Speaker 1: Thank you to be here.
Speaker 1: This is a privilege to bring today's message.
Speaker 1: We're in a sermon series right now called better together.
Speaker 1: And we're looking at the value of, of those who are around us and that regardless of the challenges we face in life, the path forward is always better.
Speaker 1: When we do that together with the neighbors and the friends and the family who's around us.
Speaker 1: Uh, last week, pastor Micah preached into the value of our neighbor and looked at Galatians five 14, says for the whole law can be summed up in this one.
Speaker 1: Command, love your neighbor as yourself and a love part of what he talked about that took a bunch of notes on was this idea that love is a choice.
Speaker 1: It's a decision that we make, not just a feeling that we feel, and it's a decision to be inclusive rather than to be exclusive in love.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: The whole goal is not to figure out who I don't have to love.
Speaker 1: The goal is to figure out who, how do I be more inclusive in my love?
Speaker 1: And that's goes for as people as distant as a stranger, you pass along the road and as close as the family members who are part of your family today, we're looking at the value of our family and how we, the decisions we make can make our families better together.
Speaker 1: It's been said that when a leader gets better, everyone around that leader gets better.
Speaker 1: And I think the same is true for families that when a family gets better, their neighborhood gets better.
Speaker 1: Their community gets better.
Speaker 1: Their church gets better.
Speaker 1: Everyone around them gets better.
Speaker 1: And so today our big idea is this.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, you're going to fill this in a big idea, is that when family members get better, families get stronger and communities get transformed for good.
Speaker 1: When family members get better, families get stronger and communities get transformed for good.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to unpack this as we go through this message.
Speaker 1: But one note before we dive too far in a truth about families, everybody's got one.
Speaker 1: And at least from what I've seen, everybody's got baggage and everybody's got blessing.
Speaker 1: And so can we just say that all of us have blessings and all of us have baggage.
Speaker 1: And sometimes our tendency is to cherry pick the blessings and baggage of other families to compare ours against.
Speaker 1: And so we cherry pick the blessing of another family.
Speaker 1: We see in an area and we go, man, I wish we were more like that.
Speaker 1: Or we cherry pick the baggage of another one.
Speaker 1: We go back and I'm glad we're not like that.
Speaker 1: Without really looking at the whole of the picture.
Speaker 1: It's easier to go through a message like this thinking all I know a family that could use this one, or I know a family, I'm going to remember, I'm going to send this to afterwards today.
Speaker 1: Isn't about everybody.
Speaker 1: Else's family.
Speaker 1: This message is about yours.
Speaker 1: And so I encourage you to listen with those, with that eight on that frequency, listen to how might this apply to you and your world.
Speaker 1: I have three commitments to share with you today about getting better together with your family.
Speaker 1: Here's the first commitment honor.
Speaker 1: Your earthly family honor.
Speaker 1: Your earthly family.
Speaker 1: We talked about love last week.
Speaker 1: Love is God's premiere calling to all people, but honor is a way that love is lived out practically within our families.
Speaker 1: When we talk about honor talking about or regard with great respect, right?
Speaker 1: And, and it's something that we're all called to and family, and it begins with individuals choices.
Speaker 1: And here again, as was mentioned, focusing on your family.
Speaker 1: Well, this is a moment to focus again on you versus what everyone around you is called to do.
Speaker 1: And here's one place in scripture.
Speaker 1: It talks about honor within the family, Exodus 20.
Speaker 1: This is the 10 commandments.
Speaker 1: Moses writes honor, your father and mother.
Speaker 1: Then you will live a long, full life in the land.
Speaker 1: The Lord, your God, he's giving you.
Speaker 1: So kids honor your parents.
Speaker 1: And all the parents said, Hey man, Gavin, you need to tune into this part right here.
Speaker 1: All right, kids honor your parents focusing on honoring your parents.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this is not just for kids in middle school.
Speaker 1: Adult kids often have parents, too.
Speaker 1: Adult kids honor, your parents honor your father and mother.
Speaker 1: Then you will live a long, full life in the land.
Speaker 1: The Lord, your God is giving you your calling as a kid is not to make your parents honorable it's to honor them.
Speaker 1: And you can't change the parents.
Speaker 1: You've got, you can't change what they've done or what they've not done, what they have or what they don't have.
Speaker 1: You can't change who they are, who they are.
Speaker 1: You might have wishes or desires for what they would be, but your calling is to honor them, regardless of that relationship, regardless of circumstance.
Speaker 1: Now I understand at times there are reasons for, for creating boundaries within relationships and all, but overall, the calling is to honor, regardless of those things, by the way, you can draw a boundary out of respect and out of honor, and with love rather than out of malice or hatred or anger, it's a lot harder, but you can do it kids honor.
Speaker 1: Your parents may have a side note here because sometimes I see some confusion in this.
Speaker 1: There's actually two different commands to kids within scripture about their parents.
Speaker 1: One is honor, like we've been saying the other is the bay.
Speaker 1: I wish that obey applied, applied all the time in every situation.
Speaker 1: But here's a, here's an example in this.
Speaker 1: I could choose any number of examples, but Colossians three says, children obey your parents in the Lord for this pleases, the Lord.
Speaker 1: Now I wrestled with this for a while as a kid, maybe you've you wrestle with this?
Speaker 1: Maybe not, but I'm just throwing it out there as something to maybe ponder that God has a commands to obey and commands to honor now in win.
Speaker 1: And the way that I look at this, the way that I read it is that when you are young and or dependent on your parents, then as long as what they're asking you to do is not totally against and clearly against the calling of God and scripture, then you obey and honor, you honor.
Speaker 1: And you obey once you are out from under the, the dependence on the parents that called honor maintains and continues on into the future.
Speaker 1: But the calling to obey will fall away.
Speaker 1: So honor is, is throughout.
Speaker 1: And every circumstance that calling to honor is universal.
Speaker 1: But the calling to a bay, as I read it is as long as you are in a place of dependence on your parents.
Speaker 1: And as long as what they're calling you to do is not explicitly against the teaching of God in scripture.
Speaker 1: And if that's the case obey, but regardless, choose to honor, all these things start with an individual choice.
Speaker 1: It starts with that choice to say, this is, this is what I'm going to do in regards to what anyone else says that I should do or says I shouldn't do it.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: I'm going to choose to honor.
Speaker 1: So kids honor, husbands honor.
Speaker 1: Your wives.
Speaker 1: This first Peter three seven husbands must give honor to your wives, treat your wife with understanding as you live together.
Speaker 1: Now, before you go too far wives, don't get off the hook here.
Speaker 1: Ephesians five, each man must love his wife as he loves himself.
Speaker 1: And the wife must respect her husband, right?
Speaker 1: There's a call for husbands to honor wives and for wives to honor husbands spouses focus on honoring your spouse, not on making sure that your spouse honors you.
Speaker 1: One of the things I'll talk to in marriage prep with couples often is is this idea that, uh, you know, you're, you can change you a lot more easily than you can change him or her.
Speaker 1: I've learned that when the hard way you're going to have a whole lot more luck changing you than changing them.
Speaker 1: And so as much as it, it depends on you choose to be honorable and choose and, and be by being honor, the honorable, they will honor.
Speaker 1: But regardless of that, choose to honor your spouse, regardless of situation, regardless of how they're acting or not acting, you can always choose, make that choice of honor.
Speaker 1: So kids honor your parents, husbands honor.
Speaker 1: Your wives, wives honor your husbands.
Speaker 1: I think scripture just kind of lays down a Hey, just to honor everybody by first, Peter, two 17, just as honor, all people.
Speaker 1: One of the ways we say this succinctly within our church here is we up.
Speaker 1: We honor down, we honor all around just as there's no escape clause to love.
Speaker 1: And we're not about trying to figure out who we can exclude from having to love the same is true for honor.
Speaker 1: Our goal is to be inclusive in honor, not exclusive with honor.
Speaker 1: So as families, I encourage you honor up honor down honor.
Speaker 1: All around is a faith family.
Speaker 1: I encourage you on her, up on her, down on her all around.
Speaker 1: Be people of honor and families of honor.
Speaker 1: That's a decision that we make as individuals.
Speaker 1: Now, the decisions we make as individuals end up extending by a family's decision of what we'll do together, right?
Speaker 1: Because all of us are unique.
Speaker 1: People, all of us have unique perspectives and, and thoughts and dreams and hopes and fears.
Speaker 1: But we also choose our paths together as it comes to our family, right?
Speaker 1: The me decisions, lay a foundation for we decisions and what you choose as an individual will always be there amplified or diminished by what you end up choosing together as a family.
Speaker 1: And as a family, we, we be a people who elevate honor or diminish that together.
Speaker 1: There's a historical moment with Joshua in Joshua 24.
Speaker 1: This is a familiar passage, familiar verse to a lot of people, but, uh, the nation of Israel, the family of Israel, if you will, the family of God, there has traveled together.
Speaker 1: For some time, they've walked through all sorts of different people and people groups, they fought some battles together and they've come to a place of commitment before God saying, what would we do here?
Speaker 1: And they're wrestling with a, with an instruction to fear the Lord and to serve him.
Speaker 1: And Joshua has one of these, uh, you know, taking a stand moments where he says, Hey, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Speaker 1: You see that sometimes on, on pictures and people's homes or on social media, it'll get that.
Speaker 1: That'll get tossed around.
Speaker 1: Hey, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord that choice of what, well, what we'll do starts with an individual, but then it'll get amplified or diminished by the people that are around you, by who's with you.
Speaker 1: And what happens immediately after that's just as important as Joshua taking that stand in Joshua 24 15 to say, as for me and my house we'll serve the Lord.
Speaker 1: Well, just after that, the next two verses.
Speaker 1: So the people answered and said far, be it from us that we should forsake the Lord and serve other gods for the Lord.
Speaker 1: Our God is he who brought us in our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of who did those great sites in our signs and our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.
Speaker 1: So Joshua made that choice as for me and my house we'll serve the Lord.
Speaker 1: But then the people came around him and said, yeah, that's what we're to do.
Speaker 1: And amplify the decision he made.
Speaker 1: There are benchmark moments like that for our families that we have.
Speaker 1: But there's also a whole lot of little moments in life that we have, that this comes into play beyond me and beyond what I choose, what will we choose together?
Speaker 1: What kind of family will we be together?
Speaker 1: Let me give a few examples here beyond me.
Speaker 1: What will we do when someone acts in an honorable way, one does something that's honorable within our family.
Speaker 1: What will we do as for me and my house?
Speaker 1: What will we do?
Speaker 1: Do, will we ignore?
Speaker 1: It will be treated with some measure of cynicism like us about time miracles do happen.
Speaker 1: Well, we take it for granted or for me and my house.
Speaker 1: Will we be a home that celebrates those things that goes, wow, can you believe that that is awesome, man, what you just did?
Speaker 1: There was great.
Speaker 1: Will we be a home that celebrates the winds that go on around us and that the spurs one another on to love and good deeds, Hey, ask for me and my house.
Speaker 1: We're going to be one that spurs one another on that celebrates what's honorable because we know this what's celebrated gets repeated.
Speaker 1: And so we're going to celebrate these things that are honoring as for me in my house, what will we do together?
Speaker 1: Give me another example.
Speaker 1: On the other side of things beyond me, what would we do when we fail to honor in our home?
Speaker 1: Not that that ever happens, but occasionally something happens in our home where, where someone fails to honor where someone does something wrong.
Speaker 1: Well, beyond me, what kind of a home will we have?
Speaker 1: What are we going to do together?
Speaker 1: Cause I can choose to treat people in certain ways, but what will we do together?
Speaker 1: If someone fails there, are we going to keep a record of wrongs?
Speaker 1: Are we going to hold it over their head?
Speaker 1: When they, when they've, once they've done something or are we going to be an atmosphere that embraces love and forgiveness and grace and mercy?
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things we do in our home is when someone's messed up, when someone's done something that's not honorable.
Speaker 1: When they come to that realization of it, there's a rhythm that we have in our home where we say two phrases, the person who's done wrong will say, will you forgive me?
Speaker 2: And the
Speaker 1: Response will be I, yes, I forgive you now until I say, will you forgive me?
Speaker 1: I've got control.
Speaker 1: But that decision to say, Hey, will you forgive me?
Speaker 1: I release control.
Speaker 1: And I say, Hey, I'm going to leave this in your hands now.
Speaker 1: And when we voiced those words, yes, I forgive you.
Speaker 1: We're releasing the right to hold it over their heads any longer.
Speaker 1: Now, depending on the circumstances, that might be easier.
Speaker 1: That might be harder.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a decision of faith to say those words.
Speaker 1: But as for me and my home, we'll be a place where we honor each other and where we extend forgiveness and we experienced grace.
Speaker 1: That's what we want to be.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a last example here beyond me.
Speaker 1: What will we do when we run into places of division places where there's differences of opinion, where we could go this way or we could go that way in and we're, we're not on the same page is a, is this going to be something where it's my way or the highway?
Speaker 1: Or is it going to be something where we're going to come together?
Speaker 1: We're re we're going to allow meaningful discussion where we're going to seek to align our family together in a direction and say, this is the way we're going to go.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a, bring this to life for you in our family.
Speaker 1: Uh, about a year and a half ago, Lindsay and I came to a head on, on a division within us for about 15 years.
Speaker 1: We had been discussing slash debating the idea of getting a dog.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: And I say, ah, we got married.
Speaker 1: I said, Lindsay, you only get a dog.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 1: And as we hit different life points and changes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You want to get dog?
Speaker 1: No, Lindsey.
Speaker 1: This might be a great, no.
Speaker 1: And we were just on different sides of the coin and it was something we joke about.
Speaker 1: It wasn't something that was tearing us apart or anything.
Speaker 1: But it was something that was a perpetual point of division.
Speaker 1: Well, when our kids got to the age that they're at now, where they're in elementary and middle school, they started picking up on this whole story.
Speaker 1: Praise God, here's what they did.
Speaker 1: They said, Hey, we want a dog and daddy wants a dog, but mommy, she doesn't want a dog.
Speaker 1: Now again, we're starting to hear this.
Speaker 1: And I, and I'm hearing this and I know it's all in good fun.
Speaker 1: I know we're joking about things, but I started to hear some division within our family.
Speaker 1: And what I realized is I will not let that go.
Speaker 1: I want to bring us together.
Speaker 1: I want us to honor each other.
Speaker 1: And yeah, sometimes we'll acknowledge differences of opinions, but I want to align us together in a direction.
Speaker 1: I don't want to allow any measure of division to grow when I see it.
Speaker 1: And so as Lindsay and I sat down on a date lunch one Friday, and we talked this through and I said, look, Linds, we need to come to a point where we decide not me or you, but we decide that this is either going to be a yes or this is going to be a no.
Speaker 1: Or this is going to be a yes, but not now.
Speaker 1: And whatever that decision is, we're going to come to this together.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to communicate this to the kids.
Speaker 1: And we're all going to be aligned together.
Speaker 1: This isn't going to be mommy wants, and daddy wants, this is going to be, this is where we're going.
Speaker 3: And the Lord worked in her life.
Speaker 3: [inaudible] it was
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 1: Miracles happen, her heart softened before the Lord.
Speaker 1: And um, yeah, gratuitous puppy pic
Speaker 3: [inaudible].
Speaker 1: This is, uh, that's the reason I've slept very little this last week.
Speaker 1: Uh, we've only had her in our home for about a week now, but um, on her up Otter, down on her all around, make your individual decision, but ma but understand that individual decisions will be amplified or will be diminished by the decisions you make together as a family.
Speaker 1: So that's for me and my house, what will we do?
Speaker 1: I encourage you to honor your earthly family.
Speaker 1: Here's your commitment.
Speaker 1: Number two.
Speaker 1: And number two is a treasure.
Speaker 1: Your faith, family, treasure, your faith family, your family begins at the crib and it extends to the cross expands at the cross.
Speaker 1: Your, your family begins with the crib and it expands at the cross.
Speaker 1: The new Testament consistently talks about believers in Jesus as a family.
Speaker 1: That somehow when we come to that place of faith, we unite together with the family of God.
Speaker 1: And, and throughout the new Testament, you see this unpacked.
Speaker 1: I don't have these on the screen, but first Corinthians 12, 27 refers to us as the body of Christ.
Speaker 1: And that each one of us has a part of it.
Speaker 1: John, one 12 refers to us as the children of God, that all those who believe in him, he has the right to become the children of God.
Speaker 1: Ephesians two 19 refers to us as members of the household of God, Galatians six, 10 refers to us.
Speaker 1: As of the household of faith.
Speaker 1: Now your first family is chosen for you.
Speaker 1: Your first family, you don't have any choice about, but your next family, you choose
Speaker 2: Sort of
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 1: There's there is some reality to this, that when I got married to my wife, Lindsay, I was United with the one that I loved and her family.
Speaker 1: And I got a whole family of in-laws there.
Speaker 1: When you believe in Jesus Christ, you are United with your savior and his church, and you become part of the family of God.
Speaker 1: Now, one thing I'll hear popularly in the world around as I talked to people is, you know, I love Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'm just not so sure about the church.
Speaker 1: I love Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'm just not real religious.
Speaker 1: I just don't love, you know, I just don't want anything to do with church.
Speaker 1: Now, one hand, I understand that because I understand sadly, when I came to know Jesus, not all sin was not suddenly removed from my life.
Speaker 1: All temptation.
Speaker 1: Wasn't just automatically gone for me.
Speaker 1: And I continued to have moments that were bad moments within that, you know, moments where I'd mess up moments of hypocrisy, moments of sin.
Speaker 1: And I think all of us do.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing as the perfect church.
Speaker 1: And so on one hand, I understand that use the phrase.
Speaker 1: They said, there's no hurt, like church hurt.
Speaker 1: And if you've experienced that before, you know, it can be a tough thing.
Speaker 1: And those relationships, we come in with an expectation of something.
Speaker 1: And when the relationship maybe doesn't meet that expectation.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It hurts.
Speaker 1: Here's my trouble with that mentality.
Speaker 1: Ephesians 5 25, Paul says talking about family and he says, husbands, love your wives.
Speaker 1: Just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.
Speaker 1: So he's looking for he's instructing husbands and wives, and he's saying, husbands, how are you to love your wives?
Speaker 1: And when he searches for a picture to say, how are you to love your wives?
Speaker 1: He points towards the way Christ loved the church and laid down his life for her.
Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna, I suggest to you that you cannot love Jesus and hate the thing that Jesus loves, loves You.
Speaker 1: Can't look love Jesus and hate the church that he loved and laid his life down for.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: It can be challenging at times.
Speaker 1: I, I totally get that, but treasure, your faith family choose to press in to your faith family.
Speaker 1: Every family has this blessings and every family has this baggage.
Speaker 1: Every faith family has its blessings and every faith family has its baggage.
Speaker 1: Don't let your faith family's baggage keep you from its blessings.
Speaker 1: Now, where are you?
Speaker 1: Discover these blessings?
Speaker 1: The blessings for your faith family are discovered when you connect in community.
Speaker 1: And when you serve in ministry, this is where you start to experience the blessing of being a part of the faith family.
Speaker 1: This is where you start to treasure
Speaker 2: Those things.
Speaker 2: Now community
Speaker 1: Requires intentionality and half of the battle is just consistently showing up.
Speaker 1: One of the things we talk about in our family is that quality time is often born out of time.
Speaker 1: Let me say that again.
Speaker 1: Quality time is born out of time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we just have to have time together in order for quality time to develop you a couple of weekends ago, I took Gavin to his first major league baseball game with him, Cleveland guardians, Indians.
Speaker 1: They're still the Indians right now, the sciences Indians, but it took him to his first major league game.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 1: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: The game was a great experience.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize I had chosen the night.
Speaker 1: They were going to put off a fireworks display at arrival.
Speaker 1: You know what happens in New York city, but we had a great time with the game, but almost more fun for me was the trip there and back, just time to talk and to connect it, to share about life and to give him a chance to ask questions about things.
Speaker 1: It was fun to hear him ask questions like, Hey, I know that.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're okay answering this, but I've got a question about this and for me to go, yeah, I'll answer that quality time is born out of time.
Speaker 1: You can't show with your family once a week and expect there to be a good sense of connection.
Speaker 1: And the same is true with your faith.
Speaker 1: Family.
Speaker 1: See rows are great when it comes to worship, but circles are far better when it comes to connection.
Speaker 1: And so for all of us, I think we're in this journey of trying to figure out, as I try to find the blessing for my faith families, I try to treasure my faith family.
Speaker 1: There's a transition we walked through of moving from rows and into circles.
Speaker 1: Let me give you two great places to find circles this way.
Speaker 1: This fall looking ahead.
Speaker 1: One is within our life groups.
Speaker 1: Pastor Micah mentioned these before, but next week is our life group launch.
Speaker 1: And we have a bunch of new groups launching.
Speaker 1: We have a bunch of existing groups continuing, but within our life groups into demystify, life groups, life groups are simply places and environments of groups, of people that are doing life together for a season.
Speaker 1: And they're doing that life together there.
Speaker 1: And they're trying to look for the next steps in their faith together.
Speaker 1: And we have life groups that do everything from basketball to pickleball, to Bible study book, life groups, form around what people are passionate about, but it's an alignment of believers coming together to do life for a season and to say, Hey, what might be our next step in our spiritual life?
Speaker 1: If you're not currently in a life group, I encourage you to be your next week.
Speaker 1: Look at what's there.
Speaker 1: If you can't be in it, your next week, we'll have all this online.
Speaker 1: So you can take a look at what we have available, but look for those groups of believers to align with a life group.
Speaker 1: Another great place to find circles is serving on a team, serving on a team it's oftentimes in a team, we go from that robe to, into a circle where we're serving together.
Speaker 1: We're going to accomplish a mission where we gather together with a group of people in a kids' wing each Sunday and say, Hey, how do we raise these kids to know and love Jesus from the earliest ages?
Speaker 1: How do we encourage them together?
Speaker 1: And so you start serving together and then all of a sudden you find yourself in a conversation about, well, where'd you, you grew up, Hey, did you grow up in the church and suddenly start building some connections.
Speaker 1: You build relationship.
Speaker 1: You start to find that.
Speaker 1: So two great places to find circles.
Speaker 1: This fall life group and in serving, if you're not sure where to serve, I want to point you towards our growth track sessions.
Speaker 1: They're starting off on coming on September 12th.
Speaker 1: They, they begin and it's a three week session.
Speaker 1: That's open.
Speaker 1: Whether you've been here for a couple of weeks or a couple months or a couple of decades, doesn't matter how long you've been around.
Speaker 1: If you find yourself in a spot going, I need to find a circle.
Speaker 1: I need to find a place to connect or to serve growth.
Speaker 1: Track is a perfect environment for you to discover what those next steps.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If you remain committed to community and you remain committed to service, I promise you connections will come and you'll learn to treasure your faith family.
Speaker 1: Over the course of time, they bring this to life with, with one person here.
Speaker 1: Her name is Kristy Wagner.
Speaker 1: Christy was a single woman.
Speaker 1: As long as I knew her, she had been married in the past and lost her husband.
Speaker 1: But single, as long as I knew her, about 10 years ago, when I came first came to the church, uh, we didn't just have a welcome center in our lobby.
Speaker 1: Kristi Wagner was the welcome center.
Speaker 1: She would be out there every Sunday, greeting people and saying hi and asking if, if this was someone's first time here, she'd have a camera with her taking pictures of people in the lobby.
Speaker 1: Could she be a little eccentric?
Speaker 2: Yes, but aren't we all the times
Speaker 1: We all have our eccentricities.
Speaker 1: Christie loved this place.
Speaker 1: She loved this faith family.
Speaker 1: She treasured that she engaged in community.
Speaker 1: She served, she had a heart for people to know Jesus, like few people I've known.
Speaker 1: And she looked for every opportunity.
Speaker 1: There was to encourage them toward him.
Speaker 1: Now for the previous years here, his health was failing.
Speaker 1: And as her health failed, there were some saints in this church that invested more in her world in her life than the world will ever know.
Speaker 1: Grey Silliman and Libby Troutman and Donna quarrier and others who came around her and really sustain her life in the last years of her life.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes not anyone can know everyone, but everyone can know someone and be known by someone and those relationships sustain Christie through the end of her life.
Speaker 1: And this summer, she passed away.
Speaker 1: Now in her passing, we were going through some materials that she had.
Speaker 1: And, uh, as we did this, we found one document.
Speaker 1: That was a legal document that talked about her desires for the end of her life.
Speaker 1: This is after everything's said and done in the weeks following.
Speaker 1: And we found this was written in her own handwriting in the middle of a legal document.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna read it the way that she wrote it.
Speaker 1: She said, I want to make it clear.
Speaker 1: I have no problem with withdrawing any care for me and letting me die to die is gain my blood family.
Speaker 1: She's talking about her faith family here.
Speaker 1: My blood family is already waiting for me with Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'll be overjoyed to join them and see the face of sweet Jesus and rest with him till he comes to earth again.
Speaker 1: Then we all, as believers can start preparing and heaven for a new earth.
Speaker 1: What glory?
Speaker 1: Jesus can not come too soon for me, but if needed, please let me go rest with him in peace.
Speaker 1: Christy treasured, her faith family.
Speaker 1: And because of her treasuring, the faith family, we get the privilege of worshiping Christ with Christy throughout all of eternity honor, your earthly family and your faith, family, treasure, your family and your earthly family.
Speaker 1: Here's the last commitment I'll leave here with you today is worship God with your family, worship God with your family, make worship a priority in the family.
Speaker 1: And I know this commitment is not a small one today, and I know I'm kind of preaching the choir because you're here right now.
Speaker 1: But, um, but I encourage you make worship a priority.
Speaker 1: I know there's challenge.
Speaker 1: There's schedule challenges that come up, right?
Speaker 1: I'm doing life beside people who are, who it is difficult to be here and to elevate worship as a priority in the midst of ice time and field time and gym time and sport time.
Speaker 1: I understand it's a challenge.
Speaker 1: I understand the challenge when you're at the lake house every weekend of the summer, and it's tough to be engaged with, with a faith family.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite life groups we had this summer was a life group led by Pam Dawson and her husband as well that they were, they did a camping LifeGroup.
Speaker 1: They said, we're now we're going to be, we're going to be camping every weekend in the summer.
Speaker 1: So, Hey, let's get together and let's watch the service while we're camp.
Speaker 1: And so on Sunday mornings, they're with us online from campgrounds.
Speaker 1: I understand it's a difficult decision giving schedules.
Speaker 1: It can be difficult decision to worship, given relationships that are around you.
Speaker 1: It can be a tough decision to worship unashamed around people who are distant from God.
Speaker 1: Maybe some of you have family members that are, that are not following Jesus.
Speaker 1: That don't have faith that don't believe it can be difficult to be an unashamed Christian and unashamedly worship around people who believe differently than you.
Speaker 1: It can be difficult, a difficult decision to worship boldly around others who are lukewarm in faith.
Speaker 1: I understand there are some emotional challenges to this.
Speaker 1: It can be a difficult decision to worship openly and verbally and show emotion for some of us.
Speaker 1: I think especially someone who's guys tend to be a little more stoic in who we are and do allow emotion to come up.
Speaker 1: We worship can be a challenge.
Speaker 1: I understand that there are pandemic challenges.
Speaker 1: Nuff said the decision to worship together and to prioritize worshiping together as a family.
Speaker 1: Despite the challenges is one of the most important decisions you'll make together as a family.
Speaker 1: And let me share your why, because when you choose to worship, what you do doing is deciding what, who will I elevate in my life to a place of honor, the place that I adore a place of love.
Speaker 1: And when we put Jesus Christ in that position, when we choose to worship together, then a whole bunch of people that look a whole bunch of different ways start pointing their at one place.
Speaker 1: And so they, as they begin to do that, suddenly a love and a grace and a mercy, and an honor, they begin to receive and begin to point toward.
Speaker 1: And what happens is God takes a whole bunch of people that are unique and points them towards being more like Christ.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes in weddings, I will share that a hus, a groom and a bride are the base of a triangle pointing their lives at Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And as they grow closer to him, their lives will grow closer to one another as families here, whether it's within your own family at home or our faith family, when we point our eyes towards Christ, when we choose to come together and worship, when we choose to make that a priority, what we do is elevate God to a position of, of premier importance in our lives and in our families.
Speaker 1: And we begin to follow him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.
Speaker 1: And I'm convinced that what our world needs is more families that are more committed to worshiping Christ, be vulnerable here with you for a moment.
Speaker 1: The last two weeks have been a tough ones for me.
Speaker 1: Uh, I've been serving for the last two weeks on a Lucas county, grand jury doing my civic duty.
Speaker 1: Uh, now in case you're not familiar with grand jury, I, I did not know about this at the time I was summoned.
Speaker 1: Uh, I was familiar with the thing that, where, where you call in and find out, if you have to go to jury duty, grand jury, they call you and make sure, you know, you're supposed to be there.
Speaker 1: I tried to claim some kind of clergy exemption, like, do I have, is there an out here?
Speaker 1: And they said, well, that's only for cloistered members of religious organizations.
Speaker 1: So what's cloistered.
Speaker 1: They said, well, that's like a convent or a monastery.
Speaker 1: I thought I'm not a part of a convent, but monastery[inaudible].
Speaker 3: So we've
Speaker 1: Got a sofa bed in my office.
Speaker 1: Does that count?
Speaker 1: I, you know, I'm here a lot.
Speaker 1: They didn't buy it.
Speaker 1: You're not buying it either.
Speaker 1: I can tell, well, what happens in the grand jury?
Speaker 1: We're, we're in a room.
Speaker 1: There is no defense.
Speaker 1: There is no judge.
Speaker 1: There's a prosecutor that comes in and brings cases and says, this is what so-and-so is being charged with.
Speaker 1: And here are the legal charges and here's any explanation of the charges that we needed in order to understand the case.
Speaker 1: And we hear evidence about it and see videos and photos of terrible, awful things.
Speaker 1: And then our job was to determine at the end of the time, is there a probable reasonable probability that the person did the thing?
Speaker 1: And if it'll go on to trial, ours was not, not a judgment of innocence or guilt just as there a reasonable probability of the person did the thing.
Speaker 1: And then it goes to trial, not can't share all the details, things we did and what, what we looked at or any of that's bound by oath and law, not to share it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Any of that.
Speaker 1: But I will say we looked at 80 cases or more over the course of two weeks.
Speaker 1: It was case after case, after case, after case of crime after crime, after crime, after crime.
Speaker 1: And I went through moments where I was sad and I went moments throughout through moments.
Speaker 1: When I was angry, I went through moments where I was frustrated and I eventually came to a point where I just started praying for these and praying for people and praying for the community and the midst of it all.
Speaker 1: I had another guy that I was there with.
Speaker 1: He asked the question at one point an in-between moment.
Speaker 1: He said, he said, you know, doesn't this just make you jaded.
Speaker 1: How can you not walk through this and BJ about our community and about the world and about people and humanity in general.
Speaker 1: And I look back at my side, I understand how you can get there.
Speaker 1: But I said, for me, this makes me even more passionate about how I'm living my life, about what I'm doing and my family and my neighborhood in my community, in my church, because at the end of the day, I have to trust the justice is going to be done in this earth or on the knee in this world or in the next.
Speaker 1: But I am convinced that the answer to all of this will ultimately not be the jails.
Speaker 1: It will be Jesus.
Speaker 1: And it will be his presence in the family that transforms this world.
Speaker 1: It will be four families saying, Hey, I'm going to point my life toward Christ.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to allow his grace and his peace and his love and his mercy and his forgiveness and his generosity of spirit and his servant heart to guide who I am and who my family will be.
Speaker 1: That's, what's going to transform our lives and our families and our communities.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to stand for that with all that I've got, that's what I'm going to elevate, because what might happen if more families in our community were more committed to worshiping Christ, I think we would see more redemptive moments.
Speaker 1: I think we'd see more healing that would happen.
Speaker 1: I think we'd see the proliferation of love and grace and peace in ways that we never understood it.
Speaker 1: I think the hope of our world is Jesus.
Speaker 1: And we understand Jesus through our lives, through our families, through our church, as we move forward together, we are a force for good in this world.
Speaker 2: And man,
Speaker 1: I want to continue to be a part of that.
Speaker 1: It's my heart for seeing our church continue to grow in that believed that God's not done with what he's doing here yet, because I watched him working in your lives.
Speaker 1: And I watch him working in your families.
Speaker 1: Now watch him working in, in your community.
Speaker 1: I see the, that he's doing, and it gives me hope and the other bad things that happen.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: But we are a force for God's redemptive potential in the world we live in and I've got a dream for more families to be more committed, to worshiping him, to honoring each other, to treasuring each other and to worshiping our savior.
Speaker 1: Now, I want to move beyond today, hearing commitments and I want to move into making them, I want to move beyond warming seats and into making decisions in your service guide today.
Speaker 1: I want to find a card that's in there.
Speaker 1: There's a card that's in there that is a set of commitments.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to ask us to make as a faith family here today, I want to be a family that honors, well, I want to be a family.
Speaker 1: The treasures, well, I mean a family that worships, well, I want to be a family that stands for things that are good and things of Christ.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to ask us to make this declaration today as families of faith.
Speaker 1: After that, we're going to put this into action and worship together.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to ask you to stand.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask her a band to come on out and let's read this together.
Speaker 1: Let's read this together as a prayer, as a desire as God's people today, would you join me by faith?
Speaker 1: I will honor my earthly family encouraging them toward the Lord.
Speaker 1: I will treasure my faith family connecting in community and serving in ministry.
Speaker 1: I will worship God in the presence of my family so far as it depends on me, my family will stand for truth together.
Speaker 1: Excel in grace together, cling to hope together, choose to love together.
Speaker 1: We will get better and be better together.
Speaker 1: Amen, Lord, I do pray for this and for us together as a faith family, that we would stand for you, Lord, continue to shed light in our lives and should love and us this we receive and whatever we receive from you help us to extend that to the world.
Speaker 1: That's around us, make us strong families that are committed to getting better and being better together.
Speaker 1: And as we stand with that commitment to worship you and to keep worship in front of us today, we choose to worship right now together as your family.