Good morning. Welcome to Bless the Bike Sunday. God gave us a warm day sandwiched in between uh two stormy days. So uh that's nice if you're visiting this morning. Uh welcome. We're we're so glad you're here. Hope you can tell you can just relax and and be yourself. We've got uh a bunch of people that ride, uh those that don't have loved ones and friends that do. So uh it's great to have an opportunity just to get together and and specifically pray for for our safety and and not just that, but that we'd all be blessed in in every way. And so we're gonna do that in a little bit. We'll we'll finish in here and then we'll go out in the parking lot and uh we'll play pray uh kind of a group blessing, but then we'll have individual people going around. We got uh this bike and rider blessed stickers for for everyone that wants them, and and we'll do that, and then uh we'll crank up all the bikes at the same time, which is uh kind of thrilling in its own way. And uh and we'll play some tunes and uh Butcher's block is uh is grilling, and I think there might be some barbecue. And so if you can stay, we're just gonna hang out, you know, and uh enjoy the the bikes, enjoy each other. Um I feel a little a little bad because you know there's a lot of things we could bless. I think we could, you know, just as easily bless the minivans. Um driving with uh with young kids in the car, that's real danger right uh right there. In fact, I I learned I learned how to drive watching my dad. It was left hand on the wheel, right hand swatting whatever was in the um in the back seat. But it wouldn't be as fun, you know, lining up all the minivans outside and uh strolling around looking at how he customized, you know. Um is that a uh is that iPhone adapter stock or is that uh is that custom? You know? How many how many cup holders do you have in that thing? Whoa. That's nice. But uh different times uh and different uh different things. But we do want to pray, you know, that uh that the that we're all blessed. And I know that uh that God is gonna bless all of us. So let's do that right now. Father God, we just praise you. Thank you for bringing us together uh today. Thank you for creating us uh in your image and creating us uniquely. And and Father, I do and we well, I do thank you for just adopting each of us as your children. I praise you for that. And do ask that you would bless each of us, that you'd give us what we need, that you'd keep us safe and and healthy, that we'd have relationships that um that are enjoyable and positive, that uh our parents and our and our kids would be safe, that we'd have uh enough um for us and and enough to share, and mostly that we'd just have a close walk with you, God, that you would just supernaturally draw us close to you. And I ask you to supernaturally speak to each of us this morning, Father, that you would that we would all come away with with a word from you. And so I praise you and I trust you for that. I thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning we have a new God story. A uh God story is something we do from time to time, and it's just uh it's it's one of us here at uh at his hand and what God is is doing in our lives, and because it's blessed the bikes uh Sunday, I thought I would ask uh one of the folks that started the uh the motorcycle group to share a little bit about what God's done in his life. And so um if you don't know Ray Bell, let me uh introduce you to him now.

I think what got me into motorcycles was when I was a kid, we didn't have very much money, and there's a lot of kids that live close to me. They had motorcycles, but they were stingy, they never would let me ride one of their motorcycles. So when I was 14, I uh pumped gas at a Sinclair station seven days a week, 12 hours a day for my whole school vacation, bought my first motorcycle in 1968. And then when I got into high school, I was doing the drug thing, and I got to messing with some uh bikers down in Atlanta and selling drugs, and um I guess you'd call me a hippie rock and roller at the time. But I got to noticing when us hippies sold dope and uh somebody got busted with it, um they would tell the cops where they got it to make then cops would go light on them. Well, I noticed that uh people bought dope from the bikers got busted. They didn't tell on the bikers, and that kind of attracted me to that. I thought that's kind of cool. These guys sell dope, and if whoever they sell it to gets caught with it, they don't even they ain't telling on them. So I that kind of drew me to that. So that's kind of what led me into it. And then I had some friends that uh were with some different motorcycle organizations will say that I hung out with some. And um, you know, motorcycles just got to be my thing. I just uh I just love being in the wind. It's like freedom. I think a lot of bikers my age, uh, when that movie Easy Rider came out, and uh Peter Fonda took his watch off and throwed it away. Oh, that had a that had a profound effect on me. That was like the real deal freedom. And uh as young as I was that I'll never forget that on uh Easy Rider, and I just thought that's the real deal freedom. And it took me to us 38 to figure out that Jesus is the real deal freedom. So well, I got saved in '92 by um some Christian bikers. Um I was very suspicious of them to start with because I was thinking Christians just wanted your money. So I went and checked these guys out, and um they didn't do nothing but love on me. Very scary. Very scary. I'd had um Christians try to witness me before uh the Turner Byrne thing, and I just told them, hey, when me and my buddies get there, we're gonna kick the devil's butt and take over and have a big party. But when I found out these guys was sincerely loving me, I found that hard to take because it's an unconditional thing. And um that just kind of blew me away, and I had to keep checking it out to see if they were for real. Well, I found out it was for real, but that love was something I couldn't deal with. The the night I accepted Christ, um I'd been to this motor Christian motorcycle meeting, and uh they'd loved on me, and I I'd been two or three times. And um I I knew from being a kid what it was to to uh receive Christ. And I was kind of hoping they'd ask me if I want to get saved at this meeting, and and they never did. So I'll never forget it. It was uh the third Thursday night of October 1992. I left this uh Christian motorcycle meeting, pulled over on the side of the road, and surrendered. That was it. Um I knew what to do. I said, okay, God, I surrender. I give up, throw the towel in, ask him to come into my heart, be Lord of my life. I'll I'll never forget that night. You know, the Lord instantly delivered me from doing cocaine and and also my, you know, I was, you know, drinking a lot of gym beam, and uh that was my favorite thing to do. And but he instantly delivered me from those things, and I just I never went back. I never went back. I I didn't get on and off the wagon. It was a miracle. I mean, it was just a miracle to be delivered instantaneously, just instantly delivered from it and never went back. But I do remember Lord telling me, don't go back around your brothers until you're strong enough to do it. Because I remember one time I dropped in on a party accidentally, all my old brothers, and the mirror was coming around the room, and and they had to dump an eight ball out, and I saw it coming around the room to me, and I knew I'd best leave like right now. And um, but while I was thinking that I felt my Fu Manchu at the time, I was slobbering. The slobber was running down my Fu Manchu because I wanted a hit of that so bad. But I packed up and left, you know, just like the Lord had told me to. I wasn't strong enough to be with those guys at that time. It took about a year and a half. But I followed his instructions and, you know, I've been clean ever since. God is good. For some of my friends that may be out there seeing this video today, um, you've been beat up by church, you know, you've been beat up by religion, and you don't really want to be here today, but I'm gonna go down there because one of my friends taught me into coming, but you really don't want to be sitting out there. Well, back when Jesus was walking earth, the same kind of people were back then the Pharisees that like to beat you up with a bunch of rules and regulations that they didn't even live by themselves, most of them. And we have those same kind of people today. They don't really understand, you know, what God's all about. And they want to lay all this legalistic laws, rules, regulations that that makes you um not want to come and study it. Well, I don't blame you. I wouldn't want to study it either. I mean, because that religion kills. And if you can get past that long enough to just get a little taste of Jesus and what he's all about, you know, you want to gonna cut you're gonna want to come back for more. I mean, you know, my favorite, I think my favorite story in the Bible is is the girl they catch in adultery. Catch her red-handed, drag her into town to Jesus. We've caught this girl red-handed in adultery. The law says that she must be stoned, she must die. Jesus said, yeah, you're right. You're right. That's what the law says. You know, okay, y'all let he is without sin. Pick up the first stone. Let's go ahead and get with the program here. They left. You know. Jesus is just so full of love and compassion. I mean, he's the exact uh representation of God, he is God. So people think that God's me. Well, if you look at a story like that, that just kind of that just kind of messes me up. Freedom on the bike, it's some of us call it um going out and blowing the cobwebs out. It seems like the little things in life that's just kind of eating on you. It's something about the wind that just kind of, you know, blows all those things away. And it's just a good sense of freedom. And and and you know, be um freedom in Christ is I I think when you get away from the religion, that's what messes you up from having freedom in Christ. I think when you get away from the religion, um it's the same thing. All those little things, uh, worries of the world, seem to, they seem to kind of get blown away too. And the really cool thing is, it's when you got them both. Because Jesus likes to go for a motorcycle ride too. He don't just hang out here at the building, he goes with us on our trips. And um it's just way cool. I'm never alone because he's with me. And that's uh that's really freedom.

Thanks, Ray. I didn't recognize you with all that scrubbed up, you know, uh dressed up. But uh but thanks. You know, there's so much of that that uh spoke to me. You know, there's a couple things that really jumped out. You know, the the one is the the burnout on religion. You know, has anybody ever been burnt out on religion? The um a few. I thought uh I thought it might have been just Ray and I, but uh uh a few more. And it's not just the rules, you know, and and um binding traditions and all that. It's it's the whole it's the whole thing. You know, it's it's people acting like know-it-alls. It's um self-righteous people condemning everyone else. You know, there's there's there are a lot of great churches, but you know, that may not have been your experience. Um at a worst, at the worst, a church becomes an organization that gives people authority and titles and honor when all those things really belong to Jesus. Jesus is the one that has authority, that has a title, and that and that has honor. And it's why Jesus took an entire chapter, Matthew 23, and he and he just calls out all that uh kind of stuff. And he sums it up by saying it's a fraud. He says it's it's a total fraud. And it will burn you out. It will burn you out. But it's not just religion that burns us out. I mean, there's a lot of things that that uh burn us out. There's a lot of things that have burned me out, you know, trying to get other people to like me. It'll burn it's burned me out before. You know, trying to make other people happy. I've been burnt out on an addiction. I've been burnt out by being consumed by a career and and a uh a job. There's a lot of things that can burn us out. But uh, you know who will never burn us out is Jesus. Um in Isaiah 42, 3, talking about Jesus, it says, He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will not stuff snuff you out, he will not burn us out. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And that's the other thing that Ray talked about that that really spoke to me, that sense of freedom on a motorcycle. You know, Jesus said, keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. And the first two motorcycles that that I bought were not for a sense of freedom. They were for a sense of cheap transportation. But uh but the last two kind of have been a sense of fun, a little bit of adrenaline now and then, but uh mostly that getting away for a little bit, you know, a sense of freedom. And God created us that way. He created all of us that way to desire a sense of freedom. And you may not care about motorcycles at all. I know some of some of us don't, but there might be something else. It might be uh scuba diving, it might be uh music or skydiving or nature or or dancing or painting or running or reading. Something that gives us that taste, that that uh that sense uh of freedom. Jesus put that in us. Jesus put that desire in us and eventually it draws us to Him. It leads us to Him. In John 8 and 36, Jesus said, so if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. You know, and there's a way to live that is not boring. There's a way to live that's not a bunch of rules. It's it's not a show, it's an adventure, it's a relationship. It's a relationship with with uh with Jesus. And it's not that I um it's not that I am a hundred percent there living free, but I'm so much freer than I used to be. I mean, there's been times in my life when I've had a lot more money than I have today. There's been times when I've had more prestige than I have today. There's been times when I've had fewer problems or responsibilities than I feel today. But I've never felt freer. I felt I felt less free. And the more my relationship with Jesus grows, the more I get to know him, get closer to him, trust him more, the uh the freer and freer I get. And as our relationship with Jesus grows, we can get up each day. You know, it's like uh you know, I don't get to do it that often uh riding. I mean there's there's sometimes I can where I've got a a big block of time and I can just ride and and take this road. You know, what's this over here? What's that small time? I mean small town, and just just it's it's it's a real sense of uh of adventure, you know, and discovery, and and that's what life can be, you know, where we get up every every morning and just and experience life, enjoy life. We're not worried about dying, we're not worried about paying our bills, we're not stressed out about everything, but we're enjoying our relationships, we're enjoying God, we're enjoying the small things, the big things. Even when we suffer, um Jesus is there with us, and he gets us through through that, through the tough times, through doubts and fears. That's part of the adventure. And he gets us through that. Jesus said that you search the scriptures looking for eternal life. But the scriptures point to me. It's about a relationship, it's about connecting with Jesus, turning our lives and our hearts over to Jesus, experiencing Jesus, the person, the real person of Jesus. And that's and that's real freedom. It's a it's a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so if the worship team wants to come up, I want to pray in uh in a minute. We're gonna uh we're gonna do that, we'll sing one last song together, and uh then we'll uh we'll head out to the parking lot and uh bless the the bikes and the riders. But um in fact, let's stand up and so we'll get ready for that last song. But what I want to what I want to ask God is that if we're burnt out on anything, you know, if we're worn out, beaten down, that that God would refill us. You know, we can encourage each other, but but being refilled is a supernatural thing. It's something God does, it's something His Holy Spirit does, where we can feel ourselves coming back alive inside. We can say to her, you know, we can feel that burden being lifted. We can we can say, you know what, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. I know God's with me. I know Jesus is with me. And so that's what uh that's what I want to pray for uh for each of us. But I want you to feel free, you know, like not that I have to give you permission, but uh um to ignore me. You know, the uh because I because I'm gonna pray for that either way. But uh it might be that you want to talk to God yourself, you know, and just uh and and turn something over to Him. You know, maybe turn your whole life over to Him, just like uh just like Ray described that night, that third Thursday in October when he pulled his motorcycle over and just said, I surrender, you know, and and and there's nothing I'm gonna ask anyone to to repeat. Not that that's not a a good thing or or can be helpful, but but life with God is not a formula. And so I don't want to start with a formula. You know what I mean? It's it's life with God is being ourselves in a real relationship with the one that created us. His Spirit making us alive, Him speaking to us, us living out a real relationship. And so when we turn to God, the absolute, I guess, ideal way is being ourselves. You know, in our own words, turn to Him, whatever's on our hearts. You know, it might be I surrender, it might be I give up, it might be I'm sorry, it might be, man, I really need you. And it might be our whole life, or it might just be something in our lives. And uh He will fill us up, and He will give us more and more real and lasting freedom. So let's pray. Father God, you're such a great God. We do praise you. I thank you for how you created us. I thank you uh creating us so individually and unique, but all with a a need and and a desire for relationship with you. Thank you for that being your biggest desire. Relationship with each of us. Thank you for not being mad at us, that you're not disappointed with us. You've not given up on us, that you just love us. You just love us. And so I praise you for that. And God, please just fill each of us, every single one of us. God, just please just fill us with you. If we're burnt out on anything religion or trying or just life, Father, fill us with you, Holy Spirit, fill us with you. I do ask that you would transform us from the inside out. That you would make us freer and freer and freer until we have total freedom. Real freedom. Enjoying things that that you've created, enjoying each other, but mostly enjoying that deep, that lasting, that exciting relationship with you. So we praise you and we thank you, and we trust you for all of this in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.