WEBVTT 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.099 What is up, Heights? Hope you guys are doing 00:00:05.099 --> 00:00:08.000 good this morning. It is good to be with you. 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:10.880 Welcome to all of you here. Welcome to those 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:14.640 of you online, whether you are watching by yourself 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:16.640 with a group of people, whether you're in Paulding, 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:19.120 Baghdad. I got to visit them a couple weeks ago. 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:21.739 So, so glad to be able to hang out with them 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:24.420 and glad that you guys are joining us today as 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:27.519 well. This summer, I got to go on a trip to the 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:29.820 Dominican Republic, and I got to take a group 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:33.119 of people from Heights with me, specifically 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:36.039 students. And as we were on this trip, man, we 00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:38.039 did so many incredible things. I could show you 00:00:38.039 --> 00:00:40.719 pictures of so many amazing things that we did 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:43.600 on this trip. We got to pray with people. We 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:46.450 got to serve people. We got to do... camps for 00:00:46.450 --> 00:00:48.250 kids and all these amazing things. But one of 00:00:48.250 --> 00:00:50.549 the things that we did that's kind of a snapshot 00:00:50.549 --> 00:00:52.570 I could show you of this trip is we had this 00:00:52.570 --> 00:00:54.570 game going throughout the whole time where if 00:00:54.570 --> 00:00:57.130 somebody fell asleep, whether it was on a bus 00:00:57.130 --> 00:00:59.969 or a plane or anything, we encouraged our students 00:00:59.969 --> 00:01:03.350 to take a snapshot of somebody sleeping. All 00:01:03.350 --> 00:01:05.629 right, so this is what we ended up with. It was 00:01:05.629 --> 00:01:10.599 pretty awesome. It was like that. For embarrassment's 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:12.719 sake, can you go ahead and just leave that up 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:14.879 there the whole service? I'm just kidding. I'm 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:17.239 just kidding. You can go ahead and take that 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:19.819 down to save them some of that embarrassment. 00:01:20.099 --> 00:01:22.640 But man, we took it a little crazy. There was 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:24.019 bounties put on people's heads. They're like, 00:01:24.099 --> 00:01:25.879 listen, if you get Pastor Todd sleeping, that's 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:28.739 two bags of Skittles. I had a price on my head. 00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:32.659 It got crazy. And I show you that because a snapshot 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:35.700 like that, a simple snapshot, really tells a 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:38.439 bigger story. It tells you a story of the fun 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:41.359 that we had. It tells you a story of some of 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:44.239 the things that happened on that trip. And that's 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:46.200 what a snapshot does. It's a picture. It shows 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:48.620 a picture of a bigger story. And so as we're 00:01:48.620 --> 00:01:50.819 in this collection called snapshots, the idea 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:52.400 is this, is that we're looking at the book of 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.620 Exodus. And as we look at the book of Exodus, 00:01:54.680 --> 00:01:57.879 this snapshot shows us a picture of how great 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:00.819 our God is. It leaves us in this place where 00:02:00.819 --> 00:02:05.980 we go, what a God. What a God we serve. And as 00:02:05.980 --> 00:02:07.900 we look at a snapshot today, here's the background 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:09.879 of what's going on in the snapshot that we're 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:13.240 going to unpack today. God goes to Moses and 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:15.879 tells Moses, go into Egypt because my people, 00:02:15.939 --> 00:02:18.340 the Israelites, are enslaved in Egypt. And I 00:02:18.340 --> 00:02:19.719 want you to go to Pharaoh and I want you to say, 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:23.860 let my people go. And so Moses goes to Pharaoh 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:25.659 and he says, hey, you need to let the Israelite 00:02:25.659 --> 00:02:28.180 people go. And Pharaoh looks at Moses and goes, 00:02:28.259 --> 00:02:30.659 heck no, tech no, not happening, bro. Right? 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:32.979 He's like, not going to happen. Not letting those 00:02:32.979 --> 00:02:35.340 people go. And so he goes, all right, so if that's 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:36.780 your response, here's what's going to happen. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:39.879 These plagues are going to come. Plagues are 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:41.840 going to come. Things like flies, things like 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.120 hail, things like boils, things that you don't 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.300 want to happen. And they're going to come. And 00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:48.340 there's two reasons. One is to show that God's 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:50.900 in charge. He is powerful. He's the one that's 00:02:50.900 --> 00:02:54.080 in charge. And two, when you get so annoyed with 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:57.099 these, you're going to let these people go. Now, 00:02:57.139 --> 00:02:59.479 listen, if I was Pharaoh, I'd be like, listen. 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:01.680 go, get out of here. I don't want to deal with 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:03.680 this because I know firsthand, because right 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.039 now at my house, I have the plague of ants happening 00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:08.800 at my house. Like they're literally everywhere. 00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:10.780 It doesn't matter how much we clean. It doesn't 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:12.639 matter what we do. We wake up the next day and 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:14.639 there's ants. We're like, what? And listen, I 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:16.280 don't have regular ants at my house. I have like 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:18.879 ninja ants. You know what I'm saying? Like, like 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:20.460 they show up everywhere, like in my bed. I'm 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:22.919 like, how did you get here? Like, it's crazy, 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:24.580 right? I'm like praying to God. Who do I need 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:26.280 to let go? Do I need to let some people go? Like, 00:03:26.300 --> 00:03:28.460 what is happening here? Why is this happening? 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:30.759 All right, if I was Pharaoh, I'd be like, get 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:33.319 out of here. But Pharaoh didn't do that. And 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:35.319 so God's continued to send these plagues. And 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:36.960 so the first plague is that he turns all the 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:40.280 water to blood. The second plague is this plague 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:43.759 of frogs. Why frogs? Because the Egyptians in 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:47.180 this time, they worshiped a frog goddess, the 00:03:47.180 --> 00:03:49.840 goddess called Hecht. And this frog goddess was 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:51.939 this goddess that had a woman body and a frog 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:54.569 head. And what they would do is they would worship 00:03:54.569 --> 00:03:57.449 her and she was supposed to keep the frog population 00:03:57.449 --> 00:03:59.509 at bay because they live by the Nile River. And 00:03:59.509 --> 00:04:01.330 so frogs would come up, right? And it was supposed 00:04:01.330 --> 00:04:03.370 to keep the frog population at bay. I love what 00:04:03.370 --> 00:04:04.810 God does here. He's like, oh yeah, you think 00:04:04.810 --> 00:04:07.389 that little goddess is gonna keep the population 00:04:07.389 --> 00:04:10.930 at bay? Boom, frogs everywhere, right? So they're 00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:13.509 getting this, but because the frog is a goddess 00:04:13.509 --> 00:04:16.350 that they worship, the frog is sacred in this 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:19.009 Egyptian culture, which means that they cannot 00:04:19.009 --> 00:04:21.970 kill the frogs. And so frogs are everywhere. 00:04:22.069 --> 00:04:23.370 I mean, they're showing up in their bed. They're 00:04:23.370 --> 00:04:24.569 showing up in their kitchen, right? They're at 00:04:24.569 --> 00:04:26.730 work. They open the drawer of their desk and 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:29.069 a frog hops out. Like it's everywhere, but they 00:04:29.069 --> 00:04:30.769 cannot do anything to take care of it themselves. 00:04:31.230 --> 00:04:33.550 Just like the cow is sacred in India, the frog 00:04:33.550 --> 00:04:35.850 in ancient Egypt was sacred. They couldn't do 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:37.889 anything about it. And so Pharaoh goes, we gotta 00:04:37.889 --> 00:04:39.709 do something. We gotta take care of this. The 00:04:39.709 --> 00:04:41.589 only thing that can happen here because we can't 00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:43.269 do it and we've tried everything on our own is 00:04:43.269 --> 00:04:48.000 this. Exodus chapter eight, verse eight. Pharaoh 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.420 summoned Moses and Aaron and said, pray to the 00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:52.759 Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people. 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.740 And I will let your people go to offer sacrifices 00:04:55.740 --> 00:04:58.500 to the Lord. He's going, listen, I need you to 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:00.459 pray to God and take care of this. What Pharaoh 00:05:00.459 --> 00:05:03.000 is doing here is Pharaoh acknowledges where true 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:06.959 power comes from. He acknowledges the true source 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:08.660 of power. Listen, if you're taking notes today, 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:11.879 write this down. We must acknowledge where true 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:15.980 power comes from. We must acknowledge where true 00:05:15.980 --> 00:05:20.189 power comes from. comes from. When I was in high 00:05:20.189 --> 00:05:21.949 school, I got my very first job. I was about 00:05:21.949 --> 00:05:25.089 15 years old and I worked with my friend's dad's 00:05:25.089 --> 00:05:26.769 company. He owned a flooring company. And so 00:05:26.769 --> 00:05:28.610 my friend and I would go in and we were the demo 00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:31.100 guys. We would rip out the old carpet. We would 00:05:31.100 --> 00:05:33.319 scrape the glue off the floor so that the guys 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:35.360 who actually knew what they were doing could 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:37.620 come in and install new flooring and they could 00:05:37.620 --> 00:05:40.079 do that. And so we would be in a room just scraping 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.620 floors for hours with this little like four inch 00:05:42.620 --> 00:05:44.459 blade and we'd just be scraping the glue off 00:05:44.459 --> 00:05:46.759 this floor. The problem for me though was this, 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:49.279 my friend, he was a sweater. Anyone in here know 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:50.800 someone who's just a sweater? You know what I'm 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.519 saying? They're just like, takes like nothing. 00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:54.379 Some of you are in church right now, just sweating, 00:05:54.459 --> 00:05:56.259 right? People are looking at you, you're like, 00:05:56.360 --> 00:05:59.870 I'm praising Jesus extra hard, okay? I saw my 00:05:59.870 --> 00:06:01.490 friend. He'd be in there. We'd be working, and 00:06:01.490 --> 00:06:03.470 my friend's dad would walk in, and he'd look 00:06:03.470 --> 00:06:05.689 at both of us, and he's like, wow, Todd, you 00:06:05.689 --> 00:06:08.189 should work as hard as Matt. And I'm like, Matt 00:06:08.189 --> 00:06:10.089 should sweat like a normal person. That's what 00:06:10.089 --> 00:06:13.189 should happen. But we'd be in there. We'd just 00:06:13.189 --> 00:06:15.649 be scraping these floors all day long. We'd be 00:06:15.649 --> 00:06:17.250 working on it, and then usually towards the end 00:06:17.250 --> 00:06:19.089 of the day, this guy would come in, and he had 00:06:19.089 --> 00:06:21.829 this big machine literally called the Terminator. 00:06:22.660 --> 00:06:24.680 And the Terminator had like a four -foot blade 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:26.800 at the front, and it would push down, and in 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:28.920 10 minutes, it would just scrape the entire floor. 00:06:29.100 --> 00:06:31.300 And I'm like, why am I here? Why am I doing this? 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:34.199 The true source of power came in, and I'm like, 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:35.779 what the heck? And I listen, I think that's you 00:06:35.779 --> 00:06:38.279 and I in our lives a lot of times. In our lives, 00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:40.319 we're like Pharaoh. We're gonna try everything, 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:42.879 but we have to get to a place where we acknowledge, 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:46.480 listen, there's a true source of power. Instead 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:48.220 of turning to the true source of power, we try 00:06:48.220 --> 00:06:49.839 to do things on our own, and I need you to know 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:54.399 this. You can't. do it on your own. I don't know 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.240 what it is in your life, but you can't do it 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.379 on your own. Let's play a little Mythbusters 00:06:59.379 --> 00:07:02.040 church edition. You ready? Because I know you've 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:03.620 heard this from a pastor before. I know you've 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:05.180 heard this in a video before. I know you've heard 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:07.259 this somewhere where somebody said with conviction, 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:10.699 God will not give you more than you can handle. 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:14.379 And everyone says, amen. And that is false. Myth 00:07:14.379 --> 00:07:16.300 busted. Boom. That's a myth. That's not in the 00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:18.199 Bible anywhere. God will not give you more than 00:07:18.199 --> 00:07:21.980 you can handle. Yes, he will. Yes, he will. You 00:07:21.980 --> 00:07:23.759 know why he will? Because he wants you to trust 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:26.819 him. Because if he gave you just what you can 00:07:26.819 --> 00:07:30.959 handle, then you wouldn't need him. It's not 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:33.439 in the Bible. In the Bible, it says he won't 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:36.220 tempt you beyond what you are able to bear, but 00:07:36.220 --> 00:07:37.560 it never says he won't give you more than you 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:39.839 can handle. He will always give you more than 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.519 you can handle so that you rely on him. You can't 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:45.980 do it on your own. But some of you, you're going 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:48.370 through it. I don't know what it is, but some 00:07:48.370 --> 00:07:49.930 of you are going through it in your life right 00:07:49.930 --> 00:07:52.610 now. It's difficult. It's hard. And you're asking 00:07:52.610 --> 00:07:54.949 the question of why. Now, why am I going through 00:07:54.949 --> 00:07:58.250 this? And I can't answer why you're going through 00:07:58.250 --> 00:08:00.350 what you're going through, but I can tell you 00:08:00.350 --> 00:08:03.269 this. God does not change you with a magic wand. 00:08:03.430 --> 00:08:07.170 God changes you through circumstances. And so 00:08:07.170 --> 00:08:08.689 whatever it is you're going through, I know that 00:08:08.689 --> 00:08:11.009 God is trying to teach you something in your 00:08:11.009 --> 00:08:12.430 life. It's not even about that circumstance. 00:08:12.569 --> 00:08:15.740 It's about you. When I look back on my life, 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:17.819 the things that I've gone through, when I've 00:08:17.819 --> 00:08:19.439 lost a job and going, I don't know how I'm going 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:21.259 to support my family. I don't know how I'm going 00:08:21.259 --> 00:08:22.420 to get through this. I don't know how I'm going 00:08:22.420 --> 00:08:23.899 to do this. What God is trying to teach me is 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:25.420 God was trying to teach me the importance of 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:28.819 humility. When my baseball career came to an 00:08:28.819 --> 00:08:30.379 end and I'm going, God, this isn't what I want. 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:33.600 This isn't the plan that I had. God was trying 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:35.580 to teach me that my identity was not in what 00:08:35.580 --> 00:08:38.820 I did. It was in him. When I packed up my whole 00:08:38.820 --> 00:08:40.879 family and moved to a place that I didn't know 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:42.639 anybody, I didn't know a single person, I'm going, 00:08:42.659 --> 00:08:44.259 this is difficult, this is hard. God is going, 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:46.659 yeah, but I'm trying to teach you to trust me. 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:49.860 I don't know what it is that you are going through, 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:51.980 but what if what you're going through is an opportunity 00:08:51.980 --> 00:08:55.539 for you to rely on him in whatever it is you're 00:08:55.539 --> 00:08:58.679 going through? To acknowledge where true power 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:02.000 comes from. Get to a place like Pharaoh and go, 00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:03.519 listen, I'm gonna acknowledge him and I'm gonna 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:05.860 acknowledge where true power comes from. And 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:07.720 here's what I've noticed. That acknowledging 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:10.700 him and his power is directly related to the 00:09:10.700 --> 00:09:14.580 amount that you pray. Because what prayer is, 00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:17.740 is prayer saying, God, I can't do it. I need 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:20.220 you. It's inviting his power into your life because 00:09:20.220 --> 00:09:23.460 you don't have the power. Like, I can't do it 00:09:23.460 --> 00:09:24.980 on my own, so I'm going to invite God in. That's 00:09:24.980 --> 00:09:28.220 what prayer is. That's exactly what prayer is. 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:30.820 And Pharaoh got to a place where Pharaoh was 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:33.440 like, I've tried everything. The Bible says that 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:35.960 he invited his magicians to come in and try to 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:37.799 fix the frog problem. And guess what they did? 00:09:38.460 --> 00:09:41.960 They made more frogs. They made it worse. Not 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:43.879 only could they not fix it, they made it worse. 00:09:44.059 --> 00:09:45.960 And he's going, listen, I got to acknowledge 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:48.879 that you need to pray to your God. Pray to your 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:52.620 God to fix this. Prayer is acknowledging that 00:09:52.620 --> 00:09:54.340 you're not in charge. If you're taking notes, 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:56.940 write this down. Take your problems to prayer. 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:01.779 Take your problems to prayer. Right, we try to 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:03.179 solve them. Take your problems to prayer. And 00:10:03.179 --> 00:10:05.399 I think there's a couple barriers in the way 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:08.080 of us praying when it comes to prayer. The first 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:09.820 barrier that I think is in the way with us is 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:11.580 that we think we have to pray flowery prayers. 00:10:12.519 --> 00:10:14.059 All right, we think we have to pray the old King 00:10:14.059 --> 00:10:15.440 James prayers. You know what I'm talking about? 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:20.799 Dear Heavenly Father God. Right, you're like, 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:22.320 what is this, medieval times? Is like a horse 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.220 gonna ride in right now? All right, we're like, 00:10:24.220 --> 00:10:27.580 dear Heavenly Father God, we thank thee on bended 00:10:27.580 --> 00:10:32.139 knee. because of ye. I don't have any more rhymes 00:10:32.139 --> 00:10:35.799 for you, but man. Because we try to flower up 00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:37.659 these prayers to God, a lot of times they stay 00:10:37.659 --> 00:10:39.279 in a religious box where we go, okay, we bust 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.320 those out when we need them, and they never make 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:44.639 their way into our everyday life. Prayer needs 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.440 to make its way into your everyday life. I think 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:49.039 another barrier for the reasons that we don't 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:53.299 pray is that we don't like the solution to be 00:10:53.299 --> 00:10:56.200 in someone else's hands. We would rather, when 00:10:56.200 --> 00:10:58.480 it comes to prayer, we like to be problem solvers 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:03.240 instead of prayer warriors. I got this. Have 00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:05.120 you ever seen a mismatched couple before where 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:06.919 you see them together and you're like, I don't 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:09.480 know how those people go together. That's me 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:11.740 and my wife. Because you look at me and you're 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:13.460 like, man, that guy is really good looking. I'm 00:11:13.460 --> 00:11:15.080 just kidding. That's not why. That's not why. 00:11:15.580 --> 00:11:18.879 That's not why at all. Don't laugh at that. That 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:23.250 just encourages me. Come on, don't do that. Here's 00:11:23.250 --> 00:11:25.330 the deal. My wife is so much smarter than me, 00:11:25.350 --> 00:11:27.009 and it's apparent to everyone. Everyone's like, 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:31.850 dude, wow, why did she choose you, right? She's 00:11:31.850 --> 00:11:33.470 the voice of reason in my life. Husbands, you 00:11:33.470 --> 00:11:34.509 know what I'm talking about? Your wife's the 00:11:34.509 --> 00:11:37.169 voice of reason. And the voice of reason speaks. 00:11:37.389 --> 00:11:39.490 And here's where it plays out in my life is I'll 00:11:39.490 --> 00:11:42.070 go, okay, yes, I prayed for this, but now I've 00:11:42.070 --> 00:11:44.429 got to figure out how to solve this. And she 00:11:44.429 --> 00:11:46.370 goes, well, didn't you pray? Haven't you put 00:11:46.370 --> 00:11:49.090 it in God's hands? And I don't like that because 00:11:49.090 --> 00:11:51.519 I like action. Because prayer, I go, okay, well, 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:53.299 what's my action plan? What do I need to do now? 00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:55.179 If I just pray, then it's just in God's hands 00:11:55.179 --> 00:11:58.600 and I don't have anything for me to do. It's 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:01.559 not the action that I want. And I think that's 00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:03.179 what we do a lot of times. So usually what we 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:05.580 do is we try everything else. We've tried everything 00:12:05.580 --> 00:12:09.960 else. And then we turn to prayer. And when all 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:15.159 else fails, at least we can pray. Listen, what 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:17.899 if prayer was our first response instead of our 00:12:17.899 --> 00:12:21.220 last resort? What if us as a church came in and 00:12:21.220 --> 00:12:23.759 our first response to whatever it is in our life 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:25.899 isn't to try to solve it ourself, but to say, 00:12:25.940 --> 00:12:27.179 hey, listen, I'm going to put it in God's hands. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:29.740 What if prayer was our first response instead 00:12:29.740 --> 00:12:31.519 of our last resort, but we don't like to do that? 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:33.700 Because when you're sick, you know what you do? 00:12:34.179 --> 00:12:36.860 You start Googling your symptoms. And you're 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:39.840 like, oh, baby, I think I'm dying. I got a headache. 00:12:39.899 --> 00:12:42.399 It's probably a brain tumor. You self -diagnose. 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:44.899 Always you want to tell yourself the worst case 00:12:44.899 --> 00:12:47.500 scenario, then you stress out about it instead 00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:50.330 of praying about it. Or when you have a relational 00:12:50.330 --> 00:12:51.850 issue and you go, man, I know I have to have 00:12:51.850 --> 00:12:53.330 this tough conversation. You know what you do? 00:12:53.789 --> 00:12:55.889 You get in arguments in your head with that person. 00:12:56.789 --> 00:12:59.409 You ever been in a shower argument before? Right, 00:12:59.509 --> 00:13:00.990 you're in there and you're like washing and you're 00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:02.710 like, oh, and they said this and I said that. 00:13:03.269 --> 00:13:06.230 And I said this and I won. You didn't win anything, 00:13:06.309 --> 00:13:07.809 you're crazy. You're arguing with yourself in 00:13:07.809 --> 00:13:12.389 the shower. You know the conversation's coming 00:13:12.389 --> 00:13:14.649 so you stress out about it instead of praying 00:13:14.649 --> 00:13:17.710 about it. You have a situation come in your life 00:13:17.710 --> 00:13:20.820 and what do you do? You gotta ask chat GPT, right? 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:25.899 Chat GPT, what's wrong? How do I fix it? Instead 00:13:25.899 --> 00:13:30.279 of praying about it. I would have prayer in our 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:32.700 life became something constant, not just when 00:13:32.700 --> 00:13:35.220 we were in trouble. What if it was a conversation 00:13:35.220 --> 00:13:38.100 that we had? Here's what I know about prayer. 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:41.080 Prayer is the foundation for what happens next 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:43.879 in your life. Are you building a foundation? 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:47.639 Prayer is the foundation for what happens next 00:13:47.639 --> 00:13:53.679 in your life. What if we as Heights Church, aka 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:55.960 you, because the church is not a building, it 00:13:55.960 --> 00:13:59.159 is a people, what if we as a church built a culture 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:03.639 of prayer? A culture of prayer where prayer was 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:06.360 woven into our daily rhythms. It was just something 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:07.840 that we did. It was a part of our day, not just 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:09.740 before our meals, but it was a part of our day. 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:12.620 What if prayer was our first response instead 00:14:12.620 --> 00:14:15.659 of our last resort? What if prayer became so 00:14:15.659 --> 00:14:18.399 much of what we do in our lives that when we 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:20.360 see one another, we just celebrate all the amazing 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:23.080 things that God has done? What if when we see 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:24.320 each other, we're like, oh my gosh, I can't tell 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:25.980 you what God has done in my life. It's so amazing. 00:14:26.019 --> 00:14:27.740 I've been waiting all week to tell you that I 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:29.279 have a celebration because God answered this 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:30.799 prayer. And then the person you're telling it 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:32.080 to is like, oh my gosh, you're not going to believe 00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:33.659 what God did in my life because we are people 00:14:33.659 --> 00:14:38.220 of prayer. What if we lived into a culture of 00:14:38.220 --> 00:14:44.320 prayer? Pharaoh asks Moses to pray. He says, 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:48.500 hey, can you pray to remove these frogs? Can 00:14:48.500 --> 00:14:50.159 you get rid of these frogs? Because I acknowledge 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:53.120 where the true source of power is and so all 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:56.240 of the frogs die. God says, I'm gonna answer 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:59.860 your prayer. He takes care of all of it. And 00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:02.059 then in verse 15, it says this, Exodus 8, 15. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:07.259 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he 00:15:07.259 --> 00:15:10.159 hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:13.840 and Aaron just as the Lord had said. And isn't 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:17.039 this fascinating? Isn't this fascinating that 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:22.259 he saw God move and then he walked away. He saw 00:15:22.259 --> 00:15:25.299 real true power on display because he couldn't 00:15:25.299 --> 00:15:27.379 take care of the frog. So he prayed and God actually 00:15:27.379 --> 00:15:29.860 did what he couldn't do. And he saw firsthand 00:15:29.860 --> 00:15:35.000 the power of God. And then he walked away. Like, 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:39.720 how can you witness that and not believe, not 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:42.070 live into it? How can you witness it and then 00:15:42.070 --> 00:15:44.350 turn away from it? I don't understand that. Because 00:15:44.350 --> 00:15:48.570 seeing is believing. Seeing is believing. If 00:15:48.570 --> 00:15:49.990 you came up to me right now and you asked me 00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:51.870 a question about crew neck sweatshirts, I would 00:15:51.870 --> 00:15:54.250 say, hey, listen, I know a guy. I know a guy. 00:15:54.529 --> 00:15:56.789 Because I've seen. In fact, that's all I've seen. 00:15:57.110 --> 00:15:58.929 Some of you still don't know who I'm talking 00:15:58.929 --> 00:16:00.549 about. You need to come to church more. I'm just 00:16:00.549 --> 00:16:07.720 saying. Be like, I've seen. So I know. All right, 00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:09.039 if you've seen it, you believe it. And you go, 00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:11.360 okay, listen, I've seen this. I believe it. I 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:14.320 think of Peter in the New Testament. Peter, a 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:17.759 guy who walked with Jesus. Not only did he walk 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:22.860 with Jesus, he walked to Jesus on water. A guy 00:16:22.860 --> 00:16:25.120 who was with Jesus when he healed people, when 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:27.519 he raised people from the dead, when he healed 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:30.019 blind people, when he saw somebody who could 00:16:30.019 --> 00:16:32.919 not walk, pick up their mat and walk away because 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:34.919 of the power of Jesus. And he witnessed all of 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:36.879 that. And then when it counted, when it mattered, 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:40.860 Peter denies Jesus. He denies him. I don't even 00:16:40.860 --> 00:16:44.159 know who he is. And I think it's easy for us 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:45.980 to look at these characters in the Bible and 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:47.980 to judge them and go, how in the world, when 00:16:47.980 --> 00:16:50.240 you saw the power of God firsthand, could you 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.259 walk away from it? But I think the truth is that 00:16:52.259 --> 00:16:54.980 all of us have done the exact same thing. You 00:16:54.980 --> 00:16:57.220 and I do the exact same thing because we've seen 00:16:57.220 --> 00:16:59.480 the miracle that is God changing our life. And 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:02.460 yet we go right back to our old ways. You've 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:04.079 walked through it. You know who you were before 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:06.200 Jesus. You know how much he's changed your life. 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:09.539 You've witnessed the same amount of miracles 00:17:09.539 --> 00:17:11.140 that they've witnessed, but you go back to your 00:17:11.140 --> 00:17:16.599 old ways. Why do we go back to this? Why do we 00:17:16.599 --> 00:17:20.380 do that? Write this down. It happens when we 00:17:20.380 --> 00:17:23.480 acknowledge God's power without submitting to 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:26.920 his authority. When we acknowledge God's power 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:30.240 without submitting to his authority. I feel like, 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:31.579 yeah, I show up to church because I acknowledge 00:17:31.579 --> 00:17:33.039 his power. That's why you're here today. That's 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:35.160 why you're sitting here. Because God's in charge. 00:17:35.259 --> 00:17:37.440 I acknowledge his power. That's why I'm sitting 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:39.460 here today. But my life doesn't look any different. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:42.599 Yeah, I'm a Christian. Of course I follow Jesus. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:46.640 I show up. I show up to church. I would tell 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:48.240 people I'm a Christian, but you don't live any 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.440 different than anyone else. Because you acknowledge 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:55.299 his power without living and submitting to his 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:57.700 authority. And I think we don't like that. That 00:17:57.700 --> 00:18:00.319 makes us feel something inside because we don't 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:02.039 like two of those words. We don't like authority. 00:18:03.110 --> 00:18:05.849 And we don't like submitting. And when you put 00:18:05.849 --> 00:18:07.910 them together, it's an atomic bomb of nope. I 00:18:07.910 --> 00:18:10.490 ain't doing that. Not happening. Submitting to 00:18:10.490 --> 00:18:13.769 authority? That's not me. I don't want any of 00:18:13.769 --> 00:18:17.849 that. And so we live in a state where we don't 00:18:17.849 --> 00:18:20.829 submit to God's power because we go, okay, yeah, 00:18:20.910 --> 00:18:22.670 yeah, I recognize it, but I don't want to submit 00:18:22.670 --> 00:18:25.329 to his authority. But here's how it works. We're 00:18:25.329 --> 00:18:26.990 able to submit to his authority, not because 00:18:26.990 --> 00:18:28.910 God is a dictator, but because we have a relationship 00:18:28.910 --> 00:18:31.759 with God. We're able to submit to his authority 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.720 through a relationship. Because when you love 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:36.980 someone, you want to submit to them. It is not 00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:38.940 something that is forced upon you. But when you 00:18:38.940 --> 00:18:40.839 are in a loving relationship, you want to submit. 00:18:41.980 --> 00:18:43.920 And because of a relationship, because we have 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:46.299 a loving God, we are able to have a relationship 00:18:46.299 --> 00:18:49.519 where we can submit to his authority. So how 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:51.779 do we allow him to be the Lord of everything? 00:18:52.819 --> 00:18:54.900 How do you allow him to be the Lord of everything, 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:57.119 not just the one thing in your life? How do you 00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:59.710 not fall back into your old life? I want to give 00:18:59.710 --> 00:19:02.609 you three practical steps as to what that looks 00:19:02.609 --> 00:19:06.109 like in your life. Number one is this. Deal with 00:19:06.109 --> 00:19:09.950 your undealt with sin. Deal with your undealt 00:19:09.950 --> 00:19:14.269 with sin. Moses prays and goes, hey, would you 00:19:14.269 --> 00:19:17.509 take care of these frogs? God kills all of the 00:19:17.509 --> 00:19:20.950 frogs. And so now the Egyptians have to deal 00:19:20.950 --> 00:19:24.390 with these bodies of these frogs. They couldn't 00:19:24.390 --> 00:19:26.089 kill them, but they can clean them up. And so 00:19:26.089 --> 00:19:27.890 they're shoveling them, right? They're carrying 00:19:27.890 --> 00:19:29.589 them. They have all these, like anyone want frog 00:19:29.589 --> 00:19:31.369 legs? And everyone's like, we got them too, right? 00:19:31.470 --> 00:19:33.329 Like they have to take them. And so they go and 00:19:33.329 --> 00:19:35.289 they pile them up in the corner. We just got 00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:37.130 to get it out of the site, clean them up, make 00:19:37.130 --> 00:19:39.089 sure nobody sees them. And we pile these frogs 00:19:39.089 --> 00:19:40.829 up in the corner. And so they pile up the dead 00:19:40.829 --> 00:19:43.710 body of all these frogs in the corner and they 00:19:43.710 --> 00:19:45.069 get them over there. And this is what it says 00:19:45.069 --> 00:19:48.910 in verse 14. It says, they were piled into heaps 00:19:48.910 --> 00:19:54.210 and the land reeked of them. The land reeked 00:19:54.210 --> 00:19:56.980 of them. They spent a ton of time, a ton of energy, 00:19:57.059 --> 00:19:59.640 a ton of effort hiding them and pushing them 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:01.640 to the side and dealing with the remains so that 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:03.579 nobody would see them and everything would look 00:20:03.579 --> 00:20:05.799 good. But the problem was, is that they still 00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:07.819 stunk. And that's what you and I do with our 00:20:07.819 --> 00:20:10.000 sin, is we spend a lot of time, energy, and effort 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:11.759 trying to hide it, trying to push it to the corner, 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:13.420 trying to deal with the remains and go, okay, 00:20:13.420 --> 00:20:15.740 if no one sees it, then it's good. But the problem 00:20:15.740 --> 00:20:20.220 is, is that you stink. Is that your sin stinks. 00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:21.799 And here's what it says. It doesn't just say 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:24.019 it stayed in that pile and sunk. It says the 00:20:24.019 --> 00:20:27.019 entire land reeked of it and your sin will not 00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:28.799 just stink up one area of your life, it'll stink 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:31.920 up everything. When you have undealt with sin 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:33.599 in your life that you just wanna hide and you 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:35.240 just wanna push to the side, what it's doing 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:37.200 is it's stinking up every area of your life. 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:40.980 And when you have this in your life, we need 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:42.599 to get to a place where we can bring it to the 00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:44.880 light because here's what I know, is that footholds 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:47.720 that are kept in the darkness turn into strongholds. 00:20:48.590 --> 00:20:50.730 And when that little sin is just a little foothold 00:20:50.730 --> 00:20:52.529 in your life, when you keep it hidden in the 00:20:52.529 --> 00:20:54.549 darkness, it will turn into a stronghold in your 00:20:54.549 --> 00:20:57.289 life. It will have control of you if you do not 00:20:57.289 --> 00:21:00.730 bring it to the light. Jesus said, I am the light. 00:21:00.769 --> 00:21:04.349 In me, there is no darkness. And so we have to 00:21:04.349 --> 00:21:06.250 acknowledge it. We have to acknowledge that sin 00:21:06.250 --> 00:21:09.329 in our life. We have to quit hiding it. We have 00:21:09.329 --> 00:21:14.089 to bring it to Jesus. Some of you are like, I 00:21:14.089 --> 00:21:15.430 don't know. That's just not me. I don't really 00:21:15.430 --> 00:21:18.960 have any of that. 1 John 1, 8 and 9. If we claim 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.019 to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the 00:21:21.019 --> 00:21:25.140 truth is not in us. You have sin, you do. Another 00:21:25.140 --> 00:21:27.079 translation says, if you claim to not have sin, 00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:30.700 you're a liar. Thank you for that. Appreciate 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:34.539 that, John. Verse nine says, though, if we confess 00:21:34.539 --> 00:21:38.339 our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive 00:21:38.339 --> 00:21:41.599 us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:45.119 If you confess your sins, if you bring them to 00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:47.210 Jesus, You know what that is? That's dealing 00:21:47.210 --> 00:21:49.609 with your undealt with sin. That's dealing with 00:21:49.609 --> 00:21:51.369 your brokenness. That's dealing with the thing 00:21:51.369 --> 00:21:52.910 that you've pushed to the side and said, okay, 00:21:52.930 --> 00:21:54.930 as long as nobody sees it, then it's not a problem, 00:21:54.970 --> 00:21:56.730 but really it's stinking up your whole life. 00:21:57.150 --> 00:21:59.710 If you're going to submit to his authority, you 00:21:59.710 --> 00:22:04.369 have to deal with your undealt with sin. Number 00:22:04.369 --> 00:22:06.849 two is this. If you're gonna submit to his authority, 00:22:07.009 --> 00:22:13.730 then you have to pursue God's purpose. Pursue 00:22:13.730 --> 00:22:17.029 God's purpose. See, a lot of times you say, God, 00:22:17.109 --> 00:22:20.789 I wanna follow you, but this is my life. God, 00:22:20.869 --> 00:22:22.450 I'm all for you. I wanna follow you here, but 00:22:22.450 --> 00:22:25.329 don't touch my life. This is mine. I get to plan 00:22:25.329 --> 00:22:27.529 this. I get to do this. I get to take care of 00:22:27.529 --> 00:22:30.109 this. All right, but submitting to his authority 00:22:30.109 --> 00:22:32.569 means allowing the Holy Spirit to direct you, 00:22:32.609 --> 00:22:35.450 not you telling God what you're gonna do. Because 00:22:35.450 --> 00:22:36.670 a lot of times we're going, yeah, I'm gonna follow 00:22:36.670 --> 00:22:39.549 you as long as you go exactly where I want you 00:22:39.549 --> 00:22:43.890 to go. I'm gonna follow you as long as you act 00:22:43.890 --> 00:22:48.480 according to my. plans. But we must submit to 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:50.740 God's authority by pursuing God's purpose in 00:22:50.740 --> 00:22:53.160 our life. And God has a purpose for your life. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:56.220 God has a purpose for your life. Every single 00:22:56.220 --> 00:22:58.579 one of you are here on purpose for a purpose. 00:23:00.019 --> 00:23:03.180 When I was 17 years old, I heard clearly that 00:23:03.180 --> 00:23:05.539 God was calling me into ministry to be a pastor. 00:23:06.259 --> 00:23:08.339 Clearly enough, he said, I want you to be a pastor. 00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:11.700 And I said, absolutely not. That is not what 00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:13.279 I want. That is not the direction I have for 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:15.000 my life. That is not the plan I have for my life. 00:23:15.099 --> 00:23:16.960 My plan is to play professional baseball. That's 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:18.700 all I want to do. That's all I want to do with 00:23:18.700 --> 00:23:20.960 my life. I just want to play baseball. And so 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:22.680 I went going, okay, God, you might want something 00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:25.079 from me, but I got my own plan, God. And once 00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:26.599 you catch up to my plan, then we're going to 00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:29.160 be in a good place. And I had the opportunity 00:23:29.160 --> 00:23:31.779 to go to college and play baseball through college. 00:23:31.859 --> 00:23:33.440 And so when I went to college to play baseball, 00:23:33.619 --> 00:23:36.059 I went to a college that I was able to choose 00:23:36.059 --> 00:23:38.779 my major in Christian studies because I needed 00:23:38.779 --> 00:23:42.000 a good backup plan. God, here's where I'm going, 00:23:42.059 --> 00:23:44.359 but I'll just keep a backup plan of what you 00:23:44.359 --> 00:23:47.059 want for my life. I'll just keep that right there. 00:23:48.180 --> 00:23:50.700 And God had to peel it away. God had to peel 00:23:50.700 --> 00:23:54.619 away for me to understand that his calling, if 00:23:54.619 --> 00:23:56.039 I'm gonna submit to his authority, if I'm not 00:23:56.039 --> 00:23:57.480 just gonna acknowledge his power, but I'm gonna 00:23:57.480 --> 00:23:59.700 submit to his authority, it means my life needed 00:23:59.700 --> 00:24:01.720 to submit to his authority. And I needed to make 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:03.980 my life about God's purpose, not about my purpose. 00:24:05.900 --> 00:24:08.470 And I had to get to a place where I... I had 00:24:08.470 --> 00:24:10.430 calls continuing to come in from professional 00:24:10.430 --> 00:24:12.210 organizations that I had to say, no, I'm done. 00:24:13.150 --> 00:24:15.950 I'm done because my plan is not bigger than God's 00:24:15.950 --> 00:24:18.730 plan. And I was able to say that not because 00:24:18.730 --> 00:24:20.369 I'm better than anyone else, but because God 00:24:20.369 --> 00:24:22.269 worked on my heart to say, listen, if you're 00:24:22.269 --> 00:24:25.170 going to submit to my authority, if you're going 00:24:25.170 --> 00:24:26.630 to submit to my authority, it means setting down 00:24:26.630 --> 00:24:30.950 your agenda in order to follow my plan. We have 00:24:30.950 --> 00:24:33.470 to pursue God's purpose. It's about making him 00:24:33.470 --> 00:24:36.470 famous, not you. And when I say famous, I don't 00:24:36.470 --> 00:24:38.609 mean like literally being famous. I mean, are 00:24:38.609 --> 00:24:41.309 you the main character of your story? Because 00:24:41.309 --> 00:24:42.809 a lot of us, we want to be the main character 00:24:42.809 --> 00:24:45.630 of our story. But submitting your life to God's 00:24:45.630 --> 00:24:47.490 purpose is not about making you the main character. 00:24:47.549 --> 00:24:50.750 It's about making him the main character. If 00:24:50.750 --> 00:24:52.369 you're going to submit to his authority, you 00:24:52.369 --> 00:24:55.809 need to pursue God's purpose. And last is this, 00:24:55.890 --> 00:25:00.369 is we need to be fueled by the power of the Spirit. 00:25:02.069 --> 00:25:04.549 It's not on your power. It's on the power of 00:25:04.549 --> 00:25:06.930 the spirit. So what does that look like? It looks 00:25:06.930 --> 00:25:10.750 like acknowledging his power. God, I can't do 00:25:10.750 --> 00:25:12.289 this on my own. I'm acknowledging your power. 00:25:12.970 --> 00:25:16.230 It's trusting his power through prayer. Living 00:25:16.230 --> 00:25:18.190 into a culture of prayer by trusting his power 00:25:18.190 --> 00:25:20.250 and going, God, instead of me trying to fix this, 00:25:20.309 --> 00:25:22.069 I'm gonna let you fix this because you have power 00:25:22.069 --> 00:25:26.619 and I don't. It's submitting to his authority 00:25:26.619 --> 00:25:28.880 in your life. Because I think a lot of us will 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:30.700 pray for God to guide us, but then when he gives 00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:32.680 us an opportunity to step into where he's guiding 00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:37.119 us, we say no. Submitting to his authority in 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:38.740 your life is saying, God, I'm willing to do what 00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:40.279 you've called me to do. I'm willing to go where 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:42.460 you've called me to go. I'm willing to let go 00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:45.700 of what I want in order to pursue what you want. 00:25:47.700 --> 00:25:52.279 And I think some of you today walked in and you 00:25:52.279 --> 00:25:55.519 came in here today and you go, but, Todd, you 00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:58.319 don't know how much of a mess I am. You don't 00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:00.880 know how broken I am. You don't know how messed 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:02.339 up I am. You don't know what I did. You don't 00:26:02.339 --> 00:26:04.000 know what I've done. You don't know where I'm 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.160 at. And you feel a whole lot more like Peter, 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:09.519 who maybe you've encountered God, or maybe you've 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:11.420 said yes to Jesus, but now you've walked away 00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:12.819 and you've turned your back on him. And when 00:26:12.819 --> 00:26:14.839 it mattered most, you denied him. And maybe that's 00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:16.599 you today, where you're going, that's where I 00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:19.420 showed up today. And man, I love this account. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:21.079 This is one of my favorite accounts in the Bible. 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:25.559 And here's why. Because it gives me hope. Peter 00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:29.400 gives me hope. Because I can't stand up here 00:26:29.400 --> 00:26:31.400 and tell you how much of an idiot I really am. 00:26:31.779 --> 00:26:33.759 And we had this view of pastors where you look 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:35.380 at us and you're like, oh, pastors got it together. 00:26:35.420 --> 00:26:39.039 Listen, I'm such a mess. Pastor John is such 00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:41.680 a mess. Pastor Ben, Pastor Bob, we are a mess. 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:45.759 But we're able to stand here and we're able to 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:49.059 tell you the truth of the gospel because of someone 00:26:49.059 --> 00:26:52.690 like Peter. Where Peter, a mess, who denied Jesus, 00:26:52.769 --> 00:26:54.470 who did everything he could to walk away from 00:26:54.470 --> 00:26:59.809 him, the resurrected Jesus, after he rose from 00:26:59.809 --> 00:27:02.009 conquering sin and conquering death and he rose 00:27:02.009 --> 00:27:05.970 from the grave, the resurrected Jesus went to 00:27:05.970 --> 00:27:08.589 Peter. And he didn't look at him and go, well, 00:27:08.589 --> 00:27:12.130 you've done too much. You denied me. You walked 00:27:12.130 --> 00:27:15.210 away. You saw my power and you turned your back. 00:27:15.509 --> 00:27:22.859 No, no. He opened his arms and he welcomed him. 00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:28.160 And he said, Peter, come on back home. Not only 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:29.940 am I welcoming you back, but I'm inviting you 00:27:29.940 --> 00:27:34.200 to be on my team. Just go feed my sheep. Go be 00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:36.539 a part of the mission. Go be a part of the calling 00:27:36.539 --> 00:27:38.559 because I know that you know it's not about you. 00:27:38.599 --> 00:27:40.960 It's about me and my arms are open wide welcoming 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:43.539 you back. And I think there's some of you in 00:27:43.539 --> 00:27:46.299 here today that you need to come back to Jesus. 00:27:47.230 --> 00:27:49.529 That you've acknowledged his power in your life, 00:27:49.609 --> 00:27:51.450 but you have not submitted to his authority. 00:27:52.549 --> 00:27:54.690 You have not said, listen, I'm done trying to 00:27:54.690 --> 00:27:56.630 do this on my own and I'm willing to step in 00:27:56.630 --> 00:28:01.230 to what you've called me to, Jesus. Jesus' arms 00:28:01.230 --> 00:28:03.890 are open wide and he's saying, come on back. 00:28:04.710 --> 00:28:11.109 Come on back. He's saying, listen, there's power 00:28:11.109 --> 00:28:15.349 that is bigger than you and we need to submit. 00:28:16.630 --> 00:28:20.309 to that power. We need to deal with the undealt 00:28:20.309 --> 00:28:22.269 with sin in our life that is stinking up our 00:28:22.269 --> 00:28:24.589 life. We need to pursue God's purpose. We need 00:28:24.589 --> 00:28:30.049 to be fueled by the power of the Spirit. But 00:28:30.049 --> 00:28:33.710 it all starts by coming to Jesus. And for some 00:28:33.710 --> 00:28:37.490 of you today, that's what needs to happen. You 00:28:37.490 --> 00:28:41.150 need to come to your Savior, whose arms are open 00:28:41.150 --> 00:28:44.150 wide, who are saying, come to the altar, come 00:28:44.150 --> 00:28:48.990 to me. I'm welcoming you here because I loved 00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:51.630 you, because I died for you, because I want to 00:28:51.630 --> 00:28:54.430 work in and through you. And I'm inviting you 00:28:54.430 --> 00:28:58.269 to be a part of my team. Let's pray. God, thank 00:28:58.269 --> 00:29:03.210 you so much for who you are, Lord. Thank you 00:29:03.210 --> 00:29:10.130 so much for what you've done for us, God. Thank 00:29:10.130 --> 00:29:13.069 you so much, God, that in our brokenness, when 00:29:13.069 --> 00:29:15.859 we turn our back on you, God, You still love 00:29:15.859 --> 00:29:22.420 us. Lord, I pray for those of us in here today, 00:29:22.539 --> 00:29:27.319 God, that have acknowledged your power, but have 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:30.819 yet to submit to your authority. I pray that 00:29:30.819 --> 00:29:34.599 we would be different because of you, that we 00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:36.279 would submit to your authority, God, that we 00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:38.460 would deal with the undealt with sin in our life, 00:29:38.519 --> 00:29:41.660 God, that we would pursue your purpose for our 00:29:41.660 --> 00:29:45.220 life and make it not about us. God, that we would 00:29:45.220 --> 00:29:49.900 be fueled by your spirit, that we would be a 00:29:49.900 --> 00:29:55.500 people of prayer. God, I pray for anyone in here 00:29:55.500 --> 00:30:01.140 today that needs to take that step to come back 00:30:01.140 --> 00:30:05.339 to you. Lord, I thank you that you are waiting 00:30:05.339 --> 00:30:09.619 with opened arms, that you are welcoming back, 00:30:09.819 --> 00:30:14.369 that you are loving. I pray today that we would 00:30:14.369 --> 00:30:16.690 step into that love, that we would embrace that 00:30:16.690 --> 00:30:18.869 love, that we would praise you for who you are. 00:30:19.690 --> 00:30:24.049 We love you, Jesus. We thank you, God. We praise 00:30:24.049 --> 00:30:26.390 you and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.