Walk This Way - Week 2

Let's read Ecclesiastes, chapter four, verse nine. Ecclesiastes, chapter four,

verse nine, it says two are better than one because they have a good

reward for their labor. Two are better than one because they have a good

reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his

companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he

has no one to help him up. Let me stop right there, back

back during the first part of the summer, I have a bunch of animals

at my house, and I was going back behind my house just to you

know, do what I do, feed the animals, water to animals,

do all that stuff. And I was walking down. We got a kind

of a wrap around walkway that goes all the way around the back of our

house. And the water was if y'all have never seen my house, we

live on like the side of a mountain. I mean, it's just like

steep like that, and the water runs real fast, so you know,

it washes away so sometimes over beside that that, you know, it's a

pretty steep drop off like that. And I was walking back and I just

minding my own business. I was going to see my chickens, and out

of the corner of my eye saw something weird at the rabbit cage, and

I turned around. When I turned, I stepped, and I stepped off

the edge of that walkway and I started falling. Come on, somebody,

how many of you know you start falling, but you don't finish falling for

a long time. So I started falling, and I thought I had recovered,

but my head was just too far gone. It was too far over

my feet, and I started falling, and somehow I got both feet back

up on the walkway, but I was still falling. And then I realized

I have elevated myself to a higher platform to fall from now, and I

start falling and I get to the end, and my only option was just

kind of and I don't know why I thought this was a good idea,

but I did. I just jumped and when I hit I hid in this

gravel mulch. My feet went over. I'm a big man, and I'm

not as young as I used to be, amen and my feet came over

my head and hit the ground and I felt them bounce off the ground back

into place, and everything just kind of stopped. It was like freeze.

Motion as I was just dug into the ground with my chest and I was

the only one there. Angie w wasn't home, LEXI wasn't home, and

I remember thinking I'm gonna die laying in chicken manure. That was the thought

that was going through mine. I could taste it, I could feel it.

I was, I mean, just blunt forced trauma to the chest.

I was already hurting and sore all at the same time, and I remember

thinking, I don't know if I can get up. I laid there for

a while and rolled over on my I guess I want to get both sides

covered real good. Rolled over and laid there, and eventually I did get

up. But you know, this scripture came to my mind because what if

what if I was alone and I couldn't get up? Eventually somebody would have

smelled me and come and found me, unless my chickens ate me. But

if you ever thought about when you fall, then if you're alone, there's

nobody there to help you get up. That the pain that we experience from

a physical fall or an emotional fall, or financial fall or relational fall,

a help fall doesn't matter what area of our lives. But if we're alone.

We don't have anybody to help us recover from those things. And the

reality is that everybody in this room, everybody under the sound of my voice,

at some point in their life, will have a stumble and a fall.

And many times when we stumble and we fall, it's something that we've

done, and we're so embarrassed or so filled with shame that even the people

that are in our lives, we don't let them in because we just want

it to go away. But we have those repercussions from the fall. But

the Bible says two is better than one, because woe to the man who

falls and he's alone. But when I look at the church world, there's

a whole lot of lonely believers who struggle with life because there's nobody there to

pick them up when they fall. In verse eleven, he says, again,

if two lie down together, this is so appropriate for today, isn't

it. If too lie down together, they'll keep warm. But how can

one be warm alone? That there's some some survival principles. There's just there's

just something there, something radiant about being with other people, about being with

somebody who who we allow to do life close enough that we can feel their

warmth. You know, right now we're in a room full of people.

But just because you're in a room full of people doesn't mean you've allowed somebody

to get close enough to you that you feel their warmth. By honest show

of hands, how many of you've ever been in a season of life?

Maybe you are now, but you've ever gone through a season of life where

you're surrounded by people but you still feel lonely. We've all been there.

But you know what, it's not the people's fault. Most of the time.

We blame people, right, we blame people. We we come to

to church and we we say these things when we get out of the car.

We rationalize these things in our mind and we say, you know what,

I'm gonna go in church, and uh, nobody talks to me and

nobody likes me there. But I'm gonna go into church and I just God,

I just want you to send somebody to sit down beside me and ask

me if I'm okay, and and pray with me. But I'm not gonna

move out of my chair. God, you send them to me, and

God saying go tell somebody. It's like that old story that that we heard

you know this. People were down in Louisiana when when when the hurricane hit,

the water started rising. The water started coming up, got up to

the second floor, and they climbed up on the roof. They said,

Lord, send me help or I'm gonna drowned. This person in this big,

old four wheel drive truck came pulling up front of their tree. Say

hey, jump on in the truck. We will carry you over to the

shelter. Everything's dry over there. Jump in the truck, and now yell

back. No, no, no, no, the Lord's gonna save me.

Okay. Water kept going up. Guy came by in a bass boat

and said, hey, jump in the boat. I'm gonna go over to

the camp. Is dry over there. No no, no, no no,

the Lord's gonna save me. Kept going up. Person got up on

top of the chimney. Helicopter came by, threw down a lifeline, said

hey, put this, wrap this under your arms. We're gonna pick you

up. We're gonna carry you over to the shelter. It's dry over there.

They say, no, no, no, no, go ahead,

the Lord's gonna save me. About twenty minutes later, person woke up in

heaven. The Lord was standing there just staring, and they said, Lord,

I thought you were gonna save me. And the Lord said, why

are you talking about? I sent a truck, a boat, in a

helicopter. What else was I supposed to do? But we're not willing to

get in somebody else's boat. We're not willing to ask for help. We're

not willing to let people in our lives because we look at these scriptures and

we think, hey, it's their fault that I'm alone. But really,

truly it's our fault because all we can do is offer an opportunity for connection.

We can't make you connect, and that's what groups are all about.

It's an opportunity for you to find connection to do life so you don't fall

by yourself and you don't get cold, and you can experience somebody else's warmth

in your life. The one may be overpowered by another two can withstand him

a three cord rope. It's not easily broken. See, there's something about

us and other people connecting in the presence of God. He's the third that

gets involved with those covenant relationships we have with people. And as we get

involved in covenant relationships with people, and the Lord begins to work and move.

See, we have some promises available to us that we don't have alone.

That prayer of agreement where two or three touching any one thing are shall

be done by our Father in heaven, that where two or three are gathered

in his name, he's there in the midst of them, those promises that

if I fall and I'm with people, they'll pick me up. I soul

just want to grab you sometimes and shake you by the shoulders and say get

involved in a group or else, because I know how important it is.

In Ezekiel chapter sixteen, there's this this amazing story. It's actually a prophecy

about Israel. Wants to look at it from a from a literal place today.

The Ezekiel chapter sixteen and verse four says, ask for your nativity on

the day you were born. Your navel cord was not cut, nor were

you washed in water to cleanse you. You were not rubbed with salt,

nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. No eye pitied you to do any of these

things for you to have compassion on you. But you were thrown out into

the open field when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.

And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood,

I said to you, and your blood live, Yes, I said to

you, in your blood live. This story of the prophet walking by this

baby, and it's an image that we missed many times if we don't understand

the cultural significance of that time. The reason the baby was discarded would have

been because as it was born, it was born with the cord wrapped around

its neck, which in those days they had surmise through bird that when a

baby is born with the cord wrapped around its neck, its brain had been

deprived of oxygen through the developmental process and therefore would have some some handicaps and

some limitations, and that was seen as shame on a family and also seen

as someone that would have to be cared for for an entire life. And

times were hard come on somebody, so they would just simply discard the child

instead of having to care for it. And to make a way, I

want you to think about the significance of that cord being the thing that caused

the trauma, The thing that was supposed to supply life and nourishment and vitality

was the very thing squeezing the life out of that baby. That thing that

it it trusted by nature the most, was the very thing that was harming

it and caused it to be left alone, struggling and suffering no cause of

its own. You know, there is no hurt that when we get hurt

by something that is supposed to be the thing that supports us and nourishes us,

something that is closed a relationship, a family member, a spouse,

a brother, a sister, whatever it is, that thing that is supposed

to give nourishment at a deep, deep level. And when we come to

the place where we realize we've been hurt by the thing that's supposed to nourish

us, we find ourselves laying and our own helplessness, injured beyond anything we

could ever remain. And this prophet walked by this baby that was alone,

and he spoke the words of life. He looked at the baby and he

said live. I say you will live and not die. Do you realize

that the power of life and death is in the tongue? Let me say

that again. It's not hocus Pocus's Bible. The power of life and death

is in the tongue. We have the power to speak life and vitality to

other people. When we are, when we are wrapped up, when we

are are invested in one another, and we give someone the right to speak

into our lives, they can literally speak the words of life, of encouragement,

of accountability, of all of the things that group life brings when we're

open to that and we allow that to be spoken to the deep part of

our lives, to our ears. You know, somebody without relationship speaks and

they speak to our ears. But somebody that we have relationship with, someone

that we have trusted, someone that we're doing life with, when they speak,

it speaks to our heart. And the heart is the seat of life.

It's the place of being, it's the place of vitality. It's the

place of life. And when we allow someone to speak not to our ears,

but to our heart, it invigorates us and can be just enough to

keep us moving. And this prophet speaks and he says live. And then

he picked this child up out of its blood and he took it. And

if you continue to read the narrative, it says that he put bracelets on

her arm and a necklace around her neck, and she literally went from a

place of being destitute to being a princess. That the elevation of status because

someone took the time time to speak life. Are you taking the time to

invest and speak life. Are you taking the time to invest so someone can

speak life? Because the reality is we all struggle. We all have those

moments where we need encouragement, where we need that life invested in us.

As I look through this room and I make eye contact with some of you,

I know some of the hard things you've struggled through, and I've watched

people come alongside you and speak life and encouragement. And that happens automatically when

we get involved in groups. You know, we have an incredible women's group.

Let me tell you how you qualify. You're a woman, not not

a cultural not not cold, truly biologically amen. So guys, you don't

identify and go you gotta be a woman because they talk about women things because

you know, a lot of times women struggle with different things that men struggle

with. And it's important to have a place where you do life together as

a woman and you have people to connect with. You know, we got

a we got a men's group too, because I know for a fact,

I have problems that my wife don't have. Listen, men have it a

lot harder than women. Jay Shaw didn't know. We have it worse than

anybody, and we need support. We need listen. We need to be

able to watch ball games all Saturday therapeutic. We need to go to the

gun range and just shoot sometimes. We need to get together and have Joe

entertain us, which he's He's a very entertaining man. Joe, stand up.

Joe's gonna be leading our men's group on Wednesday nights. So this is

Joe. If you're interested, if you're a man, you need to connect

with him because he's gonna be leading the men's group this term. Where's Jan

at? Jan? I missed you? Stand up? This is our women's

group leader. Jan. You know, maybe maybe you have maybe you have

interest in hobbies and you want to connect on the interesting hobby level, or

maybe you want to learn how to do something. You know, old world

skills are more important now than they've ever in. Y'all probably need to learn

how to milk a cow and a goat. But we don't have a cow

milk and goat milking class yet. But uh, but we do have knitting

and crochet. Stand up back there, least stand up and just wave at

everybody. And knitters and crowcheers are invited in anybody else, And hey,

will you teach them how to do it? She could teach you to crochet.

You go on. You're on your own with YouTube if you need to

knit, though, but we can get together and have a good time.

Last Rady and a Lane are not here this morning. They may be iterating

this morning. They're they're full they're full time missionaries out on the field.

But Last is a anti trafficking group where they bring awareness and support and leadership

in the arena of human trafficking. So if that is something thing that's in

your heart being outreached, driven like that, Last is the place for you.

Then there is a uh, the Special Families Group. Where are at

Chase and Kelse? Hey, are you guys in here? They're out there,

They're they're out there. Okay, see here's the here. Let me

tell you why. I don't know if y'all in here, because I have

to put these on to read this tiny little piece of paper pastor clay printed

all this stuff on. And everybody over the age of fifty is applauding right

now. But when I put these on, I can't see who y'all are,

so I just I don't know if they're here or not. But listen,

this is a This is a group. Special Families is a is a

group designed for families that are learning to do life like a lot of families

don't have to, and they have special needs children, and it is a

demanding life, a life that that you may not have compassion for, but

it is one that's a very real life. And this is going to be

a place where where those families can get together and just listen, laugh together,

cry together, get frustrated together, come on somebody, and do all

those things. But a place to connect and do life together. And I

am so excited because I believe that's something that we have really needed. And

then there's Grief Share. Kathy stand up, please, ma'am. Ms.

Kathy is so anointed to lead this group. There have been so many testimonies

of lives changed as people learn how to process through grief and learn how to

do that. And listen, if you're struggling with loss and it doesn't matter,

don't minimize your loss, don't minimize, don't compare your loss to somebody

else's loss and say my loss is not signific because loss is not even the

issue. The grief is the issue. If you're stuck in the grief process,

well how do you know you're still in it? Well, it just

happened yesterday. You need grief share. What happened six years ago? You

need grief Share. It helps you process through that and get healing, to

be able to get past that and to be able to step into all that

God has for you. So talk to miss Cathy. If you just feel

like, hey, you know, I don't think I've processed through whatever it

is you think you've processed through, it doesn't matter. Listen, if you

had a dog for seventeen years and that dog died and it broke your heart

and you just can't get over it, go to grief Share. Don't minimize

your grief because the enemy uses a tool against you. A prayer group so

much more than prayer. These guys just are really connected at the life level.

They share, they're open, they they they truly just are there to

support one another. I mean it meets right here. Barry stand up and

uh, Barry is the leader of that group, and he's trying to he

does a tremendous job of empowering other people as well. We're so blessed to

have leaders like Barry in our church. Then we have a Sunday a Sunday

Morning study group that's over here in room one eight. Thank y'all for saying,

oh yeah, there, it is right there in room one o eight

that meets at ten o'clock. Great again, so much connection that happens in

that group. They do so much for each other in support and life.

Just a powerful group. Our Senior Adults group meets once a month on a

Saturday. They have lunch together. Usually they do those things and you need

to see Wanda Walker for that. I don't see Wanda this morning, but

but that's tremendous. You can find all these groups if you go to care

No, if you go to seastone dot church slash groups and you can email

the leader from that portal. Another group that started last turn that's gonna continue.

Birds on a Wire that is that that's miss Amber who who sings and

plays keyboard and it's a group for ladies and moms to just get together and

hang out. Listen, if your kids are driving you nuts, come talk

to Amber about it. She's not gonna fix it, but she's gonna help

you get through it. Just a place to connect. Our homesteading group and

that is learn to grow stuff, learn all those things and Joe Fulcher does

a tremendous job with that. And that meets on Fridays at seven pm down

in the Annex. And then Coffee Chats is a new group that's launching this

time with Kayla and Brittany, and that's gonna meet at Starbucks and Brazleton on

Thursdays at six thirty And it's just a kind of a place for ladies to

get together and connect and just talk about life and do those things. And

also we have a middle school Some of you may not know, but we

actually have a middle school group that meets simultaneous with with this service. They're

in the Annex right now meeting. So if you have a middle school student,

that's a great place for them to connect with other middle schoolers and maybe

get a little bit better connection with Pastor Clay, pastor Wendy than they can

on Wednesday nights when the older bully kids are here. So just know that

that we want them to get involved. We have a place for you to

connect. We have a place that whatever you're struggling with, you can get

involved in a group and connect and they can help you overcome. It doesn't

matter what you're struggling with. Listen. If you're struggling with addiction, get

involved in the Men's group. Doesn't have to be an addiction group. If

you're struggling with depression, get involved in the Homestead group. Because group life

is about connecting with people and people speak life. You know, I think

that a lot of us go through our lives. Pastor Clay, you guys

can come and get ready. A lot of us go through our lives and

we experience things and we're surrounded by the wrong people. I'm going to say

that again because somebody just felt that. I could feel it just kind of

you go through stuff and you're surrounded by the wrong people, and the wrong

people give bad advice. As a matter of fact, if the first thing

out of their mouth is advice, they're the wrong people. Oh let me

say that again. If the first thing out of their mouth is advice,

it's probably the wrong people. The first thing out of their mouth should be

compassion. The first thing out of their mouth should be acceptance. The first

thing out of their mouth should be life, not advice. The prophet did

not walk up to that baby and say, hey, want you to take

that cord out from around your neck and get out of that pool of blood.

If the baby could have done that, it wouldn't be laying in the

field anymore. If you could untangle the things around your life, you wouldn't

be entangled in them anymore. You need somebody to speak life, somebody to

lift you up, not just to give you advice and pass you on your

way. You know, we surrounded by people that in our struggles, they

look at us, pastor Clay, and they say, oh, you know

that runs in your family. Oh, depression, don't that run in your

family? How many have you ever heard that that runs in your family?

Oh? Man, you come from a long line of atticts. Well,

your great grandpa was a was a drunk, Your grandpa was a drunk,

daddy was a anna stoner. Becomes natural to you, runs in your family.

You don't need somebody to tell you that. You need somebody to look

at you and say, hey, you know what m HM. Addiction ran

in your family until it ran into you, and now because it's run into

you, it's gonna be broke from the next generation because I'm gonna get involved

in life here, and we're gonna have some accountability talks, and we're gonna

we're gonna pray for you, and we're gonna love on you, and we're

gonna make sure that you clean. We're gonna make sure that you get where

you're going because greater is he who is in you than he who is in

the world, and the destiny that's locked in you is too important for you

to continue to struggle. So listen, whatever that struggle was, it ran

in your family, it messed up when it ran into you. Because we're

gonna breathe life and help and vitality and big into your life until you become

a victor, and then you're gonna help other people up the mountain too.

Church. It's not about a program. If I thought groups was just a

program to give somebody else something to do, we wouldn't do it. We

do everything we can to keep you out there as much as possible. We

we we we do everything we can here to keep you involved with your lost

neighbors, with your lost coworkers as much as possible. That's why we don't

have meetings every single night. That's why we don't. We we don't try

to to get together and preach every chance we get. If we didn't think

groups pulled the anointing out of you and opened other people up to experience the

anointing in you, we wouldn't do them if we didn't think it was life

changing. It's imported. I know when Pastor Gary and I not. I

mean, when Pastor Gary first started in ministry, that was like I mean,

Peter rode dinosaurs to church. I mean, you know, but in

the early days, and it was frustrating. We'll admit it now. Want

we now that we don't do these things anymore to get up every Sunday morning

preach a message, then to get up every Sunday night and preach another one,

then to come in here on Wednesdays preach another one, only to see

people continue to walk in the struggles that they had walked in. Because preaching

brings people to a point of decision where they make a decision, but they

have to walk that decision out in the context of life and relationships. So

now we do Sunday morning, we give you a little bite sized piece of

life, Take it and do something with it. I don't care if you

leave here and say Pastor Steve is the shallowest preacher I've ever heard. He

don't teach nothing. We hadn't heard no theology, he hadn't mentioned the Book

of Revelation, he hadn't talked one thing about the deep things of God.

Then we ain't for you. I want to give you a bite of spiritual

protein that you can chew up and expend those calories, getting your life just

a little bit better every week, and then get in a group and find

support and structure and accountability and do life with other believers so that a different

anointing can speak into your life instead of just mine. Because if it's just

mine, you're gonna have the weak areas that I have. You're gonna be

strong in the things I'm strong in, and that's gonna leave a church that

has a lot of holes and gaps and weaknesses. If we're all strong in

the same thing. We want you to do life together because every person here

has a different and unique annointing, and you have the ability to speak into

things and speak into lives that I don't have because you're you, and you're

unique, and you're wonderfully made. Stop robbing people of the valuable anointing you

have by not being in a group. Everybody's staying with me because maybe you're

here today and you're thinking, I don't even know if I like church people.

I mean, that might be the case. Maybe you're covered with guilt

and shame and struggle and you just don't know where to turn and what to

do. I want to read you one passage of scripture out of Second Corinthians,

chapter five. Today can be a new beginning, and you can get

involved in a group and walk in the freedom you find this morning. It

says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,

brand new. You're not who they said you were. You're not those

mistakes that you made when you were in Christ. You were a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold all things, not some things,

not some things, not just those things, not just those things, all

things. Everything becomes new. If you're here today and you're looking for a

restart, if you want to hit reset, I know you could aggravated when

I call you up here too early. I may have done it today.

Sorry, he says, All the time, Chief, you called us up

there you just kept on talking. Maybe this will resonate with somebody. Though.

When I used to play video games, I would I would be playing.

And if I ever started getting beat, right because I'm gonna keep my

perfect season. If I ever started getting beat, I learned it. I

can just reach up hit the reset. But did start the game over.

I never lost. Never because when it looked like I was going to reset.

There there is a reset button for life, and it's Jesus. It's

Jesus now. I don't care if you've come down here and you've prayed one

hundred times one oh one can be your reset button right here today, on

this cold January afternoon. But if you're here you say, pastor, I

just I really do need a recept I'm hurt, I'm broken, full of

shame and guilt. Today I want to I want to hit that button,

start near and get involved with a group of people that will help me on

the path. Today's your damn will count to three. If that's you,

I want you to step out from where you're standing and make your way to

the front. Just need a recess at giving up hope, need a reset.

You feel like there's there's no way out. Reset. It's on the

count of three. If that's you and you want to hit the reset button.

Today, of all things will come near. Step out, make your

way to the front. One, two, three, Step out and move

right. Now, come on, Pastor Clay, let's seek