So where have we been this year? January of 2020 seems just terribly, amazingly, largely of just far away. I read somewhere just a couple of days ago that we feel like we've taken on 20 years of stress and trauma in the last 11 months. I keep getting the point now where I'm watching TV shows and I've cycled back through all the backlog of Netflix.
I'm in new stuff now and I see crowds and that seems weird. I look at people start asking, where's your mask, why is that not on? We have crammed so much living into this last year. Now this Sunday, typically the second Sunday year, we have what we call vision Sunday at Foundry.
It's where we look into it. The power of vision is in our life. We go back to where we have been in 2020. We talk about where we feel God calling us to be in 2021.
And I've got to be honest with you. This has felt awkward for the last several weeks. I feel like I know what God is calling me to talk about with us. I feel like we have a word here today, but it just feels different.
It feels strange to know that we're having such a big Sunday, typically in the life of our church and we're doing it dislocated like that. It just makes it seem awkward and then Wednesday happened. January 6th happened, all of that happened. And it makes it even different, but it makes this message different.
It makes it more necessary to me. That's where my head, that is where my mind has been, because all along what I wanted to talk about, this Sunday was focused. And where do we focus on? What do we do?
And we normally call this vision Sunday, like I said, I feel like instead, really this is a recalibration Sunday. That's what I'm sensing in my heart. Recalibration means to, there's something that's an occasional work that you have to do and it's the adjustments that you make to make sure you're ensuring optimum operating standards. To recalibrate something is to make sure it's working and it's absolute best dynamic.
It's able to fulfill its original purpose. We drift from time to time in our life. We drift in our environments. We drift in our relationships.
We drift in our focus. We drift in everything. And this drift causes us to be out of alignment. So to recalibrate something is a way to make sure that you're in your proper place, to do your proper job, to do the things that you were made to do.
Because I've got good news for you. You know, we need some good news right now, right? I've got good news for you. You know, the church has been where we are right now before.
We've been here before. This is not anything new to us. And in fact, all of the things that we are feeling right now is the place where the church thrives in, because it's different, because it's distinct, because it requires an alternative way of operating in this world. Our entire universe, our place, it's teetering on the edge.
And the greatest thing the church can do in this moment right now is to live out this radical sense of calm that's given to us through Jesus Christ. And I want to talk about, I want us to recalibrate by talking this morning about how the church is called to live out a different and a distinctive vision in the midst of chaos. Also read our passage for us earlier, our teaching texts from Psalm 37. For me in the last two or three years, and y'all heard me talk about this.
If you've been around Foundry at any length of time, the Psalms is a comforting place. Not just for me, but that's the role that it has served across history. It's a place that we find comfort. It's a place that we find assurance, the place where we find the truthfulness of God's world just cast out to us in a way that we can focus in.
This is where I read those first seven verses of Psalm 37 and Austin read this is the first thing I see. Number one, chill out. It's going to be okay. And I have many times if you wanted to hear those words this year, it's going to be okay.
You know, when we don't know where to go, the best posture for us to take is one of trusting. We do not have to rely on the shallow, secular resources of our culture. And that's what Psalms 37 teaches us is it gives us a different way and a different space of being grounded. One of the things that says in here, I love this verse, I've been just thinking about it for the last several weeks and says, dwell in the land and be friend, faithfulness.
Dwell in the land and befriend, faithfulness. I think this is God telling us, you know, to make your home in this place and begin the tough work to reorient your heart towards my kingdom as it exists around you. And we cannot have this peacefulness without understanding and working through the power of that of God telling us it's going to be okay. He's also telling us sometimes that it's harder, but it will be better.
It's harder, but it will be better. There's three transformative actions of trusting that we find in this Psalm, very first one we find in verse four, is this to delight yourself. Now we delight ourselves in God, delighting is the source of true joy that increases trust. We need to just spend time with God in a way that we enjoy.
We're not trying to learn new things, we're not trying to seek things out, we're not trying to ask for forgiveness or ask for more stuff. We're simply delighting in the Lord and it creates joy, enjoy increases trust. The second transformative act we find in here is to commit. This is about steadfastness of heart.
This is about us living in an activation of trust. This is us saying, hey, this is where I am. This is where I will find myself. All throughout the Psalms, we find this spirit of thankfulness that says you have given me a broad place to stay.
And that's been on my heart so much these last few weeks. And we commit ourselves. We, our whole body, our entirety of our being, we're going to say, you know what? This is where we are God.
We've laid our claim right here and our claim is with you. We trust you no matter what. In the last transformative action of trusting to find this Psalm is this, is to be still, to realize that God's time is not our time. We want to work fast.
There's a business action that says this. If you want to go fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far, go with other people. If we want to go far in life, if we want to have an increasing, expansive vision of the kingdom of God around us, we have to be still and to wait for him and we do this together as God's people.
Then we get a chance to just kind of dig deep into the psalm and pull back. We get a chance to see what this life is like in a more positive sense. And I want us to take the time though, to pull out this biblical example of what happens when we live for these things in a negative sense. What life is like in a way that does not live out with trust as a primary emotion.
So okay, what is it like for to be concerned with all things that are yourself and myself, to learn what is preservation actually get us to? Because there's a fantastic story in the Bible. I believe it's absolutely and completely appropriate for us to do a compare and contrast with this amazing life that trust teaches us in Psalm 37. We find that in Genesis chapter four, verses 13 through 16.
This is what we find. This is the story of Cain and of Abel. And this is how we see this whole thing interact. The 13 through 16.
Cain replied to the Lord, my punishment is too great for me to bear. You've banished me from the land and from your presence. You have made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me.
And the Lord replied, this back and forth of God and Cain and a physical way in the story just makes this wild. The Lord replied, no, for I will give a seven fold punishment to anyone who kills you. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him. So Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of nod east of Eden.
Now this is a compare and contrast. This is the opposite way of living in trust. We have all sorts of Cain and Abel. And ultimately Cain wanted to take things under his own.
And he got so angry that his brother pleased the Lord more than he did that he killed his brother. But there's a couple of things, little detail points in the story that help us understand and help us kind of put some arms around what the emotions of our last year might have been like. No, he goes to the place of nod. You know, earlier in that verse it says that God commits him to wandering, to being listless, to having no home.
And not as the exact same place. It's a formal name for this. But what Cain is cursed to is to have an experience without any grounding or identity. It's the same word to kind of think about when your head goes back and forth or when you might be moving from one place to another and just consistently in motion, trying to find something going back and forth.
It's that furtive movement of always trying to find out what will provide and changing your mind constantly. But this is also the condemnation to be a person who has the absence of stability. And if we read further down in the Cain's lineage, what we see across Genesis chapter four is this consistent, consonant striving to self-create identity and stability. You know, our world does every single thing it can to deculture us away from the kingdom of God and to re-culture us into the wandering and into the isolation of Cain.
You know, think about that. I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I can't be this way. We work here with Transparent here at Foundry.
I'm tired of talking about this. I'm tired of realizing this is a thing that captures and has our mind. And I feel like the biggest thing for us to do this year is to learn what does it mean to step out of this as a controlling narrative. But think of how many times have you gone back and forth and back and forth this year.
Think about how in our own lives, we spend so much time and energy and momentum and resources and money and all these sorts of things just searching for grounding and identity. Now, many of us have lived alive of just constant, low-level questioning and anxiousness due to the lack of any definiteness in our life. I've said this for the last few weeks several times. We need to call this stuff out as spiritual issues.
And this morning, not only I want us to think about this as a spiritual issue, but I want us to realize that this is the way that the evil and that the devil tries to draw us away from the life that God has called us to, because God is definite. In the most absolute sense, God is definite. I think back to Matthew, chapter seven, when Jesus talks about the wide way and the narrow way. And the wide is the way that leads to destruction and narrow is the way that leads to life.
And we have all sorts of things wrapped up inside, but we think this might happen. What we realize is it's not so much about, these are all of the things that it's gonna be super easy to do this one thing and super hard to others. I don't think that's the way it is. I think the way that scripture actually works that story out is, you know, wide is the path that leads to destruction.
Is there's very, very many things that we can do to lead us into destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life. There's a very specific, a very definite way of seeking out the kingdom. The boundaries to it are tight, but Jesus promises to show us the way. And if God is definite, that how we are following Him should be definite, how we are following Him should be clear.
That's what I want us to think about so much this year at Foundry, because think about it, there's a couple ways it can work out. And there's the way that the world seeks to deculture us. And there's the way that the kingdom seeks to read and culture us. The world seeks to decultress by saying, you know, something else is easier in life.
The kingdom seeks to read and culture us by saying, my Jesus coming up to say, my way is worth it. The world seeks to decultress when it says, there's something else offers control. You can control things yourself. You can do things yourself.
You don't need anyone else. The way the kingdom recultures us into the way of God is this, is that Jesus' way offers freedom. True freedom. The way the world seeks to decultress is that it speaks to our heart and that takes a view desire to be important.
This is all about you. The way the kingdom seeks to recultress is Jesus says, you matter to others and you need other people. You can't do this by yourself. I think the message that we have this morning, if we really want things to be different, if we feel called by God to step in to a different sort of life is what I call 2021 culture changers.
These are the things I have in mind. Because this is what's going on when Christians live a distinctive vision that they challenge outsiders to investigate the Christian life more deeply. I said earlier that it's okay, we've done this before, that this is actually the church's best spot. This is the church's best spot.
You know, in times of trial, in times of turmoil, the distinctive life of a Christian is the thing that draws other people to God. It's the oldest thing that we have in our toolbox is living a life of distinction. It's not a side we take or an option we take, but it's a radically different way of moving through this world and living in that radical trust of God that we found out about in Psalm 37. We do this three ways, we're conscious of it.
We'll say, hey, there's a problem here. The second thing is we're willful. We've got to correct this problem, but it's also deliberate. It's the way that we say, this is how we do it, and we do it by trusting in God, by finding our focus in His presence in an absolute way.
So how do we do this? How do we take this song? Because I've gone on long enough about this as it is, but the first thing we do is this. We reorient towards the presence of God as a primary way of learning and living trust.
We contend for the presence and the activity of God in our lives. And not just in a way that's casual consumption, but a deep commitment and a primary activity in our life. We approach the presence of God because it is the most valuable thing in our lives. Ian Bowne says this, it is essential that in giving into our religious experience, we have something definite in view, and we strike out for that one point.
We spent three weeks earlier this, in 2020, talking about the power of the presence of God and the clarity that brings in our life as a church. The number one focus that we need to have in 2021 is seeking the presence of God and all that brings us and all that that entails. The second way we do this is this. We realize that this new forward and leading edge is the fast lane of the kingdom.
Your friends, Foundry has always been at its best when we're on the leading edge of doing things differently for the sake of our mission. That is who we are, that is how we've been for the last six years, and that is why we've been able to accomplish so many things beyond our own internal capacity. But this question got asked in a seminar I was in several months ago, and it helped me reframe the way that I've been thinking and the way that I'm actually, honestly leading, and I'm asking this question right now. And I've asked several groups of people and there's kind of the same standard at the answers to start and then the real answer just tends to expand things so much.
But here's this question I'm gonna ask you. Who owns our church? Who owns it? And it's certainly not me, it's the staff.
Is it the leaders and the answer that happens a lot to say, oh, the congregation owns the church. You know, friends, I think that is one of the reasons that the Christian church in America has got itself into the message in right now in 2021. You know the true owner of our church is? It's our mission, the conrating environments for people to experience a God big enough for all their needs.
Friends, I think that is the strongest mission that we can have this year. You know, my hope and prayer is that our understanding and our execution of that part of that mission experience a God big enough. It's not just vaguely informed in our lives, but it drives and frees up our allegiance to the kingdom of God and all that it provides. Think about that, just the power of that phrase right there, experience a God big enough.
Because friends, that's why our world needs, that's why our community needs, that's why our friends who don't know Jesus need. That's the people who hear the way that we're talking and see the things that we're wearing, see the way that we're interacting on social media, all those things they need to know, what does it like to have a God big enough to experience him, to know him, to interact with him, to allow him to inform things, to allow him to change things, all of that. And that is what our mission is. That's what owns us as a church, is that mission.
But these are either exciting times in life or frightening times in life. But here's the thing, we get to choose. Are they frightening or are they exciting? They're frightening, that means we're wandering, that means we're hopeless, that means we're listless, that means if we're frightened, that means that we are willfully living in the land of nod outside of the presence of God.
But if they're exciting times, that means they're focused for us, that means that they're deliberate. That means that we realize that this is a space where God has placed us in and we get to do his work and he is right alongside of us in this. When we don't know where to go, we might find ourselves tempted by a cultural invasion of worry, of listlessness and of disorientation, but we realize the greatest weapon we have against that is radical trust. Earlier this week, I was devotionally reading in the book of Exodus.
I came across this phrase in chapter 14 and it just began to work and move and just change things in my mind. This is what it says, but Moses told the people, don't be afraid, just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians that you see today will never be seen again. This is when God can promise to part the Red Seas and they're standing right there and they're worried and they're frustrated and they're grumbling already.
Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you. Say Moses told this to those people. Our call is to be Moses for our community. To loudly proclaim that clarion call, stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.
That first the Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. It's kind of macabre, it's a little morbid. We think about that our problems, when we trust God, our problems will never be seen again. It sounds fear not.
Stand firm, live into trust, seek the salvation of the Lord and that will work for you today. Friends, I wish I had a three point thing, I was like this is what God's telling us to do, this, this and this this is sheer. We're called to trust. That can be the most changing thing for us as individuals and that can be the most changing thing for our community.
This is to be a people who understand and comprehend and live in trust and are of allow the kingdom of God to be the defining and the definite vision that is in the view of all of our minds. Let's pray, God, this is what we want, this is what we need. Or this is what we stand in. This is what we plead for, this is what we pray for, this is what we ask for.
God, I pray for the full power of all that you are to come into us. Lord, let us not attach our hope to anything else but you. Lord, let us declare 100% total allegiance to your son, Jesus Christ, the King of our hearts, the King of this universe, the creator of all things who will rule together for eternity. God, let us hold firm in that trust and let us see and experience your power as it flows out through us.
In your name we pray, amen.