Ephesians | Week 5 | Message

of something that happened on on Friday night. And I think I believe it is the best event we do every year. And and I am blessed and look forward to being a part of it. It's our Tim Tebow Foundation Night to Shine. It's a special needs prom, basically.

And there there's a picture of me with one of the kings because everybody gets crowned king and queen at the end, and and that's Johnny, one of them. We were hanging out there and talking.

And and and and and and I am wearing a dress shirt. It's the only one in my closet that was not wrinkled, so I it's how I chose my color palette. But but yeah. And it is so precious to to to be a part of what we get to do in the special needs community. We we it just it it we didn't go look for it. It it found us.

And and then we got to be a part of it, and and we host this. It's so awesome. It's it it was incredible. Like, here's some of the stats. I got a slide there. 181 attendees,

the kings and queens. But look at how many volunteers it takes to do this with special needs. This is why a lot of churches, they they won't do this because it's hard. It takes a lot of work. It takes money. It takes effort. It takes specialized stuff.

And and they poured into it. But here's the beauty of of that hundred and one eighty one attendees, I get the privilege of my unique calling as I got to get up and just share the gospel and tell them how much Jesus loves them.

And it was so powerful to me with this group because I know when I'm talking to all of you guys, if I said, hey, I just I I said, how many of guys know that Jesus loves you? Yeah. They go, alright. Some of you don't.

And some of you would like to know him. Would you like to pray and accept his love? And if you want to, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand in a minute when we borrow and there are 61 hands just went up before I even said how we're gonna do it. And then you just started here like, man, I I I was like pulling teeth because I I wanna know God of the universe. I think he said, oh, said hold my hand up? But that's embarrassing even though no one's looking but him. And it's like, some of us, like, like, hey, tell me if you're even a Christian.

Like, they were like, I wanna know Jesus. And then when I was praying with him, it was crazy. I go, hey, just pray in your heart because I don't want it to be embarrassing. I start praying, and they all just started praying out loud. It was loud. And I'm like, oh, or we could pray out loud. That's even cooler.

And and it was just so awesome to see that not only did we get to take this community and show them love, And and and really, one of the greatest things they do with this is we have the respite area. Like, you invite all the parents and the caregivers and whoever, and and and they have a whole section where we just feed them a really awesome meal. They can have hangout space. They can relax. I went in there and they had a couple masseuses and they had a couple massage tables that you can rotate in and get a massage. I'm like, why didn't I know about that?

And and and and and and and they get to to have this time. And we get to do that. And we were able to start this ministry. You know why? Because of all the volunteers. So every one of you, you gave your time. God did something amazing,

and we got to be it. But everyone here I know you wonder why I say this all the time. Everyone that tithes in this church is a part of that.

Everyone that helps give to our building, Kim, because we were able to have that better area for the adults and and spread it out and make this probably the most premier one of these in the country is because we had the facility of what we can do. And I just want you to know that is what it means when it says united,

we're called. And that's what victory looks like.

And that's what we're gonna see today in chapter five of what this victory looks like is. What are we really going after with all of this? At United, we're called to look at my own calling, to trust God. And what we're gonna see today in chapter five is this. To win on the field, you gotta stay filled.

You gotta stay filled. To win on the field, you have the field of life. What God's called us to do. What's what's God's head say, hey, this is the end zone. This is victory. This is where we're going. This is the Super Bowl of our life that we have got to stay filled. And what we're gonna see is it means you gotta stay filled. You gotta stay filled with God's love for you. You gotta stay filled with that love for God. The mission God has for us to love other people. And we gotta do that all by staying filled with the Holy Spirit because that's where the power comes. That's where the super

connects to our natural, and things happen. So what do I mean by that? We're gonna look at what that means, And we're gonna see that you're not gonna be if you've been in church for very long, you're not gonna be totally surprised by what it says.

But then again, there was this coach, Vince Lombardi. Guys know who Vince Lombardi is? It's the name of the trophy these two teams are playing for today. I don't know which team you wanna win. Maybe you're praying both lose. I don't know. That's not even possible. But

but the reality is Vince Lombardi. Lombardi trophies named after this coach is probably the most legendary coach of all time. And he was already a successful coach in in but in 1961 when they he was coaching the Green Bay backers, and they lost in the championship game. Wasn't called Super Bowl yet.

But it was called they lost pretty bad. But they were they were in the championship game. That's a good team. Lot of future hall of famers. So the '62 season preseason rolls around. They're having their first team meeting where they're gonna start talking about the next season.

And all the players are excited going, hey. We're good team, but we lost pretty bad. So I can't wait to start what is it the things that we gotta work on? The better things, the better plays, the better this, the more advanced stuff to be better. They're waiting for their coach to come in to say, what's the plan? And Vince Lombardi walked in holding a football.

It wasn't a Carson Palmer signed Arizona Cardinals football. And this one's pretty mushy. It probably wasn't. Tom Brady would like this one. But if you don't understand that, ask someone who's laughing.

He walked up in front of all these professional football players that already have been playing for years and that were just re in a championship game. And he said, gentlemen, this is a football. You can throw it, you can run with it, and you can kick it. But the goal of the game we play is to move this football

into our end zone more times than we allow the other team to move it to theirs. Open your playbooks to page one. And he took them back to the basics. And play one page one wasn't even actual plays yet. It was the tacks it's the fundamentals of kicking, throwing, blocking, tackling.

And he walked his team through all of that, and then they went through the basic plays again, all the basic plays again before they got to anything else. He did that the beginning of every year for the rest of his career. And something happened in in Vince Lombardi's teams after that moment.

The next seven years, the last seven years of his career, they won five championships, including the first two Super Bowls. And here's the crazy thing. In those seven years, they never lost a playoff game again. Every time they got to the playoffs, they won it all. All because he understood the key of this. This is a football.

You have to go back to the fundamentals. You have to go back to the reason you're playing the game. You have to go back to what it's about. And many of us as Christians, when you come and you listen to a sermon,

sometimes you you you'll say it this way, I need to be fed more. I need to be fed. And and the question is, do you?

Or do you just wanna be entertained or you want more information? You want a thought that you hadn't thought about? You wanna hear a bible passage and hear a Greek word you didn't know before? You wanna hear or you wanna hear something that you argue with your friend that doesn't know the Lord and win,

or do you come back to the fundamentals of the game we're called to play? In other words, the message today is we're gonna lean this. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Bible. You can read it. You can pray about it. You can meditate on it.

You could not believe it. But if you don't apply this to your life, the goal is to apply this to your life to move towards the end zone of victory on the field that God's called us to, and don't let the enemy stop you and try to move it back the other way.

That is the fundamentals of this game. And here's the thing that'll get a lot of you. I kept saying, ladies and this is a Bible. But the reality is what we need to be saying. And you need to ask yourself is, can you say, ladies and gentlemen, this is the living word of God? That's

the point you have to get to because this is what it's about. And a lot of us say, go, I wanna come learn. I wanna know Jesus. I wanna be a good person. I want my kids to be. But are you even centered around this? We're looking for advanced trick plays. We're thinking about our end zone,

you know, touchdown dance, the Iggy shuffle or whatever. And it's first day of seize the season. We're not even thinking about the games we're playing every day. And if we want to win the field, you really want victory, you want what God built you to long for, We have to get back to the fundamentals of what it means.

What are we doing in the first place? So here we go. I just wanna walk through this, and we'll talk about it. And I'm gonna use football y terminology, but don't worry. I'll explain it. And especially to you Seahawks fans because you don't understand a lot about football. So

Gotcha.

He came up and says, why are saying something about Seahawks fans all the time? I'm one. I'm like, I'm sorry. You want me to pray for you right now?

It's fun. Here

we go. Verse one of chapter five. Imitate God. That right there, the first word imitate means mimic. It means be like. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the fundamental play. We're supposed to become like Jesus.

Plain and simple. Therefore, in everything you do, because you are as dear children, because you're loved, Live a life filled with love following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God's people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes, these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater,

worshiping the things of this world. See, it's why I have to mention money a lot. He's going after it a lot. Because greed, wanting money for you, not trusting God with your money is a symptom of it. And it's like I said last week, that is idolatry. If you're trusting money more than you're trusting God with your money,

money is an idol to you. It's plain and simple. And I I'm just ladies and gentlemen, this is the word of God. It's not me making something up because we're trying to build something again. It's simply what God's saying. And he says, don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins,

for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don't participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have the light from the Lord. So live as people of the light.

So there you go. So this this this first concept here is what does it mean to if you're gonna win on the field, is to stay filled, is you have to follow the playbook. Follow the playbook. In other words, imitate Christ's game plan.

Imitate God. Be like Jesus. The playbook, the word of God is helping us learn to understand how to apply and become like Jesus. It's not Jesus help me be be become what I want. It's how do you help me become like you. That is the goal.

Any other goal. If you're not running towards the look like Jesus end zone, you're running towards the idolatry end zone.

And that's really we gotta understand that. It's fundamentally sound. That that and then why? Because he says because of his love for us. It always goes back. We're doing this from his love, not for his love. From his love, not for his love. And

so as he's saying, follow a playbook. And he he could explain that with a couple First, he says to walk in love as Christ did.

The other two parts, he says, how do we do that? He says, avoid penalties and watch for trick plays. That's what he was saying. Here's the here's the fundamentals of how to play this game. Avoid the penalties and watch for treatment. The penalties he was talking about, running after greed, sexuality, all those things he mentioned is the basis of everything we still run after today

that God says don't do it that way. You know why we still run after? All those things he described make you feel good immediately.

And here's the thing. It's a shortcut to trying to feel something. It's a shortcut to to to having weight. It's the same thing Adam and Eve felt for. It's a shortcut to trying to get something. And if you've learned any and if you're a good parent, you're trying to teach your kids this, but we fall for it all the time. Shortcuts are always setbacks.

Every single time.

But I can feel good right now, but what are you gonna feel like later? What do you feel like? Hey. If I spend my money this way, if I honor God, I'm gonna be tight. I'm not gonna be able to it's gonna be really hard. I'm gonna have to trust him if I honor him with my money or my time. That's gonna be difficult. But guess what? You spend your money, you get in debt because the materialism, the greed, and all that. How do you like all the stress, the pressure, the fights in your marriage, the collapse in, the things? How do you like how how do you like them apples?

It's see, it's like and he says it's a trick. There's so avoid the penalties. As in football, you throw up like I don't care if you get 20 yards. You ever see a great run and go, how did they ever get that far? It's usually, you know, holding. So now you'd lose the 20 yards, and you go back yardage.

That's what happens when you don't listen to God. You are not getting ahead. You are actually getting set back. And when he says his anger, he will bring anger and and and and actually judgment on those who never trust his love. But those of us who know him, that anger is really he brings discipline.

He'll throw a penalty flag on you to help you show that don't go that way. That way does not lead to victory. And I know it is like for some of some of you're struggling so much that you're like, you ever watch I mean, well, I've I've watched the Cardinals, so I've seen this a lot.

They get a great first down. I'm like, hey, they're really moving the ball. And then three plays later, it's like fourth and 27. How did that happen? It's like they just they're like they're they're they're they're the they're playing better offense for the other team right now.

We don't we get stuck that way. Follow the playbook. In other words and how do you follow that playbook? Basically, you avoid the penalties. You watch. Don't be deceived by the lies. That word for deceived in there in verse six and seven is kenos logos. Kenos logos means word. Kenos means empty.

It means all these things that you think are gonna make you feel. All these things you're like, I can't trust God with that because I need this are empty words. They're empty. And you gotta trust that.

Bill Walsh said this. This is how you get to this. Here's what I think stops us. Here's one of the ways we're deceived. He says this, the score takes care of itself when you take care of the process.

The score takes care of itself when you take care of Are you more worried about the score in your life? Like, not happy. I don't have this. I'm not married. I don't have enough money. I don't have you're so worried about the score that you're forgetting how to play the game.

How do we do that? Like like, I see so many people coming, hey, I need wisdom. I need I need to know what to do. I got this scenario. I'm praying for God about it. It's such a big you have this big decision. You're thinking about this big thing. And I go, well, you know, are are you in community? Are you serving? Are you are you sharing your feelings? Like, well, what does that have to do with my my issue? I go, it has everything to do with your issue. Because if you're not listening to God on the everyday wisdom of how to play, why would he give you any wisdom on how to do this?

Book of James actually says that, by the way. And and and, you know, and so around here when it says, hey, the basic plays, the process of God making us like him, is what does it mean to look like Jesus? We put ourselves in the environments that help us do three things as we word it, as we just take scripture,

know, grow, and go. I say it all the time. That's what we're supposed to be about, knowing Christ, becoming more like him. And how and there's two main ways. He calls us to know him. Public worship, what we're doing now. Do you commit to being here?

And then private practices. Are you in the word? Are you in the word? When when I say, hey, ladies and gentlemen, this is the yep. And the word of God, how often do you actually look at it and open it? Because you get deceived when you don't.

And then we and it says, we are a team. We're the body of Christ. We can deceive ourselves. That's what community is all about. We need to grow in community.

And that's why so a lot of times we get in all these messes, and you're like, well, you're like, why don't I time to do this? I don't have time to that's why the score is the way it is. You're worrying about the score instead of worrying about how to play the process of the game.

And then we're supposed to go. God literally calls us corporately and individually to go and live intentionally with the time he gave us, the treasure, the money he gave us, the talents he's given us, and our own testimony to point other people to Jesus.

And so when people say you're talking about one thing. You know what you need to do? You need to grow, go no, grow, go if you love Jesus. You need to well, what are you talking about? I got this the wrong way. And and then they go, no. What do you think the answer is, pastor? No, grow, go. Well, what about no, bro, go? Well, what about no, bro, go. What do you think is no, bro, go. Knock, knock. No,

go, go. Quit worrying about the score and and and do it here. Football ease again. Bill Belichick, one of the greatest coaches

of all time. That's why people don't wanna hear me say this because it sounds boring. It sounds repetitive. It says, okay. I get that, but let's get on advanced stuff. You ever heard him talk about football? I don't know how he inspires people.

I actually do know. I I saw him in a press conference when he had that cut off sweatshirt, and everyone was talking about how he had the sleeveless sweatshirt. They asked about it. He's like, yeah. I like it. He goes, keeps me warm. But without the sleeves, I don't get too hot. Like the pocket,

holds my notepad and my pencil. That was him answering a question. And then they go, okay. Well, what about your team? They're underperforming. They're better than this. What are you telling them

to motivate them to step up to be to to to win like they should? And he just he looks at the camera and looks at the eyes. He goes, with his hands in that pockets, and he goes, do your job.

That's what he did. And he said it probably more mon I couldn't I can't say it as monotone as he said it. I don't know how to be that monotone. He's just like, do your job. You know why that's motivational? Why he's a great coach? Because that actually is the answer.

A lot of times, we don't like hearing the boring, basic, fundamental answer because we're worried about the score, and really you're worried about what's my score. And we're missing it. We're missing it. And we gotta get back to ladies and gentlemen.

This is a High. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a High. In other word, the word of God. And and and we have to really believe that and trust it from his love. So what happens, next? Let's look at verse eight. I already read eight, but I'll read it again because I wasn't supposed to before.

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light. For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. Instead, expose them.

It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them. For the light makes everything visible, and this is why it said, awake, oh sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

So with the second thing is we follow the playbook. And how do we follow the playbook? One of the next things we do is you stay in bounds by walking as children of the light. Stay out of the dark. Stay in bounds. Stay in the light.

And and and how do we do that? Well, these verses you could break down. There was two main things it said to do. You, in verse eleven and thirteen, it basically says, you expose, you don't excuse sin. In other words, reality is always your friend.

In coaching, do you want someone to not be honest when you're messing something up? Coaches, especially football coaches, they're not really gonna be honest. They tend to yell it.

But but but Bill Belichick, he's like, do your job. But the idea is reality is your friend. You can never get anywhere if you're not if you can't define reality. If you can't say, you know what? I'm sinning right now. I am in the dark. I am ignoring God. I am choosing

to not do what he said to do. And yet, I'm worried about why he's not giving me this over here. We have to be honest. Expose, don't excuse sin, and wake up and get in the game. That's both. It's both. You can have it exposed. You can have the lights go on, but you still gotta wake up and you still gotta get up. Right?

I mean, think about this. And here's the problem with what I'm preaching right now, and here's the problem when God's word convicts us. Here's the problem when you hear a message like this, is ask yourself this. How do you feel about a person when you're dead asleep flipping the lights on and telling you to wake up?

Are you thank you?

Or are you kinda frustrated? Especially now I get it. The only time you could be marginally happy is if you're about to go do something amazing and you almost overslept. You know, hey, you know, Elon Musk is here with that billion dollars he said he's gonna give you. Oh, yeah. That you'd be happy about. But, hey, wake up.

You're late for the job you hate. You know, it's like if it's waking up to do something mundane, it's you're mad. Right? We don't like it when someone says wake up. You don't like those lights going on. You know, with the when lights go on, you've been asleep, I that's when I think we are partially vampires.

That's where they got that idea of the light burns. Because you have a light go on and it's like it's like a sleaztack from Land of the Lost. That's a really old reference if you got that one. I'm glad we're still alive.

My dad was the one that would wake me up in the morning, growing up. And here's how he did it. He'd walk in, hit the lights, and then he would whistle. He could only whistle one tune, and he would whistle revelry, which is if you're a soldier, you know what? It's how they wake you up in the morning with a bugle.

And and and and and I can't even whistle a tune. So he's ahead of me. I don't can't even whistle. But it sounded like this.

Yeah. Some of these soldiers just had a flashback, didn't you? And and and he did this every morning. And if I was not up and out of bed by the time he finished revelry, he then grabbed all my sheets and ripped them right off of me and said, you got fifteen minutes to be at breakfast. How much do you think I

loved my dad at that moment? The truth is, I don't even think I liked my dad at that moment. I I was very frustrated because he was saying the words, the song, he was making the sound, the light hit me, and then he did the action to try to discipline me and get me to wake up.

And you know what? That is not pleasant. We don't tend to respond well to the person that does it at first. We don't like it at all. So I get it. When I'm saying, hey, here's the fundamental sound fundamentals. Here's what we need to be. Here's what we're called. Guys,

what would happen if this entire church, everyone in here that loves Jesus woke up and decided to get up and know grow and go. And united,

we're called. And it's why I talk about our time. It's why I talk about our money. It's why I talk about our hearts. I already talk about love because you're being deceived if you don't trust what God's called us to. We are a team that was built to win. Why don't we wanna all get up and run towards the right end zone?

But that's not pleasant when it's like it's basic fundamentals. You gotta get up and work. You gotta get up and do the day. You gotta do your job. And I get it. You don't like it when I do it to any more than I liked when my dad did it. But you know what I trusted? I knew my dad loved me.

I knew he cared for me. I trusted the words of my father.

And even though I hated it at the time, it's why I tell so many stories about him. You know why? Because that man loved me. That man loved the Lord, and that man knew what he was talking about. And even though he did those things that didn't feel good in the moment, but

shortcuts are setbacks. I stay in bed for a few more minutes of sleep. I pull the sheets over my head. Setback. And I know now because looking back, I am thankful he did that to every day. I am thankful he whistled that

God for sakin' song I can't get out of my head. I am thankful for that because it made me a responsible human being.

And that is what God is trying to make us like him. And I my job is to equip us to that. So I have to be the alarm clock. I have to be the one that comes in here, and I flip the lights on of talking about the love of God and the word of God. And then I start sounding this annoying revelry of God's word. It's

time to go to war. It's time to get in the fight. It's time to do this. And you guess what? If you really trust that I'm speaking God's word and you know how much God the father loves you, which is what this passage started with, you will be thankful that you did it. Because as I keep saying, ladies and gentlemen,

this is the word of God. This is not something you just hear a guy talk about and hopefully I say something stupid or spit as I'm saying every now and again. But you literally sit down and hear God saying, stay

in bounds. Wake up. Get in the game. And then lastly, I gotta read something because I lost my breath there. I really should do more cardio.

Figure out what Mick Jagger does that he can still go out and sing like he does at a 172 years old. So be careful how you live.

Verse 15. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So follow the playbook by staying in bounds, walking in the light, and then finish strong by staying spirit filled.

That's what he's saying. And what does that mean to finish strong? First, verse fifteen and sixteen, when he's talking about make the most of every opportunity in football, that's called clock management.

Make the most of the time you have. Don't waste it. I mean, the Chicago Bears head coach found that out this season when he lost his job by being terrible at clock management. You know why? We think football is a good metaphor for life in this way. You think it's kind of fake with a game instead of has a time clock. Actually, the clock is the most accurate thing in comparison to real life.

We always say, well, I'm gonna get to that. I'm gonna start trusting God. I'm gonna I'm gonna get to the basics of the play. I'll get there, but I have to do this. I have to do this. That's wasting time. And you realize, just like in a football game, you and I only have so much time. You only get so many plays to run.

And and if you don't play good offense, you're just playing defense the whole game. That's exhausting. It's exhausting when you don't win the offensive plays that God's called you to. You are doing nothing but responding and playing defense your whole life. And so we need to make the most of every play.

And then this the very next verse, he says, and know what God wants you to do. Run the right routes. You gotta know God's will. You gotta in order to run a good route as a receiver, in order to do that and to throw it, you gotta know the play. You gotta know God's word.

And then the most important part, he says, stay filled with the spirit, not with the things of the world. Well, that's the one I wanna take a moment because I think that's key.

That is key. That's why it ends with this and then takes us back to the love of God. Because we have to stay filled with the spirit because the spirit brings the super.

But we have to bring the natural. We have to serve the natural. When people stay filled with the spirit I've seen so many Christians that are you're I mean, you love Jesus so much. But when you say, I'm just filled with the spirit, I I feel like it's a prince's bride. You keep on using that word, but I don't even think you know what it means.

Filled with the spirit is not like being drunk on Jesus. Filled with the spirit is not having some mystical power. It's you're not Gandalf at this moment. It's being you know what it really means when you read the descriptions of filled with spirit? It means you're following the word.

You're following the spirit. You're surrendering to his direction.

Meaning, you're gonna feel like doing this, but you know when you have the word of God, the holy spirit's the one that enlightens. It says he enlightens the word of God in your life and uses it like a two edged sword, and it convicts you, and it leads you, and it guides you. And it says, to be filled means at this moment, I'm gonna do what the Holy Spirit has guided me towards God's word, not what I wanna do. That's right. That's what it means to be filled with the spirit. So here's the thing. You can't be half filled, partially filled. I'm getting low. I need to fill myself with the spirit. It doesn't work that way. At any given second, you're full or you're empty. That's it.

You're either filled with the spirit or you ain't. There's no in between. But some of us think of it like, well, like, I should probably get back to church or do this. I've been I've been kinda coasting along. I'm like, no. At any given moment, when you disconnect from what God's asked you to do, you are no longer filled with the spirit at all.

And what that means is he loves you. He's still there. It's what filled just means you're not following him, so there's no power.

That's what it means. It's kinda like this. A lot of us act like, you know, these modern cars, our fuel light goes. We have a fuel light. When you get low, You can't just be, I better pay attention to the gauge. It's more like, ding, low fuel. Now if you push the button, it'll tell you how many miles that means.

And and most of them will give you forty, seventy. Depending on what kind of gas mileage you have in your car, you might have like 70 miles. And if you don't drive a lot every day, some of you know it. You go, you've already figured out, oh, low fuel, I can still drive for a week.

Some of you know right now, I bet there's at least one person in this room who says, oh, thanks for reminding me. I have to go to the gas station right when I'm done here. Or you were late and walked in in the third song because you realized, oh, I have to stop right now.

I have an older truck and I added some modern gauges, but that doesn't work the same as those. I have one that'll tell me when it's low fuel,

But I didn't know what it was when it went on the first time. Because I'm driving, and instead of ding and a light goes on, it this red thing starts flashing, and it started doing, like, dumb and dumber. You wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world? It's like, I

was like, god. I almost crashed. I was like, what is it? And I'm like, it's flashing. I'm like, what does this mean? Is there a missile incoming? Am I about to explode? And then I looked down and it told me, eight miles to empty. It

doesn't go off until you're literally empty. I have an old truck with a big engine in it. Back in the day, when I'm like, we don't care about the world. We're gonna destroy. Suck up all the fossil fuels. And so my guess, eight miles means I better stop, Google search the closest gas station.

It is useless. That thing doesn't give me any time. It gives you a final warning. You can get probably so many blocks that way or that way, you better get to a gas station. That's what it means. When that alarm goes off, it's not you got some more time, you're close. It's like you're donezo. There's no more power.

And that is why we get so exhausted as Christians.

Because when we don't trust and follow the spirit, we play defense the whole game. And when you get defense the game, you get tired. And then when I say, guys, let's no grow and go. Let's United were called. And I say, guys, we need to build this building. Guys, we get to do this ministry. Because, know, the night to shine wouldn't have happened if we didn't give and we didn't have Britney, who's our director, who is an absolute rock star and and way overqualified.

She is so awesome, and she built the team and all of you that volunteered and everyone that gave to this church, that tied to this church. We were able to do this ministry because of that, and there's more stuff we would do.

And if you are playing defense all the time, you're exhausted when I say that. And then when I'm turning on the lights, you're so exhausted. I woke you up because you you didn't go to bed till 2AM, and now it's 5AM, and now you're mad at me for turning the lights on.

And you're missing the win. We all miss the win when we do this. I love it this way. Vince Lombardi said it this way.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all. And you know what he's talking about? He was talking about teams in Super Bowls, in championship games.

He goes, guys that are paid, they know their mission, they love the game, they're in the championship game, they wanna win the game. And he says, when you get tired and the weather gets bad and it becomes just a slobber knocker of a game and and and that fatigue sets in, what he meant by coward is you will not run as hard on a play. You'll give up on a moment. You'll make a mistake. You won't think about it. You'll half checkout, and that's when you lose.

But then he also has the most famous quote when he said, just like football, life is the same way as there is nothing better than to stand on a field bloody and battered victorious.

What do you want? I get it. Many of us, what I'm saying makes sense. But we gotta do what it means to stay filled. Because, hey, look at this list. There's a list of how do you do that. How do you stay filled? I'm not even gonna read it to you. Just take a picture of it.

This is the fundamentals of the game. If you've been a Christian for more than ten seconds, there's not one thing on there that surprised you. You expect that to be said. It's not about knowing it, is do you run these basic fundamental drills every day? That's the game. But if you're playing defense all the time,

this sounds tiring, exhausting, and then when I'm the one that's waking us up to do it, you you we get frustrated. What I'm trying to say is simply this as we close it down. I believe every person in this room that knows Jesus' love desperately wants to do all the things that Jesus wants them to do.

I believe every one of you with all of my heart

wants to know that your life mattered, that you didn't waste it, that God used you to do incredible things. You want to be in that end zone. You would love to be a part of that. You wanna see the church. You wanna give your money. You wanna give your time. You wanna give your all. You wanna see it.

But many of you are so tired,

it makes a coward of us all. I get it because I'm there with you so many times. So many times. But think about what the alternative is. My daughter got up a couple days ago

and yelled out to her mom because her mom was leaving early for work and they worked together. She goes, mom, when are leaving? Right now. And I go, well, can you give me three minutes? I'll go with you. And I hear, like,

tornado upstairs. She gets ready and runs out. She goes, well, I have a meeting. I gotta stay two hours later than normal. You'll be stuck. I don't care. And I'm like, that was weird. She's not usually that motivated.

I've never heard her move that fast in the morning. And then they leave. And then I had to move her car to get my truck out when I left later. And as I turned on her car, ting. No fuel.

I pushed the button. And then that's this is a CR V. So usually, you got like a good 70 miles after it says low fuel. It said three miles to empty. I know why she got up so fast. You know why? Because she knew she probably wouldn't she's lucky if she gets to the gas station.

That also I know that she's been doing this for probably a week.

And so I joked. I asked her after. She's like, I know why you do it with mom and was willing to be confined, have to stay longer, have to move quicker, get there earlier. It's because you didn't get gas. She goes, yeah. Well, why didn't you just do that? It takes like five minutes. She goes, well, in the morning, I'm always running late. After work, I'm so tired.

So I just never did it. I go, so your answer to not not taking the five minutes is to now have your life completely confined. You're stuck. You can't go anywhere you wanna go. You have to go where mom went. You have to stay longer. You had to get up earlier. You realize you spent more effort

not doing that and confined your freedom

excessively by not doing that. And that's where I'm saying, some of you are tired. Like, I can't give. I can't serve. I can't do this. I can't go in. I can't trust. I can't do it. But what you are doing is actually enslaving you and confining you and limiting you, where when you take the moment to be filled with the spirit, you take the known to follow the spirit, it opens up. You have a full tank of gas. You could drive all over the place. You your bounds are bigger. Your life is bigger. You go further. You get there faster, and you have more freedom.

If you want to win in this field, you gotta stay filled. But why? Because of the love of Christ. It comes back to that. And I think that sometimes you hear this, I just feels guilty. I can't do it. It's whatever. But Jesus knew that we struggle with this.

He knows we get tired. He became one of us. He knows what the temptations of life are like. And that's why before he died, to save us from all of that, he broke bread

and poured a cup. Said this is my body broken for you. This is my blood spilt for you. Do this. And he did that, and you think that makes sense. He's letting them know what he's about to do. But then he says, do this in remembrance of me. It's why churches were called as a community to come together

and take this moment called communion. Why did Jesus tell us to keep coming back and remembering him at the cross? Why does he say, I want you to routinely meet me at the cross? Why does he want us to remember that moment? Because it goes back to verse one

where it says, imitate God in everything you do because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love following his example. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us. You see, you won't choose to be filled with the spirit. You won't choose to trust, ladies and gentlemen, this is a bible,

until you embrace and understand what his sacrificial love really means. He loves you. And the fact that he calls us to remember this moment is to remind us, it doesn't matter if you're in the dark. It doesn't matter if you're exhausted. It doesn't matter if you've been cowardly.

It doesn't matter if you've caved in. It doesn't matter. Meet me at the cross again and embrace my love once again. Be filled once again and go from there. Because we need to understand the love.

Because the love, we live from the love, not for it. And to help you understand this right before we take this and get out of here, is I wanna show you a short clip from the movie Saving Private Ryan that I think explains this.

It's where if you haven't you guys have seen the movie? A lot of you are younger than the movie. It's about a a guy named Private Ryan who's played by Matt Damon, and he's all of his brothers were killed. And so the army says, mom's about to get all these letters.

We're not gonna let her last son get killed. And it's d day. He's off fighting.

So he takes a captain, Tom Hanks' character, Captain Miller, and a group of his men and says, you have to go through all this carnage, dangerous, get to these front lines, and go find this guy like a needle in the case tack and get him out of there. You gotta go save him. And along the way, a bunch of them die. And in this scene, Captain Miller's dying on a bridge. They saved him.

And watch what he says, and then it's gonna fast forward to him, Private Ryan at Normandy as an old man sitting in front of Captain Miller's cross where he's buried. Watch this. Tom Hanks' character said earn it, but do you think he meant you don't get it unless you do? No. That's not possible. He already died

to give him life. What he meant was, live a life worthy of the life you've been given. Or as Paul says in chapter four, live a life worthy of the calling you've received.

See, when you meet Jesus at the cross again, and you can kneel down like him, his tears, his focus, his saying I thought about it every day wasn't fear, wasn't guilt, wasn't shame, wasn't like you better or else. It was like, I really want to do this because of what you did for me. That's what communion is.

So ask yourself, I'm gonna give you about thirty seconds to just think about this. Maybe talk to God and this is quick.

Where do you need to get back in the game? Where do you what do you need to do to be filled again? What do you what do you need to do to think about his words and say, because of your love and the life and the spirit you've given me, allow me to surrender what I need to be empowered by you.

To live a life that wasn't wasted.

So take that moment, and then we're gonna take this and be done.

Took the bread and broke it. Said this is my body broken for you. Take and eat.

He took the cup and said, this is my blood spilt for you for the forgiveness of sins. Take and drink.

Father God, just thank you. And my prayer for me and everyone in this room and anyone watching is simple. Thank you for dying for us. Empower us to live for you from your love by being filled by your spirit. Give us the victory on this field you've called us to as we stay filled with your spirit, Lord. Thank you.

I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. I love you guys. Hey. Thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.