September 12, 2021 Sunday 9:30 Live Service

[Music] [Music] and love is not a feeling to god love is a noun he is love but to you and i love is a verb it's on me it doesn't matter well i fell in love and i can fall out of love nonsense you are a sinner and you married a sinner and there'll be sin in the relationship and we can't escape it we can be forgiven from it we fell in love in a fallen world that had all has already fallen so we're talking about this fabulous relationship and we take a vow to love [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] so [Music] and love is not a feeling to god love is a noun he is love but to you and i love is a verb it's on me it doesn't matter well i fell in love but i can fall out of love nonsense you're a sinner and you married a sinner and there'll be sin in the relationship and we can't escape it we can be forgiven from it we fell in love in a fallen world that it all has already fallen so we're talking about this fabulous relationship and we take a vow to love [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning second family can we stand together if you love him let's praise him if you love him lift your hand in praise if you love him stand with us today if you love him lift your voice [Music] every we will not be silent hallelujah [Music] [Music] the world [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] worship is majesty unto jesus [Music] authority is [Music] is [Music] [Music] worship his majesty [Music] who died [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] dearest heavenly father as we enter your presence to worship your majesty speak your deep abiding truth into our hearts where each of us needs to hear it the most and change our lives so that they may never be the same again before you pray in christ's name amen amen well welcome to second this morning please grab a seat we are so thankful you have chosen to worship with us at one of 18 services across seven campuses in the greater houston area it is a joy to have you with us and if you're visiting this morning welcome you are our special guest now whether this is the first time you've been with us or you've been with us for several weeks i'd like to ask you to raise your hand high in the air just like i have mine yes so one of our helpful ushers can hand you a guest card now once you receive that card i'd like to ask you to do several things first if you can fill it out completely place it in the offering plate as it's passed by you later in the service we would love to reach out to you and welcome you to our church family and second if you can detach this bright blue logo place it on your clothing it symbolizes the life of our church our church family would love to offer you some words of encouragement at the end of our service and lastly to my left your right is our red door it symbolizes the front door of our church after the service we'd love for you to head over there i'll be there as well as some other pastors and we'd love to answer any questions you might have about our church now at the conclusion of the message there's going to be a prayer we're going to sing a song of invitation at that moment if you'd like to become a member of our church family we'd ask that you simply stand where you are make your way to one of these aisles and walk down front where our pastor will warmly greet you and welcome you into the life of our church now let's look forward to what god is going to do in our service this morning 20 years ago we mark an anniversary that we do not like to mark we did not like to remember but evil struck our land in a way that we had never experienced it before and we haven't yet recovered and i remember the sunday after that moment that all of our churches filled up to overflowing and people were disturbed and confused and frightened and wondering if this is the end of our land is it the end of the world but we need certainly to remember those who lost loved ones so many of them almost 000 in new york alone but also we remind ourselves that the evil one is always trying to destruct and bring down an individual a family or nation and therefore we need to be reminded of how important it is how vital it is that we personally walk with jesus christ and put on the whole arm of god so that this moment of crisis in our land and in our world we may be not a part of the problem not just complaining but we may be a part of god's answer to seek to revive our land and touch this world for jesus christ have stood up in recent days and challenged our governor our lieutenant governor our senate and our house to stand up tall at this moment and i am thankful to them for that heartbeat bill that has been passed we will save 40 to 50 000 lives of children you know how powerful this beginning step is to a restoration of the sacredness of life by how loud those are crying who somehow do not understand that the safest place a baby should be is in the womb of its mother so i am grateful and thankful for our elected leadership who have taken a first step and have by this very legislation save 40 to 50 000 lives of children yet unborn also we talked about our border and i am thankful that a bill has been passed that will fund texas in rebuilding the wall and shutting down all the open-ended exit to our nation i am grateful for that but if you received a brochure when you came in hope everyone received one we're going to be in a process of education our church family the next five or six or seven weeks because let me tell you where we are we have two buildings that our children have been in for many many years one building is about 61 62 years old another building is 42 or 3 years old and they are falling down that's the only word i can use we have spent too much money trying to keep them upright so we've come to the point that we're going to tear down those two buildings and we're going to build a children's building that's going to be without precedent without any other building like it in all of america we must do this now a lot of us my children grandchildren have been a part of the ministry here in those buildings but i didn't give a dime to build them many of us did not give anything to build them but now we have a chance and we're calling it make your mark what does that mean maybe you don't know this most of you do that every time a child comes to faith in jesus christ and we explain to them now who they are in jesus christ and they're baptized those children take and dip their hand in different colors and they put that mark on a wall and that's a hand print and in that handprint we write the date in which they were baptized and we write their name and therefore we have thousands of these handprints on walls and now those walls are falling down and you and i have the opportunity to build new walls for another generation of children can come to faith in christ and put their mark there so this is a chance for us we have a wonderful testimony today caroline knapp caroline thompson knapp you know the thompson's and knapp's family been in our church many years wonderfully a daughter married a son and son married a daughter so these two families have come together and caroline has a wonderful story about the legacy that is here of people coming to christ i want you to hear her words my parents joined the church i want to say in like 90 maybe 92 91 when we when we moved here really fell in love with the church and as did my dad and my mom pretty instantly got connected into teaching and they've really just lived out what they believed we were here every sunday and i started school here was here all the way through my senior year and i have the best memories here i fell in love with children's ministry at a young age i got baptized when i was eight i remember putting my handprint on the wall and it was red and i really found of course at a young age didn't know to call it community but i found community early on it just felt like family um and has always felt like family and so now for to be able to bring my children you know here is so full circle and my husband grew up going to church here it's pretty wild just to in his faithfulness and his goodness we can look forward with anticipation that you know he's going to do big things and we get to be a part of that to have gracie now come through church and um hopefully in in the nearest future you know come to know jesus personally as her lord and savior and to see her baptize here to see her get to put her little hand and paint and and put it up on the wall to see that here at 2nd baptist at a place where it has quite literally left a mark on every season of my life would be just indescribable i'm excited to to see what the lord has [Music] you and i build new walls we're going to take all those fingerprints through all these years and bring them forward on those new walls so we won't use a single moment we know that caroline came to faith in christ in february the 22nd 1998 and we want to build and provide for these kids so we're in the 21st century we'll be faithful and we'll build walls for kids and ministry in our new building that will touch thousands for years to come i know our family will be found faithful what an exciting time to serve the lord in this fellowship let's stand together [Music] sing with us he's called the majesty [Music] [Music] how great is [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] me [Music] how great is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] how great [Music] that's giving praise this morning amen lord how great you are how wonderful is your name [Music] thank you for the grace that you give lord and always being with us in this world that we're in today lord as we prepare our offerings we ask that they're pleasing to you we ask this in jesus name amen [Music] do [Applause] [Music] he's my rock my shield my fortress is my salvation and my strength accords of death they were surrounding me but he heard my cry for hell he is my refuge [Music] they were confronting me but he heard [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he is [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] oh foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] i will [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] how many times people have come to me and they said i've fallen in love well i asked you know how it happened and so many times i saw her and i knew she was the one now i grant you that sometimes rarely this works out a-okay but normally those who say lightning struck and i knew and i fell in love normally we have some problems there because the very word to fall right it means usually to fall down i know you can fall upstairs and you can maybe fall up a cliff but generally to fall means you fall down and you're tripped up you you didn't see what was there and you have fallen and so when somebody says they have fallen in love usually so many times tragically that love bottoms out and they fall in their words out of love we're talking about marriage we've been talking about marriage we'll talk about singleness we'll talk about a lot of relationships in the coming weeks as we sort of take first corinthians 7 and just walk through it and take other passages and enhance what god is trying to say to you and me especially and particularly about marriage some of you were here when we recommitted our marriage vows last week a lot of people got married incidentally for the first time last week in that service you did not know that others reaffirmed their vows and we understand brand new that when someone comes and says something like well what difference does a little piece of paper make you ever heard that let me tell you the difference it makes all of a sudden law is involved all of a sudden the lord is involved and there is marriage involved and usually someone who says well i'm not going to love you anymore with just a little piece of paper what they're really saying i don't trust you with my heart and my emotions as long as i feel like i love you oh we're going to stay together but we've already looked at the word of feeling feeling i i can't help how i feel remember that and we use as an excuse for something we do feelings are not positive or negative they're not good or bad remember feelings come as a result of our emotions our heart i i just can't help our feel we can't help how we feel but we certainly can help how we respond to feelings free will thought reason goes into the response to feeling therefore to give an excuse well i can't help how i feel that's what happens to people who think a piece of paper doesn't make any difference that's what happens to people it doesn't understand that marriage is a covenant not so much a contract not so much a legal thing it is a covenant between that couple and almighty god and by the way do you remember that we say vows only to god if you got married you were standing there a male and female and the pastor stood up and said well you give yourself to one another and you are to stay together good or bad for better for worse and you repeat after him for better for worse for richer for poor in sickness as in health do you so promise i do who are you saying those vows to to your mate to me your your husband your wife no you're saying those vows to god vows are made only to god that's what makes it a covenant so therefore when you make this promise to god say these vows to god not to your mate it's a god totally totally different and therefore the same thing happens in our conversion experience therefore we see that marriage and a new birth of becoming a christian are a wonderful metaphors marriage is a metaphor for that experience for example when you say i believe that jesus christmas word became flesh dwelt among us i believe calvary he died on the cross for our sins i believe in resurrection god raised him from the dead i believe the basic historical facts about the good news of what god has done for man in jesus christ do you so believe and you answer i do but you're not a christian no no no that's not the christian experience to believe the facts and to say i do to those facts that does not make anybody a christian it's when the question comes do you receive jesus christ in your life as your savior to salvage you to save you and as your lord to run your life then when you say i will you become a christian you see the parallel between the covenant we make with our bride and with the groom in marriage i do i will is a metaphor of the covenant we make with god when we receive him is jesus christ i believe these facts and i will receive him into my life so we're in the covenant let's look at what a covenant looks like look at this little triangle up here i love it marriage is god's gift where did marriage come from god in the beginning and when the man and a woman come together and they're married and notice something very very powerful when the wife grows closer to jesus and when the husband goes closer to jesus notice that as they are growing closer to jesus they're getting closer to each other see look at it as they grow as they grow and they meet in jesus christ and therefore we have a topsy-turvy understanding of salvation and of marriage we have the idea that we receive jesus christ and someday we're going to heaven we've got that backwards ladies and gentlemen now when a sperm and an egg come together bang there is conception when we receive jesus christ as lord and savior bang there is conception there is a new birth and we're already in heaven if you've done that yeah i was crucified with christ that sounds like death to me nevertheless i live yet not i but christ lives in me therefore we are already in heaven we are already in the throne room of god at the right hand of the lord we're already there right now therefore getting to heaven's not climbing i'm working to get to heaven oh no it is a realized fact today we're in heaven and now we're just in this life as christians discovering listen carefully what we've already become what we already have whoa we're discovering who we are in christ what we already have that's our christian life that's the excitement of it the same way a metaphor in marriage when do we become one two shall become one we get that in genesis two don't we leave cleave one flesh naked no shame one we get the same thing from jesus in matthew he said two have become one let no man put a son to what god has joined together matthew we get the same thing in ephesians by paul to become one when does that happen when you say i do and i will bang you're married right then you become one now in the process we have to grow and develop in that oneness discovering afresh who we really are with this new person that has come into being therefore when a death takes place in marriage that's divorce it's suicide a new life that had been created when two became one there's a new creation there and when that marriage ends in divorce that is a suicide and we'll talk about this clearly biblically when we start dealing with divorce and healing etc don't get all tangled up we're just going to deal on biblical truth so therefore we see two become one instantly with i do and thy will and therefore we have the wonderful privilege of marriage i've already talked about the only three kind of marriages they're bad marriages they're okay marriages and they're great marriages now what kind would you like to have god gives us principles to have great at marriage are you and i willing to follow his principles and have a a great marriage or not that's the question and by the way it always works i've got two personal examples in my own life of what a great marriage is all about and i can give plenty of proof and validity to it do you want to have a great marriage or just hang on okay you know we've been married a while and i just what kind of marriage do you want what kind of marriage do you want we have to understand marriage consists of two dimensions first of all there is a horizontal dimension that's everyday life that's here and there everyday life and for this marriage to grow and grow in more oneness it's already won in a realization of that oneness and a fulfillment of that oneness what has to take place there has to be weeds you have to weed and you have to plant weed and plant weed and plant that's always the ministry and the work of marriage you weed and you plant we had a garden almost all of my life in our backyard my dad required that i worked in it i hated it i'm not a gardening kind of guy some people are more power to you but when you have a garden you have to break up the soil and and you plant and you weed you weed you weed in life you have to do some weeding what some of the weeds we have to pull up i challenge you that when you get home with your wife your husband in a quiet time and both of you say look whatever you say i'm not going to have the lawyer in me operating you know all of us have lawyers in us and it says that prosecuting a lawyer let me tell you what's wrong with you honey i there's a prosecutor and all of us there's a defense lawyer we defend ourselves if you're going to do some effective weeding get the lawyer out of your life and ask your mate what could you do or what could you change to be a better husband and a better wife now remember the lawyer has been taken out of the question you got to remember that don't oh i didn't know no no no just listen just listen and you'll run into some weeds because your wife your husband knows more about you and more about me and really in marriage if it works at all there's no place to hide you know all the phoniness is there all the pretense is there reality is there that's the way it is marriage is a mirror in which you're forced to look at yourself all the time it can be beneficial and helpful but you want to do some reading go ask your partner what would you like to change about me what where am i not getting it and you may run into some weeds that have been there for a long time that's keeping that marriage from singing i like a marriage that sings a marriage that when you get together you are thrilled and when you're apart you can't wait to get back together again i had a marriage like that for 58 years i've got a marriage like that two years now in december let me tell you something folks this isn't just preacher stuff this is reality so we got to do some weeding some have more reading to do than others and if your mate doesn't tell you about those weeds spend a little time with god and listen to him and he'll tell you some things you need to pull up and kill and root out of your life you say it's too late no it's not are you still breathing everybody breathing no anybody stop breathing oh we're all breath it's not too late god works god heals so in marriage you got to always be weeding and you got to always be planting you can't just clear out of space you got to plant plant plant and on that plant you have a little tripod there what do you plant i thought about s.a.t scores what is your s.a.t score in marriage husband and wives the s i think would stand for sensitivity are you sensitive to your marriage partner are you sensitive tuned in alert are you sensitive that's the s are you attentive hello are you attentive to him attentive to if you're sensitive to follow-through is being attentive and then are you trustworthy are you a man or a woman that can be trusted all times all places see that's the tripod upon which planning must be there well i'm just not like that i'm not geared like yes you are god works miracles when we're born again he works miracles when we die and and we graduate finally to that which we already have and he'll work a miracle in your marriage if a lot of people would wake up look up marriages that are successful exciting creative in everything you can imagine their marriage where there is weeding and where there is planting you weed and you plant and you weed and you plant and you wake up one day and said i am amazed what god is doing in my life so marriage is horizontal but marriage also is vertical it's vertical let me say something listen carefully to what i'm saying if you do not pray with your wife your husband that is as serious if you decide not to sleep with your wife or your husband did you hear what i said if you do not pray with your wife your husband that is at least as serious as if you decide i'm not going to sleep with my wife or my husband say why is that because a little bit of prayer with god and listening to god together if you've been a jerk if you've been greedy if you've hold grudges if you've brought back some old problem that happened way back listen you can't really pray remember when you you you get naked you're not ashamed we get when we pray we get naked before god if you don't he knows anyway so when you pray together exciting things happen wonderful things happen all the phoniness all the masks go away when you really go to the lord god and say lord i've got this and that and the other man it is magnificent so there's horizontal we weed we plant we weed and we plant and there's vertical that's when we go to him and we pray and in the process what begins to happen to men and women in marriage they begin to unconditionally love each other as god unconditional god loves every one of us regardless of anything we've done or will do or have done his love is permanent it does not change it does not vary he just in every situation loves us we get to that point with our mate we just we just love them because we're honest with god and honest with one another and there's weeding and there's planning and there's praying together and wonderful things happen and we realize we're going up that triangle we're becoming more and more literally one we are one but we're discovering what that oneness is all about and how magnificent it is paul says ephesians 5 that nobody hates a part of their body you don't hate your body the second great commandment love the lord thy god all the heart soul mind body love your neighbor who's your closest neighbor it's your mate it's your spouse love your neighbors you love yourself paul says nobody hates themselves and therefore we're to love them because they're a part of us we are one i ran into a word that i did not know a couple of weeks ago emulsion emulsion i didn't know the meaning of that word now be careful how many know the meaning of that word would you lift your hand and hold it there if you know what a i didn't know maybe you do lift your hand hold it there you know what emulsion means a little timid hand wait oh way up if you know what emulsion means lift your hand now a lot of the wives know that it's sort of a cooking word i have discovered that emulsion is a beautiful word emulsion well i'll give you an illustration if you have oil and you have vinegar and you mix them together and you shake them hard enough there is a beget there is emulsion there but what happens when the shaking stops they begin begins to separate again doesn't it you see oil primarily is fat doesn't have any taste vinegar is an acidity type solution and it has a strong sharp taste but you mix them together you have oil and vinegar and man that's a pretty good thing emulsion takes place but if coal comes immediately they divide if hot comes just almost immediately they divide what a beautiful picture of marriage of oneness we come together there's emulsion but let some conflict come a little heat come we begin to step away let some coldness come whoa we begin to divide so what keeps emulsion there we know there these are molecules that are opposite ends of the pole and what is it that takes those molecules what are what are the hands that are used to bring emulsion together so that the oil and vinegar stay together because you go to the grocery store and there's oil and vinegar and it's not divided what happened why is that different we mix all in there what's happened emulsion and what why is that oil in vinegar staying together it's because there is a stabilizer is added ah added stabilizer and that stabilizer it just brings those different molecules from different poles polar opposite together like a man and a woman and brings them together and that stabilizer keeps them as one if you don't know you'll never guess what that stabilizer normally is in marriage it's the lord jesus christ ladies and gentlemen it is the lord jesus christ that takes these two polar opposite male and female and brings them together and his principles and that vertical relationship that horizontal relationship that oneness is sealed together by god in jesus christ and we seek to live together according to his principles where there's plenty of forgiveness there's plenty of lovingness there's plenty of opportunity to really celebrate the sacred gift of marriage the stabilizer is jesus what is the stabilizer with oil and vinegar honey honey is that terrific remember i told you your marriage can just stay there and you have a bad marriage you never marriage that's you know okay sometimes good sometimes bad we're just hanging on or you have a marriage that is a perpetual honey moon jesus christ keeps that oneness that emulsion there and marriage therefore in a human sense is the most fulfilling meaningful exciting gift that god has given to humanity our heavenly father how many times i've failed how many times i've spoken when i should have been quiet how many times lord i've been quiet when i should have spoken give us discernment led by your spirit and father we pray that there will be an application in marriage and an anticipation for maybe those who are unmarried or celebration of those who have been married and are not married to see this beautiful gift you've given lord some here need to say i do to the truth of the gospel others need to say i will i receive jesus in my life i want him to have everything that i have i want a new beginning if that's those here today may as we sing in a moment they stand for the balcony downstairs make a circle down front and say i i will i believe the facts that i do i receive jesus i repent i invite him to run my life those who need to do that may they do that boldly today others father christians they need a church a family where they can worship and serve and grow up and they say you know this is the place i need to belong i want to join my hands and hearts with these and make a difference in this broken world be a healing healing ointment in this broken society lord lead them to come into our family today is our prayer in jesus name ask no one to move no one to slip out please for any reason saying him of the decision invitations god has touched your heart the many ways receive folks professing faith i'm a christian i want to be a part of this church officially as god leads no one stands except those who are coming forward give one of these pastors your hand make a circle right down front and we'll welcome you in the family and i'll tell you a secret in the second bang you'll feel right at home as he leads as we sing this very familiar hymn together come to the family [Music] so i'm coming home coming home to christ coming home to his church as he leaves just come in the family hi everybody [Music] coming to friends [Music] welcome these who come today as they move out this way let's pray father thank you for your touch upon our church may we mature with these is our prayer in jesus name remain seated for a moment this wednesday night 6 30 fellowship hall we're going to talk more about our children's building we're going to vote on something and do some other very important things so i hope you'll come at 6 30 we have a meal before if you'd like to come it's delicious i guarantee you and we'll have a time together at 6 30 as we consider very thrilling matters that are before the life of our church also if you're visiting go to my left your right that's the front door of our church to have questions go over there and there'll be staff there and pastors there answer any questions you have about this fellowship let's stand for prayer together i wish you could stand here and look at all the faces out there today it's my prayer that some of you husbands especially and some of you wise parenthetically whatever that means we'll go home at the right time begin to put in practice not any principles i have but the principles for marriage that we discovered in that book and i can promise you one thing it will change the chemistry and the atmosphere of your marriage 100 of time dear heavenly father may we not just hear and hear and hear but may we put our words behind it as we speak speak speak listen listen listen and pray pray pray lord thank you for this church family that you continually make exciting because the truth of your book is always over the middle of plate and is always exciting when we get it and live it out help us to do exactly that is our prayer in jesus name [Music] is thank you for being here this morning god bless you as you make your way out you

Channel: Second Baptist Church, Houston

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Length: 68min 27sec (4107 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021