God Is Truth - Pastor Otis Amey | Midtown Church Sacramento

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             Pastor Otis Amey is a former record-setting S.F. 49er wide receiver and punt returner. He was Born and raised in Union City, CA, Otis now lives in Sacramento and serves as the Associate Pastor for Midtown Church overseeing Men's, Young Professionals, and Serve Ministries. He is also a keynote speaker and workshop developer, empowering people everywhere he goes. In addition, Otis serves as the Area Director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, where he coordinates on-campus events, sports camps, and mentors coaches and student-athletes. As a Life Skills Coach for Sac State's Football team, Otis is dedicated to transforming lives from the inside out, starting with himself, his home, and his community. As a married father of three, Otis strives to be the role model and mentor he never had.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Good morning. How you guys doing? Good, good, good. A couple people asked me how my uh weekend was, how my 4th of July was. I I did not have one. And what I mean by that is uh the last couple evenings, Friday, Saturday, I just felt led to just I was just in the presence of the Lord, just spending time with God. And my wife kept asking me, she said, baby, you preached this message two weeks ago in Elkrove, and you preached it a couple weeks ago on Thursday, you could just go preach it again. I said, Nah, there's something that the Lord wants to show me and reveal to me. And uh for me, it's not even the I don't get excited to come preach. I I genuinely love just spending time in the presence of the Lord. My best ideas and thoughts that he reveals to me is when I take time to uh not be so busy and just abide and spend time with him. And so that's what I was doing. I heard all the fireworks, and we we didn't we didn't even go outside yesterday. Um the only interesting part of July 4th for us was uh the kids weren't listening. Could you imagine that? The kids were not listening. So it's about 7 p.m. My wife's in Oakland to go see her grandma, and uh I say, you know what? I'm gonna teach him a lesson. So I cut on this horror movie called A Quiet Place. It's a thriller, it's not it's not bad. If you've seen it, it's a great movie for a specific reason. So in the five, I say, we're just gonna watch the first five minutes of this movie. Why, Dad? Just come here. So they come in, we watch the first five minutes of the movie. In the first five minutes, so here's the premise there's these monsters that have invaded the earth, and if you make noise, they can hear you, they can't see, and they come and kill you, right? So uh we go, and the first five minutes of the movie, they're in this store, this convenience store, and the youngest kid is trying to play with this rocket ship, and they're like, No, because the rocket ship's gonna make noise, and they say, Don't put the batteries in it, and then they leave the store. This is the parents' fault because they left the store before the kid. So they're walking down these train tracks. This is the opening scene. All of a sudden you hear this loud noise. The kid went back, got the rocket ship, put the batteries in it, and then the dad's running at him, and you see the monster just come and swoop in. Then it goes, opening credits. Uh uh. And then I'm just like, I tell the kids, see, this is what happens to kids who don't listen. Um but what was weird, they wanted to watch the rest of the movie, so we did. Uh and we watched uh the the the second part last night. So um I wanted to educate them on, they saw me teaching a message. The message is about truth. Like, what is the truth? And so we've been in this sermon series called God Is, and so the title of the message is God Is Truth. So let's let's dive in. What is truth? The truth is a topic that will ruffle some feathers because the truth does not care about your feelings. The truth does not care how you feel. Some of us right now are unknowingly uh uh trapped in the prison of other people's opinions. There's things God wants us to create that'll require failing multiple times, but some of us are hesitant to pull the trigger because of the optics of what people may say or think about me launching this or starting this. See, we we don't want people to see us fail, but we forget the truth that failing is the only way forward. In Scripture, what does Jesus say about the truth? He says, and the truth will do what? It will set you free. So let me share some truth with you. In general, we fail our way to success. So if you're unwilling to have the faith to fail, you will never succeed. No amens, it's all good. Um in our home, what do they used to say in the old church? It might be tight, but it's right. Uh in our house, we have some Dyson products. And if you uh uh under if you know, you know. You wait till those things go on sale to get some Dyson vacuums. So James Dyson, he he made 5,127 uh uh vacuum prototypes. He failed every single time. It took him that many times making this many prototypes to finally make one that was viable that he could take to market. He said during this journey of making 5,127 vacuum prototypes, they had three kids. And his wife had to take a part-time job to support this endeavor. And he had to deal with all these people having opinions about what he should do or why he should stop doing that and pursue something else. Kind of like uh Noah building the ark. Right? So he ends up creating this premium product that comes at a premium price. I'm not telling you, don't, don't, don't say, Pastor O told me to go buy an $800 vacuum. That is not what I'm saying. But the world would never get to experience the scientific, advanced technology that Dyson products offer if he chose to quit or give up on his dreams. 5,127 failures. See, the truth is that most people are too distracted or they quit too soon to ever dig deep enough to establish the roots that success needs, so they never experience the fruit that success brings. People see Curry. They see Steph Curry literally can shoot the ball and score from anywhere, but they discount the fact that he does the same seemingly boring 90-minute routine before every single game, even in the Olympics. And if you watched him in the Olympics, that's some of the best basketball you will ever see. He incorporates meditation and executing specific drills. Here's something for you great decisions compounded over time is how you win. Great decisions every single day compounded over time, and here's the other part, regardless of how you feel. If you ever uh uh you get in shape or get back in shape, I don't, I can't, I can't speak for anybody else but for me. The win for me is just getting to the gym. If I get to the gym, I'm gonna work out. But it's getting home, dealing with the kids, and changing my clothes. Once I get in that car and I show up at the gym, I'm gonna put work in. Great decisions compounded over time. All of a sudden you look back and you'll be like, man, I did it. I started the company, I'm I'm in shape now. Regardless of how you feel, your feelings will lie to you. And I'm gonna share a story later about that. The truth is that success doesn't come from what we do occasionally, it comes from what we do consistently. So you can start asking yourself, what adjustments do I need to make to my daily routine? And I want to give you uh one practical step. If I'm counseling or mentoring anybody, I always throw out Matthew 6, 33. Red letters, Jesus is speaking, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. It's his way of saying, I promise you, you prioritize my presence, my kingdom, my will, my plan for your life. I will have a way of allowing everything else to fall in place. Remember my mom telling me this at the age of 10. She said, Babe, just put God first and watch what he'll do. But let me spin the block and go back to Jesus' words, and the truth will set you free. Let's look at what he says in context. In John chapter 8, verse 31 through 32, Christ says, If you hold to my teaching, this is the full verse, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Interesting. We can be saved but not be real disciples. A disciple is someone who's committed to learning about Christ so they can actively and intentionally imitate the life of Christ. So when we live a lifestyle of abiding, which means to cling to, trust in, and rely on Christ, then we're really following him. And once we graduate from simply being satisfied with salvation and we realize that we need to consistently grow so we can consistently go and tell others about him, then we will know the truth. So there's some questions that I had, or maybe you have, is okay, based on this scripture, what is the truth and what are we enslaved to that we need to be set free from? Listen, Jesus is flexing because what he's doing here is pointing everyone back to himself. What is it that enslaves us? It's sin. Sin is what enslaves us and what we need to be set free from. So the truth that sets us free isn't some abstract thing. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. So who is the word? The word is Jesus. The word is Jesus. Jesus is the word that he's telling us to hold tightly to. Hopefully, this is making sense. And when we hold tightly to him, to the word, that intimacy will cause us to really know him, his character, his nature, his principles, his promises. So then we'll be set free from sin because not only is he the word, he's the truth. So when we repent and surrender to his lordship, we come up under his lordship, this is what happens. So how do we know that all of this truth is true? Here's how we know because at different points in each of our lives, every single person in here, we've all attempted to change ourselves by ourselves, but can never set ourselves free. Because sin is way more powerful than any daily affirmations or willpower or horoscopes or aligning chakras or whatever else that people try to do outside of Christ. So if you're here today and need direction and guidance and have concerns about what truth is or questions about how to live a meaningful life, everything that I just said can be summed up by what Jesus Christ said in John 14 and 6. He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. So if you really want to follow him, buckle up and hold on. It's not asking him to hop in the passenger seat, it's not let him take the wheel. You get in the trunk and buckle up. If you live a life of faith, if you made some faith decisions, you know what I'm talking about. To wake up every day not having no idea what's gonna happen, but you know that the Lord is gonna be with you. It's exciting, it's scary sometimes too. But according to the culture and the world we live in today, truth is whatever you want it to be. You know why that's scary and dangerous? It doesn't, that doesn't sound like a bad thing. And there's a lot of well-meaning Christians that say, Why are you gonna mess with them? Let them do what they want to do. You know what do what you want to do is? It is the Satanist theology. Do as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Do what you want to do is the Satanist theology. According to culture, though, that's what we should let people to do what you want to do. According to my kids, uh one day I heard them calling my youngest a furry, and I'm like, what is that? And so they're educating me on something they heard in school. According to my kids, I said, Dad, you if you wake up tomorrow feeling like a dog, then everyone has to start treating you like one. I said, fascinating, fascinating. So I don't get scared as a parent. Oh, I'm gonna homeschool you. That's what you feel led to do, do it. It makes for some great gospel conversations. Let's so I said, let's have a conversation. Come sit down, consider. I said, two daughters, one son, this is a very slippery slope. You know why? What if I wake up tomorrow and I feel like a millionaire? And I take how I feel and I take it to the bank. And I go and say, Hey, Mr. Bank Teller, I feel like a millionaire. Can I withdraw $500,000? They will look at me and say, Boy, please. Because I ain't got it like that. Right? Here's the problem. If we define what truth is, then we'll never be wrong. Because if your truth conflicts with my truth, then someone's truth ain't true. For example, how delusional do you have to be to be a Raiders fan? Every man, that's the first amen I got all sermon. Year in and year out, convincing yourself this is their year. We got the running back two years ago, we got the Heisman winner, this is our year. That is based solely on your feelings. But just because you feel a certain way does not make it true. Our feelings have ceilings. It doesn't matter what you think, what you feel, what you call yourself, at some point you're gonna hit your head up against the truth. And don't think 49ers fans are off the hook. For the last 30 years, I'll say we, we've been saying quest for six for 30 years now. It ain't happened, right? This is how we feel. But the truth doesn't care about our feelings, it doesn't care what we call ourselves, what we identify as, or change our names to, unless it's God that gives us a new name and identity. Right? So let's uh a little bit of biblical background. What is in the name? Because you want God to change your name. In scripture, one of the ways God reveals himself to us is through his names. That's the sermon series that we're in, Adonai. We just sung about Adonai, Elohim, great I am. Right? In ancient culture, a name revealed important info about a person or a thing. Uh we should pay attention to that when we name our kids because today a lot of folks just be naming their kids anything. Right? You just put a la in front of Sean. And anyways, uh sorry if your name's LaShawn. Uh LaMichael, LaDaryl, whatever. Um before my brother became a principal, you know, you you start, now he's an administrator at Elgrove Unified School District, you're a sub. You get your credential, you're a sub, and you go anywhere they send you to. So they were sending him to all the schools that no one wanted to go to. And uh one time he he wasn't supposed to do this, he took a picture of a kid's name and said, Bruh, look at this kid's name. What do you think the name is? I'm gonna call you on my lunch break. He calls me and I'm like, uh Trish Trishon? Trishon? Trishon? And he's like, bro, his parents spelled his name trash can. That's crazy. We just be naming our kids anything. But God, God don't do that. Truth, true story, true story. Names were so important. Names were so important that God himself changed some people's names to reflect the new reality. Abram, God changed Abram's name to what? Abraham. Abram means exalted father. Abraham means father of a multitude. This speaks to his new purpose, his destiny, his identity. Jacob, uh his name meant deceitful, but God changed his name to what? To Israel. Or if you fancy Israel, right? One who prevails. But name changes also worked the other way as well. The enemy would love to give you a new name change. He would love for that label, that title to stick to you based on a season of your life and have it become a cycle. See, he tries to do it. Nebuchadnezzar did it. Here's how I can prove it. What were the names of the three Hebrew boys? Everybody knows it. What were their real names? Their God-given names, the names that honor God. Hananiah, Meshael, Azariah, right? We know the other names that Nebuchadnezzar gave them. Their Hebrew names honor God. Hananiah means Yahweh is gracious. And that's a rhetorical question. Azariah means Yahweh has helped. So don't allow the enemy to convince you to accept the name change based on a season of your life or even somebody else's label of you. See? Amen. This is a struggle for a lot of athletes. A lot of athletes that I deal with, they don't want to deal with the reality that college is probably their last stop and the real world awaits. Every athlete discovers that their sport was just a season of their life. It is not who they are. Right? You might have been battling anxiety in April but filled with joy by June. You might have been struggling in June but got a job by July. See, don't let the challenges of one season become your identity in the next. Because the enemy will attach labels to your life if you let him. This is why we have to remind ourselves who we are and whose we are. And we do this every single day. You should be doing this by uh uh by renewing your mind in scripture. What does the scripture say about me? It says in the beginning, when he created me, he actually said that it is good. He says that I'm the head and not the tail above only, not beneath. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He says that let the weak say that I am strong. He says that the name of the Lord is a strong tower. I can continue to read scripture to remind myself of who I am, because if I listen to the videos and the culture and the certain YouTube, they'll have me believe in something else that is not true. That is contrary to what scripture says. There's oftentimes, you know, the kids, you know, if you have kids, they try to find ways to stay up late. They're like, ah, let me get some water. Let me go back downstairs, whatever. Sometimes they'll be tripping, but sometimes we have to uh we have this way of recalibrating them and reminding them of who they are. So just the other night, they were doing what they usually do, trying to stay up late, fighting it, fighting each other. I said, Hey, everybody come here. And I said, Who are you? So just like that every single time. Say, who are you? And they all straighten up. Children of God said, Good. Now go to bed. What's in the name? Purpose, power, identity. God, who do I tell them sent me? I am who I am. I am sent you. Right? He is Emmanuel, Adonai, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Shalom, Elohim, El Shaddai. He is Jesus, he is the creator God, the relational God, the God who saves, the God who heals, the God who delivers, the Most High God, the Lord our shepherd, the Lord our warrior, the Lord our banner, the Lord God Almighty, He is who He is. And once you have a real encounter with Him, you will never be the same. You'll never be the same. You won't care who's around you at church because you'll have the realization that nobody in here can fix what's going on inside of me. Only the creator, the manufacturer. So let me return myself to the sender. Let me come to the altar and receive prayer for healing or for transformation or for breakthrough. So the big question is whose truth do I trust? Because there's a lot of truth out there. Whose truth do I trust? Point number one is this we must go through the sun, S-O-N. We must go through the sun. John chapter 14, 1 through 6, it says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I don't know if you caught it. Jesus' setup game was so top-tier. Because again, we see him pointing them right back to himself. We see this all throughout scripture. In verse 4, uh uh he says, You know the way to the place where I am going. But Thomas hasn't caught it yet. He thinks Jesus is talking about some map, but it's never a map or a path that gets us to where we really need to go. It's a person, it's it's Jesus Christ. My father, you've heard my story. My father attended several AA meetings and he went through the 12 steps. And yes, they were extremely beneficial for him for a time, but it wasn't until he finally surrendered his life to Christ that everything changed. That everything changed. See, Jesus is the universal point of access to God. So if we want to go to heaven and we want to know the Father and live an empowered and abundant life, we must go through the Son. See what Jesus says should help disciple us and shape how we live. We need to be discipled by Scripture, not the world. But unfortunately, there's too many Christians being discipled by partisan talking points and old family traditions. We have to slow down enough to sit with ourselves, put the phone away, and ask, what is the truth? I don't care how you grew up, if you were born Catholic or Christian or Jehovah's Witness or even into an atheistic worldview, why do you believe what you believe? Mama said isn't enough. What do you actually believe? Sure, I can I can give have all these talking points. I can convince you that based on the fact that Michael Jordan went 6-0 in the NBA Finals and the self-proclaimed king went four and six, I can make a very compelling argument that uh of who is actually the GOAT, but none of that actually matters. We get so caught up in things that really aren't important. What do you believe about faith, about love, about salvation, about eternity, about truth? What do you believe about those things, the things that matter? What do you believe about the Bible? See, the Bible is composed of 66 books written over a period of about 1,600 years by about 40 different authors on three different continents and three different languages. It's very diverse. There were kings, fishermen, scholars, and prophets that all had a part in writing the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And it has different genres history, poetry, prophecy. Ancient library of books that perfectly somehow, I mean, we know how, comes together to tell one unified story. It's unique in many ways, but I'll give you two ways that really stand out to me. Number one is this the Bible is. Is the only book that reads you while you read it. Every single time. I said this in the first service, and someone came up to me and she was like, You've been following me around. And I said, No, I haven't. That's creepy. That is the Holy Spirit reading your mail. This message will hit every single person that showed up with expectancy to receive something from the Lord. Every single person. There's times when someone will say something, and I'm like, I don't remember saying that. But that was the Holy Spirit revealing something to them based on what they need. This is what's powerful. It's the only book that does this. The second thing is this: minus Jesus, all the heroes and disciples in the Bible are broken and deeply flawed individuals. This should give you hope. Their moral failures and setbacks are all recorded in the text. But God still uses them just like he still uses us. They all were, well, it's it's the World Cup right now, so let me use this analogy. They all committed red card-worthy offenses. But God still let them participate in the round of 16. Right? So at this point in my life, I've committed so many red card-worthy offenses, I'm just grateful that the Lord says, I'm still gonna use you, son. My grace is sufficient. I'm gonna cover you, I'm gonna bless you. I know you've made a lot of mistakes, but my grace is sufficient for you. See, Abraham was a father of nations, but he was a liar. Jacob was the patriarch of Israel, but he stole his own brother's birthright. Moses led the Jews out of captivity. Let my people go, but he was a murderer. David was a great king, but he was a serial adulterer. You get a red card, you get a red card, you get a red card. The disciples testified to the resurrection of Jesus at the risk of imprisonment and execution, which speaks to their sincere and unapologetic belief in the events that they witnessed and experienced, that this actually happened. Who will be willing to die over a lie? I know people right now that's telling some lies, but no one's gonna finish it all the way out to the point to where you would be killed for a lie. No one's going to do that. At some point, if Jesus didn't actually come up out of that tomb after his crucifixion and reveal himself to more than 500 people, uh they would have confessed at some point. Nah, no, this wasn't real. Don't kill us, this wasn't real. But they knew that it was real. All of them, with the exception of John, who they say died peacefully after surviving, being boiled in oil, uh, they were all martyred for their faith. They were all killed for their belief that Jesus is the risen Savior and the only way to God, crucified upside down, skinned and beheaded, speared, stoned, sought in half, shot with arrows, stoned and then beheaded. Wow. Why? Because they know the truth. Jesus Christ is the Messiah and He's worth dying. That truth is worth dying for. Jesus is God and God is truth. Point number two, we must rely on the Holy Spirit. Verses 15 through 17, it says, If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I say this often. The Holy Spirit is the most unfair advantage we have as followers of Christ. I know you might be asking yourself right now how that statement is true, but let me give you scripture. Romans 8 and 11 says, the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is in you. Please follow me. So Jesus is left hanging in the Garden of Gethsemane by his boys, by his inner circle, left to pray by himself. Then he goes through six mock trials where he is innocent, but he says nothing. He's he's he's mocked, he's spat on, he's beat beyond recognition, he's hung on a cross. Then the earth goes dark for three hours while he's on that old rugged cross and he's absorbing the full wrath of God for our sins, for our salvation. Then he says, it is finished the whole time praying for his enemies. He's placed in a grave, then he raises triumphantly three days later from that grave. It's seen by more than 500 people. Then he says, It's good that I go because I'm gonna send y'all some help. Then he ascends back to heaven in the right hand in the position of power, constantly interceding for us. Are you telling me that the same spirit that did that is living inside of me? Which means there is no way that anybody who surrendered their life to Christ should be living an average and ordinary life no matter what you do. I don't care if you're a P teacher, I don't care if you're a worship leader, I don't care what you do. Everybody should see the God that's inside of you. You should be creative, you should be innovative, you should be to work on time. Everybody should be looking at you. Whether you're the boss or not, you should move like a boss. Because the boss is in you. What is the first thing that scripture says about God? Don't think about it too hard. What's the very first scripture in Scripture? In the beginning, God did what? He created. So maybe the creator created you to create. One thing that God has been on my head about. He's like, bro, you don't need another pair of J's. You consume too much. I've made you to create. So create something that's gonna honor and glorify me so other people can consume things of the Lord. Maybe He's created you in your space to create and stop consuming. Maybe that's just for me. Whatever field or space that you're in, you should be striving to be the best, not to win an award because the best resides within you. The Holy Spirit lives in you. So when we're being led by the Holy Spirit, it's a powerful indicator that we're in right relationship with God and the truth. Because we won't find ourselves when we're dialed in with the Spirit, in line with this, in step with the Spirit, we won't do things we'd normally do in our flesh. Let me give you an example. Don't look at the person next to you when I say this, but some of you used to cuss people out real quick. Look straight. This is a huge problem for a lot of Christians. Some of you used to cuss people out, but now you cuss people in. Let me explain. Now you just say it under your breath, or you just say it in your mind. That doesn't make it any better. But for a lot of people, that is progress, and it's proof that the Holy Spirit is working on you. I know when I'm off, uh uh using foul language isn't one of my one of my deals. I have a lot of other areas I'm working on. It's not, but there's times where I've cussed you out in my mind, and I'm like, Lord, okay, I need to spend some more time with you because I'm I'm a little off. Okay, maybe it's just me. Uh anyway, but there's things with the Holy Spirit, and you can you can identify those that the Holy Spirit, you you gotta continue to come to the great physician so he can continue to work on you and deal with you. Because in the new dispensation of grace that we're in, we talk about it, you're you're not even supposed to, you're supposed to deal with those even those thoughts. So it talked about looking at a woman lustfully as an example, and it's just as bad if you're having the thoughts and you're not even anyway. Uh we'll say that for the men's retreat. All right. But let me give you a biblical and practical way to help you not build up anger and harbor resentment towards people. Consult the Holy Spirit first and then lovingly confront people. People just, for whatever reason, it gets scary, they don't do it. Confront people the right way, the godly way. This is what scripture says. If you have an issue with your brother or sister, don't post about it, don't gossip about it, go directly to them. I just did this this week. I just did this this week. There was a situation where I felt like someone really violated me, and what they did was dead wrong. I had big feelings about it. And I saw wise counsel and said, What do I do? One person that I go to, and they said, You should probably, you know, do X, Y, and Z. So I processed it and said, okay. So I saw this person, and the Holy Spirit said, You need to talk to them. So I said, Hey, can I have a quick five-minute conversation with you? And I I I I um expressed to them what happened, what I saw, what I felt, why I felt that it was real, and then I gave them an opportunity to express themselves. And they're like, No, bro, the what happened was this. I did this for this reason, and I sent it to this, and I was like, Oh, oh, I was dead wrong. Could it be that your big feelings are wrong? Could your feelings ever lead you astray? Is that a possibility? But here's what's cool the minute I realized I was wrong, I apologize and said, Praise God. You know why I came to you? Because this is what scripture says to do. In five minutes, we squashed everything. But what do people usually do? Let me go. Coffee, breakfast, let me tell you about them. Now you're looking foul at somebody else. Anyways, um in verse 15. It's one of those easier said than done verses that definitely requires the Holy Spirit's help. Think about it. This sounds so much easier said than done. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commands. Okay. We can talk all day about how much we love him. We can put Bible verses in our IG bios, we can get scripture tattooed on us. But but according to Jesus, our obedience is the proof that we actually love him. I could tell my wife how much I love her, but if I never come home, really quickly, I will no longer have a home to come home to. You can say anything you want, you have to demonstrate it. You want to be a true Christian, obey God even when it's not the popular thing to do. Even when everyone else's TikToks are following all the world's trends, be a trendsetter. Right? Rely on the Holy Spirit to help you create your own lane. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate scriptures and give you ideas that honor God so you can create rather than consume. Right? What I've discovered is that God always wants to help us grow and mature in our faith. It's called sanctification. He wants to help us transform, but we have to be willing to set aside some things and spend time with him. Because here's the truth God won't transform what doesn't want to be in his presence. I missed an appointment at Kaiser a couple months ago for something going on around my chest. And it's not an emergency, but I and I do want to get it taken care of. Catch this. You hear me telling you right now out loud that I want to be healed, but I didn't go to the appointment because I was too busy. The doctor was there waiting for me and had the solution that I needed, but I didn't show up. The first issue is that many of us say we want healing and transformation and breakthrough, but we won't even make time to spend with the great physician who we know can heal, change, and transform us. We won't take time to just be. I spent almost all day Friday and Saturday. I had already preached this message, but I felt like God was saying, no, just be. Just spend time with me uninterrupted. See, some of us can't even put our phones down long enough to disconnect so we can reconnect. The uh Amen. Praise God. The second issue is that when we do make time, we often don't stay in that secret place long enough for God to operate. Right? Long enough for the Holy Spirit to counsel and comfort us and lead us into the truth that we've been desperately searching for. God wants to operate, but we have to show up to those divine appointments. Here's the last point. We must be sanctified by the truth. In John 17, Jesus gives his final instructions to his disciples before everything goes down. Then he prays. It's the longest recorded prayer of Jesus. It's 632 words. He prays this prayer before he's betrayed, arrested, and crucified. He prays for himself first, then he prays for his disciples, and then he prays for all believers, for all of us. He reveals that his purpose in coming to earth was to glorify the Father, giving eternal life to those who believe in him. See, while while Jesus is praying for his disciples, he says something that will probably make us all double back and read it again. In John chapter 17, verse 15 through 17, he says, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, he's talking to God, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify, mature them by the truth. Your word is truth. So here's the truth: God won't get you out of every situation, but he promises to be with you through and in every situation. So that should change your framework and perspective about a lot of the things that we typically complain about. He wants to use those very things, those situations and circumstances to develop and mature us. I desperately wanted to go back to the NFL after being with the Niners, having some success, but it never happened. I played in three other professional leagues. I almost got back when I was in camp with the Falcons during the whole Michael Vick dog scandal thing. That was tough for me to process and navigate through. But here's the truth. I didn't surrender my life to Christ until I got released. Until God showed me, son, I have a better plan for you. I have a plan that you are fulfilling, that you guys are witnessing me fulfill right now in your presence. His identity for me was my true identity. A child of God, you are not an athlete, that's just a season of your life. And as his child, he promises to be with me, be with us through everything. John 16 and 33 says, In this world you will have trouble. Then he says, But take heart, I have overcome the world. Then Jesus goes on to ask God to sanctify the disciples, sanctify them by the truth that's found in Scripture. This is why it's important to engage Scripture as often as possible, because it plants seeds of faith that help us stay rooted. Romans 10 and 17 says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And we also know that without faith, it's impossible to please Him. So as I close, this is the closing thought in the altar call. We become what we behold. We become what we behold. Behold means to deliberately fix your attention on, in this case, Jesus, with intense focus and wonder and awe. Here's how I know the disciples did this. This blew my mind. Of all the things that they witnessed, experienced, and saw Jesus do, what did they ask Jesus to teach them? That's amazing. I'm not gonna lie, I would have said, Jesus teach me how to slide on water, right? Teach me how to resurrect, teach me how to bring somebody back from the dead. Do you know why? He said, Teach us how to pray? That's what they saw. That's what they saw. They saw that that's where the real power comes from. He always disappears and says, I gotta go spend some time with my father. I only do what my father tells me. He gets baptized, you see, the whole Trinity there. The dove descends from heaven. You hear the Father say, This is my son, and who I am well pleased before the ministry even begins. His whole ministry is saturated and marinated in prayer all throughout it. Even on the cross, he's still praying. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Praying for his enemies out of all the things they could have asked. Teach us how to live like that. That is where the power comes from. It comes from prayer. So, this is what wrecked me. This is what wrecked me. I asked myself, if I asked my three beautiful children right now, what's one thing you want me to teach you based on the way you see me live my life? They would probably say, Dad, teach me how to work hard. Teach me how to go so hard that I pass out on the floor sometimes. Teach me, I don't know, teach me how to work out, teach me what but what I'm hoping is that they would come to me and say, Dad, teach me how to pray. I see that everything you do is saturated in prayer. You always pray for us, you cover us. I see you, uh, I see you putting your laying your hands on mommy and anointing her before she leaves, before we go to bed. Teach me that. So the question I have for you this morning is if people looked at your life, which they are, what would they ask you to teach them? What's the one thing that they would come to? So, this is the altar call. I want to pray based on the message that was delivered. I want to pray for those who are wrestling with relinquishing control and trusting God's plan for what's next. I know a lot of people, they're they're they're they're they're planners, they're analytical, everything, the math has the math, everything has to make sense, and they struggle with letting go and saying, God, I want to trust your plan. Altar calls for you, for those who are willing to admit that they give up too easily. God, teach me how to endure the right way, teach me how to renew my strength. Those who need a game plan, they're saying, Lord, I'm ready, but I don't know. What does it look like to seek you first? What scriptures do I read? I need a game plan for following you, and of course, for those who have never surrendered their lives to Christ, maybe never heard this before, but you don't have the Holy Spirit until you surrender your life to Christ. Will you come? Give you a couple minutes to make your way to the altar, then we're gonna close in prayer. As you're sitting there, this is a perfect time to ask yourself based on what I've just heard. God, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? How do I apply what I just heard, what I just learned? And also pray for those who are making their way to the altar. Maybe for those who are struggling right now in their seat, saying, I don't know, or what are people gonna think? Pray for them as well. Father, all throughout scripture, we see that whenever you show up, things change. The woman with the issue of blood, the woman at the well who is trying to avoid everybody, you pull up on her, you show up. So I pray right now that whatever the needs of your sons and daughters are, that you show up like only you can, you comfort them, like only you can. You are the great I am. So in this moment, whatever they need you to be, Adonai, Elohim, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Rapha, they need healing, Jehovah Shalom if they need peace, Jehovah Jireh, if they need your provision. Dear Lord, I pray that they would fix their gaze upon you. I pray for those who have to always have a plan. I pray that they could hold those. There's nothing wrong with having a plan, but I pray that they would hold those plans loosely with open hands, trusting any derailing of those plans, any audibles or changing of those plans, because your plan is greater, your purpose is higher. I pray for those who may be just up here to intercede, that you would be with them, that you would answer their prayers. I pray for those who need healing, dear Lord. I've experienced you. Heal me, heal my father from cancer. You are the great physician. And for those who need a plan, I pray that you would put the right people, that they would linger, and that you would draw some of these seasoned saints and some of these younger folks who are saying, I need someone to pour into me, I need someone to disciple me, take me to coffee, teach me scripture, I need someone to come alongside of me as I'm endeavoring to be in a relationship and maybe one day get married or someone to teach me how to enjoy the Lord and my singleness. Dear Lord, give every single person at this altar exactly what they need. Heal their broken hearts, mend them, dear Lord, comfort them, be with them, strengthen them. But as we all go from here, let us represent you well. It's the prayer I pray for my kids every day. Let us represent you well today. Let people look at our lives and know that there is a God in heaven. We give you all the praise, the honor, and the glory, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.