A City on a Hill, Not a Cruise Ship
First B Jackson
2023-07-16

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are we doing?

How good morning, everybody. How are we doing? Good. Okay. We're we're on.

We're live. I've got a good word from, first Samuel two two to lead us in worship. So would you stand while I share this word from second, first Samuel? It's there is no one holy like our lord. There is no one holy beside him.

Let's start by singing of his holiness, an old hymn, but in this way, holy, holy, holy. All thy works shall praise thy name. Amen. So good to sing of God's character and his nature. You can have a seat just for a moment here.

This is this is where we would typically do announcements, and Ray would typically give them. And I've I've asked Blake to. If you're wondering where Ray is, he will be out for the next few weeks. He is probably in flight right now internationally, headed to Edinburgh. And in fact, I cannot say what is happening because it's missions related.

So, and I just realized we're live. So, please, if you'd like to know, come and find me after the service. But, Blake, could could we hear what's happening?

Good morning, church. It's good to gather together this morning for this Sunday beautiful service. We're also gonna have a service tomorrow on Monday nights, and we gather together and fellowship in meal, music, and a message. So if you're interested in joining that church, which is also a part of this church, come break bread with us. It usually starts at about six.

Carl, what are you gonna be preaching about?

So we are in Mark 14 where Jesus is anointed at Bethany, and he has that last meal with his disciples, and praise God for the new covenant. That's that's really part of the message tomorrow. So know that we are down the hall tomorrow, 06:00, meal, music, and a message.

Also, our two services on Sunday, we usually have a connect hour, which is connecting this 9AM service and the eleven more traditional service. And it's just food, fellowship, coffee, and in the summer months, we're doing a first BBQ in place of the connect hour. So that's gonna be next Sunday. We're gonna have a barbecue at 10AM in between the services. So stick around and please join us.

The weather says that it might be the nicest, warmest, summerest, summery day that we've had yet. So please join us next Sunday. Also, kitchen committee forming. If you're interested in volunteering in the kitchen, there's a minimal commitment necessary. You can contact Nancy T.

Her telephone number is up there on the slide. And if you have any interest in getting involved in the kitchen and helping with stuff like connect hour and different things that need food. Also, Saint John's Church also puts on this campfire stories, and this Sunday, tonight, at 7PM to 08:30PM, it's gonna be at the Virginian Courtyard. There'll be a little campfire, and they're gonna be telling stories of Ukraine. And they bring in guest speakers, again, put together by Saint John's Church here in Jackson.

So if you're interested in that, that's taking place this Sunday at the Virginian Courtyard at 7PM. Also, give out all of these announcements and also the scripture that we're gonna be going over on Sunday. Earlier on in the week, we send out emails. And if you're interested in getting that virtual bulletin, please find Nick in the office or you can go to our website right there and find the announcements and sign up for those weekly updates. And that is all the announcements that we have for now.

So if you all wanna stand up and greet one another and then we'll come back together and worship.

Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Who brings our chaos back into

God, we sing about but may I just pray and and say thank you. Thank you, God, for your grace, your favor, that you are always extending in our direction. And for your unfailing love, God, your self giving, others focused brand of love. Your agape love for us. God, truly, that you would take our place.

We've fallen short. We know it. We have realized it. But, God, thank you that you have died in our place for our sin. You've given us new life.

You've restored a broken relationship with God that we that we have effectively ruined. And and, Jesus, you you you patch it up. You repair us, and it's all through belief in you. Thank you. Thank you, God, for the gift.

In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. From John three sixteen. God loved the world so much.

He gave his only son. Whoever, and it really means whoever, believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Let's sing a bit.

Come on. Him. Come lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting. So love the world.

Man, what a what isn't that just wonderful? Can we just give God a hand of praise for that? Really? Thank you, God. Thank you for that invitation.

You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the the ushers to to come on forward. And we're gonna sing a song. Sing a song. And it's Psalm 34, and it's glorify the Lord with me, and let's exalt his name together.

And may I ask Glenn, one of our elders, just to give a a prayer of of thanksgiving before we before we send these guys out and sing. We'll go

for it. Awesome. There we are. God, we are so grateful to be here this morning together on a beautiful day. And we just pray that you would instill in our hearts the spirit of giving with our time, with our funds, with whatever we have.

And we know that you will fill it back up and that you'll you'll keep us filled, with our for, you know, for our needs and taking care of our needs. And so, we just give back with that spirit of knowledge and faith and trust in you, in your name. Amen.

Taste and see. This is my favorite part. Amen. Amen. Kids, there are wonderful, loving, and caring adults that are await you downstairs for children's church, and I'm gonna invite Brad to come on up.

Brad's one of our elders. He's gonna be speaking this morning. Let me say this. It is no easy task to stand in front of a a full room of people, but we're gonna trust that God is gonna do the work convicting and convincing, and the word is going to encourage and challenge and exalt, and it's gonna do everything that it's meant to do. And, Brad, may I just pray for you real quick before he By all means.

Did I make you nervous just saying what I did?

I was

fine before. Sorry. I have a tendency to do that. God, we are I am just overwhelmed, God, by your goodness and your grace and your mercy and your love this morning. We have a song of it, but, Lord, may we hear of it from your word.

Holy Spirit, would you do the the good work this morning in us that we would have ears to hear, a heart that is open. And, Lord, hands and feet that are willing to do what you have commanded us to do. I pray that you would speak and do only what you can do. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Good morning. I don't know about you guys, but I love Western movies. My beautiful wife, Natalie, who most of you all know, who's downstairs in the nursery, can't stand them.

But what's not to like? There's beautiful scenery. There's clear delineations of good and evil. There's bravery, there's cowardice, there's sacrifice. And in the end, all things are usually made right, but it's at a tremendous cost.

And so what's not to love in that storytelling? And then five minutes into it, I look over and Natalie's just. And but one of the things that tends to happen in these movies is that there's usually a moment where kind of all hope is lost. In spite of good guys doing all the good guy things. And in the most recent remake of the awesome film, Magnificent Seven, the lovable losers played by Chris Pratt, he realizes that everybody around him is gonna die.

And I'm not gonna ruin it because it's a phenomenal bit of storytelling, but he does a heroic act. And I couldn't help but think about that movie when I was preparing this message. Because here's the deal, grab the remote, pause the movie at any given point along the way and I go, look, are the good guys going to win? You go, oh, yeah. The good guys are totally going to win.

But all along, it actually looks like they're losing. And the Christian walk is a lot like that. And in our text today, Jesus is calling each and every one of us into that privilege. It is supposed to cost us, but we have a calling in the midst of that and our Lord has already secured our eternal victory. So here's what you need to know about me.

I try to look and act and teach like I have everything altogether. But man, if you guys knew my sin struggles, you'd be tempted to walk out that door right now. And there are men in this room that we go deep and they know everything. And I'm thankful that they're here today. But I struggle.

I struggle constantly with selfishness, with anger, with control issues. But God, in his grace and in his mercy, used his church and his people so that I could be set free in Jesus. And what we're gonna talk about today is what we do with that freedom. You know, the Christian walk, think, is so well summarized by that John Newton quote that I am not yet who I want to be, but thank God I'm not who I was. So before we get started, I want to mention that this message was highly influenced by by four men in particular.

Three of them are mentors of mine, two of them are personal friends, and I'll quote the others, but one of them is actually here today. And this is my friend Scott Coy. His beautiful wife Susan have been with us here this week. I am eternally grateful for the time that they spent in their house just pouring into Natalie and I. So as a way and and I I hope that you guys in between services will introduce yourself, say hi, make them feel welcome here at this awesome family.

But as a way of introducing him to y'all, I want to, invite my friend Scott Coy up to read our text for today. Right there.

I don't believe I've ever had such a warm reduction introduction just to read some scripture, but there's nothing more important than reading the word of God and allowing it to, seep into your hearts. I'm excited that Brad's preaching on it. Matthew five thirteen through 16. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

You you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but I'm a stand and it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

Amen. Thank you, Scott. So by way of context, this is right after the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. This is actually where Jesus taught is on the Mount Of Beatitudes. They call it now overlooking the Sea Of Galilee.

I took that picture. I show it to you for two reasons. One, this is a real place. You can go there, and I'd highly recommend that you do. And two, just to set kind of a visual.

You're overlooking the Sea Of Galilee. Jesus is sitting on a little bit of a or standing or sitting, actually, should say, on a little bit of a rising, and there's all these people spread out before him. But he's talking to his followers. He has just delivered the beatitudes, which is a startling vision of who is in the kingdom of God and what his followers are called to be like. So our central truth for today, God's glory is the point of everything.

And therefore, we are called by Jesus to be salt, light, and to be persecuted together in biblical community. So in my central truth or in my thesis statement there, said it backwards, but in the way that it's laid out in the text, the way that we're going to do it today. So we're going to look at a forward here, which is the persecution. Then we're going to look at salt, light city, and God's glory. That's where that's our road map.

That's where we're going. So persecution. So like I said in the verses immediately before this, in the last of the beatitudes, Jesus says that we are blessed when people insult us on his behalf. Now I don't have time today to fully break that down, but if you don't have much in the way of church background or if you haven't done a deep dive into church history, you really just need to know that it's persecution has historically been the norm for us. The modern era of religious freedom, of civil liberties, and of this general prosperity, these are not normal in the scope of church history.

So when Peter writes in first Peter two thirteen let's try that again. When Peter writes in first Peter two thirteen to submit to authorities, he's talking about Nero here. This is a man who was insane, famously fiddled while Rome burned. He killed every other one of the possible claimants to the throne. And he used to take Christians, and he would put them on a pike, soak them in oil, and light them on fire, mostly for his own entertainment, but also for political purposes.

So suffice it to say that when we do get to meet the church fathers in heaven, they're not gonna be super impressed that people said mean things about us on Twitter. That said, thank God for our current state of prosperity. Seriously. But I think it lends some really valuable perspective to our Christian walk and life. We need to know two things.

One, that this current state is not normal and two, we had nothing to do with it getting to this point. By way of example, if you're brilliant and you make a bunch of money, that's peachy. But you need to recognize that those gifts came from somewhere. If you have a hard work ethic and you have brilliance, which are the two things that we tend to rely upon when we're saying that we've earned something. We need to recognize those came from somewhere and they're also completely dependent upon our cultural context.

So for example, if you're born in modern Somalia or ancient India or anywhere in between, which is the broader context of church history, You could be brilliant. You could have the work ethic and you would still have nothing. So I would love to do a deep dive one day in terms of the persecution that we as the modern church in the Western Hemisphere could expect in the coming days. But that's not really our our core point for today. So just know that as we move on both in this message and as we leave this building to go be the church outside, if we are bold followers of Jesus, people will insult us.

And that's okay. Jesus says that we're gonna be exalted for it. Let's just make sure that we're doing it because of our Christ and not because we're being jerks. Which leads us I think really well into the concept of being salt, which is very different from the modern sort of slang connotation of being salty. So think through this metaphor that Jesus is unpacking for us and tell me that you aren't convicted.

Salt in this era had three primary purposes. One, salt was a preservative. Two, it was a purification right. And third, it was for flavor. Now there's a myriad applications for this, But in keeping with just basic exposition here, we're going to focus on keeping the main thing the main thing.

And so we're going to talk about how we as the church and individually can act as preservative. So here's a quick summary of some relational commands that I grabbed out of scripture, but it's all through the Bible. If you spend any time in the word, you're constantly gonna see us as the church being called into a role as preservative. We're gonna look at it two ways here briefly. One is in relationships, and two is culturally.

So a way of summarizing these and some of the other biblical teachings on relationships is that things are always decaying. Human relationships because of our sin and because of this fallen world, they are fraught with sin and decay. Even within family and friend relationships, they're basically being built up to the point where we know somebody and then they're falling apart. But not us. We keep the relationship going.

Our job is to overlook the sins in others because we make everyone and everything around us holier by pouring ourselves out to improve the nature of things in truth. This is the the broader idea of justice that Jesus is constantly talking about. It's not just criminal justice. And while we're glad for criminal justice, it is much broader than that. Similar to when Jesus talks to the woman at the well, he says, you've had five husbands and the man you're currently with is not your husband.

We're doing that and Jesus did that in love. Now we don't do that out of self righteousness. A great rule of thumb is that whenever we talk about sin in others or brokenness in things, we do so with a tear in our eye, not out of self righteousness. Our righteousness doesn't come from ourselves, guys. It comes from our savior.

Otherwise, if we don't do this out of love, we're hypocrites. And Jesus had his harshest words reserved for hypocrites. So practically, when Jesus is calling us to be preservative, I said we're talking about it two ways, relationally and culturally. Relationally, what this looks like is allowing ourselves to be misunderstood or taken advantage of for the sake of the kingdom and the gospel. Think about how stark of a contrast that stands to our culture.

Americans never allow ourselves to be taken advantage of. We never allow ourselves to be misunderstood. And yet that is exactly what Jesus is calling us to here. It's what happened to him. He was misunderstood.

He was beaten. He was wrongfully convicted, and he was executed. And how much did he protest? Now, to clarify, I am not saying to allow abuse. It's actually unloving to allow someone to continue in sin unopposed.

I am saying that we, when we're in relationship with anybody, we are the first to own our part in conflict and it's for the sake of reconciliation. We're the first to overlook an offense, turning the other cheek as it were. And it's all for the sake of the kingdom. How many times do we do this? We do it 70 times seven.

It's a Hebrew play on words for infinite. And it's all for the sake of the gospel. And we do this so that we can be blessed by participating in the kingdom. That's how we're salt relationally. Culturally, we stand for the truth, but we do it lovingly and against any power regardless of alliance or affiliation, Governmental, cultural, financial, regardless of the affiliation or the cost that it will bring.

Read your old testament, guys, like we've been doing in first b in the Bible. I mean, we've been going through the minor prophets. How many times has God rebuked Israel for drawing political alliances with the with those that are unholy? Whenever Israel seeks the strength of horses or the strength of chariots or military alliance, God not only rebukes Israel, but he judges them for it. Instead, no, we as believers, we call for truth and we let the chips fall where they may.

And we do so not trusting in our own wisdom in doing it, but we trust in the power and the ultimate wisdom of God. So when we see something wrong in the culture, we don't shout, we don't harass. We lovingly say, that is not right. And then we trust God with the outcomes. And it may cost us dearly to speak up.

And how do we do this? Where do we find the motivation for it? Because fear is a terrible motivator. It runs out. We do so out of love, out of gratitude for what has already been done for us.

And one last note on salt. How does salt lose its taste? Chemically, pure sodium chloride cannot lose its saltiness. Salt loses its efficacy when it's diluted, when you add other minerals or additives and then it's useless. The applications for us work both as a body and individually.

As a body, that means we as a church were supposed to seek purity. And then as each and every individual member here, we need to guard ourselves against being deluded either by false teachers or by the cares of the world. Now I'm gonna cheat a little bit here and make my next point is kind of a double point, light city. But I wanna make clear that I'm doing it because Jesus did it, not because I can't count. Because because you can read this and you can tend to think that Jesus is mixing metaphors here and that he's throwing the baby out with the proverbial glass ships.

But what you need to know is that back in that day and age at night, the only light came from the cities. So this this idea of light and of city, these are inextricably tied together. Jesus associated himself with light when he said it in John eight and several other times. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

He's calling us to be that same light here. But imagine what it was like. I mean, we we we lose the power of this analogy a little bit because I mean, look at how many artificial sources of light we just have in this room and it's daytime outside. Back then they had real unescapable darkness every evening. You had the moon and the stars and really bad candles and that was it.

And so think about the power that's called by saying that you are light, That that is your job to shine. And in those days, a city on a hill, even on the slightest rise at night, it would have been visible for miles. Now I realize that many of us here in Teton County, we have kind of dim views of city life. It's part of why we're here. But that's not the point that Jesus is making here.

Cities were very different in ancient Palestine. Most of the people lived outside the city walls. That's where you did your agriculture. That's where you did your commerce. But if a band of raiders or if an opposing nation or really bad in laws came, you ran to the city and you closed the gate behind you.

These were more fortresses than they were what we tend to think of cities. This is another example why it's it's good to go to Israel and to check this stuff out. By way of example, when I was there in September, when I took the picture I showed you earlier, we actually walked around the walls of Jericho. It took us like fifteen minutes. Like I when I was reading when I would tend to read before that ancient account, I would assume it was like an ultra marathon, but it was basically like a long walk after lunch.

And in an era before electricity, like I said, you could see these cities for miles. So you knew where these bastions of safety were, where people were working together in community for safety, justice, and protection. And that's exactly what Jesus is calling us to. Here. Now, you guys are all obviously here in church, which is a great start.

That's not the full calling, just so we're clear, but it's a great start. But you also need to know the data of what we're working against here in our culture. Less than half of Americans now belong to a church of any kind according to most recent Gallup data. And more startlingly, Barna Group who's kind of the leader on Christian polling, only a quarter of Americans can be classified as practicing Christians by their definition. That number, that same definition was well over half in 2009.

So we have this insidious disease of individuality here in in in Western Christianity. And I I just I can't be more clear that you cannot fulfill the call of your life that Christ has placed upon you on your own. You can't do the one another's of scripture in isolation. A dismembered hand or foot or tongue or eye is not helpful to the body if it's lying there over on the floor. That's gross.

And another way that this is made abundantly clear is by looking at what God is doing through the church. So for that, we're gonna turn to Ephesians three. And I was actually tempted to make this our key verse, but you'll notice I would have had to unpack the whole thing about rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, and we're a Baptist church, and so I didn't wanna make everybody uncomfortable. But here's the takeaway. You are not the point.

I am not the point. God loves you. He sent his son to die for you. He resurrected him for you. But that is not We're gonna take a little bit of a sidebar for a philosophy class for a second, so bear with me.

But that is not his chief end. His chief end, God's chief end is his own glory. His subservient end, his ultimate end in service of that chief end is our salvation. And I'm glad for our salvation. Don't get me wrong.

Let me go back to the western movie example. If Natalie's watching a western movie, it's not for the normal reason that the rest of us rational film lovers would would would do it. She she is not watching it for the truth, the beauty, all of that sort of thing. She's watching it to spend time with me. And she's doing that for the furthering of our relationship for the good of God or for the glory of God and the good of his kingdom.

So you can see how the various ends sort of stack up there. Now that example is quite flawed because like I said, Natalie falls asleep. And two, because Natalie doesn't enjoy watching westerns, but God rejoiced in saving us. So it's a very flawed analogy, but I think it's at least helpful in how various ends can stack up towards one chief end. If you want to learn more about that, Jason Dollar has a modern edit of Jonathan Edwards' original book, God's

I've

got it here. The End for Which God Created the World. Does a deep dive on this. It's really long. It'll actually put you to sleep, but it's worth reading.

But another way that we can look at the application of this is the Westminster Shorter Catechism. And this very famously says, what is the chief end of man? So you keep in mind, we're using the same language there. Man's chief end, and this is very specifically said, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. So what are we here to do?

We're here to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Everything we do should be towards that end. Now you can have intermediate ends on the way towards that, but it should all work towards that chief end. And we tend to get it so backwards. We tend to come to church in service of our ends.

And I'm saying no. Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The Jackson Hole Shorter Catechism, if I might put a guess on it, is that the chief end of Christians is to attend church when convenient and then maximize where we live. Take advantage of the outdoors here. And we compare that to what Paul's talking about in first Corinthians 10 where he says, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, you do all to the glory of God.

You need to eat. You need to drink. Those are the intermediate ends to an ultimate end, but that ultimate end always works to the chief end which is to glorify God. Think about our early example talking about Old Testament. God has been using through Nahum or, you know, Nahum was where we most recently read about this.

God was using Nineveh to bring judgment upon his people for decades. And that would feel in that moment a lot like blessing Nineveh and cursing his people. I mean, in the longer run, that's not how it plays out. And so we have to shift our perspective. But if you're a Hebrew soldier and you've got an arrow in your chest, or if you're a if you have land outside of the city walls and everything has just been plundered by the Assyrian army, you don't feel very blessed.

And yet Paul makes clear for us as Christians in Roman Romans eight. This is a famous passage, but we can tend to miss what this is really saying. God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. It's not according to our purposes. It's according to God's purposes.

And we can drive by that so quickly. Now, how does this apply to us individually? This idea that you are not the point, that I am not the point. It is freeing. And here's how.

We can enjoy things in their proper perspective. If you have a nice house, if you have a great day outside, if you have a great meal, that is to be celebrated, that is to be enjoyed. We have freedom to do so. We are neither ascetics who avoid all worldly pleasure nor are we Epicureans that find all of our hope in that pleasure. No.

We have a right perspective. So we can say, holy cow, that was a good steak. Right? Like, sorry. I'm glad some people were paying attention.

But we do everything for God's glory. We wanna share that good stake. We wanna share that day out, or we wanna use it to recharge so that we can get back to work to being on mission. Why? For God's purposes.

So this is a hard message to hear. This was a hard one to prepare. This is a hard one to say. So if you're feeling convicted in this moment, don't just wallow in it. You need to remember like Paul said in Romans eight one, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But we also need to acknowledge our conviction. We need to bring it to God humbly in prayer. We need to confess it to our community, and then we need to do something about it. Because, guys, you have the opportunity to open up your house, to have meaningful conversations with everybody in your life. You have the opportunity to step out of the bleachers and get onto the field.

Church, we can get in the game. Every single one of us, and we can all do it more. We are a missionary sending church, but that does not exempt each and every one of us from being on mission here in Jackson every single day. Similarly, when we refer to the church as the hands and feet of Christ, feet go and hands do work and they do so in coordination. So if our first consideration in working for God is our own motives or how it might impact our schedule, our work, our family, our career, our comfort, guys, we're getting it backwards.

If we work for the glory of God and his church first, we will get joy and satisfaction and purpose. They'll come as a byproduct, I guarantee you. There were three guys out in Dallas that helped me prepare this message actually. And my friend Caleb Malone reminded me in particular this great quote from CS Lewis that summarizes it, which is that, if you aim at heaven, you will get earth thrown in. If you aim at earth, you will get neither.

A way of showing that is a guy that probably influenced my life more than any other person that I haven't met is Tim Keller, and he passed away in May. And Tim's last words to his family was that there is no downside for me leaving, not in the slightest. And gosh, that gives me chills like that peace that's available to all of us. It's to each and every one of us. If we would but declare Jesus as Lord and savior, if we would believe in him, and then we would make him our chief end.

Paul says in Philippians one oh, thank you, Blake. Great catch. Paul says in Philippians one, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Think about the peace that's available in that compared to us constantly trying to define ourselves and make our own way in the world. So we are clearly called to be in community together, specifically in the church.

But what does that community look like? Well, the word has lost some of its powers. We call everything community. And similarly with the church. But if we look in Acts two, it describes the early church as sharing everything they had with one another and doing so joyfully.

Similarly, in some ways, we've lost our idea of church.

Imagine a church where every member is passionately, wholeheartedly, and recklessly calling the shots.

I have a busy work week. And by the time Sunday rolls around, I'm tired. So how about a church service that starts when I get here?

Can do. When you arrive, we begin.

This guy, he plays by his own rules. We wanna find a church where if he starts screaming, we're not the bad guy.

Right? Say no more. If your baby's screaming, you stay seated. The others around you can leave.

Well, actually, Terry and I don't give a lot to the church, but we sure like to know who

does. Alright. If you join now, you'll know what every person gives in detail.

When I'm in the church service, can my car get a buff and a wax?

Not just that, but an oil change and a tuna.

And how about tickets

to the Super Bowl? That's asking too

much. I'm serious. If I'm gonna join, I want tickets to the big game.

Alright. You join now and we'll get you there.

I like a tongue.

Look in your backyard.

So I thought we could use a chuckle, but I think the reason why that's funny is there's some truth in it. It's obviously an exaggeration. But we tend to complain about things with church because we think it's about us, and we're entirely missing the point. So I've already told you that I was influenced by several men. This is another one.

My friend and mentor, Todd Wagner, he has this great analogy that he used years ago that's always impacted me. And so when we choose a church, we tend to think of it like a cruise ship. We want to make sure that we like the music in the ballroom, that the nursery, the kids ministry are good, that they have room for us, that we like the captain and staff. But what we really need to be evaluating a church more like is like a battleship. Is this ship on a clear and noble mission?

Does the captain submit to the higher authority? Are the crew members equipped to succeed and can they contribute to the cause? What is my job and is this ship durable for the task ahead? What's really interesting and somewhat counterintuitive is that if you seek the welfare of something much larger than yourself, you'll find the joy as I mentioned. And this is not just a biblical idea.

The secular world backs this up. The most satisfied people on the planet very frequently, are soldiers in an effective army. They're not comfortable. They're not making money. They're not advancing themselves, but they are working together on mission for something they believe in.

So you won't be happy. You won't have ease. You won't have comfort all the time. Those things will come. They come from deep rooted joy when we do it right.

But it's such a fitting analogy for the church that if we seek the glory of God as our chief end, we will get happiness and joy as a byproduct. Not the comfort, privilege, wealth, and control that our culture so frequently says that we need to seek in order to be happy. No. Our culture is setting those up. Those are false ends to a false chief end.

No. We don't buy into it as the church. We don't buy into the scarcity mentality that says we've got to get ours, that we've got to take care of number one. It's killing us, and it's killing everyone around us. Instead, try me.

Open up your house. Share your resources. Give your time, your energy, your money in serving the kingdom of God. Root yourself in Jesus Christ and in his word. You'll be more aligned with your purpose than ever before.

And when you align with your purpose, then you have peace. God created each and every one of us and he's told each and every one of us time and time again in the Bible what he made us for. But we instead choose to listen to media, to marketing, to Instagram, whatever it is, instead of looking to God and to our creator. So one quick clarification I wanna make on the battleship analogy is that the church has to be a place where it's okay to not be okay. It's a floating infirmary as well to borrow from the battleship thing.

We are not to puff out our chest and pretend that everything is okay. That's the thin veneer of adulthood that society demands. But here we can be vulnerable. We need to violently just strangle and then bludgeon to death this idea that we have to get ourselves right before we come into the church. Does that make sense?

Guys, it's a lie from Satan. That's not how church works. That's not how salvation works. All we do is recognize that we are sinful, that we're in need of a savior, and that that savior has been provided for us, and then we submit to him. Guys, the Sunday fines, they kill me.

How are you brother? Fine. How about you? Oh, I'm great. My marriage is falling apart.

My kids hate me and my finances are in the dead are disaster. But the weather's good and we're here on a Sunday and everybody's scrubbed and washed and buttoned up. High five, go Bronx. Right? Like that that kills me.

Instead, we have to have the courage to go to one another and say, hey, how are you, Carl? Man, I'm really struggling. Right? Like I haven't and Carl's never said this, just be clear. He's been vulnerable, but I'm making up a theoretical Carl.

I haven't cracked my Bible in a month. I haven't really prayed all week. I'm struggling to communicate with my wife, and I feel like I'm just angry all the time with my kids. Man, will you pray with me? And gosh, everybody we're gonna make time for that, guys.

And you're gonna you're gonna be celebrated in that vulnerability. I mean, read the Psalms. Read the sad ones by David. Right? That's a man after God's own heart.

And we pretend like it's not okay in church to have doubts and anxieties and fears. No. We're not gonna do that. I love this quote. I think this from C.

T. Studs so perfectly encapsulates what we as a church are called to, which is that someone to live within the certain within the sound of church or chapel bell. I wanna run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. I love that quote. We need to keep in mind that God does the saving.

Right? CT Studd had good theology. It's just it's a really good line. But God uses us. We can be the instruments of salvation.

So I've already borrowed from Todd once. So I'll I'll I'll use him again in closing. That God is not looking to rip you off. He is looking to set you free. But freedom is not so that we can all spend all of our time fishing or biking or accruing wealth or raising perfect children.

We can do those, but we can do them in right perspective and in moderation as long as we're serving God as our ultimate chief end. The mechanism through which he's appointed all of this to take place is through the bride of Christ, the church. So I'll ask the band to come back up. But what do we do with this? When you go to fellowship hour or when you get into your car and go to lunch, don't say, hey, what'd you think?

Instead, here are the two questions that I would ask you to talk about. What did God show you today? What did God put on your heart today? How did God use the broken vessel of Brad Yates who struggles with all of these things? What did he show you?

And then second, what are you gonna do about it? To repeat from our intro, how are you going to live today? In light of the fact that the hero of our story is not a flawed man in a white hat, but is the coming eternal king who slays his enemies with but a word from his mouth. It's the lion of Judah. It's the sacrificial lamb.

He beckons us to live with him every single day. Guys, let's run a rescue shop a yard from hell. Let's be on mission. Let's go church. Love you guys.

Would you stand and sing together?

Fall on fire. You're the one that guides my heart. Lord, I and, lord, I need you. And when I cannot stand, I fall in you. And Jesus, you're my hope and stay.

You. You're my one. You're my one defense. My righteousness. Oh, God.

How I need

you. Lord, as we go throughout this week, God, may we really confess our dependence, our need for you. God, you are the righteous one. Any righteousness we have is derived from you. And, Lord, that we would be a light, you say.

You're the light of the world. If we follow you, we don't have to walk in darkness because you give light that leads to life. God, send us on our way, in Jesus' name, to be bold, to be strong, to be in you. In Jesus Christ's name, we pray. Amen.