Turning On the Lights! Tuesday June 18, 2024 Let’s talk about the church
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to Turning on the Lights!
I’m a little energetic, so we move rather quickly through a couple of topics – church and ministry, following the will of the Lord, and then into a couple parables from Luke 8 regarding light and family.
I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God!
How can this be true? Have a listen and find out!
May God bless you, keep looking up, and we will talk to you Friday!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, June 18 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Good morning. Good morning my brothers and my sisters. There it is Saturday 7 AM to 2 PM church yard and bake sale and food sale. There are several different suits and a pie and cake auction at 9 AM. Nobody wants to miss that. 9 AM pie and cake auction. Also, There are going to be two pans of my world famous mac and cheese smoked mac and cheese coming off the smoker at 9 AM Saturday for the auction. So, we have soups, we have foods, we have baked goods and goodies. We have hot food for you to eat and we have a pie and a cake auction at 9 AM that will include smoked mac and cheese. Hey, look at this. Good morning, Sandy. This is just the stuff that we brought up from the basement. There’s more in the basement. There’s furniture out in the parking lot. There’s more furniture in the basement actually. So, there it is. Getting ready. It’s a fun weekend. I said we’ve come a long way as a church. There it is. We used to have to do this yard sale to keep our head above water. Pay off the oil bill from the previous year. There’s more stuff. There’s stuff everywhere, man. Everywhere. There’s the church. There’s the front of the church. If you’re listening on the podcast and you don’t get to see any of this, there’s also a YouTube channel at Church Town Church and then you get to see the church. There’s also you can check in the live feed of Brian D. Warner. Church Town Church of God. Pretty cool. And you get to see what I’m talking about. Beautiful little sanctuary. It has been such a joy and a pleasure and a privilege to be able to be the pastor of this church and to watch her develop and grow in every way possible from the inside out, which of course is the most important to all of the refurbishments, reconstructions that we have accomplished, all the ways in which we have improved the facilities. What a joy. What a joy. The church is was formed in 1833. 191 years. Y’all. This building that you’re I’m sitting in, the sanctuary that you’re looking at right now was constructed. It was deeded in the beginning of 1849. It took a year to build and they were using it by the end of 1849. That’s a while ago. A little while ago and here’s the coolest thing. We have records from nearly every year. Attendance and names and people and where they came from and where they went to. It’s very interesting. All of the Civil War veterans. Spanish American War veterans. World War One veterans. World War Two veterans. Vietnam. All of it. It’s really cool and we have all those records up in the church office. If you are ever here, you wanna go see them. So good morning. Good morning. Welcome. It is Tuesday morning. It was a very strange weekend. We’ll leave it at that. Very positive, productive, and joyful in many areas and actually rather sad and tragic in another area and I don’t feel like I just wanna bring all of that out. It’s it’s settling in my own soul. It was a very, like I said, high and low. High and low and just so we’re getting, we’re moving forward. Moving forward. It took yesterday to sort of gather my wits. Begin to think about the weekend. I got a situation here. It’s a little look behind the curtain as a pastor. We have a celebration Sunday in two weeks. We finished 1 John last week. So now I have now the celebration services. They are standalone in terms of the scriptures, but they have a theme. Uplifting encouragement, you know, celebration. We will celebrate oftentimes at these services baptisms and we will celebrate. We have turned celebration services into services of the ordinances. We will celebrate membership. We will, you know, we will celebrate. It’s the fifth Sunday of a month. Every fifth Sunday of a month, we have a celebration service and then also on that fifth Sunday, we choose well really between one and four different charities. They could be local, regional, or national or global like Samaritan’s Purse. We’ve done before we and we will give 10% of our current bottom line and divide it among those charities. So that’s what we do. That’s part of our giving ministry every fifth Sunday and we try to get that organized at the beginning of the year and so we know what the charities are. People can see what the charities are. I could take you out there. They’re slipping my mind this month, but then we look at that. What is our bottom line on that day? Dear treasurer and we take 10% of that bottom line and we divide it among the charities that we’ve chosen and we’ve been doing that now since we have been able and it is a joy. It is a joy. The wall is full of letters and how these various charities have touched people and how the money has come like we were about to close the doors for a month because we just we had to regenerate and then all of a sudden money comes in. It’s part of our giving ministry. We believe that that is part of what we’re supposed to do. It’s not ours anyway. People say, for example, can we borrow the chairs or can we borrow you know? Do you want a donation? You know attendees of the church. Do you want a donation if we borrow some tail? No you bought them. You’ve already purchased them. They’re yours. Thank you for letting me know so we don’t have you know too many people and we you know we have an event, but somebody took all the tables. That sort of thing is very very thoughtful, but no you own this stuff and then as we look spiritually and turning ourselves over God runs it. He trusts us to understand money and its effectiveness and its downfalls and how he is able to utilize that resource for his benefit. His will to be done on earth. Good morning Mama Dee. And so we try to live by those principles. We try to live by those principles and seek God’s will and what we do and how we do it and in the physical as well and to make sure and to like I said this all started when we began and we had no money. And we said I said you know there was a close really close circle of people who are giving me strength in those early years and all we were trying to do was you know keep the lights on. We had little and I said if this is what being a pastor is all about, I don’t want any of it. So we’re going to take it out of our hands and we’re going to put it in the Lord’s hands. If the Lord wants this church open if he wants us here and he wants the church open if it be your will Lord, let it be so, but this money is not going to make that happen. So we gave it away and we started giving money away that you know with the bills due and the Lord that that was the correction of attitude that he was seeking that was the wisdom and the knowledge the change that he was that we that we learned through that and we’ve never looked back. So good morning Barry. Let’s get in Father God. Thank you for your word. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for speaking of teachings your parables through which you teach us all in Jesus name. Let your word go out today. However you may choose whatever medium you may choose to touch hearts and minds and may your kingdom grow here on Earth. Amen. Oh yeah. That’s what we do Kingdom of God on Earth Kingdom of God on Earth and God, you know Jesus Christ initiated that repent for the Kingdom of God is near repent for the Kingdom of God is at a hand depending on your translation. And those are the first words out of his mouth ministerially here he is beginning the Kingdom of God on Earth. He’s beginning the restoration of the Earth as best as it can be now in this in between time with the spirit of the Lord in his people and then collectively the spirit of the Lord in his bride and a shining city on a hill light in darkness salt and light and all of these things that were all these in all this imagery that were were called to be to think of the Kingdom of God on Earth the best version of you right. This is the modern vernacular the best version you have to be the best version of you. Yes, you do. I’ll agree with this one. I’ll steal this one from the modern because the best version of you is who you are as a son or a daughter of the most high God. That’s the best version of you here on Earth. Not perfect Kingdom of God not perfect not yet. But what God has brought together let no man tear apart husband and bride he’s talking about which we know is an image of the church and God has created this and it is begun and it is carried on through every human being image bearer who has the spirit of God within them. It is carried on collectively through every church in which the spirit of God is its direction. In the Kingdom of God continues to grow and and we look at these modern media platforms. You see the devil doing his work people the devil is doing his work. It’s very difficult even if you you’re if you build your algorithm around Christian materialism. It’s very difficult to keep all of that other garbage from pressing in on any platform that you may be involved in and we’re trying to get the word out through a bunch of platforms and it’s like Satan says. Oh, so I’m gonna put this pornography, but basically amounts to pornography right alongside turning on the lights so they can see who you really are no and it’s constant maintenance and it’s constant work because just like in the non cyber world Satan is not stopping. He’s not he doesn’t give up for a second. So we live in the spirit of God and we move forward. Good morning, Josh. Speaking of the Kingdom of God, I’m in Luke today. So we’ll just do a little little time here get a nice little preamble today. If you’re again, if you’re listening on the podcast, you can go to the YouTube channel at Church Town Church, or you can come to the live stream and check it out on Brian D. Warner or Church Town Church of God and you can see the sanctuary of which I am speaking. That’s what got this whole conversation started. It’s a real church. We’re not afraid to say church. We’re not afraid to say Christian. We’re not afraid to show the cross and continue to talk about what the cross means. We’re not afraid of it looking like a sanctuary. It’ll scare people off. That’s a that’s a you problem. That’s not a God problem. That’s not a church problem. Any church that says I’m not gonna preach the gospel because I don’t wanna scare people off. You’re not a church. You’re not a Christian church. I guess you can throw the word church around. You might be a church. You’re not a Christian church. You know that’s. When you are called to love God and love your neighbor when we are called by and we just got done with first John, it’s all about loving one another as Christian brothers and sisters. You’re not doing that and if that is not evident when an individual who does not normally come to this gathering comes to this gathering, then you’ve got a problem. You’re not doing it right. You’re not listening. Somebody comes in and sits in your seat. Hi, Brady. We haven’t talked forever. Brady. I’m gonna message you today. See how you’re doing. Right so if that’s what’s going on in your your gathering. But people should come in and they should experience the bonding the love the power of God’s Holy Spirit and go. Okay. This is interesting and whenever they are here, they should hear the good news that Christ lived in Christ died and Christ rose again and your sins are forgiven by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Repent turn accept the Lord. That scares people off so be it. That’s a them problem. That’s not a church problem because this is what the church should be doing. And we’re so worried about them and not worried about God. I’ve often said the greatest heresy since World War two and the modern American church is that we build them to please people. We want to attract people. We want to attract families right. We want to have the greatest children and youth program because if the children and youth come, then the parents will come and they’ll pay for everything right that we build them to be service providers for people. All of these things you said. Well, is that a terrible thing only if it is fruit of the spirit of God. Churches are created not to serve people they’re created to serve Christ Christ will serve the people through them. But still we haven’t gotten to a parable. You got me rolling on ecclesiology, which is one of my passions. I spoke on Sunday about our sister Barbara and her heart for just struggling churches or churches in general and wanting to bring light and wanting to bring consistency and wanting to bring the word of course to these places and some of the places that she goes. There are nine or twelve people faithful to the core being unserved or underserved by a ministerial leader and she just has this heart for that. That’s what it’s about. It’s the church the gathering nine people 900 people 9000 people. Are you serving Christ? And are you trusting that well? Well? Well? Well? What if we put all our faith in God and he says to do this differently or what do people leave because of that? That’s a them problem. That’s that’s not a you problem and being a spiritual leader. You have to be comfortable with that. I wasn’t for a long time and I am now sort of like the money thing. If this is what being a pastor is about pleasing people are just reading Galatians for I am not here to please man, but to please God and in pleasing God, he will do what he wants with that authentic. Trust in him faith. Let him do what he wills with that faith that we have in him. Do I learn that? Speaking of learning, this is my second segue into parables. I keep getting distracted. Nobody’s saying anything this morning, except good morning, which is wonderful. Oh, but I was saying here we have maybe I’ll use parables. I’m not quite sure because the celebration service is has its own theme celebration as we said, but I have this standalone sermon. It’s what we would call in the business of standalone sermon. We’re not. I’m not doing anything thematically. We just finished first John. I got this open space and so my brain is swimming around. It wasn’t swimming too much yesterday because of things, but what does the stand alone sermon look like? Of course, it’s going to be the gospel, but from where Old Testament, New Testament, I’m you know the reading program when Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and you know the wisdom literature and Psalms and in my New Testament, I’m in Galatians now after the just finished off with the gospels. So what I don’t know where I am. So when I say if you have an idea, dear folks for a standalone service, a standalone sermon, bring it to me. I’m not don’t be a smart Alec and say hey Jesus. I preach about Jesus every weekend. That’s what we do. How about you preach about salvation? How about we do that every weekend like we’re supposed to like the scriptures tell us to? Not being a smart Alec the parable of the lamp. It is Luke Chapter eight Luke Chapter eight. We talked about the farmer. We talked about the seed. We talked about sewing. We talked about the weeds. Remember that good Christians growing up with the root weeds right beside them. What do we do? We remain good Christians. And we are great examples and we share the good news with the weeds. And if they hear the good news and they will not repent, that is a them problem, not a you problem you’ve done as you have been commanded by the Lord getting comfortable with that is part of being comfortable with being a disciple of Christ. It’s his will that will be done. You are hands and feet. You are a vessel. You see what it seems like everything that I do not. There’s no result. There’s no results. They’re the exact results that the Lord desires. So keep on keeping on keep your eyes up. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Do all of those things as a disciple of Christ in good faith. No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl or hides it under a bed. This is verse 16 verse 16. A lamp is placed on a stand where it’s light can be seen by all who enter the house. You see how this is already relating to what I said about the wheat and the weeds for all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all. So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching more understanding will be given, but for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken from them. Who’s in charge of all of this again one more time today, everybody God is. And when we’re being disciples of Christ, we are being the that light on a lamp stand. Right light unto a dark world and as we humble ourselves before the Lord receive his Holy Spirit and learn more, we become follow the analogy brighter. We’re not hidden. We don’t stay in this beautiful sanctuary and treat it like a bunker. We are light unto the world and even though it’s gonna be wheat and weeds, even though it’s gonna be those who see and those who are blind, even though you may have troubles in this world, even though there will be tremendous push for all of those different things. The more you learn and grow and become according to God’s will the brighter you will shine. Now what do I do with that you your job is to submit yourself to God his word and his his his powerful spirit and his will God will do the rest. Lead you here lead you there that light will go where he desires it to go. You need to be good with that. And you also have to be willing to answer the call so live a life worthy of your calling. Do not be conformed by the world, but be transformed by the power of God within you. You’re going to do verbs. You’re not just gonna be like well, I’m sitting around waiting for God’s will he’s speaking to you. Are you in prayer? Are you in godly conversation? Are you hanging out with godly people? Are you in his word? Seeking his will and all of those things you’ll see it, you’ll find it be like really. I got you. Pardon me you’ve been hearing that for a long time and I’ve been doing that for a long time. The true family of Jesus verse nineteen. Let’s go back to eighteen because I just want to reinforce the brightness of your light today and this may be your stand in front of the mirror question for the day. How brightly is your light shining so pay attention to how you hear. Pay attention to how you hear that’s very interesting. And the new living or new international version says therefore consider carefully how you listen. Therefore take heed how you hear. The new King James says so there is a way that we can’t our ears we turn our ears to Jesus in that way is spiritually. Right. Prostate in prayer seeking his will take heed in how you hear this word of God take heed in how you hear the spiritual call of God upon your life. And this is very important. Why because to those who listen to my teaching more understanding will be given you will grow you will learn you will become you will be brighter. And then there’s the other side of the coin, but for those who are not listening Christian or otherwise Christian or otherwise, there’s no segregation here for those who are not listening. Even what they think they understand will be taken away from them. So again, this is talking we look at the interrelation of these parables or your roots growing down and deep in rich soil. Are you cultivating your own soil as it were so that your roots may continue to grow and that your wheat may continue to shoot to the sky in this parable that your light may shine even brighter and brighter and brighter. That you do not shut yourself off from the knowledge and wisdom of God that you do not shut yourself off from the will of God in your life and your light becomes dimmer and dimmer and dimmer again those who will not listen. Whether they are professing Christian or not. You will become if you will darkness the absence of light darkness is the absence of light. Light is a thing darkness darkness is a negative. It’s just is we make light and it breaks the darkness darkness cannot even overcome one single candle that is lit. There’s no pressing into that light and extinguishing it can’t do it, but when we light that candle it brightens all of the darkness around it. The darkness can do nothing about it. So we read deeply into these parables and we want to be that light that kind of light. We see why light is referenced and used in the imagery of which so many times in scripture. And it’s because of that light is an active thing darkness is that if you will natural condition. Maybe you never thought of it that way, but you can’t bring darkness into a room. If you want to bring darkness into a room, what do you do turn off the light? Want to bring darkness into the world turn off the light. Want to bring darkness into your life turn off the light. Alright, now we do the family of Jesus will be done for Tuesday. Then Jesus’s mother and brother brothers came to see him. So right there’s so much to be said right there. His mother and his brothers. We know that he is human. We know that he is born of a woman all these things that I press into the teaching every week. But they couldn’t get to him because of the crowd. Jesus is going to use this for a great teachable moment. Someone told Jesus your mother and your brothers are outside and they want to see you. Jesus replied, my mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it. I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God and how is that accomplished by again supplicating yourself to the word of God to the will of God to the purposes of God to his calling upon your life. You want to be called a brother or sister by another Christian do you want to be called a son or a daughter of the most high? Do you want to belong to the family of God? Then hear his word and follow it and never forget that the premise of his word is that he is the Christ. He took upon your sins on that cross and in faith right in faith in Jesus Christ and the completed work of the cross. You are reborn by the spirit of God. You are reborn right not of a of the water or of a man’s lust as scripture says you are reborn spiritually by the power of God as a son or a daughter of the most high and that is the way to be. The best version of yourself today, Father, we pray your word. We’ll move throughout the nations people will hear people will obey people will turn. And your family will grow your church will grow Lord. We pray for your church. That every church leader, every spiritual leader realizes that we gather to serve you. And through us, then you will serve the people in Jesus name. We pray that this truth will be universal. Amen. Hey, Mama Dee, good Lord willing in the river don’t rise. I’ll see you again turning on the lights Friday. That’s the day before our giant yard sale food sale bake sale goodie sale pie cake and baked mac or not baked macaroni and cheese far from that pie cake and smoked macaroni and cheese auction at 9 AM. I’m excited. It’s all I can do to just not eat all day. So it’s worth the trip from Carolina. God bless you guys and we’ll see you Friday turning on the lights.
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