Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: I’m supposed to talk now, but I don't think I can. Thank you, God. We love you. We trust you, God. We trust you. On the way over today, ever since I heard about Linda, it has been so hard, but the old hymn came to my mind, and I sang it all the way here from across the road. Be Not Dismayed Whate'er Betide. "God will take care of you", I was thinking of Bill and his kids and her dad, Jim.
"Beneath His wings of love abide, God will take care of you. God will take care of you, through every day all along the way; He will take care of you; God will take care of you."
So whatever you are facing today, God will take care of you, but we need to abide under his wings of love. Stay close to him. Amen.
Brian: The Apostle Paul says we don't sorrow as those who have no hope, but he doesn't say that if we are followers of Jesus, we'll never sorrow. I actually think that as we get to know the love of Christ, we begin to know what true love is, and then we hopefully begin to love like Jesus loves. When you really love, as Christ loves, you really begin to love in a much deeper and more whole way. When you love that way and you lose someone that you have loved in that way, your sorrow will be deep and great, but we don't sorrow as those who have no hope. I think our sorrow is as deep as it is because pain and sorrow are proportional to intimacy and loss. The more intimate and deeper you have loved somebody, the greater the loss is when that person is gone. As Christian, we have learned to love or are learning to love in the way that Jesus loves.
So therefore, our loss is great when a friend passes, but it's not a loss of darkness and hopelessness because we have hope in the Lord. We have hope of an eternal life. We are joyful today for Linda. She has suffered greatly the last year or two. We weep with Bill because of the loss of a partner of his, for 46 years, and someone who was so intricately involved in the work in Uganda with all the orphans. I'm sure he... I talked with him yesterday and then... Linda hadn't passed yet, but it looked really close. Sometimes it's really hard to know how to navigate in those seasons, isn't it? But we have the strength of the Lord and the guidance of Holy Spirit to be with us. I'm not sure I'm going to actually get to my message today, but I do have some scriptures I want to share with you on some thoughts. But before we do that, we are going to just let the children go to Sunday school and be dismissed. Thank you, Cindy, for all your work with them.
Jacque: [Inaudible 4:59] so beautiful.
Brian: So pray for more kids in our church. So if you are past the childbearing age, then pray for some younger people to come into the church. Okay.
Jacque: Or bring your grandkids.
Brian: Yeah, bring your grandchildren to church. That's another great thing to do. Before we share a few things this morning, I want to draw your attention to a couple of things. One is the men's retreat is coming up and we'd like to get at least 20 guys. We have what, 11 or 12 right now, Brad? So we'd like to get a few more guys to go to that retreat. Talk to Brad or Pat, probably--talk to Brad after the service. If you are watching online, you are welcome to come to the retreat too. Just get ahold of Rachel in the office and she'll give you all the details for that. Do you have anything else you want to share?
Jacque: Well, I just wanted to thank the Lord and all of you who were such an astounding response to pastor Robert's class on Wednesday night, that we had to change it because the room couldn't hold them. The zoom room couldn't hold it all. Isn't that great? So Pastor Robert's class has turned into a class in here and it's live-streamed, so we can all pop in. Now it's recorded, which is great. So even during the week we can come back and hear it, and I heard such great reports. It's so wonderful to grow and learn together. Amen. Then the Ribfest is coming. Please invite friends. It's going to be a lot of fun. It just is going to be a lot of fun and it's a time to be together. When you spend time together, you get closer, but you have to be in the same place. So, come together. I tell you, when you laugh and play together, it really helps you grow closer. So let's come together as a church family and then bring friends to come so that we can all meet and let's have fun. That's August 6th.
Brian: Sixth. Yeah.
Jacque: Everything's online.
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: Then one more thing.
Brian: Okay.
Jacque: We have an outreach--
Brian: Opportunity.
Jacque: Opportunity. Taco Tuesday up at Maple Hill Estate. There is a ministry in the mobile home park here in Corcoran called Mobile Hope. Every Tuesday they host a different church or organization hosts a dinner for the people. So we are going to go. Pastor Roberts is leading this, and we are going to go and serve them Taco Tuesday, and just get to know people up there. So if you can make it to help be part of the serving team, or the cooking team, or the I love you team.
Brian: That's a good team to have.
Jacque: That's a good--I'm going to be on the I love you team.
Brian: Good.
Jacque: Then come, read about it, and let us know that you want to come.
Brian: I'll be one of those people you can minister I love you to. How about that? That's a good deal. That's a good deal. Jesus is good. He's good all the time. Picture in your mind, the condition of the world, when God had to write on tablets of stone that his people should not kill each other or shouldn't take another man's wife, covet another man's property, that if another man was blessed and he had a nice plow you shouldn't steal it and kill him in the process. Picture a world where God had to write on tablets of stone, that you were to actually tell the truth to one another instead of lying to one another. Just picture that world for a moment and realize how sad a day it was when God wrote The Ten Commandments. How sad a day it was in the condition of the world that God would have to tell his people, "These are things that you are not supposed to be doing." They had fallen so far off the moral ladder that basically God gave them basic rules of survival. Which unfortunately in our culture and around the world, we are now removing from places where those rules had been visible for decades, maybe even centuries.
The thought behind it is those rules make us feel guilty when we don't live by them, and we have to deal with this guilt issue in our world. So let's get rid of the rules and then nobody will feel guilty anymore. That's kind of a Dr. Spock message from the sixties, which really opened the floodgates for the counterculture movement, the hippie movement, the free love, and Pastor Jeff shared some about that last week. The church's response at times to all of that was not the message of Jesus, but to ratchet up more rules and more guidelines for people to live by so that there could be a separation between us, the followers of Jesus, and the world. In that process, we became very much like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus, where they were very picky about all the rules that they would follow and even came up with more rules than what God had written beyond The Ten Commandments. By the time Jesus came on the scene, I can't even imagine what Jesus must have felt like with the task that he was faced with. Picture that for a moment.
But when he arrived, his goal was what God's goal always has been, and that is redemption. To redeem lost man. In the process of redemption, contained in the whole concept of redemption, is a transformed life. But it's not a transformation of coercion from the outside, it's a transformation from the heart, from the inside, where once the heart is changed... How many times--how many people here have actually had a change of heart during the course of their life? Yeah. You have a change of heart. You see things altogether differently. Don't you? You now give your time to something entirely different than what you gave your time to before because your heart has been changed. When we focus on simply behavior, which is what religion does, there is never a way to transform the heart through religion. So when Jesus arrived on the scene, he started to make all sorts of statements that made the religious leaders go tilt. How many of you played a pinball machine? You nudge it. You are going to get that little extra nudge in there and all of a sudden what happens?
The whole machine shuts down. It says, "Tilt, you are cheating." Well, the religious leaders just went tilt. They just shut down with some of the things that Jesus was saying. I like to begin at least start anyways today with a portion of scripture because when Jesus replaced the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, it was never his goal to make rule-breaking a worthy goal. He wasn't coming so that people could just do whatever they pleased. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul says, "Don't let your freedom," which we have, become what? Licensed. What is licensed? Doing whatever you want. So if we simply remove, shall we say all the rules, all that we are left with is anarchy. I don't want to live in a society of anarchy. Do you? I don't. It feels like we are kind of moving in that direction a little bit as a country. The scriptures talk about people casting off all restraint, but the re... So the issue isn't should there be or should there not be restraints. The issue is where does the restraint come from? Pastor Jeff is introducing a series of messages about the ways of Jesus or the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus doesn't mean you just do whatever you please.
The way of Jesus is you follow him and do what pleases him. There is a big difference between that. Welton and I were chatting last night after our rehearsal and I just mentioned--I said, "You know, we all have a great love affair. Unfortunately, it's with ourselves." We don't have to work hard at loving ourselves, do we? Give me, gimme, gimme, I want, I want, I want. What we have a struggle with is trying to love other people in the way that we love ourselves. Jesus wants to come in and transform our hearts in our relationship with him and his love for us, by us understanding how much his love is for us. Then we will begin to conform to this standard of truly loving and honoring one another. Make no mistake about it, Jesus didn't come to do away with all of the behavioral codes of conduct that make for good relationships. He didn't come to do away with that. He actually came to replace that with a higher goal, and we are going to get to that in my next sermon. It would be great if we all lived by the golden rule.
I gave a message about that a couple of weeks ago. It'd be really great if we lived by that, but you know what? Jesus actually has even a higher rule for us to live by. You can call it the platinum rule or whatever. The diamond platinum rule. Do you know what that is? It’s where Jesus said, "I give you a new commandment to love one another in the same way that I've loved you." That's even a higher standard, isn't it? That's a higher gold standard than simply do unto others, as you would want them to do unto you. The fact of the matter is if you have bad self-esteem, you probably think you deserve to be treated badly. So, therefore, maybe you would treat somebody badly. So you see where the golden rule actually falls short of what God's plan is for us. God's plan is that you and I would have the love of Christ in us so much that we would love in the way that he loves when we get down to living the life of Christ here on earth in our lives.
I've said this on a few occasions. It's really hard to do that if you don't love Jesus. I've said it this way, "It's really hard to be a Christian when you are not one." Who wants to gather on a Sunday and worship together? Who wants to give out of their tithe--who wants to give their money away to other people? If you don't really love God, if you don't have a relationship with God, if you... It's really hard to do those things if you don't love God. It becomes rigid. It becomes work. But when you fall in love with Jesus, the heart gets transformed, doesn't it? Everything changes for us. So let's look at a couple of scriptures. We'll start with 1st John 3:1-6.
Jacque: In the new living Testament?
Brian: Yeah.
Jacque: See how very much our father loves us. For he calls us his children and that is what we are.
Brian: So let's just--I'm going to stop you a few times here. So I'm going to be the interrupter today.
Jacque: That's just fine.
Brian: Okay, good. Just ponder that. Pastor Jeff had us just stand here and not hurry through that moment in our worship this morning, where he was just saying, "Let's just pause and focus on how very much our father loves us." Just focus on that. How very much our creator loves us. Do you ever get amazed by creation? Have you ever gone out at night and seen a full moon or the stars? If you get further out to the country like where we are at a little bit, there is not as much light pollution and the heavens explode with light. You start to see pictures of this new telescope that they just launched recently in the pictures of the galaxy. Doesn't it make you feel pretty small and insignificant in how large our universe is? There wasn't a conglomerate that created that. There was one being, our Father in heaven. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created it. God created it, and that God loves you.
Jacque: He knows you so intimately, and he cares about everything that concerns you.
Brian: He knows the very number of hairs on our heads. Not that that has any significance to anybody, but the person whose head that's on.
Jacque: Who's losing hair.
Brian: That's how much he cares about us, that the details of our life he sees. That's why it's really important that when we go through something like Linda's passing, that we don't start to ask the question, "Well, where was God?" Because God was there the whole time. God's presence was there the whole time for Linda and for Bill and for us. It's a fantasy world that thinks that just because we are Christians, nothing bad or evil or hurtful will happen to us. That's a fantasy world. The reality is there is a home that awaits us as we honor Christ, that he will remove all tears, all sorrow, all of those things from our eyes. We won't have a memory of our past failures. We won't have a memory of the sins that have been committed against us, the ways that maybe we have been rejected, the ways that we have been mistreated, the ways that we might have suffered abuse. Those memories will all be passed away. All of us will be made completely new. I can't think of a more wonderful gift from our creator than that. So he says, "See how much our father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are." But there is a situation that exists in the world, and that is this.
Jacque: But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him.
Brian: We have expectations at times of the world that are unrealistic. Those expectations we have of the world is that the world should be nicer. But the world is just living out its nature. They don't have the nature of Christ. So how in the world would they ever be nice? How in the world would they ever recognize what God is doing in our lives? But Holy Spirit is at work and he's working in their lives, and there is so much that we can have hope and expectation for. Jacque and I were talking about this last night after we went to bed and... Sometimes I'm sure we've all thought about this. I'm so grateful for all the people that pray, and I've prayed a lot during the course of my life. But have you ever prayed and what you prayed for just never happened? And then you ask yourself the question, why did I even pray? Have you ever asked yourself that? I have. Come on, be honest. You've asked yourself the same question. Don't be too spiritual on me this morning. We've all wondered, did my prayers make any difference? I can't always answer if the way I prayed made a difference.
But what I can know is this, that when I love the way Jesus loves, I'm making a difference. When I love somebody in the same way that Jesus loves, then I am making a difference in their life. That's what--I'm not saying we shouldn't pray. All I'm saying is that if we really bring our place to what Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 13 at the very end. He talks about prophecy, and he talks about revelation. He talks about all these power gifts, healing, and so forth. These are wonderful gifts that God has given to us. He said, "But it's interesting, isn't it? One day, all of that stuff is going to go away. But one is going to remain and that's love, loving each other." There isn't a more spiritual thing that any one of us can do than actually love each other. The most spiritual thing I can do for you is to love you in the same way that Jesus loves you. I can't give you a better revelation. I can't give you a better prophecy. I can't give you a better encouragement than just loving you the way Jesus loves you. And if we would in our hearts become more and more committed to that and knowing that the world doesn't understand.
They don't recognize it. They don't see it. How many times are you in class going to school and you said to your teacher, "I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't understand." Then all of a sudden he would give you an explanation and what would happen? We would say, "I see now. I see." Well, it wasn't that your eyes were blind before it was that there was no understanding. There is where the world is. They don't understand Jesus. But the way that the world would begin to understand Jesus is if they actually see Jesus. If they see Jesus in you and in me, that's how the world will begin to be transformed when we actually begin to love them in that way.
Jacque: I want to share about all--I don't know all the ways we are supposed to love each other the way Jesus loves us. I mean, boil that down.
Brian: Yeah.
Jacque: That's for another sermon, isn't it?
Brian: I think it's 10 sermons.
Jacque: I just keep thinking the word give.
Brian: I know.
Jacque: Just give.
Brian: So what we've done in... It's easier to make a rule than it is to love from your heart. It is the challenge, and I'm looking forward to Pastor Roberts and Pastor Jeff's messages in August because they are going to deal with some of this stuff. Religious rules are simply never enough to guide our lives. They are just not enough because moral wisdom or the Jesus way comes from somewhere else. The Jesus way comes from somewhere else than just a book of rules and regulations. The Jesus way comes from having a relationship with the living Christ, a relationship with him. Interestingly Jesus was repeatedly accused of abandoning the scriptures, and yet he defended his lifestyle by claiming to be the true fulfillment of the scriptures. That's what he did. I want to look at Matthew 5:17 here for a second. Let's read Matthew 5:17. We are going to jump down to that.
Jacque: Okay. Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
Brian: So some people have thought is, I've been teaching some of these messages. Well, are you saying that Jesus came to abolish the law? Well, actually, no. He didn't come to abolish it, he came to fulfill it. He was the fulfillment of the law. He was the fulfillment of everything spoken of in the Old Testament. That's why he would say, "I am he. I am he." There was a scripture I used to camp on years ago and I would read this and I would stop part way through. It's Matthew 5:18. It's the next verse after this one we read. Let's read that one.
Jacque: I tell you the truth. Until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.
Brian: So when I would read this verse, I would read it this way. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear. That's where I would end it. But he says, "Until it's purpose is achieved." When Jesus came the purpose of all of that was accomplished. That was one of the reasons--there were many reasons I think Jesus said, "It is finished or it is accomplished." The word finished and accomplished was very similar there. It's one of the reasons why I believe Jesus said this on the cross, is that everything was completed with him. We don't need to like John, the Baptist, was questioning. He had this anointing on him.
He was filled with the Spirit in his mother's womb. Right? He walks in this anointing all of his life and then he gets thrown in prison. My personal opinion is this anointing got taken off of him and now he's questioning. He said, "Art thou He, or should we look for another?" We've all been in that place. Are you the one? When we come to a place where we say, "Yes," in our hearts to Jesus, that he is the one. That's when our life takes on meaning. That's when things become significant. When Jesus said not the smallest detail of the law is going to disappear until its purpose is achieved, it was achieved during his death and resurrection. So he was moving us from this old system to a whole new system. Do you know what we need to do?
The title of my sermon is Unhitch Your Wagon. The wagon I'm talking about here is when we come to Jesus, we have to unhitch that old way of thinking on how we bring pleasure to God on all these sorts of things. We need to unhitch it and hook our wagon up to Jesus. We need to hook up to the Jesus wagon, the relationship with him. One more verse, Matthew 24:35. There are some things that disappeared. The Torah, the law of God, had what's called shelf life. Have you ever gone into your pantry, and you read something? What are you reading? The expiration dates. How long have I had--this expired in 2014?
Jacque: You didn't see any of that in my pantry.
Brian: Yeah. I don't read expiration dates.
Jacque: Maybe one or two times. Yes.
Brian: The law had an expiration date on it. It was good for a certain amount of time and when Jesus came on the scene, it expired. Here is what Jesus said. Matthew 24:35.
Jacque: Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.
Brian: That's what we can sink our teeth into, the words of Jesus. Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never, ever disappear. I'm going to bring this to a conclusion here. As we look forward to walking with Jesus, there is a principle that we would be well to follow. That principle is this, let's take the words of Jesus to heart. Let's take the words of Jesus to heart. Jesus has called you and I to live by a higher standard than even the golden rule. He's called us to live the way of love instead of the way of law. He's called us to live the way of love. This golden rule, which is wonderful, was the next step. It was a steppingstone where Jesus was trying to get people... I tell people sometimes when they ask for directions. They arelost and they ask for directions from me, and I say to them, "Well, you can't get there from here. You have to go someplace else first." That's kind of how we got where we are today on our property. Some of you may not realize it, but 25 years ago, we bought land on the east side of Conner Road 116. We had 50 what? 54 or 56 acres over there, but God's plan wasn't for us to be over there.
But he couldn't get us here until he got us there. Because the timing for this property didn't open up at the same time that property opened up. God has a place that he wants us to be and sometimes we can't get there from here. We have to go someplace else first. He wanted to bring his people to a place of a New Commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you. Nobody was ready for that. So he started with, do unto others, as you would want them to do unto you. He started with that. But the real goal was not to treat somebody else in the way you wanted to be treated. The goal of God was that you and I would love, and the way Jesus loves. To do that takes a big transformation. Doesn't it? It takes a willingness to say every day, “I give everything and everyone to you. Fill me with your grace." I need more of you. I need more of you. I got way too much of me. I pray that a lot. I got way too much of me in me, Jesus, and I need more of you in me. Every day we pray, I need more of you, Jesus, we can become more and more like Christ.
The more like Christ we become, the more we will be able to love as Jesus loved. A new commandment I give onto you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Let's pray together. Thank you, Jesus, that there is a place for us to go in you, and that place is where we kind of spent some time here during our service today, just in your presence. In your presence and being touched in our hearts and wanting nothing more than you in your presence. When we come into your presence, it seems as though all of the concerns and the fears and all of those things just start to disappear. It's like the old song we used to sing.
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in his wonderful face, And all of the things of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the light, Lord of your glory and your grace."
Pastor Robert, would you come, please?
Robert: Praise the Lord. It's interesting as the shepherds in the house, we have a responsibility to grab a whole of what the Lord is not only just speaking to us, but speaking to us as a congregation, as a whole. So as we do that, I want us to pay attention and make notes, that things don't just happen just to happen by chance. There is a connection. Pastor Jeff, Pastor Brian and I may not always so-called collaborate together, but there is only one spirit. As pastor A.J. always tells me, there is only one spirit. When that spirit is moving and speaking, those of us who are trained to hear his voice, are hearing him. So there is a pattern that happens when God is moving, speaking for a season. I believe he has specific things that he says in seasons. Pay attention to what he's saying. It's not by chance that Pastor Jeff and Cheryl are sharing the way of Jesus or the Jesus-way, or pastor Brian is incorporating that in his message.
I was meditating on the scripture before I came up here. It reminded me that in the book of Acts chapter 11 in the city of Antioch, it says it's where the disciples were first called Christians. So this term Christian that we identify with came in the city of Antioch as Barnabas... There is a whole story, but Barnabas was about to go meet Paul and some other missionary activities. But it was at first that these disciples of Jesus were first called Christian. So if they were first called Christian only then, then what were they called before? The followers of the way is what they were called. The way. It was called--they were called the way. I hope you are getting that.
Brian: Yes.
Robert: Because that implies something. We are not just identified by the name of Christ, it's by the way of Christ.
Brian: That's right.
Robert: That's what discipleship is, it's following Christ's way. The Lord's way, the Jesus way. That's discipleship. That's what we are called to in this new life, following the way. Not the ways, not these several paths, and all these things that the world tries to tell us is the way. It was called--we were called the way because it's his way.
Brian: Yes.
Robert: My prayer for us today is that we truly come. As pastor talked about today, the understanding of the way of Christ, that's why we have discipleship. That's why we have Bible study. It's not for us to grow so-called so to speak in our gifts and all the things that we can do and demonstrate. It's actually for our destiny, which God preordained for us, for us to be like his son. Lord, help us be more like you, whatever you need to do, help us to be more like you. Change our hearts, our minds, our way of thinking, and the way of doing things so that we become the reflection of the Christ, Jesus. Lord, it's not easy because we are set in our ways, even as it's demonstrated in your book. The people have gone--often called stiff-neck and stubborn. We can be just like that too, wanting to do our way.
Our way is a way of destruction. Our way is a way of division. Our way is a way of death. But your way is full of life, is full of truth, it's full of love, it's full of liberty, freedom. Your way draws us closer to you. So, I pray for the people of God today, not to hearten their hearts. Not to be stiff-necked. Not to insist in your way, but you will surrender to the way of our loving Father that was manifested and demonstrated to us by the glorious son, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all mankind, the lover of our souls, and our destiny for all eternity. Show us the way Lord, and we will follow, in Jesus's mighty name. Amen.
Brian: We will have people to pray with you at the altar after the service if you need prayer. If you are watching online, you can go to our hope Facebook page and send a prayer request to Rachel. She'll bring that up to our prayer leaders here if you have a prayer request for that. Dave and Lou will be serving communion at the end of the service here today, for those of you who want to have communion. We are so grateful that you were with us today, both here in the sanctuary, and those of you who are watching online. Can't thank you enough for your support. God is doing some really, really wonderful things, both in our community and in our community of faith here. Our future's very exciting. I'm looking forward to the month of August when Pastor Jeff, Pastor Robert, and myself are going to be doing some vision casting for the months and future to come. I'm just really excited about walking with Jesus during this season. It's a good time to know the Lord. It's a good time to know the Lord. Let's lift our hands together, shall we? I'll bless you. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, and may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace, and may you begin to have so much of Jesus that you can't help but love the way he loves. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Thank you for being here today. Enjoy God this week. He can be enjoyed, you know.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 7-24-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.