Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, good morning, church. It's good to see you.
[00:00:05] Happy Sunday.
[00:00:07] Let's pray.
[00:00:13] Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time. And Lord, we thank you for this opportunity just to be with each other and to connect with you. And, Father, as this is our better together Sunday. Lord, we pray that you could just remind us of what it means to love one another, to serve one another, to pray for one another, to just do life with one another.
[00:00:36] And, Father, we pray you would be glorified in that. So, Father, unite us together, strengthen us, fill our hearts with all we need for what you want to do in our lives and through us. And we ask this all in the great name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:00:53] Well, it's good to see your faces today. And if you were a guest with us and we haven't had the chance to meet, my name is Chet, and I'd love to meet you and shake your hand. But you're coming at a great Sunday because as Tina said, this is our better together Sunday, which means we have hot dogs for you.
[00:01:14] And, you know, there's an old saying that a hot dog a day keeps a doctor away. Have you heard that one?
[00:01:19] So, you know what better Breakfast? No, but we do have some food. But way more important than that, we have all our fall groups that are kicking off, so we have some Bible studies classes, life groups, and we also have all the different ways to get involved in ministry.
[00:01:39] And we believe that being the church is about being in community and relationship with one another.
[00:01:46] That, as if you're a follower of Jesus, God has not called you and I to be lone rangers and to do this journey of life alone and to live our lives on an island, but to live our lives together, serving, growing, learning. And there's challenges that come with it, but it is absolutely worth it. And so today is a reminder of that. Today is an emphasis of that. And today is a time where we come to church, we say, hey, this is a huge value for us. So, so, so glad you're here. So after service, make sure to take some time to look around, grab a snack, see what's going on, sign up, get involved. I'm gonna preach a shorter sermon so you have more time to do that. Do you believe that?
[00:02:33] Good. Cause that's not true.
[00:02:35] I thought about it, but then I was like, no, but truly, I hope you take advantage of today.
[00:02:45] And I don't know if you've driven past our construction site this week, but it was pretty fun. Pretty fun week.
[00:02:54] The frames are going up.
[00:02:56] They got a lot done. I was over there. I gave them a few pointers here or there.
[00:03:01] You know, they didn't know what the difference between a left handed hammer and a right handed hammer. But you know, I showed them.
[00:03:07] That helped a lot. No, but it was really cool.
[00:03:10] Got to walk through. They got a lot of the children's area framed in, so got to walk through that. And that was just so amazing. Envisioning the hearts and minds that will be captured for Jesus Christ in those rooms.
[00:03:26] What a beautiful thing. So, yeah, so really cool. Make sure to check it out if you haven't seen it. But today, again, we're gonna talk about better together. And as I was thinking about this, I was reminded last week, 9 11.
[00:03:41] And you know, 9 11, I remember that happening and being in high school and sitting in a classroom and watching, you know, it unfold on tv. And my English teacher said, she said, hey guys, you're gonna remember this moment for the rest of your life.
[00:03:59] And I'm gonna give you some space to think or to pray or to do what you want to do, which I thought was a very wise thing to do. And she said, this is gonna be a defining moment of your lives. And she was right. Remember that very clearly, very powerfully at that time. And so every time that 911 happens, we go through the anniversary, I'm reminded of that. And one of the most powerful stories to me from 911 is the stormy Jeremy Glick who was on United Flight 93.
[00:04:32] And I'm very moved by his story because it seems to speak to something that is true about life. But to give you the story, Jeremy Glick was one of the passengers. And along with some other people, they said, hey, we realize what's happening here. They were able to make some calls and they heard about the other planes crashing and what this actually was. And so they said, we need to stop this, we need to do something about this. And of course, what a terrifying and difficult thing and just challenging in every level. And so him and these men, they ended up charging and attacking the terrorists and I believe saving probably untold numbers of lives at the cost of their own.
[00:05:23] But one of the things that I find powerful about his story is that Jeremy Glick was actually a. A judo champion in college. And so he was like this actually pretty tough guy and sort of take charge type of guy. And so afterwards when they interviewed his wife and she talked about it, they said, do you think that was coincidence that he was there and he could handle himself and handle some of these? Do you think that was coincidence? She says, I don't think that was coincidence. I think that there was purpose. And of course, losing them is terrible, but I think there was a deeper purpose at work.
[00:06:05] And I love the heroics of that story that's moving to me, the self sacrifice, all of that.
[00:06:12] And it's a story, I think, worth telling again and again. Someone who does that is worthy of deep admiration in my book.
[00:06:20] But I think it also shows us something about life.
[00:06:26] And here's what that is. I think we will all find ourselves in certain moments of life where there is a challenge, there is a fight, there is a battle. And we have to decide, will I have the courage and confidence to face it or will I avoid it?
[00:06:50] I think now this is a very extreme example, but I think in all of us, in all of our lives, there will be moments, circumstances, opportunities, where we're kind of faced with that choice.
[00:07:06] Am I going to fight this battle that I didn't ask for? I don't want.
[00:07:12] But man, is it important?
[00:07:14] Man, does it matter?
[00:07:16] Man, does this have the opportunity to bring life to others, or am I not going to? And today I want to talk to you about that. And I believe that that is part of all of our life story at some level. And I want to show you this in the pages of Scripture. So we're going to look at this story in 2 Samuel, chapter 10. And look, let me read these verses to you, and then I'll explain it and give you the context.
[00:07:46] And we're gonna start at verse nine. And this is a story about a battle. And it says this. When Joab saw the battle was set against him, both in front and in the rear. He chose some of the best men and arrayed them against the Syrians.
[00:08:06] The rest of his men he put in charge of Abishai, his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites.
[00:08:13] And he said, if the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you.
[00:08:23] Be of good courage and let us be courageous for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what seems good to him.
[00:08:35] So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to battle against the Syrians. They fled before him.
[00:08:41] And the Ammonites saw, and the Syrians fled. They likewise fled before Abishai. Now in these verses is this picture of an ancient battle. This happened about 3,000 years ago, and it was the ancient kingdom of Israel. And where we started today is Joab is like the general, he's the main commander, and Abishai is his brother, who is also a well respected leader in the military here. And they have to go to this battle, but they come to it and they realize, oh, bad news, we're surrounded.
[00:09:18] They're at our front and they're behind us, which in battle, nobody wants that.
[00:09:24] And so he's like, all right, we need to adjust our strategy.
[00:09:29] Abishai, you go fight these guys, you go fight the Ammonites at the front, and I will take some other guys and we'll fight the Syrians behind us.
[00:09:40] And he says, and look, this isn't how we wanted this to be.
[00:09:46] This is not going according to plan. But let's be courageous, let's act, and let's see what God does.
[00:09:56] And they go and spoil alert.
[00:10:00] They win, they drive them off. But there's something I think really significant in these verses that I want to show us. And the first thing is this is the way this battle started is not a way that you might expect. See, if you read the verses before this, here's how this battle started.
[00:10:21] The ancient king David is the main character of this book, Second Samuel.
[00:10:27] And what's happened is that God had taken him from being this absolute nobody, that even his dad thought, yeah, this one's kind of a loser. He's not going anywhere, don't expect much of him. And he was just kind of out in obscurity. But God, through his purpose and plan, brought David from obscurity and he brought him to be the king of Israel. And it was a long journey, it was a difficult journey, and it was not easy. But by second Samuel, chapter 10, David is at the pinnacle of God's work in his life. He's the king of ancient Israel and he's doing a good job.
[00:11:10] He's doing what he should. He's treating people in the right ways. He's connecting to God in all the ways. And so chapter 10 begins where he hears that the only an old Ammonite king died named Nahash. And he said, you know what? Nahash was good to me.
[00:11:30] When life was really hard for me. I heard he died.
[00:11:34] And I bet his son Hanun is feeling that and sad about that. I'm gonna send some people to be a comfort, to bless them. I'm gonna send them. I'm gonna send them with some Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
[00:11:49] I'm gonna send him with some gift bags.
[00:11:52] I'm gonna send him stuff. And so David, he's at the peak of his power.
[00:11:59] And he's seeking to be a blessing to someone who was loyal to him.
[00:12:06] And what's amazing about this moment is David is doing exactly what he should.
[00:12:13] Cause God's ultimate purpose with Israel is that God would bless Israel. And then out of that abundance, they a blessing to the world. That was like the Old Testament strategy. That's happening, and here it's happening. And David's like, man, things are going well here.
[00:12:31] You're probably hurting.
[00:12:33] Let me be a blessing to you.
[00:12:36] And guess what happens. Have you ever heard the saying, no good deed goes unpunished?
[00:12:43] This is a clear example of that. Hanun sees these people coming and they're like, you know what? You can't trust David here. He's not really trying to just be nice to you.
[00:12:55] Who does that?
[00:12:57] He's not just trying to bless you. He's trying to spy out the kingdom because, you know, he's on the up and up, and he's going to take it all over.
[00:13:06] And so Hanun begins to think this way.
[00:13:10] And so he humiliates these guys.
[00:13:13] He shaves her beard. Does this mean stuff to him? Then Hanun says, and you know what? And I'm gonna go to war with David.
[00:13:23] And he calls in mercenary armies and he gathers his forces.
[00:13:27] And can you imagine what David's feeling right now?
[00:13:30] Dude, I was just trying to give you some donuts.
[00:13:34] And now we're going to war.
[00:13:37] Now we're.
[00:13:40] You're punishing me for this. I'm trying to bless you.
[00:13:44] And I don't know if you've ever experienced that at some level in your life.
[00:13:49] Have you ever maybe tried to serve someone and they attack you for it?
[00:13:56] Have you ever tried to be a blessing and boy, it just was not received at all or maybe receive poorly?
[00:14:07] This is exactly what's happening to David. But I think within this church is something we need to reckon with and accept in our lives.
[00:14:19] And here's the deal. There is no easy path in this life.
[00:14:25] Here's what I mean.
[00:14:26] David's trying to serve God, and he's doing it like if you were at a point paint a bullseye on David's life where it's like, man, David, he's in the bullseye. This is it. I'll tell you. Unfortunately, when you get to the next chapter, it goes downhill. But at this moment, he's in the bullseye, and at this moment, he's getting attacked for it.
[00:14:52] And I think that if we're not careful, we get confused when serving God. Is hard.
[00:15:00] We get confused when we're trying to live in a way that honors God. And it's not.
[00:15:07] People aren't like, yeah, way to go, awesome.
[00:15:10] Maybe they're just the opposite.
[00:15:13] But what we need to realize is there is no easy path.
[00:15:17] It's hard. It can be hard to follow God. But here's what I would say. It's harder to live life without him.
[00:15:27] It's hard to do good and to serve and to go out of your way, like David is doing here. But you know what? It's even harder to live a selfish life. You with me?
[00:15:42] It's hard to sometimes step into what God's calling and purpose means for your life.
[00:15:52] It's not going to be comfortable. It's not going to be easy all the time. It's not even going to always be supported and well received.
[00:16:00] But it's harder to live your life and end it with deep regret that you missed what God had for you. That's even harder. Church, here's what I'm saying to you today. There is no easy path.
[00:16:17] You have to choose your heart.
[00:16:19] But there isn't an easy path. There is still one that is worth it. You with me on this? There is still one that I think leads to a deeper sense of fullness and that is serving God with your life.
[00:16:39] Does it make things hard sometimes? Complicated? Yes, it does.
[00:16:43] In fact, Jesus, I've kicked around in my mind doing this sermon series called Promises from Jesus that no one Wants.
[00:16:52] You know, like there's some promises like, we want these, you know, like Jeremiah 29, I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you, to give you a future and hope. Everyone's like, I want that one.
[00:17:03] Even though it's for the Israel's in exile and Babylonian captivity, I'll take it.
[00:17:09] But then there's many promises that no one wants. Where Jesus is like, hey, if they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you.
[00:17:15] Jesus, you can have that one.
[00:17:18] Paul says this. He says, if you wanna live a godly life, you will be persecuted. Paul, you can have that one. Don't want it. Peter says this. He says, don't be surprised when the fiery trial happens to you. Get this.
[00:17:36] As if something strange is happening.
[00:17:40] Peter's like, why are you confused?
[00:17:42] You didn't get the memo?
[00:17:44] There is no easy path, but there is one that's worth it.
[00:17:49] And the one that is worth it is in the direction of God's calling and God's purpose and God's work in your life. And I think if you are a follower of Jesus, you have to get easy out of your mind.
[00:18:04] You have to get easy. The easy stuff doesn't usually do a lot of good for you or this world. You with me?
[00:18:12] And just because it's challenging and just because we serve God and it doesn't always go, it doesn't mean that something's actually even wrong. You with me? And this is a great, great illustration of that. So David then tries to do this good thing to Hanun.
[00:18:31] He gets, you know, blown out of the water for it. Full scale war.
[00:18:37] And now he has to face it.
[00:18:41] Now what I think is powerful about this passage is David did not pick this fight.
[00:18:48] This is completely contrary to what he wanted.
[00:18:54] I don't think we should go around picking fights. Amen.
[00:18:58] I don't think that's healthy. I don't think that's good.
[00:19:02] I know some of you are instigators out there. I'm a very peaceful person myself sometimes.
[00:19:09] Just kidding. But in general, we don't want to go living our life picking fights. And David's certainly not doing that here. But there are times where we have to meet a fight. You see the difference?
[00:19:21] He didn't ask for this.
[00:19:24] He didn't want this. But at the same time, to avoid this would have been detrimental. You with me?
[00:19:33] And here's the truth about life. There are fights we didn't pick, but we still need to meet.
[00:19:41] You got me?
[00:19:42] We didn't ask for them, we didn't want them, we didn't create them.
[00:19:47] But we still need to meet them because there is still a good fight that God has on the other end of that. And David meets it. And I think church. Here's the truth.
[00:20:04] It's always tough to meet a fight that needs fought in our lives. It's always tough.
[00:20:11] It requires a level of courage, it requires a level of discomfort.
[00:20:17] It challenges us. There's fear around it. All of those things are true. But here's what we also have to see. If we avoid it, the disaster will be even greater.
[00:20:28] If David just avoids this, then the consequences will be huge. And here's what I believe.
[00:20:37] In every one of our lives, there will be fights that we didn't pick, but we have to meet.
[00:20:45] And if we avoid them, it will hurt ourselves and it will hurt the people that God loves around us. You with me?
[00:20:55] One of the great books I read when I was a teenager was a book called Wild at Heart.
[00:21:00] And it specifically is about men and the masculine soul and what makes the masculine soul healthy.
[00:21:09] And one of the driving ideas of that book that I've never forgotten is that part of how God makes men healthy is that there are good fights that they need to fight in their life.
[00:21:21] But the problem is that men will always be tempted to be too passive and avoidant when they should be engaged. You with me?
[00:21:33] And the healthy masculine soul says, no. All right, this is a good fight, church, right? Because sometimes, brothers, you gotta fight for the heart of your spouse.
[00:21:46] Marriage isn't going well.
[00:21:48] Your roommates, there's. Things are shaky and maybe it's not your fault, maybe it is. Doesn't matter if you avoid, avoid, avoid.
[00:21:59] It doesn't get any better. You with me?
[00:22:02] And God has put it in you to meet that fight. Maybe you didn't pick it, you didn't ask for it, but it came your way nonetheless. You with me?
[00:22:14] And there are fights. We all have to fight.
[00:22:17] My first car that I got, it was an old Blazer. It was really cool, I thought, but it was old, not in the best of shape. And I remember driving it and the dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree.
[00:22:33] And I kind of looked and I was like, it'll figure itself out.
[00:22:38] Turn it off and on enough times, it'll fix itself.
[00:22:42] I think blazers have that ability to self heal. Kind of wolverineish. And so I was like, eh, it'll be fine. Well, you know what happens? It's not fine.
[00:22:53] Does it get better or does it get worse?
[00:22:55] Does the damage to the engine ease up or get it completely incapacitated?
[00:23:02] We know what happens, right?
[00:23:04] You avoid it.
[00:23:06] Because I don't want to take it to the shop.
[00:23:08] It's gonna be expensive.
[00:23:11] I don't want a Conrad's bill.
[00:23:15] However, what ends up being worse? You with me on this, church? And this is, I think, part of what this shows us. And in each of our lives. I just want us to think, man, is there a battle that we need to meet? That we're saying, like, oh, I'm kind of. I'm deceiving myself. It'll be fine.
[00:23:35] How many brothers and sisters have gone through life? And they said, no, no, no, it's fine. This isn't an addiction.
[00:23:42] I got this wrong church.
[00:23:47] We need to face our struggles and we need help in it.
[00:23:53] And we need to see it and to meet it. You with me on this? And so David meets the battle. And then Joab and Abishai, they fight the battle. Now, I love how they fight it because here's how they fight it. Number one, they fight it together.
[00:24:11] See the Battles in your life and my life. You are not meant to fight alone. Church.
[00:24:16] Don't think that for a second.
[00:24:18] Joab and Abishai, they're like, you know what? This battle can't do it alone because we got the Ammonites in front of us and we got the Syrians behind us.
[00:24:30] So Joab said, abishai, you take on the Ammonites, I'll take on the Syrians. And if it gets too hard for you, then you let me know and I'll come help you. And if it gets too hard for me, I'll let you know, and you come help me. What a beautiful picture of real community Church. We all need Joabs and Abishai's in our life with that spirit.
[00:25:00] We all need people that are like, look, you're battling on this front in your life.
[00:25:04] I'm battling on this front.
[00:25:07] And there's gonna be a time where this front, it's too much for me.
[00:25:12] Can I call on you?
[00:25:14] And there's gonna be a time where it's too much for you. And I want you to know you can call on me. Church. I believe God is honored in that.
[00:25:24] I believe we are made better for that.
[00:25:27] See, if you're a follower of Jesus, you need seasons in your life where you serve and where you are served.
[00:25:34] You need both.
[00:25:36] You need times where you need to call in the reinforcements.
[00:25:40] Say, man, this is too much. The battle's too much over here. And then there's times where you need to be the reinforcements. You with me?
[00:25:48] Both of those are healthy, both of those are good, and both of those are how God operates in our life. And I love this too, about this story is these guys are. Are both strategic and faithful at the same time.
[00:26:03] See, in life, if you're a follower of Jesus, you can fall into one ditch on this side and one ditch on that side.
[00:26:11] So here's Joab and Amishai. They come to this battle. It's not how they want it to be. It's set against them. It's a bad scenario. They don't just say, all right, let's just pray and hope this works out.
[00:26:27] Right?
[00:26:28] They're not completely passive in this moment.
[00:26:32] He says, all right, let's adjust our strategy. Let's divide forces.
[00:26:38] Let's do something different.
[00:26:40] And so here's what I'm saying, that many times, the way that God works through our life is when we take responsibility to do the things we can do.
[00:26:53] See, we might be in a difficult situation right now. We're like, God Fix this. God help me. And God's like I am, but son or daughter, you can also do this.
[00:27:04] You with me?
[00:27:06] And here's the one ditch is where we go through life without recognizing that relationship. And we are just completely kind of throw our hands up in every situation.
[00:27:19] And we're just passive, and we're just sort of waiting on God to do literally everything.
[00:27:26] When part of how God works is he has given us capability to do some things. You with me?
[00:27:31] That's a ditch. Here's the other ditch is that you think it's all on you.
[00:27:37] But notice Joab and Abishai. That's not what they say. They said, look, we're trusting God in this.
[00:27:44] I don't know what God's ultimately gonna do. The secret things belong to God. He's the Lord of Lord and kings of kings. He does what is right in his sight. But I'm looking to him.
[00:27:54] I'm acting courageously because I know he is in this story.
[00:28:00] And that gives me hope.
[00:28:03] And so, yeah, I'm gonna work, but I'm also gonna work with faith. It doesn't all rest on me. That's the ditch of self sufficiency.
[00:28:14] Today you might be in a big battle, but it's not all on you, friend.
[00:28:18] You hear me?
[00:28:20] It's not all up to you.
[00:28:22] You have a God who is great in the truest sense of that word.
[00:28:29] And you can have courage because he is with you.
[00:28:36] And so, yeah, you do what you can. But then on the other hand, you trust God to do what only he can. You with me on this. And they do that, and I think it's beautiful. And then they act. He says, let's be courageous here.
[00:28:49] I don't know about you. I am so sick of all the fear mongering in our world.
[00:28:57] It annoys the daylights out of me. I'm so sick of it. If I read one more article about AI taking over everything, I'm gonna throw my laptop through a window and I'm gonna be sad that I just wasted a grand or whatever.
[00:29:13] I'm just. I'm so sick of it. Look, I'm not afraid of a computer.
[00:29:19] I live through the Y2K.
[00:29:22] Oh, my gosh, the year 2000.
[00:29:25] Like, I'm not afraid. Sorry, you had your chance to scare me.
[00:29:29] The calendar changed to 2000. We all lived.
[00:29:33] Just not the fear mongering, just among. And it's everything. And I get it. Like, that's what tunes people in. I get it. That's what, you know, fuels algorithms. I get all that, but I want to see more faith mongering in this world.
[00:29:52] I want to be the type of person that says, yeah, look, there's real problems out there. No doubt, there's evil people, there's all this. But. But there is also a God who rose from the dead and he knows my name and he knows your name and he defeated sin, death and evil. So sorry, but I'm not that wigged out. You with me?
[00:30:14] I think, and I hear Joab, I hear him. Faith mongering.
[00:30:19] He said, look, guys, we're either side, they're coming after us. But you know what?
[00:30:26] There is a God of Israel and the battle belongs to him. You with me, church?
[00:30:34] And there is something powerful when real faith becomes actualized in our real life. You with me on this, church?
[00:30:47] And they do it and they fight the battle and they act and they take steps. Now here's what I want to say for us. I think that this is such a holy and special moment for our church.
[00:31:01] I think we are fighting some good fights today and I'm proud of us for that.
[00:31:07] I'm proud of the vision and the heart of this church.
[00:31:12] You know, we are fighting the good fight and I want to keep fighting this good fight to the day I die. We're fighting the good fight for the hearts of the next generation.
[00:31:25] We are fighting for our kids to grow up and as early as possible to know and love and serve Jesus Christ.
[00:31:36] That's a good fight.
[00:31:38] And I want our best people in that fight.
[00:31:43] We need the Navy Seals for that fight.
[00:31:46] And you know what? That's some of you.
[00:31:50] God's going to use some of you in that way.
[00:31:53] And I want to call some of you into that good fight.
[00:31:58] Man. Serving in family ministry on Sundays. You are fighting the good fight for the next generation.
[00:32:04] You may not feel like, may not seem like it, but you might be turning the tide.
[00:32:13] Generation. What a beautiful thing, church.
[00:32:17] I was so happy to just walk through those framed out walls in the classrooms and just think about like, what is God going to do here?
[00:32:30] What young heart is God going to capture?
[00:32:33] What young heart is God going to bring to himself at a young age? And then so they will go decade after decade not making all the mistakes that some of us have made because their life was anchored to Christ earlier.
[00:32:47] That is a fight worth fighting, church.
[00:32:51] And I want to call you into that.
[00:32:54] You have something in you. God can use you. It is a good fight.
[00:32:58] I want to fight the good fight, to welcome people and love people in our church.
[00:33:05] And serve them for the sake of Jesus Christ.
[00:33:08] When I was off this summer, it was a blessing to be able to go to some other churches and some friends of mine, their churches, and go as a family. And so, you know, Sunday mornings look very different for us. Cause it's, you know, we're in the church rhythm, pastor family rhythm, which is great, but this is different. So we got to just go, drive, go to service as a family. It was cool. But when we walked into the churches that we went to, and these are people that I know, people that my kids know a little bit, that we're friends with, and we would walk into them, my kids were terrified.
[00:33:49] They were like.
[00:33:51] They were so nervous.
[00:33:53] And I'm like, hey, you know, this is our friend. You know, this place. You. You know, some of these people, you know, and yet, like, they were like. And my kids, you know, they scare pretty easy. But, like, they were just like. It was just a real pain, you know?
[00:34:10] Cause they were. They were just. But it reminded me, and this was such a good reminder.
[00:34:16] It's hard to go to church for the first time.
[00:34:21] And these are pastor kids.
[00:34:26] My girls have been in church basically every day of their life, multiple services.
[00:34:33] I mean, I'm giving them the full pastor kid experience, you know, full throttle, unapologetic. I think it's great.
[00:34:43] And so, like, you know, this is known environments. They know how it goes, but they were terrified. And here's what I'm saying.
[00:34:50] We cannot ever forget church. How important it is on Sundays to welcome people, to see people, to serve people, to meet people, where they're at. Because the worst feeling in the world is to walk into a room and feel like you don't belong.
[00:35:14] The worst feeling in the world is to walk into a house and you feel like. I don't think they actually want me here.
[00:35:23] That's terrible. But church, here's the truth that happens in churches, and we can't let that happen.
[00:35:31] From people pulling in and waving and getting a parking spot and say, hey, we've been expecting you. You didn't know it, but we've been praying for you.
[00:35:43] And we're so glad you're here. To coming in to church, that all matters more than, you know.
[00:35:50] You with me? Because here's the truth. If we get that right, it's so much easier to hear the good news about Jesus. If you get that wrong, the walls are up, the ears are shut. You hear me? And that's a fight. I wanna be that type of church. And here's the last Thing.
[00:36:11] Wendell Berry recently died and he was an American writer and essayist and lived a very interesting life.
[00:36:22] He grew up in Kentucky, became like this prolific writer, was on the fast track to academia in New York City, all this kind of thing. But then he realized, I want to go back to Kentucky and I want to live my life there and farm. And so he wrote about farming and American life and just very interesting, helpful perspective. But one of the things that he said was like, when you look at your life, don't play the short game.
[00:36:54] And he would say these things like plant sequoia trees, plant a forest, but plant a forest that you will never reap the benefits of, but future generations will.
[00:37:07] And I have to say I completely believe in that type of wisdom.
[00:37:13] I don't want to play the short game in life. I want to think about generations.
[00:37:18] I want my life to be part of God's plan. Not just what he wants to do today, but what he wants to do a hundred years from now. You with me?
[00:37:30] I think that's wise. I think that's good stewardship. I think that's, that's honoring to God.
[00:37:37] And as a church, our vision has always been to be a hundred year church.
[00:37:44] So man, we're not just playing for today because why not? Let's play for tomorrow. Let's play for generations. Can we break some ground? Can we open some doors? Can we make decisions that end up compounding over time to for the glory of God and the purpose of the gospel? Like that gets me fired up. Church.
[00:38:07] I love that. And so what we are doing as a church is that very thing.
[00:38:15] We are playing the long game. We are praying and envisioning what God is gonna start through us and how it's gonna impact generations to come. Church. We're building a building that is going to outlive all of us.
[00:38:31] People are going to come to Christ. There.
[00:38:34] There is room for as much ministry as God wants to do on that site.
[00:38:43] It will be a monument that you can't drive down Route 10 and miss it.
[00:38:50] And people will be drawn and attracted to Christ. But here's the beautiful part.
[00:38:55] We're sacrificing now so generations can be blessed later. You with me? And that is a good fight.
[00:39:04] That is a fight worth fighting. And I'm proud to fight with you. And I hope that you see all of this as part of that fight. Your serving, your generosity, your prayers, all of that is part of a larger fight that I think matters.
[00:39:23] And there will be people that their lives are radically changed by Christ. Decades from now, they'll never know your name, but they will feel the fight that you fought for them.
[00:39:35] They will be blessed by it.
[00:39:38] What an awesome, awesome thing.
[00:39:41] So, church, here's what I'm asking you today.
[00:39:44] Let's fight this good fight together.
[00:39:47] We got good fights as a church.
[00:39:49] God's put something in you to serve, to bless, to make a difference.
[00:39:56] It can't be at work if you're not engaged.
[00:39:59] Can't fight the fight if you're not in it.
[00:40:02] So today is a day I'm asking you to get in it, to take a step, get connected, get involved.
[00:40:10] And here's what I believe. There's actually more for you in it than there is from you.
[00:40:15] God is so good, anything you give to him, he gives back to you far more in all kinds of ways. But church, let's fight this good fight. Let's meet it, let's glorify God, and let's live our lives and say, you know what? I feel the joy of my master saying, well done, good and faithful servant. Let's pray.
[00:40:38] Father, we love you. We pray that you would bless us in this moment now, in this season, in our life, in this time.
[00:40:49] Father, there are good fights to fight in this world, in our church, in our community, in our lives.
[00:40:57] Help us to know that we don't fight them alone. We fight them with each other. And most importantly, we fight them through the power of the spirit of Christ that is within us.
[00:41:10] Help us, Lord, as a church, to step into the future and purpose that you have for us.
[00:41:17] Lord, may we plant a forest for your kingdom, and may generations after live in the benefit and blessing of it.
[00:41:29] Thank you for this opportunity, Lord. Let us see it for what it is. Let us not waste it or waste it away. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
