full

The Slow Work of God

Too often, life feels uneventful or stuck, and that can make you wonder if God cares or if you are growing at all. You can take comfort in knowing that you belong, not for what you achieve but because God is faithful to you in every season.

Pastor Ronnie shares guidance for finding hope and meaning day to day, not just in emotional highs or church activity.

Scriptures Referenced

Deuteronomy 8:10-14; Psalm 42:7, 46:10; Mark 4:26-29; John 3:6-8; Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 10:25; 2 Peter 3:4, 3:9; Revelation 3:17

Key Insights

  1. Discipleship isn’t only about spiritual highs and lows; it thrives in ordinary days.
  2. Deep spiritual growth comes from a lifelong journey with God.
  3. Ordinary days help us truly know God and foster a deep, authentic relationship.
  4. Embracing silence in worship can lead to profound spiritual encounters.

A Long Obedience In the Same Direction

Lent Devotionals (in the app)


https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/the-slow-work-of-god

Subscribe & Follow the Podcast

Download our app

Our Website

Online Tithes & Offerings

Join our Livestream

Gathering Times

  1. Sundays, 9:00 AM
  2. Sundays, 11:00 AM
  3. Thursdays, 6:00 PM

Contact Info

Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

CCLI License 2070006

Transcript
Speaker:

I got a haircut.

Speaker:

Looks good, doesn't it? I call

Speaker:

it a reverse mohawk. Yeah.

Speaker:

Some of you got that too. Yeah.

Speaker:

Well, good morning. Yeah, welcome to

Speaker:

fake spring that we're having right now.

Speaker:

I mean, we've got some beautiful weather out there, but if you haven't lived here

Speaker:

very long, let me just say one word to you,

Speaker:

psych. Yeah, but that's all

Speaker:

right. Yeah, let's jump right in. Stand up. We're going to read

Speaker:

a passage from the book of Mark.

Speaker:

He also said, this is what the kingdom of

Speaker:

God is like. A man scatters seed on the

Speaker:

ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or

Speaker:

gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though

Speaker:

he does not know how. All by itself,

Speaker:

the soil produces grain, first the stalk,

Speaker:

then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

Speaker:

As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to

Speaker:

it because the harvest has come. Father, I

Speaker:

thank you for life. I thank you for

Speaker:

your Word. I pray for

Speaker:

the life of the Word to be born in us today

Speaker:

through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name,

Speaker:

amen.

Speaker:

In the early, well, actually early 1988, I know

Speaker:

exactly what year it was.

Speaker:

I was the acting director of the Africa

Speaker:

Multination for Christ Institute in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Speaker:

And yeah, acting director, they let me do that

Speaker:

for a couple months and then they, yeah, that's why they say

Speaker:

acting director. And it must have been

Speaker:

January, and I had a student come to me and he said,

Speaker:

"Pastor, I need to tell you that I'm going

Speaker:

to leave the school." And I said, "Oh, well, I'm

Speaker:

sorry to hear that. Why?" And

Speaker:

he explained the reason why. And I—

Speaker:

it sounded strangely American, quite frankly, but

Speaker:

I said, This was the reason they gave me. He said, "Yeah, Pastor, you know,

Speaker:

the first year that I was here, oh, the

Speaker:

Spirit was moving. It was so rich. It

Speaker:

was so strong. I could feel his presence every

Speaker:

day. This year, it

Speaker:

ain't happening," was basically what he had to say.

Speaker:

He didn't say, "It ain't happening," but

Speaker:

that's what he said. And I said, oh,

Speaker:

that's a very bad idea. And I

Speaker:

went into explaining to him seasons and the

Speaker:

importance of seasons. So because you just went through a season

Speaker:

where you saw this fruitfulness and you saw this growth

Speaker:

and everything, but now there needs to be a season of

Speaker:

dormancy when it's not, oh, look

Speaker:

at this, but where the roots are growing and where you're being

Speaker:

established. That's what happens. During those seasons of

Speaker:

dormancy. And if you don't have that, if a tree doesn't have

Speaker:

that, then it won't be too long before maybe

Speaker:

an ice storm will come along or maybe even just a puff of wind and

Speaker:

the tree is gonna fall 'cause it's not

Speaker:

established. See, you gotta have that season.

Speaker:

Last week, Pastor Kevin brought an excellent

Speaker:

sermon. He didn't use the word seasons, but he said

Speaker:

times. And he talked about there being 3 times

Speaker:

that we experience in our life. And he mainly

Speaker:

focused on tough times. And I feel like, you

Speaker:

know, that was— it was a timely message for sure. And it

Speaker:

resonated with a lot of people.

Speaker:

But the tough times are actually

Speaker:

the easiest times to get close to God.

Speaker:

Whenever something comes along and just, you know, cuts us off at the

Speaker:

knees, so to speak, you know,

Speaker:

that's when we seek God. In fact,

Speaker:

you know, that's often, for casual churchgoers, that's often

Speaker:

the only time they come is when something's going on that's

Speaker:

hard. And so, oh, I need to be there.

Speaker:

Tough times tend to either take us in one of two directions. They

Speaker:

either drive us to our knees, or they tend

Speaker:

to cause us to raise our fist to God. And he's okay with

Speaker:

both. He's certainly okay with

Speaker:

us being driven to our knees and going, help me.

Speaker:

You know, I'm at the end of my rope. And you know, and God's going,

Speaker:

good. 'Cause now maybe I can do something.

Speaker:

My strength is made perfect in weakness. But even if

Speaker:

we're shaking our fist at God, he doesn't mind that because

Speaker:

a relationship, I've learned over the years that a

Speaker:

relationship, and usually this is a marriage

Speaker:

relationship, it's only really

Speaker:

over when you don't care anymore.

Speaker:

We don't care, you know. If you care enough to be mad,

Speaker:

if you care enough to be angry, there's a chance, you

Speaker:

know, that fire can be rekindled

Speaker:

there. But it's not just in marriage, it's all

Speaker:

relationships. If you get to where you don't care anymore,

Speaker:

the relationship is over. And if you're shaking your fist

Speaker:

at God, at least He knows you care. And you

Speaker:

know that you care.

Speaker:

He also touched on, though he didn't spend a lot of time talking about it,

Speaker:

he touched on the good times. These are

Speaker:

dangerous times. The good times are.

Speaker:

They're very dangerous times. Often in good times, we

Speaker:

tend to forget God because, hey,

Speaker:

what we need God for? You know, things are

Speaker:

good. Things are going well.

Speaker:

Moses told the children of Israel over in Deuteronomy, he said this,

Speaker:

"When you have eaten and are satisfied," I've been

Speaker:

well satisfied lately, "praise the

Speaker:

Lord your God. Be careful that you

Speaker:

do not forget the Lord your God. Otherwise, when you eat

Speaker:

and are satisfied, your heart will become proud and you will

Speaker:

forget." the Lord your God. My

Speaker:

dad used to bemoan people

Speaker:

becoming successful, so successful,

Speaker:

as he put it, they started making money hand over fist, and

Speaker:

then they drift away from the Lord. You never see them again. Did

Speaker:

that ever happen in Coalfield? Yeah, happened in

Speaker:

Millersville too. And it kind of happens in Smyrna.

Speaker:

As well because we become satisfied. Oh, I got

Speaker:

this now. Well,

Speaker:

that's an Old Testament quote. Over

Speaker:

in Revelation, in the New Testament,

Speaker:

Revelation chapter 2 and 3, there are letters written to churches.

Speaker:

And in chapter 3, the last letter

Speaker:

that is written is to the church of Laodicea. And that's generally

Speaker:

the one that we consider to be the worst one. 'Cause

Speaker:

Jesus didn't have anything good to say about them and

Speaker:

kind of blasted them. But here's why.

Speaker:

You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need

Speaker:

a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched,

Speaker:

pitiful, poor, blind, naked.

Speaker:

Whoo, yeah.

Speaker:

There's an important sermon here. But I'm not going to preach

Speaker:

that this week. I'll let somebody else

Speaker:

preach it at some other point in time. And if you needed to hear it,

Speaker:

the Holy Spirit has already preached it to you. So there.

Speaker:

I've only got time for one sermon today, and I want to focus on

Speaker:

the third time that Pastor Kevin talked about

Speaker:

the other times, the

Speaker:

90 to 99% of the time. Of our

Speaker:

lives? Where's God then?

Speaker:

What's going on? What's going on there? What's he doing?

Speaker:

You know, we sometimes read the Bible and it

Speaker:

seems that these characters, these people in the Bible, stuff was happening

Speaker:

to them all the time.

Speaker:

But if we look a little bit closer, I mean, take Abraham. We

Speaker:

know a good bit about Abraham. Important

Speaker:

guy.

Speaker:

But consider this, he lived to be

Speaker:

175. And if you take all of the

Speaker:

events in his life that we know about and you put them all

Speaker:

together, we got maybe about 5 or 6 months there.

Speaker:

What was happening the other 174 and a half years

Speaker:

of his life? He was having

Speaker:

days like us. Not every day, not

Speaker:

every year, not every decade brought the

Speaker:

command to sacrifice Isaac,

Speaker:

brought the war with invaders or

Speaker:

disturbance in his household or the

Speaker:

opportunity to entertain the Trinity.

Speaker:

Moses, we know a lot about Moses. And

Speaker:

there was a whole bunch of stuff that happened before he left Egypt.

Speaker:

He was raised in Pharaoh's palace and

Speaker:

trained in all the ways of Egypt, murdered a guy,

Speaker:

took off as a fugitive. Between then and when

Speaker:

he was sent back to Egypt, it was 40 years.

Speaker:

What was he doing? Working,

Speaker:

tending sheep, got married, had kids.

Speaker:

Just regular ordinary stuff. And the day

Speaker:

that he saw that burning bush, you know, he was at work

Speaker:

and he was kind of,

Speaker:

I don't know, ambling. I don't know, what do shepherds do? I mean, when it's

Speaker:

not sharing sheep, sharing time, I mean, They

Speaker:

flea dip or something?

Speaker:

No, really. And so he was doing

Speaker:

what shepherds do, I guess, you know, writing songs and looking at the stars. But

Speaker:

he saw this bush that was on fire. And apparently that's not

Speaker:

a highly unusual thing in dry, arid

Speaker:

desert-like conditions. But he looked at it

Speaker:

long enough to realize, wait a minute, that bush is

Speaker:

on fire. That bush was on fire. It's gone.

Speaker:

And I remember yesterday that one's not burning up.

Speaker:

He's paying attention. It's what he was doing.

Speaker:

And who do we know the most about in scripture? Well, we know the most

Speaker:

about Jesus. And we

Speaker:

know more about him than anyone else. Yet, We have

Speaker:

a partial record of less than

Speaker:

10% of Jesus' life, less than

Speaker:

3 of the 33 years He's here. And if

Speaker:

we have these records,

Speaker:

you know, some may think, well, you know what, that's— I hear that you're saying

Speaker:

that there was other part going on, but you know, they got it

Speaker:

done in 3 years. I mean, God just, wow. Oh,

Speaker:

no. You see, God's work that Jesus did

Speaker:

actually started about 6,000 years before that.

Speaker:

And it's still going on, as a matter of fact.

Speaker:

And today, Peter says a

Speaker:

time will come when unbelievers are going to be saying this. Where

Speaker:

is this coming he promised? Ever since our ancestors

Speaker:

died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of

Speaker:

creation. Ain't no Jesus going to come down from the sky and He can

Speaker:

save you. Well, you're an unbeliever

Speaker:

because he sure is. And I believe that he sure is. And I

Speaker:

don't have that kind of attitude except sometimes

Speaker:

maybe, maybe I'm going,

Speaker:

where is this job that God promised me?

Speaker:

Where is this future husband, this future wife that's

Speaker:

out there somewhere that I've been looking for for all these years?

Speaker:

Where's this ministry that God was going to open up for me?

Speaker:

We have a tendency to go there for

Speaker:

sure. But our lives aren't all highs and lows.

Speaker:

Our lives are mostly comprised of

Speaker:

ordinary days. Can we accept that?

Speaker:

This is what the kingdom of God is like.

Speaker:

There's planting, there's harvesting, there's events, there's

Speaker:

fruitfulness and stuff going on. All the rest is God

Speaker:

doing His slow work

Speaker:

that we don't really see and we can't really

Speaker:

understand. We

Speaker:

can sing about it. Even when

Speaker:

I don't see it, He's working. And even when I don't

Speaker:

feel it, He's working. Because He never stops. He never

Speaker:

stops. He never stops working. God is working. Yeah.

Speaker:

And that's true. And we see it and we believe it and we're

Speaker:

singing it. And then we stop singing and we forget it

Speaker:

because this day is just a regular day.

:

28, in everything God is at work for the good. And we

:

know that in everything God is at work for the good of

:

those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.

:

Except when we don't know it.

:

Eugene Peterson wrote a book, written

:

several. He's the guy who translated The Message Bible. But he

:

wrote a book called "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction."

:

I haven't read it.

:

Sorry, sorry, Wayne.

:

I've read several of his books though, and they're really good.

:

I'm sure this one is too, but

:

I've read the title

:

and I think I'm preaching the sermon.

:

He didn't coin that phrase though.

:

Ah, it was first said by the

:

philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. And

:

yeah, he's a philosopher. We don't do that anymore. But he wasn't a

:

believer. But he used that phrase

:

to describe the process that results

:

and has always resulted in the long run in something

:

which has made life worth living.

:

That's pretty good. There you go.

:

And Nietzsche's problem was that he did not know what ultimately makes life

:

worth living. Now, Peterson did,

:

and so he wrote this book and he titled it this because

:

what it is, is it's about a steady lifelong journey

:

with God.

:

It's the pinnacle. Of what Nietzsche was

:

trying to describe. It's what makes life worth living.

:

I don't know if you caught it when I put the book's

:

cover up, but he subtitled it, "Discipleship

:

in an Instant Society." Oh,

:

hallelujah. In the

:

early '80s, I led a young adult Bible

:

study. In our house and, excuse

:

me, we, there were probably around 20

:

or so regulars that came. But one night

:

there was this young man who, it was his first time to be there. I

:

mean, you know, when you're only talking about 20 people, you know if somebody's

:

new who hasn't been there before. And he came with this girl who

:

came all the time to it.

:

He seemed to enjoy it. Wade, were you there that night or was it— I

:

think it was Todd who was there.

:

He seemed to enjoy it and he left and took the girl home. And

:

some people always would hang out and talk. And Todd, Wade's brother,

:

I was talking with him. He was the last one out the door. And the

:

young man came back. And he came

:

back to say,

:

How can I do this real quick? How can I get where you guys

:

are? I mean, really quick. And

:

I could tell it was all about this girl. 'Cause you see,

:

she really was into what was going on and

:

he could see that, you know, we were, you know,

:

not on the same plane he was and stuff. And he wanted to get there

:

'cause that'd help her to be more into him.

:

And you know, Todd and I just looked at him

:

and said, there is no quick way. I mean, you know,

:

there is no— oh, there's got to be. No, there's not a quick way.

:

We never saw him again, so I'm going to assume that

:

he did not begin along obedience in the same direction.

:

But that was 40 years ago.

:

It's gotten worse since.

:

And there is no quick way to do it. And you know, you have to

:

kind of be careful because there are those who have packaged it and who

:

have, will sell it to you. And

:

all you gotta do is just buy this, listen to this, watch

:

this, and wham, next thing you know,

:

you're going to be a disciple.

:

Well, you may or may not be a disciple, but it won't be because of

:

that. You see,

:

I was brought up

:

in a rural Southern Pentecostal environment.

:

That is my dad in Slater's Creek in

:

Millersville baptizing

:

somebody.

:

Lovely tractor tire up on the

:

bank there. But I recognize that

:

spot. I think I was baptized in it a couple of times, come

:

to think of it.

:

Now, I want to say before I go any further into this,

:

how much I greatly appreciate my heritage.

:

I mean, seriously. It was— Michelle and

:

I were talking this last week because she married

:

the guy who has led a

:

charmed, blessed life. You know, and

:

I don't know why. I mean, I— well, I don't know why she married me,

:

but I also don't know why I've had this charmed, blessed life.

:

The only thing I— 'cause it's not, you know, it's not because

:

I deserve it or anything that I did. I know me better

:

than you. And you ain't going to find

:

out the rest of it. But

:

I think it's the heritage that got passed down generation to

:

generation to generation. And it's just,

:

wow, that's good. And

:

it's not just the blessings that have been passed down, the

:

material blessings, but the spiritual blessings of

:

peace and joy and contentment

:

and the spiritual blessings. The spiritual blessings of being introduced to God at

:

a tender age and being able to spend— well, anyway,

:

I greatly appreciate it. There was a time in my life when I was

:

younger when I was ashamed of it. And to be very honest,

:

I see some heads nodding who had similar

:

environments to me, but I'm at a place for sure and have been for a

:

long time where I really appreciate it. I really do. It

:

wasn't the only way. We kind of thought we were, We didn't

:

claim to be outright, but we just knew.

:

Can't be the Baptists. I

:

mean, you know, those guys after church, they come out and smoke in the

:

front of the church. They throw those cigarette butts down.

:

Can't be— well, I'm going to stop right there.

:

But while I do appreciate it, we were taught several things that

:

that seemed obvious at the time, I've had

:

to kind of reevaluate. 'Cause one of the

:

things we were taught was come to church expecting.

:

You need to come expecting. You need to come expecting God to do something.

:

And you need to come to see a move of God. And my

:

dad used to say, my dad was a great man. I'm proud to be his

:

son, but not everything he said,

:

necessarily made sense. He used to

:

say, "You only can get out what you put in."

:

No, that's not true. We always get out more than

:

we put in. And we can't possibly begin

:

to get out what God gives back to us. But he'd say, you know, come

:

expecting and come to put it in. He'd say,

:

"Get in, get out, or get run over." And I was going, "Well,

:

hallelujah."

:

See, we weren't just going through the motions like some of these people out there.

:

Oh no. Oh no. We weren't just going through. We

:

came to get— to do business with

:

God. And we did.

:

And we claimed to

:

We claimed to reject dead ritual.

:

Yeah. However, we certainly had our own rituals.

:

They just weren't dead 'cause they were moving.

:

We expected, and when we saw it,

:

we called it the move of the Spirit.

:

When the music hits the sweet spot,

:

move of the Spirit comes. Now, I'm certainly

:

not— I'm very thankful for what the Lord's given us music-wise.

:

And let me just say this, ever since we brought drums and

:

guitars and stuff into the church, it's gotten a whole lot better

:

than when I was growing up. But,

:

you know, we— You come to that place, oh yeah, this is it. This

:

is where the Spirit is moving. And for millenniums,

:

people and God has used music to set an environment.

:

That's not necessarily the same thing as the move of the Spirit.

:

But in my day, when I was growing up,

:

it was pretty close because see, we didn't— the music

:

didn't necessarily take us there. But if we got in the service and there

:

were a lot of people crying and there was a lot of shouting going on

:

and people were falling out on the floor and something, And then some

:

blessed old soul back in the congregation without

:

anybody saying a word would break into,

:

"Give me that old-time religion. Give me that

:

old-time religion. Give me that old-time

:

religion. Woo! It's good enough for me." And boy,

:

it was. You don't get much closer to heaven in a worship service than that.

:

You really— it was good for Paul and Silas. It's good

:

enough for me. It was good for my fathers. It's good

:

enough for me. And I'm not making fun of it.

:

It was great. It was great. That

:

was fabulous.

:

Crying at the altar? Oh my Lord. The Holy

:

Spirit is here. Michelle and I were talking this week. She was telling

:

me she went to this church that

:

there was this lady who was weeping in the service.

:

And after a while, she wouldn't stop weeping and they

:

escorted her out. And I said, "Was she wailing?" She

:

said, "No, she was just crying. She was just

:

weeping." Wow.

:

So in your church, If they were weeping, they'd

:

lead them out of the service. In my church, if they weren't weeping,

:

they would escort the pastor out of the church.

:

Wouldn't take long.

:

Caught up in some form of ecstasy. And if none of those

:

things happened, we often felt let

:

down. And too often, if they

:

didn't happen, we made them happen.

:

When I first heard— I preached a couple of times when I was a

:

teenager. I don't recommend it.

:

But, and it certainly wasn't all that good when

:

I did it. But I felt pressure.

:

Felt pressure when I started preaching to make something

:

happen at the altar call. And boy,

:

have I heard some altar calls over the years. I've heard

:

altar calls that were longer than the sermon. You know, and there were

:

times, and I'm serious, there were times when I

:

was sitting there, and I'm sure Barbie felt the same way, and

:

probably Allen and some of the rest of you who grew up in similar

:

environments. There were times when I went, I've got to go down there and get

:

somebody. Get saved or this service is never going to end.

:

Because he's not going to stop till somebody does.

:

And I felt pressure because if I preached and

:

nobody came forward and nobody got saved and nobody got healed

:

and nobody started crying, then I didn't have the anointing.

:

At least that's what I thought. But I also noticed

:

that it was often the same people each week doing the

:

same things with the same results, which was nothing

:

changed. Nothing changed in their life.

:

Nothing, nothing. The way they lived their lives didn't

:

change. So anyway, that's what, that's what I was brought up in. And then a

:

strange thing happened.

:

I married a Presbyterian.

:

And I don't know how much you know about Presbyterians.

:

We called them the frozen chosen back in the day.

:

And Michelle told me not to say that because there might be

:

some Presbyterians here who might be offended by it.

:

But first of all, Presbyterians tend to have a real

:

good sense of humor. And second of all, even if they don't, they know I

:

was predestined to say that before they—

:

If you say you believe it, you know, you got to put

:

it into practice. Married a

:

Presbyterian. She passed away

:

and I married a Roman Catholic.

:

I could just see my

:

ancestors in heaven going, "Oh,

:

come on." That great cloud of witnesses shaking their head.

:

Anyway, but I discovered

:

that walking with the Lord is not necessarily about coming

:

expecting to see something.

:

My Presbyterian wife, I had a father, Jack

:

Haley, and he rocked my world.

:

He actually believed that infant

:

baptism was a real thing. I mean, he believed it. Serious.

:

You know, his daughter got

:

into the charismatic movement and felt like, you know, I'm a believer

:

now. I am a believer and I wanna be baptized. "Come

:

on, you've been baptized. You don't need to be baptized."

:

He never shouted, "Amen!"

:

I, one of my favorite moments ever in

:

church was the last time we went to Glenleven

:

Presbyterian with Papa and Granny, and

:

they would sit on the back row. And this particular Sunday,

:

they had a, a supply preacher. In other

:

words, he'd never preached there

:

before, but he was preaching that Sunday. And

:

we were on the back row, we could see everybody in the church. And there

:

were a couple of African American ladies who came to the church

:

and they were visitors. And I knew they were visitors because that's the only time

:

I'd ever seen an African American in the church.

:

But The pastor, as he was preaching, he said

:

something. I don't remember what it was. I mean, it wasn't— he didn't

:

get it going, but he said something pretty good.

:

And one of the ladies went, "Amen,

:

brother."

:

I mean, that church, you could

:

feel the silence. And from the back, we could see

:

every head in the church go,

:

What just happened? I loved it. It was great.

:

He has never spoken in tongues. And from where I was

:

brought up, obviously he could not be filled with the

:

Spirit. I said

:

he rocked my world. He

:

was faithful. In worship. It mattered to him,

:

even though nothing ever happened

:

except that week. He was

:

consistently in the Word. I don't remember him necessarily ever

:

taking a class or, you know, doing

:

anything like that, but he was— he just read the Word every

:

day of his life.

:

And he was to this day the singular man

:

I knew who most demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit.

:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

:

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

:

How could this be?

:

How could this be?

:

And then when

:

Michelle and I got married and she began to teach me things,

:

and it would have been— a lot of those things have been things that have

:

been good things for me to have known quite a bit earlier, but, you know,

:

know them now, better late than never.

:

I ain't an old dog. I can learn new tricks.

:

But one of the things that Michelle has taught

:

me has been

:

to truly not be afraid of silence

:

in worship, because that's often

:

when God is speaking the loudest to people.

:

In high school, my best friend was Hank Abbott.

:

And he had a lot of good friends, and I had a lot of good

:

friends. I think we were best friends. And I remember

:

one evening we were driving into Nashville, and I knew Hank and I were

:

deep friends when I discovered, when it dawned

:

on me that we were sitting there in silence.

:

Neither one of us had anything to say, but we didn't feel the least

:

bit awkward. We felt

:

comfortable in each other's company.

:

The move of the Spirit,

:

sometimes it's observable, but Jesus said

:

when He was asked, said

:

the coming of the kingdom is not something that's going to be observed with the

:

eyes. It's not something that somebody could say, "Here

:

it is." Because the kingdom of

:

heaven is within you.

:

It's where deep calls to deep.

:

I certainly enjoy a move of the Spirit in the service.

:

I mean, you know, obviously there's only 3 or 4 of you guys

:

who've ever been in a service where they broke out singing "Give Me That

:

Old-Time Religion," or you would know it's sweet.

:

I enjoy the move of the Spirit in a congregational setting when it's

:

genuine, when it's genuine.

:

If you come to worship and nothing ever happens,

:

that's probably a bad thing. But if you come to worship and

:

something has to happen, That's

:

equally not a good thing because the flesh can only

:

give birth to flesh, not to

:

spirit. And more importantly is to

:

realize that our faith is not about practicing

:

religion. It's about a relationship. It's about a

:

lifelong relationship with your Creator who has

:

redeemed you to Himself. That's what it's about.

:

Corporate worship can help because I

:

believe it was Don Finto who

:

described the church service as this is like an ocean-going

:

vessel. And we're all out there in our little canoes and

:

our little dinghies and our kayaks, and a little wave comes along and

:

we tend to get tipped over. But the ocean-going

:

vessel, is essentially unmoved by it. And it

:

brings us back to center. It establishes us.

:

That's why it's important to be in worship. Can you believe in Jesus

:

and not go to church? Well, absolutely. But why would you not

:

go?

:

It's where you get conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Does a lot of

:

the— see, if I'm just— it's a lot easier for me to

:

believe in Jesus and not mess with any of you.

:

Because then it's never tested.

:

But to believe in Jesus and hang out with Him, you know, the

:

cross, the cross was a terrible thing,

:

a massive ordeal, and rightly so. We tend to focus

:

in on it. But that 24-hour period

:

really wasn't even 24 hours, was not the hardest part

:

of Jesus' assignment. The hardest part of Jesus' assignment

:

was putting up with us.

:

Really. You can do anything for

:

18 hours, but for

:

years putting up with a bunch of knuckleheads. And if we're going to

:

be conformed to his image, then God's probably going to bring some knuckleheads into

:

our lives. Probably

:

going to bring some people who don't understand us and treat us treat

:

us wrong.

:

Some come to— oh, and let me, yeah, I'm kind of running out of time,

:

but I'm gonna finish and I'm gonna do quickly, but you need to

:

listen fast 'cause this is all good. Some come to

:

church these days, and I think this is really like a

:

last 10 or 15-year thing, come to church and say, tell me

:

how I'm supposed to handle these things that are going on in the world.

:

Tell me how I'm supposed to handle these wars and how I'm supposed to handle

:

these politics I'm supposed to handle these tragedies and

:

this economy? How am I supposed to— tell me how to—

:

How about this? How about I don't tell you,

:

but I point you toward the Holy Spirit and let Him tell you

:

how to handle it?

:

Because if I tell you, A, there's a

:

real strong possibility I could be wrong,

:

And B, you're going to need me to tell you next time too.

:

But if the Holy Spirit tells you,

:

that's a whole different thing. Ritual can help

:

us keep our focus,

:

but this relationship is more than these things. It is a long,

:

often slow process.

:

By which Philippians 1:6 is

:

accomplished. He who began a good work in you will carry it on

:

to completion till the day of Christ Jesus.

:

How long is that? Rest of your life.

:

And not just during the good times or the bad

:

times or the challenging times, also

:

in the, eh, times.

:

The rest of our lives on this plane. This is a verse that we

:

often hear and would like quoted: Be still and know that I am

:

God. I will be exalted among the nations. I

:

will be exalted in the earth. This doesn't just mean take a break.

:

It doesn't just mean, well, you've been, you've been doing all this work

:

and everything. Now it's time to take a rest. And know that I'm

:

God. No, no, this

:

is all the time. Be still,

:

cease striving, a lot of translations say, and

:

know that I am

:

God. Trust that he is working.

:

This is where we understand that he will be.

:

Regardless of what's going on out there, really regardless of what's going on

:

here, he will be. And it's

:

also where we truly come to know him.

:

It isn't until you spend ordinary

:

days with someone that you get to know them.

:

You can have experiences with them. You can You can have

:

events with them. You can share tragedies with them and share

:

joys with them, but— and you'll learn about them.

:

But it's not until you spend day after

:

day after day after day after

:

day after day that you really get to know

:

them, that you really get to know who they are.

:

Jesus said, this is eternal life,

:

they may know you, Jesus

:

Christ, whom you have sent. This is what

:

makes life worth living.

:

You guys, come on. Yeah, you come on down here.

:

I didn't hurt y'all's feelings or anything about that? Okay, good. I'm glad.

:

Maybe I did hurt Robert's feelings. I don't know.

:

I don't necessarily expect anybody to come weeping into the altar. You

:

can if you need to. It doesn't really,

:

you know, Yeah,

:

email Kevin.

:

But we're going to give you an opportunity to come if you need prayer,

:

because this is that ocean-going vessel. And sometimes you just need

:

a place, a harbor. So with those who are going to

:

pray with people, come down and the rest of you stand.

:

And let's

:

think about God.

:

I,

:

uh, one other thing that Michelle has taught me— I don't want to

:

embarrass her by talking about her too much, but I grew up

:

in, uh, in a church situation where

:

we usually left talking about what

:

happened at church.

:

We don't discuss that very much anymore. When we

:

leave, she wants to talk about

:

what happened in me. And

:

that's just something to ponder, something to think about.

:

Raise your hand. Let me give you a blessing. May the

:

God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

:

who sent his Son into the world that we might have life and

:

have it to the full, life worth living,

:

through the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit,

:

may he give you the eyes to see

:

and to understand what life worth living really

:

is. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

:

Amen.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Springhouse Church Sermons
Springhouse Church Sermons
Life Happens Here

Listen for free