夜
So you better believe that I got this across the sky
I got this across the sky, baby
From heaven above with wings of power
And above I got this across the sky
Where the sky, the sky is in the void of the night
I got this across the sky
We spoke in the dark cause I created the light
I got this across the sky
Just around here, hold on a sec
My thing, raise the game, let's have a prize
I hope that we have not done so
Since I forgot that I got this across the sky
I got this across the sky
From heaven above with wings of power
And above I got this across the sky
My God, it's awesome
God, He raised
From heaven above with wings of power
And above I got this across the sky
My God, it's awesome
All right.
I was sitting back there.
I thought I'd remind them to look at the bulletin at the upcoming dates.
And then I realized that those who are listening from afar do not have this fancy dancing little paper.
So we should be considering ourselves very blessed as we get handed a list every week.
We're not only the songs from Worship, but the sermons, but also upcoming events,
and missions and things like that are going on.
And so we have this.
We can put this in our phone.
At the dentist's office they always say,
do you want me to give you a little car with the date on it?
And I say, no, I already got it in my phone.
But when they hand me this, I can put them in there because there's several cool things going on.
And one of them, you don't even know the date of yet.
I'm about to tell you that in a moment.
Next Sunday, a week from today, we will be celebrating our sixth anniversary.
Since we've counted, do you believe it's been six years since we signed that piece of paper?
Is that nuts?
That's crazy.
Six years have flown by very rapidly since we resigned the Constitution
and became a Constitutional United Church of East Toledo.
That is our official name.
We had that big long name for a long time.
And then even after the Constitution, we had kind of a big long name.
And now we have just New Heights College of Baptist Church of East Toledo, which is kind of long.
But we just call it New Heights College of East Toledo.
That's why I usually say to people, most people get it.
A lot of people already know what it is when I tell them.
So that's pretty cool.
But anyway, so that's next week.
And that means after service, we will be doing our cookout and block party
and the whole nine yards, as it were.
And having a good time.
We're promoting it to the community.
We have missed out on some opportunities to do that, but we will make good on our opportunities this week.
The best we can.
Get the word out about that.
And the last time we did something like that, it was pretty well received.
And I hope it will be again Sunday.
And then what's going on with the pantry on Sunday afternoon?
We remember what we decided about that.
Open at the end.
Okay, so pantry will be open at the end.
So that'll be a blessing again.
It's good because it's really hard to do both those at the same time.
Anyway, so then don't miss it coming up.
The week immediately after that is our all family fellowship.
And we have had for almost two months now, over two months now.
In fact, the shelter house by the tennis courts, by the playground at Pearson Park Reserve for us to be there.
And so even if the weather is bad, got willing, won't be.
Next to the playground?
No, next to the other side of the tennis court.
Oh, yeah, side of the tennis court, yeah.
So the one right next to the playground is very small.
They made it bigger.
Yeah, they made it bigger.
Okay, anyway, so we'll be away from the just a little bit away, but really within striking distance.
Okay, we got grass and we got fun.
We got time together and we're a church quote, quote, that's us anyway.
So we are providing meat.
So if you're willing to help cook some of the meat that's being provided on top or bring the other things that you're bringing,
let us know and we'll get that done, but we're going to have meat there and then the church, y'all, me all,
we all are bringing the stuff that we're going to eat along with it.
And if you're somebody who normally gets transported here on Sunday mornings,
make your arrangements so you make sure that you're able to go like that.
Because that's actually Sunday afternoon as well.
So the after church, after pantry, I assume.
So after pantry, we'll be going out to the park for all family fellowship.
Can you say what's the time?
Five o'clock.
Okay, so if you're normally, somebody normally gets transported, you would normally go home,
and then you would get picked up again because it's not until five o'clock.
So if other arrangements are going to be made, you need to talk to the people who transport,
you need to talk to the people who allow you to come and all that and get that situated.
And everyone is asked to participate and bring you a little something to share food-wise.
So we have plenty of food and that is not this coming Sunday.
This Sunday is a cookout block party.
Next Sunday is this couple, two weeks from today.
There we go.
Is the event at Pearson Park.
Then don't miss it because you didn't know this date until right now.
If you have exhortation spiritual gift, I'm talking about that.
Again, I'll mention it, the spiritual gift is a little bit at the inspiration all the time
because it's really not hard to do that.
If you have exhortation spiritual gift, June 1st, the evening of June 1st.
The evening of June 1st, which is a Monday night, I will be here because that's one of my spiritual gifts, praise the Lord.
And if you don't know what your spiritual gifts are, I will talk about that in a minute.
But if you have that, then June 1st, 6pm in the cafeteria, dinner provided.
It's a one hour event where we will share our successes and failures using that spiritual gift.
We'll talk about what it is.
We'll eat together.
This is going to be a new thing for us.
Going forward, we'll have additional fellowships based around...
I'm not saying any more.
Boy.
I'm leaving because you got one.
Thank you.
Alright.
So we'll have additional fellowships based around each other's spiritual gift as we go on.
There will be a lot of these going forward.
Alright.
And then, don't miss VBS, the Freedom Celebration.
That's all coming.
Human Trafficking Event, which is not us doing human trafficking.
It's only us talking about human trafficking.
We have some very important guest speakers who will be with us that evening.
So I suggest you block out time for that to hear what they have to say.
It's pretty cool what we might be able to do as Christians to make a difference.
If you're not aware of it, Toledo is one of the top cities national.
You'd think New York, San Francisco, LA, Miami, Chicago, like that.
But per person, we are one of the top cities nationally.
And part of it is because we're so connected.
To snatch somebody off the streets here, or a lot of them come through here because of all the expressways that go both ways,
the airport, trucking, international, ships that go in and out of port, thousands of them every year.
All that kind of thing. It's a terrible thing what goes on with that.
And there will be more details at that event.
And we'll end that at 8 o'clock.
So the kids will be a team kid, an extra half an hour.
All the kids are excited about that.
The youth will be with the adults in the human trafficking event.
That's the current plan.
And so you've got your bulletin.
They don't have their bulletin, but I encourage you to keep track of the events
and be prepared to be involved in everything that's going on.
And we're going to do it together as a body. We're going to give God the glory.
So I want to thank you for those of you who sent me prayer requests.
Thursday Friday, I did have a great time with prayer and fast.
And the Lord is very blessed by God's presence.
And a lot of things came out of that.
We've been hearing about some of those things, not necessarily today, but going forward.
I'm excited about it.
And I know that I did pray for every request that was sent to me multiple times.
Some of them for as much as a half an hour each.
And so praise God that I was able to do that and use support of me to be able to do that.
And that's pretty cool.
Say happy anniversary to RJ and Alicia.
Today is their 12th anniversary.
They didn't even see old enough to be married for 12 years.
But when you look at their kids, you can believe, you know what I'm saying?
Look at Jason. You can believe they've been married for 12 years.
But 12 years today, praise God, that's one year for every tribe of Israel.
They told me all the time they were working on a huge amount of work.
Yeah, when I told the guys, it was me, how long I've been married, they went, no.
That's blessed. And the Lord keeps us young.
So we've got some folks in our congregation that have been married a lot longer than that.
Praise God.
So they kept them young too and doing a lot.
So we're blessed.
All right.
So we're going to pray at this time and jump into worship.
And I've asked and prearranged Caleb is going to have our opening prayer today.
So.
Jesus show. You ready?
All right.
How does people know who they are?
How does people want to help you?
How does people want to help us all?
And that's crazy.
All right.
It is that time again.
So I need everyone on their feet if you are able.
And I need all of the young type people towards the front of the room.
Yeah.
Come on.
Stay that person.
You guys can come out on the front of the room.
Don't we need to dance?
We need to dance.
All right.
So.
You can come out on the front of the room.
All right.
Stay standing.
This one doesn't have motions, but it is a call and response, which means one part is going to start and the other part is going to echo.
And we're going to do adults versus children.
Molly, I think we are honorary child.
Yeah.
So adults will go first.
Children under the age of 18 will go second.
Right?
So, I think we are going to do adults versus children under the age of 18.
Right?
So, we are going to do adults versus children under the age of 18.
Right?
So, we are going to do adults versus children under the age of 18.
All right.
So, we are going to do adults versus children under the age of 18.
Good job.
All right.
It's inspirational moment time.
And I have been inspired this week and I had a big long list of stuff I could have talked about.
But I have my duty and I said, Lord, do you do that?
And the Lord said, yes, we do that.
So, I would talk about that for any of us.
And that's spiritual gifts.
I had a brother say to me this week, he said, I kind of lost the joy of serving the Lord.
He said, I kind of lost the joy of serving the Lord.
And I said, wow, that's a tough spot to be in.
I know that people have been there before.
And I've been there at times before and I thought about it.
I was talking about how has God helped me when I've been in that spot before,
when I've sort of lost the joy of serving the Lord.
And I know there's a few things that God uses all the time.
And you could probably go beyond this.
All right?
But the first thing that this come out of my saddest rest that I just took in per time
and fasted me with the word and so on.
One of those is that Sabbath rest.
That rest, you're supposed to be intentional about marking time out,
spending time with God.
And yes, we are with God now, but we are with God collectively, right?
And there's part of you that is maybe bristled a little bit
because the person next to you or the person that's talking,
maybe you're annoyed a little bit by my voice
or somebody else is goofing off and they're distracting you
or your mind is somewhere else, you've got a problem.
Like, I don't know how I'm going to get my money in line to pay that bill
or things like that.
And so there's always little things like that.
But when you get alone with the Lord and it's just you and God,
there's really only two things that are going on.
One is you're talking to God, the other is you're listening to God.
And that's it.
It gets very, very simple at that time.
And so then when God talks to you or he says,
get up and go do something, you find the strength to get up and go do it.
And the joy comes with the strength God provides and fills it.
And you go, okay, now I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
And that, so one is that kind and rest of all the God,
that's the only way that God does it.
And secondly, the God does it, you just did it.
I hope you did it.
If you didn't, you really missed out on opportunity.
We have just a little bit more opportunity left today.
And that is worship.
Worship is one of the ways that God adds joy to our service.
We're going to talk a little bit about it during the sermon today.
So I'm going to get ahead of myself.
The bottom line is if you love God and you know who God is,
you know what God has done, you know what God is doing,
you know what God's going to do,
then you've got a lot of reasons to praise God.
And when you praise God that way,
God fills up his people as they're praising him.
When you recognize him and what he's done,
if you're talking about what's going on in your life,
that does not recognize God.
You're talking to people about your opinions,
that does not recognize God.
You're talking to God about the problems that you have.
That's not really recognizing God unless you're saying,
okay, I understand only God can do it, then that's something.
But if you just complain into God, that may comfort you,
but that's not really about God.
But when you praise in God, you're putting him first,
you're recognizing who he is, what he's done,
what he's doing, what he will do,
and God fills us up with strength as we praise him.
I can't tell you.
I mean, more times than I have all my fingers and all my toes,
and it's probably getting the point where
there's more times than all the bones in my body,
which is a couple of hundred.
And I'm thinking more times than I thought,
well, I don't really want to go worship,
and then I get there and I start worshiping,
and I sing, and just get filled up from the inside.
It's not like where you're hungry,
you're going to McDonald's and give some money
to give you a Big Mac meal,
and you feel not hungry anymore.
It's like you feel like, oh man, I don't have it.
I don't know if I can do it.
And then you start doing it, and you say praise God.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord.
Or you sing just that first few phrases,
and God just shows up and empowers it.
So worship is a big way.
There are lots of ways, as I said.
The third one is what I want to talk about.
That's your spiritual gifts.
Everybody, from the moment that you were saved,
the Holy Spirit rolls out to you a specific spiritual gift.
And maybe more than one.
You might have one, you might have ten.
It's typical that those who have a lot of them
have each one that they have to a lesser degree.
That makes sense?
If you have ten of something,
each one might be less a driving force in your life.
But if you have one of them, they might be big things.
You know what I'm saying?
The only one that has just made you just wired to do that.
That's what you do.
And the others kind of like very useful things,
but it's not a gift from God.
It's not really what drives you.
And so when you exercise your spiritual gifts,
and you recognize that.
And so for me, for example, with preaching,
when I preach, and I know I'm saying what God wants me to say,
God empowers me from the inside.
It's like a pat on the back, spiritually.
Like I'll go, man, I know I couldn't have said that.
I couldn't have done that.
I couldn't have figured that out.
I couldn't have seen that there if it wasn't for God.
And you get that lift from the inside.
And I'm trying to explain to you a spiritual thing in human words.
So I know it's hard.
If you've never felt God lifting you up from the inside,
you don't know what I'm talking about when I say that.
If you've never felt drained or run out of spiritual strength,
like you're just, oh man, I still don't know
if I can go on with what I'm trying to do for the Lord,
then you might not understand what I'm talking about.
And they're just words.
I'm just saying words right now.
I'm just going in one ear and out the other.
But the bottom line is the word teaches us
that God gave us a spiritual gift,
and that as each member of the body
exercises their spiritual gifts,
they themselves are lifted up by God,
and then we collectively are lifted up by God,
we're linked together by God,
and we grow individually and corporately into the image
of the living God, of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God,
and God in the flesh.
We will never get to be like God,
not really truly, we'll never be God,
but we get to be a little more like God,
and we can test and approve what His good will is
as we walk our life and are renewed in our minds
and grow and have that blessing.
So know your spiritual gifts,
use your spiritual gifts.
Now that's not, in a couple of cases,
it's going to dictate the kind of ministry that you get into,
but in most cases it doesn't.
Okay?
For example, if you have a service and health spiritual gift,
which is one of the spiritual gifts that people have,
you could literally do that in any kind of ministry.
You're just going to wind up boosting it,
building it up in the back right.
You don't have to be in a limelight,
you can just be able to drive in there
and make a difference, fixing some problem,
doing something that needs to be done,
being the strong person,
physically, emotionally, spiritually, whatever,
you're going to be able to go in and do that.
If you happen to have exhortation,
which is more of an outward, outspoken,
encouragement, drawing people out to do what they're supposed to do,
a lot of people have exhortation to get into preaching,
but that is not the only way, by any means, that it is used.
Okay?
And it isn't even only spoken.
Sometimes it's written.
Some people have to get the exhortation to do it through writing.
And so you can figure out how to use your spiritual gift,
and then every time you use it,
whatever ministry you use it in,
every time you use it,
you get that little adaboi and the joy of the Lord.
How awesome is it
when you realize you're doing something
that you could not do in your own strength,
but God is doing it through.
And that's that power of the spiritual gift.
So, if you haven't done so,
get yourself a spiritual gift analysis.
There are basically three ways
that you can figure out what your spiritual gifts are.
And they all kind of work together.
The first one is to take an analysis,
take a second test.
It says, do you do this?
Put it up.
Hey.
From number one through ten.
Do you do this?
I'm going to put it down and this is the question.
And you number, this never happens to me.
This always happens to me.
And if you add them up,
and it's going to tell you what most likely
what your primary spiritual gifts are.
Second best way,
or second way that Karen goes and comes through that,
but it's less so,
I'll take them away if I hear them again.
Hear me?
Thank you.
All right.
So the second best way is to ask people who know you.
Work with your family,
your loved ones, your spouse, your kids,
your friends,
people you work with in ministry.
And say, hey, I think, you know,
here's my analysis says I might have these five,
or here's, I read the scripture about these gifts,
and I think I might have this.
What do you think?
Do you think I have that spiritual gift?
Have you ever seen me do something weird with that
that you couldn't quite explain?
Or can you give me an example?
And they'll help you digest it.
They'll help you figure out is it your spiritual gift.
If you get in there and you go like,
number two says I might have the gift of service,
spiritual service and helps.
And you go like, oh, that's me.
Before you dismiss it,
you better ask the people who know you,
because maybe even doing it,
you don't even realize it.
Right.
And then the third way is the word of prayer.
You just read what they are in the Bible
and pray and ask God and compare it to your life
and let God point out to you.
God may give you a vision in your head
of you doing that thing
and how you felt while you were doing it
and how powerful that was in you.
Right.
So there's nothing required,
biblical things about taking a spiritual gift analysis
or a survey.
However, it's a very useful tool that you started.
Okay.
Prayer in the word.
That's how they did it before a survey
before I ever developed with prayer in the word
and talking to others.
Right.
And so you can do it by that means
or you can do it by that.
But if you think you have the spiritual gift of exhortation,
then I would like to invite you to have dinner with me
on June 1st.
It's not going to be anything fabulous.
It's going to be a basic dinner.
And we're going to eat something.
But we're going to spend time talking about
what is the gift, what can one do with it.
And then we're going to, at the end,
we're going to have like anecdotical,
we'll tell stories of what happened
when somebody used their gift like that.
And then you'll be able to, hopefully out of that,
you'll be able to determine, do I have it?
What can I do with it?
Okay.
That's the goal.
We're not going to study a lot of scripture about the gift.
It's not a Bible study.
Not coming to a Bible study.
It's a fellowship.
It's a spiritual gift fellowship.
Right.
So it's us working together.
Now that we think you've figured that out,
what does that look like?
Right.
That's you first, and I want to point out,
I have to really convicted, I need to stand up
and talk about spiritual gifts,
because somebody here can have a clue.
And we all think everybody in the room
totally understands that, but somebody didn't know.
And now you got it, I hope.
At least you have an opportunity.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
So how has the Lord been speaking to you this week?
As I said, I have a long list, like longer than my,
my business called QVD.
Right.
Hardly got something?
All right. Let's hear it.
There's another song that I've been listening to a lot.
Okay.
A song that's been singing.
It's by the same person that did last week,
but it's a really good song,
and I'll just put it a little bit more later.
After the light.
One, two, three.
So, part of the reason why I like this song so much is because,
to me, it reminds me of who I used to be.
So, before I got saved, I always felt like I was a lost cause.
I always felt broken.
Nothing ever seemed like it was good enough.
No matter how hard I tried, nothing ever seemed like I was doing enough.
And even now today, I still struggle with that sometimes because,
there's multiple times in my life where I'll just sit back and I wonder,
am I ever doing enough?
Am I doing a good enough job with a dad?
Am I doing a good enough job with a husband?
A provider?
So, it's like, you always have those thoughts, especially,
I mean, this is mostly for the guys,
especially as men, we're meant to provide,
we're meant to protect.
And I don't know if it's, well, like I said, I'm not sure if it's a guy thing for sure,
but to me, it seems like a guy thing that we always have that feeling like,
it's not good enough.
Like, nothing we do is ever good enough.
And then we start getting into a spot where we hold onto things that are really good for us,
because it makes us comfortable, it makes us feel safe.
And in the song, that's one of the things it says, is he says,
all of the drinking and smoking feels hopeless,
but it feels like it's all that he needs.
So, you know there's a problem, you know there's something that's wrong,
but it's the only thing that you think makes you feel at peace.
And like I said, for me, that's how it was before I got saved.
I mean, it was, it's hard to go look back and realize where I was,
and realize where I am now,
because I've always wanted something to save me from it.
Like, I've never wanted to live a life like that.
And I finally did, and it's changed my life dramatically,
but this song is a reminder that, you know, you may feel like it's hopeless,
you may feel like it's a waste of time,
and you may feel like you're a lost cause,
but with God you're not.
You're not a lost cause, you're not a waste of time, you're not a waste of space.
In God you are someone amazing.
And I think there's plenty of people in this room, even,
that can testify to that,
because you look back who you used to be before you got saved,
and look where you're at now,
and look at how much God has done in your life.
Even, I mean, even the little things in your life become huge things now,
because you realize that it's God doing it.
Like, something as simple as being able to raise children,
or just pay a bill, or have the extra money to go,
hey, I can help you do that if someone needs it.
Just simple things in life become huge things,
because you know that now it's God doing it,
and not you striving to find something else.
That's a good word.
I thought you were going to preach the opening of my sermon there for a second.
I'll leave it at that.
Alright, let's get into the room.
Alright.
I can rip this.
When dance gets you dancing, it's awesome, so I love you so.
The plan was, get two of us,
next thing you know, the two of us,
floating, drifting somewhere new.
She said we can take a shortcut.
I'm trying to be a good sport,
but I don't see how we make it through.
Remember the size of the world before?
It was you and I, just you and I,
and now the horizon holds so much more.
It's due or died, it's due or died.
All I can do when the road bends
is lean into the curve.
You know I can do when the tanks run dry
to see what's in reserve.
You know I can do when the plans break down
to stay on my feet.
And all I can do at the end of the day
is play on play on,
but then keep the beat.
Hey, Mivo, are you scared?
You know, my dad used to sing to me when I was scared.
So did Andres.
Hey, we could sing more to songs.
That was cherished up.
I did you, just on another show.
Always in your corner, watching you soar.
Andres, you're going to teach me how to play drums.
Here we go. Check this out.
Try some boobies.
That thing you're doing is noise. Observe.
Wow, you learn quick.
I must be a really good teacher.
Ah, come on, Mivo.
You're a good teacher.
I'm a good teacher.
I must be a really good teacher.
Come on, Mivo.
Whoa, this sounds good.
Yeah, I see potential. Raw talent.
Come on, Mivo. Let's lose, Grandpa.
Grandpa? Did Grandpa do this?
Oh, yeah, Mivo.
I'm going to sign something for you.
Now it's you and I.
You and I.
And now the horizon is so much more.
It's you or I.
All right, you know I'm the road man.
We're just going to eat it up.
I'm going to go get it.
You are it.
Come on, Mivo.
It's me spotted.
We're just going to eat it up.
We were just going to eat it.
Let's keep the beat
Bum bum bum bum
Come on, you can't stop now
Let's keep the beat going, partner
Ah, I'm a beat, not my partner
Okay, pause, it's getting lights on
So, uh, that's Bebo, that's an awesome movie
Sit down with your kids, man
Every time I watch it, I'm like, God's in this, God's in this, God's in this, God's in this, God's in this
You just can't stop, I mean, it's so inspirational, such a great movie
I bought your number one movie of the year, I only got like top five movies, it's on that for the speed
So, just real quick, it's so cool, is I like to talk about the youth of God
God is not, he's a billion trillion years young
He's not old, he's eternal, he's always young
And you can see this girl pushing her youth and her compassion and mercy to this older monkey
And I see in the movie, you can't, no one can understand him except us, the audience
He goes, tur tur tur tur tur tur
So, nobody knows his sarcasm when he's singing
So, like, you know, she just thinks that she's teaching him how to play the drums
And he's like, yeah, good job, you know, and he's just, and then it's the wisdom of God, the older monkey
That God is wisdom and always been around
And he's out there just being patient, knowing that we're trying to grow, knowing that we're trying to learn
It's just so awesome, and I end up, also, I just want to say, if you want to check it out
I'm going to do maybe a half an hour session on the whole video
But that's a righteous foundation or holy ground, and Father of Washington, anyone in the podcast
If you hear this, 419902-4899, reach out
We're looking for those who are desperately hungry for encouragement
We find people that don't get encouragement all about anybody
And so, if you need that real truth, real love encouragement, reach out to New Heights
And we'll reach out to you, and that'll be me, I'll be reaching out to you anywhere I can
Here's what I love about these verses
Remember the size of the world before it was you and I, just you and I
So just remember the size of the world, it was just you and I
It was me and God, it was however it was, you know, it was just you and I, we were good
But then the horizon became so much more, it got really big, it got really hard, it got really crazy
And I don't make fun of anyone, but I'm broken and busted
So if you've been broken, but not busted, taken advantage of
Not truly discipled, whatever it was, I'm not talking about churches or nothing
But God brought me back and discipled me, and God uses that
I'll say this real quick, if you're in a football field and you were a football player
Even if you could play baseball, you're not going on the baseball field right away
You were trained for football, that's what God does
You take someone who's broken and busted, reach out to you, they're really even broken and busted
Patiently working with them, some people can't even understand it, because they've never been through it
I've been through it, ten years of just the hardest days of my life
So I can understand and relate to a lot of people
So the horizon is so much more now, it's do or die, we can't just give up
It's either we do it, or we die, we can't quit
Then he says, all I can do, this is the best part
And at the end, when that girl is singing that song, he's like, I'm still not going to listen to that
All I can do, all we can do church, is when the road bends, is lean into the curve
We lean to the cross, we lean to who God is, we don't quit
There's no other way to do it, they're going to lean some other way to just keep going
But they're really not going, because we have to lean to our God
That is absolutely sufficient in all of our needs
And all I can do when the tanks run dry, because we're going to have tanks that go run dry
We've got to see what's in reserve, God is absolutely sufficient
Everything that we have, we're not running dry
We have everything in reserve, I guess
And then it says this, all I can do when the plants break down, is stay on my feet
The plants will break down, but we keep on the feet
The gospel of peace, we keep walking in the peace of God
They can't take away what we're doing, they can't take away what we can do
They can't take away what we could do, they can't take it away
Because we stay on our feet with God, we walk that path that the Lord has
We ain't perfect, but it's not our path
Fagress chapter 12 says, a race is marked out for us
We didn't mark it out, he marked it out
It's all marked out for us
He's got the obstacles and stairs, and when you do get this trapped, he's got a way out
He's got a refreshment station, every little thing is marked out for us
The church, everybody, not just you, even though it's a podcast, he's got a race marked out for you
And finally, all I can do at the end of the day
Because the day ends, the day doesn't end for God
Glorious Lord spoke every day in existence, the very day he spoke in
He knows when the day ends, there is no end to the day, to us
Because we need a day over, we need to play on, and play on and keep the beat
And so what it really means to me is, at the end of the day, follow the drum, follow the guitar
Follow whatever it is that you keep listening to every day that God does
Stay with that beat, don't give up the beat, don't try to change the beat
Don't try to make the beat different
Stay with the rhythm of what the Lord is doing in your life
What the Lord wants to do, what the Lord is doing
Because it's not your rhythm, it's His
Alright, anybody else?
I was talking about what you were saying just for a minute
About how you lean into it, you have to lean into God
So, the first thing that popped into my head was it's a lot like riding a motorcycle
If you don't lean into the turn, it falls
You go off-road
And that's how we are, we don't lean towards God, we fall
And then we go off-road
And then it makes it so much harder to get back
Why do you pray for us, that is what we pray for
Dear everyone, thank you for this time together
Thank you for everyone that's here, God, thank you that we're able to do this
Because there's many questions we wouldn't be able to
Thank you that you blessed us enough to be here
Thank you for every household that's here, every person that's here, God
And I pray that we're all here to learn more about you and to grow
And to see your power work
God, I just pray for us everyone here, bless everything
And keep our own safety in just name and destiny
God bless you
How long, how long is the love of Christ?
How deep, how high is the love of Christ?
How long, how long is the love of Christ?
How deep, how high is the love of Christ?
If only we can found a side to side with our great man
Our love is broken, it's a crime we don't know when
How long, how long is the love of Christ?
How deep, how high is the love of Christ?
If only we can find a side to side with our great man
Our love goes to the ocean, it's a million but I don't know
How long, how long is the love of Christ?
How deep, how high is the love of Christ?
How deep, how deep the bottom of the rich of the side
How deep, how high is the love of Christ?
The splendor of His lucky, the clothing that you see
All the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice He wraps Himself in light
And what does Chinese do I?
He tramples at His voice, tramples at His voice
And I got all the sea out of grace, out of grace, because I got
All the trees and wings for sale, and all the sand for sale
And I got all the land of grace, out of grace, because I got
All the spirits of the Bible and the Word
Out of grace, out of grace, because I got
All the sea out of grace, out of grace, because I got
All the way, out of grace, because I got
All the sea out of grace, out of grace, because I got
There is a candle in every soul, some brightly burning, some dark and cold
There is a spirit who brings the fire, ignites the candle and makes us whole
There is a story in the background you may know or you may not know.
I'm going to summarize it.
We're not going to read the text, but you need this background to understand her position.
So, Macaulay has probably been wronged by David.
In fact, she's probably been wronged by just about everybody.
She loved David in the beginning.
See, David was promised the older daughter of King Saul in the early days.
And then King Saul tricked him.
And instead of giving him his older daughter, which would have put him in line for the throne,
he gave him his younger daughter.
But it says in that text that she loved David.
So, Macaulay loved David and became his loving and supporting wife.
Then later, in the same story, like five verses later, Saul demands a payment for the betrothal.
And David has to go and kill a bunch of Philistines and brings back their 100 Philistine foreskins for her betrothal.
That's his dowry, which he does do that.
And then, you know how things erupted between him and Saul.
Saul tried to kill him a couple of times and then he's chased out in the country with some guys
who are pretty much like the dregs of society, but they're very strong.
And they're out in the country.
And while that happens, Saul gives Macaulay to another man.
Now, they've never literally been married and they've never slept together,
but he gives his daughter, Macaulay, to another man.
So then, fast forward, David, you know, three incidents could have killed Saul, didn't, whatever, all that happened.
Saul and Jonathan are eventually killed.
David comes back and becomes the king.
Then he asks, well, where's my wife that I was promised?
Now, by the time that happens, David has already married Abigail.
Now, you remember her, she's in the countryside.
David's out there with his men.
They're hungry.
And he goes to this man and he says, give me some food and water for my men.
And the guy's like, I don't know you from Adam.
I'm going to help you.
You could be trees and whatever.
And then he goes out and the men start talking and they decide they're going to go back and punish him
and take what?
Because David is the rightful king ordained by Samuel, right?
But they say, well, they're going to back and punish him.
And Abigail comes out and meets him and says, my husband spoke wrongly.
He didn't understand, forgive him, whatever.
And so he winds up killing her husband and taking her as wife.
And Abigail becomes his first wife.
Then he later goes and he's staying away still and he takes another wife.
So he's got two wives already.
And then he goes back and he says, I want Macau, the first wife that I was promised that loved me
and I loved her and I want her.
So he takes her away from her current husband.
Now, as her husband, as she is forced to walk up to Jerusalem to be David's wife,
her husband walks behind her miles, like over 10 miles, walks behind her all this distance,
weeping the whole time.
When they get to Jerusalem, David takes Macau into his house.
It was supposed to be his first wife, but it was never technically his wife.
And then he marries her and then he sends her husband away, back home.
So she's been wronged in every possible way.
She's had it really bad.
So people think that David did this to her, right?
Or that Saul did this to her.
And I think that's pretty accurate.
I think Saul did this to her.
Because he first gave her, without her permission to David, and then took her
and gave her to another man and she was just trying to legally be obligated to her husband.
And then David comes in and by his own right, he had the right to do so, took her back.
So I think Saul's the one who kind of did it to her.
But whether Saul did it or David did it, I want you to see God did it.
God allowed it.
I'm not saying God was punishing her for anything.
I don't know that.
Some bad things happened in her life and God allowed those bad things to happen.
That's where she is the day she looks out and she sees David leaping and dancing before the Lord.
And she despised him in her heart.
That's the full circle.
She loved him when she was first betrothed to him.
Now she despises him.
Then it says in 17,
They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent David had pitched for it.
Then David offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in the Lord's presence.
When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of armies.
That's our God, the God.
Then he distributed a loaf of bread, a date cake and a raisin cake to each one in the entire Israelite community,
both men and women.
Then all the people went home.
Verse 20,
When David returned home to bless his household,
Saul's daughter, Mikal, came out to meet him.
How the king of Israel honored himself today, she says.
You can hear the snarkiness, this sarcasm in her voice.
How the king of Israel honored himself today.
So he, she accuses David of honoring himself.
She said, he exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects,
like a vulgar person would expose himself.
So in other words, you dance barely clad in front of all these people.
All these people saw you dancing.
And she accuses him of exposing himself and honoring himself, but not God.
21 says, David replied to Mikal, it was before the Lord who chose me over your father and his whole family
to appoint me ruler over the Lord's people Israel.
So in other words, I dance not for myself, but before God.
I humbled myself before God and let everybody see that I was humbling myself before God is what he says.
Then he says, however, by the slave girls you spoke about, I will be honored.
In other words, they will recognize she didn't, but they would recognize that he was dancing and making a fool of himself.
If you want to say that before the Lord, he was humbling himself before the Lord and honoring God.
And the slave girls would recognize that, but Mikal was not recognizing that.
You follow?
Okay.
Then he says this and this is a terrible proclamation for her.
And it says, and Saul's daughter Mikal had no child to the day of her death.
So at that point in time, as far as we've gotten, that is the end of the house of Saul, essentially, at least the ruling house of Saul.
It's done.
There will be no more male heirs to take the throne, with one small exception who would never be able to take the throne.
So she, her line is dead.
She did not recognize what David was doing when he danced in a linen ephod before the Lord and honored God and then blessed all the people.
She didn't recognize what he was doing and her line is dead.
Her house is dead.
Now chapter seven.
When the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, so everything's going perfectly.
The king said to the prophet, Nathan, look, I am living in a cedar house while the Ark of God sits inside tent curtains.
So Nathan told the king, go and do all that is on your mind for the Lord is with you.
So Nathan was the prophet and he told the king, go and do everything that you plan to do. It's all going to be honoring to God.
Verse four.
But that night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan.
Go to my servant David and say, this is what the Lord says.
Are you to build me a house to dwell in?
Hear that?
It's an accusation, if you will.
He says, are you to build me a house to dwell in?
From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, I have not dwelt in a house.
Instead, I have been moving around with a tent as my dwelling.
In all my journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever spoken a word to one of the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel,
asking, why haven't you built me a house of cedar?
In other words, have I, is this a thing I've ever asked you to do?
To build me a house?
So now this is what you are to say to my servant David.
This is what the Lord of armies says.
I took you from the pastor, from tending the flock to be a ruler over my people Israel.
This is basically what he says.
You were nothing, the lowest of the low, and I have made you everything.
I have made you king under me over my people.
I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies from before you.
I will make a name for you like that of the greatest on the earth.
I will designate a place for my people Israel and I will plant them so that they may live there and not be disturbed again.
Evil doers will not continue to oppress them as they have done ever since the day I ordered judges to be over my people Israel.
I will give you rest from all your enemies.
So in other words, God says, have I ever asked you to do that?
Listen, let me tell you what I'm going to do.
God just turned it around, didn't he?
Instead of making it about what David needed to do for God, God said, now let me tell you what I'm going to do for you.
The Lord declares to you, the Lord himself will make a house for you.
When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise you up after you, your descendant, who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
He is the one who will build a house for my name.
So now he's talking about Solomon and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
So in other words, not only will there be Solomon after you will build the house, but on top of that, there's going to be somebody on the Davidic throne forever.
Almost done.
I will be his father and he will be my son.
When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals.
But my faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever and your throne will be established forever.
Nathan reported all these words and this entire vision to David.
So David got it just exactly as that.
Alright, so a few things I want you to see in here and some of it's a little tough.
The first thing I want you to see is that David wanted to do something more for God.
He wanted to bless God.
Out of his humble heart dancing in front of the coming Ark of the Covenant in an ephod, kind of shamefully, if you will.
I mean he's a king or he could have been in a crown, he could have had a rod, he could have had a golden cloak on.
You know what I'm saying?
He could have really been decked out and he could have shown all the people how awesome God is
because of how much God had blessed David.
But instead he put on the simplest of garments, maybe exposing a little bit too much of himself
and danced joyfully and humbly and honored God before the Ark of the Covenant.
We know he had a heart, he wanted to bless God.
So then out of that heart that he wanted to bless God, you can see Nathan do that too.
Because Nathan said just do whatever is in your mind to do for God, it's going to be great.
That was Nathan's initial reply.
But then God said, all these years I have lived in a tabernacle.
All these lives I've lived in a tent that went here and there and everywhere.
Have I ever told anyone, any Israelite, any time ever to build me a house made of cedar?
Have I ever done that?
And David's like, well, it would have to say in response to Nathan the prophet comes and says,
well, no, you never did tell me to do that, right?
I've never done that.
God says, I've never done that.
David had a heart that wanted to bless God and that led him to want to build God a house.
I want to do something like that.
Magnanimous, something huge.
Remember, we talked about last week about how we were into grand gestures.
And the week before we're talking about grand.
We've got this idea that I want to do something that only I can do for God.
Every time you say, I want to do something that only I can do for God,
you forget that God can do everything for himself.
God does not actually need you to do anything at all for him.
Our actions and things that we do for God, they are not to honor God.
We make it out to be like that.
Like, I'm going to go one step further.
You know, I'm giving tempers.
I'm going to give 11 or I'm going to give 19 or I'm going to show up an extra five hours and work harder.
I'm going to push harder.
I'm going to go until I'm sore and tired and got nothing left.
Right.
And we make it out like we're somehow providing something for God or do we want to bless God in some way?
David knew that God is good and you should as well out of what God has already done in your life,
you should realize that God is good.
But also realize that when people see you and see you do something amazing for God,
we have this conversation.
We should have said it beautifully in the team.
She said when people come and they see all that we do for God,
they get a little intimidated and they're like, I can't imagine how you do all that.
And they get fearful of doing that to living like that.
And we do a lot and our church being as small as it is has the biggest footprint of literally any church that I am aware of anywhere.
I know there are mega churches that will say they've planted 40 churches and so on,
but no church of this size has ever done what we have done, but we haven't done it.
God did it.
So people look at us and they go, look at you.
What you've done.
I can't be like that.
That's too much.
You're asking me too much.
People see you and when they see you, they don't see God.
They don't.
Do you expect people to look at you and see God because of the mighty works that you are doing?
Even if they see you as like, wow, he's incredible.
How can you do that?
He can do what nobody can do.
There are magicians that can do what nobody can do and they don't go,
oh, there's a magician over there that made the Statue of Liberty disappear on TV and man,
I've got to go praise God about that.
Unless they already have a heart to praise God, they're not looking at them and going,
well, that's incredible.
The people who wrote series and became a J.K. Rowling and everybody knows that name and
all the world, everybody knows J.K. Rowling because they wrote Harry Potter and you're
like, I didn't know that, but most people in this room probably did.
Right.
People don't look at Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling and go, oh man, God.
Yeah.
I could see definitely God did that.
Right.
Because there have been other people who have written.
Right.
God will see you.
They will see you.
They will not see God through you, not inherently, not because you do something mighty, not no
matter what you decide to do for God, it will not happen.
So the question is, how will you lift him up and yet get out of the way so that he can
be seen?
If there is a line, it's God and I'm not somebody out there is going to go, this is heretical
man, he's going to be all kinds of trouble.
It's God and then it's us and then it's the lost people of the world.
Now, it's not actually like that.
Right.
There's no one amongst them and all kind of, but if there was a line like that track and
spiritual growth, spiritual positioning, whatever it be, God, Christians, lost people, that
would be the line.
If there was a line, there isn't, but if there was, that would be the line.
And if you're there and you're holding up God, yes, God, yes, God, and look at the bottom
of your feet, they can't see God.
They just see the bottom of your feet.
They see your butt end going, yeah, God's awesome.
Right.
I went to a concert some, some years ago with the guys in our family went to an NF concert.
It was really cool.
I watched 80% of the concert on the cell phones of the people in front of me.
Literally, I'm not joking.
Because everybody has their cell phone up like this video in the concert.
Right.
And because I couldn't, I couldn't see past the heads of the people in front of me very
well.
And I certainly couldn't see past their uprated cell phone arms.
I could see lights and action stuff, but man, I could see it on the cell phones real good.
So I'm watching the people in front of me as like 10 cell phones and I could see the scene
and the, and the smoke and the lights and the artists and everything.
I could see it beautifully.
That's what it is.
But, but what's happening is you're looking, you're focused on God.
People are looking at you and there's nothing.
There's no screen.
There's no, there's no projection.
There's no way for them to watch what you're watching.
You're not a scrying device into another realm.
So how are you going to serve the Lord and honor him and lift him up and still get out
of the way for people to be able to see?
Well, David got it.
This part of his example is awesome.
He totally figured it out.
If you want people to see God and see what God has done, you have to humble yourself
before God, before we're through.
I'll give you one practical step of that, but I'm going to, I want to read from the,
the speakings of another man who figured the same thing out and it's John the Baptist.
And so if you go with me to John chapter three, verse 30, if you're following along, John
chapter three.
So John chapter three is a great chapter, by the way, obviously, because, you know, Nicodemus
is in here before we're through and stuff.
There's some really good stuff, but I just want you to dial in on one little set of comments
and I'll go back to verse 27.
So John, that's John the Baptist responded.
So this is chapter three in verse 27.
John the Baptist responded, no one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from
heaven.
You yourselves can testify that I said I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead
of him.
He who has the bride is the groom, but the groom's friend who stands by and listens for
him rejoices greatly at the groom's voice.
In other words, the party, the groom's men around the groom are super happy because they
hear the voice of the groom and what's happening.
And he says, so this joy of mine is complete.
And verse 30, he must increase, but I must decrease.
The one who comes from above is above all.
The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms.
That's the rest of us.
The one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard and yet no one accepts his testimony.
The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true or the one whom
God sent speaks God's words since he gives the spirit without measure.
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will
not see life.
Instead the wrath of God, that means the violent opposition of God, instead the wrath of God
remains on him.
The before and the after break down to this.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
So now I'm going to give you just one single solo worth looking away from your phone if
you're not following in the Bible.
You're not being distracted right now.
This one may be one single action plan.
I want you to look at yourself.
I want you to look at your personality.
I want to look at your experiences, your passion, whatever we talk about shape, your heart,
your attitude, your personality and your experiences will lead you to what you do for God, which
is spiritual gift and their phone.
You live in your shape and you can live that way for Jesus forever.
And now I want you to look at yourself.
I want you to look at your passions, the things you've done in the past, your experiences.
I want you to look at the things that are there and the things that are not.
Someone in this room is going to say, well, for example, I am not a public speaker.
I know for a fact that I don't get up in front of people and talk that's something I have
never done.
I never will do.
God would never use me to do that.
Or somebody else will say, I am not a person who reaches out to people who are hurting.
I see they're hurting and I can stand by and I can be strong, but I don't have a word of
encouragement.
I don't have a thing.
I can't say, hey, can I help you in some way?
Hey, can I pray for you?
Hey, can I ask you what's going to be?
Because I'm afraid they're actually going to tell me or whatever.
Right?
Whatever it is, whatever it is about you, you say, that's not what I do.
That's not who I am.
You want to honor God?
Do that for God.
Now, not if it's sin.
I'm not talking about sin.
Right?
Nothing that's sinful.
But by putting the thing that you can do for God, eat fully in your wheelhouse.
This is what I do.
This is what I'm good at.
This is who I am.
This is the strength that I already know that I have by doing that.
You're not honoring God.
People are always going to look at you and say, hey, he's strong.
He's doing strongy things.
He's smart.
He's doing smarty things.
She's wealthy.
She's doing wealthy things.
She knows how to dress and look nice.
So she's dressing and looking nice.
People are always going to do that.
And listen to me.
All those things I just listed, all of those people have already existed a thousand times,
a million times, a billion times under the sun.
It's already been done.
You cannot do anything that anyone else does and do it for God and somehow bring him glory.
It's not going to work.
What you have to do is the one thing that you would not do.
That's what you have to do.
You have to say, people have to look at you like, there's a man.
There's a man who I wouldn't expect him to be doing that.
I know him.
I can't imagine that he would extend himself in that way to do this thing.
Wow.
He's really taken a risk.
He's putting himself out there.
He's really, she is really doing something that I don't think they're capable of doing.
They're going on their own strength.
That's when God gets the glory.
Less of you, more of him.
David wanted to bless God and David could build and he could collect resources and he
could, he could command men.
He could put it all together.
I'm going to be honest.
I honestly think that if David had built the temple, he'd have built God a bigger, better
temple than Solomon did.
Not that it wasn't big and great and awesome, but he probably would have gone even more
because David had enough in him to know that the grandiose displays, if they're going to
mean anything, they have to be truly grand.
He would have probably marked out a temple size that was a hundred times as big as Solomon
and said, I won't get this built in my lifetime, but I'm going to get started on it.
We're going to build this out over the next five generations and it's going to be half
the size of the city.
So that no one within a hundred miles can look into the sky and not see the temple of
God.
This is the kind of heart that David had for God.
But he realized that that grandiose display at the point at which he was walking in front
of the Ark of the Covenant anyway was not available to him.
So he put on a linen ephod and he danced like a madman to God's honor and glory.
And I'm wondering when people who have become Christians who have realized that God has
saved their soul by grace, you can't earn it by grace.
Your works of righteousness will always be as frailty rags.
We'll get to doing the things that God wants them to do that they don't think God wants
them to or they don't think God would use them for or they don't think that would fit
their personality.
I'm not about to call for an underwear dance, but spiritually and emotionally, you're going
to have to decide to do the things that God would have you to do that are outside you.
And that's when you'll be honoring the Lord the way David wanted to.
And there will be someone who will look at you and say, oh, you're getting an awful lot
of attention by doing that and you will give the glory to God.
But there will be someone who knows the Lord, who knows what God wanted you to do, who will
look at you and it'll say, yeah, I see what you're actually doing.
You're humbling yourself before God.
You're honoring God outside your own capabilities, outside your own strength to do what it is
that God would have you.
You're glorifying God by humbling you.
One thing in the text I want you to see in there is that Mikhail was the end of Saul's
line.
She was the end of the story for Saul, really.
Some say she was wrong by David or trapped in a horrible relationship or she was unloved
or she was ripped away from the man who truly loved her.
That she was just from the wrong family and had it, you know, bad the whole time.
She's the one who lowered David in a basket out the wall to escape Saul.
But later when David gave credit for escaping Saul, you know who he gave it to?
Jonathan.
Not to call it all.
She wasn't mentioned.
But, you know, that was their society.
Women didn't really have a lot of rights and they didn't get mentioned a lot.
But that's not Christian or godly society.
Of course, David wasn't a Christian, but he was a follower of the Lord.
The bottom line is her house ends here.
It ends at the moment that she does not recognize that David is humbling himself before God.
When she accuses those who are serving God in humbling themselves before God of actually
looking for attention themselves.
You know how many times, I mean, you know me, I'm not really, you know, I was spoken
about me or anything like that.
I do use some examples from my life and I try to be very transparent.
I've repented a number of times in the pulpit and things like that.
But so often I'm treated or talked to like I am an enemy.
Like my opinions about what Scripture says are flawed when I literally am just taking
it the way it's written.
I'm attacked from my political views.
All I have to do is say one thing that I don't agree with something or I agree with something
and I will be attacked from all kinds of people that I didn't even know existed.
There are a lot of people who just don't get it.
Now in this church, there are people who recognize I'm just trying to do my best serving the
Lord and they will stand up for me and they will stand with me and they will try to do
what it is that God would have them to do.
And that's what we're called to be.
The reality is that God can take away all of your positive outcomes, all of your hopes
and dreams or what you think or the next generation or where you want to be one year from now,
five years from now, 10, 20, God can take all of that away and you say, but that's not nice.
No, it's not nice.
It's rap.
It's violent opposition.
Uso reached out to steady the Ark of the Covenant because there was a little shake and he thought
it might fall off the brand new cart when the ox stumbled and God killed him instantly.
And like it says in the text that David got mad when he heard that Uso had been killed.
He was angry with God, but David didn't know Uso's heart and he submitted that to God.
He named that place the place at which God destroyed Uso and then he sent the Ark up
into Obed Eoms house and didn't bring it up to Jerusalem.
He said, how can I bring that up to me?
God is holy.
Listen to me.
If you dance on a linen E Fod before the Lord in a prideful way, he's likely to destroy
you or your house, your family or your finances.
This is no joke.
The God of heaven can eliminate your positive outcomes.
And in many cases already had we were once objects of wrath.
And if we are now followers of Jesus Christ, but working in our own strength, unwilling
to work in God's strength, unwilling to submit to the Lord, unwilling to follow the Lord,
the way he said, then we are probably facing that wrath despite the fact.
What did he say?
He said, I'll love him.
I'll never stop loving him, but I'll beat him with the rods of men when he is disobedient.
God is not going to walk away from us.
He's going to hang with us to the very end, but he is going to chastise or discipline
us because he loves us.
He's not going to let us keep going our own way.
You've got to go God's way.
You have to.
The two sons of Eli were destroyed.
Eli himself fell off a chair and broke his neck when the Ark of the Covenant was lost
to the Philistines.
He goes back.
Look at every time the judge fell away, the people went into wickedness and then God sent
the nearby nation to come and attack God's people.
And men died and women died and children were killed because the people were not honoring
God with their choices.
They were worshiping false gods.
God chose Jacob over Esau.
Jacob I loved Esau.
I hated the God of heaven.
Doesn't mean he didn't love him as a human being, but he despised them in comparison
to the people of promise.
It would be God's people will eventually foster and begin the church which started us.
We all got saved because of Jacob, not because of Esau.
Esau found a nation called Edom.
You can go there now in the mountains.
They carved huge stone fortresses.
Look it up online.
It's awesome.
Pictures of huge stone fortresses carved in the mountains.
And you know where the people are?
Nobody else knows either.
God said eventually I will wipe that nation in the face of the earth and no one will remember
what happened to it and guess what happened to Edom.
All the people disappeared and nobody knows what happened.
They figured a nation came in and literally carried them all into captivity or whatever
and it was never recorded in history.
But God said he would wipe them out and he did.
God can eliminate your positive outcomes.
You can literally cease to exist in the kingdom of God unless you figure out that there is
a way to honor God and it has to do with you getting outside your personal preferences,
outside what you think is right, outside your judgment of God and God's people and living
there.
Okay, God, I get it.
You're big, you're strong, you saved me, you cleanse my soul, you inhabited me.
Because of that, I have an attorney to have with you.
Now I'm done.
I'm not living for me anymore.
I'm living for the one who died for me.
Sanctuary is five.
Me call was the end of Saul's line.
So we got the end of a house.
But then look at what David was promised.
The thought of what God had promised to David easily overcomes David's desires to build
God a house.
David said, I'm gonna build you a house.
God said, have I ever asked anybody to build me a house?
David said, I'm gonna build you a house.
God said, have I ever asked anybody to build me a house?
Listen to what I've done for you.
Listen to what I'm doing for you.
Listen to what I'm going to do for you.
And from that moment on, David let's it go.
He doesn't say I'm gonna build a house anyway, even though God doesn't want me to do that.
He doesn't say I'm gonna keep being the kind of guy who can work with the military and
work with the soldiers and work with the temple and work with the money and all that.
That's how I'm gonna honor God.
No, he poured out his heart before God.
And we see that all throughout the Psalms.
David decided that the proper response to what God had done is doing and will do is
praise.
David's desires to do one more thing for God were easily overcome by God's replacement
plan for him, which was to praise him, to live humbly before the Lord and put God first.
And he danced and eliminated the ephod and he wrote Psalm after Psalm after Psalm and
he was in the temple and they praised God.
And that's what you and I are called to do.
The next time God does something good for you, this is gonna happen.
Okay, you're gonna get checked in the mail.
Oh man, I was expecting this money.
This is awesome.
I'm gonna give God some of that, man.
I'm gonna make sure, I'm gonna thank God for that money by giving him some.
The moment and time you make that decision is already too late.
Your heart is in the wrong place.
You've got it all wrong.
Yes, God may have sent you that check.
Yes, God is blessing you.
He's blessing you because of his character.
It's not a question about what are you now gonna do with those blessings.
We say that all the time, don't we?
God has blessed me.
Now what am I gonna do with those blessings?
God has literally already gave you the kingdom.
You are heir and joint heir with Christ.
That means every blade of grass on that lawn outside eventually is owned by us.
Every star in the sky whose name we cannot name eventually owned by us.
Free access to the throne room of God to spend time with our Father.
Free access to come and go from the new heaven to the new earth to ride a horse in one moment
and shoot across the stars in the next.
Free access.
And we're gonna thank God for checking the mail.
We're gonna give him a little more money because he gave us a check in the mail.
You should be, we should be living a heart of gratitude every day all the time.
And there should be no question if God sends us a blessing that he's gonna get back much
of it because we're already giving back much of everything.
When you get in view that God, what God will do, how God has changed you past, present,
and future, what God is building for you, your priorities will change from building
something for God to praising the Lord with your every breath, action, and step.
You won't be able to spew venom because your mouth will be too busy spewing praise.
You won't be able to do something more for God because your schedule will be so busy
with the things that you are doing to give him praise and glory that there will be no
time left over to go, oh, I better give him something more.
Like the little boy who had no money to put in the offering plate and walked up to the
front of the sanctuary and eventually all the money went into one plate and the other
plate went on the ground and he stepped and stood in the plate and said, I got no money,
but I give him me.
That'll be you.
And you'll stop looking at the balance of your checking account thinking, I have enough
money to pay my bills or I don't have enough money to pay my bills.
You have a God that will pay your bills if you will put the kingdom of God first.
He said, Seek the first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.
So you will get out of bed in the morning.
You will say, OK, Lord, how do I praise you actively with this day?
What would make this day the most about me getting out of the way and lifting you up
so everybody can see?
What would make this day about that?
But that's not what people are doing.
Not only people out in the world lost people that don't know Jesus, but people in the church
too.
When we get a view of what God will do, you can't buy your ticket to heaven.
Your retirement is not going to buy one tiny little stone on your driveway in heaven.
It's not going to do it.
Winning a million people to Jesus would not give you the right to walk into the throne
room of God when you die.
Nothing would do that.
Nothing you can do will ever entreat God.
Now, I understand it says give and whatever measure by which you give will be given back
to you.
But why do you think that is?
Because when you give, your heart is already in the right place.
Right?
You're already doing this to praise God and do it because I love God.
God has already done so much more for me than I could ever do for him.
I'm going to stop trying to do for him to pay back what he's done for me and start paying
it forward and giving it all to God all the time as much as I possibly can.
When you get in view that which God will do, it will change your priorities from a priority
of building something for God to a priority of praising God with your voice, with your
actions, with your strength, with your breath, for a priority of praising God.
Obedience is praise when you think about it correctly.
I'm going to follow the Ten Commandments.
I'm going to stop lying.
I was listening to a woman who did a little devotional and she said she's had a real
problem with speeding and she would drive 10, 50 mile over speed limit everywhere she
went.
So then she hurts the pastor preach on it sometime and he said, if you just govern your
foot and think of it as praise, think of it as your praising God when you set the speed
at or below the speed limit or within four miles or wherever you set it, set the speed
there and you don't drive that 50 mile over and you think of every moment that you're
choosing not to drive 50 mile over speed limit, you think of every moment that you're doing
that as praising God.
And she said from that moment on she never sped.
She didn't have a problem because she just would put her foot on the pedal and she got
up to about 65.
She'd say praise Jesus.
I'm going 65.
And from that moment on she was able to do it and it's you too.
It's like getting out of bed in the morning.
It's about going to bed at night.
It's about working out.
It's about eating right.
It's about encouraging others.
It's about stepping up and serving all the things.
If you would think of everything you're doing as praising God, you will soon find some things
that you are doing that cannot be thought of as praising God.
Too many calories, too much caffeine, a little bit of alcohol, a little bit of pornography
on the side or just some soft pornography girls and bikinis, you know, whatever guys,
muscle guys and string bikinis or whatever the work, whatever your thing is, all of that.
All of that can be done as praising God.
And if your heart is in the right place like David, then it's less me, more God.
And when you do that, you'll be like, Hey, I can't do this praising God.
So then you start to cut it out naturally because you're going to replace it with that
which will praise God.
But maybe you don't realize what God has done for you or what God is doing for you or what
God is eventually going to do for you.
Maybe that's why your actions are not praising him.
I submit to you that if that's true, you need to repent and turn to the Lord today and make
your actions praise him.
The next time you say can't, I want you to think of this and our family, at least she
was growing up, but we just started to do this with Ariana a little bit.
She would say can't all the time.
I can't buckle my seat belt, can't get my door shut.
I can't do this.
I can't have my socks on.
Can't, can't, can't.
And we used to say what?
There is no can't.
God tells you to do something.
There is no can't.
You say, but if I go out there, I may wind up dead.
Okay, fine.
There is no can't.
When you know what it is that the Lord would have you do, there is no can't.
You say, but I'm addicted to caffeine.
I have to drink all that caffeine, which I know is too much.
There's an amount of caffeine in the trees and there's an amount that's not.
I have to do that.
Or I'm addicted to watching TV.
I have to stream and see IS 40,000 episodes of the three to ten different varieties.
I have to sit in front of the TV every night for two to three hours.
I have to do that.
I'm addicted to it.
It's who God made me to be.
Get outside who God made you to be and make a choice to honor the Lord in that moment
and turn the TV off and read your Bible and pray, sing praise songs until you fall asleep.
The next time you feel like you have to do something that does not honor God, read your
Bible and pray and sing praise time songs until you fall asleep.
And then get up the next day, ask yourself today, how am I going to live?
Or maybe you don't understand what it is that God has already done, what he's doing
or what he's going to do for you.
The point now is to be a people of praise, obedience and gratitude.
Jesus said to the woman as well or to the disciples there and all that were gathered.
He said that God is looking for worshipers in spirit and in truth.
And when you are watching things, you're not supposed to be watching.
When you're doing things, you're not supposed to be doing.
When you're eating things, you're not supposed to be eating.
When you're failing to take care of yourself in the way that will allow you to be God's
servant for another 50 to 80 to 100 years on the earth.
When you're failing to do those things is because you don't have an understanding of
your relationship with God, which is supposed to be this is my action of praise.
Talking with the brother say, I need to get this done.
He says, I can't do that.
I call a sister on the phone.
I said, I need to get this done.
She said, I'll make it happen.
Another day I call sister on the phone.
She says, I can't do that.
I'm busy doing this.
It's a work for God.
I know, but I'm busy.
Okay.
Call another one.
Yep.
I'll do it right now.
I was supposed to do this, this and this.
I have all these things I got to do, but I see that's for God.
I'm going to do that right now.
Are you willing to do that?
You want to bless God.
If you know these things, you want to bless God.
How will you lift him up and humbly get out of the way?
As I said before, one way that works, do that thing you never would do.
Not something that sin, but it's different.
Something that in your personality, you would not give up.
You say, I can't.
I can't do it.
When God told me I was not allowed to have pop after 40 days and I haven't pop.
I'm like, but God, but come on, I want the pop.
And I'm not saying you have to give a pop, by the way.
You find your way of doing something for God that you would not normally do.
You're like, I can't do this unless God does it through me and then do that and then tell
everybody about it because God did it.
Tell them what you've seen and what you've heard.
Matthew 514, the same concept.
We're very near the end.
One reference left.
Matthew 514.
You probably already kind of like that rings a bell.
It's about something I know, but I want the verses before and after it.
So I'm going to flip there toward the beginning of the Sermon of the Mount.
Jesus says this beginning of verse 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt
should lose its taste, how can it be made salty?
I want to ask you as a Christian, what do you taste like?
And that's being overly simple.
When people encounter you, do they encounter somebody who is actively at that moment praising
God?
Like when you go out to eat, like do you bow your head and pray when you go out to eat?
And if you do, do you do it silently or do it loudly?
Not rudely, but loud enough that somebody at least a couple of tables away would hear.
Do you offer to pray with your server if you go out to eat?
Some of us are like, I don't ever go out to eat.
But when you're with us, when you have somebody over to your house, so you go over to their
house and you don't have anybody over their house.
So why don't you have anybody?
That's just not what I do.
Okay, well there's one thing you can put on your list.
You could go out to eat to praise God.
You could call somebody over to your house to praise God.
You could go to somebody's house to praise God.
You could do those things to praise God.
And then when people encounter you, they will encounter somebody praising God.
Instead of talking about sports or whatever, they will encounter somebody praising God.
You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be
made salty?
It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's foot.
You are the light of the world.
A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lamp stand it gives light
for all who are in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father in heaven.
You are the light of the world.
You know why?
Because you know what God has done for you.
You know what God is doing for you.
And you know what God will eventually do for you.
And you are the light of the world to show that, to teach that, to praise God for that,
to dance in a linen e-...
Listen, if you can't call people on the phone, text people show up at their house, you can't
send gifts, give more, serve more, do more, mark more hours out in your day, then get
your stinking underwear and get down front and start dancing.
Because somebody somewhere better be able to figure out that you're shutting you down
and turning God on in your life or otherwise you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If nobody can see a light and you know, one can see the...
So you're serving, you're like, I'm serving, but I don't ever tell anybody about Jesus.
I'm serving.
Right?
I'm strong.
I'm doing strong things.
I'm smart.
I'm doing smart things.
I'm wealthy.
I'm doing wealthy things.
I'm tricky.
I'm doing tricky things.
I know how to dress myself.
I'm dressing.
Okay?
How on earth does that show anybody that you're a follower of Jesus?
And the answer is, it doesn't.
If you just be who you are, who God made you to be, that will not show anybody something
different.
But if you've been born again, made new, got a spiritual gift, got something you could
do you couldn't do before, you do that, you start showing up when nobody expects you to
show up or in ways that nobody expects you to show up, then they'll go, what is going
on with that person?
We are not of this world.
People should be looking at us going, what is going on with that person?
Why is it every single time I run into him, he's singing a praise hymn?
Or why does he always say that line about James chapter 1?
Or why does he always offer to pray for me every time I see him?
People should be wondering, because you're the light of the world.
You know what God did for you, is doing for you, and will do for you.
God wrote to the church in Ephesus essentially that this is the people that we're supposed
to be.
Last reference of the day, Ephesians.
I'm going to use a verse from chapter 1 and then verses from chapter 4.
Once I find it.
Ephesians is a great book about the church.
In fact, it's largely about the church.
Verse 1, 18 and 19 says this, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
So you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance
in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe
according to the mighty working of his strength.
That was written to the church.
Look at what he prayed for them.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you can wake up and see what's going
on.
What is the hope of his calling, how big, how mighty, how powerful, how effective is the
hope of his calling?
What is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints?
God's going to give you more than you could earn in your lifetime and you're going to
give it to you for an eternity without end.
And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power, the power of God for crying out
loud.
We need to see that towards us who believe according to the mighty working of his strength.
We can figure this out.
It's pretty obvious that what you experience when you got saved, you've got to be saying
something about it.
You've got to let it affect who you are.
Then in seven four, 17 through 24.
Therefore I say this and testify in the Lord, you should no longer live as the Gentiles
live in the futility of their thoughts.
Hang on.
We shouldn't live like the world lives translating it to modern vernacular.
We shouldn't live like the world lives.
And if you tell it, we shouldn't be thinking like they think.
They are darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance
that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.
They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity.
That means various sexual things for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for
more and more.
But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught
by him as the truth is in Jesus to take off your former way of life, the old self that
is corrupted by deceitful desires to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on
the new self, the one created according to God's likeness and righteousness and purity
of truth.
And then he gets into and I won't read it.
He says therefore put away lying, speak the truth and a variety of other things that we
should do that are good works that we tell people they should do out of obedience to
the Lord.
Recognize what God has already done and what he has promised to do for you and respond
accordingly.
Turn your attention to praising him every moment of every day.
He has now chosen us as his temple, not a house made of cedar or attempt made of tarps or
carpets.
We have become his light and in time our crazy actions, our self sacrifice and self-denial
would become obvious to all as his work in us.
What he is calling you to give up, what he is calling, what he is calling you to put
in what he is calling you to be.
That's easy.
He's calling you to be his to walk in him.
He's got to be in your life at every moment of the day that you're awake and have any
control over it and probably then it'll be in your dreams to he's calling you to be his
to walk in him and to make this same relationship available to a lost and dying world.
When it's like that you'll be able to stop reading your Bibles going and it says thou
shalt not lie, well I better stop flying because instead you'll be praising God through speaking
the truth.
You won't have to read that where it says, I shall have no other gods before me, no idols,
no worship anyone or anything else and declare its value or their value because you'll be
busy declaring God's value.
You'll be looking every day at every moment, how do I praise the Lord with this, what I'm
going through.
Mikal got the raw end of the deal.
I submit to you her story would have ended completely differently if she had just recognized
how much honor God deserves and how much a great man, the greater the man, the more he
should humble himself before God.
If she had just figured that out this story would have ended differently.
I'm asking you, I want to for me, I want to figure it out.
I want to live my life every moment of every day in praise to the living God who has done
so much already, who is doing so much in me and who is doing way more in the future than
I can ever understand.
By the time you have to be corrected and somebody to minus you you already missed a boat, you
already forgot, already failed to understand.
I pray that our hearts will be enlightened and we will realize how much God has done,
how much he is doing and the eternal house that he is promising us.
That son of David that would be on the throne forever, that's our Jesus.
We are heirs and joint heirs with him.
If we can figure this out and live accordingly.
I'm going to say a brief prayer for us today and then we'll be having the praise team come
and we'll praise our way out.
And we forget sometimes with the hymn of decision that that's praise but it is praise.
If you don't have a reason to repent today, if you don't have a reason to say, hey I have
not been praising God with my life every moment of every day and I want to turn my life over
to him and let him do that through me.
I've been allowing my weaknesses or my experiences to hold me back to these things that God would
have to do.
I've been feeling like I need to do more for God because I'm so grateful for what he
does but instead of me doing more, building on something on this earth, feeling like I'm
doing something more for God, I need to realize all my actions need to be out of praise, all
my steps need to be in his ways.
If you need to make that decision and make it, if you don't need to make that decision
then it's a praise song that God led you to a place already where you already know and
you already are all day long every day trying to live according to praising him.
Jesus is not Lord 23 hours out of the day.
He's Lord 24 hours out of every day.
If you take them breaks here and there, you have no Lord at all.
No breaks.
Just Jesus all the time.
Praise are you.
That's pretty good.
Father in heaven we thank you and praise you.
We see our weaknesses.
We also see our strengths.
Sometimes the enemy comes at us and makes us want to ignore our strengths and we don't
want to use our strengths and then we don't want to work on our weaknesses and we realize
that we fail or we wouldn't do well.
In our greatest weaknesses you are made strong.
You see what you did on the cross at Calvary.
When I think about how it's been six years since we signed our constitution, I think
it's about how it's been almost 2,000 years since Jesus died on the cross.
Both of those seem impossible to me.
I had to move so quickly.
It's been 2,000 years almost since Jesus died on the cross.
It's hard to fathom.
For me it was that day when I was 25 years old and I counted you for the first time.
You forgave me of my sins.
Set me on a new course.
And then it was this morning and it was just moments ago.
And I said the things that are hard for me to say, hard for me to grapple with, but I
can trust them because they are your things.
Try to help us deny ourselves and take up our craft daily and follow our view and help
us stop thinking that means we can do it our way.
I don't understand why we ever thought deny ourselves, do it our way, that those two things
go together, doesn't make sense.
They are almost opposites.
I do know that people find their group, they find the rhythm serving you, filing you, praising
you every moment of every day and they cut things out of their lives, perfectly good
things and people are like, why did you have to cut that out?
It's a perfectly good thing.
It's not even sin, right?
And they cut them out.
They're going to go dismiss them.
And they're better off for it.
I guess I'd much rather be praising you every moment of every day, every second that I can
control.
I'm asking your help for that.
You never asked me to build you a house.
You never even asked me to become a house.
You did it all for me.
Every person is in this room.
It was up Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
And every person is listening, but that averages this message.
But that any person in this room takes this message or one like it out to the world.
The gospel is simple.
That Jesus lived, he died, he rose again.
And they're leaving in him.
They're saved, forgiven, have a Lord, have eternal life.
Father, help us praise you every moment of every day.
So we want to have to find ourselves going, oh, I want to do more for God.
We'd rather find ourselves saying, I can't believe what I've been able to do for God.
It's amazing.
God is so good.
And there will be no underwear dancing word.
But we know there will be embarrassing moments, hard moments, challenging times to overcome,
times which we will feel like the victim.
We'll feel like things didn't go the way we thought they should have gone.
And those times, Lord, we pray that with your help we will be found praising you for all
that you've done, all that you're doing, and all that you will do.
I pray all these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Ask Christy to come forward at this time and lead us in our closing hymn.
And if you're not making some kind of decision in your heart today, then you praise God right
where you are.
And if you are making some kind of decision, then you come and make that information public.
And let yourself be held accountable, let yourself be prayed for and encouraged as we
commit ourselves to praise Him today.
Would you stand and sing with us?