Amen. Amen. Let's welcome Patty Sandell, who was featured in the video. I heard her husband, Ken. Ken had planned to be with us today, too, but he's having some back problems, and we want to be praying for him, that he gets better. But we're glad that Patty could be here as well.
I wanted Patty to come and just share a couple of minutes, and they'll be available for you to connect with after the service to hear more about what they're doing. They are a great example of what we're talking about in this New Year series that we're doing right now called "I Have Decided." We all have to decide what we're going to do with our lives at every stage of life and every opportunity that we have, and they have made a decision to partner with a ministry that I want you to hear more about.
Tell us the name of the ministry and just the general concept of what you do.
I can tell you that's very much true. Sue Ann and I were able to go visit, and they're home there at the apartment complex they're at. Even while we were there, little kids were coming over, and other family members were coming over during the time that we were there. I just wanted you to hear her heart for what they're doing and hear about the concept. Because in apartment communities, it's so needed. People get so disconnected. They feel so all alone, sometimes especially new people coming into those communities.
I want you to get this vision here of the fact that God can use you, any of us, no matter age or circumstance or where you live, to make that connection with rebuilding relationships and getting to be able to share the love of Jesus. So I'm going to ask Patty to be available for you after the service. She'll be out there in the lobby by the information counter. You guys could stop by and say hello to her. They can always use some help. Like she said, a couple of events every month, and they need people to come volunteer to help pull off those events.
They're usually just fun events to help people network and connect with each other, make relationship building happen in those events. It just takes people to pull off those events. It does. Let Patty know today before you leave if you're interested in getting more information. If you're interested in that ministry itself at an apartment complex, that kind of thing, this company is looking for more people to commit to that kind of mission work in their communities where they live. So, she could give you more information and help you make those contacts.
Let's thank Patty again for being with us today. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. We are so thankful that you're here with us today. We're thankful for those connecting with us online. We're happy to have that connection with you as well.
We are coming together as a church family right after an event that happened in our community that has really shaken a lot of people, and many are dealing with grief, loss, and hurt as a result of the shooting at the Antioch High School campus there in the cafeteria. So, I want us as a church family to let the Antioch High School family and this whole community know how much we love them, how much we care about what's happened, and how we're praying for each one of you.
Here at our church family, we have people that have children at that school. Thankfully, the children we know about connected with our church family are all safe, and we're grateful for that. We want to thank and praise God for that. But we know they knew people and are connected to people who did witness the attack and also knew the person who was killed in that attack. So, we want to respond in the best way we possibly can as a church family.
We've got people here that used to teach at Antioch High School, that were part of the administration there at Antioch High School. We've got people that are connected in a lot of different ways there. So, we want to lift them all up in prayer. We're going to take some time for that this morning.
We also want you to know right after it happened, I want to thank Metro government and Metro schools for their quick response to trying to set up help for the family. They immediately set up a central location at the Southeast Community Center. They immediately started networking to say, "We've got these resources available to you."
Things like the Mental Health Cooperative Crisis Line, the Office for Victims of Crime, Victim Connect Program, the Disaster Distress Help Line, the Metro Health Department Line that you can call for help, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is always available there. I want you to know here at Lakeshore, we want you to know about those things, but we also partner with Rockhouse Center for Christian Counseling and with Agape Nashville for Christian Counseling here in Nashville.
If you want to connect for counseling from a Christian perspective, we want you to know we'll help you make those connections as you work through the grief and the response that you're having to process through the shootings that took place there. Unfortunately, there was a lot of conflict. There was a lot of loss of life, and we want to pray for the family and friends connected to that.
I want to mention this young lady's name, Jocelyn Diana Correa Escalante, who was killed by the shooter. I want us to be praying especially for her family and her friends that are dealing with that grief and that loss right now. When you send your children to school that morning, you expect them to come back home safe and sound. Every parent in here wants that for their children.
So I want us to pray for the leadership, the administration at the school and at Metro Schools and our government leaders, that as they think through responses and things to do, they're already taking some steps that they feel like would be good steps to take in response to this. Let's be praying for them to have wisdom and discernment as they look at the response and the steps that can be taken. And we pray that no family has to deal with this again in the days ahead.
So I want us to stand together. Let's stand for Antioch High School, for our Antioch community, and let's pray together for everyone affected by this.
God and Father, we come to you now. We come with hearts that are heavy. We feel for these families of the children that had to witness this and for the family that lost their daughter. For the family even of the shooter, Father. There are so many different feelings of grief and loss that are taking place right now.
We know, Father, that you are a faithful God who's there, but you give us free will, and we choose what we do with that free will. I pray that during this time of response to this event, that more and more people would understand that you rejoice for those who rejoice, but you want us to join together with you in grieving for those and mourning with those who mourn. And we do that today, Father.
We can't fix what happened, but we can pray for those people that are going through it, that have been affected by it. And Father, we know that if they would turn to you, they would find you to be faithful as you always are. You are the God of compassion who offers comfort and care for those that are hurting.
I pray that everybody feeling loss or grief or pain right now would know that they could run to you and find your arms open and find that you're for them and not against them, and you want to provide the healing that they need. May we as your church family be a place that lifts you up to the hurting people of the world. May they find you even through us, is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you. You see it.
Well, today we're continuing. In fact, we're going to conclude our series that we started several weeks back called "I Have Decided." As we begin the new year, people are oftentimes making decisions about how they want their lives to change. Some things they want to do better. Some adjustments they want to make. Some things they want to stop doing. Some things they want to start doing in the new year.
It reminded me of this lady that had lost a lot of weight over the past few years because she had made a commitment and a New Year's resolution to lose weight, and she had been very successful with it. She was discarding some clothing from her wardrobe that she couldn't wear anymore. Her seven-year-old niece was watching as she held up a pair of capri pants that she had not worn in a long time. The lady said, "Wow, I must have worn these when I was 183."
Her niece looked puzzled and she looked at her and asked, "How old are you now?"
We obviously, at the new year, have a good time to assess and look at ways moving forward that our lives can change for the better. And we've talked about in this series, we've said we're going to cover four decisions that we can make to set our life on the right course that if we make these decisions and we follow through consistently over time, our lives will be transformed dramatically for the better.
The first decision, you might remember, if you missed any of these, they're on our YouTube channel. You can go back and catch them. The first decision was to follow Jesus. That's the most important one. We've got to get that one right first. If we can decide our lives are going to be lived as followers of Jesus, then that one decision will then cause every other decision to be made in light of that decision.
That decision will set the course. It will be the vision that we follow for every other decision that we make because we want to be followers of Jesus Christ. That means we come under his authority. We listen to his teaching. We take his teaching into our hearts and into our minds and allow it to change our actions.
The second decision was, "I've decided to be free indeed." And it's directly connected to the first one. In order for us to be free, Jesus said, "If you're really my disciples, you will hold to my teaching," right? That's deciding to follow Jesus. He says, "Then you will know the truth." And what will the truth do for us? It will set us free.
So if we decide to follow Jesus, we're going to be listening to his teaching and applying that. We're going to find his teaching to be true. And as we learn the truth about things, it sets us free from the lies and the deceptions that keep weighing us down and hurting us and causing us to hurt others.
And then last week we talked about the decision to live life on purpose. God created us on purpose for a purpose. One of the things I see in our culture today more than anything else is people floundering in life because they have no purpose. They don't have any direction. They don't have any set standards of values or know where to go to set those standards and values for their lives.
So we've got to call them back to that first decision, right? To follow Jesus and then to learn the truth. And then that truth sets them free. And then they can live with purpose. They can live with purpose in their lives.
And today I want to finish up this series by talking about the fourth decision, which is that decision to make everything count in our lives. The decision to make everything count. You know why? Because we only get one life. We only get to do this thing one time. We don't want to waste it. We don't want to waste time or opportunities that we are allowed to have while we're here.
And none of us knows how long we're going to be here. We don't know how many opportunities we're going to have. But we do know that with the time we've got, God's got a plan for our lives to count for something, to really matter for something. And I think everybody deep down wants to know my life matters. It really does matter what I do with my life and how I live it.
So we want to make everything count in our lives. I want to start with a passage that may be familiar to you. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's handiwork." That's the New International Version translation of that word is handiwork. And that word is such an interesting word. Some translations say you are God's masterpiece. You are someone that God crafted together specifically the way he wanted you to be.
Friends, with all the identity confusion that's going on in the world, if we could get this one thing in our hearts and our minds, it would really settle all the issues that God crafted us together in our mother's womb exactly as he wanted us to be. There is no mistake there. He created us with a plan and a purpose just as we are.
So he says, therefore, he wants us to know we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus with a plan. Listen, to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Before you were ever formed in your mother's womb, God had already planned in advance the good things he wanted you to do with your life while you're here, with the life that he gave you. Isn't that amazing?
The God of the universe, the creator of all things, designed you specifically to do certain specific things with your life during the time that you live on this earth. Now, we're going to live beyond this place, but he's got a plan for us while we're here. It's a good plan to do good things with our lives.
We have a generation of young people today that just need to hear this more than ever before. That they are crafted by the hand of God himself, just like they are, to do good things while they're here with the time that God gives them on this earth. And if they could grasp that, it will change their idea of how to make everything count moving forward with how they live their lives.
So I want to share another verse real quick. I've shared before that this is my life verse. I adopted this verse as a pastor a long time ago. This was going to be the, when they say life verse, somebody told me you ought to have a life verse. I had no idea what that was. It's just a theme verse for my life, right? It's kind of the guiding main verse that guides my life.
And this is mine, Romans 12:1 and 2. If you want to look there with me. He says, "Therefore, now every time you see therefore, you've got to do what? See what it's there for." It's in light of all that God has done for us. Okay? That's the therefore. He's been talking about that before we get to chapter 12.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy." All right? So all that God's done for us, he did it because he's extending mercy to us. We didn't deserve the good things he did for us. We didn't earn it. Only by his mercy did he do for us what he did for us in Christ. Okay?
"In view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship." We have done such a disservice to the church and to the people in the community checking out the church by using the word worship like it only means a service for an hour or two on Sunday mornings.
And not just that, but we even limit it more than that. We call the music part the worship. As if that's all there is to worshiping God. When, in fact, our true and proper worship is to present our whole lives to God 24/7, lived out as an act of worship. You can't segment it out from any other part of your life. Like, I'm going to worship and then I'm going to leave worship. Not if you're a Christ follower.
A Christ follower presents their body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God all the time. As your proper act of what? Worship. That's our worship. So not only what we do in this building on Sunday mornings, but what we do with our afternoon this afternoon, and what we do with our night tonight, and what we do tomorrow with the life God gives us tomorrow, should be given to God as an act of worship.
See, that sets the course of our lives. If we decided to follow Jesus, then Lord, life is lived as worship to God through Jesus. Every part of life is lived as worship to Jesus. The way you do your marriage, the way you do your parenting, the way you treat your parents as a son or daughter, the way you interact with friends at school or at work, the way you interact and work as an employee or an employer, it's all given to God as an act of worship.
You don't go to and leave worship. If you are a worshiper, that's your identity when you are a Christ follower. And so we are at worship all the time. So he says then in verse 2, "Do not, this is how we live out this worship, do not conform to the pattern of this world."
This world wants to conform you into the pattern of how it wants you to live, how it wants you to think, and how it wants you to act, how it wants you to talk. The world is trying to mold you into its pattern. And he's warning us as Christ followers, do not let yourself be conformed to that pattern. That's not God's pattern. That's not what God wants for your life. That's not how God wants you to live it out.
There's some good things about it sometimes, but it's not in line totally with what God wants for you. So don't conform to what the world is telling you. Instead, he says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." He says, "Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will."
God's will for you is what? It's good. It's pleasing. It's what? It's perfect. That's why we need to learn God's pattern for our lives and start living that out with the time that we've got here, because His pattern is better than the world's pattern that it's trying to conform us to. His pattern is good for us all the time.
His pattern is where you find the real pleasing fulfillment life that God wants you to have. His pattern is perfectly complete for everything you're going to need while you're here. That's what that word perfect means. It means nothing's left out. Nothing's missing. It is completely all what you need to know about living life found in His Word and His teaching.
So as our minds get transformed by learning God's pattern, not the world's pattern, then we can live it out and make everything count with how we're living our lives here. Now, I thought about this, and I wanted to close with this message. Who can we look to to see what that looks like? And the answer was clear. It's Jesus, right?
Here's what you need to know about Jesus. He came to this earth on mission to rescue and reconcile us from our sin. And He only had a limited amount of time while He was here, and He knew that. In the flesh, He was only going to have a certain amount of time walking among us. He was born as a baby in this world. He grew up in a family. And then, when He started His ministry, He was about 30 years old. When He died on the cross, He was only 33.
Three years He had to pack in the teaching, the example, the witness that He came here to bring us. You think He was focused on making everything count while He was here? Was that a limited amount of time that He had to do what He was sent here to do? Of course. He had to be focused. He had to know that He had to make everything count with the limited amount of opportunity He was going to have to get this done.
So I think we can learn from Jesus, don't you? I think on any subject, we can always learn from Jesus. But especially when it comes to living a life where we decide to make everything count. So there are four things about Jesus' life and how He did this in a short amount of time that I really wanted to point out today. And I want you to write these. These are good. These are a good reminder. You can go back to these later, okay?
And just remind yourself, these four things are important for me to make my life count with a limited amount of time. And here's the thing. You don't know how many days there are going to be in your life, how many months, how many years. You don't know. Neither do I. And so let's make everything count as much as we can with the time we do have.
The first thing we learn from Jesus is that Jesus had the right mandate for life. The right mandate. You know how I like alliteration. All these are going to be M's, okay? I had to get creative to get all M's. But I got all M's here, okay? The right mandate. Mandate is a driving force behind what you're doing and why you decided to do it. It's why you do what you do. It's because of the mandate that you have.
Now, remember, we don't need the mandate that the world gives us. We need the mandate that who gives us? That God gives us. So Jesus had a mandate from the Father when he came to this earth. He knew what he was here to do. He knew where he came from. He knew where he was going back to. And he knew what he needed to do while he was here. He had a mandate for his life.
And if we're going to follow Jesus, it seems logical, doesn't it? That our mandate should line up with his. If we're going to say we're his followers, we're his disciples, then shouldn't our mandate for our lives align rightly with his? You see, the convenience of today's world and the philosophy of our culture makes us think that we can do life our own way, and it ought to be just everything ought to be fine.
It ought to just work out fine. All of our problems should be solved. Everything should be taken care of. And human beings have, for the history of human beings, been trying to solve all of life's problems our way, and haven't we done a great job with that? We have not. We fail over and over again trying to do it our way.
But every generation somehow is so delusional, we think we're the generation that's going to get it. We're going to fix it. We're going to get everything right this time. Our generation is going to do it. I know it's hard for you younger people to realize this, but back when I was growing up, there was a generation just ahead of me that thought that the answer was to destroy the establishment, to just take it away.
Anybody over 30 had no use for living anymore. You know, they thought we're the generation that's going to change the world, and everybody's going to love each other, and there's going to be peace everywhere. And since then, we've had war after war, conflict after conflict, people still dying unjustly all over the world. We've not made any progress doing it our way.
You can sing all the songs, you can write all the good poetry, but the problem is the heart of man that can only be redeemed and transformed by a power greater than ourselves. That's the only answer. And Jesus understood that mandate, and that's why he came here. He understood that he came here with a purpose.
I love what it says about Jesus in Philippians 2, beginning with verse 5. It says, he teaches us to do this. "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."
You know what I've never heard the world tell us should be our mandate? Humility. Humility. And servitude to others. The world has never as a whole promoted that as how we need to live our lives. You know what the world is telling you? Lift yourself up. Live your best life. Take care of yourself. That's what the world is telling us.
That's been the message from the world the whole time. You have it within you to fix things and solve things, and you just need to be all you can be, right? And what we have found is all we can be is lacking if we're trying to fix everything that way. In fact, just the opposite of what God calls us to. It's what God calls us to. He says, make yourself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Humble yourself to the point of sacrificing for others.
It's a totally different life than the life the world is calling you to. But you have to ask yourself, are you going to be a follower of Jesus or a follower of the world? What mandate are you going to adopt for your life? What is it that's going to set the course for you and how you live your life?
Well, in that verse in Philippians 2, we also see that Jesus gives us the example of the right mindset. That's the second M, right? The mandate and then the mindset. Jesus' mindset was that of a servant. Now, who is Jesus when he came to earth? He's God. But he didn't consider his existence as God to be something to use only for himself, for his own advantage.
Instead, his mindset was, "Well, I can use that for others instead of just for myself. I can come as God and pay for their sins that they can't pay for themselves so they won't have to pay for it themselves. I can do that for them." See, his mindset was to consider others ahead of his own interest. That's his mindset.
And look, what it says about Jesus early on in his life, in Luke 2:52, it says this summary verse about Jesus as he was growing up. "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." Even here on earth, in human form, Jesus never stopped growing in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. He didn't ever stop wanting to accomplish what the Father sent him here to accomplish. He wanted to grow into all that God sent him here to do.
You see, none of us is born with all the wisdom we need to have or all the understanding or all the knowledge that we need to have. None of us is born with all of that. We don't know that starting out in life. But what we can commit to if we have the right mindset is that God has a plan that we need to learn his teaching. And the more we learn it and apply it, we will grow into, be transformed. Remember my life verse? "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
It's an ongoing process. We need to be committed, have the mindset that we need to be learning and growing all the time into the life God wants us to live. I've been a pastor for a long time, and I still am learning and growing all the time. I'm still studying and learning from other teachers and listening to other great preachers so that I can learn and grow because none of us ever gets to this place where we don't need to keep growing into what God has called us to.
And here's what I've learned that God is so good at. Even when I've messed up, I know that shocks you, but I have. Even when I've messed up on some things, if I give it to God, guess what? Instead of a failure, it becomes part of my education. It becomes part of my growth process. I can learn from the failures, from the mistakes.
And here's the amazing thing. God says that he can work all things together, even our mistakes, even our failures. He can work all things together for the good of those who love him, who've been called according to his purpose. It's all part of the process of continuing to grow.
So every day is an opportunity for gradual improvement full of successes and some failures too. And we can learn from all of that if we have the right mindset. But the mindset the world tells us to have is you're not wrong. Everything you do is right. Everything should be celebrated. No, there are some things we mess up on. We need to be honest about it and learn from it and grow from it.
Let's stop trying. Let's stop trying. Let's not act like we're right all the time about everything. By the way, just because someone is offended, it doesn't mean they're right. They may be offended because they don't understand the truth about that thing.
So let's make sure we are having the right mindset. The third thing, the third M is this. It's the right method to life. Remember, we talked about this last week. Living on purpose. If we don't have a purpose for what we're doing, a purpose for our lives, then we get up that day without purpose. And when you get up that day and start living that day without purpose, you're letting life happen to you instead of you having some method to how you're going to live that day.
Jesus didn't waste any days with the time that he had. And as you read about his ministry in the gospels and in the epistles, you can see that he had a method that he used and how he lived life every day. Jesus' days, first of all, were intentional. He started every day in light of the mission, the mandate that his father had given him.
So when he woke up that morning, he woke up with the mandate that he was going to allow to direct that day for him, the mandate to come to seek and to save lost people. He knew that was the mandate. And so every day was lived with that intention that he was going to do what he needed to do that day to fulfill that mandate.
And Jesus' days were selective. Jesus didn't do everything he had the opportunity to do. He was given opportunities a lot of times to do things the way the world was telling him to do things. Do you remember when his friend Lazarus was sick and Jesus wasn't in town, in the same town as Lazarus was? And they sent people to Jesus to say, "You need to come right now because your friend Lazarus is sick." And he said, "No."
He didn't let them pressure him into doing things the way they wanted him to do things. Why? Because he knew his mandate. He knew that his mandate could be better fulfilled by delaying going to see Lazarus. During that time, Lazarus died. And you think, "Well, Jesus sure messed up. His friend died. If he'd only come, Martha and Mary thought, 'Well, Jesus viewed, if he'd come, our brother wouldn't have died.'"
Jesus said, "Well, I'm going to let you see something better than that." And he went out to the graveside and he said, "Lazarus, come forth." And Lazarus rose from the dead. You see, God's plan is better than ours. It's better than your friend's plan for you. It's better than your family's plan for you. It's better than the culture's plan for you, the culture around you.
We need to understand the method Jesus used was he was very selective about saying no to the right things and yes to the right things that fit the mandate that the father had for his life. And we need to have that method of living every day too.
And also, Jesus' days were measured. He did the right things every day, but he didn't do anything all day. Did you realize that? You see, they would have worn Jesus out completely had he just done everything all day, every day that they wanted him to do. But you remember what Jesus did? He did the right things every day, but he didn't do anything all day. He healed the sick. He taught the truth, but then he would also get off to himself and take a nap.
Hallelujah, Jesus. That sounds way more attractive to me now than it used to as a young person, right? Get off and take a nap. He went off by himself and prayed. He had times of fasting and prayer as a part of his method of living life. And people might have thought, "But we were in line to see Jesus and he didn't wait for us," but he had to do those other things too in order to, in the flesh, be able to do the mandate that the father sent him here to do.
And so we've got to learn to say no to some things so that we can do the better things that are the mandate God has for our lives. But we also have to learn to say yes to the right things at the right times that God has called us to do. And that's the method we need to use for living our lives.
But the last thing is this, and this is so important, and in light of what just happened too, I want us to get this one. You need to have the right mates. That's the fourth M. All right, the right mandate, the right mindset, the right method. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost, so let's do things that work toward that. But the right mates.
And by mates, I'm not talking about husband or wife, though that's important too. You know, you should try to have the mate that God wants you to have. But if you're married now, that is the mate God wants you to have, so hold on to that for a minute. But mate, I want to use it the way the Aussies use it, right? When they say mate, what are they talking about? Friends.
I can't tell you how important it is for you to choose the right tribe in your life. The right people to put around you because of the influence that it has on your life. We like to quote that verse, it says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." It's a great verse. But we usually use it in the positive, right? But it's also true in the negative.
You put the wrong people around you, as iron sharpens iron, that person's going to sharpen you too. You put the people around you that don't honor God, that don't want to make God a priority, that think you're stupid for doing that. You keep those people around you long enough, often enough, close enough, and that sharpens your life in a different way.
Now, it doesn't mean Christians shouldn't interact with non-Christians. Of course we should. We've got to be light, got to be salt in the world. But I'm talking about your inner circle mates that are having the most influence on your life. You need to be sure you have the right mates.
When Jesus was here for the short time he had, when he started his ministry, what was the first thing he did? He picked 12 men to be his tribe to come around him through those years of ministry. They lived with him day in and day out. They walked with him. They witnessed his teaching. They witnessed his public life, but they also witnessed his private life. That's important that you've got a tribe that you're connected to.
And then even within that 12, he had three that were closer than the others, Peter, James, and John. They were the closest. They were the closest. They were the closest inner circle with Jesus. He had mates that he went to at the hardest things of his ministry, the hardest times that he had to face.
Remember when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane? Who did he take to the garden with him that night? Those 12. Or the 11, Judas was missing because he had decided to betray Jesus. But he took the others out there with him to pray. And then when he went further into the garden, he took three out of those further into the garden with him. You know why? It's because having the right mates can get you through a lot of hard things.
Having the right connections with the right family, with the right friends can really help you get through the hardest of things. That's why God gave us the family, the church. He designed the church to be that family that we connect to and belong to go through life with on this earth.
And the church is exactly the place God wants us to develop that tribe that we belong to. And our participation in as a part of a tribe that has not everybody. Here's what you need to know about every tribe. Every tribe has some village idiots in it. Don't look at anybody close to you.
You see, here's the thing about a tribe. We're all flawed human beings, and none of us is going to have it all together all the time doing exactly what we should be doing all the time. He doesn't say only pick a tribe if you can find perfect people. Jesus allowed Judas to be in his tribe, right? That's the guy that betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver, but he allowed him to be in his tribe. He was part of it.
So in the church tribe, there are going to be people that aren't nearly where they ought to be or aren't doing everything like they ought to do it. But we're family, okay? And all of us in family have family members that aren't all they ought to be. In fact, we are one of those family members that are not always what we ought to be.
But we're still supposed to put a tribe around us that at least has the same decision made to follow Jesus. That's our tribe. We are connected to our brothers and sisters who've made the decision we've made to follow Jesus. And in that tribe together, there are those that will join us in the mission that God has for our lives.
Jesus chose his tribe. In John 17, there's a great prayer that Jesus prayed, and I want to pick up on part of that prayer in verse 8 of John chapter 17. Jesus is praying for those that were closest to him, those 12 and then that 11 after Judas betrayed him in that tribe. He said, "How did he pick who he was going to have in his tribe? He wanted to pick the people who would believe what he was telling them about who he was and what God's plan was for salvation for the world. He wanted those people in his tribe.
And those are the people we need in our tribe. People who believe what the Bible says about Jesus. People who lift up Jesus and his teaching as the supreme knowledge that we need to have to know truth and life that will set us free. We need that kind of tribe that we connect to and are part of. And that's the church. That's what the church is. It's the people who've decided to follow Jesus.
So if we're going to live out the life God wants us to live here on this earth, make the most of our lives while we're here, we need to put those people around us who believe what we believe about Jesus. But he didn't just pray for them in this prayer. Notice in verse 20, he continues that same prayer. He's still praying the same prayer. And in verse 20, he says this, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message."
Who's Jesus praying for now? All of us here today who believe. Everybody online who believes. He's praying for us. So what does he pray for us? "That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you've sent me."
See, there's a plan to this. There's a purpose to this. We need each other. But in order for the gospel to be the powerful impact to bring people to salvation in Christ, in order for that to work, they need to see us be the tribe God has called us to be in unity as a family together.
Here's what he goes on to pray. "I've given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me."
There's a plan. And that plan includes you being part of that tribe, the church. It includes you being connected to others who've decided to follow Jesus who make up that tribe, the church.
Christian people, I said this last week. I want to emphasize it again. Stop believing the lie that you don't need the church to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You have to have the church to fulfill that mandate of not only following Jesus but being the witness to others to come to Jesus that you need to be. You can't do it apart from the church.
The church needs you, and you need the church. We need that tribe. We need to be there with each other, for each other, to encourage and build up each other, to live out the life that really counts while we're here. Jesus was poor in earthly possessions. He didn't have much. But he was rich in purpose, and he was rich in people. He invested in others, and he allowed others to invest in him.
Connecting to and serving in a church family keeps us on mission with life that matters, with life that really counts for what's most important. You lose that connection. You lose the mandate. You lose the mission. You lose the purpose for living your life. You can't disconnect from that and live out God's purpose for you being here, right here, right now, with a plan that he has for your life.
All of life not only can be but should be worship to God. And we do that together because God's plan is for us all to be better together.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you that today we've been reminded that our lives are designed by you to count, to matter, to be a part of you. To accomplish the good things you plan for us to accomplish while we're here. And we can't do that without being connected to you and through you being connected to the tribe, the church, the tribe that you gave us, the tribe that you died for, the tribe that you're coming back to take to be with you forever.
You've called us to be part of that tribe as we live out our lives together to accomplish your plan and purpose for our lives. I thank you for those who belong to the tribe here at Lakeshore and other good churches all over the area and all over the world. I see people living out your mandate. I see the church advancing against the forces of evil and darkness in the world.
But I see others who've been lied to and deceived into thinking they don't have a purpose. They don't have any reason for going on. They don't have any reason for doing the good things you want them to be doing. Father, I pray that even through the hard things we face individually and as a community, that people would be awakened to the realization that it's you they need to run to. To your plan. To your purpose. To your will.
And I pray for someone today who feels that call on their lives that today they would listen and respond and run to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're going to stand and sing. We invite you to come up front. If you have a decision you need to make, just walk up front. Walk up front while we're singing.
Everyone have a seat, please. Jeremy, come on up here, man. Yeah, come right up here. Jeremy comes today asking for prayer for your dad. Tell us your dad's name. What's your dad's name again?
I was going to say Hot Sauce because that's the only name I remember him by. He's attended here some too and all. And he has had a cancer diagnosis and he's starting to go through treatments with that. We want to pray as he goes through those treatments for success with the treatments. But more than that too, that God even uses this time in powerful ways to do what only God can do. And that he can understand and feel the presence and the power and the provision of God through all of this in his life.
I know Jeremy wants that. And Jeremy didn't know, but his wife Davina came up to ask for prayer for Jeremy. Yeah. What a good wife. She wants us to pray for Jeremy because she knows there's a lot on him right now. I had a good conversation with Jeremy this week. It was great to talk with him.
Jeremy's doing several things. He's a new dad, right? He's a husband, a father. He's working at a job where he got a promotion. He got more responsibility there. So he's working through that. That's a great thing. All right. But also a while back, we prayed and talked together, and he decided he felt God's call to ministry.
And I really love to pour into younger people coming behind me who feel that kind of call on their lives. And I'm mentoring some other young pastors. But I really want to encourage Jeremy. I know you do too. And so we found a way. We've got this scholarship we're doing with Point University that you guys have helped us fund. Some generous people here in the church donated money so that we could offer a scholarship for people to go to school online at no cost to them.
And Jeremy enrolled along with some others from Lakeshore here that are doing that too. And so he's gotten through one semester. He started the second semester now in college. So on top of being working his new promotion at work, having a new baby and all the other stuff of life, he's going to school preparing for the ministry that God has called him to.
So let's lift him up in prayer. A lot, but it's not too much for God when you put it in God's hands. And the support of your wife, I know, means everything to you in that process because you're going in ministry together. You're part of that too. And we're so thankful for that in your life too.
So let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this family. We want to lift up Jeremy's dad as he goes through these treatments. We know, Father, that even in this, your presence, your power, your provision is there. It's great. I pray that he would see that and know that and feel that through this whole process. And that even in this, you receive glory and honor and praise.
And we pray for healing, Father. But we pray for your will in all things above everything else. Father, we lift up Jeremy and Davina and their family. We just thank you for the love they have for you and the call that you have on their life. We pray that you would just help guide them and provide for them. Help them to know they can trust your provision through everything as they do their part in obedience to your call.
We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Thank you, brother. Thank you.
This time, Dr. Ed's going to come and lead us in a time of communion around the Lord's table. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Again, we want to thank you for being here with us today. It's a joy to have you with us as we assemble together for this time of corporate worship together. But remember, all of our life is to be given to God in worship. If you'd like to continue your worship through the giving of offerings, we have an offering box in the back of the auditorium.
I don't know what to post there. One in the hallway as you exit, you can drop your offerings in the top slot of those boxes. You can give online at lakeshorechristian.com or scan the QR code in your bulletin shell there. It'll take you to that page. You can also mail in your offerings to the church office. Either 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.
Jeremy, you got announcements today? All right, man. Jeremy's going to come up and close us out with upcoming announcements, activities that are coming up. And if you're a first-time guest, before you leave today, please stop by the information counter on your way out. We've got a gift we'd love to give you. Jeremy.
on Jan 27, 2025
