Love & The Outcome - Special Sunday Service

What does your band name mean? Love and the outcome. That's a long band name.

Well, God is love, and we are the outcome of God's love. Can you say that with me? God is love.

We are the outcome. That's right. So God is loving you this morning where you

are. There's no scorecard, okay, or I would be out.

But you're here, and God's presence is as well, and He wants to love on you

this morning as we love each other, right?

God is love. So let's sing one of my favorite hymns. Chris and I just made a hymns record.

We even made vinyl because we want to be cool. And so we have people saying,

are you making vinyl? We're like, OK, we'll make some.

But this is my grandmother's favorite hymn, Be That.

That you are unfailing, you are faithful. You bring joy even in the midst of hardship.

You bring peace that passes understanding.

All we need to do is be in your presence.

And as we sing this morning, we trust that you are here. You promise that where

two or three are gathered, you are in the midst. You are there also.

So we don't have to wonder, is God here?

God, you are with us. You are in our midst. everything that happens this morning

is because of your spirit and we do trust you even if we don't understand fully,

or even partially even the midst of our questions and our doubts and our fears.

Praise the Lord, however you feel like doing that this morning.

You can just say, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. You can have a seat.

And at any time throughout this morning, you just do what you need to do,

okay? If you want to stand and put your hands in the air, you do it.

If you need to take a nap, there's a few open sections. I totally get it.

I actually noticed, and be that my vision, it says waking or sleeping.

So there's permission, okay? I definitely identify with the latter.

You're a dad in the room. I grew up in a Baptist church. I'm not used to the

audience being louder than the people on stage. So thank you for singing. That was amazing.

One thing we are good at is baseball, though. That ringer team was probably

Baptist. So you're a good baseball team. That's what I'm sensing. I love that. Softball.

Okay. Softball. Excuse me. Amazing. Hi, babe. How are you? I'm good.

You look nice. Thank you.

I mean, last time I saw you, we were just in PJs at 6 a.m., and now look at us. Transformation.

Well, this is my handsome husband, Chris. Say hey, Chris.

Hey, friends. This is my amazingly talented, super hot baby mama, Jodi.

That works. Thanks, babe. I wondered what you were going to say.

Well, we're here with our kiddos, Milo and Ziggy. Milo is 10.

Wow, I need another coffee. And Ziggy's about to turn nine. Ziggy's almost nine.

They're going through World Cup withdrawal. They're downstairs kicking the ball

around. So if you're hearing something, that's what that is.

And this is our life this is what we get to do this is our life it's a good

thing we're not good at many other things so I'm glad that this has worked out

so far uh the truth is your passion doesn't need to be your paycheck amen,

it does not need to be we have been doing this uh we met in Winnipeg Manitoba

Canada and we were not paid we were just on staff worship teams not even on

staff just, you know, teenagers on our worship team.

And he was in a college band with his buddies that would go around leading worship.

And I walked into a pub one day, downtown Winnipeg, in the freezing cold January weather.

And I heard him leading worship in a pub. And I had never heard those two things

together before. Maybe you haven't either.

And I had to check it out. So I ran inside and went right up to the front of the stage.

Because two things were true that I had been praying about for a long time.

He was hot and he loved Jesus and that was my whole list.

Just keep it simple. Keep it simple. God is alive. He has heard my prayers.

And I'm not kidding. Like, it sounds funny, but I'm not kidding at all.

I was like 20 and I had been writing songs at home.

And in Canada, there are not a lot of people that do, I mean,

a lot of people do music, but not like as a career.

My mom had a Sandy Patty and Stevie Nicks and Amy Grant record.

So I claim that I'm a little bit of all of those things.

That's why I play my drum, but then I also am, like, kind of chill, you know?

You can tell me about you later. I'd love to know all about you.

But so I walked in, and I met the man of my dreams, and so I took my trumpet to the pawn shop.

It messed with my lipstick anyway. And I said, hey, can I have a drum kit?

And he's like, sure, I'll trade you this for this. So I walked out with a shiny

red drum kit that I did not know how to play.

And I just kept praying about it. I looked up his band, and I went to his next show.

And after his show, I just got really courageous. And I was like,

hey, hi, I'm Jody. I'm a real big fan of your band. And by the way,

I'm a drummer. Oh, how about that?

And I just, I wondered if you wanted to be in my band. I said I do.

And so I tried to play it cool, but this is a very short story.

No joke. We started leading worship together. I invited him to play at my church.

See, good things happen in church, y'all. Stay in church, okay?

This is where you meet the man of your dreams, or at least you bring him to

church, and then you start playing music together. And we've never quit.

A year later, he took me to Lord of the Rings for our first date. I fell asleep.

Who doesn't love hobbits? This one. But you know what? But for real,

we had hot chocolate, we got to know each other, and then we got married.

And we were these newlyweds. I know this is not the sermon you thought you were

going to hear, but just bear with me.

And a sermon is really what God is doing.

Amen? A sermon is stories of what God is doing from the Bible and from our own lives, right?

A testimony is a test that you're maybe in the middle of, and you can share about it.

Don't wait to share your testimony till it's all neat and tidy. It might never happen.

So you've got to start sharing now from the middle. The messy middle of life

is where God meets me most days. Can I get an amen?

Right? If we wait to share about what God is doing and that God is good,

when life is good, we might never talk about God.

And the good news of the gospel is God is with us always. But people need to see that, right?

And they need to hear about it. So our sermon this morning is just our story.

Pastor Tim was so generous, and he said, take the whole morning.

We're like, are you sure?

Because I know how to talk.

I started speaking at women's events. I wrote a devotional book.

And I was nervous about it at first because I told the Lord,

I sing, I don't speak. And Chris is like, that's not true. You talk all the time.

And so here I am just sharing about what God has done, what God continues to

do, what God is up to in my heart and in Chris's life, in our marriage and in our family.

And so fast forward, we got married.

We were sitting downtown Winnipeg in our little condo surrounded by all of our new gifts.

And I was like, babe, do you know how to do this married thing?

Like, what is a Christian married couple?

Are there rules to follow? Like, what do we do? He's like, let's pray the Lord's

Prayer. I'm like, okay, good deal. Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done where?

On earth. That's right. that is the part that started to become highlighter

you know how you can read scripture your whole life,

and the same verse over and over again but different seasons make the highlighter

moments come to life and you're like whoa so I was like babe you know what does

it mean to live the kingdom on earth and you know what you said I was like what

should we do do you remember in that moment what you told me,

we should sell everything and make a record,

I was like I Yeah, it went over pretty much like that.

I was like, I've been praying and I have not heard that. I haven't,

that's not the memo that I'm getting.

But I didn't say that. I kept it inside. I was like, okay, babe,

let's, we have these songs. Maybe building the kingdom on earth looks like sharing our songs.

What is building the kingdom on earth look like for you?

It's very clear in scripture. We hear about Moses saying, how do I do this,

God? And God's like, use what I've given you. What is in your hands to use?

And God asks us the same thing this morning. What is in your hands to use?

What is in your heart and your life to use to build God's kingdom?

It doesn't need to be some big billboard telling you what to do.

It could literally mean loving your neighbor by smiling at that grumpy neighbor

that you never really want to talk to.

That's building the kingdom, right?

Could be being in your garden a little more often because maybe you see a few

more people walking on the sidewalk and you can say hello. That's building the kingdom.

Maybe it's being at work and choosing to be like, Like, oh man,

God's gotten me through a lot. And someone's like, what? God's gotten you,

what? Say that again. What does that mean? Being a little more open with your faith.

Maybe it means dropping off muffins on the front steps of someone who's going

through it and you don't even need to leave a card.

These are the simple everyday ways, the rhythms of grace that we get to pass

along to each other as we build the kingdom on earth. Amen.

And so we had songs. And so I thought maybe he's right, this guy that I married. He's kind of smart.

So we sold everything we owned in one day. We put our condo up on the market.

It sold in one day. And the guy who bought it said, I want everything in it.

I'm going to use it as a rental. We're like, hands off the Red KitchenAid mixer and you've got a deal.

So put the Red KitchenAid, the bass guitar, the acoustic guitar in the trunk of the Jetta.

And we hit the road. And we started building the kingdom.

One church, one pub, one coffee shop at a time.

And three years later, we were broke and homeless.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. Come to the table. Our merch table will be there for more life

advice. We've got financial wisdom to share. You just got all the answers.

But for real, I was like, God, did I hear you wrong? Have you ever asked God that question before?

Has that been a prayer that has come out of your heart? God, did I miss it somehow?

I was obedient. I did what you asked me to do, and my life looks nothing like I thought it would.

Right? whose life looks exactly like the picture they had in their head. Anyone?

Okay, twists and turns, right? It says in Isaiah, whether you turn to the left

or to the right, that God is with you.

So there are no wrong turns. There's just pivots as Holy Spirit course corrects

as we walk in step with God, amen?

And so in the middle of being broke and homeless, literally living CD to CD,

do you remember what those are?

Our kids think they're new technology, so don't tell them anything,

okay? We went to the thrift store and they were like, these are cool, great.

So we kept selling CDs out of the trunk of our car and Michael W.

Smith called, he had heard our music. He was like, I love this husband and wife

thing. So we went on the road with Michael W. Smith, ended up in Nashville, y'all.

And after being broke and homeless for six years, we signed a six album record deal.

And now our story continues. We've had highs. We've had lows.

We've put songs out and K-Love has gone, we love this song and it's gone to number two.

Never number one. Never got a number one. And then we've put out songs that

the radio goes, we're never going to play that.

Because guess what? We don't live for people's applause.

We don't write the songs that everyone needs to hear. We write the songs that we need to sing.

The stories about what God is doing in our lives.

And so we want to share some of those this morning and this first one,

it's literally a testimony that came about in a green room we were about to

go on stage for the biggest tour of our life opening for danny goki and mandisa

we had just moved to nashville,

and they're like come on the road and i'm like well i'm a brand new mom ziggy

was six weeks old and milo is 18 I was 18 months older.

And any multitasking moms, grandmoms out there, anybody? Okay,

I see those head nods. It's no joke, you know?

And so we showed up to the first show. We're standing in the green room.

I'm nursing a baby. The other one's

pulling on my pant leg. Chris is doing everything to get us on stage.

And I'm crying because I don't fit my skinny jeans.

Yeah, yeah, I know, right? I mean, your jeans are pretty skinny.

Those fit well, though. You look good. I went looser fit. Okay, yeah.

Can we acknowledge the sparkly jeans? Can you stand up and show everybody your sparkly jeans?

I mean, I saw those this morning, and I was like, could I please borrow those

for the skate show tonight?

Those are roller rink ready. Those

are roller rink. Let's give a round of applause for the sparkle jeans.

I'm a fan. I'm a big fan. So I had an outfit picked out kind of like that.

It was sparkly skinny jeans and a sequent blazer.

I was like, go big or go home, you know?

And I wanted to look like a rock star, but I redefined it that night.

Every woman is a rock star when they show up for their real life.

That's the new definition.

And it turns out because I couldn't fit the skinny jeans, all I had were sweatpants.

So the good news is God can use you in skinny jeans or sweatpants.

It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. God's going to do what God's going to do.

So we got out on stage, and I turned to everybody. I said, guess what?

I'm a new mom. I don't have it all together.

But you got this doesn't mean having it all together. It means showing up and

trusting that God is holding you together.

And it turned out that was the song we needed to write. Chris was like,

let's write that song. So we made it through the tour. We got home.

And while our kids were sleeping in the vocal booth, we wrote this song.

You got this God you got this you got me,

you've got my anxiety my depression my job my kids my marriage my struggles

my joys you've got me God and because I know that I can relax in your presence this morning,

so make it yours I don't know what you're carrying that feels heavy but God's

got this make it your song this morning.

You sounded great. Are you all in the choir that I saw advertised?

Hands up. Are anyone in the choir? Okay. Amazing. For real, y'all sound so good.

Make a joyful noise, even if you sound horrible. It's okay.

We've got to go for it in church. It's one of the analog spaces that we can

exist face-to-face, not on a screen.

I mean, hi, everyone who's streaming, but like in person is wonderful our church

in nashville um is our neighborhood church

and um it's a baptist church like chris mentioned actually before we go any

further chris can you show everybody um how a baptist worships do you want to

just give a little example oh yeah sure yeah hang on let me let me get let me get set okay.

Very nice, very nice. Well, our very first time. We put that on the first video,

and the first comment was, Chris is moving too much. Yeah.

And this is the thing. Okay, we've been married for 20 years,

and we've gone to every kind of church.

Our last tour, we led worship in a Lutheran church, a Catholic church,

a Baptist church, a non-denominational church, and everywhere in between.

And God was in all the churches.

God is not limited by the style we prefer, right? God is here.

And we have learned that in our married life. I grew up Pentecostal,

so our wedding video is me like, woo! I'm like worshiping, and I hand him my

bouquet of flowers, and he's just standing there.

Like, what am I in for, you know?

And here we are, still being ourselves, because unity is not uniformity. Amen?

It's meeting your opposite and going, man, we're a good team, you know?

And we are. And so we're really different, but we love doing life together.

And I don't know why I'm sharing that. It's a little tag, just a little tag

on. Anything you want to add?

Just because we're married and it's fun. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

it's true. Despite what everyone tells you, it's fun.

It's true. And our content online has become pretty much content of people saying...

It's Messi and Ronaldo, everyone.

We're not quite on that song yet, honey, but you can come up now.

Oh, we're not going to. Oh, you just want to come up for a little bit. Okay. Hi.

This is Ziggy. Want to say hi, Ziggy? And Milo's over there.

You want to say hi to Milo? Do you want to wave at everyone?

We have an introvert and an extrovert, just like we have an introvert and an

extrovert. Go figure, you know?

So life on the road as a family means really letting the Holy Spirit lead me

when I think everyone's extroverted and we're just not.

You know, being in public a lot has caused us to lean on the Lord because you

think you need to be perfect when you're in public, but you don't. And it's impossible.

And if I would have tried to keep being perfect, I would have quit,

you know, because I'm not a perfect wife and I'm not a perfect mom.

And we apologize to each other on the regular, you know.

But it's not about perfect. It's about God perfecting us and leading us and

helping us grow as we live and move. and have our being. Amen?

Living, moving, having our being in Christ.

And so this is a part of everything we do now, Holt International.

Anyone sponsor a child in this place?

Okay, amazing. So we've been sponsoring kids. We have about 10 on our fridge

because it's always been a part of my life.

And then we got married and it became a part of our life. And.

And for my kids, building the kingdom has to be tangible, right?

Because on career day, when their friends say, what do your parents do for a living?

They're worship leaders, and their public school friends are like, oh, what's that?

Well, and I had to help them have a good answer to give, right?

And it's like, well, we build the kingdom as a family. We go around and we love

people like God loves us. That's what we do.

And then we love people around the world that don't have food.

That's what love looks like for a little boy or a little girl that doesn't have

food or clean water or doesn't get access to the gospel or a Bible, right?

And so we started sponsoring kids because our kids stand at the table back there

and they help you find the one that needs you.

And it started as a video at a Christian concert. We're actually going to play

this video for you today.

And this is not a pitch because Canadians don't know how to pitch anything.

It's really just part of our story, something we do as a family.

Ziggy's particularly great at being back there and helping you find $30 a month.

A friend that you can give the basics of life to.

And we're really passionate about this being a part of our worship.

So if you don't sponsor a child, but you've always been curious,

this is a really good morning to check it out.

We'll be back at the table right behind the glass doors there.

And I think we put about 10 kids out on the table that could really use your help and your love.

You can write letters. You can meet them. The cool thing about Holt International

is that you can actually put your child through high school and college.

You can go to their college graduation. Holt is really hands-on.

So the people that you're gonna sponsor are very accessible to you through letter

writing, but then also to go visit in person if you ever want to.

We have met our sponsor child. It's pretty impactful.

So if that sounds like a way of building the kingdom on earth in a way that

reminds you what it's all about.

That face on your fridge to go, right, God is love.

I am the outcome of God's love in this way. This is a way I can actually tell

my friends, I really build the kingdom in this practical way,

right? Because God's very clear about feeding the orphans and the widows,

and that's what sponsorship is all about.

And so we're going to play His Eyes on the Sparrow, the song that we put on

our hymns record, specifically because it just makes me think of child sponsorship

every time I sing it, because we often feel forgotten, and these little,

boys and girls feel forgotten every day, right?

But you are proof of God's love. You are the proof that they are not forgotten.

And so I just want to give you a chance to think about what it might mean to

sponsor a child, and we're going to play this song.

Much. Thanks for letting us be here. Let's stand and close in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this time that we can come and worship.

And we thank you for Chris and Jody and Milo and Ziggy. Thank you for their

ministry to you, for bringing the kingdom in Jesus' name. Amen.