His House - Week 1

If you think about God, what does God really need? I mean, think about it. There's nothing he needs. He like, God doesn't need prosperity or food or health or clothing or any. God didn't need that. But I think this is the one thing he wanted. He wanted a family. Adam and Eve were about family. The church is about family, and to prove it, we're the bride of Christ. That's family talk right there. We'll get to that in a minute, but it's a family. Here's number three. You ready? Check this out. The church is eternal. [00:24:20] (38 seconds)  #ChurchIsFamily

Here's my my understanding of that. You ready? If you want your life to be built, build your life on what God's building. Put you the church at the center of your growth, and I promise you, you will grow. I started dating Michelle. I kid you not. I started dating Michelle. I'm 16, 17 years old, whatever it was. Alright? I I don't remember. I started dating Michelle. Her dad told her told me I had to go to church with her every weekend. I show up the first weekend, think we're going to church. Guess where we go? To the nursery. We I started going to church with Michelle and serving in the nursery. I'm like, if y'all knew me, you probably wouldn't have me here. Come on, y'all. And [00:40:16] (52 seconds)  #BuildLifeOnTheChurch

If you're saved and born again, you will never not be a part of something eternal. You're a part of the eternal thing called the church. Listen to this. To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to, help me out, all generations forever and ever, so be it. Amen. That's right. To all generations, we are a part of something that will outlive the earth. Do you realize that? The bible says heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word will not pass away. The heaven and the earth that is now is gonna be consumed by fire at one point in time in the future. After the thousand year millennial reign, God is gonna make a new heaven and new earth. But you know what? Guess who's gonna inhabit the earth or the new heaven and new earth? The church. [00:25:04] (45 seconds)  #PartOfEternalChurch

Come on. Y'all know what I'm saying? And I think, and I'm a I'm a get on this here in a little bit, I think we've lost that to a degree that this is God's house. It's in my house, in your house, and how how we conduct ourselves matters in the house of God. Nevertheless, you get the idea. So listen to this. You ready? Get this. Why does the church exist? And I'm gonna give you this very simple definition here. Number one, glorification of God. We exist to glorify God. Can I get an amen on that? That's our number one job, to glorify God. The second reason is to edification of the family of God. We're to edify each other. We're to build up, stir up, and cheer up each other. Amen? [00:07:22] (42 seconds)  #GlorifyAndEdify

Watch this. What would your family look like in twenty years if together you did three things. I'm telling you, this has been Michelle and I's pattern. This has been our pattern of life, prayer daily. Now I'm not talking Michelle prays on her own, I pray on my own. But my kids, every time they when they got up and when they went to bed, they were prayed for every day till they were 18. Then it got weird, but I still pray for them. K? Just saying. Prayed for them daily. But watch this. Attended services. That means worship and word together weekly. We were always in church every week. Before I was a pastor, every week we were in church. Didn't matter if you came home at 02:00. [00:45:10] (47 seconds)  #FamilyFaithRhythms

And I got to I got to thinking about it. I'm like, how come lost people aren't getting saved here? Because we're scary, and we're scaring them. So I came out and I said, hey. Listen. We wanna move in the gifts. We believe in the operation of the spirit of God. We believe in all those things. But you know what? We are not going to sacrifice our what we feel versus reaching the lost. We always should have people being saved. Always. How many of you know? It's a flourishing opportunity. Pastors fighting over their 12 listen. There are plenty enough sinners to go around. There's so many sinners. It's like there's never a recession. But anyway, listen to this. Saved people are pastored. That's important. [00:11:43] (52 seconds)  #WorshipAndWelcome

If something's going on and it's distracting people who've actually looked forward all week to come into the house of God to learn the word of God, let's be considerate of our neighbors so that we're not destroying or wrecking what they may need to hear that week so they can just make it through the week. Let's be courteous towards each other. And I'll be honest with you. This has really taken root in the last twenty years. When I first started pastoring, people came in, sat down. It was hard to get them to raise their hands. Now it's like speaking to a revolving congregation. You know? Phones are going off. Kids are screaming. This is happening. That's happening. And people are like, I didn't get anything out of it. Do you see where I'm coming from? [00:30:26] (49 seconds)  #ChurchEtiquetteMatters

Do you believe that? God Jesus loves his church. Husbands, love your wives. Help me out. Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Look at this. That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water of the word. That he might present her to himself a glorious church. Jesus loves the church. He talks about her like a bride. You ever seen a dude show up and go, yeah. I'm not really into her. That's how people treat the church, though. Jesus doesn't feel that way. He says it's a glorious church. He says a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle. She don't even need makeup. Y'all didn't y'all y'all didn't see that in there until I pointed it out. Spots and wrinkles or any such thing. She's beautiful. That's how Jesus feels about the church. [00:32:36] (54 seconds)  #ChurchIsHisBride