WEBVTT 00:00:00.420 --> 00:00:04.260 We're in a new series together called Four Things I Wish You Knew About God. 00:00:04.260 --> 00:00:07.580 And so this morning as we dive into part two. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:11.020 So if you're wondering how long it's going to last, it's going to be four weeks, right? 00:00:11.020 --> 00:00:13.460 So part two tells you how far into it we are together. 00:00:13.780 --> 00:00:21.300 But this morning I want this, this topic that we're going to go through together to be simplistic, to be encouraging and 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:22.620 to be relaxing. 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:31.240 I don't know if maybe you're in the same boat as me, but when I get to the summertime, there's something about when I look at the summer, I think, ah, yeah, time to refresh 00:00:31.240 --> 00:00:32.000 and relax. 00:00:32.860 --> 00:00:35.680 And then and then I see on like Facebook, parents start posting. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:37.000 When does school start? 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:38.310 You know, I get this. 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:43.720 And sometimes we find out that summer's just not as relaxing as sometimes we had planned to be. 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:47.680 In fact, if anything is more stressful than just staying at home, that's for sure. 00:00:47.900 --> 00:00:53.400 Vacations, they tend to be a good experience, but can also bring a lot of stress. 00:00:54.020 --> 00:01:00.280 And when stress comes in our life, so does the complexity of our walk with God and what it means to gather as a church family. 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:07.440 And so knowing how summers go for us, simplistic, encouraging, relaxed this morning is what we're after in Christ as we walk out. 00:01:07.520 --> 00:01:11.690 So if we hit that, let's let's be excited together in the Lord, knowing that we've been refreshed. 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:18.370 when we talk about this series together last week, we talked about God's desire to want to hear from you in prayer. 00:01:19.860 --> 00:01:23.820 And today's message is something, again, that you're going to know. 00:01:23.820 --> 00:01:27.960 Just like prayer, we know that prayer is important, but it's not necessarily something that we always engage in. 00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:29.360 But today's message is going to be similar. 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:34.480 This is going to be something that we know intellectually, but oftentimes we struggle with in our hearts. 00:01:34.940 --> 00:01:42.140 And this is one of the reasons I think this is important for us as a church family, what God has done in our church, over the years that we've existed, 00:01:42.360 --> 00:01:47.380 it's not just a handful of years we've been around for, I think we this summer starts our seventh year as a church. 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:53.580 We started in the living room and we've moved like 6 or 7 times, and we finally got this facility to grow in. 00:01:54.080 --> 00:01:56.680 But God, it what he's going to do in our congregation. 00:01:58.340 --> 00:02:01.690 it's been done, but it's going to continue to happen. 00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:05.730 And God's going to keep doing a work in us as a family. 00:02:05.980 --> 00:02:09.860 And in fact, within a few weeks, we should start construction on the outside of our building. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:12.690 So if you're wondering how that has been going, it's still going. 00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:15.540 It's not easy, but it's still going. 00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:18.220 So we should be starting construction on the outside of our facility here soon. 00:02:18.220 --> 00:02:19.340 And here's what's going to happen when we start construction. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.070 a lot of people still don't even know that a church here exists. 00:02:24.420 --> 00:02:29.050 And when you look on the outside of it, you're probably driving by and not going to assume that it's a church building. 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:29.380 Right. 00:02:29.980 --> 00:02:34.160 And so you have to really be looking for a church online sometimes to find out or be invited by a friend. 00:02:34.220 --> 00:02:41.320 But when this facility starts to take the shape of a church, more people are going to be attracted to our location and start coming to check out what's 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:42.080 going on here. 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:46.620 You guys I thought were scary on the outside, but now that your building's starting to look nicer on the outside, maybe you're not so scary. 00:02:46.660 --> 00:02:47.290 That kind of thing happening. 00:02:48.260 --> 00:02:52.080 But I love the fact that we bought we bought a bar, right. 00:02:52.140 --> 00:02:58.580 And turn it into a church because that's just a beautiful picture of how our church started and what happens in the life of a believer. 00:03:00.320 --> 00:03:04.860 the beauty of coming to know Jesus is that we all, we all start in the same place. 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:11.160 We all, we all need to recognize we need rescued, right? 00:03:11.160 --> 00:03:13.060 If you haven't caught that yet. 00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:16.980 Jesus is called Savior for a reason and because of who he is. 00:03:16.980 --> 00:03:18.820 It gives us a place to be honest with where we are. 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:26.780 And if anything doesn't paint a beautiful picture of redemption like a bar turned into a church, I don't know what does. 00:03:26.940 --> 00:03:27.040 Right? 00:03:28.220 --> 00:03:33.350 but if you'd ever walked in this place before it started and looked around at it, you would think, what in the world are we getting into? 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:34.640 And why in the world would we buy this? 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:36.060 You would want to level it. 00:03:36.180 --> 00:03:41.780 In fact, when we were here working one day, a homeless guy came off the street and asked for money and didn't have any, and he left mad. 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:44.010 And that was the advice he told me when he walked back out. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:45.210 I don't know why you bought this. 00:03:45.320 --> 00:03:47.290 You should just burn it down and level it. 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:50.700 But it's a beautiful picture of what God does. 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:55.270 The outside still looks like a hot mess, but the inside has been transformed. 00:03:56.620 --> 00:03:58.130 And that's what Jesus does in us. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:00.520 We come to him because we need rescued. 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:01.920 We don't come to him in our perfections. 00:04:02.420 --> 00:04:03.410 We come to him in our imperfections. 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:07.040 We don't come to him presenting the best of us. 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:08.820 We come presenting the worst of us. 00:04:09.820 --> 00:04:13.770 And God embraces us and he transforms us from the inside out. 00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:18.140 And as that transformation continues to happen, people are attracted to that. 00:04:19.380 --> 00:04:22.520 That's why I say the best days for our church family are still ahead of us. 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:28.220 In that message rests completely on Jesus, not on us. 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:33.940 And when we live in that message, it's a comforting place to be for the body of Christ. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:35.420 It's a secure place to be. 00:04:35.420 --> 00:04:36.440 And so this is where I'm leading to. 00:04:37.660 --> 00:04:42.920 Out of the four things God, I want you to know, the one that I want to talk about this morning is I wish we knew how easy it is for God to lead us. 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:52.180 I wish in our hearts, in the midst of summer, in the midst of trials, in the midst of obstacles, in the difficulties of life and the to do 00:04:52.180 --> 00:04:53.360 list that continued to grow. 00:04:53.880 --> 00:04:57.370 I wish we could recognize how easy it is for God to lead us. 00:04:58.580 --> 00:05:05.820 Now, as soon as I say a sentence like that, I know sometimes when you're in the midst of a season of challenges and adversity, 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:10.000 you might begin by just throwing out oppositions. 00:05:10.980 --> 00:05:12.780 Well, it doesn't feel easy. 00:05:13.760 --> 00:05:15.380 Or if it's supposed to feel easy, why? 00:05:15.460 --> 00:05:17.420 Why then do I feel like I'm failing at that? 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:20.820 Or if it's so easy, why aren't more people doing it? 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:22.840 Let's not. 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:29.920 I'm going to be honest and say, I'm not saying there aren't obstacles, but when God talks about allowing him 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:33.420 to lead our lives and you turn to Scripture. 00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:35.560 It. 00:05:35.760 --> 00:05:36.440 It sounds simple. 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:40.660 And in fact, I believe it is. 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:42.900 And I think God communicates it that way. 00:05:44.440 --> 00:05:51.440 One of the popular verses I think about when I consider the simplicity of God leading, and I know that all of us are aware 00:05:51.440 --> 00:05:58.580 of this verse, but in Psalm 23, just listen to the simplicity of the way God leads here, and maybe you can measure in your own life. 00:05:58.720 --> 00:05:59.760 Do you feel like that right now? 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:06.920 Because the way this Psalm feels after you, after you read through it, and the way God leads us in our lives, sometimes we have to be honest and say, man, I'm not there right 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:07.800 now, but listen to this. 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:09.440 The Lord is my shepherd. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:10.500 Shepherd. 00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:11.440 My shepherd. 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:13.920 I lack nothing. 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:17.800 He makes me lie down in green pastures. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:20.980 He leads me beside quiet waters. 00:06:22.620 --> 00:06:23.920 And he refreshes my soul. 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:27.580 He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. 00:06:27.740 --> 00:06:28.500 Even though. 00:06:28.580 --> 00:06:28.940 Look at this. 00:06:28.940 --> 00:06:29.530 Here's the challenges. 00:06:29.780 --> 00:06:34.240 Even though I walk through the darkness valleys, I will fear no evil. 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:36.550 For you're with me. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:45.840 As David writes this Psalm, one of the beautiful pictures he creates, I underline this in this passage, is this God? 00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:47.160 God is leading him. 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:55.600 And even in adversity, he finds himself refreshed in his soul, beside the green pastures and the 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:56.320 quiet waters. 00:06:58.420 --> 00:07:05.480 And if you read throughout the Psalms, you find that when David expresses himself to God, this feeling of a, of a soul 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:12.100 that's coming to a place where it finds relaxation, it finds comfort, it finds joy, it finds peace. 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:14.380 Listen to this in Psalm 139 and verse 24. 00:07:14.780 --> 00:07:23.420 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:30.600 And this morning, as we consider God leading us and how easy it is together, I'm not going to turn to just one section of 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:30.950 scripture. 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:38.540 I'm just going to discuss this topically throughout the Bible, because I believe this theme is throughout Scripture, but I'm just going to describe for 00:07:38.540 --> 00:07:44.620 us and turning to different passages of the Bible three ways we find it easy for God to lead us. 00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:46.750 And the first one's a doozy. 00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:48.260 Ready for this? 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:52.240 It's easy for God to lead us. 00:07:54.320 --> 00:07:57.370 When we are committed to him. 00:07:58.400 --> 00:07:59.790 Yes, I just said the C word. 00:08:00.900 --> 00:08:01.260 Commitment. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:10.740 If we're honest in our lives and our experiences when it comes to the thought of commitment, some of 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:16.910 us even beginning to express that word in any sort of relationship in this world, start to throw up reservations. 00:08:17.880 --> 00:08:19.110 Let's build some walls. 00:08:19.340 --> 00:08:22.870 I'm challenged by that C word I don't want to commit. 00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:24.640 Commitment is your battlefield. 00:08:26.580 --> 00:08:33.000 Sometimes we find it as a battlefield, because at some point in our life we've trusted in people. 00:08:34.520 --> 00:08:35.620 And that trust has disappointed you. 00:08:37.659 --> 00:08:44.760 And maybe along the way in your commitment and trust in things and persons and seeing that commitment fail, the only thing that you learned in your 00:08:44.760 --> 00:08:50.220 life is that the one thing that you can depend on, if you have to depend on anything, is simply yourself. 00:08:53.480 --> 00:08:54.240 Nothing for us. 00:08:56.040 --> 00:09:01.060 It's unfair to put God in the categories that we put, other things that we've determined as untrustworthy. 00:09:03.400 --> 00:09:05.280 And the simple reason is because he's God. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:15.140 In fact, when you read first Corinthians one nine, there's more to this verse than what I've put up here on the screen, but it simply 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:16.040 says this for us. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:18.790 And God is faithful. 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:21.320 Now. 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:27.180 Why would why would Paul start this verse expressing that to us in the very beginning of First Corinthians? 00:09:27.180 --> 00:09:31.540 Why would he just make this outstanding statement as he dives into the rest of this book? 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:33.540 That God is faithful? 00:09:36.100 --> 00:09:37.750 I think the reason he wants us to recognize it. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:42.130 It's because everything else in life we've learned will disappoint. 00:09:43.980 --> 00:09:44.860 And this thought. 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:49.080 And this character quality, this attribute of God. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:52.090 This makes them unique. 00:09:53.920 --> 00:09:54.960 And this sets them apart. 00:09:57.220 --> 00:10:03.900 The reason this commitment to the Lord is different than commitment to anything else is because of what Paul starts off with in this passage. 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:06.780 And God is faithful. 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:15.940 If you were to examine this character of God, these attributes of God, just a little further, just to see how faithful 00:10:15.940 --> 00:10:16.940 this God is. 00:10:17.020 --> 00:10:23.040 There are these series of characteristics in Scripture that we call the omnis of God. 00:10:23.140 --> 00:10:25.680 That means all the word omni is all. 00:10:25.800 --> 00:10:29.240 And so we call it omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. 00:10:30.060 --> 00:10:33.620 Omnipresent is everywhere present or all present. 00:10:33.620 --> 00:10:36.160 Omniscience is the word for science, the knowledge. 00:10:36.280 --> 00:10:41.140 And so he's all knowing, omnipotent, the potent, the power he is. 00:10:41.180 --> 00:10:42.040 He is all powerful. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:50.720 When you look at it throughout the Bible, it's described for us in Jeremiah 23 and verse 23, it says, do not I 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:53.180 fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord. 00:10:54.540 --> 00:10:56.260 His presence is everywhere. 00:10:56.280 --> 00:11:02.260 And in Colossians 116 and 17 it says this all things have been created through him and for him. 00:11:02.260 --> 00:11:06.120 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:06.630 He is omnipotent. 00:11:07.380 --> 00:11:10.140 The world is in his hands, and his omniscience. 00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:17.150 In first John 320, it tells us God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. 00:11:20.280 --> 00:11:22.970 There's nothing hidden from him. 00:11:24.640 --> 00:11:25.240 The Bible. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:29.020 Gives us the characteristics of God for several reasons. 00:11:30.420 --> 00:11:32.080 But this morning we examine it this way. 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:39.780 The Bible wants to say to you, finally, you finally have something to trust in because this is 00:11:39.780 --> 00:11:40.780 trustworthy. 00:11:40.820 --> 00:11:44.960 There's someone who cares, someone who does not disappoint, someone who loves you. 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:49.490 How do we know that? 00:11:51.740 --> 00:11:55.020 I mean, you read the characteristics of God in a book, but how? 00:11:55.400 --> 00:11:59.360 How do you know this is true and personal for your life? 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:02.640 And the answer? 00:12:04.800 --> 00:12:05.360 It's the cross. 00:12:08.140 --> 00:12:09.500 There is no reason on earth. 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:12.630 God would give his life for you. 00:12:13.760 --> 00:12:14.640 Unless he cared about you. 00:12:17.280 --> 00:12:21.380 There is no reason to really care about the attributes of God as it relates to you. 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:26.240 Unless you've seen a God who cares about you in the cross of Christ. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:26.420 Is it? 00:12:28.920 --> 00:12:31.120 What other reason would he come to earth and die? 00:12:33.280 --> 00:12:34.150 Then for you. 00:12:37.420 --> 00:12:38.350 This does not disappoint. 00:12:40.680 --> 00:12:41.690 When it comes to commitment. 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:45.450 There's far more he has given. 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:48.000 By offering himself to us. 00:12:48.220 --> 00:12:51.240 Then he's asked us to give by committing ourselves back to him. 00:12:53.520 --> 00:12:55.020 Commitment comes at a cost. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:57.360 But Jesus, he's the one that paid it. 00:12:59.780 --> 00:13:06.810 And so to compare God to these similarities of other things that we've committed to in our in our lives, 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:12.240 it shouldn't be done as it relates to God because God is different than all else. 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:13.780 God does not disappoint. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:19.340 Which is why in first Corinthians 1013 it says this no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 00:13:19.780 --> 00:13:21.320 And God is faithful. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:29.280 It's easy for God to lead us when we're committed to him. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:33.500 And second is this it's easy for God to lead us. 00:13:35.520 --> 00:13:36.520 When we're able to face. 00:13:38.160 --> 00:13:40.310 Opposition and obstacles with him. 00:13:41.180 --> 00:13:43.180 Or may I just add or ad lib to that? 00:13:43.180 --> 00:13:48.220 It's easy for God to lead us when we can overcome obstacles and oppositions in him. 00:13:50.180 --> 00:13:52.440 And this is the part where objectively we say, yeah, okay. 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:52.960 Yeah, right. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:54.800 Easier, easier said than done. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:02.310 Sometimes we don't want to be led by God, because when we look at the road that God may lead us down, it looks difficult. 00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:07.270 Maybe we could say, yeah, it's easy to be led by Jesus, my personal life. 00:14:07.780 --> 00:14:12.160 But sin and people just add complexity to that relationship. 00:14:15.020 --> 00:14:19.820 And what do we do when others make it look like a challenge for us to be led by Christ? 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:30.860 Paul in the book of Corinthians, just continuing that theme describes it for us and a couple of places in 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:38.120 Second Corinthians chapter four, the beginning of chapter four and Second Corinthians starts off in a in a very 00:14:39.160 --> 00:14:39.720 beautiful way. 00:14:39.780 --> 00:14:42.460 I think in the Bible it says this in verses one and two. 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:47.360 He says, well, I'm going to give you the summation, God, God doesn't do things in secret. 00:14:49.420 --> 00:14:51.120 And his truth is plain to us. 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:55.860 I mean, if you've got to be hiding something to think you've found God. 00:14:56.660 --> 00:14:57.420 It's not God. 00:14:59.220 --> 00:15:03.140 Because God wants his truth, declare to us that we can know him and it's plain. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:09.940 But Paul goes on in verse eight and he says this, describing the life of a believer. 00:15:09.980 --> 00:15:12.440 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. 00:15:12.930 --> 00:15:13.770 Perplexed but not in despair. 00:15:14.280 --> 00:15:15.400 Persecuted but not abandoned. 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:16.620 Struck down but not destroyed. 00:15:17.060 --> 00:15:22.400 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:25.070 Like I know, Paul gives a negative and he ends it with a positive. 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:25.780 That's good, right? 00:15:25.820 --> 00:15:29.040 You always want to sandwich your negative between a positive and in with a positive. 00:15:29.260 --> 00:15:31.650 So that's good that Paul at least ends it with a positive. 00:15:32.020 --> 00:15:34.860 But even looking at his positive I'm thinking, man, we're pressed. 00:15:34.940 --> 00:15:35.460 We're crushed. 00:15:35.460 --> 00:15:35.920 We're perplexed. 00:15:36.020 --> 00:15:36.760 We're persecuted. 00:15:37.060 --> 00:15:37.540 Geez. 00:15:37.540 --> 00:15:38.420 How do you put up with that. 00:15:40.900 --> 00:15:41.400 And then Paul ends. 00:15:43.020 --> 00:15:45.700 Second Corinthians four and verse 16 with this thought. 00:15:48.180 --> 00:15:48.740 Says therefore. 00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:51.310 We do not lose heart. 00:15:53.520 --> 00:15:55.360 Outwardly we're wasting away. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:58.120 Yet inwardly, inwardly we're being renewed day by day. 00:15:58.380 --> 00:16:04.750 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory in the FA that far outweighs them all. 00:16:05.900 --> 00:16:09.190 And so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 00:16:09.340 --> 00:16:13.260 Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:15.980 Look, Paul says, we're wasting away. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.540 So let me, let me let me clarify that for us. 00:16:19.260 --> 00:16:23.480 when you when you were born, you were dead and you started dying. 00:16:25.020 --> 00:16:27.370 We're on we're on a prolonged journey of death. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:29.080 Right? 00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:32.050 Inevitably, the result of our life is death. 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:34.300 An outwardly. 00:16:35.760 --> 00:16:36.160 It will. 00:16:36.420 --> 00:16:38.600 We will come to the conclusion of our life one day. 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:42.400 What God has created you for more than that. 00:16:43.980 --> 00:16:51.170 And God connects to you in such a way that it outlives the death that will plague us all. 00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:56.180 And what Paul is saying through the complexity of life. 00:16:56.180 --> 00:16:58.880 He recognizes that, yeah, we're persecuted. 00:16:59.200 --> 00:16:59.340 Yeah. 00:16:59.560 --> 00:17:00.280 We're perplexed. 00:17:00.280 --> 00:17:00.420 Yeah. 00:17:00.680 --> 00:17:03.080 We struggle and everyone does. 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:04.440 That's the curse of sin. 00:17:06.140 --> 00:17:07.160 But here's the first thought of overcoming. 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:10.400 You get to live beyond that. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:14.079 You get to live for more than that. 00:17:15.500 --> 00:17:17.680 In comparison to what this life is. 00:17:17.859 --> 00:17:20.490 It isn't even a blip on the radar for what eternity holds. 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:29.040 Sometimes we get so tense in our lives and get so focused on the tension of things that life creates. 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:34.380 That we focus on that as if it's the major issue of what life is about. 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:40.380 Paul's mind transcends the problem. 00:17:42.380 --> 00:17:48.790 You know, one of the things I love about Psalm 23, which we opened up with when I read it just in a personal time of my life, if I'm ever struggling. 00:17:50.460 --> 00:17:57.510 Is that when I open those pages and I begin to discover what the psalmist says about life related to God, it gives me an aha moment where I realize, 00:17:57.620 --> 00:17:59.530 man, I have been walking around tense. 00:18:01.960 --> 00:18:05.720 Like, if this doesn't go the way that I want it to, like it's really going to matter in the scope of eternity. 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:09.860 Like, this is going to transform my life forever, and all it is just a minor issue in life. 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:13.090 In comparison to what's going to come. 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:19.780 God, I don't want to downplay our problems, and I don't want to talk about our issues as if they're not real struggles. 00:18:20.060 --> 00:18:25.090 But what I want to what I do want us to say is there comes a time in life, in the midst of the struggles where you got to look up. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:33.940 Got to focus on it from a godly perspective and recognize that your King, who is omnipotent, omniscient, all knowing. 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:36.410 He's with you. 00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:39.200 And he cares about you. 00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:44.650 And the plan that he has for you is far greater than the issue that you're in. 00:18:46.220 --> 00:18:47.680 And he's demonstrated it with his life. 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:54.500 Paul goes on further in Second Corinthians chapter 12 and verse nine. 00:18:54.520 --> 00:18:57.800 He talks about adversity from another angle. 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:03.720 And when we talk about adversity this morning, this is the last thing that I know that we need to hear. 00:19:03.740 --> 00:19:09.600 If we feel like life is a challenge right now and we can't keep our head above water, the last thing you need to hear from me is try harder. 00:19:12.280 --> 00:19:16.980 Because some of us in that circumstance might feel like we have been trying and trying and trying. 00:19:18.760 --> 00:19:25.800 But when Paul approaches a similar situation, Second Corinthians chapter 12 and verse nine, he gives us a different thought other than 00:19:25.800 --> 00:19:26.420 try harder. 00:19:28.280 --> 00:19:35.600 It's as if we're to be involved with Paul in this discussion and we were to say to Paul, we come to Paul and we start talking about the issues 00:19:35.600 --> 00:19:36.280 that we're facing. 00:19:36.280 --> 00:19:38.780 We say, Paul, man, this is going on and this is hard. 00:19:39.560 --> 00:19:42.480 And I feel like this is a struggle and I've brought it before God repeatedly. 00:19:42.820 --> 00:19:46.040 What would you do in the beginning of chapter 12? 00:19:46.080 --> 00:19:50.320 If you look in verses seven and eight, Paul begins to describe, similar shoes. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:50.500 For me. 00:19:52.280 --> 00:19:53.220 I had a thorn in the flesh. 00:19:55.060 --> 00:19:56.690 And I struggled with this thorn. 00:19:56.700 --> 00:20:01.300 And multiple times, three times I took it before the Lord and I asked God to remove it. 00:20:01.560 --> 00:20:03.180 And I told him, God, please take it away. 00:20:03.220 --> 00:20:04.420 And God, how can I handle this obstacle? 00:20:04.600 --> 00:20:06.460 And how can you lead me through this? 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:07.260 And this is what Paul says. 00:20:09.300 --> 00:20:10.070 But he said to me. 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:13.510 My grace is sufficient for you. 00:20:14.460 --> 00:20:17.560 For my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:23.700 Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 00:20:24.040 --> 00:20:30.440 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties. 00:20:30.500 --> 00:20:33.260 For when I am weak, then I am strong. 00:20:36.520 --> 00:20:37.060 Here's what Paul says. 00:20:39.700 --> 00:20:40.620 The answer isn't give more. 00:20:43.740 --> 00:20:44.880 The answer is to give up. 00:20:46.580 --> 00:20:47.060 And give over. 00:20:50.280 --> 00:20:53.720 Nepal was attempting this in his strength to bring it before the Lord. 00:20:55.260 --> 00:20:57.040 Whatever this thorn he faced, we. 00:20:57.160 --> 00:20:57.680 We don't know. 00:20:59.540 --> 00:21:06.920 But what Paul finally learned is that the obstacles he faced in his life, because his dependency is now on this omniscient, omnipotent 00:21:06.920 --> 00:21:07.320 God. 00:21:09.700 --> 00:21:16.820 That the strength to get through the obstacles are on this God who brought him to this challenge that he faced in his life. 00:21:19.220 --> 00:21:22.020 If I were to just put it in a summation for us, I would say it like this. 00:21:24.060 --> 00:21:24.760 The Christian life. 00:21:26.300 --> 00:21:29.040 Doesn't start when you wake up and decide to try harder. 00:21:31.740 --> 00:21:35.640 The Christian life takes off when you give up and give over. 00:21:38.320 --> 00:21:39.140 God doesn't force you. 00:21:41.260 --> 00:21:44.600 You will not be led until you give over to God to lead. 00:21:45.780 --> 00:21:49.420 But when you give up and give over, you're allowing the Holy Spirit to take over. 00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:57.200 The reason we give up and give over as Christians is because what God has called us to do cannot be done by our power, 00:21:57.280 --> 00:21:58.980 but by His Spirit. 00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:02.820 For the spirit to work within us, what he needs is a willing vessel. 00:22:04.660 --> 00:22:05.810 When we give up and give over. 00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:10.140 We give God permission to allow His Spirit to take over. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:17.220 As people, we are so good at standing in the way of what God wants to do. 00:22:17.280 --> 00:22:19.080 We don't even know we're in the way sometimes. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:28.880 And so what Paul is teaching us in a passage like this is to start your day every day as a believer in Christ, and allow God to take off 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.070 by giving your life over to him. 00:22:34.300 --> 00:22:35.560 That's where the Christian life is simplistic. 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:42.390 And to be honest, this is why it's important for us as a church when we think about our future. 00:22:44.580 --> 00:22:50.280 When are outside of her building, starts looking less like prison and more like something else. 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:53.680 And people become attracted to that. 00:22:55.820 --> 00:22:56.780 They're going to want to know Jesus. 00:22:58.840 --> 00:23:02.700 If you hear a message about the beauty of who Christ is, they're coming to know Jesus. 00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:11.100 I've heard it said that there are five Gospels in life, and four of them people won't read. 00:23:12.800 --> 00:23:14.300 There Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 00:23:14.420 --> 00:23:14.860 But the fifth. 00:23:16.020 --> 00:23:16.640 The fifth is you. 00:23:18.620 --> 00:23:21.920 And people see Jesus in you every day or not. 00:23:24.380 --> 00:23:27.820 And the way that happens isn't by trying harder. 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:31.400 Just giving up and giving over. 00:23:33.340 --> 00:23:35.290 Because the King has already paid it all for you. 00:23:37.700 --> 00:23:38.900 We gather on Sunday mornings. 00:23:39.180 --> 00:23:42.780 Our goal is simple and I want to keep it like that forever. 00:23:45.540 --> 00:23:47.000 It's just to draw near to Jesus. 00:23:49.980 --> 00:23:53.540 We're here this morning to give ourselves over to Jesus. 00:23:55.600 --> 00:24:02.600 When we do ministry in church, we have we have one main criteria that we want people that do ministry within our church to recognize that 00:24:02.600 --> 00:24:07.130 the goal of every ministry that we have here at our church isn't to accomplish a task. 00:24:08.380 --> 00:24:11.970 Look, I know we got kids church and nursery and toddlers and all that, and there's going to be people in there serving. 00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:12.480 Don't worry. 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:14.000 They're going to take care of the things back there. 00:24:14.040 --> 00:24:16.270 And we got hospitality and we got sound booth and we got ushers. 00:24:16.560 --> 00:24:18.600 And you know, we got different places to serve and forgot. 00:24:18.860 --> 00:24:19.400 Worship band. 00:24:19.560 --> 00:24:21.590 I don't know what I forget so don't be offended by that. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.400 But the goal. 00:24:26.280 --> 00:24:26.940 Isn't to do that job. 00:24:28.710 --> 00:24:36.340 But the goal is to use that position to reach hearts, because we understand what the purpose of the church is to 00:24:36.340 --> 00:24:37.650 connect to God's heart. 00:24:38.800 --> 00:24:40.380 We'll walk out of our building this morning. 00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:42.500 This is what's beautiful to God. 00:24:42.900 --> 00:24:48.000 When the people of God turn their selves over to God, that God may lead them. 00:24:49.600 --> 00:24:50.260 It's not your power. 00:24:52.500 --> 00:24:53.140 It's his. 00:24:54.780 --> 00:24:57.620 Do you know what that should do for those of us who stress out? 00:24:57.620 --> 00:25:03.480 I'm going to tell you this morning, the last 2 or 3 weeks in my life, I've been like, seriously, can this, can this stop just for a minute? 00:25:06.800 --> 00:25:10.180 Man how good it is to recognize that I can. 00:25:10.260 --> 00:25:10.880 I can just stop. 00:25:14.040 --> 00:25:15.560 I can rest in him. 00:25:17.500 --> 00:25:18.940 Look, it's not on my back. 00:25:20.940 --> 00:25:21.780 So on his. 00:25:23.540 --> 00:25:26.700 His grace is sufficient for me. 00:25:29.330 --> 00:25:31.080 I'm going to read this last point that Paul makes. 00:25:31.290 --> 00:25:33.700 It's not on the screen, but let me just share this with you. 00:25:35.370 --> 00:25:39.870 One of the challenges I face this past few weeks was really ripping at me. 00:25:40.130 --> 00:25:42.230 And First Corinthians chapter four says this. 00:25:44.190 --> 00:25:44.860 Now it is required. 00:25:46.360 --> 00:25:47.580 Now that's requirement. 00:25:47.790 --> 00:25:48.980 Now let's not talk about requirements. 00:25:49.210 --> 00:25:54.970 Right now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 00:25:55.330 --> 00:25:57.510 This is first Corinthians four and verse two. 00:25:59.230 --> 00:26:01.830 Now it's required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 00:26:04.030 --> 00:26:07.870 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court. 00:26:07.990 --> 00:26:10.170 Indeed, I do not even judge myself. 00:26:10.430 --> 00:26:11.670 My conscience is clear. 00:26:11.670 --> 00:26:13.250 But that does not make me innocent. 00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:15.110 It is the Lord who judges me. 00:26:18.150 --> 00:26:21.270 You've been given a trust and it's required that you must prove faithful. 00:26:21.450 --> 00:26:22.570 Can I just tell you what faithful is? 00:26:24.250 --> 00:26:24.690 It's not. 00:26:25.110 --> 00:26:25.490 Try harder. 00:26:27.830 --> 00:26:28.050 It. 00:26:28.190 --> 00:26:28.990 Stick to Jesus. 00:26:31.550 --> 00:26:36.370 Regardless of what happens if the world goes to hell in a handbasket. 00:26:38.470 --> 00:26:40.170 You are responsible for you. 00:26:42.150 --> 00:26:43.210 Stick to Jesus. 00:26:45.230 --> 00:26:46.230 If you stick to Jesus. 00:26:47.830 --> 00:26:48.150 You win. 00:26:50.650 --> 00:26:57.670 I had a challenge come up this week, and someone just trying to force me into their mold to be what it was they wanted me to 00:26:57.670 --> 00:26:58.830 be, and it wasn't here at church. 00:26:58.850 --> 00:26:59.540 Don't worry about that. 00:27:00.110 --> 00:27:01.960 Who's he gossiping about? 00:27:03.790 --> 00:27:07.190 But someone's just pressing me, and it didn't fit right. 00:27:07.290 --> 00:27:08.730 And it didn't feel pleasing to God. 00:27:08.770 --> 00:27:09.640 And finally, I just said, you know what? 00:27:09.890 --> 00:27:12.540 I don't I don't care, I don't care what that group thinks. 00:27:12.690 --> 00:27:13.670 I don't care what you think. 00:27:13.750 --> 00:27:14.730 I don't care about any of that. 00:27:14.830 --> 00:27:15.430 Here's what I care about. 00:27:17.210 --> 00:27:18.090 Is when my life is over. 00:27:20.270 --> 00:27:21.340 I'm going to be accountable to Jesus. 00:27:23.030 --> 00:27:25.040 I don't want to live my life in light of Jesus. 00:27:26.270 --> 00:27:30.210 So regardless if this puts me in your group or out of your group, I don't care. 00:27:32.310 --> 00:27:33.370 I just want to live for Jesus. 00:27:35.730 --> 00:27:40.430 And when you live your life that way with all the things that you think are important, it really shoves the junk aside. 00:27:43.650 --> 00:27:44.730 What's got me stressed out? 00:27:46.890 --> 00:27:48.740 And Jesus, what do you really think about this? 00:27:48.790 --> 00:27:52.140 I mean, if I did this tomorrow or didn't, do you even really care if I over committed myself? 00:27:52.290 --> 00:27:57.090 Do I need to step back out of this and just say, hey, this, I'm going to finish this up because I committed to do it. 00:27:57.130 --> 00:27:59.290 But from here on out, hey, I'm I am out. 00:28:03.790 --> 00:28:08.670 At the end of the day, it's not going to matter how much you live to please people. 00:28:08.710 --> 00:28:10.280 In fact, that shouldn't matter at all. 00:28:12.030 --> 00:28:16.190 What Paul says for him in First Corinthians chapter four is that it was Jesus. 00:28:17.630 --> 00:28:18.110 And here's why. 00:28:18.410 --> 00:28:20.740 It's important for us to learn to be led by God in the midst of obstacles. 00:28:21.950 --> 00:28:28.270 Second Timothy three and verse 12 says this everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 00:28:30.300 --> 00:28:34.900 Look, I don't know about you, but I think the Greek word for everyone means everyone. 00:28:37.050 --> 00:28:38.930 Everyone that wants to live a godly life. 00:28:39.170 --> 00:28:41.990 If you're following Jesus, there is something that you're going to have to give up. 00:28:42.510 --> 00:28:48.230 There is a time in your life we're going to have to look at the rest of the world and say on you, Jesus is what matters, you know? 00:28:51.220 --> 00:28:58.270 But at the same time I should be careful and say, what God calls us to for sure is to love people as we're being led by 00:28:58.270 --> 00:28:58.410 Jesus. 00:28:59.370 --> 00:29:01.790 So don't go out and be mean just because you think I said be mean. 00:29:01.790 --> 00:29:07.290 It's not what I'm saying at all, but just make sure that what you're doing is to honor your king first. 00:29:09.230 --> 00:29:09.830 And number three. 00:29:11.330 --> 00:29:13.530 It's easy for us to be for God to lead us. 00:29:14.710 --> 00:29:16.250 When we connect with him. 00:29:17.810 --> 00:29:21.270 First we commit to him, we learn to walk with him through obstacles. 00:29:21.570 --> 00:29:23.780 And in addition to that, we connect with him. 00:29:24.350 --> 00:29:26.170 And God works through the willingness. 00:29:27.790 --> 00:29:29.420 The things you are committed to. 00:29:29.690 --> 00:29:32.550 As people, you tend to have a passion for this and you love it. 00:29:33.650 --> 00:29:41.000 And when you're committed to God and you give yourself to him, you're going to do what it takes to get with him and connect with him and grow with him. 00:29:42.150 --> 00:29:45.070 And here's a place you connect with God. 00:29:45.610 --> 00:29:46.390 It's in his word. 00:29:48.550 --> 00:29:49.550 Look, if you want to hear from God. 00:29:52.450 --> 00:29:52.770 God's already spoken. 00:29:55.470 --> 00:29:56.890 Because his truth is timeless. 00:29:56.990 --> 00:30:02.710 He could actually write it down, and all of us could look at it together as this is what we're doing on Sunday, but you can do it personally with God as well. 00:30:03.170 --> 00:30:05.560 You can connect with him. 00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:10.730 Being faithful in the in the simple things. 00:30:13.750 --> 00:30:16.030 It's important to learn the health of the Christian life. 00:30:18.190 --> 00:30:24.490 Growing up in an American society, we're taught real well how to be John Wayne, right? 00:30:24.830 --> 00:30:26.910 We all want to be John Wayne and save the day. 00:30:26.950 --> 00:30:31.530 I don't know that I've ever seen a John Wayne movie in my life, but we all want to be John Wayne and save the day. 00:30:31.530 --> 00:30:37.190 We all, we all want to be the hero in the moment when it calls for it. 00:30:38.850 --> 00:30:39.530 We all want the glory. 00:30:41.710 --> 00:30:42.820 But not the guts, right? 00:30:44.190 --> 00:30:45.150 We all want the game. 00:30:46.370 --> 00:30:46.950 Without the pain. 00:30:48.550 --> 00:30:52.470 We all want to be, I don't know, Tom Brady. 00:30:54.890 --> 00:30:55.610 Win the Super Bowl. 00:30:57.870 --> 00:30:58.430 The glory. 00:30:59.190 --> 00:30:59.610 The hero. 00:31:00.450 --> 00:31:01.010 The home run hitter. 00:31:03.070 --> 00:31:03.830 But the truth is. 00:31:05.250 --> 00:31:05.650 Those heroes. 00:31:07.110 --> 00:31:07.790 Heroes aren't born. 00:31:09.610 --> 00:31:10.190 Here is are made. 00:31:12.770 --> 00:31:19.810 And to win that Super Bowl, or to hit that home run, or to be the guy that stands up in the last moment for the victory, those individuals 00:31:21.770 --> 00:31:23.870 they started when they were young. 00:31:27.330 --> 00:31:28.850 I think it's the same thing when it comes to Lord. 00:31:30.930 --> 00:31:37.510 Yeah, there may be a time where you just happen to be in the right place at the right time, and you stand up and you honor Jesus, and that's good. 00:31:39.750 --> 00:31:45.270 But the truth is, when you go back over Christian history and you look at people who made an impact for Christ, you know who it was. 00:31:48.350 --> 00:31:51.470 Was the people who learned the consistency of meeting with Jesus every day of their lives. 00:31:55.110 --> 00:31:56.030 Corrie ten boom. 00:31:57.850 --> 00:32:05.110 Who stood for Christ in the midst of the time when Nazi Germany had taken over and put her in concentration camps, that lady walked through 00:32:05.150 --> 00:32:06.050 Jesus throughout. 00:32:07.850 --> 00:32:15.070 At the end of her life, she goes to the Nazis and she and she ministers to them to help them overcome the war of just the trauma 00:32:15.070 --> 00:32:22.230 they experienced for being, uh, mean and angry and whatever despicable word you want to put on it towards the Jews. 00:32:23.550 --> 00:32:24.680 She helped them in their recovery. 00:32:27.090 --> 00:32:27.730 She walked with Jesus. 00:32:30.350 --> 00:32:32.470 Hudson Taylor. 00:32:32.530 --> 00:32:34.770 William Tyndale I don't I don't know who you would want. 00:32:34.890 --> 00:32:36.670 Just pick anybody in history. 00:32:36.710 --> 00:32:39.540 I can promise you, if they're making a stand for Jesus. 00:32:39.650 --> 00:32:40.470 It wasn't something. 00:32:40.470 --> 00:32:44.830 They just woke up and just went out and were just this incredible person for Jesus. 00:32:44.930 --> 00:32:46.940 What they did is they learned to walk with Jesus. 00:32:47.370 --> 00:32:54.450 And you think on Sunday morning, our musicians that get up here and play for 25 minutes of worship music for us to engage in, 00:32:54.750 --> 00:32:57.630 you think about the way they hone that craft for us to be able to do that well. 00:32:57.970 --> 00:32:59.630 They started playing these instruments a long time ago. 00:33:00.810 --> 00:33:01.660 They didn't learn it today. 00:33:04.110 --> 00:33:06.370 And in fact just to play on Sunday morning. 00:33:06.470 --> 00:33:13.630 They practice personally and then they come here on Wednesday and they practice for a couple of hours, and they come here on Sunday morning and they practice for a couple more hours, and then they stand up here and 00:33:13.630 --> 00:33:14.550 they play for 25 minutes. 00:33:17.590 --> 00:33:24.670 You know, one of the beautiful things about a musician is as they start to play music is after you play for a little while, especially if you play 00:33:24.670 --> 00:33:25.020 guitar. 00:33:25.650 --> 00:33:31.260 When you start to strum the guitar, you begin to recognize when your guitar is off just a little. 00:33:33.090 --> 00:33:35.100 You've trained your ear to hear the tune. 00:33:36.990 --> 00:33:41.390 As a band begins to play together, they can hear if they're off a little. 00:33:42.670 --> 00:33:47.330 And they can maneuver with instrumentation to make the sound resonate better. 00:33:50.590 --> 00:33:54.990 If you just started playing music today, you could pick up a guitar and you wouldn't even know Jack from squat. 00:33:55.130 --> 00:33:57.780 Whether or not it was in tune, you just try to strum and it hurts your fingers. 00:33:57.810 --> 00:33:58.410 That's all you know. 00:34:00.670 --> 00:34:01.570 But the longer you play. 00:34:03.090 --> 00:34:05.900 The more your ear tunes to the beauty of the music. 00:34:07.190 --> 00:34:09.219 The more you can recognize if a chord is off. 00:34:11.590 --> 00:34:13.460 Let's say that for us as we connect with Jesus. 00:34:15.830 --> 00:34:17.030 God's given you his word. 00:34:18.949 --> 00:34:21.290 So you can tune your ear to the beauty of who he is. 00:34:23.770 --> 00:34:24.050 That way. 00:34:24.170 --> 00:34:26.730 As you walk in this world with him as he's leading you. 00:34:28.650 --> 00:34:30.810 You can recognize as you're taking those steps. 00:34:30.810 --> 00:34:31.199 Wait a minute. 00:34:32.110 --> 00:34:34.929 I just took this step, and it just sounds a little off. 00:34:38.150 --> 00:34:43.179 It gives our heart a place to draw back to him in Luke chapter 16 and verse ten. 00:34:43.489 --> 00:34:47.409 It says this in the Bible whoever can be trusted with very little. 00:34:48.929 --> 00:34:54.730 Can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 00:34:55.030 --> 00:34:56.880 This passage of Scripture is dealing with stewardship. 00:34:59.350 --> 00:35:03.670 One of the things that God has given us is people to be stewards over is his word. 00:35:05.490 --> 00:35:07.270 The psalmist says this my your word. 00:35:07.310 --> 00:35:09.540 Oh God, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you? 00:35:10.930 --> 00:35:14.330 Your word, oh God, is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path. 00:35:16.570 --> 00:35:17.990 Like you want God to lead. 00:35:20.390 --> 00:35:23.050 You've got to be able to recognize the pitch of who he is. 00:35:25.450 --> 00:35:32.650 Sunday morning is great and it's encouraging, but so is Monday, and so is every day thereafter 00:35:32.650 --> 00:35:34.250 that God has given you the opportunity. 00:35:34.610 --> 00:35:36.090 And this is what God is saying to us. 00:35:36.490 --> 00:35:40.810 If you want to hit a home run for his kingdom, just start meeting with the King. 00:35:42.590 --> 00:35:49.650 Just take some time in the morning, late at night, whatever it has to be to quiet your soul and start to learn the tune 00:35:49.650 --> 00:35:50.530 of who he is. 00:35:50.570 --> 00:35:51.390 Or continue. 00:35:51.390 --> 00:35:54.240 Maybe it's a continuation of learning the tune he is. 00:35:55.510 --> 00:35:56.810 So here's the good news of God leading you. 00:35:58.230 --> 00:36:05.290 Being committed to such a loving God took more of a sacrifice on his part than ours, and we should find it easy to 00:36:05.290 --> 00:36:10.030 be committed to him because you have found someone who is genuinely looking out for you. 00:36:10.090 --> 00:36:13.850 He cares for you and he's demonstrated by sacrificing his life for you. 00:36:13.850 --> 00:36:14.830 He is faithful. 00:36:15.210 --> 00:36:16.130 He will not disappoint. 00:36:18.510 --> 00:36:25.150 Finally in him you have a place rather than giving more as the world might demand. 00:36:27.790 --> 00:36:31.290 You get to give up and you get to give over. 00:36:32.990 --> 00:36:34.830 The strength isn't on you. 00:36:35.250 --> 00:36:35.750 It's on him. 00:36:35.750 --> 00:36:37.090 The failures aren't on you. 00:36:37.110 --> 00:36:37.970 It's on him. 00:36:38.030 --> 00:36:45.530 As a church, when we give our hearts to him on Sunday, having walked out in such worship, it is beautiful to 00:36:45.530 --> 00:36:46.750 the Lord. 00:36:48.650 --> 00:36:49.610 Hear from him. 00:36:51.470 --> 00:36:56.410 Allow him to build you up as you listen to the tune of your King. 00:36:58.490 --> 00:36:58.990 Psalm 23. 00:37:01.190 --> 00:37:05.950 The Lord is my shepherd, and I lack nothing. 00:37:08.030 --> 00:37:10.640 He makes me to lie down in green pastures. 00:37:11.650 --> 00:37:14.220 He leads me beside still waters.