[Music]

We are going to talk today, so we're sandwiched in this little series here.

We've got, I say little series, this all year we've been talking about

HIs Word, His Life, and we're going to begin talking about His Church. And

this week and next week is kind of a couple of one-offs before we actually

launch the third part of our series. Though

today we're going to talk about Springhouse as a church,

and so it kind of ties into to where we're going. So would you stand with me?

We're going to read from Ephesians chapter 4.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets,

the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers,

to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built

up until we all reach unity in the faith

and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,

attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Father, I thank you

for your Word. I thank you that it brings life. I thank

you, Lord, that it's transformative. And I ask, Lord, that you would

that you would speak to us today clearly. In Jesus' name,

Amen. Amen. Amen. I sometimes when I'm driving down the

street, I will see and drive by a church, and the churches

have church signs, and they'll put something up on the church sign. And a

lot of times the person putting the thing on the

church side thinks it's funny, but it's not really funny, you know. You

know what I'm talking about. And then sometimes there's something

that's up there that I scratched my head and said, "Do they really,

did they double, triple check this before they put that up there?" You know.

So I just thought it'd be good today to start with just some of the funniest

church signs. By the way, I want to say I am so thankful we don't have a church

sign. I am so grateful that we don't. Okay, here

we go. This one says, "Be salt and light, not

salty and lit."

I wish Noah had swatted those two mosquitoes.

"Adultery is a sin. You can't have Kate needeth too."

Whoa! "Prophecy class canceled due to unforeseen circumstances."

"Being Christian means not hating. We know it makes football season hard."

Blah, blah, blah. Just go to church. That probably is one of my favorites.

"Whoever stole our AC units, keep one." It is not hot. It's hot where you're going.

"Murray is not the only place to find your father."

"God has no favorites sign guy does. Go Preds."

Don't let worries kill you. Let the church help.

The church. The church. The church is a very interesting anomaly

that is a head scratcher in terms of man because we didn't come up with the idea.

We didn't come up with the idea. The church was God's idea, not ours.

The church was God's idea, not ours. I've told this story before, but you know there

was a situation, there's a time period rather about I guess seven, eight years

ago where I was just some people had come to me with some stuff here at the church and they were like,

"This needs to be fixed and this needs to be fixed." And half of the things that came to me with

had no merit or no validity. Have you ever been on a train somebody just says something to you and

then you run with it but there's no validity to it? We need to make sure that if we're going to put

action to something that we need to make sure it's actually true, right? So I was told some of these

things and I started to come to church. I'll tell you guys for three months I came to the church

every day. I think I was sitting over here at the time and I would look at the church and I'd

be like, "How do we fix that God? How do we fix this God? How do we fix that person God? How do we

fix that situation God? How do we fix it?" And I just I confessed to you for about three months

I came to church and I did not worship. I did not worship because I was so focused on how we were

going to fix the things that people were bringing to me which half of them didn't even have merit.

And so I was on the way to the Dominican Republic because I was leading mission trips at that time

and the students had gotten off of the plane and I got there on the tarmac and I'm looking at 36

kids and all of a sudden it dawned on me I don't have a plan for the mission trip. I'm thinking

what's going on? I got all these kids sitting here and it freaked me out and I saw one of our

teachers stand up and start giving instructions and I had forgotten that I had put her in charge

of the trip during this three-month time and so she had all of the information that was needed

and she ended up leading trips so I was like, "God, why in the world am I here? This is kind

of like a waste of time. Why am I here?" And God said, "No, no. I needed to get you away from the

distraction so I could speak to your heart." And one of the things that he said to me was, "Kevin,

the church was my idea not yours. And if you're looking to fix anything I want you to go in and I

want you to love more and serve more. I want you to love deeper and I want you to serve more and oh,

that we would be a people. That whenever we see things that distract us in the church that our

first go-to would be to love deeper and to serve more. That we would love deeper and serve more."

Guys, do you know that God is the only one who can truly fix anybody? He's actually the one who has

the answers to problems and situations and his bride, he cares about his bride. He actually cares

about us. He cares about the church. He ordained the church and the church is vitally important.

Being a part of a church is very, very important. Man's ideas fail. God's ideas always stand.

They always stand. So here at Springhouse, this is not, it's never been and it's not going to be,

this is not a build it and they will come mentality. This is a lift Jesus up and get out

of his way mentality. We want to exalt the name of Jesus in this place. My hope every day when we

come and pray here, often I'll pray this in our prayer time, is that we want you to taste and see

that the Lord's good. I don't want you to taste and see that I'm good 'cause I'm not. I'm far

from good. I'm pretty rotten by the way, you know, but we want you to taste and see that he is good

and we want to exalt Jesus Christ in this place. Jesus is good at drawing people to himself. We

don't actually have to do that. This is what he says in John 12. And I, when I'm lifted up from

the earth will draw all people to my self. Jesus can do the work. We just show up, man showing up.

And for some reason we can't and don't do that. And when we show up, we come in with all this

baggage of arsenal, ready to pull out and aim at people. Man, that is not how the bride of Christ

should operate. And it's certainly how we don't want to operate here at Springhouse. Jesus does

the work of drawing people when he is lifted up. Now it's essential to understand that the church

elevates Christ. The church elevates Christ. Christ loves the church and that is our goal.

It is our hope. It is our aim. It is our desire. Springhouse specifically that we would elevate

the name of Jesus. That we would elevate Jesus to his rightful place. That we would not be elevated

ourselves. Guys, the only celebrity here at Springhouse is Jesus Christ. The only celebrity here at

Springhouse is Jesus Christ. I will hear people kind of off the wall say, you know, man, I just

love when Pastor Barbie speaks. She just brings such a great word and I just can't wait to the

next time she's up here. Pastor Justin, man, he's just a fool. No, I mean, he's just awesome. He'll

just have the most wonderful story. I can't wait. And man, oh, Kevin's up today. Dang it. Okay. So,

but you know, a mixture of things. Guys, here's the thing. When you come into this place,

the voice that you should be listening to is the Holy Spirit. Now he will use agents to be his

voice, but the voice you want to leave here with is nothing more, nothing less than the Holy Spirit.

The only celebrity here at Springhouse is Jesus Christ. We want to elevate him. You shouldn't be

leaving here thinking about my personality or my great story or Justin's personality or Barbie's

thing. You should be thinking about Jesus Christ. He should be the center of who we're talking about.

If there's a conviction, if there's something setting in, the Holy Spirit gets in there,

we should be thinking about him when we leave here. Guys, there's plenty of distractions out

there. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, all the way through Saturday. This hour

is about him. This hour is about him. And so occasionally, I haven't gotten this question

as much as I thought I was going to get it. I'm sure Pastor Ronnie got this multiple times in his

33 years here at the church, but I've gotten a time or two. And the question is, what is your vision?

What is your vision for Springhouse? What do you want to see? And really what we surmise is that

when people actually ask that question, they're looking for like some catchy slogan or phrase

that they can attach themselves to and run with. Guys, the Lord has given a vision for his church

and we don't need to reinvent it. We don't need to rebrand it. We don't need to make it up. He

has given a vision for his church. Now I'll tell you, there is direction that the Lord will give

pastors. And I'll tell you, Springhouse, Smyrna Assembly throughout history has been kind of known

for drawing in people who have come out of other church situations with church hurt. Some of you

sitting here were a part of church hurt at your last experience. And guys, there's nothing like

church hurt. There's nothing quite like church hurt. And I'll tell you, when I listen to some

of the stories about church hurt from other churches, one of the things that I find,

it's not in every situation, but sometimes the common denominator is I find that a pastor

probably has gotten some direction from the Lord, has truly heard from the Lord,

but the minute he gets direction, he turns his back on God and tries to do it himself.

Anybody who tries to complete God's plan without God is a fool, is a fool.

When Joshua went over into the promised land, God had promised him all of the cities. He was going

to go in and dominate all the cities. And so he says to Joshua, go to Jericho and I'm going to

deliver that city into your hand. Can you imagine Joshua? He had every ability. He had an army of

warriors with him. He literally, he could have just said, okay, God, you're going to give us the

city. Thank you so much. Now let's go start beating down these walls. But God didn't say,

go beat down the walls. God said, I'm going to give you this city and here's how I want you to

do it. I want you to shut your mouth and circle the walls, shut your mouth and go around the walls.

Guys, may we be a people who not only get direction from the Lord, but also trust him

in his execution of it. In his execution of it. Guys, we need to be a people who are ready to

lean in to everything God has to lean into from start to finish. Guys, we actually have the easy

part because he shoulders the burden. He shoulders the weight. He shoulders the execution. We don't

have to make things happen. We can just show up. What a grace gift he has given us. What a grace

gift. So God has given us a vision for his church and it is in Ephesians four, we read it, to equip

people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. To equip people for works

of service so the body of Christ may be built up. And so sometimes I'll be asked this question

outside of what is your vision. Kevin, are you content with the size church that you pastor?

Are you content with the sizes? Do you want to see the church grow and explode? There will be

multiple services, yada yada. And usually when I really try to answer directly with this, are you

content with the size of church you pastor? No, I am content with God's will. I am content with God's

will. Whatever God wants to happen here, as long as he's in the middle of it, that's what I want.

If he wants us to explode and grow, he's going to supply the resources, the people, the buildings,

whatever it is. Let's go as long as God's there. If he wants us to shrink in size,

as long as he's in the middle of it, I'll be there. I'm for it. I want to be where he is.

Don't you want to be where the Lord is? Don't you want to be where the Holy Spirit is moving?

There is a movement that happened and I think it's kind of, the pressing of it's kind of died

down a little bit. There's this home church movement, like, you know, get out of large

church, large organizational church, get into small groups, small home. And I'm all for small

groups meeting at homes and churches and that type of thing. But, you know, here's the reality.

And I think it was Pastor Ronnie who said this to somebody and I caught it and I loved it.

If you're out in the middle of an ocean and there's a hurricane coming, do you want to be

in a small boat with six people or do you want to be on a cruise boat?

Guys, I want to be with people who are following the Lord. I want to be with people who got their

eyes fixed on him. We need community. We need to be around fellow believers. We need to be around

people who are like-minded and are exalting the name of Jesus. There have been so many of you who

have blessed my life, who have spoken into my life, who have encouraged me because of different

things that you bring to the table. And I hope that I've been able to do the same for you because

we're in this together. We're the same sheep. We're all sheep with a shepherd and he knows our name

and we know his name and we are looking at him and we are exalting him. We need each other. We

need to want and desire to meet and be together. We should not forsake the assembly of the saints.

We need to be meeting weekly together and being here. Last week I talked about when you miss out,

when you don't show up. You miss out when you don't show up. So what happens, what brings us

to a mentality of like, I just want to get out of this place, this not necessarily Springhouse,

but just the church and all the people. It's sometimes because when we walk in we forget

that people are people. People are people and people are broken. People are people and people

are hurt. People are people and people have situations and circumstances like you do.

And so I don't know what it is sometimes we can sort of walk in with like this self-righteous

posture of like, you know, you don't get the same grace that I expect you to confer to me

when I'm going through my stuff. But man, we ought to have a reservoir of grace for each other because

we all need it. We all need it. We all need mercy. Be that's mercy. Grace begets grace.

The rendering of those things to one another in love. We all have a level of brokenness. One

struggles with addiction, another with pride, another with selfishness, another with gossip,

and the list goes on and on. But we must have a reservoir of grace for each other.

I came from a church before being here that really elevated hell and elevated sin. Not to say that

sin was good. They weren't saying sin was good, but all they talked about was hell. All they

talked about was sin. But boy, we want to be a place that exalts Jesus Christ. We want to be a

place that Jesus is in the forefront. I want to be a place that opens the doors to people who don't

look like, sound like, smell like, act like us. And when they come in here, they don't get called

out for whatever it is they are doing, which many of us are probably struggling with as well.

But instead they taste and see that the Lord is good. And then the Lord gets in there and

he begins to change things. See, the love of Christ is infectious. The love of Christ

draws people in. He has a way of motivating us to want to change our behavioral situation because

he has something so much better for us. He has something so much richer for us. Something that

gives life instead of death. Church is a place where truth replaces lies. Truth, I need a place

where I can go and know I'm hearing truth. I need a place where the lies that I buy into through the

week can be refuted by scripture and by the word and the reminding of he is who he says he is.

God is greater in us than he who is in the world. He is out to kill, steal, and destroy us. And so

here at String House, we've been given a direction that we are to be a church that loves big, lives

truth, and operates as a healthy family. I want us to be a place that loves in big ways. This is what

John 13 says, "A new command I give you." Jesus is speaking here. He says, "Love one another as I have

loved you, so you must love one another." Guys, this is coming from the God. This is coming from

the mouth of the God who saved your life. This is coming from the mouth of the God who breathed

stars. Why is that so important? There are so many verses I could give about how we're supposed to

love one another, but I want to ask you a question. Are you loving people the way Christ loves you?

Are you loving in a way that Jesus Christ loves you? I've got a friend, he spoke here a few weeks

ago, his name's Tim, and one time I remember he got on an airplane and he flew over here. He flew

over here, got off the airplane just to give me a hug and say, "I love you," and he flew back home.

That's extraordinary love. That's extraordinary. Some people say that's odd, that's weird,

that's strange. Do you know he doesn't care about other people's opinion? He doesn't care what

anybody else thinks about the way that he loves me. You know why? Because Christ loves him so much,

and he's taking his cue off of how Christ loves him. Guys, are we loving people the way that Christ

loves us? Can you imagine Christ coming down and saying, "Oh, I don't know if I'm gonna love

Barbie that much because of what Hal might think or Kurt might think. You know, I'm gonna just kind

of distance myself from Dana or from John. I need people in my life who will love me the way Christ

loved them. I need people in my life who will encourage me when I'm discouraged. I need people

who are able to say, "I'm not going to measure my love based on what the world says or the way

the world looks at it." The world is so perverted, love, but you can't pervert Christ because he is

the truth, right? He is true. He is solid. He is firm. And guys, we ought to be loving people the

way Christ loves us. Love is my name protected in your mouth. Love is my name protected in your

mouth in all, at all occasions. And guys, I'm gonna tell you, there's gonna come a point when

y'all are gonna bury me. Hopefully I'll be dead instead of alive. Bury me, I'll be dead.

But I hope that somebody is able to come up to the pulpit and say,

"The only accusation that I have for Kevin is that he loved so well.

The only accusation that I can have against this man is that he didn't care what other

people thought. He just went in right to the middle of the mess and sat with the person.

Loved them through whatever it was. I want to be an extraordinary lover of people.

And I pray that that would be your prayer as well. That we would be known for loving big. And so that

when people come into this place, and it's gonna be weird, it's gonna be odd for them because they're

not used to that type of love. But here's the thing that I found, and you've probably found it,

when you find somebody who loves you, even in extraordinary weird ways, all of a sudden you

start craving it more. You start saying, "This is actually really rich and really good, and I'm

really benefiting from this love." Guys, every one of you benefited from Christ's love in your life.

What does it look like for the person who comes in and says, "I haven't been at church in forever."

But man, when I walk in, it's like those guys, Dave and Justin and Doug, they just kind of got me,

and they started talking to me, and they're like, "Man, what's your life about?" And they start

conversing with me, and it's kind of weird because I've never had this much of a kind of a zealous

approach to relationship. You know, I'm going to come back next week, it's probably not the same,

and then it is. And then the next week it is, and then you get a text message and a follow-up,

and it's like, "I actually believe that this person cares about me." Like, what is this about?

Like, what do you even have? Like, what do you do during the week? You're just like checking up on

me, and all these things. And all of a sudden, now seven years later, they're sitting here,

and they're doing the same thing for somebody else. Because love is infectious. Christ's love

is infectious. We want to be a church who authentically loves big. We want to be a church

who lives truth. We live in a time where Christianity is being redefined without the use

of biblical principles. And guys, it's because we don't know this word nearly enough. We've

got to get into the word. We've got to know this. We've got to breathe this. We're talking about

Christ this year. We're talking about His life, His word, His life, His church. Guys, His work.

Do you guys know that truth is not an idea? Truth is a person. Truth is a person, the person of

Jesus Christ. He says, "I am the way." He says, "I am the truth." What is it that Pastor Justin

often says that Christianity is exclusively inclusive? It's like everyone's invited to

the party, but guys, there's only one way in, and it's through Christ. And so in order for us to

love big, we've got to measure that by the truth. Why is that? Because I want to love you so well

that I'm willing to see a Mack truck coming toward your life. I'm willing to jump out and push you

out of the way. But that hurt. You scratched my elbow. I fell down on the ground when the

Mack truck was coming to kill me. I'm willing to hurt you with truth in order to save your life,

because I love you. You understand what I'm saying? Like, like this isn't about just you got your truth,

and I got my truth, and you got a little bit of truth, and you can have some truth over here. No,

there's one way, and His name is Jesus, and He's a person. And He wants to have a relationship with

you. He wants to walk with you, and He didn't come to give you a better life. That's a misnomer.

To think that, oh, I get to, I'm saved, John, you got baptized today. Guess what? I pray that your

life is blessed. I pray that it's better. But Jesus didn't come to give you a better life. He came to

change your life, and He came to change it so you become more like Him. And if you don't look like

Him, He's going to keep working at you to be like Him. Spring House, I want it to be a place where

we live truth, where we live truth. My job as your pastor is not to tell you how to live your life.

My job is to point you to the one who can change everything. I want to point you to Christ. And

lastly, we want to be a healthy family. Healthy doesn't mean that stuff's not going to happen.

If you've got a healthy, so many of you have healthy family units at home. Let me tell you,

you argue with your spouse from time to time. Your kids get on your nerves from time to time, right?

Guys, we're people, and we're broken. Stuff is going to happen. Healthy family doesn't just mean

we go around smiling all the time. Fake, no healthy means that we're authentic enough that when

something goes down, we're going to address it, and we're going to address it in the right way.

We're not going to let it fester. This is a place where gossip goes to die. This is a place that we

can count on to be a safe refuge, a place that you can come and you can hide under the shelter

of the most high, that you can be conferred dignity, respect as an individual and a person

and as a child of the most high. We want to be a healthy family. I remember my first,

one of my first or second sermons that I brought here, I was the youth pastor at the time,

and I remember getting done here, giving the blessing and walking off the stage. And I walked

down the steps and I got to about right here. And this gentleman, this older gentleman comes up to

me and he's got his hand extended. And I said, "Oh, okay, here." I'll shake his hand. I thought

I was just meeting a new visitor for the time because I hadn't seen him before. And he said,

"Hey, I just want to let you know that if you ever speak again at this church, I'm not coming back."

I was so encouraged. It was great. That man has not been back here. And I probably,

probably would not be happy to know I'm the lead pastor now, but

guys, what you say and the words you use matter. The word tells us from the abundance of our heart,

the mouth speaks. And we usually use that in the context of trying to correct negative words,

but the same is true on the opposite side. When I say you are a warrior, when I say you,

there is nothing that can come against you, that he is greater in you. When I come and say you are,

you are going to rise above, that you're so tall, all of these life-giving words are fuel for the

Holy Spirit to do transformative work in people's lives. Our words are supposed to build up,

not tear down. So it's easy in this context, in this large setting, not to build, you know,

it'd be terrible for me to come and start like tearing people down or whatnot. I wouldn't do it

here. But what do my texts look like? What does it look like in the corner back there,

or out on the workplace, or when I'm, we're not just the body of Christ when we're in this building

for the hour on Sunday. Let me give you a litmus test for your text groups that you have. Can I

read them? Can I read them out loud right here? Can I bring them on stage and start reading them

out loud? And if the answer to that is, I don't know, I don't think so, no, no, no, no, then you

probably need to evaluate what's going on in those text groups, in those chat groups. Because

any little crevice we give the enemy, he's going to take it. Why? Because the enemy's out to kill you

and destroy people. I don't want to just love big, live true to be a healthy family by words,

or on a shirt, or on banners. I actually want that to be how we live our lives.

Are the singers coming back? They can come back now. I didn't know if I ran them off.

The vision of the church is to equip people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may

be built up so that we can achieve unity. So that we can achieve unity. Unity is a severely

underrated place for us to live. We need unity. Why? Let me tell you why. It's right in scripture

in the book of Psalm 133. I'm going to want to read it to you straight out of the word here.

It says this, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. It is like precious

oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the

collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Herman were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord

bestows his blessing, even life forevermore." When we live in a place of unity, then the Lord's blessing

covers us. And guys, don't you want to be a part of something that the Lord is covering? Don't you

want to be under the shadow of the Almighty's blessing? I want God's blessing, and I don't think

that's wrong. I want my dad's blessing. Do you want God's blessing over our church and over your lives?

Unity is the key. Does that mean we agree all the time? Kurt and I never agree, but we're in unity.

I'm just kidding. We actually agree on a lot of things. It doesn't mean we're going to agree with

everything, but I'm still going to walk with you. And when we don't agree, guess what? It does nothing

to stop me from loving big, living truth, and operating with you in a healthy family posture.

Let's be unified as a church. Let's aim for that. Let's let Jesus be the topic of our conversation

when we meet here and gather together for an hour, hour and a half every week.

Let's let Jesus be the center of our conversations. When we bring in our baggage from the week and all

the dirt and the shame and all that crap that we bring in with us, guys, let's be looking for ways

to look at each other and encourage one another to speak life over those situations, to say,

"That's a lie. Chelsea, you're buying into that lie about your life. No, you are beautiful.

You are amazing. You are wonderful. God has anointed you to be a worship leader. He's raised

you up for such a season and a time as this. What is it to encourage one another and to speak

words of life? Let this be a place that exalts Christ in that way." What do you say? Amen?

Amen. Would you stand with me?

The book of Hebrews tells us that because of Christ Jesus, we can come boldly before his

throne in our time of need. And guys, some of you have needs. This is another wonderful benefit of

being a part of a community of believers is that you can come and you can bring those things that

have been bothering you, the work situations, the believing in faith for whatever provision you're

needing or that person that you're praying for. You can come and you can stand with another

believer and you can go to almighty God. Would you come if you're gonna pray with people? And

here's the deal. They're not going to give you their opinions because their opinions are worth

squat. What they're gonna do is they're gonna take your request and they're gonna agree with you

and take it to the one who can answer the issue, who has the answers, who has the peace, who

confers all of the things to us that we need. He's the one. And it is good to agree with somebody in

prayer. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. So if you have a need today,

if you have something going on in your life, if you need to connect with God, don't leave here

the same way you came. Come today and agree with somebody down here and go to your Father because He

loves you. Let's worship.