Sermon
Spirit-Filled Home | Pastor Morgan Butcher | Venture Church
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Hi, and welcome to Venture Church Online. My name is
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Kelsey and I'm our online campus pastor. We're so glad
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that you're joining us. Drop a comment below of where
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you're streaming from. We would love to interact with you.
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We hope that you enjoyed the new service.
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I don't know about you, but that music just like
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puts me right in the Christmas mood right there. I
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like all the vibes with that. We just needed, like
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the yule log on the screen. How we should start
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a petition actually the entire month of December. Just giant
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yule log on the screen. Amen. Okay, maybe text Pastor
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Brandon just while you're while you're while you're sitting there. Uh,
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good morning. If I haven't met you yet, my name
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is Morgan Blessed me one of the pastors here at
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our Mill Creek campus, and you are joining us as
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we conclude our series through the Book of Ephesians, you
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might be like, wow, dude, we still got actually a
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lot in the Book of Ephesians to finish up on
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in one morning. Well, thankfully for you and for me,
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I'm not preaching on all of that. We actually did
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a series and we touched on the Armor of God
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at the very end of the Book of Ephesians, just
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a couple months ago. And so if you want to
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catch that sermon from Pastor Brandon on the Armor of God,
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you can just go back a couple months to September.
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You can look on our app and you can find
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that sermon there. But we're kicking, we're clueing, concluding this
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series going full into Christmas mode. Who's ready for Christmas?
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Come on now, fast time now. I confess this a
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couple of weeks ago. I am a holiday purist, so
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in my home, Christmas doesn't start until after Thanksgiving, right,
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thank you. You know, it's the way it should be.
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Just deal with it. But last week was actually the
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saddest week of the year in our home because last
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week is the week that we throw away all the
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leftovers from Thanksgiving, which means I have to wait another year.
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That's like the moment of reality, like I have to
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wait another year to get all that good stuff again.
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So I'm in a little bit of a morning phase.
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But that's what. Hey, we're excited for Christmas. We hosted
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Thanksgiving at our house and the Butcher Home. We had
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about twelve friends and family over at our place. And
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I don't know if you're like this, but sometimes like
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you just walk through your house and like, we just
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need like a little reset in the home, right, Like
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we got to freshen things up a little bit. And
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so we were looking at our house getting ready to host,
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and we had a couple opportunities come up, and we're like,
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you know, we're gonna do a little refresh of the house.
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Our house isn't big, so hosting twelve people is kind
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of like a little overwhelming in itself. So we did
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a little We did a little refresh. We got a
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new couch, and we got a couple new things. We
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cleaned up. How many of you just like love when
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you get to like do the reset in the house.
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There's something about coming into a space and coming home
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and it just feels like it just feels good to
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be in there. Right. You put all the kids toys
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back in their room, you know, you clear out all
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that clutter, you get things reset, and there's something about
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coming home and feeling at peace and comfortable when you
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walk in the door isn't there. And on the flip
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side of that, when your home is not in order,
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how many of you know you feel that too, right,
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Like you feel that you feel when you come in
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the house and it's just like oh right, like I've
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stepped on four legos and I've been here for three minutes.
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Right now, I'm talking about kind of a physical environment
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of the home. But friends, I want to petition to
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you that, in the very same way that you can
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feel it when you walk into the home in a
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physical sense, you can feel it when you walk in
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from a spiritual sense, right. How many of you know
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that when you walk into the home and there is
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there's a great spiritual presence in the home, you feel it.
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And in those seasons where there's not, you feel it. Amen.
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I don't know about you, but sometimes home is like
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the easiest place to lose our sanctification. It's like the
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easiest place to lose our sense of holiness. Right. Like
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we go to work and we are sent out every
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single way we make Jesus famous. And so we go
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into our work week and we think, man, I'm gonna
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make Jesus famous in my workplace. I'm gonna make sure
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that I represent Him well to the world around me.
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We go to work and we're like on the mission field, right,
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like we're making it happen. We pray in the car
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on the way home. We quote psalms like we're a
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poet and a jazz alley. We're just like snapping to ourselves. Right.
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You sing worship songs on your commute like you're auditioning
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for the Venture Worship team. You worship Jesus with hands
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raised in the driveways, you prepare to go in the house,
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and then you walk in the door, and depending on
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what you come home to, you can lose that holiness
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in a moment. You know what I'm talking about. Right,
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you walk in and the fridge door is open, cold air,
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and your salvation just drifting away. Men, the dog ate
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that flannel you just picked up at Costco. I've seen
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you wear it. Right, The kids are running an unsanctioned
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WWE event in the living room. It is chaos. And
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suddenly the scripture that you were just quoting like a
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poet on the ride home, you have substituted in your
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mind with other words that we don't find in scripture.
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And as I thought about this, the reality really hit me.
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It really set in. The truth is is that when
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you really think about it, the home is the most
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real testing ground of our spiritual maturity. It's the home
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because our guard is down. It's my safe place. It's
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the spot that I can unwind. The most real testing
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ground of our spiritual maturity. Can I just tell you
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it's not here on a Sunday morning. It's not in
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the middle of a small group. It's not in the
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lobby where everyone says hey, or what are you doing,
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and everyone says that I'm blessed in a highly favored right.
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This is not the real testing ground. The home is
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where a spirit filled life is either affirmed or it's
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gently or maybe violently exposed. Think about the journey that
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Paul has taken us on so far through five chapters
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of the Book of Ephesians. Listen to some of the
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powerful truths. These like mountaintop truths that Paul has hit
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us with so far. In this scripture Ephesians one to three,
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he tells us that we're blessed with every spiritual blessing.
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In Ephiesians two, chapter two, verse six, he says we're
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seeded with Christ. In Ephiesians five eighteen, he says we're
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filled with the same spirit of God living within us.
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And isn't it interesting? That he immediately goes from these
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mountaintop truths, these so these profound truths for our lives,
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straight into talking about marriage, parenting, and household relationships. And
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here is what I sense Paul is saying to us
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by putting these things in this order. It's almost like
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he's saying, if the Gospel doesn't shape the way that
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you treat people at home, you don't really understand the gospel.
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If the Gospel isn't transforming the way that you live
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within your home, then maybe the Gospel hasn't really transformed
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your life at all. Uh. Oh, that might be slightly convicting.
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I know that even to a sense, I'll be vulnerable
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with you. As I read the scripture this week and
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sat with that reality, it was convicting to my own
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heart this week. So today we're diving into Paul's instructions
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that he gives for the Christian households. He's beginning to
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map out what a spirit filled home really looks like,
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what it feels like, what the relationship dynamic should be.
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And when we pick up in Ephesians chapter five, we
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read in verse twenty one, are you guys with me?
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This morning? We pick up in verse twenty one of
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chapter five. This is what it says. I'm gonna read
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some scripture for us this morning. You can follow along
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with me and your bible. The words will be on
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the screen. Here it says, submit to one another out
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of reverence for Christ's for Christ, wives, submit yourselves to
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your own husband as you do to the Lord. For
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the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ
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is the head of the Church, his body, of which
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he is the savior. Now as the church submits to Christ,
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so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
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Now he talks to the men. He says, husbands, love
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your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave
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himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her
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by the washing with water through the word, and to
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present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain
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or wrinkle, or without blemish, but holy and blameless. It
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is in the same way husbands ought to love their
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wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife
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loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body.
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But they feed and care for their body, just as
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Christ does the Church, for we are members of His body.
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Verse thirty one says this first. For this reason, a
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man will leave his father and mother be united to
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his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This
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is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and
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the Church. However, each one of you must also love
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his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must
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respect her husband. Let me pray for us this morning.
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We'll dive in Father, God, thank you so much for
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your word. Got to thank you that it is alive.
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I thank you that your word preaches for us, and
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so got to pray that your word would illuminate off
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these pages into our hearts and transform us. God, make
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us different. As we walk out of these doors. Lord,
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we love you. We thank you in Jesus name. And
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everyone said, amen. I don't want to bury the lead.
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So I'm just going to give this to you straight
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up front. If you tune me out for the next
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twenty minutes and thirty seconds, Here's what I want you
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to hear about this passage of Scripture. It's that a
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spirit filled household is built on mutual submission. A spirit
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filled household is built on christ like love. It is
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built on Godly order, and it is built on the
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conviction that every relationship is ultimately submitted unto God, every
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single relationship. To fully understand what Paul is saying here
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in this text, we need some cultural and some historical
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context to bring us up to speed. In the ancient
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Greco Roman world when Paul is writing here in Ephesians
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chapter five and six, household codes were common, and these
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household codes were mapped out for how families should operate
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and how they should kind of work together under the
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authority at the time of the male as the head
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of the home. And this was a very common cultural
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code that was built into the foundation of households for
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a long time. But what Paul is doing here in
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Ephesians chapter five is something that, as he's speaking it
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to the church in Ephesus, would be unraveling the way
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that people have been living their lives within the culture
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context of their lives. He would be revolutionizing their thoughts
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of how the home should be operated and how relationships
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should be built within the home. And what he's doing
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is he is transforming it from the inside out, and
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he does it by doing a couple things. We see
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him doing a couple things, just even in these first
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few verses of this portion of Scripture. The first thing
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that Paul is saying is that what he's doing is
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he's centering all relationships on who Jesus. Everything comes back
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to Jesus, all relationships come back to Christ. It all
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comes back to how you and I follow, honor, love,
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and obey Jesus with our lives. But he's also doing
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something else. He's putting dignity, and he's putting value on
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every member of the home. And the last thing he's
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doing is something that should probably shake us up a
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little bit, because what he's doing is he's calling those
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with the most power to sacrifice the most. And it's
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this very same framework that Paul is mapping out for us,
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the same framework that he's building for us here in
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chapter five. That is largely why Christianity as a whole
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has historically transformed societies for generations. It doesn't start with governments,
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it doesn't start with institutions. What we've seen for centuries
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and centuries and centuries is that it always starts when
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the home is transformed from the inside out. It starts
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in the home and it transforms the world around us.
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It was and has always been a transformation that happens
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from the inside out. And Paul begins with this one
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sentence in the beginning of this portion of scripture that
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kind of hangs as the banner for everything else that
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follows it. He says, submit to one another out of
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reverence for Christ. The first thing that Paul is saying
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as he's speaking to the church in Ephesus about what
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a spirit filled home should look like is he says
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that spirit film filled homes begin with mutual submission. He says,
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this is where it has to start. This is the
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foundation of everything else that comes after it. Submit to
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one another out of reverence for Christ. The Greek word
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for submit is actually translated to mean this volunteer, to
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voluntarily place someone else's good above your own. Paul saying,
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a spirit filled home begins with a spirit filled posture.
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How we live our own personal lives, how we view
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those around us, how we live out our own life
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and friends hear me say that a spirit filled posture
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is one that says, I'm not first. A spirit filled
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posture is one that says, my preferences may not be
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the most important thing in life. A spirit fulled posture
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is one that says, my way isn't the only way.
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A spirit filled posture is one that says Christ is
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the lord of this home, not me. When we say
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Christ is the lord of our home, that word lord,
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it means that he is the supreme authority, that he
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is the owner, that he is the ruler of the home,
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not me. A spirit filled posture says these things. And
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let me just pause right here for a moment. It's
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very quiet in here, so I sent some tension in
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the room. If this is if this is bothering you,
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if this is rubbing you the wrong way and offending
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the view of family hierarchy, I just want to challenge
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your thinking, just for a moment, because what I believe
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what Paul is sharing with us, he's revealing something that
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I think is countercultural to a lot of the ways
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that we live our life. And what I want to
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contest to you this morning is that mutual submission is
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not weakness. Mutual submission is not weakness. Why do I
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believe that so strongly? Why I believe it because Jesus
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submitted to the Father. So let me ask you the question,
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was Jesus weak because he's submitted? Absolutely not. Let's go
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even further scripture says that the spirit submits to the sun.
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Does that mean that the spirit is lesser? No, not
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at all. It's almost as if what Paul is outlining
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for us is this reality that submission is one of
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the most christ Like things that we can lead with.
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And notice what Paul begins with in the scripture. He
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begins with this idea of mutual submission. You see, the
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question in a spirit filled home is never who gets
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to be the boss, is never who gets to have
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the last word. It's never whose word carries the most weight.
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You know what a spirit filled home looks like. The
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question in a spirit filled home is who gets to
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be like Jesus today? Who gets to demonstrate the posture
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of Jesus himself today? And that posture will shape and
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mold and provide the foundation for everything else that the
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home is built upon. Are you guys with me this morning?
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Paul then begins to address what this posture looks like
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in various different relational dynamics within the home, and he
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starts with spirit filled marriages. He begins to outline that
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in the portion of scripture that we just read in
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Ephesians five twenty two through thirty three, he starts with wives,
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but dudes, get ready because he got a lot to
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say to us. In fact, he spends three times as
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much talking to the husbands as he does the wives,
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but he talks to wives first. He says, wives, honor
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your husbands. He says, wives, submit yourselves to your own
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homes as unto the lord. I want to pull some
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important clarifications from this text because I see a lot
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of manipulation happen with this text. There's a very important
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word in this portion of scripture. It says, submit to
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your own husbands. Can I just have you underline own
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like five million times? Do you know what this means?
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That own husbands is very important because it notes that
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this doesn't mean that you are called to submit to
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all men. It says, submit to your own husband. And
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this submission, built within the context of marriage, hopefully for you,
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is a voluntary submission, meaning this you weren't forced to
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marry into that. I hope this was a decision that
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you made together. Mean, you chose to marry this man.
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You kind of agreed to this whole marriage thing, hopefully,
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And this submission hear me say this, This submission is
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said to be unto the Lord says, why submit yourselves
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to your own husbands? As unto the Lord? So do
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you know what that does not mean? It does not
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mean that you are submitting to them as unto what
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culture says. You are not submitting to them, as to
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what force will do, or what manipulation will do, or
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what fear will do. Paul says, whyves submit yourselves to
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your own husbands? And what this is not? I just
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feel like I need to speak to the wives in
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the room. This does not mean for you that you
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are inferior. This does not mean that you are to
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be silenced. This does not mean that you are meant
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to be pacivist. This does not mean that you are
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meant to be dormats. I don't have time to walk
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us through it this morning, because I only have eleven
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minutes and eighteen seconds left. But if we look at
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the Book of Proverbs thirty one, and that scripture paints
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a pretty clear picture of a wife who is strong,
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who is strategic, who is wise, who is entrepreneurial, who
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is confident in who they are. The big thing that
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I want you to catch from this text is that
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submission is about honor. Wives. Hear me when you honor
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your husband. You are creating an atmosphere in your marriage
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where your husband can thrive and is God given role
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within the family. Your honor gives him the confidence, It
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gives him the strength, It gives him the security that,
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through thick or thin, or whatever life may throw at you,
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you are by his side. So he says, wives, submit
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to your own husbands. But then he goes to the
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men and he says, husbands, love your wives just as
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Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.
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The Greek word here that is used describes this sacrificial,
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self giving kind of love. Now, I want you to
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notice something interesting about these two verses that we've just
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pulled from. The wife is told to submit, but husbands,
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there should be a little thing that nudges in your
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heart when you read this text, because while wives are
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told to submit, husbands are told to die. Look at
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the text again, Husbands, love your wife just as Christ
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loved the Church and gave himself up for her. Can
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I just tell you mutual submission as as christ like
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as it gets in marriage? Husbands, hear me say this.
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A christ like love pursues, a christ like love protects,
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a christ like love, sacrifices and nourishes and cherishes. Here's
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the truth that God revealed to me this week. It's
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the truth that your wife doesn't need a king. You
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know why. She's already got one. His name is Jesus.
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But you know what she really needs. She needs a
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christ Like man. She needs a christ Like man who
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will pursue and protect and sacrifice and nourish and cherish.
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She needs a man who represents Christ for her. Your
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leadership is not about domination. Let me say it again.
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Your leadership is not about domination. It is about the
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responsibility that God has placed on your life. And that
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responsibility comes with the understanding that your tone sets the
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atmosphere of your marriage. Your tone sets the atmosphere of
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your home. I was thinking about flying on an airplane
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and my good friend Jeremy is a pilot for Alaska.
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Thank you, Jeremy for your service to this community and
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all people that you fly. But you know, every time
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I hop on a plane and the pilot comes over
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the intercom and a guy like Jeremy is calm and relaxed,
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you know what I'm thinking, Sweet, We're gonna make it home.
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I have no fear. I have no worries. I just think, okay,
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just stand up protocol. We're gonna make it home. But man,
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if that pilot ever came over the intercom and he
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starts freaking out, do you know what happens in the plane?
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People start taking those biscuit napkins and they start writing
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their will on them. Okay, like, things go crazy in
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the plane if the pilot is not calm. Husbands, hear
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me say, your voice is the pilot seat of the home.
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You set the tone. I just want to encourage you
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today as you lead, lead with calmness, lead with prayer,
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lead with faith, lead with a christ like love that
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will transform your marriage. And the truth is is that
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your marriage, you're my marriage is that they're preaching a sermon.
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And let's just be honest. There's some bad sermons out there.
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This might be one of them. I don't know yet,
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But your marriage is preaching a sermon. It's preaching a
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sermon to your kids every single day. It's preaching a
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sermon to your friends and your family members who don't
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know Jesus. It's preaching a sermon to your neighbors. It's
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preaching a sermon to the entire world. Paul says that
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a spirit filled marriage is founded on mutual submission. It's
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where it has to start. But now Paul moves into
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the next relationships and he begins to talk about parents
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and children. He talks about spirit filled parenting in Ephesians
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chapter six, and he says this. He says children, He's
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speaking to children. He says, obey your parents in the Lord,
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for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which
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is the first commandment with a promise, says, do this
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so that it may go well with you and that
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you may enjoy a long life on earth. This is
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kind of an interesting note, but this is the only
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command in scripture that is addressed directly to kids, and
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the command is to obey. In the Greek, this word obey,
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it says, its meaning is specifically to listen under and
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to pay attention. If you will be faithful to do this,
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If you will be faithful to obey, to listen under
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and pay attention, there will come a promise for your life.
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Paul says, it will go well for you and you
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will have a long life. Where's my young people out.
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You don't have to wave at me. I know there's
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I just saw like somebody in their fifties, like, I'm here,
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Can I just speak something to my youth kids right
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up here. Honor is not outdated. Honor is not culturally
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out of touch. Honor is not old fashioned. Do you
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know what honor is. It's kingdom minded. It demonstrates the
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posture that is exactly what Christ had in store for us.
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So honor. Your father and mother live under them, pay
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attention to their words, pay attention to the way that
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they live. And Scripture says it will go well for you.
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But then he talks to parents specifically, he goes on
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and he says in verse four he says fathers, but
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he's really speaking to all parents. He says, fathers, do
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not exasperate your children. And other translations, it says, do
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not provoke your children to wrath. Instead, bring them up
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in the training and instruction of the Lord. Paul says,
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do not provoke your children to wrath. That word provoke
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in the Greek, it means to enrage, to frustrate, to crush,
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to embitter. Paul is saying parents, don't pair it with harshness,
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don't parent with intimidation, don't crush your kids with criticism.
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Don't treat them like projects. Sorry, I'm getting emotional because
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my daughter's sitting in the room. But what does Paul says?
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He says, instead, bring them up. He says, bring them up.
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The phrase in Greek it means to nurture them. It says,
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nurture them with training and instruction and counsel. I am
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both a parent of two amazing kids, and part of
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my role here at the church is overseeing next gen
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at our church. So I oversee our kids, our youth
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and our young adult's pastors, and they're amazing. We have
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some of the best young next gen pastors in the
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entire region. I believe that. Yeah, seriously, they're amazing. But
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let me just remind you of how we partner together
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with our pastors as they raise up the next generation.
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Pastor Jonathan, as he ministers to our kids, his job
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is to supplement what their faith is. He's giving them
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foundational truths as things to guide their life. When they
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get into the youth ministry. Pastor Johnny is there to
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reinforce these truths in their life as those tests, as
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those truths are put to test in the world that
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they live in. But parents hear me say, we are
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called to disciple our kids first and foremost. It's not
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Pastor Jonathan's job. It's not Pastor Johnny's job to be
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the primary disciple of your children. Know who it is.
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It's us. We are called with the responsibility to nurture
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them with counsel, with care, with instruction, with intentionality. I
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heard somebody say once that children are like what cement?
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And when I heard I was like, what are you
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talking about? But it totally makes sense. Everything that touches
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them leaves an impression. So parents, our tone, our reactions,
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our discipline, our love, all of these things leave a
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mark that shaping who they're becoming. And the last relational
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dynamic that Paul brings up is he talks about a
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spirit filled work relationships. Now historically and contextually, he's speaking
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to slaves and masters, which were a common part of
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the household, but how many of you know work often
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comes home. He speaks to the slaves and the masters.
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He says to the workers. In verse five of chapter six,
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Paul says this. He says, slaves, obey your earthly masters
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with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just
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as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to
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win their favor when their eye is on you, but
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as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from
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your heart. Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord,
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not people, because you know that the Lord will reward
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each one of you for whatever good they do, whether
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they are slave or free. Paul says, serve and work
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as if you are serving the Lord. He says it
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over and over and over throughout this text, as unto Christ,
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as servants of Christ, as to the Lord, not to men,
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he says, over and over and over. And what I
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want to submit to you this morning is that Christians
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should be the most reliable and dependable employees on planet Earth.
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We should be Why it's not because your boss is amazing,
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mine is great. Make sure make sure you record that
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it's not because you always get along with your boss.
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It's because you work as if you are serving the Lord,
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not a man with the title, but a God on
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the throne. Your work is worship to Him. Everything that
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you touch, your attitude, your posture, the way you speak
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to others, the way that you serve, the way that
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you sacrifice is worship unto Him. It's an offering to
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the Lord every time we step foot in the workplace.
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And then he speaks to masters, all of my business owner, bosses,
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leaders in the room. He says this to us. Verse nine,
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He says, masters, treat your slaves in the same way.
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Do not threaten them, since you know that he who
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is both their master and yours is in heaven and
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there is no favoritism with him. Paul tails, masters, stop threatening,
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treat people with fairness. Remember you also have a master
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in heaven. A spirit filled leader doesn't use position to manipulate.
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They use their position to bless those around them. Man,
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I love meeting with some of our business owners and
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the great leaders and bosses that we have here at
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Venture Church, and I love just hearing about the ways
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that they're finding ways to bless those that are a
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part of what they're trying to accomplish in their workplace.
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I think it's one of the most spirit filled things
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that you can do as a leader or as a boss.
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Over and over and over again all throughout this text,
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Paul is saying, spirit filled relationships in a spirit filled
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home will be measured by mutual submission to each other,
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treating every relationship submitted under God's ultimate authority. So the
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question is what does this mean for us? As we're
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reading through this what does it mean for us? I
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hope for you when you read this scripture it causes
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you to do the same thing it caused me to do,
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and that's simply to look at my own life and
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take some inventory and say, Morgan, where do you need
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to grow? Where does God want to rEFInd you? Friends?
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You and I are called to lead our homes and
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our families. Well, the scripture should lead us to ask
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some serious questions about how we should be living our lives.
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Maybe the question that you need to ask yourself and
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you need to begin to take inventory on, is the
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question of is Christ the center of your home? Because
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here's the thing. I know how easy it is to
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make the schedule the center of your home. I know
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how easy it is to make hobbies the center of
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your home, and sports the center of your home. And
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I'm standing here talking to a bunch of church people.
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Can I just tell you sometimes we make church activities
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the center of our home. But friends, I want to
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petition to you that there is one who should stand
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above all as the center of our home, and it
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is Jesus Christ living in our own hearts and overflowing
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into our homes every day. And the question that we
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might just need to ask ourselves is that being modeled
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in our home? Maybe the question we need to ask
-
ourselves is have I invited the Holy Spirit to set
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the atmosphere of my home? Let me ask you a question,
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what does it feel like when you walk into your house?
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They're not in here this service, so I'll point them out.
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But some of our dear friends, Jim and gentlemen Man,
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I love visiting their home because every time I walk
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into their home, it's like I can feel the Spirit
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of God just residing in that place. Because they've been
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intentional about making their home a home of prayer. They've
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been intentional about making their home a home of encouragement,
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a home of patience, a home of repentance, a home
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of forgiveness. Maybe you're home, when you walk in, you
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feel harshness, Maybe you feel criticism, maybe you feel sarcasm,
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maybe there's avoidance in your home. I just want to
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encourage you because the Holy Spirit has the power to
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transform people and atmospheres, and if you and I are
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faithful to invite him into our home. I just believe
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He has the power to change that. Maybe the question
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we need to ask ourselves is am I leading myself well?
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Husbands lead like Christ, Wives honor like the church. Children
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listen and obey. Scripture says it will go well for you.
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Parents disciple with gentleness and intentionality. Leaders, bosses, business owners
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lead with mercy and grace. I just believe that all
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of our relationships are to be submitted as unto God
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and Church. Hear me say this at its core, you
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know what all these things are Their worship. Your marriage,
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it's worship. The way you parent your kids, it's worship.
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The way that you work, it's worship. All of these
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things are our worship under God. Now, if you're anything
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like me, you're probably thinking, man, I got some work
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to do. You're looking at your life and you're thinking, man,
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there's some things that I need to address. Maybe your
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marriage feels tense, maybe your parenting feels overwhelming, Maybe your
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home feels chaotic, maybe your work feels draining. Can I
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just encourage you with the same hope that God reminded
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me of this week. It's the truth that the same
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spirit who fills us here in worship can fill us
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at home. He can feel you in your home. He
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can provide that patience that you don't always feel like
-
you have in your home. He can feel you with
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those words that you feel like you lack at home.
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He can fill you with that love and that grace
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and that mercy for those you love the most. In
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your home. He can heal broken marriages, he can restore
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wounded children. He can break generational curses. He can transform hearts.
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He can bring peace. He can lead us to forgiveness. Friends,
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you and I don't need a perfect home. You know
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what we need. We need a spirit filled home. We
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need homes where we invite the Holy Spirit to reside
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where we live first in our hearts, so that it
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transforms the home from the inside out. And don't want
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to give you an opportunity to respond. So with every
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head bout, every eye close in this room, if you're
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here this morning and you just say, Morgan, I need
-
to walk out of this place knowing that I have
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the Spirit of God living within me. God, I need
-
the transformation to come from the inside out. Maybe you're
-
taking some inventory and you're looking at your marriage and
-
you're like, God, I don't even know what step to
-
take to restore what's been broken. Maybe you're looking at
-
the way that you've been parenting your kids and you're
-
just thinking, God, I don't have the patience required. Can
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I just tell you this morning that God wants to
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fill you with a power that will sustain you. He
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wants to fill you this morning with something that will
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walk with you and empower you. And So, if that's
-
you here this morning and you just say, Morgan, I
-
want to walk out of here knowing that the spirit
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of God lives within me, and then as a walk
-
into my home, I want that spirit to overflow in
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the atmosphere of my home and in the relationships in
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my home. If that's you here this morning and you
-
want to just respond to that, you want me to
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pray this prayer over you. Would you just lift your
-
hand wherever you are. I just want to know who
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I'm praying for this morning. Thank you, Thank you, thank you,
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thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Hands up, all of us can put your hands in.
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Would you stand to your feet with me this morning?
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I want to pray over us. As we conclude, let's
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pray together this morning, Father God, I thank you so much. God,
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I thank you for the call that you've put on
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in our lives God, to not just blend into the
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culture around us, but God, to stand out and be different.
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And God, what I know that that requires from my
-
own life is for me to not rely on who
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I am, but God, to call on your spirit to
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empower me to be different. God, I cannot do it alone.
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And God for those who raise their hands, I just
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pray that there would be this moment of repentance God
-
that says, Father, forgive me for thinking that I could
-
do it on my own. And instead, Father, I pray
-
that you would fill us with the courage, with the patience,
-
with the love, with the words, with the mercy, with
-
the grace to lead ourselves so that the love that
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we have might overflow from our hearts, into our homes,
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into our marriages, into our parenting. God, Father, give us
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grace where we feel like we have none. God, give
-
us mercy for those relationships that feel a strained. God,
-
and Father, I just pray that you would lead us
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as a church. God. I pray that venture church would
-
be marked by people whose homes are filled with your spirit. God,
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whose lives are filled with your spirit God, and that
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the sermon that our marriages and our parenting and that
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our homes speak would be one of life and hope
-
and love and grace. God fill us as we go
-
back home. We pray that in Jesus' mighty name, and
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everyone said Amen, Amen, as you Morgan, come on as
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you go out today, I want to point to our
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What's Next page. You can find on our app a
-
lot of content that you can kind of make a
-
part of your walk as you go out. Christmas Seas
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is around us. Youth parents sign up for Winter Camp.
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We love you all so much. God bless you.
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Thank you again for joining us. If you enjoyed today's service,
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go ahead and subscribe to our channel so you can
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see future messages. If you'd like to learn more about
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Venture Church, you can click the link that's in our bio.
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We hope to see you again.