Practicing the Ways of Jesus.

We have been in a series these past couple of weeks on our mission and our vision as a church: creating the culture of Christ together in Madison, one person, one place at a time. Today we are talking specifically about what it looks like to create the culture of Christ. And first, we need to know: what is that culture? We've been walking a little bit through the Gospel of Luke as we do that.

So today we're going to continue to read in Luke chapter 10. If you have your Bibles, we're going to be flipping around a bit, but centered in Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 38. It says:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)

Let's pray again today. God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit that is here with us. We thank you for the life of Jesus that we get to look to as an example of how to live, and of what it looks like to be with you and have access to you. And so, God, I pray that for these next few moments your Holy Spirit would speak through this scripture, through this text.

Even as we sing those words, saying, Jesus, we love you, a piece of that is knowing you, and we want to know you in your presence more. So would you reveal yourself to us in new ways through this text? God, I pray for every single person that's here, not knowing the details of our stories and the past and what we bring into this room, but knowing that you have been welcoming, inviting, drawing us closer to you time and time again. Would you help us to see you clearly, Jesus, today? Would you help us to hear from you? Would you help us to be present with you as you are so present with us? And so we ask all of this in your name. Amen.

Yesterday I was at Devil's Lake, and I was sitting along the beach. The lake is fairly large. It's a big lake. There's a lot of water. There's a lot of sand. There's a lot of beach.

Not many people were around, and as I sat there from a distance, not close enough, I promise it wasn't creepy, there was this group of children playing. There were probably seven or eight of them. Again, safely, I was able to stare from a distance. Okay. About seven or eight of them, they're playing and they're having fun, and it was this beautiful picture of joy and delight. They were all doing their own thing, but yet together in the same way.

And so as they sit there, they're laughing and having fun, and then all of a sudden something switched. One of the kids that looked to be a little bit older, all of a sudden he goes, you're in my territory, stop taking my water. And I almost laughed, because I was like, stop taking your water? There's so much water around here. He's like, you're in my territory.

Then a few more minutes go by, and I'm sitting there, sitting there, and then I hear one of the younger kids, who was so cute and so sweet and little, probably three or four, and all of a sudden he's like, you're in my territory. And you see it start to happen, where the fighting comes, and then all of a sudden these sweet, what appeared to be very innocent children start using curse words and foul language, talking to each other.

I'm like, whoa, what is happening right now? How does this happen? They go from this moment of not even noticing what's happening around them. They're just there. They're present. The sun is out. They're in the water. Joy, delight. And then all of a sudden they're listening to the people around them. You're in my territory. And they start replicating that behavior.

Today we're talking about culture. We're talking about the practices of Jesus, something that's within the name of our church. From the very foundation of our church, we're talking about how we live and create the culture of Jesus Christ. Our hope as a church is that we're not people that just show up on Sundays and go and live our lives, but that as a body, we get to live into what it looks like to represent Jesus everywhere that we go: his practices, his customs, his beliefs.

And when I think about culture, when I think about the practices and things that happen, sometimes you can look at those kids and you're like, how does that happen? All of a sudden you go from the abundance of enjoying life to noticing the lack. And then you're trying to control, and you're trying to push other people out, and you're trying to protect what's yours. And I'm laughing, because from my perspective and my point of view, I'm like, there's plenty of water to go around. I don't think any of you are not going to have enough sand to play with.

But it was this thing: they listened first, somebody said it, and then they started to live into that reality and that belief. And when we talk about culture today, and when we talk about Jesus and where he found himself, and his values and his practices, here's what I want us to start with: recognizing that not everything that we have learned, that has formed us, has to continue to form us today. Although those habits and those patterns started somewhere, they're also then stewarded and kept going.

And for those of us today, if we come in here and maybe you're looking at the customs, the patterns and behaviors of your life, and you're in a place where you're like, there are things that have formed me, and I don't love that these are my default responses, or that I behave or I act out this way. Like, I don't love that maybe I'm the first person that's going to bring the foul language into the room. If that's you, know that you don't have to stay that way. We do not have to respond to everything that we receive. Just because we hear something does not mean that we have to then go respond and live that out.

We have choice. We have intentionality. And I love that about this passage today: we're going to walk through these two different women, and how the way that they saw Jesus and how they related to him shapes everything else about their lives. And the way that we see God shapes everything about our lives.

A culture of withness

I want to start today by talking about this idea that the culture of Christ, before we get into the specifics of the practices where Jesus spent his time, is a culture of withness. And here's what I mean by this: a culture of communion, a culture of withness.

Today, where we stand in this cultural moment, we live in what could be considered, and many theologians would refer to it as, a post-Eden world. Meaning that when we were created, way, way back, humanity was created in the image of God: Adam and Eve, the first people there. It's the Garden of Eden, where there's this beauty. They're dwelling, they're delighting. When I see glimpses of Eden, I picture those kids before the fights broke out, where they're delighting in the goodness of life, delighting in the presence of Jesus. That's this idea of Eden.

But now, because sin entered the world, we live in a world marked by suffering and scarcity, where even little kids sometimes are living out of a place of lack, of fear. We live under the reality of the shadow of death, that death is coming. And these are common things that all humans experience. We live in a world where our relationships are fractured, where it's hard, because we're constantly being hurt by one another and hurting each other.

We experience things like fear and loneliness and rejection, and our response often is control. We try to control things. We try to protect things, even things that are harming us or aren't good for us. And we live from this place where slowly, without realizing it, we separate ourselves from community and we separate ourselves from Christ. And we are the ones that are walking in that separation from Eden.

In Philippians 2, it says:

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:1-11 (NIV)

This passage is one of the many in scripture where we see the beauty of what Jesus did on display. One of the first times, when the prophets are prophesying about Jesus coming, they call him Emmanuel, God with us. He left heaven to come down to earth to dwell with us, to commune with us, to give us this invitation of living life with him. After Jesus' death and resurrection, the Spirit ascended on us. He left with us his Holy Spirit to continue to dwell and commune with us. Jesus made communion a way of life.

Under, over, from, for, or with

But how we receive this and respond to this, how we see God, whether we see him as someone who's with us or someone who's not, is going to shape everything else about us. There's a book, and if you're taking notes, I highly recommend listening to it or reading it. It's called With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God. And in this book, the author talks about four different views of how people often fall into relating to God.

The first is life under God. And the core of this is that it is ruled by fear and scarcity and rules. Essentially, life under God is when we see God as a ruler who rewards obedience and punishes disobedience. We try to do things right so that God will bless us and protect us. And the trap is believing that if we believe well enough, or if we follow the rules perfectly, if we're the perfect, righteous, religious people, then we're going to be able to control what happens to us.

A short way of thinking of this: living life under God is living in the reality of, as long as I do things right, God's going to bless me. And if you've lived life following Jesus for any period of time, you know that sometimes you can live a perfect life, because Jesus did, and he still experienced hardship. And so even in us, sometimes living righteously and doing the right things doesn't equal that we're going to receive earthly blessings. We have eternal hope, but that might not always be experienced on this side of eternity.

Next, after life under God, many people fall into the category of life over God. And this is a lot about the principles and the formulas. We focus so much on discovering the right way, the right technique that's going to make life work. So instead of relating to God as a person, someone that wants a close, intimate relationship with us, we start thinking about it as a system or a formula. If I know the right things, I'm going to be able to figure it out, and I'm going to make life work for me. Again, there's a lot of control in this.

Then there's life from God. With this one, I almost think of the Santa Claus God, when we see God as Santa Claus and we're like, what can you give me? What good things do you have for me? And that's the only way that we relate to God. A lot of this is rooted in self-centered consumerism.

It's looking to God primarily as only someone that blesses us and provides for us. So maybe that looks like the only time we're praying is before a big test, or the only time that we're remembering God's provision is when we're looking at the bank account. And then we're like, oh, I don't know the last time I actually prayed or read my Bible, but now I'm going to be looking up scriptures on this specific thing. It's seeing God only as, what can you give me?

So we have life under God, life over God, life from God. And then the other one that we often fall into is life for God, where we see that we need to live for him. It's like our mission. It's our duty, where we serve primarily as an assignment to lay our lives down.

And if you notice, there are little bits of truth in all of these. God is a provider. He does pour out lavish gifts. We do have a mission and a role and responsibility in seeing the kingdom flourish. We have to participate with him.

But what I want us to see is that at the core of it, Jesus left heaven to come down to earth to commune with us. At the center of the culture of Christ, when we see him sharing meals with people, when we see him healing people, even when we see him praying and resting and Sabbathing, there was a withness. There was this communion that happened. He came because he loves you so much that he wanted to commune with you.

So what does it look like for us to not live under or over or from or for, but with God? Not living under and following rules. Not living over and trying to master this whole Christian life. Not living from, where we're constantly addicted to more blessings. And not living in a way where we're trying to prove our salvation. But with: being with him. And as we do that, becoming like him, so that we can do what he did.

Because here's the thing. Even I came in this morning super heavy-hearted, after seeing news again of someone that I knew who's been faithful in ministry, a lot of scandal and hard things coming out. I saw this stuff and I texted the team today, and I was like, I'm going to be late, I need a minute. Because it's hard when we watch people close to us, all of a sudden, have these things come out about double lives and sin habits and all of these things. And I know for many of you, if you grew up in the church, and some of you, your stories, you've been hurt by people and institutions and structures and leaders, and you have to pause sometimes. And it's like, how does this start? And how does this happen?

I think so much of it goes to the core of how we see God. Because when we think that we're living for God, and what we do for God is the most important thing, then we're going to start to get this pride and this ego that comes up and takes over us. If we think that we're living from God, we're going to feel stuck and trapped. If we're only living for the blessings, then when the blessings stop, we're going to be stopped in our tracks and shocked and not know what to do, and start to then change how we see God.

We have to get to the core of seeing that we are so loved by Jesus, and our presence and withness with him is his first desire and his first delight. And that should be ours too, and everything else has to flow from that place. Jesus came for communion with us, and that's what he desires, more than what we can do for him, more than even what he did for us. We need to get back to that place of communion.

Because if we see God as a God that's distant and far away, and we don't understand how close he is, we're going to live differently. If we believe that God is [inaudible], always striking us down, angry, why are we going to want to come and confess our sins to him, if we think he's someone waiting to delight in punishment? That's not who God is. If we start to center our lives around delighting, dwelling, being with Jesus, how would that change the way that we live?

Mary and Martha

I want to go back to the text that we read in Luke chapter 10, the story of Mary and Martha. Because this passage can be hard sometimes to comprehend. Martha, she's serving, she's doing these good works, and it's like, this should be good on the outside. And she's coming to Jesus and she's looking at her sister.

There are usually two camps. A lot of us lean either toward the be-ers or the doers. Some of us are always like, go, go, go, go, go, and we've got to work on chilling a little bit. And then some of us are like, let's just chill, and we've got to get up a little bit and be like, let's get moving. We have to have that balance of the being and the doing, and we're seeing the two extremes of this.

So Martha, and I can imagine she's stressed. She's trying to host people. She's welcoming Jesus casually into her home. No big deal. The Savior of the world is there, and she's trying to serve him. And then her sister's just sitting there at the feet of Jesus. I would be a little mad too. I'd be like, come on, let's go. Let's do something.

So the issue here, though, that I want to point out: it says she was distracted by everything that needed to be done. And there are some key components here to this. She says, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? And so even in this, we're starting to see a few things creep up in Martha. She was feeling alone in this. She's feeling like she's the one carrying this, and she's putting so much value in this.

And he says, you're worried and upset about many things. Another translation says you're distracted. And it says only one thing is needed, and she's chosen what is better. Now, serving and working and going and doing is not inherently bad. We talk a lot about that here at New Culture. We have different ways. Even when we talk about our rule of life today, we're like, we're going to go, and we have to do things.

And it's all interconnected: the being and the becoming and the doing. It's all this process. But what happens is when we put too much value on what we're doing, we lose who we were created to be, the people that commune and dwell with Jesus.

There are a few things here that I want us to talk about. When we see that Martha was busy and she's distracted, she's serving, she's preparing, we see that Mary was able to pause and put everything on hold to be with Jesus. You can do a lot for Jesus, and sometimes in the doing, we completely miss him right in our midst.

And this is what's happening. She has Jesus wanting to talk to her, wanting to be with her, but she's so caught up in doing these good things that she completely misses him right there. And so the things aren't bad, but the practice of our presence: can we see when we need to stop, when we need to pause, when we need to lean in, when we need to listen? Right? We can build a great community and a great church and have these awesome services, but if we're not willing to also be present to Jesus in the midst, then it's for nothing.

The goal is being with Jesus. This is where we're going to spend eternity. And we want to live from this place of communion with him. That's where we want to live.

Jesus himself talks about this over and over again, and he demonstrates this. When we look at his life, he lived differently when he was here on earth. He did not follow the status quo of the religious leaders who wanted him to follow all of these rules perfectly, but he spent time with people that many other people and leaders ignored, time and time again.

A rule of life

I want to talk today about what it looks like for us to live this out. What does it look like for us to be people that live from a place of communion? One of the things that we talk about a lot at our church is that we are a formation-centered church, where our hope is that no matter how long you are a part of this community, you are being formed into the likeness of Jesus and representing him everywhere you go.

And so a piece of that is developing practices, things where we say, we are committed to this. And I love that even in Philippians, when we're reading it, it's talking so much again about living in community. In the first couple of verses: do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, rather in humility value others above yourself. So much of practicing the ways of Christ involves community. We need to be committed to this as a community.

And so one of the things that we have as a church to help us be people that do not just wake up one day and say, how did we get here, but to be intentional about our formation, is what we call a rule of life: a set of spiritual practices that we are committed to as a church. Because when I think about those kids that I witnessed yesterday, those things don't just happen. They heard those words. They responded to those behaviors. And then when their friends and other people are doing it, they start to do it.

And for many of us, we wake up constantly in moments and situations where we can stop and be like, how did this happen? How did I get here? Because we are being formed constantly: by the things we see, by the things we hear, by the people we surround ourselves with. We're becoming like the things that we take in.

And so we need to be intentional to look at the life of Mary, when Jesus is saying, do this. This is it. This is the better thing. Be with me. Look to me. Look to Jesus, so we can be formed into his likeness.

And so when we talk about where we start, before we even get into the practices, the first is to take a moment and to pause and say, who am I becoming? And is this someone that looks like Jesus? And then to start to look at what practices I need to put in place to become like that.

We're going to go to a few slides today. I want to talk through briefly the spiritual practices that we have as a church. And the first is starting with being with Jesus through daily rhythms. We have our Daily Rhythms journal over at the welcome table. We have a Daily Rhythms app.

We've created all of these things because we want to practice together what it looks like to be with Jesus, to be people that spend time daily in scripture. Jesus was someone who knew scripture. He knew the Torah. Even when we talk about how Jesus fasted and he Sabbathed and he did all these things: when he was in the wilderness and he's fasting and he's praying, in his temptation after his baptism, he's quoting scripture to the enemy.

Jesus knew scripture. He spent time in scripture. Jesus prayed. In Luke chapter 10, moving into 11, it goes into the Lord's Prayer, where he's demonstrating that in community, teaching them how to pray. Jesus spent time talking to the Father over and over again.

Jesus fasted. He took time where he was starving his flesh to feed his spirit. These are all things that we see Jesus did. And so when we say, okay, what is the culture of Christ? These are some of the things that we see.

And then we start to go into other practices, of fasting and of Sabbath. We see all of these different things that Jesus did. Jesus was so devoted to community. And so as a church, these are practices that we're committed to. Our hope is that every day you're going to spend time in scripture and prayer.

And then that you're going to have rhythms of saying, I'm going to find periods of rest and Sabbath. That we're going to fast together. We're going to practice this. That we gather on Sundays, that this is intentional in our formation process. This is intentional, that you're here. This does something to you when you decide to enter into a room and behold Jesus.

It does something to us. It transforms us when we worship, when we sing, when we get into the word. And then to devote yourself to community. We're launching our fall community groups this Tuesday, so if you didn't sign up, please sign up today so that we can get you in a group.

We have New Culture College. We have our formation groups, where we can pair you with people to continue to practice these things with. Because we see that Jesus was so committed to his disciples and to being formed in community. It was not even this one-on-one thing, where he had one person and they had one. No, it was a communal process.

Formation is communal. And so we want to be devoted to that. And then we have practices of saying that we are going to seek the good and see our city flourish. And so that's why on those Monday nights we're like, hey, who wants to sign up and cook, and who wants to help serve? This is a very formational thing for us, to say we're going to take time out of our busyness, right? And I think of Martha, where there's so much happening that we cannot see sometimes, because we're so busy, busy, busy. It's like, what are we doing? We're going to contribute to the things that are happening in our city. We're going to have times where we're going and we're serving and we're providing food or laundry services, all that stuff. And then contribute to your community.

We don't want to be a church where we all show up on Sundays and consume. Our heart is for everybody serving in some way, whether it's at one of our things out in the community, or here on Sundays greeting people, or on the worship team. Contributors add value. And we truly believe that every single one of us adds value, and you were made to represent the heart of God and his image in specific ways to this community and this city and the places that you find yourself in. And so we want to practice these things, because this is how Jesus lived: committed to community, devoted, serving, leaving places better.

And so we want to encourage every single person in our church to be practicing these things, and we have several ways to help you do that. We're going to be talking about this in our community groups on Tuesday. On our website, we have a whole rule of life builder, and it will take you back to other sermons and teachings we've done on this, where you can even set up, here are the practices that I want to commit to. And this is what I want to encourage you today.

Think about how you see God right now. Who is Jesus to you? How are you becoming like him? What are areas in your life that you look at and you're like, this represents Jesus? And what are areas where it's like, maybe this doesn't. I see these things happening, these things creeping up in me, and now what do I do with it? We always have a choice in how we choose to respond. Formation doesn't just happen, but it is happening. And we can be intentional about looking to Jesus so that we're formed in his likeness.

Practice, not performance

I'm going to invite the worship team up as we get ready to close. Our so what today is this: the culture of Christ is a culture worth centering our lives around, because it's what we were created for. This withness, this communion with God.

For so many of us, I think sometimes when we wake up and we're like, I'm feeling off, this doesn't feel right, maybe I'm finding myself stuck in these same patterns and these habits and all of these things, I think it's easy to be like, well, this is a result, these things are just happening. But at some point we have to pause and say, what is my role in response to this?

Am I centering my life around Jesus? Am I living into the identity of who I was truly created to be? And that takes time, and that takes practice. And we use the word practice a lot because it's not a performance, and it's not about showing up perfect.

But the practice mindset and the performance mindset are so different. Oftentimes I'll describe it as the game day mentality. We think we should have that in everything we do. But I think it's healthier sometimes, when we're talking about living for Jesus, to have the practice mentality. Because when we say, okay, I'm going to intentionally center my life around Jesus, I'm going to look at the ways that he spent his time, and I'm going to do that with a practice mindset, then we're not going to be as hard on ourselves when it's like, I read my Bible for three days this week, and then, shoot, it's been six days and I didn't open my Bible. Because I'm practicing, and I'm getting better.

We're not going to be so quick when someone calls us out and is like, hey, that was really offensive, or, I'm noticing this way in your life that you're not looking like Jesus. We're going to receive that conviction with kindness and be like, oh my goodness, thank you, because I'm in practice mode and I'm working on becoming more and more like Jesus every single day.

If we're constantly looking for perfection and performance, then any time that someone's trying to correct or shift us, or the Spirit's correcting or convicting us, we're going to be stuck with shame. We're going to be like, I blew it. It's over. It is not over. Every day is a new day for us to wake up and say, Lord, I'm yours.

I am choosing to fix my eyes on you, because I recognize that I am formed by what I fixate on. I start to become like the things that I'm hearing, that I'm seeing, the people around me.

And so if you've never developed a rule of life, here are a few quick tips. Start with the end in mind. As morbid as it may feel, think of how, at the end of my life, do I want people to talk about me? Do I want them to talk about the money I made, the success, the letters or credentials after my name? Do I want them to talk about the way that Jesus was on display? That the generosity and the way that I lived pointed to Christ? That the way I showed up for people showed them Jesus?

And then some other practical things: start small. Think of one or two things. Don't jump in and be like, I'm going to fast once a week, or something like that. Start small, once a month. Or if it is, start with a meal. Then be specific.

Don't just say, I'm going to pray every day. Set a timer. Say, when I wake up, before I check whatever your social media of choice is, I'm going to set a timer for 10 minutes, 5 minutes. Be specific, so that these things can build. Then the write it down and share it part is crucial.

We need to do this in community. Don't do this alone. This is why I encourage you, if you don't have someone that you're practicing following Jesus with and have a rule of life with: if you want to join a form group, please sign up, or invite someone in the church today and be like, hey, can we walk through this together? Find someone that you can meet with, that you can talk with, that you can pray with. If you're newer to the faith and you want this, we have people that will walk with you and mentor you alongside of this.

Don't do it alone. Tell people. And especially, if you're married, if you have a family, share it with people. Don't just decide, I'm going to practice silence and solitude all weekend, and not talk to your spouse. That's not going to end well.

Share it with people. Let them in. Be like, this is what I feel like the Lord is inviting me into. Will you walk with me through this? Don't try to do it all at once. And then give yourself grace and keep that practice mindset, because the goal is that every day we're becoming more loving people, not that we perfect it in a moment.

Look up

I want to invite you to stand today as we get ready to close. When we talk about the rule of life, the goal is never the rule. The goal is never the practices. It's withness and communion with Jesus. And we practice these things because Jesus did them. That's the culture of Christ. So when we say a new culture, we're creating the culture of Christ.

It's more than creating a fun church to attend. We're creating a space where people are going to meet you and you're going to have friends. We're trying to become people that are committed to the shared way of life that looks like Jesus. That we are more in love with him and encountering his love more and more every single day, so that the people around us are drawn to that same love. But it has to start with us being rooted in that communion and that withness, and delighting with Jesus.

And so, although with our works we're not trying to earn any of this, there is participation that is required. And when I think about this story of Mary and Martha, there are several significant things here. Martha opened her home. She let him in.

There is a piece for some of us today where I think the invitation is, are you willing to let Jesus into your home? There was vulnerability there, okay? We're not going to be all mean to Martha and pick on her today. There was some vulnerability there in saying, you're welcome in my home. You're welcome to come and see the crumbs that might still be left on my counter.

You're welcome to see me in my place of comfort. You're welcome in my home. Then she gets distracted and she gets busy, and you almost see this performance and perfection mindset starting to come in, where she lost sight that Jesus was in her home, that he was with her.

It says Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. Martha was distracted with the preparations. She was preparing, and he's already there. And Jesus is saying, I'm here. Are you listening?

She came to him and she starts complaining, because she's feeling left out. She's feeling all these things, and he's saying, you're worried, you're upset, but only one thing is needed. Here's what I love about this: if you get low and you're sitting at someone's feet, when you look up, there's only one thing that you see. Her perspective was different because she was in position.

Jesus was there. He was positioned to speak, to dwell, to be with her. But Mary also had to change her posture, to be in a space where when she looked up, when she fixed her eyes on Jesus, that was all she saw. For some of us today, that's the invitation. He's in your home.

He's here. The presence of God is here. He wants to form you. He wants to change you. He wants to heal you. Are we in position to see that? Are we willing to change our position to get a perspective where we see Jesus as the only one, and as we behold him, we start to become more like him every single day?

There's an invitation for us to look up and say, Jesus, I'm looking at you. Forgive me for the ways that I started to look at everybody else around me and I started to grasp for control, the ways that I started to listen to their voices, the ways that I started to receive these messages and respond to them, and to live from that place rather than your voice.

Forgive me for the ways that I'm not leaning into your presence, that I'm practicing all of these other things every single day, and I'm not practicing the ways of Jesus. There are invitations for us today to look up, to start to position ourselves where we see Jesus seated rightfully high, lifted up in a way that everything else fades away, and all we see is how much he loves us and wants to be with us and is proud of us.

And then we start to listen. Because when we're so focused, and have you been there, when you're so focused all you can see is one thing? Other things are happening, and you're like, oh, I was paying attention to this, I didn't hear anything else. We've got to put ourselves in places where we hear his voice, where we're opening up scripture to listen. Some of us are like, God doesn't speak to me. I haven't heard him in so long. Do you recognize his voice? Are you learning it?

Are you listening? Are you willing to lean in close, to a point where it might look a bit scandalous to other people, a bit much? It would have been scandalous for her to sit at the feet of Jesus at that time, for her to say, I know everybody else is concerned about this, but this is where I need to be. We need to actively participate in positioning ourselves in a way where all we can see from our perspective is Jesus. So the rule of life, these practices, it's not the goal, but these are ways for us to set our lives centered around Jesus.

And so participation at times is going to look like getting out, going, serving, doing, hosting, hospitality, all of the things that Martha wanted to do. But we cannot lose where we should be anchored and who we were created to be: to be with Jesus, to commune with him. And so we're going to spend a few more minutes today doing that.

I want to invite you now to take a moment, and if you're comfortable, close your eyes. As you think about centering your life around Jesus and these practices, I think of those last few things. Some of us need to look up, and we need to see Jesus and change the direction of where we've been looking. And so if that's you, I want to invite you to take a moment and say, Lord, I look to you. And even to ask him to show you ways in your life that you can start to center and position yourself to see him better. Are there things you need to set down so that you can sit at his feet?

What does that look like? And then the next is to listen. For those of us that were here today, maybe you are like, there are a lot of voices I'm listening to right now. This is the reminder that Jesus is speaking to you in specific ways. And so where in your life do you need to be a better listener, and center your life around listening to Jesus?

Where can you schedule in times of scripture? Who do you need to invite into that process with you? And finally, how can you lean in to the presence of a living God that is with you, Emmanuel, God with us?

And so, Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the power that is found in scripture. And as we even now sing and we look to you, I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak, that you would help us to see you, to hear you, and in this to be transformed in your likeness. So I'm going to invite us to take a few minutes today, as we close, to pray and to fix our eyes on Jesus together in this space.