So I'm gonna talk a little bit about kind of why we saw a switch up and change this morning But I want to ask you a question for since this have you ever felt insignificant? You're probably said okay. Chad normal you ask a big question like that for your telephony store you make fun of yourself But you think about that if you ever felt it and if you're like you don't belong And what does that feel like a mayor with my wife? She likes to run ultra marathon trail races.
I've joked about this before I typically feel very insignificant when I go to one of those trail races I'm saying other people in the congregation who spouses do the same thing. They're nodding their heads They all people I like to say that people at those events wear spandex for a very different reason I would wear spandex the only time I felt like I even remotely fit in at one of her races one time was when I showed up to a hundred mile trail race and I was the fat guy who brought a propane grill to the middle of the woods to make breakfast tacos for 24 hours straight Like I bought myself into that scene through the irony of what I was doing that moment But if we really are honest with ourselves, we all have those tendencies to want more sometimes I was trying to do internet research. I couldn't get the Google search terms right But I have friends that teach their infants to sign like that's generally one of the second or third signs You teach it I think the whole concept of more is one of the first things that we begin to understand No, we always want more But this is the kind of the quandary and this leads into some of the switch-ups and that sort of stuff is when what happens when the idea of More is no longer good enough. Have you been to that place before?
To where you feel like nothing's happening. Nothing's changing. Nothing's moving forward. You feel like you are doing more You're working harder.
You're changing this stuff. You're spending more time more focus All of this stuff and the balls just not moving forward. Anybody ever been there before? You know, we have this idea of more But it's not working So what does it take for us to get to the place where we realize that we don't need more?
But that we need to be growing more There's a difference right? That's what we'll talk about today the teaching text that Jack read for us earlier It opened up that one concept is this that in God's kingdom things that are insignificant become great Do quick short parables about things that are insignificant becoming great? George lad says this the kingdom of God is the realization of God's will and the enjoyment of the accompanying blessing This parable sort of saying the kingdom of God is like and just an idea the kingdom of God so many times confuses us like we we might have An idea what that is we might not remember when I was in seminary and I was in college ministry The person who was the pastor it was teaching on this for whole summer He sent us out to do a survey among that was gonna take campus and like 90% of people we talked about they said Oh, that's just heaven, right? That's just heaven and then the kind of the where that stops us when we think that places that we think the kingdom of God is just something that We will see and we will experience in the future It's like this hopeful thing.
It's like I might get to get on an airplane again on vacation one day after covid I was talking with somebody earlier today Just wanted I've always wanted to take a guy's trip to go eat barbecue and lock our Texas for a full day It might have been Rick. I'll call me chat. I will go I might we think we so many times think that heaven is just this thing in the future and We can't experience of it now that George lad quote. It's about the enjoyment of the accompanying blessing that God gives us We might remember what we said earlier We talked about how Dallas will or says that a kingdom of God for a Christian is simply just your range of effective will It's what do you have the ability to control?
What do you have the ability to move and to shape this right there with us? And we combine those two ideas what we begin to see is that there's a unique blessing of God that is available for us to exercise We think with the king of this list. I made a drawing. I hope you can read my handwriting We all know how to towards the horrible my handwriting is but this we have going on You know we get this at the bottom is this is the age that we are in now This is the age we're in now.
This is a time. It can be kind of broken be frustrating sin is there but bad things happen Think back to the words of Revelation that there's there's crying and there's pain that one day We're hoping for that to be no more right now the top line is this idea This is the age to come that we're waiting on but we see that dotted line going down This is the that's the coming of Jesus When Jesus came he brought in the fullest sense of the kingdom that we can see and experience here on this world Even though it is broken it has been healed and remade at that moment by Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit Those of us who follow him now have access to his presence in a way that changes us But also changes everything else. We are living friends in that dotted line waiting That is the kingdom is this place where God is still giving us authority and power and he is transforming this world through us right now Is we wait for him to come and transform it eternally? The kingdom of God is acting in his full power right now through his people through us Great keener says it's at the kingdom of God the kingdom is the hope and the fuel of the church This this dream that we have this this call that we have this action all these things that we have this should be our fuel as we wait Jesus is so much more than a way to just kind of pacify the crappy things But wherein we just treat him like that King of God is the hope and the fuel for the church So you might be saying I'm not sure you're talking all this big stuff But you know how can this be happening all this bad stuff is going on right now?
I'm or you know Meredith and I have been looking at the news for the last couple of weeks You might remember it last year right before the virus everything down We were in the Holy Land and we're now watching rockets getting fired from like where I would get cheap street food And we see all these big huge bad horrible things going on in our world right now and we think chat how how do these small things that we're talking You said earlier how does this matter but you know a little thing going good in my life or me making some tiny decision Or me trying to do something in some hidden way that really can't change change the world can it? I do I have the ability to actually change things? That's a motion I think many of us get to but we don't realize sometimes how one decision we make could possibly change everything That's these two parables. They do you know we sometimes get small and large confused We pop up that that that idea of the mustard seed the smallest of all seeds they can grow into the greatest of things We're thinking about size we're thinking about like just physicalness What Jesus speaking about here though in these stories is about is about release It's about he uses parables to define what is unknown with language that is known Saying the things that you believe to be deeply insignificant When applied in the right places can do a massive amount of things that might not add up to us We also there's things where we do realize that one thing can be completely bigger than we imagine it to be One of my favorite new YouTube threads to go down is watching people do the one chip challenge.
You'll see that It's like a single Dorito. That's like, yeah, it's like made out of a Carolina Reaper pepper It's all about how this I'm not gonna do it. You cannot pay me. I'll get Jack to do it You know like that one thing like could bring that one chip brings you absolutely to tears You know think back you might have thought in your own life I spent some time Talking with my therapist a few weeks ago about like this one thing that I realized had changed the course of my life and how that was remade Now tiny little insignificant things that we just say yes to can change our world Small and large is about size.
It's about significance And when things seem insignificant and have the ability to have this enormous impact or like that the parable of the 11 when something seems So hidden but so effective You know these two short parables or stories about extensive growth about intensive transformation Now I'll repeat the question we started off with Have you ever felt insignificant? I think many times our insignificance comes in when we just see something not be able to get the impact that we think it does But I know in my own life that typically is when I'm in a season trying to get more I'm not thinking about growing more, but it's a little bit easier to live without the analysis Now what are the insignificant things that God might be calling us to they might seem insignificant to our time they might seem insignificant to our resources they might seem insignificant to somebody else but we never know how they are going to pay off You know immediate circumstances for many times in our life there like a definitive situation like we we get to this place We had this problem we're trying to fix this thing We're trying to take care of and all of a sudden that can just take on our entire focus We think that we just don't have the ability to get it done anymore We we start trying to get more and get more and get more There's something about waiting and there's something about when we wait we begin to find the growth that we're actually It reframes how we think of values Now take it with the world values right the world values you getting more doing more right? The world values what you have or what you don't have The world values what you can provide or what you can produce That's not how value works in the kingdom in the kingdom of God value happens by how much we are willing to release Value changes that's what Jesus speaks about Jesus speaks of us having an unwary Confidence in the power of the kingdom of God What are we willing to release and are we willing to be measured up to that? Instead of being defined about what we produce or show And a lot of times our understanding of value begins to change when we reach that fundamental stopping point we get that point I can't do anymore.
I can't do anymore. This needs to change, but I can't do anymore It's dangerous when we get to that spot we find ourselves and they get more mentality because it's not that kingdom value You know growing more and us realizing okay I've been given these incredible abilities and I've taken this as far as I can right now But what is amazing and what is wild is what happens when I'm willing to give up the best of who I am To see what God wants to do now in this situation And this doesn't speak either laziness is not a value in the kingdom This doesn't speak to what we do when we just need something to happen and aren't willing to work for it This is what happens when we understand who God made us to be we understand what he has called us to do we understand and see a clear vision over A situation or over our life and we realize how we have been placed to be in the middle of that space within we realize You know what I'm following the path of Jesus and realizing to see more I need to become less Let's see what happens when we start growing through kingdom value No, just getting more that goes against because we're struggling to just do things ourselves proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 very familiar Gerti grandma's have this crocheted in their bathrooms trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight. This is this is different This is complicated. This is about us saying this is what I'm great at and I'm willing to give it all up This is what I'm great at and I'm willing to give it all up The scripture talks about the abilities that we have been given by God in accordance with many things that we are trusted in the ways And the things that we can do but sooner or later the only way we move forward is releasing The growing is intentional Growing is focused on the presence of God growing is deliberate growing is slow growing is steady Growing is about exponential growth that happens simply by us keeping our eyes fixed on God I'd like to you know just get a little specific just for a moment.
Can we dream together? We talk about growing We said earlier in the service me and Madeleine kind of flip-flop for some things for intentional reason today I'm telling you know everything in the last year has been really really wild, right? What's so what's so wild is that we as a church have seen growth in so many different ways We've had people step up to the plate and we have started so many new aspects of our ministry over the last year that we've realized We're not just something we did for a year But things that we do permanently We were in the last few weeks was kind of been talking about like one of our specific things that we need is more folks to serve on Our media ministry on a Sunday and you know I've had a very different kind of a varied life like my journey to ministry started when I was like an 11 or 12 year old And I was I was bugging the guy who ran sound at the church And I remember going there for some like kids flute recital or something and the music is in a page I come back here this makes it louder this makes that louder Just keep it sounding good and I'm 12 year old trusted back there This is in 1985 or 1990 like that sound was the size of this stage You know I remember when I was like 15 or 16 and I was playing music by that point in time I remember starting to play music in church and what that was like wow, okay This is what I'm gonna do for my life And then I found out that I actually love the technical side of stuff and when Mary and I got married I thought I was gonna go on it and I was gonna be a technical director at a church and spend my entire life all the technology And I worked for guy that's the very first day. He said, you know what there's some other stuff I think you're good at I don't know what it is yet But I'm not gonna let you touch a video camera or a soundboard or anything for six months So we're gonna figure this stuff out and over that six months when I began calling up Feltal to seminary into a teaching ministry That sort of thing you know God's calling my life is moved and kind of shaped and shifted and so for the last year We've been adding and adding more technology.
We need for our live stream for this new section We were in all of that we were just kind of Every single week just like trying to stretch it a little bit further a little bit further We got the point we realized you know we need more people serving in this area But the tough thing for Madeline was she had never done any of that before so we said hey Let's go talk as we're gonna take a Sunday. We'll flip flop I'll lead you just stay in the back and watch all this happen just so you can understand what it is that we're asking people to do You know our kids men should talk about this last week our kids ministry is still trying to get ahead from what we needed From where we were a year ago No, they're greatest need is just some people to be willing to serve in kids ministry I'll be a hundred percent honest with you We're having a family moment right now know me and some of the staff and some other volunteers have been like hitting our head against the wall Trying to figure out how to get more people how to get more people getting in that loop of wire things just not working So maybe in the data nerd that I am I started crunching stuff So do you all know what this is pre-COVID I can't find these statistics as post-COVID, but do you know pre-COVID? What percentage of a church serving was generally known to be like a successful like great percentage of people that were serving a local church any idea any guesses all the smart people that write the books or you pay money to come and tell you what to do is Consulting your church say that if more than 20% of your congregation is serving that you're doing great You're doing fantastic. You should have all your needs met I'm sorry when I crushed our numbers.
You know how many people we had serving at Foundry last month? 45% you see we don't have a problem do we? But we have an invitation to reframe and re-situate ourselves into what God's calling us to do No, that made me think so much about it because it's get more or is this a grow more is this get more is this grow more? Where are we needing to be and what does this look like?
And I think what God's inviting us is if you think jazz but I pass out cards and ask you to sign up for every one of these things I'm not gonna do that I need you to do that I'm not gonna do that right now because what it said I want to do is I want to invite y'all into a way of thinking that I think is what God is asking for us to do as his church In this space now in may of 2021 Don't think he is asking us for us to make for the church to be our social epicenter Okay, I think everybody here does not look for the church to fill up their social schedule, right? Does anybody want me to take care of their random Tuesday afternoon for you? No, there's a point in time to pass where that's what folks need the church to be the church was incredibly effective when it gave you Something to do every night of the week those days are gone those days aren't anymore. You don't need that Okay, also we don't need the church to be someplace of hiddenness You know you might want to just kind of come in and not be challenged or not engage and just like pass off I went to church this week box But friends that doesn't do you any good?
Because you're not part of the community. You're not perfect with the growth We I'm not interested in entertaining you for an hour on Sunday. I love you. I deeply love you I would love to have a lunch with you entertaining that way.
I tell you jokes or whatever But I'm not looking to entertain you for an hour on Sunday I think God's asking us to do is what God's been asking his church to do for two thousand years is this is That we need the church to be a place that's engaging with the presence of God alongside of other followers That we need to expect him to be calling on us that we want to have you actively engage in waiting on him To see and experience the activity of the living God But we know that in order for that to happen we don't need to grow more We don't need we don't need to get more what we need to do is we need to grow more we need to grow more into what that Calling looks like and what is what into what that mission looks like more than the idea of I am expecting to be completely fulfilled By being alongside of Jesus in these things No, because we need more people and we feel called for other people to admit and counter Jesus in the way we are friends that is significant We need to be dedicated in our insignificance Dedicated in our priorities to things dedicated to knowing that we are willing to walk our lives in a way We never know what random conversation is going to be bringing that presence and that piece of God into things Knowing that when we come here in some way to be part of things whether it's a boil crawfish at a guys night Whether it's to work with kids whether it's to say hey I'm going to figure out how to work a camera Madeline knowing is that we are coming in and we are inserting us Inserting ourselves into the larger significant work of what God is doing that We do significant things by being willfully insignificant And expecting God to see this change not us orchestrate this So we're gonna close we're close by this I'm going I'm going back to my guitar because I know that the things that God calls us to do in our life He just moves and shapes and transforms Before we hired Madeline, I felt this like this kind of heavy presence on my spirit I was being called back into worship in some way didn't realize we're gonna be video worship for months and playing alongside of this and doing Lasturing where that sort of things you know God doesn't change our calls What God always calls us to do is realize where is the best place for me to be at this moment? That's why I was kind of secretly happy to flip flop with her this Sunday To do something I love to do something that formed to me years ago to do something completely made me to be who I am now We're gonna stand we're gonna do I'm just gonna ask you the bands gonna come up We're gonna get stuff transition back on but someone asked us to do I want to stand up And I want us just to speak to the significance that God has called see we're gonna we're just gonna read Ephesians 1 17 through 19 together as we Transition so let's read this together. I pray for you constantly You may grow in your knowledge of God I pray with your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those he has called his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for those of us who believe him and this is the same mighty Power in the power that God gave to rise Jesus from the grave is the very same power He gives in us