Pastor Micah: We are in our first lesson of the Look Up series.
Pastor Micah: If you're a note taker, I encourage you to take some notes or take pictures of the screens.
Pastor Micah: As we're moving through this lesson today, in your service guide, there's an opportunity to take some notes.
Pastor Micah: Also online, you can download the notes or you can just grab a piece of paper as we roll forward.
Pastor Micah: We are in December and this has been a very unique year.
Pastor Micah: Everything about this year has been unique, except one thing.
Pastor Micah: We've had one thing that was normal this year, and I'm really excited to tell you that for Thanksgiving, Kristy made potatoes au gratin.
Pastor Micah: The right way.
Pastor Micah: She used a whole block of Velveeta cheese.
Pastor Micah: It was delicious.
Pastor Micah: And, I just believe that the Holy spirit works in that pot.
Pastor Micah: Somehow Velveeta is one of those things that I love.
Pastor Micah: I hate that I love it.
Pastor Micah: T he fact is that I hate that I love it.
Pastor Micah: And Kristy said, when I said, she a sked what I want for Thanksgiving.
Pastor Micah: I said, you make whatever you want.
Pastor Micah: I really would like some, some potatoes au gratin.
Pastor Micah: She said, well, can I make it a different way?
Pastor Micah: C an I make it, you know, fancier and nicer and, and, you know, not use Velveeta cheese.
Pastor Micah: U h, a nd, and I said, no, that's a, no, I want something that's normal on Thanksgiving.
Pastor Micah: I want something that's normal in the year.
Pastor Micah: So you're welcome.
Pastor Micah: I get to tell you about potatoes au gratin.
Pastor Micah: Hallelujah.
Pastor Micah: I d on't k now how you make it here, but we make it the right way.
Pastor Micah: So, one thing that changed in my world this this year is that the group of guys that, that exercise and most of them exercise a lot.
Pastor Micah: They exercise every day of the week, morning, noon, night, weekends, every day, I exercise with them twice a week and enjoy it.
Pastor Micah: It's a great group of guys.
Pastor Micah: And, and how it works is we all meet in different parts of the city at different times.
Pastor Micah: And, and, and the, the group of guys that I exercise with most meets on Wednesday mornings out at, um, at, uh, the junior high school here in town.
Pastor Micah: And, and every time we get together, one of the guys has put together a plan of exercise.
Pastor Micah: So you don't really know unless you're that guy, you don't know what you're going to do when you arrive, you just get there and, and get warmed up and then get ready for when the time comes.
Pastor Micah: Bam, we're exercising and it's, it's high intensity exercise.
Pastor Micah: We exercise for one hour, but everything is happening very quickly and you really don't stop for an hour.
Pastor Micah: And so this particular day, I arrived at five 30 or a little before five 30 and five 30.
Pastor Micah: It was time to go.
Pastor Micah: And, and they said, let's go.
Pastor Micah: And so we went over to the track there at timber stone, junior high, and we sat down on the track and began the big, the first set of exercises.
Pastor Micah: And on this day we did, I think, you know, 20 pushups and 20 sit-ups and jumping jacks and burpees and, and a set of exercises like that for a few minutes.
Pastor Micah: And then at the end of that set, we got up and we ran around the track.
Pastor Micah: One time we came back to where we started, and then we did another of exercises.
Pastor Micah: And when that was set was done, we got up and we ran around the track again, while you're something you might not know about me, I am not a runner.
Pastor Micah: Historically I've run for two reasons.
Pastor Micah: One, something very big was chasing me, or number two, something that I really wanted badly was getting away.
Pastor Micah: And I would run then, but I don't really run outside of that.
Pastor Micah: And I do other things, you know, and other exercises, but never really was runner.
Pastor Micah: And so I ran and I'm getting better.
Pastor Micah: And as I've been working out with these guys, they run a lot.
Pastor Micah: And so I'm getting better at running.
Pastor Micah: But on this day, I, I got done with the first set of exercises and I ran around the track and I ran around the entire track without stopping one time to breathe or to take a break or anything.
Pastor Micah: And I felt really good about it.
Pastor Micah: And then we did the second set of exercises and I got up and I ran around the track.
Pastor Micah: Again, I didn't stop the Br ie t hat didn't stop the exercise.
Pastor Micah: I did breathe by the way, while I was running around the track, but, but I didn't have to stop to do it.
Pastor Micah: And so third set of exercises, I got up and on th e, and I started going around the track again on the third time and about halfway, I had to stop and ki nd o f w alk for a while.
Pastor Micah: And then I picked it up again and started running again.
Pastor Micah: And, we got to the end of that.
Pastor Micah: And I did the fourth set of exercises and got up and ran around.
Pastor Micah: I'm telling you, this is all happening very quickly.
Pastor Micah: And I got up and started running around and about a quarter of the way I had the pause and I had to stop.
Pastor Micah: And I just couldn't breathe and my muscles were burning and whatever.
Pastor Micah: And so I will walk the little ways around.
Pastor Micah: And then I, then I started running in house, the last guy into the circle of guys getting ready to do the next set of exercises.
Pastor Micah: I hate being last.
Pastor Micah: I mean, I was last, I just hate being last.
Pastor Micah: And so anyway, I got over there and I started exercising again, and everybody was running and ever, I mean, everybody was doing the exercise and now's the time.
Pastor Micah: Unfortunately, we had enough time to do a fifth lap.
Pastor Micah: And I was so excited to hear that we had enough time to do a fifth lap.
Pastor Micah: And, uh, and so I jumped to my feet very slowly and painfully, and, uh, and I, and I began running and it's, it's dark, it's dark at this time in the day.
Pastor Micah: And so I was looking ahead of me and in the darkness, I could see a shape of somebody that I was, they were running, but I was catching up to them.
Pastor Micah: In fact, never happens.
Pastor Micah: And so I thought, wow, something, something on boy, I must be really doing good.
Pastor Micah: I started getting closer to the shape and I saw who it was, and it was Matt Aston.
Pastor Micah: Matt's a member of this church and his family.
Pastor Micah: And, uh, and he's a friend and he had invited me to do this for a long time.
Pastor Micah: And I kept telling me no, but finally I told him, yes.
Pastor Micah: And, and now I'm wondering why.
Pastor Micah: And, and, and I, um, but I'm catching up to him.
Pastor Micah: And then, and then I realized I'm not really catching up to him.
Pastor Micah: He's running in place waiting for me.
Pastor Micah: So I thought, man, what a cool guy, what a cool guy.
Pastor Micah: He could have been all the way around the track already, but he's running a place waiting for me to catch up.
Pastor Micah: He's gonna, he's gonna run with me.
Pastor Micah: And then, and then as I got closer to him, he started moving away for him from me.
Pastor Micah: And I realized that he was keeping pace with me while running backwards.
Pastor Micah: And then I thought, what a jerk, that's just rude, all right there.
Pastor Micah: And so finally he had the decency to turn around and run forward.
Pastor Micah: And as we were running side by side, we were going along and, and, and, and I don't know when he said it or where we were when he said it, but he just, he kinda just yelled out, Hey, look up and I'm running.
Pastor Micah: And he said it, and, and I was like, what?
Pastor Micah: And then he said it again, look up.
Pastor Micah: And I looked at him and I said, what do you mean?
Pastor Micah: He said, look where you're going, look up, raise your head.
Pastor Micah: And I realized for the first time that I was running while looking down at my feet, and I was looking down at my feet and really what I was doing, as I was saying, right, foot forward, left foot forward, right.
Pastor Micah: Foot forward, breathe the right light for, for left foot, for right.
Pastor Micah: For breathe.
Pastor Micah: And I, and I was just trying to keep a cadence and try to try to keep it together, trying to keep moving.
Pastor Micah: And he kept saying, look up.
Pastor Micah: And every time I would look down, he would say, look up.
Pastor Micah: And so I kept looking up and I realized that what I was looking down, I didn't even know I'd gotten into the habit of running while looking down and now looking up, I could see where we were.
Pastor Micah: I could see how far I had to go.
Pastor Micah: I could see how far I'd come.
Pastor Micah: I, I could see where I was on the track.
Pastor Micah: I could see where everyone else was.
Pastor Micah: And I didn't stop running on the fifth lap all the way around.
Pastor Micah: I ran while looking
Speaker 4: We're in unchartered waters in this day and age, I'm okay.
Speaker 4: If we never have another year, like 20, 20 in my lifetime, not going to bother me a bit.
Speaker 4: I'm looking forward to 2021, or there's a lot of unknowns out there, but I'm still looking forward to possibly ending this season.
Speaker 4: Number one, we're in the 10th month of this pandemic, and that's changed so much of our lives.
Speaker 4: This election season has been brutal.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter where you stand on what it's been a brutal election season and, and riffs and, and the verbiage that's out there is just incredible.
Speaker 4: And it's a tough, tough season.
Speaker 4: Schoolwork has never been the same.
Speaker 4: I pray for our kids, our students that are working hard to try to do well in a, in a season where nothing is normal in their life in their families.
Speaker 4: Work has been unique to say the least where sometimes you're going to work.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you're not going to work.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you're on site.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you're off site.
Speaker 4: Sometimes, you know, what's coming.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you don't know what's coming.
Speaker 4: It's, it's consistently shifting and changing.
Speaker 4: And, and if you watch the news, the news is this is happening this day and that's happening the next then.
Speaker 4: And even that, isn't very certain at all,
Speaker 5: And everything's just different.
Speaker 5: But here's the rumor.
Speaker 5: The rumor is that just because COVID is happening and everything is different.
Speaker 5: Doesn't mean the rest of life hasn't has changed.
Speaker 5: You're still a parent.
Speaker 5: You're still a spouse.
Speaker 5: You're, you're still an employer.
Speaker 5: You're still an employee.
Speaker 5: You're still trying to figure out how to deal with the problems you were dealing with before.
Speaker 5: COVID, whatever was ever a known issue.
Speaker 5: Some of you are dealing with financial stresses that have just escalated.
Speaker 5: Some of you have dealing with health issues that have nothing to do with COVID, because guess what?
Speaker 5: Just cause COVID showed up.
Speaker 5: Doesn't mean all the rest of the health issues went away.
Speaker 5: Some of you're dealing with family situations and you're, you're approaching the holidays or you're in the holiday season.
Speaker 5: And, and the stresses of the holiday season are normally there for you.
Speaker 5: But now they're even escalated because of all the other uniquenesses are there.
Speaker 5: And so you're trying to deal with life and trying to work through life.
Speaker 5: And everybody's in a different moment.
Speaker 5: Everybody's in a different phase.
Pastor Micah: Some of us started the year strong and you walked into a strong and maybe even still feel fairly strong, but you're, you're, you're ready for this season to end anybody else ready for this season to end, we can just go on to next.
Speaker 5: Hallelujah, just ready.
Speaker 5: Others started strong, but the weight's getting to you
Pastor Micah: As you, you were strong running, but now, now you just feel that pressure feel that weight I've had leaders.
Pastor Micah: I've had strong people tell me, man, I just feel like I'm carrying such a consistent burden.
Pastor Micah: Pastor Benton did an incredible job delivering the word last weekend.
Pastor Micah: And he said he was talking to somebody shared that they were talking.
Pastor Micah: He was talking to somebody.
Pastor Micah: They just said, I feel like there's a consistent, uh, unsettled ness and consistent frustration that we're dealing with.
Speaker 5: Some people started the season week.
Speaker 5: You were already struggling and now,
Pastor Micah: Oh, you're just doing everything you can to move your you're like me.
Pastor Micah: You're you're saying I just, I just got to breathe.
Pastor Micah: I've just got to put my right foot down.
Pastor Micah: I just got to bake my left foot and go forward.
Pastor Micah: I just got right foot left foot breathe, right.
Pastor Micah: Foot left, foot breathe.
Pastor Micah: And that's all I can do right
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 5: Everyone's looking for a solution.
Speaker 5: We hear about vaccines and summer.
Pastor Micah: We're excited about vaccines coming in.
Pastor Micah: Some are worried about vaccines coming.
Pastor Micah: So even the solution that we have in our world seems uncertain and it brings its own concerns.
Speaker 5: Barnes, should you are you, will you, or won't you, what will they m ake
Pastor Micah: You do versus what can you make a choice about wherever you stand on the spectrum of ideas and ideals?
Pastor Micah: The reality is there's all kinds of uncertainty involved in all of it.
Speaker 5: And you may not realize that you've developed a habit of looking down, Looking down
Pastor Micah: At your feet, looking down at where you're at.
Pastor Micah: And you're looking at just the moment, right in front of you.
Pastor Micah: You're looking at the news of today.
Pastor Micah: You're reading the article of now.
Pastor Micah: You're, you're understanding how many, how many new sicknesses have
Speaker 5: Then, discovered and tested in 10.
Speaker 5: How many people tested positive today?
Speaker 5: How many people died today?
Speaker 5: How many people died of COVID versus died of other things and situations.
Speaker 5: And, and, and, and it's just, it's just, it becomes overwhelming.
Speaker 5: So your world gets smaller and smaller and smaller.
Speaker 5: And I just, I just want to think about right now.
Speaker 5: And, and, and when you look down, the reason I was running while looking down is because it just seemed easier if I don't think about what's over there.
Speaker 5: If I don't look at how far I have to go and just worry about taking the next step, and don't worry about that, then, then maybe I'll be able to make it through and maybe it'll be okay.
Speaker 5: It seems, seems right to just look yeah.
Pastor Micah: Down because it reduces the input.
Pastor Micah: I'm not getting distracted by this, and I'm not thinking about that.
Pastor Micah: I'm not,
Speaker 5: But reality is we are because it begins to also fuel back into self.
Speaker 5: And what I mean by that is whenever I'm looking down, whenever I'm focused on breathe in, breathe out, left foot, right foot left foot, right foot.
Speaker 5: Then what happens is I exacerbate the realities of my own body because I'm thinking about breathing so much.
Speaker 5: I can't breathe because my, because I'm so aware that my muscles are hurting.
Speaker 5: Suddenly they, the hurt just continues to grow and expand.
Speaker 5: And suddenly what could be a minor problem in my life becomes a major problem in my life because I'm so focused on it.
Speaker 5: And it becomes my whole world.
Speaker 5: My whole world comes down to, I've got to breathe and I've got to move and nothing else is there, There before me.
Speaker 5: And we developed this habit of looking down, And this is the problem that the Hebrews dealt with for generations, because see, there was a, there was a promise, made a promise of a savior, a savior that would come and do great things.
Speaker 5: He would deliver them from enemies.
Speaker 5: He would make the worship of the one, true God, the primary worship.
Speaker 5: Again, he would lift Israel out of obscurity and back into world dominance and prominence.
Speaker 5: And, and he was going to do something awesome for Israel.
Speaker 5: And so Israel was looking for him.
Speaker 5: They were believing in the promise.
Speaker 5: They were praying for the promise.
Speaker 5: They were searching for the promise.
Speaker 5: They were there, had their eyes out and Peele.
Speaker 5: My grandfather, my dad used to say, keep your eyes peeled.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure what an unpeeled I looked like.
Speaker 5: But what they told me is that if I kept my eyes peeled, I'd be able to see things.
Speaker 5: And so Israel was looking for these things.
Speaker 5: They wanted to see the savior.
Speaker 5: They wanted to know savior.
Speaker 5: They wanted to experience the savior and they wanted the savior to do all the things that the savior was promised to do.
Speaker 5: And yet, and yet with all of that being true, Jesus wept Jerusalem.
Speaker 5: Why did Jesus weep over Jerusalem?
Speaker 5: Why did he say
Pastor Micah: Some terrible things are gonna happen to you?
Pastor Micah: You're going to go through some stuff that I wish you didn't have to go through.
Pastor Micah: You're going to experience some things that are going to be hard and difficult, and they don't have to be that way.
Pastor Micah: And then he goes on to say,
Speaker 5: Y Y they were going to experience these things.
Speaker 5: And this is what he said in Luke 19.
Speaker 5: He said, you did not recognize it when God visited you.
Speaker 5: You didn't recognize the day of your visitation.
Pastor Micah: The savior showed up and you didn't know he was there.
Pastor Micah: The savior showed up and you didn't recognize him for who he was.
Pastor Micah: You didn't receive him.
Pastor Micah: The savior showed the one you are looking for was right in front of you.
Speaker 5: And you didn't know it.
Speaker 5: Why did you miss him?
Speaker 5: Israel?
Speaker 5: You missed him because you were looking down, not looking up Israel, wasn't expecting a military leader, a political leader.
Speaker 5: They were expecting one who would deliver them from those that were oppressed.
Speaker 5: I seen them from, from Rome, from,
Pastor Micah: From all of the others in history who had, who had taken them into captivity, who had, who had ruled over them, they were, they were looking for someone who would take them back to world domination and worldly, prominence, and worldly wealth, and a worldly success.
Pastor Micah: And, and they would be somebody
Speaker 5: In this world.
Speaker 5: They were looking down, they were not looking up for it.
Pastor Micah: King.
Pastor Micah: That was more concerned about their spiritual condition than he was their physical
Speaker 5: Condition.
Speaker 5: They weren't
Pastor Micah: Looking up for one who said, I care more about your soul, your spirit, and who you are on your, in your inner man than I am about what's going on outside of you.
Pastor Micah: In fact, I will use what's outside of you to bring you closer to me
Speaker 5: Inside.
Speaker 5: They were looking at down, they were not looking up, but here's here's the, the ironic reality is that Israel had been in the very best place because they had been lifted up.
Speaker 5: They had been powerful.
Speaker 5: They had been wealthy.
Speaker 5: They had been prominent Abrahams
Pastor Micah: Started at all.
Pastor Micah: And, and he w he was blessed by God repeatedly.
Pastor Micah: In fact, people used to watch Abraham's life and be amazed by it, and they would pour blessing into
Speaker 5: His life.
Speaker 5: And then you go all the way through the rise of Israel until you get to Moses and you see him in Egypt, and then God brings them out of Egypt and slavery and brings them into their own land.
Speaker 5: And then from the, from that day of the judges, they just begin to rise as a nation all the time, wait until they get to the, the reign of King Solomon and Solomon is so wise, and Israel is so rich.
Speaker 5: And, and they are at peace that every nation wants to have a, uh, Alliance with them.
Speaker 5: And, and people are coming from all over the world to see how Israel is doing what it's doing.
Speaker 5: I mean, they are, they're the people to watch, to look at the, see what's going on, but, but Solomon Solomon started his reign by looking up and asking God for the wisdom needed to rule the people.
Pastor Micah: But eventually his eyes went from looking up to looking down.
Pastor Micah: And that is the trajectory that most of us deal with.
Pastor Micah: We start off looking up, but eventually, eventually the weight of the world and the weight of our reality and the weight of the situation and the weight of the condition and all the weight of all the things that are pouring into our life and the weight of what we hear and the weight of what we experienced drags our eyes from being up to being down.
Pastor Micah: And it just seems easy to look down, but Paul's does says something really unique in the new Testament.
Pastor Micah: He, she's never known Israel at its peak of worldly, power and popularity.
Pastor Micah: He wasn't there.
Pastor Micah: In fact, when he was born, Israel was under the rulership of Rome and likely was never going to get out of it as far as he could.
Pastor Micah: In fact, Paul is not only knows Israel as being a subjugated nation, but he is also a part of a subjugated people within a subjugated nation.
Pastor Micah: He's a Jew within a subjugated nation.
Pastor Micah: And then he becomes a Christian, which has even more of the minority within Israel.
Pastor Micah: And he is in a difficult situation in many ways to the point where we know that he shares with us, that he's been shipwrecked and he's been beaten and he's been jailed.
Pastor Micah: And he's, he's at all of this stuff.
Pastor Micah: He's been beaten.
Pastor Micah: He's all of these terrible things have happened to him.
Pastor Micah: And yet Paul writes in Philippians, he says, I've learned to be content and every physical condition that I've experienced, not because of what's going on outside of me, but because what is within me drives me.
Pastor Micah: I have a spiritual word, strength and wallet.
Pastor Micah: Israel never felt contentment, even as it was at the top of the heap, as it were in this world, Paul says, I've learned in whatever state I'm in to be content.
Pastor Micah: I found peace.
Pastor Micah: I found strength, no matter what's going on in my life.
Pastor Micah: Well saying that external earthly conditions do not determine my interest, Colonel contentment.
Pastor Micah: He learned it.
Pastor Micah: And this is our big idea today that we must look up for what down can't offer.
Pastor Micah: We must look up for what down offer
Speaker 6: Some have called Albert Einstein, a relatively intelligent individual.
Speaker 6: I would agree.
Speaker 6: And he said, this problems cannot be solved with the same mind that created them.
Speaker 6: They cannot be solved with the same mind that created them.
Speaker 6: So earth cannot offer a savior for the problems that earth created, because whoever came to prominence, whoever came to power, as long as they were from the same level, as the ones that created the problem, the problems would persist.
Speaker 6: I'll say it this way, human solutions can shift issues.
Speaker 6: Only heaven can redeem them.
Speaker 6: Okay?
Pastor Micah: Human solutions can shift issues.
Pastor Micah: We, we can make it about something else.
Pastor Micah: That's why entertainment is so powerful.
Pastor Micah: That's why entertainment.
Pastor Micah: It's such a draw.
Pastor Micah: People will spend money on entertainment that they, that they shouldn't be spending on their bills, or should be spending on investment or should be spending on their future.
Pastor Micah: But they'll spend it on entertainment.
Pastor Micah: Why?
Pastor Micah: Because I just want to be, I want to be distracted for just a moment.
Pastor Micah: I don't want to think about what's going on right now.
Pastor Micah: I want, I want my mind to go somewhere else.
Pastor Micah: And the S the issue is shifted.
Pastor Micah: Doesn't go away just because you get drunk.
Pastor Micah: Doesn't mean your problem disappeared.
Pastor Micah: It's just there.
Pastor Micah: When you're sober again, just because you got high, doesn't mean that your problems are over.
Pastor Micah: In fact, they may have just begun, just, just because you, you had the affair and found a moments of play.
Pastor Micah: A moment of pleasure.
Pastor Micah: It doesn't mean your marriage is going to be fixed or that it could ever be fixed.
Pastor Micah: Now, you, we dig ourselves into a hole trying to find another solution.
Pastor Micah: Heaven is the only place in which, in which our salute, our problem can be redeemed bought back and made new again.
Pastor Micah: But I'm grateful that God didn't say, Hey, listen, you created this mess.
Pastor Micah: Live with it.
Pastor Micah: He didn't do that to us.
Pastor Micah: He didn't say, Hey, you're in a tough time.
Pastor Micah: Hope you make it.
Pastor Micah: I'll see you.
Pastor Micah: When you get out of this nonsense, he calls to us, look up in the middle of your difficulty in the middle of your dilemma, even in the middle of the mess, you made yourself, look up, look up and allow me to lift you up because up offers what down can offer.
Pastor Micah: And I have one thought for us today, and that's this, that your life drifts in the direction that you're looking it drifts in the direction that you're looking, my pup, all, you know, if you've been around here for 22 seconds, you know how much I think about my pop, all my pop hall.
Pastor Micah: He was my best friend in life until he passed.
Pastor Micah: And, and, and well, until I married my wife, he was my best friend.
Pastor Micah: And then he became one of my best friends until his death.
Pastor Micah: And we were very close and I love him dearly even to this moment.
Pastor Micah: But he was one of the scariest people on planet earth to drive with.
Pastor Micah: He was just scary because he'd be driving.
Pastor Micah: He always drove big cars or pickup trucks, and he would be driving along.
Pastor Micah: And he would be looking at everything in the world, other than where he was going.
Pastor Micah: He'd be telling the stories somebody would drive by.
Pastor Micah: And he said, well, look at that guy.
Pastor Micah: He's, he's going to pick up some eggs at the store right now because his wife's home buying, uh, making a cake.
Pastor Micah: And here's what happened.
Pastor Micah: Uh, some people showed up at their house unexpectedly.
Pastor Micah: And so they're trying to make them feel at home.
Pastor Micah: And so, uh, he had the rush out to the store and I'm thinking, man, Paul knows everybody.
Pastor Micah: And then I, as I grew up, I realized, no, he was just lying and making up stories.
Pastor Micah: And he didn't actually know everybody, but he made stories.
Pastor Micah: But every long once in a while, in the middle of his story, he hadn't glanced back at the road.
Pastor Micah: All of us were getting saved 37 times a second, but he glanced back at the road.
Pastor Micah: And when he do, when he, when he would, he would jerk back into the lane sometimes with the assistance of kind other drivers who were wanting to assist him in his attention situation, they would have emergency signals to flash at him.
Pastor Micah: And sometimes they would drive by us and tell him how he's number one and how they really appreciated him.
Pastor Micah: And, uh,
Speaker 5: Because he was looking in one direction, he began to drift there, look where you're going, or you will go where you're looking.
Speaker 5: If you're looking at the negativity, things, the negative things that are happening in our world right now, your life's going to go in a negative direction.
Speaker 5: If you're looking at the pain, then you're going to start experiencing more and more pain.
Speaker 5: You will find what you're looking for in this world.
Speaker 5: If you are focused on the, the points of anxiety in your life, then they are going to be fed and fueled in your life.
Speaker 5: If you're looking for plot points of fear in your life, then they're going to be fed and fueled and your life.
Speaker 5: And suddenly you are more anxious and more afraid and more uncertain and everything that you're looking at, your, you begin to drift in that direction.
Speaker 5: And every once in a while, you, you you'd glance up and, and you jerk yourself back into a position where you ought to be going.
Speaker 5: And, and I'm just, I'm encouraging us today.
Speaker 5: Instead of doing that, let's just keep our focus up and allow God to lead us in a healthy, prosperous, proper way and where we don't have to be jerking our lives all around praise God.
Pastor Micah: So God's communicating with this young Hebrew girl named Mary, and he's doing it through an angel named Gabriel.
Pastor Micah: And he says, this Gabriel says to her, and I'm going to draw your attention
Speaker 5: To some focus, to some directional focus issues.
Speaker 5: In this passage of scripture,
Pastor Micah: Brill appeared to her and said, greetings favored woman.
Pastor Micah: The Lord is with you.
Pastor Micah: So he's, he's pointing her focus upward to upward companionship.
Pastor Micah: If you want to look at who's with you,
Speaker 5: The Lord he's with you, your companionship comes from above.
Speaker 5: And then he's
Pastor Micah: The scripture says confused and disturbed.
Pastor Micah: Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
Pastor Micah: And he continues.
Pastor Micah: Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God favor with God.
Pastor Micah: So he's telling her you have a patron in your life.
Pastor Micah: Somebody who's covering the situation who have somebody who's covering you, providing for you going to fuel resources into your life.
Pastor Micah: And where is that patron?
Pastor Micah: It's an upward patronage.
Speaker 5: He's coming from above.
Pastor Micah: Do you want, he says you will conceive and give birth to a son and we will name him.
Pastor Micah: Jesus.
Pastor Micah: He will be very great.
Pastor Micah: So he has an upward advancement.
Pastor Micah: He's going to be born and you won't, you don't see him as great right now, but he is going to become very great.
Pastor Micah: There's advancement upward in his life, and it will be called the son of the most high.
Pastor Micah: So when you look at his pedigree, he's got an upward pedigree.
Pastor Micah: His pedigree is pointing upward in his life, and it will be called the son of the most high upper pedigree.
Pastor Micah: The Lord, God will give him the throne of his ancestor, David.
Pastor Micah: So he has an upward ancestry.
Pastor Micah: Whenever you look at who preceded him, it's something great.
Pastor Micah: It's something elevated and something beautiful.
Pastor Micah: And he will reign over Israel forever.
Pastor Micah: His kingdom will never end.
Pastor Micah: So he has an upward destiny.
Pastor Micah: His destiny continues to track upward.
Pastor Micah: And so everything that the, that the angel Gabriel is telling Mary, it's saying, Hey, look up, Hey, look up.
Pastor Micah: Hey, look up.
Speaker 5: And Mary responds
Pastor Micah: Uplifting.
Pastor Micah: Mary uplifting message.
Pastor Micah: Mary responds.
Pastor Micah: And she says, but how can this happen?
Speaker 5: Happen?
Speaker 5: I'm a Virgin.
Speaker 5: Or I've not known a man.
Speaker 5: What is married?
Pastor Micah: They do.
Pastor Micah: She drops her eyes down.
Pastor Micah: The angel is say, look up and Mary saying God, but what about the down?
Pastor Micah: We'll look at all of this.
Pastor Micah: And we'll whatever she's diminishing what the angel is telling her.
Pastor Micah: She's doing it because she understands down.
Speaker 5: Doesn't understand up.
Speaker 5: What are you diminishing in your life right now?
Pastor Micah: What are you downgrading?
Pastor Micah: What promise of God are you saying?
Pastor Micah: Yeah, but about right now, what hope for your future?
Pastor Micah: Are you saying?
Pastor Micah: But yeah, it's not.
Pastor Micah: You see, see, here's the thing that doesn't happen in my world.
Pastor Micah: That, that doesn't happen with people like me.
Pastor Micah: That happens with them.
Pastor Micah: That's not, that's not the, I don't run in that crowd.
Pastor Micah: Let me, let me diminish the promise that God has given me.
Pastor Micah: Let me diminish the thing that he said.
Pastor Micah: And Mary, Mary, nothing about what Gabriel will say.
Pastor Micah: What's causing Mary to think down.
Pastor Micah: It was all pointing up.
Pastor Micah: None of it was human dependent, but while hearing up Mary looked down because it's what she understood.
Pastor Micah: And you and I fight the same exact battle.
Pastor Micah: We need the miraculous thing to work in our life.
Pastor Micah: We need a savior to work in our life, but we engage the things that we understand engaged.
Pastor Micah: The thing that makes sense to us in the context in which we live.
Pastor Micah: So we need peace, but we don't focus on what God can do.
Pastor Micah: And the peace that passes all understanding, no, we engage in realizing how little power we actually have.
Pastor Micah: I need peace in my life.
Pastor Micah: But what I'm going to do is run all the worst case scenarios that are going on in my life right now, all the, what ifs that could happen.
Pastor Micah: We need provision in our life.
Pastor Micah: It's a real need in our life, but we don't focus on him as Jehovah Gyra, the God that provides, but we engage on how limited we are in producing more in our life.
Pastor Micah: I do that, but this, and I do that, but that, and, and I'm just not capable of these things.
Speaker 5: We need wisdom, okay?
Pastor Micah: But we don't ask God for his promised wisdom and trust that he is giving it to us.
Pastor Micah: But we stress about how little we know.
Pastor Micah: And when we start Googling everything every five minutes to try to gain the wisdom of the world and how to fix the problem that we're in.
Pastor Micah: And we do like we did in school and cram everything into two minutes, trying to figure it out.
Pastor Micah: We're, here's something that I'd like us all to know.
Pastor Micah: And if you're not a note taker, take this note.
Pastor Micah: Anyway, God does not rely on you to make his promise work.
Pastor Micah: He's not relying on you.
Pastor Micah: And he's not relying on me to make his promise work.
Pastor Micah: The, how was not Mary's responsibility.
Pastor Micah: Mary's responsibility was to say yes, and we'll talk about that in upcoming weeks, we must be open to what the Holy spirit is calling us to do.
Pastor Micah: We have to get out of the habit of looking down and start looking up.
Pastor Micah: And Gabriel starts speaking again.
Pastor Micah: He said, no, no, no, no.
Pastor Micah: I'm not going to leave it down there.
Pastor Micah: Mary, I've got to, I've got to refocus your attention here.
Pastor Micah: And he says, the Holy spirit will come upon you.
Pastor Micah: Oh, there's an upward connection that is in your life right now.
Pastor Micah: And you've got to pay attention to this upward connection.
Pastor Micah: And the power of the most high will overshadow you.
Pastor Micah: There's a power that does not come from this world that is within you.
Pastor Micah: That will be within you.
Pastor Micah: And he will overshadow you this power from the most high God.
Pastor Micah: So the baby to be born will be Holy.
Pastor Micah: There's an upward
Speaker 5: Righteousness.
Speaker 5: And he will be called the son of God.
Speaker 5: When you look at his parentage, you can't ever look down, you've got to look up.
Pastor Micah: It's God saying, Mary, look up,
Speaker 5: Look up
Pastor Micah: What needs to be done can only be done with help from above.
Pastor Micah: And it might be that in your life right now, what needs to be done can only be done with help from above.
Pastor Micah: And you might be looking down today.
Pastor Micah: You might be saying, well, wait a minute.
Pastor Micah: Oh, you just, you just don't understand.
Pastor Micah: Things are so complicated.
Pastor Micah: And, and I've just got to keep moving.
Pastor Micah: I just got to keep things going and it's better.
Pastor Micah: It's better that I just keep my focus down here
Speaker 5: On what I understand.
Speaker 5: And I would just tell you that in the month of November, I believe it was that in the nation of Japan, the deaths by suicide were greater than the number of deaths by COVID.
Speaker 5: Japan is one of the top two atheistic nations in the world operating by things that we understand operating by here
Pastor Micah: And wisdom.
Pastor Micah: And I'm not speaking ill of the nation of Japan.
Pastor Micah: I grieve for the nation of Japan, but, but what is the hope that we have in the world?
Pastor Micah: That's created all the problems
Speaker 5: We face.
Speaker 5: And if there is no God, what, what can we look up to?
Pastor Micah: What's the point of looking?
Pastor Micah: And so if, if this is all it is, then I cannot imagine the hopelessness
Speaker 5: That sits within the heart of one who does not believe that there is one above, that is saying, let me have your hand and let me help you up.
Speaker 5: And you might say, well, it helps me though.
Speaker 5: It might help you for a second, but it hurts in the long run.
Speaker 5: You might say, well, it keeps me from seeing how far I must go.
Speaker 5: I would say, okay.
Speaker 5: And it blinds you to the progress that you've made.
Speaker 5: I wonder how many of you could, if you, if you took the blinders off just for a minute, if you looked up for a minute, would realize how far you've come in the last six months in a positive direction, in some areas of your life
Pastor Micah: Say, well, it helps me focus on my next step.
Pastor Micah: If I don't, if I don't think about what's up there, I just
Speaker 5: Think about this.
Speaker 5: It just helps me focus on next step.
Speaker 5: And
Pastor Micah: I would say, yes, maybe it does.
Pastor Micah: And it blocks your ability to adjust your track, to navigate the upcoming situations.
Pastor Micah: If you're looking down, you can't tell what's coming your way.
Pastor Micah: And she might say, well, that doesn't actually matter.
Pastor Micah: Micah.
Pastor Micah: See what you don't get is I can't see that far into the future.
Pastor Micah: Can I promise you something?
Pastor Micah: There are a few people that know more about that statement than I do.
Pastor Micah: Not because I'm all that, but anybody that's trying to lead anything right now is trying to make decisions.
Pastor Micah: And sometimes you can't make a decision.
Pastor Micah: It seems like more than a week or two out, and maybe it's maybe a month.
Pastor Micah: And so I understand 100% that feeling of saying, but I just can't see that far out there.
Pastor Micah: So it really doesn't matter anyway.
Pastor Micah: And I would say to you, it does matter because by looking down, you remove all your ability, all your opportunity to maximize the future that you can see, just because I can't see a year out.
Pastor Micah: It doesn't mean that I can't maximize the next month, looking down as self-limited and God calls us to elevate our eyes, our hearts and our minds.
Pastor Micah: And as we elevate
Speaker 6: Our eyes, the rest follows because we drift in the direction that we're looking
Pastor Micah: Today.
Pastor Micah: Maybe you're under, maybe you're afraid.
Pastor Micah: Maybe you're uncertain.
Pastor Micah: Maybe you're sad.
Speaker 6: Maybe you're stressed.
Speaker 6: Maybe you're grieving.
Pastor Micah: Maybe you're unclear about your next and or your future.
Pastor Micah: Maybe your, your uncertainty, maybe all of this stuff is in an area of your family or
Speaker 6: Your business or your career, or
Pastor Micah: Maybe it's an area of, of, of life that we haven't even touched.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Here's what the word of God would say to you coming from the life of a person who knows what it means to be in very difficult conditions.
Speaker 6: And we read Psalms chapter one 21.
Speaker 6: The Bible says, I look up to the mountains, does my help come from there?
Speaker 6: My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Speaker 6: He will not let you stumble the one who watches over.
Speaker 6: You will not slumber.
Speaker 6: Indeed.
Speaker 6: He, he watches.
Speaker 6: He who watches over Israel, never slumbers or sleeps.
Speaker 6: The Lord himself watches over you.
Speaker 6: The Lord stands besides you as your protective shade, the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.
Speaker 6: The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.
Speaker 6: The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go both now and forever.
Speaker 6: Would you bow your heads with me right now
Pastor Micah: On a chest?
Pastor Micah: The question, Holy spirit, what he is saying to me in this,
Speaker 6: Are you looking
Pastor Micah: For answers in your life, in the same area that created,
Speaker 6: Maybe
Pastor Micah: Your self created the problem that you're in and now you're depending on yourself to get you out.
Pastor Micah: And I would say, that's a bad idea.
Speaker 6: Do you have work to do absolutely.
Speaker 6: Mary
Pastor Micah: Had to say yes.
Pastor Micah: And then she had to go through the process of having a baby.
Speaker 6: But ultimately, while you play a part, the outcome is the Lords.
Speaker 6: If we have the courage to look up.
Speaker 6: So father, I pray right now for your people that we have would have the courage to look up to you.
Speaker 6: Everything
Pastor Micah: In the world right now pulls us to look
Speaker 6: Down,
Pastor Micah: Pulls us, to try to understand it all and, and figure it all out.
Pastor Micah: And you're calling us to live on a higher level
Speaker 6: Trust on a higher level, but ultimately to put our future, our hope,
Pastor Micah: Our situation in the hands of the only
Speaker 6: One who couldn't redeem the situation versus just shifting the focus.
Speaker 6: We believe you for that.
Speaker 6: We trust you in that today.
Speaker 6: And I pray right now that our hearts would be lifted.
Speaker 6: Our spirits would be lifted.
Pastor Micah: Pray that the joy of the Lord would be the strength of your people and the peace of God that passes all understanding what guard, their hearts and minds, even as our eyes are lifted
Speaker 6: Up to you, that we would call out your name and every situation and condition that we're in, knowing that you are faithful and that you are with us now and forever in Jesus name, we pray and let everybody say amen.
Speaker 6: Amen.
Speaker 6: Let's stand to our feet and let's close this service in worship.