Get Ready for Messy (Sermon Only)| Keith & Karen Koerner | Jesus Pursuit Church

uh good morning I'm going to grab this chair for a bit so if any of you have heard me or Karen preach you never know what you're going to get into um but I'm not going to do any boxing today not going to do any no no Rocky uh Justin heard that I was preaching and he left for the weekend um so um but this will be different um Karen and I get to tag team here so she'll come up interrupt me when I don't know what I'm talking about and she'll um share something of the word of the Lord and I also I'm being stretched here a little bit I don't have it all written out I don't have it all planned out I don't have notes all so I'm a little bit uncomfortable so I just want to share something that's like really been on my heart and God has a nice sense of humor and um decided to make me uncomfortable today but it's just us just want to be maybe a little bit lowkey maybe just kind of sharing because this is I feel like really important uh for us as a church so can we pray first Lord I Thank you that you are good Lord you are always good you are always faithful you always show up you always uh speak to us give us what we need in the time that we need so today Lord may your heart come through in this message Lord for Karen and myself that we' be able to communicate that Holy Spirit may you come and anoint these words may you challenge us may we respond may we obey you're good amen so I retired and this was not too long ago and uh yes I know I don't look old enough to retire but I did I retired and actually this week then I still working in the same job but I changed I'm no longer the supervisor I stepped down from supervising and I started working part-time so I'm retired but then I'm kind of working back part-time and I just started that this week that's a huge deal for me um so retirement it's an interesting thing because that's not normally on people's minds and until they're like really close to it so you don't really think about it and so I'm talking with other people and you know I look at some articles and then of course you know that comes up on your news feed like all the articles about whatever you're looking at and so people that I'm talking to and all the Articles basically have to do with how much money do you need to be comfortable what is it that you got to do and to be just like everything's going to be perfect and so people that are close to retirement they're like ah I would do it except for uh Health Care Health Care is a big deal so I got to have that uh I don't want to lower my standard of living I don't want to do this I want to be able to travel I want to be able to just do whatever it is that I want comfort Comfort Comfort Comfort it's like this is what I want to do and just Glide off into the sunset so that's like the the guts of the retirement thing that's around and I hadn't really been a part of that and so it's like one person after another after another is talking uh about discomfort and let's just get all of our ducks in a row so that everything will be good for the rest of our lives and that's not knocking anything there but that's not necessarily how we should be so with this frame in mind of comfort the Lord spoke to me a couple months ago that was very much for this church so I'm in the midst of this yes there's stuff that has to do with it for me and my family but he said these words he goes are you ready for Messi I'm like get behind me Satan what all I'm hearing around me is Comfort Comfort comfort and he said says get ready for messy okay honestly how many in this room really like to have their ducks in a row how many of you don't like surprises how many of you really hate it when life throws you a curveball how many of you really enjoy when everything is just like calm peaceful everything's good how many of you lie all the time my word yeah so I think it's built into us right that we like Comfort we really like to have comfort we don't like to have messes we don't like to have things that just um throw us curveballs we would much prefer just everything going smoothly and it's like it goes against you know it goes against Christianity honestly it goes against something in the spirit of like something there's something more but then there's the part of us that's like I just want to maintain I just want to I've got to this place now let's just stay in this place and so we have this wrestling between comfort and uncomfort all clean and all messy so our challenge then is what do we do um with that so um sorry I wrote a couple things down and um I'll look at my phone every once in a while it's not for Facebook um so getting ready for Messi is what the Lord spoke and I'm like what in the world does that mean and so I'm thinking about that and and there's all kinds of stuff within our lives that could be that that that could pertain to right it could also it could pertain to us individually it could could pertain to us uh in our family in our work uh in our jobs in our church all those things we could have some level of thing that we want to keep things comfortable things where things could get messy and so then there's also these degre Tre to which um we would be comfortable with a mess so this is not a knock on anything but how many times have we thought that's a messy situation I'll just throw some money at it but I'll just stay in the comfort so I don't want to really get involved but I know that some other people could do something about this but I'll just stay here so if there's someone let's say that we're going to dig a ditch okay we have a project we're going to dig a ditch some people we would go I'm the architect I will stay in the office the air conditioned office and I will draw up plans of how to dig this ditch others of us would go yeah a ditch does need to be digged so I'm good at delegating I'm going to round up a few people so that they can dig the ditch and then there probably is a few of us that would go you know what this ditch literally needs digging I literally am going to grab the shovel I literally am going to get sweaty and dirt all over me as I toil in the Sun and get this stinking ditch dug right there's a range there of really what is it that we're comfortable with so this is this is stuff that I'm wrestling with okay and I'm being like really real I'm not coming across like preaching here this is stuff that it's a challenge I've been just cycling through this what does it mean get ready for Messi we I love all of you in this room so I don't want to come across like like preachy at all I'm really just trying to share my heart we should be always challenging ourselves getting out of our comfort zone so this summer few months ago uh my family we went um on a trip a vacation and we didn't think of it this way but we thought you know what let's challenge ourselves on a trip so this was supposed to be our vacation this is our three youngest Jesse Aaron and Hannah Karen and myself so we're going to go Adventure all over this place all over the place for two weeks so we planned it out we mapped it out but didn't really think about it till we we are actually vacationing and what we experience so for example we go uh to Zion National Park and we're hiking in a river water up to uh our chest that's like uncomfortable cold water Rushing Water rocks all there and we're hiking for a long ways up this River that's that's a little bit out of our comfort zone or we go um to the Grand Canyon that the Grand Canyon I'd never been there before that's a big drop off right there and they don't have guard rails and that's like really huge and so then we hike on this trail with no guard rails and it's thousands of feet down and we're just hiking along that is anybody afraid of heights okay so that's a a little bit a little bit scary so then we go uh you know what that's not enough how about let's go to the Skywalk has anybody been to the Skywalk so that's at the Grand Canyon it's a glass u-shaped thing that you step out 4,000 ft over the Grand Canyon and experience the Grand Canyon in a completely different way so there's all kinds of reaction there there was this one lady it was hilarious I felt bad for her but she was so petrified they take you out there and then you can't they lock the door behind you and you can't go back and you have to go around this big you and she is just petrified and it's just like fear and she's literally grabbing the rail going like this well we're standing in the way so she doesn't even care she just like comeing around us and just keeps going she will not let go of the railing and so we're out there that's a scary thing man 4,000 ft above uh just nothingness and people have a different reaction to that sort of thing I'm scared of heights so I'm like just trying to keep it po inside and the rest of them are okay with it for the most part and then there's Jessie Jesse is out there dancing around on the thing he's dancing and the whole ground is like shaking you know on the tube Jesse please please he's dancing away so finally after a while they have music that's playing and stuff and so Karen and I we overcame our fears and our uncomfort and we started doing a little slow dance out there 4,000 ft above uh above the Grand Canyon that was awesome so then we thought you know what we haven't had enough fun for today let's go ziplining over the Grand Canyon what could be better than this so we go to a canyon it's it's only like 700 ft and it's a half a mile 700 ft so it's not the whole 4,000 so it's only 700 ft oh sorry a thousand thousand only a thousand so we're going to zipline none of us have ever zipline before and we get up there they hook you all in they tell you all this stuff it's a long ways across this Canyon half a mile th feet down and then up and so Aaron he goes first he's got a like a GoPro camera and he just flies on down there no problem he's filming it as he goes Karen and Hannah are next and Karen this is where her uncomfort flared up and she's like no no no and she's always so lowkey she never shows any of her emotions and not really and so finally in a moment of Terror and boldness she drops off the ledge and goes plan and it's like the Scream Of Terror as the sound is echoing through the canyon walls and then it changes to a shout like a scream of woohoo as it's going through and she goes flying on down the zipline and um obviously she loved it so next is Hannah and Hannah also has fear of heights and Hannah I asked her beforehand if I could share this she said yes um so Hannah she had really looked forward to this up until like the day before and you ever have this where you're like I'm all excited about something and then right when it's about to happen you go maybe not so this was Hannah and so she's all strapped in right at the edge and then she's like I can't and she starts just shaking she was like full of fear full of just discomfort this is too much this is too much I can't handle this and so I'm like come on Anna you can do this you can do this and I can just feel it and I'm like I want to just cheer her on I want to like be able to help her to whatever hold her hand so that I could go but we can't go together and I just kind of come on Anna you can do this you can do this and she just shaking and and then she goes and she just steps back on the thing and she goes I can't do this and I'm like that's I feel sad because I know she really wanted to do this and then she got this something it just changed and she got this boldness she goes okay I'm going to do this and she went back up to the ledge and she stood there and she's just trembling just trembling like this and then it it felt like 20 minutes and the the the workers were really patient and I'm just come on Anna you can do this you can do this and she and then she went and she she did it she faced her fear she faced her uncomfort and her the same reaction she's like at the end come on can we do this again I want to go with ziplining everywhere let hook one up from our house to the neighbor's house and just zipline across you know extreme uncomfort extreme things where like I want to do this but I don't want to do this I want to be on a new adventure I want to step out but then part of us is like I just want comfort and I thought maybe for Hannah she actually would just back off and it would be a different time but she actually went through it and went for it and so this is what I'm trying to share we did a bunch of other things Aon and I we went to Great America we did a drop tower beforehand I said I want someone to go on the Drop Tower with me 225 ft in the air and then they just like let you go and they actually push you down talk about a rush woo so good so Aaron didn't feel the same way about it but I thought it was just incredible that's like another thing of he wanted to try it he didn't really like it he was not comfortable with it but he went through with it we have this level of comfort and discomfort and and I'm I'm just trying to communicate this here God wants us really to be uncomfortable has anybody read the Bible okay just I'm not going to put scriptures up I'm not going to just go through but I'll bet you right now you can think through like 7,000 stories in the Bible where someone is uncomfortable I think sometimes I think Jesus's whole mission in the three years was just to make people uncomfortable that's all he did he like messed with people in their beliefs in their comfort in what they wanted do you know what the disciples wanted they wanted a king they wanted overrule of who they were being oppressed by they wanted Comfort they wanted to be appointed to some uh legisl or political thing seat right when you come into your glory can I sit on your left can I sit on your right can I be like the Secretary of State they wanted comfort and that's what the crowds wanted too they're like we want to make him King so that we can be comfortable we don't want to have all this hard stuff we just want comfort and Jesus again and again he's like no that's not really it and then he would go I'm going to mess with you guys in your social uh what would you call that mindset there we go I'm going to go talk to this person that there is no way I should be talking to I'm G to go heal this person that I have no business healing in their minds this is what they're thinking I'm going to encourage someone that you think is way beneath us I'm going to go hang out with all the people that we really can't stand ah come on Jesus can you just become king come on we just want to be comfortable come on Jesus it's all it's like it's like all through the Bible it's like all through human nature we just want to be comfortable we don't want messes we don't want all those things you look throughout the Bible it's it's thing after thing after thing um Paul's writing o the church in Corinth talk about a messy church that was awkward am I right there's a few messy things in that church anybody read 1 and 2 Corinthians it was so messy he had to write two books how about here's an awkward one uh Peter was kind of thinking he was better than other people maybe a little ethnicity maybe racism kind of thing it's going on Paul has to confront him that's kind of messy how about just some people's lives our our big biblical hero King David that guy was a mess his family was a mess but he had a heart after God and there was mess and God was still after him and pursued him through the mess and he's one of our heroes almost every person that you would consider one of the biblical Heroes they went through messes big messes Father Abraham who had one too many sons right that was messy I don't know job that was a messy thing think some of you are uncomfortable this is good I try to read the Bible and I try to read it where you're reading between the lines and you're trying to understand what is it here that God that you're really trying to say not just for whatever is right in front of me it's like God I so need you make something out of this teach teach me me something in this and that's what I keep I keep seeing in the word is that people are a mess and Jesus still loves us in the midst of the mess and he gives Grace To Us in that mess and we come through that mess into something less messy to me that seems like the gist of it so he's the one who brings life and hope and restoration and all those things but it's messy and uncomfortable so what does that have to do with any of us we might be messy Our Lives personally uh we could be messy our families we could have messes there um we could have Messes in relationships that we have in our work in our church or it could be coming messes so don't hear me wrong here but our church is on the edge of a shift here all of us here are all Perfect all of us here have no issues no messes we have an opportunity that's before us that could be messy right anybody tracking here anybody been on a missions trip those things are always messy I love them it gets you out of your comfort zone and it's like let God do something but nothing ever goes completely the way that you think it's going to go if you haven't noticed it Emily I'm sure you're going to watch this later so hopefully I'm not putting words in your mouth here but I think Emily has been citing us up a little bit saying get ready we're going to move into the neighborhood we're going to literally be surrounded by people that maybe we don't normally interact with maybe they aren't as all clean and comfortable and perfect as us maybe we get to enjoy rubbing shoulders with others that so need Jesus just like we absolutely need Jesus I I don't want to be the architect in the air conditioned office removed and I hope that each of us don't want to be that either removed from really really being in the mess um I I um I don't watch much for movies but the ones that I do like to watch my kids don't like to watch now because they've seen enough of these and it would be ones that are really uncomfortable to just make you uncomfortable a lot of them would be like social justice types things maybe it was Civil War and slavery and that whole wrestling of society or those that are oppressed put down the downtrodden the ones that just don't have everything all together and I love to watch movies not so that I could feel better about myself but I have to get out of the place where I'm like comfortable and sorry kids but I've said this several times to you guys we have to get uncomfortable and not like just I'm not looking I'm going to ignore this what if we have our hearts broke what if we're like why is this happening what can I do about this I don't want to be calloused I just we just watched one a couple nights ago one of our kids was like I don't know if I'm going to be able to watch this whole thing it's okay anybody watch Cabrini watched that movie yet our family um this is uh one just came out um and we just watched this one this week and I'm like wow interesting timing here um a a nun from um somewhere in Europe England Italy you're right Italy she wants to minister to orphans and she wants to go to China ends up in the US in the Italian immigrants this is 130 years ago and in horrific situations in New York City and it was extremely uncomfortable and she just put herself and her group of women in this spot where none of them had ever been there had never been a woman leading something like this and Incredibly unsafe incredibly just horrific circumstances and she ends up building orphanages she ends up building uh hospitals she ends up doing this whole thing across many nations and it was was a it was a heartbreaking story and also just so good because it felt very applicable to what we have an opportunity to do we have an opportunity to make a true impact she transformed the lives of these orphan kids who are living literally in the the sewers of New York City that's pretty down and out we may not be experiencing that sort of down and out but there are other down and outs that we can rub shoulders with that we can sit in the mess with that's an opportunity that's before us so we could go we've got a BL slate here what do we want to fill it with what do we want to do could make a cool Cathedral we could make it all nice and clean and shiny for all of us perfect people in the room we've got an opportunity before us to be in the mess to work through the mess to love in the mess you have something so I just want to speak a little bit to our mess like I don't know a lot of you don't know the things that our family has been through in the last 15 years and you don't need to but I can tell you it's been messy it's been really messy and there were times where it felt so dark to me and in the midst of the darkness Jesus would show up and say something and so when I was praying about this you know was thinking about all the the messy and our personal life sometimes I think we feel like wow it's so messy right now I always thought myself as this really powerful person and that I would always run to Jesus and yet in some messes I found myself running away I couldn't believe it but I he found me and so I saw like in the midst of the chaos in the mess I saw if you if you're in that mess right now Jesus showed me as we worship he showed me literally our words and our worship creating a portal it creates an interruption in our mess the moment that we just say Jesus there's an interruption and it creates a portal to heaven for Jesus to be in your mess because he loves being with us the portal can give you sounds can give you words it can give you strategies of things that God wants to release on the earth through you and the other thing I wanted to share was um I had this experience with the Lord we had a worship night um at our new building if you guys didn't make it it I don't know about anybody else it was super incredible for me but the Lord had spoken to me that day about about something small it doesn't really matter what it was that I wanted to do but he just whispered don't don't do that today so I was like okay and I went to worship night and as soon as the music started his presence just came so strong I was so overwhelmed I thought I'm melting something's going to happen and he spoke to me he said even just a little space one step one concession I'm going to come and I'm going to fill that for you and I'm going to overwhelm it so that is for you for this church I believe that as we step in our mess or into somebody else's mess it doesn't matter Jesus says I will come and overwhelm it and fill it okay just one more thing I wanted to share um in my prep time I the Lord shows me pictures and I love that because I never forget them like I hear the words I see the pictures and they're just stuck with me he's so gracious I love it but I saw us in the spirit I saw dominoes and the Lord showed me one action of obedience can knock over that Domino and as the Domino fell you know how people set up those dominoes where it just keeps going and it's super cool those are fun to watch right but one step of obedience can knock down one Domino and he showed me Domino's falling continuous movement of falling Domino's your obedience has the power to create a movement and I feel like that's super applicable to us right now as we're moving and we're excited about moving into this new place you guys the Lord is saying one step and I'll fill it one step of obedience and it can create a movement so the Lord said get ready you know we've been hearing about making room week after week in different ways have you noticed make room I'm coming get ready here's an invitation draw near to me this is the time for conditioning you guys he's saying come close give me your ear give me your heart give me one step and I'm going to come I'm going to just read uh Isaiah 60 arise and shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord Rises upon you see Darkness covers the earth that's the mess right I think we don't realize what a mess we're in I think we're waking up to what mess we're really in you guys thick Darkness covers the earth and is over the people but the Lord Rises upon you and His Glory Appears over you Nations will come to your light and Kings to the brightness of your Dawn lift up your eyes and look about you all assemble and come to you your sons come from afar and your daughters are carried on the hip then you will look and be radiant and your heart will throb and swell with joy the wealth on the Seas will be brought to you and the riches of the Nations will come so if you were expecting comedian Keith comedian Karen today sorry not sorry God has something so good for us this is a Incredible Journey that each of us get to be on in life and as a church it's like are you kidding you just open the door for all kinds of things I'm so thankful that he has us on this journey so this message here today is not like I don't know you just yes I will do that and go on about your way I hope this is one that's like mother of Jesus Mary saying you know she would Ponder these things in her heart I hope that that's what this is Ponder these things in your heart let them mess with you give you a little discomfort think about it you know that kind of a vibe here as Karen said this is great word there uh the conditioning he's conditioning us Lord is conditioning us building us up strengthening us preparing us and that's so cool you ever been like massively out of shape and then you go do something that's like really extreme you go why didn't I get in shape first before I did that that's what's happening that's his kindness in this so uh don't have any big Grand Finale here just sharing our hearts and hopefully you can see God's heart in the midst of this and hopefully we can have our hearts prepared for what he has for us if you're in the mess awesome let let the Lord guide you through it it's horrible it's uncomfortable it's nasty but he's also just so good to us if you're through the mess get ready to be start now you know get involved in people's lives be real open yourself up allow yourself to be uncomfortable now why wait do you have something um this whole time that he's been talking God kept telling me I had to tell this and it's not comfortable for me but anyway there was a time yeah thank you there was a time that I was praying and I told God I said where is my comfort the scripture says that you are my comforter and I don't feel any comfort things were a royal mess and I write a lot and what God says to me and I had a picture of this big red velvet pillow on the fireplace hearth and this big white long-haired cat laying on this pillow and that's what I wanted but God showed me that I was in a cardboard box and it was trying to shake me out of that box so that I could lay on the pillow he said but right now I'm more interested in your growth than I am in your comfort wow so good so let's let's just pray along those lines here and let you go early so you can get to the buffet early Lord thank you thank you thank you that you do not leave us in our existing state that you allow us to grow in you Lord may we uh position ourselves for that growth for that yielding for surrender of Our Lives of our comfort of the things that we want and allow you to work in US Lord I know that you are faithful to do that Lord I ask that you would help us in those times where we go no I decided I don't want to do that Lord help us to continue to surrender Our lives our will our choices our hopes surrender those to you God you are so good I am so excited what you have for us may you help us to be conditioned to be surrendered to be yielded to to you so that you can do what you want to do in our lives thank you for each person that is here today Lord wherever we're at in our journey Lord may you be with us provide for us what we need speak to us give us hope help us along to the next step ask that you would bless provide lift up encourage each person that is here each person that's watching us watching this online we love you Lord help us to be uncomfortable and to be ready for the mess amen uh if anyone want needs prayer some uh prayer people here today that would be happy to pray with you if not have a uncomfortable week