← ArchiveSunday, January 26, 2014DateJanuary 26, 2014Speaker—TextRomans 12Passages in this sermonRomans 120:00Romans 12:10:33Romans 51:11Romans 5:81:53Genesis 317:41Romans 325:27TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00You know, it's funny, turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, we're going to begin with verses 3 and following Romans chapter 12 talks about our place in the church basically and as we remember, we've gotten here by studying two very important points thus far and that0:26first one comes out of Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and that is if we're going to be where God wants us to be, if we're going to truly serve Him in the local church, if we're going to serve Him as husband and wife, if we're going to please God, we must do what verse 1 says and that's surrender. We must come to a place in our life where we surrender. You know, salvation is that place of surrender, should be that place of surrender because0:54we read and Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12 when he says, therefore, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, he lets us know that it's because of what he said in those other previous verses and in Romans chapter 5, he gives us this awesome news and Brother Rick was talking to us earlier about what are we here for, what are we here for, you know, we got folks that are here because your wife drug you here, you got folks here1:22because your family drug you here, you got folks here because your mom and your daddy drug you here and you got folks here just because, well, I want nowhere else to go and it's warm down there and it's cheaper to keep that place up than me be here, right? And some people here because of who they say, but anyway, I'm here because of what, according to what John or Paul said in Romans 5 verse 8.1:47And you want to find out why I'm here, you go back and read Romans 5 8 because it says in Romans 5 8 because God died for me, that's why I'm here. I'm here because Jesus died for me. I'm here because I want to be here to give him the praise and the glory and the joy that2:11he's brought back into my life. I want to give it, I want to show it forth on his behalf.2:31I am full of electricity. All right, if you don't get out of here for one o'clock, you know it's technical difficulty. Yeah.2:57Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do they hear me?3:21All right, they can hear me. Amen. Thank you. I really don't mean these things anyway.3:42Listen to what Paul is following up. First of all, let me back to the writing of Satan. How only does God hold it to you? Tim, move. I'm going to find which one of you demon-possessed electronic people up there. All right. Surrender.4:13Surrender. And then he challenges us to transformation. He said, surrender and be ye therefore transformed. By the renewing of your mind. So, as believers today, we come into this place. And these are some things that we know that Paul is telling us because of what God has done. In chapters 1 through 11, we are to surrender. We are to surrender our lives and our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to come to that place of transformation. We want our minds to be transformed by the renewing of our lives through the Word of God.4:43We talked about that last week. And then, once we've surrendered and once we're transformed, we find our place in the local body of Christ. And that's what he says, beginning in verse 3. Follow with me, chapter 12. For through the grace given to me, I say to every man among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. But to think so as to how sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.5:11And that word, the measure of faith, is not the measure of faith that you believe in God with. But it's like the faith that we have here. We are a body of faith. And for just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. To some people say that.5:41And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly. If prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his service, or if he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. As we study Romans chapter 12,6:10we begin to see that to be this Romans 12 Christian, this our 12 Christian, this Christian whose life is truly living it out for the Lord, that God has expectations for us. And the most important expectation that God has for us today, we know very clearly because he tells us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Now the problem with that is that sometimes we don't know how to do that.6:38We know we can quote that. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, how do I do that? And sometimes that's what happens in the body of Christ that brings confusion, that brings disruption, that also brings a poor reflection of who we are to the world around us, is that the world around us doesn't see us loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind, loving your neighbor as herself. I had a bit of a crisis this morning coming in. Oh, nothing happened to me.7:07Everything was fine. But I rounded the corner down there where I live coming in this way on Roper Road or County 10, however you look at it, and I still hadn't got to the Cobber River, and there's a vehicle off down there in the right, and it's just sitting down there, and nothing tore up, didn't turn over or anything. It looks like a gray SUV. Some of y'all coming that way might have seen it. And I thought, oh, somebody ran off the road last night. That's really, that's what I thought, and I'm cruising on up the road, and I thought, it's 24 degrees. What if somebody's back there in that car?7:36And then I thought about, what do I do? Do I pull the Good Samaritan? I've got to be at church. I need to be there. Hey, this is a perfect picture, God. Can I tell you what I did? Nothing. I convinced myself to get on down here so that I could get busy doing religious work, and then I got to thinking about, well, surely there would have been light. I looked. I didn't see anybody. I didn't see anybody around there. It hadn't just happened. But I thought, God, you just gave me an illustration for this morning8:04about what it means to love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and to love my neighbor as myself. And I didn't pass.8:21I could have stopped. I could have gotten out. But it was in a curve. I can think of a lot of excuses. Did anybody coming that way see that this morning? You did? Did you stop? Uh-huh. Thank you. Join right on in, sister. But it was empty, and it probably did happen during the night. But it really convicted me. So, when we get to this place where we're at here, and Paul says,8:51his challenge to us in the beginning of this feeds into the rest of this. We've got to get the first part of this passage right before we're really going to be able to fulfill the second parts of this passage. And that is how to come to grips with the real you. Because Paul says that you need to take a self-assessment, basically, of who you are. And a self-assessment requires us to ask ourselves three questions. Who am I? Because that's what Paul wants us to know. And throughout the Bible, the writers of Scripture and God must really want us to take a self-assessment of ourselves.9:20Quite often, he says, examine yourself and know that you're in the faith. Examine yourself and know that you're of God. Examine yourself. So, we have to take these self-assessments. And a self-assessment, when we ask ourselves, who I am, that's our identity. And, you know, our identity is important to us because it starts early in our life. If you don't believe it, you ask some of these little children, who are you? And they go, and my grandson will go,9:46Evan Andrew Burns. And my other grandson will go, Will Burns. And I'm going, hey, they're Burnses. That's their identity is Burnses. Hey, when I grew up, it was important to be a Burns in a Burns house. You know, my dad said, hey, you're a Burns. You know what that means? I bet you said the same thing to the mat, didn't you, Stuart? Hey, you're McCullough. Your identity begins with us.10:17And when you walk out of this house and embarrass us, you embarrass the McCullough's and the Burnses. Did they say that? Thank you. Whether they did or not, you did right. And we do, we do that. But we grow. After that, we become identified by, I went to Huffman High School. My wife comes up to me after we get to know each other, and she says, I went to Banks High School,10:43and we beat Huffman High School in the state championship game. I almost didn't want to go out with her anymore after that. But she was far better looking than that comment, so I went out with her anyway. But we do. We identify with what school we went to. Hey, I went to this school, and I went to that school. We identify with, hey, I played football. I played in the band. I was a member of the Glee Club. I was a member of the Key Club.11:12I was a member of this club. We have identities. People identify themselves throughout life. Later on in life, you begin to identify yourself. I am an engineer. I am a doctor. My dad identified himself. I am a welder. And he would identify it this way. I am a union welder. And you identify yourself. And that meant something. Some people identify. I am a Democrat. I am a Republican.11:42Or I am an independent. And we identify, and we get our identity there. And that's important. But we need to take a self-assessment sometimes and re-identify who we are because every one of those identities, for the most part, depend on somebody else or something we've accomplished. Next question we need to ask is, where do I belong? And that speaks of our security. I need to belong to something.12:11So people do all kinds of things to belong to certain things. You know that? People join things to belong. I belong to the country club. What do you mean you belong to the country? Oh, we go down there and I play golf. My wife plays tennis. I get a massage. Moody don't have a country club, so most of us don't know what that means. Most of us are. I'm a member of the Future Farmers of America. You know, somebody told me.12:42Listen, no, seriously. Somebody told me that the other day. I said, they still have that. And she said, not only do we have that, but I was president. And I got my ears pinned back as I realized, hey, this is still a very important function. But people say, well, I'm a farmer. My brother-in-law, they may have 60 acres, 40 acres. I said, he used to work as a...13:08I don't know what he did. Machinist, lifter, whatever. But he got laid off. I said, tell you what you do now. He said, I'm a cattle man. I said, what? He said, yeah. He said, we raise cattle. I said, really? I said, is there money in raising cattle? He said, a calf between a year to two years old, still on the mother's udder? He said, that can bring... So he told me so much. I said, oh, Gail, let's get some cows.13:37But it's an everyday thing. He identifies. That's his security. He's joined something. He's a part of something. He's a part of a group of guys now that do that. We have cliques. We have groups that we identify with. The other day, I went before the men's conference. They sent a little thing out a couple of weeks ago. They said, hey, any pastors that want to come to meet with Crawford Lorette,14:07we're going to have lunch at 1230. Come on, and we'll provide the meal, and you'll have an opportunity just to meet with him. And I thought to myself, oh, getting around a lot of preachers. Preachers get nervous getting around preachers, and we kind of lose our security there sometimes. And so this past week, I got with Eric, got with the stewardship committee. I got me one of these iPads so that I could walk around with it. I walked into the meeting and I sat down amongst them14:34and I throwed my iPad on the table and not another one of them preachers had theirs there. I know they must have had them. And I looked around and I go, and then he gave the passage and I said, well, I don't even see y'all with any Bibles. I mash that button right there. I'll get it.15:06I've just got to get used to it. There's my Bible. All of a sudden, it did happen. They pulled out their cell phones and they had their Bibles. But people have their identity. Excuse me, they have their identity. Then they have their security. And sometimes their security is based on the wrong things. Some people say, I'm in the lodge. I'm a member. Some people say, I'm in the Lions Club. I'm a member.15:35I'm in the... And you fill in the blank. We often join for the opportunity to belong. I'm a member. Nowadays, especially when somebody asks you, where are you a member? I'm a member of Bethel. Or I'm a member of Moody Baptist. Or I'm a member of Calvary Baptist. Or I'm a member of Odenville Baptist. Or I'm a member of Cedar Grove Baptist. Or I'm a member of Community Presbyterian. Or I'm a member of the Gathering Place. Or I'm a member of16:05the Moody Methodist Church. And we garner our security from our memberships. And then there's this thing that deals with our identity. And it's a very important part. And it's, what am I supposed to do with my life? You know, sometimes we get so caught up in life we never ask that. And that deals with our significance. And that basically says, why am I on this planet? Now these are some things that we need to know. What am I supposed to do with my life? You know, we go through midlife crisis and we often have these issues16:34in our midlife crisis because we feel like we've come to a certain age in our life. We've never really fulfilled anything. We've never accomplished anything. We've never done anything to be remembered for. And so we have a crisis and we do something stupid where nobody ever forgets what we did. You know, isn't it amazing that somebody does something great in their midlife and they say, that's a midlife crisis right there. No, it's when somebody does something dumb. Like you see a fine looking17:0360 year old man soon to be like myself driving a Corvette down the road and you go, oh, that's a midlife crisis. No, that's because he finally can't afford it. And then we do see and know about all those times when men run off with their other women or things and we say, that's a midlife crisis. Where's their significance in that? Well, it all goes back17:34to an issue that we all have and a very strong problem. I want you to turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3 will help us identify how we can get out of being wrongly identified, having the false security and being insignificant. Because sometimes it's best to go back and let's just be real honest with who we've been and who we are and know where we've been and know where we are18:03to know what we need to do now. Does that make sense? Some people are afraid of their past. But I want to tell you, I believe this with all my heart. God never fails to use a hurt in your life to better you for His kingdom.18:39And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking. Now, what has happened? Well, I like the way Chip Ingram says it in his book and he says the great cosmic coup has taken place. In other words, this awesome, loving, caring God who has created these beautiful beings and He called them human and gave them a name and He placed them in this awesome garden and He gave them absolutely everything19:09absolutely everything they could ever need to make them happy and the only one thing that He ever said negative about everything that He had done was He said, don't eat of the tree that produces this fruit but everything else you can have. I want to tell you something. You can take a three-year-old child and you can walk them through your house and you can say to that three-year-old child,19:37you can play in that room, you can play with all the toys in that room, you can go into this room, you can go into this room, don't go into this room and get busy doing something and where are you going to find them? You've been around them. They're right in that one place that you told them not to go. Talk to a teenager, tell a teenager, hey, I'm going to get you a new car.20:07Yeah, I'm going to get you a brand new car, I'm going to get you a new Mustang or a new Camaro. How many of y'all want Camaro's? How many of y'all want Mustangs? Does it matter? You got a Mustang, I'm talking about getting a new one. I'm talking about getting one faster than yours. I'm talking about getting one with a 427 four-speed in that thing. I'm talking about getting an SS. I'm going to get that for you. But I'm going to tell you something. Between now and the time you're 21 years old and you're not20:37married, you can't have sex.20:47I ain't going to buy many cars. Unless these are some very rare young people who I hope they are. Tell somebody not to do something and they'll bust a gut to do it. Tell them you can give them everything in the world they could ever want and they'll go after the one thing you told them not to have. And so in this cosmic revolution the fallout is this.21:17is this. God's walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife have hid themselves. I think I read this and it's almost comical. How are you going to hide from God who can go to the highest and the lowest and the east and the west and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden and then the Lord God called the man and he said to him where are you and he said I heard the sound of thee in the garden and I was afraid. Never been21:46Never been afraid in his life. Didn't know what fear was. Nothing in that garden was any more powerful than Adam was. And he said I was afraid because I was naked. I've been afraid of a lot of things before. So I hid myself22:15myself and he said who told you that you were naked? Let's go back to the other part. Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you to eat? And the man said ladies this is not a glorious moment for you because the man said that woman thou gavest to me she did it. She22:47She gave me from the tree and I love it. Take a three year old child put them in a room by themselves you hear the crash you run into the room there's busted stuff all over the floor and you say who did this and they go I don't know unless you have a real creative child that says an alien came through the window and did23:17and did it. Y'all have been around three year olds. Then the woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me from the tree and I ate and then the Lord God said to the woman what is this you have done and the woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate. In other words here was the conclusion of Adam here was the conclusion of Eve and here's the problem that we23:46that we have today God it's your fault God you gave me her she made me do it it's your fault God you made the serpent he came in I did it it's your fault and we've been doing24:16been doing it ever since we've been blaming everything that goes wrong in our lives on somebody else why if you don't believe it watch TV we've got a state with a mayor and a governor that says we're going to take all the cokes and we're going to take all these candies and we're going to take all these things out because it's their fault24:45their fault that people are overweight no it's not it's our fault when we go eat fried chicken double cheese burgers and crake and ice cream and all that other stuff that they tell us is bad for us but no I'd rather blame it on my inability to say no to those things than to accept responsibility so there25:15so there are three obstacles that we find in this passage that we must overcome if we're going to have a true self assessment of who we are and so if we're going to get to where we need to be in Romans chapter 3 we need to find out what he's saying here and the first thing is fear the first thing that we need to assess about ourselves is our fear because our fear is rooted in what being smart no it's rooted in our shame he said I'm naked so I'm25:45so I'm afraid why because we are so afraid that if we truly expose who we are to other people if we were really to drop the facades if we were really to drop all the shields and all the things that we built up in our life over the years and somebody really knew me as who I really was they wouldn't like me and so I've got all these things that I've built up in my life I've got all these protective roles that I have to play out on a daily basis so that I26:15can make sure that you never really come to know who I am and so the best way I know is that never get naked around you never bear and let me tell you that's right the opposite of what the church is supposed to be we're to be a group of people that comes in and says you know I've got this issue I've got this problem and instead of going whoa we're supposed to go man I understand what you're talking about I had a problem similar to that26:45to that several years ago and I understand where your hurt is it made me feel that way let me know I want to I want to pull alongside you because I know where you're hurting and I know where you've been and I want to be your brother but instead we've come to the place that we're running and hiding from one another and I dare say there are probably not two people in this room that truly know the person sitting next and you said but married to them it doesn't really matter because even in marriage we keep things back so we27:14so we see fear and then we see hiding rooted in insecurity people hide people hide all the time some people hide behind their money some people hide behind their influence some people hide behind their positions some people27:44some people hide behind their overt character you know sometimes I do I read a tweet last night and it kind of rubbed me wrong a little bit but it was about passion because I'm a passionate person and if you're going to come to the church you're going to hear me get high and you're going to hear me get loud you're going to see me and you know in my passion I'm going to be passionate about certain things and I get a I come down kind of somebody and little children go out of here sometimes they go what's he mad at mama I don't know28:13he's mad at something ain't he no I'm not mad I'm just passionate because that same thing falls out in my house sometimes and Gail says why are you hollering at me I said it's because I'm at the other end of the house she said no you're not you're just standing right there but we get passionate about certain things and so I wrote back and I said to me passion and preaching comes from a passionate prayer time praying for a people to passionately love God but I can28:43hide behind my passion I can come to the place in my ministry and even in my preaching where when I'm saying oh boy this thing is not going well and I'm looking out there and you guys are kind of giving me the stare and I'm kind of thinking to myself well I've got to get loud so that I can get their attention and maybe that will distract them it did because some people go and you go what did he say29:12say I don't know he just got loud but boy it was good listen I listened to a guy on the radio here several years ago he was a very passionate loud preacher and when he got through I thought to myself what in the world did he say but he sounded like he enjoyed it and then we have this problem with blaming which is rooted in denial we want to blame always blame we you know29:42you know our lives are rooted in the quagmire sin that keeps us from fully obeying God we need to quit blaming somebody else for where we are you say brother Chris you don't know what kind of a parent I had and yeah I know God does and I know that there might have been a deal of pain and I don't want to make light of the pain I don't want to make light of the fact you might have been raped by your grandfather I've counseled people that have been raped by their grandfather I've counseled people that have been raped by their father I've counseled30:12counseled men that have struggled with various problems in their life and I cringe when I think about this but I want to tell you something God in His sovereignty and God in His love knows what's going on and He can bring you out of that into His glorious grace and light and He has something far better than you can imagine from this life and quit running from where you are and know that God has a30:42has a purpose and a plan for you so now I want to ask you a question let's look at verse 3 golly bum I'm looking at the time for though the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment you know basically what he's saying right here is you need to have an accurate judgment of yourself31:12yourself you need to think accurately about who you are and you know that word sober or sound judgment I use and some of you may have sober is the opposite of drunk have you ever questioned a drunk and their judgment I mean you know I've been around drunks in my life I've got drunks in my family and you know sometimes it's funny to see somebody drunk now it's just sad to see somebody drunk but it's kind of funny because they can turn things around I'm not31:41not drunk you know I'm alright I can drive which car I don't know but when he says have sound judgment have sober judgment in other words he's saying be the opposite of a drunk have judgment that comes from clarity of mind and understanding of who you are and where you come from in other words what Paul is saying is develop a judgment of of how32:11of how you are to serve God by what I've written in verses chapter 1 through 11 of Romans and come to the place that you understand that you are where you are because Jesus Christ died for you you didn't do anything deserving of what he's done he did it anyway and he loves you anyway and he given himself for you anyway and what you have to do is by faith and trust apply your faith to what God has done and say God I believe32:41believe that you can take all the shame and hurt and fear of my life and use me so we have an accurate judgment of who we are so who are you in other words don't think so highly of yourself that some people do you know some people are you know like like I was when I walked in that meeting another pastor Bethel Baptist church got an iPad and33:07and then not like the guy that goes in there and goes and he said don't think this way I'm a pastor over at Soudan church and we just you know have you ever met somebody that's just always so low and humble it's just like you know you you you you counsel with them and you meet with them and they're just always that way and you're going wait a minute wait33:36wait a minute you're not supposed to be always that way oh yeah I want to be humble let33:49because the Bible really says something very special to those who think too lowly of themselves and you know what that is is that God has wonderfully created me David said wonderfully created me in my mother's womb quickly let's move on where do you belong that's in verses four and five for justice we have34:19have many members so he's talking about a church so I need to belong to a church now there's a lot of argument in this day and age a lot of people say that could be a house church that could be the Bethel church that could be the church of the highlands that can be the gathering place that can be this church it doesn't matter where doesn't matter what but what Paul is saying for just as we have many members in one body and all members do not have the same function right near the church of Rome y'all could have written this to the church of Ephesus the church of Thyatira he said so we who are many are one body34:48body in Christ that's that's where we get our belonging we don't get our belonging down at the local social club we don't get our belonging down at the local lounge or bar that we hang out in we don't get our we don't get our belonging because we go to this office or that office to work every day I belong because Christ has placed me in the body of Christ by his grace and mercy when I place my faith and trust in him we often get35:17get mentally and emotionally over where we belong the reason you must understand where you belong is because you need to understand that when you belong somewhere you have a role when you belong somewhere you have a role you have a responsibility35:47a responsibility that's why you know I have had people call me and say brother Chris we really want to join the church and everything but we've served out our time in all the years and you really get dogmatic about how you think everybody ought to serve somewhere we're just too old to serve anywhere right now we really want to come and be a part of your church but that's an issue with us36:16with us and you know it should be we ought to be bold enough as preachers nowadays to say God didn't call people to warm pews God didn't call you to come sleep on Sunday while your wife took notes for you God didn't die on the cross so you could come and cozy up and walk out and do nothing with the rest of your life but Paul the word of God36:46God says for just as we have many members in one body all the members do not have the same function but we're all here so we who are many are one body so we belong to something we need to know that we fit somewhere and I get I got one of my grandchildren now that loves puzzles and I want to tell you something I37:15I love putting puzzles together but it's wrong when it almost fits how many of you have made a piece of puzzle fit only to get through and realize that that's not where it goes we've tried that in the church and it don't work there either we've37:43we've tried it it don't work there we say hey we got to have a teacher we got to have a teacher we got to have a teacher oh Dave you need to be the teacher they said brother Chris I never taught anything in my life well let me tell you something I believe that God gifts everybody to do something and not everybody is gifted to be a teacher and sometimes the worst thing in the world we can do is put somebody that's not gifted to be38:13to be a teacher that God's not gifted to be a teacher and even somebody that we haven't trained and work with and disciple to be a teacher to be a teacher but God has saved you and gifted you to do38:35so we belong we find our role if service in his serving so you know sometimes I think some people say well what's your gift I don't think people just have one I think you can have a multiplicity of gifts anybody else agree with that I think there are people who can serve and there are people also who can teach and I think a good teacher does a job of serving but he who teaches in his teaching you know I don't have people going well Chris I39:05I need to come in sit down I want to find where I belong I believe I'm a teacher I believe God has led me to teach I love the word of God I love to teach the word of God and I have other people come to me say brother Chris you ought to ask so and so to teach he really does a good job when I when I'm out he fills in he does a good job in teaching but here's what happens a lot of times we get there and we say hey would you like teach oh no I don't want to make that that kind of commitment what he who exhorts in exhortation you39:34you know what I39:44I mean it and I think we can do that sometimes we can go over you know bud it was just good to see you come down the aisle today I kicked you but I love you we can exhort people like that Tyler it's good to see you I ain't seen you in a while you better lay out your sorry dog and you better get yourself back or I I gonna come after you no that's not exhorting he said40:14said I saw him Wednesday night I said where were you I was with the youth I said oh yeah Brad took all y'all out over 50 young people isn't that awesome over 50 young people from our church and adults went off up to Gatlinburg and didn't get in trouble none of them got thrown in jail none got kicked out of the motel none of them drowned and we only forgot one little girl and she got on the wrong bus but they finally got her back and we brought her home and let her go home and everything worked out good Brad thank you for what you do with our young people because I want to tell40:44tell you something I found out early in my ministry that God did not call40:59you surround yourself with some really neat people even though they do wear Florida state garb and he's over talking so you can't hear what said what are you supposed to do you're supposed to do something notice I could go into a lot but can I tell you one of the key factors I think is is that we're supposed to disciple you41:27you can disciple anyone at any time doing anything you know I used to hang out with guys when I was pastoring up in Tennessee I had six deacons and each one of them had me each week and they were permanent deacons and so when I go somewhere I would go with them and one of them was a mechanic and one of them was a upholsterer one of them was a guy in the military and retired from the air41:57air force and one of them sold restaurant equipment on the farm and I would go with them because every one of them had different stories and every one of them had children and I would listen and I would learn from them and one of them in particular and I shared with you before had five children he had two girls and42:22three sons and these two daughters were in church one of them would be playing the piano one of them did leave and go off to college but when she was home she was there the three sons were there and I said you know I can learn something from this man and so I would hang out with him from time to time I go over to his business and I sit in his office and I listened to him and I asked him one day and I said tell me what's your secret and he said two things that I never gave my sons an option42:52option on or my daughters an option on my wife had the responsibility for my daughters I loved them and cared for them I said what was it he said two things they were going to do they were43:11said and as long as we worked on the farm they had something that they were going to do on the farm they were either going to go milk or they were going to gather eggs or they were going to drive the tractor they were going to cut hay they did those two things and they were always going to do those two things I thought wow so now if I want to raise these three sons of mine what I got to do is buy a farm and go in restaurant equipment business and make them go to church and gather eggs no43:39no but he taught me something we must discover where we fit if you're here and deploy that gift that God has given you into action so that God can honor his presence in you and you obey his word and that's how we do it in the church44:09church we surrender we transform and we serve but we can only do it when we know Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior it's only when we confess God and know him that he's able to take and transform that which we surrender and44:36and use that which is transformed let's pray fathers we gather today we gather in your name we gather to bring honor to you Lord it's fun today Lord thank you for the music thank you God for the people that I spoke to earlier thank you for those that came forward for this baby dedication thank you for Carrie and all those ladies that work to help mothers understand45:05understand or help pregnant young ladies understand that there's an option to abortion and God thank you that there's an answer to those who've had abortions and yet and yet and yet don't don't know don't know the forgiveness of God that God can truly forgive God we come to you today because you are greater than anything we could imagine and we ask you to do that which is greater than anything we can imagine in this place do that which we can't do save somebody God do that which we can't do convict somebody do that45:34do that which we can't do change somebody that God we may glorify you in all that we do in Jesus name I prayMore sermons on Romans →
