SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.
SPEAKER_02: Pray to Kevin.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, that's our.
SPEAKER_02: I hope that's the experience of everyone in this room.
SPEAKER_02: We get that sin has left a crimson stained part.
SPEAKER_02: But I want all of us to understand that you have the power, the efficacy, the capacity, and the willingness to wash it white as snow.
SPEAKER_02: So if there's anybody in this room right now that's living in the shame and shadow of sin, I pray that they would hear you, Holy Spirit, today saying, Ollie, Ollie, and free.
SPEAKER_02: Come out, come out wherever you are.
SPEAKER_02: Sin no longer has power over you.
SPEAKER_02: You can not only be forgiven, you can be set free from that.
SPEAKER_02: You can stop orienting your life around sin, and you can orient it now around the king and the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: So this is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: This is the good news of Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: It's not religious determination, it's not self-hatred, it is freedom.
SPEAKER_02: You're getting us back to the garden where you said to Adam and Eve, You are free to eat of any tree in the garden.
SPEAKER_02: But of this one tree, don't eat.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, give us the capacity to believe you today in a way we've never believed you before.
SPEAKER_02: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Make it our experience, we ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Acts chapter 23.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 23.
SPEAKER_02: If you're our guest, we're going through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're in chapter 23.
SPEAKER_02: Acts, we're gonna start right at the end of Acts chapter 22, about verse 30.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to talk to you today about how to keep going when you're spiritually tired.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, before I get into what happens, I was back here in my little office back here, uh, and I got a phone call from a friend of mine who he's he works at a church.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, What do you call me on Sunday for, dude?
SPEAKER_02: I'm getting ready to preach.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Hey, are you getting ready to preach?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, why are you calling?
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I'm calling because there's a guy in our church that owns two brothers in our church, own a moving company, a large moving company.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they relocate relocation services all over America, and we're trying to load a big truck, like an 18-wheeler, with stuff for North Carolina.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just wondering if your church would like to get in halves on this and help us do this.
SPEAKER_02: Now, his church is a little church north of town called Champion Forest Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_02: It's like six flags over Jesus, if you've ever been there.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and I and I said, back into the phone, hey man, your church is bigger than ours.
SPEAKER_02: We can't afford that.
SPEAKER_02: No, I said, absolutely, we won't in on that.
SPEAKER_02: So when it gets time, let me know if we got to collect stuff or just give you money to fill this thing up.
SPEAKER_02: He said, We're gonna fill it with with baby stuff, diapers, water, things that are tangible.
SPEAKER_02: Do you have boots on the ground?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I got boots on the ground.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02: I got Sherry Elder up there running the world.
SPEAKER_02: I'll send her an 18-wheeler and go enjoy.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so I obligated us to help send stuff to North Carolina.
SPEAKER_02: So here's what's happening today.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna receive our hilarious Sunday offering, and we're also gonna bless North Carolina in the in the weeks to come.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: So uh no big some of the people are like, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_02: Are we gonna do yes, we're gonna do something.
SPEAKER_02: But what North Carolina doesn't need right now is a bunch of Texans to go running up there and occupying all the hotels.
SPEAKER_02: We came to help.
SPEAKER_02: This is not helpful.
SPEAKER_02: So we we're on it, okay?
SPEAKER_02: We're working on it.
SPEAKER_02: All right, and we'll be talking more about that uh in in the days and weeks to come.
SPEAKER_02: But right now, I want to talk about how to keep going when you're spiritually tired, all right?
SPEAKER_02: Uh what do you mean, spiritually tired?
SPEAKER_02: This is a snapshot of spiritually tired.
SPEAKER_02: A while back, a person came to see me and I said, Tell me, I'd never seen them before for counseling.
SPEAKER_02: Let them go to our church, they got referred to me, and I said, Tell me why you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Well, she said, Well, I'm depressed, I'm ready to give up, and I'm pretty much hopeless.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Besides that, how was Dallas, Mrs.
SPEAKER_02: Kennedy?
SPEAKER_02: Uh and she, no, no, okay, never mind.
SPEAKER_02: Later, Rivers, go ahead and have a seat.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and she chuckled and she said, I pretty much feel like this is the end.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Uh uh, okay, let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_02: Are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_02: And she kind of went, put her head down, she goes, actually I am.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Why do you say actually?
SPEAKER_02: You act you say actually because you kind of act like Christians can't get to a place where you're just kind of, I said, you're just kind of, she goes, ready to give up?
SPEAKER_02: I said, I you say that.
SPEAKER_02: I would say that you're just spiritually, physically, and emotionally exhausted.
SPEAKER_02: And she says, Yeah, that's pretty much where I am.
SPEAKER_02: I said, It's easy to grow weary of the right thing and feel separated from the right thing.
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask another question.
SPEAKER_02: Is there anything that you know but you've forgotten and you probably should remember?
SPEAKER_02: She said, say that again.
SPEAKER_02: Is there anything that you really I know this, I know this is true, but I've kind of forgotten it in the warp and move of life, and maybe I would be helped to remember.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, I know God loves me.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I'm gonna write that down.
SPEAKER_02: I say anything else, and she goes, I know I'm forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: I wrote that down.
SPEAKER_02: She goes, Are you literally writing this down?
SPEAKER_02: I'm literally writing this down.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, I said, What else?
SPEAKER_02: And she said, I know God has a plan for my life.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, You think days like today are a part of God's plan for your life?
SPEAKER_02: And she goes, No, I've made some poor decisions recently, and this is a consequence, not a plan.
SPEAKER_02: I said, You want to come sit in this chair and ask me questions?
SPEAKER_02: And she goes, Am I forgetting anything?
SPEAKER_02: She goes, Well, what would you add to the list?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Oh, I agree with the plan part.
SPEAKER_02: I agree that God has a plan, not just and it's not just a plan, it is a plan to bless you, not to harm you.
SPEAKER_02: God wants to go above and beyond anything you could ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_02: You didn't just come out of Egypt, come out of bondage, you're headed to the promised land.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Ooh, what else?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, You got a hope in a future.
SPEAKER_02: That's what God says in Jeremiah 29.
SPEAKER_02: I give you hope, part of my plan is for you to have a hope in a future.
SPEAKER_02: I don't feel very hopeless right now.
SPEAKER_02: You can't live in your feelings.
SPEAKER_02: Your feelings are real small, the kingdom's real big.
SPEAKER_02: And so we spent the better part of an hour and just basically I said, I think you're spiritually tired.
SPEAKER_02: What you're gonna see in here is that Paul, the apostle Paul's the same way.
SPEAKER_02: He's kind of beat down, he kind of loses his temper.
SPEAKER_02: When's the last time you were kind of tired and you didn't have the reserves you normally have, and you snapped at somebody?
SPEAKER_02: Besides on the way to church this morning.
SPEAKER_02: This is what happened.
SPEAKER_02: You'll see this.
SPEAKER_02: And so I want to talk to you today about how to keep going when you're spiritually tired.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I'll start reading in Acts chapter 22, verse 30.
SPEAKER_02: But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, they still haven't figured it out.
SPEAKER_02: This poor tribune guy, this is now the third time.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, What's going on?
SPEAKER_02: Why what's the real reason?
SPEAKER_02: Why are you being accused by the Jews?
SPEAKER_02: He unbound him and he commanded the chief priest and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
SPEAKER_02: And looking intently at the council, Paul said, Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.
SPEAKER_02: And the high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.
SPEAKER_02: When Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall.
SPEAKER_02: Are you sitting to judge me according to the law?
SPEAKER_02: And yet, contrary to the law, you order me to be struck?
SPEAKER_02: Those who stood by said, Would you revile God's high priest?
SPEAKER_02: And Paul said, Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_02: I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.
SPEAKER_02: Hang on a second.
SPEAKER_02: You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.
SPEAKER_02: You got 30 days, people.
SPEAKER_02: 30 days.
SPEAKER_02: Get that tattooed on your chest, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brothers, I am a Pharisee and son of Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.
SPEAKER_02: And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
SPEAKER_02: For the Pharisees say that there is no resurrection, no angel, no spirit.
SPEAKER_02: But the Pharisees acknowledged them all.
SPEAKER_02: Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes and Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply.
SPEAKER_02: We find nothing wrong in this man.
SPEAKER_02: What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?
SPEAKER_02: And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, this is the guy in charge of this little group of soldiers, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.
SPEAKER_02: The following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why does God, first of all, God did the Bible says the Lord come and stood beside him?
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes when you're just beat down by life, the only thing you can pray is, Lord, can you just stand by me?
SPEAKER_02: Can you just let me sense your presence?
SPEAKER_02: I I know you're real, but man, you feel like a million miles away.
SPEAKER_02: To quote that great theologian Susan Ashen, there's a grand, grand canyon between you and me.
SPEAKER_02: Can you just come stand by me?
SPEAKER_02: You know what I do?
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like, hey, do you remember my name?
SPEAKER_02: I sing that verse of a way in a manger that says, Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask you today.
SPEAKER_02: Close by me for and I'm just it's kind of takes me back to this child like, oh yeah, he's here.
SPEAKER_02: He's not forgotten about me.
SPEAKER_02: So what do you do?
SPEAKER_02: How do you keep going when you're spiritually tired?
SPEAKER_02: There's three things I want to point out in the text.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, remember your audience.
SPEAKER_02: Remember your audience.
SPEAKER_02: It's chapter 23, verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: Hear this phrase you have to look hard and a long time to find one sentence that makes a claim as big as this one, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Hear it again, verse one of chapter 23.
SPEAKER_02: And looking intently at the council, Paul said, Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.
SPEAKER_02: Hello.
SPEAKER_02: Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience, okay, up to this day.
SPEAKER_02: It's those two little words before God.
SPEAKER_02: When I say remember your audience, uh before God, it the Latin term for it is quorum deo, before the face of God.
SPEAKER_02: I've lived my life before.
SPEAKER_02: So when I say remember your audience, one of the reasons we get spiritually beat down is we look to the wrong people for the right response, the response that can only come from God, but we look to people to get from people what we can only get from God because we're living for the wrong audience.
SPEAKER_02: And when we look to that audience and they disappoint us, and they always will, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: This is a news flash students.
SPEAKER_02: The people you go to middle school, high school with right now, after you graduate, you will rarely see 98% of them.
SPEAKER_02: You should go to school tomorrow and get on the microphone and just go.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to announce to all of you that none of you matter in my life.
SPEAKER_02: So I will be discounting all of you and your opinions.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Good night now.
SPEAKER_02: I'll give you$500 if you if you're making the morning announcements and you say that.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine that coming through the PA system into all the classrooms?
SPEAKER_02: You'll be throwing your your books in the air.
SPEAKER_02: Free alas, free alas.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, that that wouldn't make you ruthless.
SPEAKER_02: That would make you righteously free.
SPEAKER_02: But they he says, hey, I've lived before God.
SPEAKER_02: When I say, remember your audience, this is the big idea.
SPEAKER_02: R.C.
SPEAKER_02: Sproul, the great preacher and theologian, he said, this is the big idea of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_02: It's quorum deo.
SPEAKER_02: It is the essence of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_02: You say, now what do you mean to live quorum deo?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what it means to live quorum deo is to live your entire life.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me, in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: Quorum deo is to live your entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, but for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: You don't live for the glory of yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You don't live for the approval of people at your school or at your workplace or in your social grouping or in your economic status.
SPEAKER_02: You remember your audience.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when I say to live quorum deo, it is to live your life, your entire life in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this this past week, how often did you think?
SPEAKER_02: Now wait a minute, I'm in the presence of God now.
SPEAKER_02: I'm in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Let us inform what I do under the authority of God, and then yet to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: Because God is everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: This is happening, whether you acknowledge it or not, whether you enjoy it or not, whether you understand it or not.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: What is happening?
SPEAKER_02: What is happening is you are you and I live every moment of every day in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm going to demonstrate from the 139th Psalm.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Where shall I go from your your spirit?
SPEAKER_02: Or where shall I where shall I flee from your presence?
SPEAKER_02: If I ascend to heaven, you're there.
SPEAKER_02: If I make my bed in Sheol, the place of the dead, you are there.
SPEAKER_02: If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
SPEAKER_02: If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you.
SPEAKER_02: The night is as bright as the day, and the darkness is as light with you.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 13, he says, For you formed my inward parts.
SPEAKER_02: You knit me together in my mother's womb.
SPEAKER_02: I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_02: Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.
SPEAKER_02: My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Here, verse 16.
SPEAKER_02: Your eyes saw my unformed substance.
SPEAKER_02: Pause.
SPEAKER_02: We're about to elect a president, probably on the issue of abortion, which is an indicting reality for our country.
SPEAKER_02: And this is not a fact.
SPEAKER_02: Stay with me, don't check out.
SPEAKER_02: We have an eight-week ban, we have a 12-week ban.
SPEAKER_02: How about an unformed substance ban?
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible says of God, your eyes saw my unformed substance.
SPEAKER_02: Not eight weeks, not 12 weeks, now they got a heartbeat.
SPEAKER_02: When you were sperm and egg, God saw you.
SPEAKER_02: The substances haven't even come together.
SPEAKER_02: And then he drops this on us in your book were written every one of them.
SPEAKER_02: What's them?
SPEAKER_02: The days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
SPEAKER_02: So when I was unformed, my days were formed.
SPEAKER_02: This is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_02: There's two things I want you to see here.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, there's no place you can be where God is not.
SPEAKER_02: There is no place you can be.
SPEAKER_02: You can turn out your light, you can turn off the lights and think nobody sees, but God's in the dark too.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that night is as the day to God.
SPEAKER_02: So there's no place you can be where God is not.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, there's not a day of your life for which God doesn't have a plan.
SPEAKER_02: There is not a day of your life for which God doesn't have a plan.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the lady I referenced earlier when I started with, we're probably 45, 50 minutes in.
SPEAKER_02: And she kept coming back to this plan, plan.
SPEAKER_02: I said, What do you think God's plan for today is?
SPEAKER_02: And she said, No offense, but I don't think I need to sit in here and talk to you all day.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Neither do I.
SPEAKER_02: I'll walk you out.
SPEAKER_02: And we're walking down the hall, and she goes, Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: This was this was refreshing.
SPEAKER_02: I said, For me too.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: Because there's not a day of your life which God doesn't have a plan.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: That means that your life and your success in life doesn't depend on your SAT score, your athletic prowess, or your family's participation in that pyramid scheme you call travel ball.
SPEAKER_02: No, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: Stop.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me, mom and dad.
SPEAKER_02: Stop pressuring your kids and parenting them like God doesn't have a plan, so your dad has a plan.
SPEAKER_02: We got to go to Florida and play softball.
SPEAKER_02: Really?
SPEAKER_02: Then you wonder why your kids are neurotic.
SPEAKER_02: Because they live every day under this pressure that, oh, if I don't do this, if I don't win, if I don't get a scholarship, my life is going to be ruined.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, students, this is free.
SPEAKER_02: I made a 14 on the ACT.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not making that up.
SPEAKER_02: Now my kid made like a 34.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, Dad, you're the smartest person I know.
SPEAKER_02: I'm infinitely smarter than you.
SPEAKER_02: And a stupid standardized test didn't, because I was lifeguardian in a summer camp.
SPEAKER_02: They said, Oh, you got to take this thing, this test to get into college.
SPEAKER_02: So I put on a shirt and to and wore my bathing suit to the SAT.
SPEAKER_02: And they said, Do you have a pencil?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I need a pencil.
SPEAKER_02: I think you're getting six for putting your name on there.
SPEAKER_02: I entered college on scholastic probation.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I'm telling you this, because God has a plan.
SPEAKER_02: Now, three semesters in, when I made the dean's list every year, the president's secretary called me and said, Uh, uh, Neil, Dr.
SPEAKER_02: Craig would like to see you in his office.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Oh boy, what'd they find out about now?
SPEAKER_02: Wear some khakis and a golf shirt.
SPEAKER_02: And so I go over to see the president of East Texas Baptist University because the light on the hill will never die.
SPEAKER_02: And he comes out and he says, Hello, friend, I just wanted to meet you in person.
SPEAKER_02: And how do you explain to me how you entered on scholastic probation and how you've been on the dean's list every semester you've been here?
SPEAKER_02: I said, I wasn't a Christian in high school and I acted like it.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Keep talking.
SPEAKER_02: Would you like some coffee?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, So I just, and then so I became a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: They said, Gotta go to college.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, eh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: They said you got to take this test.
SPEAKER_02: So I took it.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't, they they didn't have prep classes back then.
SPEAKER_02: Now you got prep classes.
SPEAKER_02: My kids go into prep class, and all I'm like, great, wonderful, go to all that.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing do whatever you gotta do to prepare, but never live a day of your life like it all depends on you.
SPEAKER_02: Because if you think it all depends on you, what you're really saying is, I want the credit for this.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: If you think it all depends on you, and you live like it all depends on you, then in your heart, your little idol factory you call a heart, what you're really saying is, I can't wait to take the credit for this.
SPEAKER_02: And my the president of my college said, So that's it.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yeah, I just when I became a believer, it changed the way the lens through.
SPEAKER_02: I went looked at life and I like learning.
SPEAKER_02: I enjoy stuff, and so yeah, college is not really hard for me.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I can tell.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, uh, can we cut down on the pranks?
SPEAKER_02: I have no idea what you're talking about, Dr.
SPEAKER_02: Craig.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you do.
SPEAKER_02: I'll see what I can do.
SPEAKER_02: I'll talk to my sources.
SPEAKER_02: Again, there is not a day of your life for which God doesn't have a plan.
SPEAKER_02: See, this is what I mean when I say remember your audience.
SPEAKER_02: Paul remembers, he says, Hey, brothers, I've lived my life before God in all good conscience.
SPEAKER_02: I live, I live for an audience of one, not thousands, not the 500 that go to my school or the 3,000 that go to my school.
SPEAKER_02: You people are gonna be strangers to me within seven days of graduation.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not giving you power over me now.
SPEAKER_02: Remember your audience.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_02: You're spiritually tired.
SPEAKER_02: You remember what it's all about.
SPEAKER_02: This poor tribune guy, whoever he is, they don't ever give his name.
SPEAKER_02: He still can't figure it out.
SPEAKER_02: This is now the third time that he's trying to say, okay, why do these people hate you?
SPEAKER_02: Why do they want to tear you apart?
SPEAKER_02: In verse 30, he says on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't know.
SPEAKER_02: Paul has to tell him finally in verse six.
SPEAKER_02: Look at it.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Brothers, I'm a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.
SPEAKER_02: Now, listen, there's what people tell you, and then there's the real reason things are happening.
SPEAKER_02: People tell you, the media tells you stuff all the time, but you got to get to the real reason.
SPEAKER_02: You got to remember what it's all about.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says, Here, here's why I'm on trial.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not on trial because I brought some uh some non-Jewish person into the temple, which is what they said.
SPEAKER_02: Here's why I'm on trial.
SPEAKER_02: I'm on trial because since the very beginning of the book of Acts, I have preached about the hope that is ours in Christ and the resurrection, which is the culmination of that hope.
SPEAKER_02: And this is why these people hate me, because they're religious and they have no hope.
SPEAKER_02: He just cuts right to the right right to the chase, to the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_02: See, discouragement comes when you lose sight of what matters.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: You get caught up in all these peripheral things and you overheat and boil dry.
SPEAKER_02: And then in the church in America today, what we do when we get caught up in peripheral things like church growth and competition with other churches and stuff and the other, you try to manufacture with your programming what only the Holy Spirit can do in the first place.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want you to remember this is how simple it was in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: This is how they thought about it.
SPEAKER_02: Go all the way back to Acts chapter 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: As they were speaking to the people.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is uh these two guys that they said these are uh uneducated and ignorant men, but they recognized them as having been with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: As they were speaking to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees, same guys in 23.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, he said there's some Pharisees and some Sadducees.
SPEAKER_02: The Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, they don't believe in angels, they don't believe in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: The Sadducees who don't believe in the resurrection, they came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
SPEAKER_02: But many of those who had heard the word believed.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what you cannot do with programming.
SPEAKER_02: Look at this, that last part.
SPEAKER_02: And the number of men came to about 5,000.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been to a church service where 5,000 people came to faith?
SPEAKER_02: See, you cannot program what only the Holy Spirit can send down.
SPEAKER_02: Now, one of the things all through the book of Acts is this thing called hope.
SPEAKER_02: And this hope is found only in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is why they're proclaiming in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And then secondly, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: There's things that are found in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's why in Ephesians chapter 4 it says, Surely you were taught according to the truth that is in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: There's a truth that you only find in Jesus, that you don't find in the world.
SPEAKER_02: You don't find in religion.
SPEAKER_02: You don't find in the arts or the humanities or science or music or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: In the lyrics to a Taylor Swift song.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's the only place you find this.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what drove these people crazy.
SPEAKER_02: Don't lose sight.
SPEAKER_02: This is what it's all about.
SPEAKER_02: We're talking about the hope because religion leaves people hopeless in the resurrection, that there's life after this life.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, this life matters.
SPEAKER_02: This theme is all through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: This hope is only found in Jesus Christ and it culminates in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, because this hope is based on the person of Jesus, his birth, his sin.
SPEAKER_02: Life and his purposeful death.
SPEAKER_02: And finally, his verifiable resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus rises from the dead as the first fruits of those from among the dead.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the law of first fruits dictates that there will be more fruits.
SPEAKER_02: Christians who have died after Jesus rises from the dead, they are the first fruits of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Father, the Bible says when Christ comes, the dead in Christ will rise first.
SPEAKER_02: That's not a reference to the Baptist.
SPEAKER_02: That's a reference to all.
SPEAKER_02: We're not falling for your little mind games, monkey boy.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: It's why you can go to your grandma's funeral if she's a Christian and be sad, but be hopeful.
SPEAKER_02: And be like, ah, I know I'm gonna see my grandma again.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because the law of the first fruits means there's gonna be more fruit.
SPEAKER_02: Christ was the first fruit.
SPEAKER_02: This is why, that's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read from 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we only talk about this at Easter.
SPEAKER_02: We should talk about it all through the year.
SPEAKER_02: Hear what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
SPEAKER_02: But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
SPEAKER_02: And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is in vain.
SPEAKER_02: We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised.
SPEAKER_02: For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
SPEAKER_02: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins.
SPEAKER_02: Hello.
SPEAKER_02: We live in a day and age of people pop it off about how I'm deconstructing my faith.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna strip it down where you have nothing that you can hope in.
SPEAKER_02: And you're gonna have a hopeless, mentally tortured, mental health crisis generation on your hands.
SPEAKER_02: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins.
SPEAKER_02: And those who have fallen asleep or died in Christ, they've perished.
SPEAKER_02: If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
SPEAKER_02: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_02: Because most preaching you hear is just teaching you little tips and techniques about how to get ahead in this life.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
SPEAKER_02: You can't have your best life now.
SPEAKER_02: If you can have your best life now, heaven will be an eternal disappointment for you.
SPEAKER_02: You can't have your best life now.
SPEAKER_02: You can have a good life.
SPEAKER_02: I love my life.
SPEAKER_02: People say, Oh, don't you want Jesus to come back?
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to play some more golf, eat a few more steaks.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm ready.
SPEAKER_02: And they look at me like, oh, if in this life we have hope, in this life only, we're of all people, most to be pitied.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 20, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_02: For it's by a man came death, Adam, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_02: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
SPEAKER_02: But each in his own order.
SPEAKER_02: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ, then comes the end.
SPEAKER_02: You know this is gonna end, right?
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible just throws it out there like, hey, Pastor Ketchup, then comes the end.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody's in charge, sovereignly ruling over it all, people.
SPEAKER_02: Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power.
SPEAKER_02: See, the hope, this hope is the is the message of the gospel, and it's rooted in the truth of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what the Sadducees they hated back in chapter four, and they hate it right here in chapter 23 because it exposes the insufficiency of their worldview.
SPEAKER_02: You say, okay, you're you're talking a lot, you're pretty wound up.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: They hated the resurrection because it exposes the insufficiency of their worldview.
SPEAKER_02: This is why they let it be about everything else, because this poor tribune guy is like, can somebody explain to me why y'all hate him?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you're trying to kill him.
SPEAKER_02: I got to rescue him, I can't get an answer.
SPEAKER_02: He still can't get an answer.
SPEAKER_02: So this little section of scripture starts off with this guy saying, Hey, I want to know the real reason why he's being accused by the Jews.
SPEAKER_02: Not because he brought trophism, some Gentile, into the temple.
SPEAKER_02: That's just made-up lies.
SPEAKER_02: See, misrepresentation, or let me say, uh, what do we call it in the media nowadays?
SPEAKER_02: Fake news.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: It's just fake news.
SPEAKER_02: It's been around since the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, Paul brought this guy into the temple.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a Jew, and so we gotta kill him now.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, the reality is you hear this.
SPEAKER_02: The Pharisees and Sadducees, they taught opportunity, not hope.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: I'll demonstrate.
SPEAKER_02: The Pharisees and the Sadducees, both, regardless of what they thought about the resurrection, they they they taught opportunity, not hope.
SPEAKER_02: You say, what do you mean opportunity?
SPEAKER_02: You have an opportunity to keep the law, and if you keep the law, you keep the rules, then you're good.
SPEAKER_02: There's hope for you.
SPEAKER_02: Well, here's the problem: the law only points out our need for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The book of Galatians says that the law is like a schoolmaster.
SPEAKER_02: It is intended to bring you to God.
SPEAKER_02: Now keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_02: The law is like a schoolmaster, it's like a principle that catches you smoking in the bathroom and brings you to the authority figure, brings you to God.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when I say, oh, they the Pharisees and the Sadducees taught opportunity but not hope.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Here's your opportunity.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the list of the lost.
SPEAKER_02: We've added 614 extra ones just to make sure everyone's is perfect.
SPEAKER_02: Now, do your best.
SPEAKER_02: And then along comes John chapter 8.
SPEAKER_02: It's called The Woman Caught in Adultery.
SPEAKER_02: If you remember that, say amen.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says she was caught in the very act of adultery, and the Pharisees, they set it up and they catch her, they take her out there.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is teaching love and mercy and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: They throw her at Jesus' feet and they say, Lord, the law says we should stone such women.
SPEAKER_02: What do you say?
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says they use this as a basis for accusing him.
SPEAKER_02: Because if he says, yeah, the law says stone her.
SPEAKER_02: Stone her.
SPEAKER_02: That's what she gets.
SPEAKER_02: Two plus two equals four.
SPEAKER_02: Bye.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus stoops over and writes in the dirt.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says that one by one they drop their rocks and departed, the older ones first.
SPEAKER_02: The people who have a longer past than everybody else standing around were like, Oh, well, see uh, what it is was uh here, you have my rock.
SPEAKER_02: And they walk away.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why?
SPEAKER_02: They teach opportunity.
SPEAKER_02: Don't screw it up, because if you do, we're gonna stone you to death.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus and the and the apostles, the disciples, but the apostle Paul, they taught hope.
SPEAKER_02: Big difference in those two things.
SPEAKER_02: Because when you, like, remember, I said Galatians says that the law is like a schoolmaster, like the principle that brings you to God.
SPEAKER_02: When you find yourself naked without excuse at the feet of God, you want to believe in a hope that's bigger than your behavior.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the beauty of what they're preaching in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: This is what changed the world.
SPEAKER_02: The law exposes our hopelessness and gets us ready for the hope that's only found in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Now, uh, this is what I mean when I talk about the personal nature of hope.
SPEAKER_02: Let me give you a contemporary example that you've all you all know this song, but you've not thought about the ramifications of the song.
SPEAKER_02: Like I remember there's a song called Santa Claus is coming to town.
SPEAKER_02: You remember that song?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_02: I was six years old living on our farm in East Texas when I heard, you know, I hear it in the background in the dollar store.
SPEAKER_02: So, but then I actually, one day, I heard the words, and it wasn't encouraging.
SPEAKER_02: Because as a six-year-old, not as a 60-year-old, as a six-year-old, I couldn't keep the rules.
SPEAKER_02: And out of the radio, I heard these words.
SPEAKER_02: You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout.
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you why.
SPEAKER_02: Santa Claus is coming to town.
SPEAKER_02: Feeling pretty good about myself with that one.
SPEAKER_02: And then this comes out.
SPEAKER_02: He's making a list and checking it twice.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna find out who's naughty and nice.
SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden, this dark cloud of shame came over me.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember looking around, just thinking, yes.
SPEAKER_02: To quote that great theologian Scooby-Doo, I was just like, what?
SPEAKER_02: It so hooked me, I walked over and turned the volume up.
SPEAKER_02: And then it didn't get any better because it said this, he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake.
SPEAKER_02: And I just thought, lower your expectations for Christmas Day.
SPEAKER_02: See, look at me.
SPEAKER_02: This is what happens when you give people an opportunity to earn it versus a hope and a God who's accomplished it for you.
SPEAKER_02: It's a big difference.
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Say amen.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the last thing you gotta remember.
SPEAKER_02: Remember the sustaining power of encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: The sustaining power of encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: It's verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 11, it says, the following night.
SPEAKER_02: So this stuff has happened and a day has transpired.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's just been marinating in his juices.
SPEAKER_02: He's locked in his army barracks, he's under protective custody.
SPEAKER_02: And it says, the Lord, verse 11, the following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.
SPEAKER_02: Now you should be thinking, what's encouraging about that?
SPEAKER_02: I get to have this experience over again.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what's encouraging.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't get to Rome for another two years.
SPEAKER_02: So just stay with me.
SPEAKER_02: We're about done.
SPEAKER_02: You still with me?
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: So he doesn't get to Rome for two more years.
SPEAKER_02: All right?
SPEAKER_02: A lot of stuff has already happened to him.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: He he he brings a generous offering to the church in Jerusalem because no good deed goes unpunished.
SPEAKER_02: He has to prove that he's not what people say.
SPEAKER_02: He's falsely accused.
SPEAKER_02: He gets arrested.
SPEAKER_02: People make assumptions about him.
SPEAKER_02: People lie about him.
SPEAKER_02: He gets beaten by a mob.
SPEAKER_02: He gets beaten again.
SPEAKER_02: He's almost torn to pieces, and he's thinking, I'm glad I did this.
SPEAKER_02: I brought these people money to help their church by diapers in North Carolina and water for people.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what happens.
SPEAKER_02: No matter self, just keep it next time.
SPEAKER_02: Remember the sustaining power of encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, you've got to understand the difference in motivation and encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: You've got to understand the difference in motivation and encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: Notice in the Bible, encouragement usually comes to people who are already doing the right thing and they're encouraged to continue.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: Encouragement comes to people who are already doing the right thing and they're encouraged to continue.
SPEAKER_02: Motivation is for people who have yet to do anything, and they need motivation to do something.
SPEAKER_02: This is, we confuse those two in America because now we try to encourage people to get off their blessed assurance and do something.
SPEAKER_02: No, that person needs motivation.
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't encourage that person.
SPEAKER_02: That sounds like a hate crime, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't even say to people, hey, I'm not going to encourage you because you don't need encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: You need motivation because your sorry self has done nothing so far.
SPEAKER_02: I wish I could see your faces.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all look like you walked out of Walmart and forgot where you parked.
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of minivans here.
SPEAKER_02: Keep looking.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: You have to understand the difference in encouragement in the Bible, not in the culture we live, but in the Bible, encouragement with people who are already doing the right thing.
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord comes and stands by you.
SPEAKER_02: Why doesn't God come and stand by you?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're not doing anything.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're laying in bed, scrolling on your phone, going, all right, God, come down here, put on some coffee, make me some breakfast, give me a pep talk.
SPEAKER_02: I need a TED talk every morning to get going.
SPEAKER_02: You need to do something.
SPEAKER_02: If you want encouragement, do something.
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, you need motivation.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the sustaining power of encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I want you to notice there's four things that God says to Paul.
SPEAKER_02: And it's one little phrase when he says, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts of me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.
SPEAKER_02: This is Paul who's tired.
SPEAKER_02: He's lost his temper with the high priest.
SPEAKER_02: He's now sitting in this prison in this army barracks under house arrest.
SPEAKER_02: He's just under all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And God says four things to him.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, I know you.
SPEAKER_02: I know you.
SPEAKER_02: You ain't gonna tell me what this has been like.
SPEAKER_02: Take courage, for you have testified to the facts about me.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter their response, it just matters, hey, did you tell the truth?
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: So God says, I know you, man.
SPEAKER_02: I'm with you.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm with you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm right here.
SPEAKER_02: I'm standing right by you.
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly, God says, I'm for you.
SPEAKER_02: I am for you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, that ought to God, when our girls were little, I would just say, Hey, he's for us.
SPEAKER_02: He's for us.
SPEAKER_02: And my oldest would overachieve her, go, I know dad, he's for us.
SPEAKER_02: She was about, I don't know, nine.
SPEAKER_02: Her sister's about four.
SPEAKER_02: One day her sister looked at her and said, Who's he?
SPEAKER_02: They're walking down the hall, and I heard her go say to her and said, Who's he?
SPEAKER_02: Dad's always going, He's for us.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, hold your heads up.
SPEAKER_02: Lift up your heads, oh ye gates.
SPEAKER_02: Be lifted up you everlasting doors that the king of glory may come in.
SPEAKER_02: He's for us.
SPEAKER_02: My older, yeah! My young gate, uh, who is he?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: God says it to Paul here.
SPEAKER_02: I'm for you, man.
SPEAKER_02: I'm for you.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the last.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna start by this.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not finished with you.
SPEAKER_02: These people want to tear you to pieces.
SPEAKER_02: They can't put a hand on you.
SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_02: A weapon may be formed, but it ain't necessarily gonna prosper.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, sea biscuit.
SPEAKER_02: We got we got miles to go before we sleep.
SPEAKER_02: I am not finished with you.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, just the rest of the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: He gets, there's 40 men in the next chapter and take a vow not to eat until they kill Paul.
SPEAKER_02: He has two more trials, then he gets on a ship, and you think, okay, I'm going to Rome.
SPEAKER_02: God said I get to testify in Rome, and guess what?
SPEAKER_02: He has a shipwreck.
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Come on, man.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not spiritually tired.
SPEAKER_02: I'm previously quitting.
SPEAKER_02: And then he gets up on the land and he starts piling up wood to build a fire, and a snake comes out and bites his hand.
SPEAKER_02: He pulls his hand back, and there's a snake hanging from it.
SPEAKER_02: And he keeps going.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Where does he find the capacity to do that?
SPEAKER_02: Because God comes to him in encouraging ways and says, I know you, man.
SPEAKER_02: I'm with you, I'm for you.
SPEAKER_02: And I am not finished with you.
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself this question today.
SPEAKER_02: Of those four, which one do you most need to hear from God right now?
SPEAKER_02: Because these simple truths are so powerful, they propel Paul on to Rome, and he endures for the next two years all that happens, and he's comforted by what God has promised, because it is enough for him.
SPEAKER_02: The question before us today, when you get spiritually tired, is it enough for you?
SPEAKER_02: Can you remember your audience?
SPEAKER_02: Can you do you lose sight of the audience and start living for the approval of man instead of the glory of God?
SPEAKER_02: Can you remember what it's all about?
SPEAKER_02: You lose sight of what it's all about and think, oh, I gotta keep up with the Joneses.
SPEAKER_02: Who are the Joneses trying to keep up with?
SPEAKER_02: And finally, can you just remember the sustaining power of encouragement?
SPEAKER_02: And maybe your prayer today just needs to be, hey God, I just need some encouragement.
SPEAKER_02: That's not weakness men.
SPEAKER_02: You can say to the Lord, hey, every once in a while I just say, hey, can can you give me a sign that I'm at least walking in the right direction?
SPEAKER_02: Because I feel like I'm out here and I'm starting to feel a little exposed and a little lonely.
SPEAKER_02: So can you break a brother off a crumb and just give me a sign?
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, You really, yes, I say that.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, because I'm thinking it already.
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: He does.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh, okay, okay, I can keep going.
SPEAKER_02: I'm great.
SPEAKER_02: I'm wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna get spiritually tired in this life.
SPEAKER_02: You are.
SPEAKER_02: That's not the question.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the question What are you gonna look to?
SPEAKER_02: What do you need to remember that's gonna help you keep going?
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Just take a minute and just think about what's been said.
SPEAKER_02: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: That's for your consideration, your deliberation, and your application in your community group.
SPEAKER_02: All right, lunch today.
SPEAKER_02: Right now, let's just be still and do nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Ask the Lord what had our name on it.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we want to just be still and just think.
SPEAKER_02: So just hover over us and love on us for this moment.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, it's your presence that we desire more than anything.
SPEAKER_02: We never want to presume upon you.
SPEAKER_02: We want to be people that are comfortable in your presence.
SPEAKER_02: We want to live quorum day before the face of God.
SPEAKER_02: We want to live every day of our life, every moment of every day of our life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, and for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: We want to parent our children in a way that says, hey, God has a plan for our family, but also for you.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes we have to make decisions, we have to move, and we didn't, you didn't want to move, and we we didn't see it coming, but we believe this is God's plan.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we got to do things.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we gotta say, you know what, we were gonna go on that vacation, but we're gonna help some people, we're gonna give this money away.
SPEAKER_02: But help us to parent our kids for more than just behavior modification, but for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_02: It's so thought-provoking.
SPEAKER_02: We're humbled that we get to read it and preach it and teach it.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you that I'm standing before a group of people that want to hear it every Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Even when it stings a little bit, they want to hear it.
SPEAKER_02: I want to hear it, even when it stings a little bit.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, don't give up on us.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, let you go with us, don't lead us up out of here.
SPEAKER_02: Your presence is the most valuable thing in our life.
SPEAKER_02: We never want to take it for granted.
SPEAKER_02: So, Lord, thank you that we get to live quorum dale before the face of God.
SPEAKER_02: We're humbled by that.
SPEAKER_02: So we say thanks in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: What everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If you're our guest today, let me say thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_02: You're always welcome, okay?
SPEAKER_02: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_02: If you have any questions, some of our pastors will be available down front.
SPEAKER_02: We'd love to answer questions for you, pray with you if you got something going on.
SPEAKER_02: All we ask of you today, right now, if you're our guests, if you just text welcome to the number on the screen behind me.
SPEAKER_02: That gives us a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_02: We want to engage you and help you take your next step in your spiritual journey.
SPEAKER_02: Also, we've got things going on in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_02: We always do.
SPEAKER_02: We make you aware of those by way of our video announcements.
SPEAKER_02: So check out the screens to see what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's happening at Grand Park Way Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Just a reminder, Hilarious Sunday is today.
SPEAKER_00: This is an opportunity to give joyfully and generously to the expansion of our children's building.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking each of you to simply pray, listen, and obey by giving whatever God tells you to give.
SPEAKER_00: This is not in lieu of your tithe, but is an offering which is above and beyond it.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, join our New Believers Class.
SPEAKER_00: It is a three-week study where we'll look at what it means to be a Christian, what it looks like to be part of a church, baptism, the Lord's Supper, communion, how to pray, and how to read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This class is for kids in first through fourth grade who have already made a decision to follow Christ or who are very curious.
SPEAKER_00: Paris and Kids will meet on Wednesday, November 6th, 13th, and 20th from 6 to 7.30 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the Kids Building.
SPEAKER_00: For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_02: Mom and Dad, one of the best things we do here across the board is that class in our children's ministry.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a believer now what?
SPEAKER_02: I'm curious now what?
SPEAKER_02: I know you got a lot going on, but I want to encourage you if you've got kids that are asking questions or they've come to faith, uh, prioritize that class on those three Wednesday nights.
SPEAKER_02: It'll help you be better equipped.
SPEAKER_02: It'll help your your your children who are asking God-sized questions, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Uh let me just one last thing, my way of reminder, it's week two of Love Your Neighbor, our October outreach.
SPEAKER_02: And so we have cards and on the card.
SPEAKER_02: There's five things you can do this week.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, I went up from church last Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: I told you, hey, one of the things was you know, have your neighbors over or give them a meal.
SPEAKER_02: Uh our neighbors love papased.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I donate a kidney and then I go to papasitas, uh, our gift plasma.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but I got home, I'm pulling my driveway, and the lady's out working in the yard, and I walked over and I said, now I'm just gonna clarify, uh, we want to drop a love bomb on y'all this week so you're y'all don't have to worry about dinner.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all like papa seedus, right?
SPEAKER_02: I said, now what time you want to show up?
SPEAKER_02: You want that, or just or you want a gift card?
SPEAKER_02: She goes, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I think I'd like a gift card because I want to get out of the house and go.
SPEAKER_02: And I was turning, I said, All right, I'll get it, it'll show up.
SPEAKER_02: I'm walking off, and she said, Hey, I like whatever it is you're you're preaching at your church.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, You're welcome.
SPEAKER_02: I do too.
SPEAKER_02: And so my wife goes to the grocery store, she gets a card, I walk it over, I ring the doorbell, their college daughter answers the door.
SPEAKER_02: And I say, Hey, this is for your parents.
SPEAKER_02: And she's like, Y'all don't have to do this.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I know, but that's what makes doing it so enjoyable.
SPEAKER_02: And we're both holding the gift card, and she's like, Do I take it?
SPEAKER_02: What do I do?
SPEAKER_02: There's a preacher on my doorstep.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_02: And there's enough on there for them to take you.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why am I telling you this?
SPEAKER_02: Because if you go out at the mission center right over here to the right, you see a big backdrop, then a chair and a camera set up.
SPEAKER_02: We want you to tell your love your neighbor stories.
SPEAKER_02: Just sit down 30 seconds, boom.
SPEAKER_02: We're just filming those.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you got a love your neighbor story, something you done, it doesn't have to be big or profound, it can just be simple.
SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the month, we're gonna compile a video and we're gonna show it, let you see what it looks like for us to love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: So decide right now when you're done, you're gonna go out there, sit down, and just tell your story, all right?
SPEAKER_02: We want to unleash love in a culture that's so full of hate.
SPEAKER_02: This is why we're loving our neighbor for our October outreach.
SPEAKER_02: So as soon as you're dismissed here in a minute, come get a card, all right?
SPEAKER_02: And then catch up with people in the lobby.
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to conclude our service with a smoking blessing.
SPEAKER_02: So stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_02: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_02: Even when you're done with yourself.
SPEAKER_02: He's not done with you.
SPEAKER_02: He's with you.
SPEAKER_02: And he's for you.
SPEAKER_02: Depart now and live in that reality and enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you.