Good morning. It's great to be together and worshiping God together. I think fall arrived this morning. That's uh awesome. It's my favorite time of year. And uh we're gonna talk a little bit about God and nature. Um and uh to me, boy, when the when the colors change and the air gets crisp and no pollen, it's a uh it's a wonderful time. It also feels like uh football season finally, not not so much yesterday, but uh but I say that because we're coming up on our Telgate party, which is Sunday, October 28th. So I guess that's three weeks from today, and we'll get together and then we'll uh hang out afterwards. We'll have a chili cook-off, and you know, some of us will set up tents and grill, we'll hang out, listen to tunes, and um and then the Falcons game, it's the Eagles again this year, uh, will be on the big screen here and we can uh watch that together. And so uh a couple things. One is if if the chili cook-off is always fantastic, and one of the highlights of the Telgate Party. And so if you've uh got your secret recipe and want to compete, not just participate, but compete, um, you can sign up at the infodesk. There's two categories there's traditional and out-of-the-box, and uh four words, there will be trophies. Um we'll have food that you can buy if you don't want to if you don't want to grill, or you can just come and and uh we'll hang out. So that's three weeks from today. Um Baptism Sunday is the is the following uh week on November 4th. That's just such a uh a great day. And if you haven't been baptized, it's such an important um really step in in following Jesus. It's one of the things that we get to do exactly what he did. You know, he was baptized and we get baptized, and it's just a statement of I'm all in and I'm with you. And it's also um an expression of dying to our old ways and all this stuff and being raised with Jesus to a whole new life. And the Holy Spirit does something special when we get baptized, and it's just such a great uh great day. You know, we we cheer each other on and just uh thank God for what he's doing in our lives. So I think we'll start signups for that next week. So just be thinking about that. If uh if you haven't been baptized, or if you're baptized a long time ago and you and you want to make kind of a new statement that I'm starting again with God, it's a good time to do that uh too. So that'll be November 4th. And believe it or not, it's almost Christmas time. The uh and uh I say that because Christmas Angels is about to get cranken, and that is just uh such a wonderful thing that we get to do together, where we kind of adopt a couple schools and provide Christmas for the the ch the children that otherwise wouldn't be able to have a uh a Christmas. But it's a lot of work, it's well worth it. Um Jan and Chase Chandler are heading that up again uh this year, so thank you for that. That's a uh a big effort, and they do a fantastic job. But this morning we're gonna have some signups for uh administrative help if you'd like to help with Christmas Angels this year. And this isn't for the delivery, um, it's getting the stars organized, you know, with the kids and on the days that we get to choose the families that we'll be providing gifts for, and then on the days that the gifts get brought, helping out there. So if you could help that way and would like to, uh please sign up at the info desk afterwards. Mind you about giving, you know, it's uh it's easy to forget because we don't pass a plate, but it's also uh something to first encourage each other in, you know, to push each other and take a step of faith. Because when we do that, particularly with money, you know, it we get to see God in such a real way. It's a difficult thing for anybody to do, to say, okay, God, I'm gonna trust you with something like money. Uh but when we do that, we get to see Him just work in our lives and it builds our faith and affects our whole lives. And so thank you for that. Hey, let's pray. Well, Father God, we praise you. We thank you for bringing us together this morning as your family and your kids. We thank you for adopting us as your children. Holy Spirit, we just praise you and thank you for your role in our lives. And I just ask you to give each of us what it is we need today, if it's comfort or peace or joy or faith or hope. Uh, just please uh supernaturally give it that to us today. And Jesus, we praise you for being our Savior and our friend and uh teaching us, and we ask you to teach us this morning. We trust you with that, and it's in your name we pray. Amen. So we're looking together at an amazing promise Jesus made to us. It's in Matthew 11, 28, it says, Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. So he said, Let me teach you. And so that's what we're doing. And I've talked about how this is just really an exciting topic for me, because this is something that uh I really struggle with, you know, kind of finding rest in God. And I want you to know that really, because I want you to understand what church is too. It's not, you know, uh someone, you know, uh he or she up here saying, hey, we got it all together, and if you're like us, you can have it all together true. It's not like that at all. It's just that we're all in process. We all need God. And so if we can encourage each other, then every day we can uh be more like Jesus and have the life that uh he wants um for each of us. And so Jesus said, Let me teach you. How did he carry so much responsibility? How did he do so many things, have so many people pulling on him all the time, and yet enjoy his life? You'll live life with such joy. In John 15, it says, I've told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. So the first two weeks we looked at a couple pretty specific things. It was really the things that Jesus immediately taught. You know, as he was saying this verse, he's really walking through a field with his disciples. And he reaches down, and his disciples do, and pick some wheat, which broke the law of the Sabbath, not really God's law, but the law that man had developed over time. But to them he had broken the Sabbath law. And this was just one thing because the Pharisees and the religious people had just been on Jesus constantly, all the time. I mean, he was going around and he was healing people and he was helping people. And no matter what he did, some for some reason he wasn't doing it right. You know, it was at the wrong time, it was the wrong place, it was the wrong person. And the religious people were just constantly on Jesus' back. And Jesus says, you know what? Forget that way of thinking. Forget that. Just come to me. Come to me, and I will give you rest. And this happened on the Sabbath immediately afterwards and heading to the synagogue and where he healed a man on the Sabbath. And again, the people freaked out about that. And so Jesus taught that the Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath. And how important it is that we have scheduled real rest in our lives, how God Himself rested, how He created earth and land to have rest, and how He created us with a need for real rest. And those are kind of specific things. And today we're gonna take a step back and we're gonna look at a kind of a broader thing that Jesus teaches us, and not just by his words, but uh just also how he lived his everyday life. Jesus saw things different than I do. So when Jesus saw sheep, for instance, he spoke of people and how God cares for them. When he saw a shepherd, he spoke of how he feels about us. When he saw bread, he spoke of how he wants to feed us and to give us life. When he saw water, he spoke about the Holy Spirit and explains how he can quench our thirst. And when in a storm, he spoke about faith and how that gets us through the troubles in our life. When he saw a mustard seed, he spoke about how quickly and powerfully his kingdom would grow. When he saw a house being built, he spoke about how important it is for us to build on a foundation of God in our lives. Jesus saw wheat and weeds and yeast and trees, and he spoke about spiritual truths in the kingdom of God. When he saw children, he spoke about how vulnerable they are and how valuable they are to God. When he went to a wedding reception, he spoke about our relationship with him and how important it is to stay focused and to be prepared. He saw filled with all different types of soil and he thought about how people respond differently to God. When he saw a vineyard, he thought about how important it is that we stay connected to him. And when he saw the vineyard owner pruning the delicate vines, he spoke about how God transforms us and prunes us. And uh what's the word I'm looking for? It's a vine word. Um anyway, guides us. I think that's what you do. Think about this because we got these vines in our backyard, and we got to weave them through this trellis, and they're so delicate, you don't want to break them. And so, whatever that is, is what I'm thinking about. But um, when Jesus saw that, he actually knew the word and uh and spoke of it. When Jesus saw birds and flowers, he thought and spoke of how God cares for the smallest things in the world, but especially how he cares for us. Jesus talked about plants and rocks and fish and mountains. Jesus saw God everywhere. Jesus saw God all the time. And most of us feel better and more at peace when we're here together on Sunday morning. You know, I do. You know, there's something special when we come together. You know, us just combining our faith, combining our praise, encouraging each other, loving each other. Something for me special happens during worship. You know, I honestly, just when I walk in the room, I like to take a deep breath. And during worship, there's something in my spirit that is different than any other time of the week. And that's it, that's a great thing. It's one of the reasons that that uh Jesus' plan is for us to get together. In Hebrews 10, 25, it says, and let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. You know, and so there's something special happens when we're together with each other, with God. It's an important part of God's plan for us. But there's more. Jesus experienced the same type of thing in the synagogue and with his disciples. But mostly Jesus experienced God everywhere. Everywhere. There's the famous story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. The Samaritans believed God's home was uh one place on a particular mountain, and the Jewish people had uh God's home in the temple on a different mountain. Um so he's talking to the Samaritan woman, and she says, Sir, you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship? While we Samaritans claim it's here on Mount Jerizim and where our ancestors worshiped. Jesus replied, Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming, indeed, it's here now. When true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, the Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. That time is now, Jesus said. You know, we don't have to have or go to a building or a place to experience God and his presence. It's a heart thing, Jesus says, a spirit thing, knowing the truth about God and his love and his will. Worshiping anywhere, anytime. There's an Old Testament story that you might know. It's the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob tricked Esau out of his birthright. It was one of the lowest things you could do. In that culture, I mean what Jacob had to do to do that is unbelievable. Um, he deceived his dad on his dad's deathbed. He tricked him and deceived him. And he stole something that wasn't just a verbal blessing, it was amounted to physical property and a big part of the will. And it was his plan. He goes in there and he steals it. And not only does he spend his last moments with his dad that way, but his dad finds out, and in his last moments, he spends an anguish over what Jacob did. And so Esau finds out and he decides he's gonna kill him. And Jacob hears of it, and so he takes off running. It's in Genesis 28. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head again against and lay down to sleep. And he as he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth up to heaven, and he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather, Abraham, and the God of your father Isaac. The ground you're lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth. They will spread out in all directions, to the west and the east, to the north and the south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What's more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it. But he was also afraid and said, What an awesome place this is. It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven. The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel, which means house of God, although it was previously called Luz. And so two things in the story. One is uh really kind of an aside to what we're talking about this morning. But Jacob had messed up bad. I mean, in his culture, he had really done one of the worst things you could possibly do. And it was in that situation that God reached out to him. You know, and sometimes when we mess up, you know, we do something we're ashamed of. You know, we make a mistake. We put distance between ourselves and God because we think, you know, he's had to have it with us. But certainly he's mad at us. Certainly he's had enough. Certainly he's about to punish us. When the opposite is true. So often when we make a big mistake, it opens up a small window for God to reach out and speak to us, to tell us the truth, how much he loves us, how much he cares for us, how it doesn't matter what you've done or what you just did. I've got a plan for you, I've got a purpose for you, I love you. I'm gonna be with you, I'll always be with you. I've got promises and blessings for you. You know, and even when we maybe don't mess up, we can still feel alone. You know, we can feel alone in the midst of our families, in the midst of work, in the midst of school or friends. Feel like no one really cares about us. Everything's really on me. That we're in this whole thing and we're in it alone. That Jacob wasn't alone. And God wasn't mad at Jacob. It's true with us. But the thing I especially want to see is what Jacob said after his experience. He said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it. Then he said, What an awesome place this is. It's none other than the house of God. And when Jacob said this, there wasn't a tabernacle, there wasn't a temple, and still Jacob was surprised that God can meet us anywhere, any place, anytime. Jacob's just on a road, running from his brother, maybe a little bit running from God. He sets up camp and he wakes up saying, What an awesome place this is. None other than the house of God. This is the gateway to heaven. Barbara Brown Taylor writes about Jacob's experience, and she says, Jacob's nowhere, which he knew nothing, turned out to be the house of God. Even though his family had imploded, even though he had made his brother angry enough to kill him, even though he was a scoundrel from the word go, God decided to visit Jacob right where he was. And he also gave Jacob vision so he could see the angels going about their business in the world God created. And it can be the same for us. In our homes, in our cars, at our work, in a hotel room, any day of the week, every day of the week. God is everywhere and in all his creation. In Psalms 19, it says, The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak, night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word, their voice is never heard, yet their message is gone throughout the earth and their words to all the world. Sometimes we can make such a distinction between what is spiritual and what is the world, what is secular and what is Christian, that we can miss God in everyday life, that we can miss God in all of the world. You know, the world is used in different ways in the Bible. You know, it's used in a negative sense, you know, where it kind of sums up a way of living that ignores or even opposes God. But the world also is a summation of all that God created, especially people. You know, for God so loved the world. The world in the sense of the earth and his creation and people, God loves it. You know, the earth is our final home. Heaven's not a place in the in the clouds. We talked about this, it's probably been a couple years ago now. But how the Bible clearly teaches that that heaven is a renewed earth, that it is the earth renewed to how God had always planned it, how God had always intended it. And that's why Jesus said, God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. When Jesus saw the earth and the world around him, he saw his Abba Father everywhere. And so we don't have to relegate God to church or to hear on Sunday morning, or to what we pre or what we perceive as spiritual. Jesus saw God everywhere. God is in a baby's laugh. God is in a great mill, or for some a great wine. You know, a U-2 or switchfoot song, or even a Bob Marley song might be as worshipful as a hymn. Chariots of Fire or the Blind Side might be as encouraging as any church service. Chronicles of Narnia or the Shack or countless other books might express an element of God better than any sermon. God's the same. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He's always inspired people, and he still inspires people today. We can see his inspiration wherever we look. We can see his inspiration in architecture. We can see his inspiration in art. We can see it in music. We can see it in writing. We can see it in business. We can see it in our homes. Wherever we go, we can see God if we see like Jesus. We can see God in our Friends, in our spouse, in our children, you know, in nature, of course. I probably just kind of instinctively praise God more in nature than anywhere. We can see God at a wedding, we can see God at a funeral. We can see God in a nation that's tried to depend on him, and he's blessed this country. I had a business meeting last Thursday, and I had three guys that have flown in from out of town, and we're talking, and we get to talking about God and uh and just how he blesses his kids and being generous and all that kind of stuff. And I felt the Holy Spirit as strong as I feel him here. You know, and it was so exciting to leave that meeting just seeing what God is doing in all different parts of the country and all different types of people. God's spoken to Susan a lot of times in different ways, you know, and and one I was thinking about this morning is a couple times it was with part of his creation. It was with a little bird. One time it flew into a window, and God spoke to her through that. Another time it flew into the house, and Susan was trying to help the bird, but it was scared, and God spoke to her about her relationship with God. You know, I've had some life-altering experiences with God. And, you know, I mean, we we have every day, I think, experiences with God. If I look back, I'm like, okay, what are these kind of monumental things that have happened? And one was in the woods, one was in a cabin, three were in church, two were on vacation, and one was in the rain on a beach in Oregon. I have a friend who got saved listening to Bruce Springsteen in his car. And I forget the song, I don't think it was Pink Cadillac, but whatever it was, he pulled over and immediately just prayed and gave his life to Jesus. You know, on Sundays we can get really filled up. That's part of the purpose, is to get really filled up, hopefully even topped off. But we can see and experience our Father God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit anywhere. In fact, everywhere. In Jeremiah 23, it says, Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and the earth, says the Lord? I used to use a uh Franklin planner back in the old days, before iPhones, before bag phones, actually. But um it kind of changed my life. It was just a way of getting organized, and I struggle with that. And so in this planner, I'd keep to-do lists and goals and appointments and all that type of stuff. And I also kept a prayer list. And so one time I'm cleaning up my office and I find this planner from three years ago, and I go to look up something, and I noticed the prayer list. And so I start reading the prayer list that I had had three years before. And I was stunned to see that God had answered every single prayer one way or another. And the thing is, I had actually forgotten. I had even prayed most of those prayers. If I had thought to look, I would have seen God answer those prayers all through those years. Remember Jacob's dream. We call it Jacob's ladder, a ladder between heaven and earth, with angels going up and down. God was giving Jacob a glimpse of what is going on all the time. Jacob said, The Lord was here and I wasn't even aware of it. Hebrews 13, 1 says, Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers. For some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it. God is amongst us, he is doing things all the time, everywhere. So living easy, living lightly. You know, from time to time our normal struggles in life are so much heavier because we wonder about God. At least I do sometimes, you know. Is God really real? Does he really care about me? Does he really know me? Has he forgotten? I'm here. Those struggles are so much easier when we see like Jesus saw. He saw God and his love and his nature and his kingdom everywhere. There's a cool interaction Jesus has. It's in John 1. It'll be kind of the red letters, I guess, that we finish with. Philip went to look for Nathaniel and told him, We have found the very person Moses. We found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nazareth, exclaimed Nathaniel. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Come and see for yourself, Philip replied. As they approached, Jesus said, Now here is a genuine son of Israel, a man of complete integrity. How do you know about me? Nathaniel asked. Jesus replied, I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you. Then Nathaniel exclaimed, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel. Jesus asked, Do you believe this? Just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You'll see greater things than this. And then he said, I tell you the truth. You will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth. Jesus referring back to Jacob's dream, calls himself the stairway between heaven and earth. He is the one that connects us with heaven. He is the one that connects heaven and all the earth. Angels going up and down. The spiritual, the supernatural. God's creation is all intertwined with the ladder between heaven and earth. You know, and the traffic on that ladder is pretty heavy. If we know where to look and how to look. So Jacob has this vision, and God opens up his eyes to see what God's doing all around him. And he'd gone to sleep on a st with his head on a stone, and when he wakes up, he takes that stone and he pours oil on it. And he he names that place Bethel, House of God. And he was right, because that was the house of God. Because the house of God is everywhere. And we see when we see the world that way, when we see it how Jesus saw it, see God, experience God all the time, everywhere, it definitely makes our lives much easier and much lighter. And so we'll stop there this morning. The worship team wants to come up, we'll sing one more song together. Praising God. Let's stand, we'll get ready for that song. So that verse, stairway, the Led Zeppelin verse, stairway to heaven. I uh I wrote that down a few years ago because I'd always kind of wanted to share about it and kind of dig into it because it's such, to me, an interesting metaphor, and maybe sometime we'll do that. Just really look at that very cool verse. But one of the main thoughts in the verse is that it's Jesus that connects us. He is the stairway. He's the one that connects us with our Abba Father. He's the one that connects us with all that is good in the world and in God's creation. You know, it's so easy to get connected with God and with Jesus. You know, it's it's it's in our own words, in our own way, saying, Jesus, I need you. Jesus, help me, Jesus, save me, Jesus, I want to follow you, Jesus, change my life. You know, we're created in God's image with the Spirit. And when we turn to Jesus that way, that Spirit comes alive and it connects with God's Spirit. And the process starts, just like he's doing now, teaching us. You know, it starts, he teaches us, he changes us, he transforms us from the inside and eventually the outside. Our whole lives change. So if you've never done that, today would be a great day to take that stairway. You know, one way Jesus had a big advantage over us, and that's just that he walked everywhere. You know, it it's easier to see God and everything everywhere if we slow down a little bit and take the time to really see. And so maybe that's what we can do together this week. Maybe we can just try and slow down, look, and see God's fingerprints, see his creation, see his love all around us and everywhere. Let's pray. Father, we praise you. Thank you for being such a great God. And Jesus, we thank you for loving us and for teaching us. Help us, help us uh to see you and your Father and your Spirit everywhere around us. Help us, Jesus, to live lightly and easy with your joy. We trust you with that. It's in your great name we pray. Amen.