This Welcome Home series was all about who we are as a church and how you and I can make ourselves part of the work of God in the Earth. This series was both an invitation and a challenge. It was both aspirational and our daily reality. We believe and we are witnessing this church as a place of prayer, a place of belonging, miracles, and worship.
Where is a place you dream to visit? This is a question I often love answering. It puts me in a moment of time where our beautiful world is available to visiting. I think of incredible cities full of culture and art, beautiful mountains of serene stillness, and places where the northern lights shine.
What if we, as believers, led the charge on celebration in our homes, our neighborhoods, and our culture? What if we showed the world how to party and how to give a better picture about who God is and what he’s like through our celebrations? This type of celebration requires strategy and intention. But the creative possibilities are endless.
I am so excited to get to share with you all this morning on how we as Christ followers can become a place of celebration.
With a job like mine, you could say I know a little something about CELEBRATING! I have the daily pleasure of celebrating so many organizations, events, birthdays, weddings-you name it! As a people, we love to come together to celebrate.
What is your primal urge? To answer that question, I think we have to go a step higher and dig a little deeper and ask: What is God’s primal urge? Because it doesn’t begin with us, it begins with God. And we find our purpose and we find our mission when we find ourselves in him.
This week, as we contemplate finding our purpose, I would encourage you to tap into the missional purpose to which God has called his people. Our God is a missional God, his very nature is one in which out of love, he sends himself to those in need.
We are part of a much bigger purpose, the missional church. Which at the end of the day is to see the Kingdom of God come to earth.
When it comes to miracles, especially ones that I’d like to experience, like my personal prayer to be totally healed from cancer, I’ve stopped asking why and why not, and I’ve started asking what can I learn, how can I grow, where is my opportunity to walk in obedience to the Spirit’s leading, and what can I do while I’m here.
Belief in Jesus also changes our worldview. It shifts the way we see God, the way we ourselves, the way we see others, and the way we even see creation. It draws us to become students of his words, imitators of his ways, and partners in his mission. Belief in Jesus compels us to walk as true disciples of Jesus.
My prayer for you today is that you will have a prayer every day. You need a miracle. We need to have the miracle of God in our lives to magnify God because we are in a constant battle, and our God is our defender, and he has conquered it all.
I'd love to share what I've experienced that has given me an understanding of what a house of healing can be.
I’ve come to a realization in my everyday life that I believe a part of my role is to add value to everyone around me. So I often ask God to help me see this person who is sitting right in front of me the way you see them. Help me to call out the gold you’ve deposited in them and it’s a small way of saying, you belong and I want you to feel deeply cared for. I want you to know you have immense value in the family of God.
Today as we reflect on a place of belonging, consider the opportunities you have to embrace your place of belonging and also help to create a place for others.
I am honored to pastor our Lincoln Theatre Campus. Lean in as I read A Kids Book About Belonging by Kevin Carroll.
Part of belonging in the Father’s house is belonging in community. We need each other. As the children of God we need each other on this journey. I need you and you need me. I need someone to tell me about what they experienced when they made that wrong turn. I need someone who will testify when they trusted God. I need someone to warn me about the hard times, be with me in the painful moments, and celebrate with me in the moments of triumph. I need someone who is seeking God with me.
Belonging is our primary human need. Beyond food and shelter, nothing promotes human flourishing like having a people and place of belonging. Research confirms that income level, marriage and children, and perceived security all pale in comparison to belonging in promoting sustained happiness. We long to belong.
Some of the most beautiful moments of worship come in the ordinary, mundane moments of life. And yet, there is something powerful, spiritual, and undeniably right when we worship together. Simply put, worship is better together!
Throughout my life, I have tried my best to lean into God specifically when things don't go my way. Whenever I'm upset, anxious, afraid, or nervous, I find that praising and worshipping God really drowns out all my other emotions and fills me with joy. The joy of the Lord is more powerful than any emotion you can conceive with your own body.
As a worship leader, I’ve spent years participating in and helping to create powerful Sunday-morning worship experiences. However, embracing the mundane has not come naturally to me. It’s taken time and practice to realize the necessity of both environments and to understand that the mundane is not at odds with the powerful experiences of God’s presence we can have at church.
I want to encourage you to have a special place, a private place, where you meet with God. It’s not just for the miracles, although, I am a witness that it can happen but make this place your “tent of meeting” just as Moses did.
