Tearing Up The Carpet: A Vision For Renewal

02/23/25 • 42 min

“In a word, what I'm saying is, grow up. Your kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” ~ Matthew 5:48 MSG The other day I was walking through this room. No one was here, and I was on my way to that kitchen right there to see if anyone had recently had a meeting where there were more sandwiches than people. And as I strolled in here on a food finding mission, it occurred to me that pretty soon people will be in here, slicing, and cutting, and pulling, and tugging, and prying up, this old carpet. And it might come up easily or the years of foot traffic, and basketball games, and chair legs, might mean the glue underneath the carpet hangs on for dear life. And the challenge of getting this up and out might be extreme. And then this thought, just jumped into my head, where is their old carpet in me that God wants to replace? Where is there a door in the building, that is me, that needs new paint, a chair that needs softer cushions, or some other aspect of my interior world that the Holy Spirit wants my permission to renovate and my cooperation on the project? I mentioned earlier the importance of eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that are open to what God might want to say and do in us. My experience in my Christian journey and my experience as a pastor suggests that it is most wise for you and me to assume we don't have eyes that see, ears that hear, or hearts that are open, and I realize that's harsh, but I think it's true.

Previous Episode

Send Me: Sent Together

It’d be a lot easier if we all pulled the same lever, just a lot easier. I'll trade that in any day of the week. There's only one problem, if you have that you don't have the church you've got a group, you've got a click, you've got a hobby club, but you don't have the church. Because, the church by definition is this mess of messy people all over the map going, we're coming to be this, the table holds us together. Jesus Christ is King. We're going to orient to that and we're going to trust that the bond we have in Jesus being King is bigger than our differences. That's the plan. We're held together because we believe Jesus is bigger than our differences. Unity in our differences points to God's power. Pastor Mike Lueken finishes up our "Send Me" series with an interview with Shawn Young who shares how we can recharge and refuel as we go out into the world on mission together for God.

Next Episode

Tearing Up The Carpet: Reawakened To One Another

This is America, where we are free to actually arrange our own gatherings, our own dinners. It’s a constitutional right. You can do it. There’s opportunity for you to connect with folks during the week, on your own. But whatever form it takes there’s just no way to effectively love one another or any of the other one another’s, in theory, or in general, you know from a distance. So maybe for you renewal or renovation or tearing out the carpet in this area of one another for you might mean that you need to show up. That you need to make yourself known. Contact Ashley and let her know you’re interested in a small group. You need to commit to coming to church on Sunday, not just anonymously ducking in and out but expectantly. Praying to the Holy Spirit that he might direct you to someone who needs “one anothering” today. Maybe you need to commit to serving with our children or our youth or our impact or hospitality teams. A place where you can be on mission with others. Maybe you need to pick up the phone and grab dinner with someone you haven’t connected with in a while. Or maybe even with someone that you just met last week. You see it’s really easy to look at our interactions and say, “aaah, we’re just to shallow, it’s just too shallow. They need to go deeper," and you’re right, they do. Here’s the thing, the only way to get to the deep end is through the shallow end. Standing outside the pool only ensures you’ll never get wet.