June 21st, 2026

Pastor Michael Crocker

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, we missed the game. That's all right. All right, go ahead and have a seat. Um, good morning. If you're not singing from your gut on that song, you're singing it wrong, by the way. And you need to take lessons with Miss Lisa on how to do that. Um, I want to take a second to look into the lens. Say good morning, everybody watching online, wherever you're dialed in from. My name is Pastor Michael, one of the pastors here at the church. We're so glad you have chosen to be with us today there next week. Hey, try it here. We're all friendly. Everybody smells good. They're dressed pretty. It's great, it's wonderful. Come here. And those of you in the house, hello, church! Woo! It is a great day. I am fired up on coffee this morning. Um, and it's exciting, and I'm doing some things. So I don't know if you know this or not, but I try to uh I try to be a good pastor. I know um someone at the first service said, try harder. It hurt my heart. Uh not gonna lie. Uh she's an angry old woman, though, so that's what I told her. Uh but uh I read articles and different different things and and learn, you know, okay, what are the different things coming out? Like you do in your job, right? You try to become better at your job and learn different things and tricks. And I realized one of the movements of uh the church right now is to go away from what I do every Sunday, which is this moment, um, right here. To not do announcements, to not do stupid things, to not tell jokes, anything like that, really go contrary to who I am as a person. Um, and so I'm going to uh hopefully start working away from that, but I can't today, um, because today there's two really big things that I wanted you all to hear. First of all, how many of you read Tower Notes? The rest of you should be ashamed of yourselves. That is, I mean, just shame and judgment. Um, Tower Notes is our weekly newsletter that comes out. Uh, if you don't get it, there's a QR code on the chair back right in front of you that you can take a little picture of, sign up for Tower Notes. You can also find out everything that's going on in the life of the church through that. Um, but Tower Notes, it comes out the information, what's going on. Uh, this recently I have posted two things in Tower Notes, and I wanted to draw your attention to it because it's really big in the life of the church. We're looking for, uh the first one is we're looking for an executive pastor. And this came out, I think, two weeks ago is when I said this. Um, but here's the deal is our church has grown um tremendously, and it's great, and it's wonderful, and we're continuing to grow and to get new families, young families, people are having babies, we're growing that way too, and um and it's just great and wonderful. And I don't know if you know what's happening on the east side of our campus right now. Um but there's a big building that's going up, and a new sanctuary, a new place of worship, and all those things that go along with it. We are continuing to grow. Our school is growing in the amount of students that we have, and just our operations and our day-to-day operations is becoming bigger and bigger. Um, and so we are looking for an executive pastor because I do not have those abilities. I am not a day-to-day person, I'm not a pragmatic person. I'm not a I'm a person who says that's the mountain we're gonna climb. How are we gonna get there? I have no idea. But that's where God called us to go. Let's go, everybody! Yeah. Um, you need somebody that can dot I's and cross T's. You know what I'm saying? That ain't Pastor Michael. Um, and so I've been functioning in that role for for quite a while. And I actually had brown hair right here just a few weeks ago. That's not true. It's been great for a long time. But um, and so we are trying to find this person. I posted something about that in Tower Notes, and I wanted to hit it again here because A, I know that not all of you read Tower Notes. That's okay, my feelings aren't hurt. Um, but B, I wanted to stress the point that we're looking for the executive part more than we are the pastor part. Okay, so think of it as a COO position, somebody who can be the operations of the chief operations officer of our church. This is a business, it's God's business, but it's a business, and it's becoming bigger and bigger. And so we need somebody to focus in on those areas and those roles. Um, because when I say executive pastor, sometimes somebody who is a part of our community who might be qualified to have that job and to run this church may go, but I'm not a pastor. That's great. We don't need you to be one. We have one. Um, I don't need you to come up and like if you if the thought of standing in front of a group of people and preaching it scares you, we have that dude. Me. Um and and we have, as we saw last week, we got somebody that's shaping up into a good one as well, with T Rent over there, right? And so we we don't Yeah, you didn't clap at you at your 9:30 service, and that's your family. That's awkward. Um and so uh so I'm looking more for that executive side of things. And so if you know somebody or something, actually, I said this and um a guy came up to me after the service, not for him, but someone else. He's like, I think this is the guy. And I said, Well, great, let's talk about it. I'll send a you know, send you the job description and things like that. Um, so if you know someone, if it's you, whatever it is, uh, we're looking for that person to take our next step as a congregation. And when we have that person, it will help us unlock some of the other folks that we need. Um, because with Pastor Anthony taking a position in uh in California, that leaves a big hole here. Um and he was part-time community pastor and part-time youth, mainly youth pastor. And I have to tell you that the youth program, the youth ministry, is one of the most important ministries that any church can do. Any congregation, one of the most important things that you have is a youth ministry, a strong youth ministry. And the reason that is the case is because if you've come to any of our confirmation services, I say this every time. When Jesus was choosing the disciples, he chose people their age. He chose teenagers. If you look scripturally, I can walk you through it. I have a sermon today, so I'm not going to, but Peter was the eldest at age 19 or above. The rest of them were below the age of 19 when they started following Jesus. John was maybe nine or ten years of age. There's a reason that Jesus chose young people because they hadn't been beaten down by the world to believe that they couldn't affect change any longer. They were young enough to believe that when he handed them the keys, they're like, we've got this. And they did. And youth ministry is hard. But it's so important because the kingdom of the world continues to tell a generation of teenagers that their identity is found in something other than Jesus. And we need to send out a generation of believers, of teenagers, of going off into high school and to college with a strong and firm foundation of who they are in the eyes of God. And when the kingdom of the world tries to sell them something different, they say, no, no, no, no, no. Not on my witch watch, my friend. So we are trying to find someone. We've interviewed someone, and he was not the right person. And I'm not willing to plug a hole to get somebody with a heartbeat into a into a position in a ministry that's that important. And so we are going to take our time with that. We hope that the executive pastor will help us find that person. But in the meantime, we still have youths. And the youths need ministry. So last week I held a town hall meeting and invited folks to come and be a part of that and to have a voice. And I said, if you are a youth, if you have a youth, if you know a youth, if you've seen a youth in your life, if you maybe have a passion or a heart to speak into this generation, come. And then we had a lot of people show up. And from it, what we created was the YMTF, the Youth Ministry Task Force. That's right. I don't like committees because committees just continue to meet and they don't do anything. Um, so this is a task force, and and and what we are going to do is we are going to plan and dream and create the youth program that will launch this fall and what we are doing. And I invite any of you to be a part of it. Because here's the thing if we have Sunday morning programming, guess who can't be there? This guy. Because I have another gig. And so it means that we'll need you to step in. We would like to do small groups, we'd like to do different things. There's a lot of great momentum behind it, but we need the church to step up in this important area while we're in this moment of transition. So if this sparks your heart, or if it just like you're like, yes, I'm in, or whatever it is, please see me afterwards. Please email me during the week. So those are the two uh big and exciting announcements, really, um, that our church is growing, and we have that. Um and then and then today is the the other thing you should never do, the pastors should never do, is open with a bunch of random jokes. Uh I we went to, Jen and I went to a church, we served at a church when I was in seminary, Ridgely Nine Methodist Church, and this pastor, um Pastor Worley, would get up and he would um deliver this a joke every every Sunday before a sermon that had nothing to do with the sermon. And it rarely was funny. And I'm like, I've already stopped listening to you. And so they tell pastors not to do jokes. Clearly, they're not talking to me. Um but but today, as you know, is Father's Day. And um, and Jenna asked me yesterday, she's like, Are you nervous about tomorrow? And I was like, Why? Because on Saturdays I get a little weird. I start getting in my head, and as the as the day goes on, as we get closer to the evening, I start thinking about my sermon, I start stewing on it, I start thinking about it, rewriting things, doing all that stuff, just all up in my head. And and I kind of distance my like you can just see, I go into Sunday mode in my face, and and I wasn't happy with what I had. Like I'd been working on it all week, and I'm like, it's just not sitting, it's not hitting, I don't like it. And I was like, Yeah, I'm a little nervous about it. She goes, No. Well, you know what tomorrow is. I was like, Sunday. She's like, it's Father's Day. I was like, Really? Huh. I hadn't even thought about that. She goes, Are you gonna be okay? I was like, I mean, the attendance will be low, but you know, that's fine. Except for you dads who are leading in great ways. Well done, dads. Um she said, No, it's it's your first one. And I went, Oh, I hadn't even thought about that. And then I get home and I pick up the mail, and there's a letter from this couple. They're not even my friends, they're my brother's friends, but this handwritten note from um the wife of this couple who said, I know this is gonna be a hard day for you, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff, is such a sweet note. I'm like, oh my gosh, why are people saying this? And then I walk in here this morning and someone grabs me at the first service, like, I know this is such a difficult day for you. I'm like, it's becoming worse every time someone says something. And then somebody did it at the 11 o'clock at this service, too. And I'm like, so you know what? We're gonna tell some dad jokes. Uh, because I have I gotta get my head out of that space. And so this is perfect. Why don't skeletons fight each other? If you know the answer, just shout it out. They don't have the guts. Did somebody say it over there? Good job. I used to play piano by ear, but now I use my hands. Hey, you can laugh, they're funny. I only know 25 letters of the alphabet. I don't know why. Thank you for that. That was you set me up right. That was perfect. Uh, why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. Come on. I asked my dog what's 2 minus 2. He said nothing. Did you hear about the kidnapping at the school? That's alright, he woke up. Why can't your nose be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a foot. You're all if you don't know that, look work on your math. Um, let's see. I don't trust stairs. They're always up to something. Let's see. They they told me to pass on some of these. Wanna hear a joke about construction? I'm still working on it. Thank you for setting me up though. Um why don't eggs tell jokes? They'd crack each other up. That's right. Okay, why don't math books, wh why do math books look so sad? They have too many problems. Alright, okay, you know what? These are funny to me. How does a penguin build its house? It glues it together. Come on! That one's funny. It glues it. If you have to think about it, come on. Alright, this is the last one. I'll move on, I promise. Um, I have I got an hour of these. Um I asked the librarian if the library had any books on paranoia. She whispered, they're right behind you. That one's awesome. That was, yeah, that was, I was like, I'm closing with that one. That was great. Okay, thank you, Miss Revlin, for applauding me. Thankfully, Jenna's not in the room right now. She left, so she'd be like, don't encourage them. Um okay, so here's a weird segue. Everybody just take a breath. All right, today we're in the third part of our series, our summer series, and we're on the book of Philippians, and we're walking through this. We started a couple weeks ago. Trent picked it up last week, and the subtitle is Defiant Joy. Right? Because what I saw, what I talked about on the first Sunday is this is a letter written by Paul when he was in prison to one of his churches that he was deeply in love with, tied to, was really concerned about. And throughout this, it's been called by scholars the Epistle of Joy, because he keeps coming back to that premise, to that word that joy is our goal. We should choose joy. But the fact of the matter is, is he had a horrible life. Like his life was really tough. And so he was defiantly joy. In the face of things that would ruin most of us, wreck most of us, Paul is like, no, no, no, but I choose joy. Like it's a choice that I make to step into this. I'm going to be joyful even though the world tells me I shouldn't be. I'm going to be joyful even though my circumstances tell me that I shouldn't be. I'm going to be defiantly joyful. And that's what we do. It's because, you know, and people who are joyful, we want to be around them more than others. Don't you don't you like it when those people, those joy-filled people, those tiggers walk into the room rather than Eeyores? Right? When Eeyores come in the room, everybody goes, uh they just suck the life out of the room. Do you know anybody like that? Don't look at it, don't look, just look straight at me. Look straight at me. Right? But you know those people who walk in the room, and when they walk into the room, it just everything just goes away. But then you also know the other side of that. When people walk into the room and you're like, oh, yeah. Those are the people we want to be around. They give life to the room. The Eeyores, man. And what's the problem with Eeyores? What they're always focused on themselves. Aren't they? Like, isn't that true? The people that just walk around without joy, they just have that cloud over their head and all that stuff, isn't it really that they're always focused on them and not anyone else? I I mean, it's it's it's not it's not shocking, really, in the world in which we live today. In fact, this has been going on for years and years and years, generations and generations, that people are ultimately focused more on themselves than they are anyone else. Great songwriter and country star Toby Keith once put this in a song. I want to talk about me.

unknown 15:16

Right?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Remember that song? I want to talk about me. Want to talk about I want to talk about none but one. Oh, my, me, my. Come on, Gabe, get up on the drums. Um, yeah, you know, remember that song? And what was that song about? It's about a relationship.

unknown 15:27

Right?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

It was about a man and a woman. The woman was always talking about herself, and he's like, gosh, I get it, but can we talk about me sometimes? It was a relationship-focused thing. I think if Toby lived today, he could change that. Because it it that doesn't just exist in relationships, it's a cultural phenomenon that people just want to talk about themselves. It's all about the proclamations, the locations, and the vacations. Come on, that was some preacher gold right there, and y'all gave me nothing. We're hard on that. No, it's too late now. It's too late. But it doesn't make, it actually doesn't make sense. I just wanted to rhyme something. But it's about titles, it's about, it's about where we are, and it's about what we're doing. Like, we're so focused on this because we live in this cultural social media world that we want people to be amazed by us. Titles, right, right? Any assistant regional managers in here? No? No fans of the office? Wow. Even 9 30 thought that was funny. Assistant to the region. Like, we're so worried about our title. We want people to know. We know one of my pet peeves for pastors, pet peeves for pastors, is when they're when they're like anal about what you call them. Like, uh, excuse me, it's Reverend Doctor. Okay, it's not a real doctorate, it's a doctorate of ministry. That's not a hard degree to get. Right? I mean, you're not like if I'm having a heart attack, guess what? You still can't help me. Or people that are like, oh, I'm senior pastor, I'm lead pastor. That's a big one right now. Is like people want to be known as the lead pastor. Is the lead. I I don't, I feel like Jesus is the lead, but whatever. You know, it's like people are so worried about that, about those titles. If you notice when I introduce myself, what do I say? I'm one of the pastors here. Sure, I use reverend periodically, mainly at funerals and weddings. Um, they'll they'll put reverend in there, but for the most part, I'm Pastor Michael or just Michael, or as some of you, hey you. It's just, but so many of us are focused on that title because we think that title gives us some sort of authority or respect. And we want people to know. Oh, look at that. It's the location thing. We want to know people where we're, we want people to know where we're from. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, I was born here. I'm from here. It's really important for us. I live in this community, I live over there, whatever. But here's the other thing that I've gone through in this stage of my life is the location of the college in which your child goes to matters. Right? You like in when we go through that, and people are posting where their kids are going to school, all those different things. It's like, you know, but we we in parents who just sent their kids off, and some of you have done it a long time ago, some of you are coming into it recently, you'll notice where other kids are going. And it's that location, like, oh, are they going to an SEC school? Hmm. No. Well, I guess they couldn't get in. Oh, they couldn't get into TCU, so they have to go to Lubbock. That's okay. I hear that, I hear there's a school there. I know. It's amazing how many red raiders we have in this congregation. Like at both services, too. And y'all are so angry about it, too. But it's one of the things, like you throw it out there, and it's like, oh, but where did you go to school? And we kind of we want to focus on that, like as if that gives us some sort of legitimacy in this world. And then the worst one is the vacation thing. And we're in the season of this. And and and I get it. I look at the 9.30 service, there were multiple people who came up to me and were asking how my trip to New York City was. I didn't tell them that I went to New York City. But my wife posted a collage of our trip to the Big Apple and showed the greatest moments of our time in New York. Can I tell you that being in New York City last weekend was not fun? I mean, is it ever? But like last weekend, I mean, on Sunday, people were like, oh, the Knicks, wasn't it great? We're like, we're from San Antonio, get out of our face. It's not true. We were like, yes, it was. Oh my gosh, please don't hurt us. Yeah. Corbin wanted to wear his jersey, and I'm like, absolutely not. Like, I know you're a giant, but I'm not, and they're gonna focus on me. Um and it, but we but we post these things, and we like, how many pictures in Central Park did Jenna have to take for me to actually be smiling, right? To post that because I was not a happy person when we were in Central Park. I was an angry pastor. It was, I was an angry lead pastor. Um, and I was because I wasn't leading anything. You know, we're like, we're going this way, like it was just and like, how many people I I have this, uh I follow a bunch of different news sites, and one of the things that I follow, one of the sites I follow, I don't know for what reason they've started thinking that celebrities who have found vacation are on vacation and in new bathing suits is news that is pertinent for me to understand. So they post these things, and they're like, oh, the the the the girl from Landman has a new gold bikini. Okay, I I don't why do I need to know this? Is oil coming down? Like, can I fill up my truck a little bit less? Is there still a war somewhere? What's happening with all that stuff? But the deal is like, here's my other question is why is this girl from this show posting all of her pictures on her vacation? We know you have a lot of money, you're on TV. We know you're also very attractive because we see you on TV. You don't have to show it to the rest of us to go, I feel horrible about myself now. Like, oh my gosh, why is this? Why is it so important that people need to prove to you that they are better than you? Isn't that what social media does? Like, how many times do you have to take pictures to post the perfect one to get that information out there? And isn't that so tiring? Like, really? Isn't that tiring? Thank you. The one old person who agrees with me. You're probably not on social media either, are you? That's totally true. But it's one of those things, it it robs the joy of the moment. Because you're so focused on trying to prove to everyone else that you matter, that you miss the joy of being there in the first place. There's this commercial that I recently saw. We've been watching a lot of the World Cup stuff. It's been awesome, exciting. Craig, go USA. Um, we're gonna do the train. You just can't um but uh it is, yeah, it we've been there's a commercial that I saw, and it was like, Back in the old days, how did you know if anyone liked you? And it's like this little girl who's on a phone, right? And it's showing these clips from when many of us grew up who didn't have cell phones and we're just out. And we're running around, like, how did you know what you were supposed to wear? You know, how did you do all this stuff? And it was just, it was such a sad commentary on the state of where the generations below me are coming into and coming out of that it's like we have to go to someone else to achieve some sort of sense of belonging. No. When you live that way, when you're so focused on what others are thinking and striving to get approval, there can't be joy in that. When you're so focused on yourself, joy is elusive. And that's what Jesus really showed us, and that's what Paul is trying to remind the Philippians as they're going through kind of this turmoil of a situation. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just remember who you are. In chapter 2, verse 1, this isn't going to be on the screen because I added it earlier. Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Like he's going to ask these questions. He's like reminding them of who they are as the body of Christ. He's like, is there anything there? Like, do you get anything from it? Because they're having some disagreements in the church, and he's going to address that later at the letter. But they're having these disagreements. It's like, don't you remember who you are? Is there any love, any compassion, any tenderness that comes with following Jesus? Then he says, Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble. Thinking of others is better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too. If you can hear any words from Paul, those two verses, think of others before you think of yourself, pursue others' interests before you pursue your own. Why? Because that's what Jesus did. If you want to live the life of fullness that Jesus offers and step into his joy, then you live as he lived. And what did he do? He didn't focus on himself. He focused on us. Verse 5 says this you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. What Paul is doing here, and this is one of the earliest poems that summarizes the gospel story. It's one of the earliest writings, and we don't know if Paul wrote it or if he was copying it from someone else, but what he's reminding us of, he's juxtaposing Adam and Jesus. Adam, who is the first man, who had this opportunity to follow in the path of God. But what did he do? He did not see himself as below God. He saw himself as equal with God. And he tried to achieve that equality by grabbing the apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And it ruined everything. Jesus, who Paul says, was equal with God, is equal with God, is like, it's alright. Some of your translations may use the word exploit. I don't need to exploit my status with who I am as God. In fact, I'm willing to step away from that status for you. I mean, let's talk about titles. This isn't to the region manager. He was king of kings. That beats any. I don't care what your title is or how big a deal you think you are, you're not that big a deal. His title wins. And yet he said, let's focus on you. Like his location. I was born in Houston. Any Houstonians in here? Aren't you glad you're not there anymore? Like I haven't been to heaven yet, but I have a feeling. Heaven's better than Houston. I just, I don't know. I just have this feeling. His Insta reels? Could you imagine the insta Instagram reels that Jesus posts? You can't compete with that. Like, how many of you have walked on water or fed 5,000 people with just a couple fish and a few loaves of bread? Having a great day. Here's the meal that we serve today. You ever take pictures of the meal at a restaurant? Fishes and loaves. And here's who came. You can't compete with that. So why are we trying to compete with each other? Instead of following what the King of Kings did. He said, It's not about me. It's about you. He humbled himself, and then by the power and the grace of God, he walked out of that tomb. And therefore, God elevated him to a place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. If we want to step into the life that God has for us and experience the fullness that that is, he invites us to a life of humility, of putting others before ourselves. So that's one of the things that my dad was amazing at. He always looked out for those who couldn't look out for themselves. He knew what it was like to grow up dirt, literally dirt pork, sharecroppers. Dirt in their house, an outhouse. Until he was in high school. He knew what it was like. And he never forgot. I saw him through 52 years of putting others before himself. Let me tell you. He was an angry little elf at times. If you were here two weeks ago, he was a pessimist by nature, and he would go like the spurs are going to lose. By the way, we were right. But he had a joy inside of him. When we live our lives for others, we step into the realization of all that God has for us. And it opens up the door to a joyful life. The world doesn't want to do that. The world doesn't want us to do it. The world wants us to focus on ourselves and all about be about me. But let's be defiantly joyful. Follow the way of Jesus. The one who had every reason to make it about Him, made it about you. Let us pray. Gracious and Heavenly Father, we thank you. We praise you for being in our life, being the God who calls us your sons and daughters. You're the God who gives us life. Show us the way, the truth, and the life. You offer us a life of joy. We ask, Father, that you would help us to have the courage to step into that joy. Choose others before we choose ourselves. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

unknown 30:00

Amen.