SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Springs Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We are so glad you joined us.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to reach the lost by raising up fully trained disciples that are empowered by God to impact their world.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you are challenged and encouraged as you listen to this week's message.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Samuel chapter 6, verse 16 to 22 says this.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, who was David's wife, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And she despised him in her heart.
SPEAKER_01: So they brought the ark of the Lord and they set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected.
SPEAKER_01: And then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go down to verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When David returned to bless his household, and Michael, the daughter of Saul, his wife, came out to meet David and said, sarcastically, if I could put it this way, how glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of the servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.
SPEAKER_01: So David said to Michael, It was before the Lord who chose me instead of your father and all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I will play music before the Lord, and I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight.
SPEAKER_01: I will be humble in my own sight.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22, just in the NLT translation, just for reference, says it like this it says, Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you haven't, Michael.
SPEAKER_01: If you think that this is undignified, if you think that this worship is foolish, you haven't seen anything yet.
SPEAKER_01: Just turn to the person next to you and say, You haven't seen anything yet.
SPEAKER_01: You've not seen anything yet.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the title of this morning's message is this Too Foolish to Fit In.
SPEAKER_01: Too foolish to fit in.
SPEAKER_01: Now, David was a person who desired to be for the house of God, for the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: He was known still to this day historically as a man that was after God's own heart, even yet his life was so complex.
SPEAKER_01: There were so many things that David went through was a part of, letdowns, failures on his own part.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very complex life.
SPEAKER_01: But from the very moment of David coming onto the scene, being anointed as king, facing Goliath all the way through to the end of his life, where he's still preparing the elements and the resources for the temple so that his son Solomon would be able to build a temple and dedicate it.
SPEAKER_01: His whole life he was he was able to embody the psalm that he wrote, one thing I've desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I shall be found in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
SPEAKER_01: He had desire.
SPEAKER_01: And now desire gives birth to direction.
SPEAKER_01: When you have a desire for something, you tend to follow those desires.
SPEAKER_01: You tend to move in the direction of those desires.
SPEAKER_01: Now I thank God for this church.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God, you know, as I've kind of said a few times, you cannot misdirect a par car.
SPEAKER_01: And I do not believe that the Springs Church is a par car.
SPEAKER_01: I believe we're going forward.
SPEAKER_01: I believe we're going in a direction.
SPEAKER_01: But there may be times where we don't always get everything right.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's times where God will have to alter our direction.
SPEAKER_01: He will all have to alter us and say, you're going too far this way, or you're going too far that way.
SPEAKER_01: But I would rather go forward with the chance of getting it wrong than waste the opportunities that God has set before us and he's given us in this time and in this hour.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the generation that God's called us to.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God for the generations past.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God for the movements that have gone past.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God for Billy Graham.
SPEAKER_01: I've been listening to Billy.
SPEAKER_01: What a man of God.
SPEAKER_01: How many people he led to the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: But how many know we need people to rise up in our generation that know what it is to preach boldly the word of God, to be unashamed of the gospel, to stand on street corners, to stand in the business place, or stand in households, and to be unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Desire gives birth to direction.
SPEAKER_01: It does.
SPEAKER_01: That can be sinful desires that will lead you in a direction that is opposite to God's plans and God's purposes for your life.
SPEAKER_01: And it can cause you, sin will cause you to go further than you ever thought that you would go.
SPEAKER_01: Sin will cause you to do what you never thought that you would do.
SPEAKER_01: It will cause you to make decisions that you never thought in your wildest dreams that you would make.
SPEAKER_01: Sin will make you go further.
SPEAKER_01: Those desires of a sinful nature will take you in a direction that's opposite to the heart and that God would have for us and how He created us.
SPEAKER_01: But in the same manner, desires for the Lord, desires for His kingdom will cause us to take on Goliaths.
SPEAKER_01: It will cause us to do things that we wouldn't normally do by ourselves because there's a desire there.
SPEAKER_01: There's a hunger to see God's kingdom advance.
SPEAKER_01: Desire.
SPEAKER_01: Desire gives birth to direction.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen this firsthand.
SPEAKER_01: When I served as a young adult pastor, I would always be amazed as a young adult pastor when you know we would be there on a Sunday night, and all of a sudden, maybe in the worship, a new group would come into the young adults group.
SPEAKER_01: A bunch of guys would come in, and all of a sudden, all the girls would be would be worshiping like this, like looking over their shoulder, like who are they?
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: Who are they?
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so all of a sudden, desire would give birth to some new direction, and they would begin to do things.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't, I would, I'd be like, oh, like the people who never played volleyball in their life.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, if they played volleyball, they were on the volleyball court, they were in the huddle, they were they were spiking it, they were volleying it, they were doing everything because man, they were they were in it.
SPEAKER_01: And I would watch the guys, if a new girl came in, there was a desire, and they they were they were they were attracted to somebody and they were you know wanting to make a good impression, all of a sudden that desire would cause direction and for them to do things that they wouldn't normally do.
SPEAKER_01: Like they would never serve, and all of a sudden they're lifting the chairs and they're flexing their muscles and they're like walking past and setting up the tables and they're putting out the chairs and they're doing things that they would not normally do.
SPEAKER_01: Their desire makes you do things that you wouldn't normally do.
SPEAKER_01: They would they they they foolish things, they would make you do foolish things.
SPEAKER_01: I've got the scar to prove it, I've got a scar on my chin from the time when I was dating Sarah, and I remember I was trying to make a good impression, but we were both very competitive people, and so we were we were out bowling with friends one night, and we were bowling, and I was in the lead.
SPEAKER_01: I was I was I was one pin uh in the lead, and it was Sarah's last time to bowl.
SPEAKER_01: And if she got more than one pin, she would win the competition, which I thought was out of the question, shouldn't happen.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so I thought, uh, now I can't dance.
SPEAKER_01: Periods.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have any rhythm in my body, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not a no rhythm.
SPEAKER_01: But in that moment, I thought I was a break dancer, and I thought I would, I thought I would do the worm to distract her and to put her off so that she wouldn't win the she wouldn't get the pens.
SPEAKER_01: So so she's getting ready to bowl.
SPEAKER_01: I'm over here trying to do the worm, but as I'm doing the worm, I bang my chin off of the ground, it splits open.
SPEAKER_01: It's it here's the good news she didn't win, and she married me, so that's good.
SPEAKER_01: But we spent we spent that night in the emergency room getting stitches, and that's where she fell in love with me, right there in the in the ER, getting those stitches, and the rest is history.
SPEAKER_01: Love, desire will make you do things that you would not normally do.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me tell you, when you say I'm gonna follow Jesus, there's a desire to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: I want to I want to please him, I want to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind.
SPEAKER_01: When it when you when you when you truly want to walk with him, it will cause you to step into places you wouldn't normally step into.
SPEAKER_01: Say, say boldly things you wouldn't normally say by yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: There's there it's putting yourself out there.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, all these worship leaders that were here this morning, can I tell you, there's there's a sacrifice in having to put yourself in front of people and and and and and worship and lift your hands.
SPEAKER_01: It can feel foolish.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time being in church and and seeing people lifting their hands and having this desire within myself, I want to worship, I want to lift my hands, I want to magnify God.
SPEAKER_01: But I I wasn't from a church evangelistic background, so I didn't know.
SPEAKER_01: Do I lift my hands this way?
SPEAKER_01: Do I lift it like this?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what do I do?
SPEAKER_01: And how foolish I felt worshiping, but but there was something about just worshiping him, just being abandoned in my praise, just magnifying him.
SPEAKER_01: And felt foolish on the front end, but but I remember going to my first altar call, the salvation message, and and and my heart stirring within me.
SPEAKER_01: But what would people think if I go forward?
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's going forward to this altar call, nobody's going forward, but I thank God with all my heart that they're just in the foolishness of stepping out, coming to that altar, crying out to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I remember Jesus touching my life, saving me, washing me, cleansing me.
SPEAKER_01: They may have felt foolish in the moment, but I thank God with all my heart for the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: It may feel foolish the first time you evangelize to somebody, may feel foolish the first time that you open up your Bible and begin to read it in public.
SPEAKER_01: But but but when you follow God, it will cause you to step out, it will cause you to do things you won't normally do.
SPEAKER_01: We were at the end of prayer and fasting on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: How many here were when on Wednesday night for our last night?
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, it was just the there was people were praising God, it was it was powerful, and at the end of the service, there was just a sense of celebration in the house, and they were singing that song.
SPEAKER_01: Uh um some may call it foolishness, but I will say it's worth the risk.
SPEAKER_01: I can't forget what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_01: And we were jumping, and I got up there and I said, We're just gonna jump, we're gonna praise, we're gonna magnify God, and people were bouncing in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I I've heard hip surgeries are now uh are uh being signed up, knees are gone out, but we were we were going for it.
SPEAKER_01: And I was looking over here, Pastor Jesse, who oversees our youth ministry, was here, and he was jumping in the presence of God, he was giving, going for it, and then there was all these teenagers behind him, just jumping and worshiping and praising God and thanking God and and and and not ashamed of what Jesus had done for them and and their love for him and their care for him.
SPEAKER_01: It's sometimes you got to put yourself out there.
SPEAKER_01: I think of being at the senior adults' banquet on Friday night, Pastor Robert and Rebecca oversee our senior adults ministry, and they had the idea to do a 1920s themed senior adults banquet, and it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: We had a great time.
SPEAKER_01: I showed up, he was dressed like Sherlock Holmes, they had all the stuff on them, and you know, to the world's eyes, foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: But Pastor Robert seemed beyond foolishness, he seemed beyond maybe the awkwardness of putting yourself out in front of people to do games and activities.
SPEAKER_01: He seen senior adults connecting with one another, praying for one another, being about, being with each other, standing with each other, community, connection, fellowship, the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: And here he is on the choir on a Sunday morning leading the choir.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you've got a desire after something, it will cause you to put yourself out there in the ways you would never have put yourself out before in the past.
SPEAKER_01: I look at that when I come here on Friday and I see our food ministry.
SPEAKER_01: When uh when they're giving out the food here from the food pantry on a Friday, and there's hundreds of cars uh uh lined up, and the heat index is 115, and these ladies and these men are out there and they're lifting up boxes of food and they're sweating.
SPEAKER_01: It may look indignified, it may look foolish, but there's a greater purpose, there's a reason.
SPEAKER_01: I'm willing to step out of what others might say, what others might think, and what the world may define as foolish.
SPEAKER_01: It's in my eyes, it's worth it, it's worth the risk, it's worth standing out there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm gonna be even more undignified than this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna even be more foolish than this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to step out because I know what God has done for me.
SPEAKER_01: One author said it like this a drop of praise is unsuitable acknowledgement for an ocean of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: A drop of praise is unsuitable acknowledgement for an ocean of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: See, David, when he came and and and and his wife Michael from his own household began to condescend and began to look down and look unfavorably upon David's exuberance in worship.
SPEAKER_01: David said, I wasn't doing it for anybody, I was doing this unto the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't worried about what other people thought about me.
SPEAKER_01: My eyes were upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I was giving a praise the Lord to him because he's worthy of praise.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God for this church.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God that we're a praise the Lord church.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God that we get a little bit rowdy every once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: I I do, I thank God that sometimes we push past even just the emotion of it, and we say, Jesus, even if I've had a bad beat, you're still worthy of my praise, you're still worthy of the glory, you're still worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And every once in a while somebody will just look a little bit foolish and just in the middle of a message, praise the Lord, because they know it's unto the Lord, they know the mercy of God towards them, they know what God's done to them.
SPEAKER_01: I heard the old story of uh of somebody showing up to a uh a Lutheran church and and and being a visitor and not being used to the liturgy uh the liturgy or the liturgical style service and walked in there and in the middle of service was so delighted with the word, just shout out, praise the Lord! And somebody in the back said, We don't do praise the Lord's at this church.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody in the front of the church said, We do praise the Lord's.
SPEAKER_01: It's in page number 19 of the hymnal.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about the style that you're doing it, it's that God's worthy of praise, he's worthy of worship, he's worthy, he's worthy to be thanked.
SPEAKER_01: It's worth he's you can ascribe worth to him because he's worthy.
SPEAKER_01: How many believe that Jesus is worthy this morning?
SPEAKER_01: How many believe Jesus is worthy of worship, worthy of praise, worthy of all the glory?
SPEAKER_01: And there's a tension in this because Michael is Saul's daughter, which is important to know because Saul was the king before David, and there was a direct contrast between Saul and David in the sense that as they Saul began his journey well, it didn't end the same way it started, it ended really in tragic circumstances, and somewhere along the line, Saul became more focused on what people thought about him and what God thought about him.
SPEAKER_01: And Michael, Saul's daughter, represents that mindset in this story.
SPEAKER_01: It represents wanting more to look like a king than rather than being uh passionate about worshiping the king.
SPEAKER_01: She wanted to look like a king, uh kingdom people, but David said, I want to worship the king.
SPEAKER_01: I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I'm not so concerned about what other people think about me, I'm I'm thinking about what Jesus thinks about me.
SPEAKER_01: We're living in an image conscious generation.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is filtered, everything is edited, everything is wants to put the best version of ourselves forward.
SPEAKER_01: But nobody wants to be undignified, nobody wants to look foolish, nobody wants to look look radical about following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But David knew something.
SPEAKER_01: He knew something, he knew the mercy of God, he knew the grace of God, he knew what it was to have much, and he knew what it was to have little, he knew what it was to slay Goliath, but he also knew what it was to be at Ziglag when his the city was devastated, his family was taken captive, the people began to turn on him, and yet he was still able to go in and encourage himself in the Lord and put find strength in God to keep on moving forward.
SPEAKER_01: No, David's an unusual.
SPEAKER_01: Because this very story comes on the heel of getting it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: The the the the context of the story is that David sees the ark of the Lord, which is the visual representation of the presence of God in the Old Testament, and he sees that it is outside of Jerusalem, outside of the tabernacle, outside of the center of where the work of the kingdom took place, and so he goes to bring it into Jerusalem, but along the way, although his desires were right and his direction was right, his discernment was off, and he takes the ark, and although scripture had given instructions for how it was supposed to be brought in, he decides to put it on a new cart, and as the oxen stumbles, he uh one of the priests put out his hands to stabilize the ark, and and it says the anger of the Lord was aroused, and it struck that man, and he ended up dying.
SPEAKER_01: And fear entered in, and discouragement probably entered in, and they took the ark and they brought it into a man called Obed Edom's house, and they placed the ark in there, and for three months the ark remained in that place, and David must have been discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: He got it wrong, he tried to do the right thing and got it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: He his desire was right, but his discernment and the word of God was off, and it had consequences, it had tragedy attached to it.
SPEAKER_01: David knew tragedy, David knew consequences, he knew what it was to face.
SPEAKER_01: Think about Bathsheba and the challenges he faced and the disruption that caused to his own home, even in the loss of life.
SPEAKER_01: Think of the rebellion in his house with Absalom and people who were close to him, the council turning, uh Hethophel turning on him, people abandoning him along the journey.
SPEAKER_01: He knew what it was, but yet there was something inside of David that says, One thing I've desire, that shall I seek, that I will be found in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And so he hears that down in Obed Edom's house, follow it me, the ark is there, they've placed it in a space, and God is blessing the house of Obed Edom.
SPEAKER_01: And David wants the blessing, he wants the presence of God, he desires the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: He might have got it wrong, but that doesn't change his desire.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm praying that there's some people in here, you may have got it wrong, but it shouldn't change your desire.
SPEAKER_01: You may have messed up along the way, you may have not got it all correct, but it should not change that you have a heart to see God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: If you are going to put yourself out there as a fool, as a re as a person who believes in the work of Jesus, can I let you notice you're not going to have a perfect track record of success?
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not going to have a perfect track record of success, don't you think that anybody besides you is going to have a perfect track record of success as well?
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to win every battle.
SPEAKER_01: He's already won the victory, but it doesn't mean that you're going to win every battle that you walk through.
SPEAKER_01: You will face some losses along the way.
SPEAKER_01: And David faced some losses.
SPEAKER_01: He faced some battles, but he was determined that he wanted the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't want the presence of God outside, he wanted the presence of God inside.
SPEAKER_01: He was determined that he was going to bring this up into the house.
SPEAKER_01: He was determined that this was going to be in the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're called to be tabernacles of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, there should be something in us that doesn't want the move of God just to stay at 900 Park Avenue in Orange Park.
SPEAKER_01: That's the address of this building.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't just want to come in and sing, shout to the Lord all the earth, and then walk out and just leave the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And He never leaves us and never forsakes us.
SPEAKER_01: Catch what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: But we're with the anointing, we just think the anointing of church.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm praying that there's some dads and some moms that says, I want the presence of God in my house, in my home, at my address.
SPEAKER_01: I want to see God glorified and worshiped and magnified in my home.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just when the pastor prays that there's power, there's prayer, there's power when I call upon the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I will lay hands on my children.
SPEAKER_01: I will pray a hedge of protection around.
SPEAKER_01: I will pray over the sick and believe that they shall be hailed in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want it.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna take some students to say, I just don't want God to show up and radiate on a Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: I want God to show up in my high school, I want God to show up in my college campus, I want God to show up in my workplace.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'm willing to be a little bit more undignified than even this.
SPEAKER_01: There has to be something within us that says, I desire the presence of Almighty God's.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just be seen as a Christian, I want to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say.
SPEAKER_01: That again.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't want to be seen as a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta be careful.
SPEAKER_01: We're living in a culture here.
SPEAKER_01: I speak as a somebody who loves where I live, loves this nation, loves being here in the Bible belt.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, being a Christian in this environment can open doors for you.
SPEAKER_01: You can have just enough Jesus to open up doors for you, give people, give access to certain places, and to be popular and get social media interaction on it just by saying the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't want to be a Christian that just uses the name of Jesus for my own gain.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a Christian that uses and loves the name of Jesus so much that I am so foolish I don't even fit into this world.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be such a radical believer in Jesus that it is going to distinguish me.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to cause me to look strange in certain places.
SPEAKER_01: People will not always like me.
SPEAKER_01: People may not always throw me a party.
SPEAKER_01: People may not always accept me.
SPEAKER_01: I might not even get that job, uh promotion that I was praying for and hoping for.
SPEAKER_01: But I will not bend my knee to a secular, unbelieving, ungodly, god-forsaking culture.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I believe all of it.
SPEAKER_01: Count me amongst the foolish.
SPEAKER_01: Count me amongst.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that God took on flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that he came and a virgin birth.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe it's a fairy tale.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that actually happened.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he raised the dead, he healed the sick, he cast out the demons.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that Jesus went to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I believe his blood washes away my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he carried my shame to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he rose up from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe that was a made-up story.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the tomb could not hold him, the stone was rolled away.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he revealed himself to the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He is resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he ever lives to make intercession for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe the same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives inside in me and lives inside in you if you are a born-again believer in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe that Jesus is coming back for his church one day.
SPEAKER_01: I believe there's a day coming.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody knows a day, nobody knows the time, nobody knows the hour.
SPEAKER_01: But he's coming back for his church.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in.
SPEAKER_01: I believe all of it.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that rocket that was launched off from SpaceX is only getting a glimpse of what God knows everything.
SPEAKER_01: He put it in it, it's his handiwork, it's his work, it's his creation.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in Noah, I believe in the flood, I believe in all of it.
SPEAKER_01: I believe Moses walked through the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he protected them and kept them through the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he fed them through every stage of the journey.
SPEAKER_01: I count me among the fools.
SPEAKER_01: Count me among the fools.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it may look foolish to this world, as Paul would say.
SPEAKER_01: The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the world is unashamed of what it believes, and why should we be ashamed of the great witness of the this gospel that God has given us?
SPEAKER_01: Why should we be ashamed?
SPEAKER_01: I believe we've got Jesus who is the way, who's the truth, and who's the life.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that the the world, the enemy, is digging a pit for itself and will fall into it.
SPEAKER_01: I believe all of its ideas and imaginations of evil will one day consume this world.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm praying and believing that the gospel is going to go forward, it's going to redeem people, it's going to save people, it's we're going to it's going to turn it around one more time.
SPEAKER_01: I believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Why should we be ashamed?
SPEAKER_01: The world's not ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: The world creates pride months.
SPEAKER_01: The world creates listen, you may not be marching on your city street, but can I tell you, in London, in Cork, where I grew up, in Paris, in New York City, they're marching down the streets.
SPEAKER_01: They believe in Sharia law, they believe in Islamification, but I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This sets people free, this gives people liberty, this people gives people hope.
SPEAKER_01: This people gives people heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not ashamed of this.
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't make people bound, this makes people free.
SPEAKER_01: He whom the sun sets free is free indeed.
SPEAKER_01: Where is the church?
SPEAKER_01: It's time for us to get a little bit of backbone behind us again.
SPEAKER_01: It's time for us to go back to the old rug across.
SPEAKER_01: It's time for us to say, I'm okay bring raising my kids up in church.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God for sports, but sports is not gonna come first.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is gonna come first in my household.
SPEAKER_01: Can I go there for a little while this morning, church?
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna allow, we're not gonna allow unfiltered internet into our into our children for them to be discipled by all types of perversion that this world says is acceptable and okay.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, you do not have to give in to that type of peer pressure.
SPEAKER_01: You are parents, you are mom, you are dad, you're the priest of your homes.
SPEAKER_01: You may look like foolish, others may put some scorn upon you and may make you look ridiculous, but I'd rather be a fool and please God, and I'll become even more undignified than this.
SPEAKER_01: It's time for men and women to stand up, and when your environments where people begin to use the name of Jesus like a cuss word, or they're getting involved in all kinds of things that does not please God, you break open the word and you stand there as a testimony and you get into this word and begin to read it again.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's time for a little bit of backbone in the church, time for a little bit of man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go against the norm, I'm gonna go against what this society tells me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me talk about generosity for a moment, church.
SPEAKER_01: I I've been living in this country now for 14 years, coming up 15 years, and in that time things have changed, even in this nation.
SPEAKER_01: I believe we gotta be careful that for the next generation that's rising up, our young parents or our parents uh that are parent teenagers and children and young people that are rising up, but it comes to generosity.
SPEAKER_01: One thing I noticed when I came here first is that the American people were generous people.
SPEAKER_01: The American church were tidying people.
SPEAKER_01: They said, I'm gonna put first God first in my giving, and I'm gonna trust God with it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about what I can get back in return, I'm just trusting God with it.
SPEAKER_01: We're living in a generation now, we're more interested in car payments, boat payments, Disney tickets, whatever I can get that comforts me in this world, and we have no ability to say, I want to be radically generous towards sending missionaries out to building churches to seeing the kingdom of God advance.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it hurts, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: But can I just hear a praise the Lord this morning?
SPEAKER_01: I say, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I say I want to be about the father's business, I want to be about what God is doing, I want to see the kingdom of God advance, and David all his life was about it.
SPEAKER_01: I'll become even more undignified than this.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I'm not here to please you, I'm here to please God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to itch your ears, I'm here to say whatever God has said to me.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I'm just gonna tell just say it because I've got a savior, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: I've got who laid aside his majesty, who laid aside his dignity, who took on my shame, he bled, he was naked, he was mocked, he was scourged, he was beaten, he was and he hung there for all the world to see why, because he moved past even the foolishness of the cross so that I could stand here today, washed in the blood, my name written in the Lamb's book of life, to make a way for us.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, to make a way for us, He He laid aside all He left the glory of heaven to come down to the dust of desert, but he has a way of turning dust into life, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_01: All the ways from Genesis, he can breathe into dust and create life.
SPEAKER_01: When Abraham chose his way and Lot chose his way, Abraham just did chose the dusty spot, but God blessed it, God used it, God blessed that place.
SPEAKER_01: Oh I I want to go with where the Lord leads.
SPEAKER_01: I want to go where the Lord calls us to.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Where am I this morning?
SPEAKER_01: I'm completely lost in my message today.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 1, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Worship team, why don't you just come on out?
SPEAKER_01: We'll end in some worship this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 1, verse 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first in also the creek.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're making a big decision.
SPEAKER_01: For us, it's a it's a fate step to go from the two services to the three services.
SPEAKER_01: It might feel like that's not a big thing, but it is a big thing when you have to organize it and you have to worry about it, and when you feel like you're not even able to do two services, now you gotta do three services.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it takes a bit in there.
SPEAKER_01: And people are like, well, what if it doesn't work?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, what if it doesn't work?
SPEAKER_01: What if it does work?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I might be, I might feel a little bit foolish, but I'd rather be a fool and and and not waste what God has given us the opportunity to do.
SPEAKER_01: Been worried about it being wrong the whole time.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, what if I what happens if I go and tell my neighbor about Jesus and he shuts the door in my face?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what if he does shut his door in your face?
SPEAKER_01: But what if he gives his life to Christ and he's in heaven forever?
SPEAKER_01: What if he's in heaven forever?
SPEAKER_01: What if I tell my work colleague that I sit next to every day what God's done in my life, how he's saved me, how he's redeemed me?
SPEAKER_01: What if I have to sit alone from now on my colleague doesn't want to sit there next to me because he thinks I'm crazy and all this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe he does.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe there's a seed that's planted in his life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe 20 years from now, there'll be somebody else that will come and water that seed.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe somebody else will come and bring in the harvest and lead that person to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it will all begin because you'd had the boldness and the courage to in that in next in next to your work, Colleague, to say, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What if we get it wrong?
SPEAKER_01: It's time for us to do the work of the evangelist, it's time for us to be bold.
SPEAKER_01: What about the gifts of the Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: Are we just gonna rationalize everything away?
SPEAKER_01: What if we get it wrong?
SPEAKER_01: What if you get it wrong?
SPEAKER_01: What if God uses you to prophesy?
SPEAKER_01: What if God uses your life to heal?
SPEAKER_01: What if you actually lay your hands on the sick and somebody gets healed?
SPEAKER_01: I've experienced that in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I prayed for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: I've prayed for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody gets healed, but doesn't mean I'm not going to stop placing my hands on people and saying, God, would you heal them in the name of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because there is power in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what the Lord has done.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: He's been so good, He's been so faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, can I get a proper praise of the Lord in the house this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: God's been so good.
SPEAKER_01: I had pictures that I was gonna put up on the screen that were just all of the events of the summer.
SPEAKER_01: Because really, with the beginning of summer, you look at all of the mission trips and the camps and everything, and you're going, How are we gonna how is this all gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just actually let's go through them.
SPEAKER_01: Costa Rica, let's just go through these faster.
SPEAKER_01: This is a school, the gospel that we preached in a school in Costa Rica.
SPEAKER_01: This is team challenge.
SPEAKER_01: Just pause there for a moment, just in this one right here.
SPEAKER_01: I can't say I know this guy's name, I don't, but I know that he comes in here with team challenge, that he has a desire to have God glorified in his life, that see chains broken.
SPEAKER_01: And here he is, making his public declaration of his faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I am believing that that will have a generational impact in his home and his family for years and years to come.
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep going through these for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: We had UCamp, let's keep on going.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at all these teenagers.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's give God praise for this.
SPEAKER_01: All of these amazing teenagers worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: They could be in a million other places, but they're worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Clay community outreach, bagpacks given out, people responding to the gospel, haircuts being given.
SPEAKER_01: Here we are in El Salvador, raising money for a women's center for helping people out of some very difficult backgrounds.
SPEAKER_01: In Ireland, in a place where secularism is continues to be on the rise, all types of confusion, and yet I believe God's not done with them yet.
SPEAKER_01: Can I pause there for a moment?
SPEAKER_01: Just here for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: This is personal for me.
SPEAKER_01: That kind of looks foolish.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of the world looks at that and goes, foolish.
SPEAKER_01: But can I tell you that I'm only here because somebody did this?
SPEAKER_01: This is in Ireland.
SPEAKER_01: See, my mom was given a gospel tract walking down the city street with by somebody doing this.
SPEAKER_01: And it changed not just her life, but my dad's life, my brother's life, my sister's life.
SPEAKER_01: My three kids are in kids' church this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad that somebody risked being foolish to see some somebody come to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody come.
SPEAKER_01: I've got friends.
SPEAKER_01: I've got friends who were very near and dear to me and Sarah that got saved on a street, on this street right here, because people came out there and told people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The world's not ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: You can go up and down that street, and people are talking about every kind of stupid idea in the world.
SPEAKER_01: We've got Jesus, we've got the King of Glory, we've got something to share about.
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep going through these.
SPEAKER_01: We went to Kenya this year, disrupted flights, bags lost, all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God for this picture right there.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God that there was people from the Springs Church that traveled across the world to encourage these young girls that God's got a future for you, God's got a plan for your life, God's got something wonderful in store for you.
SPEAKER_01: God sees you, God knows you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a church building.
SPEAKER_01: I actually didn't even know that we had raised the money for this church building until they built it and they dedicated it to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Church, you helped build that church building.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_01: That's on the Massime era.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: We got anything else?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's keep going through.
SPEAKER_01: Keep on going through there, Kenya.
SPEAKER_01: This is the VBS ministry that we went through.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's a little, it takes a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Esther.
SPEAKER_01: She wrote a song.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody remember the timeless song from VBS is here?
SPEAKER_01: She wrote that song.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you gotta put yourself out there.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all these kids.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's give God a proper shout of praise for what God is doing across this place.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand to our feet across this place this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone don't want to be foolish for the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody willing to be a little bit more undignified than this?
SPEAKER_01: You may you think you've seen something, you haven't seen anything yet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna become more bold, I'm gonna become more radical, I'm gonna become more on fire, I'm gonna dance like I'm like David danced.
SPEAKER_01: I am gonna worship, I'm gonna shout to the Lord, I'm gonna magnify him.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna just worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is this the altar type today is a shout to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it is.
SPEAKER_01: This song we've been singing over the prayer and fasting, we sang it this morning.
SPEAKER_01: There's something about it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not if we're ashamed of Jesus in here, what do you think is gonna happen out there when around the people?
SPEAKER_01: We might as well be bold about our love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to the Spring Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you were encouraged, uplifted, and challenged by the message today.
SPEAKER_00: If you need prayer or want to learn more about the church, we would love to connect with you.
SPEAKER_00: Visit the New Here page on TSCjacks.com.
SPEAKER_00: We pray you have a great week walking in all that God has for you.