1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:03,360 But I don't have anywhere for you to go right off the bat. 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:09,120 So yeah, exactly. That was I I thought of that as 3 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:10,720 I was saying, I was like, I wonder if anybody will call me 4 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:12,320 on that. Bring your Bible, bring your 5 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,480 Bible, bring your Bible. When you get to it. 6 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:16,079 If you can keep up, good for you. 7 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:19,600 If not, you know, keep practicing. 8 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:24,400 I used to call them sword drills that that iwanas, things like 9 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:25,120 that. Sword drill. 10 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:27,200 Sword drills like who can open, who can open it? 11 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:29,040 This passage. Anybody remember sword drills? 12 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:30,600 You grew up in that church background? 13 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:32,880 I didn't have that, but I've heard a lot about it and know 14 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:35,160 enough. Been in church culture my whole 15 00:00:35,160 --> 00:00:37,520 life, even though the churches I was in didn't do sword drills. 16 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:40,480 That's a good practice though. And it was like, first one, to 17 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:44,440 get to this passage, you get piece of candy or something, or 18 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:46,760 you're just the winner. Bragging rights. 19 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:48,880 I'm a better Christian than you. How about that? 20 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:51,520 Like I'm faster with my Bible. Yeah. 21 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:55,040 So like I said this morning, I'm looking forward to sharing with 22 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:56,320 you. We're going to talk about what 23 00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,040 SALT Church is and specifically we're going to clarify if you're 24 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,800 for my note takers, we're saying that this one is called Church 25 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,720 on a mission. Church on a mission. 26 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:10,240 You should know what makes up this particular body of 27 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:15,000 believers and you should know what makes this particular body 28 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,640 believers different from all of the other faithful bodies of 29 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:21,360 believers out there. We've said many times families 30 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:22,920 and households have personalities. 31 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:26,120 My household is a Christian household, but that looks 32 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:28,840 different from from Dylan's household, which is also a 33 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:31,200 Christian household. Why is it different? 34 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,000 Because there's a different man there leading and it's not a bad 35 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:35,800 thing. It's just the natural and 36 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:38,040 obvious thing that would happen. Things would show up 37 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:39,520 differently. We do it like this, they do it 38 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:41,120 like that. None of it's wrong. 39 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:42,680 There's much freedom that the Lord has given. 40 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,360 The same is true in the body of Christ. 41 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:47,280 There's some non negotiables in my house that I'm sure the same 42 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:49,960 in Dylan's house and there's a lot of interchangeable through 43 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,040 all of our households. But then there's other things. 44 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:53,800 There's plenty of freedom. The same is true in a local 45 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:58,840 body, but you should know what salt church is in particular so 46 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:00,600 that you can say one of two things. 47 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:04,080 Number one, no thanks. I don't think I want to be a 48 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:06,880 part of that and I don't think that's what I'm called to or I 49 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:09,759 don't think that that's the right fit for me or the other. 50 00:02:10,039 --> 00:02:13,680 Sign me up for that. We're we're looking for that all 51 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,120 in or not all out in a disgruntled way, but just a you 52 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:18,640 know what? That's enough clarity for me. 53 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:20,520 That's a gift. Clarity is a gift to know. 54 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:22,320 Hey, that's not what I'm supposed to be doing. 55 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:25,520 That's not where I'm supposed to be or man, I want to double 56 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:28,400 down. So that's my prayer and that's 57 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,360 my hope and that's my expectation that for, for anyone 58 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,040 who's saying, hey, I'm not sure. I'm wondering, I'm looking, I'm 59 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:36,000 paying attention, I'm listening. You'd be able to say, hey, you 60 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,160 know what, praise God, I've got clarity and I know that this 61 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,680 isn't where the Lord wants me or there's only one other option. 62 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:46,720 I'm removing a lukewarm option. You'll you'll notice that that 63 00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:48,720 that option is strangely absent here. 64 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:50,640 The only other option is double down. 65 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:52,200 Well, I've doubled down already, Pastor. 66 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:53,640 Then the next option is triple down. 67 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:56,520 Then the next option will be quadruple down and then five 68 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:00,040 tuple down. Kayla, math people. 69 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,400 Can y'all tell me what quint what comes after that one? 70 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,480 OK, yeah, they got answers they like. 71 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:11,360 I thought I could stump them. I couldn't. 72 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,160 So we want, we want, I want. The Lord wants for you to know 73 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:19,640 who you are. He wants you to know where you 74 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:21,480 are and what your church is about. 75 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:24,080 As the pastor here, one of my responsibilities is to 76 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,240 administer the culture of this house and that includes 77 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:29,720 regularly reminding you where we're going. 78 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:33,200 You only have one life to live, and how and where you spend it 79 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:35,240 should be a dead serious decision for you. 80 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:38,400 Church attendance where I've been has always been life and 81 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:41,080 death for me and my family. Does that mean you find a 82 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:43,360 perfect church? Well, no, there's not one of 83 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:45,920 those. But I've always taken it very, 84 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:47,640 very, very, very, very seriously. 85 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,360 I've always taken, I need to know who this pastor is and you 86 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:52,280 know what he's about. Is this a man I can trust 87 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:54,680 because I'm literally entrusting my life into his hands? 88 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:56,680 In some ways, Scripture makes that plain. 89 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,400 Your elders have watch over your souls. 90 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,480 So there's significance to that. Not to mention this body of 91 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:04,120 believers, are these people sincere? 92 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:05,760 These are the ways that I've measured and judged. 93 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:07,720 And Natalie and my boys can tell you over the years, I'm like, 94 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,880 are these Saints for real? Are these people doing Sunday 95 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:13,520 worship and see you later and we'll see what happens. 96 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:17,320 I'm just here for preacher man. I've always avoided to the best 97 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,640 of my ability, places like that. And I told you from day one, 98 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:23,600 when I was planting this church, when we were planting this 99 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:25,960 church, when the Lord was planting this church, I want to 100 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:27,520 plant the church that I want to attend. 101 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:32,280 I don't want to plant a church that six years, then I go, I 102 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:33,920 don't like this. I don't want to be here. 103 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:35,320 I wouldn't even be in this church. 104 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,440 I don't want to be in that kind of church and thankfully, I'm 105 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:42,040 very joyfully able to tell you Saul Church is where I would be. 106 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:46,200 So, so far, so good. We're the pastor likes the 107 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:47,120 church. That's a good thing. 108 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,240 But we're three years in now. So I want to walk you through 109 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:53,920 our values. And then I want to just continue 110 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,000 to unpack personality for Salt and give you clarity around 111 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:58,480 these things. You've heard these before, some 112 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:01,280 of you. But what I'm praying and 113 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:03,840 expecting is that the Lord will bring revelation and that the 114 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:07,520 Lord will bring expectation. I want to place expectation upon 115 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:09,600 you. I don't want you to wonder is, 116 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:11,920 hey, was this sermon for me? Yes. 117 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:13,880 Yeah. So you're preaching this one to 118 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:15,040 me. Absolutely. 119 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:16,200 Yeah. That's the point. 120 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:19,200 I'm always preaching to you. You're the one I always have in 121 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:21,720 mind. So our first value as a church 122 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:23,960 is we say that we are noticeable. 123 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,080 The name of our church was deliberately chosen. 124 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,040 We're named salt church for particular reason. 125 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:34,680 The reason is that salt is bold. Salt is distinct, and salt 126 00:05:34,840 --> 00:05:38,920 stands out. So to be specific about our 127 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:43,880 boldness, we mean that we do not intend to have a private faith. 128 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:47,160 So where do we get salt from? Specifically in Scripture, 129 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,480 You'll remember in Matthew chapter 5, Matthew it was. 130 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:55,440 In Matthew chapter 5, verse 13, you are the salt of the earth. 131 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:59,720 But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be 132 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:01,440 restored? It's no longer good for anything 133 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:05,520 except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 134 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,160 You're the light of the world. The city set on a hill cannot be 135 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:11,600 hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and 136 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,360 put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all 137 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:18,320 those in the house. So salt and light have a 138 00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:20,480 priority and a responsibility to preserve. 139 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:22,320 That is our primary function as salt. 140 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:25,520 Salt to Jesus's listeners at that time, they understood that 141 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:28,120 salt was used to preserve meat. They didn't have refrigerators. 142 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,600 We've hit this before. So you you could pack meat 143 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,280 inside of salt and then the meat is going to be preserved. 144 00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:36,760 He's saying you're the salt of the world. 145 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:39,080 What would happen to the world without the body of Christ in 146 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:40,400 it? It would rot. 147 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:41,800 What? What happens to the world when 148 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,360 the body of Christ goes passive? The world rots. 149 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:46,520 What happens to the body? What? 150 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:49,880 What happens to the world when the body of Christ loses its 151 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:52,400 saltiness? The world decays. 152 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,760 So anytime you see decay, everyone bears responsibility, 153 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,000 but the church primarily is responsible to bring the truth. 154 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,240 The church is the pillar of truth for God in the earth. 155 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,280 The church are the ones who are supposed to say this is right, 156 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:08,080 this is wrong, not the government. 157 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:09,920 Where would they get their morality from? 158 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:11,760 They can't just invent it out of thin air. 159 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:16,320 Morality comes from God. All legislation should be godly 160 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:19,280 legislation. Everything comes from the Lord, 161 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:21,200 and the church is. The church is not the 162 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:22,720 government. They're different spheres, and 163 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,120 yet the church influences the government and the church 164 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:27,920 influences the household. Although they're distinct, 165 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:30,880 there's still overlap. We're bold enough to say that as 166 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:33,960 a church, we are not called to be sugar. 167 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:37,320 Many have tried to make the gospel of the Kingdom more 168 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:41,640 appetizing to the world. So they removed the salt and the 169 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:44,280 message became one that was equal to the message of the 170 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,080 world. And then then it became just as 171 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:48,600 worthless as the world's message. 172 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:50,520 So we're determined to be distinct. 173 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:53,720 And the problem, which is not a problem at all really, the 174 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,480 problem is whenever you're distinct, you always be accused 175 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:02,280 of being mean, being cruel, being unkind by those who are 176 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:04,400 actually rotting. So the very people that you're 177 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:06,960 trying to love and you're trying to put salt around, to preserve 178 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:10,080 and to protect and to help and to bless, will simultaneously, 179 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,320 at times, not always, but the spirit of the age in particular, 180 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:16,640 the satanic force that's at work in the earth, will always accuse 181 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,040 you of wrongdoing in that area. So the world needs help. 182 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,560 People are abused. People are literally prisoners 183 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:25,880 of Satan and his system. The salt is their only hope. 184 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:29,160 Love for God and love for them is what causes us to go speak 185 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:31,200 boldly even when it's not welcome. 186 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:34,039 So you're going to notice a theme throughout all of our 187 00:08:34,039 --> 00:08:36,000 values that we talked about. You're going to see boldness 188 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,799 continues to show up over and over and over again. 189 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:41,559 It's something that's a priority for us as a body. 190 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:45,720 Why? Because the the opposite is so 191 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:48,880 easily attained. Passivity is our natural 192 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:51,240 default. It's the it's the natural state 193 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:55,120 to just sit and do nothing. So it takes encouragement, it 194 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:58,200 takes reminders to actually pursue God's good design for us. 195 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:02,960 In first Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 17, Paul is writing, 196 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:06,800 he says, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the 197 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:10,840 gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross 198 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,560 be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is 199 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:17,880 folly or foolishness. For to those who are perishing, 200 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:22,120 but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 201 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:25,240 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, 202 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:27,840 and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. 203 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,200 Where is the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? 204 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,440 Where's the debater of this age? Has not God? 205 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:36,800 Has not? Has not God made foolish the 206 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:39,880 wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God 207 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:43,840 the world did not know God through wisdom, it please God 208 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:47,200 through the folly of what we preach to save those who 209 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,680 believe. For the Jews demanded signs and 210 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:54,280 the Greeks demanded wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a 211 00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:57,160 stumbling block to the Jews, a folly to the Gentiles. 212 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:00,680 But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the 213 00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:02,840 power of God and the wisdom of God. 214 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:06,320 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness 215 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:10,680 of God is stronger than men. We are not going to cater our 216 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:12,920 message to any group. He says the Jews, what do they 217 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:15,280 want? Remember Jesus Master, show us a 218 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:17,920 sign and he says, I'll give you a sign. 219 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:21,240 And then you know the Greeks, they go, well, let's prove this 220 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:23,280 out. Let's let's reason and logic our 221 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:25,560 way through this thing. And Paul said, we're not going 222 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:28,160 to cater to the audience and the audience's demands. 223 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,000 You're going to get the cross, you're going to get the gospel, 224 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,360 you're going to get the the revelation of the word of God. 225 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:34,160 Preach. Why? 226 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:36,840 Because it is the power of God unto salvation. 227 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,920 That's where the power is. So as a church, we say we're not 228 00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:41,600 going to cater to the demands of our culture. 229 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:44,600 Our culture will paint us in a corner and never let us out. 230 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,280 Answer me this, answer me this Riddle, tell me that I'll give 231 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:50,920 you this. God is king. 232 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:55,480 He sent his Son to die for sinners like me and you. 233 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:58,440 He is coming back to judge the living in the dead. 234 00:10:58,680 --> 00:11:01,640 And by the way, this is all good news for you because here's the 235 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:03,200 best part, this is the crazy part. 236 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:06,120 He actually loves you and he will rescue you from your sin if 237 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:09,080 you will submit and bow your knee to Him and give your life 238 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:11,840 to him holy and fully. And then by the way, that's not 239 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:14,560 just a go to heaven when you die thing, that's a walk with him 240 00:11:14,560 --> 00:11:18,000 all the days of your life thing. That's what I'll give you. 241 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:19,960 Or what about this? I'm not answering all those 242 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:21,480 other things. I'm giving you the only thing 243 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,640 that really has power because all the things that they demand 244 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:29,360 of you won't be enough. So, so that's one way that salt 245 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:31,720 looks salty. We're proud of Jesus. 246 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:36,360 We're proud of his Kingdom. Jesus is king, Jesus is 247 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:39,920 champion. So we're the people of 248 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:41,800 celebration. We're the people of joy. 249 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:45,920 We're the people of victory. And 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 250 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:52,640 verse 14, Paul saying thanks be to God, who in Christ always 251 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:56,200 leads us in triumphal procession, and through US 252 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,080 spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. 253 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:03,120 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being 254 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,560 saved and among those who are perishing to 1A fragrance from 255 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:10,840 death to death to another, a fragrance from life to life who 256 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,920 is sufficient for these things. So the point that he's making 257 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,360 here again is that we're going to go out and we're going to be 258 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:19,400 pleasing to the Lord. To some, it'll be the stench of 259 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:20,440 death. They'll go. 260 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:22,960 These Christians, they stink in my nostrils. 261 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:25,680 What do we do with those people? We pray for them and we move on 262 00:12:25,680 --> 00:12:28,440 to someone who is actually open, someone who's actually willing, 263 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:29,960 someone who actually pay attention. 264 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:32,480 But we can't be manipulated or led by them. 265 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:38,080 We are not. We are. 266 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,800 We are not enslaved by this broken and dark place. 267 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:45,280 We are not stuck in it. We are living in the Kingdom 268 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:46,760 framework and we're not retreating. 269 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:49,320 We are joyfully advancing. We believe that Jesus matters in 270 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:51,920 the real world. Jesus is for everybody. 271 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:54,760 Our Jesus talk is not secretive and private. 272 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:57,240 It is joyfully public. Our friends, our family, our 273 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:01,080 acquaintances are convinced that we're more enthusiastic about 274 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,560 King Jesus than we are. Our hobby, our business, our 275 00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:08,760 grandkids, our football team, our insert potential idol here. 276 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:12,200 This is what it looks like to be Salt and to be bold. 277 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:16,360 Another one of our values as a church is we love God for real, 278 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:18,280 for real. That is our in depth theological 279 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:21,680 explanation of loving God. We love God for real, for real. 280 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,080 What does that mean? It means Salt Church is a body 281 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:26,360 of Jesus who genuinely loves and worships God. 282 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:29,280 Why would you say that? Why do we have to say that we're 283 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:31,560 a church who loves God? Isn't that like a restaurant 284 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:35,000 saying they serve food? Yes, it absolutely is. 285 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,720 But it needs to be said because we want to make sure that we 286 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:40,920 never lose what matters most. We want to make sure we never 287 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:42,680 lose sight of the most important command. 288 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:47,160 So it needs to be said, we don't want to be a restaurant that 289 00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:49,520 just seats people at tables, and we don't want to be a church 290 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:52,000 that doesn't loyally, courageously, joyfully and 291 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:56,760 faithfully follow Jesus. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 292 00:13:56,760 --> 00:13:59,760 four and five say hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the 293 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:02,520 Lord is 1. You shall love the Lord your God 294 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:05,240 with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your 295 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:08,560 might. So this is the greatest command. 296 00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:10,600 Therefore it should be met with the greatest obedience. 297 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:14,560 Love for God is what makes us want to love others. 298 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,160 We are to love God fiercely. If somebody doesn't think that 299 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:20,960 we love God too much, then we probably definitely don't love 300 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:24,960 him enough. There's a famous quote that said 301 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,160 5 minutes on the other side of eternity. 302 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:31,000 I believe every one of us will have wished that we had 303 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,880 sacrificed more, prayed more, loved more, sweated more, 304 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:39,040 grieved more, and wept more. 5 minutes on the other side. 305 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:41,440 Can you imagine? Right now it's easy to get 306 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:44,960 distracted with my day and everything else that's going on. 307 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:49,240 But 5 minutes on the other side? What would you give actually to 308 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:54,360 go back and go if I could have done it more and better for him? 309 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:59,520 I'm simply saying we'll just say I wish I had loved more. 310 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:03,080 We will love and we will be thankful, but we want our lives 311 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,360 poured out. And it looks like something to 312 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:09,880 say that you're a Christian who loves Jesus, right? 313 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:15,080 I'm a Christian who loves God. Isn't that redundant? 314 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:16,520 Absolutely, you better believe it. 315 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:19,280 That's redundant. And absolutely that should be 316 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:20,960 said. That should be something that we 317 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:23,400 carry. I'm a Christian, I'm a Christ 318 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:27,200 follower. I love God, I love King Jesus. 319 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:29,040 Why? Well, because everything's 320 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:31,840 Christian, right? Everything, everybody, every 321 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:33,840 president we've ever had is Christian. 322 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:38,280 Every, you know, there's, there's leaders in our social 323 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:41,640 sphere who are all Christian. So we don't want them hijacking 324 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:44,640 something good and pure and true and, and devaluing it. 325 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,880 So This is why we're going to emphasize we really do love God, 326 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:49,920 another one of our values as a church. 327 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:54,520 We believe God is good. Doesn't every Christian believe 328 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:55,840 God is good? Yes, they do. 329 00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:58,200 But we're going to clearly define that every Christian 330 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:00,280 would believe and agree that God is good. 331 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:03,880 But we define good without any complexity and without any 332 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:06,360 qualifiers. We define good, and we believe 333 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:08,360 that a 7 year old knows what good means. 334 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:15,120 More specifically, we believe that God does not want evil, God 335 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,400 does not want tragic. God does not want bad things to 336 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:20,960 happen, and he does not create them. 337 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:26,760 We also understand that in his goodness, God can and does judge 338 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:31,600 and punish people on the earth. Both true at the same time. 339 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:36,720 God is completely good, and God also judges because God is 340 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:41,120 completely good. We believe Jesus perfectly and 341 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:45,640 fully reveals the will of God. Jesus is the exact imprint of 342 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:48,800 the Father's nature. Jesus is the full manifestation 343 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:52,120 of God's will. Jesus is perfect theology, and 344 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:55,640 Jesus shows us that God is good. I've been showing you as we walk 345 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:58,120 through Matthew, we've been counting up all the people who 346 00:16:58,120 --> 00:16:59,880 came to him and asked for healing, and he turned them all 347 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:01,400 away. What is our total so far? 348 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:04,680 Oh, we're still at 0, right? And all the people who wanted a 349 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:06,040 demon cast out and he turned them away. 350 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:08,119 What's our total? Zero. 351 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:10,680 So Jesus wanted people healed, and Jesus didn't want people to 352 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,760 have demons. So we see the will of God 353 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:17,800 revealed through Jesus. God is also good. 354 00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:21,040 Let's clarify his judgment. God is also good when he judges, 355 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,760 and we have room to clearly interpret those works. 356 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,359 God flooded the earth because he was good and he promised to do 357 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:28,240 so. Never again. 358 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:33,400 He judged and killed Ananias and Sapphira for lying because God 359 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,560 is good and the Holy Spirit made it abundantly clear that 360 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,880 judgment was taking place. So This is why we pray in 361 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:42,160 confidence. This is why when I pray for you, 362 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,680 by the way, as your pastor, when I pray for you for healing, I'm 363 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:48,240 not praying. Fingers crossed I don't end my 364 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:50,480 prayer with God. Please heal so and so. 365 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:52,840 Notice how we prayed for Asher. We didn't say God, please heal 366 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,760 him if you want to. Why would you put that in there, 367 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,040 Joe? Michael, don't you know what God 368 00:17:58,040 --> 00:17:59,800 wants? Who do you think you are to 369 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:01,400 Michael? Well, I don't think I'm anybody. 370 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,280 I just think I know how to read. And I know what would happen if 371 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:06,720 Bradley and Brittany took Asher to Jesus one day. 372 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,080 What would have happened? How can you say that, church? 373 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:13,400 How can you say that you weren't there? 374 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:15,760 Why? Because you have a Bible and you 375 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:19,520 have eyes and you have ears and some basic deduction would tell 376 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:22,400 you what the Lord wanted because He did it over and over and over 377 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:24,480 and over and over and over again. 378 00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:27,160 Pastor, I got questions about that because I've seen people 379 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,880 not be healed saying to me too, me too. 380 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,320 But that would be us if we start to follow those questions that 381 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:35,480 we have. Let's just be let's be fair and 382 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:37,120 let's be honest. That would be us following our 383 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:38,400 circumstance. Agreed. 384 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:40,360 As opposed to following the word. 385 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:42,400 Pastor, I pray for somebody and they died. 386 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:46,080 Saints, me too. So I got questions and I've got 387 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:48,040 discouragements and I've got things that I've grieved. 388 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:51,640 But if we're going to hold up the Scriptures as the standard, 389 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:54,040 then we can't compromise on this area. 390 00:18:54,360 --> 00:18:57,120 And this is where faith comes from when you pray, because 391 00:18:57,120 --> 00:18:59,400 praying with fingers crossed, just so you know, is not 392 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:00,640 actually praying in faith at all. 393 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:03,120 And we're to go to the Lord in faith. 394 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:06,120 Faith is an expectation. You can't have faith unless you 395 00:19:06,120 --> 00:19:07,560 already know what the will of God is. 396 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,400 For an example, like healing, maybe God wants us to get in a 397 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:13,520 car wreck today. You don't have any basis or 398 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:15,880 grounds for that. Well, couldn't the Lord do 399 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,000 something like that in judgment? He most certainly could. 400 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,480 But again, the pattern in Scripture when the Lord judges, 401 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:24,800 he marks it clearly as judgment. So you know that judgment is 402 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:27,160 taking place and the Lord reveals, hey, this is judgment. 403 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:30,760 And if you don't, and if you're not sure, then you certainly 404 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,040 shouldn't seek to remove the will of God for your life. 405 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:35,560 Agreed. So if it's the will of the Lord 406 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:39,000 for me to pull out of here and get in a car wreck, well, that 407 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,280 was God's will for my life. If we're following this faulty 408 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:44,880 line of reasoning, well, I've got a broken arm. 409 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,120 Follow me. I've got a broken arm. 410 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:52,480 Am I allowed to get it fixed? Why would you get it fixed? 411 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:54,640 I'm not being facetious. I'm being fair. 412 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:56,320 And I'm following the logic all the way through. 413 00:19:57,080 --> 00:19:58,760 Your arm's broken. Why should you get it fixed? 414 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:00,400 Wasn't it God's will for your arm to be broken? 415 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:00,960 Joe. Michael. 416 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,520 Well yeah, but don't fight the will of the Lord, dude. 417 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:07,680 I mean, God's, he's going to teach you something beautiful. 418 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:09,280 You're almost going to be jacked up for the rest of your life. 419 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:10,840 But like, something awesome will come from it. 420 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:13,080 You'll be more spiritual or something, right? 421 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:15,400 No, this is faulty reasoning. I'm going to get in the 422 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:16,720 ambulance. I'm going to go to the hospital. 423 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:17,640 I'm going to be praying the whole time. 424 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,760 God heal this thing, strengthen this thing, bless this thing. 425 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:21,760 Yeah, Doc put a cast on it, whatever. 426 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:23,800 Like, I'm going to walk through that process. 427 00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:26,960 A lot of folks haven't thought through in that way. 428 00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:29,280 But again, back to our point of judgment. 429 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:31,560 I got under the other under the other issue. 430 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:33,640 There another thing about God's goodness. 431 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:37,400 He will burn His enemies forever in hell, and He is good. 432 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:40,760 Why? Because God's enemies deserve 433 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:43,480 this for their continued wickedness outside of Christ. 434 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:45,960 You and I deserve this as well. God destroyed Sodom and 435 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:49,920 Gomorrah, and God is good when the disciples want to destroy a 436 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,640 village in the same way Jesus corrected them and rebuked them 437 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:54,560 for it. So we see God does the right 438 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:57,240 thing at the right time, but it's wrong to assume and 439 00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:00,240 attribute all tragic circumstances as God's will. 440 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,640 And if we truly believe that all tragedy was the will of God, we 441 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:05,560 would be in rebellion when trying to remedy it. 442 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:08,600 I think God's doing this to me. OK. 443 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:10,640 You think God gave you that awful disease, right? 444 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:12,360 Yes. So why are you seeking 445 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:15,720 treatment? I'm fair question, friend. 446 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,760 I'm just walk me through it. Well, I don't know. 447 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:20,320 OK, fair enough. I don't condemn you. 448 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:23,040 I just wanted, I just wanted to stump you a bit there and make 449 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:24,640 you face that. Go back to the Scriptures. 450 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,320 We go back to Jesus. We really believe that God is 451 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:29,800 good. And we say it with a smile, even 452 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:31,840 though this has been intense because I'm referencing judgment 453 00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:33,720 as well. But the world is broken. 454 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,040 That's why things happen. That's why bad things happen. 455 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,400 People are foolish. That's why bad things happen. 456 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:40,640 The devil is bad. That's why bad things happen, 457 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:42,960 and our sin is why bad things happen. 458 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:45,880 But God is good. God is good, and we say it 459 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:48,640 joyfully and boldly. So when we pray, we pray in 460 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,880 faith with expectation that God is moving and that he actually 461 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,560 wants to do the thing that we're praying for because of His Word, 462 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:56,360 not because of our wishful thinking. 463 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,680 Another value of our church is that we want the gifts of the 464 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,000 Spirit to be in operation. Why? 465 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,720 Because the Scripture tells us that we should eagerly desire 466 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:09,920 the gifts of the Spirit, 1st Corinthians 14 one says, pursue 467 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:14,200 love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that 468 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:16,400 you may prophecy. What are the spiritual gifts? 469 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:17,480 What are the gifts of the Spirit? 470 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:19,880 These are demonstrations. These are actions. 471 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,960 These are impressions or revelations that the Holy Spirit 472 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,440 gives to His people for the purpose of building up the body 473 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,840 of Christ and witnessing to the unsaved. 474 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,560 These gifts serve to accomplish God's will and establish His 475 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,440 Kingdom. The fruits of the Spirit are 476 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:37,080 important, and they display God's character. 477 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,080 The gifts of the Spirit are important, and they display 478 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:43,800 God's power. So we want the fruits of the 479 00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:46,640 Spirit, all nine of them, and we want the gifts of the Spirit, 480 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:50,480 all nine of them. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are 481 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,080 given by the Holy Spirit. These are not gifts that any one 482 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:58,440 of us possess personally. I possess the gift of well, no. 483 00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:02,640 The Holy Spirit gives and he operates as He chooses. 484 00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,240 Now there's this strange correlation between people who 485 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:07,720 seek to operate in the gifts and those who actually do operate in 486 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,040 the gifts. So if I sit back my whole life, 487 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:13,440 arms crossed, gone, I'll do it if the Lord makes me. 488 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:16,440 Well, you never will because the Lord won't make you do anything. 489 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,040 The impressions of the Holy Spirit for the gifts of the 490 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:23,360 Spirit are subtle and gentle. It'll be a simple impression. 491 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:25,800 It'll be a gentle thing. You'll, you'll be at the gas 492 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,280 station and the Lord will say, I want you to go tell that person 493 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:33,560 I love them. Let me obey the Lord. 494 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:36,000 Was it the devil telling you to do that, by the way? 495 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,160 I mean, let's speak. Let's be careful, right? 496 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:44,000 You got to be really wise here. So we also say that the Canon is 497 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,720 closed, the scripture is secure. There's really no there there's 498 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,680 we're not trying to add to Scripture and yet the will of 499 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:55,160 the Lord could still influence and still bring instruction, 500 00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:57,920 direction, encouragement, edification. 501 00:23:57,920 --> 00:23:59,720 He would want to do that in the body, in the gathering. 502 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,160 That's why Paul was even writing to the Corinthians. 503 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:04,760 They were experiencing so frequent manifestation of the 504 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:06,240 gifts. He put parameters around. 505 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,000 He said, guys, I love what you're doing. 506 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,280 I love that you're zealous for the gifts. 507 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:11,440 However, we're going to put a limit on this. 508 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,320 We'll say that two or the most three can prophecy during one 509 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:18,240 during one setting. He's saying because the spirit 510 00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:22,920 of the prophets, the Saints, the spirit of the prophet is subject 511 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,200 to the prophet. That's like saying the right 512 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,040 hand of John Michael is subject to Jim Michael. 513 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:28,880 I just can't help it. I just got to slap people. 514 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,840 No, no, you control your hand. And while pastor, I just got 515 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,400 this thing welling up in me. Hey, you know what? 516 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,960 We'll we'll do that in a way that's decent and in order and 517 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,080 edifying and a blessing. Oh, we want it all. 518 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:43,840 We want to do it. Well, some people have described 519 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,440 themselves as they say, I'm Pentecostal with a seat belt. 520 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,800 And I said, well, I'm just in a castle and the Holy Spirit's not 521 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:52,920 going to put me in a car crash, so I don't need a seat belt. 522 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:55,560 But I'm going to continue to drive forward and I want to 523 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,840 continue to say, Lord use me. Lord use me. 524 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,320 And if you pray that prayer, you expect that the Lord is actually 525 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,480 going to, he's going to bring directions and impressions. 526 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:04,680 Well, I don't know which gift it was. 527 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:06,480 I don't know which gift. Just obey the Lord. 528 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:09,480 We don't need to categorize. We don't need to. 529 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:10,960 We don't need to get caught up in anything. 530 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,000 Just go or that's you. That's you. 531 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:16,360 Hey, so and so I just want to encourage you. 532 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:18,120 I feel like the Lord is saying this. 533 00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:19,520 Does that bless you? Does that sit with you? 534 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,720 And we test it. We always weigh it through the 535 00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:23,960 word. We always weigh it by the word. 536 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:26,240 There's nothing that can't, that can be said and done that 537 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:27,880 wouldn't agree with the scriptures. 538 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,040 So we talk about these gifts, though these aren't gifts. 539 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,280 Like, man, she's a great singer. She's got a great gift. 540 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:36,920 She could use that gift at any moment, but that's not the same 541 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:38,600 thing as the gifts of the Spirit. 542 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:41,680 We are commanded earnestly to to desire the gifts. 543 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:43,400 So we will earnestly desire the gifts. 544 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,160 First Corinthians 12/1 says now about spiritual gift. 545 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,560 Brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 546 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,320 That means untaught or misinformed. 547 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:55,360 I don't want you to be misled. So the Bible makes no mention of 548 00:25:55,360 --> 00:25:59,040 these gifts ceasing or stopping. It's a very popular view among 549 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:02,360 many Christians who are faithful Saints who I love and who I also 550 00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:04,920 love to fight with. And it's super fun because I 551 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:07,160 just get to go to the Scripture and they have to point to 552 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,920 circumstance and excesses, which will always happen to those 553 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,720 conversations. By the way, anytime you've got a 554 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,040 believer, faithful believers love the Lord, Very, very 555 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,560 sincere. But whenever they say those are 556 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,520 the gifts of the Spirit don't operate anymore, I'll say show 557 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,840 me the word. So it becomes a funny and silly 558 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:27,240 conversation at times, but their concern is faithfulness to the 559 00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:30,400 word of God, which I appreciate. And yet at the same time, when 560 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,560 when they claim sola scriptura, they're still not deferring to 561 00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:36,120 the scripture that says these gifts are an operation in the 562 00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:38,400 body of Christ. So we seek these things. 563 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:39,560 We want these things. Why? 564 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,600 Because the Lord does, because they're one of the ways. 565 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,360 They're one of the means that he uses to bless, edify, and build 566 00:26:45,360 --> 00:26:48,360 up his body. The Holy Spirit has has to 567 00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:51,400 distribute the gift he distributes to each one for the 568 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,720 good of everyone. We can minister in any gift at 569 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,960 any time as the Holy Spirit directs and allows. 570 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,920 We don't have an anointing flowing from ourselves. 571 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:05,360 It flows from Him. The gifts of the Spirit only 572 00:27:05,360 --> 00:27:07,720 operate through His power. So like we said, rather than 573 00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:10,240 thinking I have the gift, we would say the Holy Spirit often 574 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,720 manifests or maybe has manifested this gift in my life 575 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,480 to bless His people. Gifts should never puff up the 576 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:17,920 individual operating in the gift. 577 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,840 If you've ever met a believer who's like I this or I that pipe 578 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,600 down, Bob, like settle down like it's for the body, it's for the 579 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,240 body. So that's a blessing that you're 580 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:32,000 that you operate that way. But the most mature Saints who 581 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,080 I've seen operating the gifts are the most subtle about it. 582 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:36,040 Absolutely. Have you seen that? 583 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,360 Those of you who are familiar, you've been around this the most 584 00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:40,080 subtle. They're the most low key. 585 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,760 They're the most gentle and the most profound words. 586 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:46,200 The words from the Lord that I've ever received from anybody 587 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:47,880 were very low key. They weren't over the 588 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,640 microphone. They were during a greeting 589 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:51,560 time. Hey, brother, can I share 590 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:52,160 something with you? Yeah. 591 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:52,800 Yeah. What's up? 592 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:54,600 I think I've told you a story many times before. 593 00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,000 The most profound word I ever heard was Jesus loves you. 594 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,320 It was during a grieving time. The sister came up to me. 595 00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,320 She said I felt like the Lord me to tell you Jesus loves you. 596 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,880 And I was undone because the Lord met me. 597 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:06,760 He saw me. She said he hasn't forgotten you 598 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:08,360 don't cry. Then I'll cry. 599 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:11,200 Then Don's going to cry. Then Matt's going to cry. 600 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:12,200 Then we're all going to be crying. 601 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,280 So that was a word from the Lord and thankfully she obeyed the 602 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:18,360 Lord. There have been other times 603 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:20,640 where somebody said, Hey, I got I was praying for you this week. 604 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:22,280 I feel like the Lord said this and I say, what is it? 605 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,560 And they said, do the obvious thing. 606 00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:27,920 I was like, what a freedom. I was weighing a big decision. 607 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,080 This sister knew nothing of it, knew nothing about any of it. 608 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,160 And I was like feeling I'm supposed to do this. 609 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:34,840 I don't really know. And I'm just all hung up and 610 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:36,760 torn up and hung up. And she was I should feel like 611 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:38,000 the Lord said do the obvious thing. 612 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,680 I was like, I knew exactly what to do, knew exactly what it 613 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:43,480 meant. I didn't say, sister, do you got 614 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,320 a verse for that? I said thank God. 615 00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,760 Thank God that the Holy Spirit was speaking to the Saints and I 616 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,400 was edified and blessed. I'm talking major life 617 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:55,560 trajectory. You want to know what it was? 618 00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,520 It was literally starting the family captain years ago. 619 00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,160 It was four years back, a little, a little over that now. 620 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:04,320 And I was like, I'm not supposed to sure if I'm supposed to, am I 621 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,120 supposed to go run around with my resume and see who will take 622 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:09,200 me in? Or am I just supposed to bet on, 623 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,080 bet on me and just go all in on this family captain thing? 624 00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:14,240 And that's what I was waiting. She didn't know anything about 625 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,160 any of it. And here we are today, hundreds 626 00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,000 of families later have been blessed and helped by the family 627 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,960 captain because why? Because the Lord helped to 628 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,800 direct me in that way. We eagerly desire the gifts of 629 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,160 the Spirit because it displays the Lord's power. 630 00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:31,080 It's also a testimony to the non believer. 631 00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:35,760 Paul gives the example that even when non believers would come 632 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:39,040 into a gathering of Saints that their sin could even be 633 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:41,360 prophesied and laid out in front of them. 634 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:43,880 How's that for a hospitality ministry? 635 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:46,120 Hey, good morning. We just want to tell you what 636 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,560 you were doing last night. The Lord revealed it to us. 637 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:52,560 Welcome, come on in, he said. But what would their response 638 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:53,880 be? They will fall before you and 639 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:56,240 say, surely the Spirit of God is among you. 640 00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,520 So, but what would that be? Is that to shame and expose 641 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:00,680 them? No, no, no, It's to draw them to 642 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:02,240 the blood, to draw them to the cross. 643 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,240 Go, hey, hey, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to freak you out right 644 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,400 now, friend. But the Lord wanted to say this 645 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:11,480 and they're like good news. Jesus loves you and he wants to 646 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:13,920 forgive you and cleanse you. Wow, wow. 647 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,120 What's up with you people? It's not us, it's our king. 648 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:18,800 It's not us, it's not us. Don't worship us. 649 00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:22,080 Don't get excited about us. Get excited about Jesus with us 650 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:23,720 because we're really excited about him. 651 00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:28,680 Another value of ours is we fight where the fight is. 652 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:34,240 We fight where the fight is. I want to read a quote to you. 653 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:36,760 It's a little bit wordy. This guy's way smarter than me 654 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,120 or this, this woman's way smarter than me. 655 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:39,840 And then I'm going to read another one in a few minutes 656 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:41,040 from a guy who's way smarter than me. 657 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:43,240 But listen to this. It is the truth which is 658 00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,800 assailed or attacked. It's the truth that's being 659 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:50,400 attacked in any age which tests our fidelity, our faithfulness. 660 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,640 We are called to confess, not merely to profess. 661 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,200 If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest 662 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:02,320 exposition, every portion of truth of God, except precisely 663 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,280 that little point that the world and the devil are at any moment 664 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:08,600 attacking, then I'm not professing Christ, however 665 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:10,800 boldly I may be professing Christianity. 666 00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:15,320 Where the battle rages, the loyalty of the soldier is proved 667 00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:21,640 and to be steady on all the battlefield is mere flight and a 668 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:25,240 disgrace to man if he flinches at that one point. 669 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,760 Elizabeth Rundle Charles said that what does that mean in Joe 670 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,160 Michael words? That means if if the enemy's 671 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,240 attacking over here, but I staunchly defend this position, 672 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,280 then I haven't been faithful. Well, I'm going to stand up for 673 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:39,920 this truth. Dude. 674 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,520 Nobody's attacking that. I mean like it's important. 675 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,360 It's still important. We're not saying it didn't 676 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,920 matter. We're not saying that at all, 677 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,440 but we're just saying hey, we could use some help over here. 678 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,120 We could help. We, we the, the hordes are 679 00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,840 coming in this way. The demonic hordes are attacking 680 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:00,640 right here. 500 years ago, Martin Luther fought where the 681 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,640 fight was. He didn't fight for the things 682 00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,760 that we need to fight for now because the attacks are 683 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:07,680 different. In the same way. 684 00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:10,960 If one of my son, if Brock was being attacked by somebody, I'm 685 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,240 not going to go and shelter Hudson. 686 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:17,280 I'm not going to go shelter Elijah fame. 687 00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,480 I'm going to go to war for Brock because that's where the threat 688 00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:22,360 is. If somebody's breaking into one 689 00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:24,200 of your windows in your house, you're not going to go check all 690 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,680 the other ones. It's foolishness when we pointed 691 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,120 out that way. The same thing is true in the 692 00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,640 body of Christ. It's the ignorant who say, why 693 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,520 do you talk about hot button issues? 694 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,280 Well, it's not because I think it's clever or fun. 695 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,960 It's just because I want to be faithful and we have to speak 696 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,840 the truth because that is our responsibility in the church. 697 00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,880 That's what salt does. So salt, the implication of 698 00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:49,040 being salt is you have to fight where the fight is. 699 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:50,720 You can't go. Well, I don't really talk about 700 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,800 those things. I'm going to stay in my lane. 701 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:56,160 As one pastor famously said when asked point blank about 702 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,880 homosexuality and asked point blank about abortion. 703 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:04,080 I just want to stay in my lane and do this thing, bro. 704 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,280 Your lane is to be faithful to the Lord and faithful to the 705 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,280 mission. Answer, answer Bible questions 706 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,320 with Bible answers. Man, please come on. 707 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,560 Like you're not a meanie poo poo head for doing that. 708 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:18,200 You're just faithful. You're just doing the right 709 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:21,840 thing. We want what's good. 710 00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:23,920 We want what's true. We want what's beautiful. 711 00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:27,160 We want what's best. If you don't believe that God's 712 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,520 ways are best, then you won't actually be bold for the 713 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,200 Kingdom. And I'm convinced that's the 714 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,520 problem with many Christians. I don't think it's always just a 715 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:36,360 fear thing. I think a lot of Christians 716 00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:38,720 don't even think that the Bible's ways are best. 717 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,880 They think it's a limitation. They think it's a penalty. 718 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,840 Many Saints think that it's a penalty to live in the ways that 719 00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:49,280 God has commanded us to live, instead of the absolute freedom 720 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:53,240 and the absolute ticket, the absolute fast track to human 721 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:55,520 flourishing. You want to be happy? 722 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,920 Yeah, I do, and I'm not sorry for it. 723 00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:01,680 I do want to be happy. Well, let me introduce you to 724 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:05,640 the word of God. It is God's design for mankind, 725 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:07,600 and there's no better way to live. 726 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:09,960 But Christians feel like I'm really sorry. 727 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:12,600 Hey you sinners, I see you're having a really good time. 728 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:16,080 I hate to be that guy, but I have to ruin your fun. 729 00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:21,480 No, you're slaves and I want to see you set free by the King of 730 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:23,480 kings who loves you. But a church? 731 00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:25,520 If you don't believe that, that you won't act like that. 732 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,199 You won't speak that way. You'll carry your Christianity 733 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:31,920 in your pocket and you'll pull it out sometime maybe, but 734 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:34,040 you'll try to stay in your lane otherwise. 735 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:36,920 But we've got to fight where the fight is, because we love what's 736 00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,199 good and true and beautiful, and we love people. 737 00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:42,800 God's ways are better, and we're not sorry for it. 738 00:34:43,199 --> 00:34:48,639 We're thankful for it. Wherever something is attacking, 739 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,400 that's where we want to show up with what's good, with what's 740 00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:53,800 true and what's beautiful. We're going to defend. 741 00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,120 Another word for controversial could simply be faithful. 742 00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:00,320 Look throughout the Scriptures. Who gets killed? 743 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,440 Who gets solved in half? Who gets their head cut off? 744 00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:07,840 Who gets crucified? It's just faithfulness, whoever 745 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:11,320 stands up and speaks up for the Lord first. 746 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:16,200 John 2 verses 15 through 17 do not love the world or the things 747 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,240 in the world. If anyone loves the world, the 748 00:35:19,240 --> 00:35:20,880 love of the Father is not in him. 749 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:24,040 For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the 750 00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:27,280 desires of the eyes, the pride of life is not from the Father, 751 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:30,160 but it's from the world. And the world is passing away 752 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:33,080 along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God 753 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,040 abides forever. So what does it mean that we, we 754 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:37,760 don't love the world? He's not referencing the people 755 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:39,080 there. He's referencing the God of the 756 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:42,040 world, the lowercase God of the world, the temporary 757 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:44,840 jurisdiction that Satan has, the world system. 758 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:49,040 So you are supposed to hate the world, and of course you're 759 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,680 supposed to love every single human being all throughout the 760 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:55,840 planet, but we're to hate the world and the Antichrist system 761 00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:58,920 of the world. So where is our fight today, 762 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:00,040 Pastor? What, what? 763 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,280 What does this mean very practically for us, For Martin 764 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:03,560 Luther? He had a fight for the doctrines 765 00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:06,040 of grace. Hey, you can't pay the church 766 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:08,320 money for the sin that you did last night. 767 00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:11,680 That's not how this works. It's by the grace of God. 768 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:15,280 It is by faith and God's grace that you're saved. 769 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,680 That's it. So Martin Luther was faithful to 770 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:20,360 fight and that's why they wanted to kill him. 771 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,000 Does anybody want to kill you? Does anybody hate you? 772 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:27,720 Maybe that's an indicator of where we need to be more 773 00:36:27,720 --> 00:36:29,600 faithful. So here's a here's a smart guy. 774 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,520 His name's non tenant faithful brother. 775 00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:34,680 He says if Martin Luther were alive today, he would not be 776 00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:38,040 preaching faith alone. He would be preaching the Father 777 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:43,600 rule of God, the creation order of Adam and Eve then and the 778 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,920 culturally despised theology of sexuality which flows from 779 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,600 these. What is the doctrine which the 780 00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:51,480 world and the devil are today are attacking? 781 00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,080 Where is the point where the battle rages in the 21st century 782 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:57,840 that we may test our loyalty and courage on this point? 783 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:01,720 The world does not very much mind Christian piety or 784 00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:05,160 godliness. Faithfully living our God-given 785 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:09,840 duties, provided we perform them as androgynous persons, that 786 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:13,200 means genderless. The duties that are common to 787 00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:14,960 all Christians. These do not offend them. 788 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,960 It is the duties which are unique to each sex that require 789 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,640 silencing. The apologist for the inerrancy 790 00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:25,440 of scripture? He's not a problem. 791 00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:30,960 The young earth creationists? These aren't pariahs in the 792 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,520 secular workforce, men who preach the Lordship of Jesus in 793 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:36,640 the coming judgement. Those are not the men who are 794 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:38,840 protested on university campuses. 795 00:37:39,720 --> 00:37:42,600 It is those who dare to preach the masculine and feminine, 796 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:46,000 feminine piety grounded in the creation order rooted in the 797 00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:48,040 fatherhood of God. They are the ones who are 798 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:51,600 cancelled, who are ghosted, who are defunded and de platformed. 799 00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:54,360 They are slandered as misogynists and they are 800 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,360 vilified as evil because this is where the battle rages. 801 00:37:57,720 --> 00:37:59,160 I'll put it in John Michael, terms for you. 802 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:02,440 Said differently, what's most likely to offend the spirit of 803 00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,400 the age? I love Jesus or I submit to my 804 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:12,440 husband. I'm going to fight for the love 805 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,880 of Jesus. Well, that is the most important 806 00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:18,920 thing, literally. But also, is that where the 807 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,880 fight is? What's more likely to offend the 808 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,520 devil and his opposition at this moment? 809 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:29,920 To say God created heaven and earth or to say homosexuality is 810 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:31,880 sinful and unacceptable to the Lord? 811 00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:36,920 What's more unacceptable, to say Jesus died for our sins or to 812 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,880 say God made people male and female and they cannot and 813 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:44,920 should not oppose his design? What would be worse to say it's 814 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:48,080 a sin to murder, or for a husband to say I'm the head of 815 00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:52,400 my wife? What's worse to say Jesus 816 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:53,920 commands us all to love one another? 817 00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:57,920 Or to say men and men and women have different designs and 818 00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:04,160 different roles in life? What's worse, to say God has 819 00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:07,400 good plans for people's lives, or to say boys should be 820 00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:09,200 masculine and girls should be feminine? 821 00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:12,840 So we fight where the fight is there. 822 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,080 This isn't the only fight that matters. 823 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,800 We're also very outspoken about the right of babies to stay 824 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:21,320 alive while they're in their mother's wombs without anyone 825 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,200 killing them. So there's a lot of things that 826 00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:27,600 our culture embraces and prioritizes and builds upon. 827 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,440 But this value as a church shapes us in at least two ways. 828 00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:34,680 First, So what I want to do is make it very practical. 829 00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:37,880 What does that mean for us? Like very, very tangibly, first, 830 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:41,480 we as a church, we emphasize gender roles as a means of 831 00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:44,360 worship to God and as the path of flourishing for us as 832 00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:46,600 individuals. That's an emphasis. 833 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:48,760 It's something that I talk about regularly. 834 00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:51,320 It's something that you're talking about and discipleship 835 00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:53,640 groups and conversations. And I'm always encouraging that. 836 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:56,160 Why? Because we are so bad at that as 837 00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:58,240 a culture. We're way worse than we even 838 00:39:58,240 --> 00:39:59,560 know. And you think, man, we're, we're 839 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:01,160 doing pretty good. Don't compare yourself to 840 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:02,600 anybody. Compare yourself to the 841 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:04,440 scriptures. We got a lot of growing to do 842 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:06,200 and it's OK. We're going to keep walking 843 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:08,440 faithfully with the Lord. We're going to keep growing. 844 00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:10,440 God is for us, God's with us. But that, that's the first 845 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:13,120 thing. Second, this also shapes the way 846 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:15,120 as a church that we think about kids ministry. 847 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,120 Why? Because we believe that fathers 848 00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,240 should take the primary responsibility for the 849 00:40:20,240 --> 00:40:23,600 discipleship of their children and that parents who love God 850 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,760 and teach their children an example and in words are the 851 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:28,720 best kids ministry to ever exist. 852 00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,520 So we don't think kids ministry is evil or wicked or unfaithful 853 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:34,720 or anything like that. But as a household in this 854 00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:36,760 house, Dylan does it different in his house. 855 00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,120 Michael does it different in his house, Salt does it different in 856 00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:41,320 their church, Pure life does it different in their church. 857 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:45,000 But in this house, we prioritize that our children are with us in 858 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:46,840 worship. So they see daddy and mommy in 859 00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:48,480 worship. Of course, we also have a room 860 00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:52,040 where you know the wiggle room, you know, where you can say, you 861 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:53,720 know what? This little guy needs a few 862 00:40:53,720 --> 00:40:55,400 minutes to to be able to go wiggle. 863 00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:56,600 He needs to be able to run around. 864 00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:58,080 That's all normal. That's all good. 865 00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:00,320 It's just family, y'all. We're a family. 866 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,200 This is how family operates. Hey, so and so's a little 867 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:06,000 stirred up right now. That's why we've got a place for 868 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:07,720 them to go get their wiggles out. 869 00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,680 Let's bring them back in. The good news on this? 870 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:13,080 Your children will not resent you for this. 871 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,800 You know what makes children resent the Kingdom? 872 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:18,640 You know what makes children resent church? 873 00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,240 It's hypocritical, parents. I've seen it over and over and 874 00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:23,760 over and over and over and over and over. 875 00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:25,280 The thing that makes kids hate church. 876 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,840 As a kid who grew up on the pews and grew up under the pews with 877 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:30,760 some Pentecostal meetings that went real long. 878 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,520 Yeah, I was a part of I as a pastor's kid. 879 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,880 So all the things I never hated church, not once. 880 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:39,760 Why? Because my mom and dad love the 881 00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,400 Lord, and they were the same people at church as they were in 882 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:44,760 the car on the way home, and they were the same people at 883 00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:46,120 church as they were at the house. 884 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:47,560 Everything was just all the same. 885 00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:48,840 Jesus is King. We love him. 886 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:50,600 Of course we're going to be with the Saints. 887 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:52,080 We love the Saints. Where else would we go? 888 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:56,000 What else would we do? There was just no question, of 889 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,560 course. So the good news is your kids 890 00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:01,520 will follow that genuine love. Your kids will follow that 891 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:05,400 genuine example. So this shapes us in many 892 00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:06,760 different ways. Those are just a couple 893 00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:11,280 practical ones. Another value is we multiply as 894 00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:17,040 individuals and as a church. This one's super fun because God 895 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:19,120 commands us to be fruitful and multiply. 896 00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:21,320 That in itself is fun. We won't go in too much detail 897 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,800 there, but God commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. 898 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:28,320 He commands us to expand, to subdue the earth. 899 00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:31,240 But growth and reproduction is God's default. 900 00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:33,760 That is his normal. That's not the exception. 901 00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:36,800 Should we have kids? Should we not have kids? 902 00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:41,720 Hey, hey, St. That question all in itself just 903 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:44,880 shows how much you and I have been shaped by our Western and 904 00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,880 modern moment. That's never been a question 905 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:49,760 throughout human history. Never. 906 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:52,520 Children were always seen as a blessing from the Lord. 907 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:55,200 Always. It's a very brand new thing to 908 00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:57,360 human history to go should we have kids? 909 00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:01,600 I shamefully tell you that Natalie and I intended to wait 910 00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:03,320 till we were 30 years old to have kids. 911 00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:05,120 By design. That was our plan. 912 00:43:05,120 --> 00:43:08,920 And thank God the Lord and His sovereignty changed that for us. 913 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:12,360 But This is why whenever we're not having babies, there are 914 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:14,520 many couples in this church who are trying for babies. 915 00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:16,000 This is why we're not having babies. 916 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:18,720 We give special attention to that and we go, hey, there's 917 00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:20,360 something needs attention here. What's going on? 918 00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,560 What's going on? Because we know God's default, 919 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:25,240 we know his normative. And that's why we pray and we 920 00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:28,280 expect, we're praying for, for, for you couples to have those 921 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:30,200 babies. But that's our expectation 922 00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:33,560 because reproduction should happen in a healthy environment. 923 00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:35,800 The same thing should happen with a healthy disciple of 924 00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:38,560 Jesus. A disciple of Jesus multiplies 925 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:41,520 to make disciples of Jesus. And if that's not happening, 926 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:43,880 that should get our attention to go, hey, something's off here. 927 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:46,680 We don't have to panic. We don't need to induce shame. 928 00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:47,960 But we need to go. What's up? 929 00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:50,360 What's going on? Do you have that desire? 930 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:51,680 Do you have an impulse? Not really. 931 00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:54,960 OK, maybe there's needs to be some instruction there. 932 00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:56,680 Oh, I have that desire and impulse now. 933 00:43:56,760 --> 00:43:58,880 Good. Because that should be online. 934 00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,480 You should not want to be content to see the whole world 935 00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,760 around you go to hell. That would be a strange thing 936 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,120 for someone who's full of the love of God, to not love people 937 00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,240 enough to go. I really want to see them come 938 00:44:09,240 --> 00:44:11,600 into the Kingdom. So this is something we're 939 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:13,360 expecting. This is something we're praying 940 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:15,840 for. Jesus said that he will build 941 00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:19,120 his church. Jesus sends out people who 942 00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:20,880 multiply. That's his building method. 943 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,960 He's not using bricks to build. He's using you. 944 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,520 You are the ministers of the gospel. 945 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:30,720 So this is this shapes salt in a very particular way because it 946 00:44:30,720 --> 00:44:33,800 is very important to me that you do not defer disciple making to 947 00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:37,080 me because disciple making is my responsibility. 948 00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,880 But that's my responsibility as I join you. 949 00:44:40,240 --> 00:44:43,120 I'm a Christian, so yes, I'm a disciple maker. 950 00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:47,200 I have the added responsibility and joyful responsibility of 951 00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:50,160 shepherding the flock, but I don't make disciples because I'm 952 00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:52,320 a preacher. I don't make disciples because 953 00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:54,440 I'm a pastor. I make disciples because I'm a 954 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,520 Christian. And that's the same thing that 955 00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:58,000 you're doing. And do you know what my primary 956 00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:01,240 responsibility is, according to Ephesians 4, is to equip the 957 00:45:01,240 --> 00:45:06,680 Saints to do the work of the ministry, to do the work of the 958 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:08,040 ministry. What's the work of the ministry? 959 00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,800 Well, it's making disciples. That's the whole point. 960 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:17,240 That's the whole mission. So the good news is there. 961 00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,320 Jesus guarantees victory. Nothing is going to stop His 962 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:21,440 church from building and growing. 963 00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:23,680 You don't have any pressure on you to build the church. 964 00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:26,240 You just need to obey the builder and the original 965 00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:29,760 cornerstone of the church. He was set first, the chief 966 00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:31,800 disciple Maker. He multiplied. 967 00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:35,480 We continue exponentially to multiply to fulfill the purpose 968 00:45:35,720 --> 00:45:38,680 until His Kingdom fully comes and the will of the Father is 969 00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:41,600 fully done. You're listening too slow. 970 00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:45,760 We're running out of time. To be a disciple of Jesus is to 971 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:50,320 make disciples for Jesus. And that also means as a church, 972 00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:53,480 to be a church for King Jesus means we plant churches for King 973 00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:56,720 Jesus. It is our desire to aggressively 974 00:45:56,800 --> 00:45:59,680 plant churches. We want to plant other churches 975 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:01,640 by design. Salt Church is never going to 976 00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:05,320 grow beyond 200 people. That's our plan to never grow 977 00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:06,920 beyond that. And every time we get there, 978 00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:08,760 roughly, who knows, we'll see when we get there. 979 00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:12,800 We're going to take a group and we're going to seed out and say 980 00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:17,400 y'all go and plant there. Y'all go and start in Urbana, 981 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,000 y'all go and Gloucester, wherever. 982 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:22,360 Hey, who lives closest? Make it work. 983 00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:24,200 Make it happen. And we're going to send another 984 00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:26,720 pastor, another elder, and we want to plant that church who 985 00:46:26,720 --> 00:46:28,640 multiplies and multiplies and multiplies. 986 00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:30,600 Why? Because the name of salt does 987 00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,120 not need to grow. Those won't be campuses. 988 00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:36,520 They won't be beaming in Joe Michael's face all over the 989 00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:38,480 region. John Michael will be the pastor 990 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:41,360 of Salt and somebody else will be the pastor somewhere else. 991 00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:45,000 But the name of Jesus will be expanding and multiplying and 992 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:46,480 he'll be getting more glory. But why? 993 00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:49,960 Because people should multiply and churches should multiply. 994 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:52,800 We're three years old. I'm discouraged that we haven't 995 00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,520 planted a church yet. I'll be honest, all my pastor 996 00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:58,640 friends like, bro, that's, that's aggressive. 997 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,080 And I'm like, OK, I'm still discouraged. 998 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:03,400 I refuse to be encouraged by you. 999 00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:06,320 I'll be happy when we plant a church. 1000 00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:09,640 So how do we do that, though? Well, we don't just plant a 1001 00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:10,720 church the way you plant churches. 1002 00:47:10,720 --> 00:47:13,640 You make disciples, make disciples, make disciples. 1003 00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:14,800 So that means, what does that look like? 1004 00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:17,440 That means you invite friends into your home. 1005 00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:20,080 I've told you many times, don't you dare invite somebody here, 1006 00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:22,320 kind of tongue in cheek. Don't you dare invite somebody 1007 00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:23,840 here until you've invited them to your living room. 1008 00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:25,880 You got to come here. My preacher. 1009 00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:26,880 They don't care about your preacher. 1010 00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:28,280 They don't care about your church. 1011 00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:29,640 If they're not in the Kingdom, they don't care. 1012 00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,600 I think they might. If they might, then by all means 1013 00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:34,400 bring them. We'd love to bless them and love 1014 00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:37,440 them and worship with them. But primarily you need to take 1015 00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:40,880 ownership of that individual. Hey, man, we do this Bible study 1016 00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:43,080 on Wednesday nights in my house. You don't yet do it, but you 1017 00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:46,120 could start. So now it'll be a truthful 1018 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:47,320 statement. Hey, man, you want to come over? 1019 00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:49,160 We open the Scriptures. You know, me and my wife, me and 1020 00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:51,640 my husband, we do this stuff and you ought to come check it out. 1021 00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:54,320 OK, cool, I'll do that. Open the Scriptures together. 1022 00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:57,120 You don't have to get fancy. You can keep it simple. 1023 00:47:57,120 --> 00:48:00,320 We use that discipleship, the Discovery Bible study method. 1024 00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:03,240 Just read the passage, ask some simple questions. 1025 00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:06,160 God will bless it. God will make disciples through 1026 00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:07,600 you. You are well able and you're 1027 00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:10,120 overqualified to disciple people for Christ. 1028 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:17,240 We're going to move along. We are deeply committed to each 1029 00:48:17,240 --> 00:48:21,240 other. It's our last one. 1030 00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:23,360 We are deeply committed to each other. 1031 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:30,640 Love for the church is the evidence of loving and following 1032 00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:32,800 King Jesus. I'm going to read to you in John 1033 00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:46,750 chapter 13, John 1334, a new commandment. 1034 00:48:47,150 --> 00:48:52,790 I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved 1035 00:48:52,790 --> 00:48:54,750 you. You're also to love one another. 1036 00:48:55,270 --> 00:48:59,480 By this all people will know that you're my disciples. 1037 00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:03,640 If you have love for one another, how will the world know 1038 00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:05,960 that I'm a disciple of Jesus? Will it be the fish magnet on my 1039 00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:10,040 truck? Will it be my cross necklace? 1040 00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:15,640 How will people really know that I'm a disciple of Jesus? 1041 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:17,760 It'll be my love for the body of Christ. 1042 00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:20,800 Yo I'm super suspicious of a Christian who does not love 1043 00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:23,160 Christians. That's putting it lightly. 1044 00:49:23,480 --> 00:49:25,120 I love Jesus but I don't know about his church. 1045 00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:26,000 I'm like, I don't know about you. 1046 00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:31,240 That's some shady stuff, That's some non Bible stuff, that's 1047 00:49:31,240 --> 00:49:32,840 some non Jesus stuff right there. 1048 00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,480 The world who is ready to kill each other looks at the church 1049 00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:38,680 and sees people who are instead who are ready to die for each 1050 00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:41,280 other. This is the New Testament 1051 00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:43,240 standard. This is the Jesus way. 1052 00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:46,880 If you were dragged into court and you were accused of being a 1053 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:49,760 disciple of Jesus, would they have enough evidence to convict 1054 00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:51,760 you just by looking at your relationships with other 1055 00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:56,160 Christians? This will be the marker of salt 1056 00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:59,800 church, our love and commitment to one another made obvious by 1057 00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,320 our actions. And that's deep love. 1058 00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:04,520 That's real stuff. That's real care. 1059 00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:06,960 In Genesis 4, Cain kills his brother. 1060 00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:11,360 He kills Abel, and God asks him, where is Abel, your brother? 1061 00:50:12,240 --> 00:50:15,280 And Cain famously replies, am I my brother's keeper? 1062 00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:20,360 Yes, Cain, that was the point. That was what was implied. 1063 00:50:20,560 --> 00:50:23,160 And if your heart was devoted to God, then you would have been 1064 00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:26,240 devoted to your brother as well. And that's true of everybody. 1065 00:50:26,240 --> 00:50:28,360 If your heart is really devoted to God, you're going to love 1066 00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:29,760 Jesus church. Why? 1067 00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,680 Because you sense the presence of Jesus in the body of Christ 1068 00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:34,600 and you go, I want the full body. 1069 00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,400 I feel closer to the Lord and I love these Saints. 1070 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:40,680 We have a unity. We talked about that last week 1071 00:50:40,680 --> 00:50:42,120 where Jesus said, who's my family? 1072 00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:47,320 Who's my family, my mother and my brothers outside the door 1073 00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:49,880 trying to pull me away from the will of God or the people who 1074 00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:50,880 are doing the will of God? He said. 1075 00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:56,120 That's who my family is. What am I responsible for others 1076 00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:59,920 in the body of Christ? Yes, absolutely. 1077 00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:02,840 Anyone who says they don't that anyone who says they love Jesus 1078 00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:05,320 but they don't care for his church, they revealed they are 1079 00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,000 not in fact in fellowship with the King because they have the 1080 00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:09,680 same attitude as the first murderer. 1081 00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:14,640 Am I responsible for others? So we have this gift of a simple 1082 00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:18,800 test when it comes to money. We could ask, do I love money 1083 00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:20,400 more than God? God has given us this simple 1084 00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:22,720 measurement. Do you tithe? 1085 00:51:23,200 --> 00:51:25,240 Do you give offerings? There's a way to detach your 1086 00:51:25,240 --> 00:51:27,920 heart from money and go, oh, that helps me. 1087 00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:29,720 That helps to clarify where my heart is. 1088 00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:32,440 Tithing 10% of my income can tell me the truth about where my 1089 00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:33,720 heart is. Jesus said wherever your 1090 00:51:34,240 --> 00:51:35,800 treasure is, there your heart will be also. 1091 00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:38,480 Do I love God? No need to wonder, loving the 1092 00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:41,680 church is the test to tell me whether or not my heart is in 1093 00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:43,720 the right place. And of course, laying down your 1094 00:51:43,720 --> 00:51:47,400 life would be the test of of ultimate discipleship for the 1095 00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:50,840 one who laid down his life. I told you the story before. 1096 00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:54,520 There's a pastor in California, Southern California who they had 1097 00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:57,280 seen a young gang member coming to their church and get saved. 1098 00:51:57,720 --> 00:52:03,120 And whenever he got baptized after a few months, they hadn't 1099 00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:04,400 seen him anymore. The pastor said, hey, what 1100 00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:06,640 happened to so and so? And he followed up with him. 1101 00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,480 He checked in on him and said, hey, man, what happened? 1102 00:52:09,480 --> 00:52:11,240 I hadn't been seeing you anymore. 1103 00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:13,880 And the guy said, oh, man. I thought, like when I, when I 1104 00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,760 got jumped into a gang, we were like a family. 1105 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:20,200 And I thought when I got baptized that I was going to 1106 00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:22,000 like enter into a family. I didn't know. 1107 00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:24,440 We were just going to like, see each other at church on Sundays. 1108 00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:29,120 And the pastor was like, so convicted and he repented. 1109 00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:30,880 He's like, no, no, no, you're right. 1110 00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:34,800 We're supposed to be doing gangs are doing fellowship better than 1111 00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:37,640 the body at times. See you next Sunday. 1112 00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:40,360 I'm going to just live a life totally detached from you. 1113 00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:44,520 We'll gather and hear the same sermon and we'll just do that 52 1114 00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:48,760 * a year instead of, hey, your life is my life. 1115 00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:50,680 And you can't be that for everybody. 1116 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:52,840 You can't be that for everybody. But you got to be that for 1117 00:52:52,840 --> 00:52:56,560 somebody. And that takes time, but it 1118 00:52:56,560 --> 00:53:00,960 doesn't take three years, and you can insert yourself into the 1119 00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:04,320 right place. So Salt Church will not be a 1120 00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:06,760 church that people are disappointed by a lack of love 1121 00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:09,800 and commitment, because of course, no such church should 1122 00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:14,960 even exist that way. You've got to show your love, 1123 00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,440 you've got to indicate your love, and you've got to think 1124 00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:21,480 creatively to do so. It will take prayer, it will 1125 00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:24,680 take devotion. What does it look like in the 1126 00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:26,960 New Testament for Saints to be committed to each other? 1127 00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:30,520 They give everything. They they brought all their 1128 00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:31,680 money. That was a unique moment. 1129 00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:34,160 But they brought all their money to the apostles and they said 1130 00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:36,600 distribute among the whole body, however anybody needs it. 1131 00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:39,320 They said what? What's mine is theirs. 1132 00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:41,680 So that's the question you should ask yourself. 1133 00:53:41,680 --> 00:53:44,280 What could I do? Where can I insert myself deeper 1134 00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:47,480 into fellowship to connect with this body that I love? 1135 00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:50,000 Many of you do this well. Some of you need to do it 1136 00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:51,920 better. Some of you need to just begin, 1137 00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:56,040 but this devotion means that there's a difference between I 1138 00:53:56,040 --> 00:53:59,520 go to church there and salt is my church. 1139 00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:03,160 And for those of us who say salt is my church, I want you to know 1140 00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:06,080 there are some things to do and some commitments to make. 1141 00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:09,280 And we're going to close with this some practical things. 1142 00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:12,520 What would it look like? One thing it means is it means 1143 00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:14,640 regularly gathering with the body for worship. 1144 00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:18,640 Super low bar. It's like that's, that's not 1145 00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:21,120 college level Christianity. That's really kindergarten level 1146 00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,880 Christianity, just gathering with the Saints. 1147 00:54:24,160 --> 00:54:27,440 It means being a producer and not only a consumer. 1148 00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:30,680 In a family, everyone should seek the good of the household, 1149 00:54:30,680 --> 00:54:33,560 from the youngest to the oldest. The same is true in a church. 1150 00:54:33,720 --> 00:54:36,400 Responsibilities are different. Hudson has different 1151 00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:39,280 responsibilities in my family than Elijah Fayne does, and they 1152 00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:40,600 all had. But they've all had 1153 00:54:40,600 --> 00:54:42,000 responsibilities for a long time. 1154 00:54:42,680 --> 00:54:43,960 A four year old can do something. 1155 00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:46,640 He can put his plate. He can scrape his plate into the 1156 00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:48,160 trash. He can load a fork into the 1157 00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:50,400 dishwasher. Of course, it's more annoying to 1158 00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,000 help a four year old do stuff because you end up redoing it, 1159 00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:55,760 but still, he needs to do something. 1160 00:54:56,320 --> 00:54:59,120 He needs some responsibility. He needs to start to grow and 1161 00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:01,920 take ownership of his family and not just be if I just consume 1162 00:55:01,920 --> 00:55:05,200 everything that's provided, I'm only here to consume. 1163 00:55:05,200 --> 00:55:06,760 What do you have for me, mom and dad? 1164 00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:08,560 What do you have for me, mom and dad? 1165 00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:09,960 I want to see my sons contribute. 1166 00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:13,720 I want to see them bring something into the family, bring 1167 00:55:13,720 --> 00:55:16,880 something into the household. So the same thing is true in a 1168 00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:18,040 local body. What? 1169 00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:20,640 What can you bring to another believer? 1170 00:55:20,640 --> 00:55:22,360 What can you bring to the other Saints? 1171 00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,520 Well, your presence. Your presence is is something. 1172 00:55:25,920 --> 00:55:27,400 Oh, nobody's going to miss me. You're wrong. 1173 00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:29,000 You're wrong. We do. 1174 00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:35,120 We need you and you need us. But let's go beyond a Sunday 1175 00:55:35,120 --> 00:55:37,480 morning attendance. What else could it look like? 1176 00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:42,120 There's a few needs in particular that we have at the 1177 00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:46,240 moment that I want to make you aware of when it comes to 1178 00:55:46,240 --> 00:55:49,400 hospitality on a Sunday morning. I want us to have greeters 1179 00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:52,360 established on a schedule and on a rhythm where folks are just at 1180 00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:54,880 the front door. Nothing crazy, but just some 1181 00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:57,040 folks who are here early and able to consistently welcome 1182 00:55:57,040 --> 00:55:59,640 folks as they come in the door. It's just a simple housekeeping 1183 00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:00,920 need that the body has right now. 1184 00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:05,080 Another housekeeping need, this one is a much more higher 1185 00:56:05,080 --> 00:56:06,200 commitment. We've talked about this for a 1186 00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:10,520 long time is I want a man who can lead us in worship live 1187 00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:15,560 without the Youtubes. And then the other need that we 1188 00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:20,040 have is the wiggle room, as I called it earlier, just some way 1189 00:56:20,040 --> 00:56:23,120 to bring some structure to that. And I don't even have the the 1190 00:56:23,120 --> 00:56:26,680 full blueprint for what that would look like yet, because 1191 00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:32,040 it's always been my motive to keep, to keep the burden of a 1192 00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:35,160 Sunday morning worship service low. 1193 00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:38,000 I don't, I'm not, I'm being very careful. 1194 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:39,880 The way I say that. Notice I don't say I don't want 1195 00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:41,960 to call you to high commitment. That's not true at all. 1196 00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:43,360 I'm going to call you to the highest commitment. 1197 00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:45,880 I want to call you to the highest commitment. 1198 00:56:46,440 --> 00:56:49,400 Make no mistake about it, but the highest commitment doesn't 1199 00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:54,120 necessarily mean 72 hours a week here in our facility or here in 1200 00:56:54,120 --> 00:56:55,640 the YMCA. There's a big difference. 1201 00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:58,080 So there's some church culture where we, we want you to be 1202 00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:01,120 committed Christians and that that's code for we want you on 1203 00:57:01,120 --> 00:57:03,120 all the teams doing all the work. 1204 00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:05,640 That's not what I'm saying. And at the same time, I am 1205 00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:07,560 saying, hey, the house, the family has some needs. 1206 00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:10,480 Trash needs to be taken out like that. 1207 00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:13,360 That has to happen. And me and Adam and Don can't do 1208 00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:16,200 everything. And so we're happy to serve and 1209 00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:18,280 we do so. And many others serve, by the 1210 00:57:18,280 --> 00:57:19,440 way. There's many, there's many 1211 00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:21,520 people in this room who are serving and working. 1212 00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,200 But if you don't know, you can't even help. 1213 00:57:24,280 --> 00:57:26,720 So those are a couple of things I have in mind right off the 1214 00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:29,000 bat. We want to see greeters get 1215 00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:31,040 established. We want to see a praised team 1216 00:57:31,040 --> 00:57:33,320 get established, or at least a praised leader get established. 1217 00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:36,200 And we want that wiggle room to have some structure, maybe some 1218 00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:38,680 relief from moms and dads, maybe a couple people on rotation on 1219 00:57:38,680 --> 00:57:42,440 different weeks. Nothing crazy, just enough to 1220 00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:45,480 help out. What else does it mean? 1221 00:57:45,480 --> 00:57:48,160 It means being in fellowship. Loving and being devoted to the 1222 00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:50,880 body means being in fellowship with the body outside of Sunday 1223 00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:53,920 worship, being known and knowing others. 1224 00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:56,440 It means bringing your financial worship. 1225 00:57:58,360 --> 00:58:00,800 It means a lot of things that I could go on and on a list, but 1226 00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:03,600 we're out of time. I want to read a quote to you. 1227 00:58:04,240 --> 00:58:06,120 It might be fictional. We don't even know for sure. 1228 00:58:06,120 --> 00:58:10,600 Ernest Shackleton was an Antarctic explorer and the the 1229 00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:13,280 story goes something like this, that he put an ad in a newspaper 1230 00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:17,280 before he began his expedition. Men wanted for hazardous 1231 00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:23,920 journey, low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. 1232 00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:25,840 Safer turn. Doubtful. 1233 00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:29,520 Honor and recognition in event of success. 1234 00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:34,040 I don't promise you honor and recognition on earth, but I do 1235 00:58:34,720 --> 00:58:37,240 just echo what the Lord says, that you're storing up treasures 1236 00:58:37,240 --> 00:58:42,400 in heaven as you follow Jesus. So to be devoted to Jesus means 1237 00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:44,840 that you should devote to a local body somewhere. 1238 00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:47,240 I could. I could preach this sermon in 1239 00:58:47,240 --> 00:58:49,440 any pulpit. I could take the values of any 1240 00:58:49,440 --> 00:58:53,480 church and tell that whole congregation, if you're here, be 1241 00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:56,480 all in. That would apply to any local 1242 00:58:56,480 --> 00:58:59,440 body anyway. Hey, all in for me looks like 1243 00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:00,880 this. Whatever all in looks like, it 1244 00:59:00,880 --> 00:59:03,200 ought to look like something. So I don't want to give you the 1245 00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:06,160 full script of what all in looks like, but I do want to ask you 1246 00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:08,520 to ask yourself what is all in look like for you. 1247 00:59:08,520 --> 00:59:10,440 And you go, man, I'm I'm doing it. 1248 00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:14,600 So if you are, then, then, then, then don't go fishing for 1249 00:59:14,600 --> 00:59:17,400 something that's not there. But if you go, man, that sits 1250 00:59:17,400 --> 00:59:18,840 with me. That one hits me. 1251 00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:21,000 That one stepped on my toes a little bit this morning, pastor. 1252 00:59:21,280 --> 00:59:24,840 Well, I did that and loved them. I did that because I only want 1253 00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:27,040 good for you. I only want blessing for you. 1254 00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:30,960 It's a hazardous journey. It's low wages, it's good or 1255 00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:32,000 cold. It's long hours. 1256 00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:35,680 So complete darkness. Safe return is doubtful. 1257 00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:37,520 None of us are going to make it out of this thing alive. 1258 00:59:38,680 --> 00:59:41,320 And yet the king is going to get riches. 1259 00:59:41,320 --> 00:59:44,000 The king is going to get glory. The king is going to get honor 1260 00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:47,240 for it. And of course, what's his is 1261 00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:50,040 ours. We share his inheritance. 1262 00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:52,160 God, I thank you so much for your church. 1263 00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:54,760 I thank you for what you've birthed and I thank you for what 1264 00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:58,560 you're growing up. This church that's, you know, 1265 00:59:58,600 --> 01:00:00,400 just over three years old in May. 1266 01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:04,520 We continue to grow. You continue to mature us. 1267 01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:08,400 You continue to equip us. I pray for every every person 1268 01:00:08,400 --> 01:00:11,280 under the sound of my voice that you would bring them a clarity, 1269 01:00:11,280 --> 01:00:12,960 that you would bring them a peace, that you would bring them 1270 01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:16,480 a conviction, a revelation that leads to a conviction and a 1271 01:00:16,480 --> 01:00:18,000 conviction that leads to a discipline. 1272 01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:20,360 Just make it practical for each one. 1273 01:00:21,720 --> 01:00:24,080 Help them each to walk out and know that their pastor doesn't 1274 01:00:24,080 --> 01:00:27,640 condemn them and then my heart is full of love towards each of 1275 01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:33,120 them and help them to know God what you want next for them. 1276 01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:38,360 What is the next step? Glorify your name among us. 1277 01:00:39,040 --> 01:00:41,640 Help us to pour out our lives as a living sacrifice. 1278 01:00:42,440 --> 01:00:48,160 We love you Lord, We thank you for loving us in Jesus name and 1279 01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:50,240 now the Lord bless you and keep you. 1280 01:00:51,200 --> 01:00:54,680 The Lord make his face Shinedown upon you and be gracious to you. 1281 01:00:55,560 --> 01:00:58,440 The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you great 1282 01:00:58,440 --> 01:01:01,640 peace in Jesus name. Amen. 1283 01:01:02,400 --> 01:01:04,360 Don and Karen are going to be available for prayer. 1284 01:01:05,640 --> 01:01:06,560 You are dismissed.