Jenna Shankland: 0:01

Hi, good morning, everyone. How are we doing? Was beautiful worship before we go into a time of break. We'd love all of you. If you guys brought a Bible or brought a phone, could you take out your Bibles? I we're going to turn to Hebrews 412 right? If everybody could turn to Hebrews 412 Yeah. So some of you here have been asked specifically to read this verse. I'd like each of you guys just to you can just stand where you are, or come up. Yeah, okay, yeah, come up to the mic. But there's just something beautiful when we can sit in God's Word together. And this is a verse that's been speaking to us, especially Rowena. She's going to be sharing with us later this morning. But if you guys could all make your way if you've been asked to read. So there's just something so beautiful that God is doing in our midst. And we know that God speaks to all of us through the generations. There's no Junior Holy Spirit. It doesn't matter if you're two or if you're 82 that God is speaking to each and every one of us here. And I think there's something so beautiful here, especially about our culture and you church, is we're deeply intertwined and enmeshed in each one's lives. And so I think that's something that we're seeing God do, is draw these generations together in ways that he hasn't been doing before. You know, we've talked for a while that he's doing something new, and I really see that this new thing is intergenerational. There's something that Allegra carries, there's something that AJ carries, there's something that lets carries. There's something that Claire carries, that Tolu carries, and it's such a gift. You know, Jesus is alive in each and every one of us, and Revelation flows from each and every one of us. And so we really want to honor that space to hear from generations. So we're going to start with Tolu. Get little

George MacNeil: 2:41

gas, the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit joints, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart you

Jenna Shankland: 3:05

I love our teens, so I just, you know what? I just want to invite you guys to take a big breath and maybe close your eyes and really soak in the Word of God as this is read to you. So Bob and Claire are going to read next. And I just, I really want to leave space in between the reading. So really, just take time to just really saturate yourself in what God is saying to you through this. We don't need to rush through this,

Bob Veck: 3:38

for the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart

Claire: 4:02

for the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart you

Amy: 4:27

for the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart.

Jenna Shankland: 4:42

I So Holy Spirit. We thank you that you are here. We thank you that you're not only in our midst, but you're inside of us. So Father, we bless this morning and what you want to say to us and through us and father. That we just open our hands and we just surrender anything that's not of you, any distractions this morning. We just want to be so present, so aware of where you are right now. Thank you, Lord. You so we are going to break for the kiddos. So if there's kids, they can go downstairs. I believe Amy's leading kids church this morning, and we'll break for coffee. So Father, we just thank you for these beautiful children, for their vivaciousness, their creativity and their joy and what great reminders they are of just to live life child like so we just bless them. We bless this morning, amen. So we'll break for five minutes for quick coffee, a quick hello, and we'll see you back here.

Rowena MacNeil: 5:59

God's got something to say. Okay, I'm gonna start you guys can sit down when you're ready. So I love that. I loved hearing from all the generations. I loved hearing Tolu lead the way. I feel like it is really a picture of what God's doing right now that, frankly, I've been in New Church for 27 years. That's a long time, and it is something we have always prayed for. We have always believed God to be multicultural, multi ethnic and multi generational, and not that we all sit in seats next to each other, but that we actually live that in our lives, that I know that Arlene is integral to me being the fullness of who God wants me to be, that having Tolu in my life lets me see through the eyes of a child in the way that it's easy to forget. And so you are all so important, and I'm so so, so glad that you're here. It's always bit funny standing up front because it feels very like official. But we know you church is anything but an official place, but we have a listening group on Monday nights that everyone is invited to so just know that you're always invited. It's always virtual. So it's nice and easy, and we just listen, we listen to God, and we ask him, What are you doing? What are you doing in our midst? What do you have for us? How do you want us to hold your hand, daddy, and walk alongside you? And so in that time, God brought up this verse that was read well five times already, well in part, one of them was kind of in part, but that was okay, and I'm going to read it one more time, and then I'm going to just trust God that he has something to say. It's it's a funny thing, because there was a sense that God had something to stay through me, which is always very humbling, because you're always like, well, I know God speaks to me all the time, but I don't feel like I could speak any better than Wendy could. And so all week in my little corners of time, I was like, God, what do you have to say? And he was just like, I love you. I'm gonna do this. And I'm like, Oh, that's great, wonderful, thanks. And I'm someone who likes to be organized. I like to plan ahead, and so it's kind of like the great humor of the Holy Spirit. So I am going to read this verse, and we're going to trust God that he's going to speak. So for the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. So I feel like we should kind of start with the word of God. If that's the first line of the verse, let's just dig in there. So can anyone expound on what is the word of God? Anything? Anything Jesus? Okay, that's a great place to start. So how will I just read a verse? Just to back up in case anyone's like, I don't know that zafri knows what she's talking about. I'm just gonna read a verse, And we'll just see if that's true or not. So, oh, and it would be helpful if I marked that one, but I didn't. Oh, maybe I did. No, I didn't. Okay, First John, one. I'm just going to read here. Let's start here, First John. Okay, First John, one That which was from, from the beginning that we have heard, hold on, I wrote down first John. And it's not it's just John. Hold on, as he said. Comes. See this is like just a picture. You don't have to have it all together. God's not really all about being all together. Okay, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So let's just like flip to the front of the Bible, Genesis. One. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water. And God said, And God said, he used his word, let there be light. And there was light. I kind of would love to do that. Let there be light. And it's like everything's dark, and all of a sudden there's light, like, that's pretty massive. And God said, Let there be a vault between the waters and separate water from water, like he just created land. Like, let's just And God said, like, I kind of get the feeling like the word is kind of powerful. And God said, Let the water be under the sky, and under the sky be gathered into one place and let dry ground appear. And God said that the land produced vegetation. And God said, there, Let there be lights in the vault of the size to separate day from night. And God said, Let the water team with living creatures and birds fly across the air. And God said, Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds. I'm jumping around, by the way. So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, He created them, male and female. He created them. God blessed them and said that to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. This was all done with the Word of God, right? Like, that's pretty amazing. I mean, I think it's pretty awesome. My teenage boys are building like a wooden boat. And I'm like, I would never have enough patience to do that. Like, I think that's incredible, but God would just be like, and let there be a boat, and the boat would be there. Like, I just think that's awesome. And so let's go back to First John in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God, He was with God in the beginning, through Him, all things were made without him. Nothing was has been was made. That has been made in Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. I'm going to jump down to verse 14, if you're following along, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. So this written word, this word of God that created the entire universe also came and humbled Himself and came to Earth for us like that. That's like a kind of love I have a hard time even fathoming. And I don't know that we're meant to like I don't think that we ever really will, we'll ever really fathom the depths of that love like Arlene. Can I ask you? I'm not going to stay your age, but in all your years, do you feel feel like you have fully, completely, in every absolute aspect, grasped the greatness of God love? Or do you still you have feel like you have something to learn? Yeah, and so that's the incredible thing, is that it's not about how much we can figure him out. He just loves us. He loves us, and he came in the most humble way like he when you look at the life of Jesus, he didn't come for accolades like this. Was Jesus who died on a cross with people laughing at him and ripping apart his clothing and like, like they were casting lots to see who got it like this is, this is the Jesus who loves us that much And so, hi, vileys, I am so glad my family's here. I'm not starring at the beginning, Steve, I am going to get to the part I stole from you in a moment just me. That was one other thing I needed to say as a caveat. I feel like even being up here and speaking is so comical, because I feel like half the things that God has spoken to me. He's spoken to me through his word, like through like making it alive in my heart, but also through people like yesterday we celebrated Steve's dad's life, and Steve and his beautiful daughter, my beautiful niece, Jane, and one of. Family member, they sang songs that Steve wrote, and they and Steve shared the gospel like he literally shared the gospel in like it was probably 60 seconds, like it was so quick, but he shared the gospel of God's love in such a beautiful way. And it's like when you're around the family of God, when I hang out with Donna, and even if it's home for her regular text message stream, it's like I absorb who God is through her. And there's such value to being a family, not a Sunday morning, but walking together. So let's keep going. So the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. Has anyone touched a sword before? That's awesome. Yeah. Look at all the teenagers. In fact, they've touched swords, not rusty machetes, boys and but have you ever touched a really sharp knife? Has anyone nearly chopped their finger off with a really sharp knife. Yeah, anyone who's cooked, and all the teenagers and so this is like, that is the picture God gave us of Jesus in our lives, the living, active Word of God, what it does in our life. But what's really interesting to me is what it cuts it says it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit. Can anyone tell me best guess? Or maybe you're really intelligent and you already know what is your soul. Can anyone give me some words adjectives? Go ahead, say it one more time, your mind, your will and your emotions. So your mind is like your thoughts, right? You think, and your will is what you act out, like what you decide to do, and your emotions are. We know them, fear, it's like joy, it's sadness, it's like it's your emotions, right? And emotions aren't bad, but what it's saying is that the word of God cuts between your spirit, the part that communes with God, the part that's never going to die and is going to one day be in heaven communing with God, it cuts between the things that sometimes feel so huge to the part of us that communes with God. And so I'm wearing this dress my my granny gave it to me about 10 years ago. It's lived up pretty well, I think. And my granny was the most, or she is, I should say she is still alive. She's How old is she? Tashi, 97 and she's still going strong. But my granny was one of those people you go for a walk with her, and she's telling you the Latin like original names of every flower and fauna around like she was a very brilliant lady. And she gave me this when she still had all her mental capacities, more or less. And now my granny has pretty progressed Alzheimer's, and so much so that she has a hard time holding a conversation. Gets really confused, and it's frustrating for her, because she was never that way. She was always, like, very put together. She we called her the queen because she, like, looks like a little mini of the Queen of England and so. But I have a question for you, does my granny know God less now that she doesn't have mental capacity than she did when she fully had her mental capacities? Best guess Oliver, does she know God as well? Yeah. Yeah, because God's not really concerned with how much we can figure things out. Like, half the times I have no clue. Like, ask me a question. I'm like, I'll get back to you on that one. Like, I my job. I'm like, Well, I have a couple jobs, but one of them, I help students figure out what on earth they're going to do with their lives. And half the time, I'm like, great question. Let me get back to you on that one, because half the time I really, honestly don't know, and I just got to go figure it out, or ask, go ask someone who knows. And that's like, God doesn't care. He doesn't care how well we perform. He doesn't care how smart we are. He takes just as much joy in this little treasure down here with his his his little machine, or as he does in the most intelligent of us, Lutz, who's been an accountant for years and has saved so many people in there with their relationship with the government, but like so, But God takes just as much joy in both, because he he will, he will use our intellect like he'll let us use our intellect to be a blessing to the world. But it's not the number one way he connects with us. He connects with us in the level of our spirit. And so the Word of God, it says. Slices right between those things, right between our emotions that feel out of control, like we've all been there, especially speaking to the ladies in the room, we've all been there. And if you're a husband, you know what I'm talking about, where your emotions don't raise your hand so high, Stephen, we all have been there where your emotions feel out of control and you're like, I am so sad right now, I don't know what to do. God cuts between those things, and he meets with us a play in a place that's so intimate, that's so past, like, what we feel like we can control. And I hmm, one of those emotions. This one, I do also feel like I need to give creds to. He's not here, but another dear friend was sharing with us about what God's been teaching him about fear and faith. And fear is one of those emotions. But faith, faith, God says, I have not given you a spirit of fear, right? So fear is not our spirit fear. Fear can be a spirit that attacks us, right? But it's not we have a spirit of faith, right? And so even our belief in God, when you can't rationalize everything and you can't quite figure it out, it doesn't matter, because God meets you in a place that's beyond what you can figure out. So I'm not going to teach speak forever. Thank God. Everyone's like, yay. But I do want to read the rest of this verse, because I feel like we got this little snippet, and there's more here that God has for us. So I'm going to kind of read back, and I just want you guys to just soak in this a little bit. So this is Hebrews four from the beginning of the verse, the beginning of the chapter. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands. Let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it, for we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we have believed now. Now we who have believed enter that rest. Just as God said, so, I declare on oath, in my anger, you shall never enter my rest. And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere, he has spoken about the seventh day. In these words, on the seventh day, God rested from all his works. And again in the passage above, he says, They shall never enter my rest. Therefore, since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again, set a certain day, calling it today. This he did when a long time later he spoke through David as this, as the passage already quoted today. If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, for if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day There remains, then a Sabbath day rest, a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his Let US therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following the example of their disobedience. For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended to heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may. Receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. I just love that. I love that that is the God we know we have a great high priest, Jesus, who he paved the way for us. He did. He like he literally experienced everything we're going to experience. And if you've never gone through something hard, come talk to me, because I would love to meet you. I think that would be incredible. But I think everyone in life is going to go through hard stuff. We just all go through different kinds of hard stuff, but Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Father wants to journey with us, and he's modeled that so beautifully. When you even just look at the Trinity, Jesus said, I only do what my father tells me to do. Like, they just like, walk together. They're like, it's like, Steve being like, Hey, Dad, I want to do this. And he's like, Yeah, let's go do it together. That's that's our Heavenly Father. He just, like, wants to walk with us, and that's the way Jesus walked with him. And then Jesus said, I'm I, I'm going up to heaven. He warned his disciples, like, I'm gonna, guys, I'm going on a little trip, but I'm gonna leave the Holy Spirit, the counselor. And so even just the beauty of the Trinity and the way the relationship that God demonstrated in himself, it was like the model of who God is, is the model of everything we ever need to understand we don't need to understand past that is that he wants to have a relationship with us, and we want, he wants us to have a relationship with others, and in that place where we're, like, vulnerable and honest. And I, I text on it, and I'm like, I have no idea what I'm gonna talk about this morning. Can you please pray for me? And then she shares the word with me this morning that, like, brings me into tears. And I'm like, that it's like when you have that place where you're you walk with people closely. That is, that is what God wants for us. He wants us to know Him, and He wants us to know him through each other, and in that place, we can walk and rest. It doesn't mean that we don't do hard things, like in our family, I know this is one of the things the shanklins say all the time, is we can do hard things, like we can do hard things, and I love that, like we can do really hard things, but it's not rest. Does not mean I go to bed and I never get out of it. It means that I get up in the morning and I have a place in my heart where I'm like, I don't need to figure everything out, because I know God in my spirit. I don't need to do everything because I only need to do what my father tells me to do. There's like a place of rest that God has for us that is alive and it's active. It's like walking with the living, breathing Word of God at our side, and that is what He has for us. So let me just pray for you guys, and then it's only 10 to 11. I feel like I don't have much more to say. So why don't we pray and we'll just see Dave just gave me the perfection, awesome. Let's pray, and then maybe we just get to live, live this together. Maybe we get to hear from each other's hearts. And maybe I know one of the things Chelm has really on his heart has been that we get together every Sunday morning at nine and pray, and there's lots of other different pods of people who pray together throughout the week, but his heart he was sharing the other day was just like that. We would be constantly in prayer for each other. That little example I gave with Donna that we would be constantly like Sandy's on my heart. I'm just gonna lift her up right now that, like, we'd be constantly walking together like that. So maybe that's just what God has for us today, that we can share vulnerably, but we can be in a safe place where we can be honest with each other, and maybe we just go play in the tunnels. Okay, let's pray Jesus. I thank you so much for this amazing family that I get to be a part of God. I thank you that it is your family. God. It's a little microcosm of the bigger family God. I thank you for what you're doing in your church throughout the earth, God, that you're drawing us close to your heart. You're beginning. You're continuing the good work you started at the very beginning of the world. God, you're continuing to strip away the things that distract us and bring us to the essence of who you are in. Are showing us how to walk hand in hand with you, like child and Daddy, where we just trust you and we don't need to be afraid, because we know our dad will take care of us. God, I thank you that we don't need to figure everything out, but we can just rest in who you are, and so God, right now we just honor you. We give you glory God. We say that you are so worthy of our praise. You're so worthy of every breath we breathe. And so we just say we love you, Father. We're so grateful for the sacrifice you made Jesus that you were willing to go to the cross for us that you are willing to lay down your life so that we could walk closely with our Heavenly Father. So I just bless every person here. I thank you for them in Jesus name Amen. Amen. Awesome. Be blessed. Everyone. Anything else? Okay, that's all she wrote, folks. So I actually didn't write anything, but you know, so love each other. Spend some time loving on each other. Maybe this means Jodie, anything Awesome, so spend some time you want to say something separate. Spend some time loving each other and whatever that looks like. Maybe you go to McDonald's together. Maybe you just, maybe you just hang out here. Look at sticking out his face and my sister, my sister, just made a horrible face. Maybe you just hang out and spend some time. Maybe we pray for each other. Just be free to be who you are in God. Yeah.