And I was actually in Nebraska or Kansas at the time and I remember because we were moving from Ohio to Southern California and my siblings and I thought that it would be great fun when we were moving to drive my grandpa's 64 Ford Galaxy, which he bought new, and then I inherited it. And the four sibling, the four kids, three siblings and I we drove it out and Rod was saying, Hey, I really need your I really need your sermon titles.

And so I texted him my titles as we were driving across Kansas in that old form thinking that I would be here in a few months. And then of course, like Tim said, the covid hit and then we. Delayed it another year and another year. And so to say that I have been looking forward to this weekend that I have been praying about this weekend for years is true.

I really have that God would just unleash his Holy Spirit among us so that. When do you call this a mountain? When we get down off the mountaintop that Yeah. This is a mountain in Kansas, so anyway, we will know that we have been with Jesus and that's what I have been praying. I actually flew into Kansas City yesterday which I was gonna do anyway in the unlikely chance that I was thinking maybe I might get drafted with the nfl, but

here we are. So I think one more time, let's just pray for something supernatural to happen in US this weekend. God, we are wide open to your promptings, to your spirit. I pray God, that being together like this in your presence, ah. Would be transformative for all of us, that we would see Jesus in a fresh, new life transforming way.

And so we just yield each moment of this weekend to you and surrender to you, and ask you to have your way in us. In the name of Jesus, amen. In Western Africa, they have preserved the legend of the sky maiden according to the tale. The tribes people were distraught because the cows weren't yielding as much milk as they once had.

One. Tribesman determined to get to the bottom of mystery, stayed up all night, spying on the cattle, what he saw he couldn't believe middle of the night, the most beautiful woman he had ever held. Came sliding down on a moonbeam, carrying two large buckets. She proceeded to milk the cows, and when the buckets were filled, she ascended in the same way that she had gone.

So the next night he decided that he was going to trap her. When he had her cornered, she begged, please do they no harm. Understand, there was a great famine in my land and my people are dying. Were it not for the milk from your cows? Please do not hurt me. He said I won't do you any harm under one condition that you'll be my wife, which is an interesting way to snag a spouse.

Yes. She had no other options and so she agreed under one condition. That you allow me time to go and say goodbye to my people to return to my land one last time and gather up my possession. It seemed like a reasonable request, and so the deal was made true to her word. A few days later, she returned with one more condition.

I will be your wife. She said, as long as you promise never to look inside this box, brought with her this. Fox that seemed like an easy promise to make. So they were married and they lived happily, but not happily ever after. Only happily until that day when curiosity got the best money. He had to know what is inside that box.

So one afternoon he looked. He couldn't believe it when she returned immediately. It's that women's intuition thing. She knew you looked in the box, didn't you? Feeling a little defensive. He said they argued back and forth and she said I don't know that I can stay here. He said but why?

Finally just incredulous. He said, Hey, maybe you don't know this. But yes, I did look inside the box. And for your information, did you know the box is empty? There's nothing in it. To which she bowed her head and said, I must leave you and I will never return. But why? He demanded for looking inside an empty box.

Oh no, I'm not. I'm not leaving you because you looked inside the box. I'm leaving you because you thought the box was empty. Oh, it's not empty. It's jammable of the things that I treasure most in life. It contains the smells, the memories of my people, my homeland. How can I live with someone? Who sees what I treasure most in life as emptiness.

With that, she returned to her people. Such is the legend of the sky.

This weekend I am going to be sharing all weekend what I would put. Inside my box, that is what I cherish most, namely my faith, my religion, understanding many people look in that box and call it emptiness. Call it meaningless. Why would you cherish something like that? And perhaps it's because. Of the way so many people understand, or maybe I should say misunderstand, faith and religion.

Go to the online dictionary, and this is how religion is defined. A specific fundamental set of beliefs and behaviors generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sex. So that's it. That's the way a lot of people think about what I would put in that box. It's just a specific set of beliefs and behaviors we see that, don't we?

I remember years ago it was general conference session, I think it was down in Atlanta, and I decided midweek that I was commuting too far and so I got a hotel right across. The street from the stadium there where we were meeting. And as I was checking in I asked the woman behind the counter are you guys busy this week?

Oh it's just craziness. She's there's some convention happening across the street. It's latter Day Adventist or something like that. I don't really know what it is. I think it's a religious group. I said, oh, interesting. And what's that she goes I don't know very much about them, but here if you're interested just read this book.

And she handed me a paperback of the great controversy. She said, this is what they believe, if you're interested. She says, I think I've gotten 22 of these books given to me, but I, our. People staying in the hotel this week and I'm never gonna read all 22 of them and I'm not gonna read one of them.

So you just take it. And that's what they believe. And then she added this postscript, she said the one nice thing about these people is I never have to fill the coffee room because apparently they don't drink coffee. So I think that's part of their religion. So if you were to ask her about Seventh Day Adventists, she would describe us, what we would put in our box, right?

In terms of beliefs. Here, read this great controversy. That's what they believe. And behaviors, they don't drink coffee. No wonder many people I. Don't find what I would put in my box to be all that compelling. When we just think about faith in terms of how we behave and what we believe, and this of course colors that.

Our understanding of sin, what is sin. So often we think of it right as a bad behavior. Sure. So just for fun, I've got a list here of different things. You just raise your hand if you think it is a sin too. All right. And I'll fill in the blank. Is it a sin to eat a chocolate chip cookie? You need takers.

Do we all just ate those yummy brownies? That's not cookies. No takers. Is it a sin to eat? You took two. RIN chocolate chip cookies. In one sitting. Anybody how bigger you'll take that. How big are the cookies? They're really big Costco cookies. Thank you for the clarification. Okay, we've got some papers.

All right. Is it a sin to listen to Country Western music? All right, we've got somebody who is Sure. Okay. Is it a sin to vote? The democratic ticket, is it ascend to text in church? Is it a sin to kill the neighbor's cat?

Is it a sin to kill that neighbor's dog? Okay. Not as many. Is it a sin to kill the neighbor on that one? What is sin? Yeah. I'll tell you, you remember a few sermons, when you're as old as I am now along the way, I remember one sermon by pastor Dwight Nelson. It was his first year there. At Pioneer Memorial Church and of course this month he's retiring after being there for years, 40 years.

Yeah, he's got staying power. But I remember when he first came to P M C I was in the seminary at the time and I just had never forgotten his treatment of the story of the prodigal son and what he pointed out about the story. Is the different paradigms of understanding sin in the story.

Both sons understood sin to be bad behaviors. Whereas the father had a totally different. Paranoid. So you remember the story, right? Luke chapter 15, kid demands his dad's inheritance early. He then squanderers all of it in the foreign land and then finds himself at rock bottom sitting in a pigsty, a newer, oozing through his toes.

He is desperate, and so we pick up the story there in verse 18 again. Luke chapter 15, when he schemes this idea, I will set up and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. Time out. How had he sinned? Yeah, bad behavior, right? He demanded his dad's money and then he wasted it all on Whyt, just living.

And this was his point. So he got up, went to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, father, here we have it again. I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I've really messed up and I've done some bad behaviors. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. And then if we skip ahead quickly to the story where we meet the elder brother. Verse 28. The older brother became angry and refused to go in, and his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered, look, father, all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours who has, and here's the sin bad behavior, he is done these bad behaviors, he's squandered your property. With prostitutes, that salacious detail doesn't come up until we meet the elder brother. The father never mentions Sy. Of course, the younger brother never mentions Seth, but here's when he has done this bad behavior.

You kill the fattened calf for him. Full son sin is behaving badly, but what we see. In the story, in the way that the father embraces this kid. He never mentions the bad behavior. The only thing he can think about course to throw that family ring on his finger, to throw the family robe about his shoulders, to hug that kid and say, welcome home.

Because see, the essence of faith is not. About behaving for God. It's not even about believing in God. Even the demons believe we are told true. The essence of faith is simply being with God. It's not, sin is not about a bad behavior as much as it is about a broken. Relationship. That's why Paul and John, and most all of the New Testament writers keep coming back to the simple theme that we'll be thinking about all weekend together, live in Christ, abide in Christ, and he will abide in you.

Focus everything on nurturing that relationship with Jesus. Because the essence of faith, again, it's not behaving for God, it's not even believing in God. It's simply being with God. It's all about a relationship, right? And then we see the rules, bad behaviors, everything in their proper perspective, in the right contexts.

I got a picture of this some years ago. When my heart drive and my computer crashed and that sent me very, in a very panicked mood to this little mountain of hard drive, external hard drives and jump drives and so on. Desperately trying to reconstruct my folders and files and rebuild everything.

And, but it was an absolute nightmare when I happened upon a file, a Word document that I know I wrote, but I couldn't even remember writing it. It was titled Dad's Rules for the Dog. I opened it up cuz again I was trying to refresh my memory cuz I couldn't remember writing it, but it was a big document, like five single space pages.

Wow. And in it, dad namely me spelled out all of the rules to my two daughters. For getting a dog. Because see this, I wrote this right after we decided, or we were deciding to move from Walla University to Kettering, Ohio, and I told the girls, okay, if we move, daddy will let you get a dog.

They were always pestering me to get a dog and I absolutely refused. But then I. I bribed them and said, okay, if we move, you can get a dog, but let's be sure everybody's clear. This is not dad's dog. And in my document it states everything. Dad will never look at the dog. He will never pet the dog. He will certainly never pick up after the dog clean up the yard after the dog.

The dog is never to be inside of the house. And of course, some of the winters in Ohio, but dad did not care. Dad was never going to pay one penny. For the dog food, for vet bills, nothing grooming. That's all you girls. Gotta figure it out. Earn money. It's all your responsibility. Dad's never gonna exercise the dog, period.

It's not, dad's dog and dad will have nothing to do with this dog stalk. So I spelled it all out and I, as I recall, gave them copies of this to sign. So we were there. Yeah, so I'm flying back from Australia land at lax, and of course, first thing I do open my phone and check out all of my text messages and my girls while I was gone for the weekend.

What do you suppose they did? I went out and they bought a dog, a little multis, poodle, and then they texted me. This picture

they named Tim Skipper, not the name I wanted. I wanted to name him Repent, so I could walk through the neighborhood and call Hi. Come. But as a pastor, I figured I could write the little mud off as a tax deduction. So yeah, I was sharing this with a group of pastors in Florida a few months ago, and one of the guys said, yeah, I really wanted to name my dog.

Out of Babylon, my people, so I could call, come out of Babylon. My people. I thought that's a pretty long name. But anyway, yeah, so they send me this picture of their dog.

So as soon as I get home, I don't know how this happens, but almost overnight, I totally forgot about my document. And it was like as soon as I got home, skipper was daddy's dog, and somehow I changed into one of these. Obnoxious pet owners that posts all these pictures and videos of his pet online, like anybody cares.

But I was constantly posting pictures like this. Now is that not the cutest dog you have ever seen? Oh, look at that little guy. And then check this out as he got a little older look at how athletic that is, right? Oh, doesn't it just make you want to sing Chariots a Fire.

Oh, so when Skip was about seven years old. He stopped eating, he lost two thirds of his body weight. He would just whimper in a corner, wouldn't drink, wouldn't eat, and we knew we're going to lose him. We didn't have any idea what was wrong with him. And so my wife Shere took him to the emergency bed, the emergency room that night.

It was a Saturday night. And I remember I was officiating at a wedding and in the middle of the wedding, of course, the only thing I could think about was, oh, I hope skippers gotta be okay. Oh, I hope so. And I texted my wife and said look, I don't care what it costs. If we have to mortgage the house to give them surgery, then so be it.

I don't care what it costs. Keep that little guy alive, just please. As it turned out, he had gotten into some kitty litter and they fixed him up. And just yesterday I took him on our three mile walk. He's at my bed every morning at 6:00 AM and we go for a walk every day. He, he's 15 years old now, and so he is an old dog, but I can't imagine life.

Without Skipper. So let me ask, how does a guy go from, I will not spend 1 cent on that mind to, I don't care what it costs.

Now, I know all illustrations break down at certain levels, and I don't want to get weird here, but I think we all understand at some level the difference is what It's a relationship. I didn't write dad's rules for Skipper. I didn't know Skipper. I wrote Dad's rules for some generic dog that I didn't know, and as soon as I met Skipper, everything changed.

No wonder people would say, why would you put Faith in the Box if. Faith is nothing but a bunch of rules. My rules for the dog totally changed when I got to know Skipper and when I spent a lot of time with Skipper. See that? That makes all the difference in the world. So when the elder brother complains to the father, he tries to help the kid understand this.

He says, Hey, you have been kill a goat for me, and yet this rebel who's engaged in all of this bad behavior comes home. You kill the fat and calf, but go figure what? That's not fair. And the father Chaley says You've been here all along in my presence. You've been with your father. And if that's not enough, then all of the barns and goats and pastures, fatted, cats, all of that will never be enough.

It will never satisfy because see the joy, what I cherish most about faith, It's about being at home with the father. Nicholas Herman was in the transportation industry for some time, but he really struggled spiritually. He was in the military for a while, and for him the issue was he never felt like he was good enough.

He really struggled. With feeling security when it came to his own salvation. He never really felt that assurance, and he always felt like as soon as I engage in some kind of bad behavior, then my salvation is in jeopardy and I'm not saved. And so he just struggled with this for years. Until one afternoon he was sitting just observing the tree.

And he noticed these huge trunks going down into the ground. And it occurred to Nicholas that is the key to a flourishing tree, right? To grow deep, strong roots. And he thought about that passage in John chapter 15, which we're gonna look at this weekend, just a Biden and just grow deep roots.

And if you do that, you will bear much fruit. And apart from me, apart from this, you can't bear fruit, you can't, apart from me, you can do nothing, he says. And so that was the point where everything changed. For Nicholas, he became a dishwasher for the rest of his life. Just washing dishes. But he said, from here on, I'm going to make my life an experiment with God to experience habitual silent, secret conversation of the soul with God.

Then he would just make notes, observations in his journey. One thing he wrote once was the most wholly and necessary practice in our spiritual life. Is the presence of God. That means finding constant pleasure in his divine company. Humbly speaking with him in all seasons at every moment without limiting the conversation in any way.

He died in 1691. The next year, one of the brothers in that convent took some of his notes from his journey, put it together into a book that you've probably read titled, the Practice of The Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. That book has sold more copies than JK Rollins. John Gresham and Tom CL combined over 60 million copies have been sold that book, and I think he's got it right.

The key to a flourishing spiritual life with God boils down to those two words that we read over and over Paul John, all through the New Testament "in Christ". To just live in that space of surrender moment by moment yielded to him this ongoing secret, habitual, silent conversation with God. Whatever you're doing, I'm telling any of my friends, when we do this, you begin to see why we would put faith in that box of what we cherish the most.

And God, this is what our hearts are hungry for. We're hungry for your presence. We're hungry for you to abide in us, and we might abide in you. Life becomes this joy-filled dance with you. Whatever happens, we know that we can feel secure in your love, in your presence, and we pray in your name.