Sermon

Full House - Week 4

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  1. Again, thank you for your generosity. And you know, I

  2. think that on Memorial Day weekend, first of all, is

  3. or do we have anybody here that that you have

  4. lost a loved one in service to our country? If

  5. you have, just stand up for us and we want

  6. to show appreciation for the sacrifice of your family. Amen. Amen,

  7. thank you so much for the sacrifice of your family.

  8. Now are there people here you you've served, but uh,

  9. but we're not celebrating your memorial but you served in

  10. the military. Stand up and let us show honor to

  11. you today as well anybody that's served in the military.

  12. Thank you so much for your service. Thank you so much.

  13. We love you guys, and appreciate the freedoms. Freedom does

  14. not come free. Let me say that again. Freedom does

  15. not come free. There is a price to pay for freedom.

  16. There's not just a price to pay for the freedom

  17. of our country, but there is a price to pay

  18. for the freedom of our soul as well. That we

  19. that we fall in love with Jesus and we chase

  20. in passionately every single day. Amen. That's how we learn

  21. to walk in freedom by surrounding ourselves with the support

  22. structure that will help us do that and speaking of

  23. support structure. UH. You know, I had an opportunity, Pastor Shane,

  24. you gave me an opportunity to do a small group

  25. with some of our high school students, and for those

  26. of you that didn't know that, for the past two

  27. group terms, I was able to do a small group

  28. with with our high school students and some early college

  29. students and it was an absolute blessing. One of the

  30. highlights of my entire ministry has been over these last

  31. two group terms being able to meet with UH, with

  32. those high schoolers on Wednesday nights. It was just a

  33. phenomenal experience. And we have some of the UH. I

  34. mean this with all my heart. We have some of

  35. the greatest potential for the world to be changed in

  36. our young peace people that I've ever seen before. The

  37. Lord made me a promise when I first started doing

  38. youth ministry that I would see a revival amongst the

  39. American teenager the likes of which the world has never seen.

  40. And I still haven't seen that. And I thought I

  41. was going to do that as a youth pastor, but

  42. I believe that it's possibly because of being a lead

  43. pastor and being part of the Kingdom and listen, we

  44. don't have to lead it, we just want to be

  45. part of it. Amen, And I believe these young people

  46. can be the catalyst for that. So Pastor Shane, I'm

  47. going to turn it over to you for the rest

  48. of this portion of the service.

  49. First of all, thank you for doing that group of

  50. high schoolers. There's not a senior pastor that I know

  51. that would say, actually say, hey, can I do a

  52. high school group? Can I go back and hang out

  53. with teenagers? So thank you for that class of twenty

  54. twenty five high school graduating class where y'all at y'all

  55. hear that's awesome. Yeah, give it up, give it up. Client, clap, clap, clap, yeah, yeah, yeah, awesome. Hey,

  56. I'm gonna call your name. We have a gift for you.

  57. Explain that gift as well. Okay, we have Emily Byelk. Yeah,

  58. come on, come on, don't be shy. It's okay. He

  59. lets me up here. We have Abby Byelk. All right,

  60. now that ladies come first. Young men, we have from

  61. all the way in the balcony, all the way up

  62. there Weston Crow. Come on, don't be shy. I know

  63. you move faster than that. Come on, and all the

  64. way from Monroe, Georgia, we have Danny Morales. I'm gonna

  65. butcher saying this, aguilar.

  66. Did I say that right? Did I say it right? Oh? Yes,

  67. I got it.

  68. Guys. I could say a lot about you. I've seen

  69. your consistency in groups. I've seen your smile coming through

  70. the door, your joy of being not just out of church,

  71. but being the church and being the body of Christ.

  72. And I wish I could hand you all a thousand

  73. dollars each, Okay, but I believe if you have something

  74. better in your hands going into this next season of

  75. your life, use it is not just an instruction book

  76. for life. It's God's love letter to you. And You've

  77. accomplished so much already. And I have every reason to believe,

  78. and we have every reason to believe that you'll continue

  79. to accomplish for the Kingdom. But despite what you accomplish,

  80. what you fell at, what you're good at, what you're

  81. bad at, hear me out today, you are a son

  82. and you are a daughter of the King, and your

  83. worth and your identity comes from him. Yeah, and I

  84. say this for our teenagers all the time. I'm going

  85. to say here because I heard it from you. You've

  86. been made righteous. That is a gift of God. You

  87. have rights standing with your heavenly Father. But I encourage

  88. you today. Holiness is what you do with it. Pursue Him. Church,

  89. if you will stretch your hands this way. I want

  90. to pray over these students, Father God, in the name

  91. of Jesus. Lord, I thank you for who you are.

  92. I thank you for what you're doing in the life

  93. of these young men and young women. Lord, I pray

  94. that you anoint them. You give them your thoughts, your eyes,

  95. your perspective, your dreams, your passion, your compassion. Lord, I

  96. pray that they have the courage to ask for wisdom

  97. and hear you. And in the name of Jesus, right now,

  98. we love you so much. Bless their families, Bless everything

  99. they put their hand to so it glorifies you and

  100. people see you through their work in Jesus' name. Amen,

  101. give it up. Class of twenty twenty five.

  102. Amen, congratulations, guys, Thank y'all so much. You're dismissed, not

  103. from church, just from the stage. They were like, yeah,

  104. we get out early today and listen, we're not done

  105. with the next generation portion uh yet we have we

  106. have a baby, another baby dedication this week. I'm telling

  107. I told y'all, we take me fruitful and multiply serious

  108. around here. Amen. So uh Autumn, bring all, bring everybody up, y'all,

  109. come on up to the stage and give them a

  110. hand as they come. What a privilege and an honor

  111. it is, Amen, Amen, to be able to do this

  112. this Sunday. Look at that she's so tiny, Johnathan. We

  113. went from big old Miles who was as big as

  114. me last week to tiny tiny now. Wow. You know

  115. we uh, we did flowers for a while, then we

  116. stopped doing flowers, and now we're back to doing flowers again.

  117. But here is uh, there's something significant about this flower though.

  118. This is handmade and handcraft and I just tore it up.

  119. This is handmade and handcrafted by someone right here in

  120. our church, the anointing in the effort of all of

  121. the hours of prayer that have been poured into the

  122. young lady that handmade this flower. And unlike other flowers

  123. that wilt, this one will never lose its shine, shimmer,

  124. or vigor. And you have been called to be the

  125. protector of the love and beauty of childhood. And let

  126. that effort that prayer, and that fierceness of a father

  127. never dull. That's why we choose this flower. And I

  128. was going to hand it to you, but you got

  129. your hands full, so I am going to hand it

  130. to you for safe keeping. And it is your job

  131. to beat back the wolves. It's your job to protect

  132. the innocence of childhood. And I know that God is

  133. calling you right now to a task that you will

  134. excel at and rise into. I have all the faith

  135. in the world that you're raising champions of the Kingdom

  136. right here in these arms. And Mom, we also have

  137. a copy of God's Word. Our prayer is that when

  138. Autumn begins to ask questions about the Lord, that she'll

  139. ask them to you, and that you'll be able to

  140. use the word of God to guide her into a

  141. saving relationship with Jesus. And our prayer is that it

  142. happens at home. That your home is the center of spirituality,

  143. that it's where they learn to serve the Lord, it's

  144. where they learn to give, where they learn to live selflessly,

  145. and that anointing grows in them as you pour into

  146. their lives. So I want to present you with this

  147. copy of the New Testament, God's word, he Loo, Autumn,

  148. You're you're small, but I'm going to try to hold you, okay, sweetheart,

  149. so come on over, no fumbling right. Amen? Oh wow,

  150. soulb you y'all did good, so beautiful Church, stretch your

  151. hand this way. Father, we pray for your anointing on

  152. Autumn as we dedicate her life to Jesus. Lord, keep

  153. her and protect her, watch over her, stir her, and

  154. make her sensitive to your spirit even at this early age.

  155. Let her know you and your presence, Father, reveal your destiny.

  156. Allow her to do what nobody else has ever done,

  157. to dream dreams that have never been dreamed. But use

  158. her Lord to revolutionize the world. And Father, we pray

  159. for wisdom over these parents, Lord, that you guide them

  160. every step of the way, that you speak to their hearts. Lord,

  161. allow them to be send a obedience to you, or

  162. to take up the mantle of parenthood and never look back,

  163. but be a shining example of what parents are. Father,

  164. we thank you for this opportunity to partner with this

  165. family to grow world changing children in Jesus' name. Amen,

  166. Amen and amen, thank you guys so much. Oh yeah,

  167. I gotta give her to somebody. I can't. I'm getting nervous.

  168. I've held her so long. Amen. We love you guys

  169. so much. If there's anything you need, please let us

  170. know in church. You know your part in this, that

  171. you're gonna pray, that you're gonna watch over, that you're

  172. gonna guide, and that you're going to give any wisdom

  173. that you have in the parenting process. Thank you guys

  174. so much. Amen, let's give them a hand. Amen, We're

  175. going to We're gonna finish up our uh our series

  176. today full house talking about family, and today I want

  177. to uh, I want to talk about something that that

  178. we don't talk a whole lot about in the context

  179. of family. It's something that that we have more or

  180. less just left people to figure out on their own.

  181. And uh, it's a very hard thing, especially as we

  182. have come into the day again and and there is

  183. a historically what happens is every time the economy gets

  184. a little tighter and a little tougher, we start hearing

  185. this this phrase multi generational home over and over and

  186. over again. Because as money titans, that means that resources

  187. run thin, and we have to do things differently than

  188. maybe previous generations or previous years did, and I want

  189. to uh. I want to talk to you specifically about

  190. UH as we age and what that looks like in family,

  191. if you'll get me just a few minutes to do that.

  192. And I want to teach today. I'm not going to preach.

  193. I just want to. I want to share from my heart,

  194. and I want to teach today and hopefully make a

  195. lasting impact in somebody's life and set you free from

  196. some of the guilt that possibly you've operated under and

  197. also some of the questions you may operate under, depending

  198. on which side of this you're standing on. So let's

  199. pray together. Father, I thank you for your mercy and

  200. your grace. I thank you for what you're doing in

  201. each and every person, and I pray today that you

  202. illuminate our path, that you allow us to see your word,

  203. and that your word transforms us today. I ask it

  204. in Jesus' name Amen. In Exodus, chapter twenty, verse twelve,

  205. and also seven other places in scripture, this is not just.

  206. This is not just mentioned in one place, but in

  207. eight places throughout scripture. It reads like this, honor your

  208. father and your mother, that your days may be long

  209. upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

  210. And you know a lot of times we use this

  211. passage of scripture a lot when we have exhausted all

  212. other resources as a parent, we just look at our

  213. kids and say, you know, you're supposed to honor your mother,

  214. your mother and father, and if you're not honoring me,

  215. Jesus is not happy with you. And then that works sometimes.

  216. Come on, somebody, I mean, you know that sometimes we

  217. try to operate in the spiritual gift of guilt and

  218. and that's not a spiritual gift, by the way, uh,

  219. But you know a lot of times that's that we

  220. try to use scripture to do that. But I want

  221. to look at this from several different angles, the whole

  222. concept of honor your father and mother, because we use

  223. this passage of scripture, but the enemy also uses this

  224. passage of scripture against us a lot of times also.

  225. And I know that that just losing my father recently

  226. has given me a different perspective on things. It has

  227. given me a some areas of sympathy and empathy that

  228. maybe I didn't have before, some things I didn't understand.

  229. And I want you to know that your pastor's still

  230. learning every single day as well as I experience new

  231. things in life, and the Lord leads me through those

  232. things and guides me through those things. I want to

  233. pour into your life and help you with those things,

  234. because when my dad passed away, I felt a lot

  235. of guilt, especially in those those first few days. I

  236. suffered through a lot of guilt because I felt I

  237. should have done more. Come on, somebody, I should have

  238. done more. I should have been there more. I should

  239. have I could have if only I would have All

  240. of those questions and all of those things raced through

  241. my mind. And as I spent time with the Lord,

  242. I think he began to show me some things and

  243. clarify some things in my mind. And I want to,

  244. first of all, just go over quickly. And you've all

  245. heard this before kind of the hierarchy or the importance

  246. of the family structure and the family model. And first

  247. of all, in every relationship, our spiritual relationship is number one. Okay,

  248. somebody should have said amen, And that's that's the easy one, right.

  249. I mean, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, souls.

  250. There's there's that shouldn't be one that we ever get

  251. out of order, right, Jesus is first, our relationship with

  252. Jesus's first, Because if our relationship with Jesus is not right,

  253. your relationship with your wife is not gonna be right.

  254. Your relationship with your husband's not gonna be right. Your

  255. relationship with your parents not gonna be right. Your relationship

  256. with your kids not gonna be right. Your first cousin,

  257. your your eighth cousin twice removed, none of those are

  258. gonna be right if our relationship with Jesus is not right,

  259. and we have to bear down. And when we when

  260. we enter into family and the busyness of family, it's

  261. easy for that to be something that slips in our lives.

  262. But you need to maintain not just family time with

  263. the Lord, but still your personal individual time with the Lord.

  264. You need to carve out time for you and Jesus

  265. to spend some time talking, not just you talking, but

  266. also listening to him speak as well. So that first

  267. in that hierarchy, that first relationship is spiritual, and then

  268. that second one is our spouse. It's that spousal relationship.

  269. It's listen, I'm giving them to you in the hierarchical order.

  270. That means this is the proper order they belong in. Now,

  271. I see especially in the American family, that these things

  272. get all twisted and out of order. But it's Jesus

  273. then our husband or our wife. Let me go ahead

  274. and clarify that. If you're a man, it's a relationship

  275. with your wife, if you're if you're a woman, it's

  276. a relationship with your husband. You can read between the

  277. lines and see what I'm saying. I don't want to

  278. get knocked off Facebook, but you understand what I'm saying.

  279. There is a husband and a wife, a man and

  280. a woman, and that really relationship is the next most

  281. important relationship that we have. So it's spiritual, then spousal,

  282. and then the parental relationship. Your kids come second to

  283. your marriage. Amen. Listen, you brought them into the world.

  284. You can take them out of the world and make

  285. another one if you're I'm just kidding you shouldn't do that,

  286. but you can make another one if you need to. Amen. Amen.

  287. I mean that's just that's humor. That's humor. Don't send

  288. me an email that's humor. That's humor. Uh. That that

  289. relationship with our children is one that that does take

  290. up a lot of time or all of our time

  291. if we allow it, and both of those other two

  292. will pay the price if we don't keep that higher

  293. archical order, if we don't make Jesus first, that spousal

  294. relationship second, and then the parental relationship third. Listen, dad,

  295. you need to continue to take your wife out on dates.

  296. And if you don't like to go out, you need

  297. to have a movie night. You need to get kick

  298. the kids out of the room, and you need to

  299. watch a movie and make special popcorn, not the same

  300. cheap popcorn that you make your kids. Buy some high

  301. dollar popcorn somewhere instead of two dollars a bag, buy

  302. some four dollars a bag popcorn, and do it once

  303. a night. I'm not once a night, and have it

  304. once a week at least, and have that time with

  305. your wife so she feels special, and also so your

  306. kids see the proper relationship and hierarchical model. They see

  307. it happen in real life. That they don't just hear

  308. the preach or preach about it, but they see it happen.

  309. Your marriage should not come should not come secondary to

  310. your children. And then the last in that order is

  311. your social relationships. Friendships are beyond that. We don't ever

  312. put friendships in front of our children, or our wife

  313. or the Lord. And I think most of us know

  314. that that hierarchical order. I just wanted to bring an emphasis.

  315. But now when we use terms like this multi generational homes,

  316. or we have parents that are aging and they need

  317. our care and there's some responsibility there, things can get

  318. dicey pretty quick if we don't understand what the word says,

  319. and the enemy can get involved and really bring some

  320. pressure into our lives if we don't have clarity about

  321. what the Lord wants for us. And in order to

  322. have clarity for that, we kind of need to see

  323. where that transition point is. Because there is a transition point.

  324. You know, we throw out eighteen years old, right, I mean,

  325. we're just gonna keep them alive till they're eighteen. Then

  326. they're on their own. And that is a model of

  327. parenting that I have seen. But it's not a proper

  328. scriptural one either. The great reset happens in Genesis chapter two.

  329. In Genesis chapter two, verse twenty four, it says, therefore

  330. a man shall leave his father and mother and be

  331. joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

  332. When when someone gets married, there is a shift in

  333. the hierarchical set up in that person's life. You move

  334. out from the child in a relationship to being the

  335. parent or to being the head or the spouse in

  336. a relationship, and that dynamic changes. And when that dynamic changes,

  337. it should change. Come on, somebody, that dynamic should change.

  338. In other words, there should be very little unsol and listen,

  339. I'm talking. I'm talking to the parents of those that

  340. are married, now talking to the parents of chill ldren

  341. that are married. There should be very little unsolicited input

  342. into their life and their marriage and their relationships. I

  343. will say that again just to make sure that we

  344. got it recorded. Uh, there should be very little and

  345. here's the word unsolicited input. Now, should should you answerr questions?

  346. If your son or daughter asked, absolutely, you should. You're

  347. still their parent, but the dynamic has changed, the hierarchical

  348. order has changed, and they need you to be there

  349. when they're seeking advice. You don't tell them what to

  350. do anymore. The dynamic changed. And if you continue to

  351. tell them what to do, if you continue to interfere,

  352. what's going to happen is there's going to be a

  353. division in some relationship. It may not be your relationship

  354. with your thing is killing me today. It may not be.

  355. It may not be a change in your relationship with

  356. your child. As a matter of fact, you may get

  357. them back in your house. I'm just saying, if you

  358. continue to interfere, you may interfere in another relationship, and

  359. it breaks another relationship. Because anytime things move out of order,

  360. there is pressure created, there's friction created, and friction only

  361. will last so long before there's a breakage. And we

  362. have to understand that our role when our children get

  363. married is to step back and then be one that

  364. answers questions, and we work in an advisory capacity, but

  365. we no longer get to tell them what to do.

  366. Come on, somebody, now, I know somebody's gonna ask that question.

  367. What about my child that's thirty five years old and

  368. is not married. You're still father, mother, they're still child.

  369. There's nothing magical, spiritual, scriptural that happens at eighteen years old.

  370. We don't see eighteen years old in scripture at all

  371. until that dynamic changes, because the blending of identities happen

  372. the two become one at marriage, not before. You're still

  373. their parent. You still need to give solicited input, you

  374. need to tell them to find a husband or wife

  375. because you tired of raising them. Come on, somebody, Sometimes

  376. it's good to just say, fly free bird, just have

  377. that conversation, and then every time you walk by, for

  378. now and just go and they'll just get get the

  379. picture right. So that's what we do. And listen, I

  380. know who we're laughing. But the reality is is these

  381. are family dynamics that I see happen all the time,

  382. and if we don't understand them, we can't approach them

  383. from a scriptural standpoint. But now let's talk about what

  384. happens as those parents begin to aid and they enter

  385. into that phase that I refer to that I coin

  386. as the end of life. Face. Now, first of all,

  387. I'm fifty two years old. I turned fifty two years

  388. old last week. I'm not yet in the end of life. Face.

  389. Y'all might think I am, but I'm not. I'm talking

  390. about that time where we begin to realize we're moving

  391. into the last stages of our life. And that's cognition

  392. that happens, and we all understand when we're moving into that,

  393. and that happens at different ages for different people. And

  394. I have moved into a different stage of my life,

  395. and it's changed my perspective and I view things differently

  396. because suddenly I woke up just probably a month and

  397. a half ago, and suddenly I'm conscious of my own mortality,

  398. of my physical body and my mortality. I unders that

  399. what I need to achieve, I need to achieve quickly

  400. because I don't have the amount of time that I

  401. used to have. So building legacy is the most important

  402. thing to me. Making sure everything is in alignment and

  403. everything is taken care of is very important to me now.

  404. And to build this thing so that whoever's next that

  405. it's left in their hands, and that with my family

  406. and my children, that that legacy is built. And I'm

  407. chasing those things and the Lord is opening those doors

  408. and pointing me in the right direction. But then there's

  409. another shift that happens where we realize that we're winding down,

  410. that it's not about legacy anymore. It's about reflection. Come on, somebody,

  411. It's about reflecting on the life we've lived. It's about

  412. looking backwards and reflecting and thinking about all of the

  413. good times that we had. That is that end of

  414. life stage that I'm talking about, And I want you

  415. to hear me. I want you to hear me if

  416. you are in that stage. I want you to hear me,

  417. if you're helping your parents while they're living in that stage.

  418. That stage of life is naturally and scripturally a more

  419. lonely component and season of life than any other season

  420. of life. It's just naturally that way. In scripture, we

  421. see that as people move towards the end of life,

  422. it is just a naturally more lonely place. It's a

  423. more lonely place because it's designed for reflection. It's designed

  424. to look back at the things I got right and

  425. the things I got wrong, and leave the wisdom that

  426. I've learned behind for the next generation. I want to

  427. encourage you, if you feel like you're in that stage

  428. of life, if you're entering that stage of life, to

  429. keep a journal, in journal every single day, the memories

  430. that you're looking back upon, the wisdom that you've gained,

  431. all of the insights that you have in life. That listen,

  432. my mom has insights on life that I don't have

  433. because she's lived through things that I haven't lived through.

  434. Come on, somebody, she lived through me, Come on something.

  435. I mean, that's listen. Just in case one of my

  436. kids have a kid like me, they need some wisdom

  437. on how to make it and survive that. Amen, write

  438. those things down if you don't know how. If your

  439. handwriting has gotten so bad that you can't write, turn

  440. your telephone on every day and speak into your phone

  441. and make a video for thirty seconds every single day

  442. of the wisdom and the life lessons you've learned. And families,

  443. if you are in that stage of life where you

  444. have a parent that's entered that end of life situation,

  445. you need to understand that the priority and the way

  446. those things are structured, it has to be that those

  447. that are in the beginning of life get a larger

  448. portion of your time than those that are in the

  449. end of life. Listen, this is hard for me to

  450. say because we have a very diverse congregation and we

  451. have people at every stage of life in this congregation.

  452. But I just want to give you transparently. What Scripture

  453. says is that those that are younger need more input

  454. from us, that are in what I call the productive

  455. stage of life, where we're in the producing stage of life,

  456. they need more assistance from us than those that are

  457. in the end of life. So we have to give

  458. the majority of our time without guilt and without any

  459. of those things. Now, as we enter into that end

  460. of life stage, am I helping anybody? Says? Okay, Amen,

  461. y'all looking at me quiet? And sometimes I don't know

  462. if you're just like just get over or I'm learning something.

  463. I hope you're learning something today. But as we enter

  464. that there are some natural fears and insecurities. There's every

  465. time we transition from one mode of life into another

  466. mode of life or stage of life, there are some

  467. natural fears and insecurities that grip us because it's unknown,

  468. it's new. We don't we're processing things differently than we've

  469. ever processed, and we must understand that those fears and

  470. those insecurities are natural, and those things are to be

  471. solved by the Lord, not by our children, not by

  472. our grandchildren, not by our great grandchildren. But we are

  473. to process those things and come to a knowledge of

  474. who Jesus is. In the stage of life that we're

  475. living in, things are not going to be like they were,

  476. Things are not going to look like they've always been.

  477. I'm not going to be able to do all of

  478. those things that I used to do because I cannot

  479. be dependent on someone who is in the productive stage,

  480. or trying to raise someone who is in the beginning

  481. of life, because there's not enough time to do all

  482. those things. As a matter of fact, in two Timothy,

  483. Chapter one, verse seven, this goes for every stage of life.

  484. The Lord tells us. For God, it's not given us

  485. a spirit of fear, but of power and of love

  486. and of a sound mind. He hasn't given us a

  487. spirit of fear, but He's called us to be a

  488. champion over the situation and the circumstance that we're facing

  489. right now. It doesn't matter what that is. It doesn't

  490. matter if it looks new, It doesn't matter if it

  491. feels lonely or if it feels busy. God has given

  492. us the ability to overcome those things if we just

  493. lean into Him. And our leaning may look different and

  494. it may feel different, but we have to learn to

  495. adapt and adjust right where we are so that we

  496. can get His peace even in the last stages of

  497. our life. And I don't want to preach this. I

  498. don't want to preach this because I want to see

  499. everybody live every single day of their life with the

  500. same vigor and vitality and energy and all of those things.

  501. But the reality is we don't and we have to

  502. come to a realization of what those things look at

  503. look like from us to our family and from our

  504. family to us, and being the wiser in every situation,

  505. it's our responsibility to make sure that there's not fear,

  506. there's not anxiety, there's not stress and worry and all

  507. of those things, that we're still guiding the way. If

  508. you're the patriarch or matriarch of your home, that you're

  509. still guiding the way. We must learn to trust him

  510. in every stage of life. Pastor Clay, you guys can

  511. come and get ready. In Matthew chapter twelve, verse forty six,

  512. it says, while he was still talking to the multitudes,

  513. behold his mother and brother stood outside seeking to speak

  514. with him. Then one said to him, Look, your mother

  515. and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you.

  516. This is one of the most powerful statements Jesus made

  517. about family in the kingdom. But he answered and and

  518. said to the one who told him, who is my mother?

  519. Who are my brothers? He stretched out his hand toward

  520. his disciples and said, here are my mother and my brothers.

  521. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven

  522. is my brother and sister and mother. Jesus took that

  523. old statement, and I know you've all heard it, blood

  524. is thicker than water, and he flipped it on its

  525. head and he said, hey, you know what, that may be, right,

  526. but I created blood and water. I created blood and

  527. water and our faith line. It's more important in our

  528. blood life who God's calling us to be, so much

  529. more important than who we are genetically. And I want

  530. you to know, if you feel like you're alone, and

  531. you've gone through life alone, all you need to do

  532. is trust Jesus, and you've inherited a family that encompasses

  533. the whole world and that is empowered to do the

  534. miraculous in you, through you, and around you in whatever

  535. stage in life we are, if we will grasp the

  536. reality of the moment and what God is trying to

  537. do in us right now, what God is trying to

  538. do in you in this moment, everything from the little

  539. baby we just dedicated to the high schoolers, it just

  540. went through. One of the coolest rites of passage we

  541. have in our society here in America, especially one of

  542. the very few rites of passage we have is graduation.

  543. That Each one of those stages holds its own challenges,

  544. its own opportunities. As we continue to serve the Lord,

  545. we can't do it with the guilt of what should

  546. I only if we have to chase the Lord, understanding

  547. that we all have a responsibility as individuals to pursue him.

  548. That I can't pursue him for somebody else, and I

  549. can't be shackled with the guilt of not having the

  550. ability listen to me, of not having the ability to

  551. do Now, don't leave here and think that I'm telling

  552. you to throw your parents out on the curve. That's

  553. not what I'm telling you to do. But I'm telling

  554. you to do what you can. And what you can

  555. do is enough. When you do what you can, it's enough,

  556. when you've done everything you can, it's enough. Because God

  557. meets us at the end of our can and he

  558. steps in and he does the impossible. Where you don't

  559. think there's going to be a road, where you don't

  560. think there's going to be away, God makes a way

  561. and a road. He always will go into the sea,

  562. he'll go into the wilderness, and he'll carve out a path.

  563. And it doesn't matter what stage of life we're in.

  564. There's a path to follow, you know. I I look

  565. at things like this and it reminds me of how

  566. our church is growing and transitioning. You know. When I

  567. first became the lead pastor, one of the one of

  568. the biggest things that people would come to me and

  569. say is how come there's only kids on the stage

  570. singing and playing? That's what they say. Why are only

  571. young people on the stage? And I would say, well,

  572. first of all, they're the only ones that know how

  573. to play an instrument. If you don't know how to

  574. play the guitar, I'm not going to put you on

  575. the stage with a guitar. Amen. And now people come

  576. and say, hey, how do you get how do you

  577. get so many people with families in the busyness of

  578. life to commit to do what they do? You know,

  579. And if we continue to go the way we're going,

  580. in a few years, there's going to be a new

  581. generation that comes up and says, how come there's only

  582. old people that are on the stage. Some of y'all

  583. think that anyway, But every church transitions, Every church goes

  584. through the same thing that individuals go through. We have

  585. different challenges and as I've looked, and I've watched these

  586. people become families. It so blesses my heart. And as

  587. I see you navigate the challenges of your family, it

  588. so blessed my heart. Right now, you have the opportunity.

  589. If you came here today and you're not in God's family,

  590. you're not part of the kingdom. You've never asked Jesus

  591. to forgive you of your sins to be the lord

  592. of your life, you have an opportunity to do that

  593. right now. He gave everything to you, and your heavenly

  594. Father sacrificed everything for you to have an opportunity to

  595. trust him and live in eternity with him. If you will,

  596. everybody stand with me all over the field. And if

  597. you're here and you've never asked Jesus to be your lord,

  598. but today you want to trust him. You want that

  599. peace of God that passes all understanding. You want the

  600. wisdom to navigate the deal for seasons of life and

  601. to know how to deal with how to navigate our

  602. aging parents, how to care for them. Jesus has all

  603. that wisdom for you. If you're here today and you

  604. want to surrender your life to them so you can

  605. have that wisdom. I'm going to count to three, and

  606. when I get to three, if you want to trust

  607. Jesus today with your life, we want to come to

  608. him for the very first time or come back to

  609. him again. I want to invite you to step out

  610. and move. When I count to three, the bands they're

  611. gonna start singing, and we're gonna worship together, and then

  612. we're gonna end the day with communion. It's on the

  613. count of three. I want you to step and come one, two, three.

  614. I want to trust Jesus with my life. I want

  615. to come back to