Let's Work and Grow(From our 11-17-24 worship)

Watch The Video Version Here: https://youtu.be/2bhOPDeVg08Transcript:You ever want something better? I mean,  in the garden with Adam, Adam and Eve, that's  kind of what satan told them. They had,  they had it made and satan told them that they needed something  better.  Even when you got it made,  we're often tempted and pulled towards  doing something better.  Example. Some of you  Some of you in the room are old enough to remember this.Others of you won't, but  In  1985,  The Coca Cola Corporation was approaching their 100th anniversary.  And they got the bright idea that they needed something better.  They did all the blind taste tests and they, they, they developed a new formula. They called it New Coke.  Which kind of sounds wrong all by itself, doesn't it, New Coke? Um,  it performed better in all the studies than  Coca Cola, Pepsi, anything they throwed at it, it was better.  So in 1985, they stopped making Coca Cola, started producing New Coke, and for three months, you couldn't, you couldn't buy anything but this.  And people revolted.  Literally, when Coca Cola Corporation backed up and said they were going to go back to making the old flavor, which they for several years called Coca Cola Classic. Literally, when they made the announcement that they were going to return back to the old flavor,  the news stations, two, four, and five, stopped what they were doing and literally run a special announcement  that they're going to go back and make original Coke again.  Not the president has died. Not we've landed on the moon.No, we're getting coke again. So a lot of times  we as human beings,  we long for something more.  We want something new. We want something better.  I don't tell you that new  new isn't always better. Depending on the  situation, new may very rarely be better. And  when it comes to a spiritual context, especially  new is not better.  There's all kind of ways that people try to  to run churches and, and make worship that's engaging and, and all these things, but all these new things are not better.  The way God said to do it.  That's what's better.  I had a whole sermon this morning.  I had a lovely wedding yesterday and that brought my mind to Hebrews 13. If you got your bibles, go with me there. That's where we're going. I was gonna talk about all these things that were better, right?Brotherly love is better. Uh,  the love shared between a spouse is better, right? And it's almost like you keep seeing the words  remember, remember over and over again through this, right? Um, We need to learn to say God is my helper, not trust in money, right? Uh, who we trust in, God, is better. We need to remember how we come to faith, right?Remember your leaders, those that spoke to you the word of God. See the outcome of their way of life, right? Don't try to go some new way. You look at people who have been faithful to God. You follow their example. You do the same thing. New is not better.  Jesus.  Rather, we feel like we need programs and all these other things besides Jesus.Jesus is better.  We have an altar from which those who serve the tent had no right to eat for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place. We talked about that this morning in her Bible class, uh, to the holy place by the high priest as a sacrifice for seeing were burned outside the camp.So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Jesus. is better. But this next part,  verse 17  verse 17 has been on my mind and I can't I can't turn it loose.  Or maybe I should say it won't turn me loose. Obey your leaders and submit to them  for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.  God's system of leadership for the church is better than what we can come up with. But,  as I come to this passage, I look at the thing that,  the thing that won't turn me loose about it is this. And I want you to understand before I say what I'm about to say that,  I do it because I love you.  I have never wanted anything  but for this to be a church that Jesus will be proud of.  And I think there's a willingness and I want to  here and now to do just that.  I look back over the history of this congregation and I've only been here a short time. Been here seven years. It seems like forever and it seems like a moment.  When I come here, this group of people was kind of beat down and rejected.  They've been through some things  and we kind of worked through that together. And we, it was almost like we were just about to hit the cusp and COVID hit.  My gosh, COVID hit. We went from one group trauma to another worldwide trauma  and we didn't know what to do. We didn't know what was right and up, down, left, sideways. And for a long time, it didn't bother us.  And then in August, it hit us to  20 some odd of us  was affected with this with this awful virus.  Some people didn't survive it.  Just when we were about to get over the cusp,  this thing that come and rocked our world.  But you know, we didn't stay beat down forever. Did we?  The mask kind of went away and the world kind of opened back up and  We kind of, we get to this point where it's almost like we look around one day and it's like, well, we're not struggling that bad anymore.  Sometimes the struggle is just the thought that, you know, sometimes you just, you're not really struggling as bad as you think you're struggling. And I feel like we're kind of on a verge  of another great, I don't know, I hate to use the word great awakening, maybe that's a, that's a dumb thing to say, but  I feel like we're on the verge again.  But  I wonder sometimes if we're satisfied with good enough.  Are we satisfied with  this new idea that we come and we assemble together and that church is like an event? Man, we come and we sing and it's beautiful and we, we listen to a sermon and we, and they do the Lord's Supper and it's so wonderful and, and, and all those things are great. Worship absolutely is a vital part. of the christian existence.  But it's the purpose of the church  just to worship God. Is that the only purpose that it has?  That's a bit to you. That's not.  If you hold your bibles right here and go back to Ephesians four with me Ephesians four  beginning in verse 11.  He gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelist and the shepherds and the teachers  To equip the Saints  For what?  for the work of ministry  for the building up of the body  Until we all obtain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ  So that we may no longer be children  Tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness by deceitful schemes Rather speaking the truth in love.We are to grow up in every way  Into him who is the head  into Christ  From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped When each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love ...