Wake Up The Church (February 15, 2026)

Ever walked into a lively church and still felt the air was thin? We open our hearts about the gap between a bustling calendar and a beating spirit, challenging the comfort that keeps Jesus quotable but not interruptive. With honesty and humor, we trace how polished programs, fresh flowers, and even packed pews can hide a quiet spiritual death—and why reputation can’t replace revival.

We wrestle with the sting of Sardis and the sting of Laodicea, not as history lessons but as mirrors. Lukewarm faith isn’t a scandal; it’s a slow drift where we love salvation yet resist surrender. We talk plainly about disguising death with activity, chasing nostalgia instead of obedience, and the subtle ways gossip, grievance, and self-focus drain a church’s life. From tithe plate to volunteer schedules, from social feeds to Sunday greetings, we ask the hard questions: Are we meeting Jesus, or only meeting each other?

Then we turn toward hope. God still specializes in dead things. Ezekiel didn’t manage bones; he prophesied to them. We explore what it means to move from preservation to resurrection—choosing presence over performance, holiness over hype, and repentance that actually rearranges our week. Expect practical steps, candid stories, and a clear call to exchange a prettier corpse for fresh fire. The church doesn’t belong in the tomb. It belongs in the street—alive, burning, bold, and obedient.

If you’re ready to trade comfort for conviction and reputation for reality, press play, share this with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review so more people can find a path back to life.

Transcript

A House Full Of Kids, A Heavy Word

SPEAKER_01 0:32

So many kids. So many kids. It's shocking to me, honestly, because at one point we had like twelve and half of them were mine. Right? And now there's like 30 every week and most of them aren't mine. That's we're gonna keep it that way too, just so we're clear. What a blessing. What a blessing. Well, church. I hope our hearts are ready. I hope you've got your notebooks out. I need to tell you I didn't come to entertain you today, and I didn't come to give you three points in a poem. Right? So I have been really torn, my heart has been really torn about this thing that we're experiencing in the church, and this church is experiencing it, believe it or not, and a lot of us don't want to believe it because we don't want to see it, but it's true. And the problem is, is there's the the Spirit keeps saying something to us, and we keep saying it out loud. Those of us in leadership, we keep saying it out loud. We say in just about every setting that we fellowship with you in, but the church doesn't hear it. Amen. And what we're saying is, wake up. See? I told you you weren't hearing it. The church is saying, Jesus is saying, wake up. He is not saying readjust, he's not saying rebrand, he's not saying redecorate, he's saying wake up. Now, for those of you who don't know this about me, you're about to learn something really exciting, okay? I always thought from the time I was nine years old that my job would be a funeral director. I thought that I was going to embalm bodies for a living. Bizarre, isn't it? And see, God had called me to this season in life where I was convinced I remember the very first funeral I ever went to, I don't remember who it was for, but I remember the feeling of being in that building, right? I walked through the door and it was so well put together and it was peaceful, and there was just this rest in this place, and I felt so excited to be able to serve people in their time of need, but really God was calling me to be a pastor, I just didn't know it, right? Now, I want to say that being a pastor is so much different because see, when people are dead, they don't complain. When people are alive, a lot. A lot. And so I realized that that's not what God was calling me for. But here's the problem somewhere along the way, the church learned how to look alive all while being dead, right? And I look around this building all the time and I'm like, thank you, Jesus, for calling me to this place, but when do we wake them up? Right? But when do we wake them up? Because I look around and I remember there was a time when we were serving 16 people. 16 people, not family, 16 people in this building. And can I tell you something? This isn't this isn't a tithing message, but I'm gonna go there for just a minute. The offering has not changed from when we were serving 16 people to when we're serving 75 people. I don't understand. Now, I I guess I do, and it's because the church has not woken up to what God has called us to be and to do. We've just become complacent in who God is in our lives, right? Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Okay, all right. We learn how to smile on Sundays, we learn all the words of the song, we clap on beat most of the not never. Um but our hearts stopped beating a long time ago, right? Because you see, I had this vision that God had instilled in me that we would move into this place, into this beautiful new sanctuary. And somehow, in my mind, that equated to a church that was alive. And really, what it equated to was$20,000 dumped into a side of the building with a church that is still dead. It's true. Now I'm gonna hurt feelings today, and I'm okay with that. All right? Are we okay? I look listen, I've already told you I'm not here to coddle you, I'm not here to baby you. I'm here to tell you that Jesus has called us to something greater, and we can't sit inside of a dead building anymore, right? And it's not these four walls. I'm talking about us as the church. We're dying on the inside, right? Jesus said to the church in Sardis, you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Not lost, not struggling, not wounded, dead. With a period at the end of that sentence. That's a whole sentence, right? Dead. We are a church. I'm talking about this church. So if you're looking around at your neighbors, I'm talking about us that is dead, right? Because what happens is we show up and we pretend and we look and we we put flowers on the altar and we do all of the pretty things, right? But really the church isn't moving, the church isn't alive. We're serving ourselves, yes, amen. But are we truly serving those who God has called us to serve? Now, sometimes we have to serve those who are inside, but we oftentimes need to serve those who are on the outside. Can I tell you the real tragedy of being inside of a dead church? It's the fact that nobody notices. Right? When you look around and you're like, oh, that's my brother in Christ, that's my sister in Christ, right? Like, I love these people, but you don't realize that at no point do you ever actually fellowship with them, at no point do you actually speak into their life, at no point do you receive anything that they are speaking into your life. That church is dead. Dead, dead, dead. Now, I genuinely believe that just as Jesus called Lazarus from the dead, he can call a church from the dead. Listen, I know that he can. I've seen him do it. I will tell you that based on numbers. Now, I'm not trying to decide whether or not we have a bigger congregation than church across the street. That's not what I'm trying to figure out, right? But what I'm trying to figure out is that when we show up, what do we get from being in the building? Right? I hear people complain a lot when they're in the building, right? If all you're getting from this place is indigestion, you're in the wrong house. Right? And listen, God will call you other places and that's okay. But if all you're getting from this house is heartache and hurt, move on. I encourage you to do that. I I bless your departure. Listen, I don't want you to feel held hostage. I don't want you to feel like you are held hostage to me, this ministry, or this building. Amen. I promise you, God called us here before, he will call us here long after. It may not be me, it may not be any of us, but God will call this place much longer, right? I believe that wholeheartedly. All right. Because we have gotten really good at disguising death with activity. Now, I'm guilty of this. I think if I can keep you guys busy, eventually you'll wake up. But it's not true. Because you'll show up, right? You'll sign up for all the programs, you'll donate to all the things, you'll do everything that is asked of you, but your heart posture is still dead. There is still no life because all you're doing is meeting a requirement, putting a check in the box. How many of you got up this morning and said, I do not want to go to church this morning? Right? You don't have to admit it. Thank you, Maria. I appreciate you being honest, sweetheart. Not everybody desires to be in the house on Sunday morning, right? Some of us come because our spouses make us. Yes. Some of us come because Marcus raised his hand. Some of us come because we're on the schedule to volunteer, right? And we don't want to disappoint people, but we have not connected with the one who changes our lives, right? We have not connected with the one who we should be looking forward to spending time with in this building. We go around and we hug one another. Oh, I love you so much. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to see you. But all the while, we never meet Jesus in this place. We never meet Jesus in this place. We polish the programs, we freshen the altar with flowers, but I want to tell you something. If you lean in nice and close, if you lean in nice and close, you can truly smell what's underneath. And can I tell you what it is? It's death. Now, I want to ask you a question. Again, this is me, right? When you walk into a funeral home, what does it smell like? Fresh flowers. Right? Why do they put fresh flowers in the funeral home? Because they don't want you to smell the dead body. It's true, isn't it? It is true. They want you to walk in there and feel like, oh my gosh, this place is so pleasant. Every one of us associates the smell. Listen, Cincy had a uh a wax one time called Flower Shop. All right? And I loved it so very much because it reminded me of a funeral home. But it was meant to smell like fresh cut flowers. But to me, there was something soothing about that smell because it reminded me of my childhood and that dream and that desire, right? Church, can I tell you that we may smell like flowers in here, but it is not because we are alive, it is because we are covering the smell of death. That's it. Thank you. You know what? Why don't you just come? No, I'm just kidding. I better not tell him that because he will. Listen, we keep telling ourselves and the people around us that's not decay, it's tradition. It's not decay. Listen, our church isn't dying. We just like what we like. The church isn't dying, we just have a way of doing things. We just do all of these things this way. That's not death, that's order. That's not embalming. That's excellence. Listen, I need to tell you something. It is not excellence. If you are sitting here watching the church in front of you die, you are not serving an excellent church. You are serving a dying body. Amen. And listen, I'm not interested in serving a dying body anymore. Can I tell you it is exhausting to get up day in and day out and think about the people? And I have learned that I am not good at people. Is that fair? I had somebody say to me this morning, does my presence annoy you? And now we can laugh, we can laugh about that, but I get that like my face can treat you that way, right? It's never my heart. There is nobody in this building that I dislike. Listen, if I didn't like you, I'd tell you I didn't like you. Because that's one thing I'm really, really good at, right? If I don't, if I don't want to be around you, I won't be around you. But the problem is, because I know that about myself, I have to deploy people who can handle those situations, right? And I allow them to speak life into people, but sometimes life is not received. What you hear is is punishment. What you hear is is not right now or no or all of these things, but really sometimes we just have to stop and think. Am I not ready for this season of service? Because I'm gonna tell you something. There are Sundays that I get up that I am not ready for this season of service, right? That God is speaking into me, He's giving me life, and I don't know how to pour out that life because all I feel is the constant decay of the building. I've always said I want this building to fall down from overuse. Dan Lumpsix started this with me. I want it to fall down from overuse rather than non-use. Right? Because it used to be that every time you would touch something in this building, it would fall apart because it had never been touched, it had never been worked on, it had never been serviced. Right? Now we're to the point where we're wearing out carpet because we're in here too much, right? I'm gonna tell you, that's exciting for us when we have enough people that want to be in the building. The problem is, is we still have to focus on it's not just being in the building, it's being in Jesus. It is about being in Jesus. Jesus. Okay. Jesus speaks plainly to the church of Laodicea. Now, all of these are scriptures. I'm sorry, I did not write down my actual scriptures in my notes, so you're gonna have to keep up with me, okay? I don't know if this is one of them or not. I know all the things that you do, that you are neither hot nor cold, so I will spit you out of my mouth. Jesus said that to the church of Lady Osea. He says, I know all the things you do that you are not hot nor cold, so I will spit you out of my mouth. What does that say? Now listen, I'm a coffee drinker. Anyone else in here a coffee drinker? Do you want a hot coffee? Hot coffee. Don't give me some lukewarm coffee that sat on the counter for an hour, right? I don't want it. Now, Pastor Roger puts ice in his coffee. I don't get it, but he does it. Right? He says it's too hot to drink, it touches his lips, it burns his lips. But the church has become lukewarm. And what I mean by that, I don't mean that, listen, it's hot in here right now. Some of y'all might not believe that, but it's hot in here right now. Some of you got coats on. I'm sitting over here sweating to death. I'm like, start stripping off layers. It is not that the church is lukewarm in temperature, it is lukewarm in spirit, right? And so what happens is we come into the building and we pretend like we're so excited for what God is gonna do in our lives, and then we don't do anything with what God has spoken into our lives. Instead, we sit in our seats, we might write some notes, notes that we may never revisit, right? We might tell people about our church, we might get excited about the events that our church is having, but we have not truly found relationship with Christ in this place. All we have found is fellowship in one another. And can I tell you, iron sharpens iron? But if you are not sharp, you cannot sharpen anybody else. And so if you're just clanging against people, just to clang against people, what are you truly gaining in the spirit? So, see, I I I I I look for people who will who will tell me things that I don't necessarily want to hear. Right? And so when I when I'm working on a new project and somebody says to me, Pastor Michael, I know that you think that's a good idea, but it doesn't work because. All right, I want to hear you. I want to understand because I'm not the one doing it, right? On Sunday morning, this is my house, this is what I do. So if you tell me that I can't do this with sound, I'm gonna have to trust you and believe you. Right? It's the same thing in your relationship with Christ. When Jesus says you can't, you have to trust that he is leading you correctly. Amen. Somebody went out the back door. Thank you, Bobby. When Jesus spoke those words so plainly, it was not because they were hostile. The church was not hostile, amen. It's not because they were persecuting the church, it's because they were comfortable. The church had gotten so comfortable in their seats. We all still good? We all still okay, we're all still together because they had gotten so comfortable that Jesus was condemning them for being neither hot nor cold, right? Now I ask you a question when we sit in these seats, are we doing that exact same thing? Now I think about all of the things that the original churches would have gone through, and they would have known Jesus for who Jesus was, right? They would have seen Jesus. Oftentimes they would have heard these wonderful miracles, and yet they still sat lukewarm day in and day out. Our church has never seen Jesus face to face. We have experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, but we have never truly seen Jesus, and so it is very easy for us to keep him at a distance. See, it's not that a lukewarm Christian will ever deny Jesus. It's just that we don't need him.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

I think we're all a little distracted still. Let's just pray real quick. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for your move in this place, Father. This word is anointed and I know it. And Father God, I pray that you can center our hearts and our minds in this moment, Lord. Allow us to focus on you, not the distractions around us. Lord, give us ears to hear. Prepare our hearts, Lord. The spirit of distraction, Father, I call it out in the mighty name of Jesus. You are not welcome in this place. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. The church, just because it is lukewarm, is not denying Jesus, it is simply stating that it doesn't need Jesus. Now, here's my favorite part. When I wrote this down, I was like, oh, that'll preach. We want to keep Jesus close enough to quote. Amen. But far enough that he doesn't interrupt our lives. We don't want transformation anymore because transformation requires surrender, and surrender requires meaningful change in your life. It requires, listen, I don't know about you, but I've experienced meaningful change in my life, and oftentimes it is not comfortable. And when you can meet meaningful change in discomfort, you can truly relationship with Jesus. Because when I'm in the bottom, when I'm in the valley and I'm begging God, Lord, give me strength. Allow me to see what it is that you want me to see. And I'm being twisted and mixed up, and I'm in this pain and I'm in this suffering. And God says, stop.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

This isn't about you.

Salvation Without Surrender

SPEAKER_01 18:49

You don't have to beg. You don't have to plead. You know that I'm here, but I just need you to listen. To just listen. And because we are lukewarm, we don't want to listen. We don't want to hear what that still small voice is speaking into us. Because it will require us to make meaningful change in our lives. A lukewarm church will always love salvation, but will always resist surrender. And we want heaven later, but we want to avoid holiness now. Right? What is holiness? What does that mean? That means that that when Jesus speaks into our lives, we do what it is that he says. That means we don't go around using foul language. That means that we don't go around treating people poorly. That means we don't go around doing jello shots off of never mind. Never mind. You get what I'm saying. Amen? You get what listen, I I had to. I love our community dearly, and so oftentimes I find myself volunteering for things I don't always know exactly what they are. And there was this event the other day, and at the last minute they called me and they said, Michael, we really need your help. We need a PA system. How fast can you get us one here? And it was a person that I love dearly, and I said, Give me 10 minutes. I have to run home, grab some stuff, I'll come right up. I get there, set everything up. They're like, hey, can you pick it up about eight o'clock? So I get there about 10 to 8. I walk in, and the first thing I hear them say, Jell O shots are half off. I am not in the right place. Right? I am not in the right place. Because that's not the type of, that's not the crowd, it's not the environment that I want to associate myself with. But then I look back and I say, if I can continue to serve the community in a holy way, then fine, I will do that. I just don't need to put myself in that position, right? I'm not saying listen, I I'm I I don't care if you have a beer, but I'm gonna tell you this. I don't want to see it on social media. Because, you know, the minute that you do that, I have to ask, is it your first? Is it your tenth? Right? Did you drive after you did that? Right? Listen, I'm I'm not the judge nor the jury. I can't tell you what to do, but you need to make it right with Jesus. Amen. You need to, you need to ask, is this something that you're okay? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Don't come to Pastor Michael and say, is it okay if I go out and I don't, I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I'm gonna tell you to meet Jesus at the throne and say, Lord, change me. Lord, guide me, direct me, Father. That's what I'm gonna say to you. Amen. That was completely off topic. Anyhow, lukewarm Christianity has truly embalmed the church. Because it's still here, it's preserved, right? I was I was reading, is Nick here? Nick's not here. I I don't know that these this is accurate, but Abraham Lincoln was embalmed like some 19 times. Because they would take him by train all across the United States after his assassination. Do you guys know that? Bizarre. So every stop that they would get to, they would re-embalm him so that he could continue to travel. So what I'm saying is you can kick that can down the road for a long time, right? And so we can embalm the church. We can keep the church looking fresh, keep fresh flowers all around it so it looks like it is alive when really all along it is dead.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Let's preserve well let never mind.

Holiness In Everyday Choices

Comfort Culture And Church Politics

SPEAKER_01 22:24

We're gonna skip it because Lord is uh He is pushing me past this. Slowly and quietly, the church has stopped bleeding for the lost and disconnected. Truly, the church has stopped bleeding for those people. We don't put ourselves in uncomfortable positions any longer. Amen. What we do is we preach watered-down gospel so it makes everybody feel comfortable. So everybody feels welcome. Listen, we don't have time. And he might love everybody, but God does not love sin. Right? And I'm sorry, but it is the way that it is. And sometimes your hurt feelings are just that. Right? Sometimes you have to get over yourself. Sometimes you have to allow the Holy Spirit to move in your life to lead you, guide you, and direct you. But oftentimes we want to run from that and we want to keep everybody, we want to keep everybody close. Oh, we don't want anybody to ever be upset. Listen, people are going to get upset by the church. It is going to happen. People will be offended by what the church stands for, they will be offended by what Jesus calls them to and expects of them. At some point, we stopped fearing God. At some point, we stopped being reverent to the word of God. Amen. And here's what I want to say about that. When somebody is delivering an anointed word, it is not time to play block us on your phone. Right? It's not time to do a Google search on what the church of Lady Osea is, right? When you are being spoken to, when the word of God is being delivered to you, this is a moment in which you should be surrendering your heart so that God can really do something in your life, right? But so often we're more worried about the things that are around us, the people who are, the noise, the distraction. Let me tell you something. The devil will do that to you. The devil will, in fact, listen, have you guys noticed that the church doesn't want to call the devil the devil? He'll call him the enemy. He is the enemy, don't get me wrong. But his name is Satan. And can I tell you something? I don't capitalize it when I spell it. He has no authority in my life. He has no authority in this building. However, for some reason, we like to give him authority when we step outside of the building, right? We get down the street and all of a sudden somebody cuts us off. We flip them the bird, and now all of a sudden, oh, the enemy's really working on me. No. You're a lukewarm Christian. You are a lukewarm Christian because you know what God expects of you. You know what Jesus died for you for, right? We know. I know. I know, and I still do. It is not a good thing for the church to continue to live in a lukewarm environment. Nobody has ever called the lukewarm movement exactly what it is, and it's the death of the church. It is, in fact, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the death of the church. You know, you go look at some of those mega churches, they have thousands of people coming in Sunday after Sunday, Sunday after Sunday, and they get this twisted gospel where they can tell you that if you name it, you can and you proclaim it, then you can have it. Right? Listen, I've been telling God for a long time that I want to be a millionaire. He ain't never showed up with that one. I don't know why. I trust him. With all my heart, I trust him. Right? I believe that God will provide for me, but apparently, it is not to be a millionaire. Not today. But I still believe that God will take care of me. I know that for a fact I will never be without. You know, the Bible tells us that if He is going to, if He's gonna dress the lilies, then surely He will clothe me. Listen, I may not be a 10, solid four, but I just got lucky, I married up. That was the trick. But I know that God is gonna take care of me in all things. He is gonna make sure that I have all of the things that I need in my life. I don't have to have money, I don't have to have a nice car. Listen, that's a hard one for me, y'all. I'm gonna tell you, I have been, I God, I just want you to help me figure out how I can go buy a new Tesla. Lord, this is a dangerous statement, but I've made it. Lord, I will do whatever it is that you call me to if you just help me figure this out. And then one time he said to me, Would you go to children's ministry? I was like, All right, now don't be ridiculous, right? Come on. But I realized that I say those things, but I don't mean those things, right? That's the church as a whole today. Here we are, Lord, use us. Here we are, Lord. We want to be used by our community. But when the community comes crawling to our door, begging for something, we turn them away. We turn them away, and we turn them away because we don't want to be inconvenienced or we don't want to have this appearance of dealing with people who are less than. I want to remind you that Jesus sat at the table of tax collectors. Jesus sat with people who were not of his stature, but he didn't go there because he wanted to be like them. He went there because he wanted them to be like him. And so when those people come to us, we are not trying to, we are not trying to become like them. We are trying to make them become like us. Because we are like Jesus. I don't want them to be like Pastor Michael. I don't want them to be like Andrew. I don't want them to be like James. I want them to be like Jesus. Here's the danger. When somebody preaches a sermon without conviction, there will never be surrender. Right? Anytime somebody comes to the altar, my immediate prayer is, Lord, allow there to be repentance. Because oftentimes people come to the altar and they hit their knees and they sit there. And oftentimes they don't even talk to God. I was talking to somebody one time, they're like, I don't even know what to do when I go to the altar. I just go. And I just sit there. And I'm like, what do you mean you don't know what to do? That is the holy of holies, right? Like that's when I hit the altar, I'm like, Lord, whatever it is that I've got going on inside of me, I need you to remove it right now. Like I want, I want an open heart surgery in this moment, not a physical one, but a spiritual one, right? I want to pour out everything that is in my heart that is not of you, God. I want to leave it lay here as a sacrifice unto you. Because see, I don't have to sacrifice animals anymore to be in relationship with God, to be in good standing. But I do have to sacrifice my heart. I do have to sacrifice the things that are in my mind and the things that are in my life. Can I tell you? You know, the Bible tells us if you thought it, you've already said it. Right? That that is not permission to just say it, by the way. Right? Because, well, if Jesus knows I already thought it, I might as well say it. No. The idea behind that passage of scripture is to get you to think about the things that are going on in your mind because you are not living a godly life. If you are continuing to think hateful thoughts, if you are continuing to think derogatory thoughts. Listen, there are people all around you who you will not like in life. Right? I I look at people all the time and I'm like, uh, Lord help me. You know, that person that came up to me this morning and said, Does my presence annoy you? Uh now that I'm thinking about it, yeah. No, I'm just kidding. No, but whenever we think those things, and when we think people think those things about us, right? It allows it to consume us, it allows the enemy to consume us. Listen, on Sunday morning, it's not the time. It is not the time to come to Pastor Michael and beg and plead for whatever it is that you want. Do you know why? Because when the anointing rests, I don't want to deal with it. So a lot of times I've just learned I have to disappear now. Right? I'm not trying to be mean. I love you guys. I don't want to spend time with you. Text me anytime you want. I'll text you back in three to five business days, right? But I love you, but I can't be available whenever the anointing starts to rest because that anointing is broken by the chaos in the house. Right? I need you guys to understand that. Buildings full of people, right? So our building could be absolutely full. How many people are here today, Pastor Roger? Where are you at? 75 adults? How many children? Where are you at? Oh, I didn't say, I hear your voice, I don't see your face. 20 kids. So we're about 100 people this morning, right? This building, we seat 150 in here. So this building could be completely full and still be void of holiness. And still be void of true holiness. Without hosting the presence of God, we have simply learned to fill seats. Right? We beg people to come to church with, hey, organic church is a wonderful place to go. You should come. Right? All the while we are sitting in our seat, void of any relationship with Christ. I sit here in my seat and I think, you know, hey, I got five people to come to church with me this Sunday. Can you believe that? Five people. Some people they drag people's kids in. I don't even know where I think they just drive around and just throw people's kids in the car. Show up with them. One time, this is not a joke. Listen, this is I'm being for real. One time we had this young lady, she arrived at church one Sunday morning, she's got a baby in her arms, and the next thing I know, Connie's got that baby. And I'm like, I don't think you can do that, right? Like, that's the stuff that we do because we love everybody in this building. Listen, there are people that have come in here in all sorts of bad shape, and we still love them. Right? But here's what I need to, oh, you might have to take over in a second because I might get in trouble. Thank you, Jesus. Can I just say though, that if you've left what? I'm gonna say it. Listen, I've learned. I don't, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it for you. If your problem is, if you have a problem with me, be brave enough to say it. Right? Be brave enough because you're not gonna hurt my feelings. Now, be prepared for my response because my response is gonna be this listen, I love you, but if you don't like me, that's okay because I don't care. Right? I love Jesus and that's what matters to me. So because here's what I've experienced, here's what I have experienced. What I have experienced is that people will go from church to church and complain about the pastor, complain about this, complain about that. I don't like this about that church. I was over there and they didn't treat me. The pastor didn't even speak to me when they saw me in the Dollar General. That pastor walked right by me and didn't even speak to me when they were in the Dollar General. Can I tell you something? If your problem is always with something in the church, there's a common denominator. It's not those pastors, it's not those church buildings, it ain't the coffee on Sunday morning. You know what it is? It's your heart. It is your heart, and so then you decide I'm gonna bring all of my friends from the church that I hate to the church that I love, and I'm gonna wreck that church from the inside out. Is it true? We're gonna drag everybody with us. We're gonna get everybody in the building. And then, well, listen, I went to a church one time. I was talking to a uh a pastor's husband. Okay, for those of you who don't like pastor, lady pastors preaching, buckle up, because here we go. This lady pastor, her husband called me. She said, Pastor Mark, I've got a question for you. I said, Let's hear it. He goes, Well, we're having some problems with our senior pastor. I'm already like, checked out, because I know I can't lead well in that conversation, right? Because been there, done that. It doesn't feel good, right? We got a problem with our senior pastor, and counsel is thinking about having him removed.

unknown 34:35

Ha!

Dry Bones And Real Revival

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Can I ask a question? Did God call you to that moment or are you frustrated because you didn't get what you wanted? Right? Because that's what happened. Listen, I am not saying I'm perfect, I'm not saying I've got it all together. What I'm saying is that if God has appointed me to this place in this moment, you don't get to decide differently, right? Because God will call me out when it is time to go out. And I'll tell you that when God is ready to remove me, I will go willingly. Right? I won't fight you at all. I won't argue. But it's because the church has become so lukewarm that we think by changing a regime, by moving out a senior pastor, by shifting up the way that council operates, that we can make meaningful change in the church. You can't. Meaningful change starts right here. That's it. That's it. And I'll ask you that if you're thinking those things, where is your heart posture? Here's what I've learned. If you will talk about somebody else in this church, you will talk about me. And then when you come to me and you're like, well, Pastor Michael, I don't think you like me. You have to understand what I've heard. Right? Pastor Holly, laugh, we get it. We live through it. Because she'll call me and she'll be like, Pastor Michael, I need to tell you something. And I'll call her, Pastor Holly, I need to tell you something. Listen, it takes a lot to hurt me. I've been through it, I've seen it, I've done it, I've witnessed it. But, but it doesn't mean it's easy when you hear those things. It doesn't mean I just go, oh, well, forget them. No, I think, man, I have poured out my heart. I have poured out my life, not just to that person, but to this building, this body, all of these things. You know, Pastor Roger and I are here sometimes three nights a week through the week, making sure that this house is prepared for you to be here on Sunday mornings, right? Fixing things that don't work. Like, listen, this morning I went to use the the toilet and it exploded and it was spraying water all over the bathroom. I just turned it off and walked away. I'm like, that's a problem for another day, right? But I'm gonna come and fix that for you so that you guys can use that toilet. You are welcome in advance. But oftentimes nobody knows those things that happen, right? And so what happens is it's like, well, they just work on Sunday morning. I wish, I wish I could just work on Sunday morning, but the church has become so obsessed with themselves, so obsessed with the things inside of the building that we have forgotten what it means to truly be the church. We have forgotten what it truly means to live life for Jesus, to represent Jesus when we step out into the world. The good news in all of this, are you ready? God still specializes in dealing with dead things. Right? He hasn't given up on dead things. Ezekiel stands in a valley full of bones, not bodies, but bones, bleached, dry, and hopeless. And God asks him a dangerous question. What was that question? Can these bones live again? And Ezekiel answered so wisely and said, Lord, only you know. And God says, Prophesy. Not plan, not analyze, not apologize, but prophesy. Because life does not return through nostalgia. I'm a kid of the 90s, right? I have lived in two different worlds. When I grew up, nobody had a computer in their house. Right? It wasn't a thing. But by the time I was in high school, just about everybody had a computer with dial up internet, right? We had access. Listen, for the who's in my age group, how many of us had computers in high school? Yeah, listen. Did you download music off the internet? Illegally. Yeah, lime wire, Napster, all of those things. I ain't trying to get any of us going to jail, but that was Andrew Johnson, if anybody's looking for him. Um we would give viruses to those computers all day long because we were on there. We were trying to download stuff. Listen, some of y'all are too young to even know what that means, right? Some of y'all have been using uh Apple Music and Spotify your entire life. You don't even know how hard it was to steal a CD. Right? We do not regain our childhood through nostalgia, right? The church does not come back alive by being nostalgic about the church that used to be. The church comes alive by breathing on the dry bones and speaking life into that church. Amen? And that does not come from one person or two people, it comes from a body of believers saying that I believe that Jesus has called me to this house for such a time as this, so that I may breathe life into the people around me and I may give life to dry bones. When we stop and become obedient, and we listen to what God has called us to do, we can truly revive not just the church but ourselves. I am not looking to serve a lukewarm body. I'm not looking to show up here on Sunday morning to have a bunch of people that sit in their seats and just say, Listen, if this congregation cut in half today, I would say, Lord, thank you for separating the wheat from the chaff. Because what's gonna happen, I I've told you guys my wife loves to grow flowers, right? And she has these beautiful dahlias that she grows every year. And it's always painful to me because what happens is when the when the dahlias first start to bloom, they've got these big, beautiful blooms on them. And she goes out there and she just cuts the head off of it. I'm like, it is the it is the most pain because they're so beautiful, right? But why do you do that? So that it can multiply, right? And sometimes that's what it means. This was not the intention of this message. I was not trying to run people out the door today, but here we are. Here we are. Today, God has called the church out of preservation and into resurrection. Right? Because the dead body that lies before us, we should be speaking life into it. If the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us, then we can revive anything. Anything. Anything. Now, I am not recommending that you find some roadkill and you try to breathe life into it. What I'm saying to you is look at your spirit today, right now, and say, is this spirit truly alive? Am I truly accepting Christ for who he is? Is he making meaningful change in my life so that I might breathe life into the people around me? Or are you sucking the life out of the people around you? Because I'll tell you, there are people that know how to suck the life out of you. Amen?

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Listen, we're not looking for a prettier corpse today. We're not looking for nicer flowers, cleaner flowers.

From Preservation To Resurrection

SPEAKER_01 41:57

We are looking for fresh fire. We don't need noise, we need fresh breath in our lungs. We need to be able to believe that God is willing and able to wake up this slumbering body and call us back into life. Amen. You get up every morning and you walk out of your bedroom and into the kitchen and you make your pot of coffee. And typically, by the time you've gotten there, you've complained about my back hurts. My knees are getting old. That's mine. Why do I feel this way? Right? Instead of saying, thank you, Lord, for another day. Thank you, Lord, for blessing. Thank you, Lord, for the anointing that rests in my life. You are worthy of my praise, not of my complaints. I can lay all of those complaints down in front of him, but there is no need because I know that he will continue to care for me day in and day out. I've always been fascinated with funerals, and I think about all of the, and I know that's weird for some of you, but it's just, it's, it's never bothered me. Death has never bothered me because I know what that means. It's a step from this life into the next. Amen. And I have been that way my entire life. It has never been something that I'm uncomfortable talking about. Um I this is not a joke. I told my wife the tie that I wanted to be buried in. I gave her the tie, and it's the tie that I was wearing when we got married. Um, it's kind of like that, it's freedom. No, I'm just kidding. She's not in here. Don't tell her I said that. She'll hear it. She'll hear it when she listens. I know that like they hire people to come in and do hair and makeup and to make this body look its best. But church today, I don't want to hire a beautician for the church.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

I want to resurrect the church. I want to bring the church back to life.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Now, here's what I firmly believe. I believe that in this season, we have opportunities to not just wake up this body, but the bodies in our community. We are going to host every other denomination in our community in this building. Right? We get to show them what it means to be alive. And then we're gonna descend on another church and we're gonna preach the gospel like we've never preached the gospel before, and we are gonna breathe life into that building, and we are going to encourage every person. In all of those places to truly come back to life. To truly come back to life. Dodgeball, Easter egg hunt, all of those things allow us to breathe life into the community that is lost, broken, and quite honestly, dead. Ready for burial. The church does not belong in the tomb. It belongs in the street, alive, burning, bold, and obedient. Wake up, repent, and breathe life again. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you and I praise you for an anointed word today. Lord, I pray that as we continue to just believe in all of the things that you're doing in our lives, Father, that you would wake us up. Father, that you would give us a burning desire to be in your word and be in fellowship with you. Lord, that this is not about us, that this is about you. That Father, we are focused on you and the revival of your church. Now, Lord, I know that revival is not something that we create, it's an experience that happens naturally by a move of God. And Lord, we are ready. I have prepared my heart. I have prepared my leadership. Father, here we are. Use us. That is not lip service today, Father God. That is not lip service. Wake up, O sleeper. Wake up, O sleeper. Father, I pray that as we move from this place, you give us guidance and direction. Allow us to be able to be in connection with you. Allow us to move in spirit with you. Allow us to lay down the dead flesh, the heavyweight, Father God, and focus strictly on you. Father, I thank you and I praise you. I give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen. Love you guys. We'll see you on Wednesday at Yerkesville Methodist Church.