How to Build Your Rule of Life

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

To be here with you, you know, we're in a series called the

seven Habits of Jesus people. If you were here last week,

Pastor Tim kicked it off for us that what it means to be a Jesus

person, a Jesus follower means you're going to be a little

peculiar, right. So all week long I've been

talking to people and every now and again the phrases come out

like you're so peculiar. And never before has that felt

good. Really, honestly, because that

is kind of strange, but it's OK. What it means is we're going to

be different than the world around us.

And if you are here this morning, I want to tell you

you're on a good path. You're already on a good path

because you're here. And especially if you're a young

adult, if you're between the ages of 18 and 30, whatever the

qualification is, I want to say something to you right now.

I want to say to you that the Lord says you're on a good path

and don't let anyone deter you from the path that you are on.

Don't let the attraction, the allure, the false draw of what

the world says will satisfy you, allure you away from this

peculiar path. And if you're, if you're a

student and you're getting ready to go to camp, the Lord is

priming your heart. Yes.

And so I say this to the young adults and to the young people

in our midst, that you are the next generation of leadership

for where the world is going. And if you haven't noticed, it's

a little unstable. The only stable thing that you

will find that you can stake your life to is the eternal

power, presence and promise of God.

And so for that, I say you're on a good path.

And so this morning, as we take another step in the series,

we're going to get to the first habit.

Last week, the stage was set. If I haven't introduced myself

yet, I don't think I have. My name is Christine.

I'm one of the pastors here at Illuminate Church.

My husband is Lee Pastor him and together the Lord is birthing

and growing a hell shaking ground, taking battleship of

believers of Jesus, people that are getting there that are

willing to be peculiar. And if that is you, you're in

the right place. And if you're here checking it

out, you're in the right place too.

But what we want to do this morning is we're going to delve

into what does it mean to be a Jesus person, to have habits

that make us like Jesus. I don't know if you've noticed,

but it's never been so easy to waste our lives.

Anybody noticed? And I have had lots of

conversations lately with some of you young adults, been in my

home and two separate occasions, 2 of them said I wish nobody had

ever given this to me. I wish that I could have a flip

phone, right? And so as a parent of a wide age

gap, I would say to you that we were parenting someone when

these came on the scene, our oldest and now we're parenting a

12 year old. And what we learned in between

is we didn't know anything, right?

Isn't that the gift of an age gap?

When you have a much older and then a younger son, you get a

second chance, so to speak. And so while our 12 year old, we

love you. We promise we will coach you

faithfully. And true, he's constantly

asking, when can I get a phone? And the young adults around me

are saying, help me break free. And it's not just you young

adults, It's all of us. It's all of us tethered to this

onslaught of information that makes us feel like we need more

stuff. And now I'm not.

I'm not only comparing myself to the people in my life around me,

but I'm comparing myself to every woman across the planet.

And AI, right? So never before has it been so

easy to get divided, to get pulled into unnecessary

conversations, to get sidetracked by what's going on.

Never before has it been so easy to waste our time, but what

Jesus is calling us to see is that when we waste our time, we

actually waste our life. And so the first habit of Jesus

people, the habit that we want to cling to as a foundation, is

that Jesus people have a rule of life.

Everybody say rule of life. If I've already lost you because

I had the word rule in it, stay with me.

It doesn't mean some rigid set of religious practices.

What it means is a determined course of your life, a

determined and set course based on a set of values.

That's the first part of our equation.

A rule of life involves values and then it couples with it

practices. So if you want to know what is a

rule of life, it's when you have values that are specific coupled

with practices that are specific, and it results in an

outcome that you set out to get. So a set of values supported by

a construct of consistent practices that ensure those

values are fulfilled. That's what a rule of life is at

its most basic level. So let's start with some values.

How many people value like a super productive morning?

You're like a morning person. Don't be shy.

I need to see hands. Like right out of the gate,

you're out of the bed. Some of you, some of you might

supply it with coffee, right? Do I have coffee drinkers?

Yeah, that's a practice. How many of you value like kind

of some flexibility, You're kind of slow in the morning, get up

and hey, yeah, nothing wrong with that, right.

So as you see, different values, different practices, not right

or wrong, we're just, we're not all exactly the same, right.

How many people value health to the point where physical

exercise is a part of your every week?

Yeah, we got some unenthusiastic clapping on the front row here.

No. OK.

If you value working out, give me your attention.

How many people are like, get in there and get it done in the

morning? Like I'm a get it done in the

morning or I'm never going to do it?

Yeah. How many people are like, get it

done at night, get it done at night?

It doesn't matter when. Yeah.

So whatever your value is, it's going to drive your practices.

Right. So what we're acknowledging

today is that we all have patterns and habits.

In fact, I would say you have a rule of life whether you know it

or you don't. Even if your rule of life is

chaos, you have a rule of life. And so today we're slowing down

to ask ourselves some intentional questions that God

is asking. And I would start with these two

right up front. Is your rule of life happening

to you or is it set by you? Are you being intentional?

Am I being intentional or am I just taking whatever comes at

me? The second one is, is my rule of

life helping me become more like Jesus or is it helping me fit in

more with the world? And I think you would say,

building on last week's message, whether you were here or not,

you're not going to blend in with the world if you're

peculiar. And Jesus, people don't blend in

with the world. We stand out because he has a

message he is sending through us.

So today, we are taking the time to look at the way we build our

lives to be sure that we create an intentional, conscious plan

that puts us on the path to follow after Jesus.

It's a rule of life. My dad has a rule of life.

He will be 85 this December. Yeah, that's worth climbing for.

And I'm going to tell you he might be one of the most

principled and structured people I have ever known.

I mentioned he's almost 85. I think at this point he could

go out and climb on a ladder and repair his own roof.

Both physically and skill wise. He's that guy.

He's a mathematical genius. He was an early computer

programmer. And despite the fact that he's

almost 85, he still mows his lawn in Florida when it's 99°

outside, cultivates his own landscaping.

I've got a picture here of some beautiful roses that he grows.

And he grows them partially because he loves them, but he

also grows them from my mom. And he takes care of my mom.

And one of his values is to make sure that she's cared for.

And she loves these roses. And he grows them, and he

cultivates them. And I was spending some time

with him this past weekend. He was an educator for a number

of years. At one point in his career,

that's how he finished. And when he retired, he became a

stained glass artist. I want to show you a few of his

beautiful pieces. He is a Craftsman to the NTH

degree. I'll show you another one.

Here's a beautiful lamp. And then I've got one more.

This one might be my favorite. He taught himself how to do this

and this is who this guy is. He is literally a get after it,

make the most of your life kind of guy.

And I was spending time with him last weekend and we were just

kind of shooting the breeze. You know, I'm visiting and just

want to hear about what's going on.

And he shows me this binder. It's like a, you know, a 2 inch

binder. And he brings it out and he

starts flipping through it and he's showing me that he's

tracking everything he's eating and how he's wearing a glucose

monitor and how much it spikes, how long it takes to come down.

He's not diabetic, OK, he's not diabetic, but he loves to master

and conquer anything. So he's conquering right now,

intermittent fasting, aikido lifestyle.

And his goal is to be like 0 flat line on his glucose spikes.

Are you getting the picture? So this man has a set of values.

He has a rule of life. He has practices that support

his values. And here are his values.

Don't stop moving. Don't stop growing.

Don't stop learning. Make the most of every season of

your life. Keep it really organized.

That's in there too. But he has practices that

support his values. And as a result, at 85, he is

physically and mentally incredibly fit in more ways than

I can count. This is the power of a rule of

life. When you have values and you put

practices with them and you create a structure of a rule of

life, you will have an outcome. You will have fruit.

The thing is though, Jesus people have fruit that's

different. It's peculiar.

It's different than the rest of the world.

Jesus people have a rule of life that results in transformation

and we become like Jesus. Did you know that Scripture

tells us in Romans chapter 8 that this was God's plan, that

Romans 8 · chapter mention

we would be transformed into the image?

You know God speaks through creation.

He shows us in canyons and mountains and depths of oceans.

He reveals Himself. But his greatest artistry is in

the creation of you and I and in the transformation of our lives

by the Holy Spirit. We begin to bear His image and

we take his hope and His love to a broken and hurting world.

This is God's plan if we will accept and receive and embrace a

rule of life that makes us Jesus people.

But just in case you're wondering, well, what's in it

for me, let me tell you what you get.

Jesus people have a rule of life that results in an intimate,

knowing and being known kind of relationship, always near to an

eternal, powerful, loving God. Does that sound good?

Where every need is met, yours and those around you.

Where your steps are guided, your wounds are tended to and

healed. You have strength and power and

comfort in constant supply. And when you choose a Jesus rule

of life, you have shared mission, You have eternal

impact, you have purpose beyond your wildest dreams.

And you don't have any shame. Because the love and the

lifeblood of Jesus takes away everything and anything that's

of us and replaces it with himself.

There's no dumb questions. There's laughter and delight and

joy. Are you getting excited yet?

Flowing between you and God And what Crystal was talking about

earlier, That firm foundation, when it gets shaken, when you

face difficult situations, you won't be alone and they won't be

wasted. This is the fruit of a Jesus

people rule of life. So maybe you're asking, OK, OK,

I'm interested. You've got me, I'm listening.

What's the difference between a rule of life that makes us good

people, nice people, disciplined people, and Jesus people?

Because there's distinction. If we're going to choose a rule

of life that transforms us into Jesus people, we are going to be

good and nice and disciplined, right?

We're also going to be powerful and strong and surrendered and

submitted and faithful and purposeful, and we're going to

be distinct. And this morning the ground

we're going to cover is 3 distinctions of a rule of life

as a Jesus person. So if you are ready for this,

would you close your eyes and open your hands?

And we're going to ask the Holy Spirit who interprets the word,

who knows us through and through to have his way and make it

simple. Just say Holy Spirit, have your

way, however you want to do it. Holy Spirit, have your way.

I'm saying it to Holy Spirit, have your way in my words.

I step aside. I ask you to come and transform

each one of us, including me through this morning.

We want to meet with you. It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. So the first distinction of

Jesus people is that Jesus people have a rule of life where

their values and their practices are defined by the word of God.

Where do we go? Where do we look to build our

rule of life? Nowhere but the word of God.

Not in the culture, not even necessarily in your family,

although that might be good if their rule of life is matching

Jesus's rule of life, right? But we're not going to go

anywhere first other than the foundation of the Word of God.

And this morning we're going to practice that together.

And to do that, I want to tell you we're going to read Matthew

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. And we have notes for you, every

scripture that I'm going to use and including later on when I

give you a tool for building a rule of life mine and a blank 1

is going to be in there. It is in the message notes

inside of the app. If you don't have the app, you

can go to illuminate dot church, Illuminate dot church and pull

up the message notes. I highly recommend it.

But we're going to read Matthew chapter 6 together.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

If you'd like a Bible in your hand, you can raise your hand.

If you didn't bring one, our ushers will be glad to gift it.

We've got one over here. I love that you want the Word in

your hands. We want the Word in your hands

and in your heart and transforming you.

We've got hands up all over the place as we're doing that and

getting you Bibles. Let's do just a little

background. Matthew is one of the four

gospels, the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John found in

the New Testament. It's where we get the eyewitness

account of Jesus, how he lived, who we loved, how we spend his

time. So if we're going to build a

Jesus rule of life, we are going to need to look at Jesus, right?

So we're going to look at Matthew chapter 6 together.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Are you with me? You're with me as we're getting

there to Matthew chapter 6, as we read through this, I want you

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

to listen for two things. I want you to listen for values

and I want you to listen for practices.

So if we're going to find our values and our practices in the

word of God, let's do it together this morning, Matthew

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 beginning in verse 1. And I want you all to talk back.

Can you be a talk back kind of people?

OK, we're going to read Matthew 6 together.

Holy Spirit highlight to us practices and values.

Jesus said to his disciples, watch out, don't do your good

deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you will lose the

reward from your Father in heaven.

Does that sound like a value? No matter what you're doing,

your heart matters. That's a value of a Jesus

person. Verse #2 When you give, does

that sound like something? What is it A a practice when you

give to someone in need? Don't do as the hypocrites do,

blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call

attention to their acts of charity.

I tell you the truth, you have received all the reward.

They have received all the reward they will ever get.

But when you give, does that sound like a habit or a

practice? Yes.

When you give, give to someone in need.

Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Give your gifts in private and your Father who sees everything

will reward you. Then Jesus goes on to teach

about praying. He says when you pray, what is

that? Come on, talk back.

It's a practice. When you pray, don't be like the

hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and

in the synagogues where everyone can see them.

I tell you the truth, that's all the reward they will ever get.

But when you pray, when you pray, practice.

Right now, we're going to hear about how go away by yourself,

shut the door behind you and pray to your Father in private.

Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

There's a value in here about relationship, about the internal

part of who we are, being authentic and true with God

first before we go and do any of our practices right.

And then in verse 16, Jesus said, and when you fast, don't

make it obvious. He kind of repeats the same

theme in verse 17. He says when you fast, comb your

hair, wash your face so that no one will know that you're

fasting. Except who?

Your Father, who knows what you do in private, and your father

who sees everything will reward you.

And here's a great value. Don't store up treasures here on

earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, where

thieves break in and steal. Store up your treasures and

where in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, where

thieves do not break in and steal.

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will

be also. So you can see just from this

one passage, just from Matthew chapter 6, you could begin to

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

build a very strong rule of life.

Let's highlight a couple Jesus highlights.

He wants us to give to the needy, to fast, to pray, to

treasure heaven's eternal rewards over the earth's flash

in the pan rewards, and then He puts a strong value behind it.

We can't do good things for people's attention, for their

approval. We do everything we do out of a

love for God, because God sees. God rewards, not because he's

watching you, because he loves you.

And out of this love relationship, we could build a

really great rule of life. So you might be asking, OK, if

I'm supposed to find my practices and my values in the

Word, but I'm not very familiar with the Bible, how am I

supposed to do this? What I would say to you is

today, decide you want it and borrow someone else's rule of

life that has been living this and has been in the Word and has

built something that's worth copying for now, borrow it, copy

it and just start doing it. And as you spend time in the

Word, you will grow, you will tweak, you will change, you will

make it your own, but don't wait to figure it out.

Borrow something from someone worth following.

As Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ, everybody with

me. Yes, so we're also going to give

you tools in this series to help you along the way.

The next six weeks are going to be some of the practices and

we're going to get down into them.

Next week is about reading the Bible.

How convenient? Isn't God amazing?

Yes. So let's pick up here in Matthew

Matthew 6:24

chapter 6, verse 24. We're going to find another

value. No one can serve 2 masters, for

you will hate one and love the other.

You will be devoted to 1 and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

And the big value here is our second point.

So the first point was we're going to find our values and our

practices in the word, not in the world, right?

But our second point is this, Jesus, people have a rule of

life where their values match their practices.

There's no division, there's no confusion.

So what is Jesus saying? He's saying here, if you're

going to serve God, but money is calling your name and it has

your attention, you're going to be divided.

It won't work. You can't have two masters.

We can't have two sets of values.

We can't have values that are inconsistent with our practices

or practices that are inconsistent with our values.

Are you hearing the invitation to be 1 integrated whole?

We have to have practices that match our values.

And when we look at Jesus's life, we see that a Jesus

person, a Jesus follower, will have to surrender every part of

ourselves. You know, when Jesus walked to

this earth, he did not see, say, or do anything unless it came

from the Father. And so Jesus had a value.

We're going to stop for just a moment here and study how Jesus

valued a love relationship with the Father.

If we want to look for a place where practices match values, we

don't have to look any further than looking at Jesus.

He spent time with the Father. You know, we can find a phrase

or a version of a phrase like this over and over in Scripture.

Jesus went out to a mountain to pray.

He spent the night praying to God.

He often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Jesus went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

He went out in the desert by himself to pray.

He got up, left the house early in the morning and went to a

secluded place and was praying there.

Do you hear a theme? Where did Jesus go when stuff

was happening? He went away to be with the

Father. He prioritized the relationship

with the Father. Jesus didn't have a separate

strategy or a separate compartment for dealing with

pain. When John the Baptist, his

cousin and forerunner, was beheaded, Jesus went out to

grieve and be with the Father. When Jesus had to make a big

decision about choosing the 12 disciples that the church would

be built upon, he spent the night before in prayer.

When Jesus was being exalted and heralded as an earthly man and

an earthly king, and the crowd wanted to make him the King, he

got away to be with the Lord. And when he faced the ultimate

suffering of bearing the the knowledge he was going to go to

the cross, he wrestled in the garden in prayer with God.

He said, I know this is what I came here to do.

I know this is what we agreed on.

But if there's any other way, can we can we go another way?

And in that exchange, in that time alone with the Father, he

exchanged his will and said, no, you're right, there is no other

way. Let's go.

So what did Jesus do at any decision after a hard day, after

an exciting day, when he was birthing a new ministry?

Everything he did was based on a big value of being with his

Father, practicing, taking time with the Father.

So if we're looking at our own rule of life, how do you prepare

for a giant move, A launch of a business, a birth of a baby?

Where do we go when our heart is broken?

When grief plunges us into pain? Where do we go for wisdom?

Where do we go when everything is falling apart?

Where do you go when everything's going great?

Jesus had a value that matched his practice and his value was

Father first, relationship 1st, and everything else comes

second. Good, bad, ugly, everything in

between. I'm not moving until I've been

with you. He had a value that was

supported by His practice. And in Matthew chapter 6, that

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

same verse, the same passage as we were looking at, at the very

end of the chapter, there's one more value we want to grab onto

from Jesus. And Jesus is talking in this

section of scripture. After he talked to them about

praying and fasting and serving, and he taught them the Lord's

Prayer, He said, you're going to face day-to-day life where

you're going to need clothes and food, You're going to need

provision. And when you face these things,

you're going to want to take care of it yourself.

You're going to have anxiety and worry over where it's coming

from. Anyone identify with this?

Yeah, we're, we're all my honest people.

Anyone identify with providing for yourself?

And then Jesus takes them through this exercise and says,

do you see the lilies of the field?

Nobody got up and dressed them this morning.

God did it. And do you see the Sparrow?

Do you see them flitting around? Do you see them toiling to eat?

And of course they said no. And Jesus then said, when you

face this life, this crazy upside down life, you're not

going to provide for yourself. You're going to have to make a

choice, though our God is willing to provide for you.

And then he says this verse in Matthew 6, verse 33.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these

things will be added to you. And So what is Jesus saying?

He's saying that if we say we trust God, like if we would say,

yeah, I trust God, that's a value.

But then I'm self-sufficient toiling and striving to provide

everything for myself. Is my value matching my

practice? No, what Jesus is saying is you

have an opportunity to put God first.

Seek the things that matter to him.

Build a Jesus rule of life and then you will not only have what

you need, you will have peace or you can do your rule of life

your way. You can have this discord

mismatch and you'll have anxiety and worry.

Because when we say we believe in something and we value

something and we do something else, it creates a like a chasm

in our being because we know we're not matching.

The whole is interrupted. There's no integration of the

parts. And so Jesus people have a rule

of life where the values and the practices come from the Word of

God. And because they come from the

word of God, and as we grow and mature, our practices and our

values match. Then what we have is peace and

provision, power, effectiveness, and all the things that God has

promised. And this is what Jesus people do

Amen. Jesus people prioritize, not

compartmentalize, our relationship with the Father.

And that leads us to the Third Point.

Because even if we build our habits, our practices, and we

grab our values from the word and we make them match, if we

don't invite the Holy Spirit to lead, we're toast.

So our Third Point we cannot live without is that Jesus,

people have a rule of life that allows the Holy Spirit to lead

and transform. And I'm going to be really

candid with you because I love you.

We can't cheat this. We can't cheat it.

We can't cheat the fact that we can't muscle change from the

outside in. We can't read enough books on

self help. The only thing that truly

transforms us into the image of Christ and sets us free is the

Holy Spirit. And what Jesus is building here

at Illuminate Church are Jesus people living and walking by the

Spirit. At the end of my days, what I

want to be known for is a life that was led and could only have

been lived by the Holy Spirit, by the amount of His presence,

of the way He changed me and transformed me into His image of

the things that He called me to do.

That the only way I could have lived it is by the power and

presence of the Holy Spirit. And that is a value that I hold.

And if you're here today and you're saying I don't know what

that means, I'm glad you said it and I'm glad you're being honest

and you are in completely the right place.

Let me explain it to you this way.

When God created you, He created you with a body and a spirit.

And the body is the part of us, the flesh parts of us that

desires things our own way. Like, you know, the Burger King

motto, You can have it your way. Your body really loves that

motto. But your body is going to die

and decay. And the part of you that lives

eternally is your spirit. So at any given time, your

spirit that longs for and loves your eternal home is trying to

lead you and guide you to line up with the Holy Spirit.

But at the same time, your flesh is trying to win.

Can everybody see it? You're at war within yourself.

So to be led by the Holy Spirit means we are going to have to

crucify our flesh. In fact, Galatians 5 talks about

this. We are crucifying the flesh,

dying to ourselves, getting a lifeblood transfusion, Jesus's

blood into ours. Our DNA changes, we change from

the inside out. The kind of rule of life that

allows that to happen is one that is led by the Spirit.

And so today we're going to take just a little look at our fruit

because the fruit, the output is how the Holy Spirit leadership

is displayed. So today, if we break it down

into two lists, they're found in Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Starting in verse 22, we're going to see that Jesus people

produce a certain kind of fruit. So if you want to know if you're

being led by the Spirit, let's look at our fruit in verse 22 it

says, but the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and

self-control. Does this sound good?

I don't think you're really hearing me if you're not

screaming. Yes, and I say this earnestly.

What would it be like if your life were overflowing with love

and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and

gentleness and faithfulness? Where you were on the path that

you want to be on and not having trouble swerving off of it?

That's faithfulness. And who would not like a little

self-control? That I could be doing what it is

my heart wants to be doing, right?

This is the fruit of a life led by the Holy Spirit, and whenever

and wherever you see this kind of fruit, you know that your

rule of life is flourishing. But if there is a contrast, it's

the one led by our flesh, by our body, by our Burger King motto.

We've got to be sober about what this looks like.

We're going to back up a couple verses.

Galatians 5, verse 19 through 21.

Galatians 5:19–21

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality,

impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, anyone

getting depressed, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger,

disputes, dissensions, factions envying drunkenness.

This list is long, carousing and things like these of which Paul

has forewarned them. If you practice these things,

you're not going to inherit the Kingdom of God.

Do you think it's interesting that he uses the word practice?

Do you think it's interesting that it uses the word practice?

Because we are at any given time putting values and practices

being led by the Holy Spirit, or we are putting other practices

in place and here is what we will get.

The choice is simple. Whenever and wherever you see

strife and jealousy, anger that's out of control, anger

that's a tool or a weapon instead of a dashboard light,

any place you find yourself stuck in habitual sin, this is a

place where your rule of life is not working.

The job of the Spirit, the indwelling gift of the presence

of God. When you are saved, you become a

temple for the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit's job is to

live in you, guide you, and as we yield, produce good fruit to

become Jesus. People, we're going to have to

embrace. This is a mystery.

Is anyone else? Like, if we're being honest,

this is pretty mysterious, but I can testify again and again and

again to the truth of this miracle.

You can be born again. You are a new creation.

You're born into the Spirit, and over time you will learn to let

the Spirit lead you. You can build a rule of life

that supports this value and you will be transformed.

So we are going to be a kind of people, a Jesus peculiar people

that have a rule of life. We're going to look to the word

to find our values and our practices.

And because we find them there and we grow in maturity, they're

going to match. And we're going to let the Holy

Spirit lead and we're going to be transformed into some

peculiar, wonderful people. This is the invitation to us.

We just took a trip, our family and another family, all of our

kids home from college. We went out to Utah and we went

to one of my bucket list dream places, Bryce Canyon, Zion,

Moab, Arches. And when I say to you that I was

moved by God at the majesty, the wonder, the depth, the variety,

No2 structures looked the same in any place.

We were at one point this giant Canyon called Dead Horse Point,

and we had hiked and hiked and hiked and we got to the overlook

and I wept at the fullness and the majesty and the regality of

the presence of God. It was an amazing trip, but one

of the things I was surprised by is we didn't know anything about

this region. We're picking where we're going

to stay. We picked a vacation rental

spot, and we picked it because it was centrally located.

We could stay in one spot and do a bunch of things, but we knew

nothing about the city. And this city we were in had no

food, like no grocery stores, no restaurants.

Like maybe you're familiar with this.

You're a city person. This is no big deal.

I mean, a country person to a city person.

I was surprised. So as we're driving around, I'm

looking at them like, where are these people getting food?

But you look at their large properties and you see

greenhouses and you see gardens and you see that they're

cultivating the land because they want to eat, right?

And we're not used to this. But we need to borrow something

from this truth. Those people living out in that

area, if they want to eat, they're going to eat what they

grow. They're going to eat what they

produce. And the truth that I believe the

Holy Spirit wants us to really get this morning is you're going

to eat what you grow. You can make a pit stop.

You can eat off of someone else's tree.

You can come in and be around great people and get some good

fruit. But day in and day out you are

going to eat what you're growing.

So why not grow good fruit? Why not grow the fruit that

satisfies not only you and everybody around you, Right?

Thank you Lord, so let's borrow as we wrap up our time here.

Let's borrow something from agriculture and apply it to our

spiritual lives. I've got Sierra in my in the 2nd

row here. She knows all about trellises,

but a trellis is a structure that is used to provide support

to help guide to protect flourishing and productive

plants. There's so many shapes.

I started looking into this and looking at the varieties.

I've got some pictures here for you.

The first one is a Raspberry plant.

I love me some raspberries, but they're building this structure

to create and guide all of the plants to grow up and flourish

and be nourished. This next one here would work

for any kind of vertical growing plant.

It's not real sturdy, but you could see you could grow some

light, simple things and that trellis is going to guide and

shape and help that plant grow. I think my favorite picture is

this one. Isn't this gorgeous?

And you look at this trellis and with the intention of what it

has done, not only has it created function, but it's

beautiful. Did you know that the structure,

the rule of life, your values and your practices can produce

fruit that is so beautiful that people want to stop and know

what is going on? And so in our discussion, we've

talked about a rule of life. And what I'm suggesting is let's

build a trellis. Let's build a structure with

intention. And so let's look just a little

bit more at what trellises do. A trellis can do this amazing

thing that creates an opportunity for every part of

the plant to get nourishing light.

Isn't that amazing? A trellis is strong and sturdy,

but you've got to train your plant to use the trellis.

Have you ever seen someone take a, a plant and like tie it up to

the trellis? Because how many know that if

we're left to our own, we're going to go off on our own,

right? But a good trellis with a good

caretaker, which by the way, we have the best gardener caretaker

ever, Father God, who trains us to our trellis, if we will put

the trellis in place, that that trellis can help us grow heavy

productive fruit. Because without that trellis,

heavy fruit growing on a vine will crash to the ground, it'll

rot, the bugs will eat it and nobody will get, nobody will get

the benefit from it. So in agriculture, A trellis

guides, a trellis supports a trellis keeps the fruit from

falling and being wasted. It makes it easier to harvest.

And in your spiritual life, your trellis are the practices that

you match with the values that grows beautiful, incredible

fruit. Because if you have a trellis,

you have a bunch of practices without many values, you're not

going to grow anything. And if you have some values

without any structure or any support to your life, there

might be a bud of fruit. How many have ever experienced

this? Been to a conference, been to a

camp, been to a Bible study, been through something and

there's a surge of fruit, but there's nothing there to support

it. And it dies and falls to the

ground. And we think to ourselves, why

was it real? What happened?

It was real. But a rule of life is a set of

values with practices that are consistent that produce an

amazing fruit. So I'm going to share with you

this morning my rule of life. And I'm going to ask for a

tremendous amount of grace in knowing that I feel very

vulnerable presenting this because I'm not putting myself

forward as a person that has everything figured out.

But if we don't share with you what we have learned, how will

we bring you along, Right? So here is my rule of life.

It's also in your message notes. I won't have time to go over

everything today, but I want to go over just a few things in my

rule of life. My first love is God, and the

rest of my life flows from there.

There's nothing more important to me than my love relationship

with God. And even as important as the

other 4 categories are, if I do the other 4 without the first

one, it will be very easy for me to drift and drift and drift in

my values, right? Either become legalistic or say,

did that really matter? Maybe it doesn't matter so much.

I'm going to put this over the truth of the Word of God.

So in my rule of life, even though they're equally laid out

there, there is an order the I see God comes first.

I start and end each day with God.

Super simple. God, I love you.

Thank you for this day. At the end of the day, let's

talk about what happened or I just want you to know you're my

shepherd. Why?

Because in the season of my life when everything is chaotic, if

there's nothing else I can count on, I know that I'm going to run

into this practice at the beginning and end of my day,

right? It's good to have a trellis that

I know is sturdy and is going to be there and having a reading

plan, reading the Bible, having extended time in a prayer

closet. You remember in Matthew chapter

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

6 when Jesus said don't do all your praying publicly?

Do you remember he said, actually go in and close the

door? There's a private, intimate

place where everything slows down, where I pour out my heart

to him. I don't do this perfectly, but

it is an intimate, sweet space and something no one is ever

going to talk me out of. You're never going to talk me

out of reading the Bible, having worship in my heart and on my

mind. You're never going to talk me

out of cultivating gratitude because I've been in a love

relationship with Him and it's too sweet and it's too good.

And even when I get off track, my trellis is going to me back.

My community, my family, my husband, my core friends are

going to bring me back because as a rule of life, I seek God

first. I'm going to live relationally.

And that means when we have meals around our table, we put

phones away, we try to home cook meals and be around the table

more than anything else. That's just my personal

preference. You're going to see food on here

a lot. Maybe that's a problem when you

get to our mission matters most. I love to take care of people

with food. I love to make meals.

I love to do whatever I can. It's the way God's wired me.

So as you find your rule of life, when you get to living out

the Great Commission, don't make it mine, make it yours.

Who are you? How did God uniquely wire you to

love your neighbors, to build relationships?

And one thing I want to point out, especially as all my kids

are in the service, it is my value and I hope it's yours,

that the integrity of my life, at the end of my days, my kids

would say that's not just something she taught you, it's

something she taught me. And in the integrity of your

life, thank you, Lord, the integrity of your life is that

every part of who you are would be integrated to a complete

whole. You know, I've shared this with

you and I want you to linger in it at home.

I'd love for you to take the blank one and the instructions

that are in the message notes and go to lunch with somebody

and talk about the Holy Spirit birthing your rule of life.

Right, Since we started this message talking a lot about my

dad, I want to end it there. You know, I told you my dad is a

mathematical genius, but what I didn't tell you is that he was

my 10th grade geometry teacher. Anybody here in or around 10th

grade, how many of you want your dad to be the dork who is

running the overhead with the Yeah.

OK, so I said that lovingly. I'll tell you the story.

So I loved my dad and really loved him being my teacher.

It was kind of amazing and I loved the subject.

I loved seeing him in his genius.

But what was funny is my friends really thought he was kind of

goofy. So there was this thing called

an overhead projector where you scroll the plastic.

Yes, yes. If you're older or at my age,

you understand if you're not. We didn't have technology, so we

had plastic and we wrote on it with markers.

Well, you're supposed to like, erase it with an eraser, but my

dad would lick his finger and erase it and then put it back on

his mouth. So at the end of the day, the

kids were like, Oh my gosh, your dad's such a dork.

He has blue like all over his lips, blah, blah, blah.

And one day in class, this kid said, Mr. Bachman, you're such a

dork. And he goes, that's Mr. Dork to

you. I loved it.

I loved having as a teacher. But in geometry, there is a term

called congruence. Everyone say congruence.

Congruent is when you're studying 2 shapes and they have

the same qualities. They're equal in shape and size.

And one of the parts of the definition that I love the most

is that when 2 shapes have congruence, it doesn't matter

how they're flipped or turned. They're always equal.

And the rule of life that Jesus is inviting you to live is that

your life, no matter how you're flipped or turned, no matter how

you are flipped or turned, is so congruent with His that you have

everything you need and you bear His image through every aspect

of your life. This is the goal of the rule of

life, to make us congruent with Jesus.

And I am not saying that you're going to be perfect.

I am clearly not perfect. But what I am saying is that

Jesus people work consistently and fight for true integrity,

that there is a completeness to whatever is being described.

This is a lifelong journey and we don't accomplish it.

Remember who does the transforming the Holy Spirit.

self-sufficiency is not a value found in the Word.

In fact, utter and complete surrender and complete

dependency on God is what is found in the Word.

So if this is stirring in your heart and you're ready to look

at the fruit of your life, let's just kind of close your eyes and

get into a posture. It's not religious, it's

focused. So we said that if we want to

know how we're doing in the Holy Spirit LED flesh and spirit

battle, we would look at our fruit.

So Holy Spirit, would you help us examine our fruit?

If you're looking at the fruit of your life and you're saying I

want more Jesus fruit, maybe it's that you have competing

values. Maybe it's that you have a value

system that is stressed and rubbing up against another set

of values. Maybe it's that you have a set

of values, but you're in a situation at work or a living

situation where you don't have the support and structure of the

people doing life the way you are.

Maybe you have the right values, but you don't have the

practices, whatever it is. Holy Spirit, would you speak now

to each of us? And what I would say to you is

all is if all of this is ringing a bell of you saying I have

never given my life over in full surrender.

I've never been reborn and made new.

And the invitation to you is, let's start there.

I'm going to ask everyone to pray out loud in just a moment.

What I'm asking you is if the Holy Spirit is stirring you to

say, I've been around church, I've been around religion.

I have never ever understood the complete rebirth, transformation

by the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus.

And if you're saying today, I want you, Jesus, to be my

shepherd and my rabbi, and I want to follow you, then when we

all pray, you're going to pray this with us for the very first

time. If everyone would say, Jesus,

you have opened my eyes to the truth of who you are.

You are the only way, you are the only truth, and you are my

life. And today I receive the free

gift of your blood in exchange for my sin, and I'm washed anew.

I declare that you our you are my Savior and I want you to be

my Lord and Jesus, we thank you for all those being saved by

Your Holy Spirit and for everyone else wherever you are.

Would you just talk to Him, tell him what you want, what you,

what you are hearing from Him, and where you want to join Him?

It can sound something like this.

You've stirred my heart, Holy Spirit, help me find the values

and the practices in Your Word. Help me not leave this here and

walk away and forget, but to do Your Word.

It's in Jesus name that we pray with great gratitude.

We love you in Jesus name, Amen. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to

407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.

Have a great week.