Welcome! We're so glad that you're here with us today on this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. We're so glad that we can honor his life and legacy here in our country for all the great work that he did and that continues to be done in that cause.
Welcome, Smarter Campus! We love you guys and are glad you're connected there. We're happy again today. I know some people weren't able to get here for the services with the weather this morning, but we're glad we can still connect online. We have a lot of you connecting online today, and we're so happy to have that option for you as well. We're thankful for those who made it safely. The weather is hard to tell, and the timing wasn't great for everybody getting up and trying to get out to services this morning, but so many people did, and we're so grateful that you were able to do that safely.
I want to start with a couple of things. One is we want to welcome two new staff members to Lakeshore. If you follow us on social media, you've already seen this, but we welcome Samantha Sullivan, who is our new administrative assistant. She works out of the office here at the Antioch campus. We're so thankful to have Samantha added to our staff.
We also want to pray for Samantha and her family this morning. They have their youngest child, who early this morning was having breathing problems. They've been at the emergency room this morning with their youngest one, so be praying for them if you would. They have three children, her and her husband Dylan.
We also officially welcome Elizabeth Shannon down at our Smyrna campus. She's the new director of children's ministries down at the Smyrna campus. Elder Leon, who was in that position, moved away, and Elizabeth is taking that position. We're so excited to have her on staff as well. She brings a wealth of training and experience, and she'll do a great job with that program there. I know we're thankful to welcome both of them officially on staff. They officially started this past week, though I know Elizabeth was already volunteering even before she was brought on staff.
We also, this weekend, know that as we're about to have the inauguration tomorrow, there's always that time of transition in our country. We want to be praying for our country, for the leaders that have served us over the past years, and now the new leadership that's coming in. We just want to keep everyone in prayer for those people and for the country, for the nation as we go through that process. We are so blessed to live in a nation where we can have the peaceful transfer of power, and we pray that we can hold on to that as a great point of who we are as a country.
So thank you for all your prayers on behalf of those things. Let's take some time for prayer this morning.
Father, we're grateful again for this opportunity, even on this snowy morning, to be able to assemble together to worship and honor You, to assemble with our brothers and sisters in Christ. For those that could be here in person and for those that are connecting online, we're so grateful for their commitment to Your family, the church. We pray for those needs that we know about this morning, Father. We lift them up to You, knowing that You hear and answer our prayers. We pray for our country, for its leadership, for all those going through that transition right now with the change of leadership. We just pray for Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen.
There is a dog racing track in Jacksonville, Florida. It's called Orange Park. I've seen it several times as we've traveled down through Jacksonville, and I want you to know I don't advocate dog racing or betting on the racing or anything like that. But I read recently where another pastor shared a story that I thought goes very well with the message today. It's a true story that happened at that dog racing track.
You know, with horse racing, you've got a jockey on the horse, and the jockey is directing the horse and tells it to speed up or move over or whatever. But with dogs, they're just on their own, right? They're just running in the race. So what they do at most dog tracks is they have this mechanical arm that extends out over the track that moves with the pack of dogs after the gates are opened and the dogs start out. At the end of that mechanical arm, they've got a fake rabbit there. It's got like fur on it, like a real rabbit and all that. So the dogs take off chasing that rabbit on that mechanical arm going around the track, and people bet on which dog is going to win and all that.
Well, about 17 or 18 years ago, they had an event where they started out the race, and the dogs were charging down the track when the mechanical arm caught fire, and the bunny on the end just kind of blew up and disintegrated. Well, all the dogs just stopped and started going all over the place, doing all kinds of things. One dog laid down and took a nap right there on the track, right in the middle of the race. Another dog took off through the railing on the side and got stuck and broke his ribs. Another dog noticed the people in the crowd in the stands and left the track, went over to the side, and started barking at everybody in the stands.
As I read that story, it reminded me of how much that's like us without direction. Without clear direction in our lives, some of us just want to lay down and quit because it's just so hard. We just don't have any direction and don't know what we're going to do. Some of us go off in directions where we hurt ourselves or hurt other people without that direction that we need to have. Some of us just bark at everybody around us all the time. We're just unhappy people, and we're just taking it out on everybody else around us.
You see, when you don't have clear direction, your life is kind of happening to you instead of you deciding what your life is going to be. And so we're in this series we've been in for a few weeks now called "I Have Decided." It's a series designed to help us experience all that God has for us as Christ followers. You see, we're not just products of our circumstances, of what happens to us in life. It's more than that. We are actually more products of how we decide and determine we're going to respond to those circumstances in our lives. That really determines what our life is going to be like.
We have to decide who we're going to be, where we're going to go, what kind of life we're going to have. We are really the products of our decisions more than we are the products of our circumstances. And so it's important for us to make good decisions, and that's what this series is about. It's about four key decisions that we need to get settled in our lives so that we can have the life that our Creator wants us to have, that He designed us for in life.
Now, that's different for everybody. There's some commonality to it in Christ, but there's some variation to it in Christ too. Your life may not look exactly like mine; mine may not look exactly like yours. But there is this commonality that God has this plan for us, and that if we have that direction of His plan for our lives, it takes us to where God wants us to be and gives us the life that God wants us to have.
So we started out this series with the first and most important decision of those four, right? It's the decision to follow Jesus. If we get that one settled, then everything else lines up with that one. If we're truly committed to being Christ followers, then that changes how we make all the rest of the decisions in our lives. It gives direction to all those decisions that we make in our lives.
If we've decided we're going to follow Jesus, for example, Jesus said—we looked at this a couple of weeks ago—if you hold my teaching, you're really my disciples. And then He said, then you will know the truth, and the truth will do what? Set you free. This Dr. King weekend, you know that was something that was a rallying cry of the civil rights movement, and rightly so. But this freedom that Jesus is talking about is even greater than that. It goes beyond that; it's deeper than that. It's freedom from sin itself. It's freedom from living a life without direction in your life and purpose in your life.
And that's why the second decision we talked about last week is this: it says, "I will decide to be free indeed." You can't have that freedom without the first decision. The first decision is to decide to follow Jesus. That's where you find the freedom. Because if you decide to follow Jesus, that means you're going to hold on to His teachings, and His teachings are true. And when you learn the truths about things, then that leads you into the freedom that comes with the truth.
So the first decision is to follow Jesus. The second one is to decide to be free indeed. And we're looking at the third decision today of these four, and that is, "I have decided to live my life on purpose." I'm not just going to wander through life letting life happen to me; I'm going to decide to live my life on purpose.
When we make decisions without goals or vision for our lives, we lose focus, and we live life aimlessly. God created us on purpose and for a purpose. If we can grasp that and we can discover that in our lives, it will set the course for how we live life. A clear purpose for life is what brings focus to it. When we know why we're here, what we're here for, it gives us the direction we need to have.
Focus allows us to say no to those opportunities that are based on other people's vision for our lives. Everybody says, "I've got a plan for your life," and it's usually to suit them or help them in some way. But God's plan for our lives is for our good and for His glory. So if we can get that understanding, focus allows us to say no to the things that will distract us from that clear purpose that God has for us.
Because even with focus, there'll be hard things. But if your focus sees beyond the hard things, you can stay on track through those things to still get to the place that you want to go with your life. When you know the outcome, when you know the end of the story, where life in Christ takes you, then you can hold on and stay consistent and have endurance even when things get hard.
And then focus finally will bring fulfillment to your life. Because here's what I have found: there's nothing more fulfilling than knowing you're smack dab in the middle of God's will for your life. That is one of the most fulfilling things for you to experience if you can get there and know that you're there and spend time dwelling there. You start realizing how fulfilling the life God has for you really is. The world is trying to tell you you get fulfillment all these other ways and all these other places, but God has that life that will be the most fulfilling for you and His plan for you.
So today, I want us to commit to discovering God's vision for our life so that we can live life on purpose. Now, to help us get there, I want to start with Ephesians chapter five. If you want to open up your Bibles there in the New Testament, it's in Ephesians chapter five. We'll put it up on the screen too. You can put it up on your smartphone or tablet there.
There is a core teaching here in Ephesians five that sets this course, this path of the purpose God has for Christ followers. Alright, so I want us to... He's speaking to Christians. Remember, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." And then he says, "Live as children of light." Purpose, direction, right off the bat. He says, "Live your life this way as children of light." He says, "For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth." Does that sound like a fulfilling life? Does goodness, righteousness, truth?
Okay, then he says, "And find out what pleases the Lord." Now, where are you going to find that? Are you going to talk to your group of friends at work? Are they going to be able to tell you? Probably not very accurately. Some of them may know Scripture well and be able to share some of that with you, but not everybody is going to be able to do that. If you really want to know, you have to let God tell you, and you find that in His word, right? You want to find out what pleases the Lord? Listen to what He says about what pleases Him. Don't listen to what the culture tells you about what pleases God. Listen to what God Himself says pleases Him.
Okay, He says in verse 11, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds." Not only don't do those fruitless deeds, but actually expose those fruitless deeds as the lies that they really are. Actually speak up about it. Actually help people see the difference between the two and how you're living and speaking and acting in the world. Let them see that in you.
He says in verse 12, "It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, and everything that is illuminated becomes a light." That is why it is said, "Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
"Be very careful," he says, "then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil." We like to act like, "Oh, things are worse now than they've ever been." Did you just read what he said way back then about the life they were living and the culture they were living in? The days are already what? Evil. Evil is not new. The evil we see around us today, that's not new. It may be new for you in your context, but it's not new in the existence of God's people in the world. They've always had to live in the midst of evil, but he's still calling us to have a purpose for being here and living our lives.
Okay, he says, "Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore," alright, he's bringing it to this directive, "therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery." That word debauchery—I'm surprised the NIV still uses that in the translation because it's a word we just don't use much anymore. And so it's hard for us to read a word like that and we don't know, "What's debauchery? I don't want to do that." It says not to do it, but I don't even know what it is.
It's everything. "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." That's God, the leading and directing of the presence of God in your life. So if we make the decision to follow Jesus, then here's what happens: it gives us a direction and a purpose for our lives. We don't wander around anymore aimlessly in life because now we know we have a direction, a purpose for the life that God gives us.
So I want to share three things today real quickly. The first one is this: if we're going to live life on purpose, we've got to develop a clear vision for what that looks like, right? We need a clear vision of what it's like to live life on purpose the way God designed the purpose to be. Proverbs 29:18 gets quoted a lot, especially the King James translation of it, but in the NIV it says, "Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction." In the King James translation, it says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."
That word vision means a clear, focused direction for your life. When you don't have that set, then what happens is it's translated in NIV, "people cast off restraint," which means they don't have boundaries. They don't have direction. They don't have anything to keep them from going off the path and going the wrong way, and they end up wanting to lay down and take a nap or run off the railings or bark at everybody around them because they don't have a clear direction and vision for their lives.
So getting that clear vision is important. I love the singularity of the vision of the psalmist in Psalm 27:4. Listen to what he says: "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." Does that sound like a clear vision? He says one thing—laser focused down to one thing.
I saw the news this past week where some girl at school had her eye damaged because someone shined a laser light into her eye. Now, the reason that does damage is because a laser light is so precisely focused down to one point, one very small point, that it has great heat and power at that one point, and it can even damage the eye. The psalmist is saying, "I have got a laser focus with my life that adds power to my life to make it valuable, powerful, effective."
You have to have a laser-focused approach to how you want to live your life. If you don't get this settled, everybody else is going to tell you and decide for you how you're going to live your life. You're going to be influenced by social media, you're going to be influenced by your friends at work, you're going to be influenced by family, you're going to be influenced by your enemies, you're going to be influenced by the news media. Everything is going to be speaking into you how you ought to live your life, and without any focus, you're just going to be rambling around out there lost all the time, letting life happen to you instead of what you're laser-focused on in your lives to live the life that God has called us to in Christ.
That becomes the laser focus of our lives. So if somebody were to ask us, "What's the focus of your life?" it would be automatic. It would be natural and normal to say, "It's to honor Jesus. I'm living for Him." That comes first above everything else.
Now, I don't think God cares who wins what ball game out there, even with the college big championship tomorrow and even with the pro playoffs going on right now. I don't think it matters a lot to God who wins which game. Now, you can have your own opinion on that and be wrong, but I don't care. So people are praying about winning their games. That's fine if you want to ask God for that. That's up to God to answer your prayer the way He wants to answer it.
Here's what I do know, though: I have seen lately this movement, this stirring within a lot of colleges and pro teams where more and more athletes get up after a game, win or lose, and say, "That's not what my whole life is about." They have a different focus in life, and I'm glad they're using the platform that God has given them to make statements like that.
You say, "Well, I don't have that kind of platform." No, but everybody has circles of influence, spheres of influence. The people around you know what you're laser-focused on in your life. Is it clear to them? Have you not only verbalized it but then lived like that was the real thing in your life, not just words?
You see, if that is a laser focus of your life, it will show up in every little nook and cranny of your life: how you do your family, how you do your money, how you do your time. It will all show up in what the life is focused on. Most importantly, what's number one? What's the most important thing in your life?
Well, the psalmist says, "One, I'm only really after one thing ultimately in my life, and that's to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." That's the most important thing in my life. What about you?
Well, in order to get that clarity, I want to share two questions to ask yourself—two questions we're going to focus on today that the Scripture reveals to us in Ephesians five.
The first question is this: If I want to be laser-focused on honoring God, then here's the first question: What am I doing that I shouldn't be doing in my life right now? What am I doing right now? What's part of my life, my schedule, my language, my activity right now that, according to trying to honor God with my life, I shouldn't be having those things in my life?
Now, here's what you're going to find out: you don't even have to tell anybody else this to start with, but you're going to find out if you start talking to other people that are honest, everybody has some of this in their life. It's not necessarily even terribly evil things; it's just not the most important things. We've let unimportant things or less important things replace the most important things, and so they are consuming our time and our resources and our energies when that's not really what we claimed was the laser focus of our lives.
We're claiming it's honoring the Lord. But other things are taking priority over honoring the Lord. So what do we have in our lives right now that we need to get rid of, that we shouldn't be doing? And we need to allow the Holy Spirit to show us areas in our lives that are outside the clear will of God. Because if you're living outside of His will, you're not going to be able to find and live out God's purpose for you. As long as you keep choosing to live outside His will, you're not ever going to find it out there. That's not where you find God's will.
So you've got to get those things out of the way to find God's will for your life. You know some things that clearly are taught in Scripture that are not the will of God. And if those things are present in your life, they need to—first of all, if we want to focus like we need to in life, we've got to get those things out to make room to focus on the things that should be there. Because they're crowding out the other things that are the will of God for our lives.
Listen to what he said earlier in Ephesians 5, beginning with verse 1, leading into the passage we read earlier. He addresses that directly. He says, "Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children, and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
So he said something we should do is walk in the way of love. But listen to the next few verses. "But among you," who's he talking to? Among who? Christ followers. "But among you, there must not be"—so he's telling us some things that shouldn't be there—"There must not be," he's saying they shouldn't be. Does he say it'd be great if they weren't there? No. What does he say? "There must not be," so this is strong language here, "even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity."
Let's stop there for a moment. It's prevalent with the things that the Bible says are sexual immorality. And it's all around us, and it's pushed on us all the time. It's in the TV shows we watch, it's in the movies that we watch, it's in the video games that we play. It's in the workforce and how everybody's choosing to live their lives out there in the social arena that we're in. In fact, it didn't used to be this way, but in America, that's become the majority now, where it used to be the minority.
That more and more people are living outside the clear teachings of the will of God when it comes to sexuality. So, if we don't have a laser focus on this, we're not going to get it right. We're not going to stay on track. We're going to go off the track in the areas that hurt us. You see, the boundaries God puts on sexual morality are not there to restrict us; they're there to protect us. That's why we've got to have a laser focus here. If we don't have that laser focus, we're going to get off track and we'll go in directions that hurt us and hurt other people. And some of you are experiencing the hurt and the pain of that right now.
But the only way to get back on track is to get rid of the things that aren't supposed to be there to start with. We have to get out of that place of sexual immorality. "There must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity." But then he adds, "or of greed."
Well, now he's gone to meddling, hasn't he? I mean, we may decide, "Okay, other people are doing sexual immoral things. I'm not going there. I'm not doing that." But are you greedy? See, that's outside of the will of God too. Are you a generous person? Are you using your resources in a way that God would be pleased with? Or not? So he says, "Get rid of greed too." Because he says, "These are improper for God's holy people."
That word holy means to be set apart for God and God's use. If we want to live out God's purpose for our lives as Christ followers, there are certain things we've got to get out of our lives. It doesn't mean we're going to be perfect, but it means we can't welcome those things in as if they're okay anymore. We have to treat those things as the enemy and put up guards against them. It's those things to keep from going down those paths anymore.
We've got to stop taking that course, making those choices. Because he gives us this: "Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking." Oh, it was just a joke. It's just fun. Is it outside God's will? Which are out of place, but rather, thanksgiving.
And then he adds the warning, "For this you can be sure: no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a person as an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." Is this serious business for a Christ follower? Absolutely. You see, we can't fulfill our purpose and get to the place we say we want to get to if we allow these things to be welcome in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. They can't be welcome there.
Now, it doesn't mean they won't creep in once in a while and challenge us and tempt us and cause us to stumble and fall. But God gives us a path to take, a response to take if that happens, which is repentance and turning away from it and getting it back out and getting back on track. Even if it does happen.
But friends, without a clear laser focus, you can be sure it will just continue to happen. If there is no direction, and you're just letting life happen to you, then all those kinds of things will be in your life all the time. Because that's the way of the world. That's the way outside the will of God that Satan wants to call you into and me into. And so we've got to develop this clear laser focus.
James speaks to it in his letter. In James 1:21, he says, "Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you." So what is the determining factor on whether or not it should be there or not? It's God's word. You hold it up against the word of God, the teachings of God in His word, and if He says it shouldn't be there, guess what? It shouldn't be there.
It's that simple, but it's that deep and that hard at the same time. Just because God says it shouldn't be there doesn't mean it's going to be easy for us to get it out. That's why we need His Spirit. That's why we need to be getting His teaching into our hearts and minds is because that's what helps us have the focus that gets us out of those things and back on the track where God wants us to be with our lives.
So that's the first question: What am I doing that I shouldn't be doing? Which leads to the second question. It's the obvious one. Well, what am I not doing that I should be doing? Right? If I want to be laser-focused in the direction of my life, then it's not just getting rid of the bad stuff. You see, you can get all the bad stuff out of your life and sit there like a lump on a log and accomplish nothing in your life. But you can say, "But I'm pure and holy." No, you're not. The Bible says not to be idle. That's not pure and holy.
We need to be actively living out the direction and the purpose that God has for our lives. The goal of the Christian life shouldn't be to finally get to the place I don't have to do anything anymore. Yeah, but you should want to do the things God wants you to be doing. That shouldn't be your goal, to stop doing the good things that God wants you to be doing.
And so we need to ask ourselves, not only what am I doing that I shouldn't be... Jesus told a story about the lady that had evil demons in her house, and she took out a broom and swept her house and got them out, but she left the house empty, and what happened? More demons worse than the first came in. Caused more problems than was ever there before.
You see, you don't just get the bad stuff out and then leave a void in your life. You replace the bad things with the good things that God wants you to have in your life. And so what am I not doing that I should be doing? Where are the opportunities in your life to make a difference that God wants you to make?
James says it this way in James 4:17: "If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them." That's why some people say, "I want to stay blissfully ignorant. Oh, I can't be held accountable." But that's against God's will too. He wants us to grow up and mature and know the teaching of His Word.
So for us to know the good we ought to do and not doing it, that would be sin. So instead of doing that, we need to start on the offensive, the defensive. The offensive is getting rid of the bad stuff. The offensive is starting to do, put into place in our lives as a regular habit of life, those good things that God says we need to be doing.
So I want to close out with a great example and a concise verse that talks about four of those things that we see in the life of the first followers of Jesus that we find in Acts chapter 2. So look at Acts 2:42.
And when we look at this verse, here's what I'm going to do. I want you to hear me, whether you're online at the Smyrna campus or you're here at the Antioch campus. Here's what I'm asking you to do as your pastor because I know the difference this can make, and I love you, and I know God wants what's best for you, and so do I.
So I'm asking you to commit for one year to doing these four things. For one year. To consistently do these four things because here's why: If you actually would do these four things for one year, it will transform your life in every way for the better. I have no doubt about it. I can put a guarantee on it because it's God's Word. Not because Pastor Randy said it, but because this is what God tells us about life and how He wants us to live out the purpose of our lives.
Alright, so in Acts 2, you see the first people to respond to the gospel, and they're baptized into Christ, right? It says they were added 3,000 to their number that day in Acts chapter 2. That's the beginning of the church, and that's when they started living out their lives as Christ followers that day.
So how did they do that? What were the identifying marks of those people in Scripture that started living out the will of God as followers of Jesus Christ? He tells us in verse 42 of Acts chapter 2. It says these Christians, these first ones, they devoted themselves to... Now, when you devote yourself to something, it means this is a high-level commitment that you've made. These aren't things that you take lightly. These are things that you're committed to doing on a consistent basis in your life.
Now here's why I say I want you to commit to it for a year because it's consistency over time that gets the results. It's not sporadically doing these once in a while that gets the results that God wants you to have. It's consistency doing it regularly over a long enough period of time that it takes hold and it takes root and it produces the fruit that God wants it to produce. It takes time for this to begin to bear the fruit that God wants it to bear so you have the life He wants you to have.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to breaking of bread and to prayer. So I'm asking you to commit to making those four things the priority of your life for one year.
Let's talk about them for just a minute. Just a little description. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Now at that time, they had the apostles alive and right there with them in person teaching them. So what they're doing is they're listening to the teaching, and they're committed to learning it and applying it and living it out in their lives.
Now we don't have the actual apostles anymore, but what do we have? We have the written record of the teachings. That's the Bible. That's Scripture. So they were devoted to the study of the teachings of God. They had a high-level commitment to studying the Word. And so many Christians rely on way too little of this to still live the life God wants them to live.
They think that if I just attend church and listen to Pastor Randy's message or connect online and hear the Word online, then I'm good. I'm good for that week. I can check that box and go on and live the life God wants me to live, and that's just not the case. That's not how this works.
Being devoted to the teaching means you have it coming into your mind and your heart regularly, consistently over a long period of time. It's not a once-a-week-and-done kind of thing. See, that's why as a church we want to be a teaching church, not just on Sunday mornings. We are committed to—if you're going to be here on Sundays or connect with us online, you're going to hear teaching straight from God's Word. We're committed to that because that's all some people get to start with.
But here's the thing: we want you to have more than that. That's why we have life groups that meet and do Bible study together during the week. That's why we have developed now where we send out a five-day devotional that goes along with the sermon from that previous Sunday. We send it out every week online through email, and if you want to get that, you can just make sure we have an updated email for you where you're in our system, and we can send that out to you. It usually goes out either on Monday afternoon or Tuesday. We get that out so you've got five days to work with on that guide, that devotional guide, so you're spending time in the Word every single day.
And it's reinforcing the teaching that you had on Sunday if you'll actually do it. Now, I don't know about you, but when I review and have it reinforced, it tends to stick better for me, right? It tends to have more of the lasting effect that it's supposed to have when I do that. I don't think that's unique to me. I think the education system understood this a long time ago.
And whether you agree with what they're teaching or not, they understood that if it can be in there daily, it makes more of a difference in impacting the lives of the people that are getting it. That's true for your life too. You can't do this one day a week and have it done. You can't have the effect of transforming your life the way God wants it to.
In addition to the daily devotional, you can have your own devotion that you're doing. You can have a daily Bible reading. I use the YouVersion Bible app. Many of you do too. It's a great way to get a scripture sent to you every day. There's a read-through-the-Bible plan. They have several you can choose from there on that Bible app where you can do it where you're in the Word every single day.
Why is that a big deal? It's because the Word of God is living and active. It's living and powerful, and it changes you when you take it into your heart and mind. And it gets you back on course if you're getting off course. And it encourages you when you are on course when you're in it regularly. The only way to stay on course is to have that kind of encouragement and that kind of accountability. And God's Word will do that for you.
You want your life to be more aligned with God's will and God's purpose? Then you need to be in the Word every day to have that life. And if you'll commit to that a year, here's what's going to happen: Not only will it start changing you, but it will become a part of who you are that you just do that. That's who you are as a person. You don't even have to think about it so much anymore. That's just the natural rhythm of your life now that you're doing that.
It's hard to start with if you've never done it before. I know that. I wasn't raised with this in my home growing up. We didn't ever have any devotions at my house. We didn't ever have any Bible readings going on at my house. That wasn't how I was raised. It was a total change for me to put this into my life. But when I did it consistently over time, it became who I am. That that's just the norm for me. It's natural for me now to do that every day. I miss it when I don't get to do it in the time I normally do it.
Because sometimes you get interrupted, right? Satan loves to interrupt this for you and keep you from doing it at the regular rhythm time that you like to do it. Especially if you've got kids at home, you know, you're raising kids at home and stuff like that. Stuff always is happening. So it takes effort to develop this. But once you do, you will miss it if you don't get to have it those times. You'll hunger for it. It'll develop a hunger where there's a void if you don't get it that day.
So I want you to devote yourself to the apostles' teaching for one year. To be in the study of the Word of God for one year. Because I know the difference it'll make.
The second thing is they were devoted to the fellowship. And man, we watered down that word in the church a lot to talk about things in the church that we call fellowship things. In fact, most churches, especially smaller churches and churches in the past, they had regular—and we've had them at Lakeshore—regular what they call fellowship meals, right?
And fellowship meals were usually sometime during the week where the church family got together and we ate food together. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's not a bad thing. Now we do more of that in life groups and things where they get together and they have food and stuff like that. But that's not a bad thing at all. But we made fellowship more about eating together or doing some fun recreational thing together. We're having fellowship, right?
But that word fellowship at its core means so much more than that. At its root, the root itself means to share, and the concept in the New Testament church was they shared life with each other. They did life together with each other. Now, you can't do that with the whole church when you've got hundreds of people in a church. But where you can do that is within smaller groups within the church, right? You can do life together within those smaller groups.
That's why we have the life group programs that we have here. Opportunities to get together in smaller groups. You pray together. You study God's Word. You eat together. Yeah, that's great. And you talk about life. And you do some fun fellowship things together, right? Fellowship and the idea of activities that we do together.
But you know what else a lot of our groups do that needs to be a part of that? They serve together too a lot of times. They'll do these service outreach projects together as a group because that's part of doing life together. And they'll support each other when their kids are in programs or activities. And they'll go together and support them and encourage them and stuff like that. You do life together.
And they understand the value that individual Christians have to the whole. That's part of the fellowship. You see, the fellowship is actually the church family. The early church was devoted to the church family. That was their fellowship. That was their connecting point. That's who they were doing life with together.
They also understood their responsibility that part of that was not just to share their time, maybe hosting a study or having people at their house or going to somebody else's house, but to share their resources in serving and in giving and contributing to the good of the whole. That's part of the fellowship that they were devoted to.
You see, you can't say you're devoted to it if you're not willing to invest in it and sacrifice for it. That word devotion is deeper than just, "I attend one time." Once in a while. When I can. It's an investment of your life in the lives of others that creates the fellowship according to the word in Scripture of how the early church was devoted to the fellowship.
So, I want to ask you for one year to truly be devoted to the fellowship of the church. And that means it's a high priority for you. That means you're going to have to do a lot of things that it's not secondary to the other things you've got going on in your life. That means that the church is your excuse for not doing other things instead of other things being an excuse for not being in church. It's a big shift.
You see, we devote ourselves to a lot of things in this world. You sign your kids up for a program, you're devoted to it, right? You're going to support them. You're going to be there. You're going to get them there for the practices and pay the money and all that. Because why? You're devoted to your kids. That's why. Well, if you're devoted to the Lord and His church, that's the kind of devotion you have for the church. That's going to be the priority.
Which leads to the other things they were devoted to. They're all connected to each other. They were devoted to the breaking of bread, and in the early church, that was terminology they used for what we call communion or the Lord's Supper.
You see, that wasn't just a kind of an extra thing they did sometimes when they showed up for church. It was a vital part of their lives. The Bible says, in fact, that they came together on the first day of the week for this specific purpose: to break bread. And while they were together, they had the study of God's Word while they were together.
But what was their primary reason for coming together? It was to do what? Break bread. To have this memorial meal to honor and remember Jesus the way He asked them to honor and remember Him.
Now, why should that be such a huge area of devotion in our lives? Friends, it's because it does something for us and to us when we do it the right way. When we come together, it unites us again with that sacrifice, with that love of God, with that willingness that He had to do that for us. We need to be reminded of that when the world is beating us down and tearing us apart and causing us all these frustrations.
We need to be brought back to remembering we have a God who loves us so much that His Son died for us on the cross. And that's what communion is all about. That's what the Lord's Supper is all about. It's a reminder to us of God's love for us. You need that reminder regularly. So do I as a Christ follower.
But it's also a reminder that we are connected to other people too. We're not out here on our own. If we belong to Christ, we belong to the fellowship of the church. And when we have communion together, we are reminded of that connection we have to each other in Christ. We're all dependent on the blood of Jesus. We're all sinners in need of the grace of God. And that sacrifice was not just for me; it was for you too and you too. And we're in this together.
There's a commonality to it that draws us to each other, and it strengthens our bonds to each other when we come around this table regularly, consistently because we're devoted to it. We don't take it lightly if we have to miss it. We make it a priority to be there for that and to be part of that.
And it does a third thing. It says we do it because we're proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes again. It keeps our focus on the fact that Jesus is coming back. You see, every time we have this meal together, we're not just saying He died for me; we're saying He's coming back to get me too. We're saying both of those things. That's why we keep taking it.
I know we have people all the time when they find out we do it every Sunday. "Well, it's going to lose its meaning if you do it every week." The only way it can lose its meaning is if a cross doesn't mean what it means in Scripture. That's the only way communion can lose its meaning. Did that really happen the way the Scripture says? It'll never lose its meaning. It means the same thing every time.
And it serves the same purpose every time we do it. Now, if you don't focus on it, it might lose its meaning for you. That's why He says don't take it without truly focusing on the body and the blood of Jesus. That's up to you to do that. Get your focus where it needs to be, but commit to being there around the Lord's table.
And then it says they were devoted to prayer. Friends, one of the most important things you could do to keep your life on course with where God wants it to be is to develop your own personal prayer life and get deep into it.
Now, when I say develop your own personal prayer life, some of you, some people who are Christ followers have this misconception that that means I have to learn to pray eloquently to have a deep, powerful prayer life. In Scripture, it's never about eloquence when it comes to prayer. It's all about heart. It's all about recognition of who God is and who we are in relationship to Him.
It's all about knowing that He's a Father who loves you, and you are His child, and He wants you to come to Him with anything and everything you need to talk to Him about. Remember when Jesus said, "I'm the vine, and you are the branches"? And then He says, "If you want to bear fruit in your life, you have to remain in Me."
You have to abide in Me. Well, He gave us some connecting points where we can abide in Him. One of those is in Scripture. This is the Word of God, which is living and active. So we're connecting with Him as we study Scripture. Remember, we should be devoted to that.
The other one is the Holy Spirit. Remember, when we're baptized into Christ, He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself to indwell us. So that's a connecting point that we have. We have the Word, we have the Spirit that works through the Word, but here's the other connecting point He gives us, and that's prayer.
You see, when we're praying through Jesus, who makes the way possible for us, we can go directly to God's throne into His presence in prayer. And here's the misconception that a lot of people have, depending on your church background. You don't have to go through anybody else to get there but Jesus.
You don't have to go through a certain priest or pastor or teacher to go directly to God Himself. You go through Jesus. He is your high priest that has opened up that way for you to go directly to the Father Himself. And here's what it says: He wants us to pray without what? Ceasing.
Now how often does that sound like we ought to be praying? Not often. Just all the time. In other words, when I say it that way, here's what I'm trying to say to you: It's not about starting and stopping. It's about a continual ongoing conversation. When you say amen, that doesn't mean you have to stop the prayers. Amen is a phrase that simply means, "May it be so according to Your will, Father." That's all that phrase means.
So it doesn't mean you have to stop the conversation with God then because you said amen. The very next thing that happens in your life or that you're dealing with in life, what can you immediately start doing again? Start talking to the Father about it again. You see, it's like He's right there with you. You know why it's like that? Because He is.
He said, "I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you." He's always right there with you. So how often can you talk to Him? All the time. All day long. Every day. And I've joked about this before. You don't have to—you can pray while you're driving, but please don't stop and bow your head and close your eyes. You don't, you know, driving's risky enough in Nashville without doing that, right?
You don't have to do that, but when I'm driving, I do a lot of praying. I do. Driving in Nashville has increased my prayer life tremendously. I pray a lot more now driving around Nashville. And I'll bet there are things at work that you're going through where, man, that should increase your prayer life.
And things when you get home that day after a hard day of work with your family and your kids that you're having to handle and deal with that can increase your prayer life tremendously. If you understand it doesn't have to be a start-stop kind of thing.
Now, there are times where you need to give some focus, prayer time, get off to yourself and maybe even get down on your face and pray before God. There's some times where that's a good thing and an important thing, but you can talk to God in any posture, in any place, at any time, and you should.
That's what it means to develop a prayer life is knowing that you're in communication with the Father all the time. That He's listening, He's hearing, He's responding as you share your life with Him.
Now, I'm a parent and a grandparent, and I have been for a long time, and one of the things I cherish most in those roles is when my children want to talk to me about things because somehow they feel like maybe I've got something to offer or maybe they're just trying to stroke my ego or whatever, right? But it feels good for them to want to talk to you about something, doesn't it?
Well, you've got a Father whose love for you is so much greater than any earthly father could ever have who wants you to talk to Him, who invites you to talk to Him, who paid the price of the blood of His Son so that you could come talk to Him. Don't you think He wants that to be something you devote yourself to when He had to devote Himself to making it possible for you to do that?
So here's the challenge as we close. Four things I want you to devote yourself to for one year. Get into the Word and a regular study of God's Word. And do it consistently. Commit yourself. Be devoted to the fellowship of the Church. Don't let it be a secondary thing. Let it be a primary thing that you're committed to doing. You're going to be there. You're going to participate. You're going to serve. You're going to support. You're going to do life together with the fellowship of the Church.
And then be devoted to the breaking of bread. Don't let this be something that you miss casually. Make it a priority to be around the Lord's table. And devote yourself to prayer on a regular basis.
Now, I want you to do it for one year. And I'm not asking you to say to me right now, "I'm going to commit to that for one year." But here's what I know a lot of people will think about: "Well, when should I start this? I got this going on right now. I got that going on. I don't know that I can work it in right now."
You know when you should start? Listen to 2 Corinthians 6:2. "For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation.'"
If you want your life to end up in the presence of the Father for eternity, the time to start is now.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You that we've been able to go to Your word and learn today about a key decision we need to make in life to live life on purpose. But it doesn't need to be our purpose or the world's purpose. As Christ followers, we want it to be Your purpose for our lives.
And we know, Father, the scripture is not going to tell us every detail of how that's going to look for every individual, but it tells us the priorities we need to have, the things to get out of our lives, the things we need to put into our lives to get ourselves into Your will to accomplish Your purpose for us.
I pray for those who need to decide today maybe to get some things out of their lives, maybe to put some things into their lives that haven't been there like they should be. Because the more of us that get aligned with Your will, the more we individually enjoy Your plan for us, but the more corporately the church changes the world for the kingdom of God.
That's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
Maybe you're here today. You need to make a decision. We ask you to come right up front while we're standing and singing. Maybe you just need to connect to a church home. You haven't taken that step. If you're listening online and you want to talk to somebody about decisions you're thinking about, just message us there online. We'll be glad to follow up with you there.
Let's stand and sing together.
Everyone have a seat, please. At this time, Dr. Ed is going to come and lead us in a time around the Lord's table as we commune together.
Thank you for being here today. It's a joy to have this time of fellowshipping together.
We want you to know, if you want to continue worshiping through the giving of offerings, we have offering boxes available, one in the back of the auditorium, one as you exit the auditorium right there in the hallway. They're mounted on posts there, and you can drop your offerings in the top slot. You can give online, even if you weren't able to make it here in person today. If you're connected online, you can give your gifts there. Just click on that gift tab, and it'll take you to that page where you can make an online gift there. You can also mail in your offerings to the church office. So we have a lot of people that give those ways as well.
And no matter which way you do it, it's an act of worship, and it's a way to support the work and the ministry of the church to contribute to the fellowship of the body of Christ, the church, and the good work God called us to do.
Before we go, really quickly today, a couple of announcements I want to remind you of. If you're in person at one of our campuses, we've got this insert today for a Bible study class that's coming up in two weeks. It's a basic Christian doctrine Bible study taught by Walter Rouse. If you've never been through this class, I encourage you to sign up for it and attend it. It will be on Sunday mornings at 11 o'clock. So you can attend this first service and then go to that class following this service.
Also, a couple of other things coming up. Next Sunday is our welcome to the church. We're going to be doing a little bit of welcome lunch. If you're new to Lakeshore and you've not attended one of these, it's a great time to find out more about the church, ask any questions you might have. You get to know us better; we get to know you better. It's next Sunday after the 11 o'clock worship service here. It's after the 10 o'clock service at the Smyrna campus.
We'd love for you to—you need to register in advance so that we know how many to prepare for for lunch. And we have child care available. If you need that, you can indicate that when you register.
And then we've got an opportunity for baby dedications coming up on Sunday, February the 16th. If you've recently had an addition to your family, we'd love to celebrate that with you through the dedication of your baby. And really, it's a dedication of the parents to raise up their children in the Lord to know and follow Jesus. So we would encourage you to do that. But you need to register in advance that Sunday, February the 16th at all of our services.
Don't forget, we're collecting winter items. We have life groups that are always available. You need to connect with a life group. We'd be glad to help you with that. And on February the 16th, we're going to have a picture station set up so that you can get some fun photos made that Sunday. We hope you can be with us and have fun with that on that Sunday as well.
Thank you for being here today. Let's all stand together. We'll close with a word of prayer.
Father God, we thank You again for Your faithfulness to us, Your desire for us to have life as You intended life to be. It took Jesus to the cross so that we could have it. Help us to value that life You're calling us to enough to devote ourselves to the things that we need to be. Help us to be devoted to and to rid our lives of those things that would only take us away from Your plan and Your purpose. May we trust Your plan to be best always. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
on Jan 19, 2025
