Clarity In Complexity

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Wow. Good morning, everybody. How's everybody doing? Did you dig out from this storm? Do you get to shred some pow?

Yeah. Woo. Boy, I got the goods this week too. Man, that was that was great. If you have your Bible with you this morning, would you turn to the book of Luke?

We're gonna spend a little bit of time there. We're gonna take a Luke together. If somebody is new and they're sitting next to you and it's the first time that you think they're hearing that pastor joke, just pat them on the knee and say, it's okay, it gets worse. So you can see the title of the conversation that I have, for us this morning. If you remember several weeks ago, I said that as we get into the new year, I feel like the Lord put a word on my heart to share with our Tribe fam for us for 2024.

And if you're brand new to Tribe, this word is relevant to you because it can apply to your life and I do not presume to be a prophet or a spokesman for the Christian church or the whole world, but I do think that what I'm going to share has a large scope of applicability. So beyond tribe, if that makes sense, right? Are you with me? And if you're new to tribe, I just want you to know that the way the format of how we do church, this part of church is intended to be interactive. You get to hear from me, but I want to hear from you as well.

And so if you have a question, a connection or a comment, I want to hear it. And if you just raise your hand, does Kat have the mic today? Where are you good? All right, so Kat's back there. She has the mic.

Her eyes like the spirit of the Lord are roaming about the earth to seek whom she may encourage with the microphone. And the reason why, if you raise your hand, we get the mic to you. It's so that all of our livestream families that watching either at home or whenever they're traveling, they get to participate in the conversation by being able to hear your voice. Because if you just spoke up, none of the mics would catch it. And then all of our livestream families start texting like somebody on the leadership team, like, wait, what did they say?

And so we just wanna make sure, and that's how they sound too when they text. We just wanna make sure that all of the voices are heard, our livestream families and all of us in the room. So with that in mind, I want to do a quick review of what the Lord put, I feel like the Lord put on our heart for 2023. And if you recall, it's not up on the screen, but if you recall, the Lord laid Psalms 37 verse 34 in our heart, put your hope in the Lord, travel steadily along his path and he will honor you by giving you the land and you will see the wicked destroyed. So we took several weeks and we unpacked that.

That verse, was intended to remain on the shelf of our hearts all year long, but perhaps admittedly so for if you were to be honest, maybe not at the front of the shelf of your heart for all year, but maybe for some of you. This year in a similar manner, the word that I feel like the Lord put on my heart to share with you, again, when I share it, you're going to be like, well, duh, Brian, we've all been feeling that. Well, great. Just like Moses said, would be to God that all of you could prophesy. Moses was like, I want all of you to have the spirit of the Lord in your heart so that you can hear his voice and be sensitive to his leadership.

But as the primary communicator at Tribe and the lead pastor, the responsibility gets to fall on my shoulders to share this with you. And so what I feel, and I'll just cut right to the chase, what I feel like the Lord has placed on my heart to share with you for 2024 is three simple words, clarity in complexity. Clarity in complexity. As we move into 2024, I feel like the Lord has shared with me not any details or anything like that. It's not my place to know those details.

And I feel like if I did know them, I would like, not that I could mess it, but

I would like run ahead out ahead of the Lord. Like Lord, just keep me

on a short leash and have me stay close. I don't need to know any of the details, but I appreciate you sharing what you have with me. That as we move into 2024, that life will take another ratchet up of complexity. But in the midst of that complexity that we will face individually and as families and as a church family, as complexity increases, at the same time, if our hearts are positioned and ready and open for it, we will also receive increased clarity. Meaning as things get busier and whatever could unfold in 2024, and we see the wheels getting more and more wobbly that if our hearts are tuned and positioned and ready and we're looking for it, we will see things that have been there all along, but will become highlighted to us in new and clear and brilliant ways that perhaps we have not either seen before or we've just dismissed them.

With that in mind, let's turn to the book of Luke. I'm going to read a story to you. We can read it together. As I was making my selection, I feel like the Lord put a particular passage on my heart, but I always like us to take a good running start at the primary text that we're going to spend our time in. And so when like, let's say the Lord says, Hey, I want you to teach on this verse or these two verses.

Okay, got it. Well, as we get into the text together, I always like to give a little bit before and a little bit afterwards so that you have hopefully a little bit greater context so that neither you nor I would ever be guilty of just like kind of cherry picking a single verse. So it's always important to have as much as possible the greater context so you can see what's going on in the story. And as I was making my selection, I was like, well, let's go a little bigger on the front end. Yeah, but it's so good.

We got to go a little bigger on the back end. And so I thought what we would do is read just verses one all the way through 49. Let's take a nice, if you need to stretch out for this long reading, go right ahead. And one of the other things that we like to do here at Tribe is we like to read God's word together. We're not gonna read this together simultaneously.

We're not liturgical like that, but we'll pass the mic around and we can take turns reading God's word out loud together. So if you want to start, Kat, or if you got a volunteer, Joe's going to start us off, read just a few verses, Joe, and then hand the mic off to somebody else. We're going to read Luke chapter 24 verses one through 49.

But very early on Sunday morning, the woman went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn't find the body of Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

Quick pause. Let me give you something to be looking for in the text. Look for this theme of clarity in complexity. We'll see it numerous times in this passage, but like put those glasses on. Remember John Micus, whenever you like hand a pair of glasses for a child to try on?

And you're like, those are really expensive Maui gyms. Bless your heart. So this is what you need to be looking for while we're reading, clarity in complexity, that theme. We'll see it a bunch of times, but keep your eyes peeled. Continue or hand it off.

The woman were terrified with their faces and bowed with her faces to the ground. Then the men asked, why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn't here. He is risen from the dead. Remember what he told you back in Galloway, that the son of man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and that he would rise again on the third day.

Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all the these things to the 11 to all the others. It was as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, and the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles, but they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen laying by themselves, and he went away wondering to himself what had happened.

Now

that same day, two of them were going to a village called Imas, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast.

One of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? What things he asked? About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priest and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but they didn't find his body.

Quick pause. So we've been in this passage very recently. We camped out on this one spot. Can anybody just by way of like reinforcing where we've been, can anybody remember what we talked about recently regarding this passage? What was that key takeaway?

You can say it and then I'll repeat it into the mic. What, what, who? What things. Things. Yep, there were some what things in there, but the idea was in verse 19 through 22, we talked about this just what last week.

Ella's got it. There you go. There we go. So last week we talked about how these disciples, they couldn't see the what is of Jesus because they were stuck in the what was. So as we leave 2023 behind us, let go of those what was so that you can embrace all of the what is that Jesus has to offer you today and this year.

Good job guys. Let's keep going, we're getting closer to verse 49.

They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.

He said to them, how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as as if he was going farther, but they urged him strongly. Stay with us for it's nearly evening.

The day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them. I'm gonna take one more because I love this next part. Uh-huh. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them.

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight.

Isn't that great about communion? You guys wanna partake of the Lord's Supper together today?

Yes.

Let's do communion together today. Yes. Already have it set up.

All right, last but surely not least, they asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while we while he talked with us on the road

Come on. And

open the scriptures to us?

You want me to finish? Okay. Then the two is it Emmaus? Emmaus. Emmaus.

Thank you. Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. Peace be with you, he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost.

Why are you frightened? He asked. Why are your hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands. Look at my feet.

You can see that it's really me. Touch me and make sure I am not a ghost because ghosts don't have bodies as you see that I do. As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet. Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, do you have anything here to eat?

They gave him a piece of, broiled fish, and he ate it as they watched. Then he said, when I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the the scriptures. And he said, yes. It was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day.

It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem. There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. You are witnesses of all these things. And now now I will send my holy spirit just as my father promised, but stay here in the city until the holy spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.

May the Lord bless the reading of his word this morning. This is a great opportunity for me to check-in with you. Where do you see the theme of clarity in the midst of complexity in this passage? So scan through, maybe something jumped out to you while you were reading, maybe you need to look to your eyeballs and scan this again really quick to see what might jump out to you. When you have something, raise your hand, we'll come around to you.

Clay's got something. While the mic is coming to you, let me just say this. I understand that this format that is more conversational is perhaps something that you might not be used to. Usually the guy with this thing right here, the mic is the guy that has all of the words. Our format is just a little bit different.

I am just overwhelmed this morning. In 2023, I had cancer. In 2024, I do not. The second song that we sang today talked about rewriting your story. And in this passage, I get up every morning and just confessed to God that I am just a filthy sinner.

Christians are not holier than thou, they're just forgiven and this is oh foolish one and slow of hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken. I feel like that's what's happened to me in this journey that I've been on. When I went to Salt Lake, man I had a lot of time and I spent it looking in the word, listening to podcasts, listening to preachers, researching and I'm just, I'm overwhelmed about today and all that has been presented in this passage and how it has just fallen into place so organized that only God could have done it. And I am truly blessed. I mean peace to you, that's what I feel now.

That's good. Moving forward, I'm not promised tomorrow and if tomorrow doesn't come for me, God bless. I've lived a fantastic life and as I've gotten older, I've gotten better. Believe me, I've made a lot of stupid mistakes in my life.

Why is Nancy nodding so aggressively?

I'm speechless. Thank you for sharing. We make fun of me being the new Clay. Nancy will probably get a laugh at that, but I feel like I'm a new Clay because of what God is doing in my life. Not just healing, you know healing of cancer, that's great, that's wonderful.

But opening up his word and for me to get, like what you're saying, get clarity. God, lay it's just overwhelming. Overwhelming.

Yeah. I'd say anytime an angel speaks, it brings a lot of clarity. Right? In verse five, it says the women were terrified and bowed their face to the ground. Then the angel said, why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?

So I think that brings a lot of clarity there. He's risen from the dead obviously.

Oh, that's great. That's great that you're seeing that there. Yes, Hannah.

And just going off of what he just said about verse five, just a little bit later in oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Let's see.

Where is this? In verse six and seven, the angel says, he is not here but has risen. Remember how he had told you while he was still in Galilee that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise? So that's something that was already spoken in scripture and and it's made more clear because it's happened.

I like the thread that you're beginning to pull on because clarity, at least when I hear that word, especially in conjunction with the phrase that the Lord put on our heart, clarity carries with it this idea that it's not necessarily something brand new. It's always been there, but like, you can see it as if it's brand new, but it's always been there. And isn't it great? One of the many great things about Jesus is he never springs something on you out of the blue that you have no context for, no basis of familiarity. He plants the seed, he puts it in your heart, and then usually the revelation comes when you have to come back around to it, maybe after a lap or two in the wilderness, to that same point and say, I've already told you this.

I've already done this for you. I've already set you free. I've already But we encounter it with eyes to see and a heart that is receptive and it's as if we've been made brand new, but it's a clarification of something that was already there. That is really cool, Hannah. What else do you see either micro or macro in the passage that we just read of that theme of clarity in complexity.

What else do you see? All right, so nowadays, like people are lacking clarity in many aspects, right? So what I found interesting here is that when they spoke, they didn't have clarity. When Jesus spoke, they got clarity. Okay, I'll just close-up the bible and go to communion.

That was so, it was really good, Jonathan.

So, the complexity part of like fear, when they're afraid because they think he's a ghost, but then he uses evidence and he creates clarity that it's him. It's not a ghost.

Man, there's a thread that we could really pull on some more to get more out of that. That I'm going to try to translate, that faith is super important, but he gave the disciples something to substantiate their faith. Look at the holes in my hands, put your finger in my side. Are you gonna eat all of those fish sticks? I'd like one please.

Jesus knows our frailty. Amanda had something up here and then we'll go to the back there.

This is very elementary, but that's my style. There's

a

lot of complex things happening externally here A man was raised from the dead That's complex People came out of their graves and went back to the home to see their loved ones That's wild A stone was rolled away that was impossible. Like, everything about it feels complex. And the simplicity that jumped out to me

is

that, one, the two angels were like, Guys, he told you this. Do you not remember? And then two, Jesus was just like, Guys, I told you this. Do you not remember? And so it's like the clarity of the voice of Jesus that is unchanging and remains the same.

So in the midst of external complexity, it's just like the calm voice of the Lord that's like an anchor that's unchanging and that's always been there. And if they had eyes to see or ears to hear, they would have remembered, even in the midst of what seems like chaos or complex situations.

I like the fact that you're drawing our attention and this is my translation of what you just said, inviting us to use our imagination to really consider the reality of the complexity of the different situations. Just think about the two disciples that had left Jerusalem. Things were in so much upheaval, their spiritual leader, the one who they believed to be the Messiah, the rescuer of Israel had just been arrested, tried, executed, like what is going on? The other disciples, the two women going to the tomb, it might be because if you're familiar with this passage, it's kind of hard to put ourselves in the place of the people experiencing those things in real time, but can you imagine the complexity and the emotional and confusion that they were walking through in that moment? And I think that's what you're trying to draw our attention to.

We need to use our imaginations, but in the midst of that, the clarion words of Jesus cutting through all of the complexity to bring us to a place of clarity.

My point is similar that I think it's just awesome that he reveals himself to those who are at the bottom of the society first, in the sense that he makes sure those who don't have other ways of seeing get to see him, and so he addresses things from the bottom up. Wow. Well, once again,

I can conclude the sermon, because that's just, that's just, that's beautiful. Jane Krumberger.

Hi there. One thing that really struck out to me is, as they talked and discussed these things with each other, and then again they were walking along talking, and kind of jumping back up to the doubt of the 11 when they came back from the tomb. And they told them what happened and they didn't believe. But then there was kind of this talking that happened along the road with these people who had seen these things, and they were kind of having are you not from Jerusalem? Have you seen these things that are happening?

And so it's important for us as believers to be walking together, talking, and there's that theme that comes up a lot kind of through 13 through 18 of them walking and talking together, and how important that is to reaffirm our faith of these things that are happening. Because when crazy things are happening, might doubt God, we might doubt God, and having others to reaffirm and walk with us is a key theme that I picked up on in those passages.

Is super Kind of long Jyn, over here. That's so good. Jyn, of course the Lord can encounter us alone on the backside of the desert in a burning bush or however he wants to with Moses, but I like to use my sanctified imagination and imagine Jesus, resurrected Jesus going about doing resurrected Jesus things and he gets an alert on his phone, two disciples hearts are in confusion and they are just talking and talking and talking about all that's going on and he's like, okay, I'll be right there. That perhaps it, and maybe this is what you're saying, perhaps it was the fact that they were discussing these things of the Lord in the context of community with each other that attracted and drew the Lord. I'm reading into the text, I'm using my sanctified imagination, but he appears to the disciples as they're gathered in the upper room.

He appears to Paul, Saul, as he's traveling on the road with companions. There could be a series here about encountering the Lord in the context of community.

Write that down. Okay. I'm looking at verse 44 and he said, Remember, remember everything that was written about me. And he's not saying that in an unkind way. And then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

And then following down, he sends his holy spirit. And I think the application for us is we need to feed on his word. He will open our minds to understand and then he gives us the Holy Spirit to act that out and to guide us. Wow. And it's all right there kind of together.

Oh, that is also so good. I can remember my professors in Bible school, before we would take a test, they would say, all right, you're about to take the test, let me pray for you. And they would always pray a prayer that I didn't like, because they would pray like, Lord help these students to recall all that they have learned. And I was like, wait, what about the miracle of just like telling me the answers? So you're saying I was supposed to study more?

Oh, but they had the Old Testament put in them because they had studied it, they had heard it, they had meditated on it, they had chewed on it, And then Jesus comes along and says, let me remind you and bring to your recollection, have it come bubbling to the surface and connect the dots. But there was that prerequisite of hiding God's word in their heart so that He would have something to pull and draw upon. I mean, how many sermons, amazing sermons have we already preached this morning? Is anybody keeping count? That was so good.

That moment where Jesus spoke and quoted scripture and their eyes were open, they reminded me of Hebrews four twelve, where it says, 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. Let

his word bring clarity to our hearts. Hold on to that one for just a second, In way the that we see the disciples and these other characters in this story walking in complexity, either emotionally or geopolitically or seemingly religious and receiving clarity from Jesus himself. In the same way, I feel like the Lord has put on my heart to share with our tribe fam and not as a doom and gloom and we have to hold this tension between that and like Chicken Little and the sky is falling and also at the same time, not knowing any, the Lord has not shown me anything anything other than I believe with all of my heart, that as we wade into 2024, that we will personally and nationally and even globally experience a level of increase of complexity unlike the world has ever known before. Now, let that statement sit wherever you want it to sit. But consider if I had made that statement in 2019 or 2020, that would have sounded a little bit bombastic, wouldn't it have?

It might have sounded a little inflammatory or outrageous, like watch out, difficult days, complex days are coming. You would have been like, what? I mean, really honestly, we were to zoom out and I'm only going to zoom out just what, twenty years and look at the events of nineeleven. When nineeleven happened, it was a watershed moment for the world and for our nation, and we still today feel the ripple effects of the events of nineeleven, then all you need to do to confirm that is just go through security and remember, did I put on clean socks as I have to go through the scanner this morning without my shoes? And the events of nineeleven took our, as complex and as tragic as they were and whatever you believe about nineeleven, it was a turning of the dial of the hands of time for the world and for our nation.

But that was relatively for our short attention and mind span a long time ago. 2018, 2019, the beginning of 2020, it was like, yeah, we're cruising right along. I'm hoping that the iPhone is faster, but we weren't like, there's nothing big on the horizon for us. COVID crashes on like a tidal wave on the shores of all of our lives. It impacted every single one of us and it happened quickly, didn't.

If you were here in Jackson, remember that spring you guys were like, COVID's happening and we're like, I don't know, do I like wash my groceries or something? I don't know. And like, well, at least I can go skiing. And then they shut down the Gandhi. We're like, uh-oh, COVID.

And then they shut down the tram and we're like, oh no, COVID. And then they just closed the whole village. Remember that? And you're like, oh, COVID. How many of you were here in Jackson for that?

I mean, that was tragic. And so people are like, all right, we'll just go skiing on the pass. And then after we ski on the pass, we'll just all hang out together in the parking lot and there was talk of like, maybe we'll shut down like skiing on the pass and people are like, but then it was spring break and people were like, well, I can't travel international, and everybody in Jackson was just going to go down to Moab, and then Moab said, don't come down here, we closed everything. Do you guys remember that? And so we have still felt the ripples of COVID, how greatly and drastically, not only the world can change, but we can be impacted in such a relatively short period of time.

Before COVID, our minds, our psyche, our collective awareness and consciousness did not have room for comprehending or like a box to fit something that, I don't want to say catastrophic, but that disrupting in our lives. COVID created that box in all of our lives. Does that make sense? And now COVID is like, whatever. We saw complexity arise with COVID.

Imagine, we all walked through the complexity of like, do you wear a mask? Do you not wear a mask? Do you double bag the mask? Do you put one this way and then one this way? The vaccine is another level of complexity, the election and all those things had a place in our life and in our heart as a result of the initial tidal wave of COVID.

It created within all of us room for big, huge things to change and for life to change on a dime. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? Okay, I don't believe that I'm not saying that COVID was of the Lord. I am saying that in his foreknowledge, he knew about it, but the drawer or the bin that was created of sudden rapid change that permeates far and wide, the bin that COVID created, my sense and what I feel like the Lord has put on my heart is it's going to get filled up in 2024 in one year, in one year, and COVID will appear to be just child's play compared to what will unfold. And I'm not talking about catastrophe wise, although it could be included, I don't know, but I am talking about complexity.

Nancy in the back.

Complexity, yes, but this is where clarity has to come in. And you can't let fear take over when the complexity comes about because it will come about. And that was one of the things that COVID did amongst the Christian people a lot was it just embraced everybody with fear. And, you know, COVID brought us to Tribe because Tribe was the only one keeping its doors open. So I considered that a blessing right there.

But

when the complexity comes, that's where your clarity has got to be so important. And you've got to know who to trust, know god's in control. And, I mean, he gives us what I call rare sense because common sense is out the door. You know? It's rare if people have common sense.

So, yes, complexity, clarity, but know what you're believing.

That's good. So as I was as I was getting ready to share this word with you all this morning, it was last Sunday and maybe even a previous Sunday, there were some words that came forward from the congregation by way of, I feel like maybe the Lord is showing me a picture of or what the Lord might have for us. And then they shared it and I said, man, that's really good. And it pertains to this moment more than you might realize. And I asked them to write it down and send it to me.

And so I want to share two of those things with you right now. So I'm going to read an email to you. Mind you, these emails came in before I had ever told them or any of you the word for 2024. So with that in mind, I'm going to read this one first. This is from a member of our tribe fam and I asked them to write down, send it to me an email.

Here's the brief vision and message the Holy Spirit showed me on Sunday. We are working out that muscle and Abba was so kind to show me the rampart that Lee, another church member saw a few weeks ago before he talked about it. During my quiet time on Sunday morning, I asked for a visual word of wisdom. What I saw was a ship on calm waters and I wrote still ocean. I may or may not have seen a sunset, but the image was tranquil.

The ship was tribe and some people perceived the lack of movement as quote, going nowhere. I prayed for this ship to move forward. During service, the Holy Spirit elaborated. I was waiting for the usual heart racing queue in order to share, but this time it came as uncontrolled tears. The impression I received from the Lord is that he is getting the shipmates ready to sail the sea of troubled water.

The sea is calm and we are anchored in him and he is preparing us for the move of God. Now does not fit with what we've just been talking about, but this was shown to a tribe member long before this moment. I think he went on to say that each person is getting prepared. I think there's no one that is of least importance. And then another church member shared with me afterwards that what he was recalling when I shared the time that when he was on a sailboat, that he was learning to sail from a master captain.

The waters were calm and he saw a storm in the distance. He asked to sail into it to learn how to navigate the ship in a storm. They did a man overboard drill where they sailed such a distance away from the man, took a right turn, sailed right back again, and then came to rescue the man. In both my journals, the word included people's different reactions to the ship's motionless state. Some people didn't get on board because it wasn't moving as though they thought it should.

Some being impatient with the process jumped ship. I'm not sure if this story or another part that I wrote are related or not. I just added that because I found it interesting. One more, Psalms 37 verse 34, and all the words of wait patiently and travel steadily and your direction from the Lord to stay close create attention to manage between active finish line waiting and developing a vision and starting to do the next thing. But the value in waiting is the training.

Well, you could write that down. The value in the waiting is the training. It is like we are in the beginning stages of karate kid, where he's waxing the cars and sanding the floor. There's a frustration that arises out of the jobs that appear menial, but there's impatience to start working on the good stuff or the real stuff. But perhaps as Colin mentioned, this year is the year of breakthrough.

Perhaps it's a breakthrough in our understanding, which like clarity, that sounds exactly like what we're talking about today. That our eyes are open to see the value in wax on and wax off for us to stay close, that we've actually been developing muscle memory for our souls to prepare us to endure in the days to come. How cool is it that these words came up out of y'all and then I ask you to send them here and then in the mic, and then from the email out of my mouth into the mic back into your ears that this particular picture of the karate kid, you're all picking up what she's putting down in the email, right? Like what's his name? I don't remember the actor's name, Ralph Machio, but Danny?

No, what's the character's name in Karate Kid? Well, there's that guy. Daniel's son. Daniel's son. There we go, there we go, there you go.

So he goes to Mr. Miyagi like teach me karate, I'm getting beat up in school, like you got to help me out and teach me how to fight. Mr. Miyagi is like, okay, I'll teach you how to fight. First of all, sand the floor and then like, what does this have to do?

This whole house is like hardwood floors, you got to sand that, then paint the fence and then wax on, wax off. How many of you are following me with this? And then Daniel's son gets frustrated like, when am I going to learn the karate stuff? All I've been doing is painting fences and sanding floors and wax on, wax off. And then just like Jesus arriving and being like, remember all those things I taught you, here's the application.

Like, because Daniel has developed this muscle memory of these repetitive motions and what I'm looking at Joy because she was the one that sent me this, the picture that she saw. In a similar way, as a tribe family, we've been kind of like paint the fence, sand the floor, wax on, wax off. Where are we going? What are we doing? We're still meeting in a bar in like month to month, and like, wow, what all is going on?

I get it. Trust me, I'm the biggest Daniel's son in the room. I want to fight in the tournament. I don't want to be sanding the floors. But then Mr.

Miyagi comes along and says, all that you have been through as a tribe family, that was all training and now we're going to put it into practice. In conjunction with this idea that as things get more complex, stuff that we've been doing, talking about, chewing on, meditating on, emphasizing as a tribe family, perhaps pieces of the puzzle will fit more into place. Are y'all picking up what I'm putting down? Okay, so Monday morning application, just before we go into communion. How can I maintain clarity in the midst of complexity?

Okay, great word, Brian, but how does this apply to me Monday morning in my life? Let's look at verse 44. I'm going to just read this really quickly, share with you and then we'll go into communion. Verse 44, then he said, when I was with you before, I told you everything that was written about me in the law of Moses, in the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said, yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day.

So back to that question, back to the question, how can we maintain clarity in the midst of complexity? We're gonna take a couple of weeks and camp out on this verse or this word from the Lord because there's a lot to unpack, but as far as we'll go on Monday morning, the answer lies within those few verses right there. How do we maintain clarity? I would just offer this simple solution to you. Clarity comes with simplicity.

Clarity comes with simplicity. As the world gets increasingly more complex, as Christians, there is an invitation from the Holy Spirit for us to pursue simplicity and as we pursue simplicity, what happens?

Clarity.

It's like really so simple. That's beautiful, simple, not easy. And so I thought as we're just starting out 2024, just before we worship the Lord with our tithes and offerings, we would worship the Lord one more way by receiving communion together, and what is more simple than communion? Just in its essence, a special time of sharing a meal together with the Lord. And if if I could put this in your your your noggin, I would, but I can't in the same way that I can't read your bible for you.

You have to put on your your your big boy pants, your big girl pants, and do this yourself. But as the world, as you experience increasing complexity, if you will remember, I wish I could put it in your brain for you, but you have to put it in your brain. Pursue simplicity. What's the simple answer to this? What's the simple?

I'm not talking about the easy road. But what is this what is the simple thing to do in this situation? What is this simple answer? As we ask the Lord to show us those things and we, like Amanda said, it might not be easy, but as we pursue that, I feel like the Lord would have the gift of clarity that would just rest in you and on you. And as the world gets more complex, people around you are gonna get spun up and caught in caught up in the fray, but they're gonna see you.

Why you got so much peace? And have clarity? Why you got clarity? Because I'm just pursuing simplicity. Does that make sense?

Kat, could I have the handheld mic? And could you no. I'll stay here. The Bible records that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he met in the upper room with his disciples and he said, how I've longed to share this meal with you. The reason why he longed to share the meal with the disciples is that that good, God fearing Jews had been celebrating this meal for over three thousand five hundred years, every year together.

And the meal was pregnant with connections to Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the meal. And when he shared his last meal with them in the upper room, what we know as Passover or a Seder dinner, he explained and he connected the dots. And in the simplicity of this meal, the disciples were like, oh, they got clarity. The Bible records that during the meal, Jesus took bread, he broke it and he blessed it and he gave it to his disciples and said, take and eat for this is my body, which is given for you. And then after the meal, the Bible says that he took another cup.

Isn't it interesting that the detail says another cup? In a in a traditional seder dinner, there are multiple cups that people drink from at different times throughout the seder dinner. He could have picked any one of those cups. But when it says that he took another cup, it implies that he took a specific cup. What specific cup did he take?

We know what cup he took based on the words that he said in conjunction with picking up the cup because the words that he said were the words that a young man would use when he was proposing to a young woman. And in Jewish culture, in the days of Jesus, when a young man was going to ask a young woman to be his bride, he would he would take a cup and he would announce his vows. Similar to like what a bride and a groom do at the altar, they pronounce their vows to one another at the altar. In Jewish culture, a young man would pronounce his vows to a young woman before she ever said yes. And he would hold up this cup and he would sometimes it was written down, but he would pronounce his vows and then he would place the cup before her.

If she drank from the cup, that would be like her acceptance of these marriage vows. Jesus says, this is my body, which is broken for you. And then he took the cup and he says, this is my life's blood which is poured out for you, which ratifies or confirms a new covenant that I am making today. And then he says, I'll not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you in my father's kingdom. And the young man would say, when he was making proposal, he would say, I would not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it with you anew on our wedding day.

Behold the cup of salvation, the cup of redemption, the cup of eternal life. God, I ask that you would perform a miracle right here, that you would turn these simple common elements into a sacrament, which is simply a means of grace where we can touch you by faith. That when we come forward to partake of this meal, that you would bring clarity to our hearts, clarity of your love for us, clarity of your commitment to us despite our heart's tendency to wander and our eyes to get distracted by sparkly things and our souls that are weighed down with the heaviness and the troubles of this life. I ask holy spirit that when we partake of communion today, we would have a moment of clarity that we could grab a hold of and carry with us. We pray these things in Jesus.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for our tribe fam here. God, I ask that the word that you have for our tribe fam would find fertile soil on the hearts of all of the members of our tribe fam here and that you would invite us into clarity simply through simplicity. I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe fam here today. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of god And everybody said, amen. I love you so much.

Don't throw your back out with all the snow. Ski it really hard. Be safe in the backcountry. And Alex, remember, you got this. Alexa.