Pastor Ken Kramer

So it's a shame that this is happening only for the second

time now in four years. Pastor Ken, this is a busy guy.

He's a popular guy. Everybody wants peace.

But, you know, we're getting to peace today, thankfully.

So Pastor Ken, as you know, as my pastor, I talk about him

often. I'm very thankful to have him in

my life. When I say he's my pastor, you

might go, what does that mean? Like you're not sitting in his

church hearing his sermons every week.

But what it means is he's the one.

He's one of the men primarily who cares for my soul and who I

can lean on and rely on and who shepherds me and wisely leads me

and corrects me. Pastor, Pastor Kim, when he

rebukes me, I don't figure it out till about like 2 days later

that I was corrected. And then the Holy Spirit drops

it in and on and I have to text him about, oh, I get it now.

And he's like, I knew he'd catch up.

So I'm just very thankful for him completely different gifting

from me, which is exactly what we need, which is exactly what I

need. And I just have been blessed by

his ministry and by his encouragement.

He encouraged me years ago. He brought me in front of the

people of White House and I'll never forget it.

I mean, I hadn't been there that long.

And he stood me up in front of the church and said I would be

proud to call this man my pastor and talking about me.

And it was a supernatural moment for me, and I won't cry.

It was a supernatural moment for me just where the Lord brought a

blessing and a healing and a comfort.

And there was a deep connection there between us.

So I was very thankful for it. He loves you dearly.

In addition to, you know, our structure of as a New Testament

church, I'm the elder, we have deacons, I'm the pastor elder,

and I use those words interchangeably.

In addition to that, we also have a board.

So the church has a 501C3 in the way that it's structured, in the

way that it's Pastor Ken is also on that board.

So he's the treasurer on that board.

We're bringing another brother, Alex Feliciano, who's going to

be preaching this month at Seoul.

He's coming onto that team as well.

So that's just some of the some of the other structure of the

church. But would you please honor my

pastor and our brother in Christ, Pastor Ken Framer all.

Right, I am suited up. Awesome.

Can I drink whatever's in this? It's salty.

It's salty. Not to be, not to be clever, but

it's just electrolyte. Water, electrolyte water.

OK. Hey, it's great to be with you.

I wanted to invite Holly to come up too.

Oh, thanks so much, brother. I'd like to invite Holly to come

up too, because I really wouldn't be in Virginia at all

if it wasn't for this woman. I met Jesus and then I went to

Bible college and I met her and I followed her back here.

And as it were, I say I followed her.

But you know, and you know, she's she, she could make

anybody look good. And I think I would follow her

anywhere I am leading. But I do like to look around and

see who's with me. So she's my favorite person to

have with me. So I just wanted her to give you

a greeting and. Well, we love, love, love you

guys. What a blessing.

And Natalie, as I was just thinking about you, the you're

so beautiful. You're beautiful on the outward,

but the beauty of you on the inside and the call of the Lord

for you to bring the beauty out of others.

And she serves the Lord with humility every time we talk.

I hear that in her. You have to walk in confidence,

and sometimes, especially when you're in front of people all

the time, that that could be a challenge.

And so you go back to Jesus to get your confidence.

But the calling to draw forth the beauty out of others from

the beauty that's in you. But as we were worshipping, I

saw a picture of Jesus walking through the fields and he was

just brushing his hand against the harvest.

And he would find one and he would say, this one's ready,

this one's ready. And I got the sense that he was

waiting for a laborer to be behind him to take that one

down. And there's a season of harvest

on your church, but you have to be close to Jesus.

I love the way, Angelina, you close that out with the call for

the harvest. Jesus is always walking in the

fields. He's out here in the fields.

He's in your family's fields. He's in the grocery store

fields. He's in your workplace fields

and he's looking and he sees when there's one ready to be

harvested, but you can't hear him say it's time to be

harvested unless you're close and unless you're ready to do

the work for the harvest. And then I felt like he was

saying that some of you've been praying and asking for

breakthroughs or financial things or just for a season in

your life. And he's saying it's with the

harvest, if you'll tend to the harvest and listen when I say

this one's ready. So maybe that means it's a

chance for you to pray for somebody who's sick and the Lord

wants to reveal himself to them with a healing.

Or maybe it's you're in a difficult conversation.

Maybe they're tearing their spouse down or something.

And you sense the Lord rising up on the inside of you that now is

the time to bring truth. Because truth can be a seed can

bring harvest as well. Whatever it is.

You're close to Jesus. So you hear when he whispers,

this one's ready. And what does he tell you to do?

And when the harvest is brought in by your work, listening to

the Father, then the blessings you're praying for begin to come

forth because they're tied up in the harvest.

It's a season of harvest for your church in the coming years.

Stay close so you can hear when he says this one is ready.

That's right. Amen.

We love you guys would. You.

Pray, pray that over them. Yes.

Jesus, thank you for short church.

Thank you, Lord, for these four years of investing Lord Jesus in

the fields through prayer, through sewing, Lord, through

staying close to you, your presence.

They walk it everywhere they go. Everyone in this church is a

Tabernacle is carrying your presence everywhere they go,

Lord. And there is work that's being

done in the fields. Lord, you are calling them to a

time of harvest, and you are walking those fields.

And you see when one is ready to be harvested, I pray, Lord, that

this church, each person in these seats would walk so

closely with you that they would hear your voice saying this one

is ready for harvest. And Lord, that you would explain

to them and show them very clearly what their part is to

bring forth that harvest. Lord Jesus, that salt church

would have the opportunity to bring them to the table and say,

now sit here and taste and see that the Lord is good.

And as they serve and as they love, Lord, that they can raise

and teach disciples, Lord Jesus, to continue to work in the

harvest. Thank you, Lord, for once it

stay close to you to hear you say this one is ready.

Come take the harvest with me. Praise God.

Praise God. Amen.

Amen. I'll just I'll, I'll second.

Not that not that you need a second for the word of the Lord,

but as an example, the word of the word probably about four

weeks ago, we had a guest speaker at Lighthouse called Rob

Shipley named Rob. Rob Shipley and Rob, it was

really one of these weird scenarios that morning.

He's a great brother. He is the head of missiological

resources for the Assemblage of God World Missions.

And he came and taught on for us on Saturday for a missions

conference, did a great job. And then he and I shared a pizza

that night and then he went to bed and was up all night.

He was sick like all night. And it wasn't the food because

we ate the same pizza, right? So I don't know, maybe I made it

sick, I don't know. But anyway, I get a text from

him like 6:00 in the morning. I think he said in 45 years this

has never happened to me, but I may not be able to preach

tomorrow morning. And I'm like, well, Rob,

whatever you need to do, you know, I are a preacher.

I will preach. It's OK, I don't you know, and,

and so, but then he shows up at 9:30 says I don't want to be

near anybody, but I can preach. I said, OK, so he so he preaches

his message and in that message it, it, he came out of Luke

Luke 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 about the lost things, right.

And so, so he, he has a brother that came to the Lord in

Southern California. And actually I showed a picture

of him. Rick Warren actually baptized

his brother, his brother's in his 70s and but the whole

message was go find your lost brother.

Well, one of the guys in our church texted his brother and

said, Hey, I just wanted you to know I love you.

And that's all he said and the brother next week showed up at

church, gave his heart to the Lord.

Listen to a testimony. It's the fastest.

This is also a typing testimony. The next week he showed up and

somebody, one of our, one of our folks in the congregation just

talked about tithing. It said, this is my story.

And you know what I realized from being broke to being where

I am now is I can't afford not to tie.

And that brother sat right there, wrote out his first tithe

check. I'm like, what about that?

In three weeks, man, go find your lost brother.

He comes and gets saved and he hasn't missed church yet.

Isn't that amazing? So be be be close to Jesus and

the harvest is right there. Holly, can you help me with my

little, with my little illustration here?

I told Pastor John Michael, I said, this is going to be an

illustrated sermon or actually I said interactive.

Yeah. So he's like, what's that?

I said, don't worry, I won't tear the church down.

And so, but though when I grow up, I do want to be able to

teach and preach like Pastor John Michael.

OK, Just so you know, I really highly esteem what he does.

And I'm I'm thankful for it. Oh, yeah.

OK. Yeah.

We got to be accurate there. Want the level, baby?

Want the level. We're trying to build a house

together right now. It's it's it's a chance.

It's just no, we're having a great time.

What I want to talk to you today about is growing in rest.

Everybody say growing in rest, growing in rest.

I I appreciate it. Craig's bodybuilding shirt back

there is it's his old school body.

You understand that they all want to see it now this model

your shirt for me right there. All right, all right, He's got

an old school bodybuilding shirt on.

And, and you know, and I, I used to lift weights back in the day

and I used to run a lot and do a lot of exercise, all kinds of

things. And, and, and what you learn

about working out is that when you work work out, you tear the

muscles down. And when you rest, the muscles

regrow stronger, right? And and so the, so you can't

just work out all the time, you know, you've got to actually

rest, right? So growth happens in rest.

And I want to talk to you today about this idea of growing in

rest, growing in rest in the body of Christ.

We can kind of get it backwards. I think a lot of times we're

like, we're busy for the Lord, we're serving the Lord, we're

working, but you actually grow when you rest.

You actually grow when you're resting in Jesus, when you're

enjoying your life in Jesus, when you're just in his

presence. And that's all you need to be is

just in his presence. So I'm going to reframe a couple

of thoughts for us today, and then we're going to get into

Matthew Chapter 11. And I'm going to show you that

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

it's actually there. And Pastor Ken's not actually a

heretic, though I've been accused of having ticks, but

never. Anyway, sorry.

It's one of those dad jokes. It's a holdover from being in

kids church. I, I started out my first five

years of my ministry. I didn't teach to anybody that

was over 3 feet. You know, they had to walk in

and, and the line at the doors kind of like the, you know, and

so they come in, OK, you're under 3 feet.

I can preach to you. So you were one of them.

That's right. Back in the day, early 90s.

So, Angelina, can you help me? Can you?

OK, so here's what I want to do. I'm going to give you this this

scripted. They're going to give us the

answers. OK, and you're just going to

write the answers up here. Let me ask you the question.

How does it feel when your soul is disconnected?

We're talking about being a we're going to talk about a

little bit about the soul today, which is pretty spiritual,

general organic kind of language, but I'll tie it into

the Bible in a minute. How do you know if your soul is

disconnected? How do you know?

What are some? Give me one, one word, two word.

Done. Go ahead.

Lost, lost. OK.

Can you write that? Lonely, lonely.

Empty. Oh, oh, oh, slow down.

She's got a right faster sister. Lost, lonely.

What else? Despair.

Despair, Right. Despair.

Darkness, Right? Yeah.

She writes so good. You didn't pick me to write.

You would have. Yeah.

It would have been bad if you pointed to me instead.

Of her, we're all thankful. Chaotic.

Chaotic sadness, sadness, sadness.

No dude, that's good. I mean it's bad but it's in UMB.

Does that have a kid? No, no, OK.

I don't dry it up. Dry it.

Up broken. Somebody else.

Depression. Depression.

Sure. I pray.

We could probably have two or three or four more, right.

Anybody ever experienced this for yourself?

I kind of thought that as people were talking, it's like, yeah,

disconnected soul. How many of you know, people

that are experiencing this, you know, and so, so often times we

tend to see the, the thing that they're doing that's wrong.

But this is a source, right? So there are symptoms of sin and

then there's the source. And that's the fact that we are

disconnected, right? We're disconnected from.

So what does it feel like when you're connected, when you're

when you your soul is connected? I told, all right, One Cup per

point in my sermon. Joy, happiness.

I, I told him I normally drink about 24 ounces of water before

I preach. And so he's like, well, when you

drink one, I'll give you more. So, OK, what did I hear?

Joy, joy, joy. Peace.

Peaceful. Happiness.

Oh, it's bubbling up now, thank greatness.

You're doing great. Love.

Wholeness or whole? Delight.

Hold up, Hold up, hold up, hold up.

You're doing great, Angelina. You're doing great.

You've got. 4 words on deck still.

Yeah, I know. I.

Missed. It Ding Ding, Ding, Ding.

Full, full, fruitful, fruitful. Oh, that's a good one.

Good. Thing you picked a good speller.

Right. Yeah, anymore.

Living this what? Makes.

It alive. Alive.

That's good. Anchored.

Connected. Oh, that's good.

Oh, yeah. Connected and connected.

Yeah, it makes sense. OK, That is a good stopping

place right there. Thank you so much.

Let's give her a hand. You can hang on to that.

We'll, we'll come back in just a minute.

Isn't it interesting? And, and Hudson caught it that

that this looks a lot like the fruit of the Spirit, right?

Let me let me just read from Galatians 5.

The acts of the flesh are obvious.

Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and

witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish

ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and

the like. I warn you, as I did before,

that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of

God. But the fruit of the Spirit is

Lovejoy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things, there is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with

its passions and desires. Since we live in the Spirit, let

us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited,

provoking and envying each other.

You know, if you have your Bibles turned to Matthew Chapter

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

11, we're going to get into this in just a second in verse 25.

But I want to I want to submit to you the kind of the the crux

of this thought is that is that Jesus lived the way he did in

full connection with the Father. That the that the person of

Jesus is actually for us, the normal Christian life that when

we look to him and we follow him, he he's showing us what a

connected soul looks like, right.

We know, according to the Thessalonians, that that we are

spirit, we have a soul, we live in a body.

But sometimes our soul gets connect, disconnected from God.

When we when before you met Jesus, that's the way it was all

the time. Now, though, occasionally we

can, we can start to wander off the path.

We can start to focus on the stuff rather than the the one

who created the stuff. We can.

We can get distracted and when we get distracted we feel

disconnected. So Christians can feel this, but

it's easy for them to get back to connection because all they

have to do is look to him. Now, if you don't know Jesus,

you just go find a bottle, or you go find some pills, or you

go find another job, or you chase something else that you

hope is going to fulfill you and connect your soul.

But your soul is not going to be connected to God because you

need Jesus. He's the one that cleanses us

and washes us and gives us access to the Father, right?

So let me let me read to you from Matthew Chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

At that time Jesus said, I praise you, Father Lord of

heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from

the wise and learned and revealed them to little

children. This is a compliment from Jesus,

right, because he's only only children receive the the

Kingdom. And guess what, we're in good

company because Saul church is just four years old.

Hold up four and say I'm four years old.

Four years old, OK? Yes, Father, for this is what

you were pleased to do. All things, everybody say all

things. All things have been committed

to me by my father. No one knows the Son except the

Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those

to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will

give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn

from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will

find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My

burden is light. The first thing I want to point

out to you this is in the first couple of verses.

Rest is the revelation of the Father's heart to you.

Often times we don't think of rest as being a person.

We think about rest. You know, you, you see a, you

see a lounge chair in front of the ocean that's restful.

Or for some of y'all, it's, it's up in the mountains, you know,

and you and, and you're in the woods or maybe up, you're up on

the top of the mountain and you're looking out and you see

that feels restful. It was a really restful climbing

all the way up there. You know, you, you have

different pictures, different motifs of what it what rest

sounds like. But in the Bible, it tells us

that revelation is a rest is a revelation of the Father's heart

that the Father wants you to enter into rest.

That the whole reason he came was so that you could cease from

your work, so that you could cease from your stress, so that

you could cease from your anxiety.

It's a revelation, though. It's a revelation.

Jesus is, is saying, he said, Lord, you have revealed these

things from the wise and learned people that have studied and

tried and, and, and spent years and years and years reading

books and writing books and saying this is how you do it.

But it's a revelation. You need a revelation of rest.

And you're only going to get that if you understand the

Father's heart for you. He's not trying to make your

life more difficult. He's trying to lighten your

load. He's trying to make your life

better just because you can live in relationship with a father.

And when you understand his heart, he's not trying to put

more burden on you. He's trying to take burden off

of you. But in the body of Christ, we

don't always teach that real well.

Right here. Just think about this language,

you know, and I've used this language.

I'm a preacher. So I'm, you know, point, point

your finger right at me. I know I've done this.

Are you right with God? Are you right with God?

Well, that can immediately come with some condemnation, right?

To a person that doesn't know Jesus, it should be the kindest

question ever. But people don't take it that

way because the world is upside down.

You know, sounds like you're trying to put a burden on me.

But what if I said, how is it with your soul?

How is it with your soul? Why doesn't it sound a lot more

like you care? Like I'm just, I'm hey, we're

just, we're just people walking along.

And how is it with your soul? How is it with your soul?

You know, and immediately a person's like all of a sudden

they've got to do like this internal.

Well, I don't know. Maybe it's not, it's not good.

I'm not where I should be. Something's broken.

Something's missing. It's not, it's not ordered the

way I want it to be. My, you know, maybe it's my

private life. Maybe it's my relational life

that's affecting my soul. Maybe it's which one came first,

right? Was my soul out of whack and,

and then I began to affect my relationships?

Or did the relationships trigger me to, to, to get turned upside

down on the inside? Which is it?

Anybody ever watched that Snickers commercial where

somebody's just sitting there and all of a sudden that their

face morphs into some kind of a monster or something and all of

a sudden it's like, oh, I know what the problem.

You're hangry. And they hand them a Snickers

bar. Oh, thank you.

Anybody ever been hangry? If I preach till 12:30, you're

going to be hangry or I'm going to experience it.

It's, it's interesting, isn't it?

I mean that, that our, that the body that God gave us can affect

our mood, can affect how we feel about things, right?

You know, when, whenever I get around my, my grandkids, they'll

be sitting there and it's like we're having a conversation and

all of a sudden somebody's not happy.

And, and one of the moms, it's either Mimi or, or one of my

daughter's looks over and says, Oh, it's nap time, right?

What are we, what are we saying? We're saying, OK, it's time to

power down. It's time to put the head on the

pillow. It's time to have some rest,

right? But sometimes in, in our souls,

we're disconnected. And the only thing that can

reset us is this revelation that the father wants something good

for you and he wants to give you rest.

He just wants you to enter into rest.

And it's so simple, but it's not easy.

It's so simple to understand conceptually, but we've, we've,

we've added kind of some relation, some religious

components to it and, and we've, and we've kind of muddied the

waters a little bit. Secondly, in, in your notes,

this is the, the part where it starts all things Jesus says,

all things have been committed to me by my father.

No one knows the son except the Father.

Think about that. Let me, let me take the Son out

of there and put sonship in there which can speak about

every one of us in here. Jesus is talking about himself,

but what did he do? He gave us the spirit of sonship

we are adopted in. And so when you go to your

Father, he's the only one who really knows who you are.

I've been married to Holly for 35 years and she's got a pretty

good idea of who I am. But you know what?

Only the father knows what my ultimate destiny is.

Only the father knows who Ken Kramer is in his identity, but

in his purpose, everything that goes along with that, only the

father knows that. And and so when we, when we,

when we recognize that rest is this restoration of purpose and

dominion authority for you, if you're feeling weak, if you're

feeling less than, if you're feeling been pushed down by the

world, what if you just got a fresh revelation of what the

Father has for you? There's a there's an

illustration that I've used for years.

I think I first heard it from Pastor Jack Hayford, but he

would talk about gold coins. Gold is on kind of a good run

right now, isn't it? And so back in the day when gold

coins were, were made, they're always minted with the face of

of an emperor or a king or somebody on it.

And they would take that, that gold, which is a malleable

metal, and they would impress the the image of whatever

government was issuing the coin. And the coin was always issued

by weight. So you knew how much you had by

you take. If you had five one ounce gold

coins, you'd put them on a scale and they ought to weigh 5 oz,

right? And So what would happen though,

as soon as you took that gold coin and you handed it out, you

put it in the circulation and it got it paid for this and it paid

for that. And it was around the

circulation after a while, because gold by its nature, it

could rub off a little bit something.

And usually where it rubs off is where it's embossed, where it's,

the images stand on it. And so eventually coins that

would would that have been circulation for 5/10/15 twenty

years, they had less of the image on them than they did when

they were first minted. But they were also worth less

than coins that were just being minted because in the process of

handling, some of the gold wore off in somebody'd fingerprints

and, and, and got in that drawer, gotten that, you know,

wherever it was and it got, it got shook off.

And so when you take those 5 gold coins out that had been

around for a long time and put them on the scale, they weighed

less and so consequently they were worth less.

Anybody ever feel worth less? Excuse me, Worthless.

I did that somewhere. We feel worthless sometimes.

You know how you discover your worth.

Do you know how you really allow the your soul to fill its work,

feel it's worth get back into the presence of God and let him

reconnect you let the you know the the word for glory in the in

the Hebrew is the word wait and and so in I think it's in

Corinthians, it says we we all with unveiled faces, see the

Lord's glory when we come before the Lord, he re stamps his image

on us. He re stamps our purpose on us

when he re stamps our value on us when we're feeling worth

less. Maybe what we need to do is get

a fresh glimpse of who he is and allow him to take his glory and

re stamp his image on us. You're not worthless.

You're worth the the price of God's own Son, He who spared not

his own son, but gave him up for us all, how he will he not also

with him freely give us all things.

The value of a thing is the price it will bring.

And God says you're worth the life of his own son.

He bankrupt heaven on your behalf.

Most valuable thing that he ever had, He gave his Son for you and

me. Rest is restoration of purpose

and dominion authority. Thirdly, today, rest is

repentance leading to relationship with them.

You know what, when when we come together, you don't really think

about this, but church on Sunday morning is an act of repentance

because you're saying I'm going to exchange something that's

temporal for something that's eternal.

Now granted, y'all some beautiful people and I love

hanging out with you, but sometimes on Sunday morning I'd

rather stay in bed. Can I just be honest?

Can I be a pastor and admit that, you know, sometimes like,

you know, Holly's not. I was like, I don't feel like

going to church today. Honey, you're the preacher.

You got to. But the reality is, when we put

God first, that's an act of repentance.

When we give Him the first part of our day, that's an act of

repentance. Whenever we, whenever we put Him

ahead in our thought processes, that's an act of repentance.

What am I doing? I'm saying it's not me first,

it's Him first, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow

me. So you're, you're finding little

ways in your life to turn your mind toward him, to turn your

attention toward him, to turn your affection toward him and

say, you know what I want what he wants 1st and what I want

second. I want to find a way to do that.

And so these things are all repentance that leads into

relationship with him. And so, so it's so important for

us to, to understand this, that I'm, I'm going to get a couple

secrets, OK, You need to look after your soul.

And it's not what our world calls self-care, which is kind

of like a little bit of hedonism, you know what I'm

saying? It's, it's, it's all pleasure

based and whatever, whatever, whatever.

But there are things that are unique to you that cause you to

have rest. And if we're not careful, we,

you know, it's, it's such a, it's so personal that it's easy

for somebody to look at us. If it's not remotely religious

or something, it's easy for, for us to, to pull back from that,

say, Oh yeah, maybe you're right.

But I just want you to know, to me, sometimes the most spiritual

thing I do is stand in a river with waders on and cast a fly

and my soul gets refreshed. I'm out there standing in what

God made right. And if I don't want to catch

fish, I don't put a lure on the end and I just stand there and

cast. Nobody bothers me.

I leave the phone on the somewhere else and and I'm just

out there getting my soul refreshed.

You know what's happening? My soul is, is reconnecting.

It's reconnecting. What do you do?

Let's. OK, this is where I need

Angelina again. What do you do for soul care?

I'll tell you one other thing I do for soul care and and then

and then we'll, we'll start taking we'll start taking

thoughts from here back during COVID back during COVID, I

spelling is soul care for Angelina.

Did you get that setting things in order back during COVID?

I, I got into making sourdough bread.

And, and so I, I mean, I like, got really into it.

Like I bought a grain mill and I, I ground my own flour because

you couldn't get flour and blah, blah, blah.

And so, and it took me, I can't tell you how many loaves that I

had to throw in the trash because they were just

worthless. But I, I, I perfected the

process of making sourdough bread.

And, and it was just just that little bit of time studying what

the starter was doing, learning to mix it.

It was chemistry, it was, you know, it was process, all that

kind of stuff. And and it would refresh my soul

to just go and make sour of bread, you know, and my family

didn't mind it either and neither did my waist.

I gained about 5 lbs. But you know, results of COVID,

right? So, so soul care.

So what? What is it that refreshes your

soul? Now we can do it.

Go ahead. Double our salary, whatever it

is. Yes, go ahead.

Turning off the phone. Wow, that's a good one.

Family time. Don't have to be doing anything

particular, right? Just time with them.

Stargazing, Fishing. Hey, Ben, sitting in the woods,

deer hunting. OK, Range time.

Project Car. It's the first time the guys can

say non churchy stuff in church. OK, we're enjoying our

deliverance right now. Prayer Walk.

There you go. I like to prayer walk too.

Salt water prayer walk. Walk.

Well, I heard somebody else. What else Hunting was up there?

Hunting. GG, my husband.

Now you just make me stop. You're just.

You're just wanting your spouse to see that up there.

We're working. We're working.

That's great. Date night.

Date night shopping. Hang on.

You like to chop wood, do you somebody?

Said holding a baby. Holding a baby.

I know some brand new moms should probably be happy to let

you get some soul care. Painting.

Painting like walls or artistic stuff?

Artistic stuff, Yeah. Watching the sunrise.

Sunrise. Watching someone.

Yeah, good. You guys are on it.

Reading the word. That's good.

Amen, Chocolate. OK, Put chocolate and we'll stop

there. Thank you, Angelina.

I once had, I, I once chaired a board meeting at at Lighthouse

many, many years ago. And, and we, and we were going

through some numbers and there was a women's meeting and one of

the guys at the table saw the number that was for chocolate.

And it was $50 for a ladies meeting for chocolate.

And, and he, he had the audacity to say, why did they spend so

much money on chocolate? And we shouted him down right

then just brother, don't even bring that up.

It should have been $200 on it, $50.

Not nearly enough. Not nearly enough next week.

I love this passage in Isaiah 30 verse 15.

Isaiah 30:15

It says this is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of

Israel says in repentance and rest is your salvation, in

quietness and trust is your strength.

And then he adds, but you would have none of it.

What is it that causes us to fight against rest?

What is it that causes us to like, like a little baby that's

you're trying to get him to go down for a nap and they just

don't want to go down for a nap and they resist and resist.

And is it fear of missing out? We're kind of into that in our

world, aren't we? There's, there's got to be

something more, you know, for us and who are, you know, our, our,

our jobs or our, our finances are connected to, to we got to

stay busy. If I'm not working, I'm not

making money. If I'm not making money, the

wolf is coming to the door, all of that kind of stuff.

And, and so, but there's got to be a level of surrender to where

we say, OK, God is, is the provider and he doesn't want me

to work 24/7. And we've got to put some

parameters about around it. And how many of you have ever

found that, that some of the best, most creative ideas happen

in your mind, happen, happen for you when you're resting?

You know that, that you, you get out and about and then you come

back to it later and you're like, Oh, this isn't so hard.

Now. It was maybe you found yourself

in a difficult place. Maybe while you were, while

you're off, a client called and, and, and left a message and

said, you know what, I want you to go ahead and do that deal.

And, and so then you got a contract and you weren't out

there hustling. You were just resting, right.

And how many of you know that when we rest, God is at work,

that he's working, that he's strengthening us, that he's

renewing us, that he's changing us.

We're, we're growing in rest. We're growing in rest.

You know, when I was, when I was a boy, my, my parents divorced

when I was probably 7 years old and I'd just gotten into riding

motorcycles at the time. And I had the town or the county

that I grew up in has more cows than people and it's very rural.

And back in the day, we could ride motorcycles on those dirt

roads and most of the time not get caught because there was one

county cop and there was one state cop.

And they had a really big, you know, I did manage to get caught

a couple of times before I was 13 without my license.

But anyway, I digress. I I found myself as a as a boy

learning to just process. On on two wheels while I was

working through my parents divorce the emotions of all of

that. I would just go spend two or

three hours a night riding sometimes get off the bus and go

ride motorcycle until I got back until it until it got dark.

I mean, that was kind of a thing that I did and in in riding

motorcycle just became part of, you know, me time and eventually

time that I would spend with the Lord.

Later on when I became 17 years old and got born again, having a

motorcycle was just a thing that was sole care for me, right.

And would you know that this is really kind of strange, but it's

a true story that over in the course of my life, I have been

given 8 different motorcycles from from the time I was about 7

years old. Now, I bought myself more, I

won't say more than 8, but I bought myself a number of them

through the years. And then another season, OK, we

have a baby. I don't have time.

So I sell the bike and then I go a little season.

But most of the time I, I've had two wheels in my life, but eight

of those motorcycles people just gave to me.

And that while, and, and it was just to me, it was my father

saying, I, I know what you like, I know what you like, I know

what you know. And so I don't feel carnal or

boastful at all. And I'm saying, oh, it was a

brand new one or anything like that.

Just no, somebody just thought of me and said, Hey, I thought

you might like to have this. And they blessed me with it.

And so I just want to encourage you with, with these thoughts.

Here's a couple thoughts for for your notes, action steps for

you. This is Rick Warren he would

talk about on Sabbath. Divert daily.

Whatever you do that relaxes you in the day, do it.

Take some time every day. Take some time every day.

And it doesn't necessarily need to be related to something

spiritual, but maybe your soul is just disconnected from your

spirit. You can't hear your spirit.

So do some soul care and let your soul and your spirit

reconnect with your body. Are you with me?

So divert daily, withdraw weekly.

I believe church is part of that.

And but in a minute, I'm going to tell you how pastors are the

worst Sabbath Breakers there ever were.

And I'm going to show you how to make sure you look after your

gift of your pastors and then abandoned annually, disconnect

completely, divert daily, withdraw weekly and abandoned

annually. If you have those things.

And here here's what I'm going to challenge you to do.

We're we're a few months in already to the new year.

But what I've learned is that when I begin to plan my new

year, I plan my vacations first. Plan the plan the rest 1st.

When do you plan to rest? Why?

Because work will crowd it out, pressure will crowd it out.

Everything else will crowd it out.

Busyness will crowd it out. And your soul is going to get

disconnected. You know it's going to.

So plan on the rest and get that going first.

Get it, you know, bookend it in there.

Plan the rest into your calendar.

If it's not your calendar, I found this.

If it's not my calendar, it doesn't get done right.

And so, so learn to plan, rest right away.

Get that out front. And 1st, I want to mention this

to you and we're going to we're going to pray Ori in just a

moment. But since I am John Michaels

pastor and since I am on the board, let me let me shift gears

from talking about you to talking about the the pastoral

role for a minute. I've served the same

congregation for 35 years. This year I was an associate for

children's pastor for five years, associate for three

years, lead pastor now for 27 years.

And, and so when you, when you're the one variable that

doesn't change, you see a lot of other things happen.

You know, I, I've been looking at the same group of people.

Sometimes I want to invent stories, you know, so that I'm a

little bit jazzier on a Sunday morning.

But they've known me for 35 years and so it ain't happening.

You know, I can't, I can't, you know, make up some story about

my life and, and how Jesus redeemed me in a different way

than he did. I can't because they know me.

But well, here's a couple of things that I've learned.

And I remember sitting in an ordination meeting for one of

our guys that got ordained, actually became a Baptist

preacher. And, and the guy who is doing

the ordination service said something that that just really

summarized how I felt, but I'd never heard it put in those

ways. He said to be a pastor is to be

is to be acquainted with guilt that you can't get rid of.

He says when you're away, you're thinking about how it is with

others. Holly and I have to be

intentional about not talking about the church at certain

times in the week, certain times in the day and then certain

times in the month. If we're going away and

traveling, we'll be driving down the road and all of a sudden

somebody, I wonder how it is with them.

I wonder how they're doing. You know it you.

You have to be intentional to shut it off.

When you're studying, you feel guilty that you haven't called

someone about their dying cat. When you are with your family,

something triggers you about a family in the church and you

make a mental note to check on them when you're not with your

own family. To pastor is to be acquainted

with this nagging sense of guilt that you can't seem to shake

off. You are less than the task you

are called to do and you know it.

Pastors who think I got this are the wrong kind.

Pastors who recognize only God can help me, that this is way

bigger than me. They're the right kind because

they're called. You are less than the task and

you know it. And you feel part of the time

like you might be a poser or a hypocrite because failure seems

one decision away. And there's a lot riding on your

decision on a daily basis. It's a lot of pressure.

So This is why pastors need sabbaticals more than most.

Wayne Cordero wrote a book called Leading on Empty.

Wayne Cordero. It's an amazing pastor in

Hawaii. Oh, God bless you.

Why wouldn't you want a pastor in Hawaii?

And he, he, they planted over, I think 99 churches on the Pacific

Rim, just an amazing pastor. And he burned himself out and,

and out of that, he wrote a book.

That's what you do when you burn out.

You write books, right? I don't know.

It sounds counterproductive to me, but it's like he learned

some things and so he said I got to tell others.

As I said earlier earlier, pastors rarely get a Sabbath day

off unless they have a large This is this is him speaking

now, not me. Unless they have a large church

with multiple pastors on staff, most will put in an 8 to 10 hour

day on Sundays. In the marketplace, most workers

get at least a 2 day weekend. Added to that, most employees in

the secular world get about 6 long weekends a year due to

national and state holidays. So I want you to think about it.

Memorial Day, there's a weekend, right?

4th of July, there's a weekend. And when you have a weekend, you

have a Sunday, right? So while everybody else is off

and they're and they're enjoying their chicken and thinking about

the weekend, the pastor's preparing A sermon for that

Sunday morning, which is smack dab in the middle.

And for half the people that are not even going to be there

because they're off enjoying their weekend, right?

I'm not, I'm just, I'm just saying this is what it is.

I'm not knocking anybody. I'm just saying this is the

nature of this thing we call church, right?

So this means that workers are off from late Friday afternoon

until Tuesday morning 6 * a year, 18 days per year that

pastors that you know probably don't get.

So 18 days a year off from work, pastors are still prepping for

sermons, thinking through, getting things ready.

And, and so you got 18 more if you, if you just work the, the

regular cycle, you got 18 more days off last year than Pastor

John Michael, right? Think about it.

Now let's apply some basic math. If you multiply these three days

off times 6 weekends, then a multiply that number by 7 years,

it equals 126 days or the equivalent of a three to four

month sabbatical to a pastor every seven years.

We we've begun implementing A7 year sabbatical cycle at

Lighthouse because we want our pastors to stick around.

We don't want them to burn out. We want the best version.

We don't want them to lose their families or their marriage for

ministry. We want them to be at the top of

their game all the time. But they need rest and probably

more than the average person because you know, you something

goes on at work, you can leave it at work.

Something goes on in the church. That's the pastor's work.

And so he's got to deal with it. He's got to work through that

stuff, you know, and so I want you to look after the gifts that

God has given you as pastors. Now they're not, they don't know

that they didn't know what I was going to talk about today.

They didn't know I was going to talk about this.

But I, I would like to see for us, we're, we're just four years

in. So I'm not talking about a

seven-year sabbatical, but I am saying that that we need to be

intentional about putting together something in the

church. It says we're going to make sure

our pastors are out of the pulpit sometimes.

We're going to make sure that they are resting.

Why? Because they grow when they

rest. And you're actually hoping that

they come back stronger and more vibrant and more invigorated and

more excited and having more energy to do the things that God

put in their hearts to do from the 1st.

And so I bring this up today because you are the church and

you didn't exist except John, Michael and Natalie felt in

their heart that they that this is this is the outgrowth of

their life. God has called us to plant a

church, right? So we're at the place now.

We can have conversation. We can start to look and say,

how do we look after one another?

He tells you how to look after one another out here.

But I'm going to help you look after them, all right?

And, and I want us to do that. I want us to, to really help

them grow in rest. I don't want them to ever have

to think, oh, there's somebody else call in.

I got a call at 5:15 yesterday morning.

Hey, pastor, when you have a chance, can we talk?

It happens. But brother knows I'm an early

riser. Not a big deal, right?

But they're, they're the, the idea that I'm doing a, that I'm,

I, as a pastor, I'm doing a nine to five or an 8 to 4 or I have a

Friday off or a Saturday off. That doesn't exist in ministry.

It does not exist. I'm just here to tell you and,

and I know that John Michael would never come up here and

tell you all the stuff I'm telling you.

So that's why I got to tell you. I know how it is.

I know how it is, you know, people, people don't die at

convenient times. They don't go in the hospital at

convenient times. I've done funerals for dogs.

Those don't happen at convenient times.

I mean, you know, I, I mean, just all kinds of the stuff that

you get asked to do, right? And, and so you, you have to

say, OK, how do I do this? Jesus wants me to love his body,

but he also wants me to, to come apart and be with him.

Yes, right. And so we need to be this is

just the start of the conversation.

I'm not saying we have to do anything about it right now, but

but what I'm going to begin to do as I think through Salt

Church, as we sit together with as a board is we're going to

begin to put some things in place and we'll bring them back

to you and say this is what we're thinking about and let you

speak into it, You know, so that we can make sure that we always

honor the gifts that God has given in the in the pastoral

couple here. Amen.

Soul care. How is it with your soul today?

How is it with your soul? Are you at 100%?

Is the battery recharged? Are you at 70%?

Are you feeling depleted? You're down around 30%, maybe

less than that. In His presence is the fullness

we need, right? The fullness, the fullness.

But don't be afraid to go do some things that 'cause that

fullness to return. Sometimes when we're trying to

talk to God, it's really hard. Sometimes when we need to pray

the most, it's really hard to cry.

But sometimes you can just go be.

I like to go be in a river. I like to go be on two wheels.

I like to put my hands in some puddle.

And when my body is doing something that I find enjoyable,

in those moments, I feel my soul reconnecting with my spirit.

And then this starts to happen. Holy Spirit begins to flow back

in and reconnect to things. Then I start to feel like

praying. Then I start to feel gratitude

in my soul again. But you got to look after your

soul, right? Jesus said, come to me if you're

weary and heavily and I'll give you rest.

Let me tell you if you have, if you don't have rest, this is the

words of Jesus. If you don't want to have rest,

you need to find your way back to Him.

And I'm just telling you that your way back to him might look

different than a church service. It might look different than

getting on your knees. It might look different than

just opening a Bible. Can I just tell you that the

heavens declare the glory of God?

And if I walk outside and just look up and take a take a deep

breath of God's air that he created and, and look at the

stars or, or, or look at the clouds, then the refreshing of

the Lord starts to come back into my soul, right?

He gave me all things richly to enjoy anyway.

He created that for you. He created that for me.

Amen. Father, I pray right now over

your people that we would prioritize soul care because

Jesus, you did. You said when you're weary and

heavy laden, you just come to me.

You just come to me. Take my yoke upon yourself.

Learn from me, for I am gentle and low.

Father, I pray for each and every person here that soul care

would be their portion, that they would find the things that

caused their soul to delight, and as they do, they would find

their way to reconnecting their soul to their spirit.

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord lighting all the

innermost parts of the belly. There's nothing wrong with you,

God, and there really there's nothing wrong with us that a

little reconnecting couldn't take care of.

How is it with your soul today? Thank you Lord.

Lord, we welcome the refreshing of your presence this morning.

We welcome the things that you want to do in US.

We welcome the opportunity that we have to to after we've been

refreshed in your presence, to walk among the harvest and say,

how is it with your soul? How is it with your soul?

And we can tell him about our Father who loves us and his Son

who came for us. And we can help people have a

connected soul with heaven. Father, in the name of Jesus, we

just pray right now. We pray a blessing, Lord God,

over this house. Pray a blessing over this

church. Lord, there's more that you have

in store. There's vision, there's dream,

there's, there's an expansiveness, Lord God, that

you have out in front of us. Lord God, we're just getting

started. And we thank you for that.

But Lord, I pray that we would grow and rest today.

We would grow and rest, that intimacy with Jesus growing.

Rest right now. Halloween.

Thank you father, thank you Father.

Can I ask John, Michael and Natalie to stand right here?

And I just want us to gather around them and pray over them

today. I want you to stand right here

and face everybody because y'all are beautiful.

Can we all stand and can you all just come up and gather around

them? I'm tired of hearing myself

talk. I want to hear you all pray over

them today. And I want you to speak a word

over them, speak a blessing over them.

And I want you to do it in the microphone.

That's right. I'm going to take you a little

higher today. I want them to hear.

I want them to hear the the return on their investment from

hearts that love Jesus today. Hallelujah.

Thank you. Father God, we lift them up to

you today. Lord, thank you for all the work

that they do, for all the sacrifice they do.

Lord Jesus, I thank you that you would bring them to places of

rest. God, that you would give them

clarity as to how to how to practice that rest and how to

dwell in it. And how do you separate from all

the things that distract when they're in those places and that

their souls would be restored, that their relationship with you

would be deepened? That that would be a place where

revelation and insight bursts in new ways as they meditate and

dwell on you and as they rest in the creation that you've made

and all the goodness that you've poured out in there.

Yes, God. Yes, God.

Hallelujah. Father, we just come before you

now, and we thank you and praise you for that.

Lord, We thank you for the love that you've put in their heart,

for the vision that you put in there their their soul for for

the church. Thank you, father, for thank you

all that you've done through them.

Yes, we thank you for the family that we call Saul.

Lord, thank you so much. Just to ask Father, that you

would just pour out your Holy Spirit upon that thank you on

your way and bring them that that rest Lord, yes, God, Jesus

name, yes God, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, somebody else good

thank. You so much the vision that you

paid them for told church from the lives that have changed in

the past four years since this was birth.

And I thank you God that Natalie receives the rest that she so

needs as she supports and loves the church and her husband, our

pastor. And may he receive the rest

also. And Lauren, I lift up their

family, and I ask you God, to touch.

Each one of them, Elijah, Block and Hudson and continue to

provide rest for them also as a family as they put you first.

Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father Holiday.

But I just thank you right now for violin and John Michael's

faithfulness. For their humility?

Yes, God. For their patience and the love

that they. Show to their congregation.

To all those. Around them, I tell you that

this will be a season where they just feel an outpouring of your

love. Yes, God.

And. Peace from.

You. Yes, God.

That they would have the rest of.

The. That we as the congregation

would come around and support that and whatever.

I just thank you for these that have done so much for each one

of us in this room and we just continue to be fruitful and be.

Exactly what? It is.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the example.

They said as a family, a unified family devoted to continuing a

whole relationship with their. We're bringing everyone into the

fullness of the Lord. They show it in their own family

and they exhibited for the ones that are here before us.

They're exhibited for everybody. And father, it's a true

relationship. It's a relationship with love.

They exhibit all the fruit of the spirit and they just have

the compassion and their love of you into every part of their

lives. We thank you for that example

and for helping us to see that truly in our peace and every

life. Thank you.

Father God, we thank you for Natalie and John Michael, Father

and Lord. The word says despise, not small

beginnings. Praise.

God, thank you for that. Lord, we thank you for that

word. And Lord, I ask that you would

bless them. Lord, we come against any kind

of stress, any kind of anxiety. We cast it down in the mighty

name of Jesus. Thank you, Father and Father,

God, no weapons formed against them shall prosper, and every

tongue that shall rise up against them shall be held in

judgment. Father, we give it all over to

you. Lord, I ask that you would

blessed us. Oh family, Lord, bless their

children and give them rest. In the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen and Amen. Praise God.

Anybody else? That I ask to ask you bring new

ways to that they can rest into their souls as you get them new

opportunities to rest whether it's painting for Natalie or

something else that JM is going to come across that they would

not be influenced by the world where we're constantly told you

have to monetize everything you have to make it have a purpose

because the. Purpose is rest.

The purpose is coming back into connection so they can connect

fully to you and then connect fully to your church.

And that's how they serve you by serving us.

And we're so grateful for that. So I pray that you would just

put a hedge of protection around their hearts as they come into

new ways to rest that they will not have deflection toward.

It has to be something more than just what it is.

We thank you guys for who they are.

Hallelujah. For what they are to.

All us. And how they point us to you.

Hallelujah. They don't point us back to who

they are and how great they are they.

Point us to you. That's right.

We're so grateful. God bless them.

Yes, bless them. Bless us.

Through them. And Lord, I just want to thank

you for just putting the Clarks in all of our lives, that the

many blessings that they give us, not only just to praise you,

but everything that they do they, they are, we are all more

than blessed to have them in our lives.

And I just want to thank you for guiding them through everything

they do, the many things that they have overcome to help all

of us overcome the same things. And.

Thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you, thank you. Let's just lift our hands and

bless the Lord. Lord, we bless you right now.

We thank you for your house. Lord, we love your house.

We love what you do in your house.

God, this is your living room. Lord, we thank you that we can

be with our Father in the living room, in the living room of his

grace. Lord, I thank you for the

richness of this fellowship. I speak a blessing over the

richness of this fellowship. Lord God, may it go deeper, may

it grow stronger. May it be broader every day,

every week, every month from now until Jesus comes.

We thank you for that today. Jesus name, Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Thank you, the Lord Jesus.

Thank you. Praise God, Praise God.

Amen. Amen.

Thank you all. Hallelujah.

OK, what happens next? Next is we eat.

But first I'm going to bless you.

Would you stand? And then who's going to be up

here for prayer? Adam and Angelina are going to

be available here for a couple of minutes for anyone who liked

prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you

and we're just so thankful for your presence, for your weight,

for your glory, for your peace, and for your yoke.

That's easy and your burden is light and it just fits

perfectly. It's you're always the right

thing at the right time. But I pray you would refresh

your people in the same way that they've just blessed and

refreshed me. And Lord, even as we go and

feast together as we should, as we go and celebrate together, as

we should, continue to build us up, speak to it.

Pour in your oil and pour in your wine, all the right things

in all the right places. We thank you so much in Jesus

name. And now the Lord bless you and

keep you. The Lord make his face Shinedown

upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance

upon you and give you great peace in Jesus name, Amen.