Submitted Churches

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We are about to make some big changes on our children's ministry, in our children's ministry area, and it's just part of growing up as a church, really, and what we're gonna start doing is, right now, a lot of our grade schoolers are leaving and going to some time just for grade schoolers, and it's a really great time. My wife actually leads that team. She does a bang-up job at it. She's doing really well. But what we're gonna start doing is we're gonna start asking parents to check in their grade schoolers before they come in to here, so that whenever they leave, during our time, they can just kinda go back there. The reason that we're doing that is because we want things to be a little bit more secure in our church, and honestly, when there were a lot fewer of us, everybody kinda knew everybody, you know? It was kinda like going over to somebody's house. It was very kinda laid back,

and we're just not really there anymore, which is great, but it does mean that we need to kinda figure a few different things out. So, if you forget next week and your kid just runs outta here, they will be turned back, not because we don't love them, but because they're coming to get you to check them in, okay? So, I just wanted to give just a quick program note on that. We are gonna be in Ephesians chapter five. We were talking about life submitted, and we're gonna be starting in verse 15, but first, I wanna tell you about a friend of mine, Rob Symons. Rob Symons is a good dude, and I've known him for a long time, and the quirky thing about Rob that just surprised me, he was actually the first guy I met like this. I've since met many, many others. When he goes to a restaurant, he cannot sit at a table with his back to a door. Can't do it. Anybody like that in here?

Can't do it? Okay, a few of you, bless you, bless you. So good, I can sit anywhere in a restaurant, okay? I'm not too particular, but this guy can't do it, and he's like, Rob is a really quiet dude. He doesn't kinda make a thing of it, but he's also incredibly jacked and knows kung fu. Teach his self defense. No kidding, the man knows kung fu. Teach his self defense. Real good dude, but every time he goes into an area, he does a perimeter sweep. Every time. I'm like, that's exhausting. I'm just thinking about being him, and I'm like, oh man. And I've talked to him about it several times, and he's been friends for a long time, and he's coming in, he's accessing, you know, like access points, and I don't even know these terms. The only reason I know what an access point is, because Rob Symons, okay?

And he's just like assessing all these stories, and I've talked with him several times, like, hey, what's that like for you? And he said, man, it's just second nature. I said, do you ever forget to do it? He goes, man, I can't turn it off, right? Like, I just can't, it's always there. It's always there. I go in, like, I should be having fun. I'm on a date with my wife. I should just be relaxed and having a good time, but immediately when I go in, I'm like, that guy looks shady, that guy looks shady, that guy looks shady. I'm gonna sit with my back to those guys and the door. I need to see it all, right? And he can't relax until he does it. It's super interesting, and I'm so thankful for people like that. I am not like that. Doesn't mean I don't love you. It just means I'm just not like that. We're gonna see a little bit of this in Ephesians 5:15. So let's look at Ephesians 5:15, just that first verse,

and we're gonna be getting all through down to verse 22, 21 today. It says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. Translation, be like Rob Symons. Look carefully at how you walk. In following Jesus, there are things that we need to pay special, careful attention to if we're gonna do it well. We must have a mind that focuses on what is important and ignores what is not. Okay, focused mind. This is why we're talking about life submitted, right? And this is our third week on life submitted. We've seen that we are living sacrifices to God that God somehow uses that sacrifice in us whenever we make a sacrifice to other people, that God uses that to bring people to himself, and that life submitted means that we're kind of burning things away, that things need to burn away so that we grow into people, and we looked at this last week, so that we grow into people who are good

and who are transparent for God's glory, okay? As we're burning things off, as we become more like Jesus Christ, it doesn't mean that we get perfect. It doesn't mean that we never mess up, even mess up big time, but it does mean that the trajectory of our lives is that we are becoming good and that we are becoming more transparent, that we actually lose a taste, not just for lying, but even for whenever people are having, like, are trying to put up a false front to us, like we can kind of see it. Because we live a transparent life, we recognize it whenever people are not being transparent with us, okay? This is what it means to kind of grow as a Christian. This is why, as you grow as a Christian, you become more discerning, because you are becoming more like the Lord, hopefully, and you sense whenever somebody is not, or if they're immature, or if they're against the Lord,

like you can begin to sense a few of those things. Today, we're gonna be looking a little bit further into that life, particularly with how it relates to our church, or to put it differently, how we relate as church members, as we relate to each other, okay? Ephesians, let's return to Ephesians 5, 15, and 16 and it says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. So we see opposites here, unwise, wise, and the accent falls on the second line. It says, don't be un-this, be-this, and then it gives us a little bit of an explanation as to what that is. So don't be unwise, rather be wise and make the best use of your time. It means know your mission and your key objectives and accomplish them without delay. Have a timeline for the things that you wanna see done.

Don't play the game of, yeah, I mean, I'll get to that someday. Yeah, I'll figure it out. No, man, make a plan, talk to people, put your big goals in chat GPT and see what it tells you to do, okay? Figure it out. Don't just let it be a Sunday thing. Let it be a day on your calendar. Let it be something that you are carrying out, carrying out your mission without unnecessary delay, okay? We get two more opposites here. Excuse me. We get two more opposites in the next two verses, verse 17, Ephesians 5, 17. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. That word foolish means un-careful, actually, in the Greek, it's un-careful. So don't be un-careful, rather, what's the opposite of being un-careful? Understanding what the will of the Lord is. Looking carefully at how you walk in verse 15. So we saw this last week, we saw this with practical discernment.

If you were gonna decide on something, if you need to kind of filter something out, what are you gonna do? You're gonna pray for guidance, you're gonna ask for perspective, you're gonna identify the voice that's speaking to you, you're gonna act in trust, and then you're gonna review all of that in submission to community. So you're not just gonna haul off and make decisions of whatever feels right, you're gonna pray about it, you're gonna listen, you're gonna identify the voice, you're gonna act in faith, and then you're gonna review that with people that you trust, that know you, that can call you out. That's discernment. Don't be un-careful. Don't just think like you have all the time in the world. Don't think that you're just gonna be able to do whatever you wanna do, some of you out there, and it's not even an age thing. This isn't a young person thing. Some of you, some of you, fresh off retirement,

you think you've got all the time in the world, but you don't. Some of you, your kids are young and you think, man, they're just never gonna grow. Dude, they're gonna grow out of it. Like, you will be empty nesters faster than you think. You don't have all the time that you think you have. It is a helpful thing to like sit back and just be sober about the fact that your life is short, the Bible calls it a breath. And that there are things that are entrusted to you that if you don't take seriously, you're gonna lose them. And if you don't lose them as they're kind of like, you lose them because you no longer should have them, you're gonna lose them because time's marching on. You're not gonna have your job forever. You're not gonna have your kids at your home forever. You're not gonna have your loved ones forever. That's not how life works. One o'clock. And yes, it doesn't make for great party conversation

to talk about how we're all on a clock, okay? You wanna be a super big downer at the Super Bowl party? Okay, you know, talk about, you know, we're gonna die soon, all of us. Okay, Drew, okay, I get it, okay. Yeah, let's open our Bibles right now, okay, we're doing this half time. Okay, so I get it. It's not polite conversation at parties. However, it is really important to have the discussion. It is really important to be sober-minded. It's really important to look carefully at how you walk. It's really good to be like Rob Symons. To where you are assessing what's happening in your life. Okay, look carefully. Ephesians 5, 18, last one, last set. It says, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But be filled with the spirit. Debauchery, what a, such an old word, so good. Debauchery actually means to be unuseful. In the Greek, it's actually, so there's a way to make a word opposite in the Greek.

You put an A in the front of it, and an alpha in the front of it, and it makes it opposite. So we have that a little bit in English for you, some of you grammar majors. But here, the word debauchery literally means unuseful, unfit for use. So don't be unuseful, rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay, so let's bring this in on how we're gonna be like Rob, right? We're gonna carry out our mission in a timely manner. We're gonna focus on what God's will is, and use discernment on that, right? We're gonna be filled with the Spirit. We're gonna be useful in the kingdom, because we are geared up, we are focused, we are ready, we are being sober, we've got it, we're not distracted by these little things. And we should ask in that moment, whenever we are locked in, what are we doing?

To what end are we locked in? What mission do we have? What are we supposed to be focused on? Discerning God's will for what, exactly? What are the particulars of this? I mean, I get where we're going generally, right? We get the flow, we know the general direction we're headed, but what's the destination? What are we accomplishing? To find our mission, we get the skip down to verse 21, and then we'll flesh out the rest of it. Ephesians 5, 21 says, submitting to one another or submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is a time when the English translation does us no favors.

In the Greek, this is a new sentence. This is actually the beginning of a new thought. We're gonna be next week, it's known as the household codes. Household codes, codes. In Ephesians 5, it tells husbands how to be husbands, tells wives how to be wives, parents how to be parents, workers how to be workers, bosses how to be bosses. It's very kind of practical. All you guys love in practicality. We're gonna get practical, it's gonna be amazing. You might regret wanting to be that practical, but here we go. This phrase, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, it does obviously, it does talk about the previous verses, and we'll look at that in a minute, but it is kind of this big goal. It is talking about the church being able to submit to one another because of what Christ has done. We don't submit to one another because we're so enamored with one another,

or we fear one another. We're submitted to one another because we worship Jesus Christ. That's a different thing than to just be a doormat and be fearful of how somebody's going to react, and you just say whatever you need to say, or do the right thing, or don't make many waves, or something like that, but you submit to one another not out of respect for one another, but out of respect for Jesus Christ. That is something that's going to permeate the household codes that we look at in the next three weeks. Right now, we're gonna stay on church because that's kind of where it is. Verse 21 kind of sums up the previous verses and we will get there, but what we need to understand is that a life submitted to God is marked by submission to each other within the church body. In other words, when Jesus is growing his church

to become wise and careful and filled with the Spirit, like it talks about in verses 15 through 18, we see a family that is smart about people. They are in tune with what's going on, but they are humble about themselves. We see a family that can manage their own capacity in their own lives so that they can be a blessing to other people. Some of us, we really wanna be a blessing to other people, but our own lives are on fire.

We can't figure it out. We can't somehow understand how our own week works. We don't really have the capacity. I'm not trying to throw shade on you. I'm trying to help you understand that the will of the Lord is for you to be able to wrangle what's in front of you so that you can be a blessing, so that you can help others wrangle. I'm not saying you gotta be perfect, but I am saying there's a sense in which when you just are living from hour to hour and maybe paycheck to paycheck and you don't know how, it's gonna be, you can't make plans six months in the future because you don't even know if that's where you're gonna live. You can't make plans a year in the future because you don't know if all of your friendships are gonna be that stable. You feel like you're super transient.

What the Lord wants to do in your life, He wants to get you focused on what He's doing and He wants you to establish the life that He's calling you to do so that when you are just living that life, you are able to extend beyond that and be a blessing to other people. That is the vision that God has for your life. That is in part why God wants you to be an obedient kid, a loving mother, a good husband, a family that is not completely super dysfunctional. That's why the Lord wants that because He's gonna use you to be a blessing to other people, not so that your Christmas postcards look awesome. Okay, it's great. Look, I'm sure that your family brand on Instagram is awesome but it doesn't amount to anything. It doesn't help anybody. We see a family, what Jesus is growing, we see a family that knows how to use their gifting for service and watches for opportunities

to be present with other people. I want you to just take a second, like in your life right now, I want you to think about, how you spend your time, who you spend your time with, who are you sacrificing for, who are you being present for, specifically right now. And if there's nobody on that list that is outside of the people that live in your home, I would challenge you to say, the Lord has more in store for you on that front. The Lord may be calling you to do something beyond what just benefits you and yours. Living to be a servant for others. Look, and our church has its own hits and misses on this. Look, there's testimonies where people are totally welcome by our church family, it's totally amazing. And how could people love each other like this? It's like so, and I've heard those stories, it's great, it's like super great to hear. And there's other people that have found it

difficult to connect, they felt ignored, they felt, maybe they shared their story and nobody listened, right? Our church is not some paragon of, we're not the best, the brightest, it always works here or anything like that. But if we are submitted to God as a church, it will come out in submission to one another within our church body. It's going to happen. If you show me a church in disarray, I think what scripture's telling you right here is that church is not submitted to the Lord. If you show me a church with backbiting, in-fighting, can't make a decision, has to, you know, just the leaders don't trust the people, the people don't trust the leaders, that church is not submitted to the Lord. There's some off, there's some not hitting on that. And this is part of why we say, especially within the church body, we need to be submitted. Generally, you need to be, when you're out and about,

you need to be a loving, right, like you need to see if somebody is struggling to open the door, get up off your seat and help them open the door, sure. Yes, good, amen. That's just part of being a loving person, yes. However, when it's especially within the church, part of our collective witness together, how we treat each other is how people see Jesus. Let me say that again. How we treat each other is how people see Jesus. It's not the only way, but it is a way. A way, so there is a common kind of mood or thing in churches, right, we can say all day, we can look at each other and go, hey man, we're just all sinners in need of grace, right. Like we're just one beggar telling another beggar where to go get food. Okay, yes, and amen. That is, there is nothing wrong with that sentiment. There's nothing wrong with that mood. That's good, like that helps us understand

that we're all under grace. It helps us understand that like none of us are better than the other. We're all just, okay, yes. That is true, it's not the whole story. I want you to consider this, like that, let's consider that we have like a ton of drug use in our church, okay. Let's just say that's our thing, okay. Not casting aspersions, I'm just saying, for example, let's just say that's what our church deals with. We have a lot of people that are kind of in recovery falling on and off the wagon, and we know like we're just like, we're just helping each other, right. Like we're just, and it might be just a normal topic of conversation where you know, like I'm talking to Josh Wood, and I'm like, Josh, you know, like, yeah, I smoked, I smoked something yesterday, and Josh is like, I know, me too, like we gotta, let's pray for each other right now. Okay, look, there's something beautiful about that, okay.

Don't hear me throw any shade. There's something great about that, okay. And because we need to humbly say we all need grace, because it's not drugs, but it's something. All you dealing with something, I'm dealing with something, we're all dealing with something, okay. Nobody's past dealing with a sin that is just like ingrained. Nobody's past that, all right. On the other hand, on the other hand, if all we're doing is coming together, and laughing and joking and talking about how

we either did drugs or did just all the, there's no real sense that we should change our behavior. There's no repentance toward that. We're just kind of like, well, yeah, I'm just a sinner. You know, there's a huge difference between saying we're not okay, because we are not. There's a huge difference between saying that and saying sin is no big deal. There's a huge difference. A huge difference between saying we're not okay, because we're not, amen? Okay, yeah, I'm not okay. I mean, if you're okay, then you don't say amen, that's fine. But sin is always a big deal. How we behave at the church, what we hold up, what we disapprove of, right. What we push people toward in our encouragement, it shows people what is important to Jesus Christ himself. This is why Jesus prays for us like this in John 17, John 17, 20 and 21. Jesus is praying for his disciples, and he says,

I do not ask for these only, meaning the disciples that are standing right in front of him, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that's us. What does he pray for us? That they will be one, just as you, Father, are me and I in you, that they may also be in us, why? So that the world may believe that you have sent me. This is Jesus Christ himself praying to the Father on our behalf, what's his prayer, that we would be submitted to one another so that people could see that Jesus is real and believe. Consider 2 Corinthians 5, 20. It says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And this is, this right here, this is actually written to a church. We talk about this all the time in terms of like, yeah, you have a ministry reconciliation with people that don't know the Lord, yes, amen, sure.

But this is actually written to the Corinthian church. God is making an appeal through us to each other. We are imploring you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God, why? Because the church wasn't reconciled to itself. And so throughout the book of Corinthians, First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, he's trying to help the whole church to say, like, you guys need to be reconciled to each other. You got different factions going on. You read First Corinthians 1, you figure that out. You have different factions going on. I follow Peter, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Jesus, right, like it's, that's just everybody going for their favorite podcast pastor, right, like they're all just kind of saying, I'm, you know, I'm this guy, I'm this guy, I'm this guy, I'm a John Piper guy, I'm a Tim Keller guy, I'm a, you know, okay, well. No, he's saying like, you're not reconciled to each other.

You're just in your own camps, kind of playing whatever. You need to be reconciled to God. The Bible's not saying that we need to be a perfect church, I hope I've made that crystal clear. In fact, God actually shows his power through us in our weakness. However, our actions still matter. Let me show you by a negative example. I have an associate pastor friend and all these people will be anonymous. All these churches will be anonymous. My associate pastor friend is getting his haircut, okay. Barbara's just kind of doing their thing. And hey, you know, who are you, what do you do for a job, you know, what do you do for a living, what is it, oh, I work at a church, I work at this church, it's a local church. I work at this church. And the, and the barber is not being snarky, at least this is how he told me the story. The barber's not even being snarky, but the barber says, oh, that's that church

where everybody sleeps with each other's wives. His barber wasn't wrong. Just let that sink in. You're in the barber chair. Barbara tells you that. You're, I mean, you're, you know, swallowing, you know, hard. It had happened a few times in their church. More than a few, I guess. It was a big church. And, you know, I'm sure there were 50 times more couples not sleeping with each other's wives, but that's not what makes the news, right? That's not what the gossip is about. You know, how many planes land safely every day and that's not click bait, okay? However, it is a reputation that the church garnered.

The church had not worked to call out that sin. So what was happening? Somewhere along the way, the church had confused come as you are with Jesus just wants you comfortable. Come as you are is what Jesus actually says to us. Kind of me, all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Right, this is Matthew. 11, I believe, I can't have that wrong. But Jesus doesn't, he doesn't ever say like, hey, I'm not gonna call you out on stuff. Hey, you know, as long as you feel good about whatever's happening in your life, then I'm good. As long as you're being kind, the church had changed Jesus loves me this I know into Jesus would never ask me to change.

Right, they'd taken one and then just added on. Jesus loves me, he would never ask me to change. I don't know why, that's a very kind of prominent, prevalent thing in our society that if somebody loves you, they would never ask you to change. I don't know if they've been married. Clearly not. Look, I mean, my wife has never put her elbow to my neck and said if you don't change, that's not exactly how it works, everybody. Just in case you didn't know.

But man, you are going to be required to change if you're gonna love another person. You wanna love somebody where they are? Oh, you're gonna have to move. You're gonna sacrifice for somebody? You're gonna show fidelity and allegiance to somebody? That's gonna change your weekend plans. That's gonna break some habits. That's gonna start some new ones, amen? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jesus is always, look, when he's reaching out to us, he's saying things to us and he's saying like, hey, listen, you know that thing that you just did, that's gonna hurt you, kill you, that's gonna hurt people that you love, that's gonna destroy relationships. Don't do that. Ultimately, it's a very loving thing whenever Jesus bothers to convict you about something. Because he's not just trying to kill your joy, step on your vibe. Jesus is actually trying to say, listen, be like Rob, be sober-minded. Look around, where do you think this is gonna go? Who do you think your kids are gonna grow up into, if not you? What do you think is gonna happen if you keep repeating this behavior? You think it's going to just be okay? What are you, four? Right, like it's not there, right? But we often live like it's just gonna be okay. And that our actions don't really matter. Not really.

Somebody else will do it. I'll figure it out eventually. I'll get around to it. But we don't put on the calendar. We're not vigilant. We don't look for threats and access points. We're not seeing things in our lives and go like, that's gonna kill me, that's gonna kill me, that's gonna kill me. I need to make a plan. I need to talk to people. I need to get into a home group. I need to get into a life group. Because this isn't playing around. Listen, listen. I say this all the time and I think I need to keep saying it until I'm dead. Our church doesn't get brownie points for how many people are in a group or whatnot. God's not like making sure we're hitting metrics, okay? What is happening, the reason that we have home groups is because our people need to see sacrificial community. And yes, we're gonna have goals for a number of new people to be in that home group.

So our goal for 2025 was to see at least 25 new people in home groups and we hit 28 and we're real excited about that. That's great. But the reason that we're excited is not because we hit some magic goal that we made up in a meeting a year and a half ago. The reason that we're excited about that is because when people experience sacrificial community, they're changed. When people experience sacrificial community, they can begin to see what it is to follow Jesus Christ with other people. They have people that they can speak to and trust and review their decisions with. They can grow in grace.

The reason that Jesus has you here this morning is because he wants you to grow. The only way you're gonna grow is if you change. And Jesus isn't just sitting there looking at his watchtapping his foot, waiting for you to change. He's helping you. He's giving you his spirit. He's saying, I wanna help you change. I wanna help you grow. How do we submit to each other? How do we do that? What's it look like? Let's look at scripture. Ephesians 5, 19 and 20. It says, we are addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submission to one another. And right after that, the next verse is submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Submission begins with speech. It doesn't end there, but it definitely starts there.

It begins with speech, addressing one another in a way that highlights your common heritage, your common spiritual background. As true Christians who worship Jesus, we believe that he is the way and the truth and the life and when I know somebody else is a believer and I can look you straight in the eyes or you can look me straight in mind and be like Jesus is Lord. And I'm, yeah, and I hope it's a crisp one. I mean, I hope it's just, mm, like yes, Jesus is Lord because that's like, man, that's a connection right there. That's real. That's better than if I find a saints fan in the wild, okay? Big saints fan right here, not a ton of us in DFW. But like when I meet somebody who is walking with the Lord, they are serving the Lord and we just kind of make that connection. Man, that is some instant family right there. That is some instant family. And when we address one another in a way

that highlights that common heritage, when we can sing, I mean, this is part of why we sing songs together here. It's an expression of our unity. It's an expression of the fact that we are submitting to one another, right? It's an expression of the fact that like some of you can harmonize and some of you make melody and some of you, right? Like it's an expression of all of that. It's a physical demonstration of the fact that we are a family singing the same song together, addressing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to make a melody in your heart, to your, excuse me, melody to the Lord with your heart. You are accenting, you are falling on the commonality that you have with other people. It's so easy to see how you're different than people and to compare yourself and either that you do measure up or you don't measure up. And listen, that's not gonna help you love people, man.

It just isn't. I know you either feel superior or feel terrible, but how you feel ain't real. What's real is that we are all one in Christ. You claim Jesus Christ, you are brother and sister to me, period. Now, Lester, you're not great or you're not anything like that. That's a good thing to remember. The second is in your speech, let thankfulness be an overtone in everything that you say. Thankfulness is difficult. It causes us to actually have to kind of assess a situation and think of something to be thankful for. I don't know if you ever consider this. If you're gonna complain about something, you realize that's pretty easy. It's like really easy. Like what's something that you don't like about your job? It's right there. Right, you're just popping it right there. Like, oh, this, and you got the list, right? I mean, it's super, listen, that stuff comes. I mean, that's a tidal wave if you just open the door

a little bit, it's just like, you know, it just comes on in. But if you wanna be thankful, that's, well, that's, you're gonna have to get the shovel out, and that's tough. That's some work. To be really thankful for somebody something that you know isn't perfect, you know, like they did you dirty last week, you know, whatever. Like, you get it. Like, if you're, you know, like, Kristy and I are not fighting right now, so don't read into that. But like, if you and your wife are like having just some big disagreement, you just can't really get over it. And we've had seasons like that. Like, the thing that has helped me in that moment is to be thankful for my wife. I'm upset with her. I can't believe she has this opinion or this thing or she wants to do this thing or doesn't wanna do this thing that I wanna do. But if I can sit down and be thankful, it really cuts through all of that.

When you have a child who isn't doing what you want them to do, they're just gonna be an honoree, or they're, whatever, they're making decisions, they're ruining their life, they're, whatever, whatever they're doing, when you stop and you become thankful for that kid, it changes how you relate to them, period. When you are dealing with a church member that, man, you probably see them 40 times a year, I don't know, maybe more. If you're not in a home group with them, if you're not in a life group with them, you're gonna see them 40, 50 times a year, that's it. And you get sideways with them. You know, it is desperately easy to believe the worst of them. I've had so many conversations with people here at this church, right, where it's like, so and so did this thing, and the quick version of it that I hear is like, and they're out to get me. Right, they said this thing to me,

and they're out to get me. They did this thing, they didn't do what they said they were gonna do, and it's because they don't like me. And like, it's probably because they had a busy weekend, but okay, I mean, we'll go with this, they don't like you, okay, let's explore that a little bit. Like, it is so easy to believe, to listen to your own insecurity, to listen to your own insecurity, and to believe that other people are conspiring against you, having fun without you, would rather you not be there. Like, that is a powerful, pity, pity tastes great at first. It just burns going down and rots you from the inside out. But it tastes great at first, poor me. As a submitted church, we need to understand, we need to understand that submission to one another and being thankful for one another is the beginning. It is the step you take. If you think the first step on our church

submitting to one another is that person seeing how they're wrong, you missed it. You just missed what I said, the whole thing, right? You just missed it. It's not about other people desperately, like, I don't care how wrong they are. It really kind of doesn't matter. If you think they're really wrong and they're a real problem, right, I would say pray for them for a week and if you still wanna say something, pray for them specifically, like, for their good, their benefit. If you still wanna say something to them, I think you may be ready after praying for them for a week, maybe.

But you can't just haul off and just say, well, you know, like, you should stop doing this. Figure it out. I'll see you later. 40 times this year. No. No, we owe each other more than that. A submitted church has others needs coloring what you see. You have others, you're like Rob Symons. You don't just see access points, but you see need points. You see people that need things and you wanna do things with them. You kinda got it on the brain. It kinda lights up yellow for you, right? You have others, you have others protection. Okay, just hear me on this. You have others protection, okay? Guarding your speech.

The way that you speak to one another should reflect that you want to protect them. Does that, that's gotta ring true for you. The way that you speak to people needs to reflect the fact that you want to guard them. You want to help them. You want to protect them. I guarantee that if most of us have that on the brain, we're gonna say a lot less this week. That may be a good thing. For me it probably is.

Okay, practically. How do we practically submit to one another? And then I'll be done. How do we practically submit to one another a reverence for Christ? Okay. I would say, I would say it actually comes down to time. I know that seems very kind of just baseline, but it really does take the time to change what you see and what you say. Take the time to do it. There's no magic formula for changing what you see and changing what you say. None. That's a heart change. How do we engage in a heart change time? So I got three things for you. I got time with the Holy Spirit. Set aside time to ask the Holy Spirit to help you see other people's needs. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you say what you need to say, whether that's an encouragement or a confrontation. Say it in love. Say it in obedience and submission to the Holy Spirit and in submission to that other person's needs.

Not because they're better than you or because they deserve your pity, but out of reverence for Christ. Time with the Holy Spirit. Right, ask the Holy Spirit for eyes to see, ears to hear, heart to perceive, pray with people for the things that they need prayer for, prayer over. So time with the Holy Spirit. Time in God's word. Read the Bible often in any way that you can. Listen, I'm a big fan of listening to the Bible on your commute, on your way to somewhere, while you're doing the dishes. Just put the earbud in and if you got a kid, leave one out, but just put the earbud in and just, man, let like first John take you away. Many, many of the first Christians were illiterate. And so when they're getting the letter to the Ephesians, the Ephesian church is gathering around and somebody literates like opening the scroll and reading the letter and they're just listening.

They're not reading it themselves, they're listening. So you can be like the first century illiterate Christians and just listen to the Bible, okay? Come on. No, it's good, there's something good about listening. That's what I'm saying, there's something good about it. Read scripture, when you read, it does, it has an effect, it changes what you see, it changes what you say. When you speak truth and scripture over people, this is why you should memorize scripture. Not because you can have a list of things that you can say, I know all these verses, okay, that's great Bible drill, but what about can you speak that over another person? Can the Holy Spirit bring that up? When you have somebody who's struggling to kind of make it through, can you say, oh, the Philippians 1:6, he who started a good work is gonna be faithful to complete it in you. Second Corinthians 5:20, you've been made an ambassador

for Christ, you're making an appeal to people, God is making an appeal to people through you. Tell me God's word. Lastly, time with Christians. Listen, man, how often are you with church people? It is something to consider. And I hesitate to say this because it's so easy. It's so easy, especially in Bible Belt, Texas, especially in Burleson, God bless us. It is so easy to mistake what I'm gonna say for. If you wanna be more like Jesus, then go to church more.

Okay, I get it. I understand that's like the over, like the pragmatic, like the overly practical way to put that. What I'm just gonna tell you is that when you are with church people, you are able to be buffeted and inspired in a way that you cannot otherwise. And it's not the same as watching somebody on YouTube. It's not the same as listening to a podcast. It's not the same. When you're with another Christian and you're interacting with it, that builds you up, that pushes you, that changes how you think, changes how you talk, changes how you notice things more than not doing that. And here's my encouragement. How often you with church people, and I'm gonna ask the question this way. How often you with church people not in this room? Not on a Sunday morning for Sunday services. How often are you with church people? If it's never, if that answer's never, then commit to one time over the next two weeks.

What do you mean? Get coffee, have them over, play disc golf. I don't care, okay. Play video games, it's fine, whatever. You know, commit to one time over the next two weeks. And if you wanna like, well what counts? Okay, listen, don't bog me down, okay? Don't do that. Don't email me and be like, well I did this and this. Does this count? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if it counts. This isn't for a grade. Okay, it's your life, figure it out.

Commit to one time over the next two weeks, okay? If it's never, commit to one time over the next two weeks. If it's less than one time a week, my challenge is for you to double it. Let me say that again. If it's never, then commit to one time over the next two weeks. If it is less than one time a week, my challenge is outside of church services, okay? My challenge is for you to double it. If it's once a month, let it be twice a month. Because what happens when you spend time with other Christians or you begin to understand them as people, they quit being just side characters in your life, right? They quit for the kids. They quit being NPCs, okay? They quit being just these drones without hopes and dreams, without real things going on, right? And they start to become like three-dimensional people. They start to actually, like, oh okay, I know, like Clay, like Clay and I spent Saturday morning

yesterday together. It was so great. It hung out with the deacons. You can imagine that party. It was wild. So wild, deacons at 10 o'clock in the morning. I think Kenneth had a Dr. Pepper. I mean, it was pretty wild. But I learned something about two Dr. Pepper. That's right, double down. I learned something about Clay. I don't even need to share it. It's not even that important, but it's just that Clay's a person with a history. That's really helpful to remember. I can pray for Clay. I can see Clay, right, and he's different than I could see him before. And that's good. That's a really good thing. The Lord wants us to experience that with other people. Don't be unwise. Be wise. Don't be un-careful. Understand what the will of the Lord is and look carefully how you walk. Don't be unuseful, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Well, we thank you for the opportunity to read your word,

to love you, to sing songs to you, to just to know that you're, to be reminded of all these things that are easy, easy to forget. You are faithful. It doesn't always feel like it, but you are. You have a victory for us, and we just, we feel like failures so much. You are concerned with these things that feel very small in comparison to what's going on in the world today. Our lives, our concerns seem very small. Picking up a shift for somebody or having somebody pick up our shift at work feels very small, but you care about those things. You care about sparrows that fall. You care about the number of hairs in our head. You care about all those things. You care about us picking up a shift or dropping a shift. You care about those things. You care about our concerns that we have for our children, our concerns that we have for our parents, our concerns that we have for our families,

our careers, our jobs, our coworkers, our bosses. You care more about those things than we do, and that's really hard to believe, but you do and we can trust you. And you have a plan, and it's all being orchestrated by your Holy Spirit. Lord, help us to trust you with all of that. That's your name that we pray, amen. Would you stand as we sing?