Culture Of Celebration | Psalm 145 | Coleton Segars

We are looking at a series in the life of the church of just trying to offer some direction of just looking at the scriptures and in our hearts of like what we're actually trying to aim at and what we're trying to become as a church as the church just continues to move forward in the life.

And I said this last week and I mean it.

It's not that we're doing anything substantially different, although there will be uh different expressions of the way that we uh flesh these things out, uh, but for the most part, just giving language to if you're wondering, what is this church about, what are we doing?

Um this is uh a series aiming in that direction, trying to give some language to some of those things in some direction.

So today we're gonna be dealing with um a culture that we're seeking to build here.

Last week we talked about a culture of the gospel and wanting to be saturated with the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation and nothing else is given that definition.

Uh, and today we want to talk about just a culture of celebration, um, wanting our community and this space and the times that we're together to be rich with joy, um, where there's there is genuinely there is joy in the house of the Lord, um, where Chris isn't asking, is there joy in the house of the Lord?

Which is what he initially thought the song said.

It's like, we're not asking, we're just saying there is joy in the house of the Lord.

Um, but um, so looking at a culture of celebration, um the text for today is I could have used a bunch of different texts, but the text is I'm gonna use one for uh Psalm 145, verse 7.

Psalms 145:7

This is what the psalmist writes.

It says, Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.

His greatness no one can fathom.

One generation commends your works to another, they tell of your mighty acts, they speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

They tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds.

They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Again, one of the characteristics I want to define our church is a culture of celebration, not manufactured hype and not like Pentecostal excessivism.

Like nothing, no offense to the Pentecostals or anything.

Like, not like, well, we're just we're just hype for no reason, not that.

Like genuinely true celebration that we have experienced something from God and it's taking part in the life of our church.

We're we're seeking to be reminded of that, we're seeking to be faithful to the scriptures, to like celebrate his abundant goodness.

And so I want that to be a part of our church.

And I've talked about this before in different churches and in different spaces, and sometimes it can come across as insignificant, or people hear it and go, that's kind of elementary, a culture of celebration, or celebrating God's God's stuff saying thank you, or things like that.

It can sound elementary and unnecessary.

But I genuinely care about this so much.

Like I think this needs to define every community, every church.

There needs to be a celebratory vibe in every single church that exists.

And so the one that I lead will definitely aim in that direction and have that type of thing.

Um because I grew up primarily experiencing Christians and rejected Christianity and rejected God because I watched Christians live boring, unfun lives, and then they called it good news.

We got good news for you.

We're gonna play spin the Bible.

I'm like, I don't wanna do any of that.

I'm actually playing spin the bottle, so I'd prefer not to spin the Bible or like side hug Jesus if it lands on me or something.

Like, I don't want to, I don't want to side hug anyone.

Um but there was just a lot of that in my high school where people were riddled with guilt, riddled with anxiety, trying to live good lives, and then fearful that they're not living so well.

And then they're like, You want to join our team?

I'm like, not really.

It looks bad.

It doesn't look like you're enjoying yourself.

Why would I ever want to do any of that?

And so in that space, that's how I grew up.

No one, no one taught me or told me about a God that celebrates himself, that rejoices over us with singing.

No one told me about that.

There was this vindictive, angry God that was held in front of you, and like, okay, so you you want to follow him?

Like, not really.

I don't want to do that at all.

You I doesn't, I don't even think you want to do that, but you're fearful, so you're doing it.

I just, there's just this space in the church where the compelling news of who God is and what he can do and what he has done is supposed to be something that's in the forefront.

And for me growing up, primarily it wasn't those things.

And so as a church, I don't want it to just be something like we celebrate Easter and that's just what we do, but like I want it to be this rich thing that we experience daily when we're together, not only in our personal lives, but definitely when we're together.

Because I think if we don't have a culture of celebration in the life when we're together, the life of our church, I don't think that we'll be a space where we actually encounter who God actually is.

It won't be the space to truly encounter the true God.

And so if people give their lives to a God who is not celebratory, to where there's there's not joy and there's not those things, they'll go they'll give their lives to something, it just won't be the true God.

Or it will be more like me, you'll run away from the present presented God that's been given to you and go like, I don't want anything to do with that God.

And the truth is, not many people do.

They're just afraid of not following him because they don't want to go to hell.

And so for us, I think there's better news than that.

And so I want to look at three reasons why we need and really want a culture of celebration in the life of our church to take shape in the life of our church.

The first, celebration reminds us of what God is actually like.

It reminds us of what God is actually like.

Dallas Willard, in one of my favorite quotes, says that we will never fully understand God until we believe that he is the most joyful being in the universe.

You will never truly know who he is until you first believe for a fact that he is the most joyful being in the universe.

We have this space in our lives where like Satan, the little demons on this thing in our culture, and he's whispering one thing, normally better stuff, and then the angels going, don't do any of that, funds no good, funds of the devil, and that kind of thing.

That's primarily what we think about God.

Like it's Satan's trying to lead us into joy, and God's trying to keep us just being responsible.

And I Willard's thing is like, if you understand him that way, and you'll never actually understand who he actually is.

You'll never fully understand who God is until you realize that he's the most joyful being in the universe.

Joy began with him, he created it, it exists in him.

It's not something that he has in him, it is something that he is.

And so it exudes from him because it's just a part of who he is.

And I think you see this in the scriptures.

He's a celebratory God, he's a joyful God.

So, really quickly, we'll just go Old Testament, New Testament.

Genesis, God celebrates each day by marking it with his blessing and saying, It is good.

And after all six days, there's there's sevens, there's seven of them where he says, it was good, it was good, it was good, it was good, and then it was very good after he saw all of his creation.

And so there's a space where it's like he even rejoiced over more of the days than actually even existed at that particular time.

And so he's celebrating each day.

In Job, God says this when he's questioning Job.

He says, On what?

He's asking Job, on what were the footings of the earth set?

Who laid its foundations?

And then he says, What was happening when he was creating?

While the morning stars that he created, the stars are singing together and the angels are shouting for joy.

Like, what's going on at creation when God said, Let there be light, let there be an expanse, what's happening?

The angels are freaking out.

They're like, This is amazing! Like, what have never seen anything like this before?

Like, that's what they're doing.

And like if we don't know that, if we're just sitting like, we can read it like Genesis, Genesis 1, in the beginning.

And it's like, and it's fine.

But there's something there that's behind the scenes that's happening, and it's something that's joyful.

God is saying it's good, and they're going, yo, I've never seen anything like this before.

This is incredible.

Exodus and the law, God's giving uh saving them out of Egypt, out of slavery, and then gives them a law, and every single time that God does something extravagant for the people of Israel, he tells them, sing this song.

He literally is like, I wrote a song, teach it to them, make sure they sing this awesome song of my victory.

Sing a song, throw a party, celebrate so that they never forget what I did.

And if Israel would have practiced this, if they would have done every single feast unto the Lord that God gave them and commanded them, party in my name.

If they'd have done that, they would have been celebrating for three months out of their entire year.

A quarter of their year would have just been like, we're not working, we're partying, like the entire time.

Our nation will be set apart among the other nations.

Because it's like, what are they doing?

Well, I bet they're having another party.

Like, that's it would be, it would change everything about how they're seen in the in the culture.

And that was consistently what he wanted for them.

Deuteronomy 16, 14.

I'm just, I'm in Deuteronomy right now reading, and one of the things that he says, he's like, hey, just so you know, be joyful in your feasts.

And it's like, why did we have to add that in there?

He's like, I don't, it's just a space where we have this thing, it's like, I don't, joy kind of leaks out of us, and it's not something that we have.

And he's like, make sure that these spaces with me, make sure that they're joyful.

This is supposed to be a defining marker for you.

Psalm 16, in this presence is fullness of joy, at his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Zephaniah 3.17, he rejoices over us with singing.

Nehemiah 8.10.

This is when the people in Nehemiah finished, they finished the wall, they finished building uh up the walls around Jerusalem.

Ezra is preaching the word to them and they're understanding God's word for the first time, and they're all weeping.

Everybody's sad because they're like, we're so out of touch, we haven't lived according to God's law.

And then this is the command given from Nehemiah.

He says, hey, stop crying.

It's not a time to be sad.

Don't cry.

Go and enjoy cuts, uh choice cuts of meat and sweet drinks, which sounds awesome.

I'd love to do that afterwards if anybody's available.

Uh send some to those who have nothing prepared.

This day is holy to the Lord.

Notice, this day is holy to the Lord, so be solemn in it.

Like, no, do not grieve the joy of God, the joy of the Lord that exudes from him, how he feels about this moment, Jerusalem being rebuilt, you guys hearing God's word and understanding that for the first time.

The joy that God has over what's happening right here, let that strengthen you.

Let that be something that pushes us forward.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

And then the New Testament, Jesus is just filled with joy.

They killed Jesus basically because he was partying too much.

They're like, he's a drunk and a glutton.

He drinks too much and eats too much and goes too too many parties.

We think he's a joy killer, the one that ends the party, and he's constantly starting the parties and continuing going to them.

They rejected him as God because he partied too much.

We reject him as God because we think that, or people in our culture do because they think he's going to end the party, he's going to end my joy, he's going to end my celebration.

It's just completely opposite of how you actually see him in the scriptures.

His first sign of his glory was adding 150 gallons of wine.

Not a bad day at a wedding feast.

150 gallons of wine, indicating that this is what life was like with him, with him, fullness of joy, rich with provision and feasting.

Luke 15, Jesus says about God that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.

Matthew 22, we just read this in Bible study.

Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a wedding party that everyone is invited into.

Jesus says that God is the father, like the father of the prodigal, who wants, he's like, we had to celebrate.

The Son of mine was lost and now is found.

He was dead, now he's alive.

We have to celebrate.

That's his posture, that's his go-to.

What should we do when something happens?

Like, oh, we got to throw a party.

Paul says that God's spirit is a spirit of joy, Galatians 5.

Hebrews says, for the joy that was set before Jesus, he endured the cross.

Believers in Jesus, and 1 Peter 1, he says, that we rejoice, believers in Jesus rejoice with unspeakable joy.

This is what's available to us, this is how we should be living.

And in Revelation, Jesus invites us to join in the celebration feast and the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And so Genesis begins with a marriage of this beautiful thing that's happening, and a marriage of Adam and Eve, and God with his people and the celebration, it spends its time with celebration, and at the very end it concludes with a huge celebration.

The whole thing, God is a celebratory God.

And I think when we celebrate, when we understand that and the culture exists among us, where celebration is not just something we have to aim at, but something that we just feel and we have within us, I think then we're actually being reminded consistently, oh yeah, when I'm having fun, that's not something like God's looking at me and going, hey, you're having too much fun.

He's not doing that.

He's going, This is what I created, this is what it's for.

And I think when we forget that, when we forget that God is a God who celebrates, when we forget that's what he's like, we present a God to the world and we experience and live inside a relationship with a God that just isn't biblical and isn't true to the scriptures.

Irma Bonbeck, she's a very successful humorist and author who wrote an article about her experience in the church.

This is what she says as she was attending church.

She says, In church the other Sunday, I was intent on a small child who was turning around and smiling at everyone.

He wasn't gurgling, spitting, humming, or excuse me, he was gurgling, spitting, humming, kicking, tearing the hymnals or rummaging through his mother's handbag.

Oh, excuse me, no, no, he wasn't doing that.

I'm reading this wrong.

Read it from here.

He wasn't, there we go, gurgling, spitting, humming, kicking, tearing the hymnals, or rummaging through his mother's handbag.

He was just smiling.

Finally, his mother jerked him about and in a stage whisper that could be heard a little on a little theater off Broadway said, Stop that grinning, you're in church.

With that, she gave him a SWAT, and as the tears rolled down his cheeks, she added, That's better, and returned to her prayers.

Suddenly I was angry.

It occurred to me that the entire world is in tears, and apparently, if you're not, then you'd better get with it.

I wanted to grab this child with a tear-stained face close to me and tell him about my God, the happy God, the smiling God, the God who had to have a sense of humor to have created the likes of us.

I wanted to tell him that he's an understanding God, one who understands little children who pick their noses in church because they're bored.

By tradition, one wears faith with the solemnity of a mourner.

We sing, make a joyful noise unto the Lord while our faces reflect the sadness of one who has just buried a rich relative who left everything to her pregnant hamster.

What a fool, I thought.

If he couldn't smile in church, where was there left to go?

And to me, this is why we want a culture of celebration.

I've been, I didn't grow up in the church, but I've been criticizing the church for running in the church.

And I'm like, where do we get that?

There's no commandment for that.

Y'all just made that up.

And honestly, if I heard your preaching, I'd run out of here too.

Like we should, you know, there's a problem.

I've been criticized for having too much fun in church.

My mom and I used to do this thing called evangelism explosion, and uh, explosion evangelism.

And we would go out and share our faith door to door, which actually was kind of fun.

We really enjoyed it.

I wouldn't do it nowadays, you get shot or something, but um but it was fun, really enjoyed it.

And on the way out one time, we were going and we just said to other people, like going out to do this thing, like, have fun.

And they straight up looked at us and was like, have fun?

God's work isn't about fun.

I was like, okay, see you later.

Like, your team is not gonna enjoy themselves at all.

Like, we're gonna go do something that could change their lives from death to life and it change their eternal destiny, and we're gonna have fun doing it, so see ya.

But I'm like, this thing that we have inside the church where we just forget that he's a celebratory God, that he's a joyful God, joyful, joyful, we adore thee.

Like it's supposed to be this thing.

And so I want a culture of celebration in the church because I think we struggle to remember that he's the happiest being in the universe.

And if we forget that, and we don't worship, and we end up not worshiping, or at least not spending time with, the God who's actually presented in the gospels and in the scriptures.

And so for us, I want us to have this space where it's like we are experiencing a celebration culture among us so that we actually are reminded consistently.

We forget, but this is who he actually is, this is what he's actually like.

So that's the first one.

The second is celebration helps us experience, not just remind us what God is like, but celebration helps us experience what God is actually like in our time.

And so David says this in uh in Psalm 16, he says, in his presence is fullness of joy, at his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

And so the idea then is that if you're celebrating or you're experiencing something or you're rejoicing and experiencing joy, you're not just experiencing an emotion or something out there, this one time, this one-off thing, it's not that.

When you are experiencing joy, David would say that you're experiencing a piece of what God is actually like.

In his presence, he is fullness of joy.

And so if you experience any of that ever in your life, whether here or anywhere else, you're not experiencing some random thing.

You're experiencing this is what he's actually like.

I'm experiencing some of him.

I am tasting and seeing that God is actually good.

And this is the way that I'm actually able to taste it.

Because when I'm eating great food and it brings me joy, I'm not just eating great food and that's a great thing.

I'm being reminded, like this is what he's actually like.

I'm entering into a space where I'm actually experiencing.

This is him I am actually enjoying, part of his presence.

And so when we rejoice, when we experience those things, we get to taste and see what God is actually like.

C.

S.

Lewis says this is why God commands us consistently.

You praise me, praise me.

It's the second most commanded thing in the scriptures to praise him.

And C.

S.

Lewis says, the reason why is God wants to us to experience him.

This is what he says.

He says, Naturally, we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but it completes our enjoyment.

It is its appointed consummation.

It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are.

The delight that they feel is incomplete until it's expressed.

The Scotch Catechism says that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, but we shall know that these are the same thing.

Fully to enjoy is to glorify.

In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him.

I've read that quote a lot here, but I do think it's so important for us to understand that.

God isn't like, I need your, I need your praise, I need you, I need something from you.

It's not that.

He's going, I actually have something from you.

And when you naturally taste something good, you want to share that.

I don't, I don't like sharing my food.

But we like to like, this is really good.

Like we like to do that.

When you see a good TV show, you naturally you shift into this space of going, I need to tell someone this.

My enjoyment of it isn't complete until somebody else wants the same thing and experiences the same thing.

And so we experience more joy, we experience more of who God is the more that we actually elevate Him and praise Him and celebrate Him and all those things.

And so it makes sense that it's the second most commanded thing, command commanded action in the scriptures.

He wants us to experience His fullness of joy in pockets here and there when we're going about our day, when we're at church together, when we're at men's groups or at Kim's or wherever we're at.

He wants us to actually like, I want you to experience my presence.

I want you to experience my joy.

The world is filled with the brokenness and marred with the sin that we and we constantly experience that.

And he's like, I want a space for you where you're actually able to like bump into my presence and go, why do I feel so joyful right now?

It's because in my presence is fullness of joy.

There's a space here for you.

Celebration and praise allows us, allows us to experience what his presence is actually like, and we get to experience it for ourselves.

I said this earlier, but in the Old Testament, every time that God did something extravagant, he told them, mark it on your calendars.

Like make sure that you set it in space to where it's like this has happened so that you remember it.

And it's not just so that you remember it, but it's so that you never forget that like this is what I'm like, and so that you get to relive this experience over and over and over again.

And so saves them out of Egypt, out of slavery, and he's like, change your whole calendar year.

We're gonna change everything, and it's gonna be mapped around this thing.

Everything's gonna revolve around your brand, your new year starts now.

This is your new year, so that every time you get back to this in your new year, you're reminded, what's he like?

Oh, he's the God who delivers.

And then you get to sit there and actually experience that consistently again.

You're not just experiencing deliverance one time, you're taking that deliverance and going, I could experience that again.

That's still what he's like.

That's still something that I can lean on, that's still who he is and who he wants to be for me.

And so he wanted those things, those celebrations, to be a space, not only is it reminding you who he is, but you're experiencing it again and you're telling the story consistently.

In the book of Esther in the Old Testament, there's this moment where all of Israel is about to be like wiped out.

There's gonna be a genocide of the people of Israel.

And um the Lord does an amazing thing and kind of creates a space where that doesn't happen, and all Israel is saved because they're in Persia and all this stuff.

And so a huge deliverance again, like this amazing thing.

And so the people in Israel, when they experienced this, uh they've been trained, they're like, let's throw a huge party, let's have this awesome party.

And so they called this party Purim, and it was a way to remember what God had done in the past.

And go to the next slide here.

Um, and this is what uh Craig Keener says about Purim, this celebration that they had to remember what God had done.

It said, in Jewish tradition, the central feature of the celebration called Purim is the reading of the scroll of Esther in the synagogue.

So at church, they're just reading this thing.

And it says, through the years, this reading has become a riotous affair, accompanied by noisemakers, costumes, feasting, and heavy drinking.

Like that's the way the party goes.

And that what are they doing to remember what God has done?

It's like, oh, they're gonna wear some costumes, have some noisemakers, they're gonna feast and drink heavily.

Like to me, I'm like, I just it makes me think of like cowbells at a Mississippi State game, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Golden Corral, and like keg stands or something.

Like that's how, like, all just smashed into one, and this is how we like, this is how we're gonna remember what God did.

And like they still remember that party every single year.

They still do it.

The Jewish people still practice this.

And this is this this I'm I'm not saying that we should get tanked at our parties or anything like that.

That's not what I'm saying.

But I do think that there's a space where like, look how much joy they are having, and it's aimed at.

What are we trying to do?

It's like we're not just throwing a party for throwing a party.

We're trying to remember, we're trying to experience again.

Remember what he did thousands of years ago?

He can still do that.

That's who he was, that's who he is now, and we can experience that here and now.

And so the joy that people experience in 2024 at Purim is still a space where they're able to encounter what God did and who he is.

And it happened thousands of years ago.

It's this amazing thing that they're able to do.

And so for us in this particular space, I want us to have a culture of celebration, not just so that we're reminded, but so that when we're sitting in it and we're experiencing so much joy and so much fun and so much just enjoyment of being together, it's like, what is that?

Like, that is the presence of God in real time.

You are tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.

And it's not just the donuts, and I love the donuts.

I'm so glad that we actually have them.

I'm gonna talk about those in just a second.

But it's not just that, but I want us to have this space where people come in and they're like, I believe in God now because I had so much joy just being around those people.

I just had so much, I spent time at one of our women's events or one of our men's events, and I just felt like God had abandoned me, but I was so enclosed with joy and I had so much fun in this gathering that I was reminded again that God's presence is right there with me.

He never left me.

I just haven't felt that in such a long time.

And so to experience and just this radical joy that wells up defiant against everything else that's happening in the world, to experience that and to be reminded, this isn't just joy, this is God's presence in your time.

You're tasting and you're seeing that He is good.

Lastly, I believe that celebration is one of the best ways to pass on our faith.

I think we should pass on our faith.

I think we should share the gospel.

I don't ever really see myself holding a picket sign, standing at a crosswalk or anything like that.

But I do think that we're supposed to pass on our faith.

We're supposed to evangelize.

It was God's original plan to pass on the faith of the Israelites by having celebrations that cause people, especially their family, that cause people to go, why are we celebrating this?

Why are we doing this?

And so he actually says this in Exodus 12.

He says, when you're celebrating the Passover, when you're celebrating this thing, and your children ask you, What are we celebrating?

And then he just basically says, tell them.

Tell them the story again.

Tell them what I did.

And this is how you'll pass on your faith.

And so it'll be this space where it's like, why do we follow this God?

Well, just get in the car and shut up.

We're going to church.

We're supposed to, like, not that.

Like that's maybe that's how you came to church today.

Not that.

It's like, why do we worship this God?

And it's like, oh, you got time, grab the best food, the best drinks.

I'm going to tell you the story.

And you're sitting at this party and you're having this amazing time, and you're going, like, what?

Why are why are we taking off of school and doing this thing?

It's like, oh, because God has done something amazing in our lives.

It's like, well, he's awesome.

I want that for myself.

And that's the way it was supposed to be passed on consistently.

We try and do this with Teddy.

Um today, actually.

Today is uh August 25th.

Uh, 14 years ago, today, Rainey and my relationship, we were dating uh at the time, uh Rainey's and my relationship basically ended, and we were we were done.

Um and so this day, 14 years ago, we go to counseling for the uh for the first time.

And uh I walked in just like I've share the story with many of you, but uh just walked in like I'm done with this.

Like she's crazy, I've done nothing wrong, I'm amazing.

And uh, which that's y'all, y'all been to counseling, that's pretty much how it goes.

Until the truth comes out.

And um, and it was just this space where um the Lord really shone some light on my sin and the things that I was hiding, and used our counselor to do a lot of that, and then there was just so much confession of sin and so much grace on Rainey's part, uh, and then confession from her end and and hopefully grace from my my side.

And uh it was an hour, an hour sitting in a room.

Like, what can an hour do?

Because I'm basically gonna break up with you and go date someone else.

Um and I just talked to her on the phone, like I'm definitely gonna do that, and um and then and then an hour later going like I never want to talk to that other girl ever again, like I just want to give my life to her.

Um and so um 14 years ago, that was today, and so uh we try and do this thing with Teddy, we call it Marriage Day, which is a terrible Rainy's like, I hate the name marriage day.

I was like, well, Rain, the reason I call it that is because there is no marriage without this day.

And she goes, Oh, that makes sense.

And so we call it Marriage Day.

And so, like, we Teddy's been brought into this, and so it's been 14 years, and so I was like, we get to do 14 of our the greatest things.

Like, what do you want to do?

Just pick the 14 greatest things you want to do.

And for me, it's this is a space where I'm like Teddy doesn't exist without this day.

And so there's nothing that exists in my life that I currently love.

Without 14 years ago on August 25th, like nothing.

And so is this space where like he was like, I want to go to the lake, and I was like, let's go to the lake.

We're gonna go to the lake and we're gonna rope swing our faces often.

And um he mostly what he wants is ice cream.

And so I was like, What do you what kind of dessert do you want?

He's like, Bomb pops, all of them.

I was like, let's snag them, get them.

So we went to this like a little teeny tiny grocery store up there, and we just started going ham.

Like we're just like, we we're staying for less than 24 hours, we spent$100 on food.

I was like, we don't even need all this stuff.

But it was this thing, it was like, what is what do you want to eat?

Spaghetti o's great, get two of them.

Like, you what else, what else you want?

I was like, I got a I got a ribeye, it was legit, it was so good.

Rainy got her and we cooked three different meals and just feasted like kings and then watched movies and hung out and stayed up late.

And it's still going.

We're gonna do another movie night tonight.

14 isn't done yet.

But 14 of the greatest things that we've ever that today that we could look at and go, man, what are the 14 greatest things that we could do to hopefully be reminded of the 14 years of what God has done in my life?

Because if we forget, then my son will grow up and go, I don't know, maybe I should follow God.

I don't, I don't know.

It's honestly the culture's really turning against it.

I don't even know if this really makes sense.

And I want to land something into his heart that he's like, I couldn't turn away from him if I wanted to.

The man, the God has been a part of my life since a kid.

He saved my parents' marriage.

The reason I'm walking and living today is because he did something back in 2010.

Like it's gotta exist that way.

It's a more compelling thing to pass on, and I want it for him to just be locked into this thing.

It's like, why do we follow Jesus?

And it's like, and actually, we said it like, why can you have bomb pops every meal, every time you show up to a meal this weekend?

Why?

And he's like, Because God has been good to us for 14 years, and he's saying it.

And I'm not trying to indoctrinate him or a cult, it's nothing like that.

Just like, I want him to say this thing.

Why are we celebrating?

And then tell him the story.

This is why.

And this is how God has consistently said, pass the story along.

Don't just, why are we going to church?

Like, shut up and get in the car.

Like, that's terrible.

Everyone wants to leave that at some point.

Like, why do we why do we believe in him?

It's like, I don't know, we don't ask those questions because we'll burn.

Like, okay, I'm gonna do this until I'm 18, then I'm out.

Like, I'm not doing that.

Like, no one wants that.

And so there has to be a space in our lives where there's this culture of celebration that's just elevating this thing in front of us and going, why are we having so much fun?

Because God created fun.

Why are we enjoying donuts in the back of the church?

And it's like, well, not because we're Southern Baptists and we gotta have some donut, no offense against Southern Baptists.

Um but not that, because like because he's good and we have this stuff and it's gotta be aimed at something better.

And I think we have this space that's presented to us in the scriptures that like celebrate his abundant goodness in front of people.

They want, they are desperate for it, and they're searching for it someplace else.

But if you remind them and show them that it's actually presented to them in the God who actually cares for us, can deliver us, wants to work in our lives, when we remind them of that and show them those things.

One, we're reminded of it, they see it, and then we get to experience it again in our time.

And so Tim Keller, one of my favorite quotes, says, God directs his people not simply to worship, but to sing his praises before the nations.

We are called not simply to communicate the gospel to non-believers, but we must also intentionally celebrate the gospel before them.

This is the best way to pass on our faith.

And I love what John Mark Homer says.

He says, uh, if those in our churches really are enjoying fullness of life, he says, evangelism will be unstoppable and largely automatic.

You won't even have to try.

I'm just enjoying so much who God is and what he's doing in my life.

I'm enjoying it so much, I can't help but talk about it.

I'm annoying at my office because I can't stop talking about it.

Like it will just be largely unstoppable and incredibly automatic because it's just naturally what it flows out of us into something else.

Frederick Nietzsche, a couple quotes.

Frederick Nietzsche said this, um, atheist.

Uh he said, I might believe in the Redeemer if his followers looked more redeemed.

And I get that.

Most of my life growing up was like, I didn't even know how to say Nietzsche, but I that was it.

Like, if I might believe that Jesus is good news, if y'all look like you were having a good time at all.

Like, but mostly it looks like you're really bored, and honestly, I'm bored with your boredom.

Like, I cannot do any of those things.

That's not what what we're gonna do here.

And I just love I love that quote.

I might believe in that redeemer if the people looked more redeemed.

And I want our church to be a space where people believe in the Redeemer because they've spent time with the redeemed.

And it's like, man, I've spent time with those people.

I think their sins really are washed away.

I think they genuinely believe that.

I think they really think that God loves them and is happy with them and wants to invite them into a thing and has a life for them.

I think they genuinely believe that.

It is my personal goal if we're ever out to lunch or dinner or something like that, to be the loudest table in the room all the time so that people walk up and go, like, why are y'all so loud?

What are you celebrating?

It's like, nothing really.

But we just came from church, our sins have been forgiven and washed away, and we're gonna live eternally forever with our king.

That's it's just a good day here.

And then for them to be like, that's really weird, I gotta walk away.

But then maybe there's something in there that's like, that actually sounds a lot better than my thing.

I genuinely want some of that to happen, and I want that to take shape in our church as well.

I want not just this elementary, insignificant, like, let's just clap our hands, although I think clapping hands is fine.

Not hype.

Like something that takes root in us and through us that we understand that this is a way of passing on our faith.

It's a way of experiencing who God actually is in our time, and we're we're constantly feeling distant from him, so to feel near to him, and then a way that we actually are reminded consistently, this is what he's like.

He is not angry with you.

He is constantly over the moon, just thrilled with you and wants to be with you in your presence and you in his.

And so, how will we aim at this?

How will we aim at this?

The first is uh in our worship.

We want our worship to be celebratory.

I want to sing worship songs to Jesus.

We want to sing about him and sing to him.

Um, I do not want to manufacture hype and fake worship.

I don't care anything about that.

But I do want our worship experiences together to be a space where if you feel like clapping, that is celebrated among you, so that we're not sitting there going, there's joy in the house of the Lord.

Like genuinely the question really is, is there joy in the house of the Lord?

Like, I don't, not that like that's not if you worship with hands in pockets and that's your thing, that's completely fine too.

But if you don't do that and you're more expressive, I just want us to have a space where like that's fine.

If you're more talkative during the sermon and you actually want to say things that are more, you know, you just want to engage with it, that's okay too.

Sometimes I ask you guys, are we good?

Because y'all aren't saying anything.

I don't know.

Um sometimes I do that.

Uh, today it's been okay.

Um, but but if that's something, I just want our worship to be a space where everybody feels free to express the way that they worship.

Yes, in an orderly way and stuff like that, and don't snag your flag and start running around the back.

Don't do that.

Um, unless that's how you worship, and then maybe do that on the street out front.

Um but I do want it to be a space where there's a it's joyful worship.

Uh second is parties at church.

Uh I want our church to uh have parties, and we do these three times a year, and I'm open to adding more if we find them.

But we do one in August.

We just did that one last week at Kim's house.

We do one in December for Christmas.

Do that at Kim's house too, and Kim and Jerry's house too.

And then uh March or April, Tommy, Tommy plans.

We just need a couple more uh parties at Kim's house.

Um but uh March or April, we go out to Shelby Farms and we celebrate the resurrection and we just spend this time together.

And I don't want those things to be like, oh, these are traditions, we just got to do this stuff.

I want to mark out moments in our church where it's like we got together, we spent time, we enjoyed ourselves, and when we're sitting there and we're eating good food and drinking good drinks, and we're enjoying, we're experiencing joy from being together, we're reminded this is what God's presence is like.

This is who he is.

We're experiencing him here, not just food and drinks.

Uh, gatherings as people.

Uh I meant to put a photo up there, but uh go to the next one here.

Uh men's, women's, youth, kids' gatherings.

I want these things to be celebratory.

I want them to be joyful, I want them to be fun.

Uh Kelsey is an incredible way, has a way of like shaping and planning events and doing things like at our house, which is not a place to host, but she was at our house the other day and planned this women's event, and she turned our like teeny tiny table that we bought at a garage sale, like turned it into this like this massive charcuterie board space, and if you were there, you saw it, and it was just like a feast in our time.

I was like, this is the best.

I want all of our meals to look like this if we ever get together with the church.

I want them to look like abundance because God has abundant life to give.

I want everything to communicate.

What's he like?

Like, I don't know, there's tons of food here.

Why is this so good?

Because he is so good.

And I really love the way that she was able to do those kinds of things.

Uh, stories.

Catherine shared um last week or two weeks ago that uh she was cancer free.

I just want to share, I want to share that stuff, I want to celebrate those things.

He deserves our praise.

He deserves the ability to lift him up and go, like, wow, cancer free, that's amazing.

Not everybody has that experience.

But I also want to put it out into the world so that people know, like, man, not to the social media world, but into us so that we are reminded, like, he still does things that we pray for, and we see he still does those things that we're looking for.

Uh, one of the ways that you can do this is by having a personal redemptive calendar.

Uh, Rainey and I do this, uh, obviously, we just talked about this, um, but just days in our year that are not our birthdays, not flag day, not whatever day that's nationally celebrated, but like days in our family that are marked on our calendar where it's like God broke in that day.

He did something special, he did something miraculous, he answered a significant prayer.

And so we just mark those days in every year as they roll around.

There was one in July, and then there's one in August, and there's one coming up uh in the future, uh, and then one in January, and on and on and on.

And so we have these days where we just mark and we just remember them, and they pop up on the calendar, and sometimes we celebrate them, sometimes we buy gifts for one another, sometimes we do 14 of our favorite things because we're celebrating 14 years.

But it's just a space to be reminded here's who he is, don't forget who he is.

And we can experience that in our time, and then we can communicate that and pass that on.

And so my encouragement to you would be to start a redemptive calendar.

In closing, and this is it.

I believe the church as a whole needs to celebrate more than it currently does.

And we will be a church aiming at, seeking to be defined by the joy of God, the joy of the Lord, and seeking to have a space where it's like there is a definition and a way of being in this church where I leave more joyful than I came in because I've experienced God's presence in my time.

And so we will be a church aiming at a culture of celebration.

Again, not manufactured hype.

I don't want that, but I want us to experience what he's actually like, and I want us to have expression for that so that more people can know that.

Jesus has conquered sin, Satan, death, and hell.

And we hold our little cup and our little bread.

And I love that, and I love doing those things.

But the celebration should be something like the Purim celebration: noisemakers with costumes, feasting and heavy drinking.

Like we should, again, not that we should get tanked at our parties, but it should be this space where it's like he has changed everything for us.

The party has to be significant because he has done something so significant.

And so that's what I want for us.

When we celebrate and party in Jesus' name, I believe that we proclaim to the world that Jesus is not the ender of celebrations, but he is the reason we celebrate as a whole together.

So I want that for us.

Let me pray.

Oh Jesus, thank you.

Um that you lived in such a way that people thought of you, that you were a person of excess.

And that you gave the privilege to your disciples not to fast when they were among you because how can you be in mourning when there's all this reason to celebrate?

The king is here.

God, I pray that your sacrifice, what you've done, what you've accomplished for us, and what you continue to accomplish for us in the future, will be something that we look forward to with expectation that the celebration and the joy that we experience will remind us of you.

And it'll be a space where we're like, this is what he's like, and I'm experiencing it again.

I am in the presence of the Lord because I am experiencing joy.

I know I met him today.

I know he was near to me today because I experienced his joy.

And so, God, I pray that you would do that more and more and more in this church.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're gonna celebrate communion.

Communion always was meant to be a space of celebration because Jesus took the death that we were supposed to take.

Um there's a space in the gospels where they're trying to get Jesus and you know, falsely accuse him.

And in the Old Testament, if you ever falsely accused someone, you had to, and they found out, you would have to take the punishment of whatever you were trying to falsely accuse that guy of, and then and take you'd have to take the punishment of that.

And so if you were trying to get that guy to pay you$10, then you would, if they found out you're falsely accused him, you'd have to get$10.

Well, with Jesus, they were falsely accusing him to try and kill him.

And so his false accusers deserved to die, but he chose to die in their space.

And so it's this space where again you're just reminded of this reversal that takes place.

Jesus could have just not done any of that, but chooses to actually die so that his accusers can live and experience life.

And so we have this space here where we're reminded, what does he think of me?

It's like, I want to take your place.

What does he want to give us?

He wants to give us joy and hope and life.

And he literally gave his so that we could experience those things.

And so we get to celebrate that and be reminded of that.

Um, y'all can come on it.

Uh Ella, are you in the room?

Can you help me over here?

Thanks.

Uh, but take some time in your seats and um maybe just be thankful and just express gratitude to him.

You can confess your sin because we get to do that as well.

But this is a celebration that we get to step into and to actually worship him through taking communion.

So come as you feel led.