Questions on a Sunday Morning

Why do we use the word encounter to describe meeting God? What are practical things that we can do so that our faith can expand beyond a 2-hour fix on Sunday?

Join Joshua Hoffert as he addresses these questions and more posed during a Sunday morning meeting.

For more about Josh and Wind, visit;  https://www.windministries.ca/

Transcript

00;00;20;02 - 00;01;07;04
Tracy Linkletter
I know that we're so used to in the church, traditionally 2 to 6 and to receive. It's taking information. And so this is a little difference to have some interaction, but it's so important that we have space to engage, interact and to hear questions. So to be able to talk through those things, I'm not saying that that Josh myself, all that from all the answers either, but it's an opportunity for dialog and to begin to talk, to walk these things through and hopefully it encourages you to continue to even amongst yourselves, talk things through and walk through some questions.

00;01;07;10 - 00;01;15;09
Joshua Hoffert
Of my friends said she won't call it question and answer time. It's question and response time, so you never know if you'll actually have an answer on that.

00;01;15;11 - 00;01;18;19
Tracy Linkletter
So sometimes sometimes questions lead to more questions. Yeah.

00;01;18;19 - 00;01;19;05
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah, that's.

00;01;19;05 - 00;01;22;23
Tracy Linkletter
Right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So, Josh, I'll let you get started.

00;01;22;25 - 00;02;00;15
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah, well, well, just a word about that is how many of you ever been to school, right? We're just talking about this. And, you know, a a how many of your teachers or have been teachers a significant part of learning is asking questions and dialoging with the people that are, you know, quote unquote, That should be a little bit further along on the you know, if it's math, the teacher is teaching it because ostensibly the teacher knows math better than the child does.

00;02;00;18 - 00;02;27;03
Joshua Hoffert
And so the child might have questions. And some of the best teachers create space for asking questions. And I know this year we've been on this this track of who are we as a people and what does it mean to become something? What is what is the the you know, the broader topic of the healing of our identities?

00;02;27;05 - 00;02;50;25
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah. And, you know, this is this the term identity? What's our identity has become such a cultural catch phrase in in our modern age, not even in just churches but in churches for sure, but just in general. We're obsessed with our identities and our our response to being obsessed with our identities is we say get rid of the ego because your identity is not the center.

00;02;50;25 - 00;03;11;19
Joshua Hoffert
Jesus is the center right. And so we've talked about those kind of things. But I just thought Tracy had brought up the idea of doing a Q&A thing in early August, but then she went on this pesky little thing called the vacation, and then it seemed like about half the church got covered because probably because of a barbecue that the interns planned.

00;03;11;19 - 00;03;42;04
Joshua Hoffert
But when the interns. So it just didn't happen. Right. And so I texted NBC late last night and said, you know, I had some thoughts about what to share. But I thought, what if we revisit that idea of doing a Q&A? And so anyway, that's kind of how we got here, because I recognize we've we've talked through a lot of concepts, but it can seem like, you know, when you're throwing out a new concept almost every week, which can be overwhelming to try and understand something.

00;03;42;04 - 00;03;45;25
Joshua Hoffert
And so maybe there's. QUESTION So anyway, that's the thought.

00;03;45;28 - 00;03;48;07
Tracy Linkletter
That's great. And I think I have a question to get us started.

00;03;48;11 - 00;03;49;04
Joshua Hoffert
Okay.

00;03;49;06 - 00;03;50;13
Tracy Linkletter
If you're ready to go.

00;03;50;15 - 00;03;53;19
Joshua Hoffert
I'm ready to go.

00;03;53;21 - 00;03;56;13
Tracy Linkletter
And then we'll just kind of go from there and kind of see where it goes.

00;03;56;13 - 00;04;00;25
Joshua Hoffert
So I'll let you figure out the way of people asking. So, yes, I don't have to deal with that.

00;04;01;00 - 00;04;07;09
Tracy Linkletter
You know. So I'll start the first question and then basically, I think what we'll do.

00;04;07;11 - 00;04;13;01
Joshua Hoffert
I think at the monitors, can we turn the monitors down if that's what it is? Because I'm going to want your feedback.

00;04;13;03 - 00;04;24;05
Tracy Linkletter
Yes. Yes. I would say if you're asking the question after, you'll put up your hand and we'll come to you with the mic to do so. But I may change my mind. I guess.

00;04;24;08 - 00;04;24;20
Joshua Hoffert
That's up to.

00;04;24;20 - 00;04;42;12
Tracy Linkletter
You. The the first question, Josh, is I wondering if you can I know we had this conversation this week, actually, which made me think of the question when we use the word encounter, there's many different ways that people would choose to define that. And I was wondering if you could even just talk a little bit about what we mean by Encounter.

00;04;42;14 - 00;05;12;29
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah, for sure. But that's a it's a great question because it runs the gamut when we use that language right in our in our churches, especially in charismatic circles. I remember chatting with the local Anglican priest who is a good friend of mine, Colin, and we were talking about the term encounter and I was I was saying, well, what would, what would if you were in a group, in your church, in your church, the Anglican Church, and someone was so like if someone said I had an encounter, what would you think?

00;05;13;01 - 00;05;35;25
Joshua Hoffert
And he said, Well, I would think like you ran into someone in the city, right? But in our church, if someone says to me, I had an encounter, I would think, Oh, they must have met Jesus, right? Like, they're like, we have particular terms that we use to convey something. And so in our culture it runs the gamut, but it's not even the same from one church to the next.

00;05;35;28 - 00;06;06;28
Joshua Hoffert
And so we have to define what we mean by these things. And when we say encounter, we don't necessarily mean I mean we can mean a heavenly visitation where Jesus shows up in the room and you have a vision and your whole life is totally transformed. We can mean that with encounter. But when we say that we're a people of encounter, what we say is that we seek to live a rhythm and a lifestyle where we are daily creating space and room for Jesus's presence to come to us.

00;06;07;06 - 00;06;43;13
Joshua Hoffert
And we believe that as we live that out, the transformative nature of Jesus when his life is made manifest in our life, things happen, in our lives change. And that doesn't happen because there's a one time fix all moment. It happens because there's a lifestyle of many moments and moment. One moment. And Teresa and I were talking about this this week where if you think of your life, your life really is a series of encounters with Jesus and every significant moment with Jesus, each one of you had a moment that drew you into the kingdom.

00;06;43;13 - 00;07;08;15
Joshua Hoffert
Each one of you had a moment that drew you here. Whether that was simply walking in and feeling a fondness for the people, that's Jesus shedding his life or brought within you, it's like, why do people choose churches? It's like sometimes we will think, well, we and this can happen. We're so programed. Led into that church, have good programs, This church have good programs, but most of the time people walk in and I like this place.

00;07;08;21 - 00;07;33;24
Joshua Hoffert
Or why do you like this place? Well, because I like this place. There's you know, there's there's just something that happens. It's something that transpires that's almost in definable. There's obviously there's more to it than that. But that but there is that moment. And so in any case, there is we all have moments with Jesus big and small, and the bigger moments tend to create life values for us.

00;07;33;27 - 00;07;50;08
Joshua Hoffert
And so these these these bigger moments start to shape our core values about who we are, and then they shape our goals in life, and then they shape the way we practice those goals and they shape the outcome. And the people that were around the environment that we put ourselves in, how many have had to have ever had a moment with Jesus?

00;07;50;11 - 00;08;12;27
Joshua Hoffert
And then within a month or two you realize you kind of had to change some of the friends that you were around because a moment can shift your environment. And so your whole life is a series of encounters and you you think about how, you know, if you removed one encounter from your life, if you removed one significant moment from your life, the rest of them kind of fall apart.

00;08;13;00 - 00;08;33;22
Joshua Hoffert
You become a very different person. And we don't necessarily think about it like that because we've talked about this. We think about identity as kind of a a structural thing that stands outside of us that in a way that we think about ourselves. But your identity is directly tied to your history, which is directly tied in to this series of encounters you've had over your life.

00;08;33;24 - 00;08;58;27
Joshua Hoffert
And so when we when we're using the term encounter, we're we're both having a broad definition to that and a very narrow specific definition to that. And so we want to see that we're a people of encounter because we want to talk about the fact that we have lives marked by the presence of Jesus and that every day we endeavor to that our life would be marked even more by the presence of Jesus.

00;08;59;00 - 00;09;20;26
Joshua Hoffert
And so we talk about the disciplines of the spiritual life. We do things like running emotionally healthy discipleship courses, you know, pressing into the fall and relaunching the life groups. And all these things are geared towards encountering his presence both individually and corporately and, and getting us stuck outside of placing ourselves at the center and placing him at the center.

00;09;20;27 - 00;09;21;29
Joshua Hoffert
So that helpful.

00;09;22;04 - 00;09;43;15
Tracy Linkletter
Yeah. And I would say Josh to like the the purpose of encountering daily because sometimes the question can be like why daily life is busy enough. Yeah but daily, like you just said, removes us from the center and reminds us of Jesus at the center. And that's why a daily encounter is so important.

00;09;43;20 - 00;10;20;13
Joshua Hoffert
I remember one time the my watch is a little bit fast, so you guys may benefit from that and the little twisty dial fell off of it. So I need to get it fixed. I can't change it. So I remember at one point having this moment with Lord where it was like he showed me that he had I had met his presence here right in this particular time and that he had planned to meet me here and that in the middle I'm crying out about how much he's forsaken me.

00;10;20;15 - 00;10;42;08
Joshua Hoffert
Right. But when you when you pull the curtain back or you pull the viewpoint, the viewfinder back, you know, if you ever use the lens that focuses the ball, every camera does today. But if you heard that that zooms in, when you zoom out, you see a bigger picture, right? And we get so stuck in the moment here in the middle saying, my God, why have you forsaken me?

00;10;42;11 - 00;10;58;09
Joshua Hoffert
Right. And thinking that that's what Jesus meant, that God had forsaken him on the cross. And instead, when we see the whole thing, we go, Well, actually, he has this plan to meet me here, in this plan to meet me here. And all I need to do is hang on to the next one, and then all I need to do is hang onto the next one.

00;10;58;12 - 00;11;22;11
Joshua Hoffert
And in the midst of all of that, he's forging and forming things within me. And and I remember this just this distinct moment where he said, I've planned each and every encounter individ ideally for you and for me. I've been seeking for you ever since you were born, and I'll never stop looking for you. And it was like, Oh my goodness, it gives me such a different perspective on the daily grind of the spiritual life, right?

00;11;22;13 - 00;11;38;29
Joshua Hoffert
His all my prayer life wasn't that good. It was lower. I didn't feel his presence, blah, blah, blah. You know, we've all had those inner conversations and this one and I'm I'm meeting you here and I'm meeting you here. And in between that we're learning to walk this out together. And so it an encounter. It doesn't have to be a high point.

00;11;38;29 - 00;12;01;19
Joshua Hoffert
It can be a low point. It's one of the things that one of the misconceptions about the nature of a spiritual encounter is that mountain tops do not produce mountain tops in the Lord, do not produce great clarity. They produce great reordering. And as a would think, Oh, if I just could make it to the top of the mountain and meet him, I'd understand.

00;12;01;23 - 00;12;23;20
Joshua Hoffert
So I know where to go. No, no. It changes everything, right? Like if you even if you think about climbing a mountain, it's very different. Climbing down the mountain than it is climbing up. So when you get there, everything changes and you have to reorder. It's not that everything becomes clear, it's that everything changes. And now my life may look like a mess because I'm realizing all the things that need to change.

00;12;23;22 - 00;12;44;05
Joshua Hoffert
And so and that's again, that's where we need each other to walk things out. And so mountaintop experiences aren't necessarily something that you want to go give me the next mountaintop. Experience is you can ask for that. And, you know, and in a way, I'd encourage you to ask for that. But in a way, I shouldn't have told you what will happen because of it.

00;12;44;08 - 00;13;09;27
Joshua Hoffert
I had this dream a number of years ago where I was I was pushing this like senior level prophetic person. I don't know who it was. I just knew they were this senior level prophet type and I was pushing them up onto a stage and I knew they were going to prophesy over a great crowd that was in front of them, and I was so happy to be behind them, pushing them up the stage because they couldn't see me right.

00;13;10;00 - 00;13;32;14
Joshua Hoffert
And I was thinking to myself in the dream, Oh God, they'll make them prophesy over me. Please don't make them profits over me. I know what comes with great prophecies. There's great trials. Please, please don't let them prophesy over me. Let them prophesy over everybody else, just not me. And because I understand, I've repented from that mindset and I think I'm okay with it now.

00;13;32;14 - 00;13;39;24
Joshua Hoffert
Like I could take the next great prophecy. But I also know the great cost that comes with the great problem with a great mountaintop experience.

00;13;39;27 - 00;13;55;02
Tracy Linkletter
Yeah. When we were when we were talking, I was mentioning that my experience to the mountaintop has been then suddenly I feel very disordered. Like it's like, how do I take this next step? I don't sometimes don't know what to do or where to go. And so it does come with great testing after that, for sure.

00;13;55;04 - 00;13;55;26
Joshua Hoffert
That scripture.

00;13;55;26 - 00;13;57;25
Tracy Linkletter
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

00;13;57;25 - 00;14;01;09
Joshua Hoffert
So rejoice in fiery trials. My brothers says that.

00;14;01;12 - 00;14;05;01
Tracy Linkletter
And I have to say, after going through hard things, I can look back and say, I see that as.

00;14;05;03 - 00;14;06;14
Joshua Hoffert
Well for sure.

00;14;06;16 - 00;14;15;12
Tracy Linkletter
But at the same time it's like, Do I want to go with you? Yeah. So but the little encounters, like they're not a little bit the encounters daily are what prepare us.

00;14;15;12 - 00;14;16;00
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah, for sure.

00;14;16;00 - 00;14;20;14
Tracy Linkletter
Yeah. The three bigger encounters is a really important daily forge. That time.

00;14;20;18 - 00;14;21;01
Joshua Hoffert
That's right.

00;14;21;01 - 00;14;26;12
Tracy Linkletter
So questions. Who is okay?

00;14;26;14 - 00;14;33;00
Joshua Hoffert
I recognize that man.

00;14;33;02 - 00;15;35;26
Tracy Linkletter
You know I am. I've been reflecting a while in the church the last 13 months and one of the things that you and and Tracy and Colby talking about is being conformed to the image of Jesus in our identity. Great, great teachers. One of the things that I was reflecting on this week is that a lot of people in the world really look forward to Friday night and Saturday night when they can get away from their world and drink and and relax and then I was thinking about church and how a lot of people just can't wait to get finished their work week so that they can come to church and get their fix.

00;15;35;29 - 00;16;11;23
Tracy Linkletter
And I got thinking about how we compare getting our Sunday morning sex to our sex as an awful lot like the world gets that Friday night to our sense of sex, whatever it is. And I know that Christianity is so much more than a two hour fix and so much more. Living in the world is is way more than a Friday night sex.

00;16;11;26 - 00;17;00;10
Tracy Linkletter
So my my question has to do with and this is something that you've been so helpful with us, both of you and Tracy. And in the things that you've been teaching as a viewer to a new believer was to come in to our family. And you were to say during the week, here's two or three things, specific things that you could do, practical things you could do so that your faith could expand beyond a two hour, six hour, two hour, you know, expectation, because I know that we're all and then I was drawn to this passage of scripture, you know, I'll turn it over for this reason.

00;17;00;10 - 00;17;22;07
Tracy Linkletter
Since the day we have heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through the wisdom and understanding of the Spirit gifts, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. Bearing fruit during the week, not just Sunday morning.

00;17;22;10 - 00;17;39;23
Tracy Linkletter
In every good work growing in the knowledge of God, this Corinthians one nine and ten. So justice one two, three things specifically that I can do or a new believer could do to kind of flesh out my faith during the week.

00;17;39;26 - 00;18;16;02
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah, that's a great question. A couple of things that if someone, someone just came in and said, what what can I do that would help me broaden my mind? You know, these moments of encounter with Jesus and the the typical evangelical response has been churches like to to do spiritual growth, has been read your Bible, attend church and helps to stack the chairs when they need help.

00;18;16;04 - 00;18;36;19
Joshua Hoffert
You know, it's kind of like get yourself get yourself involved in some kind of service in the church. Those are good. I'm not saying those aren't good, but I'm saying those are those. Keep you in that two hour fix once a week and reading scriptures. Good. And that would be one of the things I would encourage someone to do.

00;18;36;22 - 00;19;04;09
Joshua Hoffert
But I would also encourage them to read scripture intentionally, not haphazardly. And so if someone came in, I would probably assign them, read one song a day and read one chapter in the Gospels a day and start their make it simple. And and when you do that, spend a few moments inviting the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your thoughts.

00;19;04;12 - 00;19;26;04
Joshua Hoffert
And so, you know, one part scripture reading and then, you know, start with a scripture reading and then sit in silence and sit in silence before the father put anything down, put music down, put the put a book down, put everything down and just sit in silence before God for 5 minutes. Let's just start with 5 minutes. Right.

00;19;26;04 - 00;19;52;20
Joshua Hoffert
Because most of us 30 seconds is hard and for 5 minutes and that in in the first 30 seconds, when your thoughts go all, we just bring them back to that moment. And I would probably say, here's a couple of short phrases that you can sit you can consider or take a short phrase from the song. You know, like this morning my son I was reading and someone 29.

00;19;52;23 - 00;20;27;07
Joshua Hoffert
And so I would take a short phrase and turn it into a prayer. I would tell even someone 29 for the Lord is righteous. I'll just take that phrase. Let's just take one little phrase and turn that into a prayer. God, you're righteous. And I'm just going to let myself focus on that phrase and let that be. It doesn't have to be any more than just one little phrase in there.

00;20;27;12 - 00;20;50;08
Joshua Hoffert
Something that stands out to you. Or many times I've been persecuted from my youth and they haven't prevailed against me. Oh, God, you've been with me in the midst of difficult times. You know, I just change it. Just. Just make it into a little prayer. So take it Psalms or the Gospels. Take a phrase that stands out to you.

00;20;50;15 - 00;21;13;27
Joshua Hoffert
Turn that into a prayer in silence before the Lord for 5 minutes. And then I would also encourage you to find someone that you can talk to about it, that you can bounce ideas off of. I think those those three things are so important is taking some time in the scriptures, taking some time to sit before the father and then having a relationship with someone else that you can actually talk to about that.

00;21;14;00 - 00;21;37;07
Joshua Hoffert
And, you know, then then we can start from there. We can start broadening things from there. You know, I'm not going to start you off by saying, we'll fast this for this week. I'm going to eventually get you there. That I think fasting is one of the lost arts of the church today. When we're living a culture where why would you fast you can have everything, but I will get you there.

00;21;37;07 - 00;21;55;07
Joshua Hoffert
But let's just start. Let's just start simple. Let's start with the one one chapter in the Psalms, one chapter in the Gospels per day and pray for it. Find a prayer from there. Pray that consider the life of Jesus. Put it, put all distractions down for 5 minutes, and then maybe in two weeks I'll come back and I'll say, Well, how did that go?

00;21;55;09 - 00;22;26;03
Joshua Hoffert
And you may say it went terribly well. Let's talk about that. And and you may say went well, Well, let's increase your 5 minutes to 10 minutes. Let's see if you can do that. And, you know, thereby kind of leading you by degrees to a moments of encounter in a lifestyle of encounter. But, you know, it's the thing is, I remember when I first tried to learn to pray, it was like I lasted 30 seconds and I just picked up a book and started reading.

00;22;26;03 - 00;22;45;02
Joshua Hoffert
It was this is so difficult. And you and you feel like a failure in the midst of it. And you know, when you feel like a failure, then all of a sudden you've got shame and you're going, I can't do this. And so, well, let's come alongside you and help you understand. This is simple. If start by baby steps, baby steps are fine.

00;22;45;04 - 00;23;16;16
Joshua Hoffert
And and some of us get this idea that, okay, well, now and maybe this is just me now I'm going to this probably is just me. I'm going to conquer prayer. You know, you don't conquer prayer. Prayer conquers you. And and so that's a good phrase. Wow. I like that one. Yeah. Tweet that one out. And so. So it's okay to start in baby steps.

00;23;16;18 - 00;23;38;00
Joshua Hoffert
Does perfectly fine. And don't overestimate your maturity, right? Just estimated or underestimated but estimated. Don't think, wow, I should be able to be holding my attention before the father for a half an hour right now or an hour or 2 hours or 3 hours because we read these great stories of men and women of great faith and go, Well, I should be able to do that.

00;23;38;00 - 00;23;59;16
Joshua Hoffert
Well, no, there's degrees of increase in your life. And so we'll start with baby steps, and that's okay. And we should be progressing like a baby steps. Don't you know, baby, if a baby keeps walking like a baby and they're 30, that's a problem. And so there should be a progression in maturity. But it's okay to take small steps forward.

00;23;59;18 - 00;24;09;14
Tracy Linkletter
Thank you. Josh, next question. And those are you online is any questions online? Yeah, on Facebook or YouTube. I've got it open so I can take questions online as well.

00;24;09;14 - 00;24;10;11
Joshua Hoffert
Other questions.

00;24;10;14 - 00;24;11;04
Tracy Linkletter
Questions?

00;24;11;11 - 00;24;53;03
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah. Scott, A lot of people I would say have trouble encountering Jesus when they get hung up on how it's hurt and they just can't get past that. But then there's the person that, let's say they're in their early twenties go on a mission trip and sort of experience God, have this great encounter, 20 or 30 years pass and nothing has lived up to that and and they're just wandering.

00;24;53;05 - 00;25;33;10
Joshua Hoffert
So what would you say to a person like that? Yeah, that's an that's a great question, because that is the experience of so many of us. You know, I've heard that kind of stories so many times. And in fact, having like I, I, Aaron and I interned, we went to a school of ministry for four years and, you know, going to a place like white women having that kind of experience or, you know, going off to even go even the camp last weekend going to the camp and having a kind of some kind of phenomenal experience and, you know, there's there's something happens on a mission strip and a youth camp and a ministry school

00;25;33;10 - 00;25;58;12
Joshua Hoffert
or whatever where there's kind of this bubble of expectation is created and you can forge relationships in a weekend that would seem to take years to forge any other time. And so there's almost like this special grace that encapsulates the period and which is great. But it also becomes problematic because when I come back, who am I? And how do I live my life?

00;25;58;15 - 00;26;24;03
Joshua Hoffert
And I I've seen so many people come back from why WAM or come back from ministry school or come back from youth camp or whatever, and have this great high and then come back. And actually Tracy and I were talking about this this week to actually that's funny. We were and we were talking about specifically with the youth when they come back, like what happened was because now all of a sudden I have to be myself in the midst of the same people.

00;26;24;05 - 00;26;51;26
Joshua Hoffert
And so how do I now live what's happened to me but respond to people that don't know what's happened to me? And that's a that's a hard thing. Like no one's in a pretend that that's an easy thing. How do I be this person when all these people are not different like I am? And and so what? Something that needs to happen just, just before we get to the 20 years something that needs to happen in the moment is I need to reorient.

00;26;52;01 - 00;27;17;06
Joshua Hoffert
I have to have people around me. This we've been talking about group identity so much. I need to have people around me, whether it's two friends that are over here, that I can think to myself when I admit when I'm in the midst of all these other friends that still see me as the other person I was, I need to have someone in my life I can think about that says, How would they respond in this situation?

00;27;17;09 - 00;27;42;03
Joshua Hoffert
Who Who are they to me and how am I to them? And if I don't have that, it's going to be so easy just to go back into the same pattern and the same rhythm, because these people there's there's something that some of you guys know who John Paul Jackson is, that one of the people that Aaron and I studied under, he used to talk about the law of attraction or the not so the Law of attraction, the Law of observation.

00;27;42;05 - 00;28;07;23
Joshua Hoffert
I don't know if you've ever heard of this where when quantum physicists were doing studies on quantum particles and they they'd kind of developed the kind of microscope that could see things on a quantum level. And then one of the one of the scientists would look through the tell us or the microscope and look at the quantum particle, and they'd say, Oh, I can see the molecular spin of that quantum particle is spinning this way.

00;28;07;25 - 00;28;26;13
Joshua Hoffert
And then the other scientist would come up, I'm simplifying a crazy experiment, but this is basically what happened right? Just you can look it up yourself. The other one would come and they looked through the microscope and they said, No, it's not spinning this way, it's spinning this way. And then another one would come up and he'd look and he'd say, No, it's not spinning this way, This way is spinning this way.

00;28;26;15 - 00;28;52;20
Joshua Hoffert
And what they came to realize is the way they expected to observe the molecular spin was what they saw in the molecular spin. So the longer observation goes something like this The way I observe you, you become that way. The way you observe me, I become that way. And think of it this way. Okay, so every one of you has family, right?

00;28;52;23 - 00;29;18;15
Joshua Hoffert
Beloved or not. So love it. And when you have been away for a while. So you go off to college, right? You have all these experiences or you go off to youth camp or whatever, you know, you often have, you go off and grow and things about you begin to change. When you come back, some of you have family that treats you, Oh, you're just like this.

00;29;18;18 - 00;29;36;29
Joshua Hoffert
You're just like this. And some of you have found yourself falling back into those those old patterns. There's just this kind of person, right? You may maybe you went through counseling and therapy and you're no longer an angry person, but then you come back to your family and they remember you as an angry person. And so they think of you as an angry person and they see the kind of things that make you angry.

00;29;37;02 - 00;30;20;05
Joshua Hoffert
You know, you go back into the old patterns, the way the people around you observe you. You tend to adapt your behavior to the way those people observe you, meaning that I when I've had significant encounters, I have to get around people that help me steward and walk that out. And that's one of the reasons why it tends to fizzle out, is because I find myself back in the same place rather than getting connected with people that can help me and sometimes getting today, of course, the advent of the the World Takeover Organization called Zoom, we actually can facilitate some of those longer distance relationships where, you know, maybe I had, you know, some of

00;30;20;05 - 00;31;01;08
Joshua Hoffert
those youth that went to youth camp. Now they can actually through video chat and things like that, reconnect with people. That would be very helpful thing to do. And so what what tends to happen with a person who it's never quite been the same is I got out of it. I didn't find a consistent group of people. I'm thinking about specific friends I know that really wrestled with coming back from why women having these intense mission trips and and really wrestled with nobody understands what I went through and because of that, I lose hope and because I was existing on the hope of other people over here, I never found people that could help build

00;31;01;08 - 00;31;19;04
Joshua Hoffert
up that hope. And because I lost hope, I lost sight of who I was becoming. And because I lost sight of who was becoming, I failed to start practicing the things I was practicing. And then and there's this slow decline, you know, in a way, it's kind of like what I laid out a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about, I can't remove some.

00;31;19;06 - 00;31;45;18
Joshua Hoffert
It was in the Psalms once it made it. No, it wasn't in 39. It was when when Israel lost sight of the beauty of God and started this slow decline. And so in someone who I've had that experience, I've lost sight of it. It's never quite happened that way again. The first thing I would say to them is this Spend about a week just meditating on that experience.

00;31;45;20 - 00;32;08;11
Joshua Hoffert
Just meditate on it, just dwell on it, recapture it. Because I've said this before to you guys many times, moments with God are eternal. They don't go away. We move on. But he doesn't because he doesn't change. Right? And so I go back to that moment and dwell on it because for as long as you're alive, they'll still be life in that moment.

00;32;08;14 - 00;32;38;11
Joshua Hoffert
And so go back to that moment, meditate on it and dwell on it and ask God to recapture it. Teach me from it. One of the things I've noticed about some of the great teachers in Christian history as it pertains to the spiritual life is that what they do is they have a significant moment with the Lord and they mind that thing for all its worth, and they spend decades teaching the principles that came out of one experience because they go back to it and they go back to it and they go back to it and they go back to it and they go back to it.

00;32;38;18 - 00;33;04;14
Joshua Hoffert
And the Lord continues to unpack things because great moments with God communicate grace, deposit seeds in our life. That takes time to play out. So those moments are never gone. So you could be 30 years past a significant moment with the Lord and God deposited something in you. This is the great reordering, reordering for mountaintops. God deposited something in you and you may have pushed pause on that button, but God didn't.

00;33;04;17 - 00;33;28;21
Joshua Hoffert
And he's just waiting. He's chomping at the bit for play to get hit again. And so go back to it and meditate on it and begin to practice the things that welcome the presence of Jesus in your life. And, you know, if it's if it's, well, I was never involved in missions again. There's always time, you know, with Scott's specific question, I you know, I had this great prophetic word I prophesied over someone, but then I never had another prophetic word for anybody again.

00;33;28;23 - 00;33;59;04
Joshua Hoffert
Okay, well, that's fine. Let's get you into a place where you can practice. Then let's let's talk about establishing healthy patterns in your life, and let's get you connected with the kind of people that can help you walk that out. And so again, again, as this of all this stuff takes community, it really does take us working together, but it also takes like it's going to take some effort on your part to to one, to recapture that moment where something happened to you and to meditate on that and to think about that and dwell upon it.

00;33;59;04 - 00;34;15;17
Joshua Hoffert
Now, Scott, I don't want to let this go. I want whatever you had for me in this moment, even if it was 30 years ago, I don't want it to go to waste. Father, Teach me. Just use that simple prayer. Spend a week meditating on it. Watch where God goes with that and then try and get around some people.

00;34;15;17 - 00;34;22;16
Joshua Hoffert
That would be helpful, helping you cultivate whatever it happened to be that helpful. Scott Yeah.

00;34;22;18 - 00;34;37;00
Tracy Linkletter
That's so good. It's such a good reminder though. Josh When you think we've missed something that we actually have, it's right back to that place So far for time. I'm just looking. We are, we are done.

00;34;37;02 - 00;34;39;18
Joshua Hoffert
In here to bring all the kids up and pray for all.

00;34;39;21 - 00;34;42;04
Tracy Linkletter
I know is good.

00;34;42;07 - 00;34;42;16
Joshua Hoffert
For my.

00;34;42;16 - 00;35;00;27
Tracy Linkletter
Kids. I can tell there's actually I sense that there's questions brewing. And a question came in online and I know there was some other people with questions, too. So I just want to encourage you to send those in to the church office, because then we're going to get chance to go over them and see where we can continue to dig in to the folks that are coming in.

00;35;00;29 - 00;35;19;12
Tracy Linkletter
There's different forms that we can take to actually answer some of those things. So the email you can find at our website, summerside Community Dot Church, or if you've got a really good memory. It's SCC office at SCC, P.E.I. DOT com and send your questions there we love to review them.

00;35;19;14 - 00;35;20;26
Joshua Hoffert
Just message on Facebook too.

00;35;20;27 - 00;35;41;11
Tracy Linkletter
Yeah yeah that's easier you can just message on Facebook just go through our messenger on Facebook too. That's great and I just I think you as you're talking Josh and the different things you're covering like just that reminder how important it is to have small group and community around us. Like, it just reinforces so much that we we need to do this life together.

00;35;41;11 - 00;35;58;28
Joshua Hoffert
And so just just one thing. Envision this in response to what you said with Scott's question. So yeah, I come back from missions trip, right? And the first thing that happens on the next Wednesday is I get together with my community group, and my community group says, Well, what happened right? And so you get to tell the story and relive the experience again, right?

00;35;58;28 - 00;36;20;26
Joshua Hoffert
And then they get to pray for you. Yeah. And then they get to hold you accountable to that because they know the thing that happened, right? And then if you have a good leader, the leader can say, Oh, what can you teach about this thing next week or this week or whatever. Right. And you can see how what happened can stewarded in the life of communities so simply right it doesn't it's not rocket to stuff is not rocket science right.

00;36;20;27 - 00;36;23;11
Joshua Hoffert
It really isn't okay it's.

00;36;23;17 - 00;36;24;08
Tracy Linkletter
It.

00;36;24;10 - 00;36;40;23
Joshua Hoffert
We make it way more complicated than it is. Yeah. But I get an opportunity to share it. I get an opportunity to relive it. I get an opportunity to have it solidified by the people around me that I do life with. And then all, all of a sudden, the next thing I know is I'm teaching them about it or talking with them about it, and it advances by degrees.

00;36;40;25 - 00;37;01;20
Tracy Linkletter
Absolutely. And I think even you guys have heard this now. So part of me thinks be persistent, you know, and and be persistent and find those people you can share with and that you can walk with that, you know, would be encouraging to you and I know sometimes we struggle if we don't get the response that we think we should have, but sometimes it means, well, who are the right people?

00;37;01;20 - 00;37;03;19
Tracy Linkletter
God, show me who it is that you'd have me, don't you?

00;37;03;20 - 00;37;23;20
Joshua Hoffert
When you share? I was. I was. I was talking with a friend this week and we were going through lots of friends life story and pretty much every major beat of his story. When he was sharing it with me, he started crying. And it was it was a beautiful thing. Right. And I was I was looking at this going, there's still so much life here, right?

00;37;23;20 - 00;37;41;26
Joshua Hoffert
I won't have ever shared a story that can be 30, 40 years in the past. But it gets it gets you still right, because it hasn't ended. It's still there. It's still present, these beautiful moments with God. And we get the benefit and the privilege of walking them out together.

00;37;41;28 - 00;38;07;01
Tracy Linkletter
Yeah, that's so good. And so with that, I just want to just encourage you to if God is story stuff, I'm not in a group, I'm not in community, in want to be in community. We're going to have those opportunities coming soon. And so I just want to encourage you don't shy away from, oh, I don't know if I feel very comfortable and maybe you've been hurt before, like in a small group to like you've experienced something that you're like, Oh, I'm not so comfortable.

00;38;07;03 - 00;38;12;26
Tracy Linkletter
And it's what I you were hurt in a community. But we're also we are healed. You know, what.

00;38;12;26 - 00;38;13;26
Joshua Hoffert
A great opportunity.

00;38;13;26 - 00;38;37;05
Tracy Linkletter
For the redemption community. For redemption. It's a great opportunity for God to redeem what was before to something beautiful and so I just want to encourage you, if some of you were just like, Oh, I don't want to touch that again, let the Holy Spirit soften that place and you let him touch that place. Let him meet you there in that place and show you that he will help guide you and be part of this journey going forward.

00;38;37;05 - 00;39;00;13
Tracy Linkletter
It's like it's never easy with people. We all know that we we're all people who make mistakes. We have weaknesses. We hurt. Once we do, that is the reality. But in community, we learn how to say I'm sorry. We learn how to say, I forgive you. And that's the biggest thing. Because honestly, we Josh, you've talked about this I think a week or two ago, like we don't know how to love.

00;39;00;13 - 00;39;22;11
Tracy Linkletter
Well, God is loves. We learn from him and we really aren't good at it. And so that's why we need to seek forgiveness and we need to seek to say I'm sorry. We need to seek to have short accounts with one another so that we can walk in healthy community. And, you know, sometimes we think church should be this perfect place.

00;39;22;13 - 00;39;48;13
Tracy Linkletter
But guys, you are the church and we're not perfect. God knows he is not perfect. Only he is. And so the more that we can take our eyes off ourselves and off each other and put them on him, that is going to help us in this journey of being a healthy community and a healthy place for people to experience Jesus and experience healing and experiencing wholeness and experiencing an encounter with him is what helps us get there.

00;39;48;13 - 00;39;54;17
Tracy Linkletter
And that's a daily it's a daily choice. So thank you, Josh, for leading. Awesome. Yeah, well, you pray over.

00;39;54;20 - 00;40;16;10
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah, for sure, Father. And just thank you for summerside community church and I thank you for people that are are from you know traveling from other provinces that are just you know just happened here today. And I think people that have been here for a week, a month, a year, ten years or 20 years, Lord, I just thank you that you draw and you woohoo.

00;40;16;10 - 00;40;33;29
Joshua Hoffert
And our our our responsibility in this in the spiritual life is just to respond. That's all that's our responsibility is to respond to you. But you do everything else. And so, Father, I just thank you for that and thank you that we are a people of encounter, that we're becoming a people of encounter and that we care passionately about you being present in our life.

00;40;34;02 - 00;41;06;28
Joshua Hoffert
And so just ask for grace to rest upon each person, especially during this week or that you'd begin teaching us, you'd help us revisit those old moments of encounter that we forgot about or we thought passed away or whatever it happened to be. Lord that you'd help us revisit those moments and see those moments and see you in those moments and see us in light of those moments and that father that you would draw us by degrees and tend to see with you that wouldn't know you even more and more and more and more, and our life would be ever more a reflection of your life.

00;41;07;00 - 00;41;35;12
Joshua Hoffert
So just bless each person here to engage with your life and to be caught up with your life and to catch a glimpse of how beautiful you are. So blessed this time this morning, Father, bless the time that sharing out in the cafe Lord, that you'd be present and you would be in our midst. Father would just and we and we continue fully invite you into the chambers of our hearts and make your own to help us to make space for Amen.

00;41;35;14 - 00;41;50;07
Joshua Hoffert
Amen.

00;41;50;09 - 00;41;50;20
Tracy Linkletter
So.