series: (co)re values

title: eight:connection

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: November 19, 2017

scriptures: Matthew 6:1-18, John 16:13-15, Ephesians 4:28, Isaiah 57:15, Daniel 6, John 1:10

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our oldest daughter Milly shares a room with the baby… and its so sweet to see, just about every morning when the baby wakes up, the sun is just starting to rise… and Milly’s bed is at a window, and each morning Dawn and I are woken up by the baby talking… making these cute noises, and when we go in to get her, Milly has her on her lap on her bed and is trying to watch the sunrise with her. And this moment, that seems to replay just about every single morning, is one of the most peaceful, beautiful things that I have ever witnessed. And I don’t know if Milly realizes the depths of the moment that she is a part of… holding a tiny child, one of God’s greatest gifts and most perfect creations… who is full of joy even though its morning and its been 12 hours since she has been fed and yet she is content to sit in arms of her sister… staring at a sky totally lit up with the colors of heaven… in a moment of total peace.

Now, in our home, ESPECIALLY IN THE WINTER… the hour of 7am-8am is the most hectic, crazy time all day… we are totally scrambling to get everyone showered, dressed, hair brushed, teeth brushed, breakfast made… lunches packed if we didn’t do it the night before… snow pants, coats, hats, and gloves all on, and everyone out the door by 8 to get to school on time.

And we are working on making that window of time less and less hectic… more orderly, less chaos… but the chaos that usually comes when 7am hits, to me, just makes those moments a few minutes before, where Milly calmly sits at the window with Eloise, that much more special.

it is a space that allows reflection, and I have noticed that in Milly, on the mornings that she does that before she comes down stairs, everything seems to go a little bit more smoothly.

Why?

Because she took that moment to pause… to create a little space… to clear her mind and prepare for what was next.

and one of the biggest misconceptions people have about connecting to God is that you can only do it in church… or you can only do it if you wake up at 5am and seek him diligently for 2 hours before you take a shower and start the day…

I think its important to go to church, and it is important to have quiet time, I think that is part of what it means to create space for Jesus… but I also believe that God wants to walk through your day with you… He will speak to you through the moments… through the sunsets, through the storms… through your encounters with others… through the subtle things that you take for granted.

Because most of us live the majority of our lives in that 7-8am frantic hour… missing the moments that are meant to speak to us… missing the sunrises… missing the things that God wants us to SEE… and to experience… and to experience HIM in.

He wants to be with you when you drive to work, and while you are at work.

To me, it is so significant that the Hebrew word for worship, the word AVAD, is the same word as the word for work… AVAD means both… IN FACT, it also means SERVING. So in Hebrew, the word for: worship, work, and serve is the exact same word… AVAD!

Exodus 8:1 says: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may AVAD”

some translations say serve, others say worship -

because all three are worship…

work is worship. serving others is worship. WORSHIP IS WORSHIP.

and sometimes we belittle our experiences because we think that they aren’t spiritual, when in reality its all Spiritual… God speaks to us in the mundane as much as He does in the extraordinary… but the question is, are we listening?

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Character means that We live publicly like we do in private. We write the Word of God on our hearts, practice generosity, and prioritize integrity.

Commission means that we are a sending church. We honor the past, while we work for the future. And we always believe that everyone’s brightest days are ahead of them.

connection is living a life of constant community with God.

He is our supplier, who is as close to us as the air that we breathe.

conversation means that we bind and we loose together, we learn together, we serve together, and we grow together.

We welcome each other’s perspectives, and we depend on each other’s accountability.

collaboration is all of us working together to create something better than any of us could create on our own.

Contribution understands that everybody has a role, and there is room for us here. We know that the gifts we are given matter to the body of Christ, and we so seek to discover where we each fit.

We honor the contributions of others, knowing that God perfectly crafted each one of us, and only together are we truly the church.

Community is a body, committed to all its parts.

Compassion sees the world through the eyes of others, and it is stirred to action by what it sees. It can not sit by while injustice is done around it.

communion is a common union of broken people, who are made whole by the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We are united by our differences, and there is a seat for everyone at the table.

Courage goes to the places that nobody else wants to go, and works to create places that everybody wants to be. Courage loves the one who nobody else wants to love…

if you have no gauge on what is important, then you have no way to measure whether or not you are on the right track. That is what Core Values do… they keep us disciplined… they keep us on mission… they give us something the bounce whatever it is we are doing, off of, and see… IS THIS FURTHERING THE MISSION?

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