My Best Church Life - Week 5 - The CORE - Pastor Bill Monday
My Best Church Life
Week 5 - The CORE
Pastor Bill Monday
Welcome back to our series, “My Best Church Life” and our focus on just church, boiled down to one. Just you, and Jesus and his word. And so, before we jump into our message, let's ask God to bless us and with his word and we'll do. So in a short prayer, Lets pray.
Sanctify us. Oh, Lord. Yes, set us apart. Choose us to be yours forever, more. And make us of much good with a blessed life. A life to glorify you to glorify you and service to others. Is sanctify us by the truth. Your word is truth. Amen.
Or let me start off with a question. That gets really deep really intense for you for me, for sure. And here it is. Would you survive, would you survive worst case scenario? If it happened global crisis, national crisis, least, community crisis, home crisis? Would you survive if it all just depended on you to you to make it go to make it work? So what I'm thinking and again, God forbid, what if there was some kind of natural disaster and the food shortages everywhere, or what if there was some kind of pandemic, again, please that we pray that we've never revisit the pandemic of 2020, but what it was worse, or what? If we were invaded by foreign enemies Russia or maybe China, or maybe Canada from there, good people out north. But, but let's just say we have again, God forbid life, as we know it, it just comes to an end. And it's on you. You got to live off the grid, you've you've got to work the land. You've got to do whatever they used to do and pioneer days. You can tell I'm already ill equipped, I just would not survive. In fact, I asked my wife, is it? You know what happened? If the economy collapsed or whatever like you think, and I was kind of feeling, maybe a little manly like, you know, I figured it out right honey. You know, together, we do this. She's like we don't have a chance. No, we don't not gonna survive. Probably true. Probably true. Oh, she'll survive me? Probably not. So I got a little bit nervous about that. I was like, I am gonna figure this out. I, you know, it is as prepping for this message. I started to get paranoid and freak out I guess. So, I did what any scene person would do. You look for a book and you order something off of Amazon? So, I ordered this book and I can't recommend it because I honestly, I ordered this. Maybe a few weeks ago, I have not looked at one page yet. I just got other things. I guess I got to do, it's preppers long-term, survival guide. I get no royalties for this. By the way, just let me know what I ordered food, shelters security off the grid power and more life-saving strategies for self-sufficient living. Sounds like a plan, right? Then I noticed it's second edition. So as I well, what was wrong with the first edition? Did I miss some world clamity or side? I don't know. Okay, so hopefully, hopefully it would work. Maybe another reason why I didn't really look into that yet is what you. And I got a little secret, a little refuge that we always concerned to and that's our God. It doesn't mean we can't be prepared or shouldn't be prepared but in the end Some 50 reminds us call upon me. Call upon the Lord in the day of trouble. I will deliver you. You'll honor me. That's my go-to, that's my survival guide, just one passage there and a whole host of others. Which got me to thinking well let's just kind of change that question around a little bit. Would you survive if it just depended on you spiritually?
Let's say the worms in each church. There it wasn't 92 ministries. Saint Peter, the core there wasn't this gather route. We could sink into Jesus and grow this way corporately. It's a body of believers at worship and just no church around.
What I survived, would you survive? Still, like if we revisited the days of Adam and Eve and the garden like they didn't have the core to go to, they have any church was just those two. It was like no oil coming off the ark. Only eight people just his family was that where you would you survive? And then there was no small groups and we just launched those, right? So hopefully you're connected to a small group, if not this time around in January, when we start them up again, get connected doing life with six to eight to 12. It's just a way that we can bear one another's burdens give life and the word. But let's say that was gone or our day school was gone at Saint Peter, and it was just you It's just you as a family unit of one, if you're a family unit of one. Or if you've got kids and trusted to you, or if you're married and spouse, it's just, you would use survive. Even more, would you thrive? So today we're going to contemplate that question. If there was no gather route for worship, no group root where you could do life together with others for one hour, two hours, maybe more, But if it just came down to a church of one, would you have your best church life? Even more, your best life?
As we wrestle with that thought, I want to bring it to one of our core values then and I think this is a beautiful time of year to kind of reflect a little bit of how God has designed his gospel efforts ministries church at large and how we've kind of come up with some short hand. Different ways to remember some of the essentials. So if you're taking notes today, maybe fill in this thought about faith because that's what it all boils down to having your best church. Life is having a vibrant living flourishing, faith. And if we had to exclude gathering together and worship and grouping together, if it just came down to you, Would you see why we might have this as a core value for 92 ministries, faith is home grown and we'll just feel in that blank here. We'll leave the element for a moment. Did you know that's one of our core values here? Which by the way we find from the scripture, this idea that faith isn't just given in enriched within the four walls of the church or in small household, gatherings, with other Christians. But even in your own home, when you're all by yourself, Fact, we would argue that faith is enriched just as much there, if not more there. Then it could be when we gather in this place. Faith is homegrown. That's a core value. Kind of a mission thought for us as we go about our lives. It's right up there with. Maybe you've heard some of the other core values. 200 proof Grace and truth. Right? You've heard that raise your hand if you've heard that one before. Oh good. Okay. So you've heard some of our core values or maybe you've heard you unique, but United, or you united, in any unique, Saint Peter's campus is quite different than the course campus, which is quite different than the Saint Peter school campus, which is different than the Lighthouse ministry offering, which is different than the church online. Which is different than what small groups might look like here there. So we've got a lot of unique offerings. A lot of unique ways to be of encouragement to one another. And all of them are blessed by God, we're convinced and yet these differences don't divide us. We're still united. So that one of our core key values for the group root and so on to
Faith is, homegrown, that's right up there with the other values. The other things like being all things to all people which is where 922 comes from. 1 Corinthians 9:22, we want to be all things to all people, so that by all possible means within the love and law of Christ, we might just rescue some with the good news of Jesus. So all things feel lost, another value virtue.
Homegrown. Faith. We really believe that which is really an encouragement, I would think for you, If we ever just get into a pattern, we're just saying come to us. Come here, fill up your calendar. It's all about being here. We don't want to give that impression we want to say, no, we want to go with you in spirit and prayer and perhaps in person to encourage you, where life really happens. By God's design in your home. We want to be a church that is for your family, whether you're a family of one or family of many. If you're married, we want to be there for you as a church that supports marriage. If you're single like the apostle Paul like Jesus, we want to be there in your singleness and support you and and offer all the companionship that you can find among the body believers. But see it, flourish at home? It's a core value. And today, again, we're wrestling with this thought. What if at all depended? Then your survival of just faith and homegrown. And that's all you had, just the grow root, would you survive if it all depended on you?
Little spoiler alert, the end of the message. Today, I'm going to let you know. It doesn't depend on you, so, praise God. Jesus is not about burdening you and with such life and death and eternal nature of things. You'll never be put in a position where it just depends on you.
And so if we're going to speak this way, it's just for this message here, just to emphasize the importance of the Grow root still celebrating. That faith is a gift from God. Faith comes from hearing his word. And that is the message of Christ. That's why we gather and celebrate baptism, which is his word, which a tangible gift, attached to water. And again, it's all his doing, right? That's why we baptize infants because they didn't choose but God chose us. And there's the word that promises he can do the impossible way. He can create faith in a child that can't even say mom. And we hear the word proclaimed, right? This is where God makes us as children. It's not for what we've done or any expectations to fulfill. It is why we celebrate the Lord's Supper because this is something God is given in with and under the bread and wine there, he comes to us in his real presence with forgiveness and grace for people who have neither earned or deserved it. So faith is God grown and it is enriched by his word alone. So, if we can talk about keeping that alive, surviving thriving, Then let it just be in our response to what God has already done. And in removing obstacles that, get in the way of being in the Word of God at home, that that's what we're driving for.
And we didn't come up with this, we five pastors or leadership team or God's people here at 92 ministries. We've been stealing everything from the Bible, which is good, right? We've just ripped off everything from the Bible but that's good. God wants us to rip off everything he's got.
So I want to share with you how this whole idea of how important the whole is and where faith is really grown, how God's been talking about this in his word for thousands of years I'm share with you some words from Moses. He was the first inspired writer of the Bible with the first five books of the Bible in his last sermon. Last book, Deuteronomy. It's called he retells all of God's love for his people and his law And after five chapters of just, extorting the glory and grace, and love of God and how he's really rescued of people that were once enslaved, but now they're free. He says, here's how you can respond. Here's how you live, any brings up the grow root.
You'd think you'd bring up the Gather root, or the Group root and he does in other places. But first things first, he really talks about the whole He says this. So, talk about these things, in other words, God's word and all his love and his will is plans for you talk about those things when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up, When you go to Kwik trip for any snacks or whatever. That's he was thinking of Kwik trip, whatever little short adventures here there. I don't get any royalties from that either, but okay, So whatever you're doing wherever you're going, right? Talk about God's love is word is plans. This fingerprints are everywhere. Just we're raising our awareness to that.
Take his word, tie them as symbols. This is figurative. A language is an idiom in the Hebrew tie them as symbols on your hands. That means whatever you put your hands to like God's word be all over it. God's were his purpose? Be there with the driving force behind it and what you do? And in binding them his words to your foreheads, again, whatever. Your thoughts are thinking. Let it just be claimed and captivated by God's word. His thoughts, not your own. So much so that you write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates and other words, whatever you do, which is visible to the world that it all be colored by expressed by
Permeated by God's Word. Let everyone know what you're about. That's Moses designed for real following of Jesus, discipleship. We might say of where faith flourishes, some of the walls of the church is the walls of your home and I love that a hundreds. Well, hundreds of years later when the first hymnal came out of the Bible, it's called the book of Psalms. The first him, that was placed a preface at all some 150. We find this description of well, how we flourish, how we not only survive, but thrive the best church life comes down to one but not just best church life. The best life of all he says this the psalmist rates how blessed? That's the biblical way of saying truly happy. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the advice of the wicked? Who doesn't stand on the path but sinners, who does not sit in a meeting with mockers? So we avoids, all of that. That's empty. That's corrupt. That's broken. That's sad. Even the happy moments aren't fulfilling there. He escapes that for Grow root.
Is delight, is in the teaching of the Lord, and on his teaching, he meditates day and night to picture 24/7 365, immersed. In the words, thinking about the word, something you can't do just at church, and Justin group,
Now, he says this does this sound familiar for 922? He's like a tree planted beside streams of water, which yields its fruit and season, and it's leaves. Do not weather everything he does prospers. He looks like a tree with roots planted in Jesus. The spirit's fruits coming out in their season. You can see we rip off the Bible all the time. That's where we get our roots idea. And notice, it's the Grow root. So if you're filling in the blank, this is what we need with our short hand quick phrase. How's your Grow root? How is your walk with Jesus? Just one on one at home and if you have a spouse, kids, how are they doing? If you're the one, that's kind of blazing that trail.
We're looking to make a stronger grow root and I'm going to convince you of the why again I don't want this to be just another thing that got to add on your calendar because well you don't have enough to do, how many of you have enough to do. I think we all probably have enough to do right. But this is God's way of doing something extra. Yes, on the calendar but it it lightens the load of everything else. And maybe can even help us say no to things that we don't have to do and be about, we don't have to keep to pressure. So, I'm gonna wrestle with you, two questions that will kind of assess how our grow root is doing. And it'll give you this picture of God's plans for you that when you're in the word, great things happen, even if great things aren't happening in your life, And the first question that I would like to impose here to assess how is your growth, never mind the rest of the roots, just for a moment.
Just scripture fills every aspect of your life.
You know, these are the things that your mind is on when you're going out when you're coming back, when you're sitting down, lying down and getting up. Is it really on your hands and on your mind? Is it expressed to the world? Does it feel and claim everything God's word. That's God's desire. So, if we're just gonna take a look at our lives, maybe just think of today. When you got it this morning, was it God's word? That was filling. Every thought it was just you got out of bed, you're like, ah, I live a blessed life. I might not have much but it could be. Last God is good. I'm gonna praise him. Or were you like me? Like, oh, what time is it? I got to preach at the core, I got. Oh, I might be let no him. I don't even do this anymore. I like my phone. It's like what? What is it? Okay, times change.
Does God's thoughts motivate you or when you get up in the morning you already feel tired, you already feel stressed. Are you already just trying to muster enough strength to get through another day when you got up to get breakfast, if you had breakfast and you were putting the salsa on the scrambled eggs or just maybe drinking a cup of coffee, where you thinking, ah, God, he's gifted this to me and he's blessed this and what a day that's ahead, even if it's not such a great day with our kids that we're here today, when you're brushing your teeth this morning or maybe that comes a little bit later in the afternoon, I don't Do you brush your teeth like oh, this is great. God's thoughts. He gave me these teeth. What a gift want to keep them from my whole life if I can or whatever. And so I might praise God for real life. And then when we go about our day, whether it's to church or to work, or maybe it's leisure time, is it because God's Word is really directing us because there's life. I mean, wherever God is, there's life, this is God's thoughts, his mind. This is where we meet him apart, from that it's just empty. It's existing, it's, it's not really life and so often it's broken. And so how is our life is captivated entirely by God's word we could fill in the blank? This way is everything you think say and do because of Jesus. Because Jesus.
Somebody were to ask you like, why do you have the job you have? What do you do what you do? But you live where you live, why'd you buy that house that you bought or live in the apartment that you do? Why do you make a choices? Why do you vacation here there? Why do you raise your kids? If you have them the way you are. And Did you get the sense that you would answer? As I would at times? I don't know. I guess I never really thought about that. I guess this is how I was raised. Or would it be because Jesus? We celebrate your good times and you live for the weekend, maybe. Is it for more than just the weekend or are you trying to escape the things of this life? I know I've been there. But could you say, well, I'm sorry, maybe this good time because this is because Jesus and this is how I cope with the bad times, I don't just run to the bottle or run for this escape, or throw myself into that. But I reflect and it's because Jesus That I handle it the way I do and whenever I get bitter and tired and angry. I remember Jesus because he can take that burden away.
So when I agree, well I'm going to agree because of Jesus and how he has plans for me. I'm not going to grieve like the rest of the world. I'm not going to cope like the rest of the world but because Jesus
Again, I'm ripping off the Scriptures here. And they could have passed the apostle Paul and what he says, and 2 Corinthians chapter five. And so if we fill in the next thought here for the love of Christ's compels us, this whole idea of living your life because of Jesus, the love of Christ compelling us. This is a biblical thought and Paul spells it out this way in 2 Corinthians 5, he says there's no qualifiers here. For the love of Christ, compels us. Whether you're having scrambled eggs, getting up to go to work, or going out to play golf. Or if you're grieving beside the grave side of a loved one. What is the love of Christ that compels us? Why, because we have come to this conclusion. One died for all and, therefore, all died. All manner of living, all existing. It's done away with why? Because Christ put that all to death on the cross. And to be honest, that's a good thing. And because apart from God, and being immersed, in his thoughts, his word in Jesus' love. What is there? It's just existing. It's like Solomon would say in Ecclesiastes his meaningless. Where's it heading? What lasting impact.
Also Christ came and he died for all of that. So we all died and he died for all so that those who would live would no longer live for themselves. But for him who died in their place and was raised to new life was raised again, a new way to be human.
Everything is meaningful. Because Jesus Christ love compels us. So, so we ask ourselves Is God's Word permeating your entire life. Is it claiming everything every thought word and action? It isn't in my life just yet. But I see this beautiful picture. I see what it could be and so it just fires me up to live more to let God claim it all. I don't want to be a Martha. I want to be a Mary It just said Jesus feet and see how he changes everything.
I said, how you're feeling? When you consider the growth, if not, here's an opportunity.
Another question I want is to wrestle with Is do you interact with God? And then with others, the way God interacts, With us. See, this is the goal of having your life completely captivated by God's Word, To have your best church life. In other words or your best life. It's to live like God does towards others. And what do we see God doing? When he interacts with others? It's never about him, is it? It's always about rescue and redemption and dying so that others might have life.
So to fill in these thoughts here, notice how God, blesses both the righteous and the wicked, or we could say the lovable. And the unlovable is that how you view everyone else in your life, whether you're your spouse in this moment, whether good times or bad times, whether you're children this moment whether they're listening or not or your coworkers or friends or your enemies. Do you just love them anyway? Like God loves the whole world.
Jesus says this in Matthew 5 and we see the connection. See he came, he died to put everything to death so that we might have new life and this is what it looks like. He says, love your enemies.
And pray for those who persecute you, who hurt you. Why? So that you may be children of your father who is in heaven, so that you might be well, images of God and his image, you might be chips off the old block.
Notice what he does. He makes his sunrise on the evil and the good since rain on the righteous and the unrighteous That's how he treats everybody.
Friends, how's your Grow root? If God's word captivates everything, then we'll find this to be the case. We start looking at other people differently. For the goal of God, captivating, our whole life is freedom and its freedom to not be selfish but to be selfless.
Did you look at other people as precious souls to serve? Or they just objects that are here to either serve you or they're not get in your way. To be removed if they get the way of your happiness.
Jesus wants to claim it all. Claim are very thoughts, be in the word every day thinking meditating on his where day and night. Why? So that we have this new perspective of life. So that we're not burdened with emptiness, decay and corruption. Where this life just doesn't become about us. Some of the most unhappy people live that way.
But it comes about others and we're just renewed in the zeal and strength of Christ where What we consume God's grace and we have enough for others. Again, I think back to what the apostle Paul said.
And that 2 Corinthians 5:14 passes. She puts it this way that we have views of others, like, God, not according to the flesh. Not according to the sinful self anymore. And again, going back to 2 Corinthians 5:14. The love of Christ, compels us, here's the concluding part, the goal that's fulfilled. As a result. From now on we regard no one according to the flesh. We don't look at other people as people who should be serving us, but people to be loved. Whether they're lovable or not,
And so, how's your Grow root?
If you see other people as people to serve and you're renewed by that, even if they're affording your side, or crucifying you, whether it's your enemies, coworkers, friends, children or spouse. His love anyway. Do you find the strength and the wisdom to do that? If not? Ah, here's your opportunity. This is where the Grow root is beautiful and essential. And so in summary only, with a strong Grow root are the answers? Yes, to those questions. I would contend that the Group route and the Gather route can't get you to that point where God's word just captivates everything in your life and you love others like Christ to so loved us.
And so, how's your Grow root?
Which is why we find throughout the scriptures thoughts like this from Colossians 3:16, let the word of Christ. Well, in you richly, there's no qualifier there. It's not just within the four walls of the church, or as you group together. But everywhere every day just let God's word, fill your life Christ's word well and you richly and he'll take care of the rest.
You see this is the “why” in the reason Jesus said in Luke chapter 10:42, few things are needed. In fact, it's only one thing that you need.
Mary's chosen. See, she's in the word. She's with me. She's at home.
One thing needed.
So if we were going to walk away from the sermon today, you got one takeaway. Here's our goal. As regards, this route, For your best church, life, your best life on your Bible. Just get to know your viable because you more, you do, the more you get, God's thoughts, captivates, everything, and you can live for others. And God says, trust me. That's the best life. It's not about what happens for you, I'll take care of that. You just love others and the only way you can is of Christ. Love is there. Renewing. You every waking moment. So if you own your Bible, if you and if you don't know where to start we can help you with that. If you have a good feel for it great. Keep at it. Highlight your Bible on your Bible, use your Bible, abuse your Bible, get it. So worn out that you got to put duct tape on the binder.
Knowing the word is a blessed life. And again that spoiler alert, we come back to it, don't do it because you're afraid that you won't survive. Perfect. Love drives out fear.
But do it because the Bible says are you worried. You feel like you're not gonna make it.
And sit with me.
But maybe you're enoughness, you're righteousness, Jesus says, but let me be the grace that covers. All your guilt and you're shame in your great and your sins. You're my child. Let me let me speak those words into you all ways. Let me rise a new with you. So that every day is a day where you leap out of bed each day because Jesus. May God give us such a grow root that
Amen.
