Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: We are what matters most.
Speaker 1: In fact, we'll conclude the series today and we are in lesson or B or less than five, a however, where you want to define it because we got through one thought last week and didn't get to the other three thoughts.
Speaker 1: And so today we're going to conclude the other three thoughts.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Um, even if it takes us till two 15, we're going to do it all by myself.
Speaker 1: I'll do it.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: So, so, uh, encourage you to take some notes.
Speaker 1: I'll catch us up on where we left off and then, so that if you were not able to join us, that you will have the context of what we're talking about and then we'll move forward.
Speaker 1: Jesus prayed four times and an intimate moment with the father that the church, the believers, those who would believe on him through the words of the apostles, through the scripture, through what he would do in their life, that they would be one, even as he and the father are one, he prayed for unity.
Speaker 1: And when we're asking the question about what matters most in our families, our businesses, our church, our community, our friendships, unity is what Jesus defined as the thing that matters most in any group in any way, group of people, that's going to get something done and believe me and scriptures tells us that Jesus had a purpose for what he was doing.
Speaker 1: His prayer was not without purpose.
Speaker 1: He said, I want them to be one so that the world will leave that you sent me.
Speaker 1: If week number one, we discovered that unity matters most for ultimate success.
Speaker 1: In week two, we said, identify why you are unified for longterm success.
Speaker 1: And week number three, we said, we have unity in the essentials Liberty and the non-essentials and love in all things.
Speaker 1: And then last week we began with the big idea, which is also our big idea today that we are a multi-cultural multi-generational church, both physically and spiritually, where new believers are, all believers, mature and new believers are born.
Speaker 1: That's who we are as a church, as a body, as a faith family.
Speaker 1: This is who we are.
Speaker 1: This is what we're planning around.
Speaker 1: It means that we are a diverse group of people and the world that we live in pushes forward.
Speaker 1: The idea of diversity with divisiveness, the, the world says we're going to we're diverse and that every, and in fact continues to win down the, the way or expand the ways in which we are diverse.
Speaker 1: If people are the same or very similar in some way or another than there, the world will find a way that they are as individuals.
Speaker 1: Now, we in creation are unique as individuals, but we also must be unified with other people in order to get things done in this world.
Speaker 1: And what the world says is will this group is better than that group.
Speaker 1: And that group is more important than this group.
Speaker 1: And this group must be elevated beyond the other groups and their needs and their situation are prioritized and by virtue of elevating and so on, they also are restricting some groups.
Speaker 1: And one of the groups that consistently is restricted in our world right now is that of fundamental traditional Bible-believing Christians.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And with that, it's not even a matter of people saying people are everybody's bad or the whole world is against us.
Speaker 1: Well, in fact, by definition, the whole world is against us.
Speaker 1: But, uh, but that's, that's a whole different ball game.
Speaker 1: The, no, I don't think that people are in there individually in their mind saying, well, we're gonna make these people bad so that these people are good.
Speaker 1: But what is happening is consistently, uh, unity or, or diversity is being pushed and divisiveness as being created.
Speaker 1: Here's the reality.
Speaker 1: God created diversity.
Speaker 1: So diversity is God created, God ordained God desired.
Speaker 1: All of those things are true.
Speaker 1: And yet unity is called for God, says, I created you diverse, but I want you to be unified.
Speaker 1: Even in your diversity, Jesus prayed to the father of John four 17.
Speaker 1: I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for those who will ever believe in me through their message.
Speaker 1: I pray that they will be one just as you and I are one, as you are in me, father and I am in you and may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
Speaker 1: I want this diverse group of people that I'm calling to become unified to become one.
Speaker 1: And in order for that to happen, we must respect one of those value and process that strengthens unity in diversity.
Speaker 1: The, we has to be prioritized over the me and I gave you the example of Christie and I's marriage almost 24 years and a couple of weeks and be 24 years of marriage.
Speaker 1: And, and often we have to, we have to sacrifice me in order for we it's the truth in a marriage.
Speaker 1: It's the truth in a family unit of any kind.
Speaker 1: It's the truth in a church.
Speaker 1: It's the truth in a community.
Speaker 1: It's the truth in a friendship.
Speaker 1: It's a, it's always the truth that at some point, at some level, I have to sacrifice me in order to prioritize.
Speaker 1: We, and I had four thoughts for us last week and thought number one was an multicultural identity makes you strong, makes you strong.
Speaker 1: And our world has, has limited the multicultural concept to racial culture.
Speaker 1: But the reality is every group of people is multicultural.
Speaker 1: And I gave you again, the example of Christie and I, she comes from Massachusetts, new Bedford, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: I come from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Speaker 1: The, to have the many people in the two places, they theoretically speak the same language.
Speaker 1: They, they do.
Speaker 1: You have the same skin tone.
Speaker 1: They do live in the same country, but the two cultures are very, very different to the point that my, my Cajun grandfather and my Yankee wife could not communicate with one another, unless I was there to interpret for both of them.
Speaker 1: And, and I call her my Yankee wife, because my grandfather and my grandmother for the first several years of marriage used to just call her the Yankee girl, Mike, Mary, and, um, and so, uh, they loved her.
Speaker 1: Eventually.
Speaker 1: They even learned her name, which was really, and, um, and so that's a win.
Speaker 1: And so, eh, and, but the, the cultures were extremely different, very different, but it made us adaptable to many different cultural realities that God has used us in over the years.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of things that it's allowed us to be able to adapt and adopt different things.
Speaker 1: And, and here's the, here's the reality.
Speaker 1: God has created his church out of many cultures around the world.
Speaker 1: And even within the same faith family, many cultures spiritually, and last week we had, you know, we talked about the different faith families and I got emails and I got comments because I missed a few.
Speaker 1: Um, there are people here from different faith backgrounds that I did not mention, and I'm sorry, I apologize, uh, get over it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: Let's do my, the, uh, and so, and so that was this multicultural spiritual backgrounds.
Speaker 1: And then, and then the, the multicultural physical backgrounds that we come from as well.
Speaker 1: But in the beginning of the church acts chapter two, you see God calling people from all kinds of different cultural, physical, cultural backgrounds into becoming a singular church.
Speaker 1: And in revelation, we read about the people in heaven and the people in heaven are made up of every nation and tribe and language and people and tongue and, and all of these people are in heaven.
Speaker 1: And the thing that differentiates them from other people is their salvation.
Speaker 1: The fact that they are all saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And so it's so allowing diversity into your life and mine expands us.
Speaker 1: It stretches us.
Speaker 1: It does not negatively impact who you are, who I am now, the world may say that it should or will or does, but God does not say that he does not call us to put ourselves down except in submission to him so we can celebrate others.
Speaker 1: And the diversity that's within our faith family while standing strong and who God's created us to be amen to that from the beginning to the end Christ church reaches into every circumstance, impacts every region of the world and operates powerfully through every time period and everywhere I've lived.
Speaker 1: I've seen people in different locations, they look different, they speak different languages, but they operate in the same salvation.
Speaker 1: And that's where we are today.
Speaker 1: And thought number two is a multi-generational identity extends your reach.
Speaker 1: We're a multi-cultural multi-generational church, both physically and spiritually, and a multi-generational identity extends your reach.
Speaker 1: A single generation group identity is automatically limited because an older generation has a long past and a short future.
Speaker 1: We know it's true.
Speaker 1: A younger generation has a short past and a long future.
Speaker 1: And so if you focus on any one of those, you end up limiting yourself somewhere.
Speaker 1: Your group is limited in structure.
Speaker 1: It's limited in stability, it's limited in future.
Speaker 1: And one generation all together automatically shares some blind spots.
Speaker 2: Now
Speaker 1: Groups of people in general are gonna, they're going to share blind spots in one way or another, but, but the closer we are in generationally, the closer we are culturally, the more of a shared blind spot.
Speaker 1: We will hold Krista.
Speaker 1: And I, uh, are, are close.
Speaker 1: We're tight.
Speaker 1: We work well together, but we have some shared blind spots.
Speaker 1: And it's one of the ways that pastor Benton and Lindsey really blessed us and benefit us.
Speaker 1: And they'd benefit you because sometimes Christie and I will get on an idea and we'll get rolling on it.
Speaker 1: And we're rolling.
Speaker 1: Rolling, rolling.
Speaker 1: And then we'll bring it up to them and say, Hey guys, here's what we're thinking.
Speaker 1: Here's what we're praying about.
Speaker 1: Here's what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: And so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: And they'll say, wow, that, that is, that is a really stupid idea.
Speaker 1: And while they've never said those words, I'm pretty sure they've thought those thoughts.
Speaker 1: I could see it in their eyes and, and I will, well, why is that?
Speaker 1: And so they'll start explaining why it's a bad idea, and it really has nothing to, it.
Speaker 1: Might've been a good idea somewhere else or for some other purpose or at another time.
Speaker 1: But in this moment we had a blind spot, Christy and I into something that they could see and they start bringing revelation to the blind spot.
Speaker 1: And now we're stronger as a unit because it, the shared blind spot has been dealt with pastor author, lecturer and publisher, Sam Rainer tweeted this recently.
Speaker 1: He said two keys to a healthy unified multi-generational church.
Speaker 1: One, the older generation must sacrifice for the younger generation.
Speaker 1: And two, the younger generation must be willing to learn from the older generation.
Speaker 1: Now this is not Bible, but this is very good, concise wisdom.
Speaker 1: The older generation must sacrifice for the younger generation.
Speaker 1: And the fact of the matter is we do sacrifice for the younger generation.
Speaker 1: Always.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're 45 or 85, you are sacrificing for the younger generation in one way or another.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that sacrifice is financial.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's energy.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's wisdom.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're sacrificing personal preferences.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're sacrificing resources, but the truth is the fact that we are an older generation and to some people I'm a young generation and to some people I'm an old generation, but regardless of where we see it, we were sacrificing those things because we have gained those things over the period or span of our lives.
Speaker 1: And now we arrive at whatever age we are with the resources that we have and a new generation is coming up.
Speaker 1: And as that new generation comes up, we have a decision or are we going to hold on to what we know how we know it and whatever resource we have, or are we going to help them come forward?
Speaker 1: Are we going to help them progress in life?
Speaker 1: And we're sacrificing for a physical legacy.
Speaker 1: If you're a parent, you understand that because you've made all kinds of sacrifices for your physical, uh, children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but we're also sacrificing for a spiritual legacy that God has allowed us to, to be part of and to sow into and to help build and to help grow.
Speaker 1: And so we sacrifice for a spiritual legacy in as part of a faith family, and part of a faith community where we're reaching out to those younger people in those younger generations.
Speaker 1: And we're sacrificing things that we would like in order for that to happen with the kids ministry wing.
Speaker 1: And the student ministry wing years ago were built, built to house kids and students and guests who did not pay for any of that.
Speaker 1: The kids in students who needed it,
Speaker 2: None of them,
Speaker 1: The older generations sacrificed in order to benefit the younger generation.
Speaker 1: And that's the way it works in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: That's the way it works in life.
Speaker 1: And so younger people might be listening to this and going, yes, that's exactly right, grandma and grandpa need to sacrifice for me and those old folks that way over there, they should sacrifice for me because I'm the people, I'm the guy in the girl that's coming up and I'm, you know, I'm the future of this thing.
Speaker 1: And we need to be thinking about the future of this thing and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: But there's a sacrifice for the young people as well.
Speaker 1: And the sacrifice for the young people is recognizing that you have a short passed along future.
Speaker 1: And that short pass does not gain you.
Speaker 1: The, the wisdom of experience that, that old person that you're looking at.
Speaker 1: Don't stop looking at me that, that old person that you're looking at has gained over the years.
Speaker 1: They have it because they've lived some for some time and they know some, my grandfather would say, I know some stuff I learned to drink coffee because of this very I did.
Speaker 1: I didn't drink coffee.
Speaker 1: My parents didn't drink coffee.
Speaker 1: Nobody in my family drank coffee.
Speaker 1: And one day I was at a conference and the church that I was a pastor in was hosting the conference.
Speaker 1: My senior pastor was sitting there and around this table was a bunch of old ministers that were telling church stories, talking about the present, the past and the future of the church.
Speaker 1: And, and man, I was eating it all up.
Speaker 1: I loved it.
Speaker 1: And finally, my, my, my senior pastor looked at me and said, Hey, pastor Sutton, because in the world I grew up in, no pastors had first names.
Speaker 1: And so they said, pastor Sutton, he's the passion.
Speaker 1: Do you drink coffee?
Speaker 1: And that was a weird question to me because I'd been at his house a bunch of times, I've been in meeting, after meeting with him.
Speaker 1: I've been with him for years.
Speaker 1: He knew I did not drink coffee.
Speaker 1: I never drank coffee.
Speaker 1: And so I said, no, sir, I never drank coffee.
Speaker 1: My parents didn't drink coffee, never picked up the habit of drinking coffee.
Speaker 1: And he looked around the table and he said, well, I know all the rest of you guys drink coffee.
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you what, pastor Sutton, we'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The rest of you guys.
Speaker 1: Why don't you come over to the house and let's drink some coffee.
Speaker 1: We'll keep talking.
Speaker 1: I was ticked off.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we can say ticked off in this church, but I just did.
Speaker 1: And, and so all emails should go to Benton dot Cole at, okay.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I was, I was, I was upset and I wouldn't have been upset at all.
Speaker 1: If he'd have said, Hey, Micah, go on home.
Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I'm going to the rest of you guys.
Speaker 1: Let's go hang out at my house.
Speaker 1: Or if he, if he said, Micah, I don't want you to hear what the rest of our conversation is going to be about.
Speaker 1: So leave.
Speaker 1: No problem.
Speaker 1: Oh, he was my boss.
Speaker 1: He was my pastor.
Speaker 1: He was my elder.
Speaker 1: No problem.
Speaker 1: But to do that when you already.
Speaker 1: And so when I came home, I had a coffee pot in this hand, in a Maxwell house of a bunch of Maxwell house coffee in this Anne and Chris said, what do you do?
Speaker 1: What are you doing?
Speaker 1: I said, I'm making some coffee.
Speaker 1: She said, you don't drink coffee.
Speaker 1: I said, yes, ma'am I do.
Speaker 1: I drink, I hang glide.
Speaker 1: I scuba dive.
Speaker 1: I golf.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 1: I do everything.
Speaker 1: I will never again say no in a moment like that because I'm a young guy wanting to learn from these older generations.
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, they didn't want me in the room.
Speaker 1: That was their privilege.
Speaker 1: But they're going to have to figure out a better way to do it next time.
Speaker 1: That's that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And so, and so the younger generation, we must be dedicated to learning from the older generation, not thinking about how they're the obstacle to our rise, but learning from what they have gone through a respect, their journey and ask them, ask questions.
Speaker 1: There are people maybe in this room watching online right now, who are struggling in marriage while sitting with, or worshiping with someone who's been married successfully for 60 years, or maybe you're struggling financially worshiping.
Speaker 1: And we're sitting with someone who's been retired comfortably, or maybe you're struggling in business or sitting in worshiping while you're sitting and worshiping with someone who has great relationships with, with, with their business and have been very successful.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're struggling with raising your children, but you're sitting with people and worshiping with people who have successfully raised children to have great relationship with them.
Speaker 1: And they're when children, maybe you're struggling in faith.
Speaker 1: And you were as a young person trying to come up with all the answers.
Speaker 1: Whenever you're sitting with someone, worshiping with someone who has been faithful for 60 years,
Speaker 2: And we
Speaker 1: Look at them and we think that somehow they've arrived at the end of their journey, after the end of their they've arrived in this position.
Speaker 1: And we don't know the journey that they've been through to get there, we think, well, it was easy for them.
Speaker 1: Cause they just, they just look at that house that they have look at that car that they have look at that business that they own.
Speaker 1: Look at that faith that they've grown up in.
Speaker 1: Look at that.
Speaker 1: And you think that they've arrived somewhere and you forget that they have been on a journey.
Speaker 1: In fact, they were on the same journey that you're on right now.
Speaker 1: Could it be that they have some wisdom to show you, to share with you?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Not guaranteed that if you sat in the lobby for 15 minutes and you watch somebody walk out of this room and you said, Hey, can I take you to lunch?
Speaker 1: Now, if you find out they'd been married 73,000 times, maybe you get a list of what I don't want it do.
Speaker 1: But if you find out, but find out who they are, find out what they bring to the table and from them, learn, take them to lunch, take them to coffee, ask, ask questions.
Speaker 1: You would be shocked.
Speaker 1: Young people.
Speaker 1: How many older people would be thrilled to share part of their life with you and older person.
Speaker 1: If, if a young person comes to you and says, can you talk to me about this?
Speaker 1: Don't tell them no share what you have.
Speaker 1: See modern culture and modern economy has led to some false senses of success.
Speaker 1: Young people today are, uh, are native texts, texts, tech users that you can, you can give a four year old a phone and they can do things with it.
Speaker 1: Then I don't know how to do.
Speaker 1: And I'm not that old just saying, okay, it's a fact.
Speaker 1: And, and because they're native tech users, and so they now may have easy access to all this information.
Speaker 1: Nobody has, you don't even have to type it anymore.
Speaker 1: You just yell out, Hey, Siri, what's the answer to this?
Speaker 1: And my phone might tell me right now because they're, they're going to cause that's just how the world is.
Speaker 1: They start life later.
Speaker 1: A lot of, a lot of people are waiting later and later in life to get married later and later in life to move out of their parents' home later and later in life to start their own career.
Speaker 1: And when they do start, typically they start making more money than their parents did, or their grandparents did.
Speaker 1: They're there.
Speaker 1: They have access to different things, modern methodologies.
Speaker 1: And so with all of that being true on, in some ways, it's, it's easier for people for young people to get started today.
Speaker 1: But here's the reality in survey, after survey, survey and study after study, we are told that today it's harder than ever to live life.
Speaker 1: I think that's a matter of perspective, but it's, but that's what the studies say.
Speaker 1: Here's the reality much is different, but Solomon wrote, there's nothing new under the sun.
Speaker 1: And here's the reality.
Speaker 1: The principle lessons of life are the same from generation to generation.
Speaker 1: I don't care where you live.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you ride a horse or drive a spaceship.
Speaker 2: Technologically, the reality
Speaker 1: Is you're still individually.
Speaker 1: We're still trying to build character, develop self control, understand how spiritual and physical discipline operate in compassion, operate and come with commitment, operate within community though.
Speaker 1: All of those things remain the same.
Speaker 1: They have not changed.
Speaker 1: And it's why the scripture can speak to every generation and speak to every culture.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter where you are online.
Speaker 1: In-person, you're dealing with the same underlying realities and every generation has its different complimentary strengths and weaknesses to one another.
Speaker 1: It's it's just the fact physically, our generations have complimentary strengths.
Speaker 1: The older people, the older people with among us, they, they have years of trial and error getting it right and getting it wrong, getting it wrong, then getting it bright years under their belt of trial and error, years of successes and failures.
Speaker 1: But today at this stage of life, they might be lagging a little bit in stamina or strength.
Speaker 1: Young people, young people have plenty of stamina and strength and excitement, but they lack experience.
Speaker 1: So they might do it wrong 50 times before they get it right.
Speaker 1: Multi-generational is not just physical.
Speaker 1: It's also spiritual.
Speaker 1: We are spiritual generations.
Speaker 1: Old believers have years of, of consistency and deep knowledge under their belt, but they could lack for some fresh style and a sense of exuberance.
Speaker 1: In fact, statistically speaking, the more new believers you have coming to a church, the more new believers you will ha you will attract to your church because 90% of the time, it's the newer believer inviting the non-believer.
Speaker 1: And the old believer either has very few old non-believing friends or the old believer has, has settled into their belief.
Speaker 1: And they're not quite as exuberant about winning other people to Christ anymore.
Speaker 1: And that's just what the statistics tell us.
Speaker 1: Younger people have plenty of style and, and exuberance and, and modern ways of thinking, but they lack, they lack tradition and they lack a depth of knowledge.
Speaker 1: It's not their fault that they do.
Speaker 1: They just haven't been around long enough to get it.
Speaker 1: And they don't have an appreciation for some of the things that the older generation does.
Speaker 1: And so you have your sacrifice from the older generation and you have your learning from the younger generation, each generation bringing complimentary strengths.
Speaker 1: But what, what if the old person and the old believer loved and respected the old person or the young person and the unbeliever?
Speaker 1: What if there was a, what if there was a respect from the young person and young believer for the old person and the old believer?
Speaker 1: What if there was a mutual respect of where they're at in their life, the process they're in and the value that they bring?
Speaker 1: How dynamic could that be in a church?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 1: But how dynamic could be, could it be in your own family or in your own community or in your own business or in your own area of ministry?
Speaker 1: It should never be one generation at operation at any one time, respect the value and process of young people and old people and young believers and old believers.
Speaker 1: Because the principles from the past applied to modern process bring present, and future value.
Speaker 1: The principles that had come from many, many years ago, in fact, biblical principles, thousands of years in the making apply today, especially applied to modern process.
Speaker 1: They bring present and future value.
Speaker 1: Ultimately God uses all the generations.
Speaker 1: This is what the Bible says, acts chapter two.
Speaker 1: In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all people, your sons, your sons, male gender, and your daughters, female, gender will prophesy your young men.
Speaker 1: Younger generation will see visions.
Speaker 1: And your old men will dream dreams.
Speaker 1: What he's telling us here is it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're young or you're old, that he will use you for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: He will use all every one of us in order to accomplish the greater goal.
Speaker 1: Every body brings value to the table.
Speaker 1: Some families would do well to have an elder's voice to be heard in their life.
Speaker 1: Oops.
Speaker 1: And yet we still need the passion of youth to be able to reach forward into the future.
Speaker 1: Our reach has extended both ways past and future when we're a multi-generational church and multi-generational family, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And that brings us to thought, number three, a maturing identity keeps you rooted.
Speaker 1: We said, we're all believers mature.
Speaker 1: A maturing identity keeps you rooted.
Speaker 1: God said, Paul says, God gave the church apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and evangelists.
Speaker 1: We call them the five fold ministry.
Speaker 1: He gives that to the church for the purpose of ministry to all now.
Speaker 1: Many people think that the professional minister has, is supposed to do all of the minister ring.
Speaker 1: That's why he's called the minister.
Speaker 1: But the Bible calls every believer, a minister, because the Bible says that all the believers are supposed to do the minister rang what it says exactly that way.
Speaker 1: Ephesians four says this will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's son, that we will be mature in the Lord measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Speaker 1: So he doesn't link maturity to age.
Speaker 1: He links maturity to the ability to measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't matter how old you are, how young you are.
Speaker 1: You could be a young, mature person.
Speaker 1: You can be an old immature person.
Speaker 1: Can somebody say amen, but you were there[inaudible] and it means completely or fully developed.
Speaker 1: And what he's telling us as the immature person, divides people, the mature person, unifies people.
Speaker 1: If you, if you want to know how unity is revealed, unity is revealed in maturity and every group.
Speaker 1: I don't care what kind of group it is a family group of friend, group of business group, a church group.
Speaker 1: Every group has a leadership structure.
Speaker 1: And the primary goal of the leadership structure of every group is to help the group mature as a group, help us to become more mature, which inherently, according to what we just read means to become more unified.
Speaker 1: So maturity, isn't a destination.
Speaker 1: I don't arrive at maturity someday.
Speaker 1: That's why you can be extremely old and yet very immature in one way or another.
Speaker 1: And you can also be extremely young.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen a four year old that acts like a 30 year old, but only in a moment eventually he's four years old again.
Speaker 1: And hopefully the 50 year old only acts like the four year old and moments as well, but we all have it in us.
Speaker 1: Maturity is the process and no one has arrived.
Speaker 1: We're all in the maturing process.
Speaker 1: So we have to respect one another's process.
Speaker 1: We help each other mature through conversations, especially in difficult dialogues.
Speaker 1: We have a number of great life groups in our church, but one of them meets on Saturday mornings, a group of guys.
Speaker 1: And I've always been impressed by the number of difficult conversations that they tackle together.
Speaker 1: And they don't all agree and they will never all agree.
Speaker 1: Cause I know the guys there, but, but the reality is any group of people, aren't all gonna agree on everything, but they're willing to have the dialogue and they sharpen one another.
Speaker 1: They help one another mature and they learn to disagree without canceling one another from their lives.
Speaker 1: That's what mature people do.
Speaker 1: Let all the world hear me.
Speaker 1: That's what mature people do.
Speaker 1: And so God set up this leadership structure for ministry.
Speaker 1: And it's not because the people who are the professional pastors and evangelists and so on.
Speaker 1: It's not because they are the quote, answer people in quote it's because those people have a singular objective point, everybody to Jesus, keep the focus on the main thing.
Speaker 1: The main thing isn't here, the main thing is up here.
Speaker 1: And so that's the answer.
Speaker 1: Christ is the answer every day, all the time.
Speaker 1: And so the job of pastors and teachers, their veggies is to get everybody moving toward the same location, the same person in Christ Jesus, so that we can mature in Christ for the purpose of all mankind, knowing that Jesus Christ is the Lord and savior and that's not always easy.
Speaker 1: And we always have our own opinions and thoughts.
Speaker 1: And so rising maturity levels.
Speaker 1: When I'm about to say right now is not an easy thing to say, but it's a right thing to say.
Speaker 1: Rising maturity levels equals that we accept more direction, that we accept more correction, that we abide by guidance and seek it out.
Speaker 1: And that we operate within accountability.
Speaker 1: Those things don't diminish with maturity, they increase with, cause we don't have anything to prove.
Speaker 1: At this point, we understand there's a bigger goal.
Speaker 1: There's a greater thing out there than just my will and my understanding and my way.
Speaker 1: And so I'm willing to sacrifice parts of me, whether I'm young or old, I sacrifice parts of me because I want to mature together in unity.
Speaker 1: And I want to be part of the weed that God has created.
Speaker 1: We often say here at five lakes church, that we are rooted and relevant.
Speaker 1: The rooted part means that we have deep roots into the history of the church and the knowledge of the word and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: And the relevant part means that we try to be relevant to the age that we're in and the people that we're speaking to.
Speaker 1: And the fact is we can be relevant without being rooted.
Speaker 1: It's typically indicating some kind of a style, but in the south and in the west, we would say that somebody can be all hat, no cattle.
Speaker 1: What that means is they might walk in, in the nicest pair of cowboy boots, the freshest jeans you've ever seen, and the latest snap on button shirt, the world's created.
Speaker 1: And you can have the most beautiful cowboy hat on your head.
Speaker 1: And you walk in that, that place, you could be accepted in any rodeo in the country and you walk into that place and somebody say, how many head do you run?
Speaker 1: Which means how many cattle do you own?
Speaker 1: And if the answer is zero, you are all hat, no cattle.
Speaker 1: It means that you have the persona of a cattle man, but you have no substance to back it up.
Speaker 1: And there are churches in our world right now that have all the style relevant style that the world has ever seen.
Speaker 1: That EV have every whizzbang and wingding the world has created.
Speaker 1: They are on the cutting edge of every single piece of technology, but they are not rooted.
Speaker 1: So they are a flash in the pan and then they blow up.
Speaker 1: They're not, they don't have 50 plus years of history because they, they, they're not rooted in something that allows them to be stable for a long period of time and weather, all the storms, arms that's rooted, that's relevant, but not rooted.
Speaker 1: But then you have the other side of the equation that we can be rooted and irrelevant people that have.
Speaker 1: I mean, we, we understand that we've memorized the entire Bible and we can quote it forward or backward.
Speaker 1: We, we know every doctrine and we can teach every single thing.
Speaker 1: We've got a billion head of cattle.
Speaker 1: We ain't got no hat.
Speaker 1: We, we, we, we don't have a whizzbang and a wing.
Speaker 1: Dang.
Speaker 1: And, and here's the thing.
Speaker 1: We have no future if we're not relevant to our present.
Speaker 1: And, and you know, and I know that there are churches all around us that are dying and closing their doors.
Speaker 1: It's not because they're not rooted.
Speaker 1: My God.
Speaker 1: They're rooted.
Speaker 1: They're rooted is rooted can be so rooted that they couldn't, they couldn't buy a wing dang or, or find a thing of a jig to save their lives.
Speaker 1: They have it all together and they are good people, but they are not seeing souls saved.
Speaker 1: They're not seeing new converts one.
Speaker 1: They're not seeing new families grow.
Speaker 1: And so they have to close their doors because they don't have a future.
Speaker 1: This is the problem that Jesus had with the fig tree.
Speaker 1: The fig tree was rooted.
Speaker 1: It wasn't dead.
Speaker 1: It was growing leaves, but he walked out and he said, Hey, there are no figs on this tree.
Speaker 1: And he said, this tree is not relevant to the moment that it's in.
Speaker 1: It cannot sustain the moment that it's in a will not produce fruit.
Speaker 1: That's good for the moment that it's in.
Speaker 1: And though it's rooted.
Speaker 1: And though it has leaves, I'm cursing it.
Speaker 1: And it withered up and died.
Speaker 1: It was rooted.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't relevant.
Speaker 1: They both have to be together.
Speaker 1: So we are a maturing identity.
Speaker 1: It keeps us rooted thought.
Speaker 1: Number four, a fruitful identity has a future where new believers are born.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, we must see souls saved.
Speaker 1: Scripture is filled with the call to bring others to Christ and logically churches that do not bring new souls to Christ will wither on the vine.
Speaker 1: They will die out spiritually.
Speaker 1: God calls us to produce offspring and unity always produces offspring in family, a unified family is going to produce children.
Speaker 1: It might be biological children.
Speaker 1: It might be adopted children.
Speaker 1: It might be a child.
Speaker 1: It might be an offspring of, of friends and relatives and community around them.
Speaker 1: The community can look different.
Speaker 1: The offspring can look different, but it's going to grow it.
Speaker 1: It's going to produce it.
Speaker 1: A unified company produces great products and a great workforce.
Speaker 1: Unified friendship produces a deeper relationship and spawns other friendships, unified believers revealed God's love and power and produce new believers.
Speaker 1: And in our world today, we have this, this, this quantifying, if you will, this, this divisiveness where we have this, this identity, if you will call a seeker sensitive church and a seeker sensitive church is really a style shoot.
Speaker 1: More than anything else basically says that we want to be a place where people who are not believers, but are seeking Christ or sinking to know more about, about Christ are comfortable being there.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times a seeker sensitive church is a church that they're not going to get into kind of the deeper things of the word.
Speaker 1: And, and this is by design.
Speaker 1: They're not going to, you're not going to hear Greek and Aramaic and Hebrew pulled out and talked about in the con in the sermons and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: They're going to sing all the latest stuff.
Speaker 1: They're not going to say old hymns if they do is every long once in awhile at Christmas and stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's a stylistic choice to try to attract new believers to Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: And then you have people who say, well, I never want to be a part of a secret sensitivity, but, but understand what you're saying right there.
Speaker 1: Think about those words.
Speaker 1: Not feel the same way.
Speaker 1: If the person that is seeking is your son, daughter, your grandchild.
Speaker 1: At that point, you're probably going to say, you know what?
Speaker 1: I wish we were a little on one hand, I might say, well, I bless God.
Speaker 1: I hope they don't sing that new fangled song today.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: No, nobody in Ohio says that, but people in Texas do.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: But if your son for the first time ever is coming to church that morning, your grandson who is far from God is coming to church that day.
Speaker 1: Somehow convince them to show up in a service.
Speaker 1: That's the day you're driving.
Speaker 1: The church said, bless God.
Speaker 1: I pray that they sing that Fang dangled new song today.
Speaker 1: I pray anything that he can, that can be done.
Speaker 1: That might connect my, my, the person.
Speaker 1: I love his heart with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That's what I want the church to do.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Praise God.
Speaker 1: So while we are not a secret sensitive church, culturally, and while that is not our plan in the future, culturally, to be a secret sensitive sir, church, I pray to God that we never become a church that is not sensitive to those seeking to know Jesus Christ as Lord the savior.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: If we ever do, we will be a church that is dying straight up.
Speaker 1: God has called us to unity for a purpose so that all may know that he is the savior.
Speaker 1: Let's live out that purpose in our homes and our businesses and our friendships and our community church and our family.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can tell, but I'm pretty passionate about this.
Speaker 1: I think God has called this church.
Speaker 1: I fully believe that God has called this church to something beautiful, to something spectacular in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: And if it's just to reach your son, your daughter, your granddaughter, your grandson of is just to reach your neighbor.
Speaker 1: That would be enough.
Speaker 1: I believe it's.
Speaker 1: I believe it's to reach many people for the kingdom of God and not to leave them as baby Christians and create consistently baby Christians.
Speaker 1: But to see babies grow into toddlers, to grow to whatever they are next at the teenagers, I wanted to see them become real people at some point.
Speaker 1: So father in the name of Jesus, I've kept these folks long enough.
Speaker 1: I pray that your holy spirit would grip our hearts and our hello was to respect one of those value and process that we would be a church that would welcome new believers on every level and a church that would challenge them to grow.
Speaker 1: Sure, respecting older people, respecting younger people, younger people, respecting older people.
Speaker 1: And each one of us learning from one another, from every culture, from every background, spiritually and physically speaking every language, every, every single man, woman, boy, and girl, they need to know you.
Speaker 1: And I pray that you'd use us, expand us as a faith family.
Speaker 1: Let us become all that you've called us to be.
Speaker 1: We give you thanks and praise for it in the awesome name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And if you agree with me in prayer today, would you just say, man, amen.
Speaker 1: Let's stand on our feet.
Speaker 1: Prayer partners come forward.
Speaker 1: If you need prayer for anything at all, come forward.
Speaker 1: As we close this service in song.