Man, I'm just, I'm just ready to do it again after that video. I don't know about y'all. Hey guys, at all of our campuses, man, we're going to go ahead and celebrate this 12 years. There's been 12 kids weeks that we have done over 12 years. I was at the first one. There were also about 12 kids at that one, okay? And we're going to celebrate this, y'all. First time in Mercy Hills history, over a thousand kids at Kids Week, all right?
So let's praise God for that. Hey, over 600 volunteers. Listen, 200 of those kids were brand new to us.
They have not been anything else we've done. Guys, of those of those volunteers that I mentioned, over a hundred of them had never served at a Kids Week before. And I'm telling you, if you've never served, you don't realize that the most spiritually impactful thing that goes on a lot of times at Kids Week is in those who are serving in Kids Week, especially for our teenagers and people like that. Guys, this is so cool. We got a chance to tally up some of the numbers, and man, our kids gave over $5,700 for missions this week.
And I want to show you guys, so I want to show y'all exactly where that is going, all right? So many of you guys know, this is some of our folks that are in South Asia, and you know, they're having to do taxi service and all this kind of stuff. And because of what our kids have come and given, we're able to get them the little scooter things that get them back and forth to the different villages so that they can have a much more efficient way of sharing the gospel. And that's something that they really needed over there. And man, our kids, because of their generosity, were able to provide that. And one of those missionaries texted me and my wife, and she said, we're blown away. And she said, my prayer is that in 10 or 15 years from now, some of those kids, because they gave, their heart was tied to missions, and maybe they'll be over here.
And that's what we want to see. And so, man, it was just an incredible thing. Multiple kids gave their life to Christ, y'all. They repented of sin. They walked through a sinner's prayer.
Hopefully we're going to see baptisms. Guys, one of my favorite things was to see our awesome volunteer teams, no matter what they were serving in, from missions, to crafts, to team leaders, our incredible security team. Okay. You know them, they're super bearded and they look like they've never missed a leg day.
Okay. They've missed a few cardio days in their life, but they've never missed a leg day. I pulled up at the Clifton Road Campus and parked because I was going to be on the phone for a minute before I got a chance to go in. And they just started swarming like little bees. Who is this in the parking lot?
Why are they parked here? I mean, they're talking to the police officer. I was like, man, I better get out and show them I got a kid's shirt on. They're going to jerk me out of this car.
Okay. Man, they're keeping our kids safe. And so many people with the worship teams and all of that. Guys, one of the joys that I get in seeing us do something like this year after year is the maturity that comes as people serve year after year. There are things happening with Kids Week now that we as a church were not capable of doing five years ago. And it's because you guys are jumping in the leadership roles, doing it year after year, you're getting better at it and better at it and inviting more people into it. And we're expanding our capacity to be able to reach more kids during this vital week. So we love it. We had an incredible week. Can we do this? I just wanted to give some honor to our staff team that is over our kids team.
Guys, I want to show you all a picture. This is our awesome kids staff. Can we praise God for them at all of our locations? Man, they pour out. They pour out getting ready for Kids Week.
They pour out all during Kids Week. And so, man, if you see them, we just want to give them some honor and give God some praise for them. We're going to be in third John today.
Okay. We're stepping out of our series talking about Noah and the true reason that God hung a rainbow in the sky in the month of June and all that. We've been talking about that. But we're going to step out of that series for one week and here's what we're going to talk about today. Y'all, there is great joy in seeing our children walk in the truth. And some of you at our campuses today, some of you here at the regional campus, you may be brand new this weekend because your kids roped you into coming because we roped them into coming by making sure they understood the Kids Week don't end until the weekend's over and all of that.
And maybe you guys are brand new here this weekend or maybe you're at one of our campuses and you're brand new. And so we just want to focus in. Y'all, we've been talking about Kids Week and all that. Let's talk about our children who walk in the truth and what joy that can bring. Now, I want to say right up front, this passage actually is not about your physical kids. It's about your spiritual kids. Now, some of us that have kids are trying to raise them spiritually.
It's one and the same. I mean, there are spiritual children as well, but this is applicable to everybody. Man, when you have people in your life that God has put in your life and you have an opportunity to see them take steps spiritually, that is such a joyful thing. The Bible likens it to all these people that you get to share the gospel with and they become believers, or maybe even you just have a hand in it. You're an uncle or an aunt spiritually to them, right? It's such a joy to see them walk in the truth.
It likens it to seeing a child walk in the truth, almost like the child walking. How many of us have had that experience before, right? Where one of your children begins to walk for the first time and you just, you'll never forget that moment. It's just an incredible moment.
The world is expanding for them. I remember we were in a community group about probably four or five, probably four years ago now, and man, our group was so great. They were just locked in with us praying for Faith Ann to walk. I know that some of you guys don't know our story. Faith Ann is our fourth child. She came to us through adoption. She has Down syndrome and there's other things going on and walking was just a real challenge. She just didn't do it. She didn't really crawl either. She would scoot around everywhere.
It looked like a little water bug, just scooting everywhere. The crazy thing was she was scooting around and all that. We were praying for her to walk. Our group was just fervently praying for her to walk. We prayed one night fervently for her to walk. All the guys did and I got home that night and I, you know, we walk in the door and if I'm lying, I'm dying. She just popped up and took about five steps right across the floor.
Them little bird legs just going like this. Okay, and then she sat down for the next two months. Okay, so she decided she wasn't going to do that anymore, but I remember the tears that came right from her walking and I remember us just having such joy in that as a community group. It wasn't just our tears. Our group was in tears over it and all that. I mean it was just awesome.
Here's the point. We understand the joy that comes with watching a child take their first physical steps. What joy is there to see our spiritual children take their spiritual first few steps or to see them continue to walk? To see them actually take steps, make good decisions, start to love the Bible, give for the first time, invite somebody to church, share their testimony, maybe take on baptism.
I mean these are things that just overjoy us. You know some of us today, maybe even our campuses today, we're missing out on the joy that comes from watching our spiritual children, people that we have a hand in raising, watching them take steps. We're missing out on that joy because we're not living for the mission. And I want to tell you, don't miss one of the greatest joys that a human being can have this side of heaven. And that is to watch our spiritual children, our physical children, the kids of this church, the young Christians at this church take steps in their faith. All right, man, let's be active participants in that.
Let's dive in. Here's what it says. The elder to the beloved Gaius or Gaius, in my love and truth, beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Now this weekend, when we step out of our series, I'm just going to do a few verses here. We're just going to kind of go line by line today.
Okay, and so let's just make sure we understand what's going on. The elder to the beloved Gaius or Gaius, whom I love in truth. Now, Gaius was probably a very popular name back in these times, a couple thousand years ago.
All the kids have collectively decided they're very happy that it has fallen out of favor. Okay, so we're gonna, you know, I don't know, I mean, there's the name Gaius comes up a few times in the scriptures. There's probably two different guys with this name that Paul refers to and all that. Not sure who exactly this is, but either way, he is a guy who loves, all right, who loves, man, he loves the, he loves the mission. He loves the Lord.
He's walking in the truth. John is loving him. He is beloved by John, all right, and John is the elder of the church. John walked with Jesus and here's what John says, you are beloved in love and you are beloved in truth. Love and truth.
Now here's one thing I want to say very quickly. Y'all, there is no love without truth and apparent and this flies against everything in our culture, but the loving thing was for John to tell Gaius to say to him, hey, you are a sinner in need of a savior and you need to repent. There's a God who is after you, man. It doesn't matter what you've done.
It doesn't matter what your past is, but you need to repent and turn of your sin and go a different direction than you're going right now. Jesus loves you. He died for you. His blood was spilled for you.
Gaius, you need a change in your life. You need to go from death to life. This is the truth that is offensive in our culture today, but there is no love without that kind of truth. There is no love without being honest with people. Now we can be very truthful and not loving, right?
You can, that's very harsh. It's very cutting, that type of person, but you also can try to love people without truth and you know what it is? It's weak. It's flimsy. It's wishy-washy. It's sentimental. How can I love you if I don't really know you?
How can I love you if I'm not willing to be honest with you about what I see? There is love, but love includes truth and the truth from the elder John to Gaius was what? You need to be saved and Gaius joyfully. I don't know the story, but he has become not only a friend of the elder John, but he is also now a spiritual son to the elder John and so he has repented. He has come to Christ.
Now here's what he says. Beloved, I pray, I love this, that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health. Now I know this is just a greeting, but no words in the Bible are like you know throw away.
It's like we need to think about what this is saying. That you will be in good health and he says this, as it goes well with your soul. Now what is he saying here at the beginning of this book? Because I love you, Gaius, I hope that things are going well for you in what areas of your life? In your health and in your soul.
It's really like what we would say mind, body, soul, that kind of idea. What he's saying is in a holistic way, I want things to go well for all that you are in Christ before the Lord. I want you, I want your your body, your mind to be well. Quite literally what it says is I want you to have well. I want you to journey well.
Those are kind of the things that the commentators would point out. Maybe a wooden way to say this. I want you to be well. And I thought about this for just a minute. This is not the point of the sermon y'all this weekend, but I'm going to mention it. I think that it's very easy for us Christians in general to overemphasize spiritual health and under emphasize physical health. That we get this mentality, this this kind of notion that we're just like a caged soul that's waiting to be freed and that our body doesn't matter. It's not who we are.
And that's not the scriptural account. Man, everything that we are is before the Lord and our health matters and our mental health matters and our spiritual health matters and our soul health matters. Man, Christians need to be thinking about physical and spiritual health.
Our bodies are a good gift from God and we will have them and be reunited with them in eternity. I'm just going to go ahead and throw it out there. Okay, this is now I'm not saying this is anybody in our culture now or whatever, but I know some people who have grown up with this kind of preaching. Okay, it's like man you got a southern firebrand preacher and they all it seems like all they want to do is talk about hell and homosexuality. Okay, and they're five foot three and weigh 300 pounds and I'm not getting into who's paying for their fudge rounds. Okay, I'm not getting into that but what I'm saying is there's just this kind of firebrand sort of but then you're like but wait a minute there's anything about I mean what about like other aspects of your physical health and what comes out very fast is man we favor the spiritual over the physical now Paul I understand it's not like they're both equally important I understand that one is you know Paul talks about that like man strive for what is eternal but just because they're not equally important doesn't make one of them unimportant right like they are both very very important and what we need to do is kind of talk hey when I the way the way I remember this growing up was like man your body is a temple meant don't get tattoos okay that's what it meant and what I what I think now is like well what about like what you eat how much you sleep man do you move your body like these these types of things and it was it kind of just shocked me when I was reading this and I was like the elder John the one who Jesus loved I mean the whole story the revelation I mean there's so much going on here and then you think okay wait a minute he is saying I am praying for you and in my thoughts are that your health is good and that your soul health is good and we're gonna talk about that but that your health is good so I just want to say this I'm gonna move on all right I'm not saying guys let me talk to men I'm not saying that every Christian needs to be Dwayne the rock Johnson okay and women I would say the picture that our culture gives you of what health is is generally unfair and sometimes generally unhealthy actually all right but I think that what we need to think about for just a minute and I'll move on is that God I think our relationship with God applies as much to what we eat as it applies to what we watch and we take in with our eyes I think it I think exercise time is a fruit of our relationship with God just like a quiet time is fruit of a relationship with God and ties us to a relationship with God and I just think we and I just think we need to think about these things sometimes all right here's more the point of the sermon for I rejoice greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you are walking in the truth I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth now guys we get into the overall point here very quick okay he said I mean he says the exact same thing in two verses almost the exact same way okay he's like hey I want to make sure you understand that I have great rejoicing why because you're walking in the truth that your faith is being put on display by walking in the truth y'all walking in the truth is sort of an interesting phrase but I think all that it means is that I am rejoicing and excited that you are responding to the gospel you are living a life of obedience in response to who you say your lord is the way he says in your life goes that you're trying to live that kind of life that you're you're walking in the truth you know the truth and you've decided to do the truth by walking in the truth you guys know the phrase you can talk the talk but can you walk the walk right it's so funny like I think about I I'm not a golfer okay I know a bunch of you guys are are golfers want to be golfers okay at Mercy Hill and and I see you and and it's so funny it's like man and you know what I'm about to say it don't matter if you've spent thousands of dollars on clubs it don't matter if you've got the latest gloves and awesome gear and and you look like you could be on the tour and you got the visor and you got the whole deal it don't matter all it takes is somebody to watch you swing that club one time and they're like man I know about as much as I need to know right you can do all the trappings but I think about that you know I don't play I didn't play golf I play a lot of football I mean it's like man you could say you can it doesn't matter you can have the latest gear you can have all the cleats you can have the gloves you can have the arm sleeves you can have whatever you want if I watch you for 25 seconds run around throw one catch one I'll know like we'll know and that's what I mean it's not about talking the talk it's about walking the walk who are we comes out and what we do not all the trappings of everything man it comes out and how we walk it out in this life and what he is saying is my rejoicing is bound up in the fact that you are not talking to talk but you are walking in the truth that doesn't mean we're perfect I got to make sure you understand all right every one of us are going to fail we're all going to sin there's going to be seats one step two steps forward one step back sometimes the Christian way fall on my face repent go back again Martin Luther said what is the progress in the Christian life to begin again to start again okay that is that is so right but we're walking in the truth there's no greater joy he says I greatly rejoice than to see my children walking in the truth so here's what I want to do I want to talk about the walking in the truth part for a second then we'll talk about the rejoicing part for a second then we're going to apply this thing okay so walk in the truth two things about walking the truth now when I say children we got to understand I'm talking about both here all right I I'm talking about physical kids there was over a thousand of them at kids week okay many of them are are you know parented by people in our church and but I'm also talking about spiritual youngsters I mean they're people that come to Christ late in life you know and they're and they need to be raised up they need to be a disciple they need to get in the stream gather groups give go they need people to come around them right so I'm kind of talking about both here but here's what I would say number one about walking in the truth children must know the truth to walk in the truth there is a progression here you got to know some stuff to walk in some stuff I don't don't just mean kids I think I want you to think about the people in your life in your workplace on your campus that God has put for you I want you to think about that for a moment but but I also want you to think about those kids in our homes I mean there's so many of them and many of you are parents all right really what whichever one it is I hope this is going to land for both there is an arena to teach them the truth there is a forge there are fires that sort of forge them into what we want them to be and what the scripture calls them to be there is a gymnasium by which they grow strong you want to see a picture of what it is I'm going to show you the one in my house here it is it ain't just the kids classroom it ain't it ain't just coming up with a big sign of mercy hill church right man kids are forged at the kitchen table driving in the car riding around apply this to spiritual kids man they're they're they're forged at the workplace when you take them to lunch on a business trip when you're talking to them about scripture they're being forged kids have to know the truth before they can walk in the truth they learn the truth from us and they learn the truth from what we say and from what we do again I'm not a golfer I don't know if I've ever had a golf illustration in any sermon in 12 years now I got two in one sermon okay I learned this this was this fascinated me many of you guys that are golfers are already going to know this Phil Mickelson is a obviously an accomplished golfer and he swings the golf cup left-handed but he writes and does everything else right-handed you know why because he learned to hit a golf ball by mirroring his father I'm gonna stand here like do it like this okay I'm watching everything you do I'm gonna do it like this direct mirror and I and I think about that for us man kids have to whether they're little kids or they're spiritual kids okay they've got to know they're gonna learn the truth by mirroring us by hearing what we say man we've just got to understand this is the responsibility that we have every believer has this responsibility we are all called to go and make disciples all the way to the ends of the earth in any way that we can the little influences the big influences man it's not just the stuff that we do at church it's not just the preaching all those are Matt although those are massively important and I understand they're important but I'm just saying for us hey wait a minute where is that gymnasium where is that gymnasium where is that the fires that they're forged in in your home what's going on at that kitchen table the second thing I would say is this y'all children will never walk in the truth if they are constantly being carried and of course this listen this really does apply to both again I know this sounds and I'm getting at that age now where I can I it sounds like everything I'm doing is punching down at a younger generation okay it's really not man I'm in this generation as much as anybody else I do think it has been thrust upon us in some ways with technology and the ability to connect I'm still of the generation that in the morning in the summer your mom kicked you out of the house and said come home at dark right because why she didn't have but you know I if they'd had a cell phone back then they probably would have wanted you to carry it around but they didn't have that then now we we kind of have to grapple with all of this technology and the fact that we can do life 360 and I know where you are all the time and does that make me responsible for everything that you do in every second of the day and all of that stuff so it's a bigger problem then let's just punch down at the younger generation but I will say in my generation and younger and maybe maybe some of you guys that are older although I do think you guys have set a better example for many of us in this when we helicopter parent we rob them of resiliency and courage that's true for kids that's true for spiritual kids you know why because whether you're a spiritual parent we're talking about that or you're a physical parent and a spiritual parent you know if you're raising these kids we got to understand it is a big bad world out there and we're not always going to be there they've got to have time to kind of work this stuff out to figure out they've got to be trained for the moments that we're not there and if they're never walking and always carried they're not going to learn you know there's a there's a franchise of movies it's called the quiet place there's multiple movies or whatever and I remember seeing this clip on this movie and I guess the movie is about all these alien monsters that come and kill everybody and it's very depressing okay so they come down and and you can't say anything out loud and well that's the name okay quiet place and so um there's this scene though where the two the mom and the dad um they get separated from their kids and the kids are out like way out in this big farm kind of thing they're out in outside they've gotten separated it's this crazy chaotic thing and the the crazy alien monsters are coming and all this stuff and if the kids say one word they're just on you and they're gonna and I'll never forget the mom is looking at the dad and she's just absolutely in terror as we all would be here's what he says you ready he says they know what to do and they did know what to do because he had trained them for what to do when he wasn't there and they went through with what he had trained them to do they know what to do that phrase got into me and I just started thinking about different areas of my life where I'm trying to transfer through that kitchen table and through mercy hill church and through preaching and through all the stuff that we do in kids ministry and students and all the tools that we have in the belt I just started thinking to myself there's gonna be times when I'm not there will they know what to do they've got to know the truth before they walk in the truth and they will never walk in the truth if I have carried them and never put them in situations where they needed to know what to do because I wasn't going to be there and I always know what to do they need to know that so parents I would just call to us and I would say wait a minute there is some practicality in this concept of walking in the truth but there's also a joy in it look what he says I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth no greater joy now I think what he's saying is I don't think he's saying this is a greater joy than Jesus or there's a greater joy than heaven how many of us say this we're like man I couldn't be happier for you or what right it's it's a phrase but I do think what he's getting at is watching your spiritual kids you know take steps in their faith there's kind of like no greater joy than that on earth you know on this side of heaven if I cried when faith and popped up with them little bird legs and took off running across the floor then how much greater joy is there going to be in my life I'm seeing either my kids or my spiritual kids and minute for many of us those are kind of both we're trying to raise spiritual and physical kids what is it going to be like to see them share their testimony to grow in the fruit of the spirit to repent to ask somebody to forgive them to obey when it's hard you know we're baptizing next week and I would push you guys especially the parents of of kids here or you got spiritual kids you've been pushing on them and and thinking about them and working on them and discipling them next week's baptism let's challenge them you know let's let's push them to something hard let's talk to them about what it looks like to take that big giant step of obedience and put their faith on display if I cry when faith and takes a few steps physically what happens when our spiritual kids begin to give for the first time when they decide to marry someone who is a follower of Christ rather than settling right like these things they're going to be great joys to us now I gotta say this because I know the stories of so many of you and statistically it is just very true many of you have multiple children some of them are following Christ they're older some of them aren't and this is a very common story that many Christian parents have to deal with and it's very hard to deal with I understand that but here's the thing Christian what you got to get in your mind is a couple things number number one you gotta let the hook a little bit because you could never have saved them that was never in your hands all you could do is expose them to a savior and for many of you that's what you've tried to do your whole life with them you've done the best you can do for some of you you got saved later or a massive sin issue in your life didn't get reconciled until later and that threw some things off there's going to have to be a massive moment of just saying God you are the one who is all knowing I don't I understand I you know I this is one of those things where I'm just going to have to defer and say God these are the psalmist will say like this these things are too wonderful for me meaning too big there's sometimes that some of this stuff is too big I'm not God and you're God and some of us are going to have to be that way you can't save them all you could have done is introduce them to a savior but even then if it's not turning out the way you want it and not turning out the way that you thought it would I know that it hurts but Christian you don't have the opportunity to let it crush you that's taking your ball and going home because the bible tells us that we have an invincible indestructible joy in Christ I know it's hard but Christians are very deep people and they can grieve something and be hopeful and joyful at the same time we do not grieve as those who have no hope here here's why this is hard but for some of you guys that are in this boat of like man I know that would be the greatest joy but I'm not living that right now you got to understand I understand that's hard okay but those children following Christ cannot be your deepest desire your deepest desire is for the Lord and for his glory his glory that's what you were created for first you know I think about I think about the gospel and I just wanted to apply this for just a minute to you if you're struggling with some of these things and you're like man I just don't okay well think about this before you think before kids before what they're doing before their behavior you were a sinner without hope you were destined for hell and had no purpose in this life I'm gonna bounce around I'm gonna make money I'm gonna try to have some vacations I mean what are we living for you had no purpose you were destined for hell Jesus saved us from that Jesus lived a life that we didn't live and die to death that we deserve so that in his resurrection he would give us a future and a purpose and a family and restore us to our relationship with Christ with God here's what I would say in Christ we have everything we need for everlasting joy it's not your deepest desire or it shouldn't be you know I think about spiritual kids not just physical kids you know I heard a story this week about one of the spiritual children of our church that's not following Christ anymore and I hear this I mean it's you read the new testament it's all over the place you see people fall away it's very hard soils cast people pop up man they don't stick sometimes it's very hard it's very hard right it is hard I do grieve it but in Christ we have an invincible joy that what he has created us for that we would glorify him first we still have the opportunity to do that so I would just say I know some of us are in a hard place with some of these things but fight for joy today but I would tell you this guys man some of us are having an opportunity to watch your kids walk in the faith actual kids spiritual kids and I would just say man let's experience that joy here's what he says beloved I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul now I've kind of held this back but he mentions your health and your soul for I rejoice greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you are walking in the truth I want I want you to make the connection that is here his prayer is for his friend and son in the faith okay his prayer for him is that he would be holistically well that's why he rejoices that he's walking in the truth do you see the connection walking in the truth is what produces the holistically journey well have well in someone's life and if if we love our kids and our spiritual kids then we are going to be praying for that wellness and rejoicing when we see them doing the things that are needed to find that wellness namely to walk in the truth we we have trusted the God of our salvation and when we see why we've trusted him for our holistic wellness we've staked our whole life and future on his claims of death burial and resurrection and love for us right so that when we see our kids walking in that truth we know that that holistic wellness is there for them not only in this life but moving on into eternity we trust God and therefore when we see them trust God all it just overflows into rejoicing in our life y'all our Thursday night service a couple of weeks ago was blessed we were talking about uh you know Noah and I know you some might be new we're in a series about Noah talking about the rainbow and reframing that and all that y'all we walk outside I hope you can see it in this picture right after you can't really see it but it's can y'all see the rainbow right there uh and man but if you were there y'all if you I mean and the whole Thursday night crowd you know goes out and we're looking in the parking lot I mean and it was just like we just preached about this like God has just like hung this rainbow uh in the sky for us and what's that whole point of the Jonah I mean of Jonah of the Noah series that we're in y'all it's like what's the whole idea the whole idea is that we deserved what the world gets over sin and yet there was a God who was willing to save and fight for us there was there was a God who was willing to preserve a lineage that we all claim if we are believers this is what I mean when we believe that we have thrown our whole life onto it and when other people our children begin to take steps and follow Christ it is a joyful joyful thing in our life so here's what I'm going to call you to do guys experience the joy of leading others to walk in the truth experience that joy of seeing others walk in the truth you know this is really true for all of us whether you got spiritual kids or not um well I mean whether you got physical kids or not we can all have spiritual children if you are a believer today and what I would say to you is this man what are you doing to put yourself in a position to have influence on others and see them take those steps so that you can be joyful with them one of our high school students is working with kids week this week and she wrote about how seeing one of the fifth grade girls uh give her life to Christ in the worship service pull pull the leaders aside man I you know I I ask questions man I'm ready to do this right now and here's what she said seeing her get saved made me cry tears of joy because it's such a beautiful thing to see someone go from death to life and are you putting yourself in a position to watch spiritual steps be taken by those that you have influence over man I pray that you do might not be kids for you it might be nieces nephews grandkids co-workers friends at school who has God put in your life that you would help them take steps and parents I'll say this all right if you're a parent a physical kid spiritual kid they're kind of one of the same in our homes we're trying to raise them there are they're our first you know I think about my you know me it's like that's my first ministry you know that's Anna's first ministry is is those kids that are in our home and I just think about this for us guys you know we live in a culture that wants to worship child success and accomplishments I mean worships and look at all of the stuff and Christian I would tell you this today Christian parent young Christian parent it is hard to tell our kids to worship God if what they see is us worshiping them if they know pretty much everything in this family revolves around me that I'm the most important thing to everybody that's here and that's evident in the way the family spends money and what we do every single weekend and everything about the whole family is about these kids and their activities and what are we telling them I hope what they're seeing in us is no you're not the most important thing our deepest desire is to follow the Lord and to respond to him and that's actually my deepest desire even for you child it's not your GPA necessarily you're batting average necessarily you know I want you to follow I want you to follow me as I follow and that's what our family is about that's the rock that anchors us you know I see this with young families and I'm not saying I never fell into it but we follow our kids around all day instead of them following us around you know one way I see it I see it many times at Mercy Hill where young families like well we can't serve on the weekend why because you know little Johnny doesn't like being in kids ministry for two services when we serve one in the ten one listen he'll get over it he will and you know what he's going to learn from it you ain't the most important thing around here actually our family's on a mission that's bigger than you know your nap time or whatever and that's something that they need to see and so I want to call us to think about this for just a minute we can't tell them to worship God if we're worshiping them man are we are we drawn to their success in a way that's unhealthy man let's kind of dismantle that idol today and let's point them to Jesus point them to the cross yeah we're doing something a little different today guys across all of our campuses I've actually asked our campus pastors and some directors at different campuses to come up and kind of lead us in a spiritual moment that prepares us for the worship set that we're about to go into so guys actually at all of our campuses would y'all welcome out our campus pastor hey church pastor andrew he spent his whole sermon kind of leading to this idea that your your joy is kind of is kind of built on leading others to walk rightly in the truth if you're anything like me you can get distracted by the responsibilities that you got the good things that are happening in your life I'll give you one example um on Hulu there's this uh show the series about Sherlock Holmes it's called elementary and y'all it is captivating my waking moments you know I'm thinking about what what just happened in the show what's about to happen next and will I ever be as good of a detective as Sherlock Holmes and church there's nothing wrong with good things good gifts the responsibilities that God has given us but let me tell you something if we get consumed by those things if we spend too much time focusing on the things that have less eternal impact and value man could it be that we're focusing on the wrong things church we bought this uh this rope because it represents your existence and this piece that's this tape right here it represents the 70 years the give or take the 70 years that you get in this life are we focusing too much on the the things that have less eternal impact like there's nothing wrong with wanting to make sure your kids get good grades there's nothing wrong with making sure they're good at soccer or whatever but you were made for more this other side of the rope this side right here this represents eternity y'all and just like the energizer bunny it keeps going and going and going right on off the stage are you focused on the right part of the road are you focused on the part of the road that is making eternal impact you know pastor Andrew he just he just talks about how like there's joy that's built there's joy that's built on helping people walk rightly right here I'll tell you like this y'all at mercio church we believe this is why we exist we exist to make disciples and multiply churches that there's a ton of different ways that you can help people walk rightly but like to just sum it up we're just trying to make disciples we're just trying to make disciples if you're a parent I want you I want you to really ask are you shaping your life in such a way that you're making disciples like what lessons will your kids just know because they grew up in your house my kids I want my kids to be able to say I know how to pray because my dad he showed us all the time will your kids know how to read the bible because you spent time at that gymnasium at that at that kitchen table reading the bible together will they be able to know how to read the bible maybe maybe you don't have any kids we're talking about the the mentorship discipleship arena do they have to walk through the things that you walk through do they have to learn the same lessons the exact same way or could you just share some wisdom with them so that they could avoid it my grandpa used to say you ain't got to step and poo to smell it y'all mercy hill we try to create some tools to keep some ideas in your head one of those tools is our axe to flywheel comes right out of the bible you gather your group you give you go and I just want to ask you the question who are you taking with you through that flywheel who's coming to the gathering because you invited them who's going to become the next serve team leader because you took some time and you saved their mind and you helped them understand their emotional intelligence and how to lead people who's going to be in a community group this year because you pushed them and you challenged them to go they ain't got to be in your group could they just be in a group who is going to be generous because you challenge them to live live and give in a generous way yo who is going to go y'all there's a thousand ways that we go right here at mercy hill church you learn how to you learn how to invite somebody to the church you learn how to share your faith maybe maybe it's going on a mission trip joining a church plant or giving it all giving your all at the end of the in the world so that somebody who who might not have ever heard the name jesus could walk rightly in the truth that you might get joy listen if you served at kids week this week you know exactly what i'm talking about you know exactly what i'm talking about i don't care if you serve as a security team member you served wherever i remember i'm at the final session i'm looking i'm looking at them worshiping jesus and they're they're worshiping with all they got sometimes a little better than us there's just some joy that's just being caught up in my heart because i'm seeing they're walking rightly in the truth and i had a part to play now let us experience that joy by helping others walk rightly in the truth y'all let's pray together heavenly father i just thank you so much you've been so good you've been so kind you've helped us walk rightly in the truth and now lord i pray as we're being challenged to help other people walk rightly in the truth man we would experience that joy and because of our efforts people would be saved people will walk rightly in the truth people would take steps god that you would do that and then we would get to experience the benefit of that joy please lord help us to do that you gotta pray all these things in your mass's name
