Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, church. Let's bow and pray.
[00:00:07] Father, what a joy it is to sing with one voice as a church family about how great you are.
[00:00:16] Father, thank you for this beautiful time to be together.
[00:00:20] Thank you, Lord, that we celebrate Fourth of July and the freedoms that we have, the freedom to worship and to seek. You and Father, today, as we look at your word and think about these things, we pray, Father, that we would just be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
[00:00:38] Pray, Father, that we could just go forward as the people in the church you want us to be. And Lord, we pray that we could serve you in a special way in our lifetime. We ask this in the great name of Jesus.
[00:00:51] Amen.
[00:00:54] Amen.
[00:00:58] Well, Church, it is so awesome to be with you today. Happy Fourth of July.
[00:01:03] Yeah.
[00:01:07] And I just. It's so special to me for all of us to be together today, isn't it?
[00:01:13] There's just something so beautiful and special about that. So I'm so glad that you're here. And I also think we ought to say a special thank you. So originally we're gonna have the service outside.
[00:01:25] You might notice there's a little rain coming down.
[00:01:28] And so many people in our church are loving and serving our kids right now and signed up to do that just on the fly. So can we thank them?
[00:01:42] The servant heartedness of this church is amazing and I'm so grateful to them.
[00:01:48] And today, as we celebrate 250 years as a nation, I think that's amazing, don't you? What a cool deal.
[00:01:59] And as I was kind of thinking about this Fourth of July being the 250th anniversary of America, I started reading this book called the American Story.
[00:02:09] And it's by David and Tim Barton. And it's about the origins of the United States and all the Founding fathers and many of their stories. But one of the really cool parts about the book is that it emphasizes how much Christianity in the Bible shaped so much of what we enjoy today, so much of what we value today. And in the book, he kind of cites all these original sources that show it, because sometimes in our world today, we try to secularize a lot of the history.
[00:02:45] But he says, man, it's amazing how much Christ has influenced the best parts about who we are as a nation.
[00:02:56] And, you know, Christ always has that kind of influence on anything he touches, doesn't he?
[00:03:02] Wherever Christ is invited, wherever Christ is welcomed, wherever Christ is received, things change for the better and things last in an amazing way. And as I was thinking about this, I thought man, that's really cool. The story of America. But then I thought, how amazing is it that for 2000 years the church of Christ has continued?
[00:03:29] How amazing that through so many different parts of the world, so many different times in history, 2000 years, the name of Jesus Christ is proclaimed all around the world, just like we're doing today. How incredible is that? Amen.
[00:03:50] And I was thinking that as a church, when I started coming to the church, you know, really all the time I was a teenager. And I would always hear Doc say that God is calling us to be a century church for 100 years. God would use us in this area of the world to share the name of Jesus Christ. And I was thinking, how cool would it be to think about the 350th anniversary of America and Christ being proclaimed in this place and all that Christ church is now 100 years. Isn't that cool?
[00:04:29] And the way for that to happen is to keep receiving all that Christ has for us to be the church and people that thrive as we stay connected to him. And I want to talk to you about that today, about what makes our life thrive in God's purposes and what makes us as a church thrive and what God has for us. So I'm gonna read to you from second Timothy, chapter two, and begin at verse one. And here's what it says.
[00:05:01] It says, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
[00:05:29] An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It's a hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
[00:05:43] Now, Paul is writing this to his. His protege Timothy, who is leading in the church. And he's writing these words. He's saying, timothy, this is how you endure and become the man God wants you to be. And this is how you lead the church to be what God wants it to be. And so he really kind of gives them two things to do in a few mindsets to keep. And I want to talk to you about those today. My sermon should only be about an hour and a half. Is that all right? I mean, it's raining, right? Your cookout's canceled.
[00:06:20] Late's a no go. We might as well, just really get comfortable. Amen.
[00:06:27] But the first thing he says is, be strengthened by the grace that is in Jesus Christ.
[00:06:37] Everything good in our life and in the church starts with the grace of Jesus Christ.
[00:06:45] It starts with Jesus Christ being good to us, better than we could ever deserve or earn.
[00:06:53] And Paul says, timothy, that's the beginning place.
[00:06:57] That's the middle place. That's the ending place. You never need that. You never leave that place.
[00:07:03] We need Christ's grace all the time. We need to keep receiving it.
[00:07:09] We have a pool pass, and I don't know if you noticed, but this week it was pretty hot out, and so it was a good week for the pool. And we went there. And I don't know about anybody else that have public pool passes, but I always end up in interesting conversations at the.
[00:07:26] I don't know if it's a me thing.
[00:07:28] I don't know.
[00:07:29] One dude told me I had a really nice beard, and I was like, that's the nicest thing anyone said to me in a long time. But actually, I had this last week. I had a really meaningful conversation. It was really awesome. It was someone I hadn't seen in a while, and they were talking to me, and the topic of faith came up, and he said that he was listening to some podcasts about Christianity, and I'm not sure exactly where he is at in his journey with God, but it seems like still trying to kind of figure it out. And he said, I heard someone say on this podcast, this line, he's like, you've probably heard it before.
[00:08:08] And he's trying to say it. And he said, it's something about, we're saved. God saves us by faith and grace and not our works.
[00:08:22] And I said, no, you're exactly right. It's not by works, but by faith, through grace. And I said, dude, if you can grasp that, you've grasped everything.
[00:08:36] If you can see that it all starts with the grace of Christ, that God loves me because Christ died for me, to forgive me and to bring me back to himself, and I can't earn it or merit it. And if that can be your beginning point, that is the right place to start. It was a cool conversation, but Timothy knows this. But he says, Paul says to him, but Timothy, every season requires new draws of grace.
[00:09:06] Timothy, as you're living the life God has for you, you're gonna continue to need to pull on that grace to give you the strength to do what God wants you to do.
[00:09:21] Years ago, I read this book called.
[00:09:23] It said, preach the gospel to yourself every day. That was the title and it was by this author named Jerry Bridges.
[00:09:30] And I really loved that book.
[00:09:33] But in it he says that every day we need to remind ourselves, if you're a follower of Jesus, of these precious foundational truths. One author summed it up this way. He says that we've got to everyday gaze on the beauty of Jesus Christ.
[00:09:55] Look at his love, look at his sacrifice, look at. Look at his character, look at his works and just take it in. I love in the summertime, gazing on the beauty of a sunset. How about you?
[00:10:08] The pinks and the reds and all of that beauty. But there is an even greater beauty in the person of Jesus Christ that when we look to him, it strengthens our souls. He said that we have to remember who we are as, as children of God. That the grace of Christ means that today, if you trust in him, if he is your Lord and Savior, you are a son and a daughter of the most high God. Don't ever forget that.
[00:10:41] He says we can rest in his power and his provision. We can know we're not in this alone, that he's with us and he's for us and we can act reliance upon him every day I need to do those things. How about you?
[00:10:58] If I am going to be who God desires me to be, I've got to draw on that grace every single day. I've got to find. I've got to find a way to remind myself and strengthen my soul in it.
[00:11:16] At our West Campus. And I know here we do some monthly marriage boosters. Any marriage booster people go, yeah, and what an awesome ministry that is. Just a little time to invest in your marriage. Goes a long way, doesn't it? Married people?
[00:11:33] And I remember maybe a couple months ago the Pollocks shared a great little talk at West Campus. And Allie and I got to sit in on it. And they said every, every week you should do like a staff meeting as a couple. And I've heard that before. I've actually heard Mark say that, but I've never done it.
[00:11:55] I've heard a lot of good advice that I haven't done. That's part of my issue in life. But I was like, oh, that's good. Yeah, we should do it. But Al and I were both in there and we're like, okay, we gotta really do this.
[00:12:07] And so we decided that we would drop the kids off at school. But there are schools right by Huntington beach. And kind of as the weather gets nicer, we would walk and talk and that would be it. And so we did that for several weeks. School's now over, so I can't be held accountable anymore.
[00:12:27] But we had. But I really loved that time because we were connecting with each other. We were communicating with each other. That's a miracle sometimes in our house. I don't know about you, we were getting on the same page. We were. We were getting into the flow of each other's hearts and lives.
[00:12:48] But guess what? It took a thought, it took a plan, and it took action.
[00:12:55] Here's what Paul is telling us. There is a flow of God's grace that we can step into.
[00:13:02] It's going to take some time. Maybe it's time to get away with the Bible and pray.
[00:13:08] Maybe it's time to go walk the neighborhood in the evening and say, God, I'm here and I'm listening and I need your help.
[00:13:17] But if we are gonna be the people God is calling us to be, we've gotta find ways to step into the flow of grace. Because everything begins with being strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. You with me on this. And then Paul says the second beautiful thing. He says, timothy, my child, what you've heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will teach others also.
[00:13:48] And what Paul does, and he does this also in the book of Titus, he talks about the church as this family where faith passed from one person to another and it becomes generations of faith.
[00:14:08] The author, John Stott, he says that there's four generations in this passage. Christ to Paul, Paul to Timothy, Timothy to faithful men and faithful men to others.
[00:14:19] And I think this is a beautiful picture of how the church is meant to operate. That that faith is passed from person to person.
[00:14:31] That some of you, as God grows and strengthens you, he wants to use you to grow and strengthen others.
[00:14:40] A couple years ago, I did ancestry.com and why you laughing at?
[00:14:51] Did you creep on my page?
[00:14:53] You're like, I know that kid's from a shady background.
[00:14:56] And actually, you would be right. Cause here's what I'm.
[00:15:00] I tried to, you know, follow mom and Dad's side and my dad's side, I couldn't get very far. But my mom's side, I actually could go back to the 1700s in Sicily.
[00:15:13] Yeah.
[00:15:15] Pretty sure it's all Mafia somehow.
[00:15:18] It's the only explanation.
[00:15:21] But it was fascinating to see because I actually. My mom's biological dad didn't really have much of a relationship with. Don't really know anybody. But on Ancestry.com, i could see, wow, this goes back for a long, long time.
[00:15:38] And how cool is it that through the church and through each of our lives, God wants to begin new families of faith to create new spiritual fathers and mothers and sons and daughters.
[00:15:56] And that the purpose of Jesus Christ flows from person to person.
[00:16:04] And how amazing is it to think about in your lifetime, in my lifetime, what new generations of faith God might want to start through you.
[00:16:17] Maybe we're not biologically related, but we are spiritually related. You with me on this? And what a beautiful thing. Now notice Paul. Paul calls Timothy his child in the faith.
[00:16:31] At other times he says, I am a spiritual father and I would say church, hands down. One of the greatest blessings in my life is having an amazing spiritual father.
[00:16:45] Doc, where are you at? I can't.
[00:16:47] Oh, you're way in the back. There he is.
[00:16:58] But Doc pulled me in off the street when I was 14, not too far from it, I wandered up the street and it's put up with me for like five years. I'm not as old as I look, you know, maybe a little bit longer than that.
[00:17:16] But the greatest blessings, I have learned so much from Doc, so much about who God is and what it looks like to serve him and how to love family well. And just the list is countless.
[00:17:33] And that's because of these verses here that entrust to others who will teach others that part of the beauty of the church is when you take what God has given to you and you pass it on to those people that God has put in your life.
[00:17:52] And I love, I love to hear in our church when people are getting together and they're going out to coffee and reading over the scripture and praying together and doing those kinds of things. That's what this is.
[00:18:05] And that's what makes the church continue generation after generation.
[00:18:12] And maybe some of us in this day, God's like, hey, you're a spiritual father.
[00:18:16] It's time to pour into someone, maybe others of us. God's like, you're a spiritual son. It's time to learn, it's time to listen.
[00:18:26] It's time to humble yourself. You with me on this? And when the church is the spiritual family of God, it is transforming for generations to come.
[00:18:40] And then Paul says there's some mindsets that we need to have. And, and he uses these three different images. The soldier, the athlete and the farmer. The good soldier, the self disciplined athlete, and the hard working farmer. And he says, if we're gonna serve God well, we need to have these mindsets. And let's Talk about the first one. He says, embrace suffering as a good spirit soldier.
[00:19:13] See, a good soldier knows that it's not always going to be lemonade and hot tubs, right? They're going to have to sweat and get dirty and bleed. But the mission is worth the cost.
[00:19:30] And that part of accomplishing the mission is embracing the challenge of it.
[00:19:39] And as we serve God, it's not always easy.
[00:19:44] It's not always without cost.
[00:19:47] And as God calls us in deeper ways, sometimes God wants to increase our pain tolerance so we can serve him more effectively.
[00:19:58] Last summer at West Campus, we transitioned out of our building on South Abbey, and it was in the middle of summer, it was right around this time of year. And we transitioned into the school that we're at now called Willow Creek. And the auditorium there doesn't have air conditioning.
[00:20:18] Yeah, it feels nice in here right now, doesn't it?
[00:20:23] But, you know, Jesus didn't have air conditioning. So we just love the Bible that much, that.
[00:20:32] But when we went in there, it was a little bit of a change. You know, middle of summer, super hot. And, you know, we were trying to figure out some scenarios with it. Very creative, very. Lots of duct tape. Anyway.
[00:20:48] And as I was, like, stressing about that and, you know, trying to figure it out and being a little frustrated with it, someone had given me this book called the Insanity of God. That's a really bizarre title. But the book is about all these different places in the world where people are serving Christ and they're facing persecution of their very life.
[00:21:12] And it's just kind of all these little stories. Stories. So as we're in the middle of this, and I'm, like, feeling, you know, sorry for myself. I'm reading about these brothers and sisters in modern times facing unbelievable challenge and even death in their service of Christ.
[00:21:32] Then I was like, okay, time to quit complaining. Amen.
[00:21:37] And sometimes at our service to Christ, we need a little perspective.
[00:21:42] And we need to realize, yeah, embrace suffering, do the work of a good soldier.
[00:21:50] It's going to be part of the journey, but it is worth it.
[00:21:55] And Paul says, and the good soldier just aims to please the one who enlisted them.
[00:22:04] I find one of the most helpful questions to ask in my life is, God, what are you asking of me right now?
[00:22:13] I find that when I can just stop for a minute and ask that, it can bring some really powerful clarity.
[00:22:20] God, just. I don't want to hear what other thoughts are. What are you asking of me? You are the one that enlisted me. You are the one that reached me.
[00:22:33] What do you want? Paul says that the good soldier, they're just focused on the mission that God has for him.
[00:22:43] And I think that's true in our lives, but it's true as a church, too.
[00:22:49] Jesus gave us a mission. He said, go and make disciples, baptize them, teach them all I've commanded to you and I'll be with you to the end of the ages.
[00:23:05] And the more that we as a church say that's what we're going to do.
[00:23:10] We're gonna bring the good news of Jesus to people who don't know it. We're gonna baptize, we're gonna teach and disciple. We're gonna all do it with Christ's help.
[00:23:22] We can't go wrong. Church.
[00:23:24] One of my favorite Sundays of the year for us at west is next week we do baptisms at Lakeview park in Lorraine.
[00:23:36] And I love it because I love outdoor services.
[00:23:40] I also absolutely love being on the shores of Lake Erie. And we get to do service out there and they have this beautiful built in amphitheater. But the best part of it all is then we go baptize a bunch of people in the waters of the Jordan, also known as Lake Erie.
[00:24:05] And I just, I love it. I love all those. But my favorite part of it is just seeing people and knowing their stories and knowing how Christ is at work in them and just celebrating it as a church that just nothing stirs my soul like that.
[00:24:25] Cause I feel like, all right, that's the bullseye that God has for us.
[00:24:31] Paul says to Timothy, stay focused, don't lose sight. He says, also, an athlete competes according to the rules.
[00:24:40] Paul says, timothy, you worry more about how you're playing the game than how everyone else is.
[00:24:48] And when we are healthy, we're more worried about refereeing our own lives than everyone else's.
[00:24:57] I got three kids, Emmy, Abby and Teddy. And Emmy and Abby are seven and five, and they love to referee each other's lives.
[00:25:07] Emory, my oldest, she loves to referee my life too.
[00:25:12] She is a true oldest in that sense. And I find so many times, you know, she'll be saying to Abby, abby, you can't do that. Mom said.
[00:25:23] And then I'll, you know, I'll say, no, she can do that. And she'll say, no, she can't. Mom said.
[00:25:32] And I'll say, I am the boss here.
[00:25:37] I said, don't tell Mom I said that.
[00:25:43] Why are you clapping at that?
[00:25:46] Whose side are you on today?
[00:25:49] We all know how this works, but I always say to her, I say, you Worry about you and I'll worry about her.
[00:25:58] And Paul says to Timothy, you worry about you the athlete.
[00:26:03] They self referee themselves. Man, am I serving Christ in the way he's calling me? Am I giving him my whole heart in my best? Paul says, you focus on that. And then lastly he says the hard working farmer gets the first share of the crops.
[00:26:23] Man, we're going to all spend our lives doing something.
[00:26:28] We're going to exhaust our lives doing something.
[00:26:33] But I want to exhaust my life for the purpose of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:38] We're going to be stressed, we're going to be tired, our time's gonna be consumed.
[00:26:46] But in this moment, in this life we have, we can let it be consumed for the purpose of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:55] And Paul says, man, it's worth it. And God rewards that.
[00:27:02] Don't forget that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
[00:27:07] God is a rewarder of those who diligently serve him in his way, in his time, but he is faithful to it. And then Paul ends this whole section. He says in Timothy, think over what I say and the Lord will give you understanding. And then one verse later he says, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead Timothy, as, as you, as you aspire to do these things, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. What he's saying is, don't ever let the victory and the strength of Christ get out of your sight, Timothy, because only through him and by him and with him can you do and be these things.
[00:28:03] My at our house we switch up bedtime sometimes.
[00:28:09] So for a long time I put our daughters to bed. Emmy and Abby, they sleep in the same room.
[00:28:16] And so for a long window of time I would go put them to bed and then Allie would put Teddy to bed. But sometimes we flip flop because just seems to work out better that way.
[00:28:28] And so lately I've been putting Teddy to bed and, and she puts, I mean Abby to bed. Teddy's two. And when, when Allie puts him to bed, she would rock him and she would sing Jesus loves me to him.
[00:28:44] Yeah, it was really cute. And when I started put him to bed, he would say daddy, rock me, sing Jesus loves me.
[00:28:54] And I was like, I love that.
[00:28:57] But church, I can't sing. Like, like it's bad.
[00:29:05] Like I can't like at all. And I was like man, I can't turn down this request, you know.
[00:29:13] And to be honest with you, I am not even real clear on the lyrics.
[00:29:18] Like I'm, I actually, I wrote them down in my notes. I don't I've got a thing with just music does not stick in my head. I don't know what it is. I can remember a lot of other stuff, but not music. And so he's like, yeah, Daddy, rock me. Sing Jesus loves me. I was like, all right.
[00:29:42] Jesus loves me. This I know. Yeah.
[00:29:47] For the. And then we just put that on repeat there.
[00:29:50] I didn't try to go anywhere past that. And there's been several nights that that's come up and I do it and it is a cool thing. I'm always like, I hope no one's listening on the other end of this baby monitor.
[00:30:06] Hope this thing didn't get connected to the interwebs, but I do love that. But my favorite part of the song is the part that I didn't know, but I'd hear Ali sing sometime. It says this little ones to him belong.
[00:30:23] They are weak, but he is strong.
[00:30:29] They are weak, but he is strong.
[00:30:34] Paul says to Timothy, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.
[00:30:40] What is the resurrection? That is victory.
[00:30:43] That is strength.
[00:30:45] That is power over sin, darkness and the devil.
[00:30:50] That is. That is the victory of all victories. It is the. The triumph, the victory of God. Paul says, timothy, don't forget that you are weak, but he is strong.
[00:31:06] You may not be the great soldier, but he is the one who had defeated sin, death and evil.
[00:31:12] He is the great victor. He is the perfect athlete that ran his race without any imperfection.
[00:31:23] And he is the hard working farmer that has sown seeds that will be reaping eternal dividends and harvests.
[00:31:36] Paul says, remember him, and when you are weak, let him be your strength.
[00:31:43] And today maybe we need to just sit in his strength this morning and say, yes, Lord, I feel your call on my life.
[00:31:53] I feel your purpose, but I need your strength.
[00:31:58] Would you pour it into me? Would you strengthen me with your grace? Would you give me the right mind and the right heart and the right spirit so I can serve you? Let's ask him for that.
[00:32:12] Lord, we thank you that there is none like you.
[00:32:20] Thank you, Lord, that we get to be part not only of this place and this nation that we live, Lord, but we get to be part of your church.
[00:32:35] Thank you for the invitation. Thank you for redeeming us.
[00:32:41] Thank you for giving us your grace.
[00:32:44] Now, Father, in response to that, help us to offer to you our lives.
[00:32:50] Help us to offer to you willing service.
[00:32:54] Help us to seek to live with the right mindsets that you've given us today.
[00:33:01] And may it all lead to serving you in a special way. Bless us in this good work. Bless our church. Thank you for the joy it is to be together today.
[00:33:13] And we pray all these things in the great name of Jesus, amen.
