This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Hey, great job getting yourself up this weekend and being here. We are really grateful for that really good job. You're starting your week off the right way, and I'm proud of you. So, so excellent job.

And don't ever forget this at Prairie Lakes, we're a no matter church, no matter who you are, where you've been, or what you've done, or even what's been done to you, God does love you. You can't change that. He loves you. You can go on the journey here. You don't gotta be perfect.

You have it all figured out. We're really glad that you're here. All right, so here's the deal. Um, I have been a pastor, um, and the lead pastor for 25 years. I'm in my 26th year at Prairie Lakes right now.

And for 26 years, I've done some stuff from the stage, okay? 26 years. Um, looking at lots of things. I've had cars on the stage. I've had a boat on the stage, uh, chains, fences, bridges, padlocks, rocks, treadmills, ladders, dogs, even snakes.

But never have I gone pantless on the stage. Never. So, because Jesse did it, I'm just gonna go shirtless this week, okay? So we're, we're gonna have to just, I'm not gonna do that. That's the last thing that you wanna see.

But here's the deal. Summer is awesome and, and summer just takes on a, on a different vibe in Iowa, right? So, so we're, we're, we're long winter keeps us, uh, cooped up inside, and we, when we can actually go outside and enjoy it without forming frost sickles on our eyelashes, it's a beautiful thing.

It, it, it's, it's, it's great. We go all in. And sometimes in Iowa, we summer so hard that we get to the end of it and find that we've drifted away from God and found ourselves in a spot we didn't plan on being. And here's what the data says, and here's what we all know intuitively.

It's not just the summer where drift is likely. Drift is a problem in every season and every stage of our lives. In fact, we drift starts out with a little Sunday sleep in a step of disconnecting a little habit, a touch of bitterness, a lack of faith.

And then before we know it, Jesus becomes a tiny dot on the shoreline of our lives. Drifting can happen in any marriage. If I don't nurture, learn, and pray and honor my spouse, I can drift. Drifting can happen when my, in my, with my kids, if I agree to an unhealthy work schedule or don't develop good family rhythms, drifting can happen in my finances if I slowly turn to credit cards in the last days of every month.

Drifting is an easy summer breeze that pushes us away from what's most important. Drifting is something we are naturally gifted at, because think about it. It takes no effort. It's just natural to us.

And here's the deal, when it comes to boats and drifting, the anchor keeps us from drifting and anchor holds some place and prevents drift when you're fishing or swimming or, or doing your thing. That's what the anchor does.

And so in this series, we've said, Hey, let's spend a few weeks together and let's set some anchors down that will keep us from drifting. Last week, uh, was you and God, and this week we're gonna go you and God's family as an anchor that we need to set.

Last week, Jesse taught, let's just call it very u uniquely. It was great, by the way. And he modeled to us what it's like to have a regular, a rather a anchor set of Bible reading and prayer, a daily anchor of Bible reading and prayer that keeps us from drifting away from God.

So this week, let's set another anchor to prevent drift from God this summer, and in all of the seasons and anchors of, of you and God's family. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna start with this. If Jesse set a daily anchor of Bible study in prayer, let's set a Sunday anchor of church together.

Let, let, let's set the Sunday anchor. I know, I know, I know, I know. Um, I can worship God in my PJs. Yep. I I I agree with that. Um, I I could worship God on the boat or at the river, or, or at the lake or sitting in my backyard. Yes, yes. And yes.

But there's something unique about this thing called the Gathered Church, where we, where we show up clean and unclean healed and broken lost, and found still drifting and done drifting that God asked us to do. It wasn't invented by some monk in the 13th century.

It was not. This is something that God says, we, we, I want you to do this, and we do this because God said to do it. And with good reason. In fact, it starts way back in the Old Testament. Think of the, the Big 10, right? The 10 Commandments.

And, and the 10 Commandments were, were God's God, god's, um, commandments to the nation of Israel to say, here's how you live at peace with God and with community. And if you just follow these 10 commandments, you'll be at peace with God and, and peace with others. And, and the fourth one, uh, he, he said this, he said, remember the Sabbath day to, to keep it holy and established this pattern that said, let's, let's have this one day.

Let's have this one day where, where it's different than the rest. And, and it's based on the creation account. So, so God gave those to Moses. Moses presented to him to God. But, but way before that, in the creation account, here was the establishment of this day that was set aside, that was supposed to be different.

And in Genesis two, two and three, it says, by the seventh day, God had finished the work he'd been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. See what he said? God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

There's so much noise, by the way, around Sabbath and, and the church day. What church and what, what can I do and what can, and what should I do and what shouldn't I do? And I wanna just remind you that, that a couple years ago, we did an entire series on this rhythms of rest.

And, and we have a bunch of links up that if you are curious and you want to get better at this thing called Sabbath, and better at this thing about taking this day, just our usual 9, 9, 5, 8, 1 number, text Sabbath. And you'll get, you'll get a link to all kinds of resources that can help with, with that.

And I know there's just, there's noise around it. But, but, but here's what I want you to know. Here's what I want. I want us to know that when Jesus started to walk the earth 2000 years ago, and he spent 30 of his 33 years just being, Hey, hey, hey, whatever, a normal human being, he was fully God, yet he was fully man.

He was sent from heaven for the assignment of the seek and save the lost. But, but when Jesus came, here's what he did. He not only talked about this thing called the Sabbath, but he modeled it. In fact, we see it over and over, and there's multiple references.

There's three, just, just simple examples of this is Jesus. This is Jesus. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue. And look what it says as was his. What's it say, custom, right? That this is Jesus.

This is what, this is what He did. Okay? That's, and here's one from, uh, mark, mark 1 21. They went to Capernaum. And when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. Here's another one from later in Luke on the Sabbath.

Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. And there's, there's 12 more of those. And here's what we know. Here's what we know, that Jesus not only taught it and fulfilled all the law, but he modeled it as a fully God, yet fully human.

People who walked on the earth acts through revelation, right? The rest of the New Testament is filled with moment after moment where the church gathered for worship and Bible and encouragement and fellowship. God is saying, I made you and I know you, and I know what you need.

And what you need is this day. It's this day. Now let's just, let's just kind of slow, let's reduce this thing down down to this. 'cause this is, this is so crucial. God said to, God said, to set aside a day for him where you stop earning and stop producing and stop feeling like you have to prove yourself or earn your keep.

Now, let's just sit on that, that concept just for a moment. Stop producing, stop earning, stop feeling like you need to, uh, earn your keep. Right? And, and just, just think of that for, for, for six days a week, we we're, we're kind of on, right? We gotta do this and we gotta do that.

And we're concerned about what people think, and we're concerned about what's going on. And we're consumed, right? We're consumed with this thing called life. And God says, I, I want you to just take it one day and simply acknowledge me and my sovereign power.

Jesus kept it going. And the entire New Testament reflects the practice. It's not about you, it's not about me. It's not about the pastor or the passage or the delivery method. It's about stopping everything else.

And in and, and joining together with a bunch of other people on the same journey, learning together, praying together, reading together, singing praise together on mission together, giving him room and getting pointed back to him. And just think about that. If you can set, if you can set down this anchor the Sunday anchor, and you can set that down in your life and the life of your family, and that can keep you from, from drifting, that holds you on that pattern of, of, I'm gonna join together with God's family.

There's gonna be some amazing things that God's gonna do. He's gonna bless your obedience and what he established in creation, what he carried throughout with his community of Israel in the Old Testament. What Jesus modeled in all the New Testament is based on, is this thing called this family that gathers together.

It is. I want everybody in your Bible now to grab it and go to Mark chapter two. Okay? Go to Mark chapter two. Now. Matthew, mark, Luke, John are the four gospels. So they're pretty easy to find. If you use your table of contents, just use your table of contents.

Listen. Um, so many of us are learning, and we're always learning, but so many of us are, are new to this thing called the Bible. So don't be intimidated by it. Just dig in and, and, and, and start to get after it. Start to read, start to do your thing with it. Okay?

So, so there's this, there's this part where Jesus just kind of speaks to this, and he, and he frees it from all of the junk, right? This, this gathering thing and this, this Sabbath thing. So it says in Mark two, verse 23, it says, one Sabbath. So right Honda, Saturday for them, Sunday for us, okay, whatever.

Jesus was going through the grain fields as his, as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain, right? No big deal, right? For us. What, what is the big deal? But right, they turned this, this, this church thing into this crazy dos and don'ts of what they should and shouldn't do.

And the Pharisees with the, with the kind of the legalistic people said to him, look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? And then Jesus answered. He says, have you never read what David talking about, king David did when he and his companions were hungry and then neat, and the days of Abbey et are the high priest.

He entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is a, which is lawful only for priest who eat. And he gave, also gave some to his companions. And then Jesus said to them, and this is crucial now, he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

So the Son of man, Jesus is Lord, even of the Sabbath. So, so look what it says. This thing called this, this, this gift that he's given us. This one day, this thing called gather together and, and, and, and get pointed towards me, right? And come back to me and, and get, get back to do north, right?

This one day, Jesus says, listen, this is for you. The Sabbath was made for you. The Sabbath was made for me. This is a gift that God has given us. And he's dropped it in our last and said, I want you to do this.

And when we deny this gift, think about this. When we denied this gift, and we, we kind of say, well, you know what? I've kind of gotta do life on my own terms, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna kind of go the way I want to go. And when you lose that Sunday anchor of, of gathering together, when you lose that and that you start to drift, here's what happens.

You are denying yourself what God has set in place for the good of your soul. He made you, he created you. He knows you. He knows what's best embedded in all of creation. Here's what he did. He said, I want this one day where you just quit.

Just stop. Focus on me. Focus to gather on, on me, get pointed back to me. Give me room in your life. Give me room in your life. Here's the deal. You know this, and I know this, the world, the flesh and the devil. So, right? We did a whole series in that a lot long ago.

The world is kind of the system around us, right? And the system is corrupted. It just is. Right? Not, not, not the government. We all know that, right? But, but like the system of like, like the need for selfishness and revenge and vengeance and one upmanship. And, and I gotta get mine and right?

It's just, it's a world that just always kind of, kind of tugs at us. So, so if, if, if God's, you know, do north here, right? If God's do north, then, then here's what, here's what the world does. The world kinda says, ah, do your own thing.

Ah, you know what, that's not right. You're not treating you right. No. You know, you're kind of getting cheated over and right? And the world just kinda keeps twisting you. And then we have this thing called the flesh, right? Which is our bodies and our, and our flesh is always pulling, oh, don't you want that?

Mm-Hmm. In fact, you deserve more of that. Oh, yeah. And it's just getting pulled, right? We just keep getting, we just keep getting twisted and the drift just starts to happen. And then we have this, this real live being called the devil who is actively seeking to destroy, he tried to destroy Jesus as ministry.

He tries to do the same thing to you and to me. And you know what? The world, the flesh and the devil for six days and nights for 144 hours, for 8,640 minutes, or 518,400 seconds, the world, the flesh and the devil are giving us every opportunity to drift everyone.

And that's why God says, set the anchor down, set it down. Don't drift. This is my gift to you. For you, you gather together with the rest of these no matter yahoos, and we get pointed back to him, anchored one day a week.

That's what we do. And I'm asking you, not just this summer, but throughout the seasons and stages of your life, is to set this Sunday anchor in place so you don't drift. You don't drift. I'm, I'm a, as you know, I'm a pastor, right?

So basically for the last 34 years, um, I haven't had the option of drifting away on weekends, right? And all of a sudden, in two months, I haven't been to church or something like that. But just recently, I was, for the first time in all of my adult professional life, I had the opportunity to drift.

So it was last October when we, we, uh, Jesse took over the reigns as a lead pastor, and I switched seats to be the founding and teaching pastor. Um, there was October, November, December, and, and for October, kind of the plan was for me to just kind of kinda watch from home and, and be home and breathe.

And, and, and, and I can tell you, here's my experience, okay? Here was my experience. Over just a few weeks of not having that Sunday anchor set, I, I, I learned this. I, I began to miss so much of what God was, was up to.

I I began to just kinda live my days and, and live the weeks. And pretty soon there was another week, and pretty soon there was another week. And one day I stopped and I realized, you know what? I haven't given God a lot of extra thought.

I, I noticed that I quit noticing what he was up to. And you see, when you, when you drift like that picture had, and pretty soon you just didn't mean to, but you just do. And Jesus is kind of way over there. And somehow you got over here.

I, I began to notice that I quit noticing what God was up to and being grateful and missing these little moments like sunset sets and sunrises and calm in the middle of a hectic day, set the Sunday anchor of church together. It's a powerful weapon against spiritual drift, not just this summer, but for every season.

Now, let's, let's set this Sunday anchor even deeper. Okay? Let's, let's just take it just another, let's take it just another step. All right? So yes, let's set the Sunday anchor, but to take it deeper, let's do this. Let's add church friendships, okay?

Around Jesus. Let's, let's add church friendships around Jesus as Iowans, right? And some of us have a, have a tough time with this one, right? We've got lots of acquaintances. I know lots of people.

I say, hi, I drive. I know everybody in the road because I say hi to 'em all the time, okay? Lots of acquaintances, lots of people around me. But you know, it goes against some of our Iowa values. These have these kind of vulnerable deep friendships where you let people in, where, where we kind of put away our self-sufficiency and be willing to ask for help where we have to kind of maybe put away some, some privacy and allow some people to, to see us for kind of who we really are.

And then here's what happens, right? Here's Jesus. Jesus always throws a wrench into our personal value system. Here's Jesus. He models the exact opposite of what you and I usually do, which is avoid friendships, which is avoid entanglements, which is avoid people around me that I might need to help or they might need to help me.

And if anyone could have done it alone, it was him. But Jesus, he chose friendships, he chose them. Now, here's a, here's a list of just in case of there's always a good, it's always a good little quiz Name the 12 apostles, okay?

But here they are in Matthew 10, two to four. Here they are. And, and here's what it simply says. These are the names of the 12 apostles. First Simon with little, a little note who is called Peter and his brother Andrew James, son of De de Ze and his brother John, Philip and Bartholomew Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector James son of Alpheus and Thaddeus Simon, the zealot, and Judas Ariat, who betrayed him.

See, this weren't just some guys that were like, we've got some board seats to fill. Or Jesus wanted some placeholders just to kind of make sure, you know, people felt like they could be useful. Didn't do that at all. These were his friends and his disciples.

They lived life together. They surfed together. They prayed together, they fought together. They weathered hard times together. They'd friendship, they did. He was the center, the glue and the most important. But they were friends. He let 'em in.

He chose that. I want everybody in your Bible, you're, you're in Mark, go to go to Mark 14, okay? Just go back a little bit, okay? And we get to Mark 14, and we have this, this is the, this is one of those spots that I, I read it and I, I I, I, I almost get uncomfortable.

I right? Because it, it, it's this picture of this, this kind of full, this humanity of Jesus fully God. Yet he was fully human. And what he portrays, starting in verse 32, tells you the level of friendship that he felt with, with these, these guys.

So it says in 32 says, they went to a place called Gethsemane. And Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. Right? So he brought 'em all, all 12 of them. You guys sit here. And then he took Peter, James, and John, who were kind of the three leaders of the group along with him.

And he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. And, and look at this. This is Jesus. This is Jesus saying this, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He said, them, stay here and keep watch with me.

That's, here's this Jesus, who not only sat down with the Sabbath or the Sunday anchor right, of, of worshiping together, but he added to it with deep friendships around himself. He, he added to it.

And, and, and, and that's what he did. The anchor of friendships that were around him. This is what Jesus was about, the one common drifting theme that I see in my buddies, okay? And, and I've got, and I use buddies as the guys who are kind of my little Iowa, um, some who know Jesus and some who don't know Jesus yet, okay?

But there's a common theme that that, that I see. And, and the common theme is this, drift happens. And when drift happens, my friends start to hide from friendship, and they start to slide into places they, they normally wouldn't hear it again.

And think of your own life, right? When drift happens, and, and, and, and the anchor's not set right? Whether it's the, whether it's the daily anchor of Bible reading a prayer, whether it's a Sunday anchor of worship together, right?

Or whether it's even the add-on of friendships when, when that anchor isn't set, drift happens. And when drift happens, my pattern and the pattern of my friends is you start to hide from the people who love you. And you start to slide into spots that you, that you normally, that you normally wouldn't, you wouldn't go there and, and stay, stay in, in, in Mark 14.

And, and just, just go a little farther and, and just catch this now. And, and, and this is, this is that, that moment, right? Same per same chapter. Jesus just was vulnerable in front of his people, in front of his friends.

And, and here's hiding and sliding here. Here's the end result of hiding and sliding. Okay? Just as he was speaking in Mark 14, Judas, one of the 12 appeared with him, was a crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the chief priest, the teachers of the law and the elders.

Now, the betrayal had arranged a signal with them and just, just consider this, right? The one I kiss is the man arrest him and lead him away under guard, and going at once to Jesus, Judas said, rabbi, and kissed him on the cheek as was custom, and the men seize Jesus and they arrested him.

But here's what I want you to know, Judas ending up in this spot, the drift didn't start the day before the drift started a long time ago. In fact, we have, we have very little about Judas. We have, we have very little, but I wanna take it to a spot that gives us some insight into this idea of hiding and sliding.

You're in, mark. Now go to the right in your Bible, to the book of John, Matthew, mark, Luke, John, and go to John chapter 12. Okay? John chapter 12. Now, in, in, in John 12, we, we, we just have the moment, right?

And, and this is fascinating. So it starts with this, and it says, so six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany where Lazareth lived, with whom Jesus raised from the dead. Here, a dinner was given in Jesus honor. Martha served while Lazareth was among those reclining at the table, right?

And then Mary took about a pint of pure, nerd and expensive perfume. And she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor, it was worth a day's wages.

And Jesus shuts him down. Jesus shuts him down. But the hiding and the sliding that ended up in Judas, drifting away from Jesus to the point of even betrayal, started a long time. And my friends, here's my, here's my, here's my, my prayer, and here's what I want for you.

Here's I, I want for you, I want you, I want you to, to, To set that Sunday anchor down of with God's family. And when you set that anchor down, and you, one day a week, one time, you stop and you go, okay, okay, there he is.

I'm giving you room. And, and right? And you do it. And you add to that, you, you add to that these, these friendships that are, that are around Jesus, they move you from attending to connecting from place that I attend to a family. I'm connected to friends when that you sit around with, and they know when you're not there.

And they help with each other's burdens and passions, and even the kids don't stay isolated and anonymous anymore in this thing called the church. Don't do it. We were talking about this this week with our, all of our campus pastors on a zoom. And I'm telling you that if you'll set the anchor and you'll add to it deep friendships, you'll, you'll seek them.

God will do some amazing things in you. At our, at our indie campus, pastor Matt, he sent me this note, and the note says this, we have this group of guys, PLC, guys from their twenties through their sixties, old men like me, who gather one time enough to connect and read scripture.

And they've been doing this, and they've developed friendship to this point, and we've started to regularly pray for each other, new jobs, crisis, and families. And just this last Monday, we even circled around a guy and prayed for something he's going through.

And all this happens in a brewery with friends Pastor Nathan at Fort Dodge. He's, when we were talking about this, he said, we have a gal, and her name is Anna. And Anna sent this story, and I'm gonna read part of it to you.

Anna says, when my ex-husband and I first separated, but trying to fix things, he had brought up going to Prairie Lakes as a family, because I had brought it up in previous years. The first day walking into Prairie Lakes, I was filled with so much.

Listen to this. I was filled with so much fear, shame, and guilt. From the most recent events that had taken place in my life, in my marriage, I was lost in questioning every bit of my being. We were welcomed with smiles, and there was a sense of peace.

But due to my job, I wasn't able to attend on a regular basis with a family. In other words, the anchor wasn't set. Things took a turn through the divorce with my ex-husband. I got a job with a better schedule, allowed me time with my boys as a single mom, but also allowed me to start, attend church on a regular basis.

I was that person sat in the back alone, just there. As time went on, I started to allow God to do his work. Did you hear that? As time went on, I started to allow God to do his work. You would catch me not sitting in the same seat at church, but still towards the back, hoping no one would see me while I was bawling my eyes out or recognize me as the gal that always was crying by herself.

I was starting to heal from the inside out. The first Christmas without my boys, I attended the evening service and we sang this little light of mine. My light had been burnt out for so long, I couldn't bear singing that song.

I ran to the bathroom crying. A gal came in and asked to pray for me. A year had gone by and, and I stepped over the, the faith line, but wasn't sure what to do next. And while my life was falling apart and I had no support, I, I found myself to ask, found in myself to ask Pastor Kyle if I could meet with him, to ask questions and, and, and my situation and figure out what was next.

A few weeks passed and I couldn't find it in me to move from my seat after a service to get my boys, because I was an absolute mess. After the sermon, I had finally read the no matter statement and felt it deep within my heart and soul. A complete stranger put a hand on my shoulder, and after she could sit with me and pray for me, that stranger's name is Katie, and months later, invited me out to dinner and wanted to get, get to know me.

And ours. Our connection grew, and I allowed God and our friend, and, and I allowed God, our friendship blossomed. Things started to change. I started to see how happy my boys were going to church. I started to sense peace, comfort, and joy again.

Gina with Family Ministries reached out to ask us anything the church could help with. As she noticed, it was just me and the boys attending. She was so kind and sweet, always greeting with us. When she would see us walking down to take the boys to their rooms, I started noticing others, calling the boys by their names and smiling while we walked.

By October this last year, after talking with Katie, I knew it was time, time to be baptized, to show everybody that my sins are washed away and my past and my burdens, Jesus has taken. A few weeks later, the boys were dedicated.

It was all happening so fast, a little overwhelming. But God always knows what he's doing, and he knows how the story goes. If you'll add friendships around Jesus to this anchor of Sunday, connecting with God's family, that could be you.

That could be you. The beginning of this year, Jesse's first message, the first series we did in Ephesians, he said, let's have a goal this year. And here's what he said, let's find a friend and grow together. Find your people. Get in the group. Join a Bible study.

Get on the serving team. Go on a mission trip. Pray and God will deliver friendships around Jesus. Set the Sunday anchor of church together and deepen it with friendships around Jesus. Let me pray right now. Father, we don't want to drift. We don't want to end up in a spot we didn't think we'd ever be.

We don't wanna all of a sudden wake up and go, what happened? So Father, I pray that in each one of our hearts, each one of our souls, each one of our spirits, in each one of our minds, God, we would set that anchor today, set that anchor, that Sunday anchor and give you room.

And I pray, God, that that Sunday anchor, you'd add to it with deep friendships in this place around Jesus. In His name we pray, amen. Amen.