Parenting on Purpose // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // oct. 4th

Well, listen, I'm ready to preach God's word quickly.

Are you ready to receive it?

The year was 1986.

I was a sophomore in high school.

And I was one of those high school students that you know how the teacher always tells you, parents, you you've heard this, we heard this a lot.

If your son would just apply himself, what they meant was if your son would just be quiet and get the work done, he would be a great student.

I don't know if I was so much in it for all of the learning or more of the fun, but on this particular occasion in 1986, my sophomore year, uh, it was time for one of our English tests, and and our teacher she decided she would do this test more in with an oral presentation of the question.

So she was giving the question.

We were to write our responses and then wait quietly for the next question to be delivered.

Well, you know, listen, I'm I was a good, I didn't say I would wasn't smart.

I just I just wasn't really I didn't pay attention a lot.

So she hauls off with the first question, I put the answer down.

I knew it was right.

She hauls off with the second question, I wrote the answer down, I knew I was right, and then for some reason I just lost all focus of my life and forgot we were in the middle of a test.

And I turned to my friend sitting at the table next to me, and I just asked him something about lunch because we had open lunch and I was like, Hey, where are we going for lunch?

And she snapped at me so fast, Colgrove, and she called me by my last name, which I knew I was in trouble.

And I was I looked up and she said, What are you doing?

I was like, I just asked him about lunch.

She's like, It's in the middle of a test.

I was like, Oh yeah, I forgot.

I forgot.

She kicked me out of class, she failed that test.

I had to go to the principal's office for like the 5,000th time, and it's the year that I learned like you can lose focus so quickly, distracted by nothing important, because focus actually takes discipline, and discipline actually takes work, and you gotta pay attention.

So turn to your neighbor and say, we bought a focus, and to the one you ignored all service, look back at them and say, This one thing.

How many of you have ever gone to the grocery store because you needed one thing?

And you get in the car and you're like, I gotta go get this one thing.

And you get there, and on your way in, you get a text, and it says, Oh, don't forget another thing.

And so you're like, all right, now I got another thing to get.

And so you get the other thing, and then you go down the Oreo aisle, double stuff, dipped in chocolate.

Come on, somebody, I'm preaching.

And uh then you go by the chip aisle, and you get some, then you get a couple of sodas, and then you get home and you forgot the I'm not the only one.

God, that is so frustrating.

But that's not just in shopping, that's really in life, and not just in life, that is in our faith journey of following Jesus.

We can get so amused by all of the things that we forget about the one thing.

And uh that's that's what we are going to do.

We're gonna launch into this new series entitled One Thing, and we are going to uncover places in Scripture where the scripture commands us to be focused on one thing.

I would say, I wonder for you, what one thing could you lay down or what one thing could you pick up that would open up the windows of heaven over your life with freedom and peace and the blessing you've been pursuing, what could that be?

And the goal of this series is this we want to make God's priorities our priorities.

So today, the first one is found in Psalm 27 and 4.

David says this one thing, everybody say one thing.

Alright, so normally we have UVersion app notes, and they are switching platforms, and we're still kind of scrambling to wait on their verification process.

So today, none of those notes are available, but you gotta take old-fashioned notes because note takers are history.

Psalm 27, 4.

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

David says, one thing.

There are a lot of things.

There are many things that I could be focusing on, many things I could be asking for, but God, I want to narrow it down to one thing, and that one thing is that I may dwell in your house, that I may see the beauty of the Lord, and I may seek your face in the temple.

One thing.

My question today is what is the primary, what is the primary location or place where we experience God's presence.

If we look in the Old Testament, where do we see God's presence most fully and presently uh available and present in the house?

And that would be in the tabernacle, in the temple.

After the exodus out of Egypt, it was first in a tent.

It was, it was, hey, it was mobile church.

We did it at the Lake Theater, we did it at Man Elementary, and to God be the glory, here we are today in this house.

Permanent fixture for our family and for us to gather.

But in the Old Testament, it was the temple, and at least five times in scripture you can read where the power and presence of God was so uh heavy, the glory of God filled the temple so strongly that the people could not even stand.

It's kind of like how our worship services are lately, where you just feel the weight of the presence of God in the house, and I can't describe it, but the band hits the first song and tears fill my eyes, and the heavy burdens of my life are lifted because God's presence is in the house.

In the Old Testament, it was a physical location, it was the temple.

And then if I were to ask you, what about the New Testament?

In the New Testament, what is the what is the location or what is the place where the presence of God most fully and actively shows up in our midst?

And I know what you're saying because you've read the New Testament before and you're like, oh, I know what it is.

It's me.

It's it's the temple of my heart.

1 Corinthians 3.16, it says, Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and the Spirit of God dwells in your midst?

So in the Old Testament it was a tabernacle, it was a temple, and in the New Testament is Paul saying it's me.

Well, I would tell you the presence of God does actively and presently fill our lives eternally when we're saved.

The Holy Spirit is poured out onto our life to saturate us and to lead us and guide us and fill us with the fruit of the Spirit.

But I would tell you that when you begin to study context, Paul is talking to the church in Corinth.

He's not writing to an individual, he's talking to the church.

When you study uh the actual language used, the word you, all of the all of the pronouns in verse 16, if you study it, they are plural.

Which means if I were gonna read it in my Texas vernacular, which I don't get to do very often, it would read like this.

Don't y'all?

Don't y'all know that all y'all together are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in all y'all's midst?

Where my parents, where my dad lived for a while, the upper peninsula of Michigan, they would say, don't you guys know that all you guys together are God's temple?

So what I'm telling you is the place where God's presence most powerfully and actively shows up in our midst is when we are together.

That God dwells where his people praise him.

Yes, he dwells in your heart.

Yes, his presence is available in your life.

Yes, he will comfort you, guide you, and you have all access to the throne room on your own.

But something happens when we get together in God's house.

The word in the New Testament for church is ecclesia.

And it means a physical assembly or gathering for a shared purpose.

And there's a key word that I omitted in this on purpose because I wanted you to see, it's actually a large gathering, a large physical assembly or gathering for a shared purpose.

So when we're talking about dwelling in the presence of God, it's about coming together with God's people.

In the early church, the first ecclesia is in the book of Acts, chapter two, and we study the church so much because we are patterned after that early book of Acts church, and it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

And every time we gather in this house, when we gather, we we declare God's promises.

We're talking about God's word, which is God's promise book to our life.

We we we spend time in fellowship or community.

So there's commandment, there's community, there's communion.

We receive the broken body and the blood poured out at the altar of the cross through the faithful testament and sacrament of communion, and and then there's consecration or prayer that takes place.

And that's been the church since the early church, since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that has been the church.

God's word, fellowship, both through connection and with one another and connection with God, communion, and prayer.

So that that is ecclesia.

And notice it's a large group, it's a gathering of people.

So why then?

Why is the church important?

The church is important.

Number one, first of all, I'll tell you the church is a building.

And you'll be like, well that I didn't see it going that way.

I mean, when we were little in Sunday school, we learned here's the church, here's the steeple, open the door, where are the people?

Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the door, see all the people.

Listen, it's not we know that it is the people that make up the church, but the building is important because it represents a physical place where God's presence dwells fully.

It represents a beacon of light to the community.

I can't tell you how you could throw your hand up if this is you, of how many of you just walked past this building in your normal day in life and felt like, man, I should go in there and you show up on a Sunday and you've been coming ever since.

Yeah, look at the hands all over.

I hear that often.

Why?

Because there's something about this house, it has been set apart, dedicated for God's presence to dwell fully, actively, and notably in this house.

And so, why the church?

It's it's a building.

It I mean, there's just no other way to say it.

Is the building everything?

No, but it is important.

Um, I'll show you this stat.

This is this is interesting to me.

I read this from the Gallup poll since 2000.

Uh, this is a poll amongst Christians, and they asked about church attendance, and and this is what they uncovered.

I think we have that that poll there.

So the graph there, so essentially, the first top line in 2000, about 32% of Christians, professing Christians, attended church weekly.

Over the course of the next years, all the way to 2022, that number went down 12% down to 20%.

So people who call themselves Christians who attend weekly, only 20%.

People who, I know I'm preaching to the choir because you're here every Sunday, but the the next stage is people who call themselves Christians that only attend monthly, and and that stayed about level, right about a little bit of a dip, down to 12%.

12% of Christians say, you know what, I go to church about monthly.

But the scary number is 30% of people who profess to be Christians don't ever go to church.

The problem in our nation can be tracked back to Christians not doing Christian things.

Oh, I don't have time to preach about that today.

Christians can't even get up and get to church.

You think they're gonna be a testimony in the workplace?

You think they're gonna stand for holiness in the workplace?

They can't even get in the house.

I know it's not you, but I need to sound the alarm.

Don't let that be your house.

Don't be the Christian not doing Christian things.

Oh, I could preach a whole Sunday on that.

Dear God.

Can't do it.

I can't do it.

You'd be mad at me.

You'll never come back.

But you know what we hear about?

So the church is a building.

It's not just a building, but the building is important because it provides the place where people gather.

And you know what excuse we hear a lot?

Well, I don't go to church because my faith is personal.

I don't attend church because my faith is personal, and I don't really need all the all, it just seems like a lot of production and performance, and I don't really need it all.

And I would tell you, I I really don't know much about that answer because yes, you can pray alone, and you should.

Yes, you can read God's word alone, and you should.

Yes, you can worship alone as you should, but there are some commandments you cannot do alone, you cannot love one another alone, you cannot encourage one another alone, you cannot serve one another alone, you cannot forgive one another alone, you cannot carry one another's burdens alone, you cannot pray for one another alone.

Hey, you can't one another by yourself.

Your faith is definitely personal, but it was never meant to be isolated.

Because not only is the church a building, the church is a body.

And a body is made up of many parts.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians, just as a body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

And um, we you know we talk about the body, we spend a lot of money on the body, gym membership, diet plans, coaching apps, and uh we we admire the body, and you know, like they let's say like oh he's got like he's got really strong features, but if you like you just pull one feature out by itself, oh it's not real, by the way.

One feature by itself is not so incredible after all, but it with the body actually has form and function and beauty, and you can tell a lot about an ear based on its shape and design, whether the person can jump or not jump.

It's on it's my own personal science.

I could talk about it later.

You wonder, I I'm not gonna give it to you.

But from all the years of me playing basketball, I I learned I studied.

But listen, no one ever found an ear on the ground in the parking lot and picked it up and said, that is the most independent ear I've ever seen.

If you found this on the ground, and you would be like, something's wrong.

Something is missing.

Like, we got a problem here.

And every part has form and function only when connected to the body.

And apart from the body, there's no form or function because the the organ will die.

And it's the same for all of us who are a part of the body that we need one another.

I need your gift as much as you need my gift, I need to be around your worship as much as you need to be around my worship.

I need the diversity and collective collection in the room as much as you need it.

Come on.

Because we're a body, and when we're connected together with form and function, we can make a difference.

Which leads to another excuse I hear a lot.

And that excuse is well, I watch online.

Thank God for 2020.

Because some of you went online and you never came back.

Love ya, love you, online audience.

But listen, listen, you can't like thank God for church online.

And and but online has a purpose.

Can I tell you what the purpose is?

Number one, the number one purpose of free church online is for my mother who is watching right now in Texas and cannot be here, so she's here every Sunday through our live stream.

I love you, Mom.

Mom, anything I say after this does not apply to you.

So it's number one for my mom.

Number two, it's for church family who might be traveling or sick, so they can tune in and stay connected a little bit, just enough to know where the church is moving.

Because if you miss four Sundays and you don't check in, you have no idea what's happening.

Some of you are looking around going, hey, there's some changes around here.

What's going on with free church?

Like, there's some changes going on.

Yeah, there's change going on because it's a living body, it changes.

And there's no growth without change, there's no change without loss.

And there's no loss without pain.

It's a living body.

So it's for families who can who have to miss.

But don't make it a what I said last week to parents.

Don't commit consistently to what consistently pulls you out of church.

So online is for you to stay connected just enough to know what's going on.

And then it's for it's like a screen door to our front door where people can look through the screen and see it and hear it just enough, but hopefully something stirs in them to say, I need to come check this out.

How many of you watched online before you ever came into this building?

A few of you, more than you're being honest.

I'm not picking you, I'm not calling you out for watching online.

That was not a setup.

I wasn't gonna preach at you.

No, it's for people who want to check in and say, like, is this a place that I could go and check it out?

And I mean, I don't want to listen, nobody wants to go where there's weird people.

So, and then the fourth thing, it's for the remote, remotest parts of the world where people don't have access, but through the technology given to them by incredible groups of people that minister abroad, they get they get a check-in.

And we have people watching all over the world.

The thing is, the thing is this ecclesia, you cannot have ecclesia in your own living room by yourself.

You just can't have it.

You gotta be in the house.

And so if you're watching online and your practice is to watch online and not be in the house, and you're if you're within 30 minutes of this place, 45 minutes of this place, an hour within this place, I would get in the car next week and get here.

Because there's something about you're part of the body and we're missing out when you're not here.

We need you.

You will be seen, you will be noticed, you will be loved, you will be high-fived, you will be hugged.

You'll get to you'll get to love.

We were with a group of uh families last night, and we got talking about hello and high fives, how it's like such a high bar for new people to get in.

Like, wait, hello and what?

There's a break in church, and it's for what?

Yeah, it's for you to connect with somebody.

They're gonna do what?

They're gonna hug me.

All the introverts like step back, sit in the back.

Just take your time, there's no rush.

But the reality is, not only is the church like a build church a building, and not only is the church a body, the church is a bride.

We're the bride of Christ, and I dare you, husbands or wives, to say, you know what, husband and wife, or husband or wife, I'll do wife since I'm a husband.

Wife, I love you, but I only want to spend time with you on Christmas and Easter.

How's that marriage gonna work out?

Good luck, buddy.

Good luck with that one.

But what do we do as the bride of Christ?

We call them CEO Christians, Christmas and Easter only.

Because really, the thing of what makes a great marriage is proximity and presence.

And togetherness, and that's really what makes a strong church family.

Speaking of proximity and presence, that that was the early book of Acts, the early church, Acts 2 and 1.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

And the traditional text in the King James Version says they were all in one accord, in one place, meaning they had one mind, one purpose, and one mission.

And that was to wait on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And so that is what makes a great marriage is to becoming one.

What makes a great church family is when we're all together as one.

In unity, not uniformity, but in unity.

I bring my stuff, you bring your stuff, I bring my strength, you bring your strength, I bring my weakness, you bring your weakness, and collectively together, we become the bride of Christ, beautiful.

He's gonna make us spotless one day, and we are his prized possession.

Which brings me to my last one.

Listen, they worshiped a long time today.

I get to preach.

I don't do it very often, but so not only is the church a building, and his church a body, and his church, the church is a bride, but the church is a building site.

And the reason why it's a building site is because God still has some work to do on us.

Let me, I'm sorry, let me, God still has some work to do on me.

The Sunday school class taught me to sing this song.

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.

It took him just a week to make the sun and the stars, the earth and the moon and Jupiter and Mars.

How kind and loving and amazing he must be, but he's still working on me.

Paul would say, I have not yet arrived.

Paul, who's written almost two-thirds of the New Testament, says, I've not yet arrived.

And if Paul, who wrote almost two-thirds of the New Testament, hasn't arrived, how on earth do we think we've arrived?

We've not arrived yet.

There's still work to be done.

If you're still standing, God's still working on your life.

And the only time you're going to hear well done is when you get to heaven.

And quite honestly, I can't wait to get there, but I think there's so much more for us to do here.

There's some building that needs to take place.

And when you get, oh, by the way, Matthew 16, 18 says, Jesus says, Hey, I will build my church.

And you know what?

Construction sites, they're messy, they're dusty, your clothes get dirty.

And typically, there'll be some signs showing up around building sites.

Under construction.

Please excuse our dust.

And in the form of a church building site, it's more like, please excuse our humanity.

Because the fourth excuse we often hear of why people don't attend church or why you quit going to church is because the church hurt you.

But I want to let you know you're in a building site.

You there is some construction going on.

And there is going to be some processes taking place that it gets a little messy because of our humanity.

There's some other signs.

Because just as often, as good as my intentions will be, I'm bound to say something that will mess you up.

Disappoint you in some way.

I mean, we're people.

We are people who need so much work done in our life, but yet we have the honor and privilege, all of us who serve, to step into a place and become, as Julian told us in Team Rally, God's ambassadors.

Which gives us some a representation and reflection of who Jesus is.

But because we're human and because sometimes we're stupid, we don't reflect well.

And I'll never say the S word again for the rest of this sermon.

But I will tell you this like you're gonna have to put a hard hat on sometimes in church life and not allow yourself to be offended every time you turn around.

They didn't sing my song, they didn't make my small group, they didn't do this, they didn't do that, they didn't do this.

Listen, put a hard hat on and let's just keep working together and building something that's gonna impact eternity.

And then there's one more sign I think we see a lot.

How many days has it been since there's been an incident?

And I put zero because I probably just did it two minutes ago.

And my email is U-R-S-H-A-N-N-A at free dot church.

Joking.

How many days since an incident?

How many days?

You know what that's for?

That's for our vulnerability because hurt people hurt people.

And along with this, the church hurt me excuse shows up sometimes as well.

The church is full of hypocrites.

And I'm gonna let you know, guess what?

So's everywhere else.

Guess what?

I've been to a hospital where there's sick people, and not only sick people, but there were doctors who got sick at the hospital.

That sounds hypocritical to me.

I've been to the gym to work out with people who aren't fit.

That seems like hypocritical.

How can you go to the gym if you're not fit?

Well, that's why we're there is to get fit.

Stop looking at me.

I'm here to get some work done.

Make some progress.

Take one step from where I am to where God wants me.

I run marathons, three of them.

Doesn't make me great.

I don't listen, no one who runs marathons really loves running.

They love finishing.

And I can't tell you in those three marathons while I'm running, oh, and I'm gonna stop flexing, but I did climb Mount Kilimajarwa too.

In every one of those things, I didn't do it because I wanted to, like I love running or I love hiking.

I did it because it was a challenge and it was gonna help people, it was gonna pay forward the opportunity for children to have clean water and access to training and education and farming capacity that would change their lives forever.

That's why I did it.

But you know what?

On all of those things, all through the entire process of running the marathon and climbing the mountain, you know what people around me were saying, I will never do this again.

I hate this.

This is this is the worst thing I've ever done.

And then they finish and they get their medal, and they're like, where do I sign up for next year?

Wait, you hated it?

Yeah, yeah, you know what?

Even marathon, even in marathons, there's hypocrites.

They're everywhere.

So let's just let's just be honest, like, hey, it's gonna happen.

But don't allow someone's failure around you to speak for the character of the builder.

Did you hear me?

It wasn't Jesus that hurt you, it wasn't Jesus that dropped the ball, it wasn't Jesus that overlooked you.

No, he came finding his way from the very highest point of the heavens to the lowest points of the earth to find you.

Yeah, somebody said something that wasn't right, but don't pin that on Jesus and don't pin that on the church.

It's a building site.

I'm sorry, we're almost done.

We're almost done.

This is the last thing.

This is the last thing right here.

Ephesians, Jesus.

I just feel healing sense go through the room.

For somebody whose heart was broken by by humanity, and I'm just gonna tell you, listen, God knows all about it and can heal you right now.

You will never carry that pain and that shame again.

Ephesians 2, verse 21 and 22.

Ephesians 2:21

I'm gonna read in the message.

It says, God is building a home, and he's using us all in what he is building, brick by brick, stone by stone, we see it all taking shape.

A holy temple built by God, all of us built into a temple in which God is right at home.

You know what?

God's building his church.

Jesus is building his church, and in the process of building and construction, there may be some things happening around you.

All I can say is, can you fix your eyes on this one thing that says, I don't care what happens around me, I don't care what happens to me, all I care is that why I can dwell in the very presence of God and be a member in the house of God where my life is changed, where my family can be changed, where the people around me are changed, and if just one second in God's presence can change my life, what can it do when we come together?

Can you receive that word today?

One thing I desire, one thing I desire that I may dwell in the house of God.

I don't just wanna pass by it.

I don't just wanna run by it.

I don't just wanna just barely get in and get out as fast as I can.

God, I wanna dwell in your presence.

Because it's in your presence I find joy, it's in your presence I find peace, it's in your presence I'm made whole.

It's in your presence, my life turns into making a difference for others.

Come on, just raise your hands, Father.

Thank you that we get to be a part of your house that you're building.

Listen, right now, if you've never believed in Jesus and made a confession of your faith, I want to lead you in that moment right now because that's how you get into God's family.

God brought you through an earthly family so he could bring you into a heavenly family, and all you have to do is believe Jesus died on a cross for your sins and then confess it with your mouth.

So here's what we're gonna do: we're gonna do that very quickly.

Jesus died on a cross for you to pay the penalties and punishments of your misdeeds, so you don't have to carry that weight any longer, every burden lifted and the yoke completely destroyed, and now sin will have no power over your life because of the freedom he brings.

And all you gotta do is believe that with your heart and then confess it.

So let's pray this together, church.

Dear Jesus, thank you for loving me, for paying a price I could never pay, and giving me a gift I don't deserve.

I want to turn from my own way to follow after your way, be my Lord, and be my savior.

I'll never be the same again.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Come on, church, let's stay and celebrate.