Practical Faith Living

1 (2s): Welcome harvest 2 (3s): Church. Welcome this morning. Stand and worship with us. 1 (1m 48s): . 1 (3m 4s): I am who you say you are for me? Not against me. I am who you say hi. I am chosen show. Who's not foresee. Can you say you love for me? 1 (3m 43s): Not against me. I am who you say you love for the kids? 1 (4m 3s): 4 (4m 54s): Good morning, everybody. Go ahead and have a seat on no. Okay. Hold on a second. I'm good. I'm good. Okay. I was on, but I wasn't on whatever that means. So good morning. Welcome. Love to have you all gathered together today, a beautiful day out. So want to welcome you, those of you in the sanctuary, also in the loft and the patio, and those are tuning in online. So my name is Ron and I have a few pieces of information you might be interested in. So the first of which is today is, is what we call family Sunday. So the fourth, Sunday of each month, what we do is we encourage families to worship together. 4 (5m 36s): And so if you have kids that are first grade and up, they don't have class today. They're they're in with mom and dad with a family. And if you have kids younger than first grade, if you want to keep them with you in church, that's totally fine. We encourage that. But if you want to take them to class, we do have class for the little ones. So you'll feel, feel free to do that. Also on family Sunday, it's popular because we have donuts. So I head up the driveway, right near the info center. You're going to find a bunch of donuts, feel free to help yourself. There's coffee up there, and just a fun time to gather together and have coffee and donuts. But more importantly, today, we also have communion. And so towards the end of Steve's message, he will be inviting us to partake of communion and have communion together as, as the family of God. 4 (6m 22s): So we can look forward to that. If you're new to harvest church, we want to welcome you super happy to have you with us today. And if you have, if you'd like any information you need about harvest church, you can head up the driveway to the info center. There's some folks who would love to talk to you about what's going on here. Or if you prefer, you can go onto our website or our church app, and you can find out what's going on that way as well. So what we do three or four, three times a year, we have life groups that we start up. I should know this, right? If I'm making the album is I should know about this. So what we have is, is a new flyer. We put together about the different life groups that are coming up quickly. 4 (7m 2s): It beginning in may. So a life group is simply a small group of folks that gathered together in somebody's home may be here on campus, smaller venues during the week. And we w we really encourage everybody to get involved in a life group, a small group, because that's where you really get connected with people. And you really get into the, you know, the life of the church and make relationships and all that kind of good step. So feel free to pick one of these up there, up again at the info center, but just to let you know, we've got groups going on in a row grand day, we've got groups in Grover beach and a Pomo. We've got a couple of different men's groups that are happening. A bunch of women's groups that are happening as well. Probably the most important group of all. We've got a prayer group that meets on Thursday mornings would encourage you to be a part of that. 4 (7m 45s): There's a singles Bible study, and there is what we call recreational groups. So this is the good yarn club. So they get together and have fellowship and, and knit things, which is super fun. So check that out. Okay. What else is going on? So I want to update everybody on the worship center. That's just down the street at 1 0 2 branch. Okay. So here's, what's going on. We're getting close to Mo moving into the worship center. We will. I'm going to say we're definitely going to be in there in may. We're not exactly sure which Sunday in may, but we're, we're fairly positive about that final preparations are, are being made and getting, you know, getting the final permit on everything permission to occupy it. 4 (8m 26s): So we're gonna announce it in the future, the exact date, as soon as these things come together. So we're going to be shuffling around some different things. And with, with things like this comes some change. Okay. So sometimes change is a little difficult to, you know, get, get, get a handle on. Most of us don't really like change, but here's what's happening. Okay. So the new worship center is going to be called the east campus because it's east, this, this campus is going to be called west campus. And so here's a couple of other things. So the worship center is at 1 0 2. So whenever we talk about the worship center, that's what we're talking about. The east campus at 1 0 2 and over there, it's also, they're also going to have an outdoor courtyard venue where we're going to have coffee there. 4 (9m 12s): We're going to have some seating out there, some TVs to watch what's going on inside. It's a really cool garden area. If you hadn't had a chance to check it out. And also in the new worship center, we're going to have a nursery with his birth through two years. And we're going to have a mother's room over there as well. So at the west campus, we are actually changing the name of the sanctuary to our chapel. So we're going to have a chapel livestream happening here, right here in this venue. So if you prefer to hang out here, you're welcome to do so at the, the chapel live stream. So the, the kids' worship center is going to be moving into the loft. 4 (9m 54s): So again, the lock, which is right behind me is give me the new kids' worship center and kids classes, ages three, and up as well as youth classes are going to stay put right where they are currently. So that's, what's happening. As soon as we get to our, our new space. And as we open up the new worship center, we're going to need a lot more volunteers for various things that are happening because we're growing. So, for example, if you would like to get involved in, in the coffee ministry, greeting ministry, safety team, worship, team tech, team, kids, team, youth team, and many, many other things are going on. So what, when we get there, we're gonna have a better idea of all the things that we need to fill. So what you will find is if you get involved in a ministry team at church, it's super fun. 4 (10m 41s): You're going to get to know a lot of new people and, and it's a way to serve the Lord. So it encouraged you to get involved again, to, to volunteer for any of those things. You can go on our website and click on the connect tab, and that's what we're going to do. All right. So last Sunday, what happened last Sunday? Oh, that's right Eastern the park. We have a little clip. We want to share with you so you can see what, what went on last Sunday. Okay. You ready? Okay. 5 (13m 19s): And I invite you to stand in. As we continue to worship, we're going to introduce a new song this morning. It's called strong God. It's taken from verses in Psalm 68. And those verses are father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. This has God in his holy place, 1 (13m 52s): Father to the fatherless 5 (13m 56s): Defender 1 (13m 57s): Of the weak Freedom for the prison. We see this is God in his holy 7 (20m 45s): God, you are surely great. And we're humbled your presence here today. Lord is so as we've gathered to pray, and as we've gathered to worship God, we've gathered for you to remember you, to worship you, to be in your presence. Lord God, as the family of God, we want to be with you, Lord God, we want to be in your presence, Lord God. And as we teach your word today, Lord, we want to take it in and believe it. So Lord God give us faith where we lack faith, give us clarity where we lack clarity, give us the help that we need. Lord God, to believe you, Lord, to believe your promises, to walk in those promises, Lord God, that our lives would be actually changed and transformed as a result of your word, your promises, your guidance, your direction. 7 (21m 36s): So Lord lead us. We pray. We humble ourselves before you today. We say, we need you. We say, we love you. We, so we say, we're so thankful, Lord God, that you've adopted us into your family. We think we're thankful that your grace is sufficient. Lord God. And so I pray that your grace would be extended all over this campus Lord, for whoever needs it, especially this morning, Lord, we all need it. But there are those who especially need just to an extra dose of your grace, Lord God, a truth to saturate their hearts and lives. Lord God. And so for those who are doubting fearful, unbelieving, Lord, we pray that you would reveal yourself in powerful and significant ways. 7 (22m 16s): God, that there would just be a move of God in each of our lives today, Lord all over this campus. And God, we just want to say thank you for our new worship center for what you're doing there. Lord, it's been a, it's been a long time in the, in the, in the making Lord, God, we're so thankful Lord for the way you've are bringing that to fruition and making that possible for us. Lord, we just continue to give that to you, God, for the expansion of your kingdom Lord. So we just want to honor you with that space. So be glorified Lord. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turning green. Somebody will come right back. 7 (23m 44s): I got a feeling it's going to get 8 (23m 45s): Rowdy. 7 (24m 13s): Alrighty, come on in and grab your chair. How's everyone I'm blessed and no less is what I keep hearing. Hey, I'm so grateful for every person who came out last week to help us get that space set up. But when we were setting up the chairs and when we were cleaning up the chairs, I didn't think we would ever end. I mean, those chairs just continued. They were, they were just a ton of them. I'm not sure how many we had set up. It was almost 900. And so it was really, really good. And then the sound and audio video stuff. It's all, man. It all just came together. We were having so many technical challenges on Saturday. 7 (24m 55s): It was ridiculous. We didn't, we weren't sure what was going to happen, but, but our team got it together and I need a bigger podium is what I need. I've got all this stuff. Can we work on that? Like a four by just getting so thanks for that to everyone. Yeah. Great turnout. It was so good to be back at the, at the park. After two years through COVID of not being able to be out there. It was, I mean, we had a great time last year at our back lot back here, but we just love being in that park. Love the opportunity to be salt and light and in the neighborhood there in our community. And so we're just really, really grateful for that. 7 (25m 38s): And we're going to be in Hebrews 13 today kind of wrapping up in the next few weeks, our study through Hebrews. And we're just going to continue to March right through the rest of the new Testament. And so we'll be teaching through revelation here in a few months and I think it'll be really, it's really good timing, I think to get into a study through revelation and so wanted to let you know that that is coming. I, I taught last through revelation 15 years ago in that crazy. Yeah. I was looking at my old notes and I thought, man, it's been 15 years since I've taught through that. So a lot has changed in our world and last 15 years. So it's time for an update and the word of God never changes, but our culture, our circumstances certainly change don't they speaking of change, my son Curtis got engaged yesterday, go ahead and stand up. 7 (26m 30s): Curtis Curtis St. Clark. So we just did a wedding for Steven and Amanda a few months ago and our cup two and a half, three months ago or whatever it's been now. And, and so now we get to plan for another one. So the more the merrier. And so we're excited about that. So congratulations to you too. And you guys want to just get married now you want to just go, I happen to know somebody you can make that happen for you. So it would be zebra. I know, right? Get things done. What are the cupcakes say to the frosting? 7 (27m 13s): I'd be muffin without you. There we go. Told you, I'd tell you a joke on family Sunday. Hey, a lot of us, thousands of people throughout the state went up to Sacramento last Monday and Tuesday to, to lobby against assembly bill 2, 2, 2, 3. And I mean, it was just a huge outpouring of people throughout the states who showed up and, and people from other states. And so sadly the assembly health committee passed AB T T two three last week. 7 (27m 55s): So the bill will go next to the assembly appropriations committee before making its way to the assembly floor. So continue to pray, just continue to pray. It's re if you've done any research at all, you know that this assembly bill is, is heinous and it's, it's so grieves the heart of God to see this type of legislation making its way through and into, into, into law. I mean, it's not just California, there's other states who are trying to do the same thing. So anyway, take a look at it. We don't often talk about political things, but this is not just a political thing. It's a political thing, but it's a moral thing first and foremost. 7 (28m 36s): And so that when we're talking about moral things that contradict the word of God and God's direction for our lives, then we talk about it and we encourage action. So do some research, pray, pray, pray that this thing gets stopped in its tracks. And so we're going to just pray right now for that. And then we'll get into Hebrews 13, one through seven Lord. We do pray, God, God, we ask Lord God for it's just a supernatural intervention here, Lord God that she would stop this bill, this proposed bill or God that it would not become law. 7 (29m 17s): Lord God, that you would not allow it to become law. That born babies would not be allowed to legally be killed in our state Lord God. And as goes California as goes the nation. So it goes the nation, Lord God. And so we pray God that this would be stopped here. And then it would be a message to the rest of the nation that we, we don't, we don't want to stand for this kind of stuff and we will not stand for this kind of stuff. So Lord, I pray that the, the, the people of our nation be aware of what's going on, that these, this type of legislation is being moved forward. Lord, I pray that we would be alert. 7 (29m 58s): That'd be that we'd be wise to what's going on in our world and that we would be prayerful and lobby against things like this. It's our, our responsibility Lord. And so I pray God that we would take serious this responsibility, remember to pray and trust you, Lord God. So speak to those who will be deciding in this next step, Lord, God, speak to their hearts. Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to pray and to petition and to lobby against things like this, help us. We pray Lord in Jesus name. Amen. So last Tuesday we were walking through the buildings. We were out in front of the Capitol, on the lawn there. 7 (30m 40s): And then we were walking through and being able to, which we were trying to lobby the people who are a part of the part of the assembly health committee. And they wouldn't even open the doors for us. We would go knock on their door and they would say, Hey, we're not taking guests at the moment. And so just dozens and dozens of people would just pray outside of their doors in the hallways. And so we went to each office and just prayed and petitioned by God's grace, that, that things would change here. And so let's continue to do that and that we wrestle not against flesh and blood enemies, but we're in a spiritual battle. 7 (31m 23s): And so let's continue to fight against things like AB 2, 2, 2, 3. Amen. Hey, we're in Hebrews chapter 13, we're going to be looking at verses one through seven, the title of the message today, practical faith living. So it will be in Hebrews chapter three verses one through seven. The book of Hebrews is all about challenging your religious activity and tradition so that genuine faith life can be experienced and lived. And I think we need to do that all throughout the course of our lives. We need to be challenging religious activity, things that seem good, but are actually a hindrance to our intimate walk and commitment to Jesus Christ. 7 (32m 8s): So the book of Hebrews is all about challenging religious activity. It was written to Jews. This, we don't know who the author of Hebrews is, but it was written to Jews who had made a decision to trust Jesus as their Messiah. And they were breaking away from a religious tradition, a tradition of lots of works and that sort of thing. And so this book is written to this group of people, giving them practical insight. These are the things as we wrap up Hebrews, this, these are the things that we should be doing. These are the things that should mark the lives of believers, the lives of people in God's church. 7 (32m 53s): So Hebrews three 13 brings to light, very practical things that mark the life of a follower of Jesus Christ. And so as we look at the first seven verses of Hebrews 13, we find seven points that define for us practical faith, living seven points in seven verses. And so it's going to take us about three weeks to get through Hebrews 13. And, and then we'll, we'll just jump right in with number one, practical, faith, living, number one, love each other. We see that throughout the scripture that God has called us to love each other. We see that in Hebrews 13, one says, keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 7 (33m 36s): And so the author saying, Hey, keep this up. You're doing it. The marks of a godly person is that we would continue to love one another. So love each other. The transliteration of the Greek word for love here is Philadelphia. The city of Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love, right? If you've ever been to Philadelphia, you have, I'd never been there, but I've, I've heard that it's not necessarily living up to its name. I don't know, but in 1994 at Gallup poll named Philadelphia, America's most hostile place. So maybe there's some truth to what I'm hearing. 7 (34m 17s): So good intentions only take us so far. So the founders of that city had great intentions. Let's call this place, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love with the expectation that the goal that this place would be marked by brotherly love. And instead though it's become hostile and one of Philadelphia America's most hostile plays. So good intentions only take you so far. Have you experienced that? Like I'm gonna do better. I'm going to love this person better. And then we fall short, listen, we can't love people effectively unless we're filled with the grace of God, the presence of God and the power of God, because some people are just very difficult to love, but by God's grace, he gives us the ability and even the desire he refreshes our hearts and minds so that we actually have the desire to love people who are on lovely. 7 (35m 11s): How do we love each other? Romans 12, 10 says this love each other with genuine affection. So now we're kind of getting some action points here, genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. So we're to love one another with genuine affection honoring each other. I would just reading in first Samuel this morning, and I was reading about the relationship between Jonathan, the King's son and David, the newly anointed king, who was yet to take the throne. But as we read through first Samuel, we see the, the, the love relationship that David and Jonathan had. 7 (35m 57s): There was, there was a sacrificial commitment to one, another to protect one another. And you can see how Jonathan over and over again, protected David from Saul's wrath. Saul was jealous of David and Saul was envious of David saw was, was, was angry at David. And so over and over again, Saul was trying to kill David and Jonathan would step up over and over again to protect him. He had, he had genuine love and affection for David and he honored him. And so there's, there's great examples in the scripture and there's great examples in our own lives. Maybe where people have loved us with genuine affection. 7 (36m 40s): And with honor, I can think back in my life about different people who have loved me. So well, my wife, for sure, being one of them for the last 32 years, she just loved me really, really well, genuine affection and honor. And I really do think that's part of like the recipe for longevity in marriage is that we would love and honor one another, a genuine affection can only come from a genuine heart. And so we need to regularly ask the Lord, God, what's going on with my heart. Why, why am I having a hard time loving this person? Maybe it's your spouse. You're having a hard time loving you. 7 (37m 21s): Say, Lord, what's going on with my heart because we can't love when we can fake it, but we can only love people with genuine affection. And honor, when we have a pure hearts, when our hearts are in the right place, we've, we've got to guard our hearts and make sure that we've confessed sin, that we've forgiven, that we're walking in purity and honor before the Lord so that we can lovingly serve others and love others with a genuine affection and honor. So genuine affection can only come from a genuine heart. And honor only comes from a humble heart. So we need to check ourselves. What's the condition of our heart. 7 (38m 2s): Are we being, are we being humble? Are we pure in our heart? Or are we do we have guile and unforgiveness and hatred in our heart brother and sister Lee love can only happen when we choose to extend grace from a genuine and humble heart. So part of doing what anything God has called us to do, what it requires that we're empowered by God, but that we always extend grace. If we think about our relationship with God, what is he always doing with us? I don't know about you, but he's always, always grace to me, right? I mean, I think about the person who loves me more than anybody who has the capacity to love me more than anybody that's God. 7 (38m 45s): And he knows all of my failures and shortcomings, but he genuinely loves me. And he genuinely loves you with affection. And he honors us in that relationship by loving us unconditionally. So in order for us to love, like, God loves us to love others. Like God loves us. We need to, we need to be constantly extending grace to the people in our lives. If you've been alive for any amount of time, you know that you need to extend grace to people constantly in work relationships and marriage, relationships and sibling relationships. And in every relationship, there's going to be opportunity for you to be offended or for you to offend others. 7 (39m 30s): And so there needs to be that constant extension of grace, constant extension of grace meets you. You to me, we, to each other, we just constantly extend grace. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians four 13 for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. So maybe you're here today. And you're like, this is like a really impossible thing. There's this person in my life that I just don't like at all. I don't respect this person. I don't like this person. This person gets under my skin every time I see him or her. And so Lord, I don't know how all things are possible. When we submit our hearts to the Lord, we can love people. 7 (40m 11s): I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. God will give you the strength to forgive great story. When the first missionaries arrived in Alberta, Canada, a young chief of the Cree Indians named Masco opportun, savaged, savagely, opposed them. But he later responded to the gospel and accepted Christ shortly afterward. A member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father mascot. Batoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him confronting the guilty man. 7 (40m 51s): He said, you have killed my father. So now you must be my father. You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes in utter amazement and remorse his enemy exclaimed. My son. Now you have killed me. He meant, of course, that the hates in his own heart had been completely erased by the forgiveness and kindness of the Indian chief. This is the power of the gospel. When we've been touched by the grace of God, we, we find capacity. 7 (41m 33s): Expend extend that same grace to others. Even those who have done us rate great harm. God's grace, as we're filled with the spirit of God and the word of God, the truth that God gives us the capacity to extend grace to others in Luke 10 27, the most important commandment says this. You must love the Lord, your God with all your hearts, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as your self over and over again. We see this in the scripture. We see that God calls us to love others. The world. We will know that we are his disciples by our love one for another. 7 (42m 17s): So the love that we're exposed to be feeling for one another and extending to one another is constantly under attack. The enemy wants us to be at odds with one another, because then we're not properly representing the person of the Lord. Jesus Christ. Jesus was gracious in all that. He did. He extended grace and love to everybody. Even to those who executed him on the cross. Jesus tells us in his sermon on the mountain, Matthew 5 21 through 24, he says, you have heard that our ancestors were told you must not murder. 7 (42m 59s): If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. But I say, if you were even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment. If you call someone an idiot, you're in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. So if you verse 23 are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple. And you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar, go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and off your sacrifice to God. You think God is serious about what he's talking about in his word. He's very serious. 7 (43m 40s): He modeled it for us. He communicates it and the old and the new Testament, he's very serious that we would love one another. So that means we've got to constantly be forgiving, extending grace like 70 times seven. That means essentially that there's no limit to the number of times that we will extend grace and forgiveness. Number one, love each other. Number two, love strangers. So now we're getting a little more specific, loves strangers. We see that in verse two, don't forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it. That's kind of a neat thought, huh? Well, some, some of us have entertained angels without realizing it. 7 (44m 22s): Have you ever wondered about that in your own life? Like, was that an angel? I wonder like, was that a messenger of God that I just entertained? Like, I didn't know who that person was and I haven't seen him since. I wonder if that was an angel of the Lord, that text refers to what happened to Abraham to lot and to Gideon in the old Testament, Genesis 18 Genesis, 19 judges, six and 13, they all entertained angels unaware. They were ministering to angels as they reached out with love to these strangers. One of the best pictures of a person loving a stranger, seen of the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 when Jesus was asked and who is my neighbor? 7 (45m 13s): So that's the question. I'm like, okay, if I'm supposed to love my neighbor, then who is my neighbor? Right? We're always looking for loopholes, right? Luke 10 30 says this Jesus replied with a story. A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and left him half dead beside the road by chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed by him. Also a temple assistant Levi gets walked over and looked at him, lying there, but he also passed by on the other side of the road, then a despised Samaritan. 7 (46m 1s): So Samaritans were half blood, half blood use. They were, they were a mixed race and they were despised by the Jewish people. Then despise Samaritan came along. And when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with all of oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an end where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, two silver coins to denari were essentially the wage for two late to two days of labor in the day. So he had an two days of work of pay to continue to take care of him, take care of this, man. 7 (46m 46s): If this bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here. So this despised Samaritan served this stranger paid for his well and made sure that he was going to be taking care of until he was completely healthy. Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits? Jesus asked the man replied the one who showed him mercy. Then Jesus said, yes. Now go and do the same. So we have an opportunity to, in a practical way, love those who we don't know as we see people in need. 7 (47m 33s): Now we can't help everybody in need, but we do have the responsibility to help people in need. So we need to pray as we know of people in need and say, Lord, what is my role here? What is my place with this person? How can I serve this person? How am I supposed to serve this person? And as the Lord leads, you, you can minister to that person, but we've got to be prayerful, listening, responsive obedience so that we can do the things that God has called us to do. So there are going to be people in your life that are going to require your love. People that you don't know, maybe people don't like, but God has given you an assignment responsibility to serve them. 7 (48m 21s): Being essentially Jesus with skin on practical, faith living involves loving strangers, but also number three, loving the forgotten, loving the forgotten verse three says, remember those in prison as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your own body. Often we think about people who are incarcerated. We think, well, they deserve to be there. Well, we, if the truth were told, if we all got busted for things that we have done throughout the course of our life, then we would probably be in there as well. 7 (49m 3s): Truth, be told we've gotten away with a lot of stuff over the course of our lives and found out we might all be in that same place. I often say that apart from Jesus, that I rather either be dead in prison or addicted to something. I mean, apart from Jesus that's, that would be my lot. I just know myself way too well. And I know my life before Jesus came in, remember those in prison. One of my first ministries was to those who were incarcerated. And so we had ministries at the county jail. We had three services on Sunday morning. We had a service for the men's side of the jail and then a service for the women's side of the jail. 7 (49m 43s): And then we'd go over to the honor farm and we would have a service over there. So Sunday mornings, we have three services over there and it was a pleasure to minister and to serve those who are incarcerated. And in my early sales life, as an outside sales rep for a company might part of my territory included me service going into and serving those in prisons. And so I would go in to, I think I had six or seven or eight prisons that I would go into on a regular basis. And what I realized with a few exceptions, most of the people that I was seeing in these prisons, they, they had just made mistakes and they serving their time. 7 (50m 29s): And the truth is they were, they were worthy of love. They were worthy of respect and what I treated them with love and respect that was returned to me. And now I know that's not the case across the board, but overwhelmingly. So that was the case. It's only went to San Quentin prison. San Quentin prison was an altogether different scenario. I walked in that place and it was dark and cold and scary. It was scary. I went in there. I spent about half a day at San Quentin prison once and I decided never to step foot in his hand, Quentin prison. 7 (51m 9s): Again, it was a scary place for me. I didn't want to go back and it was my choice to go in or not. And so I decided not to. So I continued to serve the other prisons, but at San Quentin, I decided to stay away. Now I've heard it's gotten easier at San Quentin, but all the same, I steer steer clear. So we need to remember those in prison. Sometimes we, we think, well, they're not, you know, they're, they're incarcerated. We have an incredible opportunity. Mike and Sharon do tra take their curriculum into prisons and jails all over the country. And they're having a huge impact inside the walls of jails. Now, people who are there, most likely they deserve to be there. 7 (51m 49s): They're not all innocent. Like they would probably say, but we need to take the opportunity to serve people who are forgotten. And remember, remember also those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your own body, we need to with empathy, remember those who are being mistreated. And so that's why we stand up for bills against bills like AB 2, 2, 2, 3. We believe in life. And we believe that those who are born and the unborn deserve life. And so AB 2, 2, 2, 3 is just another step that eliminates life in our nation. 7 (52m 39s): We need to remember those who are forgotten. There's a young man in our community. He's a homeless guy and he we've known him for years and he doesn't work around the church from time to time. And we've helped him from time to time. And he came to me recently and he said, Hey, I'm trying to get my life back in order. Would you help me get to teen challenge? And so I said, absolutely, we'll get, we'll help you get to teen challenge. And so we gave him a train ticket to get over to Shafter, and we helped him to get there. And we it's important that we are for people who are trying to get their lives back in order. 7 (53m 20s): And so he wanted to go to this Christian program and get his life back in order. So we sent him over there earlier this month and I've been praying for him. And then I got a text from him yesterday. He said, I got kicked out for fighting. So he's out. But that doesn't mean we stop trying. I mean, often we'll try stuff. And in our estimation, from our perspective, it looks like it failed, but it's just maybe another step in the journey that people are taking. And we need to continue to give grace and extend mercy. So he asked me for a train ticket back to the coast and I told him, you are on your own. 7 (54m 4s): He got kicked out. So now the rubber meets the road and he's got to figure out his own path forward. And so we'll figure out, we gotta figure out with good boundaries and good grace, how to serve people, but not enable people. So there's a lot there. We could probably talk about it for a very, very long, a long time. So number three, love the forgotten. Number four, love your spouse. That's actually in the Bible of your spouse, mess something we should just do naturally. Right? We should just love our spouse. We get engaged because we're in love. We get, we want to spend the rest of our lives together because we're in love. And so why is it so hard for us to love our spouse? 7 (54m 44s): Well, typically people coming together to get married are completely opposite of for whatever reason opposites attract. And so there begins to be a rub. Maybe you've never experienced it. And then in your own marriage, but there can be a rub sometimes in marriage, right? I mean, you guys are brand new, married if you guys experienced any rub. Never. Okay, good. So Amanda saying yes. Even saying no. So there's going to be a rub. Whether you've been married for two days or 20 years or 40 years, there's always going to be some kind of an opportunity to love our spouse. When there's a disagreement verse four says, give honor to marriage and remain faithful to one another in marriage. 7 (55m 30s): God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. So how do we love our spouse? Well, we give them honor. We honor them find different ways to honor your spouse. What is your spouse enjoy? What is your spouse? Not enjoy. Figure out those things, answer those questions and then honor them when the way that you live in relationship with them, speak with respects, with tenderness, with kindness, I've heard some men talk to their end vice-a-versa spot, talk to their spouse and very damning and hurtful dishonoring ways. 7 (56m 17s): And so those things need to be, we need to pay attention. Sometimes we can get comfortable in our relationships and we get sloppy about the way we communicate. We get insensitive about the needs of our spouse. And for as long as we're married, we need to be working on honoring one another. Speaking with tenderness, with respect, with kindness, with humility, and just watch what the Lord will do to heal up. Whatever's going on in your marriage remain faithful. So someone's heard this quote recently when a man says yes to a particular woman, he is saying no to every other woman out there. 7 (57m 5s): And that's true for women, either women too. When, when a woman says yes to a particular man, that means she is saying no to every other man out there. So that's part of the deal. We, we honor one another by loving one another and saying, faithful remaining, faithful to one another. Then you make your spouse, your priority, make your spouse your priority. Often in life, everything else becomes priority. The kids that becomes priority. But what happens when your kids grow up? Like your kids are all grown up and maybe you spent the last 20 years making your kids your priority. And then now you're just kind of stuck. 7 (57m 46s): Just the two of you, right? Like now what do we do with each other? Right. Often people get divorced after their kids are raised because they've spent the last 20 years making their S their kids a priority and really everything else, a priority. And so when it's just the two of them in the house, it's, it's like, what do we do with each other? I couldn't wait for my kids to get out of house. It just, the two of us, you know, my wife and I, we, we just, I love my kids, but at 18 it's time for them to go, right. We raised them to be independence. Self-sufficient relying on God, loving Jesus and getting out of the house. 7 (58m 27s): Like they can show up anytime they wanted, they need food or laundry done while they have to do their own laundry. But if they need, they can rate my cupboards. If they need money, I'll give them whatever I have, but they need to be out. Right. Because I just, I want to hang out with my bride. We got, we got married in 11 months and three weeks later we had Caitlin, right? So like, there's no honeymoon period. Like she got pregnant immediately. And then 14, 15 months later, Steven was born. And then like 16 months later, Curtis was born. And like two years later, Leslie was born. So I'm like, Hey, I've done my duty. 7 (59m 7s): Right. Lights out. Time to go. And so no Jolene and I can walk around the house naked. It's wonderful. She would never do that. Me on the other hand, I might buy the house is right. So let's enjoy. Let's enjoy what God has given to us. I forgot his family Sunday, but sorry. Lastly, my daughter's dying over there. He's like, we need to love our spouse. And like, like I, I believe, and like after decades of marriage, that the spark can still be there and be magical and wonderful. 7 (59m 52s): And it needs to be there. It needs to absolutely be there. And if it's not there, work on it, get it back, begin to date your spouse again. All right. Let's take a look at things that hinder our ability to love love of money will hinder our ability to love others. So number five, don't love money. Money is a terrible thing to love. It's it's a one way street. I verse five says don't love money. Be satisfied with what you have for God has said, I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. 7 (1h 0m 34s): When money is a person's focus. Inevitably God loses first place in that person's life. And when God loses first place in a person's life, everything else begins to diminish as well. Loving money is the ultimate selfish thing. I mean, it's, it's about making sure that I have what I need, that I have my safety, my provision. I have everything that I need. And so it's all about me and my money. And, and so then we're not allowing God to be on the throne of our lives. We're not honoring our spouse and others and loving others with our resources because it's all selfishly belongs to me. 7 (1h 1m 20s): The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It's the root of all kinds of evil. So don't love your money, money. This prob I think he's a proverb says, man, it's just like, takes on wings like an Eagle and just flies away. It's just, it's temporary. You can't take it with you. It doesn't bring lasting satisfaction. It's not helpful for most things in life. I mean, we can be thankful that, you know, we've got homes and food and things like that, that things that money buy, but man money can never be our priority. Our driving force, the kingdom of God has to be our driving force, doing what God has called us to do in the scripture. That needs to be our driving force, getting up every morning and making sure that Jesus is the Lord Lord of our lives. 7 (1h 2m 5s): That needs to be our driving force. Matthew 6 24, no one can serve two masters for you will hate one and love the other. You will devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil money can be a blessing when handled properly. And it can be a curse. I've watched so many families over the course of my life and ministry get blown up over, over money. 7 (1h 2m 45s): Inheritances. They divide families, squabbling over possessions. I'm just, I, I, I'm sick to my stomach of the stories that I hear when money gets introduced into a family and there begins the squabble. It's like, oh, we love each other until money shows up and you're not getting mine, man. I tell ya, I I've been so blessed by my, my brother in Denver. He's my half-brother. So my dad passed away six months ago or eight months ago. It's been awhile now, number of months and six months before that, my dad's second wife passed away. 7 (1h 3m 30s): My step-mom. And so my brother who lives in Denver, where my dad lived is handling the estate. And he's been so completely gracious with the way he's handled everything. I, I just tell him all the time I'm so Shane I'm so thankful for the way that you're handling all of this, because the last thing we want is for our family to be blown up because of a few bucks, right? It's not worth it. Relationships. We, we need one another. Am I done with time? How far over am I? I still got like 14 points left. Here we go. 7 (1h 4m 10s): I got five minutes. Thank you very much, Amanda. Here we go. So don't let the love of money. Dictate whom you will love the antidote for the love of money is contentment. Contentment. Godliness with contentment is great. Gain our culture. We don't understand contentment. We see the next new shiny thing. We want it. We, we, we need to have that next thing and I'm can be just as guilty as the rest. So we need to learn to find this place of contentment. Verse five. Again, for God has said, I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. 7 (1h 4m 51s): So that's where our focus, our hope our priority is has God. He, he will never fail you. He will never abandoned. You'd often were hoarding money or save, hold on to stuff because we're afraid of the future and the world's a crazy place. And so we're afraid. And boy, if, if, if we just honor the Lord seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, everything else will be added on to us. Someone said, if you fear God, you've got nothing else to fear, right? Like fearing God means to obey him, to honor him to do what he's called us to do. We put that kind of priority in our lives. Everything else will be taken care of. 7 (1h 5m 30s): Everything else will be taken care of. Another hindrance to love is fear. Don't live in fear, verse six. So we can say with confidence and we'll wrap this up quick. The Lord is my helper. So I will have no fear what can mere people do to me. So the writer of Hebrews is writing to people who are under persecution, Jewish people who have said I'm breaking away from Judaism to honor Christ to enter into this covenant relationship with the Lord. Jesus Christ. I recognize that Jesus is the Messiah. Well, this was a threat to the church, the Jewish church. 7 (1h 6m 14s): This was a threat to the church. And so there was persecution, the Orthodox religious use of the days, guys like Saul of Tarsus before his conversion were persecuting the church, pressuring the people to follow the laws of Moses. And so they were feeling fear. And so the writer is saying, Hey, you've got nothing to fear in light of eternity, which is where we're going to be spending. Most of our time. This, this life here is a blip on the screen of eternity. It's just a blip. It's an important blip. Jesus died for this blip that we might live for him, that we might take as many people with us to heaven as possible. 7 (1h 6m 57s): So it's an important blip, but, but it's not the whole thing. We'll spend eternity with the Lord or not depending on how and what we choose in this life. 9 (1h 7m 11s): Ah, 7 (1h 7m 12s): What can I skip here? This is good. An adverse or number seven, practical faith living number seven verse seven says, remember your leaders who taught you the word of God, think of all the good that has come from their lives and follow the example of their faith. So how do we, how do we love our leaders? We've all got leaders. I've got to leaders, you've got leaders, we've all got leaders. And so we have this responsibility. I submit to my elders. I submit to their leadership in my life. 7 (1h 7m 54s): We all have people that we must submit to because we all have leaders in our lives. So how do we, how do we love our leaders? I w I would say guard against criticism. It's easy to get critical of leaders. Often. We don't understand what our leaders are going through. The decisions that they're facing, the expectations that are upon. So if we can just be careful to extend grace and avoid criticism, and if we can pray for our leaders, that's governmental leaders, that's church leaders. We need to pray, pray, pray for our leaders. Often I'll ask the church. Will you remember to pray for our elders, our staff, our, our church. 7 (1h 8m 34s): Would you remember to pray for me specifically when we praying for people praying for the operative word, they're praying for people, not against people like Lord help his car to crash into that telephone pole. That's not praying for that's bringing again. So don't pray for Lord that they would be blessed and walking in grace and experiencing your clarity. That's what we need to be praying for. People decide to extend grace, understand our human limitations. I think we need to be able to look back at the, of our lives and be able to speak well of people that have led us currently and in the past. And if there's things sticking in our crawl a little bit about past leaders, we need to pray for them and watch the Lord change our hearts. 7 (1h 9m 16s): And then we begin to see their human limitations and begin to see the things that they were up against. And we can extend grace so that we're living in harmony with those who are in leadership over us. I don't think we can honor our earthly leaders very well. Let me, how do I say this? I think we really are. We begin to honor our earthly leaders really well when we figured out how to honor our heavenly leader. When we figured out how to honor the Lord, there's just something that of a work of God in our lives that allows us to honor our leaders and really everybody in our lives. So love each other. Love strangers, love the forgotten and love your spouse. Don't love money. Don't live in fear and love your leaders. Hey, let's take communion. 7 (1h 9m 57s): So thankful for communion. I, once a month, we remember what the Lord has done, and hopefully often more often than that, but especially once a month on family Sunday, we remember. And even as I flipped my elements, I'm like, that was the wrong thing to do. So I don't mean to take it. Forgive me for that. I it's really, we need to honor what God has given us in this active worship that we would honor the Lord. So I'm going to read first Corinthians 1123. 7 (1h 10m 39s): And then as I get ready to read that, just get your hearts, pray that you get your hearts in the right place. And that be a time of confession, time of humility, time of brokenness and contrition that we would go humbly before the throne of grace and say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for salvation for new life and forgiveness for I pass on to you. What I receive from the Lord himself, this first grand thing is 1123 on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. 7 (1h 11m 22s): Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. It's taken away from Got I'm filled with joy, and I'm also perplex. Lord. I I'm grateful that you Allowed your body to be nailed to a cross. Allow your board, your blood to be poured out for my sins. Lord God, I'm perplexed. Lord God that you would love us me enough to do that. Lord, I, I, I don't have the capacity to understand why you would do that Florida, But thank you. 7 (1h 12m 10s): Thank you Lord. For your grace. It is sufficient Verse 25 in the same way. He took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's go ahead and take the cup. Thank you, Lord. 7 (1h 12m 51s): Thank you for your blood. Thank you that you poured out your blood for my sins. You took the wrath of God that belonged to me upon yourself. And you gave me an exchange. Your righteousness. You gave us an exchange, your righteousness. If you're here today and you need the righteousness of God in your life. If you need God to take that weight of burden from sins and mistakes and failures and shortcomings, if you need God to lift those things off you and you want to enter into a relationship with God, a saving a life, changing, born again, relationship with God you say, Lord, I, I need you to lift this burden of sin. 7 (1h 13m 32s): I need you to forgive me. I repent. I change my mind about the way that I've been living and I'm going to turn and live for you. I'm going to turn and follow you. I want you to be the Lord and the leader of my life. I will submit to you in all things. I will follow you in all things. And I will love you always Lord by your grace. So Lord come into my life, forgive my sin and help me to follow you all the rest of the days of my life. And as you do that, you, you began, you began a journey of being a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. It's not about getting sins forgiven. 7 (1h 14m 14s): And then you move on. It's about submitting your life to Jesus and following God, the rest of your life into eternity forever and ever. Amen. It's about allowing God to transition your life from what it was to new life in him. To allow you to be born again into the kingdom of God, adopted into his family. So Lord, this is a life altering transaction that we're believing you for, help us to walk in that life-changing way. We pray this way that you have designed for us. We love you Lord in Jesus name. 7 (1h 14m 54s): Amen. Let's go out and stand up and worship. 1 (1h 15m 22s): You give you a green light to the job 0 (1h 15m 34s): You 1 (1h 15m 35s): Restore and every house that is . It's your breath in? praise. Praise. It's your breath. You bring right John? 1 (1h 16m 33s): Oh, hi. That is Oh, the wish shout shoe tricks cry. 1 (1h 18m 20s): These bones 2 (1h 19m 51s): Lord. You are great. You are awesome. And mighty, we praise you this morning as we go about the rest of our week. Lord, we just pray that you'd be filling us with your holy spirit so that we can shine light to the rest of the world. And everybody we come in contact with. We can glorify you in everything that we do in Jesus name. Amen.