[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's Word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in.
[00:00:23] Speaker C: Woke up. I'm glad you're here. I think God's got something great to speak into your life as you turn.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Your attention to His Word.
[00:00:29] Speaker C: It's going to be a good day. Amen. Want to welcome everybody watching online from Africa to Abilene to better Wells and Fort Worth. Dee watching from Keystone, Colorado. Hey, Dee Dee. Astra Sack watching from Spring Hill. Dude, just get up out of bed. You're not that sick. Let's go.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Somebody, your high rich family church wants to give you a big warm round of applause. Come on, family, let's do that together.
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Don't forget, if you like what you hear today, don't be afraid to click that share button and means a lot to us when you do that. So grab your Bibles, if you would. We're going to continue with our series. We're moving to First Peter, Chapter two. First Peter, Chapter two. If you're new to the Bible, open it up to the middle, take a right.
First Peter, Chapter two. We're going to continue on with our series called A Life that Matters. A Life that matters. That's not hope for you. That's hopefully the hope that you have for yourself is that you would live a life that matters, that makes a difference, that does something that's bigger than just meeting your own needs. It's bigger than just you having a few toys and having a little bit more than your neighbor, than just building a business. What would it mean to have a life that really mattered? What does God's word say about that? In First Peter, Chapter 2, Peter's writing to a group of people that have been scattered, they've been persecuted, they've been run out of their homes, run out of their businesses. They're all over the path. And he's writing this letter that would be passed from church to church, from believers to believers, to try to encourage them and try to strengthen them and try some of their darkest hours.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: And he's reminding them of how important.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: They are to God and how important their calling is, how important their lives are and how important it is that they come together as one, that they build community, that they work together. So we're going to pick that up right now in First Peter, chapter two.
And he writes this. He says, as you come to him, him being Christ, as you come to Jesus. And he describes Jesus this way, the living stone, rejected by humans, but chosen by God and precious to him. He said, you also, you're like living stones. You're like miniature versions of Jesus. Just as he is the living stone, you are the living stone. And he said, this is what God is doing with your life. He's building you into a spiritual house.
God is building you into a spiritual house. For in scripture it says, see, I laid a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone. And the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now, to you who believe, speaking to us, this stone is precious. I want you to notice the repetition of that word. Precious.
Precious. Now, we don't use that word as much as probably we should. And most of the time when we're referring to something as precious, you kind of use that word to describe a baby, don't you? Oh, precious.
And surely that's what you say, whether the baby's good looking or not so good looking. Oh, he's precious.
Because let's be honest, there's some kids that you see, like, maybe it'll work out for you later on in life, but you're precious.
But notice he says this word. He says, not only is Jesus precious to God, but we are precious to Christ. And he uses this word over and over and over again. It's precious. Think about that in the terms of your relationship with Jesus. Is your relationship with God something that is. Is precious to you? Because it really should be. And it kind of gives us a good test for our own hearts. Is my walk with Christ something that I feel is precious to me? Or is it something done out of duty? Something I feel like I kind of have to do just to make my wife happy? He says, no, no, no. If we're truly the people of God, this is going to be precious to us because God has made Jesus precious. Jesus has made us precious. We are precious in his sight of our Father. Your life matters. It's a precious thing. It's something not to be wasted. It's a beautiful thing. You get one life. Let's make that life that matters.
And then it goes on to say this. But to those who do not believe that stone, the stone being Jesus, that stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, I want to break down what that means in just a few moments. It says, those that don't Believe in Christ. He says, he's the rock that makes you stumble. You're going to stumble over him. He's going to be the rock that makes you fall.
Another version says, he's the rock of offense.
We don't think about Jesus in those terms, but he says, I'll offend you if I have to. The rock that makes them fall, they stumble. Look at this. Because they disobey the message. Well, that's a large part of my life. A large part of my stumbling has been because I've disobeyed what the Lord was telling me to do. What his word says is rise. And I stumbled because I disobeyed. It says, but you, you're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. I love that he's describing us, how the Lord sees us. He says, you're more than just a life that I chose you. You're special. You're precious to me.
And he says, there's a reason why I chose you. There's a reason why I brought you to myself. There's a reason why I've saved you. There's a reason why. Why I've done these things for you. There's purpose in it. What does that purpose look like? He says this, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. I'm so thankful that I serve God that called me out of darkness. My life was dark before Christ. And if you're going to be honest, you weren't perfect before Jesus either.
Now your spouse might be, but you're not.
And he says, our job as believers is to declare the praises of the God that called us out of darkness and into his wonderful lives. He goes on to describe it this way. Once you were not a people, he said, once you were individuals. You were just you yourself. He says, but now you are the people of God. I put you into a family. You're part of a people.
He says, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So in light of all that, what are you asking me to do? What are you asking of me? He says, dear friends, I urge you.
I urge you to abstain from sinful desires. What does that look like for you? Your version of sin? The things that you might struggle with might be different than the person that's sitting next to you. But every single person has sinful desires. And he's saying, through the power of the Holy Spirit. When you understand who God has called you to be, he says, you can abstain from that. You can rise above that. You can become something more than what you settled for. Your life can matter. He says, I urge you to abstain from sinful desires. What do they do? It says, they wage war against your soul. What true words have ever been spoken? When I do things that I don't want to do, when I do things that I know are wrong, it wages a war against my soul. I feel it. It doesn't bring the happiness that I thought it would bring. It doesn't bring the joy and fulfillment that it promised me. It wages a war against my soul. You would have been there. I did it.
He finishes the thought by saying, live such good lives. Live such a good life among the pagans or among people that don't believe that even though they accuse you of doing wrong, that they may see your good deeds and glorify God. That they may know that there is.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: A God in heaven.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: Why? Because they see it inside of you. They see it how? The way that you do business. The way that you treat your customers and clients. They see it in the way that you treat your spouse. They see God in the way that you discipline your children. They see the Lord in your conduct. The way that you spend your money. The way that you interact with people. They see God in the way that you tip.
He says, live such a good life that even if somebody was to accuse you of doing wrong, he said they would look at your life and recognize, no, no, no. I'm the one that's wrong. There must be a God. Why? Because I see him in hurt. I see him in Him. Live such good lives that even though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and begin to glorify God. There must be a God because of how you live. That's a life that matters. That's a good thing.
So when I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s, we grew up in a very poor family. We didn't have a whole lot of toys and things to play with. But I grew up in a generation that was told, stay outside. Where's my stay outside generation? Where you at? Get outside. Stay outside. They would lock the door behind us and give us the water hose.
Drink to drink out of. Like, don't you come in this place. Don't you knock on this door. Get outside. Now, to be fair, there was a lot more kidnappings in the 70s.
Just disappear left and right. But we were told to be outside. There could be a relationship. There could be something. There could be something to be said about that. But we. We learned how to get creative. We learned how to use our creativity to play. So we learned how to play with.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Toys that were really rocks, bottle caps, pieces of glass. You got to get creative. We started digging tunnels. You take that little water hose and spray it over some dirt, make a little bit of mud, and start digging tunnels by hand. And one of the coolest things is when me and my brother would get together and he'd start digging a tunnel, I'd start digging a tunnel. You could make your hands touch and get the whole huge, long tunnel. Then we'd bring our GI Joes together and put those things in the tunnel, blow stuff up with little firecrackers, and just watch out for your fingers.
That was the good times. We didn't have a lot of toys, but everything changed the moment that we got a little hand me down gift, which was a little metal container full of Lincoln Logs. Anybody remember Lincoln Logs? Lincoln Logs. That was a huge game changer for us because we could take those Lincoln Logs and fit them together and make all kinds of cool things. And that was a. That was a neat time in our life. And this was right before one of the greatest things ever that came out, which was Legos. Now, Legos have stood the test of time. You could do incredible things. Some of you had, like, Erector sets, and some of you had these expensive toys. You may have grown up in a rich family. We didn't have all that. We had hand me down legos, but we were thankful to have them because you could let your creativity and your imagination do anything. You could build whatever you wanted to build. It was an awesome time to grow up in a time of using your creativity to build stuff. And so it intrigues me to not just shut that part of my life off when I become an adult, I still like to build.
Now the difference is you might be building a business, might be building a family. You might get a chance to build something on the weekend, but never lose that creativity, that imagination, what it meant to create and to build. I don't know about you, but I still find myself sometimes staying up late at night watching these two guys build a swimming pool in the middle of the jungle. Has anybody ever seen this stuff with primitive tools? These two guys just get together, and next thing you know, after about 20 minutes, you can build a pool. I didn't know you could do it that fast using no tools that just build these incredible things. You're like, I could do that. I could totally do that. I just don't have the time right now, but I could do it. No, you can't.
But I'm still intrigued by that. I love watching them build stuff. And here's the thing. God's building something, too.
God has that same sense of creativity. God has imagination. And he uses an incredible building piece to build what he's building. And that piece that he's using is you. And it's me.
This is how he builds us into a life that matters. When we become part of his plan, what he's building. God's building a spiritual house, and he's using people like me and people like you to do it. So it's important that we understand what our role is in becoming part of God's plan. Here's three things that we're talking about today as we dig into God's word, as we talk about building a life that matters. I want to give you three points. If you're a note taker, you might want to write this down. Number one, a life that matters is part of a bigger purpose.
It has to be part of a bigger purpose. The life that matters is not going to happen by accident.
Life is not just the things that happen to you. No. When you are bought with the price, when you have turned your life over to Christ, you recognize that now I become part of something that is bigger than me. It's bigger than my imagination. It's bigger than my own work ethic. It's bigger than what I can create on my own. It's part of a bigger purpose.
Everything that God does is on purpose, including you. You have a purpose. And one of the cruelest things that we ever find in all of Christianity and churches is that we will tell people things like you were created on purpose for a purpose. And then we never tell people how to figure out what that is. That's a cruel thing to do. But God gives us some clues about what your purpose is when we become sons and daughters of the most high God. And he reveals it here in this verse when he says this. Your purpose is to declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. That is part of your life, to praise the Lord. And that doesn't mean that you're supposed to sing. Not everybody has that gift. And some people would say, pastor, I can't sing. I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Well, in case you didn't notice, we don't have no buckets here, so you're in luck.
No, Declaring the praises of God doesn't mean that you're supposed to sing.
It means that your life is supposed to bring him glory.
As a matter of fact, as you look at the original language, when the Bible was written in Greek for us to translate here today, that word to declare the praises literally means to advertise for him.
Now, that's a completely different way of looking at our purpose. But God clearly says to his word that my purpose is to represent God's heart to the world around me. That means that we need to be miniature versions of Christ. We need to show the world that there's something different in my life, that I used to be in darkness. I'm living in the light. Now. God has changed my heart. He's changed my life.
And I'm here to advertise for him. Did you know that you're a sponsored member of the body of Christ? You have a sponsorship. I don't know if you've ever played on a team that got sponsors. That's a nice thing to have when mom and dad don't have to shell out all the money, but you get a business to stand behind. You Remember in Little League where they put, like, Chico's Bell bonds on the back of your jersey? Like, I don't even know what that means, but I'm proud to represent them.
So in 1999 and in 2000, I got the privilege of being part of a. A gospel artist that had won numerous awards. Some of you might know him. And I spent two years on the road with. Just had an amazing time with celebrities and in and out of gospel music. And it was. It was an awesome thing. But one of the coolest parts about that is they handed us a little magazine one day, and it had all these different things from Adidas. And I was like, what is this? It says, well, now our tour is sponsored in part by Adidas. So you can pick out anything that you like. I'm going to ship it to your house. I'm like, ooh, say less.
I want you to know right now, I'll say this in front of everybody. I can be boxed.
My loyalty is for sale.
And to that day, I'd been a big Nike guy. But until that point, I was three stripes in my heart and soul. Why? Because it's free. And I remember coming home after checking off half the boxes in that magazine. There's a huge. There's a huge pile of boxes of all the stuff that Adidas ship me is free. Why? Because you're a sponsored artist. You're part of this group. We want you Wearing all Adidas clothes. I am happy to wear Adidas.
They had a whole other section that Adidas just purchased called fubu. Now, I don't know about you, but if you didn't know anything about fubu, that's probably because you're not African American.
But in the late 90s, early 2000s, that was what African American people were. Until this Mexican put it on. I was happy to wear FUBU for us, by us, for all of us, because it was free. I'm happy to wear fubu. And also they said not only are you sponsored by Adidas and by fubu, but we have a sponsorship with Kmart. I was happy, happy to look at them blue light specials before Kmart went out of business. And then Church's Chicken. Now, let me say that was a little bit different. What I didn't realize. When's the last time you ate at Church's Chicken? I'm just telling you. We used to be able to go to the drive thru, hand them a card, and then anything you asked for, they had to make it and give it to you for free.
That sounds like an awesome idea. Until about week two, you're like, do y'all have, like, tacos or something? Because I can't. Whoo.
But when you're sponsored, when somebody puts their name on you, when they give you this for free, you recognize that they're asking you to advertise for them. You are now a walking billboard for someone that's bigger than you. And this is what he's using to describe part of your purpose and my purpose. You were called by God to declare his praises to be a walking billboard and advertisement for your father. Why? Because he called me out of darkness and into his wonderful light. That should change the way that we treat people.
That should change the way that we speak.
That should change how we operate.
That should change the way our marriages and our families look. Why? Because it's not just about me. I'm part of a bigger purpose. My purpose is to represent God's heart to the world around me. Can you receive that, everybody? Is that okay? Here's the second thing that we see. Number two. A life that matters is part of other lives that matter. A life that matters is part of other lives that matter. So he said, jesus Christ is the living stone. He's the cornerstone. He's what everything is built on. But he says, you, like Jesus, are called living stones. He is the living stone. You are a living stone. We are to be miniature versions of Christ and how we represent him. How we operate. We are living stones, just like our father. We're called to look like him, to think like him, to act like him, and to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
One of the coolest things that happened is in 2000, my son was born, my firstborn son. And we had. We had come up with a plan, his mother and I, before he was born, to name him a couple different names that he doesn't have today. And one of those names was London or James. And so we're going back and forth, London or James. London or James. And then at the last possible moment, when they came in, she had had a C section, so she was kind of out of it. They're like, what's his name? And I'm like.
And then they handed him to me, and he looked exactly like me. Like there was no question. Like, this is your son. Like, his name is Tim Jr.
And she wakes up, can you bring me little London? Like, about that.
We about to have a little problem. But that's his name. He goes by TJ and the same is true for my daughter. She should have learned her lesson.
Like, don't bring me to papers and have me sign stuff whenever you're under anesthesia. Because I do things.
I go out on a wild limb. But her name was supposed to be Ryan. It turns out to be Natalie. Why? Because I liked it.
But the moment that I saw my son, I recognized he's a miniature version of me. He looks just like me. He's a miniature version of his father.
And look at me. So are you.
So are you.
And just like your father, you were called to be in community. You're called to be something bigger than just an individual. God has called us as individuals. And what does he do? He puts us into a group.
If you'll notice this in the book of Genesis, that the very first time that God created first man, Adam, God said in his word. You can read this. This is what God says. He says, let us make man in our image. God refers to himself in the plural.
It's not just God the Father, but it's God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. He said, let's make man just like us. Not only is he a triune being, but he's made and designed to. To be in community. That means that life is about more than just you.
God has called you to put you into something that's bigger than yourself, to connect you with other lives. And that's how you build a life that matters. Now, unfortunately, we don't like that we would much rather God just deal with us personally instead of us having to worry about anybody else. But Scripture says that we're designed to bear one another's burdens, and you can't do that if you're never around one another.
Scripture talks about how important it is for us to connect, for us to gather together, for us to be in the room. That's why it's so difficult for us when we're walking through things like a global pandemic. When they say churches can't meet, we got problems with that. Why? Because I need you and you need me. Now, I will be the first to say, for about two weeks, all of us are looking at each other like, this is awesome.
I have gotten really tired of people, and I am thankful to have a little bit of time to myself. It's nice to be alone, nice to have a break. And after about two weeks, you're like, I miss people.
Just the ones I like, though.
But after about three or four weeks of a global pandemic, you're like, I want to see the people that I hate and give them a hug. I've missed you. I've missed my frenemy.
I needed someone to hate.
But God designed us to be in community with one another. There's a reason why. It says in Psalm 68, verse 6 that God puts the lonely in families. Part of God's purpose is to take us that are alone and put us into a family. Not just your own biological family, but into the family of believers. I need you. You need me? Why? Because God works out his bigger purpose for all of our lives. When we are fitted together.
To build a life that matters means I must attach myself to other people that are building a life that matters. Those that have been called by the name of Christ, led by his spirit. And what happens is we find our strength in God's plan and in our unity.
There are blessings that you will only find when you make unity a priority. There are blessings that are only unlocked when God's people come together and worship him together. That's why it's important that you come to church and make a commitment on a Sunday. You need this. I need this. We need this. I need you. You need me. It's important that you make a commitment, not just for your family, but for your spiritual family. We need you. That's why it's important that you find a small group and that you plug in, make a commitment to it. Why? Because we need you and you need this freedom. We believe freedom happens in groups. The best version of your marriage, the best version of your business, the best version of your mental health. All those things get worked on in the context of. Of us submitting ourselves to one another, bearing one another's burdens, listening, talking, gathering strength, standing side by side and walking forward together. I need you. You need me. And some things, some blessings, some powerful moments only happen in the context of believers gathering together. You need a spiritual family.
You know, we've seen God do some incredible things in this place. Some of the greatest years of my life have been the past nine years as the pastor of this church, because I've seen God do things that I only heard about before. I've seen God do miracles that I'd only hoped would happen. But there are people in this room today that doctor said, you will never have children that are big and pregnant right now. There are some people in this room, the doctor said this is impossible for you. I'm so sorry. And I'm just telling you, they got like, six kids.
I've seen people with huge tumors get prayed for as believers begin to call upon the name of the Lord. And those tumors just shrunk. I've seen it. I've seen too much for you to convince me otherwise, that everything good is going to happen by myself. No, it won't. There are some things that only happen in the context of us being in the room together, when faith joins together. That's why Peter says it's so important that you recognize that you're fitted together and you're much stronger together as we join with Christ.
Christ is the chief cornerstone. I need you. You need me. Your family needs a good church.
It's important for us. It matters. That's why it matters that we join. That's why it matters, that we love each other deeply. That's why it matters that we get around each other. Even if we don't like you. Even if you don't like somebody else. That's why you're here.
Every family has one weirdo. Every family has one cycle. If you look at your family be like, no, we don't have any weirdos or cycles. It is you.
Every family's got at least one black sheep.
Not mine. It's you.
It's you. And we need each other.
This is a church built out of black sheep and weirdos. You're welcome. We're all here. We're all exactly the same. It's not a competition.
It's a safe place for you. And we find strength in submitting to God's plan. We find strength in our unity. It's a beautiful thing. We see that, that, that one stone by itself is not too intimidating, but left in the hands of a master builder, left in the hands of a God that can connect with, connect us with one another. It becomes something powerful, becomes something strong. We find a place, we find security, we find connection. God's word tells us very, very clearly that those three things are not only possible for us, but it's part of God's purpose for your life. We are placed, we are connected and we're secure. Those are things that you need, by the way. You need a place. Every person needs a place to belong. You need connection, you need security. And God's family is where we find that God takes care of of his own.
And the neat thing is, by the way, when you, when you think about just a building itself, very few buildings are built just for a practical purpose. But let's admit, if you're going to build a building, you're not just going to build it for practical purposes, you're going to build it with a little bit of architectural flair, are you not? You're going to put a little piece of, of yourself in it. And I love that. God's a God of. Not just practical God, he's also the God of style.
And there's a reason why you're special. There's a reason why God put you where you're putting because God likes to show off.
You are unique within the context of the body of Christ. You are special among a group of people that are special. You are chosen. You're also a chosen people, a holy nation.
You're a royal priesthood, not a royal priest, a royal priesthood. It's us. It's us.
Here's the final thing I want to share with you, Number three. A life that matters will be consistently and even constantly shaped.
Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are unique, you are precious, you are awesome. But you please hear me. You're not perfect. You're not even close.
On your best day, you couldn't do it on your, on your own strength. Here's the good news. We have a God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Once you've received him into your heart, once the Holy Spirit's dwelling inside of you, he's going to work on you every day. He's going to be the voice sitting on your shoulder saying, don't do that. That's weird. Stop talking like that. Don't treat them that way. Take care of them. Be generous, Be Kind. Come on, smile. There's a little voice there telling us to do the right thing, helping us to abstain from sinful desires. By the way, that's not possible without the power of the Holy Spirit. You can't do it for very long. You can't say no very long.
You're not strong enough. But God sent his Son and God sent his Holy Spirit to help us become more like Christ. And a life that matters will be consistently, constantly shaped. Now, the process that God uses to shape us is a. Is found in a word that we don't really use outside of church circles. That word is called sanctification. Now, if you're sitting at lunch on Monday talking about sanctification, you're probably a weirdo or a pastor, but for everybody else, we don't really use that word very much. But let me just break down what. What God's rock shaping what his process looks like for your life. It's called sanctification. And sanctification is the ongoing process of becoming more like Jes and how we live every day. It's growing in faith, avoiding sin, and developing godly habits through the help of the Holy Spirit. You can do this. You don't have to stay stuck in the same rut. Your family doesn't have to stay stuck in the same place where it is. There is freedom for God's people.
And sanctification is where God says, why don't you go and apologize?
Sanctification is where God says, that's. That's enough of that. Come on, get up. Let's go. Get out of that mess. Stop calling her. Delete that number. Block that website.
Come on, somebody. That's called sanctification. Why? Because God loves you too much to leave you that way. God refines me because he loves me and he knows my true potential. He knows what I'm capable of.
I'm not good on my own, but left in the hands of a father that loves me and has a perfect design, I can do incredible things. And he sanctifies me, he polishes me, he shapes me to fit me into the place where he has for me to be placed.
You know, it's interesting that towards the end of this passage that Peter was talking about, he says, you know, the. To those that don't believe, to those that disobey that, Jesus is a rock of offense. He's a stumbling block for them. Think about that. That word is scandalon. It's a scandal. It's literally something put in front of you that causes you to trip.
Don't be tripping the rock of offense. You know, some of the most beautiful and loving things that Christ has ever done for us is offend us.
Do you have.
[00:29:48] Speaker C: Do you.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: Do you have that relationship with the Lord where he can offend you?
Well, I don't like that, but he's right.
Well, you shouldn't say that, but you're correct.
Jesus loves you too much to not offend you. Like, come on. He loves you enough to do it. He loves you to stumble. Why? Because the path you're going down is wrong.
And what happens when you have people that don't listen, that won't take warnings? Sometimes the most loving thing that you can do is to cause them to fall, to save their life. What happens to a world that's going to hell? What happens to people that we know and love, people that are around us every day that do not have a relationship with Christ? Jesus loves them enough to offend them. Jesus loves them enough to cause them to stumble, to keep them from going to hell. Please hear me. Hell and heaven are real places.
Hell is a place you don't want to go. And God loves you too much to allow you to live a life where no one ever, ever offends you with the gospel.
It's offensive. It might be painful at times, but it's necessary for me. It's necessary for you.
One time, my wife and I went to a little T ball game. Some friends of ours had some kids that were playing T ball. And it's just. It's just the wildest thing. It's not really baseball because once they hit the ball, like, the whole team takes off running towards the ball. You ever seen that?
And then they start running the bases, but they run them backwards. You're just like, what in. This is not how you play the game. It's so crazy. But I remember, like, you know, after sitting there for a couple of games, I. I walk over to the concession stand and I'm trying to get a chili dog so my wife doesn't see eat it real quick.
And I remember walking back and I'm trying to wolf this thing down before I get back to the bleachers. And there's a little kid walking next to me. He's probably five or six years old, and he has a snow cone. And he's just completely 100% locked in on this snow cone, you know, both hands, trying to be careful, and just blew all over his face. I'm like, is that a good snow cone? You know?
So I'm like, look, at this kid. Well, he's just going in all about this snow cone. And as I'm sitting here talking to him, we're walking back, and I'm trying to choke down this chili dog. I hear a noise up above me. I look up, and there's about 30ft above me is this massive tree limb that has broken off the tree and is falling right at us.
And I'm thinking in that moment, like, I probably have time to dive out of the way, but it's going to kill this kid. Like, this kid is tiny. Like, what's going to happen to this little kid? And I scream, move. Is he listening to me? No, he's listening to snow cone move. And as I'm. As I'm leaning to the left, I realized, like, if you're gonna do anything, you might have to hurt this kid. What do I do? I drop that, kick that kid about six feet that way. Boom. That kid goes flying. Snow king. Snow. Snow cone goes flying everywhere. He's screaming, but I end up falling to the left. I kicked him to the right. The tree fell right down in the middle of both of us, and shattered people started screaming. But the kid was fine, except that he was mad. They thought, is he hurt? He's like, my snow cone. I'm like, you're welcome.
Watch. One of these days, I'm gonna tell that story, and there's gonna be somebody. That was me, Pastor, you. You broke six ribs. Like, I'm sorry. I saved your life.
Why?
Because he wouldn't listen.
Why? Because I could see something coming he didn't recognize.
And Jesus himself is a rock of offense, a stumbling block to those that won't believe. Why? Because he loves them too much to let them keep going down a road that leads to death.
And God loves you too much to lead you down a path that doesn't matter. To let you waste your life doing things that are foolish and mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. And we, me and you, we're a group of people built to keep people from going to hell. We are walking advertisements for our Father, to show people that there's something better than just living a life, trying to get some more toys. There's something better than just living a life, trying to make your neighbor jealous.
You're called for a purpose. You were bought with a price. You've been given the power of the Holy Spirit to help your life become more and more like Christ. And we do that in the context of unity, coming together, fitting together, joining our lives to Christ and to each other, bearing one another's burdens and allowing the Lord to purify our hearts from what makes us us into what makes us look more like Him. Can you receive that? Everybody, as we finish up today, I want to invite you to go ahead and close your Bibles and put down your phones for just a second. We spend most of our lives on our phones. Put them down for just a second. Let's have a moment where we listen to the Lord. I believe that God led you here today for a purpose. You're here for a reason.
Would you just set your phone on the chair beside you, Set it underneath your leg, and everything that you need is right here. God's going to take care of everything right now. You're going to be fine. But take a moment, if you would. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Let's have a moment of peace.
Just take a deep breath where you are.
Take a deep breath and breathe it out.
Just rest for a second.
Come on. Life gets hard. Life moves fast.
Take a moment to breathe in the presence of the Lord. Just pause.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord, for the breath that's in my lungs.
Thank you, Lord, for the purpose that my life has.
I'm not an accident.
My life matters.
My life has a point.
Lord, you've called me. You chose me before I was even born. You chose me as a walking advertisement for you.
You called me to declare your praises in the way that I treat people and the way that I speak, the way that I do life. That's a representative of yours, Lord, I take that seriously. Today. It's gonna change the way that I operate on Monday.
I represent you with every head bowed and every eye closed all across this place.
Let me ask you this. Maybe you're here today and you're saying, pastor, if I'm gonna be honest with you, I am so far from God right now. Pastor, I need to come home. My friend, you are in the right place. God led you here for this moment. Don't let it pass you by.
If you want a relationship with Jesus, if that's your heart, perhaps even as I'm talking about that, your heart starting to beat faster. You're feeling that inside of your body that lets you know that you're in the right place.
If you could see it right now, God himself is reaching down his hand to you, saying, come home.
Come home.
So you may say, how do I respond to that? What should I do? It starts with a prayer, my friend. And let me help you with this prayer. With heads bowed and eyes closed. If you want a relationship with Jesus, right where you are right now, pray this prayer with me. You can do it out loud if you want to. You could do it with a whisper. It doesn't matter. The most important thing is that you believe it. But just pray this. Say, jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.
I believe that you came and died, and I believe you rose from the grave.
You did that. So that I could have life, so that I could have forgiveness for all of my sins.
I pray this. My friends say, jesus, I made a mess of my life.
Will you help me, please? Forgive me, Jesus. I'll serve you the rest of my life.
Thank you for loving me.
And with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that was you, if you just prayed that prayer, I'm not going to embarrass you in any way. I would never do that. But just those of you that prayed that prayer, would you do me a favor? Would you look up at me and slip up your hand into the air and say, that was me. I prayed that prayer. Yes, I see you. Good, good. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Good for you. I am so proud of you. That prayed that prayer. God heard that prayer. It's more than just words.
Your Father's listening. And today is a day of new beginnings for you. If you'd like some help in your walk with Jesus, I want you to know I prepared something just for you. If you prayed that prayer, then there's a phone number that's going to appear behind me on the screen. If you're watching online, that number is appearing on your screen right now. Would you text me, text the words I prayed to that number? If you text the words I pray to that number, what's going to happen is I'm going to send you the link to some things that I've prepared that will help you understand what just happened inside of your heart and what you're supposed to do next. This is not the end of your relationship with Jesus. This is the beginning. And it's the greatest honor of my life to help people know Jesus better. Good for you.
For everybody else, go ahead and look up at me if you would, then let's stand to our feet together once again. I want to remind our viewers that are watching online if you liked what you heard today. If you feel like this is a an appropriate message that the world needs to hear, share this message on your social media profile. If you're here today with us live in service and you have social media, which how many of us. Don't. Come on. If you believe that your life is called to make a difference, share this message. Let your world see that you're standing for Christ, that you belong to a group of people, that you're not ashamed of what God is doing in your life and in this church. It's a beautiful thing when you do that. And I want to say thank you for that. I also have our elders and their wives are going to step forward. And as this service is ending today, if you need prayer for anything, you need prayer for your marriage, need prayer for your business. You need prayer for your kids. Maybe you've got a diagnosis that you're struggling with. Let us pray for you. Do not leave this place saying, man, I wish somebody would pray for me. Come on, it's free. We would love to pray for you. God's done great things here and perhaps you're the next miracle for everybody else. Let me just pray for you and bless you as I send you out. Father, would you bless my friends with an incredible day, hearing from you, following after you. I pray that they'd walk in your goodness all week long, becoming the ambassadors for Christ that you've called each of us to be. Would you bless their families, Lord? Bless their health, bless their finances? Lord, I pray these things in the name of Jesus and all of us said together, Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening.
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