and bring up Reggie White. Reggie is a pastor at Church of the Great Commission. It's a church that we partner with. They meet at 10 o'clock Sunday mornings at Camelight. They were the church that let us use their chairs when we were at Camelight for the whole last year. They were, they've been incredible servants and partners with us in the gospel and Reggie's gonna come now and preach the word to us. Good morning. Amen, amen. It's so grateful to God to be here today and to share it with you all. I guess I'll get a few preliminary statements out of the way. I took my jacket off because I was feeling slightly overdressed. And but okay, well, I might, you know, I said, when I was, I said, I think I'm overdressed and I think it was Marie of a so gracious. She said, oh, well, this way we'll know who's preaching. I said, oh, thank you. I don't feel so overdressed anymore. So now I took my jacket off and just grateful for the spirit that's in this place and not only do I feel more comfortable dress wise, but I felt comfortable since I've arrived here. The readers have been wonderful. Your spirit has been wonderful and I'm excited about who God is and about the fact that he allows us to partner together and share together and worship together. So I'm so grateful to God for this opportunity. I'm thankful to your pastor Scott Puckett and his absence for allowing me to come and share with you all. I considered a great honor as a pastor. I know that I don't just call anyone to stand and feel the pulpit when I'm not gonna be there. So I just am honored that he thought of me in that way. Also want to acknowledge my wife. She's not here. She is at Winnie Palmer Hospital. We just had the birth of our third child and it is a, they pulled the band out so you can see it's pink. It's a girl. So she went into labor Friday evening. I guess technically she didn't labor all day Friday being in real life. But Friday evening she said, I think we should call the doctor. So we did and he said, I think you should go to the hospital. So we did and the 537 A and 1 Saturday, Bailey was born and she weighed seven pounds, five ounces was 20 inches. And I don't want to give you your hands or conference and all that stuff. But yes, so I'm the proud father of a daughter. Now I have two sons, Martin and Charles. Martin is three and a half and Charles is one and a half. And so now they have to learn how to be good big brothers to a sister and take care of her and make sure that she doesn't get married till she's 45. Amen, amen.
Now so I say all that to say, my wife couldn't be here today. She would love to have been here with you all but she had something else to do. That she would stay at the hospital with the baby instead of leaving the baby there by herself. So, but I really want to thank you all for just the warm welcome I've already received and let's pray to God and let's hear what he has to say. God, we are so grateful to you for who you are and how great you are. We're grateful God for life and for opportunity to participate in the cycle of life Lord God. We ask for God that you would bless us. Bless us as we hear your word today. Bless us as we receive what you have to say. I pray God that the seeds that you intend to be planted we would be planted deep in our hearts that they would bring forth much fruit that we would not forget it in Christ's name. Amen, amen, amen, amen. You know in everything in life there is a first rule and it is in fact the most important rule, the most important thing to remember about anything in life. If you missed the first rule, then you've really missed. If you don't get the first rule, you can end up wasting all of your time. The first rule for example in baseball is to score more runs than the other team. In baseball, if you are a pitcher and you have the lowest earned run average, that is nice. But if you don't win the game, it really doesn't matter. In baseball you can be a slugger and have more home runs than anyone else in the season. But if at the end of the day you don't win the game, if you don't score more runs than your opponent scores, you've lost in the game of chess. The first rule is to capture the other king. It's the place the other king in a position where he cannot move left, right, forward, backward, diagonally without being captured. That's the first rule of chess. Now you may capture the queen, you may capture the bishops, you may capture all the pawns, but if the other person places your king and checkmate, you lose. Because you were not able to follow or adhere to the first rule. The first rule of business is to make a profit. You might spend a million dollars. But as long as you make two million dollars, it could be okay. The first rule of business is not to have the lowest labor cost. The first rule of business is not to merge. The first rule of business is not to take over. That's not the first rule of business. The first rule of business, the guiding principle of business, is make a profit. The first rule, there's a first rule for everything in life. But the question is, is there really a first rule for our whole lives? What would be the first rule for our life, our life in general? What is the greatest, the guiding principle, the greatest rule, the greatest commandment you might say? What is the greatest commandment? Well, Jesus was asked that very question. I'm going to look at Matthew chapter 22, verses 35 through 38. Matthew chapter 22, verses 35 through 38. And I'll be reading from the new international version. And it reads, one of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. So if it's about loving God, that's the first rule. So whether or not I'm a great father or not, that's nice. Don't miss me, that's nice, but that's not the first rule. Being a good employee is great, but that's not the first rule. Being a good student, getting all A's, becoming the valedictorian in high school is wonderful. And I suggest you do your best to do that. But that's not the first rule. Being a good husband, being a good father, being a good wife, being a good mother, those are all wonderful things, but they're not the first rule. The first rule is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your heart and with all of your soul, with all of your mind. That's the first rule. So the question becomes if that's really the first rule we might want to know what it means to love God. What would it possibly mean to love God? I mean, if the first rule was to build churches, we would know what it meant to build a church. If the first rule was to have a wonderful worship team, we would practice until we had a wonderful worship team. If the first rule is to love God, then we have to ask ourselves, well, how do I accomplish that? How do I make sure that I'm in fact loving God? What would that really mean? Does it mean that I have this gooey, funny feeling in my stomach when I think about God? Does it mean that every time I think about God, I giggle and he makes me laugh? Well, unfortunately, that's what our concept or our notion of love has become, often. It's, oh, I just have this wonderful feeling that's so warm and so delicate and oh, I just takes my breath away. I love you. No. Loving God is not about having this cool sensation that runs over you that makes my fingertips tingle and oh, I feel like I'm walking on clouds. That's when I know I'm really in love with God. No. To love, I'm going to ask to put the definition up, to love is to diligently seek the greatest good for another without expectation, not exception, correct that. Love is diligently seeking the greatest good of another without expectation, if I wrote an exception, I apologize. Without expectation, diligently seeking the greatest good of another without expectation. There's at least three parts to that, diligently seeking the greatest good without expectation.
Diligently seeking, we're not going to talk about that much too much today, but let me just give a quick note on that. That is to say that as a parent, I love my child, when I'm really, really looking out for the best interests, and I seek to figure out what that is. Just guessing at it is not love. Oh, I think it'd be great if you went to, you know, Timber Creek High School. Really? So that's why I want you to go. Because it might be a good idea. No, diligently seeking the greatest good for my child would be to say, where is really the best school for you to go? And I'm going to research this and actually have a real answer. And I'm not going to say, well, because it's next door, that's where I'm going to go. It's to say, I really want your best, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to figure out what's in your greatest good, diligently seeking your greatest good, greatest good. Well, seeking someone's greatest good. My son, Martin, who's three and a half, sometimes, he's actually gotten better at this. But sometimes he doesn't like to go to bed at eight o'clock. And some of the children in the room are saying to themselves, I am so glad he's not my dad. I cannot imagine going to bed at eight o'clock. That's when all the good shows come on. Yes, I know, but Martin's three, he doesn't care about shows yet. So, here's his Sesame Street decision show. But anyway, so eight o'clock comes and Martin sometimes will say, but daddy, I'm not tired. And I'm saying, son, it's really in your greatest good. Now, is it really in Martin's greatest good, or do I just want to get him off to bed? Am I just trying to say, your mother and I need some time to ourselves and really want you just to go to bed? No, it's actually in Martin's greatest good to go to bed at eight o'clock, because I know Martin in that eight o'clock the next morning, he's gonna wake up, whether or not he went to bed at eight o'clock or midnight, he's gonna wake up the next morning at the same time, eight o'clock. And if he's only had seven hours of sleep, he's a grumpy Martin. He's an unhappy Martin. And an unhappy Martin ends up saying and doing things that unhappy Martin's do, like they talk back and they raise their voices at their parents. And then unhappy Martin's get disciplined. And then so noon on the next day, unhappy Martin, the grumpy Martin, he only had seven hours of sleep. He's not gonna have a good next day because now he's gonna be disciplined. But if Martin actually gets all 11 or 12 hours of sleep, he's supposed to get, he has a great day the next day, possibly. But it's certainly, if he doesn't have a great day, it won't be because he didn't get enough sleep. So in Martin's best interest, it's to go to bed at eight o'clock. But I don't want to go to bed at eight o'clock. I understand, but I love you. So you're going to bed at eight o'clock. That's what you're gonna do. I'm really seeking your greatest good. Well, now what would it mean to seek God's greatest good? Does God need to be put to bed at eight o'clock? Does God need to be loaned money because he's broke? Is God sick? Does God need health insurance? What is, what would be God, what does God need? I mean, is God weak in some way? Is God without the ability to get to work on time? Does God need a right to work? Does God, does God need help carrying his groceries from the line to his car? What does God stand in need of? God is perfect. God is holy. God is righteous. God is all of that. So if God is all that, what would it mean to seek God's greatest good? God, what do you need? What's God's problem? Does God is God sick? Is he without something? Does he lack anything? Does he need advice? Does God need advice? What does God need? That's what does he need? What God needs isn't really so much that he is in need or that he lacks, but his creation lacks. His creation lacks. And because God is the creator, a messed up creation reflects poorly on the creator. A creation where people are not in alignment with God's purpose reflects poorly on the creator. A creation where there is injustice reflects poorly on the creator. A creation where people don't even know who God is. A creation that doesn't even know the creator reflects poorly on the creator. Now it's not God's fault that any of those things are the case, but nonetheless, it still reflects poorly on who God is. And it causes others to ask questions like, well, if God is so all-powerful, then why do we have people who are hungry? That causes people to question God's character. If God is all-powerful, then why would anyone have to go without knowing who he is? How would anyone, if God can do anything, why wouldn't he just send a grand broadcast message to the entire world and say, this is Jesus Christ, He is your way of salvation and through Him and only through Him are you going to make it to relationship with me? If God is all-powerful, it causes people to question who God is and question this character. What's in God's greatest good is that we dedicate our lives to making sure. Now remember, this is the first rule. This is the first rule. The first rule is diligently seeking God's greatest good without expectation. Seeking is greatest good. God, what's in your greatest good? What's in my greatest good is for every person God would say, what's in my greatest good is first of all, for every person, every tribe, nation and tongue to worship me. Well, God, how can I help to make that happen? In God would say, I'm so glad you asked. Go into all the world, preach the good news. That's what I want you to do. I want you to help people to realize who I am and to live in alignment with my purpose. If you get my creation aligned with me, the creator, that would be in my greatest good. God, you don't care if I raise my children well? No, it's important that you raise your children well. Very critical that you raise your children well because your children are part of my creation and I want them to be in alignment with my will for their lives. That becomes the goal of my parental raising. It's to help my children to grow up in a way that they become aligned with God's purpose for them. Not that my children fulfill all the things I didn't get to do when I was their age. That is not the first rule of parenting. The first rule of parenting is how do I help this child to be raised and grow up in a way that they are fully in alignment with who God created them to be? That will make them a worshiper. That will make them a person who serves God. That will make them a person who loves God. That will make them exactly who God created them to be. God, so you don't care if I work. No, working is wonderful because you probably need food so that you could continue to live. And so I want you to work so you can have food. That's sure. I want you to work so you can share my light with those on your job. And I want you to work because in your work, I think you demonstrate who I am. But the first rule of my social life is not to climb the ladder. That's not the first rule. The first rule of life is to love God with all of your soul, with all of your heart, with all of your mind. That's the first rule. That's the first rule. Now, there's another part to that. It says, doing it without expectation. You know, let me explain why that's so important. If you go to a doctor or a lawyer, that doctor or lawyer, or any profession, say it's a lawyer. You go to the lawyer because you really want to win the case. Now, the lawyer is going to work, if he's a good lawyer, he's going to work hard to make sure you win the case. He's going to say, what's in your greatest good is to win this case and I'm going to work tirelessly. He might work 18-hour days only on your case. But is the lawyer doing that out of love? Maybe not. The lawyer might be doing that. He might be working 18-hour days because at the end of the day, he expects you to pay him. He wouldn't do, I'm guessing. I don't know that many lawyers. I know a few. The lawyers I know would not work 18-hour days for weeks on in and at the end of the day say, and it's all okay. You don't need to give me anything. Yeah, I know, they have pro bono work, but that's typically not why lawyers are doing what they do. That's not why doctors do what they do. They want what's in your best interest. A doctor wants your health to be the best that it can be. But he's doing it with an expectation of being paid. He's not doing it just because he wants you to be in good health. The lawyer is not doing it just because he wants you to win the case. The lawyer and the doctor are doing it because they want to be paid. If you want to see what love without or what acting without expectation looks like, for those of us who are parents, consider the way you treat a newborn child. The newborn child has no ability in those first days, those first weeks, those first months, those first years, of paying you back for anything that you do. The child's diaper is wet or dirty and you decide, okay, I'm going to change your diaper. I'm not changing your diaper so that you can pay me for it. I don't expect you to pay me for it. I'm not even thinking along those lines. It's not that I'm raising this child even with the expectation that and when I get old, then they'll take care of me. No, that's really not why we do it. That's not why we do it. We do it out of genuine love. Well, what does it mean to serve God in this way? What would it mean to love God and to serve Him a way that's without expectation? Let me ask us a question. How often have we felt like, God, I've really been doing a lot of stuff for you. So now it's time for you to pay up. Give me that blessing, please. I mean, really, no, really. I've been serving you. I've shown up to church. I've gone to Bible study. I should have been helped them set up. I led worship. I agreed it. I've come every Sunday for six weeks in a row. Now my daughter is sick and I'm expecting you, because of all that I've done, I'm now expecting you to return the favor. No, no one in this room, we only feel that way at church at the great commission. Not at Christ Kingdom. No one in this room has ever felt that. No one in this room has ever felt like, God, I've put in so much for you. I've given you so much. It's time for you to pay up. Or worse yet, it's not even often that it's down the line. It's, God, I'm giving this offering today and I'm expecting you to multiply it. And if you don't, then somehow you feel short of your duty. Now don't miss me. God does bless us. God does multiply it. But that ought not be why we do it. Let me share a story and then I'll be done. When I'm originally from Pittsburgh, and when I was in seminary in Pittsburgh, I was in my next to my last year in seminary, and my pastor at the time asked me, he had graduated a year before me, said, oh, you know, the seminary's going, a group is going to Ghana, West Africa. Are you going? I went last year, or are you going this year? I said, no. I have no intention of going to Ghana. I haven't even thought about going to Ghana. Thanks though, but I'm not going. So that was my first, the first time I was asked about it. Then I was at a meeting with the professor who was leading the trip to Ghana. And the whole meeting went by, he didn't mention Ghana at all. I'm literally grabbing a cookie, grabbing some juice, and about to take off. And he says, Reggie, are you going with us to Ghana? I said, you know what? No, I have no intention of going to Ghana. I'm not going to Ghana. Why not going to Ghana? And even as I was telling him, no, I could hear God saying, I really do want you to go to Ghana. I was like, I'm not going to Ghana. Ghana, you know where that is? God, you know what Ghana is? I was like, a little too far away. How about Philadelphia? How about Cleveland? I'm going to Cleveland. Ghana, no, I'm not going to Ghana. And in my mind, I'm thinking, but, you know, it's so funny, we actually think stuff, like God can't read our thoughts. I'm thinking, God, I'm not going to Ghana, and I'm thinking, and you can't make me. I'm not going, I'm not going to Ghana. So anyway, literally, left that meeting, walking down the hall, and decided it was, I was going into my last year, however, and I think I was going into my last year seminary. And I wanted to make sure that everything was in order, that I would be graduating the following May. So I go into the Registrar's office, and she looks at everything in order. This is great. Yeah, yeah. So they said, wait a minute. You're going to be six credit short. Six credit short at the end of next year. And my schedule was such that I couldn't just say, okay, I'll just add a couple of classes in. I was like, oh no. I said, what if I go to Ghana? She said, no, that would work. That's where six credits. That's a six credit. I said, okay. All right. I really don't want to go. But that's fine. I mean, I'm hearing God say you're going, man. You're going. So I leave that meeting and send an email to the professor and say, basically my email says, you know, after much consideration, I've heard God clearly say he wants me to go to Ghana. I said, but I don't know what I need to do in order to go to Ghana. So, okay, he fires back an email. Oh, well, this is great. There's actually an opportunity to get some scholarship money to go to Ghana. Yada yada yada yada. I'm like, okay, this is terrific. So I go see the dean about the scholarship. And it would be great. The scholarship actually would have paid for my trip to Ghana and would have given me a stipend on top of going. So I'm like, oh, God, you're so awesome. God, you're so wonderful. When I finally gave in and said, okay, I'm going to go to Ghana. You blessed me with money to go. And even you're going to pay me to go. Thank you so much, God. And I'm so excited to have you about it. The next day, the dean called me up and says, okay, so where are you going other than Ghana? I'm like, I'm not going anywhere. No, well, this scholarship is only for people who are going, like, four or five places. Like, if you went to Ghana and then you went to Sweden, and then you went, you know, to Norway, and then you went to Spain, and then you came home. That's who this scholarship is really for. I said, but I'm not going all those places. I'm just going to Ghana. It's an 11-day trip to Ghana. I'm only going to Ghana. Well, you start to the professor and see if you can shorten the Ghana part. It made the other parts longer. So I called the professor and said, can I shorten it? No, not really, because the way it's all set up, no, you can't shorten it. Oh, so I said, well, I guess I don't therefore qualify for that scholarship. So I was sad. And I was thinking and I was praying. And I heard God say, clearly to me. And I know for a lot of people in the room that you might not know what that means. It was like a radio was on in my head. And I heard a voice say, that clearly. God said, and I'm upset now. I'm angry. And I'm like, God, this is so wrong. You tricked me. You tricked me into accepting this trip. Now I have to go and I don't want to go. And you said you were going to give me the scholarship. And now I'm not going to get the scholarship. So now I'm going to have to pay for this. And you know how much money this is going to cost? This is going to be thousands of dollars. And I have to go now. And I'm just angry because the scholarship fell through and I'm mad. And in my voice, I hear this voice say clearly. Would you serve me if I didn't pay you? Would you serve me if I don't pay you? Hmm. Honestly, at that point in my heart, I felt my knees and just repented. I just repented because I realized at that point, man, I've been trying to scam God. I've been trying to hustle God. God, if I do this and I do this and I give in and go here, then you've got to. You've got to bless me. I mean, I'm going to go to Ghana against my wishes, then you'd better be paying up God. And God said, so do you really love me? Were you going to Ghana out of love? Or were you going out to Ghana because you expected me to give you something back for it? That moment in my life, from that moment until this moment now, I've never considered serving God the same way. I was born and raised in a church from six weeks old until forever I've been in the church. I always, with every Sunday, I went to church. I always went to Sunday school. I always participated in the Easter play, the Christmas page. And I always did all those things. And the entire time up to that point in my life, in my mind, I was tallying all that I had done for God. And I was saying, God, if there's anyone who you ought to be blessing, it ought to be a person like me, a person who has done everything they're supposed to do. I've never committed the big sins, never killed anyone, never did drugs, never, never cheated on it, never did any of the big sins. God, I'm not perfect, but none of us are. So if there's anyone you ought to be blessing, it ought to be me. And God wants to say to us, no, if you love me, do it without expecting me to give you something back. Now, what's happened in my life over the years is I've learned that when I've really said, okay, God, whatever you tell me to do, I'm doing it, and I don't expect you to pay me for it. It's okay, if you don't pay me for it, that's all right. Whenever I've tried to scam God, con God, the blessing has been withheld. And God knows my heart. God knows what's going on in my heart. He knows when I'm doing it, expecting that he's going to come through and make up the difference. God knows that. When it's in my heart to say, God, you know what? It doesn't matter whether or not you bless me for this or not. Whenever I've had that genuine attitude, blessings have come. But I've learned not to do it for that reason. I absolutely expect God to bless me. I do, but I don't serve him for that reason. And I don't serve him the way I serve him based on that. I'll say, oh, God, I'll give you a lot today. No, it's because I just love you. And that becomes the first rule of my life, first rule of our lives. Christ said it. This is the greatest commandment. Love the word you got with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all your mind. That's the first commandment. That's the first rule. Amen. Amen.