Sacred Spaces | Week 2 | Pastor Micah Sutton | Five Lakes Church

And

We're talking about some pretty big stuff in our, in our lives right now, we're talking about sacred spaces, sacred spaces.

And when we talk about sacred spaces, we were talking about things that are set apart.

That's what sacred means sacred means set apart.

And in today we don't use the term sacred very often because, uh, well, there's not a lot of things that are truly set apart that are unchangeable, untouchable, things that are, are special in a very particular way.

Things that, that we will not change and that we will sacrifice other things because of that.

Uh, you know, historically there were some things that you didn't talk about and I'm not talking about politics and religion.

I'm talking about certain areas of life and certain areas of, of activity in, in individual lives.

That today are just kind of normal conversation.

It's not really set apart anymore.

We, we, we struggle to find things in our world now that are truly unique or special in the unchangeable thing.

But this series we're talking about sacred things, things that God calls sacred and things that we should consider sacred in our lives.

And last week we said that the thing's got, no, we didn't say this last week, I'm saying this

This week,

Things that God calls sacred apply to everyone.

There's no matter what time period that you're in, it doesn't matter what culture you are raised in and are living in.

It doesn't matter.

Uh, you know what geographic geographic location you might be in.

The fact is that if God says this is sacred, it's sacred from that point until it's, it's always sacred.

And last week, this is last week.

Our big idea was that every part of my life is sacred to God.

And you might say, well, wait a minute, aren't you thinking just a little bit too highly of yourself, or even of us in general.

And I would encourage you to go listen to last week's sermon, watch it on YouTube, listen to it on the podcast, uh, to, to get an understanding of what I mean by that.

But every part of your life, if you're a child of God, every part of your life is sacred to God.

And we had two declarations last week.

Declaration number one was, I am made Holy by God's presence.

His presence in your life and in mine makes us Oli.

And then the second declaration is I choose to live set apart, or I choose to live sacred

For God.

And it's a choice that you and I have to make.

We all have to choose to live set apart for him.

And it doesn't matter

What culture you're from.

It doesn't matter what nation, what tribe, what tongue you may speak.

It doesn't matter what age period you might have been growing.

You might've grown up in.

The fact is no matter what period you've lived in, there was a choice to make in order to live Holy and set apart to live sacred for God.

When I was a younger man, I had a great relationship with my grandfather.

Who's passed away now, but I tell a lot of football stories.

And, and Paul was, you know, he was obviously my grandfather and older than me.

And I used to think when I was in my twenties, I used to think, well, by the time I get up to my grandfather's age, I mean, you know, he's, he's really old.

He's in his sixties and maybe even seventies and, and, and, and, you know, at that age, he'd really doesn't have any, any battles with sin anymore.

I mean, there's what sin could he possibly be working through or battling at that age?

I mean, by that time, you've got everything all figured out.

You know what I mean?

You don't, you don't have any drives and ambitions and Les and anything like that in life anymore.

You don't have to lie about anything.

Cause you can say whatever you want.

And so, anyway, that was what I thought when I was in my twenties.

And when I was with him in the hospital a couple of days before he went into a coma and then, and then passed away and we were sitting there and, and a nurse came in and she was taking care of him.

And, and she turned and she walked out and closed the door and he looked at me and he said,

Whoa,

Now he's in his eighties.

He's 84, 85 years old.

And he went, Whoa.

And I said, I said, Paul.

He said, Mike, I'm old.

I'm not dead.

I went, Oh, maybe it

Doesn't work exactly the way that I thought it was.

Maybe there's still choices that have to be made no matter how old you get in life or, or how young you may be.

There's, there's always a choice to be made to set your life apart, unto God and to be sacred to him and something that every single one of us has to make choices about today in this moment is this thing called

Time, time.

And today I want to talk about sacred time, sacred time.

The big idea today is this.

Your time is sacred

To God.

Your time

Is sacred to God.

And you might say, well, why does God, the creator of all things, the father of heaven and earth, the father of all mankind.

Why, why does he care about my personal

Time?

And I'll

Bring us back to a scripture that we read last week.

First Corinthians chapter six says, don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God,

God, you do not belong to yourself for God bought you with a high price.

So you must honor God with your body now

True that we love the fact that we are saved grace through faith.

It is true that we are thankful to be living in the new covenant with Christ Jesus as our Lord and savior.

It is true that we celebrate the liberties and the freedoms that we have in Christ Jesus.

But it is also true that you and I do not belong to ourselves, that we are his

And

Everything that we have and everything that we are

Is his and your body and mind exists within time.

That's why 20 years ago, I looked different than I do right now.

And that's why in 20 years from now, Christy will have to put up with something.

I don't entirely know what is

Will look like, but time will have passed.

And,

And I will not look like this.

I'll be okay if I do,

But I know that I won't.

And so I'm preparing myself for that eventuality.

We live in time and we're okay.

Only granted a certain amount of that time.

Job's said it in job chapter 14, he said, you talking to God.

Job 14 · chapter mention

He said, God, you have decided the length of our lives.

You know how many months we will live.

And we are not given a minute longer.

So God said, you, you have a, I'm giving you this time, but you only have a certain amount of that time.

Only.

God knows how much time you have.

And it's unique among resources because while you can gain money back, you can gain relationships back.

You can build a business again, you can relaunch a career.

You can, you can get a lot of stuff back that you might lose time.

Lost can not be

Replaced, cannot be replaced.

And God, God cares about how you use your time.

He cares about how I use my time, because we've been given this, this finite resource

By God.

He's granted

Us a certain amount of time.

And we don't know, we don't.

We don't know when our last day

Is.

We just know

That one day we will not be here any longer.

We will step from time into eternity.

And God cares how you use that time because he's given you a job.

He's given me a job.

He didn't say, now you're saved and gone do what you want.

That's not what he said.

He said, now you're saved.

And now you will be witnesses for me.

He said, you're to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature I ha I've given you a job to do.

And so I care how you use your time is like any boss, anybody that has, that has allocated a particular amount of time for you and has given you a responsibility within that time.

And no one likes to see time

Wasted,

Time management reveals.

What's truly important in your life.

Reveals.

What's truly important in your life.

Christy.

And I will celebrate 24 years of marriage in June of this year.

And in year five, we were looking at divorce.

We were trying to figure out what to do about how to live life divorced from one another.

And, and we were aligned on a lot of things.

There's three big things that typically cause problems within marriage.

One of them is, is money, how you use money.

And we were completely aligned on how we use money.

We were completely wrong in how we were using money, but we were aligned.

And so that wasn't a problem for us.

Our sex life was fine.

We were aligned in our sex life.

And so that, that was going along fine.

And then three communications, the third one.

And, and that's, that was a big deal, but we, but we communicated great.

There wasn't any problem with communication in our life.

We communicated often we communicated softly.

We communicated loudly.

We communicated all the time.

Our big issue was time.

See, I was working a billion hours and I was trying to make things work.

And I was working like crazy.

And Christy would come to me and say, Hey, when is our family time?

And I would say, Oh, your family time is in between all these other things that I'm doing and, and all this other stuff that's going on that that's family time.

That's when that time is.

And I would say, well, you know, they, they, they need me.

And so they call me and they need me.

And so I can't say no, when they need me.

And Chris Christie would say, well, but I need you.

And the boys need you.

And what she was really asking is what time is sacred to the boys.

And I,

And I'm

Sad to say that my answer was really none.

There is no time sacred to the boys in you.

You get what?

No one else.

If you'd asked me, Hey, Michael, what's your great priority in life?

What I mean, what, what is the thing that you care about the most?

I would have said to you, family, my family matters to me more than anybody else, but my time management actually said that other people's opinion of me and my selfish need to be needed was actually of greater importance in my life than my family was.

Yes.

Talks about time management.

He includes time management in the big sacred things.

In fact, even in the 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20 verse number eight, he said, remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

The Sabbath day was the day that a Jewish person did not do any work.

They rested.

And they worshiped that day was set aside to God and he wasn't passive about it.

He wasn't like, Hey, listen, if it works within your schedule and your calendar, it fits within your calendar.

And you know, everything works out.

Then you try to keep this Holy for me.

No, he didn't say that.

He said, if you don't do this, you are punished.

You're punished.

No, that was under the old covenant.

I'm grateful that we are new covenant believers today.

But to God, the Sabu with Sabbath was important because it proved their ability to trust him, to provide for them.

It proved that the importance of their relationship with him, he was saying, Hey, he's important enough in my life that I will set apart a day

For rest and for worship.

Now, you and I

Being new covenant believers, we don't fear punishment for not keeping the Sabbath walls, but time remained sacred.

Time remained sacred and how we use it still matters.

Why?

Because you're bought with a price.

You are not your own.

The one who bought you, the one who saved you, the one to whom you belong today.

He has a job for you.

He has a job for me.

He said, I've got stuff for you to do in this earth.

And so I need you to be, as Jesus would say about your father's

Business,

I need you to be working for me.

I need you to be mindful of me and how you use your time.

So that's a choice.

He's not beating you down.

He's not punishing you.

He's not causing you harm or difficulty if you don't do this.

But, but he is saying it's important to him.

And it's a choice that you and I must make.

And so there are two decisions today that we're going to make a decision.

Number one is this I will maximize the time

I have.

I will maximize the time that I have,

Whether you're 20 or 120 today, if you're still here, then God has a plan for you.

And if you're here, you're burning,

Time, time is moving on, but not everybody is aware of time.

Some people who really struggle to be aware of time and in my household, um, talent and I are very time aware and Tyrian, and Christie are very not.

That's how that works.

Now, everybody has the right intention.

Everybody's wanting to do good things.

And

Frankly, everybody's very productive.

It's just that sometimes they will Christie and Tyrian will get in a task and be doing something.

And they will simply forget that the rest of world is still moving on.

And if you need them to be there at a particular time, your best remind them talent.

And I are far less likely to be late and consistent awareness allows the maximizing of potential in any area of life.

So anything that you're consistently aware of it's there, that you're going to be able to maximize the most.

Well, God pays attention to time.

In fact, part of his commands and frankly, part of his redemption plan deals with time.

The scripture says in Galatians chapter four, verse four, when God, when the writer's writing about the salvation coming salvation, coming into this world through Jesus Christ, he says it this way, God sent his son to earth at the right time.

He said when the fullness of time came.

So before this time, it wasn't time yet.

And after this time it would have been too late.

But at the right time, God sent Jesus to this earth in Titus chapter one, verse number three, speaking about the new Testament salvation message being delivered to the world for the very first time.

He said the message of salvation was revealed that just the right time in acts two, we read about it.

And the day of Pentecost came and the disciples and 120 were in the upper room in one mind.

And in one accord, they were unified in what they were doing and what they were praying.

And suddenly the sound came from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind.

And it filled the house where they were sitting and, and they were filled with the Holy spirit.

It didn't never happen like that before.

It had never been like that before, but, but right after this occurrence on time, Peter stood up and he began to preach the message of the new Testament, the new covenant message of salvation for the very first time.

This happened at the right time for Jesus ascended into heaven.

His disciples were all kinds of concerned about time because Jesus had just risen from the dead.

And they were like, Hey, if there was ever a time for you to set up an earthly kingdom, it's now because he just came back from the dead and Hey, you know, people saw you crucified.

Now they see you walking around.

So they might, this might be the moment for you to say, I'm the King of Israel.

And as the King of Israel, you can lead us back to national prominence and in military power and you can make us something in the world again.

And so when are you going to do that?

Jesus.

They don't know that he's about to elevate from the earth into the heavens and disappear.

They're like, when's this going to happen?

And this is what Jesus says to them.

The father alone has the authority to set those dates and times they are not

For you to know.

You don't get to know that

The past is gone.

It can't be changed.

And that might be good for somebody to recognize right now that you've been wasting a lot of time worried about something that cannot be changed.

Your, your, your living in the woods should a, could a world.

And the reality is nothing can be done about that.

You will

Never know.

You will never

Know.

And you can never answer that question and you can never go back and change it.

So the only thing you're doing while you dwell upon that and pine, after a die, the time that has already passed, the only thing you're doing is wasting your present.

And you don't know the future.

You and I,

I do not know how long God has allowed for us to be on this planet.

We don't know.

We might live into our, into our eighties, into our nineties.

You might live to 120 years old.

That may be your life.

But, but I've been at the funeral of those who thought they had a lot more time and didn't

Everything from an infant right on up.

You don't know

How much time you have.

So the only thing you can do as maximize the time that you have now, and you might say, well, well then, then there's nothing for me to do.

If I don't know what, what time, how much time I have.

And I don't know, I can't change the past.

And I don't know how much time I have in the future.

Then, then there's nothing for me to do.

I just, I just have to be until I'm not

Anymore.

And I would say, no, that's not true

Because the very next verse acts seven.

He says the father alone, and you don't know acts a X, one eight says, but you will receive power.

When the Holy spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, Oh, you have a job to do.

You will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Your job is to be an effective witness for me.

Your job is to tell other people all about me.

Okay?

So when does that start?

When does that begin window?

When does my time management start mattering to God?

It matters.

The moment the Holy spirit comes upon you.

Now you have a job to do for the King of Kings.

Now, now you have a purpose in life.

So his expectation for you and for me to maximize the time that we have is when the Holy spirit comes upon us.

Now, let's look at what the Bible says a little further about this Ephesians chapter five, if he's just five verse 15 and 16 says, look carefully, then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, we all want to be wise making the best use of time because the days are evil

Out.

You may, you may recognize that the days are kind of evil right now.

We're not saying any particular people are evil, but the days are evil there.

The, the culture is evil.

The, the, um, the, the, the feeling is off the everything's a little wonky that that's a really, really technical theological term right there.

It's just, just kind of wonky.

Everything's a little off and nothing sits just right, and very little points directly back to Christ.

And, and it's just, the days are often, and he's saying here, Hey, make the best use of your time.

He doesn't say, make the best use of your money.

He doesn't say bake, make the best use of your relationship.

It doesn't say, make the best use of your investments or your business opportunities.

He says, make the best use of your

Time.

Time.

Some song lyrics.

Say, if I'm not dead, then he's not done.

He's not done.

If you're here, he's not done.

It's not done with you, but I I've sat with many as they pass from life to death and, and held many hands and sat with many families.

And I've heard from, from people who were, who were dying, I've, I've heard their faults and I've heard their regrets for, for a long time now.

And what's really interesting to me is I've never had anyone say to me, I wish I had made more money.

I wish that I had gotten that promotion.

I wish that in fact, every single person that I've heard regrets from as they lay on their death bed, every one of them had to do with time.

I wish that I'd spent more time with those that were important to me.

I wish I'd spent more time doing things that mattered more

For longer.

I've had people say, I wish I'd spent more time on things that had eternal value versus temporary.

Val

Paul Paul was in prison.

How much is pulled from you?

And you know what weighs on your time when you're in

Nothing,

Nothing is weighing on your time.

When you're in prison, you are just waiting out your time to get out of prison.

And yet Paul was practicing what he preached.

Paul was writing Ephesians

While in prison.

He was saying, I'm here, but I'm not going to waste the time that I'm here, I'm going to write some stuff.

And now we know that he was writing scripture.

He was making the most of his time.

Are you maximizing the time that you have, if there's a decision that you need to make

Today, which will lead you to the decision.

Number two,

I will prioritize time with Jesus in mind.

I'll prioritize time with Jesus

In mind.

And this

Pandemic has, has pushed people in one of two ways.

Some people have gotten much closer to God.

I've had people tell me, you know, I've spent much more time in the Bible and reading and in prayer, and I've had more time to focus my life and, and so on, but I'm afraid that far more people have gone the other direction.

While on one hand,

Some people have had, well time that they wouldn't normally have because they were going from here to there.

And they were in transition constantly and driving on the road and so on and so forth.

And so now they were working from home and maybe their schedule was a little more flexible with zoom calls and other things of that nature.

On the other hand, there were people

Who were consumed with other things like maybe you've had to educate your children at home now, and that's a much more time intensive thing than, than previously it was, or, or maybe you've been consuming the news of COVID or the political situations or all of the unrest that we've experienced over the summer.

And, and, and, and people that really have never been that into the news have told me, I just seem to be watching the news all the time and it's on repeat and constantly, I'm seeing that seeing it over and over, and I get just overwhelmed and I get consumed with it.

And what ends up happening is I get pushed further and further away from the peace of God that passes all understanding and the joy of the Lord.

That is my strength.

And I get pulled closer and closer to the turmoil and the, the trauma and the drama that's going on.

And it's easy to make excuses because what, which one of those things is it important to

Now?

Which one of those things is like, that really doesn't matter.

No, it all, it all matters.

Nothing tiny is going on right now, when you like to just have a tiny problem with an easy answer, just a yes or a no, there's not a lot of those out there right now.

And so it's easy to make excuses.

It's easy to say, well, you know, I'd be spending more time if, and I'd be doing other things with my time.

If, but instead of making excuses, let's make the decisions.

Let's decide to do something different with our time.

Let's make the decisions and let's prioritize Jesus.

And I have several four primary ways to accomplish this in your life way.

Number one is this personal devotion time, personal devotion time,

Spin that

Time with God.

It's an intentional that you and I must choose to do.

We, we provide devotional reading on the website, just get on there and look up the date, go under resources.

And it'll say devotional readings or docent plans, or, and you click on that.

And you look at the date and find the day that you're in right now and, and, and read those particular verses.

Don't try to catch up all the way from Genesis one.

If you're starting now, let's you just have the time.

But other than that, just start where you are now and begin moving forward.

And then what we do is we ask you to do the soap method devotional.

Now I will tell you that I always struggled doing daily devotions.

I didn't have any problems reading the Bible, and I didn't have any, any problems studying the Bible for sermons and so on.

But I struggled with just consistent daily devotions

Until I was taught this method.

And this

Method has helped me.

So what you do is you read the passages that are there.

And then when one of those verses pops out at you, you take that verse and then you, you write it down S stands for scripture.

And then from there you write down your observation of that scripture.

What does it saying?

What does it meaning?

How how's it striking you?

What about that scripture leaped out at you in this moment, and then a stands for application?

How does that apply to your life today?

Why does that matter to your world right now?

And it may not always be for you personally.

It might be for someone that you know, or, or what have you, that's fine.

But then, then P stands for prayer.

And so I just, I just write out a prayer as I'm thinking about it.

And I, and I, and I say, Lord, how do I help me to see the opportunity to enact this in my life today to include

This is my world, scripture, observation

Application, and pray.

It's very, very intentional.

And then secondly, intentional time in prayer now, prayer,

Something that people seem to struggle with at times.

And I know that I have, and, and people ask me at times, Hey, what do I say when I pray?

Well, I'll tell you what I do yesterday.

I did this, I took a drive.

I like to drive.

And I like to talk to the Lord.

So, so I, I got my truck and I just drove West.

And I prayed that nothing was playing in my, in my car.

I just was talking to the Lord.

And if you drove by me and waved, and I didn't see you as cause I was having a conversation with Jesus and so chill.

And, um, and, and, and

Nowadays you can just put your butt in your ear and people think you're talking on the phone.

They don't think you're crazy.

But back in the day, they just thought they just, well, they were more accurate probably, but I'm driving along.

And what I, how I start off with, I started just praising God, Lord, I thank you for your greatness.

I thank you for your goodness.

And I, and I talk out loud to him.

I talk out loud to him in my truck.

I talk out loud to him in my house.

I talked to out loud to him, wherever I'm at.

And I just worship him.

I praise him.

And then after I do that for a little while, then I start talking to them about the needs in my life or in my family's life or in the situations around me or in this church.

And I call your name out to him and I, and I talked to him about you.

And, and I'm just talking, but as I'm talking, I'll take time during those moments to stop talking and to then

To allow him to talk to me, to give wisdom to me, to give understanding to me.

So I speak

To him and then, then I stop and I take time to listen.

Why do I pray out loud?

One?

It keeps me focused while I'm praying out loud.

It keeps me focused.

And my mind isn't wandering all over the place.

You know how it is.

You start to pray and then you ended up compiling a grocery list.

It's not the same thing.

And so it keeps my mind focused.

It's also an externally expressing things I feel internally.

So it's cathartic.

It's helpful to you.

And it's

Also a testimony to those around you.

Who happen to hear you praying now in, I don't do this.

You know, if I'm standing in the library, I'm not typically calling out your name and your need before the Lord, but in my home, I'll be praying.

And I don't mind it.

When my boys walk in on me, praying, I hope that my sons catch me praying, and I hope one day their children catch them pray.

So it's a testimony.

So personal devotion, time, intentional time and prayer.

Then third joint

Life change happens in community

Semester of life groups coming up.

And I encourage you to go online, find out which ones are out there, which ones will connect with you.

There are some that meet online.

There are some that meet in person, but when you, when you get together with people and hold one, another, communicate with one another and hold one, another accountable, build relationship with other people in the church.

You're going to find that your life is going to get better and better and better.

It's going to be good for you.

Then lastly,

Prioritize weekly church attendance

Onsite, and online prioritize weekly church attendance.

And

I know it's hard.

Statistically speaking, people attend church once or twice a month.

That's the average regular church attender.

According to the studies and statistics, that should not be true

At five lakes church.

There

Should be a consistency there in your life and in mine.

But I know that it's hard.

I know it's hard.

And this isn't me getting down on anyone at all.

This is I'm encouraging you change how you're using your time, but there are many competing, competing priorities.

There are many things out there.

There are pulling on you.

And there are some that say that church attendance just doesn't matter.

And here, let me just be very clear about this.

You do not need to go to church to be saved.

You do need to go to church to be strong.

That is a fact.

That is a fact.

And you say, well, show that too,

In the Bible.

I'm so glad you asked

Hebrews chapter 10 Springs to mind, verse number 25.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

It says, and let us not neglect our meeting together.

Don't

Stop getting together with other believers as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near and you might say, well, yeah, that's a great, great scripture for those who are living in the last days.

And I'm just going to say, this is a Laster day than yesterday.

I know that for sure.

I know that for sure.

But this, this scripture is hard because it's saying that you have to make a choice to prioritize.

And it's easy to prioritize earthly things.

Things like work and things like games and things like lazy, Sundays and things like vacation and things like, like days off and projects around the house and all this kind of thing.

And if you think about the reality of the amount of time that going to church and spending time with other believers takes, it's really minor in comparison to the rest of your time management.

But I would give you the sacred test.

Here's the sacred test.

You're ready, sacred test.

I will miss this to prioritize this.

I will miss this to prioritize this.

So some people will say, well, I will miss a game, or I will miss a party to prioritize work.

If work calls me in, or if I've got something that's late, or if I need to catch up on things, or if I've got emails that I haven't returned, I will miss these things in order to prioritize work, but maybe would say that I will Ms.

Church, or I will miss the gathering together of believers in order to prioritize a game or a party and so on.

So my question would be, which is the sacred thing in your life.

And if we try to trace that example back, what we'll find is that work is the sacred thing.

Now

Does have a sacred element to it.

And I'm going to talk about that in an upcoming sermon.

So I don't want to mislead you in that work does have a secret element to it, but oftentimes we prioritize work over other things.

I was prioritizing work

Over my family.

That's the example I gave you right at the beginning.

The scripture tells us that the gathering with believers needs to be the sacred thing and our life.

Now I am not talking.

I want to be very clear.

I'm not talking about the occasional need, the occasional situation I'm not talking about.

You can never go on vacation or you can.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about making a lifestyle of prioritizing the things of God.

Why does God care?

Here's the next verse from Hebrews 10 24.

And let us keep paying attention to one another in order to spur each other on to love and good deeds to spur.

Each of that word, spur is not accidentally in the Bible.

The cowboy doesn't wear the spur because the horse always wants to do what is right.

The cowboy wears the spur because sometimes the horse don't want to do what is right.

And so what this is telling us is that we have to spur.

We have to encourage one another.

We have to push one another.

We have to, uh, we have to, to, to in a sense, argue one another at times into doing what is right.

And, and it puts this level of accountability in your life and in mind concerning our faith.

And you might say, well, wait a minute, you don't get it.

Pastor Micah.

That's the problem.

I have a private relationship with God.

Mine is a private faith.

Then I would suggest that you have an unbiblical faith.

The scripture is very clear that private times away with God and prayer are right, are good, are real, but a private faith

Is not, that's not

Biblical.

Why not?

Because I cannot be a witness to the world around me with a private faith that they don't know anything about.

So my faith cannot be private friends and influencing people.

Our faith is a public thing.

It's an accountability thing.

Push each other into growth, into love and into good deeds.

And the fact that we'll put up with one another, doing that, our love for one another.

Do you know that Christy doesn't always make me happy?

That's a shocker.

What's even more surprising is I don't always make her happy.

I know unbelievable,

But we stay together because we have love one for another.

And our love for one another allows us to overcome the issues that we have.

And so our love for one another as believers is what causes the world to look at us and go, wow, they are his done.

Here's our in closing today.

God calls every part of your life.

His including your time, it's set apart for his purpose.

You, you are not your own boss.

If you call him Lord and savior, but it is your choice.

And God asks today, what time is sacred for me?

And too often, we answer him same way.

As I answered

Christie earlier in our marriage, actually, God, none, you get what no one else wants.

So other than that, it's a, it's a sacrifice.

It's a priority.

It's it's saying no to those things so that you can say yesterday.

So I don't like that.

And I know neither do I.

We prioritize him in our life.

Our whole life gets better.

We become a better mother.

We become a better father.

We become a better spouse.

We become a better employee.

We become a better person.

Ben at McCord road, Christian Church, AKA five lakes church for a long time.

Then you're here for a reason.

It's benefited your life.

Somehow, if you are here for maybe you've only been here for a very short period of time, here's what I'm going to ask you to do.

I'm going to ask you to give us one year commit for one year, one year, uh, following us as we follow Christ, one year of applying the things that we've talked about today, one year of, of following our spiritual leaders.

And if at the end of that year, you say, you know what?

This really didn't help me at all.

I don't think my life's any better than I will give you a list of other great churches to attend in our area.

None of them are better than this church, but I'm just telling y'all, that's a joke.

I'll maybe, I don't know.

I don't actually know how I feel about that statement.

And you said, well, wait a minute, you want me to follow you as you, as I follow Christ, that's what Paul wrote.

He said, follow me as I follow Christ.

So I'm, I'm asking you to follow this church leadership as we follow Christ.

And if you say, well, you're not following Christ.

Well then go to another church that that's not, that's not a joke.

That's, that's a fact.

You need to find a church that's following Christ.

But if this church is following after Christ, then my encouragement is one year.

You say, well, why one year?

Because nothing, nothing changes your life in two seconds, other than salvation.

And even that is having to be worked out because I don't know about you, but I got saved and I didn't become perfect.

The moment I got saved.

So one year of applying the principles that are taught and the following, the examples that are given, and I will tell you that I believe your life will be changed for the better commit to daily motion, commit to daily prayer and communion with God commit to joining a life group, commit to attending church site or online every week.

And frankly, and the online option makes it so much easier.

Because even if you miss service on a Sunday morning on site, you're able to be online at some point during the week and worship the Lord.

So I'd ask you to bow your heads with me and worship team.

Come on, but ask the question.

Holy spirit.

When he's saying to me this sermon in this circle, you might think, well, pastor you're preaching to the choir.

We're the ones that are here.

I know, I know, but I still need the reminder of my own life sometimes.

And I'm praying that there will be somebody who's not here that will hear and that their life will be increased and better because of it.

The scripture tells me that the word of the Lord does not come back again, void.

And I'm believing that now, just like I believe that every time.

So father in the name of Jesus, I thank you for your word today.

Jesus.

I thank you for your saving power and your saving grace in our lives.

I'm asking you that you would help us to commit our time to you to prioritize it.

We often say that you mean everything to us, but then give us our lessons.

If you are leftover, we want to change that in our life.

And we want to have those sacred spaces.

Thank you for your work in our life today in Jesus' name, we pray that everybody's safe.