[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Happy Father's Day. Let's give another round of applause to all the dads, all the fathers in the room.
Happy Father's Day.
In fact, fellas, if you're able, would you. Would you stand and let's. I want to have a word of prayer over all the dads. Just want to take a moment out to honor our fathers. The Bible says, honor your father and mother, and we want to do that. Yeah, Isn't that great?
Glad you guys are here this morning. Glad you've set aside a little time of your day to be in worship. And I am so appreciative of you being here.
And we want to be careful to pray for these guys day in and day out.
So funny. In churches, you know, on Mother's Day, traditionally the pastor will get up and he'll always honor the moms, always say. And then the dads, he kind of chews them out. That's the message of the dads. And I don't want to do that. I don't want to hear it and I don't want to be a part. I just want to honor the fathers because you carry a huge amount of responsibility and we just want to stop and just give honor to whom honor is due and you are worthy of honor. And again, I'm so glad that you're here. Let me pray over you fellas before you sit. Father, thank you for these men. Thank you for the role that they play in their families. And oftentimes Lord doesn't go appreciated enough. And so, Lord, we just want as a church, just to honor the men who play that important role as a father. And I just pray you'll bless each one, lift any burden that they carry.
Let them know, Father, Father, that they are your sons and that you have them. And whatever they're worried about this morning, you have that. And there's nothing too hard for you. So bless these men, Bless their families. Today I pray, Lord Jesus, that this will be a wonderful day for them. And I lift them up to you now in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you, fellas. You may be seated again. Thank you for being here. You know, we've been talking in our series about being healthy, developing healthy habits, healthy lifestyles, from being physically healthy to being emotionally healthy to being spiritually healthy, how important and significant that is. And so we're kind of closing out a little bit of that section of this series this morning by talking about healthy service. Healthy service. And it's appropriate that we speak on that theme this morning, because that's what a really healthy father does. A healthy father serves his family and serves his family well. And we're going to talk about that aspect of service and how powerful it is in the life of a. Of a church, that aspect of service. In fact, when I look into the Bible, when I speak to the fathers and I look into the Bible, I see there's four or five things the Bible speaks specifically to fathers about and that the dads should be doing in their families in terms of service. Number one, a father is a protector.
A father is a protector. I don't think any man in the room would. Would argue with that. You feel that innately. You feel it intuitively. You just have this idea that I am to protect my. My family. And the Bible speaks of that in 1st Corinthians 15 and verse 33. You protect them by looking out for them.
You want to know who their friends are. You want to know who your kids are hanging out with, because First Corinthians 15, 33 says bad company corrupts good manners. And so you want to make sure your kids are hanging out with the right people. So a dad is a protector. You serve your family in protecting them. The second word I'd give you this morning, dad, is dad is a good provider. A dad is a good provider. The Bible says in First Timothy 5, 8, that anyone who doesn't take care of their family is worse than an infidel. That's pretty low. And so a father has that within his heart, that idea to take good care of his family. And it's more than just, um, it's more than just material things. It's taking care of them emotionally, taking care of your family spiritually. The very fact you're in church this morning shows that you regard their spiritual life very highly, and that speaks well to your role as a provider. So a protector, a provider. Number three, a good dad serves his family by being a good promoter. Good promoter, meaning you're always in their corner. You're always cheering your kids on. You want the best for them and. And you're pulling for them. You are their number one fan. I read an article from A child psychologist that says, and I don't know the studies that support this, but I'll just share it with you. It says it takes about 40 words of affirmation to counteract one word of criticism to a child.
That's pretty interesting to think about that. And you don't understand the power of your words sometimes. And so it's so important that we are careful in promoting and looking out for and seeking the best for our children. And then the fourth word, the Bible we use to describe a good father, how we serve our family as a father serves as a priest, a priest over their household. Meaning that you see the value of your child's spiritual life. In fact, before the church dispensation. When you look back in the oldest book of the Bible, the book of Job, the Bible said Job served as a priest over his household. Job recognized that spiritual responsibility he had as a father or over his children. In fact, in one occasion, he said, lord, if my kids have done anything wrong, I want to intercede on on their behalf and ask forgiveness for their part. And so Job served as a priest to his family. It's a great lesson for us today to see that spiritual responsibility and the last word I'd give you guys, not only a protector, a provider, a promoter, and a priest, but you serve as a prophet. A prophet. What do I mean by that? A prophet speaks into the future of something. A prophet speaks of something that will happen before it actually happens. A prophet in prophecy, it is to foretell or forethel. Foretell is to see something that's on the horizon. To forethel is to tell about events that will happen. And what I mean by that in the role of a dad is you see the best in your child. You see the potential that they possess. You began to see how created they are or how good they are at certain things, and. And you just kind of pour gas on the. On the way. God has uniquely made your child. So as a good father, you see your role as a prophet. You say things like, I'm proud of you. I want the best for you. I'm here for you. There's nothing you could ever say or do that would make me turn away from you. And so those are wonderful ways whereby a father can serve his children and a father can serve his family. And then as I lay that down alongside the principles of service, how that looks like in the life of the church. The Bible says In Galatians, chapter 5 and verse 13, notice this for you, brothers and sisters have been called to liberty we're free.
Free to do all that we ought to do. Only don't use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. But notice this last phrase. But through love, serve one another. So the Bible is challenging us. Just as I'm challenging fathers to serve their families well. The Bible challenges us as Christ followers to serve one another well. In fact, one of the signs of a healthy family is a father serves them well. One of the signs of a healthy church is that the membership serves one another well. We, by love, serve one another. In fact, one of the dynamics of that early church in Jerusalem was that they began to serve each other. You see this in Acts chapter 4, where the Bible says the church came under great persecution. And in the midst of that persecution, people began to help each other out.
In fact, there's that dynamic that we talk about called koinonia in Acts 4. 32, where the Bible says people had things in common with one another. I mentioned it last weekend. So if you had two of one thing, you might give one of those things to someone who didn't have any. If you were blessed in some way, you might help someone who was going through a difficult time. In other words, the body began. The body of Christ began to minister to itself as the church went into great persecution. And the concept of koinonia, what that looks like for us today is twofold. Koinonia is to share something with someone.
Now, one of the things you do when you share something with someone, obviously you may share some material goods you have with them, you may share some encouragement with them, you may have heard of a great job opportunity at your place of business that some friend or someone you know could, could take advantage of. So you're sharing information with them. And then the second aspect of koinonia is not only to share something with someone, but get this, it's to share in something with someone. That's when you walk through an experience with someone, you right there with them, you go hand in hand with them, and you, you don't let them go through it by themselves. You partner with them. And that was one of the dynamics of the early church that caused it to grow to such dimensions is they saw the concept of, of serving one another, of being sensitive to people around you. You know, instead of just kind of bumping into each other and passing like ships in the night, they really were sensitive to people and they found ways where they could serve each other. The second verse I want to share with you this morning by way of our talk is in Ephesians chapter 2 Now what's great about Ephesians 2, and we often quote Ephesians 2, 8, 9, which is wonderful, but a lot of times we neglect verse 10. Here's 8, 9. And you're going to be familiar with this. For by grace you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest anyone should boast. Now that's wonderful. And we usually quote that. And we stop right there. Saved by grace, man. Nothing I can do to deserve it. It's just God being good to me and God saving me. And we stop right there and we go woo, celebration, man. I'm going to heaven, fire insurance policies in my pocket, not going to hell, I am good to go. And we sometimes stop at verse 9 when verse 10 says for, for it's a continuation.
And the reason being for we are his workmanship. We have been created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Meaning that God left us here on the earth once he called us into his family. He left us here to work. He left us here to serve. And you and I are never more like Jesus than when we are serving one another. Listen to that. Matthew 20, verse 28. The son of man did not come to be served, but he came to serve. So that's why I said we're never more like Jesus than when we serve others. The Son of Man didn't come to be served, but he came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. When Paul begins to put together the structure of the church, and I talked about that a couple of weekends ago In Ephesians chapter 4, he talks about the gifted personalities he places in the church. You know, pastors and apostles and prophets and all these personalities and all these offices of leadership within the life of the church. But in the structure of the church. It's a beautiful chapter. Down in verse 16, he says, from Jesus, from him, the whole body is joined in and held together by every supporting ligament.
It grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Now get the body concept. As he's talking about the church, he says this, this church body functions as our physical bodies, meaning everything flows from the head down our minds, our brains control all the aspects of our body. And the parts of our body are held together by these tendons and ligaments.
And our bodies are doing everything they can to service our. To service the things that we need. Our cells, everything within our body is working every day to make sure our bodies are healthy and has everything that our body needs. And he's saying a healthy church, the body of Christ, should work like that. Everyone has a place where they fit. Everyone has a role that they fulfill. And we are sensitive to one another so that a healthy church serves one another. A healthy church looks out for the needs of one another. When one member suffers, the Bible teaches the principle we offer suffer with them. In other words, we are connected to people who are hurting. Just as the body might have an infection, or a body might have a cut, or a body might have a bruise, that entire body will focus on that area to bring healing. And that should be the concept of the church, that we should be so focused and sensitive to one another that when someone is walking through an experience that is difficult, they never walk through that experience alone. That is the principle that I'm driving at this morning and that is the principle of service. Now, I can tell you a lot of people who have served in the life of the church oftentimes will fall by the wayside and they don't serve anymore. Now, I get that sometimes you need a sabbatical. I understand that. I don't think it, it is designed for you to go a 12 month, you know what, weekend and week out. I think from time to time people need to take a sabbatical. As someone as well said, this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. And so you have to learn to pace yourself. And I also know when it comes to service, you can do more in certain seasons of life than you can in other seasons of life. Some of you are in a crazy busy season of life and you just don't have a lot of extra time to give. I get that. So I'm not trying to put guilt on you if you're not actively serving somewhere in the life of the church. I'm just saying I understand that there are seasons when can and there's seasons when you are going to be restricted. But everyone has something that they can do in terms of serving one another to some extent or another. We can all. Maybe the biggest service for one another for some of you would be to pray for people. You could say, look, I. I've got time to pray for people, so I'm going to focus my energy in that regard. Some of you might say, I have some time on Saturday. I could get to the crc, I could come up and serve other people. And many of you do that. So I'm saying, understand, one size doesn't fit all, but all of us can do something. And the reason Many drop by the wayside is oftentimes they don't pace themselves and they burn themselves out. Burnout is probably one of the biggest things that people run into. I'd call it overuse, where they're not watching the gauges and they just burn themselves out where they feel like, man, I've done so much for so long, I just can't do it anymore. And a healthy church is a church that provides space and for people to have a sabbatical. If you feel like the only way I can take a break from serving is I got to go to another church, then something is wrong. And I know in my old church with my dad, man, he put it on him so hard, that idea of serving. We had a bus ministry back in the 60s and 70s, meaning that they ran buses into the poorer areas of town to pick up kids who would never have an opportunity to go to church. And at one point, at the peak, we ran 31 buses into areas all over Fort Worth, 31 different buses. And those 31 buses averaged about 50 kids on each bus. So you do the math of how many kids were brought in through the bus ministry. I'll tell this little thing since I'm chasing this rabbit. My buddy Dan Hooper. Many of you know Dan. He spoke here a few weeks ago. He was our. He was our children's pastor. I was student pastor when we started out in ministry. And Dan did a big bus promotion one time where if the kids came on the bus, when they went home, they got a goldfish.
That was what. Now, can you imagine how I love him? But what's that about the stupidest thing you've ever heard of.
He gave out hundreds and hundreds of boy PETA. If Peter would have just known.
And you know what happened on some of the buses on the way home? They had water balloon fights.
Yes. We had little dead goldfish flopping around and little kids. Oh, you know, and all that kind of, dear God, don't ever do that again.
But he gave away goldfish one time. I don't know. I thought that was funny. I'd share that with you. But at one point we did that, and then it became so. Well, you had a lot of liability issues.
You had to do a lot of screening because there were creepers that we'd get that want to be a part of that. Because it was working with kids, it got so difficult to maintain that we just kind of backed away from it over. Over time and got those kids in other areas of town and churches in other areas of town. But I'm just simply saying at that time, it worked well because we saw the value of trying to reach these kids in areas that the local churches in those areas couldn't reach. But my dad put serving so heavy on people that we literally would have people saying, before I could give up my bus route, or before I could give up my Sunday school class, or before I could give up singing in the choir, I just got to leave church because I'll feel so much guilt and shame from just sitting out there doing nothing that I can't even come here anymore. And we had families literally leave when I do the follow up on. Hey, man, I'm missing you. Where are. Where you been? What's going? You know, we just felt like, you know, since we can't serve anymore, we just kind of need to find another church and just, you know, kind of embrace some anonymity in our new place and just, you know, not have the expectation. And I just realized we're doing it wrong. We're doing it wrong because you don't want someone to just burn out because we overuse them. So I'm saying, watch the gauges of your life. We don't want to lose you over overuse. And then sometimes the second reason people quit serving is misuse. Misuse. It's not overuse, it's misuse where you have the right person in the wrong position, you have the right person doing the wrong job. Now, sometimes to find a place of service, you got to try stuff out. And what I want to tell you kind of our theory and philosophy in church is try working somewhere. And if it doesn't work, that's fine, just back away and just plug in somewhere else, you know? I mean, some people are great with people, and some people are not great with people. You know what I'm saying?
There's some people that you just. You just want to have them watch the pilot light or something. You know, there's something for them to do. But, boy, you don't want to put them around people. They just repel people. So you want to put them in a different position where they still add value, but they're not going to just upset everybody that they encounter. So you find people, put them in the right places. Remember the body concept. In fact, the Bible uses this illustration. It says, no eye ever looked at the hand and said, I have no use of you. Now understand that metaphor. Eye and hand. Think about how different those parts are. The eye is a tender part. The hand is a tough part. We have tough people and we have tender people, we have people who are sensitive, and we have people who are not so sensitive. And so you have that within the body of Christ. So you don't want to put an eye in the position of a hand, and you want to put a hand in the position of an eye. So in order to find where you fit, you have to sometimes try things that may be a little bit out of your comfort zone. But I'm saying our philosophy is we don't want to overuse you and we don't want to misuse you. We want you to find where you fit. The third reason I think most people bailout of serving in the life of most churches is not just overuse and misuse, but the third one would be abuse.
Abuse where they're not appreciated, they're taken advantage of, and oftentimes they're given responsibilities that most people who are on staff would not be willing to do.
Remember the principle between delegating and dumping.
Remember, delegating is when you give someone a responsibility that you would do yourself. You just don't have time to do it.
You're delegating. You're saying, man, this is important. It needs to be done. I just don't have the bandwidth. Are you willing to do it? Most people don't resent that because they know you would do the job if you just had the time to do it. You've done it before.
However, when you dump on someone, you're giving them responsibility that you're not willing to do. And because of your position, you have the power to put that on them. Most people aren't gonna take that very long if they feel like they're getting dumped on. Whether it's a job or a position in the life of a church, they're not gonna do that very long. That's abuse. And so we never wanna be guilty of that. So we wanna develop a healthy environment so that our church can serve one another, so this body is able to function and serve other people and serve one another. And I've got four words that I wanna give you this morning that I think will improve our serve, that will help us raise the level of service to a higher level, whether it's a father serving their family or it's a Christ follower serving their fellow Christ followers. The first word is this. Our competence.
Our competence. And what I would say about that is do better what you do best.
None of us do everything well. None of us do everything well. And there's two schools of thought in business. Do I focus on the Thing that I don't do well and try to make that weaker area a strong area, or do I focus on the thing I do well and make that even better and I kind of lean more toward that direction instead of me focusing on playing the piano at 66 years old, I'm not going to. I'm not going to do that. There's certain books, I'll be honest with you, that I'm not going to read. There's certain things I'm not going to engage in because I'm on a limited. I'm in the fourth quarter, and I'm not gonna preoccupy my brain with stuff I know I will never use.
Now, some of you are just nerdy and you love that kind of thing, and God bless you. You're just wired different than me, and I hope you learn a little something about everything. I'm not that guy. If I have something, an opportunity come my way and I see where it will fit with what God's called me to do, with the limited time I have left to do it, I'm gonna engage in that. But if it's something that's gonna take me off here and I'm just gonna be getting me into bug dust, then I'm probably not gonna get too far into that sort of thing. So I'm just simply suggesting that you have to determine what do I do well. How do you determine what you do well? Well, let me ask you a question. What have you been affirmed in.
What has someone said to you? You do that well. And I don't mean your dad bragging on you like when he's affirming you, you know, everybody gets a trophy. It's not that I'm saying, what is the thing you do well on the job?
And somebody has actually complimented you. That kind of hits you out of nowhere. And you thought, really, I do that? Well, that's one of the ways you find out the things you do best.
Some of you are very gifted. Some of you have. Some of you can make money. You have a way of building business.
Some people are so gifted, you could give them two sticks and put them in the middle of a pasture somewhere and they'll build a business.
They're just gifted. They know how to do certain things. And I'm saying, begin to assess and evaluate. It'll improve your serve.
Assess and evaluate the things you do best and then do better what you do best. Let me give you a couple of verses. First Corinthians, 10:13, 31. Rather, whatever you do, whatever you do do all for the glory of God, meaning put ex. Just raise the bar on everything you do. Colossians 3:23. Work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than other people.
Now, part of competence, part of doing those things better, involves three essential areas of your life. Number one, it involves your character. Proverbs 25:19. Confidence in an unfaithful person in the time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.
It's difficult to eat, it's difficult to walk when you put confidence in somebody who has no character. So part of our competence involves our character. Another word I would give you is passion. Being passionate about what you do is the thing you're doing best. Is it something that gets you motivated to get out of bed in the morning? Can you be passionate about the work that you've been called to do?
Most people, if you aren't careful, settle for mediocrity. The word mediocre. Mediocre is an interesting word, is from the Latin media ochreous. Ochreous is a mountain.
Media is halfway. It's the idea of stopping halfway up the mountain. Mediocrity is the idea of not reaching the summit. You, somewhere along the way, you just burned out and quit. You just went halfway up. And mediocrity is something that we all fight. And so I'm just suggesting to your heart this morning that if we're gonna do better, the things that we have to do best, then ask yourself, does this involve character? Does this involve my passion? Can I get excited about it? Third word I'd give you is that word excellence. That word excellence. Someone said, effectiveness is getting the right job done.
Efficiency is getting the job done right. Excellence is getting the right job done right. So excellence is a standard that all of us should have. It involves our competence. Here's the second word. Let me give you not only competence, number two, countenance.
Countenance. Do what you do for the love of God. Don't put that in there, but do what you do with a good attitude, a good attitude. Have you ever known anybody that did the right thing at work? Maybe a co worker, but they did it with such a rotten attitude. And a bad attitude will negate a good work.
In fact, listen to the principle of scripture. The Bible says in First Corinthians 6, 20, we are to bring God glory. Now, let me stop, make sure we're all on the same page of what that term, what does it mean to bring God glory? It's kind of Christianese. So what does that term mean?
Bring God glory means to be a reflection of who God is. Glory could be defined as everything God is.
In Ephesians, the Bible says unto him, be glory in the church. The prayer of Paul to the church at Ephesus was that the church would be a reflection of everything God is. So I'm just making sure we're good on terms. So what does it mean to glorify God? It means for me and you to be a reflection of. Of everything that God is. So people see him living in me. So he's saying, how do I do that? Back to First Corinthians 6:20. Now we understand the term glorify God. Be a reflection of all of that he is in your body and now keep reading. And in your spirit.
Both belong to God. And notice the word spirit is a little S denoting not Holy Spirit would have been a capital S, but this is a little S doting denoting attitude.
So he says we are called upon as Christ followers to bring God glory. To be a reflection of who he is, not just in how I act and what I do, but I'm to do this with the right attitude because sometimes the bad attitude can negate the good work. So that I'm to glorify God in my body and in my spirit. Both belongs to the Lord. Now, how do you maintain a good attitude?
I contend the only way to maintain a good attitude is you gotta find some balance.
You gotta find some balance in your life if you're going to maintain a good attitude. And one of the ways whereby you gain a good attitude is you have to be sure you're feeding your mind and you're feeding your emotions with the good stuff.
We're back to being healthy again, right?
Because if you're not careful, if you. If you give without receiving, you become faint. If you receive without giving, you get fat.
But if you can give while you receive, you are faithful. So it's taking in and giving out. It's taking in good nutrients and giving out. It's receiving and giving, receiving and giving. It's that cycle that you get into that helps you maintain balance. And so I would challenge you to watch the gauges.
Because usually when your attitude is bad, it's because you're overloaded somewhere in your life.
And we're all gonna struggle with this. None of us do this perfectly. So I'm saying if your attitude is something, your countenance is something that's affecting your serve, then you need to start looking at what is it that's taxing me. Is this a spiritual drain? Is this an emotional drain or a physical drain somewhere going on in my life?
That's why I would encourage, especially on Father's Day, all you dads, if you hadn't gotten a checkup lately, I would encourage you to go do that. It's so crazy how many guys I talked to say, I can't remember the last time I went to the doctor. And we kind of tend to wait until something goes wrong before we go. Believe me, I've learned the hard way. If you put things off sometimes to deal with them, they have to go a little harder on you than they would have if they'd caught it a little earlier.
So blood work is always good. Go in every year to get all that handled, and you might find you'll be a happier guy. And that's good for the girls too, by the way. But I'm just suggesting that you have to watch those meters because those things will affect your attitude. So that's the second word. The second word is countenance. Here's the third word I'd give you, and that is confidence.
Confidence is do what you do as though it all depends upon you.
Have confidence. I love the verse Philippians 4:13, where Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
That was not an egotistical statement. He didn't say, I can do anything. He said, I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength. I told you last week, anything God calls you to do, he will equip you to do it. He will enable you to do it, and he will empower you to do it. That's the idea Paul was saying, I can't do everything, but I can do everything. I'm supposed to do.
Anything that God has called me to do, I can do it through the power of His Holy Spirit that's living within me.
So that's the confidence I have. The confidence I have is, if God has called me to do this through his power, with his ability, I can do it. So have confidence. Have confidence in what God's called you to do. Have confidence in your ability to do the thing God has called you to do. Have that confidence. In fact, there's a beautiful principle that will build your confidence when you're faced with a challenge in life. And that's the principle that he gives us in Psalm 30:91 and verse 1, where he says, God's truth, his presence will be a shield and a buckler to those who trust in Him.
What does that mean? And this verse, let me share this with you because this has helped me a lot in life. Build confidence when I'm trying to make good decisions. Directional decisions are decisions that affect me and affect other people. Is to remind myself that Psalm 91 says, God is my shield and my buckler. Now, there's two different things, and let me, Let me tell you what that means. Shield is God is a protector. He's my shield, meaning that he will go before me. Because as I find the zone and I begin to do the thing he's called me to do, the enemy is going to attack. Remember last week I talked about that the closer you get to God's purpose for your life, the more problems you're going to face.
People in places, remember, who are at the center of Holy Spirit activity will be people in places at the center of. Of unholy spirit activity. Anywhere God's at work building, the enemy will be at work blasting. That's in your personal life, your family life, your business life, your church life. That's. That's how it all works. So the confidence you can have is, yes, that's true, but God is my shield.
He goes before me. He protects me. So not only did he say in Psalm 91, he's my shield, but he's my buckler. What does it mean to be a buckler? A buckler was something that went before us, a buckler. One of the ideas, you remember the old steam engine they had on the front of the steam engine, the thing they called a cattle catch, and the cattle catch was designed on those old steam engines that if there were a dead animal on the track or a cow or a deer on the track and it didn't get out of the way before the train hit it and it derailed the train, that cattle catch out in front would knock the animal out of the way or knock the obstruction off of the track.
It's a buckler. The buckler to the train was the cattle catch. The buckler to you and I is God goes before us.
It's kind of like walking through the jungle, someone in front of you as a guide with a machete to knock the vines and the things out of your way. So he clears the trail, he prepares the way. Well, listen, when you're making decisions and you're not sure about how this business plan is going to work or what this new season of my life is going to look like, sometimes to have confidence in that season of life, remind yourself of the principle of Psalm 91. And that is, he is in front of me as my shield, and he is ahead of me as my guide, as my buckler to clear the path, to make the trail available and accessible to me. And when you go through life with that confidence, it is incredible what that will do for you in terms of serving. It builds your confidence.
Let me give you the third and fourth, rather, and the final idea, and that involves our continuance.
Our continuance. Do what you do until God is finished with you.
Do what you do until God is finished with you. Just simply determine. I'm not going to give in.
I'm not going to give out. And I'm not going to give up. I'm going to stay with it regardless, hell or high water. I will not give in. I will not give out. I will not give up. In fact, listen to Galatians 6, verse 9. Let us not be weary doing good, for in due season we will reap if we just don't faint, just don't quit.
You put good things in, good things will come out. You keep doing good things, good things. You keep sowing in those fields. It's going to take time, but good things are going to come. Just don't give up. And he said, if you don't give up, if you just don't faint, he said, you're going to see a harvest. And by the way, no one ever faints at the right time. Have you noticed that? Isn't that interesting, that used the word faint?
I've never been around anybody that fainted at the right time. Just. It never works that way. And the most stressful times that I've, that I've dealt with, where I thought that might happen is at weddings.
That's the scariest thing. And I never worry about my brides. Never ever worry about the brides, grooms. That's another deal. A whole nother animal. And what's funny about it is you can see the difference on rehearsal night and wedding day, rehearsal night, the guys are clowning around. You just smack them up. You can't hardly get their attention, you know, and it just, they're off some, you know, they're just not on the same page. The bride's frustrated because they're not focused. And they're like, come on. And in the groom, there's something psychologically happening. He doesn't realize that in less than 24 hours he's a married man.
And so he's, oh, it'll never happen. Tomorrow's never, it's never going to come, you know, Hoo hoo. You know, and they're just. They're. And the bride, she's. She's. She's dialed in. She's in the zone. And then the exact thing happens on the day of the wedding. The day of the wedding, the bride is in her glory. She's like, you know, she's just. And she's. She's maybe a little anxious, but she's pretty much chill. She's got to go. And guess who is stressed to the max? The groom. I mean, he's looking for communion wine. He is looking for any. I mean, whatever he could. The brother needs. The brother needs some help. And I. And honestly, I've never been worried. I've never been worried doing a wedding, thinking I'm going to lose the bride.
I can't tell you how many weddings I've done where I thought I might lose the groom.
I remember one always comes to mind. I've shared this one with you before, but this one guy, I always tell, man, don't lock your knees. I don't know why. I've just always heard that don't lock your knees. You know, just say kind of. And I try to kid with them. Hey, this is great. Everybody's here for you. These are all your friends and family, and everybody loves you. You know, I'm trying to give them a little affirmation and, you know, kind of get them their head in a different place. And I don't have to do that with a bride, but I gotta do that with a groom. And.
And so we're going out and this guy, you know, had the cummerbunds, you know what? I don't know what that's about, but had the cummerbund going on in his little tux. And so I'm out there, and so here she comes. She's just beautiful. And here he stands. He's clueless. And so they're coming to the front.
I'm trying to tell him, man, remember, marriage is the end of your problems. It really is. But it's the front end, so you gotta remember that.
So they're coming down. I'm encouraging him, right? I want to encourage a brother. And so he kind of stands here at the front, and this guy, while he's standing in front of me, he starts doing this little bob and weave thing. And I'm going, oh, yeah. Oh.
And I'm thinking, man, I don't know how this gonna go. So I reach. It's just instinctively, I've got my Bible here and I got my thing here, and I'm kind of Going through it. And I'm looking at him going, oh, dear God, don't let this guy pass out. And so he's doing. He starts bobbing and weaving on me, and he's. And I just reach forward and I hook my finger in his cummerbund.
I don't know why I thought that was gonna hold him up.
I mean, if he's gone, I'm gonna be holding a cummerbund. And that dude's, you know.
You know, it's just not. But it was just instinctive that I just had to hook something that maybe help a brother up, you know? And I don't know, it took his mind off of it for a minute. And he started laughing.
Thank you, Jesus. And he came back to me. But my point is, if he would have fainted, that would have been at the worst possible time.
Nobody faints. It's up to the point nobody faints at the right time. That's why I think they used the word faint. I think he just said, look, you're doing good. Don't give in, don't give out. Don't give up. You're doing good. You're doing the right thing, dad. You're doing the right thing, Mom.
You're moving this business and just. Yeah, it's hard and it's difficult. And no, you haven't seen all that you hope to see. And, no, it hasn't come through yet. But you're doing the right thing. And so, man, if you'll sow, you're going to reap. That's the principle of the harvest. But you do it in. In. In a season, in due season, and you'll reap. He said, if you just don't faint, you just keep on keeping on, just determined by the grace of God. I just will not give in, and I won't give out, and I'm just not going to give up. In season, out of season, keep on keeping on. Let's pray together.
Lord, thank you for your word.
That is just practical.
Is so practical that as we read it and we comprehend it, we can understand it. And yet, Lord is powerful because as we apply, can change our lives.
It can make a difference in our families, in our home. It can make a difference in our church and community.
So Father, help us not as James instructed us, not to just hear it, but to do it.
I pray we'll think about these principles of service, and we'll apply them.
And for some, they check the boxes. They're doing all four of those really well. I pray the message might be just a message to encourage them to continue on, to not give up, not give out, Father, just to encourage them to take a breather, take a sabbatical, take some time off, take the vacation, rest up and then get back at it again.
And Lord, I pray finally for my friends who may not know you as their personal savior that this might be the moment where they just humble their heart and they just say, lord, I'm tired of carrying something that is impossible for me to carry on my own. And with all that I know about me right now, I trust all that I know about you come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life. That's my prayer. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
