Church Clothes

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning church my name is Jason I am one of the pastor's here on staff and I am excited to bring what God has for us I think this morning through his word so you guys have church clothes or maybe grow up with church clothes how about you but I grew up with this specific section in my closet they were closed dedicated for church only for church only - yeah you're laughing cuz you have them - maybe you've got them now PS don't tell my mom but I'm not wearing my church clothes today okay so at any rate Church clothes and what I remember is that my sister and I we could not wait to get out of our church clothes it was just like Sunday's happening but I cannot wait to get out of my church clothes get home it was like as soon as I opened the door from the garage into the house mom can we take off her church clothes right like I'll half way upstairs almost out of and she's like no after dinner and so here's another weird thing - like how come on Sunday we called lunch dinner anybody else grew up with that yeah I like so confusing like now hindsight's 2020 it seemed normal then but now I'm like trying to teach my daughter about meals and mealtime and what breakfast is and is this them are we eating at night today this is dinner but don't worry on Sunday we're gonna change it all around we're gonna have dinner during the middle wait what that's weird right but you see I had developed this normal natural rhythm of my church clothes and I started to wonder like did that influence my rhythm with Jesus I mean what's the rhythm of your life or maybe maybe a better question is what is the foundation of the rhythm of your life I mean we all have this beat that we march to right this normal give and take and Evan flow and in music we want to be connected to the B yep connected to the beat say what say what connected right okay so this this is think of the beat yeah come on we're feeling it okay and in music we use this thing called a metronome not a drummer to keep us on task kidding boom got him Scott so you know we we use this thing called a metronome it's it's it's a tool that goes back and forth you can set it to whatever time you want and we all in as a band stay connected right it becomes the foundation for everything that we're doing and so my question for you this morning is what is the foundation of your rhythm of your normal everyday life what's the foundation I mean I guess part of it is Sunday cuz you're here so awesome welcome if so does this disc right question I'm asking or is it like church close maybe you think about something on Saturday night set aside what you're gonna wear but really this Jesus thing just happens on a Sunday morning for a couple hours and we're done it may I encourage you Church to develop to have to fix your foundation on Christ like we see in Paul's life as we study acts right is Craig unpacked for us last week in the normal everyday rhythms we embrace this gospel presence in our life and the norm will see everyday rhythms of our lives church your work and sharing the love of Christ with others is the most important work on the planet today your work and sharing the love of Christ with others is the most important thing happening on the planet today as the church we are the called out ones the ones who Jesus has said everyone's gonna know who I am because of you and what you do you're gonna be putting him on display right as Christ becomes the foundation of our rhythm we as the church we can identify we can talk to people and in their pains in their troubles and their strives relate to our story and we can declare right you're not alone you're not alone Christ is in the middle of it I've been there too I've been there to church your work and sharing the love of Christ is the most important thing happening on the planet today and it's true I believe it and I believe it and so if if it is true I have some couple questions for us if the most important thing happening on the planet today is sharing a love of Christ then why do we avoid it like the plague why are we so tight-lipped or here's another one why on Sunday morning can we sing and shout joyfully yes Lord we praise you we lift you high on a Sunday but then Monday just get really tight-lipped and quiet about it and is it because maybe we've added so much stress to this thing called a gospel presentation where a script that we have to memorize and I better not get it out of order I'm not a public speaker and it's all this pressure put onto us in this one time event I mean do you really think that's what God wanted when he said go and be to make disciples go and be the church show people who I am full of guilt and shame and pain and stress no no no God wants us to take our normal everyday rhythms and surrender them to Christ to make him the foundation he wants you he wants you to take your normal everyday walking around life and presented to him as an act of worship what was our verse that we meditated on this morning right that we would show others the goodness of our God we take our normal life the normalcy and we show others the goodness of our God for he has called us out of the darkness but in to his wonderful light and so we're gonna look at some phrases in acts I want to I want to draw your attention turn with me to acts 16 acts 16 and there are some phrases here that I want us to look at that we may have just kind of skimmed over and we may have kind of skimmed over if you'll remember in acts 16 we have these conversion stories these people that come to Jesus they they say yes I'm gonna follow him we have Lydia there's the prison paulus I was in prison and the demon-possessed girl right so these three stories of people that come to believe in Jesus and I want to draw your attention to some key phrases so let's look at acts 16 verse 13 acts 16 verse 13 let's read together and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the Riverside where we supposed there was a price of prayer we sat down and spoke to the woman the women who had come together on the Sabbath day we went outside to the gate to the Riverside where we suppose there was a place of Prayer Saturday there's no synagogue in this city we want to find a place to pray so we're just heading on down by the riverside Hey hey Lydia my name's Paul nice to meet you look with me in verse 16 chapter 16 verse 16 as we were going to the place of prayer we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling this phrase right here as we were going in arghhhh as we were going we're just we're just going on our normal looking for a place to pray kind of day down by the river alright we see these two encounters happen in Paul's normal everyday rhythms there's this gospel presence that he has embraced in his natural rhythm of life let me know let me know if this rhythm sounds familiar 6:30 a.m. alarm then we're up and we're making coffee and I'm making tea now I'm making breakfast then I'm making lunch and then we're getting the kids ready to go out the door then we're out the door I hope there's not any traffic because I left it 20 minutes late so we make it I promise I didn't speed sorry Lord right and then nine-to-five work happens and then we're off to go take the kids to soccer practice and we may be eating dinner in the car like hashtag no judgment right so eating during the car and then we're home and then it's bath and then read a story then bottle time and then hey honey I love you and it's 8:30 and it's just couch nap right just honey done 6:30 a.m. here we go right again right does that sound familiar yeah that's like a snapshot of my weekly daily rhythm right now and if I'm not careful if I'm not careful I can blink and it's Saturday maybe does anyone else feel that way again Craig taught us last week that Paul and Silas were learning to live for Christ to have this gospel presence in their everyday rhythms I love that word rhythm I love the word rhythm all right because sometimes life it's just like here it's a 4/4 it's a slow steady you know it's it's constant consistent but sometimes right this happens it's still happening there's a rhythm happening but it's abrupt interrupted and sometimes 3/5 sparse you see there is a rhythm to our lives and it's constantly changing but it's always consistent and so my question for you this morning is what is the foundation of the rhythm of your life your normal everyday getting kids ready going to work making dinner sleeping eating walking around normal life what's the foundation we're gonna look in the book of Romans it's our buddy Paul who were studying in Acts and learning about his journeys this is later and he's writing a letter to the Christians in Rome but I believe they're incredibly important words for us as Christians in Sacramento today this is Romans 12 verse 1 and it comes from the message it may sound a little different I want to read it to you Romans 12 verse 1 here's what I want you to do God helping you take your everyday ordinary life your sleeping eating going to work and walking around life place it before God as an offering I mean that's pretty much it right I'm gonna go with sleeping eating going to work and walking around that's about it that's pretty just straight-up normal life I take that and place it before God as an offering take the normalcy of what you're doing and place it before God worship Him make Jesus the foundation make he's your metronome he's the one that you lock into right and we've seen this all through the book of Acts and these as Paul was going about his normal day looking for a priests place to pray right through the normal everyday rhythms this week I had one of our staff members tell us a story about his neighbor a neighbor that he's known for now 15 years and she is a single mom she raised three boys all by herself just strong woman but she is just you know as neighbors do knocking on the door hey got any eggs or hey can you help me put this into my car and our staff members yeah of course I mean it for 15 years right connected well this week his neighbor's sister came into town and they were able to have some conversation and the sister told our staff member I just want you to know my sister really really appreciates what you're doing for her and and she knows there's something different about you what did you love that you see what our staff member has done for 15 years is he has embraced this gospel presence in his normal everyday rhythm and what he's doing is he's just planting little seeds of the gospel I guarantee you this isn't what he did I'm sure when as soon as she moved in he knocked on the door said hey I work in a car cake Church and I love Jesus and you're gonna go to hell right no oh no he just in his normal everyday knocking on the door you got some eggs I can borrow kind of life embrace this gospel presence planting seeds planting seeds see I believe we have to look at our normal lives as the place where Christ reigns right we surrender our normalcy to him when we listen to what he says about how we live right we can't just see sharing about Jesus or talking about Jesus or learning about Jesus or worshipping Jesus as just a one-time event a Sunday thing like it can't be Church clothes it can't it can't be Church clothes we must take our normal everyday lives and present them to God as an offering making Christ our foundation turn with me to acts 17 acts 17 I'm gonna steal a little bit of Craig's thunder next week so nobody tell him okay cool thanks acts 17 next week Craig again Craig will unpack this is maybe familiar maybe foreign to plenty of people in here but it's a story of Paul at Mars Hill in the city of Athens and he's going about and he's seeing that there are all of these religious peoples and all of these altars set up and he's thinking okay opportunity Here I am in the city I see that there's some normalcy happening with these guys they obviously are worshiping something hey there's an opportunity let me share and so he does and so this verse is taken from when he's he's just out of the normal everyday rhythm of his life talking about who Jesus is let's read together in verse 20 acts 17:26 and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place pay attention to this having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their mankind's dwelling place ok Church do you know what this means this is awesome this means that God has placed you in Sacramento California in this time on your street in your apartment at your house he's given you gifts and talents for a purpose for a purpose to declare his kingdom come and his will be done do you realize that do you realize that do we need to wake up to the fact that teacher grandparent doctor producer realtor state worker whomever you are God has given you specific gifts and placed you in a specific place at this time for his purpose wake up wake I mean remember Esther like let's not forget about where we've been this summer but what was kind of that phrase or is the famous phrase of Esther right for such a time as this you are here for a purpose at your job in your house on your street in your neighborhood in this city for a reason wake up and pay attention I think part of the reason why that we avoid this along with making you know talking about Jesus is one-time event thing is that we've really lost the ability to have normal conversations about him we freaked ourselves out because for a long time it was like okay well we got to memorize this script and you have to go win those souls to Jesus you know it's like that's gotten in the way of this normal everyday rhythm because we've made this talking about Jesus the single event it's this one-time thing and no no today more than ever we must learn to talk about Jesus and our normal everyday rhythms of life I mean you can do it like Paul as our example you can live out this gospel presence in your everyday life in your everyday life let's go back to Romans let's go back to Romans chapter 12 take your everyday ordinary life you're sleeping eating going to work and walking around life and place it before God as an offering don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking okay what can we I'm just gonna erase this one yeah that's right no how that's what go back home go back on don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking okay that's like a whole nother sermon right there right maybe you've heard it like this Romans 12 maybe you've heard it like this do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind don't conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind don't don't fit in to your culture so easily then you keep gonna do without even thinking no and this one this one's heavy remember last week Craig unpacked for us that being a Christian is a big deal being a Christian is a big deal it means now that I see Christ and I pattern my life as his life right he's my example what he does I do what he says I say where he goes I go my daily rhythm becomes like his becomes like his if you're taking notes I want you to know we are called out of the patterns of this world and into the boundaries of Christ we're called out of the patterns of this world and into the patterns of another way to say it's like this don't be transformed by culture be transformed by Christ don't let culture dictate who you are and what you do and how you set up your daily rhythm No let Christ be that be transformed by Christ be transformed by Christ so what are some of the patterns of this world what are some of the patterns of this world well selfishness self-centeredness win win win you know me before anyone else how about this one money money money money yeah money right stop wins stuff wins hey you do you you do you no matter who it hurts even if it hurts yourself or how about this one he react only when my rights are threatened but don't stand up for anyone else's rights you see the patterns of this world want nothing more than to lull you to sleep and so this morning church wake up wake up to the reality that you've been given gifts and talents you've been placed at a certain place on your street in your job for a reason to declare Jesus kingdom come and his will be done yeah you see it's got to be in this normal everyday rhythm not like church clothes not like church clothes be transformed by Christ right don't be transformed by the culture of be transformed by Christ you see the enemy he wants to keep you distracted he wants you to go about your today not thinking about him just asleep sleepwalking zombified like that newborn dad look anybody feel Andrew Northcutt feel you bro you know like that's that's what the enemy wants he wants you to just be asleep don't think about Christ don't talk about him just you do you you do you everything's gonna be alright we gonna be all right do you know no and why do I think that we have to do this like in the normal everyday rhythms of life I think that because when else are you gonna do it you're not never it's not gonna happen it's not gonna happen we must learn to to infuse Christ into our normal everyday rhythms because what are you gonna do are you gonna walk over to your neighbor's house and say hey why don't you come over to my place for dinner tonight and you're like hyping yourself up like okay I gotta teach him about Jesus I got my script memorized let's go let's go right and then you get in the door and then hey welcome do you know Jesus if you don't you're going to hell have a great day like what know your neighbors gonna be like you guys need to avoid the crazy people that live on the corner and Daphney and what you know I mean like they are crazy know what I think you should do is you should invite your neighbor over for dinner and you should find out what their new grand baby's name is or where they work or what they love to do or where their struggling what's causing them so much pain right now become their friend become their friend that's what Jesus did that's what Jesus did I want to draw your attention to this verse in Luke Luke chapter 15 verse 2 now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around Jesus around to hear Jesus okay now the people that were far from God and we're told that they don't belong we're gathering around to hear what this Jesus had to say but the Pharisees and teachers of the law church people they muttered this man welcomes sinners and eats with them I mean they're trying to like give him a dig right like a low blow and like if it couldn't be farther from the truth like this is the best compliment in the world and we know it it's what it's Jesus the friend of sinners Jesus the friend of sinners okay follow me here who are your friends who are your friends and if right now you can look around you and go yep these are them you have a problem do you have a problem because if we are called to proclaim who Jesus is and what he has done for us and all of your friends are already a part of that story you got some work to do hey guys maybe you need to reach out to your neighbors I mean are they welcome in your house do you eat with them see it because I think you can take those moments as you befriend them and you can have these simple gospel conversations gospel conversations and that sound good sounds like a preachy thing to say doesn't it gospel convert what is a gospel conversation a gospel conversation is a conversation that's filled with love humility peace one who listens patience look back to a lot of listening and in those moments as we make friends we talk about what Jesus has done for us and why we love him and how he has saved us in the most normal way possible so some of you may know that I really really like vinyl records really like vinyl records like in particular jazz from like 1954 to 1964 that is my jam like that is what I go looking for and because of my addiction hobby vinyl records I frequent this place called dimple it's on Harding dimple books and vile I'm the one guy that shows up my may or may not show up every Friday and they may or may not open at 10 o'clock and I may or may not go there every Friday on my day off and I'm coming in with Norah and so as I'm frequenting this place I'm getting to know the people that work there and so I've made some friends Steve and Ryan um also by the way they love golf so like they love golf and vinyl like it was predestined for us to be friends I'm just gonna tell you that right now and so I'm eight I may have made these friends and you know walk in at ten pushing Norah and over to the new release section just looking digging for any jazz violin between 1954 and 64 I got my eyes on it maybe you guys do too so yeah so anyways I get to know these guys well one day now maybe six weeks ago seven weeks ago I walk in like a normally I do a head over to the side of the counter I notice that Steve wasn't there but that's normal sometimes he's in the back sorting what's come in and other times he'll come out and give me a record hey man I was hold do you have this culturing what I've been holding it for you I don't this is awesome I come in the club now this is great so anyways I guess he's not there so I'm here I'm looking flipping through the new arrivals and all of a sudden Ryan choking back tears he's like hey man I need to tell you something and he says Steve died last night yeah and I just put my hands on my head like this and then I looked him straight in the eye and I said Ryan I'm here for you do you want someone to talk to you are you gay are you guys playing in a service I want to help this is what I do choose who I am right and in this normal everyday conversation with my friend Ryan I just get to plant a seed this little gospel seat and I want to remind us of what Craig said last week it is not our job to save people Jesus will do that God does the saving but you know it is our job it's our job to tell the story it's our job to plant that seed and then tend to the garden so now guess what ever since I found that out more than ever I am there every Friday with Nora in tow hanging out I mean Ryan even mentioned dude I just I love you bring your girls here just makes me so happy you know and he's fully engaged like hey she whoppin watching a Peppa the pig today what she watch it you know and I got my buddy I plant the seed and it's not my job to save him but it is my job to tend to the garden you guys know any gardeners you guys know I am gonna confess I'm a horrible one remember my schedule yeah I ain't nobody got time for that right so uh gardeners plant seeds they plant seeds and then what they do they go on and they get their professor X hat and they go plants grow no no they don't do that no they plant the seed but then they care for it too much water too much Sun not enough right they tend to it they care they pay attention to it so a church in the same way may Christ be the foundation of your rhythm your normal daily life and may you have eyes to see and ears to hear these opportunities for gospel conversations and plant the seed plant the seed but let God do the saving you just tend to the garden you just tend to the garden and so as we conclude I want to give you two super practical excuse me practical ways how to have these conversations cuz again it sounds great yes I want to have easi Gummer how do we do this how do we communicate Jesus in a normal everyday conversational way I want to give you two things this morning one I want you to pay attention to people's pains and number two I want you to pay attention to people's passions pay attention to people's pains when they begin to talk about what's happening in Sonoma County down in LA whatever like listen identify a Thursday night I was at the school where my wife teaches and my daughter goes and sat down with one of the parents who's will have our really good friends in their class and she just said can you imagine like I can't even imagine what it's like to go through this and I just went yeah I can imagine because I've had two house fires she's like what you've had two house fires yeah so I begin to share this story look stuff burns stuff burns you can I tell you about what the most important things are in my life right and in that moment it's just a normal paying attention to people's pains here's what gods did for me maybe he'll maybe maybe he wants to do the same for you or pay attention to people's passions like what do they love do they love being outside I mean the reason I love jazz is because I can recognize that God has gifted these men like Miles Davis and John Coltrane and monk at Kenny Burrell and Ray Bao they he's gifted all of these guys they're playing this amazing music because it comes from him like he's the source do you love being outside in creation hiking whatever playing golf I love it because I can recognize God it helps me see you more pay attention to people's pains pay attention to people's passions and connect them connecting to Christ and how Christ has changed you and remember it's Jesus's job to do the saving but it's our job to communicate who Jesus is and then what just might happen then as you go about living your normal ever de Dillon or D going school lunch makin work in life Christ is gonna be present he's gonna be your foundation you're gonna see it work all around you and then when you least expect it the question will come don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking instead may you pattern your life after Christ fix your attention on him on him it doesn't it seem like every week there's something like incredibly specific to pray for something like what's happened in charlottesville the Hurricanes what's going on in Puerto Rico and now all these fires church again like if you if you want to help we've enabled you to do that you can go to our website and on the app and if you want to give money our denomination has come together and set up this fund and I have a pastor friend and probably like many of you that is in Santa Rosa and their specific needs right now or they just need daily hygiene stuff and money and so there are immediate needs if you want to help by all means God's calling you that please do that but let's not forget in three months when these hundred thousand displaced people are coming back to ashes that that may be where we lean in and where we say yes as a church we are or vengeance in dividual II I am going but there is so much happening as we pay attention to people's pains and passion in the news today we can take that and connect it and talk about your hope what you do with worry and how you cling to Jesus I mean it's it's so important right now it's so important right now amidst all of this pain and darkness and hate that we show others the beauty of who Jesus is so let's pray let's pray and I just invite you to bring your attention inward to him begin to listen maybe as I was talking about neighbors someone just popped into your head you can't get him out you pay attention to that maybe I was talking about work or what you do or where you live God is speaking to you just come in with open mind open heart listen to what he's calling you to do let's pray God you you see all of this and we know that you're going to use everything for your glory can we pray that your church would rise up in these areas all over the world or as close as 45 minutes away that our brothers and sisters who love Jesus would display you Christ in the most normal natural ways in tangible ways so that people may come to you how would you be near to the people who are in the middle of the pain of loss you are close to the brokenhearted we pray for those families who have lost loved ones God would you give us your eyes to see and your ears to hear how we as a church or how individually we are called to display your kingdom maybe specifically go through these fires everything that we see around us can we ask you to speak speak to us how we get to be a part of the solution how you how we can use your the gifts that you've given us the abilities that talents that you've given us to display Jesus through our normal everyday lives thank you for this day that you have made God that in the midst of pain and frustration and challenge that we know as Christ followers we can rejoice and be glad we love you and we thank you for life today amen amen Church your work in sharing the love of Christ with others is the most important thing on the planet today thanks for listening to the arcade church podcast visit us at arcade church online comm facebook twitter or instagram 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Channel: Arcade Church

Views: 133

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: arcade church, sacramento, gospel, church, jasen ashdown, 10-15-17

Id: 2ST9emvhsrk

Length: 38min 27sec (2307 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 16 2017