Theological Status: Theological Weakness
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Laodicea
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Cold Orthodox Parallel
Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
Why strictly "Mark & Avoid"?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This church's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This church's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
🧐 Overview
Sermon Summary: This message uses Psalm 23 as a guided meditation to offer comfort and an 'anchor' for difficult times. While pastorally warm, it raises an important question: does Scripture exist primarily to make us feel better, or to reveal the person of Jesus Christ?
Big Idea: We need something to hold on to in the darkest of times, and that something is found in our scripture. [00:08:59 ▶️ 📄]
Pastoral Analysis: The sermon is a guided Lectio Divina on Psalm 23, intended to provide the congregation with a scriptural 'anchor.' While the pastoral intent is commendable, the hermeneutical method is entirely subjective and anthropocentric, leading to a therapeutic application that is detached from Christology. The sermon fails to connect the Shepherd of Psalm 23 to its fulfillment in Jesus, the Good Shepherd of John 10, resulting in a message that is emotionally comforting but theologically anemic and functionally moralistic.
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Laodicea — The sermon presents a comfortable, therapeutic faith focused on self-help and emotional management, making God a tool for a better life rather than the object of worship, which reflects a lukewarm spiritual state.
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Theologically Weak
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Soteriology | ⚠️ WEAK | The sermon does not address the doctrine of salvation. It assumes the audience are 'sheep' without explaining how one enters the flock through faith and repentance in Christ, the gate. |
| Bibliology | ⚠️ WEAK | While affirming Scripture as a source of help, the sermon presents it primarily as a utilitarian tool for emotional support, blurring its sufficiency by suggesting it will be 'intermixed' with secular psychological principles. |
| Hermeneutic | ❌ FAIL | The sermon employs a subjective, reader-response method (Lectio Divina) which centers the interpretation on the individual's feelings ('what phrase...speaks to you'). This is an anthropocentric hermeneutic that neglects the author's original intent and the text's redemptive-historical fulfillment in Christ. |
| Theology Proper | ⚠️ WEAK | God is presented almost exclusively through the lens of therapeutic care and comfort. This immanent focus, while true, is unbalanced and neglects the crucial context of God's holiness, justice, and sovereignty, creating a one-dimensional, utilitarian view of God. |
| Sacramentology | ⚪ N/A | No sacraments were observed or discussed in the sermon portion of the service. |
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
Primary Text: Psalm 23 (Pretextual)
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 6 | Referenced: 1 | Alluded: 0
Passages Read Aloud:
-
Psalm 23
[00:13:29 ▶️ 📄]
"God, my shepherd, I don't need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows. You find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath, and you send me in the right direction. Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I am not afraid. When you walk by my side, your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure. You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head and my cup brims with blessing your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life I'm back home and the house of God for the rest of my life"
Key References: Psalm 22
Christological Connection: None: The sermon missed the primary redemptive-historical connection. It treated Psalm 23 as a standalone poem about God's general care, failing to connect David the shepherd-king to Jesus, the ultimate Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10).
🧱 Sermon Outline
- Introduction: The Need for an Anchor [00:05:32 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor shares a moving story about walking with a church member through death, establishing the need for something more substantial than self-help to hold onto in life's darkest moments.
- Point 1: The Method of Lectio Divina [00:09:34 ▶️ 📄] : The sermon pivots from exposition to a guided meditation, explaining the ancient practice of Lectio Divina and instructing the congregation on how to listen for a personally resonant phrase from Scripture.
- Point 2: Meditative Readings of Psalm 23 [00:13:09 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor reads Psalm 23 (from The Message paraphrase) four separate times, with musical interludes for silent reflection, guiding the listener's focus from finding a phrase, to its personal meaning, to its relation to other phrases, and finally to gratitude.
- Conclusion: The Promise of a Forever Shepherd [00:29:55 ▶️ 📄] : The sermon concludes by recounting a final promise from the dying church member and affirming that God is a 'forever shepherd,' urging the congregation to hold onto their chosen phrase from the Psalm.
🗝️ Key Topics & Themes
- Scripture as a source of comfort and guidance [00:08:59 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor emphasizes the importance of finding comfort and guidance in scripture, particularly the 23rd Psalm.
- God as a shepherd [00:31:06 ▶️ 📄] : The pastor discusses God's role as a shepherd who protects and guides believers.
✅ Commendations
Pastoral Care | Genuine Compassion
The pastor's introduction, sharing the experience of walking with a dying congregant, was filled with genuine compassion and effectively highlighted the universal human need for hope in the face of mortality.
Homiletics | Focus on Scripture
The decision to center the entire service on a single passage of Scripture is commendable. It demonstrates a desire to ground the church's hope in the Word, even if the interpretive method was flawed.
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🟠 Anthropocentric Interpretation (Narcigesis)
Root Cause: Anthropocentric Hermeneutic (Idolatry of Self): This method fails to see Scripture as testifying of Christ. It replaces the objective glory of God revealed in the text with the subjective potential and feelings of the individual.
"I want you to see which phrase just resonates with you like what is one phrase in this passage that jumps out at you and speaks to you..." [00:14:30 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16), not primarily for subjective resonance. Its central testimony is about Christ (John 5:39), and our interpretation must be centered on Him, not ourselves.
🟠 Therapeutic Deism
Root Cause: Therapeutic Deism (Path C - Laodicea): This reduces God to a motivational life-coach or a cosmic therapist. It focuses on temporal relief over eternal holiness and the believer's comfort over God's glory.
"We do a lot of self-help, and self-help is great. But there's a difference at the end of the day between self-help and theology at the end of the day we need something in those darkest of times to hold on to..." [00:08:18 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q.1; 1 Cor 10:31). While God is the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3), that comfort serves a greater purpose: that we might know Him and be conformed to the image of His Son, not merely that we might feel better about our circumstances.
🟠 Missed Typological Fulfillment
Root Cause: Moralistic Drift (Sardis): This detaches the commands and comforts of Scripture from the person and work of Christ. It preaches principles from the Bible without the power of the Gospel that makes them possible and meaningful.
"We all get to those spaces feeling forsaken, yet God offers us a promise of being a forever shepherd." [00:31:23 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: Jesus declared, 'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep' (John 10:11). All the Old Testament shepherding imagery finds its 'Yes' and 'Amen' in Him (2 Cor 1:20). He is not just an example of a shepherd; He is the substance to which the shadow of Psalm 23 pointed.
📝 Other Corrections & Notes
- Acres of Hope [is] the most reputable school in nebby... [00:32:59 ▶️ 📄] → Correction: This is likely pastoral hyperbole meant to encourage the congregation. While the school may be excellent, declaring it 'the most reputable' is an unverifiable and absolute claim. (N/A)
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] We have a brand new sound system, the other one bit the dust, and our tech team has done an amazing job, especially over the snow weeks, coming in when there was no school, and hooking us up with a brand new sound system, so give them, they are all volunteers, and do so much to help, and so we're very grateful for them.
[00:00:23] Today is a special day. It is what we call here at West a no huddles day. Back when we launched 15 years ago, we saw this speaker. He's a pastor in Michigan called Harvey Carey. And he said that
[00:00:39] far too often, it's like the Super Bowl. People drive by this space and they see all these cars there and all the stuff's going on inside, but nothing ever goes on outside. As soon as it's
[00:00:52] over inside. Everybody disperses and it's over. And he likened church to the Super Bowl. Well, we're not like that. And he said, we need to break out of our holy huddles. And so we decided when we
[00:01:06] launched, we wanted to be called what is a no huddles kind of church. So once every couple of months on Sunday mornings, the band has a little break and we do something different. We do something
[00:01:18] that's going to make an impact on someone beyond ourselves. And today is one of those days.
[00:01:25] And we are going to be highlighting one of our missions. And in just over two weeks, like on Tuesday, two weeks from Tuesday, we leave for Uganda for Acres of Hope, a team of four others
[00:01:39] and myself will be going to see Pastor Jeffrey and seeing the kids and seeing all the things that have happened. We will be sending you a message from Uganda on that Sunday, so we're really excited to be able to do that. We're going to be worshiping with you simultaneously like
[00:01:55] you'll be here, we'll be there, so we're really excited to make that happen. And we're just excited to see the difference that you, Williamson's Chapel, a few other churches here in the United States, and lots of other people are making a difference across the world. God calls us,
[00:02:12] jesus said go into all the world we focus a lot here locally with like the back to school bash and other things the backpack mission but acres of hope is our global partner and so today after
[00:02:23] worship which is going to last about 30 minutes you get to go out in the commons area and we are going to have a chili cook-off so it's the best no huddles kind of day ever you get to eat and you
[00:02:37] get to make a difference so you get to vote on the best chili now i always encourage you to actually vote on the chili and not the personas they are competing pretty heavily somebody has on a chili
[00:02:52] t-shirt they are impressed with that somebody else thinks they're the best looking chili maker so vote for the actual chili don't vote for uh the the people vote for the best chili and every dollar
[00:03:08] you vote by tickets every dollar goes to acres of hope we will be taking that with us and giving it directly to pastor jeffrey so any monies you give towards that we have digital ways to give there's
[00:03:21] going to be a qr code out in the commons area you get tickets and you vote with your tickets and it's just going to be a fun day online folks we always value you equally but there's just no way
[00:03:33] we could figure out how to tie in a chili cook-off with you at home so hopefully the worship experience this morning leading up to the chili cook-off is going to be meaningful for you if you
[00:03:45] are newer to west we're really glad that you're here we got we are glad that you took some time out of the busyness of life there's lots of other things that you could be doing with your time so
[00:03:54] we're grateful that you chose to be here with us today if you don't get any of our west communications we have a vip station for you out front and we'd love for you to sign up for our
[00:04:06] communications so you can stay in touch with all the things that we do this wednesday is another exciting day in the life of the church it is ash wednesday and we are going to be having an ash
[00:04:19] Wednesday service with the imposition of ashes at 6 p.m. not here at the high school at the West office so 6 p.m. it's like a 30-45 minute service but it really starts off the season of Lent in a meaningful way and for the season of
[00:04:36] Lent we're going to be talking about the last words of Christ we're gonna have a small group that meets right after worship that you can go in and talk about the theme that was talked about today and in the worship service we're
[00:04:49] are really intentional this year with the season of Lent, and I hope you'll be a part of that. We're also going to have an online small group, so be watching for that, especially our online community.
[00:05:00] That's going to be on Tuesday nights throughout Lent at 6 p.m. So today is going to be very different, so I want you to settle back. It's going to be the one time you get permission to go to sleep
[00:05:11] in church if it works out for you. Online folks, I want you to just take a few moments, ground yourself, get comfortable wherever you're worshiping, and in just a few minutes, we're going to begin. So over the last several weeks, I've had the privilege of walking alongside a
[00:05:32] West person, a West, we don't use the word member, but a Westie, through the process of dying. And And I've been in ministry for 30 years, I've done a lot of funerals, but over the past
[00:05:47] 15 years, it has been rare that I've had the opportunity, and I do call it a privilege, to walk along someone who is aware that they are dying far too often in our society now.
[00:06:02] We have this just rampant dementia and Alzheimer's, so a lot of times when I'm walking with a family and their loved one through the the stages of death they the person is not aware so yesterday
[00:06:19] we gathered together to celebrate the life of john rayleigh he's been a part of west since west began i shared yesterday that back when we well we still do it when the graduations occur here at lake
[00:06:34] norman in june we helped tear down and it was the first sunday that they were visiting their sister and sister-in-law here and they were getting ready to buy a house or build a house here
[00:06:46] and they came and showed up and tore down 300 very hot metal chairs because they were blistering in the noonday sun in early june and after that he was always fully immersed in west at christmas he became sick with covet and then they found out right after that he had liver
[00:07:06] cancer and he died a couple of weeks ago and we celebrated his life yesterday when someone is in hospice care i am very intentional about pastoral care visits and i had rare opportunities to spend
[00:07:20] really quality time with john and talk about what it means to be moving from this realm to the eternal one as i would end my visits with john we would pray together and i found myself like
[00:07:35] you know in seminary they don't teach you what to say there's no class how to walk someone through dying they they don't even really teach you like how to lead a celebration of life service there's
[00:07:47] a class on worship and they cram it all together so a lot of this is trial and error but honestly that and officiating weddings. They're two of the rarest privileges that pastors have. As I had the
[00:08:04] opportunity to spend time with John, something kept resonating with me and weighing heavy on me for you. You know, we do a lot of fun message series. We try to couch them in fun so that then
[00:08:18] we get to the meaning. We do a lot of self-help, and self-help is great. But there's a difference at the end of the day between self-help and theology at the end of the day we need something
[00:08:32] in those darkest of times to hold on to and mel robbins and let them and those things they're good they're great but faith takes it one step further i wrote about this a few weeks ago in the e-news
[00:08:49] and I shared with you that this was just weighing heavy on me.
[00:08:52] I want, as your pastor, to give you something to hold on to.
[00:08:59] And so over the next year, we're going to be very intentional about our message series and what the themes are.
[00:09:05] We'll intermix them with, you know, self-help and some psychological principles that help us get through life.
[00:09:12] We'll do a series on mental health and those types of things.
[00:09:16] but it's really important to me that you get something to hold on to and there's one place that we find that and that's in our scripture and so today it's a no huddles day we do things
[00:09:34] typically differently today and I thought it would be an appropriate day to do something that's called Lectio Divina. It's an ancient way of reading scripture. So what's going to happen is I've got one passage that I'm going to read to you. Perhaps you're familiar with it, perhaps not. I'm going to
[00:09:57] read it three or four different times. The first two times I'm going to read it back to back and then after those two times we have some quiet music that I want you to listen to and I'll give
[00:10:10] you instructions, further instructions in just a second. But today, after this message, this meditation, I want you to have something to hold on to. I found that as I was with John and we would pray together, phrases, certain phrases from this passage at different visits would always
[00:10:35] pop up. I'm not going to tell you what my phrases are or were because I want you to find your own.
[00:10:43] And then, when you find yourself in a difficult life situation, it doesn't have to be death and the active stages of dying.
[00:10:55] It could be dealing with difficult people, finding yourself being bullied, a work challenge, a relationship that's gone sour, a doctor's visit that did not go the way that you want it to financial challenges or just inner struggles period this passage has anchors of hope and
[00:11:26] promises that we can hold on to it's the 23rd Psalm interestingly enough yesterday John Ray Lee was a Mason which is an interesting and fascinating organization and one that I have grown to respect tremendously they talk about
[00:11:50] one deity and it was it was a beautiful part of the service the we read the 23rd Psalm together and I'm not exaggerating I had picked out today's theme months ago we were actually going to do it last sunday where we just focused on the 23rd psalm so it's
[00:12:11] just ironic timing that we shared it yesterday at a celebration of life service and now here we are again today but yesterday people from all over as i would read this passage i saw their mouths
[00:12:32] moving at certain parts and it just reminded me how important scripture is and how it means something different to everybody and so this morning i want you to find your connection place with these words now we read often from the interpretation called the message here at west
[00:12:57] so the version of the 23rd psalm that you're going to hear today is a little different than perhaps if you grew up with this, what you would have heard back then. In just a second,
[00:13:09] I'm going to read it, and I just want you to listen to the whole thing, and then I'm going to read it again and give you just a few more instructions. God, my shepherd, I don't need a
[00:13:29] thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows. You find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath, and you send me in the right direction. Even when the way
[00:13:47] goes through Death Valley, I am not afraid. When you walk by my side, your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure. You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive
[00:14:07] my drooping head and my cup brims with blessing your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life I'm back home and the house of God for the rest of my life so now I'm going to read it again and I want you to listen and I
[00:14:30] want you to see which phrase just resonates with you like what is one phrase in this passage that jumps out at you and speaks to you and I want you to just hold on to that phrase as I read and then immediately following my
[00:14:50] reading there's going to be just a few moments of quiet music and I want you to think about what that phrase means to you in your life right now what are you dealing with that makes this phrase resonate god my shepherd i don't need a thing you have
[00:15:14] bedded me down in lush meadows you find me quiet pools to drink from true to your word you let me catch my breath and you send me in the right direction even when the way goes through death
[00:15:33] valley i am not afraid when you walk at my side your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure you serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies you revive my drooping head
[00:15:54] my cup brims with blessing your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life i'm back home in the house of god for the rest of my life meditate on those words so this time i want you to take your phrase and i want you to hear the words again and i want you to
[00:19:12] be thinking about your phrase this time in relation to the other phrases that are in the passage i'll give you my example only because i want you to like be able to apply this and
[00:19:25] And it took years for me doing this in seminary and with other retreats and stuff to get the feel of Lectio Divina.
[00:19:32] The first time I did it in seminary, I fell asleep.
[00:19:35] I felt guilty, and the professor of that class was a nun.
[00:19:40] And she's like, don't feel guilty.
[00:19:42] How beautiful it is to rest in the presence of God.
[00:19:47] So like my phrase is, you revive my drooping head.
[00:19:53] I've shared with you before I struggle with pace I don't know how to like have balance sometimes and so sometimes I get tired and honestly I've never picked up on that passage until today sharing it with you you revived my drooping head so
[00:20:12] this time as I read it to you I'll be looking at how these other phrases in this passage relate to that and then what might god be saying to you today through your phrase so as soon as i read this passage and you hear it in relation to the rest
[00:20:38] i want during the next section of music you to just listen to what god might be nudging you to think don't expect some big boisterous voice to come through just where does your mind go where do your thoughts go god is in our thoughts god is in our very breath that
[00:21:02] we breathe hear these words with that intention god my shepherd i do not need a thing you have bedded me down in lush meadows you find me quiet pools to drink from true to your word you let me catch my breath and you send me in the right direction even
[00:21:28] when the way goes through Death Valley I am not afraid when you walk at my side your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure you serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies you revive my drooping head my cup brims with blessing
[00:21:50] your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life i'm back home in the house of god for the rest of my life the last time that we read it i want you to hear the words in a space
[00:25:19] of gratitude like god's presence has carried you and whatever phrase that spoke and speaks to you this morning god's been in it all along so i want you to think about as you hear these words one
[00:25:39] last time where god has been in it for me like where god has carried me when i felt like i didn't have energy to go anymore where god has breathed new life into me and i give thanks for that
[00:26:00] so think about your phrase and hear these words for the last time and during the music just think about all the ways that you can be grateful gratitude changes everything god my shepherd i don't need a thing you have bedded me down in lush meadows you find me quiet pools to
[00:26:25] drink from true to your word you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction even when the way goes through death valley i am not afraid when you walk by my side
[00:26:43] your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure you serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies you revive my drooping head my cup brims with blessing your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life
[00:27:13] So, a couple of weeks ago on the Saturday before the first ice storm came, I was visiting with John and, I mean, he was in hospice.
[00:29:55] We didn't know how much more time he had.
[00:30:00] And so, as I closed in prayer and we held hands together, at the end I said, I'll see you soon hoping that there would indeed be another time that i could see him and he held my hand like
[00:30:16] he grabbed it and held more tightly than he had been and gave it a big squeeze and looked me squarely in the eye and said i will see you again i knew he wasn't talking about there
[00:30:36] in the hospice house. And in those moments, I thought, how lucky we are as humanity to know that there's something bigger than we are that holds us all together. And that just like the David writes, God, you're my shepherd and you walk with me through death valley. You protect me from
[00:31:06] my enemies, and my cup runneth over. One of the most beautiful things about this passage is the passage before it. The psalmist David cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And we hear
[00:31:23] Jesus say those same words on the cross. We all get to those spaces feeling forsaken, yet God offers us a promise of being a forever shepherd. Hold on to your phrase today. Hold on to it in the days
[00:31:44] ahead and know that there are so many promises that we have from such a big God. We don't have to ever be afraid. Will you pray with me? Gracious God, we are so grateful for your love for how
[00:32:01] you're always there, how despite even in the darkest of places, the scariest of places, you show up, you hold all things together with this divine love and peace that we can't even begin to fathom or understand. God, as we get ready to enter into the season of Lent, the days where
[00:32:24] we're so intentional about exploring our faith, be ever present in our minds, be with us in our thoughts so that we will draw even closer to you. We ask this morning for your special blessings
[00:32:44] on Jeffrey, Pastor Jeffrey, and all those at Acres of Hope. What a beautiful thing it has been to be able to watch them go from just owning some land and now being one of the most reputable or the
[00:32:59] most reputable school in nebby god you're all over it and we are so lucky that we are just a small part of it thank you for all the folks that cook chili today thank you for this church and the way
[00:33:15] they continue to seek to give themselves away thank you for being such an amazing god in christ's name amen so you're probably sick of hearing me tell this story but you're just going to get
[00:33:30] sicker one more time when we went to acres of hope it was around this time of year it was either 15 or 16 years ago for the very first time we met this man named jeffrey and there was just some
[00:33:42] land and a lot of blueprints and he said would you pray over my land and as we or consecrate the land i didn't even know what that meant but i just assumed it meant pray and as we were standing
[00:33:57] there in our little circle of like 17 people there were so many children just running around and and there's one little set of boys that we will never forget they had on shorts but the only thing that they had with their shorts was a waistband the rest were just
[00:34:20] tattered and it was as if they had on no clothes at all their stomachs were distended with hunger It was bad.
[00:34:34] But Jeffrey had a vision and a commitment.
[00:34:37] And then, so we went, and then Williamson's Chapel, we were getting ready to launch West.
[00:34:43] It was actually our first preview service on that Easter, and the pastor at Williamson's Chapel, Rob Fuquay, told the very large congregation, instead of buying a new boat or a beach house or a mountain house this spring break,
[00:34:59] why don't you build pod houses in Uganda?
[00:35:03] And by the end of the week, we had like $75,000.
[00:35:07] And Rob said, go figure this out.
[00:35:10] And it was one of the best things I've ever been able to do in ministry aside from the bash.
[00:35:18] And then like really cool, amazing people like Jim Gray went several years later and Jeffrey's getting ready to build this great big schoolhouse, like a legit two or three story building.
[00:35:33] I'm like, there's no way.
[00:35:35] Jeffrey, we don't have any more, like we're not a rich church.
[00:35:40] And then God just nudges really cool people like Jim Gray to start leading this initiative and then new west people like the Armstrongs get on the board of directors.
[00:35:49] And there's like multiple multi-story buildings now.
[00:35:54] I can't wait to see it.
[00:35:56] I can't wait to share it with you.
[00:35:59] I tell you all that to say that your chili eating today, it matters.
[00:36:05] Buy some tickets.
[00:36:07] I don't beat you over the head about money, but every dollar today goes to make children that don't have the resources that we have here make their dreams come true.
[00:36:22] So let's go.
[00:36:24] Let's have some chili.
[00:36:27] And if you have any questions about Acres of Hope, Jim, he's this really tall man.
[00:36:32] You'll see him in the Commons area.
[00:36:34] Ask him.
[00:36:36] Thanks for being here today.
[00:36:37] Let's go eat some chili.
[00:36:39] Vote for the best chili, not the best looking cook.
[00:36:42] Go in peace.
[00:00:01] We have a brand new sound system, the other one bit the dust, and our tech team has done an amazing job, especially over the snow weeks, coming in when there was no school, and hooking us up with a brand new sound system, so give them, they are all volunteers, and do so much to help, and so we're very grateful for them.
[00:00:23] Today is a special day. It is what we call here at West a no huddles day. Back when we launched 15 years ago, we saw this speaker. He's a pastor in Michigan called Harvey Carey. And he said that
[00:00:39] far too often, it's like the Super Bowl. People drive by this space and they see all these cars there and all the stuff's going on inside, but nothing ever goes on outside. As soon as it's
[00:00:52] over inside. Everybody disperses and it's over. And he likened church to the Super Bowl. Well, we're not like that. And he said, we need to break out of our holy huddles. And so we decided when we
[00:01:06] launched, we wanted to be called what is a no huddles kind of church. So once every couple of months on Sunday mornings, the band has a little break and we do something different. We do something
[00:01:18] that's going to make an impact on someone beyond ourselves. And today is one of those days.
[00:01:25] And we are going to be highlighting one of our missions. And in just over two weeks, like on Tuesday, two weeks from Tuesday, we leave for Uganda for Acres of Hope, a team of four others
[00:01:39] and myself will be going to see Pastor Jeffrey and seeing the kids and seeing all the things that have happened. We will be sending you a message from Uganda on that Sunday, so we're really excited to be able to do that. We're going to be worshiping with you simultaneously like
[00:01:55] you'll be here, we'll be there, so we're really excited to make that happen. And we're just excited to see the difference that you, Williamson's Chapel, a few other churches here in the United States, and lots of other people are making a difference across the world. God calls us,
[00:02:12] jesus said go into all the world we focus a lot here locally with like the back to school bash and other things the backpack mission but acres of hope is our global partner and so today after
[00:02:23] worship which is going to last about 30 minutes you get to go out in the commons area and we are going to have a chili cook-off so it's the best no huddles kind of day ever you get to eat and you
[00:02:37] get to make a difference so you get to vote on the best chili now i always encourage you to actually vote on the chili and not the personas they are competing pretty heavily somebody has on a chili
[00:02:52] t-shirt they are impressed with that somebody else thinks they're the best looking chili maker so vote for the actual chili don't vote for uh the the people vote for the best chili and every dollar
[00:03:08] you vote by tickets every dollar goes to acres of hope we will be taking that with us and giving it directly to pastor jeffrey so any monies you give towards that we have digital ways to give there's
[00:03:21] going to be a qr code out in the commons area you get tickets and you vote with your tickets and it's just going to be a fun day online folks we always value you equally but there's just no way
[00:03:33] we could figure out how to tie in a chili cook-off with you at home so hopefully the worship experience this morning leading up to the chili cook-off is going to be meaningful for you if you
[00:03:45] are newer to west we're really glad that you're here we got we are glad that you took some time out of the busyness of life there's lots of other things that you could be doing with your time so
[00:03:54] we're grateful that you chose to be here with us today if you don't get any of our west communications we have a vip station for you out front and we'd love for you to sign up for our
[00:04:06] communications so you can stay in touch with all the things that we do this wednesday is another exciting day in the life of the church it is ash wednesday and we are going to be having an ash
[00:04:19] Wednesday service with the imposition of ashes at 6 p.m. not here at the high school at the West office so 6 p.m. it's like a 30-45 minute service but it really starts off the season of Lent in a meaningful way and for the season of
[00:04:36] Lent we're going to be talking about the last words of Christ we're gonna have a small group that meets right after worship that you can go in and talk about the theme that was talked about today and in the worship service we're
[00:04:49] are really intentional this year with the season of Lent, and I hope you'll be a part of that. We're also going to have an online small group, so be watching for that, especially our online community.
[00:05:00] That's going to be on Tuesday nights throughout Lent at 6 p.m. So today is going to be very different, so I want you to settle back. It's going to be the one time you get permission to go to sleep
[00:05:11] in church if it works out for you. Online folks, I want you to just take a few moments, ground yourself, get comfortable wherever you're worshiping, and in just a few minutes, we're going to begin. So over the last several weeks, I've had the privilege of walking alongside a
[00:05:32] West person, a West, we don't use the word member, but a Westie, through the process of dying. And And I've been in ministry for 30 years, I've done a lot of funerals, but over the past
[00:05:47] 15 years, it has been rare that I've had the opportunity, and I do call it a privilege, to walk along someone who is aware that they are dying far too often in our society now.
[00:06:02] We have this just rampant dementia and Alzheimer's, so a lot of times when I'm walking with a family and their loved one through the the stages of death they the person is not aware so yesterday
[00:06:19] we gathered together to celebrate the life of john rayleigh he's been a part of west since west began i shared yesterday that back when we well we still do it when the graduations occur here at lake
[00:06:34] norman in june we helped tear down and it was the first sunday that they were visiting their sister and sister-in-law here and they were getting ready to buy a house or build a house here
[00:06:46] and they came and showed up and tore down 300 very hot metal chairs because they were blistering in the noonday sun in early june and after that he was always fully immersed in west at christmas he became sick with covet and then they found out right after that he had liver
[00:07:06] cancer and he died a couple of weeks ago and we celebrated his life yesterday when someone is in hospice care i am very intentional about pastoral care visits and i had rare opportunities to spend
[00:07:20] really quality time with john and talk about what it means to be moving from this realm to the eternal one as i would end my visits with john we would pray together and i found myself like
[00:07:35] you know in seminary they don't teach you what to say there's no class how to walk someone through dying they they don't even really teach you like how to lead a celebration of life service there's
[00:07:47] a class on worship and they cram it all together so a lot of this is trial and error but honestly that and officiating weddings. They're two of the rarest privileges that pastors have. As I had the
[00:08:04] opportunity to spend time with John, something kept resonating with me and weighing heavy on me for you. You know, we do a lot of fun message series. We try to couch them in fun so that then
[00:08:18] we get to the meaning. We do a lot of self-help, and self-help is great. But there's a difference at the end of the day between self-help and theology at the end of the day we need something
[00:08:32] in those darkest of times to hold on to and mel robbins and let them and those things they're good they're great but faith takes it one step further i wrote about this a few weeks ago in the e-news
[00:08:49] and I shared with you that this was just weighing heavy on me.
[00:08:52] I want, as your pastor, to give you something to hold on to.
[00:08:59] And so over the next year, we're going to be very intentional about our message series and what the themes are.
[00:09:05] We'll intermix them with, you know, self-help and some psychological principles that help us get through life.
[00:09:12] We'll do a series on mental health and those types of things.
[00:09:16] but it's really important to me that you get something to hold on to and there's one place that we find that and that's in our scripture and so today it's a no huddles day we do things
[00:09:34] typically differently today and I thought it would be an appropriate day to do something that's called Lectio Divina. It's an ancient way of reading scripture. So what's going to happen is I've got one passage that I'm going to read to you. Perhaps you're familiar with it, perhaps not. I'm going to
[00:09:57] read it three or four different times. The first two times I'm going to read it back to back and then after those two times we have some quiet music that I want you to listen to and I'll give
[00:10:10] you instructions, further instructions in just a second. But today, after this message, this meditation, I want you to have something to hold on to. I found that as I was with John and we would pray together, phrases, certain phrases from this passage at different visits would always
[00:10:35] pop up. I'm not going to tell you what my phrases are or were because I want you to find your own.
[00:10:43] And then, when you find yourself in a difficult life situation, it doesn't have to be death and the active stages of dying.
[00:10:55] It could be dealing with difficult people, finding yourself being bullied, a work challenge, a relationship that's gone sour, a doctor's visit that did not go the way that you want it to financial challenges or just inner struggles period this passage has anchors of hope and
[00:11:26] promises that we can hold on to it's the 23rd Psalm interestingly enough yesterday John Ray Lee was a Mason which is an interesting and fascinating organization and one that I have grown to respect tremendously they talk about
[00:11:50] one deity and it was it was a beautiful part of the service the we read the 23rd Psalm together and I'm not exaggerating I had picked out today's theme months ago we were actually going to do it last sunday where we just focused on the 23rd psalm so it's
[00:12:11] just ironic timing that we shared it yesterday at a celebration of life service and now here we are again today but yesterday people from all over as i would read this passage i saw their mouths
[00:12:32] moving at certain parts and it just reminded me how important scripture is and how it means something different to everybody and so this morning i want you to find your connection place with these words now we read often from the interpretation called the message here at west
[00:12:57] so the version of the 23rd psalm that you're going to hear today is a little different than perhaps if you grew up with this, what you would have heard back then. In just a second,
[00:13:09] I'm going to read it, and I just want you to listen to the whole thing, and then I'm going to read it again and give you just a few more instructions. God, my shepherd, I don't need a
[00:13:29] thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows. You find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath, and you send me in the right direction. Even when the way
[00:13:47] goes through Death Valley, I am not afraid. When you walk by my side, your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure. You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive
[00:14:07] my drooping head and my cup brims with blessing your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life I'm back home and the house of God for the rest of my life so now I'm going to read it again and I want you to listen and I
[00:14:30] want you to see which phrase just resonates with you like what is one phrase in this passage that jumps out at you and speaks to you and I want you to just hold on to that phrase as I read and then immediately following my
[00:14:50] reading there's going to be just a few moments of quiet music and I want you to think about what that phrase means to you in your life right now what are you dealing with that makes this phrase resonate god my shepherd i don't need a thing you have
[00:15:14] bedded me down in lush meadows you find me quiet pools to drink from true to your word you let me catch my breath and you send me in the right direction even when the way goes through death
[00:15:33] valley i am not afraid when you walk at my side your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure you serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies you revive my drooping head
[00:15:54] my cup brims with blessing your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life i'm back home in the house of god for the rest of my life meditate on those words so this time i want you to take your phrase and i want you to hear the words again and i want you to
[00:19:12] be thinking about your phrase this time in relation to the other phrases that are in the passage i'll give you my example only because i want you to like be able to apply this and
[00:19:25] And it took years for me doing this in seminary and with other retreats and stuff to get the feel of Lectio Divina.
[00:19:32] The first time I did it in seminary, I fell asleep.
[00:19:35] I felt guilty, and the professor of that class was a nun.
[00:19:40] And she's like, don't feel guilty.
[00:19:42] How beautiful it is to rest in the presence of God.
[00:19:47] So like my phrase is, you revive my drooping head.
[00:19:53] I've shared with you before I struggle with pace I don't know how to like have balance sometimes and so sometimes I get tired and honestly I've never picked up on that passage until today sharing it with you you revived my drooping head so
[00:20:12] this time as I read it to you I'll be looking at how these other phrases in this passage relate to that and then what might god be saying to you today through your phrase so as soon as i read this passage and you hear it in relation to the rest
[00:20:38] i want during the next section of music you to just listen to what god might be nudging you to think don't expect some big boisterous voice to come through just where does your mind go where do your thoughts go god is in our thoughts god is in our very breath that
[00:21:02] we breathe hear these words with that intention god my shepherd i do not need a thing you have bedded me down in lush meadows you find me quiet pools to drink from true to your word you let me catch my breath and you send me in the right direction even
[00:21:28] when the way goes through Death Valley I am not afraid when you walk at my side your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure you serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies you revive my drooping head my cup brims with blessing
[00:21:50] your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life i'm back home in the house of god for the rest of my life the last time that we read it i want you to hear the words in a space
[00:25:19] of gratitude like god's presence has carried you and whatever phrase that spoke and speaks to you this morning god's been in it all along so i want you to think about as you hear these words one
[00:25:39] last time where god has been in it for me like where god has carried me when i felt like i didn't have energy to go anymore where god has breathed new life into me and i give thanks for that
[00:26:00] so think about your phrase and hear these words for the last time and during the music just think about all the ways that you can be grateful gratitude changes everything god my shepherd i don't need a thing you have bedded me down in lush meadows you find me quiet pools to
[00:26:25] drink from true to your word you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction even when the way goes through death valley i am not afraid when you walk by my side
[00:26:43] your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure you serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies you revive my drooping head my cup brims with blessing your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life
[00:27:13] So, a couple of weeks ago on the Saturday before the first ice storm came, I was visiting with John and, I mean, he was in hospice.
[00:29:55] We didn't know how much more time he had.
[00:30:00] And so, as I closed in prayer and we held hands together, at the end I said, I'll see you soon hoping that there would indeed be another time that i could see him and he held my hand like
[00:30:16] he grabbed it and held more tightly than he had been and gave it a big squeeze and looked me squarely in the eye and said i will see you again i knew he wasn't talking about there
[00:30:36] in the hospice house. And in those moments, I thought, how lucky we are as humanity to know that there's something bigger than we are that holds us all together. And that just like the David writes, God, you're my shepherd and you walk with me through death valley. You protect me from
[00:31:06] my enemies, and my cup runneth over. One of the most beautiful things about this passage is the passage before it. The psalmist David cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And we hear
[00:31:23] Jesus say those same words on the cross. We all get to those spaces feeling forsaken, yet God offers us a promise of being a forever shepherd. Hold on to your phrase today. Hold on to it in the days
[00:31:44] ahead and know that there are so many promises that we have from such a big God. We don't have to ever be afraid. Will you pray with me? Gracious God, we are so grateful for your love for how
[00:32:01] you're always there, how despite even in the darkest of places, the scariest of places, you show up, you hold all things together with this divine love and peace that we can't even begin to fathom or understand. God, as we get ready to enter into the season of Lent, the days where
[00:32:24] we're so intentional about exploring our faith, be ever present in our minds, be with us in our thoughts so that we will draw even closer to you. We ask this morning for your special blessings
[00:32:44] on Jeffrey, Pastor Jeffrey, and all those at Acres of Hope. What a beautiful thing it has been to be able to watch them go from just owning some land and now being one of the most reputable or the
[00:32:59] most reputable school in nebby god you're all over it and we are so lucky that we are just a small part of it thank you for all the folks that cook chili today thank you for this church and the way
[00:33:15] they continue to seek to give themselves away thank you for being such an amazing god in christ's name amen so you're probably sick of hearing me tell this story but you're just going to get
[00:33:30] sicker one more time when we went to acres of hope it was around this time of year it was either 15 or 16 years ago for the very first time we met this man named jeffrey and there was just some
[00:33:42] land and a lot of blueprints and he said would you pray over my land and as we or consecrate the land i didn't even know what that meant but i just assumed it meant pray and as we were standing
[00:33:57] there in our little circle of like 17 people there were so many children just running around and and there's one little set of boys that we will never forget they had on shorts but the only thing that they had with their shorts was a waistband the rest were just
[00:34:20] tattered and it was as if they had on no clothes at all their stomachs were distended with hunger It was bad.
[00:34:34] But Jeffrey had a vision and a commitment.
[00:34:37] And then, so we went, and then Williamson's Chapel, we were getting ready to launch West.
[00:34:43] It was actually our first preview service on that Easter, and the pastor at Williamson's Chapel, Rob Fuquay, told the very large congregation, instead of buying a new boat or a beach house or a mountain house this spring break,
[00:34:59] why don't you build pod houses in Uganda?
[00:35:03] And by the end of the week, we had like $75,000.
[00:35:07] And Rob said, go figure this out.
[00:35:10] And it was one of the best things I've ever been able to do in ministry aside from the bash.
[00:35:18] And then like really cool, amazing people like Jim Gray went several years later and Jeffrey's getting ready to build this great big schoolhouse, like a legit two or three story building.
[00:35:33] I'm like, there's no way.
[00:35:35] Jeffrey, we don't have any more, like we're not a rich church.
[00:35:40] And then God just nudges really cool people like Jim Gray to start leading this initiative and then new west people like the Armstrongs get on the board of directors.
[00:35:49] And there's like multiple multi-story buildings now.
[00:35:54] I can't wait to see it.
[00:35:56] I can't wait to share it with you.
[00:35:59] I tell you all that to say that your chili eating today, it matters.
[00:36:05] Buy some tickets.
[00:36:07] I don't beat you over the head about money, but every dollar today goes to make children that don't have the resources that we have here make their dreams come true.
[00:36:22] So let's go.
[00:36:24] Let's have some chili.
[00:36:27] And if you have any questions about Acres of Hope, Jim, he's this really tall man.
[00:36:32] You'll see him in the Commons area.
[00:36:34] Ask him.
[00:36:36] Thanks for being here today.
[00:36:37] Let's go eat some chili.
[00:36:39] Vote for the best chili, not the best looking cook.
[00:36:42] Go in peace.
