Fortifying Marital Bonds: Embracing Worship, Service, and Spiritual Growth Together

Well, a little bit of advanced notice of our next annual retreat, marriage retreat and some of you I see your faces, some of you have been on the last two actually, and I'm glad that you have September the 13th through the 15th Beautiful downtown Greenville, south Carolina, one of the nice places to stay, and downtown Greenville, a lot to do there and so mark your calendar September 13th through the 15th.

It'll be around 600 bucks, so here's the good news about that If you start putting $70 away a month, you got it licked.

Two dollars a day.

How much easier could that be?

Just don't go to Starbucks for a few days and two dollars a day, you're ahead on that process, right?

I know some of you are like well, it doesn't apply to me, I'm not married.

You got eight months to get married between now and then, so that's plenty of advanced notice to be able to do that.

But it is aimed at strengthening all of our relationships with our spouses.

So the really good marriages can become great and those that are struggling can become at least a C, c minus, and then you're on your way to building the right momentum there too.

So I hope you'll put that on your calendar to plan on doing that.

Good morning, my name's Randy.

Thank you all for being here today.

We have a full house today and I love catching people doing the right thing, so I'm going to not call their name to embarrass them, but one of our former chairman of Deacons.

Just a few minutes ago I saw this they got up and gave their seat to two guests and they left the room and went and found one a seat somewhere else.

That's how you do it, because we say around here, everybody here that's a member of our church is what You're in guest services, everybody here is a greeter and thank you, thank you for accommodating and taking that seriously and all.

We're going to be addressing that more specifically next Sunday and today we'll talk a little bit about what the Scripture says about who we need to be in here to be the most useful to God.

As we do that and out there online, thank you so much for viewing us.

I know that you are physically not able to be with us, more likely here in the area, and some of you just geographically you can't.

Speaking of that, I have a friend in Nebraska, sherry.

Sherry, thank you for watching every single week from Nebraska out there.

We value our relationship with you, even though it's a little bit of a different location there, and all too.

So let's go to the Lord in prayer first.

No-transcript.

You have come to give life, and I'm so grateful for your pursuing us as broken and as needy and as corrupt as we can be.

And so, god, help us to block out anything that's not you, and help us to hear and to experience the presence of your Spirit in such a way that we leave here a little straighter, a little stronger, a little more in line with your unbelievable plan for our lives.

And so, lord, just do what we cannot do and please come, holy Spirit, amen.

Well, if you have your Bibles, thank you for bringing them.

We're in Ephesians, in the back of the New Testament, galatians, ephesians written by Paul, first century, by halfway through the first century, to a little church in a place called Ephesus, which I think now is modern day Turkey.

So we have some Bibles in the pew right there, thank you.

And out there, please engage with the Scripture too.

It's always better to see it than just to hear it.

We're in part two of what we're calling the journey ahead.

We are a group of people who believe that we're not just sitting around randomly in a room together once a week that we are going somewhere.

If we are Christ followers, we have to be on a journey, because that's not really an option, because the Lord has a plan and a purpose for every individual, but also for every corporate group called the body of Christ.

Okay, and what we are learning to do some of you have it down pretty pat is we are operating by theit's not what's best for me, necessarily, it's what's best for the body, and when we get to that point, god does amazing things, and that's why I'm excited about this whole series.

So today we talked about last week who we are, and I think there's the post of that is still online and you can take a look at that if you had to miss it Today.

Why the why question?

Why do we exist?

Next Sunday, please be here Next Sunday.

Where we're going is the question we'll ask.

And so let's jump right in here and talk first about the most important person in the room.

You know who that is.

It's him.

In the old days they used a word pronounced in Hebrew, yahweh, and when they said Yahweh and JamesPastor James in his class on Wednesday night that he and I are doing.

He did a great treatment of the attitude toward Yahweh in the Old Testament days.

As it evolved it got to be such a special name that in some sectors of Jewish faith they wouldn't even say it out loud he's too holy, he's too above us to even utter his name.

So in those sectors to be able to call him something they would just say you know the one.

I love that we're talking about, talking about him the one.

And from that they went into deeper discussions.

Now, in the first century AD, jesus walked up into one of those conversations and he said well, hey y'all, I just call Him Daddy.

And it blew everybody away.

That just messed with them.

Don't you know?

Those Pharisees were popping antacids left and right.

They were turning the bottle as he let.

Don't you know they had to go get a checkup for their blood pressure after he would walk through there and say stuff like that that they just could not conceive of.

But that was Jesus.

That was Jesus.

He was loving everybody and he was also challenging everybody.

In the early days Yahweh shows up and he manifests Himself as a Holy Spirit, god presence with a voice, an audible voice, not because he had to, but because they had to be able to hear Him.

The voice speaks to Abram and says I'm about to take you on a long journey, a long adventure, so pack your bags.

He comes to a man named Noah, the humblest man around, the godliest man around, and he says prepare yourself, get your tools out, because I'm going to be judging the whole world.

He comes to a man named Moses in my opinion, one of the most dramatic encounters.

He comes to Moses and he says I'm about to send you back to the scene of a crime that you committed, and it is the last place on earth that you want toyou don't want to be caught dead in this place, but that's exactly where I am sending you back, because this time I will be with you and this time we're going to do it right.

And Moses did it, the one he still speaks today.

He's still the magnificent other.

We're all on a journey of some type.

Some of you started a journey a while back, geographically, and you've moved into this area from some other states.

In the next seven years, there's going to be thousands and thousands of other people who are moving into this county from other places, some for jobs, some are leaving high taxation, some because of health reasons.

They want to get into a little bit of a warmer place, like 20 degrees, like it was last week.

Some people are saying you know, my grandchildren are down there.

Some people are actually saying my grandparents are down there, so I'm going to go chase my grandparents.

I can do that now, for, whatever the reason, a lot of people you know what, though?

They're showing up angry, and the reason they're showing up angry is they've either been disappointed or disillusioned about their life.

They were sold a load of goods and they chased a more secular philosophy or bit or idea system that somebody gave them and influenced them with, and they chased it as long as they could chase it, only to find out it led to emptiness and it's not fulfilling and there's no real purpose behind it.

And so they chased another and they found the same thing.

And after about two or three of those, they step back, they reevaluate and they change locations, but when they arrive at the place like several in the years to come here will they'll arrive here just flat out angry, because they'll feel like somehow they've been cheated.

Well, what they're really looking for, in my personal opinion, informed by the Scripture, is there's a search for sacredness, and I think it's a growing search across our globe.

Quite frankly, more and more people seem to be turning toward.

Maybe there's something to this spirituality, however they name that and they're pursuing that.

They're pursuing it here, in this area too, and so today, the one thing we want to try to say really clearly is you know, the front door, the key to building a life of meaning and purpose begins with a daily life of worship.

And let me define that simply today, anything that pleases God is worship.

Ephesians 5-10 that we'll study in a minute says just find out what pleases God.

Can it get more simple than that?

Find out what pleases God and then what he doesn't say.

What he means is and just do it.

Just do it.

So as we get into that, we're going to break down more specifically in categories what pleases God.

So, therefore, how do I know, measure, detect that I may be one of those who is pleasing God?

If I am, here's where it gets good.

If I am, no matter what is happening around me and to me, I'm okay because I'm pleasing the one to whom it matters the most.

So let's look at what Scripture has to say.

Look at verse 8.

The first category we need to express here is celebration.

Celebration is a form of worship.

Right, it's a synonym for worship.

Look at verse 8.

Paul says, for you were once in darkness.

Now that can mean physical darkness and also spiritual darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Live as children of light, live as if the presence of God is in you Himself, because if you're a Christ follower, we know that's true.

So if we believe that's true and we know it's true, we can live to a higher standard and a higher purpose and actually with a sense of joy.

So this unbelievably sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing God for some reason pursues us, just like he did those three patriarchs that I mentioned earlier, and reveals himself to us, maybe not in an audible voice, but in a way we can detect what he's saying and he calls us to something.

Why in the world would God stoop to do that?

What does he need from me and you?

That he does not already have?

Absolutely nothing.

Matter of fact, what he's going to inherit from me and you is just a lot of disappointment and pain and frustration, would be my guess.

But he comes anyway and the reason is, among others, that's part of his plan is to pull very broken and perfect people into a plan like we talked about last week.

That will not only make us much better and much more people of hope and joy, but to have this sense of direction that in gives us strength and confidence.

And that's what a little bit of what celebration.

Let me just answer that also from the Scripture rather than my own.

I've got to turn to John.

Go back to your left or scroll on your device.

By the way, I always try to give you a little side reading if you'd like to.

That goes a little bit further and parallel and deeper with this.

John 4, the chapter John 4 would be awesome to read and also John, chapter 8, and also 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4.

John 8 · chapter mention 1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

John 4, john 8, and 1 Thessalonians 4.

Those all deal with pretty much what we're talking about here.

So let's look at chapter 4 of John, verses 23 and 24.

You had a time is coming and is now coming, when true worshipers will worship Him in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

Jesus speaking, of course, he's confronting this woman at a well, she's a sinful woman, she's got the worst reputation in town Some of you know that story and he starts to go a little deeper, as Jesus is prone to do, and get out the mechanism inside of her, she gets in.

My opinion, she's a little uncomfortable.

What do we do when we're uncomfortable with the conversation?

We change the subject, don't we?

We change channels, and she does that.

And she says oh yeah, that's good, but, by the way, where's the best place to go to church?

We think it's here.

Y'all think it's in Jerusalem.

So who's right?

That's when he says well, you know, that's not the point.

The point is, if you're really after Him, whether you're in an official building or whether you're not, you worship in spirit capital S and in truth, which is His Word, expressed mostly through His Bible nowadays.

And then he gets you right back on target.

He's not going to be distracted, and we'll save that for another day.

Let's take this a little bit further.

So how does all that impact?

That's where John 8 comes in, because in John 8, jesus again is speaking and he says once you know the truth, the truth will set you free.

So we put those two together.

We worship Him in spirit and in truth.

It's not bound by brick and mortar, it's not a part of architecture, it's not a part of all the earthly structures.

It's a personal spiritual thing between me and a holy God.

I know I understand Him better by His Word.

The Lord, our God, is one God.

But here's the deal, y'all If we're really engaging in worship, we become free and the transformation of a human into a Christ follower is a liberating thing.

The world believes it's a restricting, lock me up in prison type of lifestyle.

It's actually quite the opposite, and that's what most folks miss, who are not inclined to study His Word.

Well, how do I get free through the truth?

Well, he goes on three verses later, in verse 36.

I believe it is of chapter 8, and he says who the Son capital S-O-N, who the Son sets free is free indeed.

So we come back around full loop.

If you know Christ, you are a worshiper.

You got the goods already to live a life pleasing to Him because you have the Word.

You have access to the Word to internalize it.

You have His Spirit already in you, directing you when you allow Him to, and that is why he chases after us to redeem us and then to invite us into something that is good for us primarily, but it also ends up in the redemption of other people too.

There is nothing more liberating in all this world than to be in the room when somebody is transformed into a Christ follower.

It justit doesn't get any better than that.

And so part of our celebration of who Jesus, who God, is, is this attitude of whatever gifts, whatever spiritual gifts I have, whatever skills I have, whatever talent, I have, the time I have, I'm going to try to serve Him with that too, because he will actually bear fruit through that.

I can't do that, but notice, we've talkedwe've spent about five, ten minutes talking about celebrating who God is.

We've not mentioned why it's so important to be in a certain type of building, with a certain type of architecture, with a certain color carpet.

We've not talked about a lot of thewe haven't talked about a style of worship, have we?

We haven't talked about any of those genres.

We haven't gone there whatsoever.

Those are important, but they're not essential to pleasing God.

What is essential is if Randy is searching for the sacred and if you are searching for the sacred, because if you are, you're going to find it, because that's what we're created to do.

So let me turn it personal a little bit.

How well are you doing with the celebration part?

Tim Keller, who's with the Lord now, who is an unbelievable pastor in New York City for a long time.

He wrote one of his books.

There's two things that we as Christians maybe could do a little bit better.

I agree with him.

One is repent.

That's that honest, genuine yep.

That's me.

I'm guilty of what I just read.

I don't have what I need.

Why don't I just own it?

Everybody else knows it.

Why don't I own it, claim it, ask him to take it to cleanse me and then walk out knowing I've been cleansed from it?

That's repentance.

The other is celebration.

We pray and we pray and we pray, and then we see God show up and he does the miraculous, and then we're like, wow, that's pretty good.

Oh, by the way, I still got this going on, though.

Still got this.

I still need a job.

I still.

We do that, don't we?

Why don't we stop more and just celebrate Him?

Why does it have to be for what he does for us?

We ought to just be celebrating because of who he is, because he's the one.

There is no other one.

He's the one, and anything that we do that pleases Him, or anything we are that pleases Him, that's worship.

So, number two we're going to celebrate.

What else we're going to serve?

That's service.

Let me skip over to the Old Testament for that there's this unbelievable exchange conversation between, again, the manifestation of a holy God in an audible voice, I believe to Isaiah.

In Isaiah 6, verse 8 and 9.

Isaiah 6:8

Some of you know it, you might want to turn to it.

That's kind of toward the middle of your Bible, after Psalm Proverb Ecclesiastes, but in Isaiah God basically says well, let me just let me read it to you.

He says, isaiah says I heard the voice of the Lord Yahweh saying Whom shall I send?

Notice, god always has good grammar, doesn't he?

Whom shall I send and who will go for us?

Oh, wait, a minute, let me stop here.

Some of you are critical thinkers and I love that.

Okay, god's one.

The Lord, our God, is one.

I know that.

But here he clearly.

God clearly says who will go for us, who else is there?

Who else is in thewell?

Probably nobody.

The Hebrew translation for that word, us, also could be translated father.

Well, if you're a father, that pretty much means you have what Sons or daughters?

He has a son, right?

Isaiah hadn't met him yet.

Oh, so Jesus is there with the Father listening to this conversation and I said here am I Send me.

And he said go, go.

We don't know if this encounter was over minutes, over hours, over days, but we have probably the condensed version.

Who can I send?

Who's ready to be put in the game?

Here am I go.

That word also meant to be loosed.

I love that he's saying go, but he's also saying strip away, cut whatever cords are holding you.

Just let me carry you along.

It's the connotation of a boat tied up to a dock.

It's a river, there's a current, and you just take a machete and you cut the rope and you just watch that boat go downstream, let it loose.

What would happen if we let theif we let the Holy Spirit loose in our souls every single day?

What would happen if the Holy Spirit had absolute authority to do what he needed to in this room every single Sunday?

That would bethat would make service very easy.

How do we serve?

We'll go back to the Scripture.

How about John?

Again, john 14,.

John 14, verse 23,.

John 14:23

Jesus replied If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.

My Father will love him and we will come to him and we'll make our home with him.

And then, in verse 26, he defines the counselor, who is the Holy Spirit, and he will teach you all things and remind you.

So how do we serve by obeying Him?

The bottom line God's always coming for is you say you love me, you say you want to serve me, you say you want to go.

Who shall I send?

You're that guy?

Prove it.

Just obey the simple things.

Just obey what you've heard me tell you that you haven't done yet, and then we'll decide whether you're really going to go and be cut loose to be able to serve me in the way that I would require to do that.

Why?

Here's another legitimate question.

Why should I serve Him?

Because I have options and you do.

You can refuse, you can do it your way, you can live it your way and He'll allow that.

If we really have a relationship with Christ, it is based on love and faith.

If we have love and faith, you can't not serve Him.

It's not an option, not because he's locked you into that, but because you don't really see any way, any other life form that appeals to you.

Once you've had the real thing, the fake stuff just isn't good anymore, is it?

I went backpacking a couple of years ago and when you do that you spend the week drinking.

We were literally drinking water in these streams at a high elevation, coming right off of glaciers.

Oh man, that's pure water and it was unbelievable.

We got into civilization.

We walked in a convenience store to basically gas up and everything.

I walked over to a water fountain and took a long drink of that water in that water fountain and it was just terrible.

It was just tasteful because I'd had the real thing.

And if you've had Him and you've had the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you really don't.

You don't really want anything else.

Anything that pleases Him is worship, the last thing.

Celebration is a part, service is a part, sanctification is a part.

Let's read 9 through 11.

For the fruit of the light consists of goodness, righteousness and faith.

These are elements of sanctification.

And find out what pleases the Lord have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Niv, 84, verse, says expose them.

Yours may say something similar to that.

So what is sanctification?

Sanctification is just the fact that you understand.

If I know Jesus and I'm a follower, I have been set aside.

It is synonymous in that term with holiness.

It does not mean perfection.

When Peter says be holy because God says be holy, because I'm holy.

He means just be willing to be set apart for His purposes and His glory.

That means you can do verse 9 better.

You're good by His terms.

You're righteous, because it's His righteousness, his stuff inside of you, that he's given you on loan from Him and His truth that has continued to develop you and change you.

Sanctification another way of thinking about it is the guardrails.

You ever go into the mountains and you own these hairpin curves and you look over the side and it's like, oh my goodness, but there's a guardrail there that's for your safety.

Now you can go pretty much anywhere on this side of the guardrail and you're in good shape, but that will keep you from death.

That's what sanctification is all about is the guardrails are for our benefit and our safety, but inside of that we can go anywhere.

We need to go.

A while back, three years ago, I went to do a wedding in Greenville and the venue for that wedding it wasn't a church, it was a very nice restaurant slash wedding venue and when I was given the name, I knew the place, I knew where it was, and so I find a parking space a couple of blocks away.

It's crowded down there.

It's on a Saturday late afternoon.

I find my way.

I walk into that venue expecting to see a lot of familiar faces.

There's a lot of people dressed up in there.

None of them I recognize and I could tell they didn't know me.

And I'm like, uh-oh, what happened here?

So I go up to the matriot D and I say I'm sorry, I'm looking for the Jones wedding.

She said no, this is a wedding, it isn't them, though I said well, how in the world?

And she said, oh, we have two locations actually.

And I'm like, okay, where's that other location?

It's about six or eight blocks away.

So I scramble and I go down there.

Why do I bring all this up?

I was in the vicinity and I was dressed up and I was ready to do a wedding, but I was in the wrong place.

Y'all, we are Christ followers.

We don't belong here.

We are passing through.

We have been assigned this location for a period of time, not for our glory, but for His glory and His benefit, to please Him.

Too many of us, too many.

I have too long, spent too much time in the general area looking like a wedding minister, but not even being in the right place.

We got to get front and center and we got to be saying Lord, put me in, let me loose.

And next week we'll talk about what this is going to look like practically for us, because I realized a while back, it's not about me, it never will be about me, and a lot of you know that too.

Sorry, it's not about you either.

It's about the body of Christ now, and our job is really simple.

You want to please God, do what's best for everybody else.

Well, how do I do that?

Just study the life of Jesus Himself.

We can't do any better than that.

Ecclesiastes 4, verse 4 through 10, basically, he makes the case If you're like a farmer and you're waiting on the wind to just be right and the temperature to be okay and the moisture content to be perfect, if you're waiting on all those factors to line up, you'll never plow for the crop and you'll never produce a harvest.

Ecclesiastes 4:4–10

So get busy, is His bottom line.

Oh, and he says while you're at it, spend yourself with a lot of joy and a lot of conviction and a lot of hope.

Where's my hope?

There's gonna be a harvest, because the farmer has no clue how that works.

You plant and it comes up.

Who does that?

That's got to be the one right.

So if we're serving the one, we're in pretty good shape.

Part of sanctification gone wrong is when we start using the wrong tools for the right purposes, rather than his tools for the holy purposes.

That makes sense.

Why would you use a dull hatchet for a big tree to cut down when you got a chainsaw?

We operate out of anger and resentment and insecurity and weakness and lust and a need for affirmation when he's given us hope and joy and strength and humility and love, and when we start using the right tools.

Look out.

Well, you've heard me say this before.

Let me look ahead with us.

Let's fast forward.

By 2030, there's going to be 100,000 people that are not here right now living in Dorchester County.

That, by the Census Bureau, will have no connection with any faith organization.

100,000 people.

There's a handful of churches that have any reasonable shot at reaching anyone anyone.

Somerville will be a different place by 2031 if God doesn't step in here and do something to close that gap.

Jesus put us in an unbelievable time of invitation to just join him, to just say I'd like to let you loose, but you're going to have to be willing and we'll talk about what that looks like next week, but the one will allow that to happen.

We are, and we will continue to have to be, more and more like a ranch without any fences, the really big ranches.

They can't make enough fencing to keep all their cattle in.

So you know what?

They don't worry about it.

They don't even know how many darn cattle they have.

They don't worry about that either, because here's the deal a few of them wander off, but a lot wander in too.

That don't even belong to them.

But here's the thing if they have a source of water in a central location, those cattle in a dry area are not going to go too far.

They're not crazy.

They know where the water is right.

We got to be the water, we got to have the living water and we got to offer it to anyone who will drink it, and we got to do what we need to do to be available to keep dipping the water.

Does that make sense?

I know it does.

Y'all are smart.

We're going to have this time ofwe get to worship one more time, and it's your invitation to hang in here.

Please don't leave the room during this time we're singing, because it's distracting, quite frankly.

If you need to leave head out right now, I'll have to say goodbye to you now, but if you need to come and make a next step decision for the Lord, please do that.

Please do that, because that's what we're after really today.

Just stand and let's sing together.