Community In Church

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And as you're turning there, there's a couple of really, really special people.

They're seated in the back of the church, so I don't want to draw any special attention or anything.

But about central to my view, Milt and Nellie today are celebrating their 68th wedding anniversary.

Look, stand up for that.

Amen.

Isn't that awesome?

68 wonderful years together.

What a story.

What an example you guys are to all of us.

And uh I just happened to share that date with them.

Heather and I are celebrating today, our 18th anniversary.

So just 50 more years, babe.

We're catch up.

So we had an awesome evening last night.

Got to go out on a date.

Didn't even know this.

Went to the Oak House.

I don't know if you've been there.

Awesome place.

And uh Tristan is a server there, goes to church here, and he got our ticket.

I was like, holy cow! Man, so thank you again.

But what an awesome place, man.

Go there, take your honey there.

Awesome food.

You know, we had a good time.

So I'm very thankful, Heather, that God gave me you all these years.

It's actually 21 years we've been together, so over half my life at this point has been with Heather.

So what an exciting thing.

I'm thankful for that.

Psalms 84.

We're gonna jump right in this morning.

Psalms 84.

I want you to look at verses 1 through 2 as we open up.

And the opening point is this our soul our soul craves church.

The psalmist said, How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts.

My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Letter A this morning is this, our soul is full of passion.

The soul is the Hebrew word nephesh.

That word nephesh means a living being.

In Genesis 2, 7 it says, And God breathed into man, and he became a living nephesh, a living soul.

The Greek word for it is pesuke, which is where we get our word for psychology.

The nephesh is our consciousness, it's our reason.

It is the thing that separates you and me, the rationale that separates you and me from other living things, animals and plants.

And so our soul separates us.

And it says, the psalmist said, the soul, my soul longs, and does even faint for you.

Now I know some of y'all long for some things.

Some of y'all were longing yesterday afternoon for that ball to get kicked off.

I saw it on the highways.

They were empty at a certain point yesterday.

Your soul longs.

I have heard things from my wife, like, I gotta have a Starbucks.

I need to have that.

Some of you are saying, I need to have certain things.

I really need to make a Walmart run.

I really need it.

And so we say we really gotta have things.

But the psalmist uses this description, my my soul almost even faints.

I so wanna get to the house of God, I'm almost about to give out.

I passed out once in my life, and uh not a good idea what I did, but I took a group of teenagers to Cedar Point, which is the greatest theme park in America if you ever get to go there.

And uh anyway, it was four and a half hours from where we lived in Connorsville, took them there.

There was 45 kids, and we went to the place was shut down.

Okay, 10 o'clock drove, and on the way back, I was starting to feel a little tired.

Give me grace.

So I got a five-hour energy drink at the gas station.

I stopped up.

It was disgusting.

Never had one before or since.

If you like them, I'm sorry, but I'll stick with my coffee.

Anyway, so I drank that five-hour energy drink and I'm driving home.

Now, on the backside of this trip, I know that we are going to have to make a trip to Oklahoma.

So when I get back, I'm gonna have to spin around.

We had a worship pastor that we were moving from Oklahoma to Indiana, and just luckily in my ministry experience, I had seven years of moving furniture because every pastor needs that.

And so I was leading a crew of people.

I went, we we were waking up the next morning, and I took something to go to sleep because I thought I really need to sleep good, and I'm I'm all on this five-hour energy.

And we get home at like 1.30 in the morning, and I took something I shouldn't have.

Okay, I think it was Tylenol P.M.

something.

I just it was dumb.

I'm admitting it, I'm confessing.

I'm sorry, okay?

And so I took this.

My brother-in-law, who's there to go with me, wakes me up.

It's 5:30.

I've gotten maybe four hours, and I was supposed to drive.

I don't even remember what happened.

I was on a van and we're trucking down the road.

This is middle of summer, and I'm telling you, I was out five o'clock till noon.

They wake me up, we're at a truck stop, and I wake up and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go in there.

And it is the hottest day I have ever felt in life.

Okay?

Let's just add that to the mix.

I'm gonna say it was 110, and I'm walking into this truck stop, and I'm getting in, and the next thing I know, folks, I'm on the floor, and a man is over top of me, and I feel cold.

I'm like, what are you doing, Alan?

He's like, dude, you passed out.

And I'm like, what?

What has happened?

I remember that feeling, right?

My body wasn't right.

Well, the causing of a person fainting passing out is a is caused by lack of oxygen.

And the psalmist said, I'm gonna pass out.

I'm gonna give out.

If I don't get to church, how many of you said that this morning?

Said, honey, we gotta get there.

Oh, if we don't get there soon, I'm gonna give out.

Now, some of you, maybe your kids were, it was like a fight.

Maybe I'm gonna pass out if we have to go.

We shouldn't have to endure the church of God.

We should love what God loves.

So let me get to this place where my soul longs for God's presence.

Like the psalmist said, let me pray.

Father, we love you.

And God, in your house, it is holy ground.

Lord, a place where your spirit moves, a place where people's hearts are changed.

God, a place where you are lifted up, and your word says that you inhabit the praise of your people.

Lord, help us not to take for granted for a moment the thing that Jesus Christ gave his life for, the church, the body of Christ, and a local group of believers together.

Lord, the power that's here.

We ask that you would move in this place this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let it be as this this morning.

Our soul is complete in his presence.

It's about a person found in this place.

It's not the place.

You know, you've heard home is where the heart is.

Dr.

Henry Drummond said after looking through examination of the heart, it looked like on the inside of the heart that there were tentacles reaching forward for something.

He said it looked like it was reaching forward to a higher power to its God.

You know, when I think about this church, God's really blessed.

God has blessed us to have two very nice buildings.

We have a soccer field, we have a pavilion out here, we have 92 acres.

We have all kinds of things on this facility.

We have, you're sitting on$40,000 worth of chairs.

Some of y'all kids don't know what it was like.

How many of you grew up and you sat on a wooden pew?

Y'all, listen to me, kids, teens.

You went home and it was not a strange thing to go home with a sore backside because you were just in church.

We've got an ice cream truck and wonderful media and sound.

But I want to tell you, it's not the particulars on the outside.

It's not the decor, it's about the thing that's living on the inside.

The New Testament local church is not a corporation.

Listen to me, it's a creation.

It's living, it's vivacious, it's vital.

The church is a place where I meet with my God.

Mark 16, 15 said this in comparison: that a man can gain this whole world.

All that everything outside of this has to offer, but lose his very own soul.

And I don't know if when we hear that statement, we totally grasp the enormity.

How big a statement that is.

He says, you can have the title deed of planet Earth.

And if you exchange your soul for it, you're a fool.

He's lost.

Our soul is incomplete without the presence of God.

There's one thing that fills this gap, and it's the presence of God.

The world's painting a picture of all kinds of things that you need to have and be and do.

And I'm telling you, there's only one thing.

Our soul is incomplete without the presence of God.

It's completed by his presence.

The second thing this morning I want you to see.

Look down at verses three through five.

Our stability comes at church.

Verses three through five.

It says, even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.

Even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.

Blessed, happy are those who dwell in your house.

They will still be praising you.

Salah.

Blessed, happy is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on a pilgrimage.

Letter A this morning is our adorability is where we dwell.

The word dwell, it's Hebrew word likshon.

Likshan, and it means this to reside.

Where we dwell is where we reside.

It's the idea of coming to a place and kicking off our shoes and staying for a while.

A place to live.

It doesn't mean we just go to church or we happen upon church.

Some people today feel like they got a whole lot, plenty of church.

But the psalmist said, Happy are they who dwell.

They who stay.

Listen to me, not who resist shouldn't resist going to the house of God, but who remain.

It's hard for you to get out.

You have a hard time leaving when church is over.

Not persuaded, but persisting.

Not adapting to church, but abiding.

Not a stint at church, but situated there.

Church is a place to dwell.

Once you start to dwell in a place, CCW, come on.

That place will start to dwell in you.

No wonder the psalmist said, How amiable, how lovely are thy tabernacles.

Because when I get in the courts of the Lord, the courts of the Lord get in the courts of me.

Are y'all with me today?

When I get in the courts of the Lord, they get into me.

And it says in verse 3, even the birds like to raise their kids at church.

That's what it said.

So even the sparrow has found a home and a swallow has found his nest at church.

You know, my parents were very active when I was being brought up in church, when I was growing up.

And at that time it was Sunday morning, it was Sunday night, it was Wednesday night, it was Saturday bus visitation all afternoon with my dad.

It was Sunday morning bus.

And we went to church.

And if there was a revival, y'all remember revivals?

Buckle up.

Oh my soul.

I church, listen to me, church for me was a command.

It was not a choice.

I said it was a case, it was an order, it was not an option.

Church was told to me, this is what you're gonna do.

I never got to say, I don't feel like going, Dad.

He said, You're gonna feel like a whooping.

I never said, I got too much homework.

Never once did that fly.

I never went to one sport game a single time instead of church.

You want stability?

Have your kids in the house of God.

They can feel the presence of God.

In our youth ministry time, there's this false satanic philosophy that's spread through people, and they would say things to me like, Pastor, I don't want to make my child go because that'll make them a hypocrite.

If I make my child go to church, if it's not their decision, they're gonna grow up one day, Pastor, and hate it.

Let me ask you a question.

Did anyone of you grow up and hate to brush your teeth?

Did anyone grow up and say, I hate to shower?

Ooh, soap.

Nobody here said, I can't wait until I turn 18 and I'm gonna be out of my parents' roof and I'm just gonna be smelly.

Nobody said that.

No, your parents made you brush, they made you shower, and it created a habit.

Come on, listen to me, church.

It made a habit, and you liked to be clean.

Get your kids around the soul cleansing power of God instead of being a hypocrite.

Maybe they'll like the feeling of being clean.

Maybe it'll happen on accident like it did to me.

I wasn't looking for it, but it was looking for me.

Because the Bible says of itself, God's word does not return void.

It will do what he set out to accomplish for it to do.

And so I wasn't looking, but it was looking for me.

And I was hearing it and it was around me, and I was trying to live my life.

But guess what?

It got a hold of my heart.

That soul cleansing power got me clean.

I've never not been at church.

There's plenty of times when I was a kid that I didn't want to be, but today I want to tell you.

Man, I love church.

I love it.

Man, even the birds, psalmist said, wanted to nest in the house of God.

He said you'll be blessed.

You'll be happy.

You'll be blessed.

42 years of life.

I'm gonna tell you, I never had one car break down on the way to church.

Say what you want to say.

The other day I was here with Wyatt playing some basketball late at night, and man, Brandon was here with us, and I was hitting some shots.

You know what Wyatt said?

He said, The only reason he's hitting them is because we're in church.

He said, God lets that happen.

Say what you want.

Something that corresponds with the blessing of God to dwelling where he is.

By the way, if you don't like church now, you're not gonna like heaven.

Heaven's gonna be a whole lot of church.

Let it be.

Our praise is where we pause.

If you got a second, you can turn to Revelation chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Our praise is where we pause.

Revelation 3 20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man will open that door, I will enter in and su with him.

I want you to hold that word sup, that idea.

That salvation call when man when a man answers Christ's call, it's an invitation to pause.

That is, to pause in him, to marinate in him.

He says, Let me come in and we will sup.

That word sup is Depanio, 1 Corinthians 11, 25, it's used.

And it says, and after he took, after he supped, he took the cup.

And a picture before the disciples of the breaking of the body of Christ in the Lord's Supper, he gives them a picture of what Christ was about to do on the cross in the most intimate scene with his followers.

He says, I want you to understand after they sup together, Jesus wants more, church, than just an affiliation with you.

He wants you to abide.

He wants to dine with you.

He wants Depaneo to sup.

He wants your paws.

Why?

Because Psalms 23, it says, The Lord is my shepherd.

He wants to be your Lord.

He wants to be with you and dine with you and sup with you.

He wants your pause.

If you're here today and maybe you've never opened the door of your heart, today is that day.

Today is the day of salvation.

He wants a relationship with you.

He bled and died, Jesus bled and died on a cross so that he could have a relationship with you.

But the problem for many today, Christians, and our society, is this nobody makes time to pause.

And scripture says God inhabits the praise of his people, but you can't praise God if you don't pause for God.

We live at a breakneck pace, fulfilling schedules and clocking in, and next thing, and this thing, and the next thing.

And I want to tell you you have to have time for pause.

For many, church on Sunday is the only pause they'll have all week.

And man, I thank God that you make time for this pause.

Here at CCW, we got another one we offer you.

Commercial coming.

Connect groups.

We want you to be a part of a connect group, a small group, so that you can have a moment of pause where you're hearing from God, from the Word of God.

But beyond that, you need it every day.

You need it every day.

I heard a man in a podcast this week, he said, I invest in my spirit in myself in the morning so I can invest in my work and my family at night.

Are you investing?

Are you taking a pause between you and your God each day?

Look, we need Sunday.

We need connect groups.

If you don't have them, then you're too busy.

Something's got to come off the calendar.

But we need daily to have a pause with God.

Our praise is where we pause.

He said, I want to come and I want to dine with you.

I don't just want to be affiliated with you.

I don't just once a week, I want to sup with you.

The third thing this morning is this our stress is comforted at church.

He says, as they pass through the valley of Bakah, they make it a spring.

The rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength.

Each one appears before God in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.

Give ear, O God of Jacob.

Selah.

Letter A, this is this, our Bakah is bad.

So you need to understand what is Bakah referring to in this passage.

Bekah is a valley.

It's the Hebrew word for weep, and many believe that it is a location on the walk to the temple.

As they were set forth a pilgrimage to the temple, as they were going day after day to the temple, it says that there was a valley of Begah.

It's a picture of your low point.

Benji shared about depression.

There are people today that you're at a low point.

It's a place, Beka, of discouragement, a place of dryness, it's a place of tears.

Bekah, hear me, church, is an obstacle on the journey to God's presence.

Do you ever find that Satan is always trying to throw something in your pathway when you're trying to get into the presence of God?

There's something always come up when you crack open your Bible in the morning.

I'm telling you, when my thoughts get as most sporadic as they ever get, it's when I open up the Bible.

Oh man, if I want to pray, then my brain goes.

On the journey to the place of God, there's Bacah in that valley.

And I know there's some today you've come in and you're in your valley.

And I hope that you'll hear encouragement today before you walk out.

Well, it's interesting.

This psalm, and I want you to compare, we're going to go over to 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

But this psalm says, it's written by the sons of Kura.

Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

I want you to hold that thought.

2 Chronicles 20.

And I want to compare these valleys.

Look at verse 19.

Remember who I said who wrote the song?

Then the Levites of the children of the Koathites and the children of the Kurahites stood up to praise the Lord, God of Israel, with voices loud and high.

Why am I saying that?

It is very possible, even could be lightly commentators kind of back and forth, that the situation explained in 2 Chronicles 20 is the situation written about in Psalms 84.

And so I want to look at some aspects of 2 Chronicles 20.

But by David's time, it seems that the people of Korah were at least musical, because it sets forth a praise here, and they were at least musical in aspects of the temple worship.

And so 2 Chronicles 20, 26, if you'll go there a second, we talked about Bakah, the valley, and listen to verse 26.

And on the fourth day they assembled in the valley of Baraka.

For there they blessed the Lord.

Therefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Baraka until this day.

So I want to compare.

Could be possibly the same location that they're looking at, but I do want to compare.

They do mean something different.

And so they're in this valley, and look at 2 Chronicles 20, verse 1 through 3.

2 Chronicles 20:1–3

I want you to hear about the valley.

What does the valley look like, Pastor?

What does it look like in our life?

Well, listen to this.

And it happened after this that the people of Moab, with the people of Ammon and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.

Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria.

They are in that word, which is in Gedi.

And Jehoshaphat feared, hear this, Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord.

And he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

That's a valley.

It says there were groups of people coming up against him, and Jehoshaphat feared.

He was outmanned in the valley.

The valley is often that place of sort of dread.

It's a place where you're waiting on a result and you're anxious and unsure.

It's a place where you're expecting looming job loss.

It's it's impending danger.

It's feeling pain.

He was fearful.

Listen to me, Joshua's fearful, or Jehoshaphat, and he looked around and it felt like his world was closing in.

The report came and the battle was coming at his doorstep.

Do you remember Baca?

All of you have had Baker.

I remember Baca, the valley.

I remember when Baker came one Christmas.

We had what I'll call nicely a gold soccer mom van.

And it broke down on the way to Texas.

And I took it to a mechanic, and I'm telling you, I did not have the money it took to fix it.

You want to talk about feeling dread?

Christmas is right there.

I didn't have any money to buy my kids' Christmas presents.

I didn't have any money to fix that van.

That was a valley.

I want to tell you, church, that feeling was a valley.

And just after that Christmas, Heather's brother needed a place to stay.

And I'm telling you, those were lean times that we were having in Connorsville.

And Adam needed a place to stay, and we were broke, but he needed a place.

And we said, Of course, you can have a place to stay with us.

And I was anxious often as I looked at the books, outgoing bills were much greater than the incoming cash.

Bacer.

Have you had Baca?

My family's been sick.

We've been hospitalized before.

I remember Weston with an IV in his head.

I remember Callie when she was little with pneumonia.

I remember Wyatt can cuss.

That's Bacer.

I've had car troubles and house troubles and people in the family that have passed.

I remember Bacer.

I've hurt and I've wept in the valley.

And I want to tell you, Baker was bad.

But I want to encourage you, let her be this morning.

Our burdens are bore.

Our burdens are bore.

I want you to see there in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 3 through 5, what Jehoshaphat did.

2 Chronicles 20:3–5

He was fearful.

He was afraid.

And rightfully so.

He looked out and saw his pending death.

But look at what he did.

After he feared, it says, and he set himself to seek the Lord.

And he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord.

And from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem where?

In the house of the Lord, before the new court.

It says that Jehoshaphat set to pray.

He gathered everybody together.

Where?

He gathered them all at church.

And he said he began to ask for a fast and for prayer.

And I want to tell you what happens as you go through the scripture.

A lot of great verses there.

But I want you to see verse 14.

They're fasting, they're praying, they're seeking God because they know Beka is bad.

Then in verse 14, then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jehazel, the son of Zachariah, the son of Beniah, the son of Jeel, the son of all these sons.

In the midst of the assembly.

Verse 15.

And he said, Listen, all of you, Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat.

Thus says the Lord to you, do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

Are you hearing his word?

Interesting.

Jehaziel, not mentioned.

There are three other mentions of that name.

There's only one mention of this Jehazel.

Nowhere else in the whole Bible, this guy.

And relative to the text of scripture, he was just a member of the church.

Jehoshaphat was the king.

This was just a part of the body as he gathered them all together.

And he said, I need you people to get together and fast and seek our God.

And in the midst of that church gathering, a musician, probably, because it talks about where he came from.

Never mentioned before or after, but at church, hear me, a friend heard a word from God, and a friend delivered mighty encouragement.

Jehazal may seem like nobody, but I want to tell you that day he was somebody to Jehoshaphat.

And you come into this place, and I want to tell you, you may think, man, it really doesn't matter if I'm here this week.

Oh, let me tell you that person that you don't even know you're gonna touch, it matters.

That word, that encouragement, that smile, that hug.

When bacon was bad, God used a friend in church.

Man, aren't you thankful for your friends in church?

It made me think about the bacon that I was explaining.

When my bacon has been bad, my God has been so good.

The church has been so good.

I remember Bacah, but I remember the prayers.

I remember Bacah, but I remember the hugs.

I remember Beka, but I remember words and gestures.

I remember financial miracles that God brought through his church.

I remember the church that didn't have much that gave me a$900 check to fix that gold van.

I remember after Adam, who lived with us, we got a situation where we got him a truck.

He totaled the truck, he went into the military, and the insurance settlement came and he said, For the time I lived in your house, I want you to have whatever that is.

The truck was worth$500.

And a check came in the mail for$3,000 and some change, and Heather fell to her knees on the floor, and we thanked and worshipped our God because Baker was bad.

But our burdens were more.

And God was so good.

And I remember getting COVID.

People brought food and people called and people prayed.

And people said, We got your back.

Thank God when we had Baca, we had the church.

Thank God for the church.

He said, Don't be afraid, Jehoshaphat, just stand still.

The battle is the Lord's.

Look at verse 17.

He says, You will not even need to fight in this battle.

Just position yourself, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.

Well, that takes us to letter C.

Our breakthroughs are bestowed.

I think Jehazil gives an instruction manual for stress.

How many of you here would be honest this morning and say, you know, Pastor, I got a little stress in my life?

Well, there's seven honest people.

Anyone else?

There we go.

Do you have a job?

Do you got kids?

Did you watch football yesterday?

Got stress.

He gives this instruction manual.

Just a friend.

It wasn't the pastor.

Just a friend.

He said, Don't be dismayed.

I got a word from the Lord.

The battle's not yours.

Now hear that because it's a prideful thing.

It's a prideful thing to belong to a heavenly father and be considering through the valley of Bacah.

How can I fix this Baca?

I think very often we go to ourselves and our resources before we go to our God.

How can I fix something that seems impossible?

I gotta tell you, I love it when my kids come to me because they need my strength.

I love it.

I take great pride in opening up a bottle of pickles.

I'm like, weaklings.

I love to help them with something that takes strength.

I love it when they look at me with respect and go, look at the strength of Daddy.

And it's funny, I was thinking about this.

I think we have a photo, but um, a few years back, Wyatt was messing around with Weston, and he got a cheese ball barrel stuck on Weston's head.

And Weston's walking through, and you're seeing the air, and they both look so anxious, and Wyatt's like, I don't know what I did.

And Heather's like, she's starting to panic, and I'm like, Daddy's got this.

Pop! Pulled the jar off his head.

And everybody's like, Daddy! Save the child.

Oh my.

These kids, the stuff they do.

And so, but I can remember moments like this.

And it makes me think about what verse 21 and 22 say.

Remember what he said?

He said, just stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord.

And when he consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and they were saying, Praise the Lord, for his mercy endures forever.

Now, when they began to sing and praise, it says the Lord set an ambush.

They began to sing and praise and he set an ambush against the people.

He said, Stand in position, watch God, and then he said, Worship his work, look at his strength.

It says, Who said an ambush?

It doesn't say that they set an ambush, it didn't say that a friend sent an ambush, he says that God sent an ambush, not Jehoshaphat, not the army, but the Lord did.

How did that happen?

Stay with me.

How did that happen?

When the people paused, and then they prayed, and then they fasted.

They didn't say even after those things, but then they praised.

God sent forth an ambush when they set forth their praise.

And so the people came together, and I want to tell you it was because of their praise in that moment.

God inhabits the praise of his people, the psalmist said.

I want you to hear today, some of you need to know this worship is a weapon against the enemy.

Somebody here today needs to know.

As a child of God, you just sometimes need to stand in position and watch your father.

Sometimes you can't do anything.

There's not a thing that you, grinding away in and of yourself, can change things, but our Heavenly Father with a whisper.

Sometimes, church, God gives you an impossibility just so you can grasp his capability.

Just so you can see.

I dare one of you to ask Joel and Ashley Landreth, who have been through it in the last year.

If God is capable.

Oh, God has seen them through Baekah.

They've been to Baca and back, and in Baca, God, listen to me, makes a well.

Look at verse 24 through 26 there.

So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude, and there were dead bodies fallen on the earth.

No one had escaped.

When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables, dead bodies, precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves and carried away.

They were three days gathering the spoil.

And on the fourth day they were assembled in the valley of Baraka.

For there they blessed the Lord.

Therefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Baraka until this day.

That word is blessings.

They went from a valley of weeping to a valley of blessings, from tears to a blessing.

Look at point number four this morning.

We'll be finished.

Our significance comes at church.

Go back to Psalms 84.

Look at what it says.

Don't miss this.

For a day, one day, church, in your courts, in your house is better than a thousand elsewhere.

He said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the Lord God is a son and shield.

The Lord will give grace and glory.

No good thing will he uphold from those who walk rightly.

Does that sound like what happened over there in that other valley?

I can't verify that it's the same, but I'm gonna say he didn't withhold anything from those who walked uprightly over there in the Valley of Baraka.

He said, Blessed is the man who trusts in you.

You and I, church, were created for this time and this place by a God who called you to this community, to your family.

And if you're here, he's called you to a church, a local New Testament body of believers.

Let me tell you, we're a body, big C.

I love the churches in my community.

I'm not in competition, hear me, with other churches.

And I love my other pastors.

I talk to Pastor Tim, I talk to other pastors down there, I talk to Pastor Steve over here in Wilsonville, I talk to other pastors, I pray for these pastors, the pastor at North Show.

We're in the body.

We're not divided, it's not a competition.

But you're a valuable body member in a church, and I hope that you'll take this so seriously.

If you come to a place like this, it should be a calling on your life.

I told you earlier, I love church.

I've never left church.

We've moved, but I never just had a reason to leave a church my whole life.

We've moved and that's it.

And so we had to leave.

I've never been disgruntled at the church.

I love the church, and if there's things going on with the body, my family, I try to do what Matthew 18 says and go get it right and keep working at that church because that's the body God's called me to.

This place is a place where God has called me.

And I'm telling you today, our moment is crucial.

Why did he say one day?

That's important.

One day in God's courts.

I quote this almost every at least every other week to Brother Greg at the door.

I said, Brother Greg, one day in the courts of the Lord, as a doorkeeper, is better than thousands anywhere else.

This choice you make with your days is yours.

But don't be deceived.

You get one chance to spend your days.

He said, a doorkeeper in God's house is better than thousands anywhere.

Do you hear that?

Don't take it as it's an insignificant comparison.

He said, if you volunteer in God's house for one day, it's better than making millions out in the world.

He said, it's better to be with the people of God.

The Bible says that Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to live one season in sin.

He chose to be with the people of God.

The psalmist says, one 24-hour period being a nobody.

And you're not nobody.

But it's more valuable than to be a CEO outside of God's hand.

Spurgeon said, I'd rather be the poorest pauper in heaven than the richest entering hell.

Our ministry is critical.

He's not saying that a doorkeeper is a small thing, to the contrary, some of the realest and most important things happen in these walls.

Doorkeepers, greeters, ushers, welcomers, coffee people, kids' ministry.

Better is one day.

Why do I love church?

I have a hard time leaving when the service closes.

And when it's done in a little bit, I feel a little bit deflated.

But guess what?

I get to take it with me all week long, too.

It's not just in here, it's all week.

You're the body, and we're a local body together.

You're the body of Christ.

We are in fellowship.

So I'm asking you today, don't let it be just Sunday for two hours.

Your ministry, hear me, is critical.

Because it's through this place we find God's presence often.

It's through the people of God.

I was in prayer one time and I said, God, I don't have it.

I don't know why.

I just don't have it.

I can't worship you like I want to.

I said, God, do this work in me.

Do something change.

I want to feel you.

I want to know you.

I want to know that you're there.

And I'm saying this in praise and worship.

And I look over at somebody who did have it.

They weren't talking to me or ministering to me.

They just had it and they had their hand up and they had the tears and they were meeting with their God.

And because they were meeting with God, my heart broke.

And God let me meet with him because Ella Roper was meeting with her God at Team Camp.

You think you're not vital to this?

You're so vital.

How critical is your ministry?

Well, I'll finish with this.

Church has been so important in my life.

In my story as a teen, I was on the fence.

And I was set to jump the fence and run a hundred miles an hour the other direction.

I was set, I was poised, I was looking at it, I was hungry for it, I was lusting after all of it.

And I was having bacon.

There was a lot of bacon in my life.

And in that valley, I kept going to church for some reason.

And at church, the lunchroom ladies of my Christian school kept giving me another hug.

I don't know why they were so nice to me.

I tried to run.

Christian school teachers, they would call my house because I missed school.

You need to be here.

God needs you to be here.

Don't be doing this, Rick.

I kept going, and in the valley of Bacah, he filled a pool and he gave me a drink.

I kept getting a hug, I kept getting a handshake.

And church, when I created my own dry valley, through the people of God, God gave me a well.

And so I confessed my sin to God in church.

And I started reading my Bible again at church, and I started serving my God at church, and I exchanged my stresses and bacon to God at church.

And guess where I met my wife?

Christian University, but it's like church.

My children have been brought up in church.

They've met their God and Jesus has become their savior at church, and they've been baptized in church.

I'm not problem-free.

Sometimes life is baker, but I want to tell you the truth in my heart.

I cannot be away from church.

Like the psalmist cried, my heart longs, my soul longs for the presence of God.

I love the place that inhabits the praise of his people, his presence.

I'm not ever leaving church.

I might quite quit all kinds of other things in my life.

But I'm never quitting church.

I love my church.

If you look at your neighbor this morning, y'all were getting me on Facebook this week about saying this, so I'm gonna do it anyway, Barry.

Look at your neighbor and say, I love church.

You can do better.

Look at the other neighbor and tell them for real.

We're excited you've joined us for today's message.

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