Life in the City: Pursuing God

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Welcome to the.
Life in the city podcast from Antioch Community Church in Northeast Minneapolis where we explore what it looks like to be a loving family inviting all people into the life changing way of Jesus Christ.
We’re glad you’re here.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the life in the city podcast.
I’m Rachel Love.
And I am.
I’m Coley Waataja.
And we’re glad you’re here joining us today.
Today we are back after a week off of recording for Labor Day.
Yeah, Labor list day.
Yeah, we hope you enjoyed time together with family, friends, or just straight up relaxing.
But all that to say, it was a change in our schedule and you might see some more flexibility in our schedule in the coming months country.
Yeah, contrary to maybe some people preference that we just do this all the time.
Ryan Mauer.
This is not our primary roles being podcast hosts, so as needed we may take weeks off and.
Don’t worry, we haven’t gone anywhere.
We’re still here, we’re still rocking.
But uhm yeah, there might be some, some weeks where we just don’t drop one and that’s.
OK.
But don’t forget, you can always go back on this podcast as well.
On this feed, there are sermons from previous Sundays that you can listen to, so we encourage you to do that as well.
All right.
So let’s hop on in.
Today, we are diving into our 4th core value of pursuing God.
And kolik, I know this is the 4th one we’ve done, but to backtrack a little bit, core values, where did they come from?
Why do we have them?
Can you give us that quick recap?
So the analogy we like to use is that of an iceberg, that what you see above the water is only a portion of an actual iceberg, what you see above the water in a church.
Is like the programming, the stuff, the the events, the activities of the opportun.
And and core values is one of those layers below the surface.
It’s not the same as our statement of faith.
It’s not the same as maybe specific strategies like the how are we going to accomplish the mission, but they’re more like personality and we are we are actually recording and posting these.
Out of order, so.
Uhm, this this is technically our second core value, but we’ve we’ve done others in recording.
So for us, the first one that we had was truth and we did do that one first.
We did record that one first.
And now the second one is pursuing God.
And those two were intentionally put at the top of the list and next to each other because we really wanted to articulate that we recognize in our culture, truth can’t be assumed.
So here’s what we believe it is and you can go back and listen to that one.
But then we also recognize that it’s not just about knowledge, it’s about a life and.
How we just yeah, it’s about how we live.
So pursuing God is our attempt at acknowledging that it’s a relationship, that it’s not just about a series of things to know, but about how that affects our everyday life.
So how about I?
Read the core value.
Go for it, yeah.
We can talk about it.
God is the center of everything we do.
We seek to glorify him as we live out our lives.
As an expression of worship, we acknowledge our complete dependence upon God and strive to be people of faith and prayer.
We pursue an active, growing, obedient, and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.
So in there, I hope you can hear that it’s it’s not just about what people know, but that we also care about how we are living out the truth.
Because God cares about it.
Yeah, and you’ve mentioned this before, this core value pursuing God is the only one that is kind of.
For lack of a better term, like put in the gerund form.
We’re not talking about a noun, truth, or creativity.
We’re talking about something that is an ongoing process.
Uh, we are pursuing God.
And so I love it because it’s not something we can just, like, stay in our heads over check.
We’ve checked that one off.
We’ve mastered that core value because it’s an ongoing thing.
Right.
Yeah, and there’s this tension that we see in Scripture quite regularly.
There’s a lot of tensions we see in scripture that, you know, God.
God seems to be fine with holding two things simultaneously to be true that are really hard for us to wrap our minds around.
That we can be in like we use the phrase complete dependence upon God, but also we strive.
To do these things.
And those are not contradictory to be in complete dependence and to strive.
And the mistake that, that, or the thing that’s easy to believe, I guess would be that, well then my sanctification in pursuing God becoming more like Jesus.
Is a works based endeavor.
Yeah, it sounds like a project, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And then then the as if there would be a way to check it off.
And OK, I’ve accomplished this, this, and this.
But at at the time of this recording just yesterday, Pastor Andy actually preached kind of related to this about abiding in Jesus.
This was Sunday the 28th. You can go back and listen to that if you haven’t heard it. It was a great, great sermon about how our action, one of the things he says is our actions come out of our relationship and our love for Jesus, not the other way around. We’re not trying to earn his love or earn a relationship or.
Come earn a place in his Kingdom.
All, everything we do ought to come out of that that already relational state.
Yeah, which is different than typical religion, which we do actions to order in order to like earn some kind of identity or place with God, right?
In this case, our identity is shaping and molding.
Or allowing us to perform actions and I liked in yesterday sermon on August 28th and he talked about spiritual disciplines, prayer, fasting, meditation and I think.
I loved the analogy that he used of a car, and I picture like an electric car in my head.
But he asked, you know, like how does that car run?
It has a battery which gives it its power, but also it has cables that need to connect inside.
I don’t.
Him to be a car expert, but I know there’s cables in a car, right?
And so he used this analogy to talk about like the power of.
God being like the battery, right?
But we also the cables help connect us to that power source to help us run.
And that being like spiritual disciplines because when we are praying, when we are fasting and showing our dependence upon God, those help us better be able to see our lack of power and our need for the power that can only come from Christ.
And so, yeah, it’s not a workspace thing that we can do, but we’re relying upon that power.
From him and that’s why we’re always pursuing.
Yeah, so to talk about this more, you know, you we really get.
Well, all of our core values, I hope come from scripture, but this one especially, we really need to look at the scripture for how we back this up.
If you check out our core values online, maybe we should put that in the show, notes the link.
To that.
Yeah, yeah.
You you’ll see that we have the paragraph I read, and then there’s these reference verses that are just a few of the places you can go to see some of the arguments that we make in this in the paragraph.
So I want to talk about a few of those.
First, there’s actually let me start with one that’s not in the list.
To talk about this, you know well, why isn’t sanctification a works based endeavor?
I really like to go to Colossians 3, and if you’ve been in the class with me, there is a good chance that we have talked about Colossians 3.
Right, but I could read you the whole paragraph, but I won’t, but I just want to.
Highlight a few of the verbs.
So Paul is is making this appeal to his audience.
The church in Colossae that that that that they ought to be living differently because but he’s making the argument that it’s because of who they are.
So in in Chapter 3, just starting in verse one, he’s starting with a premise with an assumption.
If then you have been raised with Christ.
So I’m assuming if you already know Jesus, he’s saying if you are already in relationship with Jesus, if you have already surrendered your life, confessed your sins.
Yada yada yada yada yada.
That has already happened.
You are united with Christ.
Then seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Then there’s these verbs.
Set your mind on things above, and in verse five he says put to death.
Therefore, what’s earthly in you?
And he lists a bunch of examples.
And then in verse 12 as a contrast, jumping down.
He says. Put on, then, as God’s chosen ones.
Holy and beloved.
Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.
Bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.
So he starts with this command, and in verse 12 he reminds them again of their identity.
Put on then, oh, you who are already chosen and holy and beloved.
Put on compassionate hearts.
Put on kindness, put on humility.
It’s not that.
Because God is completely sovereign.
It’s not that I just sit here and do absolutely nothing and say God make me like you without any effort on my part.
God is still completely sovereign, but I still have to put on these things, and it is in his power.
It’s because I’m chosen, it’s because I’m holy and beloved that I can do that.
But it is a verb.
It’s a command, and that doesn’t.
That’s not the same as making it a workspace.
And it you’re right, it is our identity.
But as we put on those things, we look more like Christ too, right?
People know us as Christ children when we are showing these things, when we’re bearing with one another, forgiving one another, having compassionate hearts and kindness and humility.
Because we are God’s chosen holy Ones, I think this is a great passage to really highlight that. And it doesn’t mean that we’re not taking action, but that action comes out of this acknowledgement that we are hidden in Christ. We are his children. We’re seeking his Kingdom first.
Yeah, I would recommend if you want, if you want a fun project, if you want to be reminded of who you are and who’s you are, take Colossians 3 one through 17 and just start writing some columns of what does God say about who I am?
What does God say about what I ought not to be doing and about what I ought to be doing?
But then keeping that first column of who am I in bold, you know that the others flow out of that.
Or if you’re in DNA group, the four questions right who is God?
What has he done?
Who am I according to this, and how should I live?
Would be a great thing to do with this passage.
Yes, and that’s the tricky question with that.
That’s the tricky thing.
With that 4th question we get to how should I live?
And suddenly our brains do this.
Like gymnastic Leap, the first three are fun and freeing and oh Lord, I am, you know.
Who is God?
What has he done?
Who am I?
Yeah, I’m dependent and and you are sovereign.
And then how should I?
Live and it’s so easy to shift into works and effort.
Yeah, or taking control of things in our own mind.
Whereas this tells us we are not in control, like we’re just following the one who is in control.
Right.
How should I live while living in that?
Freedom, independence, and yeah.
I love it. Well, the first scripture that is referenced in our core value about pursuing God is 1st Corinthians 1031, so I’ll read that.
Short little verse.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Nice and nice and summary there.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I memorized this one in Alana.
Shout out to my all my Awana Timothy award kiddos.
Uhm yeah, this one.
I mean, I think it’s so simple, but it’s basically telling us, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.
And so it’s not telling us to like, not do things.
It’s even saying like whether you eat or drink, which those are daily habits that we do.
And so all the even daily habits, the things that.
We do, even typically without thinking.
Are to be done for the glory of God.
And this brings us back to even that like creation mandate of like working.
Right, working as anything that we are putting our hands, our minds to, that can be done for the good of others, for the benefit of creation, or to the glory of God.
And this is telling us, even in those mundane things we are still pursuing, that those things that we’re doing be for the glory of God.
What would it look like to do mundane things for the glory of God?
This is what I ask myself every time I’m changing a diaper.
Right.
Yep, Yep.
Yeah, yeah.
I think this is something that, especially in this season of motherhood, sometimes I struggle with, like, seeing the big picture in thing.
Uhm, but.
One thing that I think I’ve been learning is taking myself out of the picture oftentimes and putting God as the recipient of my work, but also as we’ve learned in like, the Sermon on the mount, that whatever we do for others is done basically forgotten.
That’s how he.
Knows that we are his is what we as how we love others and seek his Kingdom.
So even in those mundane things viewing not necessarily when we’re like in the dirt, it’s really hard to see how it fits into the big picture sometimes.
But I think taking ourselves out and thinking of OK, even as I’m changing this diaper on this sticky little 6 month old, like who am I serving and how am I doing it?
Yes, in that moment maybe I’m caring for my daughter, but ultimately I’m caring for hopefully a future Christ follower follower who sees a mom who is hopefully one day realizing that she’ll realize that mom loves me, Mom seeks the best for me, and mom wants to point me to.
And she has a father, Heavenly Father, who cares for her too.
And so I think in in all things, trying to point your heart posture towards.
Maybe how your serving and your efforts can be benefiting others and furthering his Kingdom is one way that I try to think about it.
What about what?
Would you say no, I think that’s great.
I think, I think you hit it.
I I just think it’s it’s more than just singing praise songs throughout every activity that we do.
Oh yeah.
Or or even, you know, out loud acknowledging.
That Christ is there.
But it’s it is more of that heart posture.
Sometimes it’s appropriate and I think it’s great to, you know, sing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs throughout throughout our days.
But the second passage, Romans 12 one and two, I actually think kind of speaks to this.
That Paul is writing to the church in Rome here.
Means, as I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And the way I see this connecting to giving glory to God is that we glorify him.
In other words, we.
Raise up his name.
By becoming more like him.
You know, there’s there’s probably nothing more.
Well, what’s the phrase?
Imitation is the highest form of flattery?
That, that.
In wanting to look more like Jesus, we honor him.
And as that happens, as we are transformed.
Through his.
Uh, that does bring glory to him.
Which I think it’s interesting.
One of the very First Commandments is to have no other idols before me, right?
And I was reminded one time that no, we don’t have like idols to, like, pursue God or to try to worship him.
But he gave us something else.
He gave us.
Other actually as a way to like see him working in the world.
And I know we don’t worship one another, but even.
Uhm, going day-to-day we can see one another as little versions of our family of Christ and give him praise through that. And I think it’s interesting. Our church name is Antiok, which.
The name Antioch isn’t just a fun little thing, it’s actually named off of an ancient city of Antioch, which is the 1st place recorded that believers were called Christians.
And Christian literally means little Christs, right?
Yeah, it was actually kind of an.
Insult intended again.
Yeah, but I think it’s interesting too.
Like if we’re, if our minds are so transformed and we’re going about.
Uhm, these acts of spiritual worship with our bodies like we’re going to look more like Christ.
We should be called little Christ.
I think sometimes in our culture, unfortunately, Christian can be a term of.
I don’t know that could be derogatory sometimes or have these connotations of people who might be UN loving but.
We are meant to be called to look like Christ, to act like Christ, to think like Christ from the renewal of our minds.
Yeah, the the second sentence, third sentence I.
Guess we acknowledge our complete dependence on God and strive to be people of faith and prayer.
In Colossians 4/2.
It says continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with Thanksgiving.
And that the idea of prayer being watchful.
And I think it’s appropriate that we do that we did use the word strive here because for me at least, I know prayer.
And and watching constantly in prayer does not come naturally.
I very easily get into my own just talking to myself rather than talking to the Lord.
But also watch being watchful in Thanksgiving.
That even if I’m waiting for something and I’m praying for it, and maybe I am anxious or nervous or uncertain, I can still be thankful.
And pray with an attitude of thankfulness as I as I watch and wait.
And that thankfulness gives us boldness, boldness to ask more in the future, because we have seen a God who can answer, and sometimes his answers are not.
What we would want them to be.
Right, right. Always.
Heard like sometimes it’s yes, sometimes it snows, sometimes it’s wait a while.
But I think praying expectantly to a God who we know has the power to transform any situation.
He transforms death we see multiple times in the Bible.
He transforms death to life.
Yeah, and so.
Uhm, I know James Christensen, who leads our prayer team, but is also one of our elders.
Uhm, if you get him talking about prayer, you’ll be there for days.
But it’s a good.
Thing he’s so.
Excited to motivate our church to pray because he knows.
The power of it.
And I remember a few years back on the prayer team, he had brought this example and I thought it be 1 we’re sharing about expectant prayer of a man named George Miller.
Who lived in Bristol, England and he ran an orphanage. Good work and he had over 10,000 orphans throughout the life of this orphanage.
And rather than going about typically like fund raising and trying to get money for food for the kids, he based this whole ministry on prayer.
And just like it says in the Lord’s prayer, like, give us this day Our Daily Bread. That was kind of his fault too, of like we’re going to ask God to fulfill our needs each and every day.
And and there was one day they had run out of food and there was over 300 kids in the orphanage that day and he basically just used that as a teaching tool for the kids of like, alright, we want.
Breakfast, let’s pray.
And just a little bit after, there was a knock on the door and there was a.
Baker from the town who said like in the middle of the night that God had like woken him up and said like, you need to bake some bread and feed people in your town and just brought.
And then after, like, they took the bread and thanked him.
There was another knock at the door, and there was a milkman whose cart had literally broken down right outside the orphanage, and he had all this milk that was going to be going to waste.
And so.
Obviously he wanted to give the milk away so want to be stolen or go bad, and so then the kids had bread and milk to eat that day for breakfast.
That is awesome.
And it’s.
A cool story.
I mean, it’s like some little thing.
I was like, oh, that’s.
Sweet for them.
But it’s literally what fueled the fire.
Then for George Miller to be like, OK, kids were the prayer.
We’re going to continue to do this.
And like I had said before, over 10,000 orphans throughout their lives got to see God at work through prayer, praying expectantly when they seek his will.
And I think that’s always kind of stuck with me.
And I’m thankful that James had told me that story, because it gives me.
An example of OK if God can do this.
Obviously there are things in my life that I am not bringing to him every day, but he is a God who.
Uhm, yes.
He raises the dead from life.
He makes armies out of bones.
He can cure cancer.
But I’m too selfish and too confident and too prideful to ask him for the things that I know he can and will accomplish in my life and in my own heart on a daily.
Basis to yeah, and when we do pray.
Like that I think it it changes.
Our heart posture.
And then changes our actions.
Yeah, and like you said, like the kids then.
That oh, this is what can happen.
It leads to another active faith and another active faith and another active faith in prayer.
And I think when I hear these stories, these kinds of stories, it’s easy to think of like.
Oh, that was in England and that.
Was 200 years ago or whatever. I’m not sure how long ago, but he was alive.
But, you know, it was a minute.
It was.
He was probably extra spiritual, you know, whatever, whatever.
I want to believe that no, this was just a guy.
Who didn’t have a lot of resources?
Who didn’t have?
I mean, he did have extraordinary faith, but it’s not as if to say it’s out of reach for everyone.
He was just a guy.
Who was dependent?
And what what could the Lord want to do with with us if we were more dependent?
I don’t know.
’cause too often.
I don’t want to be that guy.
In it.
No, no.
It’s so much, yeah.
Safer in our minds to just rely upon our own measures and what we think is secure when we don’t realize that God offers the security that we need.
And this isn’t quite as articulated overtly in this.
Core value ’cause we.
But we do say it in the course of all six core values that it’s also about praying for lost people.
It’s also about waiting for God to bring his own to himself and.
Because of that, we didn’t put it in the wording, but we did put the reference of.
Ephesians 6 in the in the end of it.
Ephesians 618 through 20 says praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the Saints and also for me.
That words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
So Paul is making an appeal here to his audience to pray for the other Christians, the Saints.
To pray for him, and especially that even though he is literally in prison, chained up to another guard or possibly 2.
That he would have opportunity.
He may not have an open door for himself, but that he would have an opening for his mouth to boldly proclaim the gospel.
And I think when.
If I’m looking for opportunities at that level.
You know that my circumstances have nothing to do with whether or not I’m going to have opportunity to share the gospel.
If I have my eyes open, I will have opportunity to proclaim it boldly, as I ought.
To speak.
And I think that kind of leads us into the, that last passage to John 15, you’re saying like as we have?
Like God can speak through me and to reference the John 15, we are branches that are dependent upon the vine to feed us and allow us to thrive in those opportunities.
So I’m going to read the John 15 one through a passage.
I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I and you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in.
I am the vine, and you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
For apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and Withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so proved to be my disciples.
I love that because, I mean, it aligns so well with what antiochis again this season of change, that gospel dependence on the vinedresser and the true vine so that we can see fruit and not just fruits for the fruits sake.
But that so we can continue to bear more fruit and further reflect the purpose of being attached to that vine.
Uh, yesterday, August 28th, Andy kind of spoke on this passage too, a little bit. And there were a few examples that he kind of pointed out within this about what it looked like to be a part of that vine that is thriving because, you know, he talked about.
It can be hard.
It says in here in verse 3 every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it may bear more fruit.
And and so we get this picture of this beautiful vinedresser God the father who is actually doing some pruning of us sometimes, yeah, but ultimately for the betterment of the vine as a whole.
And so we see that in our own lives of how.
He sang.
Defies us.
Kind of going back to that Romans 12 passage.
By transforming our minds by possibly putting us in circumstances that will.
Try us and our faith.
And allowing that.
But it’s for our own good and for his glory.
So why don’t we look at some?
Of those.
Kind of examples of an abiding life that Andy had pointed out.
That’s taken directly from this John 15 passage ’cause.
I think it really connects with what it means to when we pursue crises or some things we can see in our lives.
Yeah, this, this this passage has been.
And Andy mentioned this in the sermon, but it really has been a recurring theme in the life of Antioch in the last 14 years.
It’s the idea of abiding this passage in particular.
It keeps coming up, and that’s probably not unique to us, but it it definitely has been a noticeable theme and and so yeah, he he hits up a handful of points here.
The first one you already mentioned that that we will experience a process of spiritual pruning by the hand of our loving Heavenly Father.
If we are producing fruit, pruning is a good thing and.
It’s it’s not punishment for productivity.
Yeah, it actually keeps like like with the vine.
It keeps the vine healthy, it keeps the vine producing.
And the same is true for us.
And to that end, then, we would produce a bountiful crop of spiritual fruit.
That that if, that is, if we are abiding, we will see an overflow and output of of fruit.
And one of the things he talked about was.
The spiritual gifts, not, I’m sorry, not the spiritual.
Gifts the fruit of the spirit, Gaspar.
Thank you, the fruit of the spirit.
And he actually pulled the Dan Moose where he he asked for questions to be answered.
It’s very measurement and and one of what I wanted to answer when he said what does it look like to not abide in Christ?
Yeah, I loved that.
’cause sometimes thinking about the opposite helps us think about the positive.
It is something that I’ve been reflecting on a lot recently of just.
When I don’t see the fruit of the spirit in my life, I know something is off.
And I have.
I have gone to even for other people, just praying for the fruit of the spirit, for people.
That, you know, maybe there’s maybe there’s relational conflict, or maybe there’s sin involved, or maybe there’s lies being believed or whatever and I can pray specifically, but ultimately.
You know that list of and which are really just a starting point of fruits of the spirit, but of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
I can pray those things for people, even if I don’t know their circumstance, if I don’t know the why behind what I’m seeing or experiencing from them, or if I don’t know why I’m doing something, you know, that doesn’t seem in line with who Christ says I am.
To to seek the fruit of the spirit and to.
Pray for that.
Has been, has been, really, can I say?
Fruitful in my life.
If I can, if I can put it.
That way.
I think that’s good, though ’cause.
I think sometimes I I like to be a fixer sometimes and, but I also get hung up on well, I haven’t experienced what they’ve experienced.
So how can I encourage them in this?
Or what should I pray for with them because I don’t have the same emotions or experiences them?
But you’re right everybody.
Has the opportunity to allow the spirit to produce fruit in their lives, sometimes through pruning, but also we can see the beauty of that and of that bountiful fruit in our lives.
And it allows us to glorify God when we see it happening to others that we’ve prayed for and or when we experience it in our.
Own life.
Yeah, and I think sometimes it can be.
It can be too tempting to get stuck in trying to figure out why we’re being pruned.
Because if, you know, I think about.
Just again, the vines, plants of any kind, there’s kind of two reasons you prune.
You cut off dead things, but you also cut for productivity.
And when things are going well, you make, you know, like this analogy.
Uhm, and it can be tempting to get stuck in this loop of like, well, am I being pruned?
Is this life?
Is this season really hard?
Because there’s sin that needs to get cut out and there’s dead stuff it’s gotta get, you know that Jesus is cleaning house or am I pruning because I’m being very productive?
You know, and and really, I think.
That’s a.
It’s kind of a pointless question.
’cause, we’re not going to ever really know, but what I can evaluate is what is the fruit that’s coming out of my life, whether it’s in a season of pruning or just a season of growth or fallow or whatever is happening.
That, OK, and This is why you can also speak into other people’s lives, even if you don’t know their exact experience, and say, hey, I don’t know what it’s like to be you. I don’t know what it’s like to struggle with XY and Z.
But here’s what I see.
Or here’s what I’m seeing in your life.
And maybe it isn’t love and joy and peace.
Maybe it’s hatred and depression.
And not to say depression is always spiritual, but you know, and it’s not peaceful, it’s not rest, it’s not Sabbath, it’s anxiety.
And striving in the negative sense that it’s if, if the result of.
Actions in life is not the fruits of the spirit.
Well then something.
Needs to be addressed, but I can pray for those things to.
To come out.
And God’s a masterful vinedresser too, yes, and he has purpose behind what he’s doing. He’s not just doing it to do it right, like a puppet master, but also he’s very skilled at what he does.
He doesn’t mean kind of like when I trim the hedges at my house or my husband.
It’s just kind of like, well, I think this might look good and it’s just gonna happen.
And then we, like look down and like, we’ve just demolished our bushes, right?
But God is purposeful.
And he.
We will bring beauty from even what might look if you’ve ever seen, like a prune tree.
It looks pretty rough when it first gets pruned, yeah, but it produces a more beautiful, unbound total crop.
And God has that end result for our good and his glory and mine when he does it, the next thing that we’ll see in our lives.
When we pursue him in this abundant life is we’ll experience a dynamic prayer life that glorifies God.
And I know that’s something that we chatted about a little bit earlier with that expectant prayer.
And we’ll also experience his word being active and alive in our lives.
What does that mean to you to have God’s word be active and alive in your life?
Yeah, I I think it it’s something that, uh.
Well, it is true.
But it can also be tough to hear if.
If you find yourself in the word and it doesn’t seem active and alive, it’s like, well, then what’s the problem?
Yeah, yeah.
Why am I not getting anything out of this when you’re like living in like?
Prophecy of Isaiah about judgment and destruction.
Yeah, it might be it.
Might be struggling with like where you are.
But I also think that, you know, the enemy of our souls does not want us to.
To to really hear the word.
But God can breakthrough that.
Yeah, and.
It just sometimes takes time.
And there are people I think that will always just because of their how they’re wired or maybe because of something that has happened or whatever, we’ll always struggle with doubt.
And that’s OK.
OK.
Uhm, but it’s bringing that doubt to Jesus, like like Thomas said the disciple.
Thomas said.
Unless I see his hands in the holes in his feet, I will never believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.
’cause, I don’t.
I don’t care what the rest of you say.
Like I got I need the evidence, but when he was presented with it.
He believed and Jesus said, hey, I I don’t blame you.
I get it.
But blessed or blessed are those who believe without seeing even more.
I’m paraphrasing there, but you get the idea. And so God’s word is active and it is alive. But.
When we when we asked the Lord to.
Draw nearer.
He’s always near, but when we when we asked him to draw nearer in a in a new way or in a way that we can maybe experience his word is is the primary way that that’s going to happen.
Word prayer community.
That’s how it’s going to happen.
And uhm.
As we lean into that abiding in Christ, his word will become more.
Alive to us.
And then, as his word becomes more alive to us, he will.
Feel closer and we will abide more, and it becomes this cycle that builds on itself.
So that’s kind of how.
I think about it, yeah.
And I mean, as his word comes more alive to us, we remember them.
And not just the truth about who he is, but also what he desires for us to look like as his children.
And so we learn more about his commandments, right?
Because they’re not just commands that are to be done.
Just Willy nilly or because I said so, right?
It’s because this is what’s best for you.
Your sanctification to look more like me is what’s best for you.
And so the the next part of what it looks like to live in an abundant life is obediently being able to keep the commands of Jesus, but not through our own striding like we talked about, but because the spirit within us at work and us, allows us to see and do things for our good and his glory.
And then the last one that Andy pointed out is being able to love other people well.
Because we can’t do that on our own, but we can do that when we’re connected to that life source of love that is Jesus as well.
Right.
Yeah, and this, this idea of pursuing God again, where we started is that, you know, it’s it’s easy to think of it as striving as, you know, it’s all my work.
It’s effort.
It’s maybe not fun.
It’s a.
But if we had kept reading in John 15, in verse 11 he says that the Jesus is praying that.
Uhm, they’re not praying.
He’s teaching that that he desires these things, that his, that we, that our joy may be full.
It’s not that these things are, you know, I want this to happen because it’s good for you and I don’t care if you like it, but that no, it ultimately it brings joy.
And that out of that, how can we not love other people well?
It’s not just like, OK, I have to strive and work hard to love other people well in my own strength.
It’s that.
I have been filled with the love of Christ, and so that’s what’s going to come out.
Into my interactions with other people.
Yeah, O if this core value of pursuing God is the part underneath the surface of the iceberg.
What do we see above the surface in the life of Antioch?
What are ways that we see this core value displayed on Sunday mornings throughout our week at Antioch?
Yeah, I think the first thing that comes to mind would just be the the prayer team.
Yeah, which they are the ones who receive prayer requests from community communication cards.
On Sunday mornings, they meet together to pray before the service.
For the whoever’s preaching, for people who are coming.
And then we also do some allchurch.
Quarterly, semiannual events, depending on the season of life kovid kind of messed things.
Up that way. Oh.
But then on Sunday mornings too, on on the 1st Sunday of the month, we also when we have communion, we also have team members up at the front available to pray with people.
Just on the spot.
And hey, if people want that every week, we would totally do that every week.
We would love to pray with you.
It’s just during communion we have more.
Songs so there’s a.
There’s a little extra time.
But I also just love seeing how.
Praying over one another is a.
Pattern in the life of our church, it’s not just the team with, you know, the lanyards and stuff that get the emails, but it’s also just people get to talking maybe after church and someone says, hey, can I pray for you?
And they pray over them right then and there.
Or less visibly, you definitely see this inside community groups, definitely in inside DNA groups, which are those smaller.
Just men, just women.
Kind of accountability and.
Repentance groups, I guess you could say.
Where we study the word together, but that there’s that in community, we we spur one another on toward love and good deeds, as the passage says.
Yeah, I don’t know.
Can you think?
Of any other examples?
Yeah, I think this will probably be a shameless plug.
Two, as office manager, one of the ways in which we see this is people sharing about how in their pursuit of God through prayer or expectantly following him, God is at work in their life as well.
And we had even in 2019, we had these stories of transformation that we really highlighted a lot and we see the little leaves.
On the tree in the foyer.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
But I think that’s something that we forget to often share with.
One another.
Because God does answer all the time, but we failed to miss it and thank him for it.
And one thing that I often forget to do is to share with others, even if they weren’t involved in praying for it or if they were involved in praying for it with me.
I need to share how God is at work in my life so other people can.
Be encouraged to know that he’s at the same work in their life, too, or can be, and it motivates ourselves within those accountability groups, within their cves, within the church as a whole, to look for how that is at work.
All right.
So I’m going to ask the question finally to wrap us up.
Why is this all important?
We’ve talked about what it looked like, like what kind of what we get with joy.
But really, at the core of it, why is pursuing God so important to the life of antiok and to us with individual believers?
I think it’s everything.
I think without.
Without the Lord, we are at a loss.
A relationship with him is the only way to have an abundant life.
It’s the only way to heal, to find wholeness of any kind.
Way to have a healthy church family.
The only way to have a healthy community.
We’ve seen way, way, way too many examples.
Both inside and beyond the Church of how when groups come together and get a little too insular, it gets.
Unhealthy and people get hurt and bad things can.
But that happens when we aren’t all submitted to Jesus and pursuing what he asks of us, not what I think should happen or what pastor whoever should think.
It should happen.
But that we are meant to live in relationship, in relationship with our creator, who loves us and has called us according to his purpose.
And from there, like we’ve been talking about, we can live out in the world.
I think it’s also important because as we pursue God, as we look at him, it’s the only way that we are going to become more like.
Him, and through that sanctification.
You had said like that.
We see God more, more clearly.
We see God for who he is.
It’s like wiping a mirror off every day.
Like cleaning, cleaning the dirt or cleaning the maybe the fog after a shower, you know?
They forgot to turn the fan on and it’s like OK, I need to I need to reset here and see clearly.
And and ultimately, we can’t, we can’t expect to reach the Twin Cities with the good news of the.
Gospel if we are not.
Living it out and if we aren’t?
Yeah, if we aren’t pursuing Jesus ourselves, who are we to say, oh, you need Jesus.
Yeah, that’s perfect.
Thanks for sharing that.
Thanks for kind of walking us through this core value and how we got to it and why it’s so important in life of our church.
Yeah, this was fun. Yeah.
So thanks for joining us today, Antioch.
We’re glad we can walk through these core values with you.
We hope this is helpful for you in thinking about yes.
Why it’s important at Antioch, but also how it’s important in our lives as a community of believers as well.
So thanks for joining us this.
Week we’ll see you.
This has been the life in the city podcast brought to you by Antioch Community Church in Northeast Minneapolis. Join our worship service at 10:00 AM on Sundays in the Waterbury Building or contact us at podcast@antiochcommunity.org. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.