NOV 16 2015 | ReFrame Your Relationship with Christ

Sea Change Church · "ReFrame Your Relationship with Christ" · November 16, 2015
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Someone who's making a family that is making a really profound mark on kingdom living in the world. I don't think God values what big things any more than he values small things. I think that there's plumbers and stay-at-home moms that are making equal value in God's eyes. But that being said, there is a really incredible impact from the technology that Brian Harden was able to harness and put into an online reading community.

If you do not know what the Daily Audio Bible is, it is an online community. It is a little campfire that we all gather around, around the world every single day, 365 days a year, that Brian has been reading with his wife on occasion when he can't do it. I think it's probably two days a year where even when he has the flu, the guy gets up. I mean, it's just unbelievable.

I'm not even sure. Sometimes I can't even listen to it when I have the flu, but he'll get up when he has the flu and do it. I think somewhere between 50, it probably fluctuates between 50 and 100,000 listeners a day in there depending on the season of the year. I started listening to it. I was at a men's retreat and a friend, I was on my computer and a friend of mine, he says, is it going to bother you if I turn this on?

I'm like, no, I didn't turn it on. And I'm like, started listening and Brian's got one of these voices, you know, he's got this voice, you know, like Jim has a voice. I just need a voice. I just want a voice. He's a golden-throated voice. He's really good at it. But more than that, he really speaks about the truth of the Bible in a way that's comprehensible and a way that doesn't put stumbling blocks.

Jesus is a stumbling block. The scripture says that. I mean, his message is stumbling to many. But we don't want to create our own stumbling blocks. Like, we don't want to have 15 stumbling blocks until you get to the actual one that matters is do you believe that Jesus is Lord? It is such, the way he frames the Bible is phenomenal. What's happened with the community online is amazing.

Ten years now they've been reading the Bible with over 385 million downloads of it or something crazy? 381 million? 81 million. 81 million. Okay, so that's prophetic. That was prophecy that I gave right there. Did you guys see it? See what I did there? Let's welcome Brian Harden up to speak about Reframe. Thank you. Good morning. Man, I've been looking forward to being here for months.

Seriously, like, I mean, I've been looking forward to being everywhere that I've been, but... But I've been looking forward to being here especially, both for the friendship and camaraderie with Pastor Adam. And because my wife loves California and is trying to convince me to move to California. But I tell her, like, but the problem is it will take, like, two days extra of travel everywhere I go.

And you won't see me as much. And she's like, you know, that's cool. Just give me the beach. And I'll be cool. I've really, really honestly looked forward to coming to this church and being here today. And it's the weirdest thing. So Jill, while worship is going on, she's like, I just got a text from Michelle Knight. Michelle Loomer Knight. Who I pastored for several years in Nashville, who now lives in Santa Barbara.

And I walked her through the ordination process. And she's like, you're at La Jolla Christian Fellowship. My dad was the pastor of that church. So I'm like, well, I guess we're supposed to be here today. This is really, really, really cool. And in terms of Paris, that was beautiful. And I have gotten several emails from our Daily Audi Bible family that lives there in Paris.

And they are thanking us for our standing with them and our prayers. So thank you for continuing to stand with them. Crazy, crazy, crazy times. But this has always been going on. This has always been church history. And it is the jet fuel that propels revival usually. So may we pray into that for them. For renewal, revival, restoration. Because God moves into those things as often as we'll open the door.

And a lot of times this opens the door. Okay. Speaking of opening the door. Can we spend our time today being slightly on the disruptive side of things? I mean, you know, so I wrote this book called Reframe. And there's lots of things. And you can pull it out and make it really pretty and nice. Or you can go for the throat. And really press in on what we're talking about here.

And I decided to go for the throat. So if that's cool. So, yeah, I'll tell you in a minute. Psalm 139 verses 7 through 10. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn. If I settle on the far side of the sea.

Even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. Ephesians 2.10. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus. So we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. So the psalmist seems to be insinuating, where is it that I can go that you're not? Where can I flee? Where can I go that you are not? If that's true, why do we spend our whole faith journey trying to figure out where he is?

When the question is, where is he not? And if this is true, if we have a benevolent, loving, kind, merciful, patient, caring father, who has invited us to walk with him through our lives, then why isn't it working? This right here is my favorite part of this talk. Silence. It's like some of you are like, where are we going with this? And others are like, that's God, you know, finally somebody's saying it.

I needed to know the answer to that question. I've been reading the Bible a long time. Almost 10 years. I mean, like we're one month away from 10 years, seven days a week. A few years ago, though, I started getting angsty. Seven years into this, seven days a week. I started feeling like, okay, I have followed the recipe. I have followed the prescription of every pastor, every leader.

Everything that the faith life, the faith journey is supposed to be like. I've done that. And it's not like I haven't done it out in the open. I have. It's not like I'm not reading my Bible every day. I can prove it. You know, it's not like I don't pray every day. I do. And I'm doing all the things. Like, in some ways, I feel like I've been like the poster child for this stuff.

I'm doing this. We live this in our family. We've had a radical transformation in our family's life since the Daily Audio Bible. We live this. Is this all there is? There's got to be more than this. It's like reaching the mountaintop that you always strive for. Because in our faith journey, usually there's some sort of carrot out there that we're chasing.

It's like we always know the places that we're falling short. We always know the places that we could do better. But what do you do when you kind of reach that mountain peak where it's like, man, I don't know what else to do. But this is, this can't be all there is. And it sent me searching. It sent me searching and I came to the cliched term relationship with God.

But I actually started peeling back the layers of that. What do we mean when we say we are in a relationship with God? Because that's not a small thing to say. It's not a small thing to say you are in a relationship with God. Why is it that most places that I go, if I told you I'm in a personal relationship with Katy Perry? That would be more impressive to you than if I said I am in a personal relationship with God.

Right? I mean, so like we'll gather around celebrity and think that's so cool that you have that kind of connection. And yet when we say we're in a personal relationship with God, we just kind of flit it off. It's not a small thing to say you are in a relationship with God. I needed to know what I was talking about. Usually, we start our faith journey and there's like a threshold.

And we step across it. And maybe there's like, you know, I don't know, like this church. It's like a big dome over the top. And you step through and you believe. And you have faith. And it's like somebody is there on the other side. Some angel with a gift bag for you. Congratulations. Here's your gift. And you get your gift bag. And you look inside.

And inside there's a relationship with God. And you're like, cool. And you start walking around talking about your relationship with God. And you meet up with other people who are like, holy cow, I've got one of those too. And then you come to church and your pastor's like, how's this going? How's your relationship with God going? There has to be more to what we're talking about when we say we're in a relationship with God than any number of things that we've exchanged it for.

Belief, for example. We all believe in a lot of people we are not in a relationship with. We believe in them. We can even study them. We can know many things about them, but we've never met them. We believe in people we're not in a relationship with. So there's got to be more to being in a relationship with God than just simply believing in him.

And yet that's usually where we stop. And then we'll get into Christian community and find all of the things that we're supposed to do to feed the relationship with God. But what does that look like? I mean, really, what's it shaped like? For thousands of years, we've been trying to figure this out. For thousands of years, we've been trying to figure this out.

Where is God? Where am I in relation to him? What lever do I pull that makes him do something? What hoop do I jump through that makes him move? What five steps, eight precepts, nine laws, four principles do I follow to get him to then do the things promised in those laws and precepts and principles? What are the steps that I take to make God do something?

We've been doing this for thousands of years. And for thousands of years, we've been kind of bringing all of the wisdom that we've ever had together into a collective set of knowledge. So we have all of these experiences over thousands of years, all of this wisdom of everything everyone has ever learned about God. And the reality is right now where we live at this point in history, we know more about God than anyone has ever known before.

There's probably a lot of smartphones in this room. In the space of five minutes, we could collectively get on Google and find out more about God than anyone has ever known. We could juxtapose thought from the first century all the way through yesterday's blog and mash it together and find out all of the nooks and crannies and the ways things have changed.

We know more about God than we've ever known before. Why isn't that revolutionary? Maybe we've been approaching what we think is a relationship with God from an angle that isn't going to work. Maybe we need to reframe what we're calling a relationship with God. Usually in our faith journey, after we cross the threshold of faith and get the gift bag, we enter into Christian community that essentially says, the more faithful I can be to my church, the more I can be in a small group, the more media that I can ingest and books that I can read.

And films that I can watch. And Bible studies that I can attend. Even the more Bible that I can read, the closer I am to God. The interesting thing is that wouldn't work in any other relationship in our lives. So let's unpack this. You're one of the men in here. It's St. Valentine's Day. For the first time in your marriage, you've gotten everything right this time.

You arranged for the babysitter. Flowers were delivered. Reservations were made. You've taken your darling to her favorite restaurant. There's candlelight. There's smooth jazz in the background. At the correct volume for conversation. And you look through the candlelight and you say, Darling, darling. Darling. I just want you to know. For the last two weeks.

I have been studying the data about you. I have memorized your elementary school report cards. I have poured over every resume you ever submitted for a job. Heck, I have read every post you ever posted to Facebook. And I am overcome with passion. Right? Right? So you came into this dinner with significant high chances of scoring. Scoring big. But they have diminished.

Significantly. Because not only is your wife completely creeped out. She doesn't want her life or your relationship to be boiled down to piles of data. If before I met my wife, Jill FedEx, showed up at my house. And they rang the doorbell. And I signed for the packages. But there was no return address. And I pull these boxes into my house. And I open them up.

And there's a cover letter on top. And I read it. And it says, this is who your wife will be. I would find that unbelievably intriguing. So I start to unpack all of the boxes. And there's picture albums. And there's DVDs. And there's reams of paper. More paper than the Bible. And I'm looking at the first of the picture albums. And I flip through it.

And here's this baby girl in a stroller. Here's her first day of school. I keep flipping. Here's junior high. Here's senior prom. Here's her in college. All the way until who she is now. And then I go to the paper. And it's like her personality profile. It's her gift mix. It's where she would best serve in the church. It's her pet peeves, likes, dislikes, vocational options.

Her life story. And then I pop the DVDs. And I'm watching all the home movies of her whole life. And I'm getting a feel for this girl. And there's picture discs there. And they're high resolution photographs. And so like I can zoom in on her. Zoom back out. Zoom back in. On every contour. Of her nose. Start feeling like. I know this girl. I know everything there is to know about this girl.

When the truth would be I've never met this girl. Knowing a lot about someone is not the same as being in a relationship with them. And if this scenario were to play out when I meet my wife. All bets are off. Because my wife is like everyone else in this room. She can be known. And she can be known. And she can be completely unknowable. At the same time.

So although all of my study of her may inform a relationship with her. Being in a relationship with her. Is completely different than the data I have about her. Because being in a relationship with somebody is shaped like life. Right? To meld your lives together in relationship with somebody. Is to allow the relationship to take the shape of your life.

So often what we've done. When we call a relationship with God. Or when we claim a relationship with God. We believe that. Okay I believed. I got the gift bag. I have the relationship. Now what I need to do is study God from afar. What I need to do is collect the data about him. And I'm going to spend my whole life pouring over the data about him. The problem is you cannot be in a relationship with data.

Because data is not alive. So accumulating gigabytes of data about a person. Does not make you in a relationship with that person. And yet so often this is what we've claimed a relationship or a growing relationship with God looks like. The more I can ingest about him. The closer I am to him. But that wouldn't work in any other relationship in our lives.

So maybe we should stop calling it. A relationship. A relationship. Which doesn't put you outside the bounds. It just forces us to come to terms with what we're talking about when we claim we're in a relationship with God. And this is what I came to after really, really diving in. A deep drink. A full dive into my faith journey. Only to find out what I thought was a relationship with God wouldn't work in my marriage.

Wouldn't work in my friendships. I've got this thing so compartmentalized. Even though it's all I do. I've got it so segregated and compartmentalized that it wouldn't work in any other relationship in my life. Usually we do this kind of stuff. Because we're afraid we might get it wrong. And so we have all of this collected wisdom. All this stuff you can Google.

All this knowledge of God. All this data about God. And we have our communities. Which are invaluable and heralded in the scripture. But we don't believe we can actually be in a first person. Collaborative. Life giving. Relationship. With God. And so what we'll do. Is go to the wisdom. And the data. And worship it as God. And then get with all of our friends.

Who are also doing the same thing. And talk to them. About God. So the very thing that we're trying to avoid. Which is getting it wrong. And getting off on some wacky spiritual path. Is the very thing that we can create. Anyone here. Ever made an assumption. Now there's giggles. But it really like. There were only three hands. I'm trying to be honest here.

Anyone ever made an assumption. Anybody here ever made an assumption. That was wrong. Okay. We do this all of the time. We do this with each other. We do this in our spirituality. We do this with God. So we're moving along in our lives. Right. And everything's making some sense. And then we come to this cliff. Where all of a sudden. Some part of our lives.

Or some part of our relationships. Don't make sense. We can kind of see the other side of that. But we don't understand what's going on. In the in between. And so. We don't like that. We don't want to wait for the mystery. To unfold itself. And so. We build a bridge. We make an assumption. Because we need something linear. We need something that makes some sense.

And so. We'll build a scenario. That makes sense to us. About how that worked. Whether it's in our marriages. Whether it's in our workplace. And whether it's with God. How does that work? And so. We'll make this assumption. The problem with assumptions. Is that. We are creating a reality. And we are not good at it. We've all made assumptions. About people that in the end.

Proved incorrect. And we do this with God. All the time. As soon as we come to something. We can't explain. We will usually go with. Sort of an attitude. Of almost accusation. And start using. All of the collected knowledge. That we think we have. And build a bridge. And create a reality. That makes sense to us. But may be completely incorrect. So the very thing.

That we're trying to avoid. Which is getting off on some. Wacky spiritual path. Or believing the wrong things. We inadvertently do. Because we're willing. To make an assumption. Without even including God. In the conversation. And so we'll get together. With each other. And say. I'm praying about this. Or I'm praying for that. Or I don't understand this.

And we'll come together. And talk about. What God might be doing. In our lives. What do you think. He's up to. What do you think. He's doing. What do you think. He wants from me. In all of this. And then. Like true believers. We always have. You know. Some verses. In our back pocket. To hand out. Well. He's got good plans. For you. Plans to prosper you. Or any other number.

Of promise verses. That will pass out. When we don't exactly. Know what to say. And we'll give our opinion. Into the situation. About what we think. God might be doing. Without actually. Including God. In the conversation. Typically. What that's called. Is hearsay. If it's done. In any other circumstance. That's called. Hearsay. Hearsay. Is not even. Admissible.

In court. You're not allowed. If you're subpoenaed. Or summoned. Into court. To testify. To the actions. Or character. Of somebody. That's on trial. For somebody. For something. You're not allowed. To say. Yeah. I heard that rumor. Yeah. I heard that. From Mary. Who told John. And then I heard it. That's called hearsay. It's inadmissible. So we have to begin. To ask ourselves.

How much. Of what I am calling. A relationship. With God. Is based. On hearsay. What do I know. First hand. In intimacy. With God. What. What memories. Do I have. With God. That only he and I know about. That only he and I share. Because that's how intimate relationships work. Right. If you're in here. And you're married. There's things that only you and your wife know about.

Right. Wonderful things. And dark things. But things that are shared between you in the fabric of the relationship. If. All of the intimate details of your marriage were something that you got up here and shared with everybody. That probably wouldn't go well with your spouse. And if all you do in claiming that you are in a marriage. That you are in a relationship with somebody is talk to your friends about your spouse.

And if. But you don't really talk to your spouse much. Other than thanking her or him for dinner. Or asking him or her to do something for you. But you spend the rest of your time talking to each other about him or her. You wouldn't call that a healthy relationship either. In fact if you observed that going on. At some point you'd go to your friend and say.

Hey. You're not really in a healthy relationship. If you observed a good friend of yours in their marriage. And all you ever observed between the two was one spouse demanding things of the other. You promised. You do this. You said you'd do this. You said in your word you'd do this. You would eventually say to your friend. Yeah that's kind of an abusive relationship you're in.

Why do we do this to God? And then call it a relationship. If it is a relationship then it's. It's more like an abusive one. And we're the abusers. I'm letting the silence be here for a reason. Let it sink in. Because there's some of these things that I hope you can't get out of your mind later. That you need to keep thinking through. That you need to keep processing through.

When. When all we do. Is observe somebody from afar. Collect data about them. Tons of data. About their movements. About their actions. About their temperaments. And we ingest all of that. And then talk to all of our friends about it. Usually that looks more like you're preparing for a nasty divorce case. Than that you are in a life giving intimate relationship.

With. Someone. We don't want to believe the wrong things. Most of the way that we got here. Most of the way that we've gotten to the definition of what we think a relationship with God is. Is that we don't want to believe the wrong things. So if we can group think this. If we can crowdsource our belief system. Then we have a better chance of not believing the wrong thing.

But that is not. True. Try crowdsourcing your marriage. The reality is this. I am. And I am not. Believing the right things about my wife. On any given day. It has nothing to do. With whether or not I'm in a relationship with her. And if I want to be in a relationship with her. We actually have to be involved. First person with each other. Going through our days together.

I am in a relationship with her. When she is not speaking to me. That's happened once. A half a time. No I've just heard that happens to people. I am in a relationship with her. When I'm not speaking to her. When we're mad at each other. We're in a relationship. It's shaped like life. When we are really good together. And everything is firing on all cylinders.

We are in a relationship with each other. We're in a relationship with each other. In all of the extremes of life. And all of the drama and intrigue of life. In fact. That's what makes it a relationship. That we are in this together. I'm not out of the relationship. Just because I believe the wrong things about her on some day. I'm in a relationship with her.

Because I know her. And she's in a relationship with me. Because she knows me. So with all of our fear. Of collecting data. And all of the hearsay. And all of the things that we're calling a relationship with God. So that we won't get it wrong. We're exchanging all of that. For what an intimate relationship could actually be. We can be in a relationship with God.

When we are doubting God. And we can be in a relationship with God. When we feel his presence. So overwhelming that we can't stand. Because relationships are shaped. Like our lives. With God. We've got him in some kind of compartment. Like some kind of other space. Some other thing. And we try to relate to him. In ways that wouldn't work in any other relationship.

And then we go to him. With accusation about why it's not working. And where he's gone. And why he's not showing up. The bottom line is that. If you want to be in a successful relationship with anybody. You have to own your part of the relationship. You have to own. Your. Stuff. And stop blaming. The other person. For everything wrong in your life. I realize.

You can think of that in terms of your marriage. And realize. Okay. Yeah. Like I know that. But we are blaming so much on God. That he hasn't done. We are accusing him for being unfaithful. In ways that he hasn't been. We are accusing him for his mystery. And his lack of presence in our lives. And we'll sing it. Like I want your presence. I need to see you.

Come Holy Spirit. I want your presence. But we're not willing to give him our presence. We're not willing to be present. In the relationship with him. And own our part of the relationship. But relationships are two-way streets. Like it's give and take. Ebb and flow. You have to be in it together. I'm not saying anything. You don't already know. Like we already know this.

But we rarely apply it to God. We've got him in some other category. It's clouded and mist. It's off in the corner. And we try to visit it on Sunday. And then put it back away. And get about our lives. That's so bizarre. Because I've done that for so many years. Like we'll ask each other. How's your spiritual life doing? But we don't ask each other. How's your wife life doing?

How's your husband life doing? Right? Because it's a non-compartmentalized part of our lives. And if it is compartmentalized. Then life is draining from it. To be in a successful marriage. It has to be holistic. It has to be integrated into everything that we do and say. It has to be always on and never off. No matter how we feel. It has to take the long view.

Like we are in this forever. It has to be collaborative. Or divergent paths will tear the marriage apart. Right? We know this stuff. Because that's what relationships are shaped like. And we are made in the image of God. And we are made to be relational. We know this stuff. It is no different with God. God wants. God wants. God wants. God wants. God wants.

What does this look like? Think about the day you met your spouse. That chance encounter. That moment that you met your spouse. Maybe the sparks flew. Right then. Or maybe it was just an encounter that led to another one that led to another one. But either way. However it happened. One thing led to another. And as you had more and more encounters with each other.

You began to realize. Something's going on here. Something's happening between us. I don't know what it is. But I really like her. I'm really attracted to him. I really like spending time with him. And so we do. Because it's mutual. We spend more time together. There's more encounters together. And as we encounter each other more and more. And more conversation happens.

Something begins to form between us. This like orbed thing. This little thing that we would call the start of a relationship. And as we invest more and more of our time. And more and more of our trust. And more and more of our communication. And sharing our story together. This thing grows. Until the day comes where it's actually kind of pretty big.

And you realize. I wasn't planning on this. But I have fallen in love. With him. I have fallen in love with her. And so you confess that to each other. I love you. Like think of the first time you told your spouse. You love them. Like what an amazing moment of vulnerability. I love you. And then they confess it back. And this thing that has been growing between you.

Expands until it surrounds you both. And then you can effectively say that. You had a relationship. Forming. But now you are in the relationship. Because it has surrounded you both. You are in. The relationship. The entire arc of the narrative of the Bible. Reveals a God who is absolutely unwilling to abandon people. Whether he is using culture. Tradition.

Judges. Prophets. Kings. Circumstances. He is unwilling to abandon people. But people are very willing to abandon him. But then he does this unbelievably audacious thing. He decides at a point in history. Okay. I'm not going to use culture. I'm not going to use custom. I'm not going to use voices of prophets. I'm not. I'm going to go in person. I'm not going to speak through another voice.

I'm going to speak for myself. Into humanity. And still we utterly rejected him. God is unwilling to abandon people. But we are very willing to accuse him of it. But that doesn't make it so. But when we are falsely accusing somebody that we are in a relationship with. The relationship isn't real. In the middle of the Bible. There's a book. It's called Isaiah.

And in the book of Isaiah is a prophecy. And we're going to be speaking about this prophecy soon. Because Christmas season is upon us nearly. There's one word in this prophecy. That sums up the whole thing. Emmanuel is coming. That one word. Says all that God wants. Emmanuel. God with us. God. With. Us. This is all he has ever. Wanted. This is why. We were created.

He wants to be. With. Us. He wants to be. With. You. In a relationship. In an always off. Always on. Never. Off. Holistically integrated. Life giving. Collaboration. In life together. Together. And. Not really just for. The space of our humanity. But forever. When God says. I love you forever. Even to the end of the age. I will never leave you. He means it. And he's the only one that can deliver on it.

He means it. So like we're scratching and clawing to make life work on our own terms. Trying to study God from a distance. Ingesting all kinds of gossip and rumors about him. And then going to him with a heart of accusation about why he's not living up to his end of the bargain. And calling that a relationship. But it's not. Because it wouldn't work in any other relationship in our lives.

Because. What God wants. Is quite simple. It's what all of us want from our relationships that are intimate. To be together. In it all. In everything. In the highs and lows. In the doubt and bliss. In life. Whatever. Might come our way. I'm sure there have been many marriages in this building. I'm sure. Many. Husbands and wives have stood right here. And said.

For better or for worse. For richer for poor. In sickness and in health. Till death do us part. We get this. This is what God has offered us. And he has defeated death. He's lived up to every bit of those commitments that we would claim in marriage. He's lived into all of it and defeated death. And he's still here. All he wants is to be with us. So I'm going to pray a prayer.

Before I close. Typically when somebody who's speaking. Says. Okay let's close in prayer. Everyone checks out. Okay it's over. So we bow our heads. And figure out where we're going for lunch. I'm going to ask you to stay present for this prayer. Stay in this. For just the next minute. Jesus. I. I have some things to think about. I. Realize. I've been blaming you for some stuff you haven't done.

I realize. That I've been. Holding you at an emotional. Arms length. In this relationship. And. The odd thing is. I know what that feels like. I've done that. I've. I've been through that. I. I know how. How much of a torture it can be. To give your heart to somebody. And love them. And them not be able to love you back. Like. I know what that's like. And I've.

I've been doing that to you. And. And then I've been blaming you for it. Like you were doing it to me. I am so sorry. I. I. That is never what I wanted. I. I'm so sorry. I've just. Not let you into everything. I. I've just tried to have a spiritual compartment in my life. And kept you there like. Like it was a cage. And you weren't allowed out of that into the rest of my life.

And I. And then I'd come visit you in the cage. And. Ask you why you weren't showing up for me. I'm sorry. I. That's. That would never work. I see that now. So what I'm doing here. This Sunday. November 15th. 2015. What I'm doing here now. Is unlocking the cage. I'm dismantling that. I'm. I'm sorry. I didn't even know. What I need. Is you. You have been willing to let me come as I am into this relationship.

And. And I have been completely unwilling to let you come as you are. I'm sorry. I invite you in. In. To all of it. Into the basement. Of my life. I don't even go down there. I. There's just too much. Down there. There's too much. Rot. And mold. There's too much hurt. There's too much. History. I don't even. Go down there. I. Why? But that's where I need you most.

I need you in the attic of my memory. Where I've been storing. Stories. And offenses. That have. Seeped their way. And have become toxic in my life. and I've just not invited you in. I just go up there to torture myself and then I come down and blame you for it. But I haven't really invited you there and I am inviting you there now. In fact, there's nowhere that I'm not inviting you.

There isn't a moment that you aren't invited into from this moment forward. There's nothing that's off limits to you. Nothing. There isn't another conversation that I'll ever have that you aren't invited into. There isn't another decision that I will ever make that you aren't invited into. There isn't another experience that I'll have that you aren't invited into.

I want to be with you. I just didn't realize how bad you wanted to be with me. I just thought you were always frustrated at my failings, but I wasn't willing to invite you into them. I'm not trying to hide anything from you. What I want, Jesus, is to make memories with you this afternoon that you and I can sit down and laugh about in four million years.

So come. Come into my heart, the truest part of who I am. Come there. Be there. Inside me. More intimately than I can possibly be with another human being. Come there. Inside me. In my heart. And guys, there is no amen to this prayer. I know amen means let it be so. I also know when we say amen, that means it's over. We're done. What I hope we've just done is start a conversation that will be continuing on in a hundred million years.

I hope you walk out of here with God because he's been willing to be with you all along. It's all he wants from you. I do not want to die. Come into the presence of Jesus. See him. Run to him. Stick out my hand to shake his and say, Jesus, it is so nice to meet you. I have heard so much about you. I want to see Jesus. And he knows my name. And I know him because our lives have been intertwined for decades.

And we've just taken the relationship to a new level. One that will never end. This is available. This is what a relationship with God looks like. But we can't try to treat the relationship in ways that wouldn't work with any other relationship. It's an always on, never off thing. It is integrated into our lives and not compartmentalized. It is unwilling to make assumptions.

It is unwilling to listen to gossip and rumor. We know how to be in a relationship. And we know how to be in a relationship with God. May we walk out of here in a full life-giving collaboration and adventure. I love you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you.