South Run Baptist Church

South Run Baptist Church
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Sermons from South Run Baptist Church, Springfield VA

  1. Oct 18

    Don't Worry, Be Happy

    Don't Worry, Be Happy Dr. Eric J. Gilchrist, Pastor | October 18, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript Date: October 18, 2026 Sermon Title: Don’t Worry, Be Happy Passage: Luke 12:22–34 Preacher: Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest - Lead Pastor Transcript Summary: Jesus teaches that worry and anxiety can keep us from experiencing the abundant life God offers. We are called to surrender the illusion of control, trust in our Heavenly Father’s care, and seek His kingdom above all else. Transcript We have been on a journey together for quite some time, on a very long journey, sometimes on the narrow road, sometimes on the wide road. The goal, of course, is to be on the narrow one, but many of us find our way over to that wide road from time to time. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the way Jesus teaches us to live a life. And there are ways to live a life that lead to abundance and to happiness and to joy in this life and into the next. And then there are ways to live a life that leads to death and to destruction in this life and the next. This morning we're talking about worry and anxiety. And nobody needs to tell you, not even Jesus, that a life of worry and anxiety is a road to death and destruction. It steals the joy from you. And as much as don't worry, be happy is a cavalier way of saying, just deal with your life's problems, I don't think this is what Jesus is calling us to exactly. But he is encouraging us not to be anxious and not to worry. And he's reminding us that there is a better way, and it is a narrow way, and it's actually a hard way, some of us more than others. But this morning I want to talk about how to do that and what it looks like. And so I hope you will pay attention to see the ways in which Jesus is calling us into the fullness of life. As I was getting ready for this morning, there is a man that I came across. I didn't know him, and I'm going to guess you don't either. His name is Paul Kingsnorth. He was a longtime environmentalist and a self-described pagan. But that was many years ago. He has since become an Orthodox Christian. And in 2021, he wrote a beautiful essay for a magazine called First Things. And it's called The Cross and the Machine, in which he tells of his own conversion. And in the essay, he has this quote that's on the screen up here. He says, as we see the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, of choosing power over humility, over choosing separation over communion, the stakes become clearer each day. The choices between surrender and rebellion, the choices between sacrifice and conquest, each of these by the way could be its own Broad way, narrow way, sermon, surrender, rebellion, sacrifice, conquest, death of the self, or triumph of the will. And the options he gives us are between the cross and what he calls the machine. We have always been offered the same choice, he says. The gate is straight and the way is narrow, and maybe we will always fail to walk it. But is there any other road that leads home? The answer, of course, is no, there is not. And what he calls the machine here is another way of talking about the broad way, the fallenness of the world, the fallenness of you and of me. The machine is another name for what we call the flesh, what we call our ego. It's societal sin. It's our sin nature living deep down in. It's a churning of everything wrong with the world as it is. And as he says, and as Jesus will tell us, the only other option is the cross. That we must die to ourself and we must live to Christ because that is the only way home. For most of this year, we've been talking about transformation, and we've been talking about the narrow road that leads to abundant life, the wide road that leads to death. And one of the deep ironies of our Christian faith is that the road that leads to life is a road that has to have a cross on it. Meanwhile, the road that leads to death is the road that is you avoiding everything that might get you to the cross. It is only in relinquishing your life that you find it, but by trying to salvage it, you lose it. I believe it was Jesus who said this first. Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, as we come to study your word, As we open our hearts and our minds to what you have to teach us today, Lord, we bring to you our worry. We each have it. Every last one of us has something right now that we can name immediately that we are in fact worried about, our anxiety. And Lord, you teach us to cast our cares upon you. And so we come this morning trying to do just that. Help us have faith. Help us have the kind of faith that brings to you everything. In Christ's name we pray, amen. If this sermon is one thing, it's a sermon on dependence. It's a sermon on learning how to depend on God for just about anything and everything. But it's also a sermon about the illusions that you and I carry, Namely, the illusion that we're actually in control of our own life. And I think Jesus is trying to tell you, are not in control of your own life. And this is one of these things that must be pinned to the cross. Because it's also a sermon about the cross. The cross as the only way home. And so there are things in your life that need to die and that need to go away so that true life and abundance can in fact be born and reborn within you. Which is all to say this is a sermon about faith. It's a sermon about walking the life of faith. It's a sermon about trusting God with every last piece of who you are. And when we worry or we have anxiety, It means that there are these pieces of us that we are still trying to hold on to or that we think we can if we just grip hard enough. And my hope today is that by the end of this sermon, you have released something, even just a little bit. But as I started or in the prayer, I said, we each carry anxiety in this room with us here and right now. And I believe that. And I'm going to guess that you each can immediately think of something. So I want you to stop thinking of that thing for a second. And I want you to zip back in time. Go back a few years and try to find something that you were anxious about for a time and that is no longer causing you any anxiety. Take that trip with me. I'll give you one that I thought of. When Ezra was very little, and in fact, all of our kids were very little, We used to put them in a sleep sack every night. The sleep sack, if you don't have one, is one of these head to toe sacks so that you then zip it up and there's room for the arms to do this, but the legs don't come out. And then you lay your baby into the crib and it kind of keeps them comforted and warm, this kind of thing. And I had this thought that I think Ezra is going to get to college and we'll still be zipping him up at night every night and laying him in the crib and having to tend to every last need of his and the worry that comes with being a parent of a young child. And there's all these concerns, right, that are wrapped up in the sleep sack. And then he actually went to college and as far as I know, he's doing just fine. doesn't call as much as I'd like him to. No, he's doing quite well. He doesn't need me to tuck him in at night. He's off with friends and taking very much care of himself and whatever anxieties I had 18 years ago are long gone, right? But they were still real. It's just with a kind of a broader view of your life and of what's coming. some of what you're carrying this morning will inevitably be gone, maybe by tomorrow, maybe by next week, maybe it'll take five years, maybe 25 years. But the anxieties will change, won't they? And something new will take its place. And so the question that I'm kind of asking you this morning is, what is it and where will it be in five years? And But the real deep question, the one that's like way underneath, is do yo

  2. Oct 11

    FULLNESS: The Fullness of Christ in Me

    FULLNESS: The Fullness of Christ in Me Rev. Dr. .Ken Pruitt, Guest Pastor | October 12, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript FULLNESS: The Fullness of Christ in Me Dr. Rev. Ken Pruitt - Guest Pastor Sunday, October 11, 2026 And all God's people said, I am so honored to be with you, South Run Baptist Church. Thank you for your commitment to Jesus, the love you show me and my family each time I'm here. And praise team, musicians, vocalists, thank you so much for how you're bringing honor to Jesus. In this time of worship, my dear friend Eric, man, I love you. I praise God for you. And thank you for entrusting the preaching of the word to to that which God, I believe, desires to do in this moment. I'm honored to be with you, and I invite you to join me where the scripture takes us today to Colossians chapter 1. I'll be reading from chapter 1, verses 18 through 20. Colossians chapter 1, verses 18 through 20. And he, Christ, is the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Did you hear that, church? God in Christ has a desire to reconcile all things to himself. Can you say all things with me? All things. In the Greek that means all things. He's desired to reconcile all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Father in heaven, I thank you for the reading of your word. Thank you for the hearts that are receiving. and for your spirit who will instruct us. Father, I certainly desire that the words of man not be understood or any attempt of interpretation of your scripture. But Father, may your Holy Spirit quicken our hearts to hear your word. And we commit this moment to you in Jesus' name. And together we said, amen. Again, so honored to be with you. If you were to look at the screen of my cell phone, you would see a lot of apps. but you'd also see a lot of unused apps. And I'll tell you why. It's this simple phrase, add-ons. A lot of my apps no longer function because I refuse to pay for add-ons. You know what I'm talking about. The app looks promising until it tells you it is not. And I placed this 360 app on my phone recently because we all enjoy keeping up with ourselves and our household. And I wanted to advance a little bit, Eric, so I hit a button. I pushed the button and the app said, oh, no, you don't. You need an add-on. And so the app started pushing my buttons. I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that. spirit of refusing add-ons is remarkably similar to why Paul wrote this letter to the church of Colossae in 62 AD. This congregation was very young. They'd been founded not by Paul, but by one of the young men he had discipled, Epaphras. Paul writes to the church because something dangerous was afoot. There was in their century a problem with add-ons. Although the church in Colossae, the recipient of the letter of Colossians, had placed their trust in Jesus and was following the Christ and was committed to His words, there were voices from without speaking within the church, encouraging that there must be something added to the gospel. Paul said, oh no you don't. And the Holy Spirit raised him up to write this letter that is transferable as a part of God's holy inspired word into our lives today. These voices encourage the church at Colossae to add to their faith in Jesus philosophy, spiritual experiences, even the rites and rituals of the Hebraic tradition. And Paul writes to refute this, to remind them that in Jesus you have all you need. God's salvation for you stands perfect and complete exclusively, not in part, but exclusively in Jesus. And yet these voices continue to say something must be added. This is why in the second chapter of Colossians, you'll hear Paul say, see to it that no one take you captive with hollow philosophies. See to it, Paul would write, that no one deceive you with hollow philosophies that will bring in man's truth in an attempt to combine with the gospel to present something that is most assuredly not the gospel. This happens today, does it not? If we spend just a moment in some form of a media platform, we will see that there are truths that attempt to delude and to mix in with the Christian faith. This is happening in the 1st century. This was a young congregation, so Paul was quite concerned that some might buy into this early development of what is now known as Gnosticism, meaning that there are special revelations that can only come from God, not through Jesus, because matter is evil. Only spiritual things are holy. And so the incarnate God in Christ was dismissed, and many other heresies came out of this moment in history. Paul wrote to them about the fullness of Jesus. In fact, you and I can understand Paul's heart behind this letter by looking at something he prayed in chapter 1, verse 9. In that verse, Paul wrote and literally prayed, we continue to ask God to fill you with a knowledge of His will. What is that knowledge of the will of God that would keep you and me from being pulled into deceptive voices of vain philosophies and other teachings that are against the gospel. What is this full knowledge of the will of God? This is a bit more transcendent. In fact, it is way more transcendent than how you and I might think of knowing the will of God. We at times will seek God's will for where we will attend college or what career may be ours or who we will marry. Those are the big life episodes wherein we will sometimes say, God, I want to know your will. That's not at all the categories from which Paul says, oh, I pray, church of Colossae, that you will be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Here the idea of God's will is much more transcendent. And to better understand this, it's always important to allow the whole of the scripture to be our commentary for one specific scripture. And there is a partnering verse here that will help you and me to understand why of all the things Paul could have prayed for this church that was being hit by heresies, why Paul would pray, oh, that you would have full knowledge of the will of God. What is that will of God referenced here? Well, a partnering passage in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 9 and 10, Paul writes that the mystery of God's will, he has the word mystery there, the mystery of God's will has been revealed, and then Paul names it, that all things will be brought under one head, Jesus Christ. So when Paul prays for the Colossian church that they would be full of the knowledge of God's will, He's praying that they would have a deep, a full, a complete understanding of all that God has accomplished for them through Jesus. Paul writes, I pray that you'll be filled with understanding what God has done for you in Christ. Now immediately, you and I, especially those of us who've been in church since the day we were able to take our first breath, will quickly say, well, Ken, I know the gospel. I've heard the gospel. I could reiterate the gospel. So why would I need to know more, have the full knowledge of a gospel that I've already heard all my life? Well, your question, if that would be your question, makes the apostle Paul's point. And it makes the teaching of the Holy Spirit's point here very clear. Paul is not saying that you would have a recognition of the gospel so that you can recite it. Paul is not saying that you have some cerebral understanding of the gospel. Paul writes that you would have a full knowledge and experience that you would truly know the fullness and the essence of Jesus. Here lies more than simply an idea or a truth that we hear about and try t

  3. Oct 4

    October 4 - FULLNESS: Knowing Christ Deeply, Living Christ Daily. Part 1

    FULLNESS: Knowing Christ Deeply, Living Christ Daily. Part 1 Rev. Dr. Ken Pruitt - Guest Pastor Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript FULLNESS: Knowing Christ Deeply, Living Christ Daily, Part 1 Rev. Dr. Ken Pruitt, Guess Pastor . . . statement. No, the gospel is not another dying myth. It's not just another story. It's the story from where all other stories find their meaning. That statement encapsuled the conversion experience of this young man. And on that evening He asked Jesus to become his Lord and his Savior. And the impact of this young man is still felt today. His name is, of course, C.S. Lewis. And his friend who encouraged him is certainly none other than J.R.R. Tolkien. I love this story of Lewis's conversion. And later in his life, Lewis wrote a summary of that night. I'd like to share this summary with you. Lewis said, I now believe in the Christian faith, not only because I can see it, but because by it I can see everything. Lewis testified that Jesus Christ had filled his life. He had become full of the meaning and message of the gospel. This reminds us of a phrase that Pastor Paul Tripp used once, being compartmentalized in our faith. Lewis decided no longer to compartmentalize, but to see Jesus Christ as Lord of all and to see His fullness alive in all of our existence. So I ask you today to consider our response to Jesus. Many of us come to this place of worship from different locales and maybe even different spiritual postures. We come to this place with different experiences. But there's one question that would drive us all together. How are we responding at this very moment in our daily lives to Jesus? Do we tend to compartmentalize? Pastor Paul Tripp said that at times we treat our Christian faith like drawers. in our house we have different drawers. We have drawers for socks and we have drawers for towels and drawers for utensils. And sometimes in our faith maybe it feels as if we have different drawers and that Jesus and the truth of the gospel has just but one drawer to occupy in our life. Lewis would say note, it is vital that we receive the fullness of Christ in our lives and then walk in that fullness. Well, that's the message of the whole of Scripture of the New Testament and of this small letter that we know as Colossians, written by the Apostle Paul, that 1st century pastor and church planter who ministered indelibly in the lives of many brand new churches in the 1st century, particularly in Asia Minor, and Colossae being one of these congregations to whom Paul wrote a letter around 62 AD. And the purpose of his letter was to remind them, Jesus is all you need. He's sufficient. And Paul began through this letter expounding upon this idea of the fullness of Christ. I'd like to walk into this letter with you for just a moment to experience the first of two messages I'll share with you. And in this part one of knowing Christ deeply and living Christ daily. Can we focus for a moment on the fullness of Christ in us? And then we'll focus on the fullness of Christ next week in the church. As we open up the book of Colossians, I'd like to remind you of the theme of Colossians that we find in the opening two verses. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, before we move into the verses that were read for us, we notice a greeting that Paul shared that sets the tone for the remainder of the letter. Paul wrote in Colossians chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, he identified himself, by the will of God and Timothy our brother, to God's holy people. And Paul presented two identifications here built upon the fullness of Christ. Paul said, I'm apostle of Jesus by the will of God. And then he addressed the church as being the holy people of God. I don't know if you've ever seen yourself as holy, but if you were among the Colossian congregation, you would be addressed aptly, even as you should be today, as a holy people. You may say, and Pastor Ken, that's far from what I would think of myself. Well, Paul addressed the entire church. transferable even to you and to me today that you're a holy people. But Paul also identified himself in that same light by saying, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. Why are these two identifiers so important for understanding this entire letter and for understanding the fullness of Christ in us and in the church? When Paul said, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ, he added, by the will of God, Anytime Paul uses the phrase will of God, he's referencing not just God having a will for our lives per se for a career or some type of broader guidance. Paul uses the phrase will of God to reference what God is up to in our lives by giving us Jesus. to redeem us and save us and set us in a right relationship with God Almighty. That becomes for the message of the gospel, the will of God. So Paul writes, I'm an apostle by the will of God. He didn't mean that by the sake of his career or calling, but because of what God had done in his life through Jesus. So I stand here today to say I'm a messenger of God by the will of God. I'm leading a seminary by the will of God. I'm a father and a husband by the will of God. But not because these are choices only that have filtered into my life, but this is because of what God has done to redeem and to fulfill his purposes through a relationship with Jesus. Paul then identified the Colossian church as being the saints. You holy people, the saints of God, meaning set apart. You are set apart because of what Jesus has accomplished in you. And so when Paul gave this greeting, he was off and running in this amazing small letter to remind the church that all that we are, all that we do is built upon the fullness of Jesus at work in our lives. Then Paul does something unique. He offers a prayer that we see in chapter 1, verse 9 and 10. Paul said, I pray and ask that God would fill you What did he ask God to fill the church with? Listen to this, the knowledge of the will of God. Paul writes, I pray that you'll understand not just that God's will is real for those of us who preach and lead and plant churches, but God's will is real for you in Christ Jesus. God is doing something in you, which is why Paul prayed in chapter 1, verse 9 and 10, that you would have the fullness of the knowledge of the will of God. Over in chapter 2, I add this because this is vital for this word fullness. Paul gave some exhortation in chapter 2, verse 9 and 10, when he said, oh, I pray that in Christ you are brought to fullness. That the fullness of Christ made known in bodily form, meaning that God sent Christ to us, He lived, died, and rose again, and ascended, and he's ruling and reigning on high. Paul writes, I pray that the fullness of Christ becomes your fullness. This word fullness, although out Colossians from the Greek term pleroma, actually indicates to be complete. So what Paul is saying in all these verses is not too different from what C.S. Lewis said of his conversion. Jesus has filled my life. All that I am and all that I think and do and the lens through which I look at everything is Jesus. This was Paul's message and this was his exhortation to the Colossian church to walk in the fullness of Christ, to know him deeply and to follow him daily. Paul then continues writing and he comes to an abrupt halt at verse 15 and this is where we pause for an application today. In verse 15, it's as if Paul stopped for a moment. Paul is likely writing from a Roman prison, so he's likely dictating to what you and I would call an emanuensis, a secretary. We know this to be reality because at the end of the letter, Paul says, I took the pen and wrote this closing myself. But here Paul seems to pause, he may have put up his hand to the one that was writing down what he was speaking to this church he'd never visited, but his d

  4. Sep 27

    Your Faith Has Saved You

    Your Faith Has Saved You Dr. Eric J. Gilchrist, Pastor { September 27, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript Your Faith Has Saved You Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest, Pastor I hope you'll stick around as we pack together for the community that is around us. As I was watching that video, it strikes me that what we're doing downstairs in just a few minutes is a wonderful extension of what I want to say today, which is that, maybe in brief, that Jesus cares about our bodies as much as he cares about our souls. He cares about this world as we see it and experience it, as he does about wherever we end up in the next life. And too often, Christianity, and I am guilty of this myself, we focus so much on what's to come that we fail to see that the here and now is actually where heaven and hell begin. And so unless we can take care of the bodies in front of us, our own included, I do wonder how we are prepared to enter into the next life. Let's pray and we'll jump into what I'm trying to say here. Heavenly Father, we come this morning expecting you to be present and speaking, to be active in the world that is around us and the world that is inside each of us. Lord, our minds can race, our hearts can thump, anxiety can get the best of us. Thinking about what tomorrow might bring can get us all wrapped up around the axle. But Lord, today, in this second, we ask that you set those aside, that you breathe your breath of peace into us and that you speak to us the truth that you have for us this morning. We pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen. The sermon takes place in three parts. I've tried to give you the three parts on the bulletin at the bottom of your, at the bullets, at the bottom of the bulletin. Part one is kind of stating to you the problem that often exists. And then part two is maybe showing you the path forward and where I see a solution to this problem. And then three, as often is who cares, is the question that I'll pose. Like, what does it mean for us today? The question at hand is, what do Jesus miracles have to do with the crucifixion and the resurrection? I don't know if you've ever thought about this question, but Jesus spends his whole life doing all kinds of things. He lives in earthly existence, just like you and I do. And then he has at least three years of a ministry where he's going about doing what? He's healing people of their diseases. He's casting out demons. In today's story, he he power came out of him to heal the bleeding woman. There was a girl who had died and he raised from the dead again. But then he goes to the cross and he forgives us of our sins. And I don't know if you feel this way, but sometimes it feels like those two things are worlds apart. And what is his healing of all the bodies in the first part of his life have anything to do with what he does on the cross? Have you asked this question? Have you wondered this? Has this ever come into your mind at some point that these two things feel a little unrelated? I heard a speaker a number of years ago. His name is NT Wright and there's a quotation from him at the bottom of the bulletin. He's a famous biblical scholar. And he was talking at a conference that I was at. And he named this ever so clearly. He said that too often in American Christianity, we split these two things up. And truth be told, we actually mostly just focus on the cross and maybe the resurrection, though mostly the cross and the forgiveness of sins. And then the hope that we have at some future point in heaven someday. But then we don't always know what to do with those miracles that he did. And they just kind of become a sign that, well, maybe maybe Jesus is just like proving he really is God. And so he's done all the signs to prove that he's God. And therefore, the cross is real. I suggest to you actually that's maybe an anemic or small view of what Jesus is doing in his earthly ministry. And he's showing us a much, much better way. But the problem doesn't seep in recently. It's actually an older problem. It actually if you were to read the Apostles Creed, right, it goes like this. It says, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And I believe in Jesus Christ. And then what does it say about Jesus? It says he's God's son. He's our Lord. He's conceived by the Holy Spirit. And he's born of the Virgin Mary. And then it skips over all the life of Jesus. And it says he suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was crucified, dead and buried. Right. And so even the Apostles Creed jumps from his birth, which seems really important, and then the suffering and death, which is obviously very important, doesn't really give us some theology or an understanding of why it all mattered at all. I think there's help on the way, though. So the first place I turn you to is Matthew, Chapter eight, verses 16 to 17. We read the following. That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word. And then he cures all the sick. And this was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took our infirmities and bore our diseases. Here, Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 53 for which is often called the suffering servant passage. If you've been with us on a good Friday, there's a good chance you've heard this passage multiple times. It's a famous one. And it's a really important one, because in Isaiah, we get this foreshadowing of the kind of Savior we should expect. It's the kind of Savior who dies that we might live, who suffers. But very specifically here, he bears our infirmities and our weaknesses or diseases. I know we often just immediately kind of translate that into he bears our sins, and he does. Like this is mission critical. Like I'm not trying to lower this. I'm trying to explain to you that salvation might be a little bigger than we've thought it is. And so Isaiah tells us and Matthew echoes that there's something about Jesus bearing the infirmities and the diseases of us. And this is part of what he's doing on the cross. The quote from NT Wright goes like this. Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project. Not to snatch people away from the earth into heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. The project that God has embarked on from the day Adam and Eve were ushered out of the Garden of Eden is not to one day create this place off in the sky somewhere that we all fly up to by and by. It's to redeem and restore the creation that is, which is to say that your lives matter here and now in deep and profound ways. Your bodies matter here and now. The trauma that sits in your mind, it matters. And God is desirous to heal it all. But we also know that we live in a fallen world. It's become almost cliche to say we are living in a fallen world, but it is true. And so the difficulty of living in this life is a real one. And while I would wish to you that all of our infirmities can be whisked away today, before you leave, just come on up and I'll pray over you. And you'll walk out a healed person. I can't make that promise to you today, but I do hope to show you some other things. Part two of the sermon is about the many faces of salvation that we find in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke's Gospel, he uses four times the same phrase, and it says, Your faith has blanked you. Now, the most obvious translation is to just simply say your faith has saved you. This is what the Greek says every one of these times. Sozo is the Greek word. Your faith has saved you. And if you've been around the church at all, and if you've read Paul's letters, and if you've just simply had conversations with Christians, you know that faith and salvation, they go hand in hand, don't they? Faith, salvation. But in a few of the translations of these words, we actually don't get salvati

  5. Sep 13

    The Long Journey from the Head to the Heart

    The Long Journey from the Head to the Heart Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest, Pastor | September 13, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript The Long Journey from the Head to the Heart Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest, Pastor . . . are few. And so for this last season of Church Life, we've been talking about these two different paths, right? There's this one way to live a life in which you find yourself down roads of destruction that you should never have walked down. And then there are ways of living a life that lead to real life. And Jesus warns us, he says, the way to life is not easy, It's narrow. It's probably going to cause you some difficulty at times. This isn't to say it's the easy road at all. If anything, the other Rd. is the easy one. But it is a road that leads to life. And so I've been talking about different ways that this gets played out and different topics. This sermon is A little bit like if you've ever watched a television show where you're watching these characters unfold over a span of time, and then the storyteller goes back in time, right? And the storyteller starts to tell you about the roots of the character. I remember the first time I maybe encountered this completely was the show Lost. They tell you about the various characters, Jack and Kate and a guy named John Locke. And then you're like 3, four, five seasons into it. And then you're finding out about John Locke as a little kid or something and like what happened to his life. Or if you've read good books, maybe, I'm blanking on this, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, right? He does this well. He gives you not just like the world therein, but he builds the world out. This sermon's a little like that, where we've been focused on what Jesus offers these two ways in Matthew 7. But truth be told, Jesus is not making this up whole cloth. He's actually pointing to the passage that Dave just read for us back from Deuteronomy chapter 30. And it's worth knowing this because there's actually a whole history of this that's sitting in your Bible that predates anything that Jesus says or does. And it's worth knowing what's really happening in these scriptures. And so today my hope is to kind of walk you through a few of them to show you what Jesus is pulling on and then to show you that Jesus' intent is to actually fill all of that out and to make a way where before there had not been a way. Let's begin with prayer. God our Heavenly Father, we thank you. for sending your Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for our sins, to cleanse us from our iniquity, that we might have new life. We thank you for raising him from the dead, that he might defeat death once and for all, and offer true life, eternal life for all of us. And Lord, we thank you for sending your Holy Spirit. And we ask right now, here and now, that you send your spirit into this place, that Lord, you speak through my words to the hearts of those listening, that they might know what you are trying to tell them this morning. We pray this in Christ's holy name, amen. So if I were to ask you what is Jesus' famous sermon, you would probably say, the Sermon on the Mount. Is there another one? It's kind of the only one that I am aware of that maybe gets a title, like the sermon something or other, right? If you were to go home today and want to read the Sermon on the Mount, you would go to Matthew chapter 5 through 7. It's long. It's 3 whole chapters long, right? And in Matthew 5 through 7, If I were to ask a follow-up question, like what's the text Jesus is preaching his sermon from, what would you say to that? No, nothing? Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Because here's the truth, right? I would say it this way. He's preaching from the whole of the law. And he's teaching us how to read the whole of the law, which is to say the first five books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. This is where you find the Torah. Another word for law, by the way, frankly, a translation I would prefer is instruction. These are instructions on how to live a life. both communally, for Israel as a whole, like how Israel as a whole is supposed to live a life, and then for the Israelite himself or herself, or for you, yourself, like how you're to live a life. These are the instructions. And so Jesus is kind of flipping through the instruction manual, and he's then preaching through this sermon of chapter 5 and then 6 and then 7, and he gets to the end of seven, and then he delivers the line that I just read earlier about the two different ways. perhaps not surprisingly, he's doing precisely what Moses did. You see, Moses delivers the law, and he gives us things, the memorable ones like the Ten Commandments, right? And then he gives all these other little laws, and if this happens, well then do that, and if this happens, well then do that, and you shouldn't do this over here, and you should definitely do this over here, and then he gets to the end of it all. In Deuteronomy 30, is kind of the capstone of it. And then he says, he's kind of looking back on all the commandments. And in brief, he says, look, I've laid before you two options. The one option leads to life and the other option leads to death, which is precisely what Jesus does, right? He says, I've preached my sermon, my most famous one, the Sermon on the Mount, and I get to the end of it all and I'm offering you two things. There's the one way that leads to life, and there's the one way that leads to death. So let's take a look at Deuteronomy 30. We'll start in verse 15, though. Deuteronomy 30, starting in verse 15, and we'll see what Moses says. Because this again is filling out this backstory that predates what Jesus is doing a few thousand years later. And so in verse 15, he says, see, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. And if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today. And then he explains like how to obey these commandments. There's 3 parts to it. So if you obey these commandments by one, loving the Lord your God, two, by walking in His ways, and three, by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, well then you shall live and multiply. It's interesting to me, and I think it should be to you, that what Moses gives us here is, here's how to obey the commands. And he doesn't get around to actually telling you to obey the commands until.3. He starts with, you obey the commands by, right here, loving in your heart, loving the right thing, namely the Lord your God. And then the next part is you move from loving to doing the thing, to like walking in his ways. And then finally third, When you're doing that, you are finally keeping the commandments and the statutes and the rules and the instructions and all the things that Moses just laid out in the first five books of your Bible. And if you do those, well, that leads to life. This sounds a lot like what Jesus says, doesn't it? Like you should do these things. And Jesus knows, and frankly, Moses knows, and I'm gonna guess you all know too, that actually doing the thing is a whole lot harder than it seems. It's a whole lot harder. We'll finish up the passage here starting in verse 17. If your hearts turn away, and you will not hear, but you're drawn away to worship the other gods and you serve them, well, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you're going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today. I have set before you again two options, life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring, your kids and their kids and their kids. they might live, loving the Lord your God, and here they are again, by the way, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding f

  6. Sep 6

    70 X 7: A Sermon on Forgiveness

    A Sermon on Forgiveness Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest, Pastor | September 6, 2026 Download Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript A Sermon on Forgiveness Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest, Pastor Good morning everybody. A couple of things before we get started. I know Clint already said it, but I am personally so pleased to have Erin Ovenshire as our new admin. She has been wonderful to work with already, and I look forward to good things there. I just wanted to make sure everybody knew and to welcome her in this role. Second, though, so one of my new favorite things these last few weeks has been the number of children in our worship service. I don't know if you feel this way too, but I definitely do. And I also want those parents to feel very comfortable having their children in the worship service. This is something that at South Run Baptist Church, we prize. We hold this as very important. I don't say this enough, so this is part of what I'm doing right now, which is we have intentionality behind having the kids in here. There are many churches you could attend where you ship the kids off and they're gonna be somewhere else for the whole time that you're here. And by kids, I mean like even up through like junior high or something. We've learned, but studies say Having your kids in here, like seeing what the adults do, watching your parents worship, this is very, very important for their spiritual development. And so this is why we want the children in here. With that said, we also want you to feel comfortable taking your kid out if you need to. And so if at any point you need to, we have a room downstairs. I think it's the Birch room, whatever the middle room is down there. where the TV's on with me on it, and you can participate in the service down there if that's what you need at any point. So feel free to utilize that. All right, let's get started here. Please bow your heads in prayer. God, our Father in heaven, your name is holy, and we seek your holy name this morning. God, I ask that you speak your words through your humble servant this morning, that those who are in attendance and those who are listening, whether online or at some future point, will hear you. They will hear you speaking to them loud and clear. Lord, this morning you know what we're talking about. We are talking about forgiveness. And Lord, we are the recipients of your boundless forgiveness. And so we begin with thanks, but we also now open our ears to what you wish to say to us. In Christ's name we pray, amen. We're talking about forgiveness, but we're also kind of the macro level. We're talking about the two ways. There's the narrow way and there's the wide way, and the wide way leads to destruction. And Jesus is trying to get us to walk down that narrow Rd. right? Which is to say it's a harder Rd. to walk and it requires some intention behind it. And it means that we have to pay attention to what we are doing and should not be. And some of those things we're not doing, but we should be. And so this morning, we have a wonderful test case in forgiveness. Forgiveness. This is certainly something that we've all been on both sides of the coin for. We've needed to forgive somebody, but we've also needed to be forgiven by somebody. But I wanna begin with a question that I asked our deacon ordinands on this last Wednesday. We had a deacon ordination meeting, council, where we brought in the two gentlemen who were being tried and tested, and it was grueling, and we really put it to them. They did pass, so next week we will be voting on our deacons, which will now include Brian Sands and Dan Ovanshire. We're very happy to have them on that slate, and you'll get to vote on them along with two others next week. But the question I asked was, what is the gospel, right? What is the gospel? Somewhat simple question. And I would hope that each of you, if you've been around the church for a while and if you confess Christ as Lord, you would have some kind of answer to this. What is the gospel? So I want to offer to you kind of a version in brief of how I think about this. It starts at the beginning of the creation, which is to say that in the beginning, God created all things good. In fact, he finishes it all and says, this is very good. But we know it doesn't stay there for too long. And there's the fall, Genesis 3 happens, and Genesis 4, they're kicked out of the garden. And then we're living in this world. And if you look around, you see what? You would currently see three hurricanes are sitting in the Pacific Ocean. Something is broken with the world itself, literally. There's a flood in Nepal that led to over 1000 deaths. There's all kinds of illnesses that are just waiting to infect each and every one of us. But it doesn't stop with the brokenness in the world, does it? then kind of seeps into us, you and me, or maybe there's other people, right? the sin sickness that covers humanity. And we are all people who do things that we shouldn't do and we don't do the things that we should do. And then when we're really honest, we look inside and we realize that it's sitting in here. And if you think back through your past, you realize, you know what, there are things that I regret There are things that I need forgiveness for, and I'm reaching out to a God that I need forgiveness from. And so then the gospel is God looking down and saying, I'm going to do something about the state of the world. And to do something, well, he sends Jesus, the Son of God, into the world, And Jesus dies on a cross, as we say, every single second Sunday of the month when we take communion, for the forgiveness of your sins, to make things right again. And then he is raised on the third day, defeating death and offering eternal hope into the future. This is what's happening. And so then the macro story says that what God is doing is he's taking the very good thing that had been broken and he's putting it back to rights again. This is good news. And it's the hope that we all hold on to. At the very center of all of it is a God who loves us so much that he keeps coming after us offering forgiveness when we don't deserve it. Offering forgiveness when we don't deserve it. Which then gets to what Paul says to us about forgiveness at large. He says, for example, actually, sorry, slide one, I had this on here. So what is the gospel? It's the good news that God has chosen forgiveness and mercy instead of punishment. He has chosen reconciliation instead of walking away, and he has chosen restoration instead of pushing us out. And here's what Paul, the move Paul makes in Ephesians 4.32. He says, forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. And so this morning, as we're talking about the need to forgive one another, we should be reminded that the gospel story is the frame to it all. And as Paul says, God forgave you. And how did he do this? In Christ, in the story that I just told you, on the cross, through his death and through his resurrection, you have been forgiven. And so we too are to what? We're to take that same model and we are to apply it, everybody around us. forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. Now the goal of forgiveness with both God and man is restoration. If the story of scripture from front to back is a story of restoration, well then that's what we're doing in our relationships when we forgive as well. We're seeking to restore. to make all things new. Now I should say very clearly that this does not mean consequences don't matter. They matter deeply. And so if you are seeking forgiveness from somebody, you must be ready to acknowledge that there is going to be a fallout to whatever it is that you have done in this life. And so consequences matter. There's a famous theologian from the mid-1900s named Bonhoeffer, and h

  7. Aug 30

    Lust

    Lust Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest, Pastor | August 30, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript Dr. Eric J Glchrest, Pastor It's good to be with you this morning. I come bringing an exciting sermon to you. I'm glad you're here today. If you are new to South Run Baptist Church, I first want to say welcome. We are so pleased that you have chosen to join us this morning. I believe you're here for a reason. I do believe that God has brought you to this place at this time because he has something for you. I believe this of all of us gathered together here. But you should know you've come on a unique Sunday because we've been working through, well, actually, I was thinking about this. We're kind of like a set of Russian nesting dolls this year. So the broad theme is transformation. We've been kind of working on that all year long. And then we've been on this two ways journey where there's these two ways that Jesus offers us abundant life, but he says it's the narrow way, right? And so it requires some adeptness at traversing that narrow way. And then he talks about the broad way, which leads to destruction. And on the broad way, it appears that this is in many ways the easy way. This is the path of least resistance. And so we've been, the nesting doll has been on that path of least resistance. And to do that, we've been talking about the seven deadly sins, right? And so here we are, we're at the 7th of seven. And so if you've come for the first time this morning, you've come on a Sunday in which we are talking about lust. Before we get there, this is a test for those of you who have been with us the whole journey to see if you can name the other six. And if you can't, well, then we're going to start it all over again and we'll do it together. So say them with me and I'll parrot them back to you. What would one of them be? Enri. Gluttony, wrath and sloth, greed, I think we said anger, and vanity, somebody said. I think we got them. Those are the six, leaving us today's message on lust. Part of what we've been trying to do with all of them is also tie together how our technologies the phones in our pockets, the computers that we all sit behind every day, they shape us and they form us and they misshape us and they malform us into beings we were never intended to be. And so my hope through this whole time together actually has been to demonstrate to you that the object in your pocket is not value neutral, that it is having an effect on you in one way or another. And I can really think of no better example than this morning's topic. And so we will talk about some sensitive issues. I've tried to do so in a fashion that is sensitive to all of the various ears this morning, but do know that this is what we're talking about. Let's begin with prayer. God our Father in heaven, you look down at your children and you want what is good for us. You want what is best. You want us to live lives filled with life and abundance and all that is good. And God, yet sometimes we choose the lesser way and we find ourselves going down paths we were never intended to go down, being shaped into people we were never intended to be. And this morning, Lord, speak to us. Speak to our hearts. Speak to our marriages and our families, that we might live lives according to your word, but according to the grain of the universe that you have created, the good universe, the one we intend to live in, the kingdom of God. I pray this in Christ's holy name, amen. You should have gotten a handout when you came in, at least the adults in the room. Yeah, I'll take it, just to wave it around. At some point in the sermon, we will get to this. And this may end up being the most practical sermon I could possibly give to you where there's an actual handout that you can take home with you to give you some resources for how to walk this way well. The Bible has a lot to say about sex. If you've ever read the Bible in full cover to cover, you might be surprised about what you find there. And now that I think about it, I should probably use this as a pitch when I try to get you to read the Bible more often because sex sells and it's filled with it. even has a whole book devoted to it. Did you know this? It's called the Song of Solomon. who himself had 1000 wives and concubines and apparently knew something about the matter. If you think it's a prudish book or that its authors would clutch their pearls at the smallest innuendo, well, you've simply not read close enough. But if you're new to the Bible reading thing and you thought this way, you would be forgiven. Because often this is how we Christians approach the topic, sheepishly in whispers And I confess it's how I often approach this topic, especially from the pulpit. I get nervous and frankly a little weird about it, which is why I'm writing this sermon out rather than trying to go off script. It'll keep me from blushing, hopefully. If the Bible is okay with this topic, then we probably should be too. So I'm going to speak frankly about the matter while recognizing that our congregation has members of all ages listening right now. Parents, you shouldn't feel on edge for what is about to happen, but know that it might spark some interesting conversations around the lunch table that I think you're ready for. And in fact, I encourage these conversations. It's a hope that I have for all of us to be a little more open and in dialogue with one another about this matter. But that said, if at any point you feel the need to take a bathroom break with your child, please go right ahead. I won't be offended. In the beginning, God created the Garden of Eden. And he said to that first couple, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And I know of only one way to be fruitful and to multiply. There's also the matter of Genesis 2, 24, in which God tells the first couple while they're still enjoying the safety of the garden, that when the two are joined together, they become one flesh. Two bodies united into one body. Sounds like a description of the topic we're talking about today. which means to me that God creates it as part of the good creation. It is something that is beautiful, is certainly enjoyable, and I would even say it is spiritual. Two becoming one is a mystery. But don't take my word. It's what Paul says in Ephesians 5 when he compares marriage to our union with Christ. And he also raises the two becoming one mystery as a warning to the Corinthian people in 1 Corinthians 6, who are uniting themselves with temple prostitutes. And Jesus raises the two becoming one mystery as a way to affirm marriage and to limit divorce. Which is all to say, that Genesis and Jesus and Paul, they talk about two becoming one flesh as something to happen within the marriage covenant. The covenant binds two people together by law and by custom, and it requires that the two people remain together in sickness and in health and richer and poorer till death do us part. And why? because it is only this kind of union that makes it safe to practice the deep magic we call sex. There are two ways to preach a sermon about sin, one that I would call an Old Testament sermon and the other a New Testament sermon. The difference is subtle but important. The Old Testament sermon relies on the law. It tells you where the boundaries are. are external to you. For example, an Old Testament sermon tells you the rules to keep and then you simply keep them. Don't murder, don't steal, don't lie, don't break the Sabbath and so on. An Old Testament sermon on adultery would stick to the basics. Don't have sex outside of marriage and you're good to go. But A New Testament sermon, the kind that Jesus would give, drives us deeper to the heart of the matter. which is always a matter of the heart. Jesus is helping us fulfill the Old Testament pr

  8. Aug 23

    Sloth

    Sloth Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest, Pastor | August 23, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript Transcript Pastor Eric J. Gilchrest Good morning. It's great to be back with you. I've missed you. I wasn't here on Sunday, last Sunday that is. I was dropping Ezra off at college, which was an incredibly emotional, powerful experience. And then I had been out of town on sabbatical for a time, but I'm promising you I'm here for a while. Does anyone else hear that? It's the sound of... Oh, it is. Yeah. It's the 250th. There's like flyovers happening. I was going to say, I never hear, you know, anything quite like that. Yeah, we'll let the airplanes kind of die down a second. They'll be done in a moment, hopefully, unless it keeps going for a time. Yeah, just turn me up. Thank you. All right. Where were we? Where we were for the last month is we are talking about the way, which is the name for the earliest Christians. They were called the way. They were the ones who followed Jesus appropriately. And then we were also talking about the fact that there are these two ways that Jesus talks about. One way that leads to destruction. And this is the path that We've been talking about the seven deadly sins for. It is the path we're talking about today. It is the path in which we lead lesser lives, and we lead lives that are not intended to be led by God. Today we're talking about sloth, and this is, as it says, following the wrong way home. There's a lot of city stuff in the picture if you're looking at this, and there's a lot of hubbub and there's a lot of movement, and you might be thinking that's not very slothful. But actually, it kind of is. If you were in the Sunday morning Bible study, what we learned is that there are two faces to sloth, actually. The one that is the slow creature from Zootopia, who's amiable and enjoyable to be with, but is is so slow that it's infuriating, right? And they don't do much. But the other face of sloth actually is the person who's so busy and is distracting himself or herself with all these other things in life, and they're not attending to the one thing that they should be attending to. Our lives are actually filled with these sorts of slothful moments where we distract ourselves quite easily and we escape into our devices and we lead lives that are in constant distraction and not attending to the one thing that we should be doing. So Jesus talks about this road that leads to destruction. And this morning we're going to talk about sloth in that way. But he does talk about a road that leads to fullness of life, abundant life. And all year I've been trying to get you to realize there is abundant life waiting for each and every one of you. And this is in fact what God wants for you. Jesus wants this for you. It's the promise. It's frankly the great promise of Christianity. It's what Jesus teaches us, and he shows us the way. He walks the path before we ever do. And so when I got captivated earlier in this year by what I take to be a very simple idea, and the longer I sit with it, the more powerful it gets. And the idea is very simple, that Jesus lived a life showing us how to live a life. And if we just simply model ourselves after the life of Jesus, if we do the things Jesus does, if we speak like he speaks, if we walk like he walks, if we do what he does, then we too can have abundant life. So this morning, before we jump into sloth and we talk about what this means and what it doesn't mean, let us begin with prayer. Heavenly Father, We come this morning and we lift our hearts to you. We slow down in an appropriate way as you call us to every 7th day taking a Sabbath, a rest from the busy work of life, but not to be lazy, but to fall back in love with you, to be open to what you have to say to us and how you're directing our lives and where you're trying to move us to, the ways in which you are trying to grow us and the ways in which you have kingdom plans for each and every one of us. May we attend to you this morning. In Christ's name we pray, amen. I want to begin with an analogy from marriage. If you are not married, hopefully you can grasp what is happening here. This analogy takes place on the 2nd anniversary of a marriage when a couple is past the honeymoon phase and the 2nd anniversary happens and the husband forgets that it's the anniversary. And the wife is now deeply frustrated with her new husband and lashes out and says, how could you forget? James down the street, he took his wife to the Bahamas. You didn't even remember that it was our anniversary. You are a terrible husband. How dare you? And she storms off to the other side of the room. The husband, feeling very defensive and stonewalling, He just kind of turns in on himself and he walks to the other side of the room and he says, doesn't she know? I work so hard for this family, 80 hours a week. I am just, the pressure is so great. And so what? I forget one day, right? And he begins to get defensive. And so the couple is on each side of the room and And they both know that they love each other, right? This is why they married. They both know that they love each other. But the love requires sacrifice. And it requires the both of them to do the one thing that in this moment they're not sure they really want to do, which is to walk back to the center of the room and figure some things out. And to try to understand the other person and where they're coming from. And so what do they do? Hopefully they do what you don't do. They actually stay on the other sides of the room and they nurse their grievances and they choose sloth over love. And they choose to not reconcile. Instead, of choosing to die to self and to choose to try to work it out and love one another. If you've been married, then you know that building a relationship is not easy. What it really requires of this couple is to not exactly just figure it out in that moment. It actually requires figuring it out over a lifetime what the other person needs and what makes them happy and what makes them tick and what you need and where you need to stand up for your own self. And relationships require work and they require growth and they require you to talk about it and to do some hard things and to dig in together. Maybe on occasion going to a counselor or somebody who can help you grow together. And so a good relationship It doesn't just come together in that moment and all is well. It requires day in, day out, doing the hard thing. But if you don't want to do the hard thing, we call this sloth. Sloth is the willful rejection of growing into the person that God wants you to be. It is the willful rejection of growing into the person that God wants you to be. The marriage is just an analogy. It's an earthly analogy that should then be understood in terms of the spiritual realm, that God desires a relationship with you. And this God wants something from you, and he wants you to grow. And he wants you to be a bigger person, as we talked about again in Sunday school. He wants you to be magnanimous, which is to say big sold. But it's going to require work. And it's going to require some pain, maybe some late nights, some early mornings. Sometimes it requires eating some crow and saying, I'm sorry, and man, I really messed up. And coming to God and saying, please forgive me. It requires doing some soul searching. And it requires understanding what is it that God has called me into this life for? Why am I on this planet at all? And how can I serve the kingdom of God? Sloth is one of these sins that requires us to think about what sin is. Most of the time, someone might tell you, well, it means don't kill anybody. Check, not done that. Don't commit adultery, check, right? Don't steal, right? Okay, And you can think of all these things that you're not supp

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