SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Sozo Kyle Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: To learn more about Sozo Kyle Church, including our gathering times in the Kyle area, visit us online at sozoktx.com.
SPEAKER_00: Today's talk comes from Pastor Chris Ball.
SPEAKER_01: So we are talking about the value of his presence.
SPEAKER_01: We just practiced valuing his presence.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the only way we practice valuing his presence, uh, worshiping and singing, but it is a sweet way.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll just highlight our wonderful worship team and say thank you guys so much.
SPEAKER_01: Um just listening to the sound that we're putting out with our voices, and it's largely because we're a group, I think, who understands what ministering to the face of Jesus really is about.
SPEAKER_01: Um being the people of God and getting to be worshippers in spirit and in truth is about ministering affection to Jesus straight on with the access that we have.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a participatory and active engagement.
SPEAKER_01: And I think largely we understand that, and I'm so thankful for that because I realize that's not an automatic thing with certainly church plants um and people in general.
SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the goals of our lives is to be worshipers of Jesus and to make it contagious around us, to where people who are with us catch that and go for it.
SPEAKER_01: So it's just a real strength.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody says, what's the strength of Sozokyle?
SPEAKER_01: I would say that we're a group of people who know what it is to minister to Jesus' heart and his face, and and we're up to that.
SPEAKER_01: And so, um, so I love that.
SPEAKER_01: I love opportunities to really value his presence.
SPEAKER_01: So the big word tonight that I feel strong about is the word abiding, walking in the abiding nature of his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when we think of abiding, we think of John 15 typically, which is the instruction uh from Jesus that says um that I'm the vine, you're the branch, remain in me, and you'll bear much fruit apart from me, and you will have nothing go for you.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you nothing will happen.
SPEAKER_01: And so we think about okay, my role is to abide in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that that's even a possibility.
SPEAKER_01: The other side of this that's that's worth looking at, that I want to look at tonight, is that God has chosen to abide in us.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus loads that idea up by saying truth, like, I'll never leave you, never forsake you, stick closer than a brother.
SPEAKER_01: The chance of God choosing to not abide in you is pretty slim once you have put your faith in him and said, Hey, I I want to be part of the family.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's this reciprocated abiding that causes the kingdom, I think, to really birth and bloom.
SPEAKER_01: And so um I think that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that the access point really is a life of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the truth that I've observed about prayer lives is that when we pray often, we hope that what we pray for happens pretty quick.
SPEAKER_01: Like maybe this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: Like I hope that there's a breakthrough tomorrow on this thing I'm praying for.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes that's the case.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes it's not quite the case, and it's more seasonal influence, it's more a slow shift over the course of time, it's more walking by faith, faithful, faithful, faithful, and then there's a moment of fruitful, and then you're back to faithful, faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And so the hang-up that I know I've experienced is that it can be difficult to develop a lifestyle of really praying when you don't see breakthrough around every single corner on every single thing that you lift up to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, prayer is more than just coming to God with your needs, and so I get that.
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of what um we pray for, like what we just did a minute ago, is saying, oh God, we're gonna take our role as partners in the kingdom and go for it with you on what's on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that there's not observable breakthrough right then all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not sure that the body of Christ at large really understands, um, has a grasp on, has a motivation towards, maybe it's a belief to really pour themselves into having a prayer life that's alive.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe you think, oh man, I haven't prayed in a while, or I really haven't gotten any traction on regularity and consistency.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so it can be, it can be a difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: Um, the disciples were so moved by Jesus' lifestyle that instead of asking him, Hey, how do you walk on water?
SPEAKER_01: How do you raise the dead?
SPEAKER_01: How do you heal the sick?
SPEAKER_01: Could have asked him anything.
SPEAKER_01: What's recorded that they asked him was, hey, can you teach us how to pray?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're observing your life, and there's obviously the hand of God on it.
SPEAKER_01: And from what we can tell, what sets your life apart and is the power source is the fact that you know how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what they want to be taught.
SPEAKER_01: Um, after three and a half years of following Jesus, the conclusion they come to is that this thing really is about communing with the Father, and Jesus does that.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to Matthew 4, look it up.
SPEAKER_01: Want to look at the calling of four of the disciples of the 12.
SPEAKER_01: And I would imagine that most of us in the room, maybe, have thought about what it would have been like if you were one of the twelve that Jesus called to be one of the close disciples, followers of him.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what would you have been doing?
SPEAKER_01: What would your family business have been when Jesus walked up to you and said, Hey, come follow me?
SPEAKER_01: What would you have been giving up?
SPEAKER_01: We talked about sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: What would you have been sacrificing if you were one of these that he said, Come follow me?
SPEAKER_01: What would that have looked like?
SPEAKER_01: Um and, you know, Jesus didn't whittle it down from like thousands of applicants.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he actually went after the ones who looked like, you did you just land here from Mars, Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, these are not the guys you'd want to be asking.
SPEAKER_01: And so um, least qualified, four fishermen, some tax collector, political zealot, and the list goes on.
SPEAKER_01: But he chose the mundane that their life story would have been quite boring to read about, frankly, had they not had the insert of following Jesus with their life.
SPEAKER_01: And so they actually started following someone without a destination in mind.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes to them and says, Hey, put down your net and follow me without an explanation of this is where we're headed, this is the destination, this is the goal.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we are so goal-driven.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't go to school and take out a loan unless you have a goal of getting a job with it one day.
SPEAKER_01: You don't go on a date with somebody unless you have the goal of maybe getting married to them one day.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we don't do anything, frankly, really, without it being a means to the goal in the end.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus didn't present the goal here when he asked the disciples to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: He just said, hey, come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, who are you?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what?
SPEAKER_01: What have you done?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what is in it for us?
SPEAKER_01: None of this back and forth stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And there was no class on, hey, let me give you three weeks' worth of what I'm asking you to follow me into, and then we'll see if it's a congruency for your life.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have a discovery class one day where when people come to church, they want to know what the vision is around here.
SPEAKER_01: What's the story around here?
SPEAKER_01: What do you guys aimed at?
SPEAKER_01: Do you, you know, do this?
SPEAKER_01: Do you not do this?
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll we'll we'll give them an opportunity to hear and then to decide.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a bad model.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And so he just said, come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And it's amazing to me that that was enough for them to say, yeah, yeah, okay, I'm in on that.
SPEAKER_01: All I mean, can you imagine what they were giving up?
SPEAKER_01: Generations of a business like the boats that they were in when they were fishing had belonged to like great-grandpa.
SPEAKER_01: It's the boat that'd been passed down, passed down, passed down.
SPEAKER_01: The boat they were going to give to their kid.
SPEAKER_01: And and and this is this is an upset of the family apple cart as big as it could have been, and it was hinged on three words, come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 18, as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, and they were casting a net into the lake, midway, by the way, they were mid-work, for they were fishermen.
SPEAKER_01: Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people.
SPEAKER_01: At once, don't miss that, they left their nets and followed him.
SPEAKER_01: Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee and his brother, John, and they were also in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets, and Jesus called them, and immediately, so one, it says that at once they left, now this brother couple, it's immediately they left, the boat and their father, and their lives, and they followed him.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to imagine that moment that these four, and ultimately all twelve of these guys are in because they're being called without an explanation.
SPEAKER_01: Um, no trade-off.
SPEAKER_01: No, if you guys do this, then I'll do this.
SPEAKER_01: There's none of that.
SPEAKER_01: But there is something that we have to pay attention to, and it's the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Something in the voice caused all twelve of these men to say, I'll drop this and I'll follow this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh John 6, 63, Jesus says, My words to you are spirit.
SPEAKER_01: My words give life.
SPEAKER_01: And they would soon discover that, but in this moment, all they know is that when Jesus spoke, something inside of them changed.
SPEAKER_01: The voice of God caused change inside of them.
SPEAKER_01: That's the power of the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't need all the backstory, didn't need the explanation, just the impact of his voice.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, later in John 6, in the feeding of the multitude, you know the story of feeding feeding all the people, and they get fed, then Jesus slips away.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
SPEAKER_01: Me ground my voice a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, ice water.
SPEAKER_01: Even better.
SPEAKER_01: Sure did.
SPEAKER_01: Huh.
SPEAKER_01: Um they he he escapes because it's a big crowd.
SPEAKER_01: They follow him because they liked the bread.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on and he starts talking about probably the grossest sermon Jesus ever preached.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you're gonna eat my body, you're gonna drink my blood, and all these people couldn't get on with that, and so they take a hike and they leave, and there's just the twelve left.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Are you guys gonna leave too?
SPEAKER_01: And they have the experience of his words, and it's Peter who comes through and says, Where else would we go?
SPEAKER_01: You alone have the words of life.
SPEAKER_01: You're the only person, Jesus, that when you speak, I know the reason I'm alive.
SPEAKER_01: We've never heard anybody speak before that's caused that kind of a stir in us.
SPEAKER_01: And as for the the the fishermen, it was probably, you know, multitudes, generations of the family that they had to explain this to.
SPEAKER_01: But you should you should have heard him speak.
SPEAKER_01: You should have heard what he said, come follow me, what it did in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, then what did he say?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: He went to the other brothers over there and he said the same thing to them.
SPEAKER_01: We followed him.
SPEAKER_01: Why he wouldn't talk to ask them the same thing to follow him?
SPEAKER_01: That's you mean that's all he, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: But if you heard him, if you heard his voice hit your heart like it hit ours, you would know why we followed him.
SPEAKER_01: And they followed this Jesus, and they eventually come to a place where they were asked by Jesus, Who do you say I am?
SPEAKER_01: And it's all out on the table now.
SPEAKER_01: Your words change our life.
SPEAKER_01: Um at one point, Peter calls out and says, Lord, we're willing to die for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll die for you today.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were zealous in their devotion to this man who changed everything in every room and every city that he came into.
SPEAKER_01: Um, they watched at the as the miracles took place, sometimes minute by minute, uh, as life-threatening storms that were raging stopped at the sound of his voice.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, Your voice, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Everything obeys it.
SPEAKER_01: It has power in it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is over three and a half years what they're picking up on is that the voice of God has no equal.
SPEAKER_01: His words, and therefore him.
SPEAKER_01: And the s they saw stuff day after day that just had their minds completely blown.
SPEAKER_01: Um, he worked so far outside of anything they could comprehend, and they are immersed in his presence and are part of something that no human had ever experienced before, getting to walk with God that close and see his power on display.
SPEAKER_01: Um so we come to the last week in Jesus' life in John 14, and in this period of time, he gives some of the most probably glorious instruction in all the Bible and some of the most mind-blowing invitation and explanation that you see anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, he tells these guys, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.
SPEAKER_01: Who's he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this word helper is the Greek word paraclete, um, and one of the definitions of that word is legal advocate.
SPEAKER_01: So what he's saying is that I'm going to send legal representation in the courts of heaven to live inside of you to be for you on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: That is the privilege of all privileges because it counts.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a good idea, it's not a fingers crossed, hope it works.
SPEAKER_01: It's legal advocacy for the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's interesting in this verse is he says, I will give you another advocate to help you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what they're realizing is that they got they got it pretty good with Jesus in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I'm gonna send another, and this is the moment where he says, It's good for you that I go away so that I can send the Holy Spirit to you.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm gonna send another helper to you.
SPEAKER_01: This word another has actually two definitions.
SPEAKER_01: But the first definition um is not what he used, and that would be this.
SPEAKER_01: So some of you guys are sitting in black chairs.
SPEAKER_01: So, Margie, you're in a black chair.
SPEAKER_01: Others of you guys are sitting in some of these peach cushioned chairs because it's a smorgasbord around here.
SPEAKER_01: Um Margie, if I were to say, would you go sit in another chair and talk about this kind of chair?
SPEAKER_01: They're both chairs and they have the same purpose, and that's for sitting, but they're different in that they have different qualities.
SPEAKER_01: That's a black one with like a vinyl, and this is a fabric one and it's peach.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus says another, he's not talking about a different another.
SPEAKER_01: Like go sit in another chair, a different kind.
SPEAKER_01: The another he's using is if I were to say, Margie, that seat looks like it's kind of damaged, just move over and sit uh in another one.
SPEAKER_01: That's a that's the same one.
SPEAKER_01: They look exactly the same, same shapes, everything about it's the same.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus is saying I'm sending you another helper, he's saying, It's me, it's just in you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not different, it's not less than, it's not watered down, it's me, it's my spirit, the same spirit, it's God.
SPEAKER_01: So these words that you've been astounded by, that I've been speaking to you, that's been changing your life, that same power, that spirit's gonna be now inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sending that to you.
SPEAKER_01: So when he says another, it's not like it's different.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's just the spirit version of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And John 16 is where he presents them with an idea that is the mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_01: More mind-blowing than walking on water or growing out limbs or multiplying food.
SPEAKER_01: He's about to give them the most challenging idea that's ever been presented to them.
SPEAKER_01: It's in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: And again, here's that preloaded statement very truly I tell you, because if I didn't say that part of it, you'd be like, You're joshing us.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that's true, God.
SPEAKER_01: So he's like, very truly truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.
SPEAKER_01: Now, back up, we're just talking about the revelation that you being with us and us hearing with our ears down to our heart, your words has changed everything about our life.
SPEAKER_01: And now you're saying that by you going away is actually gonna be a better scenario.
SPEAKER_01: Phase two is gonna be better than phase one.
SPEAKER_01: Bull, I'm calling no way.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've been brilliant up to this point.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that you going away is better than you being right here within arm's reach of me, across the table, every time I have a hang up, that I can just say, Jesus, what do we do here?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta make a decision by three o'clock today.
SPEAKER_01: Would you just tell me what the right answer is?
SPEAKER_01: I got you right here.
SPEAKER_01: How many times, you don't have to answer out loud, have you ever prayed or thought, Jesus, if you were just right here in person with me right now, oh how we could get through this.
SPEAKER_01: You would have the answer for this right now.
SPEAKER_01: This is the very thing Jesus is addressing when he says, unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you.
SPEAKER_01: But if I go, I will send him to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's better for you that way.
SPEAKER_01: The most astounding thing Jesus ever said to them.
SPEAKER_01: In the Garden of Eden, before Eve was created, Adam would walk in the cool of the day in paradise with God.
SPEAKER_01: And it was just the two of them, and it was absolute perfect paradise, and they would walk together in this perfect harmony.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard it said that God is God who is everywhere, loves to be somewhere, and the somewhere he loves to be is with his creation.
SPEAKER_01: And not since the Garden of Eden had any human being ever experienced what Adam experienced until Jesus chose the twelve to walk with on the planet.
SPEAKER_01: So in the beginning, Adam walked with God and knew him.
SPEAKER_01: And then all the way forward, now Jesus once again walks with his creation in close union and intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: And can you imagine living your life with the person of God within reach every day?
SPEAKER_01: Got a question, got a hang up.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just ask him in the language we speak and hear it back in the language we understand and get the answer.
SPEAKER_01: How is it possible that I can sit across and have that access and it be better that you're not here?
SPEAKER_01: And that this advocate you speak of comes.
SPEAKER_01: In John 14, we didn't read it, but Jesus announces to them, You know this Holy Spirit that I speak of.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, We didn't know we knew him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, You know him because you know me.
SPEAKER_01: And he is me, and I am in him, and he is in me, and he's going to be in you.
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, my confession is just that I've thought on more occasions than maybe I'd like to admit, oh Jesus, I just can't wait to have you right in first and where we can have a conversation about whatever's on my heart.
SPEAKER_01: And the truth is, if I believe what Jesus is saying here in verse 7, then I don't need that.
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm experiencing something less than what Jesus is promising here, then I've not realized everything that God's put in my account because he's put it all in my account to have access to.
SPEAKER_01: And so if if if I if I'm not experiencing what Jesus is talking about, then something needs to change and it's not him.
SPEAKER_01: Um, the Holy Spirit is actually called so many things because he helps in every way possible.
SPEAKER_01: So it's quite mind-boggling that what we have inside of what we have inside of us, you know, he he's not a cosmic fog, he's not some force, he's not an it.
SPEAKER_01: He is a person who is God, who indwells me and empowers me and leads me and is the seal over my life.
SPEAKER_01: Um, he is the down payment of all that is still to come, as the Holy Spirit's described.
SPEAKER_01: He's a He's a seal over my life that says the adoption worked and it took, and I am in the family, and he's also a down payment.
SPEAKER_01: Of the more that's to come.
SPEAKER_01: Like, even though we have access to all of who God is, we'll spend our existence and our eternity on forward experiencing more revelation of what we have and who he is.
SPEAKER_01: It's like when you go buy a car, you come with a down payment of money, you put it down, and what that is, it's a guarantee that says, hey, here's a significant amount, and there's more coming behind this.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same stuff, it's the same currency.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't go to the car lot and buy, you know, a car with a bunch of oranges and then say, I got a bushel of apples coming for you next week.
SPEAKER_01: When it's silly to buy a car with a fruit, nobody'd go for it.
SPEAKER_01: But it's even sillier to change the currency in the middle of the transaction.
SPEAKER_01: And what God's saying is that my Holy Spirit is fully me, and there's more of me to keep coming all your days.
SPEAKER_01: Um Ephesians 1, the glory of the riches of his inheritance in the saints, it says His riches is the saints.
SPEAKER_01: You are God's inheritance, he is my inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: This thing is hard to understand.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm probably glad I don't fully understand it because my mind's already kind of blown by it as it is.
SPEAKER_01: If you understood it fully, you'd probably just get wiped out altogether.
SPEAKER_01: Um so it's profound.
SPEAKER_01: And let me say this God and Satan are not opposites.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the war has never been between God and Satan.
SPEAKER_01: Um, that's laughable.
SPEAKER_01: The demonic kingdom only has been allowed to exist in the first place because it's grounds for your training.
SPEAKER_01: Because you are called to reign with Christ on into eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And so whenever there is the wilderness, there's the the cloud of darkness that you find yourself from time to time, Jesus said, in this life you will have some trouble walking through.
SPEAKER_01: It's simply training ground for you because you are called to reign and rule with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it exists.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't need to find yourself walking through the valley of the shadow of death and let fear and anxiety plague you and hit you.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is not going to allow you to walk into any darkness that he's not already equipped you for to be victorious in.
SPEAKER_01: Think of Jesus, being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't sound very nice.
SPEAKER_01: Why would loving God lead precious son Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted?
SPEAKER_01: Because God knew that in Jesus' humble place of recognizing God's supremacy, the kingdom of darkness would be overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: And he knew that Jesus had everything it takes to be successful in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Just like you have everything you need in any dark patch you find yourself in to win in it.
SPEAKER_01: So if fear and anxiety start to surface in the middle of something, it just means that you've forgotten your tools.
SPEAKER_01: You've you've forgotten your training.
SPEAKER_01: Because the last season, the last battle, whatever you want to call it, that you came through, you actually picked up tools and you picked up faith and you picked up belief that, oh, this is how this works.
SPEAKER_01: God goes with me.
SPEAKER_01: And so then the next cycle that you find yourself in, a squish moment, all you need to do is, oh yeah, I've got tools for this.
SPEAKER_01: I've got faith for this.
SPEAKER_01: I've got belief for this.
SPEAKER_01: I've got empowerment for this.
SPEAKER_01: I've got God Himself in me through this.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean it's not difficult and it's not hard.
SPEAKER_01: It means, though, that you don't have to live underneath a fear and anxiety and nervousness when something like that shows up.
SPEAKER_01: Um without training, all you would be qualified to do is maybe sit on a cloud and play a harp or something on into eternity, and your life is way more loaded than that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I was on I'm not often on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01: Natalie and I are about to go on a vacation this week, so I was looking in a particular Facebook group of people who have gone on this particular vacation to catch some tips and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I noticed that there was a message from the uh camp that my sister and her husband used to live at and work at over the course of 10 years in New Mexico, and they were grieving the loss of one of their either staff members or workers, um, somebody way, way too young that had passed.
SPEAKER_01: And all the comments, I mean all the comments, were well-meaning, but almost all of them said the phrase that we've written and maybe read before RIP, which means rest in peace, which is a noble thing to say as you're paying your respects to somebody.
SPEAKER_01: And this is not gospel truth, by the way, this is my opinion.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to disclaimer that.
SPEAKER_01: I think my issue with rest in peace when somebody passes from this life is the idea that they're over and finished, and that somehow they are asleep on into eternity.
SPEAKER_01: The peace part, love it.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever God is, there's peace there.
SPEAKER_01: Go with peace.
SPEAKER_01: Let peace be the magnet in your compass.
SPEAKER_01: Ooh, peace over here, that's probably where I'm headed.
SPEAKER_01: That's where I'm going, that's where God's at.
SPEAKER_01: Let peace lead the way, rest in peace, sure.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, we work from a place of rest, not for rest.
SPEAKER_01: I get that.
SPEAKER_01: But don't let the phrase R-I-P cause you to think for a minute that the game is over.
SPEAKER_01: Because for the children of God, as Paul says, um, there's a resurrection and there is purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole idea of going through hard places in life is to train you for reigning on into eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna be hard to rain into eternity if you're asleep permanently.
SPEAKER_01: And so, anyway, kind of harping on something that, like, oh, that's not what they meant.
SPEAKER_01: I know, so I'm just making an issue out of something they probably didn't mean.
SPEAKER_01: But I I just, yeah, I I don't think that like when my, let's say my dad passes away at some point, RIP is probably not what I'm leading with because in my heart, it's more like um, I don't know, AIP, activate in peace, maybe?
SPEAKER_01: Um RIP, maybe we'll put R as run, run in peace.
SPEAKER_01: Like you're you're alive and you've got purpose and you are going for it.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll get shirts that say RIP, but have a new meaning for the R.
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't want to like, like, oh shoot, I've been saying R I P like, no, no, God, this is like my opinion on the matter.
SPEAKER_01: But when you read all this, when you live all this, when you experience and taste what we're talking about here, you realize it's enormous, and there is so much opportunity in the kingdom, and it will go on, and I need to get trained for it because I'm playing a role in it, and that role isn't limited and it's not stopping.
SPEAKER_01: It goes on and keeps growing.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're in a seamless relationship with the Spirit of God that makes what the disciples had with Jesus, having him within arm's reach, actually look inferior to what we have because of the spirit in us.
SPEAKER_01: Same spirit, no step down, no step backwards, seamless.
SPEAKER_01: And it actually makes what they had look less than what we have because of the new creation that we are.
SPEAKER_01: And so he indwells and he empowers.
SPEAKER_01: He led Jesus, yep, um, on into the wilderness, mentioned that already.
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so Psalm 105, verse 24, it says, The Lord made his people very fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: Get that?
SPEAKER_01: He made them too numerous for their foes, and it says about the foes, he turns their hearts to hate the people that are now too numerous for the foes.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like divine comedy.
SPEAKER_01: Let me let me just read it without interacting, interjecting.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord made his people very fruitful, he made them too numerous for their foes, whose hearts he turned to hate his people.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why would he do that?
SPEAKER_01: Why would he take Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the dev devil never to fail?
SPEAKER_01: Like he can't fail.
SPEAKER_01: Why why so what's the point?
SPEAKER_01: He won't lead you into a place where you cannot thrive.
SPEAKER_01: Um, the whole idea is that there's so much to be gained from the experiences of this life.
SPEAKER_01: Um was just talking to Sam about uh coffee bean roasting, and it's like, hey, took a stab at it, got a redirect.
SPEAKER_01: Uh tempting to grieve and be like, oh, this is my business and everything.
SPEAKER_01: But the better perspective is what Sam's got, which is, oh, a new way to do it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like what Thomas Edison said about the light bulb after he failed a thousand times.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's like, man, how's it fail to fail a thousand times?
SPEAKER_01: Like, why didn't you just quit?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, because I never failed.
SPEAKER_01: Every single failure was actually me learning a tweak.
SPEAKER_01: Like it was actually growth.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of those, it's almost like, hurrah, I failed again because I learned something great.
SPEAKER_01: Had I succeeded on the second try, wouldn't have known near as much as I know now.
SPEAKER_01: Like a, and I realize this is like a basic fundamental elementary kind of thing, viewing hardship in life, but this is key to realize that the hard pockets are actually training moments and to see them as such.
SPEAKER_01: And I get in the middle of a conflict and all of a sudden I get nervous and anxiety-ridden everything.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, how do I push pause, step back, and say, okay, what what are the options with the tools that I've been picking up on in the 45 years I've been alive on the planet?
SPEAKER_01: And let's let's start to think through it that way.
SPEAKER_01: Um this morning we heard a story from Dana, who is one of our house's intercessors.
SPEAKER_01: I love Dana Hutto.
SPEAKER_01: She is consistently asking, no, but what do you really need prayer for?
SPEAKER_01: And that's just a great question to be asked by people who understand, again, where we started this evening, prayer life, and what the purpose and point of a prayer life really is.
SPEAKER_01: And so she mentioned that her husband Jeff, who I've become quite fond of lately because uh he is letting me work out of his shop in Wimberley.
SPEAKER_01: And so I do a little furniture stuff on the side, and he's got the Taj Mahal of shops and some really fantastic equipment and drum sander and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've been hanging out with Jeff, and recently Jeff has had a spell of dizziness and also some deafness in his ear, and couldn't quite figure out, still, don't have a good answer for what it is.
SPEAKER_01: Thought maybe it was a stroke of some sort.
SPEAKER_01: And so had gotten it, had gotten better, but not the hearing part yet, and would still have some spells of dizziness.
SPEAKER_01: The other day he was out mowing um because they've got five acres that need mowed, and it's a wonderful piece of ground, and he got sick and realized, oh man, this thing's resurfacing, and we got to get him to a hospital.
SPEAKER_01: So Dana took him to the hospital, and they said, We want to run some tests on strokes, see if this is what this is going on, because they they just have not been able to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: And so she's sitting there in the waiting room, they take him back, and all of a sudden she said over the loudspeaker in the hospital is like this alarm sound and an urgent, not a recording, but an actual person on the microphone system saying, um, urgent stroke.
SPEAKER_01: What was the other phrase?
SPEAKER_01: Alert, alert, stroke, alert, stroke.
SPEAKER_01: And like went on like two or three times.
SPEAKER_01: Her husband's just gone back to some room to see if he's got stroke qualities going on.
SPEAKER_01: And so she said immediately fear just gripped her heart.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Oh, oh no, oh no.
SPEAKER_01: And then she said, Wait a second, this isn't how I respond.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I thought of Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_01: And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, as I said it, my heart settled down, and I got a new perspective of whether that is for Jeff or not for Jeff.
SPEAKER_01: We're okay.
SPEAKER_01: We're taken care of.
SPEAKER_01: We don't freak out.
SPEAKER_01: So, like in that moment, fear and anxiety rose, and then she realized, I've got tools for this.
SPEAKER_01: I've got tools of peace, and I'm gonna use them, and she did.
SPEAKER_01: And in this case, she calls on scripture and she begins to make declaration.
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, well, what a profound example of the people of God being the people of God without forgetting who they are.
SPEAKER_01: Now, thankfully, uh, it wasn't for Jeff, and they said that there is no sign of stroke, and so they're still at the drawing board is what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: So pray for Jeff and his hearing to return and for his dizzy spells to go away and and all that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but he only leads us into places we're trained to win in, and you just gotta know that.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta believe that.
SPEAKER_01: The father lit leads Jesus into the wilderness um because Jesus' yieldedness to the Father humiliates the powers of darkness, and that is true of you as well.
SPEAKER_01: I am learning that in the measure I am willing to engage with God, with my affection, with my trust, with my prayer life, um, in that measure I will discover him.
SPEAKER_01: James tells us to draw near to the Lord, and he will draw near to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now you might say, Well, I thought first John tells us that he first loved us.
SPEAKER_01: Like he's the initiator, he's the starting point, and that's true.
SPEAKER_01: He is.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anybody comes to faith without the initiation of Jesus first waking them up to the possibility of his goodness.
SPEAKER_01: But there's also a key principle in the kingdom that is on you and me to draw near to the Lord and watch how that unlocks opportunities of discoverability for who he is and what he wants to be for you.
SPEAKER_01: The willingness to turn towards the Lord with a burning heart of affection is the beginning of our training to rediscover the inheritance that is God himself.
SPEAKER_01: And again, to realize that I am his inheritance blows me away, and I don't want to rob him of that.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to be all in on being God's inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Um, every yes to Jesus in the room has been an eternal shout of eternal purpose, essentially.
SPEAKER_01: Um, a response to him calling you loads you up with opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just believing that this summer has opened doors for us as individuals and as a young church family.
SPEAKER_01: Um Psalm 24 can be our prayer tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads, O you gates, that the King of glory may enter in.
SPEAKER_01: That the presence of the Father would be so clearly manifested that we become overwhelmed by the presence of Jesus, the person of Jesus, that we would daily rediscover um the reality of yeah, his inheritance and that we're we're we're his inheritance and he's ours.
SPEAKER_01: Um so let's end this way.
SPEAKER_01: Love praying for each other, covers so many good bases.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm feeling two things awareness of the tools we have in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: And so let's pray for each other to have a heightened sense of awareness, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like you you have it, maybe you've known it before, but it seems like you forget it often or something.
SPEAKER_01: Like, ah, if I could just remember, I have access to this.
SPEAKER_01: So a heightened awareness of what you have access to, I think would be one thing to pray over your neighbor, and then that God would just kind of maybe help us to hit the refresh button on our prayer life.
SPEAKER_01: Like when the spiritual scan goes across Central Texas, that this area right here would be like a hot spot glowing with people who understand the opportunity to engage God in a prayer life that counts and that matters, that that you want that for you, that he wants that for you, and that that could be a a key that turns some things um in your life and like we prayed earlier tonight in our community's life.
SPEAKER_01: So find, I think three is a great number.
SPEAKER_01: You can fudge that a little bit if you need to, and pray for a heightened awareness of the tools you have access to in the kingdom, and that you would uh lean into a prayer life refreshed.
SPEAKER_01: So find a couple people and go for that.
SPEAKER_00: If you were encouraged by today's talk, be sure to rate us and hit subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you stream your podcasts.
SPEAKER_00: To experience other talks, videos, and live gatherings, visit us online at sozoktx.com, as well as on Instagram at Sozoktx.
SPEAKER_00: And again, thanks for listening to the Sozo KTX podcast.