WEBVTT 00:00:05.801 --> 00:00:07.567 Hey, good morning everybody, good morning. 00:00:07.567 --> 00:00:12.783 Go ahead and stand up and greet some people around you that are coming in and help them find their seats as well. 00:00:12.783 --> 00:00:14.628 Okay, well, good morning. 00:00:14.628 --> 00:00:17.265 How's everybody doing? 00:00:17.265 --> 00:00:19.684 My name is Randy. 00:00:19.684 --> 00:00:25.310 If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I hope to meet you out in the welcome area, if I haven't, afterwards. 00:00:25.310 --> 00:00:27.545 That's always the highlight of my day. 00:00:27.968 --> 00:00:29.612 Some of you looking like where's James? 00:00:29.612 --> 00:00:31.277 James supposed to be here today. 00:00:31.277 --> 00:00:31.759 Where's James? 00:00:31.759 --> 00:00:32.241 Why is he? 00:00:32.241 --> 00:00:34.002 He's gone. 00:00:34.002 --> 00:00:34.582 That's right. 00:00:35.003 --> 00:00:43.399 I've been begging James for the last two months to let me come out here and trade with him, and today, finally, is the day that I get to be at Pinewood. 00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:54.329 So if you need, if you need to James fix, you can still catch him at five o'clock this afternoon Because he will be doing my job over there at our third service over there. 00:00:54.329 --> 00:01:19.680 We are one church, two locations right now, five meeting times, five services, and so I'm really, really excited about this afternoon because I'll get to sit in the back of the room and listen to him teach, and then, right afterwards, we get to go out and have these bonfires Out under the trees there together as a way, just kind of mix and mingle, and get to know one another. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:20.584 It's called jingle jam. 00:01:20.584 --> 00:01:32.234 You hear more about that later, but anyway, I'm just glad and I'm proud of our three folks that were interviewed, who are all teachers over at CSU, and I know that's a special place for a lot of you. 00:01:32.234 --> 00:01:35.326 Oh yeah, see, I'm the rookie here. 00:01:35.326 --> 00:01:39.114 I don't know what I'm, so what, the children can be dismissed right now. 00:01:39.114 --> 00:01:46.570 So yeah, give them my hand. 00:01:46.570 --> 00:01:56.192 Alright, sorry, the our three CSU professors. 00:01:57.301 --> 00:02:00.007 I'm just grateful to all of them for two reasons. 00:02:00.007 --> 00:02:14.051 One is they're a great reminder of the first Week of Advent, today that we've already kicked off the hope advent, and that's what I'll be talking about Today hope, how hope informs all of us as believers. 00:02:14.051 --> 00:02:31.586 But the other reason that I am excited about them is you just heard it, you just heard it with With dr Thomas, and that is basically the philosophy of I am a missionary Dressed up like a college professor. 00:02:31.586 --> 00:02:34.552 If they learn a little bit of math, then great. 00:02:34.552 --> 00:02:41.153 But I'm really here to minister, and dr Maxwell said the same thing and you know that applies to to me and you. 00:02:41.153 --> 00:02:50.265 Some of you are educators teaching second graders and you're a missionary who happens to be Public school teacher, other postal employees. 00:02:50.265 --> 00:02:57.504 You're a missionary who happens to be, whatever your skill or gift, mix or Vocation is today. 00:02:57.504 --> 00:03:02.180 So thanks, by the way, for bringing your Bible, if you did, or your device or whatnot. 00:03:02.420 --> 00:03:06.963 How about crank that open and Turn to Hebrews. 00:03:06.963 --> 00:03:15.841 We'll start there, at Hebrews, chapter six, and will he actually look at a couple of verses in the Old Testament to do? 00:03:15.841 --> 00:03:29.234 Because they both talked about hope, and so, as Christ followers, you have probably grappled with what I have in the past, and that is is faith the same as hope? 00:03:29.234 --> 00:03:31.629 We're supposed to be people of faith. 00:03:31.629 --> 00:03:35.330 We're gonna address that based on what the scripture says about that. 00:03:35.330 --> 00:03:36.835 Are the two the same are? 00:03:36.835 --> 00:03:38.480 Do you need one before the other? 00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:40.549 Is One dominant over the other? 00:03:40.549 --> 00:03:41.473 The other? 00:03:41.473 --> 00:03:42.920 Linkage has to be. 00:03:42.920 --> 00:03:48.010 Does that get in the way of my ambition? 00:03:48.010 --> 00:03:57.311 Is it okay to be an ambitious person as long as that doesn't collide or conflict with my Christian leading and God? 00:03:57.450 --> 00:04:08.200 If what you said is true about we're all missionaries right now, the interesting thing about ambition is the younger the person is that you ask, the more ambitious they normally are. 00:04:08.200 --> 00:04:12.872 Have you ever asked a seven-year-old what he's gonna do with his life? 00:04:12.872 --> 00:04:19.706 I'm gonna play an NBA and then, when I'm not in the NBA, I'm on quarterback Dallas Cowboys. 00:04:19.706 --> 00:04:27.527 And then, you know, when I get old enough, I'm gonna marry Miss America, and that's about it, you know, and it's just so matter of fact. 00:04:27.527 --> 00:04:35.519 I love, I love that I read about a lady who was teaching third graders I think it was and she gave them one of those ambition. 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:39.611 She defined ambition and then she said write your ambitions for your life. 00:04:40.420 --> 00:04:43.508 Right down, these are second and third graders, and one of them in particular. 00:04:43.508 --> 00:04:48.711 I remember he was such a thinker, he had it ruled that he had it lined out in three phases. 00:04:48.711 --> 00:04:51.223 He's gonna do a that, he said. 00:04:51.223 --> 00:04:55.153 The first thing on my ambition list is I'm gonna get a girlfriend. 00:04:55.153 --> 00:04:56.362 It's number one. 00:04:56.362 --> 00:05:03.819 Number two is I'm gonna kiss her, and then the leap was number three I'm gonna rule the world. 00:05:03.819 --> 00:05:08.109 So women really do empower us, don't they? 00:05:08.109 --> 00:05:18.853 To go from two to three, and and we laugh at that, but sometimes the older we get, sadly, the more the dreams, the ambitions die. 00:05:18.853 --> 00:05:28.777 They either get crushed, or we get discouraged, or we get this concept of now that I belong to Jesus. 00:05:28.777 --> 00:05:42.911 I guess I'm just gonna sit on the couch and I'm gonna let him tell me what to do, when to do it, and I'm not really, you know, I have no ambition of my own. 00:05:42.911 --> 00:05:48.152 All three of those are false narratives and that's what we'll look at today. 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:54.072 What I saw that got my attention this week in the in a late poll, a recent poll. 00:05:54.072 --> 00:05:57.628 It was about hope and it said this. 00:05:57.628 --> 00:05:59.313 This is not going to surprise you. 00:05:59.313 --> 00:06:07.319 The majority of this country has transferred as now substitutes worry for hope. 00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:10.072 They're not hopeful anymore. 00:06:10.072 --> 00:06:11.236 I they're worried. 00:06:11.236 --> 00:06:19.602 84% of this country said I'm either worried or extremely worried about the direction of this country. 00:06:19.602 --> 00:06:24.463 And then what they were in summation was forget hope. 00:06:24.463 --> 00:06:27.322 And isn't that a sad reality? 00:06:27.322 --> 00:06:31.364 We are supposed to be the light into that darkness. 00:06:31.364 --> 00:06:37.838 So that's why today, I think the discussion and anytime we talk about the future regarding hope is really so. 00:06:37.858 --> 00:06:39.142 Let me separate one thing right quick. 00:06:39.142 --> 00:06:40.679 We're supposed to be people of faith. 00:06:40.679 --> 00:06:44.125 Our lives with Christ are based on faith. 00:06:44.125 --> 00:06:46.622 That separate from hope in this. 00:06:46.622 --> 00:06:49.423 Faith is more past centered. 00:06:49.423 --> 00:06:53.263 It's more in the past, brought forward to the present. 00:06:53.263 --> 00:07:02.021 That has informed you and grounded you and hopefully made you more secure, but it informs our hope cause. 00:07:02.021 --> 00:07:03.286 Hope is futuristic. 00:07:03.286 --> 00:07:06.041 Hope is not based on circumstances. 00:07:06.041 --> 00:07:07.998 Hope is one of these. 00:07:07.998 --> 00:07:21.604 It stinks today and this is not at all a place I wanna be in my life, but I have hope that in the future may not be tomorrow, but one day I will be in a much better place. 00:07:21.604 --> 00:07:24.683 That's the Christian philosophy in the nutshell. 00:07:24.683 --> 00:07:25.859 Can I give you some good news? 00:07:25.859 --> 00:07:27.179 This is my main point. 00:07:27.179 --> 00:07:29.281 We'll back it up with a couple of other sub points. 00:07:29.281 --> 00:07:34.681 My main point from the scripture is simply this faith is always rewarded. 00:07:34.681 --> 00:07:38.003 God will always reward your faith. 00:07:38.454 --> 00:08:05.361 Hebrews 11 that I won't read is called the hall of fame of faith by some people, but the stark thing about that y'all to me is in verses 13 through 16, the author says most of these people died never having seen the fulfillment of the promise that they were given, but nevertheless it was credited to them as righteousness and honored by God. 00:08:05.361 --> 00:08:06.245 Is what he's saying. 00:08:06.245 --> 00:08:17.003 So some of the things God is planting in you, or has already planted in you you're not crazy, you're not being unrealistic. 00:08:17.003 --> 00:08:46.677 It is from God, but you may never live to see its fulfillment, and so credit to y'all for being part of this new venture and everything that is gonna make the dreams of other people come to fruition all too so we're gonna wander around in two different places in the scripture mainly we're gonna be Hebrews, which is written around 64 AD, first century. 00:08:46.677 --> 00:08:57.578 Then we're gonna go all the way to 1000 BC in the psalm, the writer of the Psalms, who is prophetically agreeing with the writer of Hebrews, who's after Jesus. 00:08:57.578 --> 00:09:05.841 And then we're gonna go down to 700 BC, which is another prophet who's basically saying the same thing 300 years later. 00:09:05.841 --> 00:09:08.822 Only in the Bible are you gonna get that kind of consistency right. 00:09:09.735 --> 00:09:11.461 So let's pray before we get started. 00:09:11.461 --> 00:09:23.846 Lord, just thank you for this moment, thank you for everyone in this room, thank you for those who are leading our children down the hall and serving sacrificially. 00:09:23.846 --> 00:09:37.024 I just pray to you, open our heart, open our minds to what you are saying and what you are describing and not what we project onto it. 00:09:37.024 --> 00:09:49.538 So, lord, just clear our minds, clear the deck of anything that could distract us in our own brains and allow us for a few minutes just to focus on you and what you're saying. 00:09:49.538 --> 00:09:55.542 And so we give this time to you and now please come. 00:09:55.542 --> 00:10:09.369 Holy Spirit, amen, all right, so let's look at some factors in this reward, if faith is always rewarded, the first thing we wanna talk about is from Hebrews 6, 19 and 20. 00:10:09.369 --> 00:10:14.646 And that is, we are asked to trust a person and not a process. 00:10:14.646 --> 00:10:18.504 So let's read if y'all look at Hebrews 6, 19. 00:10:18.504 --> 00:10:25.579 We have this hope as an anchor, or a strength for the soul, firm and secure. 00:10:25.579 --> 00:10:32.725 It enters the inter sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. 00:10:32.725 --> 00:10:37.004 He has become a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. 00:10:37.004 --> 00:10:39.221 So he's symbolically talking about. 00:10:39.334 --> 00:10:40.419 Y'all know the old system. 00:10:40.419 --> 00:10:43.063 If you were a Jew in that day, you knew the system. 00:10:43.063 --> 00:10:46.204 There was the temple, big, elaborate place. 00:10:46.204 --> 00:10:47.581 Everybody loved to go to temple. 00:10:47.581 --> 00:10:50.483 There's outer court, inner court, holy of holies. 00:10:50.483 --> 00:10:56.361 If you're in the inner court, you can see the curtains, but you didn't know what it looked like in there. 00:10:56.361 --> 00:11:06.865 It's just one room with our covenant in there, cause nobody was allowed to go in there, only the high priest once a year, and he went in and the whole country held its breath. 00:11:07.934 --> 00:11:19.980 While this priest is in there sprinkling blood sacrifice on that altar, why he is asking God to forgive the whole nation's sins for an entire year. 00:11:19.980 --> 00:11:25.578 And so you're sitting there like I hope he's living right. 00:11:25.578 --> 00:11:32.518 I hope he's doing his job, cause if he fails, if he goes down, I'm in big trouble For a whole year. 00:11:32.518 --> 00:11:33.360 I'm in big trouble. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:52.260 I'm not in a good relationship with God if that's the case, and thankfully we don't live by that system anymore, because Jesus came and it says it's like, symbolically, it's like Jesus went and ripped the curtain open, left it open, walked around back and said hey, why don't y'all come in here with me? 00:11:52.260 --> 00:11:55.562 Because I have already been the sacrifice. 00:11:55.562 --> 00:11:57.962 I have done the sacrifice one time. 00:11:57.962 --> 00:11:59.760 You won't have to do this anymore. 00:11:59.760 --> 00:12:15.846 Thankfully, you don't need somebody like me to sit down and confess yourself to, or expect me to go out back and slaughter of sheep or something and sprinkle some blood around for your forgiveness of sin. 00:12:15.846 --> 00:12:18.002 Aren't you glad that that's not how we work? 00:12:18.002 --> 00:12:21.701 I am, and so we get to move beyond that. 00:12:22.394 --> 00:12:26.826 So it all starts with a person and not a process. 00:12:26.826 --> 00:12:28.000 Now, don't get me wrong. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:29.881 I'm not quite sure where to walk here. 00:12:29.881 --> 00:12:33.826 So, sam, if I step on the greenery, I'm sorry. 00:12:33.826 --> 00:12:38.060 We all need a process. 00:12:38.294 --> 00:12:43.196 This place operates on a process that was developed, developed. 00:12:43.196 --> 00:12:44.842 It's called load in and load out. 00:12:44.842 --> 00:12:46.821 Y'all some of y'all are very familiar with that. 00:12:46.821 --> 00:12:54.266 A lot of you know there were people here at 6.30 this morning unloading Jack's one of them. 00:12:54.266 --> 00:12:59.300 He goes almost every week down downtown to our parking lot, brings one of those trailers up. 00:12:59.300 --> 00:13:01.741 They all float them and you should be here. 00:13:01.741 --> 00:13:07.778 You should show up just to watch, because it's like science, they've got it down to this. 00:13:07.778 --> 00:13:09.499 It's incredible. 00:13:09.499 --> 00:13:13.683 So I come in here we all pray at 6.30. 00:13:13.683 --> 00:13:16.996 And so I'm like man, I'm not just gonna stand around, I'm gonna help. 00:13:16.996 --> 00:13:31.341 So I jump in there and I start helping unload, and it took me 20 minutes to realize that every time I put something down, somebody would walk behind me and pick it up and put it where it was supposed to be. 00:13:33.239 --> 00:13:34.764 The efficiency rating. 00:13:34.764 --> 00:13:36.055 Will Walker is he. 00:13:36.055 --> 00:13:38.463 He's not in the room right now, but that's who it was. 00:13:38.463 --> 00:13:44.408 Y'all are probably, I would guess, like 94% efficient week to week. 00:13:44.408 --> 00:13:53.000 It's incredible loading up and tearing down afterwards and putting it up in the mornings Highly, highly efficient. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:58.624 Because of my great help this morning, the efficiency was probably 79%. 00:13:58.624 --> 00:14:02.163 Now, I was the guy in proverbs. 00:14:02.163 --> 00:14:03.045 I was zealous. 00:14:03.045 --> 00:14:04.701 I just didn't have any sense. 00:14:04.701 --> 00:14:07.643 I had zeal without knowledge. 00:14:09.139 --> 00:14:30.956 The point, though, is this If your spirituality is based on a process showing up to church, bringing your Bible, maybe even going to a group, maybe even writing a check or having a draft come out of your account, but that's it. 00:14:30.956 --> 00:14:37.574 You're relying on a false model that will break on you. 00:14:37.574 --> 00:14:46.254 When a process no longer serves its purpose, it's time to have a quick burial and go to another thing. 00:14:46.254 --> 00:14:51.995 Because some of you know this as things change, processes will let you down. 00:14:51.995 --> 00:14:57.034 Some of you are good thinkers and you're saying well, you said, trust a person, not a process. 00:14:57.034 --> 00:15:00.504 People will let you down, and you would be absolutely right. 00:15:00.504 --> 00:15:09.187 Every person on the face of this earth, if you are with them long enough, will let you down in some bigger little way. 00:15:09.187 --> 00:15:11.458 I'm talking about a different person. 00:15:11.458 --> 00:15:19.302 I'm talking about the person who is Jesus Christ, because when he makes a promise, you can take it to the bank. 00:15:19.302 --> 00:15:21.687 He's never failed on one. 00:15:21.687 --> 00:15:24.198 He's never backed up on one. 00:15:24.198 --> 00:15:31.496 His word is absolutely solid, and that's what I'm asking you to trust over a process. 00:15:32.237 --> 00:15:45.978 Churches are notorious for getting so dependent on policies and processes that they can't get out of their own way, and when there comes an opportunity to reach people, they actually vote against it. 00:15:45.978 --> 00:15:51.068 They vote against the will of God to honor their policies. 00:15:51.068 --> 00:15:59.095 Now, I'm thankful that Somerville, about two years ago, didn't do that because you know what. 00:15:59.095 --> 00:16:07.798 We would not be sitting here if they had done that, because this wasn't a process that was in place, and I think we need to continue this. 00:16:07.798 --> 00:16:11.048 Can I give you another little piece of encouragement today? 00:16:11.048 --> 00:16:13.697 There's a day coming. 00:16:13.757 --> 00:16:16.384 My job sometimes is to remind us of the big picture. 00:16:16.384 --> 00:16:29.149 The big picture of this is all the set up, the tear down to going through the inconveniences of being in a gym and not a nice building that was designed to be a worship place and everything. 00:16:29.149 --> 00:16:31.956 It's really about the next generation. 00:16:31.956 --> 00:16:40.132 There will be people one day starting a third location and a fourth location. 00:16:40.132 --> 00:16:45.009 Guess what they're going to say every single week how did they do this at Pinewood? 00:16:45.009 --> 00:16:47.119 I wonder what they did at Pinewood? 00:16:47.119 --> 00:16:48.163 Well, I know what they did. 00:16:48.163 --> 00:16:51.034 Okay, we'll do it and you know what it will work. 00:16:51.034 --> 00:16:54.582 And it's going to save them a lot of stomach lining. 00:16:54.582 --> 00:17:03.829 It's going to save them a lot of stress, because the process will serve them well, because you guys are pioneers. 00:17:04.832 --> 00:17:25.196 You have started something that hasn't been done, at least in the history of our church, and God's obviously honoring it, and you're a part of something very, very special here, and I say that not in a prideful, arrogant way, but I say it with all humility because we know we know who's really behind it. 00:17:25.196 --> 00:17:32.958 A new church, though, can get mired up in its policies and traditions as quickly as a hundred year old church. 00:17:32.958 --> 00:17:50.607 So that's the warning to all of us, whether it's Pinewood or downtown, let's not get too comfortable with what we're doing right now, because the person that I know, and the person a lot of you know that's part of his job is to not let us get too comfortable. 00:17:50.607 --> 00:17:59.057 You, following me, somebody, forget some testimonies about that right, just when you think it's safe to do all that. 00:17:59.057 --> 00:18:02.527 So what's your mindset about the future? 00:18:02.527 --> 00:18:03.630 Are you hopeful? 00:18:03.630 --> 00:18:05.455 Are you part of 84%? 00:18:05.455 --> 00:18:06.417 That's just worried. 00:18:06.417 --> 00:18:18.259 And you're worried because, basically, if you are basing your hope on the political system, y'all to be a hundred percent worried. 00:18:18.259 --> 00:18:27.085 If it's based on the economy, and the economy alone, oh man, you're going to be up and down, you know, like a yo-yo. 00:18:27.085 --> 00:18:35.619 If it's based on, you know, your favorite reality show, and that's going to determine your behavior and how you parent people and everything. 00:18:35.619 --> 00:18:37.787 Good night, anyway. 00:18:37.787 --> 00:18:44.908 I can give you all the wrong models, right, because we're following them as a country so many times now. 00:18:44.908 --> 00:18:51.567 So, number one, what we're going to do, we're going to trust a person over a process. 00:18:51.567 --> 00:18:59.309 Ephesians 2,8 says this by grace we are saved, not of works, lest anybody boast or brag. 00:18:59.309 --> 00:19:00.753 So there's a second thing. 00:19:00.753 --> 00:19:05.703 If we're going to trust a person, y'all we got to know that person personally. 00:19:05.703 --> 00:19:08.649 It can't be an association. 00:19:09.090 --> 00:19:15.163 You know, my wife, sherry, and I claim to be. 00:19:15.163 --> 00:19:25.093 I love college football, we claim to be Auburn fans, but if you break it down, you could question, you could challenge whether we're really fans or not. 00:19:25.093 --> 00:19:26.858 Well then, what you mean? 00:19:26.858 --> 00:19:39.851 Well, we are an Auburn fan because for the last six years our oldest son has worked in their athletic department, and if they do good, that puts shoes on grandbabies, right. 00:19:39.851 --> 00:19:42.777 So I'm an Auburn fan. 00:19:42.777 --> 00:19:48.889 But you know, to my knowledge, I got some gear and I got the hats and all like this. 00:19:48.889 --> 00:19:53.690 I've never spent one dime on Auburn University, though it's always been given to me. 00:19:53.690 --> 00:19:56.018 I've gone to games. 00:19:56.018 --> 00:20:00.917 I go to like an average of one game every single year football game over there, never bought a ticket. 00:20:00.917 --> 00:20:01.909 Yet I'm just. 00:20:01.909 --> 00:20:06.806 I just have the privilege of having a son who's, you know, got that path. 00:20:06.806 --> 00:20:12.934 So I guess, if you take a step back, are you really a fan Are you are? 00:20:12.934 --> 00:20:15.238 Do you just identify with the school? 00:20:15.238 --> 00:20:17.602 Well, it's probably the latter, wouldn't you agree? 00:20:17.602 --> 00:20:22.980 I didn't lose any sleep over that game the other night. 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:33.488 That was a travesty of justice when Alabama, you know, did what they did at the end like that, but it didn't wreck my world very much at all. 00:20:34.349 --> 00:20:40.886 So too many of us profess to be Christians or profess to be Christ followers. 00:20:40.886 --> 00:20:47.330 I say it, but are we really, or are we just kind of going through the motions? 00:20:47.330 --> 00:20:54.704 Let me show you another verse, and you might want to turn to this one Isaiah 28, 6700 BC. 00:20:54.704 --> 00:20:56.787 Isaiah says this Isaiah 28. 00:20:56.787 --> 00:20:59.916 I'm sorry, 16, 28, 16. 00:20:59.916 --> 00:21:12.823 The Lord said look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested zone, a stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation. 00:21:12.823 --> 00:21:17.961 The one who trusts will be unshakable. 00:21:17.961 --> 00:21:23.390 That last phrase the one who trusts shall be unshakable. 00:21:23.390 --> 00:21:24.776 That's where we want to be right. 00:21:24.776 --> 00:21:26.315 We want to be solid. 00:21:26.315 --> 00:21:40.280 That means we need to know Jesus personally, not just facts about Jesus, not just identify as a Christian because we live in this country and because we choose to go occasionally to church. 00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:48.802 That word, trust, is another key word to our faith and the word in Hebrew literally meant to lean on. 00:21:48.802 --> 00:21:59.458 He's saying if we choose to lean on God who in the New Testament is Jesus Christ we will not be shaken, we will not be knocked off balance. 00:22:00.111 --> 00:22:02.439 This is just your basic little primitive cane. 00:22:02.439 --> 00:22:20.055 If you've ever had a little knee procedure and I know a couple of you in the room that you have lately you know how good these are when your knee is something that's unstable and you got to walk across parking lot and you don't want to face plant In case your knee gives out. 00:22:20.055 --> 00:22:21.720 You lean on this right. 00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:23.937 It's not a crutch. 00:22:23.937 --> 00:22:26.939 You're not completely disabled. 00:22:26.939 --> 00:22:28.515 You're walking. 00:22:28.515 --> 00:22:37.161 You just need a little stability to get from A to B and, if you need to, you just keep leaning heavily on this. 00:22:37.161 --> 00:22:37.442 Why? 00:22:37.442 --> 00:22:39.115 Because this is solid. 00:22:39.115 --> 00:22:40.796 The knee may not be. 00:22:40.796 --> 00:22:42.715 This is strong. 00:22:42.715 --> 00:22:46.301 Your leg muscles may not be right now. 00:22:46.301 --> 00:22:48.998 This is what he's talking about. 00:22:49.352 --> 00:22:51.150 The Christian life ought to be about. 00:22:51.150 --> 00:22:55.822 If I'm really a follower of Christ, I'm going to love him and trust him. 00:22:55.822 --> 00:22:57.209 I'm going to lean on him. 00:22:57.209 --> 00:23:10.957 It's one thing to say, oh, I trust Jesus, but then everything I hear from him, I'm debating or I'm backing up on and I'm saying I can't do that, lord, but let me do this instead and you ever done that. 00:23:10.957 --> 00:23:12.956 It's called a counter mission. 00:23:12.956 --> 00:23:15.373 I can't do that, that's a little bit hard. 00:23:15.373 --> 00:23:28.730 But I'll do this which is close to that, and you'll like this as much as you'll like that and God's like no, that's called disobedience and that's called sin, flat out sin. 00:23:28.730 --> 00:23:35.030 And then Jesus comes along and says anything not of faith is flat out sin. 00:23:35.030 --> 00:23:40.363 We can even do the right thing with the wrong heart and it'd be a sinful thing. 00:23:40.363 --> 00:23:42.717 That's why we need these things. 00:23:43.651 --> 00:23:45.658 He's not going to do all the work. 00:23:45.658 --> 00:23:49.801 He's not going to carry us everywhere, although at times he has. 00:23:49.801 --> 00:24:02.450 He is going to put stability into our life through the person of Jesus, to say I know you're going to struggle, I know you'll fall flat on your face. 00:24:02.450 --> 00:24:05.970 If it's all up to you, I'm going to produce fruit through you. 00:24:05.970 --> 00:24:08.210 I'm going to empower you by the spirit. 00:24:08.210 --> 00:24:22.085 That's why you trust, you lean on me for your stability and that's why the life of following Christ is supposed is is so, so important. 00:24:22.975 --> 00:24:29.342 And Isaiah says it, the Psalm has said it, and also Hebrews six says it too. 00:24:29.342 --> 00:24:34.061 Psalm 344 says I sought the Lord and he answered me. 00:24:34.061 --> 00:24:37.319 He delivered me from all my fears. 00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:39.313 So we talked about. 00:24:39.313 --> 00:24:41.220 I'm going to follow a person and not a process. 00:24:41.220 --> 00:24:44.759 If I'm going to follow the person, I got to know him personally. 00:24:45.434 --> 00:24:46.370 Let me ask you a question. 00:24:46.370 --> 00:24:47.410 You don't need to raise your hand. 00:24:47.410 --> 00:24:54.530 How many of you like you know, tonight, if I led, I could lay awake almost all night. 00:24:54.530 --> 00:24:57.780 I'm like worrying and afraid. 00:24:57.780 --> 00:25:02.459 We've all been there, we all might could go there tonight. 00:25:02.459 --> 00:25:17.842 I've got stuff that if I ruminate, if I dwell on it and I let that overcome my faith in Jesus and my hope for the future, I'm like everybody else in this room. 00:25:17.842 --> 00:25:22.110 I could see two o'clock come and three o'clock come this morning on the clock. 00:25:22.150 --> 00:25:23.550 That's not our job. 00:25:23.550 --> 00:25:33.550 Our job is to face our fears, to name them and to walk through them, because perfect love casts out fear. 00:25:33.550 --> 00:25:34.610 Have you heard that before? 00:25:34.610 --> 00:25:36.102 It's in the Bible. 00:25:36.102 --> 00:25:41.649 Love casts out fear and Jesus, that was his biggest commandment. 00:25:41.649 --> 00:25:46.168 He gave all through the scriptures Do not fear, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear. 00:25:46.168 --> 00:25:46.450 Remember that. 00:25:46.450 --> 00:25:52.130 How many times does he have to go up to somebody and say, yes, that's your job. 00:25:52.130 --> 00:25:54.550 That's not in your job description is to be afraid. 00:25:54.550 --> 00:26:01.370 Your job is to follow me and over time it really does y'all? 00:26:01.370 --> 00:26:18.583 Our church is led by some men and women who have exhibited some remarkable courage in a lot of different ways, and a lot of them, if they were here talking, they would say I'm not normally a courageous person, but what's the difference? 00:26:18.583 --> 00:26:29.142 They heard from the Lord and the Holy Spirit was filling them to the point that they heard him stronger than the fears. 00:26:29.142 --> 00:26:34.050 So instead of caving into the fears, they just kept walking. 00:26:34.050 --> 00:26:46.787 They got their cane out and they relied or leaned on Jesus, but they kept moving forward and pretty soon you leave fear behind and it's a great way to live. 00:26:48.073 --> 00:26:50.622 So the third thing we'll talk about here briefly is trust. 00:26:50.622 --> 00:26:56.769 We need to trust God as much as we trust his word. 00:26:56.769 --> 00:27:00.949 Trust his word as much as we trust God is what I was trying to say. 00:27:00.949 --> 00:27:04.628 Now, if you're a thinker, you're like whoa, wait a minute, is that true? 00:27:04.628 --> 00:27:06.648 We supposed to trust God supremely. 00:27:06.648 --> 00:27:08.189 Now, the Bible is very important. 00:27:08.189 --> 00:27:09.547 His words are important. 00:27:09.547 --> 00:27:15.268 Well, we can debate that A long time today, but I'm going to keep coming back to John 1.1. 00:27:16.219 --> 00:27:16.830 Is that on screen? 00:27:16.830 --> 00:27:18.030 John 1.1, right? 00:27:18.030 --> 00:27:18.875 Some of you know that. 00:27:18.875 --> 00:27:21.986 And in the beginning was what the word? 00:27:21.986 --> 00:27:24.288 And the word was with God. 00:27:24.288 --> 00:27:26.860 But then the word was God right. 00:27:26.860 --> 00:27:30.670 Okay, that settles the issue. 00:27:30.670 --> 00:27:39.330 When you're relying on this, you're trusting Jesus, you're trusting his plan for your life and you're trusting God. 00:27:39.330 --> 00:27:46.590 You're trusting his plan for your life and you're trusting his wisdom and discernment to pour in you to get the job done. 00:27:46.590 --> 00:27:48.778 It is a faith specific thing. 00:27:49.150 --> 00:27:55.444 So let me give you a little bit of a hint that helps sometimes to understand some parts of the Bible. 00:27:55.444 --> 00:27:59.901 The word plus the spirit equals revelation. 00:27:59.901 --> 00:28:02.515 You've probably heard that word. 00:28:02.515 --> 00:28:04.982 Plus spirit equals revelation. 00:28:04.982 --> 00:28:16.094 Capital W, the word of God, spirits Capital S, which is the Holy Spirit, the revelation. 00:28:16.094 --> 00:28:17.880 There's two kinds of revelation. 00:28:17.880 --> 00:28:19.661 There's general revelation. 00:28:19.661 --> 00:28:21.230 That's all through the Bible. 00:28:21.350 --> 00:28:21.912 You read it. 00:28:21.912 --> 00:28:25.522 Some of it's like easy to pick up on, some of it's not quite. 00:28:25.522 --> 00:28:28.258 I'll give you a ridiculous example. 00:28:28.258 --> 00:28:30.670 Simple Thou shalt not kill. 00:28:30.670 --> 00:28:32.939 That's pretty much a hundred percent rule, isn't it? 00:28:32.939 --> 00:28:34.869 That applies to all of us. 00:28:34.869 --> 00:28:42.604 You can't go out and murder somebody tonight and say you know, nobody told me that that was against the law. 00:28:42.604 --> 00:28:48.190 Well, you know, you can claim it, but you're going to go to prison for life. 00:28:48.190 --> 00:28:50.644 You know, for that that's no excuse. 00:28:50.644 --> 00:28:51.610 We all got it. 00:28:52.132 --> 00:28:59.453 But then there's specific stuff that has to do with you and your life, you and your situation before God. 00:28:59.453 --> 00:29:03.990 Some of you gonna smile when I say this, because this is something you've had happen. 00:29:03.990 --> 00:29:04.942 I've had it happen. 00:29:04.942 --> 00:29:08.564 You go to church, you're reading your Bible at home or something. 00:29:08.564 --> 00:29:11.551 Let's just say you come in here your worst been one Sunday. 00:29:11.551 --> 00:29:32.815 All of a sudden, it's like you just zone out, you're not hearing what's being sung or you're not hearing what's being said and you're not even aware that there's anybody else in the room, because the Holy Spirit has descended and Wrapped himself around you and he's got a message that you're ready to hear. 00:29:32.815 --> 00:29:34.400 It is just for you. 00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:36.126 It's always the truth. 00:29:36.126 --> 00:29:37.631 It's never an era. 00:29:37.631 --> 00:29:45.180 It's always when you look at the future, it's hope filled and it changes your life. 00:29:47.103 --> 00:30:01.052 Now doesn't happen every week, but when he decides to do it, you will walk out of here that day absolutely changed and Absolutely convinced of what needs to happen next. 00:30:01.052 --> 00:30:10.412 Agree and here's the other cool part there's not an army of people that are gonna be able to talk you out of it. 00:30:10.412 --> 00:30:12.906 There won't be. 00:30:12.906 --> 00:30:18.199 You can line up for PhDs out there to debate you down on the logic of it. 00:30:18.199 --> 00:30:18.759 It won't matter. 00:30:18.759 --> 00:30:36.560 You're gonna do what you heard God tell you to do, and you've never been so sure in all your life, and you're not gonna be all that torn up About whether you got enough money or experience or talent or any of those things. 00:30:36.560 --> 00:30:56.560 You're just gonna do it because you have this relationship with someone who's real, who created you and who knows you and who designed you to Invite into his journey to do whatever you've called him to do. 00:30:56.560 --> 00:30:59.410 And it's amazing thing. 00:30:59.470 --> 00:31:01.477 But my challenge y'all is we got to be? 00:31:01.477 --> 00:31:02.400 We got to be a real follower. 00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:05.653 You can't be a pretend follower. 00:31:05.653 --> 00:31:18.669 I got nauseated about it about five years ago because the big headlines and our Superficial world was the world is gonna be a better place from now on. 00:31:18.669 --> 00:31:19.269 You know why? 00:31:19.269 --> 00:31:28.088 Cuz Justin Bieber got a Tattoo of a cross on his leg Made me feel a lot better, didn't it you? 00:31:28.088 --> 00:31:32.733 Now, I'm not I'm not knocking Justin Bieber. 00:31:32.733 --> 00:31:42.589 I hope he's a Christ follower but a symbol of a cross, wearing a cross necklace is Is, I think, a good thing to do. 00:31:42.921 --> 00:31:56.265 But if you're if this is just you like your rabbits foot, if this is just you're like super, let me try to cover my bases and get God's favor, because I'm identifying With Christianity. 00:31:56.265 --> 00:31:57.449 Good luck with that. 00:31:57.449 --> 00:31:59.744 Good luck with that. 00:31:59.744 --> 00:32:04.951 You'll be part of the 84% who stay worried and you've given up hope. 00:32:04.951 --> 00:32:07.765 So we've got to challenge ourselves. 00:32:07.765 --> 00:32:08.186 Do this. 00:32:08.186 --> 00:32:10.471 So can I give you one more dose of reality? 00:32:10.471 --> 00:32:18.726 Just cause you're a woman of faith or a man of faith Doesn't mean you'll always be secure. 00:32:18.726 --> 00:32:21.292 Faith does not equal security. 00:32:21.292 --> 00:32:24.007 You can read it all through the scriptures. 00:32:24.007 --> 00:32:30.548 A lot of the people who were the best followers Were in the worst situations. 00:32:30.548 --> 00:32:32.733 That's just the reality of it y'all. 00:32:33.780 --> 00:32:44.890 Daniel decides I'm not gonna change who I am because I'm in a foreign country and they're all pagans and there's tremendous pressure on me to conform to that or to be executed. 00:32:44.890 --> 00:32:54.570 He continues to practice his faith and when he's set up and the king is aware of it, the king says well, I only got one thing left to do. 00:32:54.570 --> 00:32:56.653 And Daniel basically paraphrased Daniel. 00:32:56.653 --> 00:32:58.447 He says do what you got to do. 00:32:58.447 --> 00:33:03.788 I'm not gonna stop following God for you or anybody else. 00:33:03.788 --> 00:33:06.754 If you need to throw me in the lion's den, throw me in the lion's den. 00:33:06.754 --> 00:33:12.115 And he does, and he's just one of many examples, and you will be the same way. 00:33:12.115 --> 00:33:15.751 Can I give you a dose of reality, because I have to give myself this talk sometimes. 00:33:16.601 --> 00:33:26.673 There's a good chance that you, if you're a Christ follower, will have knee buckling Disappointment in your life because something or someone has let you down. 00:33:26.673 --> 00:33:37.353 If you are a Christ follower, you're gonna spend a significant amount of time Lonely, especially if you happen to be to reside on a college campus these days. 00:33:37.353 --> 00:33:39.804 That's just the way it is. 00:33:39.804 --> 00:33:49.400 You'll have to decide to do things that are counter what everybody else is doing and Not do things that everybody is doing. 00:33:49.400 --> 00:33:55.913 If you're gonna be a Christ follower, you will never be in the majority. 00:33:55.913 --> 00:34:13.932 You will be in the minority, but the way God works at his math says the minority is stronger than the majority, and he will always Influence the world more through that solid minority than he ever did through the masses. 00:34:13.932 --> 00:34:16.565 We've got that documented in history. 00:34:16.846 --> 00:34:24.389 Go ask the Roman Empire and go ask this new Movement called Christianity and see who won there. 00:34:24.389 --> 00:34:27.606 And that's why we sign on. 00:34:27.606 --> 00:34:28.588 Though, to do this. 00:34:28.588 --> 00:34:38.351 It's not because of the security, it's because of the Of the meaning of what it is to follow Christ. 00:34:38.351 --> 00:34:44.771 So my last question you gonna live your life out of regrets Are out of rewards? 00:34:44.771 --> 00:34:57.108 I Don't want to be old and aging and dying and look back and have a ton of regrets but very little sense of reward. 00:34:57.108 --> 00:35:04.800 I'd rather it be the opposite, because if you're a Christ follower, you know how this book ends right. 00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:07.543 We get the good stuff later. 00:35:08.845 --> 00:35:21.637 I, we do now what we do, not for present reward, but for future reward, because one day he's coming back just as more suddenly than he came the first time. 00:35:21.637 --> 00:35:27.768 This time he won't be suffering and serving, He'll be the king. 00:35:27.768 --> 00:35:40.251 And when the king comes back, he's looking for his kingdom and you will be part of the kingdom and you're going to have front row seat and then you get the reward. 00:35:40.251 --> 00:35:45.289 I personally think it's worth it, and I know a lot of you do too. 00:35:45.289 --> 00:35:49.016 Right, if you're still trying to process that and put it all together. 00:35:50.401 --> 00:36:14.507 That's why we have one more time we get to worship and we call it somewhat of an altar call too, and that is please feel free to come down and pray, I'll be here, or anybody down here you want to pray with, or anybody at your seat, or just if you need to make a next step decision, we call it I'm here, I need to be here For me. 00:36:14.507 --> 00:36:16.197 The next step is baptism. 00:36:16.197 --> 00:36:17.204 I am a Christ follower. 00:36:17.204 --> 00:36:18.410 I've never been baptized. 00:36:18.410 --> 00:36:19.730 We'd love to honor that. 00:36:19.730 --> 00:36:29.414 We'd love to make you a member here If, like, oh, I'm a part of family, I just don't have a family to go to right now, officially or whatever. 00:36:29.494 --> 00:36:32.407 That the most special thing is. 00:36:32.407 --> 00:36:38.912 If you say, man, I'm not completely sold, but I want to know a little bit more about what a real Christ follower does. 00:36:38.912 --> 00:36:44.135 We can certainly, we can certainly huddle up once you make that known to. 00:36:44.135 --> 00:36:51.572 So why don't you all stand and let me pray for you and we get the awesome opportunity to worship one more time here? 00:36:51.572 --> 00:37:01.247 Lord, we, there's so much we don't understand, but what we do understand can be challenging enough. 00:37:01.247 --> 00:37:32.527 So, lord, faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word or the message of God, which is the gospel, the good news that we celebrate this time of year, that the Christ child came in not to be just a regular child but to be the savior of the world, and we will spend the rest of our lives somehow trying to repay you out of our relationship for that. 00:37:32.527 --> 00:37:36.211 That's hope and that's 100%. 00:37:36.211 --> 00:37:39.965 We ask it in Jesus name, amen.