Following His Presence

Happy New Year. We're glad that you're here. Can we just first and foremost who had a breakfast burrito? Awesome. Who didn't have a breakfast burrito? who still wants a breakfast burrito? All right, can we thank the Dunbar's for providing breakfast burritos for our community today. Thank you guys so much, you guys so generous and kind to us. If you didn't get one, please stop by I think there's some more right outside, you can go get a breakfast burrito for later. They're delicious. We'd love for you to grab one of those as you step into the new year. So this morning, in case you haven't noticed, it's gonna look a little bit different than a normal Sunday gathering. And there's a variety of reasons for that. There's something to a community of Jesus followers. That's what canopy is we're community of Jesus followers learning to live free. And we talked about freedom, it's following the presence of God, right? It's asking that Lord, what is it that you want to do in our lives, right, like laying down everything that we may want, and recognizing that freedom is found in the presence of Jesus. And so a regular rhythm. And something that we do as a pastoral staff is we are constantly asking, Lord, what is it that you want to do? We don't ever want to approach a Sunday gathering. And just kind of become a robotic experience where we do the worship, we do the community, we grab a doughnut, we hear a message, we dismiss the kids and then we just go about our lives. Does that make sense? There's something refreshing about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In fact, like I've always thought of and it's some theologians said one once it said that the Holy Spirit's like a bus it's always moving. Right. And and for us, as a community, there's something really expected for us as we step into the new year, asking the Holy Spirit, how can we as a community, how can we is can it be church, lean into what the Lord wants to do recognize that I think the Lord wants to bring a freshness to us. And I mean, this is what New Year's is all about, right? A lot of us when we do New Year's resolutions, there's something about a fresh starting line that gets us excited, that really motivates us. But more importantly, for the church, it's not just about a day in the calendar, it's recognizing that the Holy Spirit wants to do that in us every single moment of every single day. The Holy Spirit wants to give you a freshness. He wants to pour out His goodness and blessing. The good news is that he does that every single day, right, His mercies are new every single day. But the truth is, he's also been doing it. So he has been blessing you, his goodness is been has been pouring out on you, and it will continue to do so. And so what we want to do, and how we want to kind of position ourselves this morning, if you're open to it is just kind of come before the Lord and ask what do you want to do? How can we position our hearts? How can we position our souls to allow the Holy Spirit to maybe surprise us this morning? And that to me is probably the word for us? Like how might the Holy Spirit? How might the presence of God surprise you this morning, as we are gathering on January 1 and 2023? Which is so weird. 2023 Wow, I think that just sunk in. So 2023 Here we are, like how might the presence of the Lord want to surprise you, that actually sets us up as a church family in position us into the place that he wants us to go this coming year. And so that's what we're going to do this morning, I want my heart to be open at our gathering. I want to create some room for extended prayer and worship, which we're going to do not just for a couple of people on stage to kind of project this way. But what does it look like for us to have like this morning where we're all participating in prayer, that together we're crying out to the Lord. And so we're going to kind of structure this a little differently. But thinking about today a little bit and a Christmas message that God is here. Like through the person of Jesus, this is the message of Christmas. This is what last weekend was all about when we go to Christmas gatherings. This is what this season is all about. Right? There's a lot of other things good things that we partake in. But the Christmas message that God is here in the person of Jesus is everything to us. And I was just thinking about the significance of Jesus coming to earth and realizing that reality has so much more power than just acknowledging that truth on Christmas, right? There's something about that truth that ought to carry us through the year. There's something about that truth that that God is here in the presence of Jesus anchors, our souls with whatever has happened, whatever, whatever current reality we're sitting in, and all the unknowns that are about to come our way in 2023. Right, so the presence of God is everything to us. And this question that I've been asking myself, as I have the gift to start off this New Year with all of you is just this like with all the things that are going to come the good, the bad, and maybe even the ugly. How can the presence of Jesus be an anchor for my soul in 2023 Hebrews 619 says we have this hope, as an anchor for our souls, firm and secure. So the Christmas message requires us to not just end another year, trusting relying and believing in an heiress of Jesus. But it also demands us to trust, rely and believe in the nearness of Jesus for the future, for the things that are going to come our way, right? Does that make sense? And you tracking with me right now. And I don't want to be like a downer on this New Year's Day. Because this is a holiday, this is the day we're celebrating life. We have a day together with another year. We don't know what this year holds, though, right? And there's all kinds of circumstances that we'll face. So with the unknowns with the current realities that we're all sitting in right now, what is going to anchor our souls, I think we all know enough to know that when we carry whatever we carry, whatever we went through in 2022, into 2023, is actually going to continue going with us this year. Just because we turn a year doesn't mean that things stop happening, right? As much as we want that to happen. I've already seen posts all over the place on Instagram of like 2023 behind us. May you be better than 2022. And the truth is, I was in 2022. And I'm still going to be in 2023. Right? So I can put my hope and a lot of other things. But the reality is, I think we've all lived enough life. And we've all gone through enough seasons in things where there are just unforeseen circumstances that will face there are things that we will encounter. So how will my soul actually rest? If I'm putting my trust in security, and certainty and anything else other than Jesus? It won't. It won't. And so I just love this verse in Hebrews so much because it reminds us that not only the things that we can count on other things that might want to bring us peace, the only thing that can actually bring peace, wholeness, healing to our souls, is the presence of Jesus and the promise being made in this versus that Jesus is behind us. Jesus is next to us. Jesus is out in front of us. And it's with that truth, that we have this hope as an anchor for our souls. It's firm, and secure. In Psalm 139, Psalm 139, David asked this question, which is so good God, where can I go to escape your presence? With that? With that question, he immediately then concludes that he can't, I can't escape from your presence. Wherever I go, you're there. Wherever I'm sleeping, you're there. Whenever I make my bed shields, he says, You're there. The point is, you can't escape from the presence of Jesus. This is what the Christmas message is about. And I'm just feeling convicted as we step into 2023 Baby for me personally, but for us as a church, what would it look like for us to carry that Christmas message also into the new year, to live in the space to live in the reality that God is here, he is near to you, He's present to you. And so I would love for us to to spend our time this morning, primarily with three things you tracking with me, here we go. That as we talk about Jesus being the anchor for our souls, firm and secure, that first what we want to do this morning is acknowledge the presence of Jesus, namely, through stillness. With number two, we want to see how the presence of Jesus has blessed each and every one of us, namely, through gratitude. And then thirdly, what we're going to do this morning is we want to confess our needs in the press for the presence of Jesus in our lives, primarily through declaration of prayers. And so we're going to do this in the atmosphere of prayer and worship. Like that's, that's what's going to framework our space together. And I just can't think of a better way to live into the new year than this, then then with all the unknowns with all the unknowns with all the good with all the hurt, whatever it is that we're carrying with whatever it is we may face this year, than anchoring our souls in the presence in the nearness of Jesus. So we want to begin our time together with just some some time of stillness, we have a slide, Jeff that we can throw up there, it'll just say stillness. And oftentimes, this has become one of my favorite disciplines, especially as a dad of three young kids, it's hard to find stillness these days, and maybe for you, whatever your circumstance faces, whatever it is that you might be up against, but stillness has become one of my favorite disciplines actually, because everything in me just wants to go right everything in me wants to accomplish everything in me might want to feel productive. So but actually taking moments in the beginning of every day as much as I can. There are days where I fail. There are a couple of days where I go where I'm like, I miss Jesus so much. Oh, yeah, haven't been still. But for us to acknowledge the presence of Jesus in this new year through stillness. And so the question that I want to invite you into is really this not really even questions to statement. So God is here, this is the Christmas message. Oftentimes, the best way that we can utilize our time together is just by acknowledging his name here and His nearness to us. acknowledging how close he is to you. The fact that he knows your name. He created you, he's your father. He knows what you need before you ask. That's all true. But as a follower of Jesus, I sure I want God to do things, but the thing I want most is just to be with him, just to enjoy him. So we're just going to take a couple moments and stillness together. It's just going to be quiet. I want to invite you just to acknowledge His presence, try to refrain from praying. Try to refrain from going down a rabbit hole. Take deep breaths, slow your space, slow your space, slow your breath up and just acknowledge the nearness of Jesus to you right now. He is here. He is with you. So let's do that for a few minutes together and I'll be right back up Sometimes stillness can feel pretty unpredictable, like in terms of like what can happen. Or it can feel like a waste of time. It almost fights, every single urge or everything that's familiar to us to be, right. But sometimes the gift of stillness is to just not think we have to be anything other than just receiving. Or even just being who we are created to be, which is just what Jesus right. So for some of you, it's probably easier to just stop and be still. And for a lot of others, it's really difficult and hard and pushes back. Or it creates space for things to come up. pain, sorrow, discouragement, loneliness. And what we do in stillness is just receive the love of God, that He loves us when we do nothing. When we just are want to move into a time of gratitude. After being still after acknowledging the presence of Jesus, it's good for it's good for the people of God to remember or see the things that the presence of Jesus has really blessed us in. Right, especially when we've wrapped it up to a new year, or an old two year 2022. Like in the midst of the hard, the difficult, the pain, the tragedy, the joy, the miracles, whatever happened in 2022, to see, to remember, the blessings of God. And so what we want to do now is create more of just an open floor format, to just pray where you're at outloud. One at a time. Prayer doesn't need to be long. It's just recognizing and seeing the things that Jesus has done. So the question is, how has the presence of Jesus blessed you over the last year? How has the presence of Jesus this message of Christmas God is here? So how has he blessed you this past year? And we just want to create some space in a few minutes. Just for us as a community here, I want to hear from you. It's faith building for me to hear how Jesus is blessed your life. It's going to be faith building for someone else in the room to hear how Jesus has blessed your life. And so let's take a few minutes. Whoever wants to get us started, just 15 Second prayers, and we'll bounce around the room and then we're gonna go into worship after that. Okay. So let's pray. Who wants to start us off? just love what gratitude does to our heart posture we're gonna sing this song I just want about you to stand just continue to press into that posture of gratitude continue to press in past apathy when you have good skin I could see he saw zoo stay upgrade you day you said spy with shipping Zeus come on man come on man so you Steve good get out of your head to come off of your song gap get up upgrade you said so drawn to them should have heaven appraise you saw that our hobbies you know is it that simple God is good, and he is blessing us. And oftentimes when we position our heart in this space, there's something that anchors us I don't know if you feel that, or there's something in me that just wants to cry out and remember the goodness of God. So I want to encourage you as we step into this year, not only sitting in stillness, but we're also people of gratitude. We're quick to reflect we're quick to remember the blessings of Jesus in our lives. And then oftentimes we move from from gratitude into declaration. Declaration is a bit of a hopeful prayer. The question that I want to ask you is like, what is the cry of your heart and you can take a seat, if you'd like to, or you can stay, stay and standing, I'm not gonna tell you what to do around here. Stand as long as you want, or sit if it's more comfortable. But as you look to a new year, as you think about the circumstances that you're in, as you think about the responsibilities, the heaviness, the longings of your heart, your desires, what is the cry of your heart? In other words, what do you need from Jesus. So when we talk about declarative prayers, for me, these are honest prayers. They are prayers at the core of who we are. Their prayers are at the core of what we're going through. And more importantly, declarative. Declarative prayers come from a place of faith. They come from a place where you realize even though you might not be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, still, you're not losing hope. You're remembering what Jesus has done. You're acknowledging his presence, and it's from that place that you can cry out to Him. The Christmas message is that God is here. So he is listening to you. He knows what you need. We talk about declaration, it's rooted in the goodness, and it's rooted in the love that God has for you. So my question to you is, what do you need from Jesus? What do you want to see Jesus do in your life? What do you want to see Jesus do in your family? What do you want to see Jesus do in our church? What do you want to see Jesus do in our world? So let's spend some some time praying out loud prayers of declaration. So whoever wants to begin we'll just do that and we'll popcorn around. And then we're going to go back into some worship just receive the good news that's him. Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to bring good news to the poor to bind up the brokenhearted just receive him this morning. Just receiving spirit. We believe that God speaks not only does he hear us when we pray when we ask, but he talks back. And I just think he just wants to take this moment and has some things to say to a few of us in this room, some good things, some things of life. And I get a sense, there might be a couple of us who, when we go to listen to God, we fear that it's going to be a voice of shame, of voice of condemnation, of voice of kind of, I have some things to say to you. But that's not God. That's not Jesus, he meets you and he greets you with compassion, and kindness. He says he has good news he has freedom just take this moment just listen. And when we listen and we're changed by his voice, things change in our lives. See Something always changes when something always changes bless your day something always changes bless your day to love us your song song Oh something always changes or something always changes that's your that's your begin to Sunday my soul gets louder when the sun gets broader my soul game begins to Sungei bless your day because something always changes when your day changes or something always changes that's your swab that's your shout out shout out to live Sha Sha Sha Shan Have you have you have you put this be our cry singer Have you have you? Have you? Have you? Have you have you? Have you? Have you? Have you? Have you have you? Sing out to him to house way have you? Have you? Have you have you? Have you? Have you? Have you? And this song says something always changes when I bless your name. Often we think of that as being circumstances which, what do we worship? We know from scripture we know from experience that wars are one, that things change. But I think the most important thing that happens when we worship is that our hearts change, our hearts are filled with him. Our hearts are aligned to our purpose to our true meaning. And so this morning, if you're feeling like you're not feeling it, if you're feeling like, yeah, we're singing these songs, we're saying have your way but I don't feel a thing I just really want to encourage you. Worship is not a waste of time and never is you might not feel it now. But you're planting seeds for your future with Jesus. You're planting seeds you're growing and shrink. Those that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. So I just want to sing this again because something always changes and I just want to invite you to push past that apathy to push past that feeling of I'm not feeling it to push past that I've sung this song before to push past this is just another Sunday because his mercies are new every morning he's always doing something new is where it says he is doing a new thing he is bringing streams in the desert so I just want to invite us to sing this something always changes and and I just want to invite you to do whatever you have to do to change something if that clips in your hands if you haven't in a while if that's getting on your knees if that's just singing for the first time in a long time for the first time ever I just want to invite you to push past this because of the church when we sing and when we worship God things change Do we believe that? Yeah, can we sing this out something changes because something it always changes Oh something always changes that's your day oh something always changes so unless you're something always changes that's your day it always changes that's your name something always changes that's your day so then things got to the how good how great yay then sing God to the how good oh my god when I can see the world die I see I hid thy power through Wow display oh god to the moody pow pow great yay. Dancing basses God to the how how good I am and when I say that God is not scary. He said Sam die I scare scare say that cry by burning alive only tried to say go away my sin COVID Six matzo God to show me how great you yeah dancing God to God how good is coming see my crush when Christ wish our nation and say can me joy shall do the thing that again let this hopefully you win cry wish may shine and say can be all joy Xiao Bell signal again will crush up hell where cry shall come with shout shine and say to me all right you joy shout my God on our bow and I will bow with shout me shine grew up seeing oh my god too to the pow pow great yeah God to me how good First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23, on the night when he was betrayed the Lord Jesus took bread, and we had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. One of the most historical traditions that we have in the church, one of the most important traditions we have in the church is communion. Communion declares that Jesus is Lord but it also remembers what Jesus has done for us on the cross. And by taking communion as we see in Paul reminds us that we are declaring who Jesus said He is that he's Lord, but he's also here. And communion is a tangible way for us to profess our faith in Jesus, to trust Him, to rely on him to cry out to Him in a physical expression way. And so we want to serve communion to you as we as we wrap up part time Kiana is going to sing a song but one invite you forward you can just come down the middle I'll just form a line and Jesse and I will serve you communion because go back to your seat and you can take it by yourself or you can take it with somebody that you came with we can take it in groups however you want to have communion but it's up to you and it's time for you to kind of just take this time for you whatever it is that you need to reflect to remember on who Jesus is that he's here and he's with you and so when invites you to come when you're ready see the oh that he should get here diesel cheese shame pain this is faint as wounds who it's my show bring me nice to me to be ruled the man upon my say fish filters are the same I hear my mom always got this girl his die bread has been dead he is feeding we not Bo Steve steam no games no power no waste all but I will boast in Jesus grades is game three give me two birthdays. No way people have paid my son so when you finish I want you to stand and just sing this last verse again with me. Because I will not vote in anything so, we are not boasting me. No games. No Pavel no waste all but I will bow saying Jesus Christ is dead I will soon we will not bow saying anything No no no ways doll BirdEye Bosi see Jesus Christ is dead shall watch me to do this and no wait but this birdies no wait go but it's birthdays no wave is happy bye single precious precious is die makes me know Jesus okay precious precious names me no nuts in the 80s