[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: Well, good morning, everybody. We're beginning this new series, Reset. We felt like it would be an appropriate way to end the summer, to begin the school year by talking about reassessing our lives, how busy our schedules are, making sure we're putting the most important things first, reprioritizing reset. And so that's what the series is about. I hope it'll challenge you. I hope it'll encourage you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for watching online. I just want to say before I get into our talk this morning what a wonderful week we've had with the CRC. Yesterday, Pastor Corey shared with me that our team of over 165 volunteers served 1000 families yesterday alone. Isn't that amazing?
And the week total put them up. About 1300 families that we provided food for their week helped them get through the week. It's wonderful to be able as a church, to meet that need. As we tell you, our largest home mission is our CRC. So when you give your support to your church, a portion of what you give to the church goes to support the CRC. So I cannot thank you enough for financially supporting the ministry. We did find out last week that our shipping cost for food is going up about $2,000 a week. So that's a pretty substantial hit. So we want to encourage you to pray with us as we meet that need, because the needs that we are taking care of with these families and providing them food in a crisis is essential to everything we do. That, as I said, is our home mission, number one home mission God. There's no need a church has. There's no need you have or I have that God cannot meet. The Bible says God is able to meet our needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Not out of. If he had said, I'll meet your need out of the riches and glory by Christ Jesus, that might lead you to believe that every time he meets a need, it comes out of the fund in heaven and it's being depleted. He didn't say it's coming out of the fund. He said it's according to the fund meeting, his funds are never depleted. Here's what I know about our God. He will not fail. He cannot fail. It's not his nature to fail. So you continue to pray with us and support as you can, as we see that need for families being met. Also wanted to mention one other important item. Most of you heard about the officer, the SWAT officer that was shot just a couple of days ago that's recovering now. He was one of our guys. In fact, he's a member of our church, Todd Tiptone. And you'll see him out on one of our armed officers. You've seen him every week, and many of you know who he is. And we're so grateful that Todd is doing well. He was shot three different times serving a warrant, and I'm glad Todd's doing good. And he said he wanted to just kind of stealth, kind of sneak in one of the services. I said, good luck with that. You come here, and I'm going to point you out, dude. So we're so proud. I'm so glad for our officers who are here. We have officers in uniformity. We have plain clothes people. I wished it weren't necessary. It wasn't always necessary to have that type of a security presence in a church. But we're living in an increasingly dangerous world. You protect what's important. We think you and your kids are important. So we asked these officers to stand watch and to guard and to watch over our church. People actually criticize us from time to time. I can't believe a church would have armed security. I'm like, well, what year are you living in? You know, we don't apologize for that. We are the church that we'll shoot back.
So we're very happy to have them here. And so if you see one of these officers, they were as stressed about this emotionally when Todd was shot as the rest of us were. Just let them know how much we appreciate them. In fact, we have a few of them in the room this morning. Would you just take a moment? And let's thank our officers for all that they do to protect us each week.
We're so grateful for all that you do. We have many of you who serve in law enforcement, first responders, as members of our church. Thank you for your service. We cannot say that enough. We try to be a church that recognizes our military. We honor our military, but we also won't be a church that recognizes our first responders. And we want to be faithful in doing that. So with that said, this morning, I want to begin our new series by talking about something that really most of you here this morning probably won't need to hear this as much as others who won't be in the room. I'm preaching to the choir, I guess, for the message because I want to talk about resetting my Sundays. Resetting my Sundays. And I say you don't. Most of you don't need that. Cause you're here. You've obviously done the reset. So what this message might be for you is just to reinforce reset that you've obviously already made in your life. Now, within our church, we have literally thousands of families that call the Met church their church home. Thousands of families. In fact, we've talked about it before. If just a large percentage of our church family showed up on any given Sunday, we couldn't get them in the room. We would be in multiple services just to take care of the people who call this their church home. We go through and contact people every year to make sure our membership roles are refreshed and current. And when I tell you we have thousands of people who call this their church home, I'm not exaggerating at all. I've told you a million times, I don't exaggerate anyway. But the point is, we do have that many people. And when you think about that, it's incredible. It's wonderful. Especially knowing, as we talked last weekend, that we started with about 25 families. And to see how God has blessed the church exponentially is truly remarkable. And I know sometimes with the Sunday schedule, it can get all out of whack. When I was a kid, way back in the day, there wasn't a lot going on on Sundays to compete with our time. Besides that, my dad was a pastor. I had no choice about going to church. I cannot imagine telling my dad, I think I'm going to sleep in. I think I'm going to go to a friend's house. Are you kidding me? That wasn't even a choice. And so I was envious of my friends that had that choice, I'll be honest with you about that. But that really wasn't an issue with me. And then, of course, when God directed me into ministry, ministry, sadly for my children, it wasn't a choice for them either. But I realized the great value of being a part of a church. And I just want to talk to you a little while about the value, the value and the significance and the importance of resetting the Sundays and making your presence known as you attend to church. Now, I understand there are reasons why people don't go to church. I understand that. I read up on it all the time. It's what I do. I try to understand, get into the mindset of people who don't attend church. A lot of them just say, I'm too busy, and I'm just too busy. My life is crazy. I get that. I totally get that. Whenever we, at my old church, when we did away with our Sunday night services, because it was just, they weren't well attended. We just had just a core of people. And so we converted it from a service into bible study time. And so I remember once we did away with a formal Sunday night service, how weird that was for me. Understand, growing up, Sunday school, church, church training union in the afternoon, church that night. Tuesday night, visitation. Wednesday night, teachers and officers meeting. Wednesday night, church. Saturday morning, bus visitation. We had 31 buses that we ran picking up kids all over the city. So we had bus visitation. You go out two or 3 hours and do that. And then Sunday, it started all over again. And that was just a typical schedule in the life of the church. But it was really easy. If you didn't make Sunday or church a priority, it just wasn't going to happen. And so I get it today. Much different world today. I get it when people tell me they're too busy. But what I would ask you to do, if you understand resetting bills Sundays and making Sundays a priority is hard for me. Go back and look at your schedule and ask yourself this question. Am I allowing the good things in my life to take place of the best things in my life? A really shocking statistic is to realize how little time you and I are going to have with our kids. And if you don't go to church for any other reason on the weekend, again, I'm talking to the choir. You're here. I know that. Help me tell our folks who aren't here yet this. Hey, you ought to listen to this message from Bill. You know, that'll help a brother. But the point is, the reason is we don't have that many weeks with our kids. And here's what I know about creating rhythm and creating kind of traditions within the life of a family. I know this much. If it isn't important to a parent today, it won't be important to the kids tomorrow. And so when you establish, even though you say, I don't know, that I need to go every week, I'm good with my faith and all. While that may be true to some extent, your kids need that. And we try to have a dynamic children's program, and I think most of you have kids over there met kids. Our youth ministry, we're rebuilding our youth ministry. And I feel like they're making great strides in that area of our church life. And I'm just suggesting to your heart that I get it when people say, I'm too busy. We're just so strapped and we're so limited on time. And when we did away with a Sunday night, I remember we were sitting there, I was watching a football game on Sunday night. I'm eating popcorn, and I'm looking at the clock saying, right now I'd be standing up to speak. And I looked over at Cindy and I said, this actually is pretty cool.
I told her, I actually get why they don't want to come back on Sunday night. I didn't want to be there either.
And so you start asking yourself the question, is it necessary? Is it still achieving the purpose that you established it to achieve? Now, nothing against churches that have Sunday night. I love Sunday night. And if it were a thing that would help our church, we would revisit that again and not against it. It's just not a biblical thing. In church, thou shalt attend on a Sunday night. You just do it more or less out of the tradition of the church. And if I were in a church that had that, I'd fly in that formation. But in my old church, we kind of assessed and evaluated how effective that really is. And what we came to the conclusion that some sacred cows just make good hamburger. Right.
There's some things that aren't effective. You know what a tradition is in a church, anyway? A tradition is something a church did at one point in time to communicate a principle of scripture that worked, and so they kept doing it because it kept working. And so it became the tradition of the church to follow a certain procedure, a certain plan, a certain program. But those plans, programs, and procedures should be evaluated all the time. To ask, is it still communicating the same principle? Does it still work? Because people will tell you also, the reason they don't go to church is many times they feel church is irrelevant. They don't see how it's impacting their life, or they feel that church is boring. When they come to church, they're not getting anything that is worth their time, they're not learning anything. It's not moving, so it's irrelevant, and it's boring. And they don't see any life application involved in attending that particular church. Now, these are common excuses why people give when they don't attend church. And what's struggling about it is that impacts the church overall. For example, 65% of Americans say they're christian. But of the 65% of Americans who say they're christian, less than 10% of those people attend a church on any given weekend. So I'm saying, even in our nation, I think we need a reset of Sundays, especially when you consider, as I want to share with you, what the benefits of being a part of a church, what those benefits really are. What is the impact? What is the difference of being a church? What does it make? Now, I will also say this. There are some unhealthy church leaders. That's true. Jesus warned about that in Matthew, chapter seven, verse 15, where he said, be careful. There are wolves that are in sheep's clothing. And then he went on to say, but by their fruit, you will know them. Here's what I know about ministry. Here's what I know about unhealthy ministers. They will be exposed. God eventually will reveal, and he'll bring it to light. You just buy the popcorn and you just watch, because God will eventually bring those types of leaders. He'll expose them and he'll bring them to light. So I agree there are unhealthy leaders. But as I said one time, we were talking about this. Just because one star falls from the heavens doesn't mean the whole sky is falling, right? I mean, there's probably unhealthy leaders in every profession. You could take that same logic and say, I don't go to church because, you know, there's a failure of this particular leader or that one. So I'm throwing the baby out with a bath. You could say that about going to a doctor. Well, I had a bad experience with a doctor. All doctors. I've had bad experience with a police officer. All of them are bad. You know, you could catastrophize and you could summarize and basically disparage anyone's profession just because you get a few bad apples in there. So, yes, there are some. There are some unhealthy ministers. And by the way, there's some unhealthy churches. I've been in some that were like the church of the deep freeze. I mean, you go in there and they're cold and they don't seem to care about anybody. And I know that as well. So there are unhealthy ministers. There are unhealthy churches. And I'll say this, there are some unhealthy churches that have unhealthy members in it. And so I get that sometimes people are not growing in the churches that they're in. And it's not a reflection on the church. For example, I'll hear people say from time to time when they are dissatisfied in a church, they'll say, I'm not being fed, I'm not getting fed. Well, I understand what they mean when they say that. And there are times when a church does not teach the Bible or preach the Bible. I understand that. But if they're in a church that is teaching and preaching the Bible, it might not be what's being served. It might be how you're consuming what's being served. In other words, if you have one skinny kid and you got four little fat ones, it's probably not the cook. You know, you gotta say, this kid's not eating. And I've told you before, and this is a discipline we have to get to as Christ followers.
If the only word you get is the word that is taught to you on Sunday morning, you're not eating enough, you're going to die of spiritual anorexia. Can I tell you, you have access through the Internet to some of the greatest teachers, preachers, communicators of the Bible in the world. You can access them on your device, on your laptop. You have access to so much information, so much wonderful teaching is available out there. And so if a person is not consuming each and every day, spiritually consuming the Bible, there's not a church on Sunday that can meet all those needs. So I'm just suggesting to your heart, it's like, I've used this analogy before, but it'd be like leaving here in a little while and going to a restaurant. And let's say you go to babes and you get the fried chicken. We talked about that, right? You get the mashed potatoes, you get the corn, and you sit there, or you go to Junior's and you get some great barbecue, and you're just sitting there going, oh, my gosh, Junior, this is so good. I will never eat another thing for as long as I live. You ever left a restaurant feeling that way, you walk in and waddle out, you know, and you're just like, man, that is so great. But you know what'll happen to you? Invariably, you leave here, what is it, 1012? You leave here in a little while, you go grab some lunch, and you just eat to your heart's desire and you overeat. And what's going to happen to you? About five or 06:00 brother's going to get hungry again. That stomach's going to tell your brain, feed me. And before you know it. You're going, you know what? That was great. That lunch was great. But I'm going to have to eat again because your body has metabolized that food.
You're ready to go, you're ready. What's my point? My point is the only thing you get is what I'm giving you right now. You're going to get hungry again. So you have to be eating on your own. You have to get into Bible study, you have to get into God's word. So sometimes when people say, I'm not being fed, what they're admitting is I'm not disciplined enough to eat on my own. And so somewhere we've got to help. People say, you need to be in the word every day. You need to be studying and listening and learning and growing in your spiritual life. And no matter what church you're in, no one can make you be spiritual. You can't make people be spiritual. I can't make my family be spiritual. I have enough time, hard time making me be spiritual. So I know what a challenge it is. So spirituality is something that is an individual. We have to grow on our own. And that's true really, of our worship. If the only time a person ever worships is when they come to church on Sunday, that's not enough. We really don't come to church on Sunday to, quote, get our worship on.
In fact, there's nothing wrong with that if you use that as a term. I'm not. That's fine, but that's really not what we do.
Listen, Sunday is not where your worship commences. It's where your worship should continue. You see what I mean? You bring your worship with you, you come into the church worshiping. Can you imagine the spiritual level that we would have in the average church if people walked in full of the spirit of God, excited about the things of God, and they brought that level of spiritual intensity into a service before it ever started. Most churches, you spend the entire music set trying to get christians to the level they should have been at when they walked through the door. So I'm saying we have to own where we are spiritually. The church can't do that for us. Now what we can do is try to provide an atmosphere for you. I try to bring good teaching. Some of my messages are topical, some of my messages are textual. Some of my messages are expository. My style is extemporaneous, meaning that you can listen to this one. And if you go home and listen to eleven, it may not even sound like you heard the same two messages. If it was funny in this one, I may repeat that one in the next one because I'm hunting for fish, and if I find one of them biting on something, I am going to throw that lure out there again. And so beyond some of that stuff, it's just because I have to go with how I feel. God is leading me. So when I say extemporaneous, that means I prepare. I try to become full of what I feel like God would have me to say to your heart. And then when I get up here to deliver it, I kind of go with the promptings that I feel God is prompting me to say. And I hope I'm in the zone, and I hope I connect with your minds and hearts when that happens. So I'm saying we try to be very disciplined at teaching the Bible to people. I had one weekend, I was up, and I had my notes, and I had the bible closed, and I had a guy who only had visited one time, that was the only Sunday was there. And he put a review out on Google and he said, just attended the Met church. The pastor never opened his bible. And I thought, well, we put in big letters up here, and I quoted scripture off, but I did not physically opened the Bible. Therefore, I was not a bible teacher in his evaluation. So now I come out. Notice, please, everyone, Bible's open.
And if I'm not teaching the Bible, send me that email and say, that's not biblical, that's not scriptural. But it's kind of an affront to me to be accused of that, because I put great, you know, time and effort into making sure my sermons are biblical and scriptural and accurate, because I want to at least put that out there. What you do with it when I put it out there is between you and God. But I at least want to give you something that is as accurate. It'll have some of my opinion in it. That's it. Just spit out what, you know, that eat the fish, spit out the bone. But I try to give you the, you know, the biblical accuracy as I teach God's word. So I'm saying we try to address some of the complaints that people give when they don't attend church. We weigh those heavily because we see the value, the great value of church. In fact, the first time you'll read the word church is in Matthew 1618, when you have this incredible confession of Simon Peter, when Jesus is asking him, who do these people say that I am? You're the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus affirms it and says, the spirit has led you to say that you're exactly right. And then he looked at him and said, you are Peter. You're Petras. You're a stone, but upon this rock, speaking of himself, I will build my church. He said, you're just a stone, but on this rock, I will build my church. And then he said, the gates of hell will not prevail against my church. So the first mention of the church is when Jesus announced he was going to establish it there in Matthew 16. And the church, by definition, by the way, is the greek word is Ekklesia. Ekklesia. And by definition, Ekklesia means a called out assembly or a gathering. So even in the definition of church, it indicates being connected to one another and being involved in fellowship with one another. So this idea of being connected with each other is so significant when you understand the importance of a church. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that we can now go online. You know, when Covid came around, we were thinking, our world has changed forever. And, oh, my gosh, Armageddon, you know, all that stuff. And so we geared up as a church because we didn't know, like anyone else, how much the world was going to change. Would people ever feel comfortable coming back on campus, you know? So we put a lot of investment into being able to offer an online experience. And so now that we're kind of through that and we realize you get the flu, you get Covid, you move on. But we didn't know that then. So now we have an online setup that's pretty good. And we have people literally in other countries, we have people all over this country who watch our services online. We have members who are providentially hindered or who are just unable to be here that watch online. So don't get me wrong. I'm not discounting the significance of watching online, especially those of you who are watching online right now. I'm not undermining that. What I am saying is, if you can be here, and it's just a matter of resetting priority, being here is so significant, and it will change the way you experience church. I've had so many people say, I've watched online through Covid, and once I came back, I just missed this so much. I miss being able to see people shake a hand, hug a neck. I just missed the fellowship of being around other people. So there's something about gathering, there's something about assembling that the word implies that is so significant. In fact, in Hebrews, chapter ten, look at our text this morning in Hebrews, chapter ten. Look at verse 25. He said, don't forsake, don't forsake the assembling the ecclesia, the gathering, don't forsake that.
Don't dismiss the significance of it. Don't forsake it. The assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some, as some who just got out of the habit of doing that. Instead exhort one another so much. The more, he says, as you see the day approaching now, what is the day? The day is the coming of the Lord. Meaning as the closer we get to the return of Jesus to this earth, the more we ought to gather as a church. Statistics have revealed the most optimistic people in the world are people who attend church. Statistics have revealed the most joyful people are the people who attend church. I read an interesting stat this last week that said people who go through adversity, like we look at our economy and all the trials that people are going through, just making ends meet. They say even with the adversity, christians who are a part of a church are more joyful and more optimistic. And they're doing a correlation in people who go through a hard time as they attend church. That's helping change the attitude while they go through that experience. And I think that's true.
I really think it's true. I've gone through difficulty in my life, as you know, with the home going of Cindy, a granddaughter who passed that same year. I've gone through a lot of loss. You have as well. And I'm just suggesting to, one of the things that have kept me rolling is not just my family and my friends, but it's my church family. And there's something just beneficial and valuable about being a part of a church. Now, let me give you, in about ten minutes time, I want to give you just five quick thoughts, five quick benefits. If you're taking notes of being a part of a church. Are you ready? Number one, being a part of a church focuses my faith. It focuses my faith. What do I mean by that? When you're in this room for the hour that we're here and we try to get you in and out, we try to get, I try to finish before you are. That's my goal. And so we try to get you out of here. And so the point is, while you are here, this hour on a Sunday morning represents an opportunity we have to focus completely on our faith, to close out the cares of our world, to completely in worship. We can look at that lyric and think I can relate to that. That's something I'm going through. Wow. That spoke to me today. And so you sing a little differently on some of the songs than you might on others, and then you hear the message and you go, okay, that really helped me, that I connected with what he just said. That's something that I'm going through. And so all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit is helping you connect dots because you made Sunday a priority and you were here. And so now you've given yourself an opportunity at least an hour out of your busy schedule to completely focus on your faith. You see, there's something dynamic about being in a church. A church is an organization, but it's more than that. A church is an organism. A church is a living thing. That's why the church is called the body of Christ. It is a living organism. Now, in the old Testament, in the old Testament, God had a temple for his people. But in the New Testament, God has a people for his temple. So you have one. Corinthians three. I'm sorry, first corinthians 619 and 20. You're bought with a price. Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. So when we come together collectively as a church family, we can encourage one another. Our text says, exhorting one another, that means to encourage one another. We can. We. It's an environment, an organism, an organization that you don't have that same dynamic anywhere else. When you leave here, if you go to Walmart, for example, and you tell somebody, I'm going through a hard time, they may go move their car far away from you.
Good luck with that. Right.
But you walk out of the door of this building and you say to anyone in this room, I'm going through a hard time. I would be stunned if they didn't stop and say, how can I help you? It's a dynamic you have that you don't have anywhere else. So there's a value of focusing our faith. There's a value you get when you attend church that it doesn't happen anywhere else. In fact, the Bible says in Matthew 1820, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'm in the midst. So the presence of God is here.
You know why he's here? Because we brought him with us when we came.
Sometimes I hear worship guys, they'll say, we just want to welcome the presence of God into the room. Now, I know what they mean by what they say, but the presence of God entered the room the minute his kids got here. You're bringing the Holy Spirit with you when you come. You're not welcoming in like, hey, Jesus, just hit the door. Come on in, Jesus. Jesus has left the building. You know, it's not that kind of a thing. It's that we bring him with us when we come because we're his kids. His holy spirit indwells us. So one of the values of going to a church is it helps me focus my faith. Number two, coming to a church helps me face my problems. It helps me face my problems. It gives me a chance to focus on some things that are right in my life and focus on some things that are wrong in my life. You've heard the old saying that a church is not a hotel for the saints, that a church is a hospital for the sinners. And I know we hear that, and it's kind of a throwaway line, but it's really true. Churches are not cruise ships. They're mercy ships. Churches are places where the wounded can go and where the hurt can go. Churches are places for the broken. Churches are places for the sinful. Churches are the place for imperfect people to come and assess and evaluate through the power of the Holy Spirit how we need help in our life.
In Isaiah, chapter six, you have the story of Isaiah.
Prophet Isaiah's cousin Uzziah was the king. And for the first five chapters of Isaiah, here's what jumps out at you, if you'll read them. Isaiah goes around pointing his long, bony finger in the face of other people, calling out all the sins that they were committing. Now, he was right, but he was pretty judgmental. He'd say, woe unto you that does this and that and the other thing. Woe unto you that does this and that and the other thing. And woe unto you is an old testament expression that just simply meant, if you don't change your way, trouble is coming. Woe will be unto you if you don't change your way. But my point is, all through Isaiah, the first five chapters, all he can see are the faults of others and the sins of others. What happens in chapter six changes his life. Chapter six. The Bible says, in the year that Uzziah died, he lost his cousin. He went through the death of a loved one. He went through the loss of someone that meant so much to him. It devastated him. It was a soul crushing experience that changed his life. Here's what he said. In the year that King Udayazide I saw the Lord, meaning that I finally got away from looking at the faults and failures of other people. And I finally got my eyes on Jesus, and this what he said, when I saw God as he is, I saw myself as he said. I saw him high and lifted up. He said his train filled the temple. Above him flew Seraphims, each one with two wings. With two. They gave praise and honor and glory to God. He sees this vision of God in his glory, with angels surrounding the throne, and he sees this amazing scene in heaven. And you know what the response was then? He said, are you ready for this? Woe is me, for I am undone. No more woe is you stuff. Now it's woe is me. Because he quit comparing himself to other people, and he compared himself to God, and God helped him fix some things in his life. And the minute he saw himself as he was, the Bible says, then flew one of the angels unto me, taking a live coal from the altar. And he touched my lips, he purged my sin. Let me just summarize what he experienced. He experienced true repentance, and he experienced true forgiveness. And then he said, here am I, Lord, send me. What do you want me to do? And then that is a beautiful example of what happens when you come to church. You hear a message, you hear the word of God taught, and all of a sudden, the spirit of God reveals some things in your life that aren't adding up and aren't right. And sometimes God will bring us to conviction so that we turn from those things and we embrace him. And all of a sudden, we realize, God, I see what you're saying to me. I've given myself an opportunity in this room to face the sin that I'm dealing with and be able to find forgiveness and be able to be. To overcome it. And not just sin. Sometimes it's sorrow. Sometimes you come into this room broken over stuff in your life, and all of a sudden, man, you're faced with the reality of what you're dealing with. Because sometimes we can get a little bit like our computers or our game consoles when they get so overloaded. Sometimes we reboot them, you know what I mean? We shut them down.
We just don't deal with it. So we think, if I'll just reboot, I'll just start. And sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we think, I can just close the laptop and I won't look at the problems and it'll go away. Sometimes we kind of do that in our personal life. But, man, when you come into a room like this and you give yourself a little time to think, and you allow the spirit of God to speak. All of a sudden. He says, man, you got some bitterness there you need to deal with. You need to release that stuff. That stuff's poisoning you. You're holding on to something. You ought to let go. You ought to give that to me. Remember we said Matthew five? Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. What is pure in heart? Pure is the word catharos in the Greek. We get the word catheter from that word. Blessed are the catharos, the people that have the ability to get the impurity out of their heart. That's what he means by that. How do you get the impurity out of your heart? Forgiveness. Release it. You let it go. And how do you know to do that? You come to a room like this and you hear a talk like this and all of a sudden you realize that's the thing that's keeping me from having joy. I got to let that go. I can't fix this. I can't deal. I'm going to turn this over to you, God. So what am I saying? I'm saying the value of coming to church, it helps me face my problems. Now hurriedly, number three, coming to church helps me fortify my faith. Fortify my faith. It helps strengthen my faith. All of a sudden, I'm having my faith reinforced. I'm hearing about the second coming of Christ and I wondered if that's actually going to happen. I hear about the rapture and I hear about the second coming and the establishment of his kingdom on the earth. And all of a sudden some things that were cloudy become clear because I'm hearing from God's word and now my faith is being strengthened. My faith is being fortified. That's a value of coming to church. It'll fortify your faith. Number four, it'll help me find my function.
A church will help me find my function. Believe me, everybody in the room has a purpose. You have a function. There's a place you fit. And one of the things that serving in the life of the church helps you understand the things that you do better.
You hear about being affirmed in the things that you do. One of the ways you know if you're doing the zone, doing the thing you should be doing is if somebody affirms you in it, if somebody can say to you, you're good at that, you're really good at this, is a gift you have. Now if you want to be a singer and nobody's ever told you you could sing. Yeah, maybe in the shower, right. Find my function. Here's the last one, it helps me fulfill my purpose. Fulfill my purpose. It's God's way of helping me find fulfillment in life. Rick Warren has a great book out called purpose driven life. I'm sure you've heard of it. What a wonderful book. What a great understanding that God has created everyone with purpose. And that was one of the things I'll close with this that we understood with Cindy's homegoing is we weren't finished with her, but he was. God was ready for her to go home. I was talking to one of our officers this morning. He was updating me. He's kind of downloading us on Todd and some of that situation he'd gone through. And you wonder how God had spared this officer's life. And sometimes another officer dies in the line of duty, and it's simply the only way you can understand it is we're here as long as God designs us and desires us to be here. And the moment our purpose on life is over, he calls us home. God loves us too much to let us be on this earth one moment longer than is absolutely necessary. I told you, the verse that helped me kind of get my head around Cindy's home going was that ecclesiastes one to everything. There's a season, and there's a time to every purpose under heaven. And I realize life is seasonal. It's made up of seasons. Good ones, bad ones, hot ones. Good lord. Hot, right? Hot seasons. We're in one now. There are seasons of reaping, and there's seasons of sowing, right? There's fertilizing seasons. It does happen. So there's all kinds of seasons. But in the middle of life, seasons, there's time for purpose. And as long as we have purpose, God will give us time. And the minute our purpose is over, our time's up. God will call us home however way he chooses. He'll call us home. So my point is, when you come to a church, you start realizing, I'm here to fulfill purpose. What am I doing with my life? Am I allowing the urgent to take precedent over the important?
Do I need to reorder? Do I need to reset? Do I need to begin again to look at my schedule, my calendar, my life, and try to simplify some things so that I'm doing not just good things, but I'm doing the best things. So I hope through this series, it'll help us rethink and reorder some things to reset some things that are important. Beginning with resetting our Sundays, let's pray together.
Father, thank you for your word. And thank you that it's always engaging. It always is encouraging. And, Father, sometimes your word is so convicting. And I pray now, as we've just heard the significance and the benefits of being a part of a church, that you'll drive that message deep within our minds and hearts. I thank you for the folks that are here. Thank you for all who are watching online. Thank you for those, Lord, who are watching, who would be here if they could be here. I just pray you'll bless them. And finally, Lord, I pray for those who may never have trusted you as savior, that is more important than ever. Attending a church, that is the most important thing, that's more important than anything else in life is trusting Jesus. And I pray this might be the moment right where they are. They humble their heart and say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my life, forgive my sin. And Father, I'll give you great thanks and praise in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:37:33] 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.
