Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Level Up Sunday 2025
This Sunday we celebrated all of the Middle school, High School, and College Graduates, while also giving them and their parents some Godly advice on how to approach the future.
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All right, all right, everybody welcome to church. Somebody who's excited to be here. Somebody All right, they're going to church. Somebody who's excited to be here. Somebody All right, they're going to bring the lights up. And I just want to take a minute right here in the service to say, if you are a guest today, I'm thrilled that you chose to worship with us this morning. If you're online and you chose, maybe for the very first time, to cue in, to click into our service, we're excited that you are worshiping with us and going to join together with us in the Word.
Speaker 1:We have a couple of really cool things that stand out, some exciting stuff that we get to participate with, but I want to take just a moment to acknowledge today is a really special day in our year, a moment that we take time out of the many freedoms that we have to celebrate, of the many like summer's exciting. There's lots of cool things coming, but all of these things are made possible by a few things. There are things that have purchased our freedom, and so I want us to just take a minute here on Memorial Day weekend. I want us to just take a moment of stillness where we can slow down and say thank you to God, first off for the freedoms that we get to enjoy every single day, but also we're acknowledging and remembering the costs that were paid to buy our freedom, because we know it wasn't free, it wasn't just handed over, but it was bought with a really, really heavy price. So can we just take a moment, right here in this room, and with a moment of stillness, still our hearts, still our thoughts, and have a gratitude that's worthy of the price that was paid, to not be so entitled that we think that we're owed it? Certainly I don't think any of us feel that way but to know that the price of freedom was someone's blood, someone's life, someone's blood, someone's life.
Speaker 1:There are many people throughout history that served in the armed forces and laid down their lives. Some poured out blood and left limbs on foreign soil and fought wars that we'll forget about. But in this moment we'll just stop and say thank you and acknowledge that the price of freedom Certainly we remember Jesus paid a price for us. But even in the light of that, the model that Jesus gave us, to lay our lives down for friends and for what we believe in many people have done that. So I just want us to take just a few moments of silence and remember that price that was paid, and then we're gonna pray and then we're gonna move on, but we can stop for just a moment.
Speaker 1:So would you remember, dear Lord, we come to you right now with hearts that are full of gratitude. Let us not be a people that are entitled and a people who are full of pride, and a people who ignore the price that was paid for what we enjoy every day. Let us not be ignorant to the fact that someone poured out their blood, someone poured out their life for us to make a sacrifice that none of us will have to acknowledge all year long. But right now, lord, as we go on to parties and family and celebration and the joy of summertime and freedom, lord, we give thanks that you will lead us through every hard time and that you give us people who stand in the shadows of their heroes, that go before us and fight for things that don't get talked about very often. But, lord, let us be grateful this week and this year and let us be deserving of the prices that have been paid for us. We ask that your blessings would be upon their families and people who are missing family members, those who have gone and given their lives. Lord, we just ask that you would give them favor and peace on this day that they might not be celebrating, and peace on this day that they might not be celebrating even those in this room who may be missing loved ones and remembering grandparents and parents, brothers and sisters and children. Thank you, jesus, amen, amen, amen. We do have a lot to celebrate. We have a lot to celebrate in the summertime coming.
Speaker 1:I'm going to keep the band here with me for just one moment and invite Pastor Susan to join me up at the front, and I want us to just take a moment in the service. We're going to acknowledge and honor a group of people that are in the room and also we have just a special gift for you. But I'd like to invite, if you are graduating from high school or college this year, I'd like you to stand up and just come right up here to the front and we're just going to honor you. Awesome, any high school college graduates, wow, wow, wonderful, beautiful. Pastor Susan's going to give you guys a gift from the church. We love you. We honor you for doing something incredible, for persevering. Now we all know I think most of the people in the room here know that it's not easy to finish something, something that's important, that will impact the rest of your lives. We're so proud of you and we honor you today. Can we give it up one more time for these lovely young people? Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1:I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you guys for just one second and let you know that it is not unseen and that you got a bunch of people in the room your family, friends, people who love and care about you that are cheering you on, because we know that you guys are fighting hard. We know that you are winning the race, but you also have a big, wide world ahead of you in the future. You have a whole open book ahead of you. You've written the first few chapters and we are excited about what God can do in your life, the blessing and the favor that God has prepared for you in the road ahead.
Speaker 1:So what I'd like you guys to do with me is would you just stretch out your hands we're going to pray for them and just proclaim a blessing over them, believing that God has his hand on them and that God's directing them, that he has things prepared that they can't see. They don't know things. There are also bad things ahead of them, but God can protect them and direct them and guide them through the Holy Spirit, through every one of those things. So we're going to cling to his voice and his spirit. So let's just agree in prayer right now.
Speaker 1:God, we just pray that you are with each one of these graduates as they close a chapter in the book in this moment of their life. Lord, we just thank you that you are helping them to transition from this moment into the next one. And though it may be hard and though we can't see all the details, lord, we don't have to have clarity for the future. All we have to do is keep our hand in your hand, and so, lord, I ask that you would stay close to each of them. Let your voice be clear, god. Let them hear your voice clearly through the noise of the world, through the noise of other people, through the noise of distractions that would cause them to go this way or that way and trip them up. Lord, just keep them strong, hold their feet strong, hold their hands strong, breathe life into them everywhere they go, go ahead of them and behind them. Protect them with your angels. Give them favor in every room they walk into God. Let people do for them the things that they wouldn't normally do. Let them have favor on their jobs, favor with friends, favor with family. Protect them from things that would hurt them and distract them. In Jesus' name, we thank you for giving them everything that they need to succeed, putting the right relationships around them and God helping them to see that every resource they need to accomplish the purpose that you have built into them before they were ever born, god is at hand. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you guys so much. Let's give it up for them one more time as they go back to their seats. You guys are awesome. There you go. It is a blessing to have such potential in the room. Awesome, and can y'all give it up one time for the band? They do an awesome job every week. Thank you guys. You all do an awesome job. It's easy to be up on stage in front of everybody and still be in the mix, just getting lost in the crowd. We don't get to hear their voices all the time, but the talent we get to see every week and their gifts poured out for the Lord, but the talent we get to see every week and their gifts poured out for the Lord we get to participate with. So today I want to jump right in. I don't take a whole lot of time, since we have a short amount of time left in the service. I will say I'm glad that you are here this morning.
Speaker 1:It is a little bit of a different Sunday. Today is kind of in between series. We ended a series last week and next week we'll start a new series, and today we're celebrating with our graduates. But we're also, I want to challenge our graduates. Today's message is a challenge to the graduates, but it's also a challenge to parents. So we're going to talk about what it means to parent. We're going to talk about what it means to be finishing a chapter and opening a new one. But speaking of closing chapters and opening a new one, we're moving into the summer session, which we're looking for fruit. We're going to. We proclaim that we're going to have a fruitful summer. So that means that small groups kick off next Sunday.
Speaker 1:Although you get to look at the directory today, it's out in the foyer. Next Sunday, although you get to look at the directory today, it's out in the foyer and our ladies are having their. There's a ladies event tonight, I believe, in the building and you guys awesome. But we also have a men's event happening next Saturday at 9 am. So all the men, where's all the men at in the room? Okay, I knew there was some men in the room, men in the room. We're meeting next Saturday here for breakfast at 9 am and we'll have some fellowship. We'll have actually some really cool prizes, some door prizes. Just show up and you'll get some tickets and a chance to win some cool stuff, including the grand prize, which is a I want to say it's a ETA Arms tactical shotgun, 12-gauge shotgun. So if that's something that, just get here early, be here for all the drawings and you'll have a lot of opportunities. But you have to be here to win so you can't just show up and put your ticket in. So lots of cool stuff happening.
Speaker 1:And then next week we start the Fruitful Summer series. For nine weeks we're going to be talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Every week a different fruit of the Spirit, and we're going to be getting a little bit introspective, putting on some lenses to say, okay, where's my fruit? At? Jesus cursed the tree that had no fruit. So we don't want to be cursed, we want to walk in blessing and we want to walk in the fruit. Having the fruit of the Spirit, that is the best kind of fruit in your life. We could name off all the things that we want to see, but the thing that makes us the most blessed is whenever we have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, and so we're going to every week. So be here for as many of those weeks. We have some special guests even lined up in the summer. So for the next nine weeks, I know that a lot of people will be traveling, but I would challenge you to be here for as many as you can so that we can continue to dig in. We have a responsibility to grow as a church. Even when it's vacation time, even when everything starts to slow down and it's summer and you want to go out and spend time at the pool or traveling or with the kids program. All those things are awesome, but let's stay in the presence of God and continue to be fruitful during the summer and with our relationship.
Speaker 1:So, with that said, I'm going to dive into this singular message for today, not in a series, but go ahead and pull your notes out. We are a note-taking church and I have about 25 minutes to give you guys this message as quickly as I can. But it is. I believe it's important. It's an important message. It's an important transitional message.
Speaker 1:So somebody sent me a video not too long ago. I thought I'd share it to kind of set the tone for where this message is going. One of you guys sent me a video and in the video it shows a lady who's coming to a guy's door. She rings the doorbell and she has a package of candy and the candy is the little Ferrero Rocher. How many of you guys like those little? It's a ball of chocolate and truffles and nuts and all kinds of stuff. She has a whole package, so there's like 20 or 30 of them in the whole package.
Speaker 1:She said I want to talk to who gave this package to my son for Halloween. It was a trick-or-treat thing. He put the whole package in the kids. She was so upset. My son is at home crying right now because you gave him this gift. She opens up one and she said he thought he was getting chocolate and she opened it up and inside every single one of them was a Brussels sprout. The guy was laughing his head off while she was so upset and it just made me think of all the times that you and I think we're getting something great, we think we're getting something outstanding and incredible. This is way more than I ever thought.
Speaker 1:And then, when they actually open it up and when we actually see that life has presented us not with a little golden wrapped treasure, but what we actually end up with is something very bad or something that we hate. And in life that looks like it could be in relationships it could be. When I graduate from high school, I'm making decisions and I'm choosing things and when I get, but when I actually get there and I live with it for a little while, I realize I've made a big, big, big mistake. So today, for parents, for people who are going through transition, people who are married husbands, wives, graduates I want to speak to every single one of us about how to choose life instead of death, how to recognize. Last week we finished a series, a four-week series on baby monsters, and a big idea there is that there are things this is like a bonus message for that series that there are things in life that we think are good, we think they're cute, we think they're okay, but when we actually live with it, we start to realize that this is very destructive. This is not what I bargained for at all. So I'm titling. If you need a title for the message, it's called Treasure Hunt.
Speaker 1:We're looking for some treasure and trying to distinguish. Because how many of looking for some treasure and trying to distinguish? Because how do you know that sometimes good things come or sometimes bad things come in good packages? In fact, the Bible says that the devil comes disguised as an angel of light. That's kind of his thing. That's his trick. He presents himself as something good, but it's not. It's not good at all. So we're going to start.
Speaker 1:Our key verse today is Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse 19. I'm going to read it all to you. I'm going to try to give you as much scripture as I can today. Today I've given you this is God speaking to his children. Today I've given you the choice between life and death. Everybody say life and death, life and death, between blessing and curses, say blessing and curses. And so he says you've got this option. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. He's not going to force, blessing. He's not going to force life on you. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live. You have a choice, graduates. You have a choice in life. You have something presented to you. Even if you think I don't have any options, I have any options. I wish I had the options they have. You have options and the options are life and death, blessing and curses, and as good as our intentions are, here's what happens.
Speaker 1:We start off choosing life. We start off with the best intentions. We want to build a good life, have a good spouse and have kids and buy a house and have a nice car. We want all the good things. We want to have faith in God. We want to be strong in our faith. But then time goes on and then we start getting lax in our decisions, or we start getting lazy in our decisions. Maybe I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:When Angela and I were newly married and our son was just born first, son Jake he has a pacifier. He had a pacifier. And if he spit that pacifier out and it landed on the ground, what did we do? Parents, you know what you do you pick up the pacifier, you go, wash it off with soap and water, make sure all the germs are gone, and then you put it back in their mouth. Second baby comes along, grace, she spits out the pacifier. Now it's not as big of a deal as it was for the first one. We'll take it. We might rinse it for one second and then put it back in their mouth. Third baby comes along and, and all of a sudden you might just let the dog lick it clean and then stick it back in their mouth.
Speaker 1:Our intentions are still good, but we get a lot less focused on what's valuable. Right In dating it's the same thing You're so focused at the beginning of. I have to make sure she's taken care of. I want to spend quality time with her. I'll make sure I got to woo my wife. I got to make sure that she knows how much I love her. We'll spend hours on the phone.
Speaker 1:Angela and I started dating at 16 years old. We would stay on the phone for hours. Sometimes one of us would fall asleep on the phone and it was just still at that moment. It was beautiful, right, because you can hear him breathing. But we don't want to get off the phone after you've been married for 10 years, or 15 or 20 years. Now it's like babe, I recorded you sleeping last night so you could hear how you sounded when you were snoring. She doesn't snore, though I probably do. Right, our kind of.
Speaker 1:Our efforts start to decline over time. So, as believers, as people of faith, here's my challenge to you. There's some things that we have to pay close attention to and not decline, not get lazy, not start taking less of an effort to make sure that the treasure we're choosing, that we're choosing life and not death, that we're not falling for the disguise that the enemy, the devil, would throw at us, that the world would say, hey, this is valuable, you should choose it. No, we're going to choose what God tells us to choose. So I'm going to give you four really quickly. I'm going to give you four things that are and I don't have a lot of time, so we're going to go through them very quickly I'm going to give you four things that might look like treasure but actually they are trash. They might look like life, but in reality they are death. So, whether you're a graduate, a parent, I'm going to try to relate some of this to being a parent, because we are giving our kids gifts all the time. Sometimes we're giving them a gift that we think is valuable, but it's not. So. There are some things that have value and there are some things that don't have value. So, as, wherever you're at, let's look at these four things that are disguised.
Speaker 1:First of all, number one, it's simply a temporary mindset. Sometimes we get to living for today. You only live once. Like today, live for the moment. We think there's value in that. Our culture embraces that that's something, hey, make today count, make this moment count. But let me tell you something when we get our eyes so focused on this moment and not pay attention to what's coming ahead, actually, as believers, a big part of what faith is is seeing what's ahead. Faith is having eyes that see past this moment and how I feel and what the world tells me.
Speaker 1:2 Corinthians 4 says this. So we don't look at the troubles we can see now. Rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. What he's showing us is that there are things that we get focused on. Some of them are seen and some of them are unseen. For the things that we see now will soon be gone, the temporary things, but the things we cannot see will, what They'll last forever, whether it's what God has prepared for you.
Speaker 1:If you're so focused on what your boss or your parents or your boyfriend or your girlfriend wants you to buy into, that you can't see what God wants you to buy into. God wants you to buy into something that is long-term and will last forever. In fact, jesus tells the disciples that, hey, pay attention. You're the bride and the groom is coming back for his bride and if you're not paying attention, it'll happen without you, like a thief in the night. Be prepared, be ready. That means I have to keep my mind on eternal things. Watch what happens.
Speaker 1:When I keep my mind and my thoughts on eternal things, I start living, not for today, but I'm living for tomorrow. I'm living for the future that God has for me and my wife one day, or husband or my kids that will. I'm not making decisions today that just affect me. I'm making decisions that will affect maybe 10 years, 20 years or 1,000 years down the road. It's not easy to live for the future, but it's something that we have to do, because if we don't, if we're only living for today, and how happy I am and I gotta buy this thing right now, even if it costs me everything I have, because I need this car, I need this phone, I need this thing, this computer, this program, this. I have to go to this event.
Speaker 1:Grace and I have our whole family has been discussing around the idea. She'll be married in November and she's been sending me all of these things that are Pinterest ideas and all these beautiful weddings. But sometimes people are spending $100,000, $150,000 on a wedding. I'm like I can't do this. I don't know, maybe do we really need to get married. That's what can't do this. I don't know. Maybe do we really need to get married. That's what? No, we can get married, but we need to also make decisions that affect financially, that set them up for success and not failure. Right, we don't spend every penny that we have and put ourselves deep into debt so that the moment the wedding's over, it's gone. Right, that's just one example. But every day we're making decisions.
Speaker 1:Am I going to live for now or am I going to live for later? Am I going to follow God's plan for me or am I going to just do what feels good? Because the temptation, even as graduates, is to say, hey, I just graduated, I'm just going to live for right now, for just the next year, I'm just going to put everything on pause and hey, that's very dangerous, because life is moving on, with or without you, and you can get stuck just putting things off. So we need to be less concerned about today's happiness and more about tomorrow's readiness. Am I ready for problems that come? Am I ready for what's being sent along my way? I'm going to go put myself deep into credit card debt.
Speaker 1:So here's four lessons, four ideas. If you look at any of the four on this list and you say, well, I am good at that one, but not listen, write them down and start getting serious about what does each of these four things in your life look like? Four keys to building for your future. Number one is take responsibility. Be the kind of person that doesn't put the responsibility for your life on someone else. Whether or not you're successful or whether or not you fail, I promise you it depends on you and you could say well, I failed because of this and this and this, but you can also succeed because you're determined to succeed. Maybe you've been dealt a bad hand. Take the cards that you're dealt and play them the best that you can. God will help you. There are people within this community that will help you.
Speaker 1:Number two set goals. If I walked around the room today, right now, and I said I want to know what your top three goals for the next five years are, graduates should especially have some goals for the future, because if you're not setting goals, if you don't have a target, you might end up anywhere. If your goal is, well, I'm just going to see what comes along, see what happens. I've just got to tell you without knowing you. That is a very sad goal. Set some goals, pray about it, pray and fast and ask God what do you want me to do with my life? And it's easy to point at graduates and say, hey, y'all need to have some goals. How about the adults in the room? Set some goals. Set some goals for your marriage. Set some goals for your finances. Get out of debt. Start saving some money. Do some things that God would be proud of. Set some goals for your children.
Speaker 1:Number three is get the right people around you. Number four don't give up. Have some gumption, have some grit, have some some grit your teeth and say I'm going to succeed, no matter what anybody tells me, no matter what anybody takes from me. No matter who will or won't promote me, I'm going to succeed Because God is with me. The writer in the Bible says if God is for us, who can be against us? All right. So number one is a temporary mindset.
Speaker 1:We have to fight that. Number two, we have to fight entitlement, realizing that sometimes entitlement seems good but it's not. It's very dangerous. And this happens with our kids. When we say I'll just give them whatever they want and we give our kids things that they didn't earn. If they throw a fit in the candy store and we're so tired of listening to them whine and complain, fine, take it, we've just given them something they didn't earn, and it makes them feel like they are owed it now. And then they grow up to be 10 years old and 20 years old and 30 years old. They're living a life where they think somebody should hand something to them, when that's not how the world works. You've got to fight for it, and if you look at someone else and say, well, they didn't fight for it, you don't know what they had to do to get where they got. Culture reinforces this by giving us participation, awards and trophies for things that nobody earned, and we cheer our kids on. Can I just tell you, every person in the room at every age, everyone watching online, that you should not get a reward for showing up, for doing the bare minimum. You should not be rewarded because you did what you were supposed to do. You should not be rewarded because you did what you were supposed to do. One of the best things we can do for our children is giving them the blessing of earning the blessing Some of y'all are saying. This is not the message I came for.
Speaker 1:Pastor Sean, I think there's so much wisdom in the Bible that we overlook to daily practical living. 2 Thessalonians says for even when we were with you, paul says we would give you this command if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Sometimes we need some tough medicine. Sometimes somebody has to tell you graduates, get to work, start sweating, putting in the hours, make your life count for something, build something for the lord, build something for your family. Don't wait on somebody to give it to you. It says for we, for we hear that some among you walk in idleness. Not busy at work, but busy bodies. Where do you fit into that category Now? Such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ, to do their work quietly and earn their own living. I promise you this is valuable advice For small kids that might look like hey, you want to play video games.
Speaker 1:Play video games, but you're going to do your chores first. Parents, if you have kids under 10 years, or even teenagers, if you're a parent in the room, can I give you permission to understand this concept right here that life is not fair and you don't have to ask your kids permission to set rules in the house. They're your children, not your peers. They don't get an equal say. And if you're a graduate, if you're a young person and a student, you don't have a reason to not work. There are some reasons, I understand, but if you don't have a reason, then go get a job. Get a job and be the hardest working person that you know. That goes for adults too. Be the hardest working person that you know. All right, number three I have to move quickly. Number three is something that might seem valuable, but it can be detrimental.
Speaker 1:Is number three cheap praise, cheap praise? This is when I give you undeserved praise. It's very dangerous for kids. It's very dangerous for people. Oh, you did awesome, you're amazing. If you tell our kid you're the prettiest, you're the smartest, you're the most handsome boy in the whole world, wait a second, you're not the smartest. They know they're not the smartest kid in their school, maybe, if they're not. But we tell them all of these things because we love them, we want them to succeed, we want them to have confidence. But something happens. Actually, studies are pretty conclusive that when we give our kids cheap praise, it actually robs them of confidence. Because they can look around and say I'm not the best kid on this baseball team. Why are you treating me like I am? Why are you telling me I'm the best? I'm not. And then they just devalue. They say Mom doesn't know what she's talking about. Overpraise creates anxiety For me. That was I actually.
Speaker 1:Now you all will be very impressed that I skipped a grade and it was kindergarten. I skipped kindergarten and then I got to first grade, second grade, third grade and fourth grade. I was already ahead of everybody and I thought you know what? I'm just better than everyone. But then I soon realized wait a second, I'm not better than everybody, I'm not smarter than everybody, I'm not more gifted than everybody else. I think they just robbed me of being able to color and do crafts all the time while everybody else did kindergarten. I feel like I was robbed. In fact, I feel like they just needed they didn't have any extra spaces in kindergarten and said, hey, we'll just move him up to first grade.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it undermines the integrity of a young person's mindset because they don't understand what you're. It doesn't line up with reality. So here's the thing. The key is, instead of giving people just cheap praise, adults need affirmation. There is a pandemic of missing fatherhood and actual motherhood where people are giving actual affirmations. Like you did an amazing job.
Speaker 1:I saw that there's a difference between praising the person. In fact, it's better to praise the process than praise the person. Praise the effort that's being put in. Like I could see, you tried your hardest, you did your best for God, you were pursuing your faith and, like I appreciate your character. In this situation, you don't have to tell them that they're the best, smartest kid in the whole world. It's better to praise the process than the person.
Speaker 1:Romans, chapter 13, verse 7, says give honor to whom honor is owed. In a situation where honor is owed, we should be giving honor. We honored graduates up here. They put in the effort. But what happens is when we start over congratulating people, they start thinking that they don't have any problems. They think that they shouldn't have to put in actual effort because you already told them when they didn't put in any effort, they just showed up. You told them that was enough. Or maybe that's what you were told when you were a kid, maybe that's what you were told growing up.
Speaker 1:And then we end up with a whole generation of people who walks around thinking man, everybody I work with is an idiot, my boss is an idiot, all of my employees are idiots, all of my co-workers they're all idiots. Can I just tell you, if everywhere you go, it stinks, it might be you. It might be. It might be If you look at the world and everything seems terrible, just everything. Bad attitude, everything's sour and toxic everywhere you go. It might be the case that you're bringing it with you and it won't matter how many jobs you go to and young people, you can quit your job because it just doesn't feel how you thought it would feel and they didn't treat you how you deserve to be treated. Listen, don't stay in an abusive situation. I'll just put that down at the base level, but barring that, you need to work your butt off blood, sweat and tears to build the kind of life that God has for you. We need to move Number four Number four comes in a good package sometimes, but freedoms we're not ready for.
Speaker 1:Why do you think so many people win the lottery and end up bankrupt? Because they're not ready for it. They don't know how to deal with it. They don't know how to manage money. So what does that mean? That means you need to prepare yourself to managing money. Young people, if you're graduating from high school and you don't have a bank account, someone did you the disservice of not telling you you needed a bank account, learning how to balance a checkbook. Hey, I don't know why they don't teach that in school, but figure it out. Find someone who listen, find someone who does a great job at money, who has the kind of life that you think you'd love to have, and just ask them hey, would you be my mentor? That's not something that a lot of people do nowadays, but I can promise you this most people would be flattered and they would try to help you.
Speaker 1:If you're 18 years old, 17, 18, 19, 16, and you want to be successful, go find someone who has the kind of success that you have and start spending time with them, start listening to what they say, start doing the kind of things that they do Freedoms we're not ready for. We'll let a 10-year-old we won't let a 10-year old cross the street without holding someone's hand. We won't let them do it alone. But then we'll give them a phone that has absolutely everything in the world on it. They'll have access to everything, and we're overprotective in one area. But then we give them freedom that they are absolutely not ready for. And so we have junior high school kids who are addicted to pornography and sexting with other kids, and they have things going on. They have anxieties and doubt and depression I never had to deal with when I was that age because I didn't even. They know way more than I knew.
Speaker 1:We have to gradually shift and transfer our dependence from God I mean from the world and from our parents to God. Start leaning on God Because, listen, god knows what you're ready for. We have to learn how to trust him. We have to learn how to believe that if God thinks I'm ready for a hundred million dollars to be dumped on me, then he'll give it to me. Otherwise, it might kill me. Give it to me, otherwise it might kill me. And most of us think, well, I think I would know better, I'd do fine, I'd have to learn real quick. Listen, if you can't trust God enough with $100 or $1,000, how's he going to give you $100 million?
Speaker 1:Luke, chapter 16, says this if you're faithful in little things, you'll be faithful in large ones. We show ourselves approved. We show ourselves to be a good steward, to take care of God. I'm going to take care, live your life in a way that says God, whatever you give me, I'm going to take care of it so that you'll give me more. It goes on to say but if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities.
Speaker 1:And here comes the big one. If you're untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? There's some bigger blessings than you can even imagine, and God's seeing that you're not ready for it. So we have to show ourselves trustworthy. Manage the little things like they matter. Well, that doesn't really matter. I'll do better whenever I got more. Do better now. Just tell your neighbor do better now. All right, I'm going to close with three things. Now I've showed you four things that they are disguised and they're not the treasure, they're the trash. I'm going to show you three things that all of us should be clinging to and fighting for in every day of our life, whether you're a graduate parent, a husband, wife. So this passage that we're going to read in Deuteronomy, chapter 6, this is called the Shema In the Jewish tradition in the Old Testament, this is a passage that was probably recited and quoted more than any other passage in the Bible as a prayer for my family and a standard for our life, and so I'm going to read it to us and we're going to embrace it this morning.
Speaker 1:Watch this Verse 4 through 9 is the Shema. It says Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Watch what he says. Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. In other words, this passage, this idea, the commandments of God, living for God. It needs to become a part of who you are, day in, day out. This is a core tenet of who we are as a people. So I'm going to show you three things.
Speaker 1:We're going to unpack these verses just a little bit, starting with the beginning. In verse 4, it says Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. Now, whenever it says that word Israel, it's not just referring to a nation of people, it's talking about a family. It started with a man named Israel, who had sons, and then they had sons, and then they built a nation. God gave them a promise we're referring to like a community of people, and so number one is this a community worth having is something that is so valuable that we undervalue. We overlook it sometimes, but you should be fighting to have a community worth having and the Jewish tradition. This is way more than just who you're related to. This is the people that you live around. Look around the room. This is our community of faith. This is the, the people that we're doing life with.
Speaker 1:You're about to go out and jump into a small group this week into the summer, but if all you see is, oh, I gotta get my kids into their baseball program and we have to build for college and we have to make sure they have good grades, if you're not valuing the people that your children are doing life with, if you're not valuing the people that you're living life day in, day out with, you're missing it. And I'll tell you this that I personally, I am who I am today because of the people that I grew up around, that I, personally, I am who I am today because of the people that I grew up around Aunts, uncles, mom, dad, grandparents, cousins, friends of the family, people we called uncle and aunt that weren't actually uncle and aunt, but they were helping to lead us. Who and what you expose your children to will shape who they become and what they believe. I can tell you this that whatever you did growing up, you rarely did it by yourself.
Speaker 1:Think about it All of your best and worst memories. If you did something great and you have a great memory, there's a good chance that there was a lot of good people around you, or just a couple of good people around you. But the opposite is also true. If you did something terrible that you regret and it's one of the worst moments of your life, you did something very stupid. There was probably a good chance there were some stupid people around you also. If you did something good, you probably did it with good friends. You did something stupid probably with some bad friends.
Speaker 1:And this is also true that there's a good chance that you won't do some things. If you're with good people, if you're with great friends and a good community, there's a good chance that you're not going to end up drunk and wrapping your car around a tree. There's a good chance that if you're a young man and you're hanging out with godly friends that are pouring into you and you're full of faith and you're living a life that honors God, there's a good chance that you're not disrespecting girls, your age, and treating women and treating young women like they're not valuable and treating young women like they're not valuable. There's a good chance that you're not going to end up in jail or in prison because you're with good people. But the opposite is also true. Proverbs 13 says it this way Keep company with the wise and you'll become wise. If you make friends with stupid people, you will be ruined. Who are you hanging out with?
Speaker 1:And you might be that parent saying, well, I can't control who my kids are friends with. True, you can't control who your friends are with, but you can influence the environments that you put them in. You can choose the place that for some of you, that might mean, hey, I feel like we need to take a moment and put our kids in private school. We need to put our kids we need, we need to homeschool our kids, even if it called we have to make less money next year because our kid needs to be in homeschool or a private school or a different school. We need to make some decisions that will put our kids with different people, because they're going in the wrong direction. That's a very hard decision that I've seen a bunch of parents make. But what can we save our kids from?
Speaker 1:Ecclesiastes says that two are better than one. Why? Because when our kids are in the right environment, when our kids are with the right people, what happens? And somebody says to them something like what you're saving yourself for marriage, what are you talking about? That's stupid. The answer is not yes, I'm saving myself for marriage? The answer is no. All of us, we're all saving ourselves for marriage Because that's what we do. That's who we are.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? You're living to please Jesus? No, not me living for we. We are living to please God. There's a, there is power in we. There is power in a group of people going in the same direction. What do you mean? You don't drink? Well, we don't drink. What do you mean? You don't do this, you don't do drugs like everybody? No, no, no, no. We don't do those things. It's not my faith, it's our faith. How much power is in that? Whenever it's not just me walking along, how valuable is that to be able to give a young person who's struggling because they're isolated and trying to stand for God. They know the right things to do, but it's very difficult to do it alone. Sometimes we have to do it alone. Number two not just a community worth having, but, number two, a standard worth achieving.
Speaker 1:Read that next part. It says love the Lord, god. With what? Love the Lord, your God with one word what? All your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. It doesn't say love your love, lord, your God, with most. Love the Lord, your God, with the best of your ability. Love the Lord, your God, and when you get to heaven, god's going to hand you a participation trophy. No, all is the standard that God sets.
Speaker 1:Listen, old Testament family, the Jewish family, kids by the time they were age 12, they had memorized Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy. Y'all know how big that is. And we think well, my kid can't even. He doesn't need to memorize Scripture, that's too hard, even one verse. We hold ourselves to different standards. What if we raised up a standard? What if we held ourselves? Well, I can't really expect my kid to make their bed, because you know they just don't do that kind of thing. They're struggling, they have a lot of anxiety, they'll have more. If I ask them to make their bed, then you know it's just going to create a fight. Hold on, can I tell you that if we expect little, what do we get? Little Guys. This is super practical.
Speaker 1:If we'll raise up the standard and say all right, guys, we're going to live, as for me and my house, like Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He said choose today whom you will serve. You have to make a choice. The choice is what's your standard? You're going to serve God, you're going to be in church. You're going to be in small group, you're going to join a team and serve and do stuff? Or is our standard going to be hey, listen, the standard in this family, if you live under my roof, you better not get anyone pregnant. That's a standard. Or the standard could be hey, we're going to stay pure until we get married, because that's what God asked us to do. We're going to live a life that honors God.
Speaker 1:I'm noticing it's getting really quiet in the room. Where's your standard at? You don't want me to say your thing. I know we all got things, but there's a standard. There's a standard that if we can just say God, where do you want me to be in this area of my life, as it relates to how I'm growing up, before I get married, I need to stay pure. Our marriage needs to be pure before the Lord. We're not going to have sex outside of marriage. Maybe the standard is I told my kids growing up.
Speaker 1:I know there's all kinds of great music out there. I appreciate many varieties and genres of music, but you know what music was created for. Music was created to honor and worship God. And if I never worship God with music and I never engage my heart with worship and all the music I listen to dishonors God, then we got a problem. So we have to set a standard. Maybe it's the movies you're watching. Is our standard that, oh, we're going to try to go to church once a month, or we're going to try to go to church every week? Where's your standard? Because I don't think the standard is. Should we go to church? The standard should be how am I engaged in church? Am I a member that's actively producing and actively contributing to the community of the church? Because church is not something we attend, it's who we are, it's what we do together.
Speaker 1:I feel like I spent way too much time on this one, so I'm going to hurry up and go to number three, and that is a faith worth sharing. Deuteronomy 6-7, impress them on your children, he says. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road and when you lie down, and when you lie down and when you get up, in other words, everything that you do. The conversation around God has to be the biggest conversation that we're having If I continue to bring my kids back to God if I continue to bring my thoughts back to God. I am not a proponent of hey, we need to pray before every meal. I love praying before every meal, but not because that's the time to pray, but because that's just another time during the day where I can bring the conversation back to God. Because if we don't keep bringing the conversation back to God with our kids and with our home, if we don't make the core value of our home that we are Christ-centered turn on worship, when I leave the house and not some other garbage I don't like to leave the news on. I like to walk into the house to an atmosphere of worship instead of an atmosphere of the world is ending, and I want my kids to recognize that, because I want them to have a firsthand faith, not just something that, oh, mom said we had to go to church this weekend. So here's our standard.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, I want you to be fully engaged followers of Jesus. When we're fully engaged, we produce fruit in the spirit, we're able to listen and follow the voice of God in our lives, we're able to grow and produce all kinds of good things that God wants in our life. But if I'm not fully engaged and I'm just half engaged. My heart is I love the Lord, god, with half my heart, half my time, half my checkbook. Where that actually leads me is to a bunch of failure. And then I look at my life.
Speaker 1:I thought, well, I was going to church, I gave some at church, I even went to that thing that they did Part-time followers of Jesus. It doesn't work. Being a part-time follower of Jesus absolutely does not work. Not only does it not produce the kind of fruit that we all expect it should produce. Well, I did all the things. No, your heart was halfway there. You were only half engaged. And so we put our foot in and we expect it to produce results, and it doesn't. And so we think, hey, it never worked. I already tried that. I hear tons of people on YouTube and TikTok saying listen, I tried to go to church, but you know I went away from that because it was all garbage. No, you didn't try. Can I just challenge you? Make this summer the summer that you go all in with God. Make this the summer that you make sure your kids are in the youth group because they can have mentors around God. Make this the summer that you make sure your kids are in the youth group because they can have mentors around them. Make sure that your children are in church so they can learn the word of God. In our nursery we have kids who can't even talk, are hearing scriptures being given to, lessons given to them because it matters the seeds that we're sowing into our future. So we got to do better.
Speaker 1:I know my time's up and we're going to close and pray, but I want to challenge you wherever you're not fully engaged with Jesus, let's re-engage. Maybe you've never been engaged the way that you should. Maybe you were, and then you kind of drifted, settled, and now it's time to re-engage and just say okay, god, I want the fruit that you want for my life. I want to become who you made me to be and it requires that you step into it fully and put your heart into it and commit yourself to it like nothing before. So I want us to pray together. Would you stand on your feet and I'm going to pray for us, and I just want you to. Let's try something different. Would you open your hands and put them in front of you? Just open your hands in front of you as a sign of surrender to the Lord and just wherever that place is where he wants us to re-engage.
Speaker 1:I want you to listen to the Holy Spirit Wherever he taps you on the shoulder and says hey, here's this spot, right here. I want you to cut this off, or I want you to keep this going, or I want you to start this new area or change directions, or I want you to say this or don't say this. There's some actions that need to be started. So let's just approach the throne room today. God. We just come to you right now with our hearts humbled before you, with our lives and our heads bowed in humility that your way is better than our way. Your thoughts, god, are so much better than our thoughts, and so we ask you, lord, in this moment, we ask that you would lead us and guide us.
Speaker 1:Let your Holy Spirit speak to every person in the room, all those who are watching online, that every place where we're not engaged the way that we ought to be engaged, every place where we've drifted, every place where we've gotten lazy and lax and turned our attention to something else, or God, every place where we've drifted, every place where we've gotten lazy and lax and turned our attention to something else, or God, every place where we've just given our attention to the squeaky wheel, the thing that really doesn't make any difference. Lord, help us. Help us to be fully engaged followers. Help us to let all of our heart, all of our soul and all of our strength be yours In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Before we go, I want to say one last prayer, and that is if you've never committed your life to Jesus and you're in the room today and you've never said I want to give my life back to the one who loves me, god sent his son to pay for real life for all of us, life that will far outlast this world. It means that not only will he walk through life with us as long as we're on this planet, but when this life is over, we get to be with him in eternity, forever. He gives us purpose. So if you've never said that prayer, all it takes is a confession from your mouth and belief in your heart, and then you can begin a journey and he'll walk with you from this moment on. So would you just bow your head, close your eyes, right where you are, and I'd invite every person in the room and online to just let's pray this prayer together. Would you say this out loud, dear Heavenly Father today I choose life and I reject death. From this moment on, I will follow you and I will live my life for you. So forgive me of my past and breathe new life into me and make me whole. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, let's put our hands together.
Speaker 1:The band is joining me on stage. Once again, I want to congratulate our graduates. You guys are awesome and I'm so thrilled that you joined us today. Next week we'll start a brand new series. We'll kick off small groups and don't forget the men's and women's meetings this evening and next Sunday. I'm going to invite the prayer team to join me at the front. If you'd like to pray with someone before we leave, I would invite you to join us. Otherwise you're dismissed. In Jesus' name, god bless you.