Good morning. It's good to see everybody here
this morning immediately following our worship service.
We do have a board meeting. So if you're involved with the
board, please attend Announcements for the week.
It's not many prayer lunch tomorrow.
No prayer lunch tomorrow. There will not be a Disciples
women's meeting Wednesday at 1:00.
So that is that is is canceled. OK.
They will deliver food boxes Wednesday at 10 AM.
So are there any other announcements that need to be
made to the church? OK.
We'll continue on. Good morning.
If you will please take a hymnal.
Turn to hymn #584 Come into his presence.
We will sing through twice. And if you would please stand
with me as we sing. Your off stage standing won't
take long. We'll read a statement to you
and go through a couple of verses in the Bible.
Worshiping is a privilege that that all Christian can
experience or not all Christian can experience openly.
We should be very thankful we can come here and gather in our
church anytime we get ready to worship God and sing praises to
His name. I'm going to read to you a few
passages. My first one is Mark 1230.
It said, love you Lord to God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your mind and all your strength.
The segment I'm going to read to you is is Matthew 1820.
And it says for where I am, where two or three are gathered
in, where two or three are gathered in my name, I was with
them. The last one read to you is
James 5/16. He said, therefore, confess your
sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be
healed. The prayer of a righteous person
is powerful and effective. Would you please pray with me?
Our most grace and Heavenly Father, we are thankful to be in
this your house. What we know we can worship you
openly and freely. We thank you for the many
blessings you placed upon us. But most of all, we thank you
for the gift of your Son Jesus. And we give you the prayer that
he talked to us, saying, Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name thy Kingdom come thy will be.
Done. On Earth as it.
Is in heaven. Give us this.
Day Our Daily Bread. And.
Forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors and
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the.
Glory forever. I'm in.
Don't be seated, don't even start down.
Hymn #447 it is well with my soul.
We're going to do the first, second, and last verses, and I
want these windows to be rattling when we get done, all
right. Amen.
You may be seated. Let's.
Go. Let's go, let's go.
This morning as we go to the Lord in prayer, I do just want
to say how great it is to be in the House of the Lord.
The opportunity, as Randy said, that each of us have to come
together to worship, to give thanks, and simply to
acknowledge how great a God it is that we serve.
I pray that it's why we are here today and that we do bring glory
and honor to His name. So let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you now just thanking you for
the gift of music, for the opportunity to sing these
wonderful hymns that you have given us, and for whatever is
going on in our lives that we may be able to sing with
confidence from our hearts. That it is well with my soul.
Lord, we understand that they are going to be problems, that
there are going to be concerns that we are going to have
sometimes where we are going to suffer.
But Lord, we also know that you walk with us through whatever
circumstances that we are in and that you encourage us and you
uphold us and you undergird us and you bring us through to the
other side. Lord, we simply pray this
morning that as we give, Lord, as we commune with you at the
your table, as we look into your word, Lord, as we continue to
sing, that our hearts are just drawn closer and closer to you.
And Lord, that as we experienced that relationship with you, as
we go forward from this place, we can't do anything other than
go out and tell who Jesus Christ is and the difference that he
makes in our lives each and every day.
We ask all this in Jesus name, Amen.
Can be used for your glory and to build your Kingdom.
We give in faith. Trust in You as our provider.
In your wonderful name we pray. Amen.
Our communion hymn this morning is hymn #405 in Remembrance and
we will sing all the way through.
This morning as we come to the table, we have the invitation of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In the song that we just sang, it talks about His desire for us
to love as He loved to share, as He shared to those that
sometimes that we feel may be maybe unworthy, that we invite
them. Because as we've come to this
table, we realize that without the love of Christ and without
the relationship that we have with Him, we are unworthy.
So my prayer for us today as we partake, as we give thanks for
what Christ has done for us and that we go forth from this place
ready to love as our Savior did, let's pray.
Most special Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to
stand before this table. We do understand this only by
your invitation that we're allowed to be here.
I shall be taking this bread and then be truly reminded to
represent the Christ's broken body and forgiveness of all sins
in Christ. And we pray.
Father, thank you for the many blessings.
You Kevin's thank you for this day and the opportunity we have
to come together to worship and praise your man most special.
We thank you for this table and the invitation we have to come
and protect the good semblance. As we protect of this cup, we
will remind you that it represents the blood of Jesus
poured out on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
I pray that we may partake in a manner that's pleasing unto you.
Christ's name, I pray. The Lord Jesus, on the night he
was betrayed, took bread. When he given thanks, he broke
it and said, This is my body given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper he
took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death until he comes. This morning as we look into
God's word, if I, if I had a title, which I don't normally do
titles, but I'm, I'm going to give you 1 today.
It's growing in our walk with Christ, growing in our walk with
Christ. And the only way that we can
grow in our walk with Christ is as we become more like Jesus, we
do so in our speech, in our actions, and in our hearts.
If you can turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
22. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
22. You were taught with regard to
your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is
being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the
attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to
be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak
truthfully to your neighbor. But we are all members of 1
body. In your anger, do not let the
devil, do not give the devil a foothold.
Anyone who has been stealing must still no longer, but must
work doing something useful with their hands that they may have
something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but
only what is helpful for building others up according to
their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed
for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage
and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other
just as Christ forgave you this morning.
I want to ask you if you were to kind of take, maybe a kind of
take a self evaluation this morning, and it's not for, for
you to share with anyone else, but just simply for you and the
Lord to, to take a look at our walk with him and, and we ask
ourselves the question, are we becoming more like Jesus in our
speech and in our actions and in our hearts?
Our words reveal what is in our hearts.
In Matthew 1234 it says out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaketh. How was your speech last week?
Was it encouraging, was it uplifting, Was it harsh, was it
cruel? I was Friday, we were out
working at the church and Craig and Charles had gone over to cut
some grass over on Hwy. 18 and I was cutting, I was trimming the
shrubs and man it, it was so hot.
And I, I was just like, where is Chris Ratliff?
And he was skipping now he was out of town.
And then when they got back, Craig said Brad and I'm going
to, I was soaking wet. I mean, sweat just dropping
everywhere. Craig walked up and he said,
Brad, I'm going to be honest with you, He said, I don't
really think these bushes even need trimming.
I said, Craig, I want to punch you in the head right now.
I just trimmed all these bushes. That's why they don't look like
they need trimming. I had nothing kind,
compassionate, loving to say to Craig at that moment.
You see, the whole time I was trimming the hedges, I was
thinking where is Craig now? Last time he helped me do this
and he's not here. He's over cutting grass
somewhere else, just riding on the zero turn lawn mower.
You see the things that happen up in our minds and in our
hearts. They come out in the words that
we say in the speech that we use.
So I will tell you this. If you feel like you're speaking
with harshness, unkindness, you need to look at what's going on
in here. Our words should encourage
rather than discourage. Let me give you a James passage
from James chapter 3. In verse 9, with the tongue we
praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings
who have been made in God's likeness.
Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.
My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
Can both freshwater and saltwater flow from the same
spring? My brothers and sisters, can a
fig tree bear olives or a Grapevine bear figs?
Neither can a salt spring produce freshwater?
Do your words bring healing or hurt?
Do we speak hope or do we speak criticism?
Do we reflect kindness in the words that we say to others?
Instead of saying, Craig, I'd like to punch you in the head
right now. I could have said something a
lot more kind. You know, I could have said
something like, well, Craig, I appreciate that you think that
the bushes don't need trimming because I just trimmed them and
just left it at that. But man, it is so easy for our
human side to just come out just like that.
It's always there. It's always there trying to take
hold again. You think about when we accept
Christ as Savior and we begin that process of, of growing to
be who Christ desires for us to be.
If we did it as a child, it's probably easier for us than for
if we were 1415, sixteen 20s later in life because we we've
had so much more time to to get ingrained those those bad habits
to get ingrained. I remember growing up, we were
taught without question, without fail, that we were going to say
yes, Sir and no Sir and yes, ma'am and no ma'am, period.
The end wasn't a question. It was going to happen because
you were going to show respect to those who were older than
you. And if you, if you missed it one
time, I can promise you, if my granddad was there, you were
going to get corrected for it. He wasn't going to let it slide.
He wasn't going to say, oh, they probably didn't mean that.
No, he said, I'm sorry, what'd you say?
And you're just like, yes, Sir. Today we seem to have become
more and more LAX in what we are teaching.
And our speech reflects that through what our children are
saying. There is no respect for adults.
There is no respect for authority.
You, you can watch on the news and you can hear these
interactions because we now have body cams and, and as soon as
police come up to the car, there's attitude given always.
If there was an attitude given, I, I, I, I tend to believe that
maybe that person might get off with a warning.
But I can promise you, if as soon as they come up there, you
start saying how sorry they are and that you pay their salary
and if it wasn't for them, you wouldn't even be out here.
You're getting a ticket. Whether you really deserve one
or not, you're getting one. Those words that we use, they
have an impact. They have an impact on that
officer. They have an impact on our
children. They have an impact on those
that are in the service industry.
If, and I want you to think about this, when you go up and
order a hamburger and you get whatever it is that you like on
yours and you get it and it comes out to you and and you
open it up and it's not like what you expected it to be.
And you go up there rant and Raven said, make this the way I
wanted it from the beginning. These are the things that you
should have on there and you list them off again.
You think anything good is going to happen to your hamburger
while it's in the back? I want you to really think about
that. They're behind that wall.
You don't know. They may have slapped your Patty
down on the floor and picked it up and put it back on there.
They come out, say, hey, Sir, I'm sorry.
Hope you enjoy. Be careful with what your word
say because they're going to have some consequences.
Randy and I were at Chick-fil-A the other day, and this fellow
was sitting there and they had gotten his order.
Well, his cheese wasn't melted on his chicken sandwich that he
got a Chick-fil-A. He called the little girl over
there and he said this cheese isn't even melted.
He said take that back and fix it again.
She's like, yes, Sir, we're sorry about that.
Took it back, fix it again, brought it back out.
Yeah, he was hot. I mean, he was hot.
His fries were getting cold and he, I could just see him
steaming over there. She brought it back and she said
whatever they what is, it is a pleasure to serve you.
I don't know exactly what it is, but something about my pleasure,
I think it's what they say. He got it.
He opened it up. The cheese was not melting.
I'm going to let you all know something.
At Chick-fil-A, they don't have microwaves that I know of that
they pop it in and melt the cheese for you.
It's simply they put the cheese on the chicken and the longer it
sits there, the more it melts. Just so you know, they don't
melt the cheese at Chick-fil-A. He was so mad and he was just
talking to himself over there. He was by himself.
No one's with him. And I, he was just mumbling the
whole time. This sandwich isn't any good.
And on and on and on and on it went.
And I sat there and I was watching him and I, and I began
to think about myself and my, my interactions with people.
And do I look exactly the way that this man did?
Because I looked over there and I was like, man, you're, you're,
you're almost 70 years old. Act like it.
That's what I wanted to say. How many times do I get angry
and act like I shouldn't act? And there's young people and
people watching and they're thinking, well, that guy looks
like an absolute idiot. What are our actions look like?
Not just our words. What are our actions look like?
People often see our actions before they hear our testimony.
Let me give you a four example. If you had an interaction with
me out in the public and I didn't act as you thought that a
pastor should act. And then you came into the
sanctuary and you sat down to hear the sermon and you looked
up and you saw me. And you thought, that's that guy
that I saw acting crazy at the McDonald's because they didn't
give his double cheeseburger with just mayonnaise, ketchup
and pickle. How, how much do you think
they're going to get out of that sermon that I bring that day?
It may be a good sermon. It it may be one of my best, but
the actions that they saw in me before they came into this
sanctuary, it's over. We have to be so careful and
consistent in the way that we live outside the church because
if we do get them into the church and they remember you or
they Remember Me in a not good way, it's going to have an
effect. The words that we speak, the
actions that we have. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse
16 it says let your light so shine before men that they may
see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
When you think about your actions this past week, did they
bring glory to God? Did people see goodness?
Did they see love? Did they see mercy?
Did they see light as they interacted with you?
We are to walk in love. We think about how Jesus loved
the unlovable. Jesus spoke to people that
normally those who were the Christians, the good people of
the day, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day,
they wouldn't have been caught dead speaking to those people,
but Jesus spoke to them. Jesus cared for them.
He served those who many would have considered unworthy,
worthless, not worthy of my time.
So when we think about our walk, that's our actions.
When we think about our walk, are we walking in obedience?
Do we, do we have the love of Christ demonstrated in our
lives? Are people seeing Christ in US?
Jesus, we've use the scripture many times before in John
chapter 14 and verse 15, he says if you love me, keep my
commandments. Obedience means trusting God
even when his way is difficult. We have to sometimes swallow our
pride. We have to sometimes refrain
from allowing our mouths to get going as they desire to, or our
actions to be in such a way that will hurt our relationship with
others. And when we hurt our
relationship with others, we are separating ourselves from Christ
because he was always looking to bring people in, to make them
feel wanted, to make them feel loved, to make them feel worthy.
You remember when Jesus washed his disciples feet, He taught
them about the importance that that the greatest among us,
those who think that we are of importance, we should humble
ourselves and that should we should be willing to serve
Christians who are growing. They they do this instead of how
can I be served? Their thought process is how can
I serve those who are growing in the relationship with Christ is
what can I do to make someone else's life easier instead of
what can I do to get out of the most work that I possibly can
and let someone else do it. When we walk as Jesus walked,
we're going to have to sacrifice.
Last part is growing in our heart.
We can go to Psalm 51 and verse 10. 5110 says this created me a
pure heart. O God, and renew a steadfast
spirit within me. Do not cast me from your
presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing
spirit to sustain me when our heart is far from God.
I can promise you that our speech, that our actions, that
just our overall attitude is going to be way off.
We're going to be someone that people do not want to be around,
they don't want to spend time with when our heart is where it
should be. When we have that heart that God
desires for us to have, people will be drawn to being around
us. It will be enjoyable to be with
us. I want you to think about this
for a moment. If we're having a fellowship
dinner and Lamar is cooking for that dinner and the whole time
leading up to it, Lamar saying things like, man, I'm just
getting tired of cooking for y'all.
I'm just tired of it. I don't really even want to
cook, but I'm going to do it because it's the right thing to
do. We get there on that day and
Lamar brings the food food in and he's puts it down on the
table and he says, I hope you all enjoy because I've done all
the work that I'm going to do. Does that make you want to have
Lamar cook something else for you again?
Or does it make you feel like, wow, well, I don't want to ask
Lamar to cook again. We've I think we've overworked
him and he's he's just not in a good place.
Every time that I asked Lamar to cook, every time he says, Brad,
you just tell me what you need me to do and I'm going to get it
done every time. That's the way it's supposed to
be. That's having the heart of a
servant. We are humble, we are pure, we
are compassionate, we are willing to surrender ourselves,
and we are following the example that Jesus gave us in
Philippians chapter 2. I didn't have this one.
Mark Philippians, Chapter 2. And verse 5, in your
relationship with one another have the same mindset as Christ
Jesus, who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider
equality with God something to be used to His own advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a
servant being made in human likeness and being found in
appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming
obedient to death, even death on a cross.
This morning I want to ask you, do we have or are we in the
process of developing the mindset of Christ, the heart of
Christ? Do we have a heart that longs to
be kind and compassionate, to be tender hearted, to be forgiving
of one another? Philippians 432 says Be ye kind
one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Listen to this Unforgiveness hinders spiritual growth.
Listen to me one more time on that one.
Unforgiveness hinders spiritual growth.
If you have a relationship that is broken, that there is a wedge
between you and whoever it may be, a Co worker, a family
member, a friend, you cannot grow in your relationship with
Christ if you're always angry, hostile, wishing evil upon that
person. We got to go to that person and
we've got to make that relationship right.
And sometimes it wasn't even our fault.
I get that sometimes we are right, but it's up to us to be
willing to humble ourselves, to forgive and to restore that
relationship when we had developed a heart that longs for
God. We have a desire to know more
about Christ. We we have a desire, we have a
hunger for God's word, for prayer, for worship, for
fellowship with other Christians.
Have you ever noticed that that when you're in an in a not good
place that you don't want to be around Christians, that their
their goodness just kind of sets you off?
Have you ever, has anyone ever noticed that?
I'll be honest with you, there are times when I can come into
contact with people who they're just so good that I'm thinking
there, there is no way that they are that nice.
There is no way. But yet every time I come in
contact with them, they're they're so nice, they're so
loving, they're so kind. And it makes me reflect back.
Where am I in my relationship with the Lord?
Where am I in my study of God's word?
Am I spending time in prayer? Am I looking forward to worship?
Do I have a desire to fellowship with other believers?
Spiritual maturity is measured not by how much we know, but by
how much we love Jesus, how much we obey Him, and how much we
love others. So this morning, as you're
taking your spiritual inventory, we're going to take a look at
our speech. We're going to really consider
the words that we say. We are going to understand that
it is important for others to see in us a heart that loves
God. We're going to consider our
actions, how we interact with other people, not just the
people that we like, but even those that we don't like.
How is our how are our actions? And finally, our heart, how are
we going about motivating? What is motivating us to do the
things that we do? If we are walking with Jesus, we
have a literal desire to love as He loved, to have compassion as
He did. Are we willing?
Are we looking forward to spending time in His Word?
Spending time in prayer? Where are we today?
As I look back over this past week and I saw several instances
where I thought you can do better.
That was not Christ like. I also saw some situations where
I encountered people who definitely this is not who I
want to be, but I also encountered some situations
where I said that's Christ in action.
That's what I want others to see in my life.
I thank Lamar for his willingness to serve, and I hope
that we appreciate it and that we don't take it for granted.
But I also hope that that we have that desire to serve as
well, that we are looking for opportunities that are going to
benefit others and not us. Do you know how much money that
I have paid Lamar for the, let's just say 200 meals that I've
asked him to prepare since I've been here?
You know how much I've said, you know what I I've said, Lamar, I
just want to give you a little something extra.
Lamar, how much extra have you gotten?
Not one red sin. He didn't do it for money.
He didn't do it even for me to stand up here and to say that I
appreciate it. He did it because he loves the
Lord and he has a desire to serve and I thank him for that.
Peggy played my favorite communion.
That's my favorite one. If I if I am not where I'm
supposed to be with the Lord as I'm standing there and she
begins to play that it just brings me into that place of
understanding how great it is the God I serve and the love
that I should have for him and I appreciate that.
Next week these two ladies are going to play their prelude.
Is it is the prelude that you're doing right Next week, Lord most
holy, you need to be here not even for the sermon.
You're going to get a sermon in that in that prelude itself.
It is absolutely glorious, folks.
We have so many opportunities to serve.
We have so many opportunities to be who Christ desires for us to
be. Are we taking them?
Are we putting that love into action?
Or are we still worried about ourself?
Take the little spiritual inventory this week.
Your speech, your actions, and your heart.
Are they in line with Christ? And when they are, people are
going to want to be around us and they're going to know why.
And we get to tell them about Jesus.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I do give
thanks to you this morning for your love for us, Lord, for the
supreme and ultimate imperfect example that we had in your Son
Jesus Christ as he came to this earth.
And Lord, this morning I simply pray that the Holy Spirit will
be in our hearts and and move us and and convict us and mould us
and to shape us to become more like you.
And Lord, that where we need to forgive, that we will forgive.
Where we need to let go of pride and we need to show humility
that we will. And Lord, sometimes we may just
need to simply sit quietly and allow you to speak.
Lord, give us the heart of a servant and as we do that, Lord,
it will grow our relationship with you in a mighty way and we
will become closer to You and we will become closer to those who
are around us because Jesus is perfect and our desires to
become more like Him. We ask all this in Jesus name,
Amen. Him of invitation.
This morning is just as I am #434 no, I'm sorry. 435I stand
corrected. You would please stand with me.
We're going to do the first, second and last verses 1-2
Heavenly Father, we pray this morning, Lord, that we will just
come to you just as we are with all our imperfections, with all
our faults, and then we lay them at your feet and more that we
humble ourselves and realize that as we give of ourselves and
and. Do our best to become more like
you Lord, that you will lift a son, that you will raise a son,
and that you will make us into who you desire for us to be and
that we will bring glory and honor to your name through our
words and our actions and our hearts.
It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen.
By those