Churches in Raytown

“God would eat lunch with them because them was you before you met Jesus. Them was you before you knew Christ. Right? And praise the Lord that God sat at a table with you and fellowship with you and brought you into his family. And so the same grace gets extended to your neighbors. is incredibly important that we are one unified church under the banner of the love of Jesus Christ. That's who we are my friends.”

“You see, worry is what happen what happens when our imagination tries to control the future without God. Worry rehearses. It rehearses the diagnosis before the doctor calls. Worry rehearses the the rejection even before the email has been answered. Worry rehearses being abandoned and exposed and embarrassed, broke, sick, alone, ruined. Worry is rehearsal without God. Prayer is bringing God into the rehearsal. Because prayer is not pretending the fears aren't real. It's saying, God, here's the movie that keeps playing in my mind. Here's what my committee keeps bringing up at 4AM. God, I'm bringing it to you.”

“Look. Living in grace is living in freedom but it is not freedom to sin but it's freedom to walk in the newness of life. You are free from the chains of sin because look, the world says go ahead and post it. Go ahead and watch it. Go ahead and do the thing. The world says, look, purity is an ancient antiquated idea. It doesn't matter in 2026 and the bible says the exact opposite. And the bible says my friends, you are free to walk in newness of life away from those things. So, the chain isn't that sin is holding me back. It is I'm letting go of it completely and going, I'm gonna be different because I wanna see my neighbor come to know Jesus.”

“Who you are in Christ matters more than just your simple and sinful pleasures that don't last. So, think about your purity in private. I promise you, if you're clicking on it, if you're watching it, that sin is not between you and the four walls. That sin permeates your entire life. Dads in the room, can I promise you that is going to wreck your relationship with your kids and with your spouse and your friendships? The bible says you should abstain from that.”

“These are not dos and don'ts. They're not rules. These are means of teaching the Gentiles how to truly love their neighbors, How to truly love their Jewish brothers and sisters. And this letter is the work of the holy spirit which is both relevant back then and relevant to us today. He's speaking to us. To use kind of a churchy word, this is a way for us to not become stumbling blocks to other people.”

“God, I'm embarrassed. God, I don't know what to do with my child. God, I'm tired of being the strong one. God, I'm afraid of what the doctor's gonna say. God, I'm smiling in front of everybody, but I'm not okay. Paul says, in everything. So, here's one of the most important takeaways for today. We're gonna put it on the screen, write it down, take a picture. Pray what's in you, not what you wish was in you. Because God already knows. Prayer is not giving God new information, prayer is opening the door to the room that you've been pacing in alone. And, some of you've been pacing in that room for a long time.”

“``So, this week, worry is gonna happen. But, don't shame yourself. You do not have permission to shame yourself. Don't pretend, Don't spiral alone. And, when the committee in your head calls a meeting at 4AM, remember, you don't have to let worry chair that meeting. Pray what's in you, not what you wish was in you. Turn worry into prayer, then turn prayer into a step, and let the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And for today, that's the good news.”

“What I find really powerful and what Paul is not just stop worrying, he gives us some place to take our worry. So, let's go there, which is good, which is really good. It tells us to take our worry someplace because has this ever worked when you're really anxious and somebody comes up to you and says, calm down? Does that ever work? Oh, well, thank you. I hadn't thought of that, oh prophet of the Lord. Just calm down. I I can guarantee you when somebody tells me to calm down, I do not calm down. Makes it worse. In other words, this is really important. Paul doesn't say stop it. Paul says, bring it.”

“"So again today it seems like we're just jumping from idea to idea and we're just scratching the surface on this sermon on the mount and those are the the few ideas that get us started on this but what i want to take us back to for a moment is that we all at times miss the mark and taking part in these things we procrastinate on what jesus calls us to do and so remember how i procrastinated by watching that video i think i have a way to bring it back so it wasn't wasted time that 14 minutes because spoiler alert if you end up going back to watch this this ted talk tim urban concludes his talk by putting a graphic up that has all these squares that represent one week of a 90 year old's life and that is 4680 weeks and a person's life most of us know that the um average life is about the least number of days more often than the whole life span is much less now it's 76 but think about it every one of those boxes represents how short life can be so urban proposes this to his audience and I do to you today that I think we all need to take a long hard look at this calendar we need to think about what we're really procrastinating on because everyone is procrastinating on something in life he calls us all procrastinators we all have something a goal a dream a project that we have but haven't started yet we keep making excuses of why we haven't started it this calendar visibly shows how short life can be and we have just spent those three weeks looking at how the afterlife affects what we do right now with our lives and what we can learn about that is that every week that we put off chasing our dreams is another box checked off but as Christ followers we're not just any dream we're not just chasing any goal but rather we are chasing the kingdom of heaven right here and right now and so Jesus has painted this beautiful picture for us of what we are to be in tuned with to experience the reign of God right here and right now and when we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to grant us that strength and the power we get to put light into the darkness that we see all around us and so we have to ask ourselves we procrastinating on taking part in building the kingdom of heaven are we procrastinating on building the thing that God has called us to build what is God asking you to do what is God asking us to do as a church to build the kingdom right here and right now are you avoiding it because when we are saddened by the state of our relationships as Christ followers we are called to choose to not avoid healing those relationships we were asked to stop procrastinating on binding those relationships back together when we are upset about the lack of civility especially during an election year Jesus invites us to avoid procrastinating on being peacemakers and instead of putting more fuel on the flames Jesus says take a step back be at peace with one another."”

“"So i often need this reminder when i am ministering to our people over at raytown the church community that we have there is a lot of our have-nots and i was sitting with three guys this past wednesday and a few of them would be unhoused but one has a house but in in every other sense of the word they are living on the streets they are looking for provision from others and from agencies and so they were talking about what they didn't have and and i was like how do i speak into this of like i those are some of my worries that i don't have to worry about and so i went to philippians 4 which is one of my favorites and i said we are all in a sense in some way in need of something and have to find our gratitude in the midst of that and so paul writes in philippians 4 this i have learned to be content whatever the circumstances i know what it is to be in need and i know what it is to have plenty i have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well-fed or hungry whether living in plenty or in want i can do all things through him who gives me strength so i tried to put my myself in their shoes but also realized that that verse hits differently those verses of having and having not is different depending on who you are but we ended up talking about contentment and they walked out of there with gratitude saying you know i have these things today and i'm grateful and i'm still looking for all these other things to come and be about but that is where the rest of us get to surround them and be part of helping shape their world where they have uh when they are lacking."”