We've got four weeks left at this building. After this week, there's four more Sundays, four more Wednesdays and Sundays. So man, we just get to soak it in. I just think it's so special.
You know, Katie and I were die like, go in man, should we just not move? It's just not. It's just stay at home with, you know? I'm just kidding, but not.
Yeah, like we love it. So, but over these next couple weeks, we really felt like there's an opportunity for a couple of our teachers to share messages. And it's kind of like their final message at home with. And we don't have an opportunity to have all of the teachers that we love as a community, that are part of the community, part of the house, to share a final message.
But we have a couple. And so we have the privilege of being able to have, don't get up right now, but we have the privilege of being able to hear Pastor Ben preach his final message. Yeah, his final message at Elwood. And we just ask these teachers, hey, what do you want to leave with us here?
You know? And if you could say anything to our community before we transition, what would it be? And so that's what these next couple weeks are going to look like. And we're so grateful for Pastor Ben as a leader, as a man of great character and conviction.
And if you've been around it all every day for maybe more than six months, you've grown to see that Ben has this zeal and passion for the Lord. But then it's not just all zeal and passion. It's actually the real devotion. And he carries character.
And him and Candy actually walk the kingdom out. They don't just talk about it, they walk it out. And as leaders, we honor those. And as the people of God, we honor those that don't just talk about it, but actually do it and live it.
And that we can look to and go, man, I think I could actually follow them and look more like Jesus in the next two, three, five years. And that's what I think about Pastor Ben. So let's welcome Pastor Ben as he brings the word. Thank you guys.
Thank you guys. It's been one of the great honors of my life to be entrusted with being able to teach here. God is doing so much here and to be included in that has been such an honor. And when I'm going into tonight, I'm just remembering a lot.
Like anytime it's your last of anything, you stop and think back about like, well, what were the other times? And just thinking about how you got there. And for some of you, this might be your first Sunday, but I have the mic. So go with me.
On this journey, because it's just, one of the things that I learned in this house is that fear forgets what the Lord's done. Faith remembers. Remembrance is a spiritual discipline. It's a practice that the Lord calls us to, to not just go, well, what's next?
What's next? Because if we get stuck in that zone, we just start getting anxious. Because we go, I have no idea what's coming. I don't know what's next.
But if you anchor yourself in the track record that the Lord has, you can get a pretty good idea of what to expect when you move forward. So you're going, this is what he did then. He did the same thing here and here and here and here. I think I know what he wants to do next.
And so I've had the privilege of being here since day one. Before this was every day, this was Grove Community Church. And before it was Grove Community Church, it was Vine Ministries. And before it was Vine Ministries, there was 10 of us in the basement.
We called ourselves the Wolf Pack. I'm seeing some of your horns. Put them up. Hey.
We were just, Daniel's in an eye, beanbag palace downstairs. There was two big bean bags for the Cable Girls, and we'd steal them and we'd send the bean bags. And we just met in the basement of Josh and Katie's home because we were all just young, hungry people who were going, I want God, do you want God? I don't know how to do this.
Can we do it together? And we showed up in the basement and we worshipped and we prayed and it was simple and it was beautiful. And I've been here as we've grown. I remember my first Sunday, actually, as a staff member, when they hired me, I got to work here.
And then it's like, well, you're on the team and the drummer is sick tonight. Do you want to play Cajon? And I kid you not. My first Sunday, a lot of people didn't even know, like, wait, who's that guy?
And I played Bach strong, the Cajon. On the worship team, Pastor Katie was on the worship team at that point. She was singing. Scott Vanderwerp, led worship.
I saw John puller somewhere. John and Ashley were both there. John sang, played bass and drums all the same time. It was incredible.
It was scrappy. It was simple. It was small. And we're just like, I don't know.
Let's just go for it. And it was beautiful. And God was so with us in that place. Do you guys ever wonder what these holes are for?
There's these holes in the stage. When we first moved here, Elmwood had these gigantic wood and metal railings here with little kneeling pads. And because of just how we kind of flow around here and there's movement and all that. We were just like, hey, can we maybe just take those down?
When we're here and they're like, yeah, you just have to put them back. Little did we know they were about 800 pounds. And so you'd show up as part of the setup crew like in work clothes. Because it's like, here we go.
Carp! And you kind of shuffle them. And we had to go up the stairs and out that door. It was brutal.
And we did it. And we loved it. And it was just what we knew. And God was so faithful in that place.
I was here when we had one service. And then we went to two services. And then we went to three services. And then we were like, I went to two services again.
And then COVID hit. And then we had zero services. And we were all at home. And we weren't able to be in this place.
And I remember leading Zoom bingo. I had a costume and an accident and everything. Anything for the people of God. And then it was like, hey, we're going to be able to meet at home again.
And Nicole and I, and there's probably some other folks. But I remember us being here. And we're like measuring out for social distancing, where people can sit. And we're all wearing masks.
And it's just the weirdest thing. But I remember I was up in the balcony. And I just sat down and looked. And I was like, my goodness, I missed this place.
Gosh, I just sat in here by myself and was like, dang. Hey, this feels like home. And my phone sometimes thinks it's home. It's where I am at nights and weekends.
So if I'm driving on Minneapolis and it's like, do you want to go home? Three, six, one, five, jumps per? I'm like, that's not where I live. But it feels like home.
And then we opened up services again when we were so grateful to be in this place. We so much has happened here. If there was a heat map on the planet of where has God touched Ben the most, there'd be this gigantic mark right over St. Anthony of where God had touched my life.
I remember Christmas services that we've had here. I remember conferences where these speakers, I'm like, man, I love you. And you're in my church. It's crazy.
I was here for 419, 419 Sunday. And I had the privilege of wheeling in the whiteboard down the center aisle and putting up here and being one of the many that's doing our best to add up over $400,000 worth of pledges that people gave to cover the debts of other people in the room that couldn't pay their bills. There was this one Sunday that we just called the beyond of God night. Because Pastor Josh taught on just the expansive nature of God.
And you could talk about that. But then there's moments where by his grace, the spirit just kind of goes, no, I mean it. And there's a weight that falls. We're here for hours.
The worship team was on the ground. We didn't have anyone leading us. We just laid there. And God was in the room.
And then friends, there's been nights when you all go home. And I'm last man out. And I got a lock up and make sure all trash is picked up. And I sit in this front row.
And the reverb in this room really helps as I just sit and sing little songs to the Lord by myself in this room. And so there's a real assurance in my heart that there are all the different seasons and all the different phases that we've had. There's an assurance that I have that God's not going to just leave us. God's been faithful.
He's going to be faithful. And as Josh said, it was this invitation like, hey, it's your last Sunday. What are we going to be left with? And it reminds me in some ways of the entire book of Deuteronomy.
Israel knows a certain way. They know how to do desert living. They know how to sit and receive manna. But they get to the Jordan.
And they're looking at uncharted territory. And there's so much room for anxiety in that space. And so Moses kind of huddles everyone up. He says, don't forget.
Here's the essentials. Here's what you need to know as you go in to the promised land. Don't forget. Remember.
So this has been a process for me of even looking back over certain messages that I've had the privilege of preaching of things of the Lord's done in my heart since I joined everyday slash grove slash vine slash wolf pack. Like what has God done in me and by his grace, I would love to try and just share a piece of that for us. There's so much, obviously. But if you're going to give me one message, I want to talk about God.
And I want to talk about how we can know him. And God is, when I say talk about God, let me clarify. I'm not talking about the construct of God. God is not a theory that we're meant to kind of study and observe with furrowed brow.
God is not a force that we use and manipulate to do or get things. God is not a subject of debate. God is not a worldview that we ascribe to. God is a person.
And this personal God has a personality. And he would much rather be talked to than talked about. He would much rather have people come close than sit at a distance and observe. God's not interested in your telescope, but he's not interested in your microscope.
He wants you. Remove the lens. Look at me. That's who God is.
God is in so many ways. It's like, how can I even know him? He's God. There's no way.
People that have given their lives to the study of outer space say that there's a 93 billion mile universe. No, not mile, light year. 93 billion light years. And God creates it.
And he fills it all. The universe is ever expanding. Because God's always expanding. You can't put him in a box.
He's that big. And he's that awesome. And he's that wild. And then we're standing here going, but he wants to talk to me.
You're telling me that I'm going to stand up here and whisper to God and say, God, what are you saying about this person? And he's going to answer me. There's a way to look at the glory of God and the bigness of God and be intimidated. And in some ways, the tendency for humanity is when we see something genuinely awesome, genuinely like wildly big.
Our tendency is to shrink back. But the key that I want to leave for all of us tonight, that I believe is what the Lord would have us do as we step into a new space and a new territory. I believe that God's invitation hasn't changed. He wants us to stay in a position of childlike wonder and fascination as we approach God.
Proverbs 25 says it's the glory of God to conceal or hide a matter. And it's the glory of kings. It's the glory of sons and daughters to seek it out. God's going, there's no way that you can know me.
But in the greatest privilege, he's ever given any of his creation. He said, but I want you to try. There's an open door for you to come and try. You get to walk into the throne room and get your brain fried.
It's the highest honor in all of creation. God's not asking us to be at a distance. Yes, he's mighty. Yes, he's awesome.
Yes, he fills a 93 billion light year universe. And he's saying, I want to come check it out. I believe that's the heart of God. Imagine, just for a second, this is not theology.
This is us just using our imaginations. Imagine there's a giant curtain here. And like the God of the universe is behind the curtain. Trinitarian God, father, son, holy spirit, existed forever, omnipotent, all powerful.
You can't believe what he's like. And you know he's behind that curtain. And the room's like shaking because God's back there. And there's the little tiny crack under the curtain.
And there's a beam of light shooting out. And you're just kind of like, oh my gosh. The invitation from God then says, well, you're coming? The goal was never distance.
The goal was never that we would be awestruck and standing at a side. The goal is that we'd be fascinated. And like little kids, we'd go, what's back there? And we start walking in.
The goal is fascination. God knows that we can't handle it. And the point isn't that we can figure him out. The point is that we can experience it.
We can step right into the middle of what God has and get our circuits fried. Let's do a thought exercise. Let's just let our brains go somewhere for a while. And Holy Spirit's going to meet us in this place and just letting our imagination go.
Where's the little kids right now? Is God elderly? Is God old? He's ancient.
He's existed from eternity past. There's never been a moment in all of creative history that God wasn't. But does God have gray hair? And he's old?
What if we've just put this picture of Father time on God? Whenever we think about his ancientness, we just picture it like Father time as he's this weathered old man with creases in his face? What if God's not old? What if he's actually got a ton in common with a child?
Picture this, 300 billion years from now, he's going to be the God who is to come. Just like a little kid, he's got his whole life ahead of him. He's not weighed down. He's not looking back and going, oh well, he's the God who created quasars.
He remembers the garden of Eden like it was yesterday. He's with us right now, and he's going, what a good start. Man, I can work with this, but it's the beginning. What if God is actually childlike?
Just go with me here, because that sounds almost heretical to us. Well, certainly he's not naive. He's not dependent like a kid. But what if there's a part of his heart that's actually, he gets it when there's kids that just let their imagination run wild?
And he's like, oh, I'm right there. What if he's like a 16-year-old, just full of confidence and fresh-faced and ready to go? Looking at all of eternity in the future and going, let's get it. And just like, fire it up.
What if God has a ton in common? With children that are just continually fascinated. The Lord touched my heart on that about a year ago, and I was like, man, am I losing it? Is this bad theology?
Didn't feel like it. And then I found this quote by G.K. Chesterton. It's my last message.
Buckle up. Chesterton. And any time that I quote these old guys, I was trying to modify it just a little bit, not to change the content, but just make it easier for us to understand. So this is a slightly bent Peterson version of Chesterton talking about the childlikeness of God.
Let this just let this hit you. He writes, because children have a bounding vibrancy, because their spirits are so fierce and so free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, do it again. And the grown-up person does it until they're nearly dead.
For grown-up people are not strong enough to exalt in repetition. But perhaps God is strong enough to exalt in repetition. Is it possible that God says every morning, do it again to the sun? And every evening, do it again to the moon.
It may not be necessary and natural that all daisies are like, what if God makes every daisy separately and has never once gotten tired of making them? It just might be that God has the eternal appetite of infancy. We have sinned and grown old, and our father is younger than we. The repetition found in nature might not be a mere recurrence.
It might be a theatrical encore of all mighty God who is not weighed down by cynicism, who's not just gotten used to the way things are. He hasn't just acclimated to it. What if it's a part of his heart that just says, do it again? All that again.
I love that. I love that. There have been billions of souls born. I can't imagine Father God going, oh good, another one.
It's like a kid at a fireworks show. Yes! Was that it? I think that God's got some fascination in his heart.
I think God's got some wonder in his heart. I don't think that he's weighed down or grown cold or grown cynical. I think that like a little kid, he has every reason to be enthusiastic about the things that are happening. I think that God himself has a childlike wonder in his heart.
I think that that's what he's like. And I think that that's how he invites us to be. I think that there's a spark of wonder, that he's placed in people that's meant to respond with this just fascination. I have seen so many people who know a lot about God, who have lost fascination.
And I want no part of it. I don't want to be the guy who's the smartest in the room and doesn't cry when someone gets healed. Every time that I pray for someone and God answers a question that Ben Peterson asked, I want to be just a little bit shook. Like are you kidding?
Do you think that Jesus, as he's walking the planet, picture this, God's on the planet now, he so loved us and so wanted to be known, he's going, I'm just going to break their brains unless I'll be just like that. And the ultimate act of humility, God, it's a body and lives as a baby and a toddler grew up going to birthday party. He knows humans. He's living this human experience.
And then Jesus starts doing ministry. Can you imagine? What if every time that Jesus was praying for all these multitudes to hear about in the gospels? What if it wasn't just like next?
Next? That's how we picture it sometimes, guys. What if he's just like unbelievably intentional and locked in with every person? And he grabs their hand and goes, and their arm goes back.
And he goes, come on. And he's just like, just. He gives him a big hug. And there's someone who goes, just hold on a second.
What if he's enthusiastic and full of child likeness? What if that's the heart of God? So much more than this, austere, distant, relationally complicated guy that just walked the earth and was a little bit aloof. What if he was actually just trying his best to bring everybody in?
What if there's an enthusiasm in Jesus? So then we go to Mark 10. There's this story in Mark 10. And when we put on this perspective of God, that he's the biggest kid in the room, that he's the one with the most invitation and the most wonder in his heart.
Then we come to Mark 10. This story is one that you've heard before. See it with Fresh Eyes tonight. Mark 10, verse 13.
And they were bringing children to him as he's teaching that he might touch them. Just stop there. We all know that kids are way more spiritually aware than adults, right? Like kids are, kids don't, they're not clouded by sinuses and they're not clouded by these weird filters.
They're not clouded by rationalism. They just go, yeah, there was an angel in my dream last night. I don't wanna go down there. There's a creepy guy down there.
What do you mean? Yeah, in the basement, there's a creepy guy down there. They're more in tune with the spirit, right? I hope that's not news.
It's like this, for those of their parents, it's like we're aware. Kids are more spiritually aware. They're more in tune. There's less garbage that interferes.
So imagine if you will, a little Jewish girl around the size of Nazareth people. She's this big and her mom's got her hand and they're walking up to Jesus. And that little girl with all of her spiritual awareness that she still has all of her innocence, she sees Jesus. What's happening in her heart?
She starts to like, and then Jesus is over here and he's praying with someone and then he kind of catches her eye and goes, and there's this little girl who in some way knows more than anyone else what's happening. And this little girl's taking her mom's hand and walks up. And then some 20 year old with a lot of good information and a lot of good theology and a lot of self-righteousness steps in between. He goes, excuse me, the teacher's busy.
Sorry, sorry guys, he's pretty busy. I mean like he's, there's some adult things going on. So he's sorry, you just have to, and they start to get in the way. Jesus's response here is so telling.
The disciples rebuked them, but when Jesus saw it, he was indignant. There are very, very few times in the gospels where God gets a little ticked off. Yep, he flips some tables in the temple. I remember that one, a couple times where some of the disciples were just being buffoons and he goes, all right guys, and he gets a little stern.
That same little girl who was walking up to him, you're gonna cut her off. You're gonna deny her from coming to me? He's indignant. Other verses or translations say he was greatly displeased.
He rebuked them. Middle of his ministry moment. What are you doing? Let the little children come to me.
Don't you hinder them for to such belong the kingdom of God. I'm telling you the truth, whoever doesn't receive the kingdom of God, like a little child is not gonna enter it. He's standing there going, now she's the only one who gets it. Come here, sweetie, come here, come here, come here.
Don't you dare keep her from coming, come here. Kids don't run towards university professors with stuffy waistcoats. Kids don't run towards grumpy old men. Kids have discernment.
You know who kids run to? Mom and dad, the fun uncle that's gonna tell him a joke and give him a present, flashing lights and things that are exciting and fun and wild. Kids run towards that. And Jesus took them in his arms.
The amplified version clarifies, and says he took them in his arms one by one, and he blessed them and encouraged them, laying his hands on them. Jesus is among his people now. We get it, and these kids come running up, and there's Pharisees who are constantly, they're in the same place in the same room going, well, answer this question, then I might believe you. And they're putting Jesus through a litany of tests and trying to figure him out, trying to unlock something and trying to inquire and trying to be how self-important they can be.
And there's these kids, and Jesus says, every one of them, bring them over. And he said he picks them up and holds them. He knows everything about their future. He knows everything about their lives.
This is one shot. I can't wait to get to heaven and ask him what he said to these little kids. Puts his hands on him and blesses him. I don't know how many kids were there, but there's maybe a couple dozen kids that had the memory for the rest of their life, of the Messiah, bringing them close and cuddling them.
Telling them they're amazing. It's gonna be all right. They had the blessing of getting that close to Jesus because they saw his heart, and they saw that the way in was connection. I'm just gonna be with them.
Jesus says, don't keep the kids from coming. That's the only way you're even gonna be a part of this thing. The big curtain that we talked about that we imagined? I have kids.
I also know a lot of adults, the adults are standing in the back going, well, hold on now. What is that? All right. And by the time we're done talking, my daughter's crawling under the curtain.
What's back there? What if Jesus is saying, no, that's how you get into the kingdom? You don't stand at a distance and analyze. You don't sit there and learn a bunch of big words.
You can press people, have your own self-righteousness. You don't get to be like the Pharisees that are on the same hill, in the same city. You're in the same message. It's cynical and skeptical.
Wait a second, that doesn't line up with what I learned in Bible college. Well, I had a professor that told me this. So, I mean, that's scary to me. Because that shows that there's some part of this whole interaction that's about my response.
Jesus is the same. The invitation's wide open. Kids are going to run in and there's people that missed it because they were too stuck in their own process and their own, I got to figure it out first. And well, I don't have my questions answered quite yet and they missed it.
The proper response to God is this kind of awestruck, childlike wonder that blows your mind. And you just start walking towards the people, you go, I love that. I've had the privilege to go to some of the most insanely beautiful places on the planet. And I've also seen beautiful things here.
And it's like you'll be driving by. You'll be driving by something and go, oh, that's really pretty. I got that. There's beautiful things.
And we go, yeah, I would love to capture that. I would love to remember that. But I got to be up in the mountains in Alaska once. And I don't know how to explain it, but it felt like an insult to try to take a picture.
It felt like in some way I was offending the beauty to try and take a picture. We turned this corner and it was like, and like no one talked, 2,000 foot cliff going all the way down in a waterfall. And there's trees that are this big around. And the mountains go up to the clouds and there's this perfectly crystal lake.
And you turn this corner and it was just, and it took your breath away. And to try and consume it or figure it out would be a disservice to the moment. I remember I led this team over to the Middle East. So outside of my context here, right?
And there's this desert called Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is where they shot like Star Wars and Dune. And so these other planets. Because it's like an Arabian desert.
Just like what you'd see in the movies. Because you've seen it in the movies. It's like perfect sand hills. But then there's these red rock outcroppings that go 20, 30, 100 feet in the air.
There's these flat mountains that are just in the middle of the desert. And it's just like, this place is otherworldly. And I was there with a team. And I climbed up because I'm like, I'm not going to miss this.
And I climbed up one of these rock outcroppings and found this little cave that had been blown out by sand hitting the side of this thing. Maybe 20 feet up. And I sit down in this cave. And I'm by myself.
And I watch the sunset. And I'm telling you, there is a beauty that's so beautiful that it has to be holy. And the sun starts to set. And it looks like it's growing as it sets.
You know how it does that? It starts to grow. And it's like someone lit a match to the desert. It's just, it's all orange.
And I'm sitting there. I'm like, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
It's just by myself in this little cave in Wadi Rum. And then it starts to set a little more. It gets even bigger. And now it's red.
And the stuff that used to be orange is now like bright red. And everything about it's like you put red lens in my glasses. It's like everything is red. And I'm struggling to try to describe this.
And it's not really doing it for you. And I just wonder if that's like the prophets in the Bible. Just. Ugh.
It's like a bunch of wheels. And they're all spinning. And it's like a wheel inside of a wheel. And it's moving everywhere.
Oh my. There's like, OK, so there's a creature. And it's like an eagle. Nope.
It's like an octane. More like a lion. Shoot. It's also a man.
Just invite it into something otherworldly and cannot take it. It's the bluest thing I've ever seen. What's the bluest thing I've ever seen? Sapphire.
OK, it's not like a Sapphire. They're doing their best. As they're beholding the beauty of God. And I'm sitting in this little cave in a desert just like.
And it's like jarring. It's like something in my guts is moving because of how beautiful it is. It's a little lower. Now it's all now it's red to the mountains of turn purple.
Sun finally dips below and the stars come out. And I'm not making this up. The stars themselves are so bright that it's casting a shadow in my cave. You know how sometimes in the perfect night in the perfect place, you can see where you think the Milky Way is?
It's like a puzzle. Or like a picture. It's just like, oh, that's the Milky Way. This is right there.
And I'm just sitting there awestruck. And my goal in that moment is not to take a picture. It makes me think of the transfiguration. Remember that story?
They're up on the mountain. Jesus goes to his three best buddies. He goes, you're not going to believe this. And they walk up the mountain.
And their buddy Yeshua that they know is like a, he's a big deal. He's a prophet. He's a messiah. And then he starts glowing and levitating.
And it's like the glory of God comes on his physical body. Is that Moses? Good. And Elijah.
Three of them. Good. And they don't know what to do. And Peter, God bless him, goes, it's good that we're here.
Actual quote. Actual quote. It's good that we're here, Lord. Let me, once or another, we could build tents.
Peter's response. He just has no idea what to do. You can't capture that moment. Moses isn't going to come into your tent.
So why did Jesus bring him up there? Why did Jesus show him? There was no message. There was no sermon.
There was no reason other than, man, you just, you haven't even seen the beginning. Watch this. And he invites his friends in just to get their circuits fried. Like I said, this is, this is, it's most beautiful invitation in the world.
And it also kind of freaks me out. Because as I'm sitting in that cave in Wadi Ram, and the sun's going down, and it's growing, and it's glowing, and the desert is on fire. I have met people who would be sitting next to me going. It's the atmosphere.
The sun's going down, and as it comes to the atmosphere, it looks like it's growing. It's just molecules. All the different water in the atmosphere. Yeah, and I know it looks orange.
Yeah, it's just the refracting of the light. You can sit in that same cave and analyze it to the point that you've actually run the beauty out of it. There's a way that we can be in the same place with Jesus, in the same room as everyone else. And if our heart is, well, I'm just trying to figure it out.
I'm not going to be able to participate in this unless I know. And it's the Pharisees. Well, this doesn't, I don't know if this really fits what I'm doing. I'm actually somehow in self-preservation mode, because everyone else thinks this is awesome.
The guy's, no, no, no, no. We've had teachers before, OK? Missed it. And maybe why this scares me so much is because I was that guy.
When I was in high school, I was the most self-righteous, arrogant, prideful Christian that you would have ever met. You wouldn't have liked me. I was raised Baptist, and this isn't to throw any shade on the Baptist, but just like the construct that I was presenting with as a kid was really good Christians know a lot about God. And it was about knowledge acquisition.
And I loved God. And I was like, OK, well, then I'll just get all the knowledge that I can. And I'm going to take the gifts that the Lord's given me. And I'm going to apply myself to study.
And I'm going to have an answer to the apologetics questions. And I'm going to memorize Bible verses so I can show people where they're wrong and why they should do the things that I say they should do. And I was steeped in this very cynical mindset. And it goes, no.
Thanks for showing up, Lord. But I've read the Bible. And here's why what you're doing doesn't fit in with my Bible story. That's the Pharisees.
No, no, no, no. It says in Torah, this. And God is in front of them. Omnipotent God has become enfleshed and is standing in front of them.
And they miss it because they're going, well, but I already know. So 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1 says, knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. The goal of your life is not knowledge acquisition.
The goal of you following God is not to be able to answer your atheist friend with a real zinger. The goal of your life is not to get your ducks in a row. The goal of your life is not to know enough good teachings of Jesus and align your life with them that you feel OK when you go to bed at night. The goal of your life is to fall madly in love with God and crawl under the curtain at all costs.
That's why you're up the planet. God wants you back behind the curtain. And let's break down this analogy because I said, it's not a perfect picture because even if we're using curtain language, we know that the veil was torn and Jesus is going any time. Any time.
And I don't want to be so stuck in a fair cynical mindset that I make my knowledge a prerequisite for me to come to God. You need to actually meet me on my terms before I come. And he's going, forget your terms. Come get your mind blown.
How are we ever going to be humble if we don't have wonder in our hearts? How are we ever going to be really thankful and grateful if we don't have wonder in our hearts? How are we ever going to experience the generosity of God unless there's a part of our heart that just goes, anything that's told you, anything that has told you that God is at a distance is a lie. He's right in the middle in all of his glory.
And he wants to blow your mind. He wants you to come like a child with wonder in your heart and go, yeah, I have no idea. But I'm sprinting towards the shining, blinking light because like a kid, that's just too cool. The Apostle Paul in Romans 11, where should he come up?
The Apostle Paul in Romans 11. Well, boss. Romans 8 is everyone's favorite. You're good, man.
No, you're good. Permission, granted. Romans 8. Romans 8 is everyone's favorite.
It talks about like the love of God. I mean, there's so much. If I read Romans 8, you'd be like, wow, that's every one of my favorite verses is in Romans 8, right? And then there's Romans 12, which we spent three years, it seems like.
We were Romans 12 for a long time. I run loves Romans 12. In between, it gets a little tricky. Because Paul, remember Paul's brilliant.
What I'm not saying is turn your brain off and throw it away. What I'm saying is use that thing to go even further into the mystery and get your mind blown that much more. So in Romans 9, 10 and 11, Paul starts doing his best to untangle the mystery of God that's been hidden from the ages that the Gentiles and the Jews are actually going to be grafted together. And he's talking to this audience.
He's going, OK, you know how it's like this? And he's quoting every real testament passage. And he's just going, it's this, this, this, this. And then hold on.
It's like this. And then there's this analogy. And he's just, it's like this intellectual explosion that Paul has. And when I went to Northwestern College, it was a great topic of debate.
And we'd look at Romans 9, 10, and 11 and try and figure it out. And what does that mean? And we'd all be self-righteous in looking at Romans 9, 10, and 11 and trying to figure out the mystery of God. Do you know Paul's response to Romans 9, 10, and 11?
He wrote it at the very end of Romans 11. Paul's been in this zone. And rather than getting caught in intellectual weeds, and rather getting so sucked into the arguments, Paul explodes, oh, this is the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and decisions.
How unfathomable and untraceable are his ways. Who is known the mind of the Lord? Who's been his counselor? Who's given to him that should be paid back from him?
All things originate. Through him, all things live. And to him are all things. To him be glory and honor forever.
He's just struck by the beauty of it. He's looking at this thing that God's painted. And he's not trying to figure out, well, how did you brush strokes? OK, what kind of oils did you use there?
He's uninterested, though he's intentional. He's going, I'm seeing this for what it is. This is a masterpiece. And there's an awe and a wonder that hits his heart.
He just explodes on the page. Theology means the study of God. And we've let ourselves get co-opted into this idea that study is a grumpy old guy with a feather quill, angrily writing out things that he knows. What if study wasn't like that and study was more like a baby?
Where you hold that baby right here, and they're studying your face, and they're staring at you, and their eyes are kind of flicking back and forth, and they don't understand. And they can't figure it out. But with every single flick of their eyes, there's a neural pathway being formed in their head, as they're trying to take in this thing that they can't fully understand, and they're locked in. What if our study of God was like that?
And then you turn the corner on the Alaska Mountains. I'm telling you. It's the most thrilling thing you can imagine. I would love to just give us the opportunity to, like I said, like it's the highest honor that we've been given to look at the infinite beauty and majesty of God that will never understand, but to try anyways.
And so I'm not going to promise that in the next 10, 15 minutes, you're going to have an earth-shattering encounter. I can't promise that. But what I can promise you is that it's not going to be wasted time to sit and stare at the face of God. And so here's what we're going to do.
I'm going to ask our musicians who have this incredible gift to put into musical terms certain concepts and attributes of God. We're just going to play wonder and fascination. Play wonder and fascination. And then what we're going to do is we are going to imagine ourselves as that little Jewish girl that's walking up to Jesus.
And we're going to see what the Holy Spirit takes it. For me, it'd be so difficult to do that sitting where you're sitting. So I encourage you all to stand. And if you want to sit right back down, that's fine.
But stand, and if you want to get some space, I would encourage that. I think that often our own self-consciousness gets in the way. So here's what we're going to do, friends. We're going to let the God who's been dying for the chance to just lead us.
And we're going to use the gift of our imaginations, just like little kids. You don't rebuke a kid for having a big imagination. You encourage it. I'm encouraging you.
Let your imagination go a little bit. Just trust the Holy Spirit. But imagine that you're that little kid on the hillside. And Mom's walking you towards Jesus.
And we're just going to start there. And we're going to see where the Lord leads you. He might lead you in a different spot that leads me. If it helps you to focus, and you pray in the spirit, what gift to be able to have a speech that surpasses your knowledge?
You can just pray in tongues quietly, and let the Lord lead your imagination. Maybe you're like, yeah, I don't have to get the tongues. I don't even know what that is. Cool.
Just little phrases that'll help you stay focused. Those little phrases just keep you focused. But we're just going to go for 10 minutes, and just let the Lord lead us into wonder and fascination. The musicians are going to start playing.
And if it helps you just to listen, that's fine. But don't check out here. Like I said, I'm not promising you anything other than this won't be wasted time to sit and be with the Lord like a child. Holy Spirit, we love you.
We really trust you. Would you open our eyes? The eyes of our understanding, the eyes of our heart, would you give us the grace to be like little children, walking up to you on a hillside, the backside of Jerusalem. It can meet you on your terms.
You meet him on his. Not disregarding the question. He's just removing it, being the obstacle that it is for you to come close. The last book in the Chronicles of Narnia series where the theologian, C.S.
Lewis, is partnering with the storyteller C.S. Lewis, ends picture of the new heavens and the new earth at the end of the age. His picture is everyone running, saying, further up and further in, further up and further in. And it never stops.
It's the joy of the new world that they're all laughing and running and saying, further up, further in, further up and further in. They're never going to get tired of sprinting into the mystery of God. They're never going to stop exploring. They're never going to stop being fascinated, but they're further in, just running and running and running, further higher.
There's a whole spectrum in between. I think what Ben said is so important that it wasn't wasted. However much you fought yourself throughout that time. However much you fought your intellectual rationality.
It's okay. The intention of your heart is I want you, right? And the reason why, I'm just addressing some accusation in the room. The reason why the enemy tries to accuse us is based on our performance.
The Lord's not concerned about your performance, even when you're trying to meditate on him and you're really trying hard. And so the Lord's looking at you as a child and he's going, you're getting caught up in their mind a little bit, but despite whether you feel it, despite whether you're experiencing it, he's holding you. And he's so happy to hold you and he loves holding you. That's all stand.
I'll send you out and commission you out. The Lord knows each one of you. And for some of you, you felt like, wow, that was a really significant moment that you had with the Lord. And I want you to know that he knows exactly how to speak to you because he knows your history and knows your whole story.
And I want you to receive that as a confirmation. Some of you, he encountered you in a specific way tonight because he knows you that well. And he knows how to uniquely hold you in a way that actually touched you deeply or no one could know how to touch you like that. And it's because he loves you.
So Lord, we say that it's our joy to be your children. And Lord, we thank you that you did all of the hard work and the heavy lifting so we could be seated with you in heavenly places. And Lord, we thank you that you hold us and that you blow our minds and you short circuit our minds. And Lord, we want humility on us as a house, as we move to the base.
Lord, we want to be filled with wonder. Lord, we want to have a poor in spirit, hungry after you Lord to know you more. And so I commission out these hungry ones. And Lord, I thank you that the hungry always get fed in Jesus name and everybody said amen.