Upside Down

Hello, and welcome to the Live Boldy Podcast, brought to you by Celebration Baptist Church.

Today is our very first day of 21 days in which we will be exploring how to live boldly in our discipleship, our serving, and our giving.

My name is Jessica, and Pastor Doug is joining me as our very first guest.

Pastor Doug is our pastor of Christian Living here at Celebration, and today he's going to speak with us about serving in a church, but without a strong relationship to Christ.

First of all, Pastor Doug, let's talk a little bit about your personal story.

In your devotion today, you mentioned Lawton.

Who is Lawton and how did he have an impact on your Christian walk?

Well, Lawton was my uh youth pastor whenever I was growing up, a teenager.

And as I talk about in devotional, Lawton was just excellent in what he did.

He was a great youth pastor, did a good job.

We had a very uh very vibrant youth group and everything.

But it's really what Lawton didn't do that had the biggest impact on my life.

Because even though he ran the programs and the and the everything we did and kept us, you know, busy with all the activities, um, whenever I really began to understand that it's that discipleship, that personal relationship with Christ and growing in Christ and helping others grow in Christ, I started asking him to really disciple me and to help me grow in Christ.

And so he would uh point me to, you know, one more camp or one more, you know, uh program or or a study.

And uh, you know, after a while I kind of figured, you know, I'm really not going to get this here.

And so so that put me on a quest and put a real burden in my heart to say, you know, really uh we should carry out the Great Commission in the church.

And the Great Commission is to make disciples, and uh, and in particular, disciples who make other disciples.

And so I realized that it's more about the relationship than the activity.

And so that was kind of a a way that uh Lawton influenced me that uh really I took a negative and God used it to create a positive in my life.

That's awesome.

So in your devotion today in the Live Boldly magazine, you mentioned a moment where your world was literally turned upside down.

Will you tell us about that?

Yes.

Um, whenever I was 16, uh, you know, I had a car that I had fixed up and built and everything, and uh I was going down a road one night uh with a friend uh in the car with me, and the road had washed out, and uh and I didn't know that.

And when we hit it, it started spinning, which was you know pretty fun, you know, at first doing 360s uh in a car.

But whenever it hit the dry pavement, it flipped on its side and slid down the road.

And so after the car stopped, the first thing I thought of was I gotta get out of here, you know, in case this thing catches on fire or something.

And so my friend was still kind of dazed, so I got him, woke up, and then I uh we went out the passenger side.

Um, and uh when I jumped out of the car, immediately I I turned it, you know, I uh uh turned it off, stopped the engine.

But um, you know, for some reason I just looked up and I said, God wanted me to preach, and I said no.

And I was sitting there going, well, who said that?

You know, I didn't realize that that inside of me I had been fighting God's call in my life for quite a while.

And I realized I needed to uh needed to surrender to that call and what he was calling me to do.

And so uh that really uh began my journey and and Lawton helped me with understanding how to how to go into the ministry and how to be involved in that.

So so God did really kind of kind of use that event um you know to really turn me in into another direction.

Yeah, he really grabbed your attention there.

Yep, he did.

So what say I'm somebody who goes to church and I'm active, I go to all the camps, I go to all the conferences, all of that.

What are some signs that I need to pursue a deeper relationship with Christ and take that next step like you did?

I think really um going and taking the Mary Martha test.

You know, that that you know Martha was very busy.

Yeah.

And I think sometimes, and especially in the Christian world, we think that busyness equals godliness.

You know, and but Jesus uh, you know, very lovingly admonished Martha and whenever she was upset because she was fixing the dinner and taking care of everybody, and here was Mary sitting over there at Jesus' feet, just soaking in his presence and listening to him.

And so Jesus, you know, told Martha, he said, you know, uh Mary's doing the most important thing here.

And so I think we need to look at our lives and say, are we so busy and we're so frazzled that we don't take the time to do the most important thing?

And that is growing our relationship with God and growing our relationship with others.

Yes.

You know, if we if we kind of take that little survey and say, you know what, am I am I not having my quiet time because I have one more thing to do?

You know, am I not uh you know spending time with people in really important conversations and really studying the word together because I'm just so busy, you know, and so I think that's a good test for us.

That is a good test.

So, what are some things that we can do as a church to not just encourage participation but encourage that growth?

Right.

One of the things that we really focus on is that we're about relationships, not rules and programs.

Yes.

Um and so in my uh membership class that I teach, one of the things that we talk about is that God is the one who creates uh spiritual growth in us.

And you know, Paul talks about that, you know, he planted Apollos watered, but God gives the increase.

So we know that God is the one who provides the increase.

What is our role?

Our role is to create the right environments.

And when I say environments, I'm really talking about relationships.

And so if we create the right relationships or right environments, then people will automatically grow because that's how God designed it.

But I've got to do the planting, I've got to do the watering, I've got to be a part of that process.

And so as a church, we want to make sure that we provide things where people can get together to study the Word of God, to grow into Christ's likeness together, and to help others take that same path.

And so we do that through many different ways.

Our worship services are a great way because that's a way we can really connect with God.

You know, our communities are a great way because that's a way you connect with each other.

Our groups are a great way because that's where you can get down into the Word of God, apply it in your life, and live life together.

And our T groups especially are a good place for you to grow spiritually.

Why?

Because you're getting together with a small group and you're really focusing on taking those steps of discipleship and then making other disciples.

And so those are those are the reasons why we do what we do.

You know, and it all fits together to do what?

Grow in relationship with God and grow in relationship with others.

Yes.

What would you say to encourage somebody who recognizes that they need to develop their relationship with Christ?

Well, I would say uh for them that uh just like Jesus uh warned the church in uh the book of Revelation where he talks to the seven churches, he says, return to your first love.

You know, the most important thing that you can do with your life is to love God.

You know.

And then he says the second part of that is to love others, you know.

So I would say uh really focus on how can I love God more?

And we all know that that really the way you define love in a relationship is what am I investing in that time-wise, attention-wise, focus-wise, you know, growing in that relationship.

You don't just do it in a microwave.

It takes time, it takes building, it takes intentionality to do that.

And so it's really important that they that they grow in that relationship with God by spending time with Him.

Everybody needs to have a quiet time.

They need to have a time where they're getting in the Word, where they're praying.

They need to spend time in prayer with God.

Uh they need to have others that are alongside them, that's running the race with them, that are going in the same direction to encourage them, to help them to grow in Christ.

But I I would really encourage them to just say, How can I love God more?

You know, and make that uh make that their focus each day.

Yes.

Pastor Doug, thank you so much for joining us today.

And to all of our listeners who also joined us, be sure to follow Celebration Baptist Church on Instagram and Facebook, and go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

There you can keep up with our current sermon series, Live Boldly, as well as explore what else is happening in our celebration family.

Pastor Doug, would you take time to pray for us today?

Yes, I would.

Dear Father, uh Lord, we come before you today, just so thankful, Lord, that being a Christian and following after you and being a disciple is not burdensome.

But it becomes something that it becomes a joy in our life.

Uh it gives us purpose, it gives us meaning as we love you and as we grow in that relationship each and every day.

Uh Father, just help uh all those that are that are listening today and as they read through these devotions to really just uh put their focus, take their focus off the things of temporal nature, the things of this world, and to put their focus on the eternal.

And Father, to really see that that relationship with you and the growing relationships with others is really uh the key to finding that joy and that peace and that uh just perseverance, Lord, as we live in this world.

Father, we thank you for your son Jesus and that he provided the way for all of us to have a relationship with you.

First, in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Doug.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow as we continue our conversation with Pastor Doug.

We'll see you then.