-seated longing that what if, what if my life could be more than what it is right now? What if there is a new way of living? What if there is a new kind of world that's available? And so he began to create these imaginations for what's available, but but I mentioned this only because I think this is really this is really important. He's tapping into something that is universal, that is something that God has deposited into the hearts and minds of his children, that eternity has been set on our hearts. We were made for more than just today and just this moment. We were made for a picture that's much bigger. We were made to participate in possibilities way beyond what we had thought or could think or imagine. What God has prepared for us is beyond anything we could think. And Walt Disney has one interpretation of what that could look like. Come on, how many of you nut guys know that as we enter into the life of the kingdom, it's a life entering into it where we get to begin to create and imagine and dream again and imagine new realities of how the world is being renewed into what God had always intended for it to be. And this is what Jesus came to show us. See, Jesus was the original Walt Disney, I'll just tell you that much right now. Jesus came to show us what it could look like to be human. Jesus came to show us what it could look like to participate in this new kind of kingdom, this new way of life that we had forgotten, that we hadn't yet realized. And he came to live among us, to walk among us, and ultimately to invite us in, yeah? And that's the thing, is as we look at what Jesus came to show us, what he came to invite us into, as he came to demonstrate and to model for us the kingdom of God, he would begin to walk the countryside and to men and women look at him in the eyes and and bring two words that would forever transform their lives if they would respond. Two words that that were that invitation. It is more or less this sign that marks the beginning of something, and these words were follow me. And I love these words, follow me, that Jesus over and over again. He would look straight into the spirit, into the soul of each person, and say, I want you to come and follow me. I have something I want to show you, right? And it's interesting because he could have used any any two words. You know, if you were to pay attention to how we talk sometimes, you would think that Jesus went around and his two words were, Hey, everybody, accept me. Invite me into your heart, right? Pray this prayer, right? But no, his two words, the way that he engaged and began to initiate us into the kingdom of God, was follow me. And it was not, it was not static, it was dynamic. And this is really important that we understand that participating in the life of the kingdom means that we are people on the move at all times. Now, sometimes we think about discipleship, we think about the disciples and in how they interacted with Jesus. This is the image that comes to mind. It feels a lot more like a classroom, right? As if Jesus is walking around with PowerPoint presentations and three-point sermons and flannel graphs and charts and diagrams. Sit here while I teach you, right? And then I'm going to test you. And if you if you pass this test, you're in. Kingdom of God is yours, right? No, we wouldn't say it like that, but sometimes it's what it feels like, right? I mean, even this morning, right? You're all sitting here facing me, and I'm there's a teacher, and there's a and there's seats, and there's like a student teacher dynamic, right? And and uh, and obviously like gatherings like this are good. We we we we do we do have teaching, we receive teaching, and this is good. But how many of you guys know that life and following Jesus is not just about sitting down and behaving? It's about going where he's going and doing what he's doing and learning to see things like he sees, and learning to treat people the way he treats people, and and learning to do what he does, and not just do what he does, but do what he does in the way that he does it. Following Jesus confronts every part of our life, and it never involves just sitting down and and and just sitting straight and not bothering your classmates and just listening to what he's doing so you can pass the test. It has to do with being on the go, being on the road with Rabbi Jesus as he teaches us a new way to be, a new way to live, a new way to act. And so that's why for the next several weeks, we want to we want to talk a little bit more about this, about this life of following Jesus. There's a lot of ways to talk about it. Um for some of us uh here at the church, um, we've been really shaped and formed by some principles, some foundational principles. We've been calling them axioms, but but essentially essentially there's there's been some um uh these paradigm shifts that even as a team, on a leadership team, as we've been talking about some new ways of being able to see where God is at work, how we can fully participate with him, it has helped shape us, and even as a team, both personally and then as a team, and then for those of you guys who have joined some of our cohort stuff, you you know some of these things, these axioms, but basically following Jesus sometimes can feel really complicated. How is it that we can continue to live and move and be with the Jesus who is with us in spirit, right? How is it that we can continue to do this? We have to be able to be able to continue to relearn and learn new ways to pay attention to where Jesus is at work and among us. And as we do that, it's almost as if he's saying, Listen, here you leave today, and you can enter a new kind of world. How many of you guys want to enter into the life of the kingdom in its full this morning? That's why we're here. That's why we're here. Not to just be good boys and girls, but to explode with wonder, explode with life, explode with imagination. And only Jesus can teach us how to do these things. But we have to be able to clean our glasses. I hate it when my glasses get dirty because I can't see things right. And every now and then we gotta clean our glasses, we gotta clean our vision up to be able to see where is Jesus at work here and now, and how how is it that we can fully participate the way that he intended? Yeah? So it's a little bit different than how I grew up though, because sometimes um when I reflect on the church that I grew up in, I'm really grateful actually. There's a lot of amazing things. I got to see a lot of things of life in the spirit. I at an early age, I got to go to Toronto for the revival in Toronto in the mid-90s, and then we get to get in bus, you know, van busloads full of youth and go down to Brownsville in Pensacola, Florida to the Brownsville Revival. And I got to see a lot of amazing things, the outpouring of the move of God on earth. Um but but also you know, the youth group that I attended growing up, it was this massive youth group, it was great, and my life is forever indebted to my youth pastors and leaders. But um, you know, there there seemed to be a huge emphasis on we just need to get people to the altar to pray the prayer, and then once they're in, they'll figure it out as they go, but we just got to learn how to get them in and how to keep them in. So it's this whole idea of like salvation at all costs, and I'm I'm all for that. I got to see so many of my friends give their hearts to Jesus, and I want to see more of that salvation, people praying decisions, you know, making making decisions for Christ to surrender everything into that. But I don't remember a whole lot of talk of what to do after that point in time. So a lot of like in the in the youth group, it was like, you know, get your friends, come here, make a decision for Jesus, and then go find some more friends to come here to make a decision for Jesus. And so that was what was happening. A lot of salvation was happening. But then the question became so what are we supposed to do now? Like, what does life look like after this point in time? And there wasn't a whole lot of imagination for following Jesus after making the first two steps, right? It was just do that, that's the most important part. Now, once you come into the kingdom, just do everything you can to not screw it up now, right? So in our particular culture, it was do not watch any R-rated movies, do not listen to any secular music, you know, ditch any friends that have any type of negative influence on your life. And it was really a lot of the language had to do with, you know, it's it's really important that you protect this and that you never return to this type of thing. So a lot of the energy and and then the imagination just had to do with, okay, I gotta figure out how to stay the same for the rest of my Christian life. I'm in, and now I gotta figure out how to stay in this whole time. And that was pretty much it. And the problem with this, obviously, is that's not the picture that Jesus invited us into. Yes, he invited people to come in to the fold, right? To repent and believe. But we know that the movement in the life of Jesus is never just stationary. It's never just now that you're in, stay in. It's about now that you're in, begin to explore, begin to pay attention to what Jesus is showing you, begin to go where he's going and to mature into the type of person he's creating you to be. And but the the picture I had growing up had to do more of this categorical thing of following Jesus had to do with just making one step to get into the other column, you know, the other category of life. So saved and unsaved, right? Salvation, non-salvation, salvation and sinners. And what it began to do is create this really um binary way of looking at life in Christ, as if there's only really two places to be. And so about 30 years ago, uh, there is a missiologist slash anthropologist, somebody who studied mission and evangelism, and he was trying to put some of this into language, some of these ideas that we have about following Christ, about salvation, about evangelism and what we're doing. And he said, you know, he had he what he did is he identified, his name is Paul Hubert. Hubert, uh, he identified a couple different ways of thinking. And one was the one that we were just talking about, which would be called bound uh a bound mindset. And a bound mindset, basically, there's just jaw a circle, and there's such a thing as an in, and there's such thing as an out, right? And and really, if if you're operating in a bound mindset, um the whole idea is I have to just do what it takes to get into that circle, and then just be thankful that I'm now in the circle, and just try to stay in the circle, and then there's others on the outside of the circle that we're trying to get into the circle. And what it what it does is it over time, whether we're talking about the faith or whether we're talking about you know social clubs or you know, or you know, political parties or whatever, it can create this us in them mentality, right? Where it's there's only really two ways of being. And so once you're in, you're in, and I have nothing else to worry about. If I'm out, I have a lot of things to worry about at that point in time. And he but he began to uh he began to work on another way of seeing this, though. So there's there's a way of thinking called a bounded set, which is an inner out. But there's another way of thinking that you call a centered set. A centered set isn't necessarily determined by are you in or are you out, but it's more determined by which way are you moving, towards the center or away from the center. Which way are you moving? And the reason this is important is because I don't know if you know this, but whether you are a believer in Jesus Christ or you're not, there's times in your life where you can be moving away from Christ. And there's times of life where you can be moving towards Christ. And it might not be as linear as I'm in one category now and in another category now. No, I'm not saying, believe me here, I'm not saying there's I'm not saying there's no such thing as an affirmative decision for Christ or a line, a threshold of salvation to which we step into the life of Christ and we surrender ourselves. I do believe in that. That's happened for me. I do believe in that. At the same time, here's why all this is important to bring this full circle. Sometimes if we think too categorically, we forget that following Christ is a lifelong journey where we're always paying attention to what places of life am I moving towards Jesus and the cross of Jesus Christ? And what places of life am I moving away from Christ? And here's the thing: it seems as if Jesus was far more concerned with what direction you were moving more than if you were in or you were out. And here's here's where we see that. Matthew chapter 21. And he tells a parable. It's a parable of the two sons. He's talking to the crowds. He says, This, what do you think? A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, Son, go out and work in the vineyard today. And he answered, I will not. But afterwards he changed his mind and went. And when he went to the other son and said the same, he answered, I go, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, The first. And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. So I don't know if you're catching this, but in this parable, basically what Jesus is saying, he's talking to some Pharisees, he's talking to those who are firmly in the center of the in circle. I mean, they and they let everybody know. Everybody, we're in, right? They waved those banners, they they you know, they trumpeted that out to the whole world. We are the ones on the inside. And to those on the inside, Jesus said, Hey, listen, because you were not respon you were no longer responsive, because you did not believe John when he came, because you cannot discern what I'm saying and are able to respond to that. Guess what? The tax collectors and the sinners and the prostitutes, they are actually coming into the kingdom of God before you. And this should be a very sobering passage for all of us who are believers in Jesus Christ. That it's not as simple as am I if I'm in, I'm just in, I'm just gonna stay put, I'm just gonna hang out until that glorious day when God vacuums us up. Heaven, that that whole idea, right? But Jesus is saying, Listen, the ones of you who think that you're in, you're actually moving away from me. And the ones who you thought were firmly outside of the circle are actually going to inherit the kingdom of God before you because even in the condition they're in, they are responding. They're looking at John, they're looking at what's happening, and they are they're opening, their eyes are opening, their hearts are opening, and they're actually coming near to me. So this is both really good news and really scary news. And it's really good news for those of us who feel like in life sometimes we don't know where we're at. We have questions, we have experiences, we have things that we don't know. God, I don't know where we're at right now. I don't know if I'm in or out. I don't even know if I'm a Christian. I don't know if I subscribe to this whole thing. There's some parts I love, there's some parts I hate, but there's something in your heart, if there's something in your heart that's saying, But Jesus, I have tasted and seen your goodness. This is like what Piper was saying during worship. Where else am I gonna go? I've tasted, I've seen your goodness, and so something in me keeps me moving towards you. To Jesus, he would say to you, You are so much closer to the kingdom of God than you ever thought. Right? And then to those of us though who have come into the sheepfold, who have come into the flock of God. Through a variety of reasons, we have settled down and we've called it good. And you know, we've buckled our seatbelt and we're just we're hanging out. These words should be scary to us. These words should provoke us. This should be very provocative to us, as it was to the Pharisees, to the ones who had every their whole life lined out, and all the rituals and practices and religious stuff. They had everything figured out. They attended church the right amount of times a month, right? They did the right things. They read their Bible this many times. They know they listened to the right podcasts and they read the right books and they did the right things. But but but something in the heart becomes hardened over time, or maybe it's not a a place of relationally moving with Jesus. It's more just about sitting in a classroom and and trying to be a good boy and good girl, Jesus would say, Listen, listen, this is not what I made you for. This is not how you inherit the kingdom of God. If you want to inherit the kingdom of God, come near, be responsive, listen to what I'm saying. And keep moving. Keep moving. Following Jesus is about moving with Jesus. Yeah? And I love this whole bound set, centered set thing, and there's no another way of thinking about it. I know nothing about farming, so take this for what it's worth. Um some farmers, when they have a plot of land, if it's small enough, what they can do is they can build a perimeter around the whole land. A fence of sorts, a g uh uh a gate all the way around the land. And what that does is it keeps their cattle in from straying out from beyond the boundaries. That's one way of doing it, right? We're gonna bind them in. We're going to create a space for for them to inhabit. So this is their space and they can't get out. But this becomes a problem if you're a farmer and the land that you own is really, really, really, really, really big. And you can't afford, you can't actually physically create this boundary around the entire property. And so rather than wasting your time doing that, you end up digging a deep well right in the center of your property with rich water and a consistent supply of water. So no matter how far the cattle went out, they always knew that the best and most reliable water source is right in the middle. I don't know if you guys get the picture. Life with Jesus is much more like that, where he, as the source of life, is saying, listen, you can go, you can go and explore as much as you want, but I'm telling you, stay near to me, come near to me, because I am the living water that you crave. I'm not just about trying to box you in or trying to categorically keep you out from the bad guys and the outside. What I want you to know is I am your center, and if you will make me your center, you will experience the life that I promised. Amen? So here's what this means. We're learning to follow Jesus, and it's much more fluid than even Jesus would even indicate, it's much more fluid than we thought. It's not just about a quick decision to do this that we make once in our life, it's about learning to continue to walk with him. The thing about following Jesus, about following God through all the scripture, what we see, the people of God, is that it seems as if there's not just one way to do that. And here's what I mean by that. The way that God relates to his people, even the course of the scripture, is always changing and moving and dynamically shifting. And we talked about this a couple weeks ago, very briefly. One of the things I love about even the movement through the Old Testament with the people of God, with the children of Israel, as as God sent Moses to come and liberate them out of the hands of their oppressors in Egypt, they had forgotten how to be a people. They had forgotten what God, how God wanted to relate to them, and so God had to be emphatic in the way that he related to his people. And so, as he would bring them out into the wilderness, he would lead them by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day, right? And so the instruction was simply this don't go anywhere unless you see a giant pillar of fire or a cloud. And then if you see it move, go with it. Right? And in case that's not enough for you, I will also rain down these flaky bread things called manna that are only good for the day. Expiration date is the end of every day. Then also I'm going to rain down quail every day, right? And so if you had any doubt in your mind that God was for you at this point in time, it's like, okay, their sandals aren't wearing, their clothes don't wear out anymore, they have meat, just you know, it's just like dinner, breakfast every day. Um, oh, and then here's God as a as a pillar of fire and a cloud, right? So if there's any like guess of, man, I just don't feel like God is near, you know. It's like, really? Did you see the giant column of fire sweeping from the earth to the heavens? That's pretty clear, right? I mean, that's pretty awesome. But the reason God had to do that for them is because He was, he had to reform them as a people. He had to be so specific with them. I am for you and I am with you, and I am going to lead you every single step of the way. And that was how he needed to love them in this point in time. It had to be so dramatic because the way he was forming them was so dramatic compared to what they were used to, right? But then it sh it but then it shifted. Because as they would enter the promised land, God would relate to them differently. We don't read anything about a pillar of fire or a cloud. We don't read anything about manna showing up on the ground or quail or meat just supplied for them. He said, He said, No, in the promised land, actually, you're going to go subdue your enemies. You're actually going to go fight some battles. I'm going to love you, but you're going to have to do some work as well, right? You're going to need to go fight some battles, and I'm going to, my presence will go before you. And so as they would go into the promised land, their instruction is basically to seek the Lord and to let the ark of the presence go before them everywhere they went. But it still required a little more faith. It still required, you know, some more instruction, some the ability to discern what he's doing. And in a way that they mess it up a couple times. Right? They didn't always do it in the right order. Sometimes they did things before inquiring of the Lord or letting the presence of God go before them. So they had to learn to relate to God in a different way. And it's not because God loved them any less, it's that the way he was loving them was different. He was growing them up into a new kind of person, a new kind of people. And so this would continue to shift throughout the whole narrative of Scripture. Even in the life of Jesus, we see that Jesus had to train his disciples in different ways. He had to train them in the way of life. And in John 3, he's talking to Nicodemus. And he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do you not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again? The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. You must be born of water and the Spirit. And so Jesus has to start, as he's training his disciples, it's the language of life. I gotta teach you what life looks like. But then he has to switch with them. And then he begins to introduce the language of death. He has to train them into death. There's no Christian life without death. This is part of the life of Christ, it's part of resurrection. So he had to train them and he had to teach them to see that death was not the ultimate end, but that death is a doorway, death was a pathway into what God was doing, and it still is. We still are invited to surrender and lay everything down. But he had to train his disciples into this, and they didn't get it. In fact, when Jesus went and told Peter, I'm going to Jerusalem to die, Peter gets in front of him and blocks him. I mean, he full-on blocks Jesus. I mean, he gets in front of him, and Jesus has to rebuke Peter to his face and say, get behind me, Satan. In other words, with Peter, he had to say, Listen, you think that life looks a certain way, but I'm telling you that this is the way it must be. And by the way, whoever wants to follow me must bear take up his cross and do as I'm doing. And by the way, you're all gonna die. Horrible deaths, probably. Right? But that wasn't totally bad news because death in the kingdom of God is not the final word as it is in the world, as the as the world thinks. So Jesus has to train them how to die well. How to die well. So that he can begin to train them into resurrection. And so even as the disciples are leaving from a defeated Good Friday, and as uh on the road to Damascus, and these discouraged disciples are leaving, Jesus has to catch up with them on the side of the road and help them rethink everything through a new lens of resurrection, that everything that happened happened because I'm doing something new. So I don't know if you can kind of see this, but the reason why Jesus can get frustrating sometimes is that there's sometimes he's teaching us how to live, there's sometimes he's teaching us how to die, and there's sometimes he's teaching us how to be resurrected. And it's going to be different for every single one of you in different points of time. Like across this room today, what God is training you and teaching you, where he's trying to teach you, where wants you to follow him, it's going to be different than the person sitting next to you. It's going to be different because he loves you and he knows exactly what you need. He knows exactly where he wants to minister life to your flesh and to your spirit. He knows exactly where he wants to put to death idols who are destroying your life. He knows exactly where he wants to remove things from you that are competing for your full allegiance and surrender to him because that's where life is best lived. So he has to take us through seasons where things get pruned off of us. And he does it with a smile on his face. He doesn't do it to tease us, he doesn't do it to mess with us, he does it because he knows that that's what's going to lead to the most vitality in this life, in the life to come. So he teaches us to die. And then he shows us that death is not the end. On the other side of death, there's always a new picture of what he's doing. And so this is why following Jesus is so exciting. But it's also why we have to tune our eyes and our ears to know what season that we are in. And I know we're kind of coming to the end of our time here, but Jesus had had to talk to the people. He said this a couple different times. He had taught, he had to talk to him, like, listen, you have to discern the season. In Luke 12, 54, he said, He also said to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the rest, you say, in the west, you say at once a shower is coming, and so it happens. And when you see the wind blowing, you say, There will be scorching heat, and it happens. You hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? In other words, he's saying, Listen, you guys get seasons, you understand, you knew that there was a snowstorm coming before it came. There's things that had happened, right? And we prepared for it. It's the same with in life in the spirit. There's seasons that God takes us through. There's seasons that he takes you through individually, and there's seasons he takes us through corporately. And you have to know the difference. Some of you, God is, you know, he's teaching you how to know him as a father and how to receive as a son and a daughter that he cares for deeply. You know, others in the room, it's a season of comfort where he wants you to know that he knows your pain and your grief and that he is rushing in to enfold you in his caring arms, the comforter. Others of you where maybe you've come from a season of rest and learning just to receive the good gift of God, maybe it's a season where he's now training you to be a warrior, that you're active and you're actually fighting, but you're going to find battles, not just asking God to save you from battles, but you're actually praying for new battles and new risks. That's a season, right? And God is saying, listen, I am so powerful in you, and I'm here to convince you of that. And I and this season now is going to be about finding new battles and taking risks and doing things you never thought you would be doing. It's not just about trusting me to make things all okay. Things are not going to be okay, but I'm going to be with you. You're going to take down some walls, you're going to take down some enemies along the way. Right? But this has to do with how Jesus speaks to us. And then what's cool is corporately, even, there's there's seasons where God does this. And we believe that we are in a season where God is, you know, He's healing things in the foundations, He's exposing things to us, even in leadership, that we've had to learn to actually confess and repent and welcome the healing, saving grace of Jesus to come heal some things that have happened in the history of this church. But then not only that, but he's teaching us that this next season, I believe, is going to be one where our greatest battles, our greatest victories are going to come not just through good ideas, but in the prayer room in the secret place. And he's teaching us, listen, I'm tea, I want you as a people to learn to be intimate with me and intimate together, to know the secrets of my heart, that this is a season for us where as a people we have to learn to get up and to put our ears on the chest of the Father and to hear his heartbeat just pounding through our entire being until our heartbeat is in the same rhythm as his heartbeat. And so that happens in times of prayer. That happens in these kinds of times. And then that's where, out of these places, power unfolds, right? And revival comes and he renews and he restores and joy comes. But we have to know these things. And so for the next several weeks, we're going to be diving into these things because as a people, as a people, both individually and as a as a body of believers, the thing that matters most to us, that should matter most to us, is Jesus, we want to be present and near to where you are. Teach us to see and to hear the work of the kingdom in our lives. And remove the obstacles that have been blocking us from doing so. Amen. And so this morning, we covered a lot of ground, but here's where I want to pray for us this morning that again we can see ourselves here, not us sitting at a desk, but on the move, covered in the dust of Rabbi Jesus. It's a different kind of cloud of glory. The dust from his feet being kicked up, and us being covered in the dust of where he's going. This shows us that we are on the move with him. So here's how I want to pray. Across this room. I don't know how you would describe this your season of following Jesus. What season does he have you in? Where are you is he teaching you to trust him in new ways? Where is he teaching you to rely on him and depend on him in new ways? Are you moving towards the cross? Or are you in a season where you've been standing still? Where are you in a season where you've been pulling away just to see if anybody notices? To see if even God notices. And so, Father, across this room, Lord, I believe that this room is full of people that you love dearly, God, and we are all in such different places, probably. If we were to hear from each one where we're at, and the questions that we have, and the things that we're doing, the victories that we're experiencing, and the battles that we're fighting, God, I know that it's gonna be different for each one of us here today, but I just want to pray a prayer of grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace and mercy would be known here today that wherever we are at, that you are here to meet us in our time of need, Lord God, and that you are beckoning us to come, and you're saying, listen, come towards me, come into this new kind of life. Let me teach you how to see, let me teach you how to love, let me teach you how to receive love. And Jesus, we pray that you would, Lord God, keep us on our feet and keep us on the move, God, where the places where it's just too easy to get comfortable and to be complacent and just to settle in into a place that we know, that a place that feels safe in our walk with you. I thank you, Lord God, that you you are always on the go and that you are leading us with you. And so this morning we just pray for a new sense of fervor, a new sense of excitement, that you would provoke us on the inside, Lord God, to catch a new picture of what it is that you're doing. I thank you, Father, that you are bringing restoration and renewal to all of creation, and you've invited us not to just wait for that day in the future, but to start participating in that right now, through walking in your love and extending your love and your grace and your power to the world we live in. So we bless you here today, Jesus, and God, we thank you. We receive your blessing here today, and as we leave this place, we leave on the move with you. We thank you, Lord God, that you are a God who is on the move. Teach us to follow, God. Teach us to follow, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.