Luke 19:41-48

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

So we're in Luke uh 19. We're gonna start in verse 41. You ready? Let's do it. But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. This is Jesus talking. We've just come off the heels of the triumphal entry. You're like, Joe, you haven't even read a uh two verses yet. We're getting into it. I have to stop here because we're coming off the triumphal entry. Jesus riding the donkey, and everybody's shouting, everybody's praising, everybody's saying Hosanna. And then the Pharisees say, Hey, you need to shut your followers up. This is out of this is out of control. And he's like, if I tell them to be quiet, then the rocks will have to shout out with praise. And now there's that they're entering in this portion where on the road to Jerusalem, you can get to this place. I am told, Adam, I know you and Julia have been there, but you get to this place where you come up and you can see the city now. And Jesus sees the city and it says this, as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. If you see he begin to weep anywhere in Scripture, you probably want to pause there and ponder. Because it's only in two places that you find out that Jesus cries, at the tomb of Lazarus and right here as he's about to go into Jerusalem. Don't ever become, listen, I just need a confession I need to make. I read this this week. I prepared, I read the passage in its totality, and then I went back and read it again, and I thought to myself, why did I just gloss over Jesus crying? It's almost like it became commonplace to me. The fact that the Savior of the world would stop and begin to weep. And now the connotation of the original word for weep is that it's an all-out bawling. Like everybody around him, this wasn't a couple tears to himself, right? This wasn't just a few, like I can just stand off in the corner in the side of the road, and nobody's really gonna know. His disciples would have been like, What is going on? He is he is weeping out loud. He's grieving, if you will, right? He sees the city, and there's something that hits me in this moment about the humanity of Jesus. He's not a robot, he's not like just kind of going through this, like no feelings, no cares, no worries. He is fully God, fully man. There's a theological term. It's hypostatic union. Hypostatic union. It's a theological term that means that he was 100% God, 100% man, simultaneously. He didn't step out of being God to become man. He didn't step out of man, then to go back into heaven to become God. The whole time, hypostatic union, he was both, which makes him the appropriate sacrifice for our sins and the only one that could be the mediator for us. Yeah? I'm already jumping ahead of my notes because I'm a little bit excited. Hypostatic union. He was not two different people. He was fully man, fully God. So why does this matter? Because being 100% God and 100% man allows him to be the righteous sacrifice and mediator. Hebrews chapter 9, you can write this down. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 13 and 15. You can write it down. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 13 and 15. Look at it later. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls, the ashes of a, or uh excuse me, the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurity. Verse 14 says, just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds, so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Verse 15 says, That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of sins they had committed under the first covenant. Jesus is not God pretending to be man, he's man at the same time. So when he weeps loudly, when you read this, I need you to catch something. He understands what hurt is like, he understands what pain is like, he understands what frustration is like, he knows what feeling betrayed is like. Right? That's that's what scripture tells us that if we push even further, Hebrews 4.15 says, For we do not have a high priest, that's Jesus who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, the one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. If you've been mad at somebody because they spoke ill about you, Jesus understands the feeling. I mean, look at how he pours in. Look at how he pours into his disciples, and they virtually all bail on him. Like he knows what it is to feel angry, to feel tired, to feel exhausted. You get to an end of a day and you're like, I am just spent. I have words for nobody. Jesus understands these things. Can we just come to a place right now where we break out of like storytime Jesus and come into like flesh of a real man? Blood was poured from a real man. We can't like, okay, so I don't want to get loud to try to shift the atmosphere of the room, but I need us in this moment to recognize this is significant in the providence of God to send the Father sending the Son. Hypostatic union. That's the last big word I will probably share with you because it requires too much brain power. When you see Jesus crying in scripture, though, don't run from it. Don't run from his grief. You you need to sit in it. Like I just I had to read it, and I just had to sit there, and I just considered like him standing, looking at the city. And we're gonna we're gonna know why he's crying in a minute. But like just to just to know. You ever have somebody that's so upset, you're like, man, I don't want to make it feel weird. Nah, let it let it feel weird. May we be a people that allows our hearts to be broken by the things that breaks God's heart. You want to know why he's crying, you want to know why he's grieving. So why is it happening? This is what he says. How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it's too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long, your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close you in from every side. They will crush you into the ground and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place because you did not recognize it when God visited you. I'll stop right there. You did not recognize it when God visited you. Jesus is weeping not because he sees Jerusalem as it is, but he sees it how it's gonna be. In 70 AD, it would be overthrown. It would be completely full-on demolished. The temple would be burned, the walls all but knocked down. Like it is going to be, there are it's a mass casualty event. He, when he comes up to Jerusalem, and even the readers of this in the early church would have recognized that he's prophesying in that moment, though the disciples hearing it didn't realize it then. They're like, What are you what are you talking about? And it would be fulfilled 70 AD when the city would be desolated. And he's seeing the people that listen, he could have gone to earth anywhere, but he went to Jerusalem, his chosen people. That's where he shows up, and he is grieving because listen, they have turned their back on him. They're like, nah, we've got a system. It doesn't really work well, but we've got one. We've got this law thing, and this is what we're clinging to because this is what we know. And Jesus shows up. Now, check this out signs, wonders, and miracles are following him everywhere he goes. Everywhere he works, he's performing miracles. He's casting out demons, he's raising the dead, he's healing everybody. Like the people are seeing this in real time. And yet they're clinging to the old. Only a few are recognizing him as the Messiah. All the ones from the law, all the ones from the old system, all the all the Jews of old, they're all looking forward to a prophet, a priest, and a king that's prophesied from the old testament. I don't think they ever realized that it would come as one man. And so Jesus is fulfilling all of these prophecies from the Old Testament, one after another after another after another. And yet they are turning their back on him. And in the hour of visitation, when God became man, stepped onto earth, showed who he was to everybody, they're like, no, we're good. There was an invitation, there was a rejection, and then there would come destruction. I need you to hear me right now. In your life, there was an invitation, you get to decide whether you will accept or reject, and depending on that, will depend what comes next. Because listen, for three years they rejected, they rejected, they rejected till their hearts became so hard that eventually destruction comes. You do not have to receive Jesus. He will not force himself on you. He came to rescue you, he came to rescue me, and I do not have to receive his grace, his mercy, or his love. He will not force me or you into his presence. He's not going to force that. But check this out the more you push back and the more you resist, the more you'll become hard-hearted. The less likely you are to respond to when his spirit says, Hey, listen, that's not the best way. The less likely you are to be sensitive to the things that he's sensitive to. Can I just be real with you this week? The more likely you are to read Jesus Wept and then just keep reading. And I had to come back and just apologize. Like, man, God, I how did I let that become normal? How did I let that just kind of happen? Your enemies will build an embankment around you. It literally happens. The temple was burned, destroyed. Without historical context, you can read this and you think Jesus is potentially crying because his death is coming for him. No, he's grieving because the people he's dying for has denied him. He's crying because he's about to go to the cross. No, no, no, he's crying because the people he's going to the cross were saying, No, we don't want you. We don't want you. We'd rather cling to old, to broken. We'd rather cling to what we know than by faith receive something new and fresh. You can get so addicted to dysfunction that when freedom is in front of you, you'll deny it. You'll so you'll get so addicted to dysfunction that when the gates are open for you to walk out of it, you're like, nah, this is what's familiar. I'd rather stay in what's familiar and broken than know what freedom is. There's been times in my life where I asked God to help me with something, ask God to free me from something, and there's a place in the back of my mind that's like, I don't know if I really want this. Anyone else ever been there? You prayed for something, you're like, man, God, would you bring some freedom here? Dealing with anger in this issue. I'm just like, man, anger's getting the best of me. And I'm praying, and there's a place in my mind like, nah, I'm just gonna get angry again. God, would you help me? And just my humanity just to all the parts of me, would you soak into and deal with? And I look at this, I'm thinking, okay, man, God, I need you. I need you, I I don't want to become a person who assumes because I'm a pastor, I'll always be sensitive to his presence. That's insane. You should never assume if you're a Jesus follower, just because you claim Christianity that you're sensitive to his heart. Okay. I'll try to work in a joke here in a minute. I know it's heavy. Try to make something funny happen for you here in a second. There was invitation, there was rejection, there was destruction. You did not recognize when God visited you. They knew he was fulfilling prophecy. They could see him working miracles and healing the sick. And they rejected him for three years straight. Here's what can happen. They swallowed spiritual death and they called it peace. Because it didn't cause them to have to change. You can swallow spiritual death and call it spiritual peace because it doesn't convict you and it doesn't mean you have to change. But the longer I know Jesus, then the more I know that less of me is required and more of him. There's always a working in me, like, God, what what do you want to do in me? Like I'm I'm I'm so far from where I think I need to be in you. Would you just work in me? Would you work your Holy Spirit in me so that I can become less like me and more like you? Anybody in the house that you would recognize, you're like, yeah, you know what? There's things in me that need to get sorted. There's some things in my life that need to get worked through. And maybe you think they're too big for God to deal with. And if you feel that way, then acknowledge that and bring that to him. God, I'm struggling with this. I'm going to bring it to you. I've got this addiction. I don't know that you can deal with this one. You may be broken in that person, but can you break it in me? I refuse, church. I refuse to just like have simple sauce, weak sauce sermons that go down easy but don't affect any change. I refuse it. He said, You did not recognize it when God visited you. What does it take? Like last week we're in this room, and if you weren't here, my friend Dr. Nick Goff, he's ministering in the room, praying for healing for people. And we saw it to different degrees and different levels. Sometimes there'd be prayer for healing, didn't see anything happen. Other times it'd be prayer for healing and it would occur. He left the day after, went to Vietnam. I texted him this morning, hey bro, I'm praying for you. Praying blessing. I know you're tired, praying blessing of you. He texts me back. I just prayed for a guy who's blind, but he's not blind anymore. Like, I'm like, okay, so this is happening. And I hesitate to tell you where he was because we get in our head, oh, that's just Vietnam. Right? I hesitate to tell you stories anymore of like where people get healed, somebody getting healed in Brazil, or somebody getting healed in Mexico, or somebody getting healed somewhere in Europe. I hesitate to say it because you're like, well, yeah, that's just there. And none of our contention is that God is the same everywhere at all times and all spaces. To believe otherwise is heretical. That God would treat one people one way and another people another way. That's dysfunctional thinking, that's false thinking. No, it's the same God in this room right now that healed that man yesterday from blinded eyes in Vietnam. It's the same God in this room right now. I had a man of God come. I went to a Bible college my senior year. We had this guy come to minister to our class, had to come to minister to our school. I remember his first name was Bill, Pastor Bill. He gets done and he begins walking around the room and praying for students. And I'm like, I'm getting nervous because senior year's coming and I feel so unprepared for stepping into ministry. Just give you a heads up. I still feel super unprepared. That was 24 years ago, and I'm still like, man, at some point I let it click in. And I still feel wildly unprepared for ministry. And he comes around and he's praying for people and he stops at me and he says, Listen, I feel like God's telling me to tell you. He wants, I feel like he wants me to share with you that in your ministry will come a day when you'll see signs, wonders, and miracles. And there'll be people in your church that decide they want to leave because they would rather not deal with that. And you're gonna have to choose. And I stood back and I thought in my mind, I'm like, could that be? Could that really be that you could see people getting healed and then be like, no, I don't want that, that you could see people getting freedom in their life, and somebody would say, No, I'd rather not be around that. And I don't know why it would be such a crazy thought because you look at the life of Jesus, then everybody in that community said no, except for a few. They saw this man doing insane things. Can you imagine that? You're at the you're you're at the lunch break on Friday, and you're talking about Phil who died the other day and then came back to life. He rolls back to Can you imagine Lazarus' first day back at work? Walks, hey fellas, what's been going on with you? Right? What'd y'all do for your weekend? Right? Like, everybody's like, what? This is crazy. Or the crippled guy's been crippled his whole life, begging from everybody in the community, and you come back the next day, and he's not begging anymore, but he's doing work. Like, man, that's not normal. Who did this? What happened here? Jesus showed up, that's what happened. And there's others like, ah, I don't know how I feel about that. Twour years ago, Bill prophesied that in my life. And can I tell you something? 24 years later, I choose the Holy Spirit today, I choose the Holy Spirit tomorrow. I will always choose the Holy Spirit. I love every single one of you, but listen to me. I love you enough not to switch up what God has called us to as His church. Because there are churches meeting this morning that they are curating a service that accommodates feelings rather than conviction. There are churches that are meeting today, and they're not really concerned if there's any change or intimacy between you and Jesus, but they're just concerned of whether you're gonna come back next week because you're an emblem of their success. I love you enough just to say, man, there's gonna be things that we got to deal with in our heart that hurts and it's hard and we got to sacrifice, but he's worth it. I hadn't thought about I hadn't thought about Bill until like this morning. Is that crazy? I hadn't I hadn't thought about that until this morning. I'm getting ready, I'm like, man, like can I tell you this? I am so grateful that I do believe that we are in a place where the vast majority has the same heart that I have. That we choose the Holy Spirit today and we choose them tomorrow and we choose them always. Can I tell you? It gets weird. Listen, when you see miracles happen, it's not always easy for us to understand or process. And when God does things, we anybody remember reading about Jesus spitting and making mud and rubbing it on some dude's face? Like that's not a ministry that we're going for right now, but he did that. You're like, well, what's the theology for that? Right? We're gonna you come to family time on Wednesday night, we're gonna be making mud pies to rub in your face. Right? Like, that's not a class we're teaching, but there's like this, like, I don't know, it's not it's not always easy to sort or figure out. Yo, when when Nick last week was talking about tongues, I felt the whole room go, What are tongues? It's like it's in the Bible. It's literally in Acts, right? Like this didn't get made up. Has it been abused in some places? For sure. But it's literally the intent is to be a blessing to the body of Christ and to the church, and then we're gonna get weird about a gift of God. What is going on? Right? But we will not curate a service so that our feelings get priority over conviction. You guys are rolling with me strong this morning. I I feel it. I feel it right now. Oh man. I I don't want to ever think that I'm beyond a point where I could say, no, I'm good with what I know right now. I don't want anything more. I don't want to ever assume that because we are creatures of comfort. We are people that like to take the path of least resistance. Right? I can tell you today is is a blip for us. The rose will not always look like the rose looked today. Why? Because the presence of God is moving and he is doing what he wants to do. And there are people that will come to call him Savior and they need to have a church home that will embrace them, love them, disciple them. You with me on that? So we can cling to what's old, and there's places that do that, but can I tell you there's gonna be people that come in the door that don't look like you, haven't had a life like you, maybe have different sin than you. Yet Jesus died for them the same way he died for you and me. With me on that? You did not recognize it when God visited you. So then Jesus enters the temple. Verse 45 and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. He said to them, The scriptures declare, My temple will be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves. After that, he taught daily in the temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law and other leaders of people, excuse me, of the people began planning how to what? Kill him. But they could think of nothing because all the people hung on every word he said. Can we jump back to verse 45? So he comes in the temple. Now, if you don't have context, if you never if you've never done a study on this, sometimes you can think, okay, well, he walked into a church, it's like a small building, but it's not at all. The temple would have been like it was about several football fields. It's a big space. And not the front entrance is not immediately you're in the inner courts of the Lord, right? It's not like you need to get in your head like there's like a almost a courtyard experience. Did you guys go there? So maybe. So there's like this big area where you would have walked into and there would have been a lot of people around. It wouldn't have been a room like this with a bunch of chairs or seats or whatever. Like the the temple that you would have been in, there'd been the outer courts, right? And so this is a place at that moment where when you stepped into it, you would have heard like the bleeding of sheep, like the the tweets of doves, because there were animals in there that people were going to purchase to sacrifice for atonement for their sins, right? And there's also people showing up there to pay what was called a temple tax, right? And so what's going on? Why is Jesus so furious? Why is he so mad if this is a place that people are coming to to worship? Because it had become wildly corrupt. In the temple, there was only one form of currency you could use, uh, and it was called a Tyrion, a Tyrian shekel, and it had a high, high quality of silver to it, right? It was like 98% silver. And the Tyrian shekel was what would have to be used if you're going to buy an animal for sacrifice or if you were going to give your temple tax. That's it. So you couldn't use what would be the most common form in that time was like a Roman denarius, right? You couldn't roll up with all your denarici or have whatever the plural of denarius, denarii, whatever that is. You couldn't roll up with a big stack of denarii, right? Boom. I'm just, here's my temple tax, and I would like a goat, right? Like that's not how it worked. Like a goat and throw a couple doves on the side. That's not how it worked. You you had to come in and there would be a money changer. And they'd be like, okay, uh, how much do you need? Because doves didn't cost the same as ox, right? Depending on what was being bought. So, like, what do you need? And so, and then they then they would give you a exchange of your your denarius for the Tyrian shekel. But what would happen is there was a markup on the exchange. And the markup would get higher. The exchange rate would go crazy, especially when there's a bigger event going on like Passover coming. Right? And so, so you may be thinking to yourself, well, maybe I I don't want to spend the money for the dove there. I'm just gonna bring my own dove. I'm gonna bring my own sheep. I'll bring my own lamb. But listen, for a sacrifice to be made, it had to be inspected first. So there would be a priest there that would inspect these animals, and if they had blemish, they'd say, I see that you brought your own. I'm checking this. There's a blemish, this isn't usable, you're gonna have to get one from here. Right? And so there was a market like the the trade of livestock had become huge. Because you think about all these people flooding in, hundreds of thousands of people flooding in, and they've got to get these different kinds of animals. And so now what's happened is this inner, this courtyard you walk into, there's all this noise, there's all this commotion, there's people coming through. Uh, if you're gonna go the idea if you watch the chosen, somebody coming through selling hot dogs or something. That wasn't the chosen, but like, you know, somebody's got their cart, they're selling food, like it had become a place of like a like like some kind of like strip model almost. And people are getting it taken advantage of. Now imagine you're poor and you want to come worship God, but you don't have enough money to worship God because they're taking advantage of you. You don't have enough money to come to pay for a dove that could be then be used for some kind of atonement. You with me on that? It'd become a place where people were taking advantage of at the sake of God's name. And so people are trying to come in to worship God, but they're leaving with a bad taste in their mouth because what's given to them is religion, not a holy intimacy. Jesus walks in, sees this going on, and and and some would say that zeal for the house of God consumed him. Zeal consumed him. This is the word zeal. The term implies implies a jealousy on behalf of God. It indicates a fierce, protective love for what belongs to him. He walks in, he sees his father's house being desecrated, and this zeal rises up, this indignation, this fire rises up to say, You have done this wrong. Look what this has become. You read another account where he brings in a whip to the place. Now, I don't know how you like your Jesus. Maybe you like coffee Jesus, espresso Jesus, maybe you're a matcha person and a quarter zip. Like, I don't know how you like your Jesus, but like everybody likes their Jesus a little bit different. It's like, how do you like your Jesus? How are you gonna take your Jesus? And listen, most of us don't have the picture of Jesus with the whip up in our house. Could you imagine that? That would sell out, right? You just got Jesus with a whip. Right? Like, just like try something, Jesus. Right? He braids a whip, goes and starts cracking it, and he's driving the animals out. Imagine you showed up that day to take advantage of people, you got your little bin of sheep, and Jesus kicks the gate open, starts cracking the whip, driving them out, getting them out, flipping tables of the money changers that are taking advantage. He said, My father's house will be a house of prayer. What is prayer? It's communication, isn't it? It's relationship, isn't it? You guys are trying to turn this into a system that people could never live up to in the first place, and you're trying to wring every bit of money out of them.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

I read this and I studied this, and I begin to get mad.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

I think it's okay to find a holy anger for the things that anger God. Can I circle back to something that happens in Luke a lot and get people in the church get nervous about is deliverance. People get nervous, like, oh, we're gonna talk about demons? Oh my God. Yeah, because the Bible does. It's like I didn't put it in there, I didn't make this up. I'm not talking about aliens. We can go that route, that's fine. I'm not talking about aliens, right? Like, talking about demons. And it's and it says that there's demons and the people need to be free. What if you got so just enraged that when you saw somebody that was being afflicted by you? You're like, man, that they're not acting normal. What's going on is not right now. I'm coming against the spirit that's afflicting them, affecting them in the name of Jesus. And speak healing and release and command it to go. People say, I think I'll get so nervous because what if their head starts spinning? What? What rises up within you? I tell you this, and every single time there's been a moment where somebody needed to be delivered, a holy anger that a child of God is being picked on by the enemy. A righteous anger that says, I will not stand by. Not going to shrink back. Because who the Son has come to set free, set free indeed. I just feel in my heart, in my spirit, the the the push. I don't know if it's Roanoke or the church in America in general or what, but just a push to stay apathetic. Just stay apathetic. Figure out a new program that'll that'll get people fired up and they'll come for a little bit and then come get a new program, and then you you you end up worshiping program rather than Jesus. So nobody has to work. Let's let the pastor plan everything before we do anything. You do not need my permission to share the gospel with anybody. Just start sharing the gospel with people. You don't need my permission to lay hands on the sick and pray healing for them because you've already been given permission by God. You don't need mine. It's like, well, let's not do anything until the church decides we should do it. Yeah, there's things we're going to do together. But man, I feel like there's this autonomy that I need to have in my relationship with God. It says, first and foremost, God, where are you leading me today? Holy Spirit, where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do? Because as you do that, then you're being the church. Until you do that, you're just being an attender.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

And I was like, love these people like you love these people. Will you help me see these people like you see these people?

SPEAKER_02 33:13

And my daughter's track meet yesterday. I love my daughter, but track is the worst. It's like going to King's Dominion, but you never get on a ride. You just wait and wait. And at the end you pray your kid's not crying. And uh even worse, my son comes with us. I knew I was like, man, we should get something different for him to do. I was like, can we go walking? Can we do that? Like, can we just? I understand, man. So like we're walking and we're passing by all these people. Man, passing my high school kids, you're like, they're going through it right now. Would you help me love them the way you love them, Jesus? Seeing parents, man, that are like sitting in the heat and they're just angry because of the heat and they're hungry. Like, you just see people like just being real, and I'm like, God, could you could you help me love that couple like you love that couple? Because unless we begin to cultivate that heart, an environment like this will more than likely end up looking like the temple courts before Jesus showed up. If we don't cultivate the same heart that says, Jesus, what are you crying about? What's grieving your heart? That's a scary prayer. God break my heart for what breaks your heart. When he says, the scriptures have declared my temple will be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves. Both of those passages reference the Old Testament. A den of thieves, a place that would not only harbor those that are trying to take advantage of people, but welcome them openly to say, keep hurting people. You see Jesus come in and I've come to know this, like, so hopefully this maybe helps you. When somebody is new in their relationship with the Lord, I I don't I don't address them the same way that I do that somebody's been walking with them for 20 years. I don't I don't I don't treat a lamb like a sheep. And I just want to say this in love, I don't treat a sheep like a wolf. And so while I say, man, give me a heart, God, where I love the way you love. Love sometimes is going to mean discipline. Love sometimes is going to mean protection. And I pray that in today you hear that not every place has got a sign up and with a cross on it is a safe place. And I'm not saying we're flawless. Whew. Have coffee. You'll find out real quick. I'm not. We are not flawless. But there is an awareness. If you stop being aware that you need him, you'll become complacent, stagnant, indifferent. Ministry's going on, we're praying. Sometimes I really wonder, I'm like, Joey, I think you are too vulnerable. Like, some stories you shouldn't share. We're praying. And uh people are getting just so encouraged. And uh and I'm standing there and I'm just praying in agreement and just supporting Dr. Nick, and I'm like, I feel nothing. I don't feel anything. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not excited. I'm not, I just it I don't I don't know if you would call it numb. I don't know what it was. I was just like, man, this is so amazing. I feel, but I feel nothing. I could see that there should be like joy in this moment for me. As a pastor saying, like, hey, you're my brother, you're my sister, freedom coming. I'm like, oh God. And I just felt like the love of the Lord as the week went on, two things. One was, why must I feel anything to be obedient? He's worthy of my praise when I feel something and when I don't. What was going on was not immaturity, it was love and action. It's like, man, my prayer during that time as I walked around, God, whatever you want to do in this place, I want it to happen in this place. Not the way that I think that it should, but the way that you want to. And I don't need to feel you are not here to serve my emotions. I'm here to serve your desires. So I go home, Monday comes. Now it's not like I don't feel anything. I just feel like, ugh, just I don't know if depressed is too strong of a word. I'm just like, man, I just like, what is going on? I didn't have anything to be. Like, it'd been amazing weeks at church, and man, my wife is phenomenal, my kids are incredible, and I'm like, I don't have anything to be. And I tell Ashley, I'm like, I'm not okay. Tuesday comes, I'm not okay, but I don't I don't really have anything. And then there comes a day where I'm like, I'm in the shower, and I feel like the Holy Spirit said, this is a spiritual attack. And I didn't even think of that. When you begin following in pursuit of what God has for you, the enemy of your soul is not happy about it. How many times have I talked to people that say, I'm gonna give church a try? And they go give it a try, they give it a shot, and things in life get worse. Yeah, because you weren't a threat on your couch. You're not any closer to your destiny on your couch, chilling in your living room. Like, so I'm just like, Lord, okay. I thank you right now that if God be for me, who can be against me? And greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. And what you've called me to, you'll do. And it's not on my shoulders to grow this church, build this church, anything. It's just to serve you, to worship you, to love you, to honor you, and to love this family. And can I just tell you something just to be real with you? Listen, you're not doing it wrong if you get to Wednesday of this week and you don't feel anything. Don't give up, don't stop, don't back off. Keep getting in the word, keep having times of worship, and don't do like me. Don't roll those days and not tell anybody. I was the worst example of what you should do. I should have been on the phone and said, Hey, listen, life full on sucks right now, and I don't know why. I am depressed right now and I don't know why. I feel I'm not alone, but I feel alone. And it's just the enemy's like, listen, this isn't when I got real quiet, this is what comes. This isn't gonna work out. The last month is an aborition. It's it's fleeting. Gosh, I don't do this have anything to do with the message anymore. I just want to be honest with you because we need honesty in this place. It's okay if you listen. What breaks my heart is to have a conversation for 15 minutes with somebody. And then the first minute, how are you doing? I'm doing good. 15 minutes later, they're weeping because life is falling apart. Can we not have to go through all the layers of the onion every week? Could we love each other enough to say, hey man, this is gonna be weeks, I listen, this week I need you to pray for me because I don't know how tomorrow's gonna feel. Please pray for me. And I'm sorry I didn't include you in praying for me last week. Please pray for me. But if you need prayer, get it. If you need encouragement, find it. If you need accountability, search for it. Man, I hope this is hidden. I want to pray over you. Could we uh could we pray corporately? Father God, we come right now as your sons and daughters. And we ask that we would have tender hearts to you, and we ask that you would break our heart for the things that break your heart. That our hearts would be broken, our hearts would grieve over the things that you grieve. And that our hearts would rejoice in and celebrate in the things that you rejoice in and celebrate in. And Lord, as we come this week and as we're in this place, I thank you right now that we are becoming more like you and less like us. I thank you in this place right now that there's greater freedom coming. I thank you in this place right now for each and every single person, God. That as we a corporate body say, Lord, we are surrendered to you. That we will not judge a service on the way that it has made us feel. But Lord, that we would be committed to come with intentionality to give you praise and to serve one another. God, I thank you right now that our emotions are not what we're celebrating or worshiping. Our feelings are not what we're exalting. God, we exalt you. We give you full praise. We give you full honor. We come right now and we declare, Lord, may this house be a house of prayer. There'd be fellowship in the prayer, there'd be renewed relationship in the prayer, there'd be redemption in the prayer, there'd be healing in the prayer, there'd be hope in the prayer, there'd be honesty in the prayer. We honor you. We love you and we bless your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.