Being Human in a Hard World

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0:00 If you don't know me, I'm Erin. I get to share with you all this morning. Because Ben is somewhere, hopefully, having already submitted an M with the teachers and boys. So, I'm sure he will come back with good stories. Let me pray for you. Just for a minute, as we dive into a couple of the passages that I'm a election night for this week. We do get to meet together and try and remind each other of things that are achieved.

0:30 Your whole spirit is with us and your whole spirit reminds us of what is true about you, what is true about us and what is true about the world and its roots. So, it's on the way with us this morning, it's a hearing card. The question was, what are some things that are maybe in the life of the world that feel unfinished? You may come up in India, decide to explore. Anything at all? Michelle wasn't here yet for the question, but she probably got all y'all's.

1:05 It was landscaping, whatever, stuff like that. You? Okay. I get that. I get that. I get that. Yeah, I'll say about it. That question can I just resonate with me a little bit this week in thinking about man, the same things, like small things and few things that feel like they're just not there yet. The boat in my backyard that has not run in a very long time.

1:36 I think that he rode on that boat once years ago. All the things that were the projects and stuff that I'm like, okay, it exists and really begins and really begins and then the things that you realize is to get a little way down the road that the plane's on there. They haven't come before. You remember when you went to the boat on fire at one time? Yeah. So, when I was in a year ago, they had a very different, and I built out a year that one quirky way my brain works is to stay in my brain and they also drive me nuts.

2:23 For some reason, like, two days that are kind of said, like, they, they're going to serum. They sometimes get really, really under my skin. You know, if you sent me anything the other day, but there's marketing thing that they developed for some work you're doing and how to align it where it was like the whole, if you've given it, if you use per day, you can see some emphasis. I was like, oh, man, really? It's like, oh my gosh, like these two days, it's like, stick in my brain.

2:53 And I think part of these, I was like, man, can we, like, take something new, take something creative? But when I was in the scenario, they had this thing that I felt like everybody said all the time. And then every professor, you know, would say that, like, I'd speak into me, started saying it even over. And they always talk about our life in the world and God's kingdom and being the thing that is already and not yet. Right?

3:23 No, you wouldn't be able to take it all the time. They have this huge element that God's kingdom has were invited to be a part of it in the world as a leader. In the world as it stands today, that it is something that exists already. And it's something that is also holy and finished. That there's a huge element that it is not yet. And I thought about that this week. Especially, I think, for me, that here might kind of lead into it.

3:55 You know, you think about the events of the week and you may be able to probably spend more time watching the news this week than maybe the videos before. Right? Oh, when you see a tragedy like you saw in Texas, that I don't know how that hits you. That, that hits me really powerfully. I got a text from a friend who has a very young son, a few years old, and it hit him in a holding new way, I think, because he's realizing and watching the tragedy of children and teachers who's in their lives.

4:34 And I'm looking thinking about that kind of as a background, which, you know, I was like, man, do you want to talk about that? Now, that's probably the main little question that I was just hearing about that and reading about that. And so that is kind of like the backdrop. And if we're going to think about what scripture this kind of has to say to us about God's kingdom and life in the world and even something like hope we're doing it against the backdrop of really significant gravity. Right? We're doing it against the backdrop of really significant loss.

5:05 And I think it's huge. These are business elements, whereas we think about the things that kind of thrifter promises us. When you think about that, you know, you hear all these things, we're going to read a little bit of it today of, you know, where the Holy Spirit is with us and the Holy Spirit. And the way we're talking about it is because with us and the God's kingdom is present in us and around us and with us. And then also at the same time, we are faced with the ways in which God's kingdom is not holy around us yet.

5:35 When we see things like that. So I'll put that in the background mind. And the lessons and positives were really interesting to you because sometimes in the church town, sometimes it's like, well, sometimes I read them. And I'm not doing the backdrop, but I'll follow that. But sometimes I read them and I'm like, it is a real simple thing to figure out how to activate these together. And then this is like, oh, wait, okay, wow, like, it's pretty wild, like some ways that they kind of tied together.

6:05 So because we're going to jump a little bit, I'm going to use it the apple pump from you. But if you're following along, I'm looking at DQL 36 first. I know. DQL 36. DQL 36. Maybe I'll have the Bible app, like the name, like, like, life was Bible app on your phone. Does it ask you if you love it for your eyes? You need to... Right? It's really funny. If you guys download Bible app, instead of it being like, hey, do you like Bible app, hey, do you use Bible app, how can you make it better?

6:39 You get to call up and say, do you love Bible app? And I'm like, damn, right, can I say no? I say no, actually. My Instagram, it went really nice and, you know, but the price is in town on it, right? Like, we should pay for it and see if there's no way to be Bible. Alright, so, it seems like this morning, I am this idea of the already in the night yet, and God being with us and us.

7:11 But also, it seems not being the way that they said. But, if you look at ZQL 36, verse 24, so I will take you out of the nation, and this is why I'm talking to Israel. I will take you out of the nation, I will gather you back from all the countries where I have been dispersed. Because they're saying, I will gather you from all the countries and I will bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your anxieties and from all your idols.

7:43 And in that language, that is the language of Psalm 51, that occurred. Like, that is very specifically what David Praise for in Psalm 51, which will probably look at the second bit. I'll sprinkle clean water on you and you'll be clean. I will cleanse you from all your anxieties and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you. I will renew from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow me to free, and be careful to keep my laws.

8:14 Then you will live in a land of your own testers. You will be my people, and I will be your dad. Man, that sounds good, isn't it? I will give you a new heart, and get a new spirit in you. I will renew from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you, and move you to follow my peers, and be careful to keep my laws. I will just connect to a couple of other pieces that we'll look at today. I will just try to talk about it.

8:44 It is kind of what the Lord is speaking and promising to Israel, but it's also ready in line with the things that we know the whole spirit does. As I was reading through it, and sitting with the teeth, a couple things, and expecting that when you don't see that whole passage, there's only one person acting in that passage. It's that whole thing that there's only one party taking action in that passage. And it's that. Everything, and every single one of those scriptures in that, I will take you out, I will get out of you, I will get the same law on you, and you will just be coming.

9:22 You will be coming because I'm your dad, and God is your dude. I don't know how that resonates with you, but I know for me, the biggest thing that God's being here is either my inaction or my wrong action, but it is very much my action. And one of the biggest things that kind of stuffiness, and it's the same thing that we see in the passage for today, is that it is God's identity.

9:53 But it is God who initiates. I'm the same thing that we see in John 15, the gospel passage for today. But it is God who begins it, and God who acts it, and God who brings it to completion. Right? So, put that back in mind. But this idea that most of us have come heard this passage in the D.C. of probably, is this idea that God will remove a heart of stone and give us a heart of breath. And as I was thinking about that, I kind of got stuck on the

10:42 idea as God was all the time. But the interesting thing to mind is I remember, this is probably something that I was thinking about, and it looks like stress, like me. And I remember, I would go back for surgery, and I'd never have surgery before. It's never, I never really been something. And so, I'm back there, and I'm on the table, and I'm in a diagonal press, and this job is there with me. And I think I can't remember. I said, okay, I just got a really good idea. Like, I went from like, yeah, I'm calling, this is totally cool, this is gonna be fine.

11:16 So, like, I like freaked out in my plastic, I was like, oh my God, like, they totally started to like, kind of freaked out. I just sit there, and she's like, you can call me down, and I'm like, so I like, I start to calm down, and chill out. And there's a guy after the interview, and he says it's easy, and he says it's easy, and he's always. And so, he's like, I'm gonna do a lot of the honors in his future, don't worry, wait, you can be fine. So, I'm gonna teach you to feel my freaked out by a person across the range, but he just like appeared out of nowhere.

11:47 And he's talking to me, and he's the twin earth thing you're gonna do, because I had severed my face, and then I had to go, and my thighs got together and grow up fast. And he tells me, is that, hey, I don't want to, because we do, like, 10 or 12 of these surgeries a day. It's one of the simplest surgeries we can do. I'm like, okay, cool, that's good. But, it's also one of those painful surgeries we do. And I'm like, wait, what? And he's like, whoops, I'm just saying, you look like a guy who might think that you're able to not take the pain in the case you're not just gonna do.

12:18 And I'm in my head, I'm thinking, yeah, I was already kind of thinking about that. I was like, oh, I'm thrilled, I'm fine. And he's like, don't do that. Because what he did, is he didn't get any, like, the nerve-glot thing, you know, where, like, they completely cut off all the feelings to it. And he said, man, you, you're, if you don't take the medication at the exact time, he's like, you're gonna think the nerve-glot is one-off and you're okay. It's a great reality. All of a sudden that nerve-glot's going to work off and you're gonna be a master-master thing. So take the medicine of your video.

12:50 Take it on time. Take it ahead of time so that you don't make it. It's gonna start to hurt. And he was really right. I got the whole thing. You can tell me the only guy who was going to try not to take the pain medication. And so we had surgery in the home and I think it was, like, point-for-all's rate. They were like, the nerve-glot is probably the 2436 out of it. And I remember I was like, oh, that's a few. It's gonna kill him. It's pain-glot. Nerves a lot of must-be worn off. That was not the case at all.

13:21 So 24 hours later, and the cell card was a bit of a minute. I remember that on the top, 200 pounds per loss of TV in my first project. And all of a sudden, it hurts so bad. Like, incredible, incredible, like pain. And I think I was kind of the leeriest because I just started telling her that I was gonna take the cash off. I was like, I think it's a rapid. I was a secret real steal until Monday. They came to the office back off, but I was like freaking out. I see when I put, like, strong life and I was just like, you're not gonna touch it.

13:51 You're way back there. I'm like, you know. But the minute it was like feeling, like, this incredible sensation of open 18, but all of a sudden feeling like just more determined and it did not feel good. Right? And what I think about that, you know, I can think like, you know, obviously in the medical community, pain is not great, but the thing that's kind of worse than pain is actually the absence of feeling.

14:23 Right? If all of a sudden, you know, my foot is numb for, you know, no reason that it should be numb. That's not good. Right? The absence of feeling usually indicates the absence of what? You can think of the absence of blood flow. You can indicate the absence of the possibility itself. But I'll tell you, in that moment, when that nerve block were off, I would have really, really loved enough feel.

14:55 And it's probably called the doctoring, but I think sick moment is going to be taken, oh my gosh. But the absence of feeling might even work. Right? When we think about what, it just is even this image and scripture that the doctor has said, and I'm going to take away your heart of stone and I'm going to do a heart of flesh. Part of what comes as having a heart of flesh is that you see it. That is one of the accents of the Holy Spirit.

15:27 We may not have thought about this way, but that is one of the functions of the Holy Spirit, is that it's softened our hearts and it creates blood flow and it creates our ability to actually feel. Now what might we feel? So Kirk read Psalm 51, where David goes through and he is broken over what? He's broken over sin. The Psalm 51 is written right after David has kind of been confronted with his own sin,

16:03 with his own sin of, really his own sin of rape and mother. David has been confronted with this and the movement of the Spirit in his life has absolutely created in him this immense sense of pain. And the pain he felt was actually the pain that was what we would call like the Holy Spirit, kind of convicting and letting him see the wrong thing that was done, letting him see the weight that not only his voices had kind of gone on hand,

16:38 but also the weight that his closest had gone on others. It's something really powerful I think in there for us when we think about asking for the Holy Spirit and it is the Holy Spirit that gives us the heart of flesh. It is the Holy Spirit that softened what once was shown, but what that does is it opens us to actually feeling a maybe feel the weight of our own sin, maybe feel the weight of our own actions or our own actions in the world.

17:11 There are few other pieces of other kinds of just exploring. We also feel the weight of the pain in others around the world. We also feel just the highly-run described. We feel the ramifications of the way the world should be and the ways that it is not. When we think about a tragedy where 19 fourth graders use their lives,

17:46 if we are awake to that reality, we are going to feel the pain in that. We're going to feel the pain of living in a world that at this point in time, the Holy Spirit is very real and present and active. This point in time changes are drastically not as they should be or even as they should be. So, obviously, this is how these stuff, you have to talk about.

18:19 But there is something you said for the reality of having a heart of flesh is not the reality of feeling good. And from all the time you're having an art of flesh, it is that we are invited to see and experience that the honor of this parody between the way the world is and the way the world serves and serves, and ultimately one day will be. And that, I think, I believe it's kind of a painful place to be at times.

18:49 I don't know if you felt that issue. I think that one of the things that the Lord invites us into is to just feel that. Hopefully, the way that feeling is something that begins to pull us towards how can you begin the music world towards what it can and what it can and what it can and what it can and what it can and what it can. Right? That's often, I think, you know, when we think about tragedy, it's such an interesting mix.

19:19 And I think there's an element where, I don't know how y'all think about this, but I thought it would be kind of believing there's something, and I'm just sorry, I thought I thought how you get your music. Right? Like, think for a second, like, how do you appreciate that? Like, what do you mean? Like, what websites do you read? How much social media are you exposed to? Right? I have come to the evening of past five or five years, and it's been six years, I think, is when I started thinking this way. I think there's an end, there's something in us that is not meant to take in the amount of tragedy that we are exposed to.

19:56 So while we, you know, obviously, I think the Holy Spirit invites us to feel the weight of the reality in the world, there's also something where my brain cannot battle countless stories that I can take in over the course of 20 minutes. Something about my brain and my body and my nervous system and how they all work together, and how that inner client probably with my soul, it is really hard for me to sit and to absorb the weight of the world wide loss in tragedy.

20:27 Right? So I think it's interesting, I think, for us to think about hands, how we say awake and alive, and how do we maintain a heart of flesh in the world and present, kind of in our reality with the people around us, and not put ourselves in positions where we kind of do become desensitized to things. I wonder if our ability, or our tendency to be desensitized to pain and to loss is somewhat of that numbing

21:02 that God invites us out of. We're God invites us into this place where we can kind of be sensitive and sympathetic and empathetic to what's happening in the close world around us, and in the greater world. But it's helpful for us to wonder about, man, how we actually do that. Like, it is the news and the stuff that we take in. Does it actually generate and engendering you a response to move towards people?

21:34 Or does it create you a desire to sell a lot and feel not put to something that's continually disconnected? Not saying there's not a time to say so that because I think it probably is. But how do we respond? Like, what does it feel when we see things and does it cause us to move towards people and does it cause us to move towards God or do it cause us to want to know now and move away? One thing that I love about Psalms 51 is that you see kind of David's response to that, that you see what the Holy Spirit brought about in.

22:13 Because you're never one of the first things he said was that if God starts it, God does it, God says he's it. But one of the first things that the Holy Spirit brings about in him is this desire to respond. When God initiates and then God invites, that God does invite David to then respond. And so, what is that real fast?

22:47 I love it when David comes and is coming, I just really like sorrowful place of brokenness. And then in verse 10 is he created me to fear a heart of God and renew a steadfast spirit in man. You're not casting me to the presence of your Holy Spirit from you, but still to me to joy. And then later on you see him asking me to be cleansed. And knowing and believing that God will and can't cleanse him, and then in verse 10 is he created me to fear a heart of God and renew a steadfast spirit in man.

23:17 You're not casting me to the presence of your Holy Spirit from you, but still to need to joy of your salvation and bring it in a willing spirit to sustain man. One of the things that, and not how to flash with the Holy Spirit, is about in us. As you feel there's something in us that is drawn back towards God in us. That's also what we see in John 15 and I'll spend the time of time going all this year. So John 15, that's the message, you don't know it, that's what we see Jesus saying.

23:47 You know, talking about the ear he is just lying and that was the barman. And that happens is a complete like indication from Jesus for us to remain connected to the Holy Spirit in man. This idea that is God who initiates and God who drives into the vine and by the test. But what does it look like to you to continue to focus on staying with me?

24:17 How do you stay connected to the vine? How do you stay connected? How do you see kind of feeding on the Holy Spirit and on our souls to come to us in that way? And I think there's something really powerful in that. And the way that God invites us to a place of deep, calm feeling. This idea of being a heart of flesh that has blood pumping through it and feels both the weight of our own pain or our loss or our sin and also the pain lost and sin as it is in the world around us.

24:52 And then God says, hey, and how you do that is you stay connected to me because I'm ultimately the one being there. I'm going to teach you how to run past this because you're not scared of this before and I would like to all four. So if you follow that first piece of four, 70 times. And so I do have to ask you to tell me, if you're a cell dad, it's one of my favorite key chases.

25:23 And if you're a cell dad, it's like what it feels like when I see these eight, three, and it's like my buddy. He like, he says that big deer, you know, he tells stories and I just think that's great. And one of his favorite things is that they have kind of had a little time, like a little conga or something that they run out. And so he heard out of the one that like taught things like how to pile a house, like all that stuff that you can get married, you can do it, and you have no idea how to do it.

25:53 And he come over and help us here. And one of his favorite things still to this day is paint and plaster with a couple of most of these things. We love that one. He says that one so it's all the time. It's great. But it was funny about reading the official pre-entry for the day for the Peter Corps and any life for the baby thinking. And for Peter Corps, verse seven, the end of all things is new. Therefore be alert and to the mind and to the unique form.

26:23 Above all, let me say it deeply because love has reserved the multitude of things. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you ever see to your body as faithful skills are done for you. And it's very important. If anyone speaks to these fairs, one just speaks to their words of God. If anyone serves, they can do so if the strength is that I provide, it's that in all things, the gravity plays, the views, the things, the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

26:57 I think one of the things that we do when we are confronted with tragedy and loss is, I do think we've had most of the time all of you. But most of the time, I feel like I want to go one way or the other and I end up forming a form. Because I want to actually define myself. I want to not feel it. I want to not feel the way we did. And another part of me really does want to feel it and wants to move towards it. And I struggle with this place and kind of being stuck in those.

27:29 And wanting to actually kind of do what it looks like first of week with those two weeks and one with those two ones. And also to remember what's true about God and be hopeful. And I don't know if these have ever been that place, but I'm not in that place and then I thought you told me what to do. And I feel like I'm stuck and I probably just like watching that place or something. But I do think it's helpful for us to go, man, what has God encouraged us to force?

28:03 If we know that as the Holy Spirit creates mental heart of flesh, the God's one that initiates, God's one that invites us to remain in Him and to stay in Him and to do that. But then what has God encouraged us to do in the world? And that's where I feel like when we look at the people reading and also the God proving and John. That's where we see that love comes over and will put us in. And what we are invited into in the world is that we are invited into believing that the Holy Spirit working in you and through you and coming out of you in love toward people around us does something.

28:46 It sounds easy, but it does something magical in a way that makes me follow the effects of all the lost and ugliness and shit in the world. But that is what God kind of encourages us to and into. And in the operating John 15, he says, if you do not choose me, but I choose you. I have plenty of use so that you might go in there free, free, but hold on. And so that whenever you ask in my name, the father will give you this is my command.

29:21 Love you, brother. So maybe something to pray for this to you. If you just wonder in everyday ways, what does that look like for you? And it looks like the ways in which you interact with the co-worker looks like the ways in which you interact with your family today. I mean, yeah, it looks like the ways in which you try and embody God's blood toward yourself. In the familiar, that might be the hardest thing.

29:53 But what God invites us into and what God invites us to and encourages us to forage is how we engage in that place where we trust that the things that we do in love, the value to work and to ask for the Holy Spirit. And it may be incredibly important to these are the things that mean stuff. So let's pray for that from the whole of the Torah. So, Lord, God, thank You that You do it, that You initiate with us and that You invite us and that You also give us what we need to actually live in today and the life that You call us for.

30:37 So pray that You would pray that You would know that, pray that You would rest in that and rest in that.