0:00
Alright. Good morning, everybody. It is very, very good to see you and I'm excited that we are combined here this morning. There is overflow in this fellowship hall, just to let you know that, but, if we can, moving forward and moving in, we'll free up some more seats. Here's a verse for us to get started.
0:20
That's that's the most important. How good to sing praises to our God. How delightful and how fitting. Ain't that good? I mean, it really is.
0:28
How delightful and how fitting it is that we sing to our God, to our Lord, the one who's created us and created us for him. Shall we sing and praise him? Let's stand up. Alright. All
0:47
creatures. All creatures of our God and key lift up your voice and with the sea. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Him.
1:20
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yeah. Without rushing wind,
2:15
Let all things
2:18
and let all things their creator bear and worship him in humbledness. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
3:01
We're crowning with many crowns.
3:04
Crowning with many crowns. I thought an amber bone in his throne. Eternity.
3:47
We'll crown him the Lord of life.
4:24
To bring. Here lives that dead man died.
4:35
Oh, crown in the Lord of love.
5:04
Thou hast died for me. Thy praise
5:38
Amen. I'm excited to praise God with you this morning but first, Ray wants to welcome you.
5:45
I am glad y'all are all here this morning. We have no announcements at this time. There are plenty of things going on. Don't get me wrong but we'll get to that later on and we just want to welcome both services together. I was thinking about Ephesians four.
6:01
It'll come up in the sermon a little later but Ephesians four four says, there is one body and one spirit just as you are called in one hope of your calling. One lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who's above all and through all and in you all but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Amen. Amen. Y'all can stand up and I want you to look for somebody who does not normally come to your service.
6:29
Does that make sense? There's a nine and an 11. Would you stand and greet one somebody you don't usually greet?
6:47
Shall we sing of the wondrous love of God?
6:50
Oh, the wondrous love is this, oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. One wondrous love is this on my soul. One wondrous love is this. I caused the don't mess to bear them dreadhunkers on my soul, for my soul.
7:14
To bear them dread bunkers on my soul.
7:27
When I was sinking down.
7:31
Oh, when I was sinking down. Sinking down. Sinking down. When I was sinking down. Sinking down.
7:43
When I was sinking down beneath God's righteous round, Christ laid inside his crown for my soul, for my soul. Christ laid aside his cry for my soul. Thank you, Jesus.
8:10
To God to the lamb.
8:13
And unto the lamb, I will sing. I will sing. To God to the lamb, I will sing. Went from death for free. Sing on.
9:07
And where from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be. And through eternity, I'll sing on. I am not skilled to understand One God is will, one God is plan. And I only know where it is right stands one who is my savior. I take him about his word and savior loves, my savior lives, my savior's always there for me.
10:57
My God, he was, my God, he is, my God, he's always gonna be. My savior loves, my savior lives. My savior's always there for me. My God, he was. My God, he is.
11:13
My God, he's always gonna be. Yes. Living dying, let wants died to be my savior, that he won't leave his place on high. And comfort and for men to die. But you count a strange soul and stay alive.
12:03
Before I knew my savior. My savior loves, my savior lives, my savior's always there for me. My God, he was, my God, he is, my God, he's always gonna be. My savior loves, my savior lives, be. God, he was.
12:27
My God, is. My God, he's always gonna be. Yes. Living, dying, let me bring.
12:41
God, it is good to to be here together. It is good to to praise you, and it is good to be looking to you so much bigger and greater. So much more than we can even think or imagine. So we wanna give you praise and we wanna look to Christ again. Just his perfect life and death and resurrection and ascension.
13:01
That he is the perfect sacrifice for our sins and to put our faith and trust in Christ is to be righteous. I don't even know how that it could be. We are sinful people, but yet when we put our faith and trust in Christ, there we are right with you and, eternally secure, and how great that is. We come to celebrate you Christ. Amen.
15:17
There in the ground his body lay, light of the world by darkness lain, then bursting forth in glorious day my destiny no power of hell no scheme of man me from his hand till he
17:00
You may be seated.
17:09
Good morning. Good morning, everybody. What a great thing to see the faces of of both services and people uniting our hearts together. Let's let's bow as we God prepares our hearts to give this morning. Gracious God, we are before you this morning united in in the spirit of truth.
17:27
God, what a what a privilege it is to be drawn before you and to come collectively, corporately to offer ourselves to you. God, you have blessed this church body. You have been a giver to each member in so many different ways, and God, we just praise you today as we unite our our body, we unite our hearts, and we are thankful. God, would you take the offering that is given this morning? Help us to be joyful givers, help us to be full of your joy and your peace as we give this morning.
18:02
And may all these things be used to expand your kingdom and to glorify your word. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
19:04
When Satan tilts me to despair risen son, oh, God.
20:13
Behold him there.
20:15
Behold him there where the risen lamb. My perfect spotless righteousness, the great unchangeable I am.
21:28
Amen. Y'all are sounding great. How do we get through ten minutes earlier than we usually do? Because I didn't do the announcements. They take up a lot of time.
21:38
I'm going to do the announcements during the sermon today. So, if there's anything that's going on that you're a part of, beware. I'm going to get you to make the announcement, okay? You have fifteen seconds and if you could do it quicker, it would be better. So, anyway, this is a whole church combined service.
21:55
I'm I just about couldn't sleep last night because of being excited about it and not knowing how it goes. Y'all did this recently. I was coming back from South Africa. Literally, when I was touching down in Salt Lake City after twenty one hours on the plane, And then I had to drive back from Salt Lake City. Y'all were meeting for this last service.
22:15
This is my first one with combined and I'm excited. So, forgive me for that. Let me see if this thing works. Do you all remember this picture? Okay.
22:26
That's crazy that that many of y'all just said yes or nodded your head because that sermon that I did, the banana sermon as it's become known. I'd preached here actually the third Sunday that we were in Jackson. I think second or third Sunday. We were going through the book of first first Peter and I cannot imagine that we're already at the fourth chapter, the third week I was here. I was really rolling back then.
22:51
The whole point of this picture being up there and this sermon was that if you have been given a gift, you should use it. I don't know if y'all remember but actually some of you come up to me and say, I remember that sermon. I remember all three points of it. Well, there here here is the scripture and that's a drawing that Tanya did twenty something years ago of bananas and then called it bananaology. It's a study of bananas.
23:16
First Peter four eleven, just as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's manifold grace, varied grace, variegated grace, and whoever speaks as one who speaks the oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God gives or supplies. In order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belongs glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So, that was the scripture and the three points from that were this and I think that this is funny too because in seminary, they tell you, don't do this. Make your point so short.
23:54
They're bullet points really easy to remember. I was not doing that at this point at all. Never hoard the blessing of God. If God has given you a gift, use it. Never hoard the blessing of God.
24:07
Point number two, you will most likely only discover your spiritual gifts by using them. Do you all remember that? I remember that. Because sometimes you just don't know. You don't know how it's going to go.
24:22
You don't know what you're good at until you get affirmation sometimes. And honestly, you don't always know what you're bad at until you get that. That. Okay? You will most likely only discover your spiritual gifts by using them.
24:39
Don't be afraid of that weird look. God will provide you opportunities for you to exercise your spiritual gifts even before you feel like they're ready to use. The sermon itself was about these 70 pounds of green bananas. It took forever to get through the story. I was paid the various term, first time I was paid to preach with 70 pounds of green bananas and they were green bananas.
25:02
So, I asked my neighbor, what do do with green bananas? He said, hang em up, put em out back, put em back somewhere, and let them ripen. They'll ripen on the stalk there, this racemo of bananas and so I thought, okay, I did that. Well, I hung em up and I forgot about em and y'all ever seen one banana go bad? A black, greasy, nasty, peeled banana you put somewhere and forgot it?
25:23
Imagine 70 pounds of green bananas hanging on a hook over your back porch. Eventually, it just started glopping off in a big pile onto our porch below and I wasted that gift, completely wasted it. I could have shared the bananas while they were green. They could have put them on top of their refrigerator, put it, could have put them up somewhere, and they would have matured in their house too but I didn't and so, that's where I came up with those three points. Never hoard the blessing.
25:54
You'll most likely only discover the gifts by using them. When you hand them out, you can hand them out to people and they can use them. And God will provide you opportunities for you to exercise those spiritual gifts. I give you that little refresher. After that sermon, actually, Jim White came up to me and he encouraged me and he said, you need to learn that sermon in a forty minute format, a twenty minute format, a ten minute format, and a two minute format and don't ever stop preaching it.
26:19
Praise God. That was your service right there encouraging me in my third week here. In 1995, the purpose driven church was written. It was Rick Warren, Saddleback Church. He wrote it in the purpose driven church came before the purpose driven life.
26:38
I think that as a church, a lot of y'all went through the purpose driven life and it's a really a good way of thinking about things but the purpose driven church came first. He had seen a big explosion of that church just getting huge. All of a sudden, it was a wind of the spirit. He gives credit where it's due but he came up with these five purposes of the church. He says that a church grows warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry, and larger through evangelism.
27:12
Y'all know, I don't usually preach topically. This feels a little weird for me today but because I'm actually going to pick one of those and that's what we're going to speak about because we're all together and this is funny too and the staff meeting the other day, several weeks back, Renzy said, I said, well, when we have that combined church service, should I just keep on going forward where we are? Because that's what I feel compelled to do is just preach through the sermons, preach through the word in order the way it is and I said, I can't take another month. I mean, I can't take another week of sexual immorality right now. I just can't do it.
27:45
So, I want to just give us a little bit of relief and hit us on something else. This is his model. Worship, ministry, fellowship, evangelism, discipleship. That's what Rick Warren said and those are honestly pretty churchy words. We've heard them a long time.
28:01
So long for most of us that we forgotten what they mean. So, the church I was going to in 1995, this was in Columbus, Georgia. This was ours. They chose the five Ms. They were the five purposes of our church.
28:13
Magnification was worship. Ministry, he kept his ministry. What he, it it had an M already. Membership was the one for fellowship. Multiplication about evangelism and maturity for discipleship and I I thought those were pretty good and this is where things started to connect for me.
28:32
At this church, I grown up in a little bitty baptist church, rural Georgia, and this was a big church that had resources and had lots of people and the preacher was dynamic and he preached through the word. So, Rick Warren's 1995, this is what he says. This is what Brad Hicks at the church where I was, Winbrook Baptist in Columbus, Georgia and then, when I got here, this is what we call em but they're thinly veiled. These are the five purposes of church and the reason that resonated when Rick Warren wrote that is because this is real. It's something that's found throughout the scriptures.
29:06
Worship, we call ministry service. Here, connection, outreach, and growing. Now, as far as the five purposes of the church, we have set up our budget we've set up our handbook and we've set up everything that we operate under these five purposes. Now, admittedly, they overlap. They overlap in all over the place actually.
29:29
That's why they're in one big circle but for worship, I'm the guy usually that we think of from worship because I'm the one that's going be preaching on Sunday but Carl, will you stand up? Okay, Carl is the first. We're going to see what this microphone thing works. There's microphone. So, Carl leads the band and do you enjoy leading the band?
29:50
I do. I love it.
29:51
Okay. Is that like a small group to you?
29:53
It is. It is our small group. We we don't just play.
29:56
Where do you find yourself most fulfilled in this church?
30:00
Right here in this position. And I want to say this while I'm talking is that my greatest encouragement as a worship leader is not to hear myself, is to hear you. Yeah. To hear us together lifting our voices to to the Lord. And so can I encourage you?
30:15
Keep it up. Yeah. Make a joyful noise even if it is a noise. Just maybe you could go and sing like this or something.
30:23
Did y'all see me move over here during one of those songs? The one that Ryan was singing? I confuse Ryan so bad when I sing. He said, go over there and sing that way. And that's okay.
30:34
It's not his spiritual gift.
30:39
My style of singing is apparently different than what we're used to. So, anyway, so worship. Y'all know what worship is because you come here on Sunday mornings and it's fairly obvious but listen to this now. If you've had a part in the choir this year, if you've had a part in the band this year, Paco started playing harmonica for us this morning. You saw that.
31:01
So if you've played in the band in the first service or the second service, if you play piano or if you play if you sing in the choir, would you stand up? There are more of you than that, you bunch of liars. Stand up. How about if you do that in your church back home? I see a few back in the back.
31:21
No, y'all can sit back down. I'm just kidding. Worship is a part of it. I'm gonna get a little further in. So, worship growing.
31:30
The growing commission is one of our Christian life commissions we call it and Dan Tolson is in charge for right now of the growing commission. Dan, where are you? There he is in the back. Can Rinsey hand you a microphone? You got one?
31:45
Tell us about the growing commission in fifteen seconds.
31:49
Wow. Fifteen seconds. We have men's ministry specific, women's ministry specific, Awana for children, small groups everybody can plug into and there's there's an opportunity for just about anybody that wants to get plugged in to grow.
32:05
Yep. Very good. So, Dan is the man for growing. In other churches, it might be called adult education. It might be called discipleship.
32:14
Dan is the guy. That's Dan right there. So, if you came in and you got a bulletin and you have a pencil, write down some of these names. Y'all know Carl. He's up here all the time.
32:25
You probably know Dan but if you don't know him and you think I've got an idea for a Bible study that needs to happen, talk to Dan Tolson. So, write his name down right now. We're going to eat together in a little while. You can find Dan and say, hey, I got an idea for something, okay? The place before that whole banana sermon before moving to the mission field, the thing that moved me most was when the preacher stood up in front of the church and he said, if you have an idea for ministry yourself that you are currently doing or you feel compelled by the spirit of the Lord to do, let us know and I'm saying let Dan know.
32:59
If you have a Bible study, if you have something, there's a there's been talk recently of a kind of a heady intellectual discussion of things like GK Chesterton and CS Lewis. Talk to Dan about that and say, we want to do that. Just so we know what's going on. I'm not going to try to sanction absolutely everything and put a first B label on it. We are Christians getting together.
33:20
Some things are for just for this church. I know that. Some are for just the community at large and we'll get to that in a minute too but Dan Tulson's in charge of the growing commission. Outreach or missions. Steve Landis is the guy right now who's in charge of that.
33:33
Steve Landis, are you around? He may be down the hall in the overflow area. I could get a head start on Steve but his voice will probably kick in here a minute. He's gone. Okay.
33:48
Alright. So, outreach, missions, traditionally, foreign missions primarily but we also have local missions is included in this too. This is evangelism. Most everything we have will be about spreading the evangel, the good news of Jesus Christ. So, that is our outreach commission.
34:05
Some people call it ministry some people call it missions. Connection commission. Alright, the connection commission, one of our elders, Gary Geek, is in charge of Connect Commission. Imma let him This working? It is.
34:23
Okay. Good. The purpose statement for First B is with all we are loving God and then loving people. And that's the heart behind connection. It's a group of people that are serving to connect with other people in the in this body, trying to love them and just fellowshipping with them.
34:49
We're trying our best not to let anybody fall through the cracks. If somebody comes through the doors, whether they're visiting for the first time or whether they are long term, long, how many long term residents of Jackson are there? If they live here, if they live here, then they can come in and they know that they have somebody that cares about them. So, that's the connection commission and places like today where there's a combined service and a potluck afterwards. The Connect Commission is the one that's in charge of that.
35:16
If you have an idea for fellowship, for connection, let Gary know about that. Alright? Gary Geek is the guy. G I E C K, right?
35:25
Yep.
35:26
Okay. Gary Geek. Service commission. Right now, Todd Lampa is in charge of the service commission. All of these guys that I've mentioned so far are elders here.
35:37
This one is a younger elder. So was Dan. So Todd Lampa is in charge of the service commission.
35:43
Hi, I'm Todd Lampa and I believe God made us to serve. He created us to serve and we're gonna serve him, others, or we're gonna serve ourselves. Even I think Bob Dylan had on this song and inconsistent with rock and roll illustrations that you got to serve someone. And so I think we're happiest when we're serving and at first B we have opportunities to serve and I think you can get involved in any one of the different areas and get plugged in. Thank
36:13
you, Todd. So, now you know that that's how it's supposed to work. Those are the guys that are supposed to be in charge of these different areas. Now, I will tell the truth. Diane is the central one in this equation.
36:25
Diane is right there in the middle somewhere. She knows everything that's going on and she knows who to contact. So, if you have any doubts about who to get in touch with, for something that God has laid on your heart, whether it is a cookie ministry which we have going, Becky Murphy is in charge of the cookie ministry. Is she handy? Becky?
36:43
Nope. She's not but she also filled all the little communion cups with Roseanne yesterday. She was serving. So, Diane is the one. If you don't know, she's the one to contact at just in the church office.
36:55
She is our office manager. This was the connection point for me. From Rick Warren's little book, The Purpose Driven Church, which I did not read and still haven't read all the way through. My pastor said, this makes sense and he put this little diagram up on the board. There is a greater community that we live in and in our case, it is Jackson Hole, this whole valley.
37:20
There's a community out there. There's a crowd of people that know about this church already and that crowd maybe Christian, maybe not Christian, they might come just for one program a year. They may have loved Easter programs when they were little and they may just come for that one event. They might just come on the Christmas Eve service. So, that's a crowd.
37:42
We then have the congregation and the congregation is made up of people who come to Sunday morning services primarily that are here. There are folks who are here and they love it. They sing out and have a ball but they're a part of the congregation. They just come together occasionally and then, inside of that ring is a committed crowd. Each one of these rings obviously is getting smaller and smaller.
38:07
There's a committed crowd and in this valley, I don't know if you all have known, if you all have noticed this. Commitment is something that people do not like. Have you all noticed that? It's worldwide, really, but it's really apparent here. So, commitment is something people shy away from.
38:21
Our circle maybe a little smaller but I don't think so. The reason I'm having you pop up like popcorn all over today is for you to see that there are a ton of y'all who are active in ministry. So, committed and then you have the core and there's the old saying that 10% of the folks do 90% of the work. I don't think it's quite that here but that's what the old saying is. 10% do 90% of the work.
38:44
This morning, when people were gathering, we're setting up tables and chairs and all of that sort of stuff. Lots of people showed up early to come do that. Praise God. That's good. Community, crowd, congregation, committed, and core and when you're in one of those circles, you should consider it your mission to serve someone in the the circle that's outside of you.
39:04
In in your circle too but outside of that and what Rick Warren was saying way back in that book in 1995 was, we should be constantly encouraging one another towards the center of the circle to become more and more. If we have a bigger core, then, we are able to serve a greater community and congregation. So, this is I know a lot of theory. I'm going to get the scripture. I promise.
39:31
Y'all know me better than that. What I want to start thinking of it, the whole point of the sermon that first time, I was saying that I had been a service missionary for seven years in Mexico and then had served in seminary and been a service missionary on projects while the whole time while I was in seminary going on various mission trips and things but I had been a service missionary not a preacher and I was changing over from service to worship and so in that first sermon, I was using green bananas and praying that y'all would pray for me to help those things mature, those bananas, those gifts. What I'm asking today is that we would consider service as the primary. I have been considering because it's been my job for the past two and a half years. Worship as our primary thing.
40:17
So, I'm asking y'all to consider Todd's job, the primary thing in church right now, okay? If they're still equally important, they still overlap, everything has to do but I want for us to start thinking about our service to one another and to this community in the terms that service informs worship. Without the ones of you who stood up and a few more of you who didn't. Worship would be diminished right here in this church. So, you can serve through worship and there, Bob Wells, where are you?
40:52
Bob around? He may be serving another way. He's sitting in the very back. Would y'all get him a microphone? Bob has a couple of fifteen seconds to do a blurb about the choir.
41:01
So, for Christmas this year, in order to bless the community and the crowd, this congregation, from this congregation, we're drawing a choir and Bob is going to tell you about next week's meeting.
41:15
Yes, it's on. Yes, we're starting up next week. We have our choir meeting that's going to occur both. There's two of em. They're going to be identical.
41:25
Hold that mic up, Bob.
41:26
Beg your
41:27
pardon? There you go.
41:27
Okay. They're going to be identical. There's going to be one after the 09:00 service at 10:00, one after the 11:00 service right after it. And so we're gonna kick off there. We're probably going to what we are going to determine when it is we're gonna practice.
41:45
There's not a lot of commitment here, really. You don't have to you don't have to be here, you know, every night of the of the week. We're going to primarily make it on Sunday afternoon, I think, but we're going to determine that next week. All of you who want to sing, you are invited. We're going to we have room for about 25 to 30 up there and we can make more room if we need to.
42:14
Hopefully, we'll have the same kind of venue next next or when we when we perform on Christmas on Christmas Eve. Alright. And it'll be here and and or we'll have a venue up at at Snow King or some place that can handle Saul but we want to have the same service.
42:33
Amen. Thank you. Bob is passionate about music. He's absolutely great at rhythm. He's good with helping people with their notes and he's a good organizer getting everybody together.
42:43
So, if you like to sing, please get in touch with Bob Wells, alright? So, he's that guy. Renzi brought me a note that said, stay on your right hand side of the stage. So, I'm gonna try my best to do that. My right hand side of the stage.
42:56
Thank you. Alright. So I can get you on the screen on the camera. Thank you. I knew he was still saying no and I thought I can't read but I can't figure that out.
43:03
At least it didn't say examine your zipper which it did last time. So we got Sorry. So connect commission. You may serve in the connect commission by just welcoming people on Sunday mornings. You don't have to be official, but if you could try your best to make people feel at home when they're here.
43:24
One way that you can do that, my wife reminds me every week is you can move to the center of the section and leave the aisle seats open unless you have a bladder condition or a baby. Please, move to the center of the aisle and leave the outsides open because that helps more people to be able to fit in here. Also, if you're a long time member, you're a junkie for Jesus, please come forward and sit in the front because nobody else wants to, alright? Do you all understand what I'm saying? Make people feel at home as best we can.
43:52
So, that's a good way that can serve the Connect Commission and outreach. If you have an idea, a lot of y'all come up to me because y'all know I have a missionary heart and I was a missionary and so you come up to me and said, I'm thinking about doing a mission trip to so and so With these people or those people, please, by all means, mention it to me but Steve Landis is the one that can make things start happening. So, Steve Landis is the missions guy and you can serve in that way. For one thing, you can be praying for em. Another, you can be praying for where God would send you and then, just be considering it all the time as your reasonable service, local missions, state missions, and then farm missions.
44:34
Consider your service to the growing commission. Now, this one, we have two different Bible studies that are starting up very soon. One of them is called the art of marriage. Mike, would you stand up and use your radio voice? Mike Mayer and Amy Mayer are leading a study called The Art of Marriage and he's got fifteen seconds to catch the mic.
44:58
There you go. Nice.
45:01
Is
45:01
it on? Yes. It's on.
45:03
So a while back, Amy and I, went to what was called the weekend to remember, and we went to Colorado Springs, had a fabulous weekend. They had materials after that, and so we decided to come back and help lead a small group focusing on marriage. So it'll be a family life, run video series that we're gonna start off Tuesday the sixteenth, and, starting at 06:00. One thing as a former elder too, you know, we used to we focused on young families was one of the things we were doing as we identify as ourselves before we went out and looked for a pastor. But the nucleus of any family is the marriage.
45:41
Marriage is being attacked right now in all kinds of different ways and it's a it's a very important place to be grounded. So it's a six week short short video series and I encourage all of you, I have a sign up sheet in the back of on the table in the foyer if you're interested in doing that at all or come see me.
45:56
Yes. See that guy right there. Write his name down, Mike Mayer. And that's Mike, growing commission, and there's one more. Grant Galloway, are you in the room?
46:07
Grant Galloway is a member of our board of trustees, which they deal with financial stuff mostly but they deal with making the rubber hit the road where we as elders might consider the spiritual stuff, they consider how to paint the fence and make sure things keep happening around here, paying the bills, that sort of thing but he is also going to lead a study called Financial Peace. It's a Dave Ramsey study. Go ahead, Grant.
46:31
And fifteen seconds. Financial Peace is taking control of your finances and letting your finances be controlled by you instead of the opposite which we most live by, which is your finances are controlling you and it's a big burden when you get to the end of the month. We're like, oh, we just spent a bunch of money on our Visa card. It's a nine week series plus a one week preview if I remember right. So ten weeks total.
46:56
And when does that start?
46:57
It's gonna be on Wednesday starting on the seventeenth.
46:59
Wednesday the seventeenth.
47:00
I believe it's at 05:45. It doesn't matter how old you are, how young you are, how wealthy you are, how poor you are. Just come. We'd love to share what we've done through it, what God's shown us through it, and I guarantee you'll love it.
47:17
Cool. So, those are the two right now growing. Those are roots up. Both of these folks came because they felt they gotta put it on their heart for them to lead. We are not doing a kickoff for all small groups.
47:28
We have 50 of em. We have two right now but it's been motivated by people who God's put it on their heart. They both have lived through this experience and want to do it because they feel God's moving on. That's how I got to the mission field. That's how Tanya got to the mission field because you feel it well enough within you.
47:44
Whatever it is that God's laying on your heart to serve and whatever capacity, I I just ask you to step out in faith and do that. It'll be rewarded. I'm getting to the Bible. I promise, alright? So, that's the growing commission.
47:57
Also, they do men's and women's studies and so, Deborah, would you mind standing up and speaking for a minute about the Wednesday, twelve noon women's study that we're study that we're doing? Wednesday twelve noon in this room.
48:10
Thanks, Grant. Good morning. Starting this Wednesday on the tenth from twelve to one, we'll be offering a women's Bible study, fellowship, free food, free childcare, and being very sensitive to our working women. We're 12 to one, we promise to finish at one, but if you can stay, our precious Roseanne is gonna take a small group and unpack the study further for another hour. So join us as a ten week study.
48:42
We're unpacking 1,000 gifts by Anne Voskamp. We're gonna have video one week and live teaching one week.
48:50
Thank you. And Sherry Turpin would she's right here. I've asked her to say a word about the women's retreat that's happening October the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. Would you stand up?
49:08
Thank you. Thank you. Second Kings chapter six, it's a story you all know, the king of Syria sends an army after Elisha and his servant is fearful as to what they're going to do, and I read from verse 17, and Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he might see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about. The retreat will be at the Heart 6 Ranch when you drive up.
49:41
You'll just see a beautiful camp, beautiful area. What you won't see is the king of kings and the Lord of lords and the host of heaven that will be there and we pray that you will be too.
49:52
Amen. Tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. It's a retreat to advance for the ladies. Alright. So, service as our overarching category.
50:02
If you can start to try to make yourself think that way, I felt like I went from a service guy to a worship guy being primary but that was kind of my switch in my job but I know that the most fulfilled that you'll be is when you're filling your role and in every New Testament book, when I started thinking about a topical sermon, I thought about it as what is it that we need to emphasize? And I thought when we've got everybody together, I want for y'all all to know one another and what you're doing in the church. So, that's why I thought service made the most sense. So, you could pop up like this. Service in every single New Testament book and I checked is either commanded, encouraged, or applauded and if you look at third John, there's one guy that he really gets on to him because he's not serving.
50:49
He's a CEO executive type guy in charge and he's not serving the way he should like the master. So, in every New Testament book, I will not bore you with all 27 verses that I came up with but there are a bunch of em. I have em up here on the stand just in case we run long. No, just kidding. First Corinthians six nineteen through 20.
51:14
Is the chapter that we would be in this week. And so now is the sermon. I want y'all stand up one more time. Greet each other, do a jumping jack if you need to. Do whatever you need to do to stay awake.
51:28
Find somebody else you don't know. Alright. Alright. Alright. There'll be plenty of time for that after we get through.
51:36
I needed to find a verse. So, first Corinthians six is where we would be this week. We stopped last time in verse 11 and we would have started in 12 but I'm going to skip some of that because like I said, it's continuing the same thing that we've hit for three weeks but I want you to see that even when we're when we're looking at the scripture, we've got the primary thought and in this passage, the primary thought is not about the physical taking care of your physical body and what you believe are your physical needs. It is about service. It's still about service and so in this section, six nineteen through 20, I dropped out a couple of words up there.
52:15
I'm going to read em Or do y'all not know that and I put all the y'alls in there and I highlighted them because typically when we think of this especially in the context of sexual immorality which it's found in. Typically, we say our bodies are a holy temple. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that is true. I'll go with you. There's another verse that says that.
52:36
Each of us individually but as Americans, especially individualistic Americans, we typically do not think in a corporate fashion very often. So, whenever I put the y'alls up there, I'm not just making fun of my southern roots for y'all. It is because I think it matters. I think it really matters in this particular case or do y'all not know that y'all's singular body, y'alls, all of y'all, collective, plural, one body, your body. So, if you're at first b today, this is your body.
53:09
This is your one body, the local body of Christ or do y'all not know that y'all's one body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Where does he say in Matthew 18? We mentioned this a couple weeks ago that wherever two or three of you are gathered, he is in the midst. He's in the context of church discipline that we studied it but he's saying that when you get together and you agree in my name, this is where you are serving one another who is in all of y'all, each of y'all, the Holy Spirit is in each of you. So, it is his temple, that little temple but it's built together for y'all's collective body whom you all have from God in your heart and y'all are not your own.
53:51
Those circles, that core, that committed, that congregation, we are serving this community. We should be serving this community. There are lots of organizations here. My goodness, old bills, draws, lots of organizations here. There are lots of philanthropic organizations.
54:07
How involved are we in that? How involved are we as a as one body in that? Y'all are not your own. Y'all were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in y'all's body and in y'all spirit which are God's.
54:22
So, that is our leaping off point only today. I brought it up because it is in the scripture that we're we're going and it's maybe something you have not considered before that it's not just that yours is a holy temple. This is kind of a continued part of the teaching about keeping purity in the church. Keeping discipleship strong. People should be growing.
54:42
People should be connecting. People should be outreaching. People should be serving and praise God. Y'all love to worship. That is a common theme in both services.
54:53
Y'all love it. You might like it your way a little better but you still love it and it blends well here this morning. Ephesians four eleven. Ephesians four eleven and the context of this is right after that the verses that I read to begin the sermon about there being one faith, one lord, one baptism, baptized into one body. Here we are and then it says, and he, Christ, himself, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
55:26
For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. So, who's doing the ministry? Both. Both. But the saints are doing the ministry.
55:38
Why? For the edifying of the body of Christ. For the building up of the body of Christ. I think that primarily this is qualitative like quality of the body. It's growing individuals.
55:49
It's growing people in service. It's growing people in mission. But it's also quantity because if you're making an impact, it is attractive and Christ says that he will build his church but he's given us instructions about how to go about it. I'm going to put that up in the NIV too. So, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.
56:18
So, why is he doing it again? So that the body of Christ may be built up and who is he using to do it? He's using the saints. He's using y'all to do it. What's he put us here for?
56:32
Carl and Renzi and me. What's he put us here for? It's to equip you to do it. Those elders too that I mentioned at the very beginning, they are put in the position that they're in to help equip you to do what it is that you feel like God has put on your heart to do. To help you figure out how it is that that needs to happen.
56:51
Does it make sense? Some of you right now are saying, I've always felt like I need to go somewhere, blank, to serve there but you haven't been and because you don't know how. Talk to Steve Landis about that. Talk to Roseanne about that. Talk to me about that.
57:09
If you feel like God's put a ministry in your life, in your heart, something that you should do, short term or long term, please talk to us. Please talk to us about it. Some of you are doing it already. I don't want to act like you're not. Tons of you have stood up, tons of you haven't.
57:23
There that are that should have but y'all are serving in some capacity. I want to encourage you. I want to command you first like the Bible does. Then, I want to encourage and then I want I'm also in a slight way kind of applauding those who are serving. So, write these folks down.
57:39
I was serious about it. If you saw somebody stood up, that stood up and you know that you need to go talk to him today, find them afterwards out here in this tent when we're eating and just say, hey, I don't know where to start with this but blah blah blah. You got it? Everybody got that? I don't have to go over it anymore.
57:57
Second Corinthians nine six eight. So, this is the follow-up obviously to first Corinthians when Paul has written to him and he gives us some really, really, really hard teaching in first Corinthians and then he wrote another letter between the two books where he was even more severe and then probably the fourth letter he wrote, what we call second Corinthians, he is writing to encourage them and he says this in second Corinthians nine six through eight. We hear this a lot around offering time in church. This comes up a lot in in the offering time. In fact, in Mexico, in almost every church we attended, they would do this as the offering plates were being handed around.
58:37
They would quote this verse out loud. Each one should give as he pray. It was like, I I know that one in Spanish because of this. But back up one verse and it says, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. That makes sense, right?
58:58
You put out a few seeds, you get a few of whatever you planted. He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Each one and most versions say should give or each one giving should give. There's no word there in Greek. That's okay.
59:14
That's common. It's normal for there not to be a word but it really says, each one, as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly for God loves a cheerful giver. That's, could you get some batteries because this thing's fixing to go? As he purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. I've mentioned this before, cheerful there is Hilleron like hilarious.
59:40
God loves a hilarious giver. That's one laugh out of that whole thing. He he does love a hilarious giver and God is able to make all grace abound towards you that you always having all sufficiency and all may have an abundance. Why? For every good work.
59:59
That's service. It's about serving the church. It's about serving the body of Christ but it's also about serving the community. That's the context of that verse. It is great that it comes in and we as a church do try to spend the money and we've got lots of people, elders, and board of trustees and staff and lots of different folks that are working here that understand we're trying to bless the community but y'all are blessing it by your gifts and giving.
1:00:26
The loving and cheerful giver, I bring it back up and it's like each one as he purposes in his heart. That's why I've said over and over, God, if he's putting something on your heart, let it well up from there and don't deny him access. Don't deny him access to that. Not grudgingly or of necessity. I'm not twisting anybody's arm to give through old bills this week.
1:00:50
Make sense? I'm not trying to twist your arms into doing anything in particular. We need nursery workers. Yes. But that's not what I'm saying.
1:00:58
I'm saying, do whatever it is that God has called you to do. If you want to know if there's a gap, you're just a utility player, you can do anything, then you can call Diane and say, hey, I can do anything. What do you want me to do? You're only going to know your spiritual gift by using it, by having it affirmed. If you've got something that you've been blessed with, never hoard the blessing of God.
1:01:19
The message is the same. Message is the same. For by grace, you've been saved through faith. Oh, and that not of yourselves. Praise God.
1:01:28
It is unmerited favor that he has given to us. Access through faith and not of ourselves because he gives us the faith too. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So, if you are great singer, you don't get to boast in it because everything that we have has been given. We covered that a couple of weeks ago.
1:01:51
I want you to look at verse 10. After that, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Look at verse 10 and it says, for we are his poema, the Greek word, poema, poema, masterpiece, workpiece, worksmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. To serve. That's why he created all of us to serve which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in em.
1:02:19
Like I said, every New Testament book either commands it or encourages it or applauds it. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Remember how I said earlier, couple weeks back, three weeks back probably, that whenever Paul says in the name of Christ, in the name of the Lord Jesus, he's talking about authority. He's talking about authority. Under the authority of almighty God, Christ Jesus, our lord, under his authority, you can do whatever you do in word or deed.
1:02:56
That's the way that we should be thinking about every day that we live in your lives. You should be seeking to bless everyone you encounter and I know a bunch of you do that. I know Mike does it at Smith. I know Joe does it at the physical therapy place. I know that y'all are working on this stuff.
1:03:13
I know that you are. You should be. At the sunglass shop downtown. I know that y'all are doing this. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
1:03:24
Giving thanks to God the father through him. We're going to eat in just a few minutes. We've got an appetizer between here and then but therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Consider service. Whatever it is you do, he keeps saying do.
1:03:45
Now, it is about belief. It is about belief but what we believe, what we are should make a difference in what we do. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. First Corinthians ten thirty one. So, we'll get to that one before too long again.
1:04:03
I want you to consider this circle again. The community, the crowd, the congregation, the committed, and the core and being honest with yourself, try to figure out where you are. And see if God wants you to be just one ring further in. That's a self identification thing. There are plenty of folks over here reaching out of hand that want to pull you to the middle.
1:04:28
Don't get me wrong but the place where I asked Carl, where are you most fulfilled? He's most fulfilled doing what God designed him to do. He didn't even play guitar how long ago? Three years ago? At all.
1:04:40
Not at all. He was a drummer. But are y'all affirming that gift? My goodness. He's a rhythmic genius.
1:04:47
It's it's crazy and he is I know it embarrasses him. He turns red. But he's great at it. Krista Clemmer, Carl's wife, is the children's ministry director here and she does a great job with kids. She loves them.
1:05:00
She doesn't. She's built for it. She's made for it. She's studying it. She's going after it and that is what God has her doing.
1:05:11
There are plenty of y'all who are teachers. There are plenty of you who are working in here that work with people every single day. Consider how you might serve that person that's one or two loops out from you. Whatever you do, do it in the name with the authority, under the authority of God. As you go, evangelism.
1:05:33
As you go, service. As you go, missions. Just be going. Be doing. This is in the context of the Lord's supper and we're going to do that in just a minute here too.
1:05:46
I wanted while we were all together, it's the it's the first Sunday of the month too but I wanted to as we get together to go through communion and the Lord's supper and I got to look in at the part of first Corinthians where we'll get to it eventually. So, I don't want to steal my own thunder. But he has given them instructions on how to eat it and he gives them a strong warning first and then he kind of goes through the typical service that I usually use. I paraphrase it but then below that, he says, therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat the Lord's supper, wait for one another and I thought that was strange and I thought, well, that's the typical Southern Baptist tradition. We always wait and we hold it in our hand till everybody has some.
1:06:29
I didn't realize that was biblical until this week. I didn't know why that is. It's says, wait for one another. So, we're going to do that. I think there's more to that waiting for one another.
1:06:40
It says, be waiting for continually. Be waiting for. It also can be read as be receiving from one another. It's saying, mutually, serve one another. It's a reflexive verb.
1:06:54
Mutual service is what's indicated. Just like mutual submission is what's required. Mutual love is what's commanded. Mutual service is what's indicated here and so I'm going to ask actually all of the elders that are present with us. If y'all would stand, elders of this church right now, we have and would you come on down front?
1:07:16
How many of them do we have? So we have 11 elders total. Come on up, Carl. Come on up here. And Kale, I'll ask you to come forward too, please.
1:07:29
There's Dan. You stay right there, Alan. Don't crutches. You're you're good. You can stay right there.
1:07:41
Now, the frontline team from this morning was part of the Connect Commission, right? Would you all stand? Connect Commission from this morning frontline team. Thank you. And would you all mind coming up to?
1:07:52
And we're gonna start the we're gonna start we've got more plates than usual. We have more people than usual. So, if y'all can arm wrestle over, who takes it to the back and works this way and then y'all can work from the front that way. God almighty, we come together in your name and we come together under your authority and we are doing lord that which you have commanded us to do. Just as we gather here right now, lord, would you put on our hearts what it is that you would have us do?
1:08:18
Would you head us down the direction that you would like us to go? And God, would you forgive us of our sins? We come together, we're proclaiming your death, lord. Until you come again by remembering you in this way, you've commanded it, you've told us this. Lord, I ask you to bless this time.
1:08:35
Bless every heart. Lord, as I give time right now for each one to consider their way and consider their week this week and look back over. I wanna give all a chance to ask for your forgiveness. Lord, I have failed you this week and I want to ask for your forgiveness and God, I want for you to cleanse me from all unrighteousness and I thank you for that promise in first John that says you will. Dear Lord, would you please bless this time together as we distribute this bread first, lord.
1:09:07
Would you bless our time together? In Jesus name, amen. Corinthians, first Corinthians 11, Paul writes to the Corinthians says, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. He's saying, while I was there, we started doing this. That the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, take and eat.
1:13:16
This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. God almighty, we thank you for giving Christ Jesus Christ, holy God, that you walk and you are tempted in every way that we're tempted and you are without sin and you offered your perfect life, sacrifice that broken body, lord. We thank you lord for your blood which cleanses us from all unrighteousness and as we distribute this cup and we do it in remembrance of you. And her.
1:18:12
Jesus also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, he says, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. The forgiveness of sins is what's available. We have that message.
1:18:44
Let us serve this community by spreading it. Now, I've got two more people that I need to have stand up. One of them was serving someone else so he was not here. Martin Murphy, are you in the room? He's still serving.
1:18:57
That's just the way that guy is. How about the youth guy, Renzi? Would you stand and do a blurb for youth?
1:19:03
Yeah, you got it. Real quick,
1:19:05
the youth, we're kicking off on the eighteenth for the middle schoolers and for the high schoolers, they're going to start off on the nineteenth. Middle school meets at 06:30 on Thursday nights this year And also we're gonna start something new with the middle school youth for the guys because the girls have a nice Sunday study but the guys we don't have anything just for guys so guys we're calling it dudes and foods. And we're gonna be doing before before school on Monday, little get together at one of my favorite restaurants, McDonald's. And so look forward to that guys. It'll be about 08:00 and we'll get you to school on time.
1:19:41
And then high school youth is gonna be 07:30 breakfast here like normal. And then regular middle school youth group like I said, 06:30 on Thursday nights. And then real quick, the ladies for the girls study on Sunday mornings.
1:19:58
That's next next Sunday and talk to Melissa or Jerilyn, would you stand up? Either one of them. Out here under the tent. Martin Murphy is an elder and I was not joking. He really was serving somebody during that time but he is also the commander for Awana.
1:20:15
Would you tell us about that? And it starts not tomorrow, but a week from tomorrow.
1:20:19
Yeah. A week from tomorrow on Monday, and being a commander doesn't mean I wear a special hat. But I do we all have uniforms at Awana, and I wear a yellow shirt. So I guess that makes commander. Awana's a kids club that we have here.
1:20:31
It's a lot of people from all over the community come to it. It's not just a church based group, it's a group where we come together, the kids play games, they have fun, and they listen to a little talk. There's a lot of volunteers that do the talk and then we have an opportunity for them to memorize scriptures. And the reason we do it, the theme of Awana is because kids matter. And the thing about Owana is that it's an opportunity for us to instill in them some knowledge that they can carry on through their lives.
1:21:06
Can I do this? Can I have a hand of all those people who do or have helped in Iwana as a volunteer or leader?
1:21:14
Would you stand up actually?
1:21:15
Look look at that. Isn't that awesome?
1:21:17
Yeah.
1:21:18
It's we have a lot of people that.
1:21:20
Listeners, everybody. Y'all are still not doing it. Y'all stand up. Really, if you've been a listener at Awana.
1:21:26
Okay, try it again.
1:21:27
Yeah, try again.
1:21:28
Try again.
1:21:29
Chase. It's amazing. There are tons of you here.
1:21:32
Eric, you helped. I see a lot of you guys are being bashful. But thank you very much. You can sit down now.
1:21:37
Amen. Praise God. So, Yvonne Wood is serving as nursery worker for the little ones during Awana and Monday nights. Cool. Anything else?
1:21:49
Yeah, one more thing.
1:21:50
Okay.
1:21:51
The the thing that impresses me most about Awana is the people that serve it. We have a lot of people that care about kids.
1:21:57
Amen.
1:21:57
And those people that just put up their hands and the ones that didn't even stand up. They they care and that that's touching for me. Yep. Thank you.
1:22:04
It's a way of getting scripture into their minds and love into their hearts early and that will be something they can draw on for the rest of their lives. Thank you all for serving the way that you do. Would you all stand up together and we're going to sing? I'm going ask God to help me. We're going sing blessed be the tithe that binds, not before the throne of God above, Brenzy.
1:22:25
There we go. Blessed be the tide that binds our hearts in Christian love, the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Amen. Lord, would you please bless the food and these people? Amen.
