September 19, 2021 Sunday 11:00 Live Service

[Music] i believe the basic historical facts about the good news what god has done for man in jesus christ do you so believe and you answer i do 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 as jesus christ i believe these facts and i will receive him into my life [Music] [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] so [Music] i believe the basic historical facts about the good news 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 [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you conquer the grave you free every captive and break every chain oh god you have done great things we dance in your oh jesus our savior your name lifted high oh god you have done great things good morning everybody welcome to the second good to see you all we're glad you're here let's sing come with us come let us worship our king come let us bow at his feet he has done great things [Music] see what our savior has done see how his love overcomes he has done great things [Music] he has done great things [Music] [Music] you have done great things oh jesus [Music] [Music] you'll be faithful forever [Music] [Music] [Music] you have done great things oh jesus [Music] hallelujah [Music] you have done great things i'll sing that again hallelujah [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] you have done great things oh jesus [Music] you have done great things [Music] welcome to 11 11 please grab a seat we're so glad that you're here we truly believe this everyone who walks into this worship service is here for a reason we believe that god has a special word for each and every one of us and we're glad that you're we're especially glad if you are a guest guest we'd love a chance to meet you face to face to connect with you our our hearts desire truly is to walk beside you and help you find community right here inside the second family all you have to do after our service is walk over to this red door we call it the front door into the life of our church at the end of our service if you walk over there there'll be staff and volunteers standing by to meet you and once again to begin that journey of helping you find community here inside the second family when you walked into worship last week you were handed one of these brochures we call it the it's make your mark campaign a lot of you flipped through it last week ben young mentioned this campaign the opportunity all of us would have to make our mark you saw a video from caroline thompson knapp talking about the legacy of impact that children's ministry has had on her life in the hope that she has for the impact it'll have on her family someday her little daughter and soon to be child we're excited about this project we wanted to take some time this morning inside this service to make sure you have all the information you need to know about what god's doing through this project and so i want to invite to the stage pastor david dixon david gives leadership to our facilities team here at the church he has been uh in charge of this project putting together the proposal the building itself it's been incredible thus far working with the church in the school david's been a phenomenal job with that and then wes good westgood is the president of kirksey he's a member of our church he sits right over here every week at 11 11 with his beautiful family we're excited to hear more about what god's doing to this project gentlemen come and share with us thank you we are really really thrilled to tell you a little bit more about this project as you know we introduced it to our church last week and then this past wednesday night we had a special called church conference where folks from all six of our campuses were invited to come and hear more about it and we voted on two very important things that night first of all we voted to purchase about four and a half acres of property on memorial drive if you're going west on memorial pass blaylock the old memorial drive christian church we voted to purchase that property because it will be the home of set one of our second baptist school university model campuses and i was over there this week as school started and they have almost 300 kids at that campus and there is a buzz that i haven't seen around school in a long time the second thing yeah it's it's a really great deal the second thing that we voted on was to move forward with the capital campaign uh for the construction of this new building now a year and a half ago our pastor tasked a few of us wes terry folks from our school and from our children's ministry to create a scenario if we were serious he said about second love's kids then we needed to do all that we can do to enhance our children's ministry and so we studied our campus we looked at remodeling buildings and ultimately we decided that because of the age of our buildings a building is 60 years old f building is 42 years old we decided that we needed to build a brand new building and so that's what we're planning to do wes is going to tell you a little bit about the actual building uh in these next few minutes excellent thanks for for having me david very excited about this opportunity as everyone should be and i'm appreciative to get a chance to share more of the drawings with you what you see on screen is a rendering we got to work with the incredible staff for of the church and the school and developing this project the vision for the project was the building would fit in with the campus both in scale and in materials but be distinctly a children's building so when you approach the building from any angle it's going to be warm welcoming and fun and kids are going to want to come here so where is it located it's located if you were to go straight out those doors in between woodway village and a building there's a site there that's currently a parking lot the building is envisioned to be about four floors tall 117 000 square feet and and i think you can see there nestled in between both woodway village and a building one of the great things that this new building will have is security right now if we needed to lock our kids down we have to secure over 40 doors in order to do that and in this new building with the punch of a single button from our dispatch office we will be able to lock every classroom door every hallway door and every exterior door in just a matter of seconds there's over 170 cameras and there are panic buttons throughout the building uh in case that we ever had an emergency excellent so the first floor of the building is about 30 000 square feet it houses our nursery has about 27 classrooms while it has a big wide open fun lobby it's very secured from those doors back it has a worship space for our birth through two-year-olds calls god's garden so if you can imagine a an age-appropriate worship for our two-year-olds and our crawlers will be tremendously fun the second the second floor there's an image of the lobby there with video floors and aquarium and yes we have slides from the first to second floor and third to fourth floor so our goal is so that kids as they enter the building will feel welcome they will not be afraid you will not have a problem getting them into their classrooms and they will want to come back every week and hopefully they'll bring their parents this is an image of the second floor lobby it's our primary floor for our school as well as our uh our pre-k through kindergarten uh this is a view into the giggle theater this is where our three to five-year-olds will worship they have a space dedicated specifically for them next and this is our third floor lobby this is where our jump theater will be you'll have views from the lobby into the jump theater jump theater will hold three to four hundred kids these are our first through third grade kids just another view of that space as well and then our fourth floor lobby this is our next level kids and our first through fifth grade school um next level will have their own space for the fourth and fifth graders for worship for bible study for hangout and for for uh playing some games one of the unique features of this building is that we want to transition from the school atmosphere to a church atmosphere and that was probably one of our biggest challenges we devised a way that every classroom can be school during the day and will transition to a worship space at other hours of the day and on the weekend through the use of murals every room will be themed differently and will be exciting and when you come here when the kids come here to worship they will not feel like they are in a school classroom i think we have a few images of the exterior it'll have a drop-off and pickup area on the back of the on the south side of the building which is the woodway side it has playgrounds on both sides about 12 000 square feet of playgrounds you can see here there's a third floor terrace so the third floor will be a place where you can have gatherings where kids can blow off steam and just just another amenity for the church to use during the week it will also have a sky bridge so it will connect the third floor just outside the family room up there connecting all of our young adults bible study spaces directly to this building at the level that they would be checking their kids in and then just another view of it from uh from from from a night perspective 65 classrooms four worship spaces great recreation area all designed so that we can reach kids now on a personal note i have been on our church staff for 39 years i was seven when i started but uh we we have built under our pastor's leadership we have built over 200 million dollars worth of buildings and i will tell you folks in all my 39 years i've been never been more excited about a building than this one because i know the difference that's going to make in the lives of our kids in the lives of my grandchildren in the lives of every young person who comes through there and i can't wait to see the difference that will be made for all of eternity in the hearts and minds of our children it's a game changer for our church it's a game changer for our kids ministry it's a game changer for our school and one hand print at a time as kids put their hand print on that wall when they give their heart to jesus christ one handprint at a time that building will be used to make a difference for all of eternity [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] why don't you stand as we continue to worship this morning [Music] sing our father [Music] our father everlast we are creating [Music] through your holy spirit conceiving christ the son jesus our savior i believe in god our father i believe in christ the son i [Music] that we will rise again for i believe in the name of jesus [Music] forgiveness is [Music] i believe in god our father i believe in christ the son i believe in the holy spirit our god [Music] is of [Music] you jesus again and i believe that jesus christ is old [Music] in you and i believe you [Music] that jesus christ [Music] i believe in life eternal i believe in the virgin birth i believe in the saints communion and in your holy church i believe in the resurrection when [Music] the jesus of jesus [Applause] [Music] is [Music] jesus for i believe in the name of jesus for i believe in the name of jesus [Music] the lord our god is strong and mighty we praise the name of jesus christ [Music] open up [Music] for the [Music] can you lord the heavens as nations rise to glorify [Music] the way and praise the name of jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] he is the author of salvation christ [Music] foreign [Music] is nations rise to glorify [Music] [Music] we will await the king's returning when heaven breaks in [Music] glorious and with him we will reign forever yes oh praise the lord [Music] will reign forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] open up [Music] foreign [Music] as nations arise to glorify [Music] of jesus christ [Music] your name father we're so thankful for the opportunities we have in front of us as a church this building these ministries father help each one of us to begin to pray and consider the different ways that we can participate sacrificially give to further your kingdom father we're reminded of the blessings we have individually for your love your grace and your mercy father you truly have given us so much as we come this time of offering we come humbly laying these gifts at your feet use them to further your kingdom to touch hearts and to change lives we ask these things in christ's name amen [Music] i searched the world but he couldn't film me meant empty praise treasures that fade are never enough then you came along and you put me back together [Music] and every desire is now satisfied here in your love [Music] oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better [Music] now i'm not afraid [Music] to show you my weakness my failures and flaws lord you've seen them all [Music] is the god of the valley there's not a place your mercy in grace [Applause] [Music] better than you or there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you you turn morning to dancing you give beauty for ashes you turn shame into glory you're the only one who cares [Music] you're the only one [Applause] there's nothing better than you oh there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing [Music] is nothing [Music] [Applause] is [Music] you're the only one [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're the only one [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] well good morning thank you for joining us today um i'm particularly grateful to see a lot of young people i know sitting through a series on marriage and relationships sometimes like you have to listen to all the marriage stuff today is especially for you if you're single has relevance for the married people as well but we're going to really look at how you make a wise marital choice answering the question does god tell us if and who to marry my wife said i could do a one word sermon but i want to go a little bit longer than that so let's pray father i just ask that you would make your word come alive because i believe your word is true and powerful and gives light and leads us into the best life that you've crafted just for us and so we ask that you would do that lord in spite of me by your spirit we pray in jesus name amen i want to read an email that is typical of the kind of emails i receive all of the time it's by a woman it's been miserable gary we've only been married for three years but it has been the worst three years of my life my husband has just been awful and what frustrates me so much is that god confirmed that i was supposed to marry him ten times over they've had a number of conversations i think of one woman married not three years but three decades only to find out her husband was frankly a little bit pathological and she wasn't just angry with her husband she was bitter toward god she says gary i know that god told me to marry him why would god tell me to marry such a loser to those who email me or ask me that they said why would god tell me to marry him i want to say maybe he didn't maybe he didn't now i don't want to freak you singles out talking about two difficult marriages because i've talked to plenty of people who have said marrying their spouse was the best decision they ever made next to becoming a christian and some of them are here this morning all right when you make a wise marital choice it can at times feel like heaven on earth as close as we get to heaven this side of heaven but a foolish marital choice can lead us to where it feels like hell on earth which is why i want you to make a supremely wise decision a few married people to think about why you made that decision and to know if you're making a wise decision we have to answer that question does god tell us who and if to marry now let's take a step back how do we answer a question like that where do we find our authority let's look at where we don't find our authority we don't find our authority in what we want to be true it's really hard when we're talking about this because if you want something to be true it's really hard not to believe it's true and if you want it to be that god has chosen someone just for you and he's going to bring him along at just the right time you don't have to apply wisdom you don't have to seek counsel you don't have to search them out you just walk along at 7-eleven you spill coffee on each other boom you're together you're making a hallmark movie and everybody's happy i get why you might want that to be true but remember wanting something to be true doesn't make it true another authority doesn't work is because you've always believed something is true doesn't make it true i could go my entire life and and believe a lie and just because maybe i was misinformed maybe i never thought about the scriptures just because i've always believed it was true doesn't make it true when we answer these questions as believers we go to one source the scripture is the christians the scriptures are the christians authority and in this case i don't believe that the bible tells us that there is one person we're supposed to marry or even whether we're supposed to get married or not the one source that really says that there's this thing called a soulmate that movies like to celebrate it's not found in the bible it's found in plato he wrote a famous book called symposiums and there was a character called aristophanes who surmised that the reason we're so desperate in dating and romance and so intense to find someone and we find him there's this transcendent feeling he surmises it must have been that there was one time in the cosmic past when we were he called it round people by that he meant male and female together and we became too powerful and the gods were afraid so zeus came up with a plan i'm going to split them in two and they'll spend the rest of their life trying to find their missing half and once they find their missing half they'll be so desperate to keep clinging to each other they won't have time or energy left to threaten the gods and that's what zeus did and lo and behold the gods were saved nobody i can't imagine a single person on the world today would accept that world view but we've kind of christianized it that well god is sovereign and god is providential right so there must be one person that he created just for me let me just pause why i think this matters if you think you have to find out one out of eight billion people and that you can't be happy until you find that one out of eight billion people it's going to make you feel a little insecure and desperate can i tell you singles there is nothing worse than being desperate in dating all right you don't let friends drive drunk don't let friends date desperate it doesn't lead to good choices because from a christian worldview this matters from a christian worldview we don't find fulfillment and happiness in a successful life by being reunited and reconciled to some cosmic person we are separated from in a distant past we find our fulfillment our meaning and even our happiness by being reconciled to our creator who we offended with our sin by the blood of jesus christ we're reconciled to god that's where we're fulfilled that's where we're satisfied and that's where we're happy so we can pursue marriage or live married as happy people and not be desperate expecting that person to fulfill us second corinthians 5 20 says this we implore you on christ's behalf be reconciled to god that's the need for every person that's what completes us so god not our marital status defines our life god not our marital status defines our life now we've been going through first corinthians we're in chapter seven today we're going to go through a lot of verses and look at how paul i believe tells us the marital choice is completely up to us let's begin with verses eight through nine now to the unmarried and the widows i say it is good for them to stay unmarried as i do but if they cannot control themselves they should marry for it's better to marry than to burn with passion so paul says what's the reason to get married because god told you to no he's saying if you think i can't live a sexually responsible life as a single person i should get busy finding someone to marry it's not that god is telling me to i get to make a choice i have to reason what are my strengths what is a life that will most glorify and honor god as a single person or as a married person i get to apply my wisdom and see with god's help what does that mean now there's no sense that paul says you have to do one or the other in fact he says the exact opposite look at verse 25. now about virgins in context you can go look at it later this is about versions determining who to marry so that's the context here here's his voice i have no command from the lord what part of no command do we not understand there plus i can't give you a command from god it's not about command i've told you a wisdom but god is not commanding you to get married or commanding you not to get married he's saying in first century corinth given the times i think you're probably better off staying single in fact he suggests you might have a happier life if you stay single look at verse 40 in my judgment she is happier if she stays as she is i.e single but all of this this is what i really want you to capture all of this is said in a spirit of total and complete freedom you were made in the image of god and god let you choose look at verse 35 i am saying this for your own good not to restrict you but that you may live in a right way in undevoted devotion to the lord because i i i'm not wanting you to feel restricted that you should get married or that you shouldn't get married i want you to find the life where you can best seek first the kingdom of god matthew 6 33 where you can most glorify god and honor god whether that's single or that married is married that's secondary live a life of devotion to the lord and that means it doesn't matter whether you're married or not but whether you're being faithful to serving god being more concerned about being intimately connected with god than even another human being now that seems to me pretty persuasive but i think the absolute argument stopper is in verse 39 and here's what paul says in 739 after talking about freedom paul says this a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives but if her husband dies she is free to marry would you please read the next three words with me any one she wishes but he must belong to the lord paul couldn't be clear you get to choose first he says you choose whether or not you should be married make that decision based on a life that most glorifies god after you decide okay i want to get married you get to marry anyone you want to marry he explicitly states that he says you want to marry an introvert or an extrovert knock yourself out do you either be married to a taker or an eeyore you get to choose women do you want to marry a businessman or a poet as long as you're willing to support the poet for the rest of your life go ahead and marry the poet you get to choose what matters most to you there's one one caveat make sure he's in the lord make sure he's a believer i think it's so clear now whenever i say this people will say but what about this and they'll give me three biblical challenges what about adam and eve isaac and rebecca joseph and mary fair enough let's deal with those and let's go back again where do we find our authority most of you know this have you been around here we talk about how to handle scriptures but just as a reminder biblical narratives aren't normative biblical narratives aren't normative what that means when you're reading a narrative in scripture it tells you what happened but that doesn't imply that's what you should do it doesn't carry the weight of teaching saying do this it doesn't carry the weight of a command let me give you an example peter's told he's got to pay his taxes and jesus taxes so he goes to jesus what do we do hey peter here's what you do jesus says go fishing cut open the fish you're going to find two coins one to pay your taxes one to pay mine it's a narrative there is nowhere and nobody that i know of would preach that and say so if you're way behind in your taxes to the irs after you leave church go fishing find a fish cut it open and you're going to find a check inside that you can send to the ira nobody thinks that that is but you know it's not quite as convenient to believe that but what about marriage that matters more if there are examples of marriages okay let me give you a narrative in scripture about a woman who wants to get married to a particular guy her name is ruth her mother-in-law's naomi she's a widow she finds a guy he's wealthy a little older his name's boaz he's wealthy he would be a good match he's of the right tribe everything's good so naomi says all right ruth here's what you do you want to marry boaz sneak into his bedroom late at night after everybody's asleep uncover his feet and lay down at his feet and so when he wakes up you're there hey let's get married and it worked i don't think any single woman here if she's interested in an older rich man should sneak into his bedroom uncover his feet and lay at his feet until he wakes up to let him know you're interested that's a biblical narrative it's not normative all right we got that were together so let's look at those three examples adam and eve and again i'm i'm gonna grant you this if you wake up one day and realize you are the only man in the world and guys god puts you to sleep and you wake up and you see there's only one woman in the world who doesn't have a belly button think about it and god says you've got to be fruitful and multiply and she's the only one you can be fruitful and multiply with yeah you should marry her all right god told adam to marry eve he told eve to marry adam in a day and age when which there are almost eight billion people on this planet and everybody has belly buttons i don't know that this passage should direct how we make a choice then we could look at isaac and rebecca we know that in that time they were part of what is called in theology salvation history they were passing down a descendant and another descendant leading to the birth of the messiah because the messiah had to come from jewish blood but as christians that's not normative for us because we're not saved by having abraham's blood flowing through our veins we're saved because we're covered by the blood of jesus christ shed on the cross that's what saves us so we don't have to worry about that but even so if we want to make that narrative normative the application isn't that god chose who isaac and rebecca was supposed to marry women here's what you would be agreeing to you ask your dad to hire a matchmaker who goes to a distant land chooses someone for you to marry and you marry that person sight unseen if you'd like to do that that's following the biblical pattern i wouldn't mind for one of my daughters if she want me to i'm happy to do that but that's not what the bible is teaching us to do and so then we have joseph and mary and again i'll grant you this situation absolutely so guys if you wake up from a dream and there's an angel at the foot of your bed and god tells you the woman you're engaged to is pregnant but don't freak out the holy spirit did it and she's going to give birth to the messiah i want you to protect and raise the messiah guys you should marry that fiance and women if you wake up and god says hey i'm going to make you pregnant and i want you to marry joseph you should go ahead and marry joseph so that's not really relevant to us that's not going to happen again am i saying god can't lead to people no i'm not going to put god in a box i i've talked to some people at particularly i think it's some second marriage where they just had a brutal second marriage and god opened up their eyes and they really received that spouse as a gift but here's the thing you get to determine whether you open that gift or not all right it's not that god is saying you must marry this person i think we have to take ownership of that situation now if we go out of first corinthians seven there are just a couple other passages that talk about making a wise marital choice one of those is proverbs proverbs was written to young men in israel helping them to live a wise successful fulfilling life and so it's telling men one of the things that is so key is that you make a wise marital choice now how do you make a wise marital choice it doesn't say wait until god tells you and use an internal impression it says this a wife of noble character this is verse 10 who can find who can find not try to determine you you're pursuing it there's some work on the young man's part he's saying guys this is worth it and it says what you're looking for is noble character the three laws of real estate are what i know we have some realtors in here where the three laws of real estate location location location the three laws of making a wise marital choice character character character now the reason he's saying this to young men is because he knows even 3 000 years ago young men they were over awed by a woman's beauty we see a woman who's so beautiful we don't look at anything else and so he warns them charm is deceptive and and beauty is fleeting he says look she can stop your heart and she can blind you to some real character issues don't let that happen because beauty is the least permanent thing about a person it changes when my wife and i started dating i had almost as much hair as she did it's pretty cool i could feather it back but if she had married me for my hair it wouldn't go so well for us now and so guys i know it's impossible to imagine because you can't imagine a more beautiful creature on the planet but you marry her faster than you believe the day will come when she looks pretty much like her mom does right now and if you don't die and you keep living the day will come when she will look sort of like her grandmother does right now and if you marry her for character and faith she will be more beautiful to you and more beloved to you than on the day you got married because character grows faith grows beauty fades so it says a woman who fears the lord is to be praised so a woman's faith men should be the main factor does she love the lord so instead of asking is he the one or is she the one these are better questions is she kind is he compassionate and humble is she unselfish does he zealously serve god or is he only about his own advancement and his own wealth is she a woman of worship and prayer does he love the scriptures or does he think he doesn't need any more wisdom he has enough women i want to emphasize this is for you too not just men how important faith is i've told women all over the world frankly that of all the changes i've made in my marriage 90 haven't come from lisa confronting me or saying would you please stop doing this or would you please start doing that it's when i wake up in the morning and pray and god has an issue with me and he reminds me gary this isn't just your wife she's my daughter and i expect you to treat her accordingly before we talk about anything else i want to talk about your attitude last night i'm like lord i'm sorry women if you marry a guy who doesn't pray your only hope is nagging any wife here how effective that is god wants you to be cherished he wants you to be adored and loved as christ loves the church that's god's design for your marriage but if you marry a man who doesn't pray you'll be married to a man who doesn't pray the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior please marry a man who can be convicted by god he can't be convicted by god if he doesn't pray the same thing of course is true for men character character character faith faith faith frankly there's nothing in scripture that tells us it's our sworn duty to marry one particular person whether we marry and who we marry is part of god's permissive will he says apply wisdom other scriptures say seek counsel make sure they're a person of faith and character and then yes of course pray let god slam the door no absolutely not are you crazy or yeah this could be a wise choice but you have to own the decision god has given it to you you have to do the work presuming there's some mystical leaning that overrides wisdom is such a foolish thing to do and when people have done it here are the emails i receive here's another one sadly i was one of those people who believed with all my heart that god has only one person for me to marry i also believe that god would do the choosing i believed it was god's will for me to marry my husband this has had disastrous consequences based on all the things you outlined in the sacred search my husband and i should not have gotten married she thought it was true it didn't help she always believed it was true it didn't help now looking at the scripture she says i made a mistake now the reason this is important for marriage is i want you to own your choice because i'm more concerned about your relationship with god than even your marriage i don't want you to be bitter at god because if you're in a difficult marriage you need god as your friend and your comforter and your counselor so instead of praying god why did you make me marry this person god why did you lead me into this mess you can pray god help lead me out of this mess that i've made it's very significant that we own the choice because then particularly if you're in a difficult marriage you want god on your side he wants to be on your side he will help you he will love you and you have the hope that god not your marital status defines your life but i want to end with this real quickly i don't want this to look negative to singles because the reality is if while i don't want anybody to suffer the consequences of a foolish marital choice i don't want a single single person in this place to miss the blessings of a wise marital choice some of you know a few years back lisa had a fast-growing tumor on her lung it was so scary we went in they were going to remove it they said we won't really know till we get it out what it's about she was all ready to go under i mean she had the hotel gown on they had the things in for her blood i mean all of that she's in the bed and then they came out and said can't operate there's another infection we won't know what's going on we have to wait till the infection passes it's going to be three weeks it was brutal three weeks we don't know we don't know what's happening it was terrible but we had more time to get ready and i told lisa that second time okay what can i do to support you i just want two things i want you to pray for me as i'm going under anesthesia and when i wake up i want you to be the one holding my hand i want you to be the one to tell me what they found by god's grace it happened i was praying for her and she was out several hours later longer than they expected she was waking up and i was there holding her hand and i could tell her thank you lord it's not cancer and i say that with empathy because some of you had to say it is but then you could say but i will be here with you that's what a good marriage is about i never i thought marriage was about being young together it's about growing old together and you face these issues and you make a wise choice based on character and faith and those things draw you together and make life rich where even awful things bring out heavenly feelings i don't want you to miss that it's work it's not easy but it is worth it let's pray father i thank you that i believe your word speaks very clearly so lord those who are just kind of passively waiting maybe they'll be moved by proverbs 31 10 who can find some might be in a foolish relationship they've let internal impressions direct them and you would use this to say this is not a person of character this is not a person of faith this is not a relationship they should be in others lord may be closing their eyes because the person doesn't come in the package that they imagined but you want him to see hey look at her look at him a woman of faith a man of great character what do you think the lord more than anything this is a call for us to be reconciled to you to find our fulfillment in you our happiness in you find our completeness in you we pray in jesus name amen i i mentioned that one of the worst things you could do is date desperate and one of the best ways to not date desperate is to be connected with the lord to have jesus the holy spirit in your life and so we want to give you an opportunity to do that when the singing starts i'm going to invite you wherever you are to come forward and we just want to explain to you maybe you're not sure but you just want to figure out what does it mean to receive jesus christ as lord i know it might get tiresome why do we do this every week because every decision in life depends on having the spirit within us that i say god doesn't tell you who and if that doesn't mean by the power of a spirit he doesn't counsel you and direct you and speak to you and we want you to have that or if you're in a difficult marriage and you need his presence more than ever to face this life we want to give you an opportunity to do that so when the singing starts we'll invite you wherever you are to get up come forward we'd like to at least talk to you about what it means others of you may just want to join the church today we'd love to have you you'll do the same thing starting the fall if you this is a time for me to sink my roots in here sounds like some exciting things we hear about the children's center and all of that just ask you to do the same as soon as the singing starts please get up come forward i'll be happy to welcome you into the second family as the singing starts and as god moves please come there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you i searched the world [Music] but it couldn't fill me man's empty praise our treasures that fade they're never enough [Music] and you came along and put me back together [Music] and every desire is now satisfied here in your love [Music] the message from the lord i believe is that more than you need a person to marry you need a god to worship i just want to give you another chance if god is speaking into your heart there is nothing better than him as wonderful as marriages it doesn't compare to a life of worship [Music] nothing [Music] there's is better than you or there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you [Music] lord there's nothing better than you there's nothing [Music] is nothing better than you lord there's nothing better than you or there's nothing [Music] nothing is better than let's welcome those who've come forward go out to your right my left [Applause] you know i've told this story a thousand times people always ask me how did you and your wife kristen meet and i tell them one night she snuck into my bedroom uncovered my feet i woke up and there she was the rest is history let's thank gary thomas this morning church you have no idea you have no idea the treasure we have in this man and his wisdom and his insight his love for god and god's people we're thrilled we're honored that you're part of our team gary thank you for your time this morning yes if you don't know gary's got some books that he's written we've got a couple of those books out in our books for today we're featuring those i want to encourage you to go by and pick those up we have two of them that we have featured they are called sacred search it's a book for singles it's just a book for all of us honestly about the search that we all endeavor and then sacred marriage both those books are featured in the books for today please go buy a grab one it's a great gift for somebody pick it up in the bookstore right out here in the second cup area and then i want to give some love too to uh jody jody's here this morning should you raise your hand if you guys don't know jody is josh smith's brother jody and i a decade plus ago we're on staff together at the south campus back in the old theater days the south campus and i didn't know he's coming i looked up and said oh jody's here and so we're thankful for josh for all the band all they do every week and worship worship was powerful today thank you guys for leading us so well we appreciate you date night is coming up two dates september 22nd and the 29th those are on wednesday nights 6 30 in the fellowship hall which is right over here this week we have lisa and keith garvin yes keith garvin from channel 2. he's going to be here with his wife lisa lisa is on staff at our 1463 campus kindle their daughter is on staff here at a woodway campus in the student ministry they'll be here wednesday night be a part of that all you have to do is go to second.org register for date night it's for married couples it's a form of investment into your marriage i promise you you will not be disappointed that you came come and be a part of that once again the make your mark campaign is off we are building that building if you didn't get one of these brochures last week when you came into worship we have these for you i want to encourage you pick one up today you can find it at the welcome desk in our narthex find at the welcome desk in the atrium grab one it's got all kind of information about the project some ways you can participate there's a micro site for the building campaign you can scan this qr code on the back it'll take you directly to that site it's a seven minute video tour of the entire facility that kirksey has provided it's a really really cool historic moment in the life of our church and all of us need to be aware what's going on visitors once again we're glad that you're here come over to the red door we've got friends standing by they're ready to receive you if you're a guest if you're a guest i want to encourage you if you're looking for community take that first step put yourself out there walk over there introduce yourself and say help me get plugged in i promise you to walk beside you and help you find family here inside our family let's stand for our closing prayer [Music] father we're so thankful for the encouragement we received this morning for the truth of your word father i prayed it would sink into our hearts it would change the way that we view people it would change the way that we view ourselves it would change the way that we view the world help us to be your servants help us to be individuals who would seek to to love to minister to and to share your truth with the lost and dying world help us to be salt help us to be light we ask these things in christ's name amen [Music] you

Channel: Second Baptist Church, Houston

Views: 894

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Id: OzKouIRH-5c

Length: 73min 55sec (4435 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021