Charlie Loften: Hello, and welcome to The Grove Church podcast. I'm Charlie Lofton, the lead pastor there, and we are so glad that you're joining us. Whether you are a member and you're just catching up on a sermon that you missed or you're someone who's brand new, we are really glad that you are joining us. And if you are new in some way, and I know that a lot of people will do that, we'll listen to sermons first before they visit. I want you to know that we would love to meet you at any point.
You can join us live in our services on Sunday, nine and 10:30, or our streaming service at 10:30. Either way, we would love to be able to get to know you. And regardless of why you are here listening to this sermon today, thank you so much for joining us.
Mark Freeman: Alright. Well, hey. Good morning. Oh, I like that. My name is Mark, and I'm just excited to to worship together today as we start this this new series.
If if I haven't met you, I I would love to. I'll be in the back of the room when we finish today. I'd love to just just meet you and help you any way that I can, any questions that you have or anything like that. Gonna be a little bit of a different morning. One thing, we're we're launching a new series today, and so my my task this morning is to kinda set the stage for that, and there's a passage that I really feel like the Lord has put on my heart that that He wants to to share with us and and get us on that path.
But before before I do that, most of you guys are aware that our family has had a tragedy recently where our house burned down. It was we found out this last week that pretty much it they totaled the house and most of the, you know, the contents are also gone. So so that that happened. And at the same time, there has been this incredible outpouring of support and love and generosity that I I can't Terry and I neither one are are we're really good at at at trying to help other people. We're not very good at receiving help.
So it's been a it's been a it's been a learning learning process just to be be the one that is in need and that is is is receiving these things. And I was thinking about it the other day, what's what's kinda happened is this whole thing is is really, really big. I, you know, I even sold insurance back in my former life. My my dad was an insurance agent for thirty years, been in church ministry for a long time, and I've never really walked through a fire with anybody. I've walked myself through a lot of different types of tragedies and walked through tragedies with people, but not a not a total lost house fire.
And and it does feel like a a monster that you cut off one head and five more grow in its place. It just it feels it feels very, very overwhelming, and it seems to grow sometimes by the day, by the hour. And then at the same time, there's this there's this incredible generosity and love and the power of a community, and it feels like that's also this huge wave. And I kinda gotten this this visual in my in my mind of these two, like, the overwhelming wave of all the tasks and the logistics and the things related to that, and then this equal in size and stronger in power wave of of the love of the body of Christ and our friends that that that then, you know, it it crashes into that wave. And in the middle of that, somehow, we're we're not on our back anymore.
We're we're not on our toes, but we're we're at least still still standing. And and just seeing God's goodness in the in the middle of it all. Just to kinda tell you what happened, we're we're sitting there, and it's a Sunday night a few weeks ago where we got a little fire going. It was a night that there was a big wind, you know, really strong wind, and it's kinda cold outside, and we're watching the NCAA Women's Finals wrestling. It was pretty it it was pretty awesome.
That's what my family does. And so my two older boys are out of the house, but the twins that are 11, boy girl twins twins, Jack and Darcy, they were there on the couch with us. And we were getting down to the last few matches, but it was really bedtime, so we sent them on to bed. And Terry and I were just gonna finish out the last few matches, but then all of a sudden, the TV went off. And our TV was above the fireplace, and a a lamp over there went off, and we're like, oh, that's kinda weird.
It was a storm, kind of a storm, but it was, like, weird that just a few things went off. So I went to the fuse box, sure enough, that switch had blown, but I couldn't get it to go back. And then I went back in the house, and Terry's like, I there's some kind of knocking upstairs. And so I started to make my way up the staircase, and it wasn't necessarily knocking, it was a crackling. And I really don't know.
I mean, I I just feel like I was with us in the middle of it because for some reason, I was like, the house is on fire. And I ran back outside and and looked up, and sure enough, flames were just flying off out of the chimney. And and so the the place that it really started is right by the attic, which just then became Kenland for the fire. And then the next room is Jack's room. And so when by the time I got up there and got the twins running out the door, then the fire alarms went off.
And and it was already raging in the in the attic. And so, you know, if we had if we had gone to sleep and it had been the fire alarms that that triggered going to get them, it would have been really difficult to get them from upstairs. So just so many things that we're incredibly thankful for that God protected us from. And and then there's just there's gonna be a long process of trying to trying to figure this out. I did have a friend this weekend that also kinda gave me this illustration that I think is gonna be one that maybe I hold on to.
You know how there's probably some some of you guys in this room that do this. Like, if you really wanna have an awesome yard, know, about this time of year, what do you do? You burn it. And then you see those yards of people control burn, and then it's just lush green. He said something about that, and I'm I'm just believing that that's what God's about to do.
That hey, burn it down, but what grows in its place is gonna be greener than it than it ever was. And I think that the reason for that is because we are living in community. And you guys, this this community is so incredible. And so from this stage, a lot of times in my position, I'm kind of the small groups pastor guy. You know, I'm always trying to encourage everybody.
You know, you should you should live in community. You should be in small group. You should find your people amidst the people, and it's not just Sunday morning and the the thing that we do here. It's much more than that because life is out there. And when your fan gets hit with poo, what are you what are you gonna do?
Mean, that just that just happened to us. And because we've got people that love us and rallied around us, we're experiencing God's care for us in the middle of a really hard thing. What what about you? So I'm I'm probably gonna amp up my level of insistence that you find your people because you desperately need it, and and we're getting to see that firsthand. So so anyway, just get ready for that.
And if if you don't, then you need to you need to do that. You need to do that now. So talk to me soon. So this this whole thing happens, and, you know, it's like a week away from spring break, and we've got a thing that we've been doing for nearly a decade on spring break. It's basically this glorified camping trip at this place that they give away this the lift tickets, and so you can ski, but there wasn't any snow there this year anyway, so we just kinda slid down a hill of rocks.
But but I really, at first, was like, man, there's just too much. There's no way that we can make that trip. But everybody was like, no. You should do that. Even the insurance guy was like, you you should do that.
So we went we went ahead and figured it out, and we made this trip to New Mexico. And like like I said, we've been doing it for a long time. We you you get on I 40 and you just you just cruise and, you know, it's you can go 85 now, which is just ridiculous to me. But and, you know, you've you've probably been on some some road trips before. You know, you're you're cruising down the road, and there's there's these exits and things that can kinda take you off your path.
Now now I know the end goal, day one, we don't get all the way to the place, but we get to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. And honestly, when I wake up that Saturday morning, every year, the thing I'm excited about is to get to Santa Rosa La Quinta and order that pizza from Diego's. It's called Especial, and I think it it's rightly called especial because and you have to do this when you say especial. Because, man, it's got green chilies on it. It's got jalapenos on it.
I don't normally even eat pepperonis, but Especial pepperonis are at a different level. And so I really am motivated this whole trip. We got to get there on in time for the we can't, like, like, go too slow and get there past dinner time because we gotta get there in time to order this pizza from Viego's so I can eat that pizza. Right? So we start the day out, and and then we're, you know, we're going down the road, and you gotta you gotta plan out gas stop.
I mean, there's necessary stops that you that you have to you gotta go to the bathroom at least, you know, a little bit. You know? There's, like, Terry and I and the and the twins trying to figure out how to all get on the same same cycle with that. Right? So that we're not having to stop more times than we have to so that we can make good time and get there.
We're gonna have to pull over and eat here and there. But, you know, Buc ee's. They got they got signs hundreds and hundreds of miles away telling you that it's coming. And I think they got it from that big Texan restaurant where they do the steak because, like, it's a thousand miles away. And by the time you get there, well, I gotta eat this steak now because I've been reading about it for this long.
Well well, Buc ee's, I don't know why they need 400 urinals, but they do. And I don't think at any point there can be that many people in the bathroom at the same time, but you know what? It's there. And for some reason, everybody wants to stop there, but I was really proud because we started the trip. And even though the twins were like, all of our old Buc ee's merch burned up, we gotta get new Buc ee's merch.
Terry also usually, I'm the naysayer, but Terry also said, no, we're not gonna stop with Buc ee's. But then we kept on seeing those signs, and we kept on getting closer. I even planned my gas stops around being able to skip it, but we just couldn't skip it. She's like, we gotta pull in. So here we are walking out of Buc ee's with new T shirts and beaver nuggets, and and they it it got us.
It got us. We got distracted, and and we took we took the off ramp, and it slowed us down. Also, one year, we it happened to be Saint Patrick's Day when we were making this trip, and you passed through Shamrock, Texas. You said, if you wanna have a hoot, you I I we were just pulling over for lunch, didn't really think much of it. There was a parade.
I mean, there was a party going down in Shamrock, Texas, and we kinda got hooked in. I'm like, do I really wanna go get my especial, or am I just gonna am I just gonna stay right here in Shamrock and enjoy whatever all of this is? It just kinda sucked us in. And and that's what this this series is is really gonna be about, that there is a there is a path, there is a road that leads to the destination of of life that God has us on. But there are routinely gonna be, not all the time.
There are gonna be these these off ramps, these things that are can get our curiosity, that can can draw us off. And it's just really easy to hear that and and to take an exit, and before you know it, you find out that you have you have drifted from the path that leads to life. And the thing that that off ramp promised, it can't deliver. And so we're gonna deal with specific off ramps that that take us off the path and how to avoid them. So so again, my job today is to kinda set that up.
And there is a a verse that from the time that this fire happened, for some reason, it had already been in my mind. And then thinking about today, I just feel like it's God's word for us today. And it comes from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. And, you know, Jeremiah is prophet, to give you a little context, he's a prophet to the Southern Kingdom Of Israel, and and they have made this decision to kinda drift from the path. They have instead of giving singular attention and devotion to Yahweh, they have started to kinda get into idol worship, and they've taken some of these off ramps and are continuing that way.
And God is using Jeremiah to come to them and to say, hey, you need to get on the right path. And with all kinds of warnings and all kinds of ways, and ultimately to say, hey, if you don't, there is going to be discipline coming. And ultimately, they they don't, and discipline does come from a Babylonian army that over twenty years takes siege and ultimately captures Jerusalem. And so we're gonna find this specific thing, just just one verse. So I'm I'm gonna read it a couple of times real slow.
It's it's in chapter six of Jeremiah verse 16. It says, thus saith the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. Okay. Since it's short, I'm gonna I'm gonna read it again, so follow along with me.
It says, thus saith the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. So what we're gonna do here is take some of these these key words through this verse, and I wanna jump to the end first. I wanna jump to the Diego's pizza first. What's what's the destination?
What's what's the thing that that all of these steps are are leading to? Did you catch it? He says, find, attain the the rest for your souls. Rest for your souls. Y'all think about it.
Is that not the thing that everybody everybody longs for, everybody wants? You you and I, like, there's there's this rest for our souls, not just like my body's tired and I and I finally get a nap, that there's a rest that's there. But the the deeper rest, a soul rest that often seems so crazy elusive, and like he says, you you find it, you you attain it. It's like it's not it's not an easy thing, but it's it's possible to experience rest for your souls. And the world over, this is the thing that everyone's looking for and trying to figure out how do I how do I get that that that deep peace and rest.
It's the, you know, gold at the end of the rainbow. It's the light at the end of the tunnel. It's it's the thing. And here, God says it's possible. You can find, you can have, you can attain rest for your soul.
So this this destination by God's glory and grace, this destination, y'all, is possible. Rest for your souls. Anybody want that? I'm assuming that that that you also want it, because I know I know I know I want it, and I know I spent a lot of my life wanting it and having trouble finding it, and I think some of it is because I didn't follow these steps and I got sidelined by some of these off ramps. And so what's the first thing that he says?
If you're gonna if you're gonna find it, if you're gonna attain it, the first thing he says is, stand. Stand by the roads, he says. This this word, stand, can also be interpreted remain. So if you use our illustration, you know, you're on that you're on that road, and you need to take effort to to remain. And I'll let the beaver nuggets get you.
Like, you gotta you gotta you gotta stay on the path. The things that you know, And there are things that you know that that when you do that and when you walk in that way, things that God has revealed to you from past experiences, things that God has revealed to you through his word, through the influence of others in your life. There's there's things that you've tasted and seen that it is good, that it's it's the good path and you're walking it, and it takes effort to remain in that path. And he's saying, man, man, make the effort. Stand, stay, remain, and don't let yourself get distracted.
Stay the course. You know, on this on this road to New Mexico, there's this place called Side just little off Ramp Cadillac Ranch. Anybody ever been on that road? And I just took these Cadillacs and nose is is stuck in the ground and the and the trunks are hanging up in the air, and and you can go out there and take your spray paint and spray paint on them. Why is that so attractive?
Like, I just wanna be a part of it. In fact, I was reading about it, and the artist that put that together, that's it's part of this ongoing artwork that you get to be involved in. Like, and and there's so much paint thrown on there over the years that, like, it it changes colors and things every day because so many people stop and spray paint on it. Why is this so attractive? But it is.
We passed by, we've done it before. I don't wanna stop by those cars again, but man, my car just starts to kinda want to go over there. It takes effort to to stay the course. He says, stand, remain. And then he says, look.
Look, consider, take the effort to give some thought to is that exit, is that thing, is the path that I'm on, is is it is it good? Don't just get distracted and and find yourself with your blinker on. Don't flip the blinker until you until you've thought about it a little bit. Stop. And you guys know in our hurried pace of life that we live in, one of the reasons that honestly this rest is so elusive is because we're running at this speed, this the speed that doesn't give us the chance.
We don't take the time to to stop and to look and to consider, is this thing a good thing? Will it promise life? Is it part of the good path? Also, just maybe taking time here and there to stop and evaluate your path. Are you on the path that leads to life?
Or are there some things are there some things that have kinda crept into your world that are taking you off that path? And they're real sneaky. Those those off ramps are real sneaky. They'll they'll get you. And if you're not evaluating it, then you'll miss it.
Know, that's one of the things on a road trip like that. I mean, I'm constantly like, alright, how are we doing on gas? Alright. Alright. So how is the how is the tire pressure?
Is is the vehicle doing what it needs to do? Is there anything that needs to happen? Everybody everybody okay? I'm constantly checking things to make sure it's it's good. And if you're not careful, you'll roll through life, and and you won't be doing that, and then you'll look up one day and you're and you're out of place.
We actually didn't do a very good job with the gas on this trip, and we rolled into Santa Rosa on on fumes. I actually had to draft off an 18 wheeler to get there, which was pretty which was pretty cool, but you're not you shouldn't do that. But it's because I wasn't I wasn't looking. I wasn't considering. I got distracted.
And then the next thing he says, so stand, look, and and ask. Do y'all do y'all notice that those three steps are steps of of, like, waiting and of being still? Like, they're not like action, like, go get it. They're like, hey, you need to stand, you need to consider. And then I think the thing that maybe most of us miss out on more than anything is ask.
I don't like to ask directions. I don't know about you. It feels like it's a lost art now since we've got the maps on our phone, but we get to because of what we celebrated last week, because of what Jesus did, we have entrance into the throne room of Almighty God, and we get to bring our path before Him, bring the map before Him and say, God, what do you want? Is this path that I'm on the path that that you want? And He answers.
It's not just like you asked the question, you got, you know, I've I've done this before. I went into a convenience store and asked the question. The person just was like, I don't know. You know, that's not the God that we have. The God that we have, if we ask Him, He will let us know this is a good path or no, that thing needs to be removed from your life.
That's the good God that we have, but we have to we have to ask, we have to inquire from Him. That's the place that this mean, word. We we we've got it in our hands. We've got answers. That's the the place that that that prayer that we get to that we get to talk to him.
Did you see what you're supposed to ask from the verse? He says, ask for the ancient paths where the where the good way is. To know the ancient paths, that that word ancient could also be interpreted like the eternal, the unending path of life, the the good path. To find that, we need to ask the one who who owns the fat path. Right?
Because nobody else really knows the directions to that place. So we can go talk about it a lot, but there's really only one that knows the path that leads to rest for your souls, The Ancient Path, as he calls it. And I I just like the idea of of of ancient path or these these eternal paths because, yeah, let's be honest. I mean, there are some things that we know. We're talking about eternal, like things that that time has shown from early church all the way through church history.
Like, these are things that men really do give a person life and direction. Things things like prayer, like like being silent before God and listening. Things that in our our modern world seem like, well, it just seem to be like somehow they've been left behind, but they remain the things. Those ancient paths are still they're still the way. You know, like I thought about some of those things, like it will always be true that face to face interaction with another person is is needed.
The the idea from Genesis that God says, man, all these things are good, but it's not good for man to be alone. We need each other. We need to be like that will always, always be true. But, man, everything that we've got going on is pushing against that, like not genuine, true, authentic relationship. So we just kinda live in loneliness.
Silence will always be powerful, but we've got so much noise and so much that's pulling us away from just being still and silent. Waiting will always be good for you. The thing that we hate the most, we don't wanna wait a second, and it's in the waiting that so much of thankfulness and gratitude and patience. These these lessons that we learn, they happen in the waiting even though we try to avoid it at all cost. And also, the biggest lessons are gonna be learned in the hardest times through the hardships.
That's just that's just true. And we do everything we can to try to keep those things from happening and we should, but I I promise you, the lessons our family will learn from a house fire, I can't pay enough money for. It's hard, but I promise you God will use it and the grass will be greener on the other side. I know that because I've seen it before. That's what God that's the way God works.
He takes something broken and burned, and he builds something beautiful out of it. And it's really hard to learn that lesson if you never have anything hard things happen. The Ancient Paths, the Good Way. And then he says, so? Stand, look, ask.
And then when you know what the path is, hey, walk in it. Which seems really, really simple. Right? Like, yeah, if you know if you know what the good path is, then do you you just yeah, just just just walk in that. But do you see what Israel said?
They say, we will not walk in it. So there is a decision to be made. I see the good path. It's been revealed to me. God promises to do that.
I was thinking about, like, you know, being on an airplane and they always say, like, when if the lights go out and everything goes, there's gonna be an illuminated path to the exit to safety. If God illuminates the path, then you would think that you would actually walk on that path. But I'm telling you, and you've probably experienced in your own world, man, it is sometimes it's easy even though you know where the good path is. The off ramps are so so crazy attractive that you will you'll you'll divert from the good way. He says, just simply walk in it.
You you should walk in it. I think this is also the reason why friendships and community is so important because if you're looking at my world and you see me having taken off ramp, and you say, boy, stop it. Walk in the good path. Right? Or if I've got an off ramp that's getting me and I can't seem I'm stuck in Shamrock and I can't seem to get out of the braid back on the path to my Diego's pizza, I need you to come along and grab my hand and say, boy, get back on the road because we we need one another.
Sometimes I need somebody to help me or maybe I don't know. I don't know how to get from here to there and I need somebody to hold my hand and get me there. Walk in it. Walk together in it. Don't say what Israel said, I will not walk in it.
You know, we we made it to Santa Rosa that night on time, and amazingly, we had some friends that got there ahead of us. They had already ordered my especial. So so I walked up and there was a steaming hot pizza that was just right. The hogs were about to play. We took a TV out the car that we'd taken with us, and we we set up the game.
And it took us a minute to figure that out, but we got it set up. And kids, you know, swimming in the pool, we're sitting there watching this, watching the hogs do what the hogs needed to do that night. And it was just rest rest rest for my soul. And it was so needed in that moment. And I'm so glad that we just continue down the path to to get there.
And as we start working through this series, some of the things that we're gonna cover, some of these off ramps, and maybe you've got one that God has brought your attention to in particular that's not on the list that we're gonna be working through because there's there's plenty. But busyness, we're trying to tackle some of the ones that we feel like are are probably the biggest for us. Money issues, sex, loneliness, complacency. Each one of these weeks we're gonna be talking about one of those in particular. And I just ask you, as God reveals like this is something that is either got me or that is is trying to draw me off the path.
It's the Bucky son that you would speak up. That you would grab me. That you would grab somebody next to you that you would say, hey, this is the off ramp that I'm dealing with and I need help. These aren't just a series of messages that are just, you know, a time for us to be together and just talk and leave out. God's word is life changing and I want us to experience the ancient path that leads to rest for our souls.
Amen? So let's do that. Father, I I ask that specifically from you because I I confess that the good path, everything is pulling us off of it. Everything is trying to get our attention. And this is a place where we can rally together, where we can call out what it is.
This this is the path that leads to life. We can give you our attention. We can ask you to make it really clear and we can band together and take steps to actually not just talk about it, but actually walk in it. And experience all of the reward, all of what it means to walk your path. And so father, would you please do that for your glory by your grace?
Amen. Thanks
Charlie Loften: again for joining us on our sermon podcast, and you can learn more about us at thegrovechurch.org. If you go to thegrovechurch.org/connect, there's a form you could fill out. Just let us know you've been listening. And if you want to dig deeper on some of these topics that we cover in our sermon podcast or just another issues of dealing with culture or theology, those kinds of things, you can check out our cultivate podcast, which is on the same feed however you found this particular podcast. So again, this is Charlie, the lead pastor at The Grove, and thank you so much for joining us.