Family Survival Kit - Part 1

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jesus

called the haunting cries of

crucify echoed Through the streets a

rugged cross a crown of thorns were

gifts I

had for this king to be

seen on crucif

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day as he laid on

his

arms wide I held his hands and feet in

place

it was time for him to die the crowd

began to cheer me as I brought my hammer

down

but at that very

moment all of heaven heard a

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sound my name rang

louder heaven won the

victory the lamb has prevailed

angels bow to worship him the one who

could not

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fail my name ring louder

than the nails

i will

cling to the

old

rug

cross for

it

there he bore all my

sin and shame

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my

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name heaven won the

victory the lamb has

prevailed i must bow to worship him the

one who could not fail

my name ring louder

than the

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nails my name ring louder

than the

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nails name I pray amen title of this

message is family survival kit so my job

uh as we started hiking a couple years

ago my job was to be the pack mule

basically uh so I found a cool little

Osprey hiking backpack at a yard sale

for like two bucks and so I bought it

and I started to uh fill it up with

essentials for this family hiking trip

that we were about to go on so I put all

the stuff that you have to have in the

bag a knife and water bottles and

sunscreen and trail mix and a bit of

honeys and cho sticks and jack link

jerky uh Pringles oatmeal cream pies and

Skittles i had all that in my packing so

we were ready to go so we go on this

hike we're in the middle of nowhere and

uh all of a sudden it starts to rain and

my wife looks at me and she says "Well

where are the ponchos?" I'm like "You

want some trail mix

i I didn't prepare for the storm the the

weather didn't say there was going to be

a storm that day but there was a storm

that day and so we got to enjoy each

other's company under a tree for two

hours no internet as well so I was not

prepared for the storm and my family

paid the price so in this series we're

going to talk about how to build a

family that can withstand all of life's

storms and since everything in our life

is predicated upon the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from the dead I'm going to

teach you how to bring your family

relationships to the one who laid down

his life and picked it up again because

that's where you have to start you got

to start with the one who makes the

impossible possible you have to bring

your families to Jesus if your family is

going to be strong so at the conclusion

of Jesus message sermon on the mount in

Matthew chapter 7 he gives an

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

illustration and he says that the thing

that determines how a home how a a

family does in a storm is the foundation

that that home is actually built upon

jesus says there's this foolish man who

built his house on the sand and the

house looked amazing the house was the

kind of house that's Instagram worthy

it's the house that you would want your

house to look like but the problem is

that house was built on human opinions

and human feelings and human emotions

and so when that storm came the

scripture says that the house was

destroyed and Jesus even says "Great was

its collapse." But there's another man

in this illustration there's a a man who

built his house on the rock there was a

man who knows the word of God and a man

who does the word of God and that family

faced the exact same storm that

hurricane of life hit both of those

houses at the exact same time the winds

and the rain were beating on both of the

houses in exactly the same way but this

house was left standing because this

house was built on the rock so what's

great about this scripture is that the

promises that are contained in Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7 these these illustrations that

Jesus uses to teach us how to build our

lives on the rock were actually formed

out of Psalm 128 so Jesus had Psalm 128

on his mind as he was writing the

closing illustration for the greatest

sermon that's ever been preached

so the takeaway here is that God wants

our homes to be built on a solid

foundation and he tells us that the way

to do that is to understand biblical

teaching and not just understand it but

actually obey it it's really as simple

as that you hear the word of God and you

obey the word of God and your family

become stronger because of it so in this

day of confusion in this day of

distortion in a day where people and

culture are basing things off of their

feelings and not on the actual word of

God and what God has to say we're going

to turn our attention to the scripture

that inspired the closing illustration

of the greatest sermon that's ever been

preached which again is Psalm 128 so

would you join me there in verse one

Psalm 128

how happy that word could be translated

blessed as well how happy is everyone

who fears the Lord who walks in his ways

you will surely eat what your hands have

worked for you will be happy and it will

go well with you your wife will be like

a fruitful vine within your house your

children like young olive trees around

the table in this very way the man who

fears the Lord will be blessed may the

Lord bless you from Zion so that you

will see the prosperity of Jerusalem all

the days of your life and you will see

your children's

children peace be with

Israel so this psalm was on Jesus

playlist as he made his way up to

Jerusalem these are called the Psalms of

ascent they're songs that would have

been sung by people going on their

pilgrimage to Jerusalem it was part of

Jesus road trip playlist and now one of

the great passions of my life is to

actually manage and and curate playlists

on my Apple Music playlist section i I

got playlists for workouts i got

playlists for road trips like Life is a

Highway i'm sorry um but one of my

fondest memories of one of the playlists

that I created it just made my heart

smile so much is when I took a trip down

to Atlanta with a few people from this

church for a conference and I had a '9s

a clean edited '9s hiphop playlist that

I put on in the church van and what blew

my mind is David Burgess Jr knew every

single lyric to every single hip-hop

song that was written in the 90s and he

was singing it out in the church van it

was so incredible it made me feel so

good because that was my playlist and he

enjoyed it so much one of my personal

favorite memories is driving over the

Blue Ridge Parkway on my way back to

West Virginia for the first time in a

long time and I remember I put on

country roads and it just kind of it

hits you in the fields the right music

at the right time really can change your

perspective on life and so Jesus he sang

song Psalm 128 with his disciples every

time they would go on one of three

pilgrimages to Jerusalem for festivals

can you imagine that three Thanksgiving

meals per year why don't we follow that

calendar i would love that i don't do

any of the cooking so of course I would

love that if we had three Thanksgiving

meals a year but that's what God's word

commanded his people to do go to

Jerusalem for a festival three different

times per year people joke Baptists

about how much we eat man we're just

being biblical right like we're just

following what God told us to do we're

honoring his traditions but but God is

like "Here's a party there's a party."

God clearly loves a party god loves it

when his people get together and

celebrate life and provision and

protection and the love and the grace

and the mercy and the forgiveness that

he has given them and the Bible tells us

that those parties are just a symbol of

what's to come because as soon as Jesus

comes back and raptures the living and

the dead and we all go to heaven

together the very first thing we do is

we have a party it says that Jesus is

going to sing to us and provide the meal

for us believers from all over the globe

from all the different generations past

and all the generations to come th this

song these psalms of ascent were meant

to be on this playlist so it would drag

us into this understanding of what God

is doing and what he will continue to do

for all of eternity so Psalm 128 was on

the playlist on the way to the festival

and by the way they're called the Psalms

of Ascent because Jerusalem is a city on

a hill and so as you went to Jerusalem

you would ascend into uh the city but it

was on these Psalms of ascent were on

the playlist and this one specifically

because it was it was strategically

placed there so that Jesus God could

tell people about what a vision of

building your house on the rock actually

looks like and what it would lead to in

the lives of the families that took

God's word seriously look at the

heartbeat of the psalm

god is saying that the best thing that

you and I can do for our world is to

have a strong and healthy family and

then he says the best thing that you can

you and I can do for our families is to

have a strong and healthy marriage and

then it says the best thing that you and

I can do for our marriage is to have a

strong and healthy soul so when you

watch the news and you see about another

shakeup in your community and it kind of

rattles you and you ask that question

what can I do to make my world a better

place the answer is have a strong and

healthy family and then you're like well

what what can I do how can I have a a

strong and healthy family well have a

strong and healthy marriage well how can

I have a strong and healthy marriage

have a strong and healthy soul

psalm 128

is the beginning of the ripples the

ramifications of a blessed world

understand that the the blessing that

we're talking about here flows from a

person in verse one who fears God and

walks in his

ways so healthy families they they bring

a blessing to Jerusalem which is a city

and then it says that this creates peace

in Israel which is a country and then it

says that it produces positive vibes all

across the world that'll bless your

children's children where does it start

with a person who fears God and walks in

his ways so basically he's saying

"Change your heart change your family

and then you will be able to change your

world."

So for all the single people all the

dating people all the engaged people all

the married people the key to finding

happiness according to God's word is

fearing God and walking in his ways look

at verse one how happy is everyone who

fears the Lord and walks in his ways and

some of you are like "Man I was really

hoping you would give me like five steps

to being a better husband i was really

hoping you would tell us to like go on a

marriage retreat and to to read a a

healthy marriage book." And hey good all

those things all those things are

excellent you should do all of them but

here at Sawers Creek we preach the word

of God and the word of God says step one

of finding a healthy marriage and a

healthy family is that you have to be

able to fear God look Solomon was the

wisest person that ever existed he wrote

the Proverbs and he went on this life

journey where he explored every avenue

that you could ever explore in a life he

had all the all the knowledge in the

world he had all the money in the world

and so he could do anything he wanted to

do and so he tried to distill life down

into one simple statement and he says at

the end of all of his studies that there

is only one thing that matters and that

is a healthy fear of God says in

Proverbs 19:23 "The fear of the Lord

Proverbs 19:23

leads to life and he who has it will

abide in satisfaction." Anybody want

satisfaction today

you can't get

no well the reason you can't get no

satisfaction means that you do not have

a healthy fear of God the apostle Peter

when he did the exact same thing tried

to figure out what is life all about he

boiled it down to one simple statement

and it was fear God how do we see our

parenting dynamic change how do we see

our family structure change how do we

see our marriages change how do we see

our world change it starts with a

healthy fear of God so what does it mean

to fear God good question glad you asked

two types of

fear there's a bad fear which the word

equals terror okay so I have four huge

fears going in in descending order

number four for me is heights number

three is

clowns number two is middle schoolers

and number one by a large margin is

slugs i've never talked about this

publicly it's the first time for me so

please don't judge me it's slugs now I

would rather be trapped on the top of

the Empire State Building by a bunch of

middle school age clowns than I would to

touch a slug i hate slugs slugs are

disgusting creatures the devil gets in

my house sometimes in the form of a slug

i have a normal house a clean house

there's no reason for a slug to ever be

in my house but there have been

occasions where I'll be sitting on my

couch and I'll look down and there'll be

a slug on my leg where does it come from

the devil put it there that's all I can

figure i hate slugs and I was telling I

did the reason I don't talk about this

publicly is because I had this pastor

friend and I told him that you know I

was I was scared of uh slugs and he

quoted 2 Timothy 1:7 to me he said "God

2 Timothy 1:7

has not given us a spirit of fear." I'm

like "God didn't know about slugs

apparently cuz they're creepy man." And

then he says "If God didn't give it to

you then you don't have to keep it." And

he didn't give you a spirit of fear so I

smacked him and we're no longer friends

anymore because I'm like man that's

terrible

advice that's the definition of an

unhealthy fear that is terror that is

not the word that is used in the Bible

when it's talking about fearing God he

does not want you to be terrified of him

as if he was a slug or a clown or a high

place there is another type of fear that

is in your Bible and it's used in the

Old Testament and New Testament and the

words translate the exact same healthy

holy fear there's a healthy holy fear i

did a lot of research on this i wanted

to find the easiest way to explain it

and I came across a quote by Levi Lusco

that I think is absolutely brilliant

speaking of a healthy holy fear he says

it's like a playing with a kitten in a

thunderstorm like being in the presence

of a kitten and also experiencing the

power the bone rattling humbling power

that comes when you are in the presence

of thunder and I thought about that like

when the thunder claps like

conversations stop and people start to

assess their life they're like are we in

danger how far away is the lightning

because lightning is no respector of

persons the thunder reminds you of just

how frail you are so in the Bible we see

a perfect illustration of this in the

Apostle John the Apostle John is the

disciple whom Jesus loved he was the one

that was probably uh more intimate with

Jesus than any of the other disciples

but it says in scripture that there was

a a time when the Apostle John saw the

power of Jesus on full display and it

says that he fell before him as though

he were dead this kind of stops that

flippant conversation we often have

about Jo about Jesus when we're like

"Well when I get to heaven he's going to

have some explaining to do." You know

actually no he doesn't and he's not

going to explain mosquitoes to you

because I've actually said that about

mosquitoes but um when you get to heaven

he's not going to have to explain

himself to you because you will be on

your knees or on your face the Bible

says that in the presence of the Lord

every knee will bow and every tongue

will confess that he is God's son and

you will lay there until Jesus says "Get

up and do not be afraid." So you have

the apostle John who fell as though dead

before Jesus when he saw his mighty

power a power that he could not even

fathom but this is also the same

disciple that at the Lord's supper laid

his head on Jesus chest as they ate cs

Lewis famously uh And Alon the the lion

uh who represents Jesus in the

Chronicles of Narnia he describes this

great lion as both love and thunder

jesus is the lamb that was it's the the

first song that we sang he is the lamb

that is led to slaughter but he's also

the fierce lion of Judah he roars like a

lion he bled as a lamb think about it

this way every star every planet every

galaxy that's ever been spoken into

existence was spoken into existence by

Jesus himself and that same voice that

spoke reality into being also speaks to

you in a whisper because he's that close

to where you're at when you stand on the

the banks of the the Outer Banks and you

look at the the ocean and you hear its

pounding waves and you realize that

Jesus controls all of that he holds all

of that together he sustains the oceans

and yet he was willing to package

himself up in the form of a man and go

to the cross for you when you stand at

the foot of the cross in your mind's eye

and you look up at your bleeding savior

who has all the power and fury of

lightning in his eyes but he chose to

stay there because he loves you and you

hear him say to you that he's got your

name engraved on the palm of his hand

when you hear him say to you that for

the joy set before him that's you he

endured the cross that experience that's

love and that thunder in the same place

produces a healthy fear of

God let's go again says it's not fear

that'll smite us down it's a profound

reverential awe that comes over your

heart that is marked by the cost of

God's amazing

grace so what does this fear do why are

we talking about it today why is it so

important for your families well fear

leads to according to verse one walking

says "How happy is everyone who fears

the Lord and then the result of fearing

God is you actually walk in his ways."

The fear of the Lord leads you to

walking in his ways with your feet and

when you walk in the ways of the Lord in

verse two it tells us that that's going

to impact your finances

says "You will surely eat what your

hands have worked for you will be happy

and it will go well for you." So when we

fear God we have a different spirit

about us we have a a different work

ethic about us we have a different

mentality about us when we go to work

we're not working for our boss we're not

working for the company we're working

for the Lord and so when we go to work

as Christians we often should have the

feeling of of a blessing a satisfaction

knowing that we get to honor God that

day even if our job is miserable and

hard and we're not being paid enough for

it we can still go to work and see that

as our mission field and thank God that

we're able to work so we can actually

eat that work ethic leads to eating the

fruit of your hands andy Stanley says

"Following Jesus will not just make your

life better it will also make you better

at life." And this is why because when

you receive money your money will now be

seen as something that you steward and

you'll start to use your money with a

kingdom vision in mind so our mission

statement here at this church is share

Jesus and serve others and we had a a

wonderful meeting with Dennis Connor

from the state convention on Thursday

here at the church and he was trying to

help us figure out what we should do

with our our space issues and as we

talked through that we were thinking

like sharing Jesus man we got to open up

new opportunities for people to worship

we got to open up new opportunities for

disciplem because that's who we are

we're sharing Jesus and then serving

others what does that look like is that

just individuals or can we actually

serve churches as well and we we were

looking at different things like

planting churches and replanting

churches and all these amazing options

that God has not clarified yet but has

given us a starting point on and the

reason I mention that is because those

things take money and so people who are

walking in the ways of the world or the

ways of the Lord they will use their

finances to uh to to push into that

kingdom vision that God has laid on

their heart and when you do what God

wants you to do when you steward his

money well number one he gives you more

of it and then number two it gives you

the satisfaction and the joy of being a

part of something that is much larger

than yourself but that's not the focus

of this sermon series also it says that

the fear of the Lord will impact the way

that you walk in your feelings it

literally says you will be happy and I

did a sermon a couple years ago i don't

know the title of it i I was going to I

was going to promote it today but I

don't remember what it actually was but

I remember talking about what the word

happy meant and it means or blessed me

it means happy happy so if you want to

be happy happy in your life then walk in

the ways of the Lord number three it

tells us that it's going to impact our

future notice that that phrase there

says it will go well for you that's a

future tense not not just right now

it'll go well for you but into the

future friends I don't know what the

economy is going to do i don't know

who's going to win the next election but

what I do know is that if you fear God

and you walk in his ways that it will go

well for you isaiah 43 talks about how

that the fire is going to show up and

the floods are going to show up but the

people that fear God and walk in the

ways of the Lord they don't have to

worry about the water and they don't

have to worry about the flame the

scripture says that even when you walk

through the valley of the shadow of

death you're going to be able to pass

through that moment i mean who else can

say "Oh it's going to be well for you

even when you die." Where else can you

find that kind of

assurance other than in God so the best

really is yet to come but again that's

not the focus of this series

the focus of this series is to talk

about how walking with God and fearing

the Lord is the best thing that you can

do for your family so look there in

verse three

now says "Your wife will be like a

fruitful vine within your house and your

children like young olive trees around

your table so if you fear God and you

walk in his ways your family will be

blessed and your wife specifically will

be blessed and maybe just maybe you'll

be blessed by having little olive trees

that come home on spring break from

college and eat all of the food in your

house maybe you'll be blessed that way

sorry so I don't want to I don't want to

spend a lot of time on that today

because that's the next sermon so if you

want to hear more about how this impacts

your family in relation to your marriage

and your children I'd encourage you to

come back next week for that but I just

want to close today by uh pointing out

three things that practical things that

we can ask ourselves that will literally

change your life today that'll change

your world today remember you change

your heart you change your family you

change the world so question number one

is for all the singles that are ready to

mingle people um if that's you today you

need to ask yourself this question when

you find that that person you need to

ask yourself do they have a healthy fear

of the Lord and are they walking in his

ways if you will ask yourself that

question number one it's going to

disqualify a lot of people from dating

you i'm sorry about that but what it is

going to do is it's going to filter out

the ones that God doesn't want you to be

with and you're going to find your one

but maybe you're a married couple and uh

God has not blessed you with those young

olive trees yet um maybe he he won't but

that's fine too uh if that's you though

you need to be asking yourself this

question about your marriage do I have a

healthy fear of God and am I walking in

his ways if you want to make your

marriage better you don't have to go pay

thousands of dollars for conferences you

just have to be able to answer that

question do I have a healthy fear of God

and am I walking in his ways and if you

get to the point where you can say yes

then I promise you this your marriage

will get

better now keep in mind that there's two

of you engaged in that that marriage and

so maybe one of you grows and the other

one doesn't but still the scripture does

not come back void you will have a

better marriage if you fear God and keep

his commandments and if you have

children if you've been blessed by these

little olive trees that run around and

and take all of your resources from you

and turn you into a Uber driver and um

anyway I've got some issues it's fine

um you got to ask yourself this

question am I developing a healthy fear

of God in my children am I developing a

child who wants to walk in the ways of

the Lord see fearing God leads to

walking in his ways and when you walk in

his ways it leads to better finances it

leads to happy feelings it leads to a

blessed future and a much stronger

family and what I love about this is it

takes the pressure off of wives and

husbands and fathers and mothers because

you don't have to try to figure out ways

to purchase safety you don't have to try

to figure out ways to manipulate the

world around you into creating a safe

place and a safe heaven for your family

because all you have to do is build your

house on the rock and when the storms

come knocking at your door the fear of

God and walking in his commands will

keep you from being destroyed by

whatever that storm

is so I just want to close by giving a

shout out to my mom and dad my mom grew

up in a environment where her father was

a a Baptist minister in a bunch of small

town churches and uh it was it was a

difficult life for him uh a lot of

churches loved him and received him and

loved his word but there were other

churches that they that did not like the

way that he preached the truth he didn't

tickle any ears and so sometimes they

would push back against him and often my

my grandmother specifically would be

broken over the ways that the the pastor

was treated in these churches and so my

mom as a young lady had every

opportunity when she got older and had a

family to say "You know what those

churches are not good for me or my

family and so we're not going to go

there anymore." But instead of doing

that she and my father made sure that we

went to church and built our house on

the rock and as I got older in middle

school and high school we went through

four church splits in a seven-year

period and to me from my perspective I

don't know the whole stories but for me

and from my perspective the bad guys

always won in every single one of those

situations and so for my father and my

mother it would have been very easy for

them to say "You know what all these

churches are toxic and so we're not

going to go anymore." But you know what

they did they loaded up that old blue

S10 with all three of us and we would

drive to church on Sunday because they

believed in building their house on the

rock and you talk about changing a life

changing my life so it would go better

for their children and their children's

children which are their grandkids now

the fact that they did not allow the

enemy to push them out of a church

established a tradition and a foundation

that we're still building our lives on

today and yes those blessings are

flowing through our finances they're

flowing through our feelings they're

flowing through our our family and I

know they're going to flow into our

future so I did just want to take a

moment um to thank my parents for

building our house on the

rock

father thank you for that uh been able

to make that public testimony

of how my life has been and the way that

I was raised but I I know that my story

is not everyone's story and I know there

are probably people in the sound of my

voice that come from houses that were

not established on that rock but the

beauty of the scripture is that it can

start today and it can start with the

people that are here listening and the

people online that are watching it can

start today this new generation can be

raised in a house that is built upon a

foundation that will withstand all of

the storms father we want to be happy we

want to be blessed financially we want

to be secure into our future we want our

families to be stronger we want to

change our hearts and change our

families so we can change the world and

Lord we know that that starts in one

place in one place alone and that is

submitting ourselves to the word of God

and walking in your ways so Lord I pray

that everyone in this room will receive

that message and see that it's not about

uh manipulating God or manipulating

their environment it's simply about

obeying you and Lord you're going to

take care of all the rest Lord it

doesn't mean that there's not going to

be any bad days what it does mean is

when those storms come we're going to be

able to stand strong against them united

as a family so as we look at this family

survival kit I pray that today uh people

would start to take it up and apply it

Lord that they would they would uh

prioritize church and small group and

Bible studies that they would pray

together in their homes that they would

worship in front of their children that

they would show them not just tell them

what's important but show them what's

important lord I pray that we would see

a families strengthened in this branch

of your family tree but not just here

Lord all the way in our community from

all the other churches that are

preaching your your word this morning i

pray your blessings upon those families

that are gathered there and Lord also

pray for the the singles and the widowed

Lord that uh are doing this by

themselves i pray that they would still

find their foundation in you lord even

though their loved one is gone or they

haven't met that person yet Lord I pray

that they would see their their

satisfaction and their safety in you i

pray that you would show up in their

lives and wrap your loving arms around

them and help them to see that they are

complete with you that they need nothing

else lord I thank you for being able to

preach your word this morning i thank

you for what you've started to do in our

lives today and I just pray that these

blessings would continue to flow from

the doors of this place into the

community around us i pray your

blessings upon all those that are

battling storms today i pray that you

would just call clear skies to them so

they could have a break from the battle

and be able to focus on what you want

them to focus on and Lord we pray these

things with confidence because right now

we're praying in the beautiful name of

Jesus Christ amen