I Have Decided (August 23, 2026)

Skipping once feels harmless, but what if the real danger is the slow drift you barely notice? We start with a funny, painfully relatable picture of decision fatigue, then zoom out to the decisions that shape a life: the commitments you stop renegotiating because they matter too much. When Sunday morning turns into a weekly debate driven by sleep, weather, schedules, or who’s preaching, consistency starts losing ground and our faith becomes negotiable. 

We dig into Hebrews 10:23-25 and the idea that neglect rarely happens in one big moment. It happens in inches: livestream becomes a habit, “next week” becomes a pattern, and soon you feel like you don’t belong. We also talk about why church is more than a sermon rating and why gathering matters for spiritual maturity, encouragement, and actually living out Christian discipleship. The coal-in-the-fire picture lands hard: a faith that’s isolated might glow for a while, but it does not keep burning on its own. 

From fellowship to serving the community, we get practical about what consistency produces and what disconnection tends to produce: complaining, suspicion, and a shrinking heart. The goal isn’t legalism or perfect attendance. It’s choosing a rhythm that removes the debate, anchors your week in Jesus, and models something real for your kids and the people watching your life. 

If this message hits you, share it with someone who’s been drifting, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one decision you’re ready to settle today?

Transcript

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Consistency As A Daily Shortcut

SPEAKER_00 0:31

For those of you who know me, you know that if nothing else, I'm incredibly consistent, especially with the way that I eat. I like to eat the same thing every day until I'm absolutely sick of it and can't stand it anymore. Every day I go home from work for lunch. I it takes me longer to open my garage door than it does to get to work, and I'm not joking. Okay? So every day I go home from work and I have lunch, and every day I have the same two things. I either have three fish fillets. Hate if you want, it's delicious. I actually we have to buy it at Sam's Club. We have to buy the biggest bag we can get at Sam's Club because I eat so much of it. Or I eat three chicken strips every single day. Do you know why I do that? What? Probably wasn't nice. It's so I don't have to think about what I'm having for lunch. Now, if I'm not mistaken, and I don't remember who it was, but there was a celebrity, or maybe it was a president, I don't remember if it's a president, nickel now, who ate vanilla ice cream for dessert everywhere that he went. Because he didn't have to think about dessert. He just knew what it was gonna be every time he went to have it. Right? Can we agree that there are some decisions that are just too important to debate every single day? Right? Like, Dale, do you well gotta be careful? I want you to answer honestly, but I want you to think about your answer before you answer. Do you ever wake up in the morning and go, should I still be married? See why I wanted him to think about that question before he answered it. The answer is no. You know that when you I assumed that it was, and I thought I was safe. I wasn't. He knows that when he wakes up, he will always be married. He will continue to be married. Do you wake up and decide whether or not your children are still your priority or your responsibility? No, you wake up and you know that they are still your responsibility and your priority. Whether you like it or not, they are still there and they're not going anywhere. I don't think many of us wake up and say, Well, should I pay the electric bill? Because we know if we don't, there's gonna be a consequence. They're gonna shut it off and we're gonna be in the dark, right? We know that there are things that we don't even have to decide because they've been decided for us. Once we've had children, they're our responsibility. Once we get married, that is our responsibility. Once we have bills, they are our responsibility. And I think that one of the biggest enemies that we come against now is is consistency, right? Because I think the church as a whole has become so inconsistent that we don't even know how to how to figure out what we should be doing from day to day. I I realize that if we are constantly renegotiating decisions that we have to make, eventually we start to make them in an adverse way. We start to decide that, well, maybe that's not quite as settled as we once thought that it was. So

When Church Becomes A Weekly Debate

SPEAKER_00 3:39

I had decided that in February, for Alyssa and I's 15th anniversary, we were gonna go on a cruise. Just her and I wife doesn't like the vacation without the kids. But I had decided for our 15-year interview, that's a big number, right? 15 years is a long time to put up with me. And I'm aware of that. And she deserves to be rewarded, right? And it was settled. We were ready to book the flights, we were ready to do everything we needed to do. And yesterday, I sent her a text message from work, and I said, Hey, what if we go to Graceland instead? For those of you who don't know, that's where Elvis lived. Right? Now, listen, the decision that I had made that was so incredibly settled is now negotiable. Right? Because I've thought about it and I've debated about it, and so it's no longer consistent. And I need to tell you that Sunday mornings has become that for every one of us. So many of us, we wake up and we ask the question, are we going to church today? What did we do last night? Do the kids want to go? Is it too early to get up? Is it too early to wake up? What's the weather gonna be like? I wonder if the donuts are gonna be chocolate. I heard you guys like the chocolate donuts, that's all I'm saying. What? You love the chocolate donuts? Chocolate donuts it is. Peyton has spoken, chocolate donuts it is. Here's the one that bothers me the most. Who's preaching? Do I feel like going? I'm gonna tell you something. If you have to decide whether or not from week to week you are going to church based on a set of situations that may or may not have happened in your week, you have already allowed the enemy to have a seat at your table. If he's got a seat at your table on a decision that should be centered around Jesus every week, if that's the decision that you're making every week, I hate to tell you you've already lost. Because this isn't a decision on whether or not we're going to church to be around like-minded believers. The decision is do I like what's going to happen when I get there? One of the things that I realize is that there are some of you who come to church week in and week out, and sometimes you probably leave and you go, I got absolutely nothing out of that. Good for you. That's great. Because that means whatever that message was wasn't meant for you. It doesn't mean it wasn't meant for somebody. And we can't devalue a sermon, we can't devalue an interaction with the body of Christ just because it didn't give us a warm fuzzy like we had hoped for. Right? We talk about a season of waiting and waiting for God to move in our lives. Sometimes we just have to show up. Sometimes we just have to be there. Listen, church attendance has started to compete with our feelings. Right? Our feelings are now more important than our relationship with Christ. Holly, you're right. It's hot in here. The question is: do I like the people who sit next to me? It's true. Is the person saying listen, I always have my same seat. In the past two weeks, somebody else has sat in it. Listen, the last time I talked to Pastor Michael, he didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. The last time I went, they had already closed the coffee shop before I got a coffee. The last time I went, they were out of chocolate donuts. Peyton, would you come back next week if we didn't have chocolate donuts? Guess I shouldn't have asked that question. No. Chocolate donuts or busts? Alright, I hear you, girl. I hear you. It's competing with your schedule. It's competing with exhaustion. It's competing with recreation. Listen, we know that everything else in our lives will consistently try to take away from our relationship with Jesus, right? Everything in your life will try to remove your relationship with Jesus. Because the enemy doesn't care about you being busy. He would rather you be busy if that compromises your relationship with Christ. Now, something that I don't have to do. Now, sometimes I have to wrestle with myself, right? I get up on Sunday morning knowing where I'm going to be. Now, sometimes I think, man, it'd be nice if I could stay in bed today. But I never stop to think, well, could I? What if I just sent a text and just told everybody church was canceled this morning? Because I could do that, right? I could just send a text and some of you might not get it and still show up. Some of you may not show up. Some of you may go, what's going on? He texted my wife, is he sick? And my wife's like, I don't know. He sent the text. He didn't even tell me. But Joshua 24, 15. As for me and my house, as for me and my family, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I am not going to serve a Sunday morning football schedule. I am not going to serve a Sunday morning dance schedule. Softball. Soccer. Listen, sometimes your Saturday night becomes your Sunday morning. Right? Any of you ever went to the bar on Saturday night? Tied one on and decided not to go to church on Sunday morning? Listen, you don't have to lie, it's okay.

unknown 9:42

My mother drug.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Her mother drug her here. Holly drug Dave. Sometimes still drunk from the night before. Let me tell you something. Being consistent is a huge victory. Sometimes you show up frustrated. Sometimes you show up angry. Sometimes you show up sad, hurt, broken, whatever the word is, but you show up. But you show up. Listen. I'm not trying to beat anybody up for not being at church every Sunday because some of you travel. Some of you have work. Listen, we told the story about Dale last week, right? Did you hear that sermon, Dale? Oh, darn. He did hear it. He gets a new job. Guess what? He can be here on Sunday mornings now. Consistency is key. Hey, did you guys notice that Dale was here this morning? Hallelujah. Right? Can I tell you something? That when you are missing in the house, it is felt by the people around you. You may not know it. Right? If Marcus doesn't show up to church on Sunday morning, Tino, do you know Marcus isn't here? Right. There's nobody darkening the doorways when you walk through, right? Listen. I know that it's not easy to get up every Sunday morning and just show up. Sometimes we're tired, sometimes we got a runny nose, sometimes we got whatever. But listen. If you can, you should. If you can, you should. We shouldn't be finding excuses not to. We should be looking at all of the reasons why we should. Listen, I don't know what this week's gonna bring for me at work. I'm sure you don't know what this week is gonna bring for any of you. But here's what I do know. Next Sunday, I'll see you here. I'll be right here next Sunday. Excited for what God is going to do in each and every one of our lives. Let's turn to

Hebrews 10 And Slow Neglect

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Hebrews chapter 10. We're gonna read 23 and 25. We're not gonna stay in here real long. It says, let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm. For God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good work. Ready? And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now, that the day of his return is drawing near. Every time we hear somebody say, Jesus is coming soon, I promise you that it may not be today, but it is truly sooner than it was than the moment before they said it. Jesus will in fact return. And when Jesus returns, the church, his body needs to be ready. Amen? And we cannot forsake the gathering of his people because we want to go to see a football game. We cannot forsake his gathering because we want to stay at home in our PJs. Listen, here's one thing I can promise. Well, we're I'm getting ahead of myself. Getting ahead of myself. Here's what, here's the part that I think we need to understand. We need to not neglect the meeting together. And I and then the language says not to neglect it. And why? Because neglect doesn't happen all at one time, right? If you've ever been in social work or you've ever dealt with uh other people in their homes, oftentimes children don't get neglected all in one day. A parent doesn't decide all of a sudden, I'm not gonna care for my children anymore. Oftentimes what happens is they're like, oh, well, baths aren't important today. My wife watches this, oh Lord Jesus. She watches this lady uh on the internet, and her job, what she does for a living, is take mats out of people's hair. Talk disgusting. All right? No judgment on the people that got mats in their hair. That happens, right? I don't understand it. But it ha it will take three or four girls four, eight-hour days, to get these people's heads clean. Do you watch it too? Please don't tell me you watch it. Oh, Jesus. Jesus. It's nasty. And oftentimes when they tell their story, their story is well, I started wearing these head wraps and I decided I didn't need to wash my hair every day. Or I started wearing this wrap, or I started putting my hair in this particular style, and I didn't need to wash it every day. It didn't, those mats didn't grow overnight. It happened because they slowly began to neglect. To the point where they had to see a specialist to have it fixed. The same happens with our hearts when we neglect the body of Christ. Slowly. You know, you ever wake up on a Sunday morning and you go, you know what, we're just gonna stay home and catch a live stream this morning. Right? We're just gonna stay home, we'll watch it on TV, we'll listen to the podcast, we'll see it later. Right? And then the following week, you're like, well, that wasn't too bad. Sure was nice being able to stay in our pajamas. Not very often on Sunday morning do we get to make pancakes for breakfast because you know we're on the go. So what if we just stayed home again this week? But we'll go next week. We'll definitely go next week. And then week three rolls around and you're like, you know what? I placed my grocery order and it's supposed to be here while we're at church. Why don't we just stay home and put away the groceries and then we'll go next week? By week four, you don't even care about making an excuse. By week four, it's I'll just stay at home. I

Why Gathering Still Matters

SPEAKER_00 15:41

had that happen. Uh I was I was having lunch with Pastor Rod Phillips from Denison, and he and I were sitting together and he was telling me this story, and he said he bumped into somebody that hadn't been in church in a few weeks, and he said, Oh, did you oversleep? And they were somewhat offended by the statement because they hadn't been to church for three weeks. And their pastor asked them if they had overslept. When you don't show up to church for three weeks in a row, and you're offended when your pastor calls you, you have no intention on going back. And can I be honest with you? Man up and just say, Yeah, we don't like you anymore. It's fine. Say, we don't feel fed in your building. It's fine. It really is, because then what I can do is I can release you and I can pray for you to find somewhere where God will feed you. That wasn't the situation for these folks. But you get what I'm saying. Stop making excuses for not showing up to church on Sunday. Start looking at the reasons why you should be in church on Sunday. Listen, I was sitting in the back this morning on the couch, and Marcus and Jenny and Sincere were back there with me, and we have this new game called Fake It. Anybody ever heard of Fake It? It's the best game ever, and anybody can play. Basically, of the four of us, one three of us got to read a word, a real word, in a category, and then one of us was the imposter. The imposter's job is to pretend like he fits in. Right? Now, we were doing characters. And while we were doing it, the character was Dumbledore. Okay, so he's from a Harry Potter movie, not everybody knows him, but anyway, we're playing the round, and Sis yells, Captain Hook! We all knew immediately it was her, that she was the imposter. Listen, I start laughing so hard, I almost throw up, and that is not a joke. Everybody that was there saw it, it was awful. I don't come here to simply preach the word. I come here for fellowship with you guys. Right? I love being around all of you. Even Harry. I love being around all of you. And we have such a good relationship in this building. But we don't forsake the gathering of the people because we are too lazy to get up and come to church. It should be our heart's desire to be in church. Listen, that one Sunday becomes two, two becomes three, three becomes four. Pretty soon we're missing months at a time. Pretty soon we feel like we don't belong when we do show up, right? Have you ever shown up to church after missing for a while and people start hugging you and you're like, really, I don't know if I'm supposed to be here right now. Right? A lot of times you start to feel guilty because people start looking at you, right? Whenever you're talking to them, they're like, Oh, I know what you were doing. Oh, I know, oh sinner. Right? We feel that inside of us. The problem is, is most of the time people aren't actually thinking that. When they give you that hug, they're so excited to see you back in the body. They're so happy to have you there. But the problem is, is the enemy has already taken that foothold at your table. He's already taken the seat at your table. He has convinced you that you cannot walk back into the house of God. Because if you do, surely they will judge you. Surely they won't welcome you. He doesn't have to destroy our faith. That's not the enemy's, that's not what the enemy is trying to do. All he has to do is interrupt our consistency. And I don't mean that just in church attendance. Are we praying every day? Are we spending time with Jesus in prayer every day? If the answer is no, you're losing ground. You are not remaining consistent. How about spending time in the Word? Are you spending time in the Word? Because if you're not, you are losing ground. Consistency in relationship is going to be one of the most important things that you can do in order to keep yourself viable inside of the kingdom. Listen, we don't come here to just show up and warm a seat. We come to serve a community of broken people. Listen, every pastor in this community, we all have the same vision. And that's to bring Christ to every person inside of our community. I can promise you that is a common goal that we share. We don't all see it the same way. Some of us believe we should be paying people's rent, some of us believe that we should be feeding people, some of us believe we should be having free events that everybody can come to. Listen, we don't all see it exactly the same. But each of us are part of the body, right? And if you are having free events and I am giving away groceries and they are helping pay rent, guess what? We are serving a community that is truly in need. We can't do it by ourselves, but we also can't do it separate from the rest of the community. It is our responsibility as a church to join everybody else, join the body of Christ and continue to lift up the name of Jesus. Listen, Satan understands something that I think we oftentimes we will forget. If he

Disconnection Breeds Complaints And Drift

SPEAKER_00 21:06

can disconnect you long enough, he'll begin to weaken what God has begun to build in you. Right? Now, sometimes we think about um that weakening as loss. Sometimes we look at that weakening as um frustration. We we begin to show up to the church and we're frustrated about something. But here's what I think happens. I think when we become disconnected from God, oftentimes we can still come into the building, right? Even if it's not consistently, we can come into the building. But when we hit the building, what's the first thing we begin to do? Complain. Right? You hit the doors, and well, the parking lot is a mess and the cars are not parked properly. Or I don't like the type of toilet paper that we use. I've gotten that one before, y'all. We should change the toilet paper. Start paying for it. It's not cheap. Listen. When we buy donuts, when we buy milk, when we buy coffee, all of this. None of that is free to the church. You guys are aware of that, right? And we continue to provide that week after week. We are providing that so that you meet Jesus in the coffee shop. We're providing that as a comfort stop for you. The idea is that you begin to fellowship with the rest of the body. Because when you fellowship with the rest of the body, iron begins to sharpen iron, and we begin to find faith in humanity. Listen, the world is a broken place. Have you been out there? Have you talked to some of those people? They're ugly. They're not nice. When you talk to them, they say mean and hurtful things, don't they? Listen, sometimes people that walk through the door do the exact same thing. You enter the building, broken and frustrated, and you begin to take it out on the other people around you. Somebody's poisoned the water hole. You don't walk into the church. There's a snake in my boot. You don't walk into the church to destroy the church. You come into the church to build up the body of Christ and to build up the kingdom of God. Amen? Why are we showing up complaining? Why are we showing up frustrated or upset because somebody sat in our seat? It's not your seat. The seat you were sitting in belongs to God. The butt that's in it is more important than yours in that moment, okay? Listen, especially if it's somebody that's never been in this building or experienced Christ. Every time. They will be far more important. I was uh when I was working on this, I was looking for some general uh illustrations, and I was thinking about the body of Christ. This is the first morning, Pastor Holly, that we've had people laying on the floor in a long time. That the altar call actually penetrated hearts, right? That people actually showed up for an altar call. And I was thankful for that because I'm thinking this next particular part is kind of talking about that. Listen, you can take a coal and inside of a fire, it'll burn bright, right? If you remove that coal from the fire and you sit it next to the fire, it will still flame for a little bit, and eventually that flame will go out, and then it'll sit red hot for a little while, and then eventually that will get cold, and that coal will sit there completely useless because it doesn't have anything happening around it. You can light that coal on fire again, and it will not stay burning by itself. The body of Christ is the exact same way. Listen. I know that you can worship from home. I know that you can pray anywhere that you go. I'm not talking about legalism. I'm not trying to get you to sign up for every Sunday. Listen, this isn't a subscription, right? We're not signing up, and I'm not holding you to a contract. But I'm holding you to an expectation. God has called us to gather together. I'm not saying it has to always be in the church. Some of the best gatherings that we have in this building are when the young adults get together. I mean, my house gets white. We laugh and we carry on. I wish Lauren and Bobby were here. Last year, they're moving, by the way. Pray for them. Pray for Bobby really hard because he said anything that didn't go into the house easily, he was just gonna burn it. So Lauren may not have any furniture when they're done. I don't know. Can you imagine just your yard's just a giant flame? We have some of the best times. Last year at our Christmas gathering, everybody got together at our house. Our living room is packed full of people, and we're we do a gift exchange where you have to swap gifts with, let's say, it's the loudest person in the room, or you swap gifts with the person whose name you don't know. And we're swapping this gift, and there's this one that just keeps sloshing water everywhere. Nobody knows what's in this bag, and Lauren's like, pick it up from the bottom, pick it up from the bottom. Finally, it gets to the Goggles, right? It got to Stephanie Gogol, right? You and it was a fish in a fish bowl. Got a piece of saran wrap over the top of it. That fish is flopping around in the it. I don't think the fish made it. But we laughed and we carried on and we had such a great time. But in that moment, we also had a devotion. We spent time worshiping Jesus. But the relationships have to mean something. Amen. You can't show up to church and sit in your seat and go, well, there's another Sunday. Put a check in the box. What are you doing post-church service? Um, my oldest son's girlfriend, she works at Jerry's and she likes to brag on you guys. So for those of you who go to Jerry's after church on Sundays, how many of you go to Jerry's after Sunday? See? I I already knew who it was without even asking, just so we're clear. She was like, they're always so sweet to me. They're always so nice. That's what I'm talking about. Right? Because I've heard horror stories of church people showing up at restaurants and treating people really poorly and expecting their waitress to do exactly what they want. However, they that's not that's not showing Jesus. We come and we get filled, and then we take Jesus and we pour him out into the world. When you sit at a seat in a restaurant, when you make a phone call, whenever you talk to a stranger, Jesus should just be all over you, and you should be sharing that love. I had to call a lady uh at Spectrum one time, and man alive, I hate calling Spectrum. That's the worst experience in the world. I can't ever get to the person I need to get to, and when I get there, they either hang up or they tell me that the line is busy and they have to call back, and then I can't ever get done what I need to get done, right? So I'm talking to the lady, and I told her what I needed, and she said, Oh, well, I can't do that. And I said, I know this isn't your fault, and I'm not frustrated with you, but I'm getting frustrated with being transferred. Can you get me to the just send me to the person that can help? And she said, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna keep you on hold and I'm gonna make a couple of calls until I get the person that can actually help you, and then I'll transfer you. The longest hold I've ever been on in my life. But guess what? She got me to the person I needed to get to because she cared enough. I never asked her if she knew Jesus, but I knew she knew Jesus. Because what's the easiest thing to do? Sorry, I can't help you with that. Here's the transfer. Click. Right? Are we doing that to people? Are we telling people that we can't help them and we just transfer them to the next person? The church has got to create a pattern of showing Jesus. You will never be able to show Jesus if you forsake the gathering of his people. You might read the word, I listen, I know people who can quote scripture forward and backward, book, chapter, verse. They can give you every detail you need to know. And it doesn't penetrate their heart. They read it, they can regurgitate it, but it doesn't penetrate their heart. Honor thy mother and thy father. And then you have people who don't honor their mother and their father. But they'll tell you if you're not doing it. They want to point out where you've gone wrong, but nothing has penetrated their hearts. Listen. It's our responsibility to show Jesus, to be Jesus, and to be part of the body of Christ. Amen. We cannot forsake the gathering of his people. Let's go

Jesus Built A Rhythm Of Worship

SPEAKER_00 30:14

to Luke 4.16 really quickly. The tech team's trying to keep up with me, I know it, but I'm only on point two of eight, so we've got a long way to go and about 13 minutes to do it. When he came into the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the scriptures. Leave this up here because this is important. When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went. Can anybody read that? As usual. Notice those words. He went as usual. You know what that means? Jesus went to the synagogue all the time. He chose to go to church. He was going to the synagogue as usual. Listen. It was his custom, it was a pattern, it was a rhythm. Right? Do you know how you get into a rhythm of doing something? Does anybody ever do piece work where it's the same thing all day long? And you've got such a rhythm you can just do it, and then they send a trainee over to work with you? And that trainee can't figure it out. But you have built this rhythm and you can't teach it, right? It's something that you just know, it's something that you learn over time. Jesus has built a rhythm, a pattern of going to church. He didn't wake up saying, I don't know if I'm gonna go today. You know, I was thinking about it, but Peter is really driving me nuts. We'll just catch the live stream. Judas is being a real nag. That's not what he does. He gets up and he goes. You know my favorite part? I bet Jesus gets up and goes, whether the disciples follow him or not. Why? Because Jesus understands the importance of being in the temple. You have to have a rhythm. You have to, spiritual maturity requires that. Amen? Can we agree to that? Because spiritual maturity is one of the most important things the body of Christ can have. Right? Your spirit should be able to be convicted without your flesh being offended. Right? So when your pastor calls you and says, Why weren't you at church today? You can't, you should your flesh should not be offended by that. Your spirit should be convicted. Yeah, you know what? I do need to do better with that. I need to make it a priority. I had somebody say to me this morning, I said, I was surprised to see you guys this morning. They said, we had to make it a priority. And I thought, thank you, Jesus. Because confirmation is great, right? But how many of us actually make it a priority to show up to church on Sunday morning? How many of us wake up going, you know what, that's where I'm gonna be today no matter what? Parking lot can be flooded, I'll get a canoe. I've been there. Pastor Roger and I have been there. We've driven through ankle deep water to get into the building because we wanted to make sure it was open. I sat out in front of the building one morning until the snow plow finally got the lot plowed so I could get in. Listen, I'm gonna be here on Sunday morning. I'm gonna be here on Sunday morning. I don't like to cancel church. You guys remember when I canceled church last winter because of that big storm? You remember I didn't do it until the very last minute? I didn't want to do it. My wife made me. She told me, she's like, ain't nobody gonna show up but you? She goes, and probably Pastor Roger, but nobody else is gonna be there. I'm like, I get it. But I wanna be there. Because consistency is important. We don't have to build a powerful life. No. That's not how I want to say that. We don't we don't build a powerful life on random moments. It's not random happenings. It's not that one time you came to the altar, it's not that one time you bumped into somebody in Walmart and they told you about Jesus. That's not how we build relationships. That's not how we build consistency. Amen? Those are great one-off moments, but they do not create a relationship with Christ. They do not create consistency in your life if all you do is try to live on those one moments. My feelings do not determine my faithfulness. When I wake up in the morning, I know that he is faithful, and therefore I will be faithful to him. I will be faithful to his word. I will be faithful to the calling on my life. My feelings don't matter in that moment. I have decided. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As for me and my house, I have decided. Marcus didn't decide it for me. Believe it or not, Dale didn't decide it for me. Nobody can decide for me to follow Jesus. Now I can decide that my kids are gonna be here on Sunday morning. Thank you, Jesus. But I am blessed because my kids want to be here on Sunday morning. Last night it was 10 o'clock at night. I'm laying in bed. I take uh sleeping medication to help me sleep because this brain never shuts off. And I'd taken my pill and I'd laid down in bed, and Adeline walks through the door. Hey mommy, will you read my Bible with me? I'm like, no, go to bed. And Alyssa says, We can't tell her no, we can't read her Bible. So she gets in bed, she brings her Bible, and Alyssa says, Where do you want to start? And she goes, right here. Genesis 1.1. We ain't trying to read this whole thing, are we? Because. And Alyssa goes, Sissy, we've already read this part. You already know what it says. In the beginning, I'm like, what are we doing? So they turn to Romans and they start to read. And uh I there her Bible has notes in the bottom and it talks about praying for other people. And she goes, Can we do that right now? So my wife prays with Adeline for all of the people in the world. Now, I'm thankful we didn't have to name them one at a time because we'd have been there a long time. But I thought, isn't it a blessing that my children desire relationship with Christ? Isn't it a blessing that that's what my children want to do at 10 o'clock at night? Because my two oldest boys, we have to kick them off a fortnight at 10 o'clock at night. Amen? You're dragging their tablets out of their hands, whatever the case may be. That is not my children. My children desire relationship with Christ. And I believe it is because it is the it is the consistency that we have set in their lives. Listen,

What Your Kids Learn From You

SPEAKER_00 37:15

they will always model what it is that we show them. Right? And so our kids will see what we're willing to compromise church for. Right? Our children will see when we say, well, we don't have to go to church because we've got a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Right? I love Chuck E. Cheese. My favorite part is the salad bar. Because they put unlimited cottage cheese on that thing. And listen, this is not a joke. I have a 12-pound salad. Ain't no lettuce on that plate, but cottage cheese, eggs, bacon bits. I love going to Chuck E. Cheese. But if you invite me to Chuck E. Cheese at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning, I can't come. Because I got somewhere to be. It is important that I am here. Not because I, not because I preach. Listen, I can bounce out any Sunday morning. I could text Holly on Saturday and I say, Pastor Holly, I'm not feeling well tomorrow. Any chance you could preach? And she would tell me the same thing every time. Absolutely, Pastor Michael, thank you for asking. That's not honoring what God has called me to. That is not being consistent in the ministry that God has called me to, right? Do you understand that God has called each and every one of you to a ministry? Dale's the only person in this building that can clap on B. That's a ministry. I'm thankful for it every Sunday morning. Because some of y'all will be all look like a sick seal. Dale keeps you guys in rhythm. I appreciate that, right? It's true, Dale. You ain't got to deny it. And Tina Newman ain't here this morning to help you, buddy. It was all you. And at one point it went south, and I was in the booth like, Lord Jesus, I am thankful this is a joyful noise unto your ears. A little embarrassed. But I realized guess what? You showed up. Let's make a joyful noise. Can we say that we have decided to follow Jesus? Can the church agree that we have decided to follow Jesus? Listen, I'm not saying that you've decided to get it right every step of the day, every moment that you're awake, that you have decided to get it right. But you have decided to follow Jesus and believe that what Jesus has called you to is truly ministry. Guess what? Sometimes that's walking down the street and smiling and saying, Hey, good morning. Nice to see you. I had a lunch, I was supposed to have lunch last Friday with somebody. And I texted them the night before and I said, Are we still good for tomorrow? And they said yes. And then the following morning, um, Friday morning, they sent me a text and said, Hey, change of plans, I can't make it. Can we reschedule? I was a little bit disappointed. Because I had been looking forward to that opportunity. And when it didn't happen, I thought to myself, man, that was a real bonehead move, you know, the day of to just bail. And I thought, I am filling the gap with suspicion. Give grace, give mercy. And I said, absolutely, let me look at my schedule for next week and we'll get something on the books. I'm gonna tell you what that meeting was about, but I'm like, let's not get excited about it, okay? Let's just I got a call from a radio station. They're going to put our messages on Sunday morning radio. That's a big deal, guys. Their comment to me was we know what you believe, and we would be excited to get to do this with you. Thank you, Jesus, right? No, we didn't. We will be humble about it because we believe that if that's what God has called us to, that's what will happen, right? I'm not, I'm not trying to, I it's not about my voice. It's not about me, it is about God getting the glory. If our goal is to reach every person within earshot, that's the best way to do it. Amen? That's why we I listen, I met with the tech team last week and I said it's important to me that we capture the service every single week. Why? Not because I want to capture the service, not so that I have some archive of all of the messages that I preach, but so when somebody says, I need Jesus, they know where to go and get it. That's the point. It is not about me, it's not about us being glorified, it's not about organic church getting lifted up on some pedestal in our community. It is about God receiving the glory in all things. In all things. Daniel decided before he ever went to the lion's den who he served. Amen? The king said, Anybody who worships or prays to anything except the God that I have created, they will be thrown into the lion's den. And Daniel, just like he had always done, went home and prayed. And in doing so, knew what his fate would be, and he said, I have decided. And he began to pray to the Lord. And the next thing you know, he's wrapped up and thrown into the lion's den. And he walks out unscathed. And what happens when he does that? The king says, We will worship your God. How did that happen? I want you to think about that with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Exact same thing. Even if, even if we were to die, they had decided that they would follow Jesus. Listen, they're facing death and have decided to follow Jesus. You're deciding whether or not to get out of your pajamas. You're deciding whether or not, listen, go on vacation. I'm not trying to hold you to be in here every Sunday. Go on vacation, spend time with your family. I genuinely believe it's we should be serving the Lord, then we should be serving our families, and then we should be serving our church. Right? We need to spend time with our families. But if every week you're spending time with your family, but you're not seeing your church family, I think we're missing the point. I think we've missed the point. Okay, I'm gonna do one more point and then we're gonna go.

Decide Today Not Next Week

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Oh. The enemy loves to hear next week. The enemy loves to hear tomorrow. The enemy loves my wife is a procrastinator. She is the best procrastinator. Because she can procrastinate procrastination. It's a true gift. I don't know how she does it. Listen, I asked her a couple of days ago, hey, can you take care of this for me? She goes, Yeah, it's on my list. Girl, how long is that list? It's been five days and it ain't done. She's good at procrastinating. Listen. Every time we tell the, every time we say tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll pray tomorrow, I'll read my Bible tomorrow, I'll go to church next week, I'll serve when life slows down. I'll get serious about God eventually. Listen. Eventually becomes someday, and someday becomes when I get to it. We will never begin to be consistent with the Lord if we don't decide today. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to be in relationship with Christ. I have decided to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. Consistency removes the debate. Consistency removes the decision making. Just like I eat fish or chicken every day of the week, so I don't have to think about it, I also don't have to think about whether or not I'm coming to church. I know that I am coming to church. Now listen, there are times when my family and I take a vacation and we're gone on Sunday. I still listen to the message. Usually the tech team knows that I'm watching. Because they're getting text messages. Hey, that doesn't sound right. Hey, make sure you fix. Hey, why don't you adjust? Right? And they're like, why don't you go on vacation? I'm pretty sure they're gonna block me on the next time I go on vacation. They're like, he can't watch the live stream. But I do it because I operate in a spirit of excellence. I love this building so very much. I love you people so very much. I love the Word of God so very much that I want it to be everywhere. I want it to be, I want it to look and sound so good that every time somebody turns it on, they go, I want to spend time with Jesus. That church makes me, that body of believers, the love that they share, it makes me want to fellowship with Jesus. Amen. It's our responsibility. Don't just attend, get planted, grow roots. Decide that this is where you're going to be. And it doesn't have to be here, but find somewhere and decide this is where I'm going to be. We don't need to run and hide. We don't need to pretend like, oh, we we we we're not sure if we're happy. Listen, if you're not happy, that's okay. I'm not telling you you have to leave. Come, stay, enjoy fellowship. But guess what? If you're not growing roots, this isn't the right place. Find a place where you can grow, where you can actually take root. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you and I praise you for all that you're doing in our lives, Lord. I know that this message was a little bit chaotic today and was cut short, but Lord, I believe that the words that I spoke came directly from you and that they penetrated the hearts and the minds, Father, and that everything that we shared will be able to take root in the hearts. Father, allow us to decide that we will follow you today. Allow us to decide that we will serve you. Don't allow the enemy to create confusion in our lives and chaos in our lives, and don't allow him to convince us to just wait until next time or maybe tomorrow. Lord, create a sense of urgency inside of us. Create a sense of urgency inside of us to serve you and only you. Father, I thank you for calling us to this place today. Lord, continue to lead us, guide us, and direct us. Bless us in this upcoming week. Allow us to show your grace and mercy to the world around us. We pray all of this in your precious Son Jesus' name. Amen. Love you guys. We'll see you Wednesday night.