Out of Order

Greeting

Good morning Lighthouse Church!

Well it’s a new month, and I’m so excited to be back behind the sacred desk today.

In the month of July, I take a break from preaching on Sundays and just sit under the different Pastors and emerging voices that we have here at Lighthouse.

Church, I think every single one of them did a phenomenal job! Can we thank God for them?

We had a total of 12 different preachers in the month of July. 12!

God is raising up a mighty generation of men and women with the word burning inside of them, and we have awesome Pastors who love you and had the chance to share as well.

[Pause]

Now, in addition to it being a new month, we have a brand new teaching series that we are kicking off today called, Growing Pains.

In the month of August, as our kids get ready to head back to school, we teach a series on family. This month is no different, and I’m so excited to dive in.

Let’s do this… before I seat you, can we pray?

[Pray and then seat the church]

Image

Church, I want to share with you something that absolutely robbed me of a my peace the other day.

I was getting ready to head out of the door, so I grabbed my shoes and I grabbed my socks. I made my way downstairs from my bedroom to the living room. I then began to put on my shoes and my socks. I started off by putting my shoes on first.

So I put my shoe on, and then the craziest thing happened… after I put on my shoe, I couldn’t put on my socks.

I don’t know… has that ever happened to you?

No? Just me?

Well, here’s the deal, I was adamant that today was going to be the day that I was going to put my shoes on first, and then try and put on my socks. So I kept trying, and trying…

Eventually my sons came down, and they looked at me like I was crazy, because I wanted my socks to go on after my shoes.

They tried explaining to me that it doesn’t work that way. That’s not how I’m supposed to do it.

But I’m not listening to them, I’m their father, they’re my sons, and they don’t get to tell me how to put on my shoes and my socks…

And I gotta tell you… it never worked out…

And can I be honest with you all?

It really messed up my day?

I went around the whole day with just shoes and without the socks that I wanted to put on and it really robbed me of my peace.

I didn’t have peace all day… and then when I got home later that day I was still out of it.

You know, it really just messed me up…

But you know what? I have to tell you something…

Tomorrow I’m going to try again.

Momma didn’t raise no quitter!

Tomorrow I’m going to put on my shoes, and then do my very best to put my socks on afterwards.

Subject

OK, that is a completely made up story, but it helps me to illustrate to you all here today that there are things in life that are meant to be done in order.

Can you say order?

That’s what I want to talk to you about… order…

As a matter of fact, that is the title of my sermon today.

Out of Order

Need

Now my example to you all was a little silly… We all know that there are things that need to be done in order. There are small and practical things, like putting on your socks before you put on your shoes.

And then there are weightier things. There are far more critical things that you have to get in order because God designed for them to be in order.

I think we should start the day reading our Bibles and in prayer. If we get that in the right order, it will make a world of a difference.

I deeply believe that we honor God when we not just bring him an offering, but we give to God first… before we pay any bills, and before Netflix or Amazon gets my money, I give to God first. There’s an order to my finances.

I believe that intimacy is a beautiful thing that is meant to be enjoyed within marriage, and not before marriage. If you get that out of order, you’re stepping outside of God’s design and God’s order.

I could go on, but let me end with this… having kids… I think having kids after marriage and not before marriage or outside marriage is the right order. That’s the order that God created.

Now, the danger of getting these things out of order, is that it will rob you of your peace.

Preview

There are so many people that will tell me that they are praying for peace in their life, and after spending some time in study, and reading an incredible book by my friend, Dr. Manny Arango, I want to let you know that the peace you are praying for is often times on the other side of God’s order for your life.

Reading

Genesis 1:1–5 NIV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Text

In the account of creation that we read about in Genesis, God is at work creating.

The writer tells us that the earth was “formless and empty”

These two words are from the Hebrew words tohu and vo-vohu and in the mind of the first hearer of the Genesis account, those words describe a “place of chaos.”

So when we read Genesis, don’t simply think of Genesis as God creating. Yes, He is very much creating, but He is also bringing order to chaos.

How does he do this?

Let’s look at it together:

Genesis 1:3–4 NIV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

Look at that word there… he separated the light from darkness.

When God is bringing order to chaos, he will set a boundary. God spoke light, and called it good! The absence of light is darkness, so he put a boundary between light and darkness, and he called light day and darkness was called night.

God sets boundaries to control to the chaos. He sets order in place. And, when he has put chaos in its place, he is making room for peace.

Everyone say peace.

Let’s keep reading some more with these eyes on the scripture…

Day Two:

Genesis 1:6 NIV

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”

Genesis 1:8 NIV

God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

Let’s read Day Three:

Genesis 1:9 NIV

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.

We need to pause here…

I used to do triathlons and when you do triathlons you have to get very comfortable swimming in the ocean. You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

Why?

Because the ocean is not man’s domain. We were made for land.

Now, go back to a time when mankind did not have the technological advancements that we have today that allow us to have boats, cruise liners, and yachts on the waters.

The ocean was called “the abyss”, and it wasn’t a place for man. There were large fish that would eat people in the water. So they stayed out!

So read this text for a moment like a person living during that time and they see God setting a boundary to the chaos.

And what do we see right after the land is gathered on the third day?

Genesis 1:11–12 NIV

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

When God brought order to the chaos the land began to produce and God saw that it was good.

What we see in the creation account is not only God bringing peace to the world, but bringing order to the chaos. And when God set his order in place flourishing followed.

Let’s go one more day… let’s get to the fourth day.

Genesis 1:14–16 NIV

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.

The NIV uses the word sacred, but the ESV, which is a more literal translation of the Bible uses the word seasons.

On the fourth day God creates the son, the moon, and the stars.

Some people when they read the creation account they think that the sun was created on the first day because God said, “Let there be light.” But we read here clearly that it was on the fourth day that that happened.

So what was the light?

I could do an entire series on that but let me just read you this verse and send all of my Bible nerds home to go and study this some more…

John 1:4–5 NIV

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Got your homework assignment?

Ok good…

Back to our regular programming…

On the fourth day, God gives us seasons. God’s order created seasons and its rhythm gives us rest.

[Pause]

Then we get to day five, which is the creation of animals, and day six, which is the creation of humans.

Days five and six show us that in God’s order there is a sequence.

As my opening illustration was meant to show you, when we get things out of God’s order we invite chaos into our lives.

But when we do things in God’s order we invite God’s presence into our lives.

It wasn’t too long ago that I counseled a young lady who had gotten pregnant. She was devastated. This wasn’t the order that she wanted her life to go in. She didn’t want to have children before marriage, but since she was already having sex before marriage, she was inviting chaos into her life.

Now, I’m not calling the child chaos. The child is fearfully and wonderfully made in spite of these two precious people getting things out of order.

But I need to make the point Lighthouse, that we cannot live our lives out of order and wonder why we have chaos, and wonder why we don’t have peace.

So we have to pursue God’s order in our life, and I hope that throughout this month we get a vision for God’s order.

Once more I’ll give you the attributes of God’s order: It is boundaries, sequence, and rhythms.

Application (Conclusion)

Now that I’ve laid that foundation, let me shift gears here Lighthouse.

God’s order for families involves mothers and fathers who are present, engaged, and invested in the flourishing of their children.

Parents who are present, engaged, and invested in the flourishing of their children will set the boundaries, teach children the necessity of sequence, and model healthy rhythms.

Moms and Dads we have a blueprint for order, right here in the Bible, but children need you to show it to them.

And when you are not present, do not think for one second that your children will unintentionally be formed into the image of God.

No!

Absolutely not!

They will be deformed into the image of this world.

Every time they are watching YouTube unsupervised, or given endless amounts of time to play video games that glorify murder and killing,

or when you hand over social media to your child knowing that their prefrontal cortex has not developed and they are PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE of making good decisions,

or you give them a devise knowing the manufacturer of the device has one goal in mind for its user, and that is to develop an addiction…

Your children are being deformed to the image of this world.

So Mom and Dad, set the boundary!

I get that your friends have unlimited access to the internet, but in our house, we have screen times.

In our house, you don’t get to keep your phone in your room at night.

You don’t get to keep your controllers in your room at night.

We are setting the boundary, because the God we worship set boundaries for those that he loves.

Teach your children that there is a sequence…

We start our day with worship because we give God our first.

I bring my first and best offering to house of the Lord, because I want to invite God into every area of my life, but especially the area of my finances.

We make going to church on Sunday a priority because we give God our first day of the week.

Sequence in worship will give your children the proper foundation for sequence of life events…

Intimacy is for marriage.

We don’t move in together until we’re married.

These are easier to teach when we’ve been showing them a vision of sequence their whole lives.

And, finally, we teach our children healthy rhythms for living.

We don’t give our children a vision of a Dad who is never home because he’s working insane hours.

We teach our children the importance of knowing when to disconnect from the digital world so we can be fully present to our physical world.

We give then examples of life-fueling rhythms.

If you treat Sunday as optional, don’t be surprised when your children treat it as non-essential.

Call

Two calls: One is to invite Jesus into your life. We can’t even begin to bring God’s order into our life without this being our very first decision.

Second is to pray over families that want to journey together with us. There might be some hard resets this month, but it’s necessary.