Sermon Transcript:

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for being online. We are finishing up our series on First Corinthians, and it just so happens that some of Paul's exhortation, salutations, the way he wants to kind of end this letter is exactly how I'd love to to end and leave you guys this morning we're going to look at so if you have your Bibles, we're going to have most of it on the screen. But first, Corinthians, chapter 16, I want to remind us where we've been in 15 though. We just sang a beautiful song about how at the end, the dead in Christ will rise and that death will be no more, and the idea that death, in its literal sting will be taken away. We just read about that and encourage ourselves in that in the previous chapter last week. So I just want us to be reminded kind of where we're coming from exactly as we jump into chapter 16 here in the book of Corinthians. It begins in verse one. It says this right here. It says, Now regarding your question about the money being collected, remember, he's always addressing issues that he knows are something for the church at Corinth being collected for God's people in Jerusalem, you should follow the same procedure I gave to the churches in Galatia on the first day of the week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don't wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once. When I come, I will write letters of recommendation for the messengers you choose to deliver your gift to Jerusalem, if it seems appropriate for me to go along, they can travel with me. First point, I wants to see this morning that it maybe isn't a new slash, maybe isn't new to you, if you've been around church or the things of God, and that is just that whole idea of setting aside a portion of your earnings for the church. And this is Paul's exhortation. This is exactly where he's going. And so why? Why do we go there? And I know many of y'all come from traditions where you and your family, y'all didn't grow up giving a regular portion of your actual salary to the church. And one of the things that we ask here is that we would covenant together, and many times, at least once a year, and when you go on to serving teams, we ask you to sign a covenant where you're moving towards the tithe or 10% of your income. And I know, again, that's not normal, or that's not easy, that's not something you had in your regular pattern growing up. So again, just like anything else that you're starting, whether it's a new diet or a new trend or a new way to better yourself, in the beginning, it is very hard, but then after you get used to it, then you recognize and that discipline becomes so much easier for you. And I would just say, please consider this right here. Life, church is not connected to any other, you know, church or denomination. We are a non denominational, autonomous church. Many of y'all, again, I know you have different backgrounds, where maybe you were part of a Catholic church and you dropped a few bucks in, you know, the passing of the plate. We stopped the passing of the plate during covid. And what we've sort of moved to is exactly what you see here, either digitally scanning the QR code or obviously dropping a check in the back. But what we understand God has for us is regular giving to where. If you know, okay, this is what I know my paycheck is during this season, first of the month, or middle of the month, or whatever. Or every week that you go ahead and you have that drafted so that you can be faithful to what God has for you. That's just, that's just really Christianity 101, that I know, again, is not a pattern or not something easy for a lot of us, but you can always tell where your heart is with your checkbook or what now we call our digital readout on our phones, so you and I, we know the verses For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. But I just want to get real practical and real real with you here as we sort of transition here at Life Church. And that is that Life Church only exists if you decide you want it to exist if you want to keep going. So if you want to just take out all the spiritual aspects of what is going on here, and there's all kinds of spiritual things going on when you think about giving. Jesus had a lot to say about money, just on a real practical base level, if you want the church to give, you have to give. I mean, if you want the church to survive, you and I have to give to it. That everything has to be funded. What we care about has to be funded. And I just would say again, this is true about country clubs, if you're a member of it, or if you understand like private schools, or you understand that that organization, it only exists if people are committed to it and give a portion of their income to it. Otherwise it would cease to exist. And that's why I think even the word commitment and membership, and even, as I say, the word covenant together, these are all such foreign concepts that are not anywhere in our culture right now. Think about it, your grandparents generation, not so much your parents, but your grandparents generation and all that. Before that, there was company loyalty, there was commitment to a certain place.

And a certain organization or a place of employment, normally for a long time, and we know those days are gone, I'm not asking that they come back, but what ends up happening is that seeps into all kinds of things in our life. Right? Think about how finicky we are with relationships. Think about how quick we are to sort of move on in terms of jobs and communities. It's just out there. It's just a reality. But you have to ask yourself, then, how tethered Am I to the gospel? How tethered Am I to a church? So this isn't optional for Christians or believers, and I would just say that Life Church only exists if the people who attend here right now commit to give. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but every 18 months, the half the church is new again. I can ask for a show of hands. Say How many of y'all were not here 18 months ago, and I know half the hands would, would would go up, because that's just how it is here at Life Church. And so that's fine. That's That's great that we have a place of light here in the borderland and on the east side of El Paso, but just know that we're counting on as we all come and go, that while we're here, that we're committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and we're committed to this church, this body, while we're here. And sometimes it's hard. He knows that. He's saying, don't wait until I get there, right and let's just ground together. See what we have in our pocket. What does he say here? He says, set aside a portion the first day of the week, which is what Sunday, so that, you know, man, I'm going to give before I because if I wait till I've already had what my my taco tote, and I've had all these other things, right, then I know that I'll just give kind of what I have left. He's saying, don't do that, because it won't be adequate. It won't be enough. And I thought about showing kind of where all the money goes. We have a lot of integrity here in terms of how we use our finances and, you know, our partnerships in the city and even around the world, but just know this is a biblical principle that I would encourage you on. To be honest with you, the majority, the vast majority, of regular lifers do not tithe. Okay, and that that has always been an issue in our church because it is so hard because so many of y'all did not come from homes in which that was practiced. And I just want to raise my hand. I didn't come from a home where it was practiced to where my parents tied or encouraged tithing at all. They were always like, Oh, I'm sure someone else has got it. I'm sure the rich people got it. I want you to look around. Ain't no rich people here. It's just normal people who love Jesus Christ, who decide to come together, to give what they have so that this place can function and be a light for the gospel here in the borderland on the east side. So do not neglect this principle for the testament of your own soul. It just, it just is so bad when you and I find ourselves because we're scared a lot of times, aren't we? I mean, it's not just this economy. It's always something there's always another bill, there's always another cause, there's always something else. And so we're scared to let go, but that's why it's called faith. Alright, set aside a portion of your earnings for the church. Let's keep going here. And this is an interesting section in the scriptures, because it you can tell it's very personal. I'm coming to visit you. This is Paul, after I've been to Macedonia, and I'm planning to travel through Macedonia, perhaps I'll stay with you for a while, possibly all winter, and then we can send me on my way to my next destination. This time, I don't want to just make a short visit and go right on. I want to come and stay a while, if the Lord will let me. So he's just, he's saying, This is my desire. This is what the Lord has for me. In the meantime, I'll be staying here at Ephesus. These are all little places you can see in the ancient biblical world. Ephesians, you probably know that until the festival of Pentecost, again, that's a regular festival that would have been practiced and you saw there in Acts chapter two. There's a wide open door for a great work here, although many oppose me when Timothy comes and you've heard that, that's another book, that's his protege, that's who Paul's mentoring. Don't intimidate him. He's doing the Lord's work just as I am. Don't let anyone treat him with contempt. Send him on his way with your blessing. When he returns to me, I expect him to come with the other believers. Now about our brother, Apollos. I urge him to visit you with the other believers, but he was not willing to go right now. He will see you later when he has the opportunity. Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous, be strong. So those are all like things that we would say militarily. I know many people are connected to some sort of government agency where we go to battle. We go to war. This is how they would have even talked in the ancient world. But here's something that Paul adds that's so gospel centered, and do everything with love. So we know that stephanias and his household were the first of the harvest of the believers in Greece, and they are spending their lives and serve it to God's people. I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, submit to them and others like them who serve with such devotion. I'm so glad that Sania and fortunes and archaicus have come here. They have been providing the help you weren't here to give me. They have been a wonderful encouragement to me. They've they and as they have been to you, you must show them your appreciation to all who serve so well. Second point, I just want.

For us to see, because then again, is do everything with love. And that's just a quote that I took straight from the scriptures. One of the things I want you to see in this letter, a lot of times we sort of skim over the personal aspects of letter, because we're like, I don't think I know these people, or I don't know these places. I'm not sure what he's talking about. I think again, understand that the letter was first written to the people of Corinth, but it is for us, right, the church, the Christian believers, and so there's some personal aspects that, even that is nice to see that Paul's not just doing this out of like duty, or doing this because he feels like he has to, or makes a little money, or whatever it is that you may think he's doing this out of an overflow of a heart that actually loves these people here at Corinth, and he writes them multiple letters, as we see, that's how we get Second Corinthians and other letters that we don't have. But he's saying above all these things, as you stand firm, as you do what God calls you to do. And I would say this as your pastor at Life Church on this last day, but do everything with love, whatever your hand finds to do. Do it with all your might, set your hand to the plow and do not look back. There'll be so many distractions. You know, one of the things you get to see is you get to see when you shepherd people that so many things happen that sort of choke out the word of God, or come and pluck it, or any of those kind of things, or, or just, or just all these things, where we we bury talent, or we struggle in faith. And he's just saying, Listen, do everything. Encourage those. Pull people up, call them back to Christ, all these things, but do it all with love. So whatever it is you find yourself to do individually and corporately in the next season here at Life Church, do everything with love. Last and final section I want to look at here is 19 to the end of the book. It says this, the churches here in the province in Asia send greetings to the Lord, as do Aquila and Priscilla and all the other who gather in their home for church meetings. All the brothers and sisters here sing greetings to you, greet each other with a sacred kiss, or sometimes you would see greet each other with a holy kiss. That's that's the same way that we do greetings. That's why, again, we came out of covid. I was like, hey, love each other, embrace one another. So so little that going on sit shoulder to shoulder or kneel shoulder to shoulder with people and go to the throne room of God together. This is, this is good. This is how God designed us to be is to have relationships in the flesh, just so that we can see and touch and know one another. Here is my greeting in my own handwriting, Paul. It's just this whole idea that he's writing large in some way to let him know this is me. I love you again. I know we got the texting and all these kind of things going on, but you and I, even as believers, we need to find ways to always have that sort of personal touch. If anyone does not love the Lord, that person is a curse, our Lord, come May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ, Jesus, this is Paul's sort of exhortation ending, and it would be very similar to me in my understanding as I come to a close. It's that whole idea of the same thing that was the benedictions, that was the giving of the Word of God to people from centuries, both Old and New Testament on. Throw up that final sort of bendiction and don't go anywhere. We got about 1015 minutes. We're going to introduce the the interim guy, as we do transitioning here. But this would be something I would think, in my own heart, if I was going to say anything to you, if I was going to leave you with anything, I can't do any better than the scriptures and what they say. And so this is my rendition with a couple different translations. Comes from numbers six verses, 24 to 26 you may have heard some version of this as ministers or people who are up on this stage say something close to this when you leave or when you depart, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may he have his face to shine upon you, be gracious to you and give you peace. That is my hope, that is my prayer and really my blessing for you. And you know to know too that we're all connected with the Lord, and that the Lord will be faithful to both of us wherever we're at, to sort allow us to engage in Him and to figure out exactly what God has for us in the next chapter, in the next season. I told you this was a time of transition. I knew it short lesson because I wanted to leave opportunity for you to get to know a guy named Larry Floyd. So Larry, I'd ask you just come on up real quick and yeah, give him a give him a good life. Church. Welcome, man.

It looks like you've been working out. Man, I know. Well, we gotta get up his stools. I I didn't want the people to not be able to see you. Come on, let's, let's take a minute, and I want, I want them to be introduced to you, and because you're going to be their pastor for the next couple months. And so just start out with, man, tell us about yourself. Where are you? Where are you from? And who are you? Well, I was born in Iowa, home of Caitlin Clark, you know,

man, is she popular? Or what? No, I got here. I came to El Paso when I was nine years old. Uh, my dad worked for the railroad, so we moved here in 19, whatever, you know, a few years ago.

And we moved to a house with my uncle, and then we moved we bought a house in the Northeast.

Logan heights. So I went to urban high school.

I'm sorry. I know we're on the east side. Let me tell you,

Joe battle, the loop was not here when I grew up. It just, you know, my sister, in 1984 bought a house off of George Dieter, and we asked her why she didn't ever want to see us, because it was way out there when she got married, you know, George Dieter. We were like, where is that? Yeah, and so I understand the east side is, is the up and coming place? I still live in the Northeast. I was in the military for seven and a half years. Go Army, right? Any milk, alright?

And I'm just like, like, Brent was just telling us, you know, growing up in a religious home does not necessarily mean you have a relationship with Jesus, because I did go to church, I did do certain things. We were given $1 to throw in the plate.

But it wasn't until my venture through the military, I went to Alaska and Indiana, and it was in Indiana when we were there, where the the Lord first really came to our door and and we understood what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus, how to how to give yourself and your heart and your soul and your life, your spirit, to Jesus and have a connection with him. So I got saved in 1990 I was 25 years old. And what does save mean? Larry, I actually made a commitment. I confessed with my mouth that I believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is, and he actually went to a cross, that He actually bled and shed his blood for us, and that we are actually forgiven of every sin that we've ever committed, the sins that we're currently committing and the sins that we'll commit in the future, because we are not a sinless people. We are a sinful people with forgiveness, and that's salvation to me. Now I didn't get baptized till about seven or eight months after I was saved, because having been baptized as a baby, I thought I had that part covered. I wanted to know from the Scripture text, why would I get baptized? So I was baptized about seven or eight years or months after I was saved, because I finally I went to a class and I understood what it means to be totally immersed. Because the you guys have seen baptisms here it represents the grave. You die to the old self, and you're raised to live a new life. And that's what we say, buried with Christ in death, raised and to live a new life. I had got out of the military. By the end, I was working for the government. We moved to Fort Hood, Texas. I wasn't even in the military. Worked for the government, Uncle Sam for eight years. But it was during that time that God really worked on my life and made me a disciple. I got ordained as a deacon. The guy asked me, Hey, have you ever thought about becoming a deacon here? And I literally got up and looked, and I was looking for who he was talking to. Yeah, I thought of some old geezer that there was going to be a deacon there. You know, I was a young guy in my 30 or, you know, late 20s, early 30s, and I thought, why would I want to be a deacon? That's for those old guys.

I accepted a call to do that. And during that time is when God started working on my heart about ministry. So in 1998 we packed up everything, sold our house, and we moved to Fort Worth, and we went to seminary because I had no Bible background. It was like I had to go and be taught by by some professors, people that had some time in their feet in the actual ministry, because I wanted to know, how do I do this? How do I operate this? My pastor was great. He met with me for months. He let me preach. I preached at a Korean church my first service. Oh, wow.

There were people spoke English. It wasn't English, but they had a Korean service and an English service for those that were from there, that were connected. I get there, they don't have a worship leader, brother from Phoenix. Thanks for coming here. And I'm like, they're like, Hey, we're ready to start. And I go, Yeah, me too, let's go, yeah. And they said, No, you're leading us in the music too. Yeah. I said, well, and if Brent was my pastor, I will thank Pastor. Brent. Yeah, I didn't even know that, yeah. Like, I'm not a music guy. That's for those guys to do, but they have this little box that you type in a hymn, and it would play the music electronically. This is before YouTube, man, you know, and karaoke and stuff. And so they did that. And so I led the music time, and that was my first experience in preaching the gospel to a group of people. And from there, God has just been amazing. I was gone from El Paso for 34 years. My wife and I have been married for 41 years. That tells you how young we are. We have a 40 year old. We

have a 40 year old that was born at William Beaumont Army Medical Center when we were stationed here at Fort Bliss, we went to Alaska and Indiana and came back in 2019, the Lord called me to be the executive director for the El Paso Baptist Association. And I know, as Brent was, was talking about non denominational he said, We don't have any connection. You're your own church. So is every Baptist Church. They're autonomous. They get to do whatever they want. They get to call whatever pastor they want. They get to give to who they want. But.

We work together for the body of Christ life. Church is actually part of our association. So we're able to start new churches, have events, Pastor luncheons, we do all of these things to connect to pastors and churches to say, hey, we're in war together. We're all together doing God's Kingdom work here in El Paso, in our community. So Brett and I actually got here about the same time. In 2019 I was just more familiar with El Paso than he was, you know, but that's my story. Yeah, no, I appreciate that so much. So the other thing I was going to ask you is just a little bit of follow up. You're talking about ministry and all that. So then I know you were in a, you were pastor of a, of a borderland church in Del Rio, right for a little while before here,

talk a little bit about just your your hope for El El Paso and for this season. I mean, you'll be here at least two or three months and and so just talk about, because we, we're moving forward. I mean, you saw that we had, you know, 10 plus people baptized a week or two ago. Oh, I know places full people. These people love Jesus, and they're ready to ready to move forward, even though I'm not going to be here and they don't have a pastor. So help us understand how you're going to help us do that.

This actually will be my fourth interim pastorate since I've been here in El Paso in five years. And what that means is an interim pastor comes in and just kind of fills that gap. So you don't have to have a guy come in every Sunday and have different there's some consistency there. And being from El Paso, we understand the culture. My wife is was actually born in Juarez, and we met

when we were in high school, so we're high school sweethearts,

and so we understand the culture. We've always come back to El Paso. Our families are from here to visit, to do mission projects, to help encourage this community to say, Jesus can be Lord of El Paso if we want him to be. That's right. I mean, he really can be. And that's my hope, is that in the you know, I don't know how Lucy asked me this morning how anything will be here. I said, who knows, but maybe to the end of the year. I don't know, whatever it takes, but I want to be here and be consistent.

I'm going to preach the gospel. You can bring your friends knowing that they're going to hear a gospel message just exactly like Brent did every Sunday, and have an opportunity to ask Jesus to be the Lord of their life. That's right, I will always be a person that preaches the gospel

unashamed, I go verse by verse, just like he did. Imma I do. I'm going to start with the book of Galatians next week. So my hope is that each week you're faithful in receiving the word, that you're faithful in understanding who you are in Christ, because you're going to hear the the truth about the gospel, just like you have heard for the last five years that Pastor Brent's been here, yeah, and so my hope is just to continue that legacy, and so that we don't skip a beat. Now is not the time to quit. Yeah, all these all y'all volunteers and everybody that's working continue to serve the Lord, because you're not serving the pastor, you're helping the pastor, but actually you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what we come to church for. You see, anything can happen to your pastor. I understand that he's leaving on his own will. God is asking him to step down, and you know he's released him from here. But you never know in the world that we live in,

people don't like Christians. You never know what's going to happen with those doors on Sunday morning. You just don't know it happens all the time. So you can lose your pastor the next day. So if you're coming to church because of a person, don't, yeah, come to the church because you want to serve and you want to worship the King of kings, through music, through prayer, through baptism, through communion, through the word of God, take the past. Yes, you need a shepherd. Tony Evans, one of my favorite pastors, said this, you never listen Tony Evans. Listen to him online. He said this. He said, hey, if the church knew where to go, they wouldn't need a pastor.

I'm not saying that the flock doesn't need a shepherd. We do, but what I am saying is is our our everybody's pastor is Jesus. So I was in Del Rio for six years. We started a church called City Church Del Rio, and

we didn't really we thought we were actually glad that we went to Del Rio before we came to El Paso. I'd always wanted to come back to El Paso as a new person, as a safe person, as a minister, because I believe that these are my people. This is my community. And I want to do something. I want to make a difference. And so we went to Del Rio for six years. And I'm actually glad that we did. Del Rio's a lot smaller community. I don't think I was ready for the big community that El Paso is. And so God prepared me with border ministry to come here. We started the Valverde border humanitarian Coalition. We started a new church. We were community players. I was a DJ on the radio there. Did you know that? No, I did not.

You're a man of many talents, or what is it? What is it? Yeah, I know a lot of things, but I'm not a master of anything. Yeah, we just know a lot a little bit of that, yeah? But.

But we really got involved in the community there, and we and that's the way I'm trying to do here in El Paso. We started the El Paso migrant Center.

We are partners with other community ministries. We just moved to the northeast. Our campus is on the northeast. We don't actually even have a church. We have a sanctuary, but we want to put a church plant in there so we can actually the first place to find for a church plant is always the most difficult, so we want to start them there for three years, and then we give them the boot, kick em out. Hopefully they save their money and they can afford their own place and start a new one, and continue that replication. I pray one day Life Church becomes a church that plants their own churches as well, because you're way out here, and there's a lot more to El Paso than just right here. You could start planting life churches all across this this city like Del Sol. Del Sol has four campuses. Other churches have other campuses, not because they want to hog all that. No. Do you know how many people are lost in El Paso that don't know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior? The North American Mission Board, or IMB, did a, I think it's North American Mission Board, did a survey on how many churches are needed in El Paso in the next 20 years, 250 churches. Yeah, that's, that's 100 churches a year. Or, I'm sorry, 10 churches a year. That's a lot of churches. When you think about it, to to plant 10 new churches every year, we need everybody in the body of Christ, and that's what I I'm coming here to hopefully inform you about what's going on in our community and how Life Church can be part of that that's so good. So thank you so much. Just one little thing, I want to just let you know, just so you understand kind of how things will work. We are, we are governed by a board. We have a board of directors, and so they'll help, also, not just kind of help with Larry, but also what they do is they help with the next pastor search. And so that's that's through a company called slingshot. And we'll put all this online, hopefully this week or the next week, so that that's clear, or if you want to go back and and reference it. But thank you, thank you for being here. I don't know, should I pray for you? Should you pray for me? Or should we pray for each other? Pray for each other. Yes, alright, let me pray for you, and then you pray for me. Alright, father. I just thank you so much for my brother, Larry. I thank you for his willingness to come to El Paso and come to life church and help us during this interim transition time. I just pray that Life Church receive him and the bless him and embrace him. And I just thank you again for his willingness to do whatever you calling to do and thank you for him in Christ's name and father, I just pray for my brother, Brent. I know that you have great plans for him, and he may not know everything that you have in store, but I know that you already have that path carved out for him, Lord, guide his direction, guide his heart, guide his family. And I pray for just a double portion of your Holy Spirit to anoint him and whatever calling that you have for where, when he leaves his place, and I know that as he leaves here, he carries a piece of El Paso, and he leaves a piece of himself here with this congregation, Lord, I thank you for the amazing things that has happened here at Life Church. I thank you for his leadership, his guidance. And I know there was a lot of work to be done here, and I'm grateful that you brought him here for such a time as this. So I just pray as he leaves this place that will remember him in our hearts and minds and souls. I know I will, Lord, and I know this church will in Christ's name, I pray, amen. Thank you so much.

Okay, we're so grateful that you prayed for our pastor, but now as a church, we want to pray for him, and I'd like to preface this prayer with one thing. I started out my journey with the Lord when I was 16, and I have never had as good a pastor as I've had this past five years. You

father, we are so very grateful for having you, having sent Pastor Brent to us, God, God, he has shown us a deeper walk with you, shown us how to have an outreach in our community. God, he has just taken this church to a new level. And we thank you for that. We thank you for his life and for his family, God. And we just want to send him away with a blessing. God with your blessing. We know that your favor rests upon him, Father, God, and God, as he starts a new journey, we just ask that You, Holy Spirit, will continue to keep him close to your heart, that he will walk out the plan that you have for him in this next portion of his life. God, close to you and be used of you. God, you will see the people that you have given to him in this new place that he can minister to, that he can be light to God. And so we just thank you for that, and we ask that you would be with Courtney and each of the children. God, we thank you for their lives, and we just ask for your favor to rest upon them, Father, God, that they will continue to grow in you and that where they're planted, that they will shine for you and be an example. Father, their journey is just beginning a new season.

Father, as we begin this new season, God, we are trusting you for great things here in this church. God, we're trusting you that as a family, we are going to grow and we are going to pick up the mantle he has left us with, and we're going to see great and mighty things from you. And we ask you for that, for Pastor Brandon, his family, God, that they will see great and mighty things and will be used of you and know that they are in the very center of your will. And we thank you for all of this. We ask it in the name of Jesus, and we ask it for one purpose, Lord, not only for our good, not only for their good, but God for your glory, that we will be those who glorify you, and that we will be those who will meet you again one day to be with you for all eternity. We thank you for this in Jesus name amen.