New Culture's 4th Birthday - 4 for 4.

Happy birthday, New Culture. So excited. I know there's a few of you that have been here since the beginning and a few of you that have kind of straggled in. I said today, I think you're an OG if you started with us in Liquid, in the nightclub. So if you were ever at a Liquid service in the nightclub, there's a few of you. I see you and you had the sticky beer floors on Sunday afternoons. I think you're an OG. I think you can claim it.

We're super grateful for all that God has done in these past four years. And this morning, I always love on my personal birthday to reflect on life and where we've been. And now on New Culture's birthday, to spend some time with the Lord just reflecting. And today, I was thinking back to four years ago when we started and that moment of saying, God, we have no idea what this is going to look like, who's going to come and be a part of this. But God, we know that you're in it and so it's worth saying yes. It's worth taking that risk.

And I can honestly say that I had no idea that this is what our church was going to look like today. I had no idea who God was going to bring to be a part of it, but I am so grateful for every single person and even every single place and building we've had to move from. We are thankful for it all.

The vision of an ascending church

And so today we did a couple special things to just kind of celebrate. One of the things that a couple years ago a lot of our church and a lot of the vision has been birthed from people praying and getting these like pictures or visions from the Lord. And a couple years ago a girl who was interning with us came to me and she said, Abbie, I know our mission as a church is to create the culture of Christ, but as I was praying I felt like God showed me a map and he said we are to create the culture of Christ starting here in Madison and then to take that to the ends of the earth. And that was one of those moments where I just knew it was from the Lord that we were to be an ascending church.

The average person in Madison is here for only three years. People come from literally all over the world, all over the state of Wisconsin, all over our country for school at the university, for jobs. And knowing that we could build a foundation here that could send people out to create the culture of Christ, to live like him, and to make disciples of all nations, we've embraced that part of our vision as being an ascending church.

If you've been around here for any point in time you'll see we love to pray over people before they move and to send them out. And so today we have a little bit of a map over there on that wall. If you turn and it says, the culture starts here. And that's really what we are believing and receiving from the Lord. That he's going to do things in this place and then it's going to be sent out all over the world.

And so those pins there today are pins from just four years of all the places that people have moved to from New Culture. In just four years, we have tons of places all over that map where people are now making disciples that were sent here from this church. And so we are praying for even more.

And this building, when we first came here about a year and a half ago, I was talking to the landlord. And he told me that this used to be used for produce distribution. Those train tracks that ran would come here and would bring fruit and produce. They would sort it and they would send it out all over the place.

And when he said that, he had no idea what he was saying to me. And I received that from the Lord to say that we are going to be a sending place. That there are going to be seeds that are planted here that are going to produce fruit that we are then going to send out and produce more fruit all over the world.

We read in John 15, verse 5, where it says:

If you remain in me, you will produce much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.

And so my prayer for us as a church, that as we enter into year five, that we would continue to remain in the vine, that we would continue to remain in the Father, that we would trust him to plant seeds in our lives, produce fruit, and that we would go then and make disciples and continue to produce fruit all over the world.

Thank you guys so much for all of you that have been here for so long and those of you that have supported this journey. We are excited today that we are going to get to hear from four different people in our New Culture Church community. As we were talking about how do we want to celebrate, how do we want to share what God has done in our church this year, we thought what better way than to have four different voices share about what God is doing. So each member that is sharing today is someone that has been a part of this church, and we believe that God is going to speak through them.

Gavin: Seeing God in the everyday

Hi. I'm Gavin. If we have not met. And honestly, when I was asked to speak and saw the questions of where have you seen God and what has he been speaking to you, my mind literally went nowhere. I had nothing, or at least nothing I felt was relevant or something I wanted to share from a mic in front of people, which was kind of strange because typically I kind of am ready for that, but lately I just haven't. And of course, if you don't know, I work with Chi Alpha, a student ministry that works with UW students. So I see God moving on a daily basis, like all the time in people's lives. And that's one way that I see God all the time.

And I could have shared something from there, but it's just not where I'm at. I did have this super cool moment like not too long ago in this room actually where God just began an awesome process of healing in my life. But that's also not something that I'm ready to share from a mic. So my time in the word has been consistent, nothing particularly moving that I had to share. But then just as I thought about that question, this passage came to mind.

And I'll read it, and then I'll explain why it's the answer to this question. So it's in Psalm 104, and it's verse 10 through 18 is the passage I chose out of it. And it goes:

He makes springs pour water into the ravines. It flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field, the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by the waters, they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers, the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth. Wine that gladdens humans' hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds make their nests, the stork has its home in the junipers. The high mountains belong to the wild goats, the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

Psalm 104:10-18

And then the author of this psalm goes on to admire the power of God, admiring his craftsmanship and how things have been set into motion and giving him praise for all those things. And you should really read that psalm if you haven't, it's super cool. But anyway, I read that and I just feel like I've been on a really similar wavelength to the author of that psalm in the last little while. And I think it really encapsulates what my experience with God in the past however many months has been. Sincerely, I've like just really had a good time enjoying the creation that God has made. And I don't mean like I just look at things and I'm like, oh, that's really pretty, even though it is. But it's like when I'm on walks and I'm just like wandering around wherever my interest is, I never really view myself as alone on those. Like I always have the mentality of God being there with me and we can just kind of chat and he's available for me there. And that's cool, but I also think there's more to that. I also view this author as doing more than simply enjoying the nature that's around him, but he's enjoying life with God as they go about their day, reflecting on the little things, like the simple joys of life.

So for the students in this room who were at Chi Alpha for this past week, I spoke about prayer and what that could look like. One of the things I mentioned is praying in the in-betweens of life. What I mean by that is simply communing with God, kind of just as I exist and in the moments where maybe it could be easy to forget, take things for granted, keep going from one thing to another. Communing with God in those moments has been a really big aspect of how I've seen him lately. And it's kind of broad, kind of hard to talk about. But for me, it's just like really admiring his beauty and letting him know that I'm admiring it, involving him in the everyday aspects of my life.

So some examples that I came up with. My car radio has not been working for months, and it finally started working in the past week. I have been so grateful to God for just the simple things like music and the talent that he's given people to make things that I enjoy. Just thanking him on the way home. Or two things that really just make me happy, like hanging out with friends, seeing a really good movie, being able to sit down and play some video games for a while, eating a sub from Chiba Hut because only the Lord could create such a good sub. Just simple, everyday things, and thanking God and acknowledging him within those.

And I've just really been exploring what it can continue to look like to commune with God at all times, in all situations, you know, beyond the really intense spiritual moments or even my daily time that I spend to set aside for him. But to really just let the joy and the gratitude for the life that God has given me to just continue to flow out.

So my so what is that God is with you in all of it. And I mean all of it. There's not like moments that God doesn't care about throughout your day. And he really wants to be involved in those. And then the now what is just to challenge you. I challenge you to ask yourself that same question that I was asked of where have you seen God. But then figure it out. Like, don't just be content just sitting and not having an answer, but to really go find that answer and see where you can see God in your daily life.

Jane: Faithfulness when doors close

I'm Jane. Nice to meet all of you if I haven't already. Like Gavin said, I've been at New Culture two years now, came in summer of 2020, and I'm excited to talk to you about one of the things God has been teaching me this year. And for starters, I'm going to read from Habakkuk chapter 3, verses 16 through 19:

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound. Decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to tread on the heights.

Habakkuk 3:16-19

So I spent a lot of time this year trying to figure out my job. I started off the year in an okay place and then an old co-worker told me about an opportunity and was like, you would be a shoo-in, just go for it. And I was like, okay, I'll kind of see how this goes.

And over the course of those months that I went through the interview process, my job got really hard. And I started to really want to leave and really get out of there and really get this job. And I got to the end of that process and was rejected. And at that point, I was already in this track. I was going to get it. I was going to go. It was going to be good. And so I kept going and looked for more jobs and got rejected from one because I didn't have the qualifications, got rejected from one because I was overqualified. And it just felt like doors were getting slammed in my face and I was not getting what I really wanted.

So I was trying to figure that out. Habakkuk in earlier chapters in this book did what I proceeded to do, which was complain to God. Habakkuk was complaining about what he was seeing as enemies going unpunished and his prayers going unanswered. And similarly, I felt like my prayers were going unanswered. And it led me to question God and his goodness and just think in the spiral of what if I have to stay here? What if I'm getting trapped here? And God really stopped me one day, one of the prayer and worship nights, which were really great this summer, and just asked me, like, am I a God that you would question my goodness and that you could say and determine if what I do is good?

And out of that, I just started thinking. I wanted God to do something very specific. I wanted to get out of my current job. I wanted to get out into something different, into something that I would consider better. And I knew that he was hearing my prayers, but things weren't making sense. And I realized that what I needed to do was to fall back on the things that I know God has told me and that I know that he commands of me as a child of God.

Because I know where my peace comes from, where my joy and freedom from anxiety come from. I was thinking about the verses that I've memorized and that I know. How in Corinthians it tells me that his grace is sufficient for me and that when I'm weak, then I am strong. And I know that in Psalms it tells me that the Lord is my shepherd, so I lack nothing, and that he will anoint my head with oil and prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies, and that surely his goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

And I know that Romans says to hate what is evil and to cling to what is good, to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to mourn with those who mourn. And I know what the Lord requires of me from Micah, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God. And I know that my contentment is not dependent on what I do, where I am Monday through Friday, but who I serve each one of those days and the other days of the week.

And it's really hard to be content and to trust in that goodness of God when things look really confusing and when I didn't know what the end of that would look like. But through that, he just showed me to be faithful to what he had told me, what I knew that I needed to do. And be faithful and trust in his goodness, knowing that he would work ahead of me.

Jeremiah 6:16 says:

This is what the Lord says. Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.

Jeremiah 6:16

And so that what I did. And the Lord is good.

Josh Sorenson: Take one step at a time

Hey guys. Those of you that don't know me, I'm Josh. I just moved up here in March. I've known Pastor Abbie and Nathan for almost 20 years, so I thought I'd just take five minutes and tell you stories about them. But no, I'm going to focus on what they've asked me to talk about this time.

But honestly, the biggest thing that God has been teaching me in this last season is just to take things one step at a time. I definitely have struggled with wanting to focus on a destination instead of just directions. One of the things that I really felt like as I was praying through things was how a GPS works. So many times when we put something into Google Maps, it doesn't just spit out all the directions at once for us. Like we know the destination where it's taking us, but it always tells us where we need to turn at the time that we need to turn there. And I just felt like how similar to God that is, because God has a tendency to direct our paths and take the steps at the right time that we need to take them.

And he'll get us to the destination. We may not always know the destination, but we'll know the step that he's leading us through right at that moment. But I also have a tendency in work too that I'll want to get to the destination and just want to get there and get it done and be done with the project or whatever it is. But the thing is finding the beauty in the steps along the way.

In Numbers, there's a section of Numbers in Numbers 9 where God is leading the Israelites through the wilderness. And he's using a cloud to do that. And the cloud, some days it says in the Bible that sometimes it's there for a day, sometimes it's there for months or even weeks at a time. And so the interesting thing is like the Israelites followed it based on where it was. We see in Numbers 9:18:

At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out and at the command of the Lord they camped as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle they remained in the camp.

Numbers 9:18

So my point in bringing this up is that our steps, a lot of times they may seem longer or like the place that God has us in for that moment, it may seem pointless. And there may be like that moment where you're like, oh my gosh, God, what are you doing? Why am I here? And the thing to remember is just to rest in that and know that God has a purpose for the reason that he's having you wait.

And you could think about that at a stoplight on the GPS analogy. Like, oh, we're at a stoplight now. Why am I waiting at the stoplight? And maybe you're waiting there because it allows other people to move the way that they need to move so that you can get to the place that you need to be.

The Israelites didn't know where God was leading them, but they went. They also didn't know when he was going to lead them or move them next. What would it look like if in life we took one step at a time and trusted God today? I want to challenge you and also I'm challenging myself as I say this because it's something I'm in process in. But to take the next step, whatever it is. It could be changing your career. It could be maybe you need to have a conversation with somebody about something that you've been struggling with. It could be a big move across the country, like we're talking about the culture starts here. No matter how big or small, just start to make those steps.

The thing is like those big steps, we even see, like I was kind of laughing and thinking about the story of Mary and Joseph and having baby Jesus. Like the angel came to Mary and told her that she was going to be pregnant, but the angel, like we don't see it, at least in the Bible, that the angel sat there and goes, and here's where the baby's going to be born, and giving all the details right in that moment, because those weren't needed details. But Mary still was like, okay, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to go in this. And obviously, you know, that was a huge moment for her.

As Christians, sometimes we worry about the possibility of missing God's will. And as I was reading through some stuff, like in those steps, we can feel like, oh my gosh, like there's the stress of, oh my gosh, I'm going to miss God's will. In Isaiah 30:21 it says:

Whether you turn to the right or to the left your ears will hear the voice behind you saying this is the way of walking it.

Isaiah 30:21

And so my comfort to you is don't feel like you're going to miss God's call or God's step on your life if you're listening to God. If you're genuinely trying to follow what God is doing in your life, you don't have to worry about that. He's going to guide you.

So the big last thing I want to leave you with is focus on the directions instead of the destinations. And you will only miss God's path if you insist on your own.

Princess: God goes before us

Hi everyone. I'm Princess, and I'm going to be talking about what I feel like the Lord has taught me sort of in the last season of my life, the last month of my life, and hopefully I can just provide some encouragement to you all about what it looks like to trust the Lord and not fear through difficult times and through trials.

So I'll start off with my so what today if you're taking notes. My so what is the Lord has gone before us and he has gone before you. And my now what is that we can trust him because of this and surrender our fear and discouragement.

So the passage that I'll be reading from is Deuteronomy 31:7 through 8, and the context of this passage is simply that God has told Moses that he can't lead the Israelites into the promised land. So Moses is speaking to the Israelites and Joshua their new leader and telling them and getting them ready to enter into the promised land.

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, be strong and courageous for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged.

Deuteronomy 31:7-8

So before that Moses says the same thing to the Israelites. He tells them that the Lord will go into the land before them to prepare it for them and that they shouldn't be afraid or discouraged. And when I read that I actually really appreciated that Moses told them not to be afraid or discouraged because it was an acknowledgement that he knew they had a reason to be. He was basically saying, I know that you will be tempted to be afraid and be discouraged, but you shouldn't, because the Lord has already gone and he has already won that battle for you.

And so during the last month of my life, I feel like the truth of this passage has really come to life for me. Most of you, if not all, and if you don't know, I had a health crisis in the beginning of September where I ended up in the hospital for 20 days. So the church was praying for me, and I was who was being prayed for. Again, I'm so grateful for those prayers because they worked and here I am. And they told me that I was diagnosed with an uncommon autoimmune disease called TTP.

And so in the same way that Moses told the Israelites not to be afraid because there was a reason, that was my reason during that time in my life. I'd never been in a hospital like that before. And this disease was so uncommon that I didn't know what was going to happen and what that looked like. However, the same way that it was true that they had a reason to fear, it was also true that they didn't, because God had gone before them. And he had also gone before me. I just didn't see the ways that he had been working in my life before that to prepare me for this.

So God did go before me in several ways. When I look back on it, after I graduated and I decided that I was staying in Madison, I kept asking myself, God, why do you have me in Madison? Why do you have me in Madison? And I tell this joke a lot and a lot of my friends have heard it, but I always say that God kept me here because I don't have my driver's license and you can't like physically move me anywhere else. Like you just have to stay here, Princess. I can't put you anywhere else.

But after reflection and looking back, I know that God kept me here to keep me safe. He kept me in a city where I've had access to some of the best medicine. I've had access to some of the best doctors who know about the condition that I have now and some of the best treatment. He provided me housing in June. And if you know anything about Madison, you know people start finding housing in September and it's really difficult. And my story of finding housing is actually a miracle in itself, so if you want to know about it please ask me because it's kind of crazy.

He provided me with a roommate, a good year, who knew about medicine and has been able to help me at home. And in the beginning of the summer, randomly out of nowhere, I got a letter through Gmail that said I was insured. Like I hadn't even applied for health insurance, and they just said, Princess, you're insured. And so like that was insane to me. To just see the way that the Lord was working and finding me housing and saying, Princess, you need to be here because this is where you will be most safe, this is where you will have a community that will be praying for you. Like this is where you need to be.

He also brought me to New Culture four years ago, so I was in Liquid, crazy. And he surrounded me with a community and kept me in a community that was willing to pray for me diligently, to pray for my return home. And he just put people in my life that visited me. I was never alone. There was not a day that went by in the hospital that I was alone. So I'm really grateful to Abbie and Nermalis for like helping me with that, because it can get lonely in there.

So I was really grateful for that. And just looking back at all these ways that the Lord had prepared me for this time, although it was a very difficult situation, and because of that, I didn't need to fear. God was working for me in that. And my encouragement is that you also don't need to fear through trial and tribulation. God goes before you. He is with you. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. Like those are promises that are true and will continue to be true.

So how can we just like trust God and not fear? You know, it's like, oh, you say these things, but like how? How can you practically do this? Or like what are ways that you can live this out in your life? Well, I have a couple.

For me, if you're taking notes or if you're not, one of the first things that I did a lot was I sought God out in my fear and discouragement through prayer and communication with him. So I feel like it's really important to just be honest and be like, Lord, I'm like scared and I'm really afraid and I don't want to be. And to ask God for his peace because he will give it to you. God doesn't want us to be afraid or fear. He wants to give us peace. It says his power works best in our weakness. We just have to allow it to.

So I think that in fear and discouragement, praying. I did a lot of that when I was in the hospital, just like being honest with the Lord and asking for his peace. And he gave me that. And I found comfort in that.

And the other thing that I did a lot was I read the Bible and, like Jane did, memorize scripture. I think memorizing scripture is so important because in those moments when you don't have the word on you, you have it in your mind, and you can, I was just repeating verses over and over and over in my head, like the same one. And it really brought me comfort because it was just truths about who God was. Like how he was still with me in my life. You know, how he was my comfort. How he was my shepherd. You know, how in the darkest valley he would lead me and he would come for me. And I was in a dark valley and just having that truth and knowing that God was walking beside me, that he was behind me, that he had gone before me was like so comforting.

So if I could encourage you to do anything it would be to just to really memorize scripture, meditate on it and come to believe it. So that in those times the truth is what gets you through. And then reading the Bible. Like reading stories of how God brought the Israelites through time and time and time again is so important because it's just a testimony to who the Lord is and how he can do it. And reflecting on times in your life where he had brought you through and how he would do it again. I feel like it's so important.

So my so what is God goes before you. He goes before us. And we can trust him and not fear and be discouraged in difficult times because he's with us.

Closing prayer

Dear Lord, thank you so much for today. Thank you for New Culture turning four. Thank you for what you have done in this city through New Culture. I pray that you will continue to move through this city. I pray that you will continue to send people out. I pray just that we were able to get something out of each and every one of these messages that we were able to speak to the congregation today.

God, I just pray for those who are maybe going through a difficult time right now. God, that they would trust in you. I pray that they would seek you in those times. God, that they would know that you are with them. God, continue to remind us of who you are every day. Yeah, Lord, I just pray that we continue to rely on you, that we continue to rely on each other as a community.

You are so good. You are good in everything, God. And we are just grateful to be here today. And we are excited for what comes next. In your name. Amen.