December 9, 2025 • 28 mins
What did you think of today's message?
With Northgate Online, you can join us every Sunday live at 9:00a and 11:00a, and our gatherings are available on-demand starting at 7p! Join us at https://thisis.church
Subscribe to our channel to see more messages from Northgate: https://www.youtube.com/@Northgate2201
—
If you would like to give, visit https://thisis.church/give/
—
Check out our Care Ministries for prayer, food pantry, memorial services and more at https://thisis.church/care
—
You are welcome at Northgate just like you are. Life may be going great for you or you may have hurts, hang-ups, and habits. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome at Northgate. We value the process of journey. We believe in the transformative power of Christ. Northgate has a clear vision of transforming our homes, communities, and world by Pursuing God, Building Community, and Unleashing Compassion.
—
Follow Northgate on Instagram: https://instgram.com/ngatecf
Follow Northgate on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsNorthgate/
Follow Larry Davis: https://www.instagram.com/sirlawrencedavis
Subscribe to Northgate's Podcast (Apple): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/northgate/id1583512612
Subscribe to Northgate's Podcast (Google): https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS81ODE2ODAucnNz
Share your experience with Northgate by leaving a review: https://g.page/r/CRHE7UBydhxzEBM/review
...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (01:06):
Hi, my name is Madison Kane, and today I'm
going to be reading Colossians 323.
Whatever you do, work at it withall your heart as working for
the Lord, not for human masters.
That's the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
Thanks be to God.
All right, Maddie.
Thanks.
Maddie just read one small pieceof scripture.
We're going to go through abunch of that stuff today.
But before I hop into that, uh,just a reminder, we're only two
weeks away from our ChristmasEve services that start on
Sunday morning.
It's not different than the restof the Christmas Eve services.
There's five different services,and they're not different.
They're all the same.
The only difference is we'retrying to uh get rid of some uh
(01:42):
walls that might be in the wayfor different people to
experience Christmas atNorthgate.
And so this is a tool for you touse.
And I've actually found myselfthe last couple of weeks being
able to use this tool myself.
The nine o'clock service onSunday morning the 21st, we're
gonna offer American SignLanguage Translation.
Uh, I actually ran into somepeople in Costco and at Kaiser
in the last couple of weeks thathave gotten a right in my notes
(02:04):
section like, hey, uh I noticedthat you're using ASL.
And if you're looking for aplace to celebrate Christmas Eve
and want a little hope, here'sthe invitation.
And I've given that out to acouple people.
Uh I never even expected to runinto people, but I think once
you have an opportunity forsomething, you start running
into people that could use that.
At the 11 o'clock service, we'regonna have on the video screens
(02:25):
a Spanish translation.
Uh, and then our Tuesday nightat seven in the evening, we're
gonna have Tagalic translation.
So those are just some tools foryou to use.
And I'm telling you, like, Idon't know anybody who could use
that.
You're gonna get an opportunity,I'm telling you, to run into
somebody and be like, oh, hey, Iwant you to know that you can
participate in this.
And this is a reminder, a kindone.
(02:45):
Get your tickets.
Uh, we have a massive mailerthat's gonna go out in the next
10 days.
So make sure you get the ticketsfor the service that you want to
be at.
Get as many tickets as you needand then give back what you
don't need because they'll sellout.
These different services do.
And the reason we do, these arefree tickets.
We uh make these tickets so thatway we can fit everyone in the
room and we can have space foryou.
(03:07):
That way you're all not justcoming at one time and then we
can't fit, and then you'reupset, and then you're mad at
me.
And I was like, get the ticket.
So, this is your thing.
Get the ticket.
Uh, you can do it in the back ofyour seats, you can do it on the
website, you can do it out inthe lobby.
We should be able to do that.
So, five services, all the same.
Then on Sunday the 28th, we arenot meeting, we are not
(03:28):
gathering here.
I need a day off.
No, I'm joking.
Uh actually, it's a gift to ourvolunteers and just this getting
reset.
And I'm saying, like, go spin itwith your family.
So don't show up here.
Set a reminder right now, sleepin day, do whatever you want to
do with it.
Sunday the 28th, reset yourself,spend time with friends or
family.
Then on the fourth, come back.
(03:49):
And on the fourth, we're gonnajump into a new book.
That's what we do here.
We expositorily teach uh throughbooks of the Bible.
We're gonna hop into the gospelof Mark uh and we're gonna do an
overview that weekend, and thenwe're gonna hop into it.
So that's kind of a scope ofwhat's coming up over the next
um couple of months.
So understand?
We good?
You're gonna get your Christmasticket?
(04:09):
Yeah, all right, good, thankyou.
Um, I don't know if you guysever know you ever notice how
life has like this sneaky way ofrunning on autopilot, like same
alarm, same bed, same coffee cupwith yesterday's ring on the
rim, same forgot to thaw thechicken moment, uh, the same
traffic that you know somehowknows your breaking point, same
(04:33):
playlist that you're tired of,but you'll go ahead and play
anyway.
Uh same office, same faces,same, hey, how was your weekend?
When we all know it's basicallythe same as last weekend, same
bills, same group chat, samemental, I should go and work out
that we ignore every day.
And it's like Groundhog Day,right?
(04:54):
With just slightly worse gasprices.
Welcome to the rhythm of thesame old.
And if we're honest, most oflife happens there.
It's not like in these bigInstagram worthy moments, it's
in the grocery aisle, thecommute, the inbox, the late
night dishes.
And you start wondering, is thisit?
(05:15):
Like, is this what life issupposed to feel like?
Just this long rerun.
And we call it the grind, but Ithink Jesus called it Tuesday.
Because most of life doesn'thappen on stage, it happens in
the in-between, between like theamen and payday, between God,
I'm ready and God, are you stillthere?
(05:37):
And that is where Jesus chose tolive.
And I think about this wholelike coming season where Jesus
came from heaven and earth.
And if I'm God and thank Godthat I'm not, I would want like
this grand entrance, likeskyline fireworks, ocean waves
forming my name.
If I was coming down from heavento earth like I've arrived, but
Jesus, the word-made flesh, hepicked a zip code that no one
(06:01):
posted about this small town ofNazareth.
No palace, no press release, noblue check.
He spent 30 years, think aboutthat, 30 years of his earthly
life in complete obscurity.
We read like two chapters abouthis birth, and then a couple
verses about his temple visitwhen he was at age 12, and then
(06:24):
silence for decades.
You ever wonder why?
I think it's because God wasmaking a point that his presence
isn't reserved for just thespotlight.
It's for the same old ones, too.
Uh Philippians chapter 2 says,uh, though he was in very nature
God, he did not consider himselfequality with God, something to
(06:46):
be grasped, but made himselfnothing, taking on the form of a
servant, being made in humanlikeness.
Here's what this means (06:57):
that Jesus didn't skip the ordinary,
he sanctified it.
He grew up with calluses andchores and neighbors who knew
his mama.
He knew what it was like to waitfor the week to end, what it was
like to wait for payday or tohit his thumb with a hammer and
breathe out grace instead ofcuss words.
(07:17):
In Luke chapter 2, verse 52says, Jesus then grew in wisdom
and stature and in favor withGod and man.
What this means is that helearned, he studied, he asked
questions, that the creator ofbrains had to use one.
I mean, like let that sink in.
God knows what it feels like tobe human on Tuesday.
(07:41):
We talk about miracles and weshould, but the miracle starts
way before water turned intowine.
The miracle started when Goddecided to do ordinary life at
all.
I think this is something we'vemissed.
I've actually never taught onthis, just the obscurity of 30
years, and we fantasize anddon't know how to humanize
Jesus, and it feels sodistanced.
(08:02):
But he felt the ache of waiting,the boredom of routine, the
rhythm of responsibility.
And if God is in the ordinary,then your ordinary friends isn't
ordinary anymore.
Let's just talk about work for aminute.
We love to romanticize Jesus asa baby in a manger, don't we?
(08:23):
Kind of like this clip.
SPEAKER_01 (08:25):
Dear Lord Baby Jesus, we also thank you for my
wife's father, Chip.
We hope that you can use yourbaby Jesus powers to heal him
and his horrible leg.
And it smells terrible, and thedogs are always bothering with
it.
Dear tiny infant Jesus.
SPEAKER_03 (08:39):
Hey, um, you know, sweetie, Jesus did grow up.
You don't always have to callhim baby.
It's a bit odd and off puttingto pray to a baby.
SPEAKER_01 (08:48):
Well, look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and
I'm saying grace.
When you say grace, you can sayit to grown-up Jesus or teenage
Jesus or bearded Jesus orwhoever you want.
SPEAKER_03 (08:55):
You know what I want?
I want you to do this grace goodso that God will let us win
tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (09:02):
Dear tiny Jesus.
Look, I like the baby versionthe best.
Do you hear me?
SPEAKER_00 (09:16):
We fantasize this, but we also love cross-bearing
Jesus on a hill.
But here's the deal (09:21):
the Jesus who shows up on Monday through
Friday, the Jesus who worked ajob, that's the one that I think
most of us actually need tomeet.
Uh, in Mark chapter six, versethree, uh, Mark tells the people
of Nazareth that they said, Isnot this the carpenter, the son
of Mary?
Which means he wasn't rabbi orhealer to them.
(09:42):
He was literally the guy whobuilt our table.
Like, can you imagine Jesusdealing with the customer
complaints?
Like, hey, Jesus, the table youbuilt me made wobbles, right?
He knew what it was like toclock in, to finish a project,
to meet deadlines, to feel theache in his hands in the
satisfaction of a job well done.
I think that's why Colossians3.23 hits different when you
(10:05):
know how he lived it.
It says, Whatever you do, workwith all of your heart as
working for the Lord, not forhuman masters.
And that would mean that yourcubicle, holy ground, classroom,
holy ground, your constructionsite, coffee shop, carpooling is
all holy ground when you inviteGod into it.
(10:28):
Here's a line that you can carrywith you.
If it matters to your Monday, itmatters to God.
And that's huge because I thinkthat we tend to split up our
lives into two boxes (10:37):
the sacred and then the secular.
Like the church stuff goes inone box and then everything
else, emails, deadlines, budgetmeetings goes in the other.
But God never drew that line.
We did.
Jesus shows us that the divinecan actually dwell inside the
daily, that God's glory isn'tjust real in worship as in a
(11:01):
synagogue, but it's in aworkshop as well.
The sacred isn't somewhere else,it's right where you clock in.
Now, maybe some of you arethinking, like, yeah, but my
job's pointless, or at least itfeels that way.
And I would just say, hold up.
Jesus made tables for almost 30years and only preached for
three.
(11:22):
Apparently, God doesn't definepurpose the way that we do.
Those hidden years were notwasted, they were foundation.
You might be in a season wherenothing feels spiritual, you
know, you're changing diapers,balancing budgets, answering the
same emails, trying not to loseyour sanctification and traffic,
just trying to adult.
(11:43):
And you think like this can't beholy.
But if Jesus made tables to theglory of God, you can write
reports, do homework, you candrive an Uber, flip burgers,
teach classes, coach kids,design websites, or care for
aging parents to the glory ofGod.
He is the God of the grind.
(12:05):
Hebrews chapter 4, 15 reminds usthat we don't have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize withour weakness, but one who's
actually been tempted in everyway, just as we are, yet he did
not sin.
That means that he understandsyour fatigue.
He understands what it's like tofeel the grind and the wear that
(12:26):
wears you and I down.
He knows the mental wearinessthat many of us that hits us on
Thursday.
He knows the the pull ofdistraction or the temptation to
check out mentally or to just gothrough the motions.
He gets it.
And maybe you've just beentrying to hold it together: the
the career, relationships,school, faith.
(12:50):
Maybe some of you just feel likeyou're losing grip.
He actually knows what it's liketo be stretched thin between
people who all want somethingfrom you.
There's this uh scene in Markchapter six, verse 31, where the
crowds won't leave him alone.
And he finally grabs hisdisciples and says, Come away
with me and rest for a while.
(13:13):
And some of you guys are like,What's that?
Even the Savior scheduled rest.
So if you need permission toslow down, there it is.
The God who worked six days andrested on one wrote that into
the rhythm of creation.
Because here's here's I want youto know this rest isn't
laziness, it's trust.
(13:34):
It says, God, you are stillworking even when I'm not.
And maybe the most spiritualthing you can do this week is
take a nap without feelingguilty.
Because hustle isn't holy if itcosts your heart.
Now, there's this line in theGospel of John, chapter 146,
where someone sneers, like, cananything good come out of
(13:55):
Nazareth?
Essentially, you know, like thatplace, that town, that
neighborhood, that that zipcode, that family?
No.
And maybe some of you haveactually heard this about your
own story.
Can anything good come out ofthat divorce?
Can anything good come out ofthat addiction?
(14:18):
Can anything good come out ofthat failure?
Can anything good come out ofthat diagnosis?
Can anything good come out fromyou?
Jesus is the answer.
Because he came from Nazareth toprove that grace can grow in
small places and that redemptioncan bloom in quiet season, and
(14:41):
that your story, friends, is notdefined by where you start, but
who walks with you.
God does his best work in placespeople ignore.
Maybe you're tired of theroutine.
Maybe you feel like you're stuckjust in repeat mode.
But faithfulness in the familiaris where God actually forms you.
(15:05):
The same God who spoke galaxiesinto existence, spent decades
showing up on time to acarpenter shop.
He's teaching you the power ofshowing up.
Because when you show upfaithfully in small things, what
happens is he begins to prepareyou for big things.
Zachariah 4, 10 says, Who daresdespise the day of the small
(15:28):
things?
God doesn't.
He meets you there.
He meets you in the Mondaymorning grind with the same old
alarm clock, the in the drive towork, the classroom full of
chaos, the quiet cubicle, thediaper change, the late night
shift, and the assignment thatyou don't want to finish.
He's not just the God ofmiracles and mountaintops, he's
(15:51):
the God of commutes and coffeebreaks.
And if you were to actually askthe people of Nazareth what did
Jesus do for most of his life,they wouldn't say, like, well,
he's the son of God.
What they'd say is like, he'sthe carpenter.
He's the guy who built tablesand fixed doors.
Like we said, Mark 3 says it,chapter 6, verse 3 says it
really clearly.
Isn't this the carpenter, theson of Mary?
(16:13):
What that means is Jesus didn'tjust live among the people, he
worked among people.
He probably knew the rhythm ofthe hammer, the ache of tired
arms, the splinter of the palmand the sweat of his brow, where
he didn't just like floatthrough life on this divine
cloud.
He lived it with us, groundlevel, hands dirty, heart open.
(16:36):
He made things.
He created beauty from rawmaterial.
He worked with imperfection andwood that warped and nails that
were bent.
And that's wild when you thinkabout this at such a human
level, because every time hepicked up a piece of wood, it
was like he was foreshadowingthe cross.
The same hands that shaped thewood would one day be nailed to
(17:00):
some.
The carpenter didn't just buildfurniture, he built forgiveness.
That's literally the gospel inone sentence.
That before he carried thecross, he carried planks.
Before he was pierced, helearned precision.
Before he said it is finished,he practiced finishing.
And every moment for him was himbeing formed for this mission.
(17:23):
And friend, I just want to sayit's the same for you and I.
The hidden seasons aren'twasted.
The quiet chapters in your lifearen't pointless.
They're prep work for grace.
Uh Paul says in Romans chapter8, God did what the law could
not do.
He sent his own son in thelikeness of sinful flesh to be a
(17:46):
sin offering.
And so he condemned the sin inthe flesh.
That's theology, literallywrapped in calluses.
Jesus wasn't allergic to labor,he turned his work into worship.
He showed that your craft, yourjob or your calling, your
effort, all can be sacred whendone in love.
(18:09):
And I think sometimes the mostspiritual thing that you can do
is to do your work well, not forapplause, not out of gratitude.
When Jesus died on the cross,his final words were, It is
finished.
He didn't say, I'm finished.
He said, It, the work, theproject, the masterpiece of
(18:33):
redemption that began in acarpenter's shop and ended on a
hill.
And in that moment, thecarpenter put down his tools,
not in defeat, but incompletion.
He built a way back home.
And that means that resurrectiondoesn't just happen in tombs, it
happens in workshops andcubicles and classrooms and
(18:55):
kitchens.
It happens in addictionmeetings, in hospital rooms, in
late-night prayer drives.
It happens when you choose hopein the dark.
Because when Jesus got up onSunday, he didn't erase our
humanity, he redeemed it.
(19:15):
He didn't say, Hey, stop beinghuman and start being holy.
He said, No, no, no.
Bring your humanity into myholiness.
And that means our Mondaymatters.
That your grind has glory in it,that your same old sacred
fingerprints are all over it.
First Corinthians 10 says,Whatever you do, whether eat or
(19:38):
drink, do it all for the gloryof God.
That means if Jesus couldglorify God standing a chair,
you can glorify God, coding awebsite, caring for kids,
stocking shelves, deliveringpackages, running spreadsheets,
driving an Uber or a Lyft,making a sandwich.
Because He is both the Lord ofmiracles and the mundane.
(20:01):
And this morning we tookcommunion together.
And this is just the cross whereit proves that God isn't afraid
of pain, that he can actually bepresent in it for himself in the
midst of ours.
And sometimes our greatestcalling is actually found in the
place of our greatest suffering.
That's why Colossians chapter 1,20 says, Through him God
(20:23):
reconciled everything tohimself, making peace through
the blood of his cross.
Everything.
Your story, your job, yourfamily, your fatigue, your
failures.
That's what love does.
(20:45):
It redeems what life broke.
And that brings us right here,right now, back to the same
Jesus, friends, who is stillgood with his hands.
In this room with you, in yourYour life, in your family, he is
still building, still restoringwhat is splintered, still
(21:07):
redeeming what is cracked, stillshaping what the world
discarded.
And maybe that's you.
You've been holding your lifetogether with like duct tape and
caffeine, and God's whispering,like, let me let me build peace
in your anxiety.
Let me build forgiveness wherebitterness has taken root.
(21:29):
Let me build rest where you'restriving burned, it's burned you
out.
And he doesn't want to just fixyour life.
He actually wants to dwell init.
Revelation 21, 3 says, Behold,the dwelling place of God is now
(21:49):
with man.
And that, friends, is whatChristmas is all about.
It's what it was all about allalong.
Love coming down and stayingdown, where he didn't just
visit, he moved in.
Love came down to our grind, ourgrief, and our grocery lists.
Love came down to prove nothingis too common to be called holy
(22:12):
when God steps into it.
Love came down so grace couldrise up in us.
Love came down to the nurse whowipes one more forehead at 3
a.m.
To the teacher who grades papersafter the house is quiet.
To the single parent stretchingleftovers and faith at the same
(22:32):
time.
Or to the construction workerdriving home in silence,
wondering if anyone evennoticed, or the real estate
agent grinding to sell a dreamwhile avoiding everyone else
they love just to make it.
To the student who feelsinvisible, scrolling through
highlight reels that never showreal life, he came down for you.
(22:53):
To your tired prayers, yourhalf-finished dreams, your loop
of just ordinary days that feellike they're going nowhere.
Because love just isn't visit,it moves in.
Let's be honest.
I think some of you in this roomare in the middle of what feels
(23:15):
like a Nazareth season where noone claps, no one sees, it just
feels like your prayers hit aceiling.
And you're wondering iffaithfulness even matters
anymore.
But it's in Nazareth that Godbuilds character and calling.
It's in the obscurity whereobedience grows muscles.
(23:36):
It's in the everyday thateternity breaks through.
And when you show up and choosejoy anyway, when you forgive
instead of clap back, when youkeep serving when it's
thankless, that's where heavenstarts to sound like a
heartbeat.
Faithfulness in the familiar iswhere formation happens.
(23:58):
And maybe that's why Jesus lovedbuilding things.
Because he knew every nail,every plank, every table was a
small resurrection story.
He wasn't just making furniture,he was teaching us to see
resurrection material in rawmaterial.
He was showing us that brokenwood can still hold divine
(24:20):
purpose.
He was showing us that we,knotted, splintered, uneven, can
still be shaped by the master'shands, that the God who came
down still works among us.
And he's not done building.
He came down to make theordinary holy.
(24:50):
Where he came down to the dirtand the dusk and the dust, the
dinner table, the daily grind.
He came down to the broken, theburned out, the brushed aside.
He came to redeem commutes andclassrooms and shops.
He came down to pick up what wedrop and to fix what we
fractured and to rebuild what webroke.
He came down to prove thatnothing is too common to be
(25:12):
called holy when God steps intoit.
And he came down to be with you,not just in your worship, but in
your work.
Not just in your dreams, but inyour deadlines.
Not just in your Sunday best,but in your Sunday mess, and
your Monday mess and yourTuesday mess and your Wednesday
(25:35):
mess.
He came down.
Now picture this just for amoment.
And in a small shop behind thisquiet home, a young man wipes
sweat from his brow and studieshis hound.
They're calloused, strong,human.
(25:59):
The same hands that will one daycarry across a customer knocks,
another job, another same old.
And the son of God smiles andsays, Come on in.
He takes the project, he lays iton the table and begins to
build.
He hums while he works.
He sands down the rough edgesand shapes what's broken, and
(26:21):
heaven whispers, This is how Iredeem the world, one table, one
heart, one life at a time.
Now, fast forward 10 years, andthe same hands are stretched out
on wood again, not shaping it,but being nailed to it.
And from that cross, he breathesthe words that every weary soul
(26:45):
longs to hear.
It is finished.
Friends, that's the sound ofgrace being built.
That's the rhythm of redemption.
And so if you feel unfinishedtoday, remember the carpenter is
still at work.
He is not afraid of yoursplinters.
(27:05):
He knows how to make somethingbeautiful out of broken wood.
He takes what the world wouldcall worthless and turns it into
worship.
He takes what is shattered andsays, let's rebuild.
Love came down and he is stillbuilding.
He's still building courage inyour fear.
He's still building purpose inyour pain.
(27:26):
He's still building peace inyour chaos.
He's still building joy in yourjourney.
And he is still turning sawdustmoments into sacred spaces.
And one day, when you finallysee the finished project, you
will realize that every nail,every scar, every delay was part
of the design.
(27:47):
But until then, be full of hope.
Keep showing up.
Keep building alongside of them.
Keep believing that the ordinarycan actually be holy because the
same Jesus who conquered deathstill walks into workshops and
kitchens and classrooms today,whispering, I'm here and I'm
(28:10):
still working.
Love came down, friends, andhe's not done building.
Hi, my name is Madison Kane, and today I'm
going to be reading Colossians 323.
Whatever you do, work at it withall your heart as working for
the Lord, not for human masters.
That's the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
Thanks be to God.
All right, Maddie.
Thanks.
Maddie just read one small pieceof scripture.
We're going to go through abunch of that stuff today.
But before I hop into that, uh,just a reminder, we're only two
weeks away from our ChristmasEve services that start on
Sunday morning.
It's not different than the restof the Christmas Eve services.
There's five different services,and they're not different.
They're all the same.
The only difference is we'retrying to uh get rid of some uh
(01:42):
walls that might be in the wayfor different people to
experience Christmas atNorthgate.
And so this is a tool for you touse.
And I've actually found myselfthe last couple of weeks being
able to use this tool myself.
The nine o'clock service onSunday morning the 21st, we're
gonna offer American SignLanguage Translation.
Uh, I actually ran into somepeople in Costco and at Kaiser
in the last couple of weeks thathave gotten a right in my notes
(02:04):
section like, hey, uh I noticedthat you're using ASL.
And if you're looking for aplace to celebrate Christmas Eve
and want a little hope, here'sthe invitation.
And I've given that out to acouple people.
Uh I never even expected to runinto people, but I think once
you have an opportunity forsomething, you start running
into people that could use that.
At the 11 o'clock service, we'regonna have on the video screens
(02:25):
a Spanish translation.
Uh, and then our Tuesday nightat seven in the evening, we're
gonna have Tagalic translation.
So those are just some tools foryou to use.
And I'm telling you, like, Idon't know anybody who could use
that.
You're gonna get an opportunity,I'm telling you, to run into
somebody and be like, oh, hey, Iwant you to know that you can
participate in this.
And this is a reminder, a kindone.
(02:45):
Get your tickets.
Uh, we have a massive mailerthat's gonna go out in the next
10 days.
So make sure you get the ticketsfor the service that you want to
be at.
Get as many tickets as you needand then give back what you
don't need because they'll sellout.
These different services do.
And the reason we do, these arefree tickets.
We uh make these tickets so thatway we can fit everyone in the
room and we can have space foryou.
(03:07):
That way you're all not justcoming at one time and then we
can't fit, and then you'reupset, and then you're mad at
me.
And I was like, get the ticket.
So, this is your thing.
Get the ticket.
Uh, you can do it in the back ofyour seats, you can do it on the
website, you can do it out inthe lobby.
We should be able to do that.
So, five services, all the same.
Then on Sunday the 28th, we arenot meeting, we are not
(03:28):
gathering here.
I need a day off.
No, I'm joking.
Uh actually, it's a gift to ourvolunteers and just this getting
reset.
And I'm saying, like, go spin itwith your family.
So don't show up here.
Set a reminder right now, sleepin day, do whatever you want to
do with it.
Sunday the 28th, reset yourself,spend time with friends or
family.
Then on the fourth, come back.
(03:49):
And on the fourth, we're gonnajump into a new book.
That's what we do here.
We expositorily teach uh throughbooks of the Bible.
We're gonna hop into the gospelof Mark uh and we're gonna do an
overview that weekend, and thenwe're gonna hop into it.
So that's kind of a scope ofwhat's coming up over the next
um couple of months.
So understand?
We good?
You're gonna get your Christmasticket?
(04:09):
Yeah, all right, good, thankyou.
Um, I don't know if you guysever know you ever notice how
life has like this sneaky way ofrunning on autopilot, like same
alarm, same bed, same coffee cupwith yesterday's ring on the
rim, same forgot to thaw thechicken moment, uh, the same
traffic that you know somehowknows your breaking point, same
(04:33):
playlist that you're tired of,but you'll go ahead and play
anyway.
Uh same office, same faces,same, hey, how was your weekend?
When we all know it's basicallythe same as last weekend, same
bills, same group chat, samemental, I should go and work out
that we ignore every day.
And it's like Groundhog Day,right?
(04:54):
With just slightly worse gasprices.
Welcome to the rhythm of thesame old.
And if we're honest, most oflife happens there.
It's not like in these bigInstagram worthy moments, it's
in the grocery aisle, thecommute, the inbox, the late
night dishes.
And you start wondering, is thisit?
(05:15):
Like, is this what life issupposed to feel like?
Just this long rerun.
And we call it the grind, but Ithink Jesus called it Tuesday.
Because most of life doesn'thappen on stage, it happens in
the in-between, between like theamen and payday, between God,
I'm ready and God, are you stillthere?
(05:37):
And that is where Jesus chose tolive.
And I think about this wholelike coming season where Jesus
came from heaven and earth.
And if I'm God and thank Godthat I'm not, I would want like
this grand entrance, likeskyline fireworks, ocean waves
forming my name.
If I was coming down from heavento earth like I've arrived, but
Jesus, the word-made flesh, hepicked a zip code that no one
(06:01):
posted about this small town ofNazareth.
No palace, no press release, noblue check.
He spent 30 years, think aboutthat, 30 years of his earthly
life in complete obscurity.
We read like two chapters abouthis birth, and then a couple
verses about his temple visitwhen he was at age 12, and then
(06:24):
silence for decades.
You ever wonder why?
I think it's because God wasmaking a point that his presence
isn't reserved for just thespotlight.
It's for the same old ones, too.
Uh Philippians chapter 2 says,uh, though he was in very nature
God, he did not consider himselfequality with God, something to
(06:46):
be grasped, but made himselfnothing, taking on the form of a
servant, being made in humanlikeness.
Here's what this means (06:57):
that Jesus didn't skip the ordinary,
he sanctified it.
He grew up with calluses andchores and neighbors who knew
his mama.
He knew what it was like to waitfor the week to end, what it was
like to wait for payday or tohit his thumb with a hammer and
breathe out grace instead ofcuss words.
(07:17):
In Luke chapter 2, verse 52says, Jesus then grew in wisdom
and stature and in favor withGod and man.
What this means is that helearned, he studied, he asked
questions, that the creator ofbrains had to use one.
I mean, like let that sink in.
God knows what it feels like tobe human on Tuesday.
(07:41):
We talk about miracles and weshould, but the miracle starts
way before water turned intowine.
The miracle started when Goddecided to do ordinary life at
all.
I think this is something we'vemissed.
I've actually never taught onthis, just the obscurity of 30
years, and we fantasize anddon't know how to humanize
Jesus, and it feels sodistanced.
(08:02):
But he felt the ache of waiting,the boredom of routine, the
rhythm of responsibility.
And if God is in the ordinary,then your ordinary friends isn't
ordinary anymore.
Let's just talk about work for aminute.
We love to romanticize Jesus asa baby in a manger, don't we?
(08:23):
Kind of like this clip.
SPEAKER_01 (08:25):
Dear Lord Baby Jesus, we also thank you for my
wife's father, Chip.
We hope that you can use yourbaby Jesus powers to heal him
and his horrible leg.
And it smells terrible, and thedogs are always bothering with
it.
Dear tiny infant Jesus.
SPEAKER_03 (08:39):
Hey, um, you know, sweetie, Jesus did grow up.
You don't always have to callhim baby.
It's a bit odd and off puttingto pray to a baby.
SPEAKER_01 (08:48):
Well, look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and
I'm saying grace.
When you say grace, you can sayit to grown-up Jesus or teenage
Jesus or bearded Jesus orwhoever you want.
SPEAKER_03 (08:55):
You know what I want?
I want you to do this grace goodso that God will let us win
tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (09:02):
Dear tiny Jesus.
Look, I like the baby versionthe best.
Do you hear me?
SPEAKER_00 (09:16):
We fantasize this, but we also love cross-bearing
Jesus on a hill.
But here's the deal (09:21):
the Jesus who shows up on Monday through
Friday, the Jesus who worked ajob, that's the one that I think
most of us actually need tomeet.
Uh, in Mark chapter six, versethree, uh, Mark tells the people
of Nazareth that they said, Isnot this the carpenter, the son
of Mary?
Which means he wasn't rabbi orhealer to them.
(09:42):
He was literally the guy whobuilt our table.
Like, can you imagine Jesusdealing with the customer
complaints?
Like, hey, Jesus, the table youbuilt me made wobbles, right?
He knew what it was like toclock in, to finish a project,
to meet deadlines, to feel theache in his hands in the
satisfaction of a job well done.
I think that's why Colossians3.23 hits different when you
(10:05):
know how he lived it.
It says, Whatever you do, workwith all of your heart as
working for the Lord, not forhuman masters.
And that would mean that yourcubicle, holy ground, classroom,
holy ground, your constructionsite, coffee shop, carpooling is
all holy ground when you inviteGod into it.
(10:28):
Here's a line that you can carrywith you.
If it matters to your Monday, itmatters to God.
And that's huge because I thinkthat we tend to split up our
lives into two boxes (10:37):
the sacred and then the secular.
Like the church stuff goes inone box and then everything
else, emails, deadlines, budgetmeetings goes in the other.
But God never drew that line.
We did.
Jesus shows us that the divinecan actually dwell inside the
daily, that God's glory isn'tjust real in worship as in a
(11:01):
synagogue, but it's in aworkshop as well.
The sacred isn't somewhere else,it's right where you clock in.
Now, maybe some of you arethinking, like, yeah, but my
job's pointless, or at least itfeels that way.
And I would just say, hold up.
Jesus made tables for almost 30years and only preached for
three.
(11:22):
Apparently, God doesn't definepurpose the way that we do.
Those hidden years were notwasted, they were foundation.
You might be in a season wherenothing feels spiritual, you
know, you're changing diapers,balancing budgets, answering the
same emails, trying not to loseyour sanctification and traffic,
just trying to adult.
(11:43):
And you think like this can't beholy.
But if Jesus made tables to theglory of God, you can write
reports, do homework, you candrive an Uber, flip burgers,
teach classes, coach kids,design websites, or care for
aging parents to the glory ofGod.
He is the God of the grind.
(12:05):
Hebrews chapter 4, 15 reminds usthat we don't have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize withour weakness, but one who's
actually been tempted in everyway, just as we are, yet he did
not sin.
That means that he understandsyour fatigue.
He understands what it's like tofeel the grind and the wear that
(12:26):
wears you and I down.
He knows the mental wearinessthat many of us that hits us on
Thursday.
He knows the the pull ofdistraction or the temptation to
check out mentally or to just gothrough the motions.
He gets it.
And maybe you've just beentrying to hold it together: the
the career, relationships,school, faith.
(12:50):
Maybe some of you just feel likeyou're losing grip.
He actually knows what it's liketo be stretched thin between
people who all want somethingfrom you.
There's this uh scene in Markchapter six, verse 31, where the
crowds won't leave him alone.
And he finally grabs hisdisciples and says, Come away
with me and rest for a while.
(13:13):
And some of you guys are like,What's that?
Even the Savior scheduled rest.
So if you need permission toslow down, there it is.
The God who worked six days andrested on one wrote that into
the rhythm of creation.
Because here's here's I want youto know this rest isn't
laziness, it's trust.
(13:34):
It says, God, you are stillworking even when I'm not.
And maybe the most spiritualthing you can do this week is
take a nap without feelingguilty.
Because hustle isn't holy if itcosts your heart.
Now, there's this line in theGospel of John, chapter 146,
where someone sneers, like, cananything good come out of
(13:55):
Nazareth?
Essentially, you know, like thatplace, that town, that
neighborhood, that that zipcode, that family?
No.
And maybe some of you haveactually heard this about your
own story.
Can anything good come out ofthat divorce?
Can anything good come out ofthat addiction?
(14:18):
Can anything good come out ofthat failure?
Can anything good come out ofthat diagnosis?
Can anything good come out fromyou?
Jesus is the answer.
Because he came from Nazareth toprove that grace can grow in
small places and that redemptioncan bloom in quiet season, and
(14:41):
that your story, friends, is notdefined by where you start, but
who walks with you.
God does his best work in placespeople ignore.
Maybe you're tired of theroutine.
Maybe you feel like you're stuckjust in repeat mode.
But faithfulness in the familiaris where God actually forms you.
(15:05):
The same God who spoke galaxiesinto existence, spent decades
showing up on time to acarpenter shop.
He's teaching you the power ofshowing up.
Because when you show upfaithfully in small things, what
happens is he begins to prepareyou for big things.
Zachariah 4, 10 says, Who daresdespise the day of the small
(15:28):
things?
God doesn't.
He meets you there.
He meets you in the Mondaymorning grind with the same old
alarm clock, the in the drive towork, the classroom full of
chaos, the quiet cubicle, thediaper change, the late night
shift, and the assignment thatyou don't want to finish.
He's not just the God ofmiracles and mountaintops, he's
(15:51):
the God of commutes and coffeebreaks.
And if you were to actually askthe people of Nazareth what did
Jesus do for most of his life,they wouldn't say, like, well,
he's the son of God.
What they'd say is like, he'sthe carpenter.
He's the guy who built tablesand fixed doors.
Like we said, Mark 3 says it,chapter 6, verse 3 says it
really clearly.
Isn't this the carpenter, theson of Mary?
(16:13):
What that means is Jesus didn'tjust live among the people, he
worked among people.
He probably knew the rhythm ofthe hammer, the ache of tired
arms, the splinter of the palmand the sweat of his brow, where
he didn't just like floatthrough life on this divine
cloud.
He lived it with us, groundlevel, hands dirty, heart open.
(16:36):
He made things.
He created beauty from rawmaterial.
He worked with imperfection andwood that warped and nails that
were bent.
And that's wild when you thinkabout this at such a human
level, because every time hepicked up a piece of wood, it
was like he was foreshadowingthe cross.
The same hands that shaped thewood would one day be nailed to
(17:00):
some.
The carpenter didn't just buildfurniture, he built forgiveness.
That's literally the gospel inone sentence.
That before he carried thecross, he carried planks.
Before he was pierced, helearned precision.
Before he said it is finished,he practiced finishing.
And every moment for him was himbeing formed for this mission.
(17:23):
And friend, I just want to sayit's the same for you and I.
The hidden seasons aren'twasted.
The quiet chapters in your lifearen't pointless.
They're prep work for grace.
Uh Paul says in Romans chapter8, God did what the law could
not do.
He sent his own son in thelikeness of sinful flesh to be a
(17:46):
sin offering.
And so he condemned the sin inthe flesh.
That's theology, literallywrapped in calluses.
Jesus wasn't allergic to labor,he turned his work into worship.
He showed that your craft, yourjob or your calling, your
effort, all can be sacred whendone in love.
(18:09):
And I think sometimes the mostspiritual thing that you can do
is to do your work well, not forapplause, not out of gratitude.
When Jesus died on the cross,his final words were, It is
finished.
He didn't say, I'm finished.
He said, It, the work, theproject, the masterpiece of
(18:33):
redemption that began in acarpenter's shop and ended on a
hill.
And in that moment, thecarpenter put down his tools,
not in defeat, but incompletion.
He built a way back home.
And that means that resurrectiondoesn't just happen in tombs, it
happens in workshops andcubicles and classrooms and
(18:55):
kitchens.
It happens in addictionmeetings, in hospital rooms, in
late-night prayer drives.
It happens when you choose hopein the dark.
Because when Jesus got up onSunday, he didn't erase our
humanity, he redeemed it.
(19:15):
He didn't say, Hey, stop beinghuman and start being holy.
He said, No, no, no.
Bring your humanity into myholiness.
And that means our Mondaymatters.
That your grind has glory in it,that your same old sacred
fingerprints are all over it.
First Corinthians 10 says,Whatever you do, whether eat or
(19:38):
drink, do it all for the gloryof God.
That means if Jesus couldglorify God standing a chair,
you can glorify God, coding awebsite, caring for kids,
stocking shelves, deliveringpackages, running spreadsheets,
driving an Uber or a Lyft,making a sandwich.
Because He is both the Lord ofmiracles and the mundane.
(20:01):
And this morning we tookcommunion together.
And this is just the cross whereit proves that God isn't afraid
of pain, that he can actually bepresent in it for himself in the
midst of ours.
And sometimes our greatestcalling is actually found in the
place of our greatest suffering.
That's why Colossians chapter 1,20 says, Through him God
(20:23):
reconciled everything tohimself, making peace through
the blood of his cross.
Everything.
Your story, your job, yourfamily, your fatigue, your
failures.
That's what love does.
(20:45):
It redeems what life broke.
And that brings us right here,right now, back to the same
Jesus, friends, who is stillgood with his hands.
In this room with you, in yourYour life, in your family, he is
still building, still restoringwhat is splintered, still
(21:07):
redeeming what is cracked, stillshaping what the world
discarded.
And maybe that's you.
You've been holding your lifetogether with like duct tape and
caffeine, and God's whispering,like, let me let me build peace
in your anxiety.
Let me build forgiveness wherebitterness has taken root.
(21:29):
Let me build rest where you'restriving burned, it's burned you
out.
And he doesn't want to just fixyour life.
He actually wants to dwell init.
Revelation 21, 3 says, Behold,the dwelling place of God is now
(21:49):
with man.
And that, friends, is whatChristmas is all about.
It's what it was all about allalong.
Love coming down and stayingdown, where he didn't just
visit, he moved in.
Love came down to our grind, ourgrief, and our grocery lists.
Love came down to prove nothingis too common to be called holy
(22:12):
when God steps into it.
Love came down so grace couldrise up in us.
Love came down to the nurse whowipes one more forehead at 3
a.m.
To the teacher who grades papersafter the house is quiet.
To the single parent stretchingleftovers and faith at the same
(22:32):
time.
Or to the construction workerdriving home in silence,
wondering if anyone evennoticed, or the real estate
agent grinding to sell a dreamwhile avoiding everyone else
they love just to make it.
To the student who feelsinvisible, scrolling through
highlight reels that never showreal life, he came down for you.
(22:53):
To your tired prayers, yourhalf-finished dreams, your loop
of just ordinary days that feellike they're going nowhere.
Because love just isn't visit,it moves in.
Let's be honest.
I think some of you in this roomare in the middle of what feels
(23:15):
like a Nazareth season where noone claps, no one sees, it just
feels like your prayers hit aceiling.
And you're wondering iffaithfulness even matters
anymore.
But it's in Nazareth that Godbuilds character and calling.
It's in the obscurity whereobedience grows muscles.
(23:36):
It's in the everyday thateternity breaks through.
And when you show up and choosejoy anyway, when you forgive
instead of clap back, when youkeep serving when it's
thankless, that's where heavenstarts to sound like a
heartbeat.
Faithfulness in the familiar iswhere formation happens.
(23:58):
And maybe that's why Jesus lovedbuilding things.
Because he knew every nail,every plank, every table was a
small resurrection story.
He wasn't just making furniture,he was teaching us to see
resurrection material in rawmaterial.
He was showing us that brokenwood can still hold divine
(24:20):
purpose.
He was showing us that we,knotted, splintered, uneven, can
still be shaped by the master'shands, that the God who came
down still works among us.
And he's not done building.
He came down to make theordinary holy.
(24:50):
Where he came down to the dirtand the dusk and the dust, the
dinner table, the daily grind.
He came down to the broken, theburned out, the brushed aside.
He came to redeem commutes andclassrooms and shops.
He came down to pick up what wedrop and to fix what we
fractured and to rebuild what webroke.
He came down to prove thatnothing is too common to be
(25:12):
called holy when God steps intoit.
And he came down to be with you,not just in your worship, but in
your work.
Not just in your dreams, but inyour deadlines.
Not just in your Sunday best,but in your Sunday mess, and
your Monday mess and yourTuesday mess and your Wednesday
(25:35):
mess.
He came down.
Now picture this just for amoment.
And in a small shop behind thisquiet home, a young man wipes
sweat from his brow and studieshis hound.
They're calloused, strong,human.
(25:59):
The same hands that will one daycarry across a customer knocks,
another job, another same old.
And the son of God smiles andsays, Come on in.
He takes the project, he lays iton the table and begins to
build.
He hums while he works.
He sands down the rough edgesand shapes what's broken, and
(26:21):
heaven whispers, This is how Iredeem the world, one table, one
heart, one life at a time.
Now, fast forward 10 years, andthe same hands are stretched out
on wood again, not shaping it,but being nailed to it.
And from that cross, he breathesthe words that every weary soul
(26:45):
longs to hear.
It is finished.
Friends, that's the sound ofgrace being built.
That's the rhythm of redemption.
And so if you feel unfinishedtoday, remember the carpenter is
still at work.
He is not afraid of yoursplinters.
(27:05):
He knows how to make somethingbeautiful out of broken wood.
He takes what the world wouldcall worthless and turns it into
worship.
He takes what is shattered andsays, let's rebuild.
Love came down and he is stillbuilding.
He's still building courage inyour fear.
He's still building purpose inyour pain.
(27:26):
He's still building peace inyour chaos.
He's still building joy in yourjourney.
And he is still turning sawdustmoments into sacred spaces.
And one day, when you finallysee the finished project, you
will realize that every nail,every scar, every delay was part
of the design.
(27:47):
But until then, be full of hope.
Keep showing up.
Keep building alongside of them.
Keep believing that the ordinarycan actually be holy because the
same Jesus who conquered deathstill walks into workshops and
kitchens and classrooms today,whispering, I'm here and I'm
(28:10):
still working.
Love came down, friends, andhe's not done building.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.