All In a Day's Work | October 26, 2025

I don't know.

I don't know.

Should be pretty exciting.

Well, hey, uh, speaking

of work yesterday, crazy.

Thank you guys so much for

all the hard work yesterday.

Um, you know what, we were doing so

much stuff in that four hour window.

Like we got probably 90% more done

than I thought we would get to.

It was insane.

This building, the other building, all

the landscape, it was, it was wild.

So thank you.

And I have been feeling

good, like I wasn't all sore.

Until I rammed a table leg into my thigh

this morning with Derrick and, uh, like in

the entry entryway, barely able to stand.

And of course, Derrick being the

friend, he was, he was on the ground

laughing, so it really wasn't as

much encouragement as I needed.

But if I hobble around this morning,

I just want to say I was feeling good.

Until, you know, table skills

kind of came into play.

Well, work is, uh, is not

usually mistaken for fun, is it?

Right?

It's a reason we call it work.

Right?

I think we're talking about

that in my house this week.

Like, oh, well we gotta go to

work because, you know, nobody

pays you to go to fun, right?

You don't usually, as you're walking out

the door here, have a good day at fun.

Right.

No, nobody says that.

Or I got stuck late at fun again tonight.

You know what I mean?

Nobody's, nobody's doing that or the.

I have to go to fun again.

Right?

And I guess not, it's not how it works.

Uh, work tends to be something that

we don't always equate with fun.

And lemme say, uh, yesterday was fun.

And, uh, it was fun to work together.

It was fun to, uh, kind of come

together to accomplish something.

As a group.

That was a kind of a fun experience

and we had a lot of fun in there

and a lot of misbehaving as

well, which makes it fun maybe.

Um, but nobody got hurt until this morning

with a table leg, so that was good.

It reminds me of this scripture.

I dunno if you're familiar with this.

We talk about a lot

over in Proverbs 32, 6.

Many hands make light work, right?

And it reminds you how easy it

would be for a pastor to make up

Bible verses and tell 'em to you

because there is no Proverbs 32.

Just for the record, that's not a a thing.

And let's be real honest and

I'm gonna be real honest.

How many of you were pretty stinking?

Sure.

Many hands make light work

is somewhere in Proverbs.

I was, I'm glad you guys are better

than me, but I was pretty sure like,

I think that's in there somewhere.

Many hands make, it's

gotta be in the Bible.

Right?

Well here's the deal.

The phrase many hands make light

work was a phrase that probably wise

grandmas shared back in the day, right?

Uh, when they were trying to

get you to clean the house.

I'm not really sure, but it's

a principle and it's true.

And it's reinforced biblically, right?

We have places like Nehemiah three

where the, the people of Israel

come together with a heart to work,

and they work together and they

build the walls in record time.

It's crazy, right?

And we could go through all the

churches in the New Testament,

how they were working together

to accomplish the mission.

And many people coming

together to form one body could

accomplish all kinds of things.

So don't think that this

phrase is not a legit truth.

It's just that a lot of times

you feel like you're getting

badgered with the Bible.

Many hands make light

work, let's get after it.

And instead that's

really not in the Bible.

So the next time your mom is like,

Hey, let's clean the dishes in

the house and make it look nice.

'cause the many hands make light work can

be like, you know, mom, I'd prefer you

use something more biblical next time.

'cause this isn't

really, I'm just kidding.

It's not gonna work.

Moms keep it up.

'cause the principle is definitely there.

It's really this principle

that when we work together.

We can accomplish so much more

than when we try to just do things

independent of each other, right?

Collectively as the body of Christ.

God brings all these parts, right?

All these talents, ability, skills, heart

to work together, and we complete each

other to accomplish and complete really

significant things and be on mission.

I wanna explore this phrase just

a little bit, work together.

It's, it's made up in the, in the English

language of these two thoughts, two.

Gather and it's kind of cool because

together has this idea of being with

right and along side of, so it's

not this isolation, it's not this

independent, I'm an island, right?

It's togetherness.

In fact, I like to think of it as to

gather and when we work to gather.

We're working in a space where

it's not just one person carrying

everything, but in this team

concept that we're working together.

I wanna take you over to a passage.

Everybody goes to a lot.

It's the book of Ecclesiastes.

You probably hang out there

regularly in your devotional time.

This is a real Bible verse in

a real book in the real Bible.

Just so you know, I'm

done messing with you.

I just wanted to have a little

fun, see if I could, you know,

fool you, like I fooled myself.

Probably Ecclesiastes

four, nine through 12.

Uh, this passage is a really cool picture

of God's design for how we work together.

It says two are better than one because

they have a good return for their labor.

We get more things accomplished.

We're more efficient and

effective when we're not just

on our own trying to do things.

If either of them falls down, 'cause this

happens, especially if you're in a work.

Day at the church, right?

And the skills are minimal and

you're on tall ladders, one falls

down, the other person can help them

up, but pity the person who falls

and has no one to help them up.

Now listen, this passage has been in

my head since my junior year of high

school because of a girl named Ann

Harshman, the pastor's daughter at Tooma,

Wisconsin, and we were on youth retreat

with all these churches and we had to do.

Uh, this task where we took this passage

and we had to turn it into a wrap, right?

And man, I wanted to

impress Anne Harshman.

I hope she's not online.

Anne, I apologize.

Just in case somewhere

online she sees this, right?

And stalking her for years.

Not really Jamie just saying this,

I but high school guys, listen,

this is what I'm trying to say.

Girls will inspire you to do a lot

of things, but if you can get them

to inspire you to remember the Bible.

'cause check it out.

This is how I know this verse, right?

Two people are better than one because

they get more done by working together.

When one falls down, the

other can pick them up.

That's all I know and I couldn't tell

you what translation I made that up

out of, but I said that for a whole

weekend trying to impress Anne Harshman.

I probably left out the fact that

Anne Harshman already had a boyfriend

that was not impressed with me, but

that's not the point of the story.

The point of the story is

Anne was inspiring in my

ability to remember the gods.

Word.

This principle is significant because

we live in a culture that oftentimes

tells us to do our own thing.

Gotta pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

You don't need each other.

You can do it on your own.

And God's design is always

to work together, right?

To gather.

He sent the disciples out in prayers

to do ministry and be effective so

that they weren't alone, but they were.

Two together, the scripture goes

on, uh, as one of my favorite

personal verses also, if two lie

down together, they will keep warm.

How can one keep warm alone?

It's like the Bible snuggle verse.

Uh, Jamie, we should talk

about this verse later.

Just if you lay with somebody

else, you can stay warm instead

of by yourself, all cold.

But this scripture gets used a lot

in marriage talks because it also

says, though one may be overpowered,

two can defend themselves.

A strand of three is not easily broken.

And that's a picture really of you.

And maybe your spouse or you and your

teammate with Jesus centered in there

and all intertwined between you guys

so that you're not just two people

pulling, you're a strand of three.

And I'm not gonna do the science on

it 'cause I'm too tired, but there's

like cool rope science if you do a

little research on a single strand,

a double strand or a third strand.

The multiple, multiple, ah, the math

of that strand being super strong.

And hard to break is crazy,

so check it out exponentially.

It's awesome.

This is the principle to gather.

We work to gather.

We're not alone, we're not independent.

We team up.

And in those team spaces you bring

what gifts, talents, and abilities

god's given you and other people bring

what God's given them and together

they're able to accomplish the task.

Right.

I love in marriage counseling to throw

one of these out and show people, um.

People are like, that's a

husband detention device.

No, it's not that.

That's called an OX yoke.

And uh, not a lot of you probably have an

OX yoke probably because there's not many

of you who have oxen, I would imagine.

Right.

But this image is one where

two ox are placed in these

yolks and they pull together.

Right.

And a team of oxen is interesting

because they're not always

equally matched in power.

And in vision or in direction,

it's kind of almost a cool

picture of marriage, right?

Sometimes you have a big strong ox

insert husband role here, and you have

an ox who's good at staying in this

straight line, insert wife here, right?

I'm not saying that's this a stereotype,

but together they keep the cart going

the right direction and they accomplish

what needs to be done and they're

not carbon copies of each other.

But they work in tandem and together

they can accomplish really cool things.

That's kind of that picture of

being in scripture equally yoked.

You're not trying to find somebody who's

a mere image of you or just a carbon copy

that would be very unexciting, but you

want to find people to be yoked with in

marriage, in friendship, in business.

In life, in relationships who

are pulling the same direction,

bringing what they have to the table

to help the team of oxen, that's

us, get the cart accomplished.

That's the mission and purpose God's

given us in the roles that we have.

So this is kind of a cool

concept and principle God

gives us in working together.

And I just wanna say like, if you've never

experienced this in real life, you should

come to a church workday sometime because.

It looks like a whole bunch of

oxen pulling a lot of directions.

It's very entertaining, but it's really

cool to watch everybody work together

to accomplish things, and God wants

that design, not just for how we build

a building or how we take care of

maintenance, but as Dax said, so that

we can be effective in trying to share

the gospel with people all, all over

our community and even beyond into the

outermost parts of the earth, right?

Our goal is not just to work.

In a little tiny, microscopic

way, but to let that really

ripple into effect all over.

So when I think about work and I think

about, uh, agriculture, and I think

about labor, I always come to this

scripture and normally I don't put

up a big fuss with our sharing time.

Uh, I think it's fine.

I think it's cool.

Glad we do it.

It's just a little bit, I don't

know, maybe this is the flesh in

me that ticks me off when guys

like Ryan steal the scripture.

I'm gonna talk about my Galatians

six, nine through 10, Ryan.

Now, I don't know if he went over

to my office and was looking at

the computer during the work day.

I can't say he wasn't.

I didn't look at the cameras,

but Ryan, come on, bro.

Seriously.

Now there's two ways to look at this.

There's another way to look at it to say.

God.

God's like, Hey Andy, don't screw

it up and blow through this verse.

Maybe we need to talk about it.

I'm gonna even send Ryan

to get your attention.

So Ryan, thank you.

I appreciate that.

Actually, I thought it was pretty cool.

I always think it's cool and I'm

like, ah, that's what God wants to do.

I'm gonna take you over to

Galatians six, seven through 10,

what Ryan already shared with you.

He read this to that be deceived.

God can't be mocked.

The man reaps what he sows.

Whoever sows to please the

flesh will reap uh, destruction.

Whoever sows to please the spirit

will reap eternal life, right?

Let us not become weary and

doing good for the proper time.

We'll reap a harvest if we don't give up.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let's

do good to all people, especially to those

who belong to the family of believers.

Let's dive into this here just a second

and unpack it just a little more than

Ryan shared, though what you shared.

Ryan, was fantastic, man.

Do not be deceived.

I love a phrase like this.

You know what it implies?

It implies that this is me

personalizing it, right?

It implies that Andy, though, wise

beyond what Jamie even thinks,

could be fooled or duped, given

the right circumstances, right?

It's a warning to us as followers of

Jesus to be, Hey, don't be fooled, right?

Don't be tricked.

Don't be deceived.

Don't listen to some other

version of truth being twisted

and perverted that's gonna tell

you something different than this.

This is truth.

Pay attention to it.

Don't be fooled.

And the enemy loves I, what does he do?

He deceives.

Jesus said when he opens

his mouth, he's deceiving.

He's lying.

That's all he's got, right?

And that's what he says all the time.

And he will always give you a little

taste of the truth mixed in with a whole

bunch of perversion so that you're like,

uh, maybe and then destruction, right?

So we gotta be very discerning.

Don't be deceived.

It's easy to have it happen.

So lock into the truth.

What truth?

God cannot be mocked.

Don't be deceived by this.

You are not going to mock God, and I

don't think this is intently just kind

of saying like, you're not gonna say

mocking, scornful things about God.

It means that his principles aren't

going to get trumped by anything.

You are not gonna get to the end

of your life and be like, oh ha,

God got duped by the devil, right?

He was wrong.

All God's not gonna be mocked.

God is not gonna be mocked at all.

In fact, in the Greek,

there's a cool picture here.

This is called an absolute negative.

Um, I remember these as a child.

My mom gave these out like candy.

No.

Right.

Absolute negatives, right?

No.

God will not, cannot,

will never be mocked.

Amen.

He won't, he won't have

his word come back void.

He won't have his principles that

he has laid out and his promises

somehow thwarted by the enemy.

It will not, and it cannot.

Absolute negative cannot happen.

Here's one of those

principles that he shares.

A man reaps what he sows

a man reaps what he sows.

Now this isn't some sexist sermon,

so a woman also reaps what she sows.

Just in case you're feeling left out.

Let out the scripture,

ladies, you reap what you sow.

Right?

And I love that Jesus has so many great

agricultural I. You and I, uh, even if

you drove like an hour, Clayton, you got

to drive through some harvest fields.

Am I right?

And even on the interstate, right?

Tony going around, you got to

see, um, you combined your, I'm

sorry, I'm gonna do a combine joke.

You combined everywhere in those

fields where everybody's out

there harvesting like crazy.

Let me share with you a very

important planting principle.

I don't know a ton about agriculture.

I like to eat some of it.

But at the end of the day,

there are some universal truths

that are really important.

Here's one.

You harvest what you plant,

this is gonna blow your mind.

But when you drove through those fields

today, and all of us who came past a,

a field somewhere, do you know that

one of the things that these fields

all have in common is there's not a

single farmer out there who planted

corn and harvested beans, right?

Doesn't happen.

Now, don't get me wrong,

there's weeds that grow.

You know, insert.

Curse of sin and the work of the enemy to

bring weeds and thistles into our life,

but the crop doesn't become something.

It wasn't.

You reap what you sow.

You harvest what you plant, right?

If you put in corn, you get corn.

If you put in beans, you get beans.

If you put in watermelons, they

all die, but like whatever it is

that you do, right, you plant them.

And they grow, and that's what you reap.

There's not this crazy transformation that

happens somewhere, and scripture warns

us here, whoever sows to please their

flesh, the investment of their time and

energy, what they put everything into

when it's about trying to please our

sinful nature and our flesh and just do

what we want and be about our own agenda,

our own purpose, everything about us,

we're gonna reap destruction from that.

That's a promise that God gives

us and God cannot be mocked.

What we reap, we sow and if we sow to

please our sinful nature and to just do

selfish self-promoting, self agenda stuff.

Now, don't get me wrong, he said

to seek first the kingdom of God,

his righteousness, and he'll take

care of the other stuff, right?

Food, shelter, clothing,

things that we need.

Transportation.

God's not oblivious to some of the,

the real needs in our life, but when

those things become what we pursue and

we plant and we fertilize, and we work

hard to achieve and experience all of

those things in place of first seeking,

after his kingdom and his righteousness,

we're gonna reap destruction.

Because none of those things are lasting.

Whoever sows on the other side of things

to please the spirit, here's God's cool

promise, you are gonna reap paternal life.

Now, I'm not really good at the

comparison game, but destruction,

eternal life, that seems pretty big

contrast to me, and probably if I

had to pick one of the two, right?

Not such an idiot.

Eternal life.

And the price of that might be a

harder crop to grow and harder terrain

to plant in and more difficult work.

Fertilizing and watering and whatever

you do to make things not die, right?

I don't know.

They all die at our house, but

imagine if you plant screw right?

That kind of thing.

God's called us to be people

who are investing in eternity,

not just investing in temporary.

And we gotta be really careful

'cause we live in this really nice

co county with really nice stuff.

And then we start looking at

people who have even better stuff.

And then we're like, well I'm not

investing too much in my stuff

'cause I could be investing more.

But we never look over here

and say, but look at what most

of the world's living without.

Right.

And.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm a huge fan of air conditioning

and seat warmers and things

of that nature, right?

So I'm not trying to say can't ever have

anything that's decent or nice or quality.

That's not really the issue.

But Jesus knows where our heart is, and he

says that's where your real treasure is.

And if we give a token effort towards

Jesus, it's one of the reasons Clayton,

uh, Tony means so much to me that

you guys drive here because, uh.

Sorry, man, Derek and I are

out crying on the entryway.

I couldn't even already get

ready to preach this morning.

Ridiculous.

Um, listen, you guys could leave

and never come back and that's cool.

It'd be fine.

I'm sorry I put you on the spot

so much this morning and it won't

change how I feel about this.

You guys found something eternally

valuable that's worth the investment

and you're sowing that every week.

You make that crazy long

drive to be a part of this.

And, uh, that means a lot to me.

Not because it's a reflection of me.

It's a reflection of you guys.

And where your hearts are.

And, and I'll be really honest, Clayton

and Tony, I have been praying, and I

don't like this prayer, that God would

raise up people in your more local

geographic area where you can have

impact throughout the week and find

something that you're finding here.

Because I think there's more for your

families and more for that whole community

that maybe you're here for a season where

God's gonna pour into you and spread some

things like wildfire over where you're at

because that's what he does too, right?

And so I don't wanna be selfish

and make you guys drive to hang

out with us all the time, but.

It's pretty, pretty significant.

And, and church, don't miss what other

people are trying to do to, to be a part

of something that's eternally valued.

'cause we can take stuff

for granted all the time.

Just be like, it's no big deal

Some other time, whatever.

But when you find something

of great price, right?

You, you, you give everything,

you got to be a part of that.

And that's, that's, that

touches my heart, man.

Sorry, lemme go ranting on that.

But what are you sowing?

What are you planting?

Your time, energy, money.

I love to talk about it 'cause

Jesus talk about it all the time.

What are you doing with your money?

What are you doing with your time?

What are you doing with your energy?

You can look at your calendar,

you can look at your checkbook and

you know where you are planting.

You don't have to ask me.

You don't have to look in your Bible

and be like, where am I planting, Lord?

You just need to look at your life and

say, huh, here's where I'm planting.

And maybe have a courageous conversation

with the people in your life to say.

Should we be planting here?

Where else should we be planting?

What are we planting?

Why are we planting?

Those are important questions, right?

Because here's the truth.

What you plant, you harvest, and if

you're planting to please yourself and do

what you want to do, and Jesus isn't the

priority of your life, you're gonna reap.

Now, don't get me wrong, right?

If you're chasing money and

fame and possessions, you

might, you might reap those.

You might, I'm not trying to tell you

as a pastor, like listen, if you chase

all those things, you won't get them.

You probably will.

Just so you know, if you plant

selfish ambition and greed,

you'll probably get some of that.

You'll probably get money and and

possessions and material stuff.

You probably will.

They won't be from God.

They absolutely won't be from God.

But he's gonna probably allow that

stuff to grow in your life and Satan's

gonna be thrown it at you like crazy.

Because he wants you to just harvest that

and that to be the crop of your life.

And so don't think, well,

hey, blessings coming in.

Yes, God's behind all this

man blessing coming in.

Might not have anything

to do with God whatsoever.

'cause it might not actually be blessing.

It might be a curse because it's just

what you planted in your reaping.

But if you plant to please the spirit.

And to say, God, what do you want me

to do with my time, energy, resources?

How do you want me to live?

What do you want me to invest in with who

I am, who my family is, what we're about?

You're gonna reap eternal life.

But in the same thing I just

talked about, that might not

mean you reap awesome possessions

and money and fame in this life.

'cause he, that's not the promise, right?

God didn't say, Hey, if you try

to please the spirit, you're

gonna get all kinds of stuff, but

it's gonna be temporary and fade.

But if you, if you follow me,

you're gonna get all kinds of stuff

too, and it's gonna be eternal.

That's not what he said.

That's not what he said.

Don't hear that.

He said, here, you can chase the

stuff that's gonna fade here.

It might cost you everything,

but the reward here is

lasting and eternal.

So just choose right.

Just choose.

It's powerful stuff.

Jesus calls us to.

What are you?

Planting and you know, we've been

talking about the final countdown, right?

Is it the end of the world?

And will you know it Well, it's coming.

It's coming.

And we talked a little bit about

what Jesus says in Matthew.

Matthew 24 is a whole chapter

about Jesus talking about the end.

So if you want to know a little more

about what does Jesus think about

the ends, you can check it out.

But one of the cool things he says

about in this illustration is that

the master is gone for a long time.

And maybe the servants stop

paying attention, stop engaging,

stop being about the mission.

Maybe even just get really

sinful and destructive.

And that ends really poorly

in what Jesus talks about.

But he does say this, blessed is

the servant whom the master finds

doing his job when he comes back.

May God find us busy at work, not beyond

comprehension, exhausted and fatigued.

Right?

But busy at work, sowing what matters

so that we can reap a harvest.

And then Ryan, this next verse

here is one that's always tricky.

Let us not become weary and doing

good for at the proper time.

We'll reap a harvest if we don't give up.

And man, I always go to this verse

because I feel like some days

this is my life verse, and I just

latch onto the word weary, right?

And the problem is, this

is a promise, right?

This God cannot be mocked.

This is a promise, this whole section,

not just about, Hey, a man reaps what he

sows, but it's also a promise and you're

not gonna be able to mock God on this.

This is a truth that's gonna last forever.

We'll reap a harvest if we persevere

and if we don't give up, it will happen.

And some people are like, well, I'm

not seeing any fruit for my labor.

I'm not seeing anything grow in,

Hey, hold onto the promise of God.

He cannot be mocked.

But it can be hard, right?

Because of this weary, weary stuff.

Now, this word, um, here in the

Greek is to be utterly spiritless.

What an interesting picture,

void of passion, drive desire.

Low testosterone, sorry.

Uh, utterly spiritless.

Weed out exhausted, right?

What does scripture say?

Do not, do not become weary.

Now there's a lot of good thoughts on

this, but the, the real thing I always run

into when I think about, man, I'm supposed

to be sowing, I wanna sow eternally.

I wanna reap paternal stuff.

I wanna be about the kingdom.

And then God says to me, don't be weary.

And I ask this question a lot.

How?

How?

How?

How are you gonna not be weary?

Right?

And listen, there's a lot to this that

we could spend days on and, and we won't.

But there's a weariness that comes.

There's weariness that comes

from disobedience when we're just

chasing the things of the flesh.

Theres a weariness that comes and

maybe, I don't wanna say disobedience

on a spectrum 'cause disobedience is

sin and sin is sin, but, but sometimes.

We're a little lazy and

not outright disobedient.

Right?

I talk to people all the time

who are so tired, so exhausted,

and then I always like to say,

well, what'd you do yesterday?

Well, I was out with some guys at the

bar until like 11, and then I came home

and played some video games for a couple

hours, but man, I was just beat today.

I'm like, Hmm.

Like the math on that makes me think

maybe you are not weary because you're man

pouring out trying to sow for the kingdom.

You're probably sewing for your flesh

and doing what you want to do and not

maybe taking good care of yourself

with sleep and health and being a good

steward of the body God's given you.

Uh, I don't wanna talk about eating,

that's too painful for me, but you

know, in theory, the nutrition even

that you're getting into your, in

your life, are you putting yourself

in a position to not grow weary by

behaviors maybe that don't reflect.

Following the spirit and living

according to the spirit now, then

there's also some weariness that can

come from man being poured out, like

a drink offering that Paul talks

about, and that's a fair thing, right?

I think the image of being poured out

like a drink offering all over the

floor, I mean, I resonate with that

some days, and I think weary is a good

picture of that, and I think God has

a plan and a strategy for all of that.

Right.

If you're weary because Jesus isn't the

priority and you're not following him

faithfully, and you're choosing self over

maybe spiritual health in your life and

and following the spirit, uh, some changes

of behavior, or the only way you're gonna

experience a lack of weariness, right?

It's really the only way.

You can't keep doing the things that

are disobedient or the things that

are poor decisions on how you're

a steward of your spiritual life.

And expect to be vibrant and healthy.

You cannot, but if you're trying your best

and you're doing the much as you can and

you're pulled a million directions, like

all of us get to be, and you really assess

things and try to align things right,

um, God, I don't know what to do there.

Just kidding.

I have a thought.

Just a thought, right?

Because I can't fix all of it.

And we're all, we're all gonna wear out in

this crazy life, and that's where it is.

But God gave us a concept.

Called working together, where we don't

try to just do everything on our own, and

we have this sense of balance in our life

because we're part of a community that

shares the burden and walks together.

Sometimes we're so weary and exhausted

because the balance is off and the

rhythm is off, and the yoking is off,

and I'm not just yoking about that.

Right.

There's a serious deal there.

Let us, as we have opportunity,

do good right to all people, and

especially to the family of God.

God has given us each other

to try to do life together.

He's put us in families.

He's put us in friend groups.

He's put us in relationships

that are intended to help.

Build sharpening us sometimes in ways

that we don't always enjoy, but also

to get stronger and to build stamina.

When we prioritize the right stuff and

we focus and keep our eyes fixed on

Jesus, instead of our own flesh and

our own stuff, we get things lined up

like they need to be, and then we get

things aligned in team in our life.

You know, Jesus was

always with his disciples.

Sometimes just a few, uh, by himself.

He went off and prayed.

I'm not saying that, but

like when he was doing right.

Very seldom we see Jesus just

ditch everybody and go do stuff.

He's usually in community working

together with other people to have

impact, and that's something God's called

us to two together on purpose, right?

Trying to have an impact

in the world around us.

I get tired and I get weary, and

you get tired and you get weary.

Some of that's a result of the

way we're choosing to prioritize

the things we do in our life.

But God has given us opportunity to do

good, and he has an expectation that we

will, and that as we do, we're not gonna

just burn ourselves out with exhaustion.

We're gonna find the right kind of

balance and focus so that we can

engage in a way that's effective.

Right.

I don't know if you've probably noticed

some tables in the back of our room.

Tom and Shannon are gonna come

over when you guys call him.

By the way, Derek, I maybe

forgot to mention that.

Rusty's gonna go stand at that table.

Corey's gonna stand at that table.

Derek's got that table and uh, I just

wanna share something with you real

quick because we worked together so

well yesterday, accomplishing some

physical stuff in this building.

It was great and that building and

outside, but God has called us.

To be people who make disciples

and we share together, we work

together, we serve together.

I love the heart of our church.

You guys love better

than anybody that I know.

Uh, you really do.

Your, your, your way of loving each

other is sort of legendary stuff.

Getting to talk to other

pastors in other churches.

I sat and listened to somebody

the other day rail about their

church, and I was like, bro,

let's back this off a little bit.

But it was just so foreign to me

because it's not stuff that I see.

Because we don't get a lot of stuff right.

We screw up some stuff up here

to the best, but man, guys love.

Well, and I wanna share with you some

opportunities to do good, especially to

the Church of God and to the family of God

that we have on Sunday mornings together.

We got some awesome stuff

going on in our youth ministry.

We got some cool small groups happening.

We're trying to get some things up off the

ground with, uh, some men's and women's

ministry focuses, quarterly things.

We could use some help with that.

We got some real things we've been praying

about with our college age ministry.

Those are all things

that we could really use.

And we're coming into a season, we're

got Operation Christmas Child, right?

And we have missions groups that

we support and all kinds of things

that we do outside of there.

But I wanna take just two seconds

this morning and just do something

that I'm probably not very good at.

Just ask for your help to try to do

what God's called us to do together.

Uh, we have worship ministry stuff

that we do, and sometimes you see

the same people up here all the time,

and sometimes people get entrenched

and it's just like, this is me.

This is what I do.

But man, there's opportunity and

there's need for more people to

be part of the team so that people

can work, check this out together.

We have next door in children's ministry.

We need more people to be part

of a team working together.

We have a huge need in our pre-teen

Sunday morning ministry for

people who will work together.

Our safety team, I dunno if you pay

attention to the news, there's a

lot of people who we could really

use some help just making sure

we're eyes on what's going on around

us for the safety of each other.

Right?

And, and here's the principle, whether

it's the worship team, whether it's

Sunday's cool, whether it's safety.

We're trying to build rotations

of teams, of God's people working

together, sharing the load.

Sometimes when you see the

same people in a spot, you just

figure, hey, there's no need.

So you're gonna see some spots up here.

You're gonna see some other

spots where maybe there's a hole.

'cause nobody's in that spot this week

because I'm not letting them be in the

rotation because we're building rotations

of two togetherness and work together.

And I don't mind being the bad guy

'cause I want you to be able to see.

That's a U-shaped hole right there.

Aha.

Yep.

Perfect.

Right, because here's the trick.

I love this phrase.

Oh, there's a thing here.

Church isn't about the service.

It's about the service.

I'm sorry, don't play on words.

Right?

And God wants us to yoke it up together

to be part of teams so that we can

accomplish the work he's doing and listen.

When you don't serve and you're not

involved in helping build the kingdom

and make disciples, not only, I mean,

if we're not making disciples, not

only are we not doing the very thing

God called us to do as followers of

Jesus, but you're also missing out

on what's really cool and impactful.

The stories of people who get a

chance to serve and do things and

watch the life of a little kid,

or snuggle some new twins, right?

Or be able to talk to preteens

about Jesus and truth.

And here's some of their

questions that are beyond my

comprehension as a pastor, right?

And super fun or engaging with our

teens, or getting a chance to use your

gifts and talents and worship and music

instruments or sound technology stuff.

We all need to get a turn.

To get to experience the cool

things God does when we serve him.

And so this morning I'm gonna invite

you after I pray, as you walk out,

there's four tables back there.

There's nothing crazy.

There's a QR code up here.

If you even have interest of exploring

a conversation in one of these areas,

I'll just ask you to write your name

down and put your phone number down

on that piece of paper over there.

There's people at the tables who

can answer little questions for

you, and you can use the QR code

if you want to, and it's not.

Hey, listen.

Get to work, white Rock.

You're not trying hard.

That's not it at all.

You guys are trying really hard.

We have people who are exhausted and

weary because they're getting poured

out in certain roles and they could

use more people coming alongside.

And maybe your willingness to help

serve is just a blessing to other

people who are in a yoke by themselves

dragging a cart or just laying on the

ground waiting for another ox, right?

Maybe you need to walk up the table

and be like, I'm a big dumb ox, right?

And just write your name down.

Beautiful word.

Hey, I don't want you to feel beat up.

I don't want to guilt you.

That's not what it is.

Um, well maybe just a little shame Sunday.

I thought about the title,

but No, I'm just kidding.

Totally not it.

I love you guys and if you're not serving

in the family, you are missing a piece of

what it means to be part of the family.

If you're just the spectator, then

you're really not experiencing

the fullness of what God has

given us to experience together.

So I'd ask you to prayerfully consider

how you could plug in, these are four

areas we really need some help in.

And we could really benefit from more

people saying, Hey, I'll be one of

the two together teammates, you bet.

Or four together, or eight together.

We'll do divisions of two.

That's cool.

Um, no big deal.

The more the merrier and it's

not the only place you can serve,

it's not the only thing going on.

If you have interest in some

other things, I'd love to hear.

Talk to me.

God wants you in the fields Planting.

For eternity in lots of different areas.

Here's some that are an option.

You got some other ones,

man, get out there and do it.

I know they're combining in the

fields, but God's got a 24 7 harvest

cycle going where you can be involved.

So thank you for considering

that being a part of that, and

thank you for who you guys are.

'cause collectively and together we're

making heaven look a little different

by the way you love and service.

That's just one expression of that love.

Uh, that we can be impactful and together.

So let's pray.

Father, thank you for the chance to just

reflect a little bit on your design for

working together to build your kingdom.

God, thank you for so many people who

work so hard as part of this family.

We don't have a church where

two or three people are

carrying the load in every area.

We have lots of people trying to help.

So thank you for all of the

hard work, the sacrifice.

And God, we have more that you

want us to do and be a part of.

And so, God, I pray you give us the

courage to explore what that might look

like as couples, as individuals, and be

able to find ways, Lord, to experience

some real cool joy in planting and

sowing eternal stuff in the lives of

people and collectively as your church.

God, I pray that you would help us.

You know that we live in a culture that's

really weary and wrung out all the time,

and would you please help us examine our

life and make some changes to behaviors

and activities that are draining us from

the eternal purpose you have for us, and

give us the courage to walk that out.

Thank you for your incredible love,

and I pray for an amazing week.

It culminates with an epic chili,

Cookoff tailgate adventure next Sunday.

In Jesus' name, we pray all these things.

Amen.