I got a haircut.

Looks good, doesn't it? I call

it a reverse mohawk. Yeah.

Some of you got that too. Yeah.

Well, good morning. Yeah, welcome to

fake spring that we're having right now.

I mean, we've got some beautiful weather out there, but if you haven't lived here

very long, let me just say one word to you,

psych. Yeah, but that's all

right. Yeah, let's jump right in. Stand up. We're going to read

a passage from the book of Mark.

He also said, this is what the kingdom of

God is like. A man scatters seed on the

ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or

gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though

he does not know how. All by itself,

the soil produces grain, first the stalk,

then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to

it because the harvest has come. Father, I

thank you for life. I thank you for

your Word. I pray for

the life of the Word to be born in us today

through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name,

amen.

In the early, well, actually early 1988, I know

exactly what year it was.

I was the acting director of the Africa

Multination for Christ Institute in Harare, Zimbabwe.

And yeah, acting director, they let me do that

for a couple months and then they, yeah, that's why they say

acting director. And it must have been

January, and I had a student come to me and he said,

"Pastor, I need to tell you that I'm going

to leave the school." And I said, "Oh, well, I'm

sorry to hear that. Why?" And

he explained the reason why. And I—

it sounded strangely American, quite frankly, but

I said, This was the reason they gave me. He said, "Yeah, Pastor, you know,

the first year that I was here, oh, the

Spirit was moving. It was so rich. It

was so strong. I could feel his presence every

day. This year, it

ain't happening," was basically what he had to say.

He didn't say, "It ain't happening," but

that's what he said. And I said, oh,

that's a very bad idea. And I

went into explaining to him seasons and the

importance of seasons. So because you just went through a season

where you saw this fruitfulness and you saw this growth

and everything, but now there needs to be a season of

dormancy when it's not, oh, look

at this, but where the roots are growing and where you're being

established. That's what happens. During those seasons of

dormancy. And if you don't have that, if a tree doesn't have

that, then it won't be too long before maybe

an ice storm will come along or maybe even just a puff of wind and

the tree is gonna fall 'cause it's not

established. See, you gotta have that season.

Last week, Pastor Kevin brought an excellent

sermon. He didn't use the word seasons, but he said

times. And he talked about there being 3 times

that we experience in our life. And he mainly

focused on tough times. And I feel like, you

know, that was— it was a timely message for sure. And it

resonated with a lot of people.

But the tough times are actually

the easiest times to get close to God.

Whenever something comes along and just, you know, cuts us off at the

knees, so to speak, you know,

that's when we seek God. In fact,

you know, that's often, for casual churchgoers, that's often

the only time they come is when something's going on that's

hard. And so, oh, I need to be there.

Tough times tend to either take us in one of two directions. They

either drive us to our knees, or they tend

to cause us to raise our fist to God. And he's okay with

both. He's certainly okay with

us being driven to our knees and going, help me.

You know, I'm at the end of my rope. And you know, and God's going,

good. 'Cause now maybe I can do something.

My strength is made perfect in weakness. But even if

we're shaking our fist at God, he doesn't mind that because

a relationship, I've learned over the years that a

relationship, and usually this is a marriage

relationship, it's only really

over when you don't care anymore.

We don't care, you know. If you care enough to be mad,

if you care enough to be angry, there's a chance, you

know, that fire can be rekindled

there. But it's not just in marriage, it's all

relationships. If you get to where you don't care anymore,

the relationship is over. And if you're shaking your fist

at God, at least He knows you care. And you

know that you care.

He also touched on, though he didn't spend a lot of time talking about it,

he touched on the good times. These are

dangerous times. The good times are.

They're very dangerous times. Often in good times, we

tend to forget God because, hey,

what we need God for? You know, things are

good. Things are going well.

Moses told the children of Israel over in Deuteronomy, he said this,

"When you have eaten and are satisfied," I've been

well satisfied lately, "praise the

Lord your God. Be careful that you

do not forget the Lord your God. Otherwise, when you eat

and are satisfied, your heart will become proud and you will

forget." the Lord your God. My

dad used to bemoan people

becoming successful, so successful,

as he put it, they started making money hand over fist, and

then they drift away from the Lord. You never see them again. Did

that ever happen in Coalfield? Yeah, happened in

Millersville too. And it kind of happens in Smyrna.

As well because we become satisfied. Oh, I got

this now. Well,

that's an Old Testament quote. Over

in Revelation, in the New Testament,

Revelation chapter 2 and 3, there are letters written to churches.

And in chapter 3, the last letter

that is written is to the church of Laodicea. And that's generally

the one that we consider to be the worst one. 'Cause

Jesus didn't have anything good to say about them and

kind of blasted them. But here's why.

You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need

a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched,

pitiful, poor, blind, naked.

Whoo, yeah.

There's an important sermon here. But I'm not going to preach

that this week. I'll let somebody else

preach it at some other point in time. And if you needed to hear it,

the Holy Spirit has already preached it to you. So there.

I've only got time for one sermon today, and I want to focus on

the third time that Pastor Kevin talked about

the other times, the

90 to 99% of the time. Of our

lives? Where's God then?

What's going on? What's going on there? What's he doing?

You know, we sometimes read the Bible and it

seems that these characters, these people in the Bible, stuff was happening

to them all the time.

But if we look a little bit closer, I mean, take Abraham. We

know a good bit about Abraham. Important

guy.

But consider this, he lived to be

175. And if you take all of the

events in his life that we know about and you put them all

together, we got maybe about 5 or 6 months there.

What was happening the other 174 and a half years

of his life? He was having

days like us. Not every day, not

every year, not every decade brought the

command to sacrifice Isaac,

brought the war with invaders or

disturbance in his household or the

opportunity to entertain the Trinity.

Moses, we know a lot about Moses. And

there was a whole bunch of stuff that happened before he left Egypt.

He was raised in Pharaoh's palace and

trained in all the ways of Egypt, murdered a guy,

took off as a fugitive. Between then and when

he was sent back to Egypt, it was 40 years.

What was he doing? Working,

tending sheep, got married, had kids.

Just regular ordinary stuff. And the day

that he saw that burning bush, you know, he was at work

and he was kind of,

I don't know, ambling. I don't know, what do shepherds do? I mean, when it's

not sharing sheep, sharing time, I mean, They

flea dip or something?

No, really. And so he was doing

what shepherds do, I guess, you know, writing songs and looking at the stars. But

he saw this bush that was on fire. And apparently that's not

a highly unusual thing in dry, arid

desert-like conditions. But he looked at it

long enough to realize, wait a minute, that bush is

on fire. That bush was on fire. It's gone.

And I remember yesterday that one's not burning up.

He's paying attention. It's what he was doing.

And who do we know the most about in scripture? Well, we know the most

about Jesus. And we

know more about him than anyone else. Yet, We have

a partial record of less than

10% of Jesus' life, less than

3 of the 33 years He's here. And if

we have these records,

you know, some may think, well, you know what, that's— I hear that you're saying

that there was other part going on, but you know, they got it

done in 3 years. I mean, God just, wow. Oh,

no. You see, God's work that Jesus did

actually started about 6,000 years before that.

And it's still going on, as a matter of fact.

And today, Peter says a

time will come when unbelievers are going to be saying this. Where

is this coming he promised? Ever since our ancestors

died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of

creation. Ain't no Jesus going to come down from the sky and He can

save you. Well, you're an unbeliever

because he sure is. And I believe that he sure is. And I

don't have that kind of attitude except sometimes

maybe, maybe I'm going,

where is this job that God promised me?

Where is this future husband, this future wife that's

out there somewhere that I've been looking for for all these years?

Where's this ministry that God was going to open up for me?

We have a tendency to go there for

sure. But our lives aren't all highs and lows.

Our lives are mostly comprised of

ordinary days. Can we accept that?

This is what the kingdom of God is like.

There's planting, there's harvesting, there's events, there's

fruitfulness and stuff going on. All the rest is God

doing His slow work

that we don't really see and we can't really

understand. We

can sing about it. Even when

I don't see it, He's working. And even when I don't

feel it, He's working. Because He never stops. He never

stops. He never stops working. God is working. Yeah.

And that's true. And we see it and we believe it and we're

singing it. And then we stop singing and we forget it

because this day is just a regular day.

Romans 8 00:14:50

28, in everything God is at work for the good. And we

Romans 8 00:14:54

know that in everything God is at work for the good of

Romans 8 00:14:57

those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8 00:15:03

Except when we don't know it.

Romans 8 00:15:07

Eugene Peterson wrote a book, written

Romans 8 00:15:11

several. He's the guy who translated The Message Bible. But he

Romans 8 00:15:14

wrote a book called "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction."

Romans 8 00:15:20

I haven't read it.

Romans 8 00:15:25

Sorry, sorry, Wayne.

Romans 8 00:15:29

I've read several of his books though, and they're really good.

Romans 8 00:15:32

I'm sure this one is too, but

Romans 8 00:15:40

I've read the title

Romans 8 00:15:45

and I think I'm preaching the sermon.

Romans 8 00:15:51

He didn't coin that phrase though.

Romans 8 00:15:55

Ah, it was first said by the

Romans 8 00:15:58

philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. And

Romans 8 00:16:03

yeah, he's a philosopher. We don't do that anymore. But he wasn't a

Romans 8 00:16:06

believer. But he used that phrase

Romans 8 00:16:10

to describe the process that results

Romans 8 00:16:14

and has always resulted in the long run in something

Romans 8 00:16:18

which has made life worth living.

Romans 8 00:16:23

That's pretty good. There you go.

Romans 8 00:16:27

And Nietzsche's problem was that he did not know what ultimately makes life

Romans 8 00:16:30

worth living. Now, Peterson did,

Romans 8 00:16:34

and so he wrote this book and he titled it this because

Romans 8 00:16:38

what it is, is it's about a steady lifelong journey

Romans 8 00:16:42

with God.

Romans 8 00:16:46

It's the pinnacle. Of what Nietzsche was

Romans 8 00:16:50

trying to describe. It's what makes life worth living.

Romans 8 00:16:55

I don't know if you caught it when I put the book's

Romans 8 00:16:59

cover up, but he subtitled it, "Discipleship

Romans 8 00:17:03

in an Instant Society." Oh,

Romans 8 00:17:06

hallelujah. In the

Romans 8 00:17:10

early '80s, I led a young adult Bible

Romans 8 00:17:13

study. In our house and, excuse

Romans 8 00:17:17

me, we, there were probably around 20

Romans 8 00:17:21

or so regulars that came. But one night

Romans 8 00:17:25

there was this young man who, it was his first time to be there. I

Romans 8 00:17:28

mean, you know, when you're only talking about 20 people, you know if somebody's

Romans 8 00:17:32

new who hasn't been there before. And he came with this girl who

Romans 8 00:17:36

came all the time to it.

Romans 8 00:17:40

He seemed to enjoy it. Wade, were you there that night or was it— I

Romans 8 00:17:44

think it was Todd who was there.

Romans 8 00:17:48

He seemed to enjoy it and he left and took the girl home. And

Romans 8 00:17:53

some people always would hang out and talk. And Todd, Wade's brother,

Romans 8 00:17:56

I was talking with him. He was the last one out the door. And the

Romans 8 00:18:00

young man came back. And he came

Romans 8 00:18:03

back to say,

Romans 8 00:18:08

How can I do this real quick? How can I get where you guys

Romans 8 00:18:11

are? I mean, really quick. And

Romans 8 00:18:15

I could tell it was all about this girl. 'Cause you see,

Romans 8 00:18:19

she really was into what was going on and

Romans 8 00:18:23

he could see that, you know, we were, you know,

Romans 8 00:18:27

not on the same plane he was and stuff. And he wanted to get there

Romans 8 00:18:30

'cause that'd help her to be more into him.

Romans 8 00:18:35

And you know, Todd and I just looked at him

Romans 8 00:18:40

and said, there is no quick way. I mean, you know,

Romans 8 00:18:46

there is no— oh, there's got to be. No, there's not a quick way.

Romans 8 00:18:49

We never saw him again, so I'm going to assume that

Romans 8 00:18:54

he did not begin along obedience in the same direction.

Romans 8 00:18:59

But that was 40 years ago.

Romans 8 00:19:02

It's gotten worse since.

Romans 8 00:19:06

And there is no quick way to do it. And you know, you have to

Romans 8 00:19:10

kind of be careful because there are those who have packaged it and who

Romans 8 00:19:13

have, will sell it to you. And

Romans 8 00:19:17

all you gotta do is just buy this, listen to this, watch

Romans 8 00:19:21

this, and wham, next thing you know,

Romans 8 00:19:25

you're going to be a disciple.

Romans 8 00:19:29

Well, you may or may not be a disciple, but it won't be because of

Romans 8 00:19:31

that. You see,

Romans 8 00:19:36

I was brought up

Romans 8 00:19:39

in a rural Southern Pentecostal environment.

Romans 8 00:19:43

That is my dad in Slater's Creek in

Romans 8 00:19:47

Millersville baptizing

Romans 8 00:19:50

somebody.

Romans 8 00:19:54

Lovely tractor tire up on the

Romans 8 00:19:58

bank there. But I recognize that

Romans 8 00:20:02

spot. I think I was baptized in it a couple of times, come

Romans 8 00:20:05

to think of it.

Romans 8 00:20:10

Now, I want to say before I go any further into this,

Romans 8 00:20:15

how much I greatly appreciate my heritage.

Romans 8 00:20:19

I mean, seriously. It was— Michelle and

Romans 8 00:20:23

I were talking this last week because she married

Romans 8 00:20:27

the guy who has led a

Romans 8 00:20:30

charmed, blessed life. You know, and

Romans 8 00:20:34

I don't know why. I mean, I— well, I don't know why she married me,

Romans 8 00:20:37

but I also don't know why I've had this charmed, blessed life.

Romans 8 00:20:41

The only thing I— 'cause it's not, you know, it's not because

Romans 8 00:20:45

I deserve it or anything that I did. I know me better

Romans 8 00:20:48

than you. And you ain't going to find

Romans 8 00:20:52

out the rest of it. But

Romans 8 00:20:57

I think it's the heritage that got passed down generation to

Romans 8 00:21:00

generation to generation. And it's just,

Romans 8 00:21:04

wow, that's good. And

Romans 8 00:21:08

it's not just the blessings that have been passed down, the

Romans 8 00:21:12

material blessings, but the spiritual blessings of

Romans 8 00:21:16

peace and joy and contentment

Romans 8 00:21:21

and the spiritual blessings. The spiritual blessings of being introduced to God at

Romans 8 00:21:24

a tender age and being able to spend— well, anyway,

Romans 8 00:21:29

I greatly appreciate it. There was a time in my life when I was

Romans 8 00:21:32

younger when I was ashamed of it. And to be very honest,

Romans 8 00:21:37

I see some heads nodding who had similar

Romans 8 00:21:41

environments to me, but I'm at a place for sure and have been for a

Romans 8 00:21:44

long time where I really appreciate it. I really do. It

Romans 8 00:21:47

wasn't the only way. We kind of thought we were, We didn't

Romans 8 00:21:51

claim to be outright, but we just knew.

Romans 8 00:21:55

Can't be the Baptists. I

Romans 8 00:21:59

mean, you know, those guys after church, they come out and smoke in the

Romans 8 00:22:04

front of the church. They throw those cigarette butts down.

Romans 8 00:22:09

Can't be— well, I'm going to stop right there.

Romans 8 00:22:14

But while I do appreciate it, we were taught several things that

Romans 8 00:22:18

that seemed obvious at the time, I've had

Romans 8 00:22:22

to kind of reevaluate. 'Cause one of the

Romans 8 00:22:26

things we were taught was come to church expecting.

Romans 8 00:22:29

You need to come expecting. You need to come expecting God to do something.

Romans 8 00:22:33

And you need to come to see a move of God. And my

Romans 8 00:22:37

dad used to say, my dad was a great man. I'm proud to be his

Romans 8 00:22:41

son, but not everything he said,

Romans 8 00:22:44

necessarily made sense. He used to

Romans 8 00:22:48

say, "You only can get out what you put in."

Romans 8 00:22:55

No, that's not true. We always get out more than

Romans 8 00:22:58

we put in. And we can't possibly begin

Romans 8 00:23:02

to get out what God gives back to us. But he'd say, you know, come

Romans 8 00:23:06

expecting and come to put it in. He'd say,

Romans 8 00:23:10

"Get in, get out, or get run over." And I was going, "Well,

Romans 8 00:23:13

hallelujah."

Romans 8 00:23:20

See, we weren't just going through the motions like some of these people out there.

Romans 8 00:23:24

Oh no. Oh no. We weren't just going through. We

Romans 8 00:23:28

came to get— to do business with

Romans 8 00:23:31

God. And we did.

Romans 8 00:23:36

And we claimed to

Romans 8 00:23:40

We claimed to reject dead ritual.

Romans 8 00:23:43

Yeah. However, we certainly had our own rituals.

Romans 8 00:23:49

They just weren't dead 'cause they were moving.

Romans 8 00:23:55

We expected, and when we saw it,

Romans 8 00:23:59

we called it the move of the Spirit.

Romans 8 00:24:05

When the music hits the sweet spot,

Romans 8 00:24:10

move of the Spirit comes. Now, I'm certainly

Romans 8 00:24:14

not— I'm very thankful for what the Lord's given us music-wise.

Romans 8 00:24:18

And let me just say this, ever since we brought drums and

Romans 8 00:24:21

guitars and stuff into the church, it's gotten a whole lot better

Romans 8 00:24:25

than when I was growing up. But,

Romans 8 00:24:29

you know, we— You come to that place, oh yeah, this is it. This

Romans 8 00:24:33

is where the Spirit is moving. And for millenniums,

Romans 8 00:24:37

people and God has used music to set an environment.

Romans 8 00:24:41

That's not necessarily the same thing as the move of the Spirit.

Romans 8 00:24:45

But in my day, when I was growing up,

Romans 8 00:24:49

it was pretty close because see, we didn't— the music

Romans 8 00:24:53

didn't necessarily take us there. But if we got in the service and there

Romans 8 00:24:57

were a lot of people crying and there was a lot of shouting going on

Romans 8 00:25:00

and people were falling out on the floor and something, And then some

Romans 8 00:25:04

blessed old soul back in the congregation without

Romans 8 00:25:07

anybody saying a word would break into,

Romans 8 00:25:12

"Give me that old-time religion. Give me that

Romans 8 00:25:15

old-time religion. Give me that old-time

Romans 8 00:25:19

religion. Woo! It's good enough for me." And boy,

Romans 8 00:25:23

it was. You don't get much closer to heaven in a worship service than that.

Romans 8 00:25:27

You really— it was good for Paul and Silas. It's good

Romans 8 00:25:31

enough for me. It was good for my fathers. It's good

Romans 8 00:25:34

enough for me. And I'm not making fun of it.

Romans 8 00:25:38

It was great. It was great. That

Romans 8 00:25:42

was fabulous.

Romans 8 00:25:50

Crying at the altar? Oh my Lord. The Holy

Romans 8 00:25:54

Spirit is here. Michelle and I were talking this week. She was telling

Romans 8 00:25:57

me she went to this church that

Romans 8 00:26:02

there was this lady who was weeping in the service.

Romans 8 00:26:06

And after a while, she wouldn't stop weeping and they

Romans 8 00:26:09

escorted her out. And I said, "Was she wailing?" She

Romans 8 00:26:13

said, "No, she was just crying. She was just

Romans 8 00:26:17

weeping." Wow.

Romans 8 00:26:21

So in your church, If they were weeping, they'd

Romans 8 00:26:25

lead them out of the service. In my church, if they weren't weeping,

Romans 8 00:26:28

they would escort the pastor out of the church.

Romans 8 00:26:35

Wouldn't take long.

Romans 8 00:26:39

Caught up in some form of ecstasy. And if none of those

Romans 8 00:26:43

things happened, we often felt let

Romans 8 00:26:47

down. And too often, if they

Romans 8 00:26:51

didn't happen, we made them happen.

Romans 8 00:26:58

When I first heard— I preached a couple of times when I was a

Romans 8 00:27:02

teenager. I don't recommend it.

Romans 8 00:27:07

But, and it certainly wasn't all that good when

Romans 8 00:27:11

I did it. But I felt pressure.

Romans 8 00:27:17

Felt pressure when I started preaching to make something

Romans 8 00:27:21

happen at the altar call. And boy,

Romans 8 00:27:24

have I heard some altar calls over the years. I've heard

Romans 8 00:27:28

altar calls that were longer than the sermon. You know, and there were

Romans 8 00:27:31

times, and I'm serious, there were times when I

Romans 8 00:27:35

was sitting there, and I'm sure Barbie felt the same way, and

Romans 8 00:27:39

probably Allen and some of the rest of you who grew up in similar

Romans 8 00:27:42

environments. There were times when I went, I've got to go down there and get

Romans 8 00:27:45

somebody. Get saved or this service is never going to end.

Romans 8 00:27:51

Because he's not going to stop till somebody does.

Romans 8 00:27:57

And I felt pressure because if I preached and

Romans 8 00:28:00

nobody came forward and nobody got saved and nobody got healed

Romans 8 00:28:04

and nobody started crying, then I didn't have the anointing.

Romans 8 00:28:10

At least that's what I thought. But I also noticed

Romans 8 00:28:14

that it was often the same people each week doing the

Romans 8 00:28:18

same things with the same results, which was nothing

Romans 8 00:28:22

changed. Nothing changed in their life.

Romans 8 00:28:25

Nothing, nothing. The way they lived their lives didn't

Romans 8 00:28:29

change. So anyway, that's what, that's what I was brought up in. And then a

Romans 8 00:28:32

strange thing happened.

Romans 8 00:28:36

I married a Presbyterian.

Romans 8 00:28:40

And I don't know how much you know about Presbyterians.

Romans 8 00:28:46

We called them the frozen chosen back in the day.

Romans 8 00:28:49

And Michelle told me not to say that because there might be

Romans 8 00:28:53

some Presbyterians here who might be offended by it.

Romans 8 00:28:57

But first of all, Presbyterians tend to have a real

Romans 8 00:29:01

good sense of humor. And second of all, even if they don't, they know I

Romans 8 00:29:04

was predestined to say that before they—

Romans 8 00:29:15

If you say you believe it, you know, you got to put

Romans 8 00:29:19

it into practice. Married a

Romans 8 00:29:22

Presbyterian. She passed away

Romans 8 00:29:26

and I married a Roman Catholic.

Romans 8 00:29:34

I could just see my

Romans 8 00:29:38

ancestors in heaven going, "Oh,

Romans 8 00:29:42

come on." That great cloud of witnesses shaking their head.

Romans 8 00:29:45

Anyway, but I discovered

Romans 8 00:29:49

that walking with the Lord is not necessarily about coming

Romans 8 00:29:53

expecting to see something.

Romans 8 00:29:57

My Presbyterian wife, I had a father, Jack

Romans 8 00:30:01

Haley, and he rocked my world.

Romans 8 00:30:07

He actually believed that infant

Romans 8 00:30:11

baptism was a real thing. I mean, he believed it. Serious.

Romans 8 00:30:16

You know, his daughter got

Romans 8 00:30:20

into the charismatic movement and felt like, you know, I'm a believer

Romans 8 00:30:23

now. I am a believer and I wanna be baptized. "Come

Romans 8 00:30:27

on, you've been baptized. You don't need to be baptized."

Romans 8 00:30:31

He never shouted, "Amen!"

Romans 8 00:30:37

I, one of my favorite moments ever in

Romans 8 00:30:40

church was the last time we went to Glenleven

Romans 8 00:30:45

Presbyterian with Papa and Granny, and

Romans 8 00:30:48

they would sit on the back row. And this particular Sunday,

Romans 8 00:30:52

they had a, a supply preacher. In other

Romans 8 00:30:56

words, he'd never preached there

Romans 8 00:30:59

before, but he was preaching that Sunday. And

Romans 8 00:31:03

we were on the back row, we could see everybody in the church. And there

Romans 8 00:31:07

were a couple of African American ladies who came to the church

Romans 8 00:31:11

and they were visitors. And I knew they were visitors because that's the only time

Romans 8 00:31:14

I'd ever seen an African American in the church.

Romans 8 00:31:18

But The pastor, as he was preaching, he said

Romans 8 00:31:22

something. I don't remember what it was. I mean, it wasn't— he didn't

Romans 8 00:31:25

get it going, but he said something pretty good.

Romans 8 00:31:29

And one of the ladies went, "Amen,

Romans 8 00:31:33

brother."

Romans 8 00:31:39

I mean, that church, you could

Romans 8 00:31:42

feel the silence. And from the back, we could see

Romans 8 00:31:46

every head in the church go,

Romans 8 00:31:51

What just happened? I loved it. It was great.

Romans 8 00:31:58

He has never spoken in tongues. And from where I was

Romans 8 00:32:02

brought up, obviously he could not be filled with the

Romans 8 00:32:06

Spirit. I said

Romans 8 00:32:09

he rocked my world. He

Romans 8 00:32:13

was faithful. In worship. It mattered to him,

Romans 8 00:32:18

even though nothing ever happened

Romans 8 00:32:22

except that week. He was

Romans 8 00:32:25

consistently in the Word. I don't remember him necessarily ever

Romans 8 00:32:29

taking a class or, you know, doing

Romans 8 00:32:33

anything like that, but he was— he just read the Word every

Romans 8 00:32:36

day of his life.

Romans 8 00:32:41

And he was to this day the singular man

Romans 8 00:32:45

I knew who most demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit.

Romans 8 00:32:51

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

Romans 8 00:32:55

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Romans 8 00:33:01

How could this be?

Romans 8 00:33:04

How could this be?

Romans 8 00:33:09

And then when

Romans 8 00:33:14

Michelle and I got married and she began to teach me things,

Romans 8 00:33:18

and it would have been— a lot of those things have been things that have

Romans 8 00:33:21

been good things for me to have known quite a bit earlier, but, you know,

Romans 8 00:33:25

know them now, better late than never.

Romans 8 00:33:29

I ain't an old dog. I can learn new tricks.

Romans 8 00:33:33

But one of the things that Michelle has taught

Romans 8 00:33:37

me has been

Romans 8 00:33:40

to truly not be afraid of silence

Romans 8 00:33:44

in worship, because that's often

Romans 8 00:33:48

when God is speaking the loudest to people.

Romans 8 00:33:54

In high school, my best friend was Hank Abbott.

Romans 8 00:33:58

And he had a lot of good friends, and I had a lot of good

Romans 8 00:34:01

friends. I think we were best friends. And I remember

Romans 8 00:34:06

one evening we were driving into Nashville, and I knew Hank and I were

Romans 8 00:34:09

deep friends when I discovered, when it dawned

Romans 8 00:34:13

on me that we were sitting there in silence.

Romans 8 00:34:17

Neither one of us had anything to say, but we didn't feel the least

Romans 8 00:34:20

bit awkward. We felt

Romans 8 00:34:24

comfortable in each other's company.

Romans 8 00:34:29

The move of the Spirit,

Romans 8 00:34:33

sometimes it's observable, but Jesus said

Romans 8 00:34:37

when He was asked, said

Romans 8 00:34:40

the coming of the kingdom is not something that's going to be observed with the

Romans 8 00:34:44

eyes. It's not something that somebody could say, "Here

Romans 8 00:34:48

it is." Because the kingdom of

Romans 8 00:34:51

heaven is within you.

Romans 8 00:35:01

It's where deep calls to deep.

Romans 8 00:35:09

I certainly enjoy a move of the Spirit in the service.

Romans 8 00:35:12

I mean, you know, obviously there's only 3 or 4 of you guys

Romans 8 00:35:16

who've ever been in a service where they broke out singing "Give Me That

Romans 8 00:35:20

Old-Time Religion," or you would know it's sweet.

Romans 8 00:35:27

I enjoy the move of the Spirit in a congregational setting when it's

Romans 8 00:35:31

genuine, when it's genuine.

Romans 8 00:35:36

If you come to worship and nothing ever happens,

Romans 8 00:35:39

that's probably a bad thing. But if you come to worship and

Romans 8 00:35:43

something has to happen, That's

Romans 8 00:35:47

equally not a good thing because the flesh can only

Romans 8 00:35:50

give birth to flesh, not to

Romans 8 00:35:54

spirit. And more importantly is to

Romans 8 00:35:57

realize that our faith is not about practicing

Romans 8 00:36:01

religion. It's about a relationship. It's about a

Romans 8 00:36:05

lifelong relationship with your Creator who has

Romans 8 00:36:09

redeemed you to Himself. That's what it's about.

Romans 8 00:36:15

Corporate worship can help because I

Romans 8 00:36:19

believe it was Don Finto who

Romans 8 00:36:22

described the church service as this is like an ocean-going

Romans 8 00:36:26

vessel. And we're all out there in our little canoes and

Romans 8 00:36:30

our little dinghies and our kayaks, and a little wave comes along and

Romans 8 00:36:34

we tend to get tipped over. But the ocean-going

Romans 8 00:36:37

vessel, is essentially unmoved by it. And it

Romans 8 00:36:41

brings us back to center. It establishes us.

Romans 8 00:36:45

That's why it's important to be in worship. Can you believe in Jesus

Romans 8 00:36:48

and not go to church? Well, absolutely. But why would you not

Romans 8 00:36:52

go?

Romans 8 00:36:56

It's where you get conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Does a lot of

Romans 8 00:36:59

the— see, if I'm just— it's a lot easier for me to

Romans 8 00:37:03

believe in Jesus and not mess with any of you.

Romans 8 00:37:09

Because then it's never tested.

Romans 8 00:37:14

But to believe in Jesus and hang out with Him, you know, the

Romans 8 00:37:18

cross, the cross was a terrible thing,

Romans 8 00:37:22

a massive ordeal, and rightly so. We tend to focus

Romans 8 00:37:25

in on it. But that 24-hour period

Romans 8 00:37:29

really wasn't even 24 hours, was not the hardest part

Romans 8 00:37:33

of Jesus' assignment. The hardest part of Jesus' assignment

Romans 8 00:37:37

was putting up with us.

Romans 8 00:37:41

Really. You can do anything for

Romans 8 00:37:44

18 hours, but for

Romans 8 00:37:48

years putting up with a bunch of knuckleheads. And if we're going to

Romans 8 00:37:52

be conformed to his image, then God's probably going to bring some knuckleheads into

Romans 8 00:37:55

our lives. Probably

Romans 8 00:37:59

going to bring some people who don't understand us and treat us treat

Romans 8 00:38:03

us wrong.

Romans 8 00:38:07

Some come to— oh, and let me, yeah, I'm kind of running out of time,

Romans 8 00:38:11

but I'm gonna finish and I'm gonna do quickly, but you need to

Romans 8 00:38:14

listen fast 'cause this is all good. Some come to

Romans 8 00:38:18

church these days, and I think this is really like a

Romans 8 00:38:22

last 10 or 15-year thing, come to church and say, tell me

Romans 8 00:38:25

how I'm supposed to handle these things that are going on in the world.

Romans 8 00:38:30

Tell me how I'm supposed to handle these wars and how I'm supposed to handle

Romans 8 00:38:33

these politics I'm supposed to handle these tragedies and

Romans 8 00:38:38

this economy? How am I supposed to— tell me how to—

Romans 8 00:38:41

How about this? How about I don't tell you,

Romans 8 00:38:46

but I point you toward the Holy Spirit and let Him tell you

Romans 8 00:38:50

how to handle it?

Romans 8 00:38:53

Because if I tell you, A, there's a

Romans 8 00:38:58

real strong possibility I could be wrong,

Romans 8 00:39:02

And B, you're going to need me to tell you next time too.

Romans 8 00:39:07

But if the Holy Spirit tells you,

Romans 8 00:39:11

that's a whole different thing. Ritual can help

Romans 8 00:39:15

us keep our focus,

Romans 8 00:39:19

but this relationship is more than these things. It is a long,

Romans 8 00:39:23

often slow process.

Romans 8 00:39:27

By which Philippians 1:6 is

Romans 8 00:39:31

accomplished. He who began a good work in you will carry it on

Romans 8 00:39:34

to completion till the day of Christ Jesus.

Romans 8 00:39:39

How long is that? Rest of your life.

Romans 8 00:39:43

And not just during the good times or the bad

Romans 8 00:39:47

times or the challenging times, also

Romans 8 00:39:50

in the, eh, times.

Romans 8 00:39:57

The rest of our lives on this plane. This is a verse that we

Romans 8 00:40:01

often hear and would like quoted: Be still and know that I am

Romans 8 00:40:05

God. I will be exalted among the nations. I

Romans 8 00:40:08

will be exalted in the earth. This doesn't just mean take a break.

Romans 8 00:40:15

It doesn't just mean, well, you've been, you've been doing all this work

Romans 8 00:40:18

and everything. Now it's time to take a rest. And know that I'm

Romans 8 00:40:22

God. No, no, this

Romans 8 00:40:25

is all the time. Be still,

Romans 8 00:40:30

cease striving, a lot of translations say, and

Romans 8 00:40:34

know that I am

Romans 8 00:40:37

God. Trust that he is working.

Romans 8 00:40:42

This is where we understand that he will be.

Romans 8 00:40:48

Regardless of what's going on out there, really regardless of what's going on

Romans 8 00:40:52

here, he will be. And it's

Romans 8 00:40:56

also where we truly come to know him.

Romans 8 00:41:01

It isn't until you spend ordinary

Romans 8 00:41:05

days with someone that you get to know them.

Romans 8 00:41:10

You can have experiences with them. You can You can have

Romans 8 00:41:13

events with them. You can share tragedies with them and share

Romans 8 00:41:17

joys with them, but— and you'll learn about them.

Romans 8 00:41:22

But it's not until you spend day after

Romans 8 00:41:26

day after day after day after

Romans 8 00:41:30

day after day that you really get to know

Romans 8 00:41:34

them, that you really get to know who they are.

Romans 8 00:41:43

Jesus said, this is eternal life,

Romans 8 00:41:47

they may know you, Jesus

Romans 8 00:41:50

Christ, whom you have sent. This is what

Romans 8 00:41:54

makes life worth living.

Romans 8 00:41:59

You guys, come on. Yeah, you come on down here.

Romans 8 00:42:06

I didn't hurt y'all's feelings or anything about that? Okay, good. I'm glad.

Romans 8 00:42:13

Maybe I did hurt Robert's feelings. I don't know.

Romans 8 00:42:19

I don't necessarily expect anybody to come weeping into the altar. You

Romans 8 00:42:23

can if you need to. It doesn't really,

Romans 8 00:42:28

you know, Yeah,

Romans 8 00:42:34

email Kevin.

Romans 8 00:42:38

But we're going to give you an opportunity to come if you need prayer,

Romans 8 00:42:42

because this is that ocean-going vessel. And sometimes you just need

Romans 8 00:42:47

a place, a harbor. So with those who are going to

Romans 8 00:42:52

pray with people, come down and the rest of you stand.

Romans 8 00:42:56

And let's

Romans 8 00:42:59

think about God.

Romans 8 00:43:05

I,

Romans 8 00:43:12

uh, one other thing that Michelle has taught me— I don't want to

Romans 8 00:43:16

embarrass her by talking about her too much, but I grew up

Romans 8 00:43:19

in, uh, in a church situation where

Romans 8 00:43:23

we usually left talking about what

Romans 8 00:43:26

happened at church.

Romans 8 00:43:31

We don't discuss that very much anymore. When we

Romans 8 00:43:35

leave, she wants to talk about

Romans 8 00:43:39

what happened in me. And

Romans 8 00:43:43

that's just something to ponder, something to think about.

Romans 8 00:43:48

Raise your hand. Let me give you a blessing. May the

Romans 8 00:43:52

God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Romans 8 00:43:55

who sent his Son into the world that we might have life and

Romans 8 00:43:59

have it to the full, life worth living,

Romans 8 00:44:04

through the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit,

Romans 8 00:44:08

may he give you the eyes to see

Romans 8 00:44:13

and to understand what life worth living really

Romans 8 00:44:16

is. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 8 00:44:20

Amen.