Today begins a brand new sermon series entitled Tools of the Carpenter.
And today I want to talk with you about what's going on in your life.
I want to talk with you about the problem you're facing.
I don't know the problem you're facing individually, but I do know that God, who knows the problem.
I also know that every single one of us in this room are human beings who face constant trials, temptations, problems, situations.
So I want to talk with you about your trial, your temptation, your situation, your problem.
And over these next four weeks, we've got four tools that are carpentry tools, historic tools.
Tools that have been used by carpenters for thousands of years.
And we know that Jesus himself was a carpenter.
Throughout his teenage years, he apprenticed with his stepfather, Joseph.
Throughout his entire 20s, for nearly probably about 16 to 17, 18 years of his life,
he worked as a carpenter before he preached a sermon.
That's what he did.
Tools like these.
And what I find fascinating about our Savior, Jesus Christ, is that oftentimes, I believe Jesus Christ uses the same tools that he used on blocks of wood.
He uses to shape our block-headed selves.
I see that Jesus Christ, the carpenter, uses these tools on us.
And I find them exemplified in Luke chapter 18.
Because for those of you who don't know, we are preaching through the book of Luke.
Verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and in chapter 18, I find four specific tools of the carpenter that he uses to shape and mold his disciples.
And we're going to see all of them over these four weeks.
If you're ready to get into part one, say amen.
Part one is entitled, The Chisel.
The Chisel.
Chipping away the imperfections.
I was with my family, as I said, on a family road trip.
And we went to New York City for a few days.
And in New York City, just an incredible time.
And one day was Central Park Day.
And I love Central Park Day because it's the free day.
It's just free to walk through Central Park.
And all of us, my children are older, so they just, you know, they kind of go out and kind of do their own thing.
And even my wife and I that day, we kind of separated and we did our own thing.
I like to do audio tours where there's an app and I download the audio tour of any historical area.
And I can walk the tour and I can hear, get some exercise and walk and hear the history.
So I downloaded one about the history of Central Park.
And I walked from place to place, looking at the history, looking at the statues, looking at the different parts of the park.
And each place that you stopped, there were benches and like old men do, I would sit down.
And one place I sat down and there was a man sitting probably just a few feet away from me.
And as he sat down, I noticed he pulled out of a bag a long wooden stick that had on the sides of it a carving of an eagle or a falcon,
a carving of a turtle and the face of a man on the other side.
And this is really interesting. So I paused my audio book to just watch this man for a moment.
And he pulled out of his bag next, but I hoped he would.
And that was an old fashioned chisel and a tiny little hammer, very different than the one that's seen here.
And they began to chip away all of the parts of the wood that he knew were not part of the original plan for this masterpiece he was working on.
Now, fascinatingly enough, I had already written this sermon for this Sunday and I'm sitting there watching a master carpenter chip away pieces of wood to create a masterpiece.
Isn't it interesting to you to know that a block of wood in the hands of a master carpenter, an artist, an artisan, can really create a masterpiece?
In the story today we find Luke chapter number 18. We find a very strange story about a woman who is in need and a judge who won't listen to her court case.
And in this day and age that was not untypical. You see, you live in the United States of America where we have a right to a speedy trial.
That is, you have a right to stand before a judge. That is a unique freedom for this country.
Aren't you thankful to be an American, amen? I missed 4th of July here so I didn't have a chance to say it.
But I'm proud to be an American, aren't you? Can I get an amen there?
We have a right to a speedy trial, but not throughout history. We haven't all had that opportunity.
In fact, during the day of Jesus' day, you did not have a right to stand before a judge.
In fact, often you had to pay to stand in front of the judge and then you had to pay the judge more than the other guy paid the judge to side with you.
It's a really corrupt system. And in this story we see Jesus is dealing with that issue.
Luke chapter 18 verse 1, it says,
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.
Jesus told his disciples a story and the point of the story was so that the disciples would always pray and never give up.
I'm going to ask you, why did Jesus tell this story? You're going to say, because he wanted to teach them, always pray, never give up.
Always pray, never give up. Why did Jesus tell the story we're about to hear?
Always pray, never give up. Why did Jesus tell this story? Always pray, never give up.
Okay, so you understand the context of the story.
Don't lose the point of the story, because the point of the story is that Jesus is telling disciples to always pray, never give up.
Man, if I'm studying in your seat, I'd be circling those words. I'd be underlining that phrase. Always pray, never give up.
Verse 2, there was a judge in a certain city. Here's the story that Jesus wants to prove, always pray, never give up.
There was a judge in a certain city, and he said, who never feared God, nor cared about people.
Jesus says, there was a judge in a certain city, who neither cared for God, or cared about people, and didn't fear God, didn't care about people.
He hated God, and he hated people. I'm going to ask you, was this a good judge or a bad judge?
Bad judge.
Most of you got that right, yes.
He doesn't fear God, and he doesn't like people. Is that a good judge or a bad judge?
Bad judge.
And a widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.
She wanted justice. That's all she wanted.
Every human being in this room knows what it is to desire justice.
Since you were a young child, when you saw the dessert get cut in half, and they got more than you did, this sense of, that's not fair, rises up inside of you.
You were created that way, in the image of God. You have a bent toward justice. You want things to be right, and it's not right when things are not right, and so there's a sense of justice inside of you.
It's the same reason why when you stand in a long line, and somebody cuts in front of you, you're like, what is going on?
It's the same thing that rises up when you're in a long line on the road, and you're waiting patiently in traffic, and all of a sudden a car swoops in front of you, jumps inside, and you realize it's the pastor.
It's true, it'll happen. It'll just stick around. South Las Vegas, it'll happen.
And when that happens, part of you is like, no, what is, right, justice is rising up inside of you. It's not right, it's not fair.
I, about a year and a half ago, two years ago now, I was with Savannah on a trip, my second, or my first daughter, Savannah on a trip, where we had to go somewhere, and I forget what I was doing.
I was speaking somewhere, or I was traveling for a mission, or something, and we happened to get a hotel room, we got the two queen beds, we went to bed at night, got ready, we're exhausted, crawled in the sheets, and as I fell asleep, I peacefully drifted into the darkness,
and I woke up early the next morning, and my ankles were itchy. I'm like, oh, that's weird. You ever wake up scratching? Some of you dudes are like, every day. Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.
And I'm like, wait a second, ah man, that's really itchy. So I looked down, and there are little red bumps around my ankles. I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no.
I pulled back the sheets really quick, I looked over to Savannah in her bed, and I went over, and I pulled back the sheets, and sure enough, bed bugs.
I'm like, oh, you gotta be kidding me. And now, even the places there were no bites, I started to itch. I can see some of you right now, you're like...
Yeah, you're dead. I see, I see, I see. And oh man, I was like, Savannah, get up. She got up, we showered off, and we're like, we gotta get out of this hotel room immediately.
And I was so upset, this sense of injustice. I paid for this hotel room. Now, not only did I pay for this hotel room, the hotel room is a branded national chain.
I won't share the name. Of which I'm a member, a traveling member. I often stay there.
And so, I realized, well, somebody's gotta know about this, and so suddenly I changed my name to Karen, and I...
Just kidding. You poor Karen's. There's some Karen out there, she's like, oh, it's so bad. Now look, it's a joke, it's a joke. But I dealt with the problem. I'm gonna get an email from Karen.
But I did, and why? Because what I needed to do is I needed to let... Like, if the good manager's gotta know that that room has a problem, so I gotta let him know.
And more so, I went over their head to corporate. By the way, can I just tell you what prayer is? Prayer is going over their head.
You got a problem with your husband? Go over his head. You got a problem with your boss? Go over his head.
Got a problem with your government? Go over their head. Go to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.
So I went over their head, I went to corporate, and I worded an email. I've lived long enough to know how to, and I love this chain, and I come often.
I'd love you to look up my members' reward number and see how often I stay with you. And I just want you to know, this is what happened, and these are the photographs of my ankles, and these are the photographs of the bedbugs.
And I just thought with a good company like this, you would want to be aware, because I know you would want to make this right, not only for the next people, but also for one of your most faithful customers.
And man, did I get an email back, and I gotta tell you, they hooked me up.
I now own three hotels, and... That'd be great, right? That'd be great.
No, but if I did, if I did own three hotels based on this story, that actually would not be justice, because sometimes we demand more than is actually due.
And so that would not be justice either. They made it right by me, though. They contacted me back. They said, these are how many nights free? You're gonna get this? How many points on your rewards program?
Is there anything else we can do? Are you satisfied with that? To which I said, yeah, I actually... I'm not happy with what happened. They gave me my money back. But I was satisfied. I was made right.
It was justice, and it felt good. Not just to get the reward. It felt good to see that which was right take place, yeah?
This woman, that's all she wants. She wants justice. And this judge is a bad judge. Look what it says in verse 4.
The judge ignored her for a while, but finally said to himself, I don't fear God, and I don't care about people. Good judge or bad judge? Bad judge.
But this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests.
It's great, right? Persistence. Do you know what Jesus... Does anybody know why Jesus told this story?
Anywhere in the text that might indicate why Jesus tells this story? Anywhere that we've already studied of why Jesus tells this story? Why?
Always pray and never give up. What is Jesus' point here? He's saying always pray and never give up.
Look, he goes on to explain. Then Jesus said, learn the lesson from this unjust judge. Jesus knows he's a bad judge.
Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think that God will surely give justice to chosen people who cry out to him day and night?
Jesus is saying, even the bad judge takes care of people, and we serve a good God. That's what he's saying.
So then Jesus asks a very haunting question. Will he keep putting them off?
We know God will answer prayer. The question is, will he keep putting you off?
Huh. Will God answer your prayer?
Jesus says, I tell you, and he will grant justice to them quickly, but when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who still have faith?
Okay, okay, okay. That's the text. How can we apply it to our lives?
Big thought for the day, God will give you what you need. That's what we see. The question is, what do you need?
The text is not just about justice. It's about God providing what you need. But what is it that you need? Maybe for you, you need justice.
Maybe for you, you need justice. You deserve to get paid. They deserve to get caught, to which I would say, always pray, never give up.
Maybe for you, you need mercy. You know you're in trouble, and you know it's your own fault for what you did.
And you need mercy from God. Okay, what do we do? Always pray, never give up.
Maybe for you, you need hope. It doesn't look good. The job situation, the family situation, the relationship situation, it doesn't look good.
And you just need a glimmer of hope. Okay, for you, always pray, never give up. Maybe for you, it's not what you need. It's what you want for them.
Your friend, your family member, your child, your grandchild, your grandparent, your parent, your coworker, your neighbor.
And you're not thinking about you right now, but you're thinking about them, and you're like, this is what they need. I need for them to wake up, God.
God, wake them up. You're worried for your friend. What's the answer for you? Always pray, never give up.
God will give you what you need. Here's the big question I've been wrestling with. Why is it taking so long?
I've thought about this quite a bit. Why doesn't Jesus have a one and done prayer policy?
Have you thought about that? Like, really? I'm dead serious. I've argued with God, and I've talked with my mentors and pastors over the years.
I really struggle with this. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, why doesn't Jesus say one and done? Ask and done. Done.
But instead, Jesus says, ask and you'll receive, seeking you'll find, not going to be open unto you.
Caveat, caveat, caveat, keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking, I'll get to it.
And I'm being real with you, why doesn't God have a one and done prayer policy?
Like, why isn't there a priority pass for diamond leveled disciples?
For real. There's tons of Jesus followers, right? Followers of Jesus.
Tons of people out there, they're following Jesus, but then there's some of us that are like, we're in church all the time, we're praying all the time, we're like, in a small group,
and we're doing stuff for people, and we gave somebody to the poor, and like, we do all the stuff, all the stuff.
We do all the stuff, and for us, diamond leveled disciples, maybe a priority pass, I pray once and I get what I need.
You're like, that's terrible, I'm not saying, I'm only saying out loud what you thought.
So God will give you what you need, the question is why is it taking so long, and I've come to this conclusion, it could be that God is more interested in creating you than in placating you.
It could be that the Master Carpenter is just professionally chipping away all the things that don't need to be there.
Oh, you'll get what you need, but before you do, just keep on asking.
Yeah, God will give you justice, but first He wants to chip away your prejudice, your inequity, your pride.
God will give you mercy, but first He wants to sand down your attitude of entitlement, your flagrant disrespect for God's law.
Yes, God is going to give you hope, but first He wants to chip away your doubt, your skepticism, your unbelief.
Yes, God is going to wake them up, but first He wants you to learn patience, resilience, reliance, and unflinching faith.
Don't you see He's shaping you, He's crafting you, He's cutting you, He's sanding you, He's making you into something beautiful and truly unique.
That's what He's doing. That's what He's working on.
So the Master Carpenter might be chipping away a bunch of things in your life.
In this passage I find too that Jesus might be chipping away in your life first.
He might be chipping away your passivity.
And number two, He might be chipping away your pride.
Neither of which are aspects of followers of Jesus Christ.
Neither of which are virtues that God wants disciples of Jesus to have.
Passivity and pride are wicked before God.
And so what God does is say, asking you shall receive, seeking you shall find, knocking it shall be opened unto you, but wait.
Maybe God is trying to chip away your passivity.
So what do you mean my passivity?
Being a passive Christian rather than an active Christian.
The courtroom of Jesus' day, of Jesus' society is far different than the courtroom that you and I think of.
We think of grand marble pillars and shiny desks and that sort of thing.
That's not the way it would have been during Jesus' day.
It was more of a tent.
And it would have been a tent that would have been picked up and moved from city to city.
You see, because they did not have a judge for every city, the way the ancient world would do it is they would have a traveling circuit riding judge.
He would be in your town for a little bit and then he would move on to the next town and the next town and the next town.
And you did not have a right to see the judge.
The judge would see you if he chooses to see your case.
The way the community would work is that a community would decide their own matters.
And when the community could not figure out a fight between two people, they would say, wait till the judge comes, stand in line, and then pay the clerks to get in front of the judge.
The only way to get in front of a judge most often was to bribe the judge.
And if you bribed more than the other person, you were almost guaranteed to win.
Isn't that strange that the person with the most money ends up winning the court case?
Thank goodness that's not how it works anymore, you know.
And by the way, it wasn't just during the time of Jesus' day during the Roman Empire.
It goes back thousands of years before that.
Even Solomon, a thousand years before that, wrote about this in Ecclesiastes.
He says the court system is always going to be rigged.
That's how it works.
And so here we find this woman in a scenario where there's a major problem.
She's not going to receive justice.
And the woman immediately has three strikes against her.
I love that Jesus writes the story and tells the story.
This woman has three strikes against her.
Number one, she's a woman.
That was a big problem in Jesus' day.
A woman's testimony was not even considered valid in court.
She could testify, but they would say, it doesn't matter.
You could have a hundred women testify against one man,
but one man's word actually matters.
That's the day and age when she lived.
Not only was she a woman, Jesus said she was a widow.
A woman could not even give a testimony in court
unless her husband stood beside her to verify it was true.
So this woman was not only a woman, she didn't have a husband to testify
that what she was saying was true.
The third strike she had against her was that she was poor.
So if the only way she was going to get in front of the judge
was to pay off the judge, she had no way to get justice.
So what does she do?
Well, she uses the only thing that she possibly can use.
She uses her ability to nag.
Now, before you think that's a sexist comment,
I'm telling you I've known men who will not shut their mouths.
And this is what she does.
She goes to the judge, she's like, I've got no money,
I've got no social standing, I've got no political credentials.
All I know is I could stand in front of your court every day
and say, hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me, hear my case.
Look at verse three.
A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, he's saying,
give me justice in my dispute with my enemy.
You say, pastor, I don't know anybody big.
I'm nobody important.
I don't have the money to pay off anybody.
What do I need to do?
You need to go to God and you need to say, God, hear my case,
God, hear my case, God, hear my case, God, hear my case,
God, give me justice, God, give me what I need,
and keep asking until he answers.
Now, you might ask again, why doesn't he just answer the first time?
And the answer is Jesus wants his followers to be men and women of action.
Not that you go do what you asked him to do, but that you keep on asking him.
There's a passive nature in the heart of men and women.
We just want life to go by us and some of us even have taken Christian theology
and twisted it to fit our lazy mindset.
That which will be will be.
There's nothing I can do it.
I prayed about it.
Oh, well, we'll see what happens.
And Jesus says, I'm telling you a story so that you will always pray and never give up.
So maybe you've asked him and he hasn't answered yet because he's trying to chip away your passivity.
He wants you to ask and he wants you to keep asking and want you to keep asking after that.
He wants you to keep asking and keep asking and keep asking.
That's why the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter four and verse 16,
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.
There we will receive mercy and we will find grace to help us in the time that we need it most.
Jesus is wanting you to take action, have boldness, be strong, never quit, never give up.
That's what he's saying.
Did you ever as a child eat juicy fruit?
How many of you remember juicy fruit when you were a kid?
How many of you remember buying juicy fruit for 25 cents?
You remember that 25 cents?
I remember as a child, my father would say, I remember when a Hershey bar was a nickel.
And I was like, you are so old.
And now I do it to my kids all the time. I'm like, juicy fruit used to cost 25 cents.
You remember you get back a juicy fruit and you'd be like, it was so good.
It was so good for like five seconds.
You're like, after five seconds, it goes from tasting like this amazing juicy fruit
to tasting like you're chewing on tar with no taste.
It just goes away. You know, it's like it was strong and then there's no strength.
I think we have a lot of juicy fruit Christians.
Like, man, we are strong for Jesus for like five seconds.
And then we're done. We're done.
You say, well, that's a hard thing to say to us.
No, friend, it's a true statement that he's saying to us.
He's looking for you to have strength.
He's looking for you to never give up.
He's looking for you to keep on asking and keep on asking and keep on asking and keep on asking
and keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going.
Remember the point of Jesus telling the story in Luke 18 verse one?
Jesus said, I've got a story to tell my disciples.
It's a story that I want you to know so that you will always pray and what?
Never give up.
So Jesus chips away your passivity by giving you responsibility of active prayer and action-based living.
Do you struggle with passivity?
Maybe that's why your prayer is not answered yet.
He will.
Day and night keep asking.
He might be chipping away your passivity.
For some of us, he might be chipping away your pride.
It's the last thought of the sermon, pride.
So what do you mean by pride, pastor?
I asked you at the beginning of the sermon to think of the problem that you're facing right now.
Did you think of it?
You think of the problem that you're facing right now?
Maybe not everybody has a problem.
I do.
I have been thinking of my own issue that I'm facing.
It's a big problem.
It's a serious issue.
You say, well, what is it?
I don't want to tell you mine.
You think of yours.
I want to question, why do you have this problem?
You say, well, I have this problem in my life because of something that somebody else did.
Oh, I get it.
I understand somebody else did it.
I'm asking, why is the problem still there?
Don't you think it's possible that God could have kept that person from doing that thing?
So why do you have this problem?
Why do you have it?
You say, well, it wasn't somebody else.
I got to be honest.
It was me.
It was my problem.
It was my issue.
If it wasn't for my dumb decision, I would not be in this problem.
Okay, great point.
But couldn't have God kept you from making that stupid decision?
So why do you have this problem?
Is it possible that He's allowed you to be in this problem so that He could chip away
your pride and your self-reliance?
You say, what do you mean?
I was lied to as a teenager in church.
I was lied to.
I was told God will never give you a problem that you can't handle.
How many of you were lied to as well?
How many of you, like me, also repeated that lie to others?
I have many times looked at people and said, God will never give you a problem you can't
handle.
It's not true.
Here's what I've learned and what the Scripture says.
God will give you a lot of problems that you are unable to bear on your own.
Why?
So that you take those to a judge who can take care of the problem for you.
Don't you understand?
You were not meant to do this alone.
You were meant to be placed under such heavy pressure that you could not handle it so that
you had to rely upon somebody other than you.
You are not your Savior.
He is.
And so he'll keep putting the pressure until he chips away your pride.
And you come to him and say, okay, I get it.
I can't do this.
I was with my family in New York as I said, walking from place to place, looking at all
the different places.
And it was dinner time and I asked my wife, I said, honey, what do you want for dinner?
I mean, New York has everything.
And she said, I would love some Thai food.
How many of you love some good Thai food?
Six of you?
Okay.
All right.
Good.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And so I said, okay, let's go to Yelp.
And we went to Yelp, put in Thai food and you know how Yelp works.
Anything below a four star is a no.
You know, Yelp is funny because what I want is a five star with a $1 sign.
That's what I'm always looking for.
Where's the five star $1 sign?
That's what I want.
And we found like a four and a half star, like a $2 sign Thai place.
I'm like, all right, let's go.
So we walked in and we were starving because being touring all day long, so very hungry,
not thirsty at all.
And the reason is I think because I come from the desert, so I'm always drinking water.
And even when I'm away, I'm always hydrated and always thinking about that.
You know, those of us grow up here and so I'm there.
I'm not thirsty at all.
I'm just hungry.
I'm hungry.
So we sit down for some Thai food and we like to order family style when we go to a restaurant.
So we'll order five or six dishes and we'll put it all in the, and everybody gets to try
all the different things.
That's what my family likes to do.
And so we're going to try everything.
And I did, I ordered everything, but I forgot.
I forgot to do what I needed to do.
Often I need to do this at a Thai restaurant or a Mexican restaurant.
Often need to do this in an Indian restaurant.
I forgot to tell them a little bit of spice.
Very little.
You say, why?
My family is so white.
Like really white.
Like there's certain kind of mayonnaise's that are like, that's too spicy.
Like Miracle Whip.
We're like, too much spice for us.
That's, it's not, not good.
So all the food comes and we're like ready to like dig in and eat.
We're starving and at this restaurant, they didn't bring you like at Chili's big glasses
of ice with your drink, just like little cups, little cups with a bottle of water.
And so we're fine with that because we're already hydrated.
We started eating and as soon as we started to eat, we just started gulping the water.
They're like, dad, you forgot, there's so much spice.
And but here's the problem we faced.
It was so good, but it was so spicy at the same time.
So we all looked at each other, kind of smiled and gritted our teeth and we're like, let's
go.
We started eating and we are pouring sweat.
It's coming from our faces.
All five of us just sweat, pouring down.
We're eating like, drink more water, please.
And we're just, lady never brought so much water to a table before.
It might be that your life is so, could it be possible that your life is so spicy right
now so that you can begin to desire the water of life?
See when your life is going very, very well, how often are you on your knees?
But when things start getting spicy, when things start heating up, how many times do
you get on your knees and you're like, oh God, you got to do something.
God, you got to come in, you got to do something here.
When things are going great, you got all the, we'll say confidence in the world to take
care of your business.
And then when things are not, suddenly you don't have that, let's call it confidence.
And so could it be that what God is doing is saying, hey, this whole self-reliance thing?
And so when Jesus' words, don't you think that God will surely give justice to His chosen
people who cry out to Him day and night?
So Jesus chips away this pride by giving you problems that you cannot handle on your own.
After today you seem to preach with a lot of passion, like it's very personal to you,
and it is.
Why?
It's because I am dealing with an issue, a problem.
God keeps growing this church, which is awesome, but we're running out of space.
Say, yeah, we have this building project, yeah, we do.
And we're like, we're going to build that, aren't we supposed to be, yeah, we're supposed
to.
So yeah, like pastor, what's going on with that?
We need to pray.
Last time you heard from me on this issue was back in January, if you remember, this
was six months ago, in January I told you, I said, we were supposed to break ground and
get the grading permit in November.
And I came to you in January and said, hey, then it happened, so we're going to do a ceremonial
groundbreaking.
Do you remember this?
And I said, I asked them, how soon will we be able to do the grading and the groundbreaking?
And they said, March.
I said, March?
They said, we're very optimistic.
Do you remember this story?
And I said, optimistically March.
They said, that's great.
What about realistically?
And they said, oh, realistically May.
I said, everything started by May?
They said, realistically May.
I said, just for kicks, what about pessimistically?
And they said, oh, well, they won't, I don't know.
I said, just for kicks, pessimistically, when do you think the worst case scenario?
They said, oh, July.
Anybody know what date it is?
It's July.
Church members, yeah, I didn't mention the year.
Maybe that was my issue.
Like 2039 is not too far away.
So I have church members often asking.
You say, then, well, when is it going to happen?
And the answer to that question is, honestly, I totally believe at this moment God is chipping
away at my heart.
He's saying your passivity as it relates to prayer and your pride I need to deal with
first.
I'm being as real as I can with you.
If you're new here, I apologize.
I'm talking to our church family.
Hand to God, honest to God, I think of myself as a diamond level disciple.
Like I deserve a priority pass.
Like I should be able to go to God and be like, God, I need you to start this building
and do your thing.
And here's the thing, it's not even for me, it's kind of your thing.
So can you just do your thing?
And God's over here like, oh, yeah, it'll happen.
So that's what's going on.
So God's been calling me to pray, which I have been praying.
And that's why we had the drainage study finally pass and we still need the grading permit
and the building permit.
And so I've been praying.
And as I prepared this sermon, I began to realize, oh, God wants me to call us to prayer.
So I don't want you to miss the sermon for your own self individually.
Your problem you need to bring to God in prayer.
And he's chipping away your pride and your passivity.
But it's also equally true that we together, God is dealing with.
And I'm calling the church to a special time of prayer in three ways.
I'm calling every member of the church to pray every day for the passing of the grading
permit and the building permit every day.
That's number one.
If you're willing to pray with me every day, I know you'll miss one and God's not going
to get you.
But if you're willing to say, pastor, I'm going to be willing to try to pray about this process
every day with you.
Would you say amen?
Pray that the building process gets started.
Number two, number two, I want to pray every week.
On Sundays during the worship service over the next three to four weeks, I've asked our
worship team to have a special time of prayer every week in the middle of the service where
you can come forward and pray, kneel and pray.
We've done this in the past about other issues.
We're going to start praying, God, you've got to get this building up.
Yeah?
The problem with our building project is not financial.
You all are giving like crazy and it's amazing to see.
Keep going.
The problem is not people.
We have more people than we've ever had.
We're averaging almost 25% more people this summer than we did last summer.
And summer is supposed to be the slump.
The problem is just getting the building.
So we're going to pray every day.
We're going to pray every Sunday special together collective.
And then the third way is we're going to have a special prayer meeting led by Pastor Fred
where it's going to be given as information, but it's not a simple informational meeting.
You might be having questions about this or that or the other thing.
It's not just informational.
I don't want you coming saying I'm here for information.
I want you to come saying I'm here to pray.
Now I know some of you are thinking that I really church family get this point.
I know some are like, this is good to know because I've got like seven ideas.
Great.
Go tell Pastor Fred those ideas.
But here's what I really think we need to do.
I think we need to pray.
We need to pray.
And say, God, you got to get us our permits so we can build this building so we can go.
There's more than just county approvals at play here.
I think that there's a God who wants a church, but there's an enemy who does not.
And we need to pray a spiritual battle.
Amen.
See, this is how we fight our battles.
Can I get an amen?
Amen.
Let's pray.
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Bye.