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Passionately Participate with God
30 Plays25 days ago
Judges 5:1-31
Recommended
Transcript
Anthems of Victory in History
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Every generation has its songs of victory. When the Americans won their freedom, they sang the Star-Spangled Banner. When the civil rights marchers endured persecution, they sang, We Shall Overcome.
00:00:16
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And when the New York Islanders won the first Stanley Cup, they sang, We Are the Champions. We are the champions of the world.
00:00:29
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Come on, it's okay to sing that. Every generation has its song of victory. Brothers and sisters, when we experience God's faithfulness in our lives, we often sing songs like Amazing Grace or Victory in Jesus.
00:00:42
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We'll see this morning that Deborah's generation, they had their own song as well. It was a song about the Lord who fought for his people, who called them out to participate in his good work.
The Song of Deborah and God's Deliverance
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And in return, he blessed those who participated.
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we have a decision to make this Sunday morning.
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When we see God move in our homes and in our church and in our city, will we rise up and join in with that victory song playing in the background? Or will we be found on the sidelines, sitting this one out as a spectator?
00:01:23
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This is what we're going look at today in Judges chapter 5. Judges chapter 5, if you'll turn there with me, has over the very heading over this chapter, the song of Deborah.
00:01:34
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And I'll just tell you, if you were faithful and you were here last week, ah you have extra points. ahead of the You're ahead of the curve. Because chapter 5 literally recaps chapter 4, but in song format.
00:01:48
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So I will call on you to sing. now I'm joking. I will not call on you to sing.
Participation vs. Spectating in God's Plan
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It is... Biblical poetry, what we'll see in chapter 5. It is a song of Deborah and Barak, which you'll remember from last week, celebrating this victory that God had delivered them over the Canaanites.
00:02:11
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You'll see very similar repeating themes in chapter 5. As you hear this poem being read, and I won't read it in its at entirety because there are 31 verses, and I thought there is turkey waiting.
00:02:24
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so I want to make sure um I do it justice. As you hear the parts of the poem that I will recite, you'll hear people, you'll hear tribes, you'll hear leaders, you'll hear commanders, you'll hear kings, and you'll even hear nature itself.
00:02:44
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And as we listen to these various characters, I simply want you to to listen for one thing and one thing only. It's their conduct. They are either participating Or they're not.
00:02:55
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It's just that simple today. So let's listen as when we open up chapter 5, verse 1 and following. Verse 1 says, And on that day Deborah and Barak, son of Abinoam, sang this song. And verse 2 onward is is the song that they sung.
00:03:13
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Israel's leaders took charge, and the people gladly followed. Praise the Lord! Listen, you kings, pay attention, you mighty rulers, for I will sing to the Lord and I will make music to the Lord, the God of Israel.
00:03:26
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The Lord, when you set out from Seir and marched across the fields of Edom, the earth trembled and the cloudy skies poured down rain and the mountains quaked in the presence of the Lord, the God of Mount Sinai, in the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel.
Consequences of Inaction and the Blessing of Participation
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Even before this idea of came, was even formed, it says verse 4, that the Lord had set out from Seir and marched across the fields of Edom.
00:03:57
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The ruler of the universe, the creator, the one who made it all, has set forth in battle ahead of his people to provide them victory.
00:04:10
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It's a truly cosmic march if you think about it. Because we even see nature responding. says, The ground trembles, as Yahweh sets out. The clouds unleash a mighty storm.
00:04:24
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The earthquake shakes the mountains. The picture here, friends, is nature is participating in God's plans. He is the initiator.
00:04:35
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He has the plan. He's going forth. He's starting out on this march to save his people. And it says, rightly so, that which he created participates.
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So he creates the clouds and the wind and the storm.
00:04:54
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Verse 20, jump down to verse 20. Look what verse 20 says. It says, even the stars from heaven, the stars in their orbits fought against Sisera. The Kishon River swept them away, that ancient torrent, the Kishon.
00:05:09
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March on with courage, my my soul. Even the stars, it says here, and the rivers get involved in the fight. The stars literally fight from heaven.
00:05:22
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The Kishon River has swelled up because there's so much rain and it literally... ah traps the chariots in mud.
00:05:34
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They're slodged down. They can't move. And this deluge of rain is so big, it says it sweeps over the Kishon River, washing away the enemy's Nature, my brothers and sisters, is participating.
00:05:49
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This is what the author is doing. Not only is nature participating, but we see in verse 15, look at verse 15, there are some leaders that are also participating. Verse 15 says, the princes of Issachar were with Deborah and Barak and they followed Barak rushing into the valley.
00:06:09
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But, if you're somebody who circles or highlights, you might want to circle, underline, highlight, but. But in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision.
00:06:23
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Why did you sit at home among the sheepfolds? To hear the shepherds whistle for their flocks? Yes, in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision.
00:06:35
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Gilead remained east of the Jordan. why Why did Dan stay home? Asher sat unmoved at the seashore, remaining in their harbors. But Zebulon risked his life, and as did Naphtali in the heights of the battlefield.
00:06:50
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See, brothers and sisters, we have two sets of people going on here. We have those who joined in the battle and those who didn't. We have those who were called because they were God's people, understand these are his tribes,
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And he's calling them to join in the battle and some were actively participating and some were simply spectators.
Unlikely Leaders and Volunteers in God's Work
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But Reuben, here it says, this is the tribe of Reuben, had great indecision. This word is, you know, they they were searching their heart.
00:07:24
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They were waffling back and forth. Should I go? Shouldn't I go? Boy, and there's a lot of chariots. That doesn't look very appealing to me. yeah but our neighbors are all going. we We should go to... No, let's... Yeah, I don't know. You know, I got that soccer game on Saturday.
00:07:45
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Nothing robs us as believers of God's blessing more than indecisiveness. When God is moving, he's telling you and i jump on.
00:07:56
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jump on the train, I'm i'm doing something. What he's not looking for is, well, I just, you know, I don't know, this weekend's not great for me.
00:08:07
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I know there's a lot of stuff going on Wednesday night at the church, but Matlock's on Wednesday night. I can't miss my Matlock.
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We laugh.
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I just put a note to myself. These are God's people. These are his tribes. Shouldn't they all want to participate?
00:08:30
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Matter of fact, he's marching ahead, it says. He's going before them to save them from the Canaanites who they were supposed to originally wipe out. But they left.
00:08:42
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The Canaanites there. And so he's saying, I'm going before you. I'm going to start this battle. Will you please simply join in with me? And it says some were there and some decided just to stay at home.
00:08:57
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I kept coming back to this all week long. And and I don't know why I wrote this down. I wrote it down last Monday. I just wrote the words opting out. How many of you receive these emails, these unwanted emails that you get all throughout the week?
00:09:11
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And at the very bottom of the email you just say, ugh, just going to opt out of getting that one. It's easy to opt out, isn't it?
00:09:19
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Brothers sisters, this is not what God is calling us to do. He's not calling us to opt out.
00:09:26
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I just put, there's a lot going on at our own church. You simply need to look at the bulletin. There's a lot of stuff coming up in November and December. We just simply keep adding. You'll see everything that keeps scrolling around here.
00:09:41
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I joke with Cindy. I said, there's so much sometimes we can't fit it all in the bulletins. We have to be real selective of what we put in there. There's a lot of opportunity for your you to not opt out these upcoming months.
00:09:52
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One of those situations is the float that that Kim mentioned earlier. We have an opportunity to do the Christmas float. It takes a trailer. It takes a truck. It takes some creative people, and it takes some handy people to put together a float and not opt out.
00:10:11
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Instead, I looked at the sign-up sheet right before I came in here, and there's one name on that sign-up sheet so far. Womp womp.
00:10:20
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Oh, that's the beauty of being the pastor. See, sometimes I can just simply, from the pulpit, call you out. This is one of those Sundays, brothers and sisters, where I'm calling you out. And I'm also calling myself out because quite frankly, this is what it's easy. When we hear, hey, there's a need at the church, my first response is, well, hopefully there's somebody else that can go do that.
00:10:42
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I mean, there's 80 of you, there's one of me, right?
00:10:48
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It's easy to simply want to opt out. Thankfully, verse 9 tells us there are some people who are leaders who who chose not to opt out. Verse 9 says, my heart is with the commanders of Israel.
00:11:01
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With those who volunteered, or your translation may say, offered themselves willingly.
00:11:09
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This is the same picture, mind you, that they talk about when Jesus offered himself as a drink offering. He poured himself out as a free giving of yourself.
00:11:19
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It says, praise the Lord for these commanders. These these commanders that were over 40,000, and I put in quotes, warriors. Because they're not warriors. It says right here that they have no shield or no spear to participate. Yet, they're called warriors. Because they step out in faith and they participate in the Lord's plans.
00:11:40
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And I just put to a note to myself, talk about true leadership.
00:11:45
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These people stood up and offered themselves in a volunteer way. Lord, count me in. I don't know what the battle looks like. i don't All I know is there's 900 iron chariots out there.
00:11:59
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I don't know how many are going to die. i don't know if there's going to be mud. I don't know if there's going to be dirt. I don't know how many people are going to get killed. Lord, put me in. Because you've called me to act.
00:12:10
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You've called me to participate. We see a list of tribes that actually do participate. Thank goodness. Look at verse 13. Down from Tabor marched the few against the nobles.
00:12:24
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The people of the Lord marched down against these mighty warriors, and here they come. Ephraim, this is ones that that stood up and were counted. A land that once belonged to the Malachites, they follow you. Benjamin, Benjamin also is is in good standing here. They participated.
00:12:40
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From Makhir, the commanders marched down. From Zebulun came those who carried the commander's staff. To the prince the princes of Issachar with Deborah, Barak, they followed Barak rushing into the valley, rushing into the battle.
00:12:56
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So when it comes to God's people, the Israelites, who we would assume naturally would want to jump on board, we see some did and some didn't. And I put to myself, not a lot's changed in 2,000 years.
00:13:11
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We still have some among us today that call themselves Christians that choose to sit on the sidelines.
00:13:19
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To spectate and not participate.
00:13:23
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And I put a little picture of a brain with explosions around it in my notes. that's ah That's a sign for me. Just blows my mind. Blows my mind that we have God's people unwilling to step up and do God's work.
00:13:40
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What blows my mind more? Look at verse 6. Verse 6 is the most unlikely of people. It says step up. When God's people don't step up, the most unlikely characters step up and decide to participate. It says in the days of Shamgar and Jael.
00:13:58
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Right? Shamgar, non-Israelite. Jael, non-Israelite. Two people who were not God's people stood up and said count me in.
00:14:09
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Count me in. I'm going to go into battle. Count me in. I'm in it for whatever the Lord has for me. Two people, neither from Israel, both accomplished great things for the people of God.
00:14:22
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but And i just put as a note for for you trivia people. Both do it with unconventional weapons. right Shamgar does it with the ox goad. Jael does it with the stake and the hammer.
00:14:37
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The irony, a non-Israelite, non-warrior, non-male is the one who has the biggest impact for the kingdom of God. It's Jael. She joined in and participated in Sometimes, I don't know about you, but when I see non-church members step up in in ah in a way that's even greater than a lot of you guys that are members, it's encouraging to me. Because I think, wow, there are other people outside of us that are willing to step up and help out.
00:15:09
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Boy, that's encouraging to me.
00:15:13
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And ultimately God receives the glory and that's what's important. So what do we do when we look at this picture? I told you look at their conduct. That's the first thing. There's some who participate and there's some who don't. There's some who participate and there's some who sit on the sidelines.
00:15:28
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If that's their conduct, let's look at the consequences of that. Look at verse 23.
00:15:35
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Verse 23 says, Let the people of Meraz be cursed, said the angel of the Lord. Let them be utterly cursed. that's That's twice cursed, by the way. Because they did not come to help the Lord.
00:15:50
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To help the Lord against the mighty warriors. Twice they're mentioned cursed. The people of Meraz here are representative of those people choosing not to participate.
00:16:02
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This is the sideliners. This is the spectators. The author is saying, those guys, they're not getting the blessing. Matter of fact, they're getting the curse.
00:16:15
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I don't want to stretch that illustration too far. I just want to say sometimes a non-blessing is a curse. Sometimes sitting on the sidelines we're spectators we're like, wow, look at what all everything's going on at the church.
00:16:29
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Man, they're doing such great things. Look at the fall festival. Went off without a hitch. It took so many people. You know what a blessing it was for all those people that were up there setting up the booth and putting up all the decorations and handing out the Bibles?
00:16:44
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Brother P's ran out of Bibles. We handed out so many Bibles there that day. if youre If you weren't participating, you missed out on the blessing. that That's what I'm trying to get at here. This is what the author is pressing.
00:16:55
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Just like Meraz, who represents those who don't participate, and they were twice cursed, we also see there's somebody who is twice blessed. Look at verse 24. Verse 24 says, The most blessed among the women is Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite.
00:17:14
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May she be blessed above all women who live in tents. Just like Meraz was twice cursed, she's twice blessed. And I like verse 31. Look at 31. It says, Unlike your enemies that should die, may those who love you rise up like the sun in all its power. but Those who participate receive the blessing.
00:17:38
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Those who rise up to participate receive the blessing. what do we do with this today, brothers and sisters? it's It's a tough passage when we read through it and and it calls calls us out sometimes. It called me out all week, by the way.
00:17:54
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And I'll tell you, my notes simply wrote and underlined and and drew arrows back to the same phrase and I'm going to give it to you because it spoke to me. Are we doing enough?
00:18:08
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Are we doing enough? Meaning, are we doing God's work? Are we stepping enough? Or are we opting out? Are we participating or are we spectating?
00:18:20
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The call is rise up.
00:18:24
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When God is on the move in the house, in your home, in the church, in our city, will we answer that call and rise up? Will we join in or will we hit the button?
00:18:39
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Next person, please. I'll pass on this one next time. not saying you have to be here for every event. That's not what I'm saying. Almost every event.
00:18:50
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Somebody gets that.
00:18:54
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Brothers sisters, we have the grace not to feel like it's religious to be here or you don't get the blessing.
Promoting Spiritual Growth Through Family and Church
00:19:01
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but We have the grace to be here and not be here, but there should be something within us as Christians that desires to participate in the work of God.
00:19:10
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It should be like if you miss church on Sunday. You have, by the way, the freedom to miss church on Sunday. You can hear that right here from me. Matter of fact, next Sunday, I won't be here. I'm choosing not to be here. I'm going to go out with my lovely bride. We're celebrating our 15th, 16th, 15th, yep, 15th wedding anniversary.
00:19:31
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I won't be here. And we have the grace and ability to to do that. But there should be something in us that draws us back. Like, i want to I can't wait to get back to my church family. I can't wait to get back to celebrate with you guys.
00:19:43
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I can't wait to get back to serve. um It really is a matter of serving. Okay, what do we do with this? Three quick examples, then we'll call it turkey time. As God is moving in our homes, what do we do? How do we rise up as faithful leaders in our family?
00:20:01
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Just as Deborah is listed here in verse 7, Deborah, she arose as a mother in Israel. I just want to first say recognition to the single moms that are doing both jobs here today.
00:20:12
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Not easy. I get it. It's tough enough trying to raise a family with two parents. It's hard to do it with one and to do it well with one. How do we apply this in in the house, in the family? How do we rise up in faithful leadership?
00:20:28
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ah I put either begin or start again or restore family prayer and scripture reading. Family prayer and scripture reading essential in the family. If you're not doing it right now, this is what it looks like.
00:20:43
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Right before you dig into dinner, you pause. Everybody's at the table. Everybody puts down their eye, whatever, phone, pad, watch, phone,
00:20:55
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shoe, whatever they have connected now to the internet. You put all that away. You look at each other in the eyes and you say, we're goingnna we're going to say a prayer, a blessing for God that he has provided this food and this day and our health and you just keep expounding upon that.
00:21:12
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It doesn't have to be ah an eloquent prayer at at first. You simply start. Everybody around the table participates. This is not just a mom and dad praying over the kids. This is each one of the kids says something.
00:21:24
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And then i just put start small. Five minutes a week. Say, hey kids this is what we're gonna do We're going power off the TV. I'm going to read a verse or two and we're going to talk about it. Five minutes. It's super easy to do.
00:21:38
Speaker
It's crucial, brothers and sisters, that we model this. I put down, model what you want, not what you have. Model what you want your family to look like. so So often we go, yeah, I'm not that person. Boy, I'd like to be that person that prays before every meal, but yeah, I'm just not that person. Well, start. Start today by start modeling it. You'll be surprised how God honors that, and he'll stop those distractions, and he'll give your kids the focus, and you the focus, and the time when you start meditating.
00:22:07
Speaker
uh being obedient in that call let your home be a testimony of god's grace and i just put a sign that kim and i have in our house it says as for me in my house we will serve the lord constant visual reminder that this is god's house that we do things god's way in that family uh you'll be surprised brothers sisters as you launch your kids into this crazy world uh how just a set Time of prayer and a set time of scripture reading will go a long way.
00:22:38
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Second, in our church, when God calls us and stirs within our hearts to step up and serve, what does that look like to participate in the church? Well, I just put, it's not just for the pastors or the leaders.
00:22:52
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In Judges 5 it says, some tribes stayed at home, others offered themselves willingly. They offered, they volunteered, they stepped up. it's It's the question that asks of our ourselves, that I ask of myself, where is the need in the church and can I fill that?
00:23:07
Speaker
Might be teaching the children or visiting the sick or mentoring our youth or joining a prayer group or decorating the church at Christmas or singing in the choir. How great does our choir look? that I feel very full today. We're getting the numbers up here.
00:23:23
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I had one guy tell me one time, you know your church is thriving when there were are more people singing in the choir than they are in the pews. And I thought, well, that's something to shoot for.
00:23:33
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In a healthy church, brothers sisters, everybody has a role. We're all on a mission. We're all leading in some capacity. Whether it's up here or it's behind the scenes, God sees all of that.
00:23:47
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He sees the sacrifice, the sacred sacrifice and service that you're doing behind the scenes.
Community Service and Local Outreach
00:23:54
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But you've got to step up. There's plenty of opportunities here in the church to serve.
00:24:01
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right, third, in our city. How do we rise up when God calls us to move and if something's happening in the city, how do we step up? Well, I've just put two two quick ways.
00:24:12
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The food bank, which is just right down the road down here, which my wife is on the board, John Pease is on the board there, they are doing fabulous things there. I had no clue, by the way. I've been here, this is going in our third year. I had no idea the amount of stuff they give away, especially during Thanksgiving time.
00:24:35
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I mean, groceries abound. You can go and get groceries. You can get your whole Thanksgiving stuff there.
00:24:42
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There's a real need there. There's a real need for people, and volunteers, to step up and go help out. um Maybe that's something that that the Lord has touched your heart with. Maybe maybe that's a local...
00:24:54
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outreach that you can do and and show up and help pack food. We also do the angel tree here, you'll see in just a couple of weeks that Martha Henry puts out. It's an opportunity to go buy presents for kids that can't afford it.
00:25:08
Speaker
It could be something as small as that. It could be a neighborhood cleanup. It could be sub partnering with some type of local ministry here. Brothers sisters, we have the ability, we have the people, we have the money, we have to have the desire.
00:25:24
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I can't force you to get up and go serve. I can cajole you from the pulpit. I can hopefully prick your senses or your heart.
00:25:37
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Maybe I should be serving more. What a better season than to start stepping up, to rise up, to be counted. who who Who doesn't want to be that type of Christian that says, ah me, Lord, when when the call has happened?
00:25:54
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Me, Lord, put me in.
00:25:59
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I'll put down a note for myself. Put me in, coach. That's always think to myself. The guy that's sitting on the bench, you know, has his head hung low, that's not watching the game, that guy's never getting in the game.
00:26:13
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It's the guy that's sitting on the bench eagerly looking. Put me in, coach. Put me in. I can't wait to be put in.
00:26:21
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May we be a people who are crying out put me in.
00:26:27
Speaker
And all God's people said,