Make Room

WELCOME

Good morning! Welcome! We’re so happy to see you this morning!

Excited about what’s ahead for our church.

ME

There are 4 core values that I’m shaping my 2021 post-burnout life around. One of those values is to curate, or to carefully gather, sift, choose and organize. I wrote this recently:

My design aesthetic and lifestyle lean toward the minimal. We live happily in 932 sq. ft., which means everything we have must be carefully chosen. Nothing takes up space except what we most need or want. These shelves typify our home: every item intentionally chosen for its meaning or because we enjoy it.

You can see those shelves behind me.

I want the same for my inner life and so does God: thoughtful order to the layout of how I spend my time and what I allow to take up space in my mind and thoughts. How I spend my time, energy and thoughts should tell a compelling story. I’m called to be the curator of my soul. And sometimes less is more.

Clutter Creeps - show pic of living room Saturday...

EXERCISE

Today I want to invite you to lend a curator’s eye the living room of your life, to your soul, to your calendar, to your priorites and to your energy.

What’s taking your space?

Take a moment and consider. Zoom out, and watch (as if seeing it for the first time) what that person that happens to be you designed their life around this past week. What did they spend their time on? How did that make them feel? What was the result?

If that person had to describe in 1 word what they saw, what would it be? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the chat.

Was it productiviy? Joy? Set backs? Anger? Failure? Achievement? Disappointment?

Now we’re going to take it a step further: we’re going to invite in a professional’s eye.

TAKEAWAY: Today we’re inviting Jesus to help us make room for the most important things.

To make room for God to work IN your life and THROUGH your life.

To make room for deep and defining relationships to grow within our church family.

To make room for the wind of God’s Spirit to have space to blow into your tired, weary or disordered soul.

Today we’re inviting The Great Curator to step in and help us see what IS in our hearts and to help us see what SHOULD be there.

MAIN SCRIPTURE

Psalm 18 is an encore performance of 1 Sam 22, a song David wrote when God brought him out of a really difficult situation. Circumstances beyond his control had hemmed in in, surrounded him, were drowning him, and in his distress he calls out to God, to The Great Curator, and he shows up and listen to what David says happens.

Psalm 18:19 (NIV)

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

God wants to bring you into a spacious place!

Hebrew rhb (pronounced rahav) -

grow wide, large,

to be wide, enlarge, be joyful, find relief, create opportunity

spacious, to open oneself wide, extensive

God’s desire and design is that your life would be a spacious place! There would be plenty of space for beauty and functionality.

Ps:18:36 - “You have made a wide path for my feet...”

Ps 31 - “you have set my feet on a broad place...”

Gen 26 - Isaac continually pressed out of space for his herd, no place to grow and increase, but found an empty place, dug a well, and found water - "For now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land."

Have our lives become chaotic, cluttered, messy?

Even in COVID?

DESIGN DISORDERS:

1. Everything good belongs!

A great design always makes room for the purpose of the room. It isn’t designed for every function. So it considers the why.

Ex. our sofa - comfy to sit on and chat and take a nap

If it’s good, we should do it. And we will our lives with so much stuff that we don’t enjoy most of it and neglect the most important.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made…uniquely shaped...

RESULT: CLUTTER! We need to make room for what’s most important. We need Jesus to help us curate.

2. Everyone’s opinion matters!

A great design evokes A feeling and A purpose. Someone needs to have an idea of what that is and build around it.

We have so many influences in our lives now - constantly bombarded by information, ideas, pressure to live this way or do that thing. Voices everywhere.

It’s almost like we have a steady stream of individuals randomly coming into our space and leaving their favourite item, and we hope it’s going to all look good and work well together. It’s not.

Ex. Abigail - Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago - make room for

We need a design direction - we need the great Curator. He has a vision for your life - let HIM create it.

RESULT: CLUTTER! We need to make room for what’s most important. We need Jesus to help us curate.

3. No one’s tidying up!

Ex. dust bunnies, Lego, blueberry milkshakes

Even good things get dirty, need maintenance, and require attention.

We have a real, unseen enemy of our souls who is out to steal, kill and destroy our lives. If we are not attentive, temptation will consume us, compromise will set in, unforgiveness begins to rule, deception sets in.

It doesn’t matter how much you’ve acquired, how impressive and successful you’ve become, no one wants to sit in a filthy room.

Ususally happens passively, not actively - we don’t even realize it.

RESULT: CLUTTER! We need to make room for what’s most important. We need Jesus to help us curate.

We need the Dyson of God’s forgiveness.

We need the Swiffer of the Spirit.

We need the cleaning caddy of consecration...

Let’s work this out together.

Psalm 18:19 (NIV)

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

God wants to bring you into a spacious place!

In just a moment, we’re going to try something new for Zoom Church - we’re going to split you into Breakout Rooms and take 4 minutes to have a conversation about this.

For some of you, it’s going to require a bit more connection and engagement, but I encourage you to turn on your camera and share with your group.

Here’s the question I want you to answer:

Which of these three is most cluttering up your life right now?

1. Everything good belongs! (overcommitting)

2. Everyone’s opinion matters! (people-pleasing)

3. No one’s tidying up! (spiritually unaware)

ZOOM ROOMS

Our focus in this next season is knowing Jesus better together.

Do you have space for that? Is your life oriented around these God-aligned priorities?

Knowing Jesus Better - growing

Together - relational

Reasons we don’t make room

1. STEPH - “I’m too busy”. Most of us are actually less busy than ever.

2. TODD - “I don’t feel like it.” Feelings are important, but not always truthful. As Jesus followers, our decisions are made based on our convictions and values. One of our convictions must be to growing relationships with the people around dus.

3. DAVID - “None of the content seems appealing.” We’ve chosen this content strategically based on Ephesians 6 – what we need to stand strong – right knowing (theology), right living (character) and right going (mission). These are lifelong pursuits that are vital to your spiritual health and joy.

4. STEPH - “I have other Christian connections outside of my church.” Awesome! But almost the whole NT is written local church – we don’t just need connections with THE church, but A church. If this is where you’re planted, then this is where you need to invest in real relationships.

5. PRISCILLA - “I’ve been in a Life Group but didn’t get much out of it.” We’re so sorry. But maybe it’s less about what you get and more about what you give.

CHALLENGE

Psalm 18:19 (NIV)

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

God wants to bring you into a spacious place!

WORSHIP

PRAYER

Are you distracted?

Are you allowing spiritual oppression to constrain and restrain you? Are you fixated on unimportant and purposeless things?

Are you disordered?

A bunch of different styles and values all cluttered up to make something that doesn’t appeal to anyone.

Does how you spend your time reflect your stated values? Are your stated values aligned with your apprenticeship of Jesus?

Has compromise cluttered your soul?