7th Day Wounded, but 8th Day Rooted | Pastor Jeremy Saylor | Sunday Service

Good morning, church.

You look good today, you sound good today.

You guys recognize the presence of the Lord in the house this morning in a powerful way today.

I'm kicking off a brand new series this morning that's gonna run for several weeks, and it's something that's been stirring in my heart for several months.

This a passage of scripture that we're gonna read together today is something that jumped off the page at me back earlier in the spring.

And I really feel like that what I'm gonna share today, and we're gonna share over the fall, is really a prophetic invitation.

I just see in the spirit this morning a doorway that is being opened and an invitation that is going out for you to do exactly what we've been singing about this morning, and what Pastor Noah alluded to in scripture that there is an invitation to step into heavenly living.

I I know this with everything inside of me.

We don't need to wait till we get to heaven to live like heaven.

Jesus didn't go through what he went through, he didn't live, die, and rise again just to save us, but leave us as he found us.

He came to save us.

Somebody say, set us free, and then to fill us with his life so that we could bring heaven to earth today.

And I feel with everything inside of me this morning that a doorway is standing open.

An invitation is going out for whoever will step through the doorway, you're gonna step through into something that you've never experienced before.

Something that you've never experienced, something you've ever known.

You're gonna begin to step into resurrection living.

I want to live from the resurrection of Jesus.

I am thankful for his death, because without his death and his sacrifice, there is no forgiveness.

But without the resurrection, there is no victory.

See, the resurrection provides us the victory from and over sin.

And I want to live from the resurrection.

Anybody else want to live from the resurrection this morning?

This whole series that I'm kicking off today, I believe is a doorway that is being opened and an invitation that's being extended for us to step into resurrection living.

To live not from earth to heaven, but to live from heaven to earth.

Sidebar, by the way, these roles were really filled just a moment ago.

We have an incredible middle school ministry.

We have about 35 middle schoolers, church.

That's awesome.

And our student ministry is doing a great job of discipling them and preparing them and partnering with parents to lead them in the ways of the Lord.

So I just want to say if anybody wants to move down closer, there's an invitation for you to move a little closer this morning.

If you got your Bibles, grab those, turn with me to the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament.

The book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament.

We're going to look at Jeremiah chapter one this morning.

I also want to make you aware that our team does a really, really great job and works really, really hard on providing notes and outlines for you.

And we have all of those online at our Christian Life Church Church Center app.

And if you're not logged on to that or you're not aware of that, all you got to do is click on this QR code and you can download the online notes and follow along with me on both Sundays and Wednesday nights.

We make that available to you because we want to help you grow in the wisdom and the knowledge and the favor of God.

Title of my series is simply this What do you see?

What do you see?

This is a question that God asked a young prophet in the Old Testament.

Before God asked Jeremiah to say a word, before God asked him to do a thing.

The first thing that God asked Jeremiah is, What do you see?

And let me tell you why.

Because what you see determines how you move forward.

Stand with me as we read God's word together this morning.

Jeremiah chapter 1, starting in verse 1.

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests of Ananoth in the territory of Benjamin.

Boy, that's a sentence right there, isn't it?

The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah.

And through the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah.

I just want you to read that really fast out loud.

I did really good.

When the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

So let me pause here.

Get the picture.

Israel is at the brink of captivity and destruction.

The situation is dire, it is uncertain.

And the prophet, under the inspiration of the Lord, unpacks the setting of his word being delivered to the prophet to help us understand the context of what is happening.

Verse 4: The word of the Lord came to me, Jeremiah said, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

And before you were born, I set you apart, and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Anybody else glad that before you were, God knew you?

Before a day of yours came into being, he ordained every one of them.

Verse 6 Alas, sovereign Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak.

I am too young.

Jeremiah immediately begins to give excuses to God for why he can't do what God's calling him to do.

Anybody ever done that?

Has God ever called you to do something?

And immediately you start giving him all the reasons why you can't do it.

Anybody?

Anybody listed out their excuses?

There's about 40 people that are going to heaven, rest of y'all going to hell.

Because we've all done that.

We've all given God the excuses of our age, of our ability, of our experience.

God, we can't do it.

And that's what Jeremiah is doing here.

Listen to what God says to him.

But the Lord said to me, Do not say I am too young.

You must go to everyone I send you and say, Whatever I command you.

I am so thankful that God doesn't allow us to get away with our excuses.

He immediately dispels them.

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord.

Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, I have put my words in your mouth.

See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

And the word of the Lord came to me.

Jeremiah, what do you see?

What I see, Jeremiah said, a branch of an almond tree.

And the Lord said to me, You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.

Every word that is released from the heart of God is always fulfilled.

Because he is faithful.

Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is this seventh day wounded, but eighth day rooted.

Seventh day wounded, but eighth day rooted.

Say that after me this morning.

Seventh day wounded, but eighth day rooted.

Turn to your neighbor and say, You are seventh day wounded, but eighth day rooted.

Turn to your other neighbor and say, You are too.

Seventh day wounded, but eighth day rooted.

Turn around to the person behind you and say, You are seventh day wounded, but eighth day rooted.

Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path, shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.

And I pray this morning we would not just be hearers of your word, but doers of it.

In Jesus' mighty name.

Everybody said, Amen.

You may be seated.

Caleb, thank you.

How many of you are thankful?

Wait a second.

Did you just come down and sit right there?

Brian, thank you very much.

Put your hands together for Brian.

Fill in the space.

Thank you.

How many of you are thankful that we got some rain this week?

Man, it is much, much needed.

My yard is thankful.

It was looking awfully brown.

How about yours?

Like I needed some rain.

Wow.

When the rain came this week, we happened to be out on the highways.

We were running some errands on Friday when the rain came in, and and um people can't drive in the rain.

Have lost their ever-loving minds on how to drive.

I know it's been a minute since we've driven in the rain, but guys, listen, it's like riding a bicycle.

Let's let's relearn how to drive in the rain.

It was so bad.

Anybody know what I'm talking about this morning?

It was so bad.

I feel the need to educate everyone on how to drive in the rain.

I know it's complicated.

I know it takes a lot.

It's an extensive equation to figure out how to drive in the rain.

And here's the equation.

You ready?

You ready?

Who's ready?

Ready?

Ready to learn how to drive in the rain?

It's really, it's really slow down and turn your wipers on.

Just slow down and turn your windshield wipers on and you'll be fine.

I'm not saying hit the brake.

I'm saying take your foot off the gas just a little bit.

As a matter of fact, if if you hit the brake too much, you're gonna cause an accident.

So just take take your foot off the gas, slow down a little bit, and there's this switch on your steering column.

It's for windshield wipers.

Just turn them on.

And you turn them on at the speed of the rain.

If it's raining really hard, you turn them all the way up.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

People have lost their ever-loving mind on how to drive in the rain.

And I understand why is because because when you when you can't see clearly, we when you can't see clearly, we we tend to drift or we tend to overcorrect or or sometimes we stop all together.

Why do we do that?

Because what we see affects how we move.

What we see affects how we move forward.

And when it's raining really, really hard, it's hard to move forward confidently because we can't see.

That's why you slow down and turn the wipers on.

And and I just feel in my heart this morning there's some people in the room who need God to help them see a bit more clearly.

Is there anybody in the house this morning, or maybe somebody joining us online today, that would say, I could use to see a bit more clearly what God's up to in my life?

Is there anybody here that would say, Yeah, you're talking to me, Pastor, that I I know God's calling me to something?

I know that he's been stirring my heart for something, but I I need a greater vision.

I need the ability to see a bit more clearly what he's up to so I can know how to move forward more faithfully.

Can I tell you that's what God's doing with the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 21?

Jeremiah 21 · chapter mention

He's helping him to see a bit more clearly in a very confusing time.

Jeremiah lived at the tail end of the nation of Judah before it fell into Babylonian captivity.

The country was in a mess.

Economically, it was in shambles.

Spiritually, it was compromised, and judgment was on the way.

It was a confusing, confusing time.

And and Jeremiah is young.

He's inexperienced, he doesn't have great ability, and so he's honest about his limitations.

God, I know you're calling me to something.

I know you're setting me apart for something, but the situation is uncertain, and I don't really think I'm qualified to do it.

And God immediately dispels his limitations and says, What I've called you to, you will do.

What you don't understand is that before a day of yours came into being, I ordained every one of them, and you're just walking out what I've already destined for your life.

Can I tell you this morning, when you feel insecure about what God has called you to do, one of the greatest revelations that will propel you forward into your future is understanding that God's not surprised about where you are.

As a matter of fact, he's been planning it before you were born.

And what we're doing is just walking into his destiny.

We're walking into his plan, we're walking into his purpose.

Before God gives Jeremiah a strategy, he gives him a vision.

Jeremiah, what do you see?

And Jeremiah responds, God, I see an almond branch.

Now that's significant.

If you have your Bible, you need to underline almond branch.

If you if you have a highlighter, you need to highlight it.

If you're on a phone or a device, do whatever you can to circle, highlight, underline, bold almond branch, because this isn't just a throwaway symbol.

It's a symbol that carried great significance.

It carried great meaning for Jeremiah.

Let me tell you just for a moment a little bit about the almond branch and why this would have been significant to Jeremiah and helped him to understand what God was up to.

Not just in his life, but in his day.

An almond branch is the first branch to awaken coming out of winter.

See, the almond branch was the first tree to bud with fresh leaves and and fresh flowers.

And it was actually a sign and a signal for the people of Israel that the seasons were shifting, that there was something new, fresh in the air.

Anybody else ready for the seasons to shift to fall here?

And here the almond branch would represent that winter is over and spring is is coming.

It's about what God's doing in this day and what he's inviting me to participate in.

I I want to clarify something theologically for us in that, is that we never go where God's not already there.

And we never do what God's not already up to.

All we tend to do is to respond to the invitation to join in with what God is already actively doing.

And that's what God's communicating to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah, the seasons are shifting.

I'm up to something different.

This almond branch, you know what it means for the seasons.

I'm putting it before you as a vision to help you understand.

I'm up to something new, and I'm just inviting you to join me on the journey.

The almond branch in Numbers chapter 17.

Numbers 17 · chapter mention

Interesting story.

It's the story where Aaron's but uh Aaron's rod buds.

It's he's got a staff, it's a it's a hard old staff that is used.

It's his walking stick, and and in this story, something miraculous, something divine occurs that God causes this old limb to all of a sudden bud and bear fruit.

What fruit?

It was the fruit of almonds.

What this would symbolize to Jeremiah is that I have called you, I have set you apart, and I'm anointing you to walk in my divine purpose for your life.

Listen, every every person, you need to hear me this morning.

God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.

And whatever God calls you to, he equips you for what he has for you.

And that's what he's telling Jeremiah here with the almond branch.

And finally, this is a beautiful picture: the candlestick in the temple.

The candlestick that was in the holy place.

It was the thing that brought light to the temple and and represented that God's presence was dwelling there with them.

This this golden candlestick was modeled after an almond branch.

Interestingly enough, the the the buds of the almond leaf, the flower, were where the flame and the fire of God would come out to illuminate the temple.

This would have meant to Jeremiah.

I'm with you.

I'm dwelling with you.

I love this, I love this picture of the almond branch because what God is giving Jeremiah a vision of, he's telling him, Jeremiah, your future doesn't rest on your age.

It doesn't rest on your ability, your future doesn't rest on your experience, your call, your future, your destiny rests on a God who is calling you, dwelling with you, working for you, and watching over you to bring you into his purposes for your life.

I am afraid we think too much of our faith rests on us.

When it rests on a God who is faithful to bring his people into their purposes.

Engage in our world even when it doesn't look like it, and our job is to see it and join in.

I fear that we take more responsibility about creating things and manufacturing things.

When you really read scripture, what you find of the heroes of old, they just saw what God was doing and they joined in.

They didn't go try to initiate anything.

You need to hear me this morning that your purpose and your destiny doesn't depend on your ability or your experience or your age or your good works.

None of those things are enough to qualify you for the call of God upon your life.

Our job is just to see what God's doing and join Him in that endeavor.

See what God's doing and join in that endeavor.

So for the last several months, I've been praying.

God, what are you up to?

God, what are you doing?

God, how are you moving?

God, show me what you see.

I don't want to see with natural eyes.

I want to see with spiritual eyes.

God, I want to see what you're doing in your people.

I want to see what you're bringing them into.

I want to see the destinies that you are unfolding.

I want to see the anointing that you are imparting.

God, I want to see what you're doing in your people because I'm not strong enough, smart enough, good enough to make anything happen.

I just want to see what you're doing and join in that endeavor.

And as I've prayed into that over the last several months, the image that keeps coming to me is a doorway.

A doorway that is open into resurrection living.

I see a doorway standing before us, inviting us into resurrection living.

In John chapter 11, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

John 11 · chapter mention

And he who dies will even live.

As a matter of fact, you're going to live so much in my resurrection, though you die, you don't even really die.

I want to live like that, church.

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

Jesus came to live and to die and to rise again to bring us into the fullness of his life for us.

See, when you really study scripture and start piecing symbols and images and metaphors together, what you begin to understand is that Jesus turned the Garden of Gethsemane into the new garden of Eden from which humanity is born again, into the life of Christ.

Let me say it this way, church.

We may live in this world, but we are not of this world.

We may be seventh day wounded, but we're eighth day rooted.

We may live in the seventh-day creation, but we're called to live from the eighth-day kingdom.

We're to live from heaven to earth.

And how often, church, do we just live from earth to heaven?

And this whole series is about helping to shift our perspective to see what it's like to live the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

As a matter of fact, as I've I've prayed into this, I've I don't just see one doorway, I actually see eight doorways.

Eight doorways that are inviting us into heavenly living, that are inviting us into kingdom living, that are inviting us to live the resurrection of Jesus in our daily lives, not just on a Sunday, not just on a Wednesday, not just in the morning with your devotional, but I want to live the resurrection of Jesus every minute of every day.

I want it to be my mode of operation, my standard operating system.

I want it to be the resurrection of Christ in front of me, behind me, beside me, in me, and through me.

That wherever I go, I bring his resurrection life to whoever I'm with.

So how do we how do we do that?

Let me let me show you eight doorways that I believe that the Lord is opening for us, that he is inviting us into.

I see a doorway into his presence.

I see a doorway into his presence.

I see God inviting a people to be so presence-centered that they refuse to move without him.

Who always make room for his spirit in prayer, in worship, in scripture, in listening, at work, at home, at school, that the presence of God isn't relegated to a place, but it is how we live.

I see a doorway into outrageous love.

I see a door where God is inviting us to live his kind of agape love.

I see God inviting a people to love so much like Jesus that they give sacrificially.

They forgive freely, they serve humbly and they love beyond what people deserve because that's how He loves us.

See a doorway into outrageous love.

I see a doorway into radical faith.

I see God inviting a people to become so faith-filled that we're so filled with faith that we pray bold and audacious prayers because God is good and he delights in revealing himself to the world.

We live so faith-filled that we take steps of courage into the future that he has for us, that we trust God's voice more than our fear.

I see an invitation into radical faith.

I see an invitation into intentional growth.

I see God inviting a people to become so Christ-like, hear me, so Christ-like that we choose to be formed into his image.

That we pray as Paul prayed, oh God, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain.

Change me, mold me, form me into the image of Jesus so that his resurrection life isn't just something that takes root in me, but it's something that is extended from me to the world around me.

Oh, I want to live that way, church.

I want to live growing intentionally with him.

I see a doorway into irrational generosity.

I see a doorway into where God is inviting a people to become so generous.

I mean, you guys know generosity will change a life.

I think that generosity may be one of the key virtues that reach people in this time more than any other thing.

I see a people that are being invited to become so generous that they give irrationally, almost unlimitedly, of their time and their resources, their service, their encouragement and their forgiveness.

Why?

Why would you give irrationally?

Because that's how Jesus gave to us.

I see a doorway into irrational generosity.

I see a doorway into contagious joy.

How many guys know that the joy of the Lord is our?

I think joy is one of the key characteristics of God that is often overlooked and undervalued.

I heard it said recently, one of the quickest indicators of the life of Christ in somebody is the presence of joy.

I want to live joy, unspeakable joy.

I want to live not ignoring the realities of the difficulties that I'm going through, but I want to live in such a way that the difficulties don't have a hold on me.

Let me say it this way.

I want to live in such a way that the difficulties don't make me smell like they look.

I want the life of Christ to be so contagious through my joy that people ask, what's different about you?

I see a doorway into bridge-building community.

I see God inviting a people to love across lines of race and age and culture and politics and preferences.

Church, come on, somebody.

And I see a doorway into missional living.

I I see God inviting a people not just to attend church.

I see God inviting a people to become the church.

Become the church in their homes, in their schools, in their workplace.

Church, I see eight doorways before us that God is opening to us and inviting us into in order to live the resurrection life.

To live not from earth to heaven, but from heaven to earth, where heaven has permission to interrupt and invade every sector and area of our lives.

Oh, I want to live the resurrection.

This is what I believe that God is inviting us into.

And I need you to know that these eight doorways that God's been stirring in my heart, these aren't eight unrelated doorways.

They aren't eight unrelated aspirations.

They are eight doorways into eighth-day living.

Let me explain that for you.

You know, numbers in Scripture always carry significance.

Three is the number for the Trinity.

It's representative of God.

Six is the number of man.

Seven is the number of completion.

God created the world in seven days.

On the seventh day, they were called to rest because it was a Sabbath representing that the labor had been completed.

But the eight, the number eight carries a different type of significance in scripture.

The number eight is representative of new beginnings.

It's representative of going beyond what was completed into what God is doing.

It's life on the other side of what looks final.

Life on the other side.

anybody ever been in a situation that you thought looked final, but God had more?

That's eighth-day living.

Jesus was raised from the grave on the eighth day.

On the first day of the next week, he was raised from the grave on the eighth day.

And it's for this reason that the early church, for the first 300 years that it existed, called themselves eighth-day people.

Because they recognized that the resurrection of Jesus shifted the natural order of things, that God was up to something new.

He was up to something different.

He was reordering life as it were.

And so they were eighth-day resurrection people.

They believed in this so much that the number eight, the symbol of eight, became actually more significant than the symbol of the fish.

It was so significant that the earliest of churches that we have discovered through archaeology are churches that are eight-sided.

They built their baptismals according to eight sides, representative of new birth.

Pulpits were constructed with eight sides as a place where the resurrection life would flow from.

Lest we forget, go all the way back to the book of Genesis, and we find after the ark, after the flood, there were eight people who walked out of the ark represented a new beginning.

So these eight doorways that I see the Lord opening for us aren't eight unrelated things.

There are eight ways that God is inviting us into the resurrection life that He has for us.

To live in the eighth day is to live with the reality that the God that we serve always has more than we could think or ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us.

Church.

How we begin to live from heaven to earth.

But I want you to know this morning that you may not necessarily, the Holy Spirit may not necessarily highlight all eight of them for you.

There might be one or two or three that he highlights for you over the next several weeks.

And it he's going to highlight a few of those because they're key to your life right now.

They're key to you stepping into the new season, the new beginning, the new work that God is doing in your life.

Years ago, I heard an illustration that was powerful for me, that helped me to understand how that I may be just one doorway away from a different life altogether.

You know that water boils at 212 degrees.

212 degrees, water boils, and when water boils, it has the power to move a locomotive.

It's the power to move a train.

But you know that at 211 degrees, all it is is just really, really, really hot and doesn't do a thing.

But one degree of difference has the power to shift everything else moving forward.

I want to declare it over you this morning.

You might be just one doorway away from a different life.

You may be just one doorway away from resurrection living in your life in a way that you've never known, you've never experienced, you maybe have never even imagined.

And my invitation to you this morning is to allow the Holy Spirit to put his finger on the doorway that you need to walk through.

The doorway that he is opening and inviting you into it may be faith, it may be generosity, it may be his presence, it may be growth, it it could be missional living, it it could be joy.

I don't know what the doorway that is standing before you this morning, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, there's a doorway that God is opening for you, and he is inviting you to take a step into.

And if you'll take a step into that resurrection living, it'll change.

It'll change, it'll change.

Your life will shift for the new season that God is bringing you into.

This morning, my response is not a come to the altar.

My response is a sit and listen to what the Holy Spirit would say to you today.

Because I believe He wants to show you something that maybe you've never seen.

He wants to invite you into a place that you've never been, and he wants to free you from what's held you back for far too long.

Because it isn't just my idea, Jeremy's idea of resurrection living.

This is Jesus' idea.

I am the resurrection and the life.

I have three questions I want you to think about for a moment.

And maybe you want to take a prayer card from the seat in front of you.

Maybe you want to take your phone, take something, and write these three questions down.

If you're on our app, they're there, you can reference them.

The three questions I want us to respond to together today is number one is this.

What do you see?

I want you to ask the Holy Spirit this morning.

What do you want to show me?

What vision do you want to give me?

What do you want me to see with fresh eyes?

The plans, the purposes, the destiny that you have for my life.

One, what do you see?

And then number two, what doorway is God inviting you into?

As I was going through those eight things this morning, I imagine one or two or three of them jumped off the page at you.

Something leapt in your heart just a little bit.

There was something there that quickened to your spirit.

Your heart began to beat a little faster.

What doorway is God inviting you into?

In a new, wonderful, and fresh way.

Maybe it's a door that you've been in before, but he wants to take you deeper.

Maybe it's a doorway that you've never walked through before, and he's inviting you into resurrection living in that area of your life.

And then number three, just like Jeremiah, what excuse is God asking you to lay down?

What excuse have you been repeating to the Lord every time he reminds you of the call, the purpose, the destiny, the thing that he's showing you?

What excuse?

What fear?

What worry?

What limitation?

What failure do you need to lay down so that you can take a step?

Through the door, he's opening before you.

Can you just bow your heads right where you are this morning?

I want to pray for you today.

Holy Spirit, right now, over every man, woman, young person under the sound of my voice today.

I pray that you would speak to them right now.

I pray that you would show them the plans that you have for their life just like you showed Jeremiah.

I pray, Lord, right now in this moment that you would reveal to them an image, a symbol, something that's pointing them to their destiny.

Reveal to them their almond branch.

Whatever that is, God, I pray reveal it to them right now in Jesus' name.

And number two, Lord, I pray that you would show them the doorway that you're inviting them to walk into.

Show them the doorway into resurrection living that you are opening before them.

Show it to them right now.

Holy Spirit, speak.

Finally, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would help us to lay down the excuses that we make for why we can't respond to your call.

Oh God, forgive us for making it more about us than about you.

God, forgive us for telling you why we can't when you say we can.

And I pray, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would help us to submit the things that we've used to stop our response to you.

We lay them down today in Jesus' name.

And Lord, we take a step by faith through the doorway that you're opening.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Church, this is what I want you to do.

I want you to take the answers to these questions.

If you didn't get all of them today, I want you to take some time this week.

And I want you to list out these things, and I want you to write them out.

And I want you to put them in a prominent place as a reminder before you.

Maybe you put it on a mirror in your house, or maybe you put it on your dashboard in your car, you put it in your Bible, you put these questions before you as a way to keep coming back.

God, I'm determined by faith to live the resurrection of Jesus.

I know you came to give us resurrection life, and I refuse to settle for anything else but his life in me and through me for his glory.

Put that in a place and pray that on a daily prayer.

Lay those things down.

Ask God to open up the visions and the plans that he has for your life and walk through the doors that he opens in Jesus' mighty name.

And everybody said, Amen, amen, amen.

Will you stand with me?