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00:00:01
Always Faithful - The Blueprint Series
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In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about staying steadfast in faith and the importance of evaluating actions through a spiritual lens, questioning whether they focus on oneself or Jesus. He humorously addressed "first world problems" and outlined three ways to maintain faithfulness: engaging in gospel community, trusting Jesus fully, and remaining committed to God's mission. Barron shared the inspiring story of Derek Redmond and his father during the 1992 Olympics to highlight support in tough times, and drew lessons from Paul's journey in Acts 21, emphasizing community and spiritual relationships. By distinguishing between determination and stubbornness, and offering discernment tips aligned with God's Word, Barron encouraged listeners to reflect on their decisions and relationships, ensuring they honor God and foster spiritual growth.
Timestamps:
00:00 Community support is vital for spiritual strength.
05:45 Spirit warned Paul; he departed, saying farewell.
09:29 Surroundings and influences shape your mindset significantly.
13:55 Voyage: Tyre to Ptolema and Caesarea, meeting Philip.
17:40 Will that be your testimony: impactful faith?
20:26 Paul warned, remains ready for Jerusalem's fate.
24:23 Bible's relevance is timeless, unchanging, and authoritative.
27:15 Prioritize Jesus' name, not personal preferences.
32:15 Invite for marriage prayer, ensure hope remains.
34:42 Love and understanding in marriage and divorce.
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Transcript
00:00:02
Speaker
Good morning, if you've got your Bibles, I want to turn to Acts 21. We're gonna begin there this morning. What an incredible morning, incredible weekend indeed it has already been. I'm very thankful for six baptisms this week. We had five, yeah.
00:00:18
Speaker
Keep going, Will, they'll join in eventually. um So yeah, we had...
00:00:27
Speaker
Thursday night, a baptism of a young lady, actually my niece, so I get to brag on that. And then this morning, those guys and ladies that were part of the retreat last weekend, it's an incredible time. So, um and I'm gonna throw an image up here for you. For those of you who are a little bit older, you might...
00:00:43
Speaker
Can you do it? Because mine's not responding. Thank you. The gentleman on the left right there, the runner, some of you might recognize this image. It's a an iconic sports image. His name was Derek Redmond. In 1988, he tried out for the Olympics and failed to make the qualifier. 1992, he qualified and ran 400 meters for the United Kingdom. And as he made the last turn in his only race of the day, he tore his hamstring.
00:01:09
Speaker
Fell down on the track, obviously in great pain, and also very, very emotional. I mean, this is what he had been building for, his dream, every waking moment preparing for this. The guy on his left, your right, is Derek's dad. That day, as Derek laid on the track and the rest of the runners finished the race, Derek's dad came out onto the track, picked him up, put his arm around him, whispered in his ear, son, you and I will finish this together.
00:01:37
Speaker
It's a beautiful image and as much as it's really cool to see his son finish that race and to see a dad do something like that, to me what's really incredible is a dad who says you don't have to do this alone. You don't have to do this alone. Your dreams just crashed right there in a matter of seconds. Everything you've been working for, everything you planned for now has been rearranged because of an unfortunate injury. But it doesn't have to be the defining factor of your life.
00:02:07
Speaker
and together we will get through this. I imagine there's probably many of us in this room who have those moments in our lives where we we struggle a little bit, maybe we're a season of discouragement, maybe a season of emotional pain, maybe our relationships are struggling, maybe we're up against a trial that just seems like it's going to overwhelm us.
00:02:32
Speaker
And we would love it if we had somebody who would just walk alongside of us, just pick us up and say, you're gonna be okay, we'll get through this together. In fact, if you've ever had spiritual community, you know what that feels like, you long for that.
00:02:45
Speaker
ah Some of you have gone through some very, very dark moments. Mars' testimony with Lachlan just a minute ago and Rita's testimony with her grandson. Some of you have gone through divorces. Some of you have gone through career changes that rocked your world. And in those moments, you had people who came alongside of you and kept you moving in the right direction.
00:03:07
Speaker
Paul was one of those guys. You remember Paul, superhero of the faith, said in the book of Romans, man, ah I don't get this right all the time. There are moments where I really wanna be the kind of superhero I long to be for Jesus. I wanna carry his name forward. I wanna do what's right. But in those seasons, I find myself falling on my face again. I find myself spiritually injured. And those were the seasons when people people came around him and encouraged him and lifted his spirits.
00:03:37
Speaker
We're gonna take a look at a story today that kinda highlights that a little bit and reminds us of the faithfulness of Paul, but recognizes that Paul's faithfulness largely dependent on other people in his life as much as it did him. And my encouragement you to hear today, especially if you're new to our church or you're a guest here, if you feel like you're in this battle all alone and you're walking this journey all alone, you don't have to be.
00:04:03
Speaker
One of the things we talk about here frequently at this church is that you are not created to do life alone. From the very beginning, the very first moments of creation, God recognized that Adam alone was a bad idea. And so he created a woman who was better and wiser and smarter.
00:04:26
Speaker
Maybe.
00:04:29
Speaker
But is it doesn't it say something to us about the kind of God we have that one of the first things that God created after he finished the universe was the concept of marriage? The most intimate relationship that a man and woman can have. So I'm gonna dig into the story a little bit. We're gonna talk about some things as we go through the story instead of reading it all up front today. So keep your bibles open there.
00:04:53
Speaker
First thing I want you to see, if you're if you're going to walk a steadfast journey, if you're going to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, you need to seek key relationships with other believers. You need to seek key relationships with other believers. ah Verse 21 of chapter 21, it says,
00:05:09
Speaker
after we tore ourselves away from them. You'll remember if you were here last week, Paul was in Miletus making his way back to Jerusalem, and he purposely reached out to Ephesus, the elders at the church at Ephesus, and said, hey, I've got a limited amount of time, but I want to see you. You're important to me, so can you make the trip down here so we can spend some time together?
00:05:32
Speaker
Look at the rest of the verses. Let's jump down to verse four for the sake of time. He says, we sought out the disciples. This is Luke writing, because he's now on the journey with Paul. He says, we sought out the disciples and stayed there seven days.
00:05:45
Speaker
Through the spirit, they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. When our time had come to an end, we left to continue our journey while all of them with their wives and children accompanied us out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach to pray, we said farewell to one another and boarded the ship and they returned home. So here's this incredible image of Paul. Now, Paul's whole life was about goodbyes.
00:06:07
Speaker
right From the moment Paul accepted his calling, his commissioning from Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, he began to travel around Asia, ah the Middle East, and even parts of Europe, establishing churches one by one. And as he did that, it was all about establish a church, get it going, say goodbye, and go on to the next spot.
00:06:28
Speaker
The difference was that and before, it had always been about a more of a see you later than a real farewell. Because as you know, in the subsequent journeys, he would go back around, he would check on those churches, he would check on those people, those friendships. These were incredible relationships, not just fly by night kind of things. These were places where they had engaged in spiritual battle alongside of each other.
00:06:52
Speaker
But what's different about these goodbyes now, if you remember last week, is that now we're talking about true farewells. Instead of saying, see you later, Paul's saying, I'll probably never see you again.
00:07:06
Speaker
And so this image of these families going out to the beach to say goodbye to Paul and praying with him is a powerful image that represents exactly what Paul was going through. He was he was saying goodbye to lifetime friends, people who had invested and fought alongside of him, people who he had stood with. Do you remember why he was in such a hurry though? Remember from last week? Where was he going?
00:07:30
Speaker
going to Jerusalem. He was taking that offering to Jerusalem. He wanted to arrive before the Pentecost. So he purposely didn't go into Ephesus because he knew it would take too long, but here we see this image of him seeking out other disciples. Why? Because those relationships were invaluable to him. He knew that without them he would have never been the kind of person that Christ had called him to be. He would have never been able to carry out the commissioning that had been on his life.
00:07:56
Speaker
He allowed himself to be detoured. And the word we like to use around here is he allowed himself to be interruptible. Interruptible. That's a ah word that many of us aren't very familiar with here in the United States. Why? Because the first thing we do is we check our calendar every morning, right? What what is my day hole? What's on my agenda? What's in my itinerary? If we don't have one physically physically in front of us, we've got one in our head. We're knowing this is what I've got to do today. And because of that, most of us aren't very interruptible.
00:08:25
Speaker
God gives us little moments along the way where he wants us to engage people with conversation, or to encourage somebody else's heart, and our response might be more like, well, God, you know I really gotta get to the grocery store before I pick up the kids from school. You know I've got this meeting later this evening, and I really need to get home and get some things done. God, have you seen my schedule? I haven't been home with my family at all this week. Could you find another place, another person, another time?
00:08:53
Speaker
but for Paul, these things matter. And again, if you've ever had true community, you understand the importance of this. You understand how incredibly necessary it is to have these people around us. Read the book of Proverbs, for instance. Proverbs 1320 says, the companion of fools suffers harm. In other words, you better be very careful who you surround yourself with.
00:09:17
Speaker
All right, here's ah here's a little formula for you this morning, hopefully it'll save you some heartache. Hang out with stupid people, you do stupid things. Okay? Now, none of you need help being stupid, and me included. We all have the ability to do that on our own, but we surround ourselves with foolish people. The Bible says you wind up ruined. Now, let's let's take this a little bit deeper than just, you know, who do you go to coffee with? It might be your coworkers.
00:09:46
Speaker
It might be the people in your neighborhood, the people who are on your ball team, in your classroom. What about the entertainment you entertain yourself with? It may not be actual physical friendships, it may be the fact you sit in front of the TV every night, you start acting like the TV. You become overwhelmed by the news and suddenly everything around you is desperation and negativity because you're not filling yourself with God's word and you don't have people around you encouraging to be filled with God's word.
00:10:16
Speaker
I told him I was gonna try to do an illustration this morning, but I knew he wouldn't have time with five baptisms, so I'm gonna do it this way. ah let's Let's say that Phil Branstadter and Hunter Simpson were gonna be friends. And they stood here together, and I said, I want the two of you to communicate and become friends. And Hunter went that direction, and Phil went that direction. How successful do you think they'd be? Not at all. I mean, it's obvious, right? You gotta be close to each other. You gotta be in proximity in order to have those conversations physically.
00:10:46
Speaker
But spiritually and emotionally, the same thing is true. If you attach yourself to people who are headed in different directions, you'll never have true friendships that will encourage your walk. Now let's go back to Hunter and Phil. If I said to them, I want you to meet me at the front of the stage, there would come a point, a place in their journey where eventually they would wind up at the same spot, face to face, brothers in Christ.
00:11:15
Speaker
I think that the implications are clear. If you're looking for people who are gonna encourage you in your life, look for people who will meet you at the cross. Look for people who will meet you at the feet of Jesus because they are the ones who you want in your life. If you're trying to make a stand for Jesus, if you're trying to be more consistent in your journey with Jesus and your friends are pulling you in a different direction, two things, you don't need them, they're not your friends.
00:11:43
Speaker
because your friends are people you have real common things with. When I was in student ministry, I used to put it to them this way. Your high school friendships are primarily, primarily, there are exceptions, but they're primarily friendships and relationships based on convenience, right? We play on the same team, we're in the same science class, maybe we live in the same neighborhood, we ride carpool together. There's all kinds of convenient reasons. And what happens is when you graduate from high school, most of those friendships disappear.
00:12:13
Speaker
right and I don't care what they signed in your annual, we are not best friends forever. right In fact, if it weren't for Facebook, most of you wouldn't even know where your high school friends were, would you? Probably a good sign you don't need them.
00:12:31
Speaker
Get into college, what happens? Suddenly you start to pick some friendships based on more values-based kind of decisions. They're like me. We like to do the same kind of things. We have the same kind of priorities in our life. Get beyond that and become an adult. How many of you would say that most of my really good friends, in fact, largely all of my really good friends are friends I've made since college?
00:12:57
Speaker
Why? Because we begin to mature in the reason we make those decisions. Guys, we gotta do the same thing in our relationships when it comes to our walk with Jesus Christ. We need people who are gonna encourage us towards the cross, not pull us away from the cross. And Paul knew that. Now now there's a second thing you need to hear though, it's really important to hear. While that's going on and while Paul's encouraging those kinds of relationships and sees the value of them, he also is very careful to say to his friends, my ultimate commitment is to God.
00:13:25
Speaker
My ultimate commitment is to the mission that he has given me. He reminds them my life is submitted to Jesus. I've been called for a purpose and I determine I will not lose sight of that purpose. Your relationship with God must always be first. And I'll go further to say this, you can't be the good friend you need to be for anybody unless you're a good friend with Jesus. The second thing here, we wanna stay faithful.
00:13:54
Speaker
We wanna stay faithful. Look at verse seven. It says, when we completed our voyage from Tyre, we reached Ptolemae where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. The next day we left and came to Caesarea where we entered the house of Philip the Evangelist who was one of the seven and stayed with him. This man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.
00:14:17
Speaker
We haven't seen Philip a while, but if you've been a part of this Acts journey with us, you'll remember the first time he appears was in Acts chapter six. The church needs deacons to serve the widows. And so they gather seven men, but in that listing, it is, if you go back and look, Stephen, who was full of faith, and oh, by the way, Philip and the other guys. So that was Philip's recognition. Two chapters later though, Philip is now the guy who's introducing Jesus to Samaria,
00:14:47
Speaker
and is called in this miraculous story where he is instantly transported from there down to the the road to Gaza to have an encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch and to lead him to Jesus Christ. Now he appears again in Acts 21, 30 years later. And did you catch it when we read it? He's not just Philip anymore, he's Philip the Evangelist. Wouldn't you love to have a nickname like that?
00:15:17
Speaker
Ridley the gospel teller. Ridley the gospel conversation guy. Ridley the discipler. Get a t-shirt made, you know? This is Philip the evangelist. And what's so really cool about this is is twofold. Number one, 30 years later, Philip's still putting his nose to the grindstone for the gospel. The kingdom is still his priority.
00:15:44
Speaker
So much so that his name is synonymous with the messenger of the gospel. But the second thing, which I think is probably even more cool, he had four virgin daughters that prophesied.
00:16:01
Speaker
The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. See, your faithfulness doesn't just affect you, it affects generations. Your faithfulness, your steadfastness in the faith will have a ripple effect that will go in ways you don't understand at this point. Your faithfulness could change a nation. I don't think I'm overstating that. Because as Rita pointed out, one young man's testimony for nine months on the blog says thousands and thousands of people
00:16:39
Speaker
My son's life was over with in 17 months, but his story to this day has touched thousands of healthcare care workers.
00:16:50
Speaker
Your steadfastness could be the difference between someone seeing and understanding the gospel and missing it all together. And in this case, Philip's case, it was actually the fulfillment of prophecy.
00:17:05
Speaker
It will be in the last day, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Philip's faithfulness was rewarded. Can I just tell you that there's one really overarching goal I have in my life, and that is that one day I'll stand in front of Jesus and he'll look at me and say, way to go Ridley. Well done, faithful servant.
00:17:35
Speaker
I'm not naive, I know me better than any of you do. I know that Jesus is gonna go, dude, there was that one day you blew it really bad. And there were a couple of times you were hanging by a thread. And oh, by the way, you don't know everything.
00:17:54
Speaker
And.
00:17:58
Speaker
And all those times that you insisted that you have it your way, ah bad choice. But by and large, Ridley, you carried the torch, you fought the fight, you stood for the word, and because of you, turn around and look. These are the people who made it into heaven because of you.
00:18:25
Speaker
Will that be your testimony?
00:18:30
Speaker
If this roof were to cave in right now, which is a good likelihood knowing the late nature of this building, just shooting straight with you guests. I mean, we're real transparent about this. There's no better evangelism tool than to have you come in here, face the reality. But if this roof were to cave in right now, all seriousness, what would be the legacy of your life?
00:18:56
Speaker
Man, he batted 350 in high school, led the league in home runs. She was the first woman CEO of her corporation. They had eight children who lived to tell about it. But is that really what you want to hear from Jesus?
00:19:19
Speaker
What we really want to hear is a Jesus who looks finally at us and says, thank you for everything you did. Thank you for making me famous.
00:19:31
Speaker
Thank you for sharing the good news even when it wasn't convenient. This was the story of Paul's life. Somebody is watching you. Did you know that? At all times, somebody is watching you.
00:19:49
Speaker
And maybe, maybe it's your life that will help get them through the next day of their life. Maybe it's your story that will help them get through this season.
00:20:01
Speaker
Maybe it'll be your story that helps them get back up on their feet after horrible, horrible days.
00:20:09
Speaker
Maybe it's your story that tells them not to give up on their marriage. Lastly, encouragement for you, don't you give up. Don't you give up. Verses 10 through 14. It says, after we've been there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
00:20:32
Speaker
He came to us, took Paul's belt, tied his own feet and hands, and said, this is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him over to the Gentiles.
00:20:46
Speaker
When we heard this, both we and the local people pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul replied, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Since he would not be persuaded, we said no more except the Lord's will be done. No one could have blamed Paul for quitting.
00:21:13
Speaker
This is not the first warning he's received from the Holy Spirit and from his friends that Jerusalem is not gonna be what he anticipated. That it's probably gonna end poorly for him. Paul's friends saw him walk through trial after trial. In fact, that day as they stood there on that beach, there's a good chance he still bore many of the scars from his imprisonment and his beatings and being stoned. They were pleading with him, don't go through this one. Please do not make the trip to Jerusalem.
00:21:44
Speaker
Paul's response, why are you beating me up about this? The literal Greek there is the image of somebody who washes their clothes in a river, pounds it with stones. You've probably seen that acted out in different places. Paul's going, why do you keep pounding away at my heart? Don't you see that this is what I was called to be? Don't you understand that this is what I'm called to do? Don't you understand that if I don't do this, I have failed what Christ saved me for?
00:22:15
Speaker
Here's what I know, your determination can overcome any distraction. Now, delicate question here. What's the difference between stubbornness and steadfastness? What's the difference between stubbornness and steadfastness? Well, I'm gonna give you a couple clues, but I'll tell you this morning, my wife came in as I was reviewing my sermon and she walked over, gave me a hug, kissed me on the forehead, and I looked at her and I said, am I stubborn or am I steadfast?
00:22:45
Speaker
She smiled at me very big, which concerned me at first. And then she said, this is a trap question on a Sunday morning that's not a good idea.
00:22:56
Speaker
I said, I'm not asking you to like, yeah just generally, am I more stubborn or steadfast? I still don't know the answer, which is I guess why we're talking to each other this morning at church. I know I have tendencies for both.
00:23:14
Speaker
I pray that my tenaciousness in certain seasons are the right determination. I refuse to compromise on the word. I refuse to compromise on my values. I refuse to take shortcuts when it comes to holding people accountable. Sometimes that leads to stubbornness.
00:23:38
Speaker
So how do you know when to dig your heels in and say, I refuse to budge versus let's talk about this because I may have other options. How do you know what's the right move there? Because most of the time, most of the time it's not unbiblical versus biblical or good versus evil. Most of the time it's actually good versus gooder, right? Most of the time it's trying to decide between two things that are actually pretty good, maybe even beneficial.
00:24:09
Speaker
So how do you know what is worthwhile and what God wants you to do versus, this is all about me? Well, here's the two clues I would give you. Number one, it will always align with scripture and not fade away if it's God's idea. God never asks you to contradict his word.
00:24:30
Speaker
Now this is important because this day and age in the church, sadly from leaders of the church, there's this movement to say, oh, the Bible was good 2000 years ago, but it was never meant to be applied to today. Which lets me know they haven't read the whole Bible. Because if you read the Bible, the Bible says of itself, it will never pass away. Its meaning is constant, continual, and forever. If it was good enough for Paul and those guys back in this day,
00:24:58
Speaker
I don't think God had shortsightedness. I think he knew exactly what he was doing. And so it's our word for our life in this season. And if you're praying about decisions, if you're considering your call or what the balance of your life should look like, I can assure you that it will never contradict scripture and it won't just be a passing fad.
00:25:23
Speaker
If you wake up today and they have a nudge from Jesus and you wake up next week and you have the same nudge for Jesus, there's a good chance you're listening to Jesus.
00:25:34
Speaker
I had a friend, worked with my student ministry back in the day when I was up in Nashville. We went to one of the old Promise Keepers Conferences. Many of y'all remember that, the big stadium events for men. We sat at one end of Legion Field in Birmingham for one of these events. That young man standing next to me, good friend at the time.
00:25:55
Speaker
We got through the whole day's events singing the last song and he looked at me tears in his eyes And I watched him literally run down the steps onto the field 130 yards to the stage at the other end of the field I thought whoa What was that all about? Of course when it was over with there's 60,000 guys in there Took a while for him to make his way back to us when it was all over with I said what's going on brother? He said Back when I was in high school, I remember standing outside one day and God saying to me, I'm calling you to ministry. He said, here I am 30 years old and I'm still running from it. And it won't go away. I said, probably a good indicator you need to stop. He said, yeah, he said, and you know what I did today? I said, you ran the fastest 130 yards I've ever seen a guy run? He said, yep. And he said, I finally ran the right direction.
00:26:58
Speaker
God will never call you to something that contradicts his word and it won't just be a passing nudge. He'll stay at you until he gets you. Secondly, it's always about advancing his name, not yours. We want to be well respected. ah Everybody wants a good reputation. In fact, the Bible says to desire that, that you do have a good reputation, that you are recognized by other people. But it also says that the name of Jesus every knee will bow, not yours.
00:27:27
Speaker
It says that at the name of Jesus, every tongue will confess that He is Lord, not yours. We wanna make His name known, not yours, not mine, not even the name of Grove Hill Church. So when you're praying about something that's going on in your life, ask the question, is this really about me? Is this about my preferences? Is this about my biases? Is this about my prejudice? Is this about my comfort, my convenience?
00:27:57
Speaker
Or is this about Jesus?
00:28:01
Speaker
Let me encourage you, before you send the email to a staff member at our church, before you send a text to a staff member of our church, before you pick up the phone and call a staff member of our church, pray and ask that question. Is this because I have a preference or because this is really about the kingdom of God? Two things are gonna happen. Number one, you're gonna save me an unnecessary conversation or our staff member. Number two, at about 95% of the time when those emails come in, by the time we get to a response on it, people go, I really shouldn't have sent that email. I was just in a bad mood at the time. Or, got to thinking about it and you know what, y'all probably have a reason for doing what you do. Surprise, the staff has a reason for doing what we do.
00:28:54
Speaker
I just say that to you because that's a practice you should do, not just with your staff. You should do it every email you send, every text you send out, every phone call you respond to. Ask the question, is this about me or is this about Jesus? Is this about me wanting to be more comfortable with my situation? Is this about me wanting to have a little more attention for myself? Is this me wanting to call the ambulance because I'm wah-wah-ing about things?
00:29:28
Speaker
but That should be on a t-shirt, shouldn't it? It's actually from a movie. um we we Here's the thing, we whine a lot about first world problems. Right? My favorite one, I'm gonna love you the rest of your life, okay? So don't take this too personal, but it's personal. um My favorite one is the one where we announce things seven different ways for eight weeks and the event comes up and everybody goes, I didn't know anything about this.
00:29:59
Speaker
The Jesus side of me goes, oh, I'm sorry. The Ridley side of me goes, it's not my job to read your email, read your texts and answer your phone calls.
00:30:12
Speaker
We do everything we can for the kingdom of God. We do everything we can to make Jesus famous. We do everything we can to elevate him above all other things.
00:30:28
Speaker
So to be steadfast, three things, just as reminders. Number one, align with scripture, oh no, that's not it, sorry. oh Seek gospel community. If you don't have a discipleship group, a small group, a community group, Bible study, life group, anything like that, in about two minutes, Pastor John's gonna be right outside that door behind Anthony Sedlec right there. If you don't have one, walk right there and he will get you connected with some people.
00:30:56
Speaker
You need believers in your life to walk this journey with you. Number two, trust Jesus and submit your whole life to the Lord. Your whole life. Not just the next few weeks until you get an answer. Not just today because it feels good. Give him your whole life even when life looks rough. Even when times aren't going great.
00:31:25
Speaker
even when you're laying on the track, watching your dreams disappear. And I promise you what you'll find is that Jesus will walk the rest of the journey with you. And if you've never made that decision in just a minute, I'm gonna have staff up here, they would be happy to talk to you about what that looks like and answer those questions for you. Third thing, remain faithful to God's mission and stay focused. Now, here's here's what we're gonna do different this morning. Is Jaden in here yet?
00:31:57
Speaker
Okay, if e anybody sees a lost worship leader, send them this way. um This is the response this morning. and Number one, if you don't know Jesus, today's the day to take care of that. Today's the day to settle that issue so you don't have to live with fear, don't have to live with doubt, don't have to live with worry. But here's what I want to do different this morning because ah i justve I've kind of been praying through this, thinking through this for the last several weeks, talking with Lisa. I feel like this is important. This morning,
00:32:27
Speaker
If your marriage needs some prayer, I'm gonna invite you just to come and stand at this stage and when we're done, I'm gonna pray over you and your marriage, okay? If you're here by yourself this morning, your spouse in here, doesn't make any difference, you can come by yourself. By coming, you are not saying I'm on the brink of divorce, okay? Though some of you are. By coming, you're not saying there's no hope for my marriage because there he is.
00:32:56
Speaker
By coming, what you're saying is, you know what? Me and my my spouse were just in a dry season right now. I had one couple come up to me today, been married for a long time. He looked at me, he said, do you always like your wife? I said, heck no.
00:33:12
Speaker
I said, I love her every single day, but there are days I don't like her very much and there are even more days she doesn't like me at all.
00:33:20
Speaker
That's the natural process of human humanity. that's we We rub against each other. There's friction sometimes. Maybe you're in a season where it seems like everything is friction for you too. And you just wanna be prayed over this morning. The reason I think that is this is really important is because our culture more than ever just seems to be so anti-family.
00:33:43
Speaker
And the family is, it's been overstated probably, is the building block of our culture. It was such an important thing that when Jesus, finished excuse me, when God finished, actually truly Jesus finished creating everything, the very first thing he did was to say, let's create marriage. Because a man needs a woman and a woman needs a man and the two of them together are much better than apart. And Satan's been fighting that ever since that first marriage.
00:34:17
Speaker
So again, coming up here, we'll we'll take the time. We're already over anyway because of the baptisms. We'll take the time. We'll pray over you. It's not to say that anything necessarily is chaotic in your marriage, although I don't know very many marriages that don't have chaos. In fact, if you don't have any chaos, maybe you need to come up here and preach the next sermon for us.
00:34:42
Speaker
I just wanna to pray over you because I love you very much. I love what your marriage stands for because whether you know it or not, your marriage stands for something good that God gave us. I wanna remind you that when you stood before God and made those vows however long ago, those vows said, till death do us part. And if sadly you've been through a divorce, can I just say to you that you are loved by God in this church Divorce is not the unpardonable sin. It's not the thing that you never recover from. It's not the, oh my gosh, that just ruins it all. We, all of us have our problems, all of us. There's death, there's divorce, there's disease, and all of them come straight from an enemy who's responsible for every bit of it. Okay, I'm gonna quit talking. As you stand, we sing, if you wanna come up here and be prayed for, for any reason, we invite you to come to this altar.