SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Before I pray, I just want to remind you of something that we just said in that great song.
SPEAKER_00: We said of God that He's roaring with power and He's fighting our battles.
SPEAKER_00: So before I pray, I want to just remind you maybe this week you found yourself, you come in today exhausted, you're just on empty.
SPEAKER_00: The little fuel indicator light is on because you're just, I've been fighting all week.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been fighting with your ex-husband, some of you've been fighting with your boss, some of you've been fighting with your kids, some of you have been fighting with your wife, some of you are just mad at the world.
SPEAKER_00: But you're fighting, but you're not making any progress.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe because it's not your battle to fight.
SPEAKER_00: So before I pray, I want you just to ask the Lord, Lord, is how are you fighting for me?
SPEAKER_00: Because He's roaring with power.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says of God that He's our shield, but He's also our rear guard.
SPEAKER_00: He's got He's got our back.
SPEAKER_00: He goes before us, but He's also got your back.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're not careful, you're gonna go through life just fighting all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna wear yourself out.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says fight the good fight, but sometimes we don't fight the good fight, we just fight.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want you just to take a moment and just ask God, God, to just can you show me today just kind of where you're going to bat for me, where you're fighting for me?
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: So you can quit.
SPEAKER_00: So you can conserve your energy to love people you should be loving instead of fighting because things aren't going the way you want them to go in a certain area.
SPEAKER_00: So before I pray, you just pray and just ask God, you know, God, where are you fighting for me?
SPEAKER_00: How are you coming to my aid, to my defense?
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we uh we understand what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: It says that you go before us, you are shield.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you're also our rear guard.
SPEAKER_00: So you are over everything that has anything to do with us.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we don't have to wear ourselves out trying to make things happen where something's not happened.
SPEAKER_00: We just say what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: God, we need you to we need you to come to our defense, to come to our aid in this area.
SPEAKER_00: God, bring all uh the essence and the nature of who you are to bear on this problem that's wearing me out this week.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we're gonna wear ourselves out.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth today.
SPEAKER_00: Speak a word that has our name on it.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that you made little girls named Abby, and you made young men named Joel, and you made grown men named Dan, and you gotta, though they're they're they're they're years apart in age, you got a word for every one of them today.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're a God that speaks a language we understand.
SPEAKER_00: And so say something, Lord, that's loud and clear today.
SPEAKER_00: We're listening and we're praying in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Exodus chapter 34.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on page 74, and I want to talk to you today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest, we're going through the book of Exodus, uh, and we're up to Exodus chapter 34.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read the first nine verses, and I want to talk to you today about the God of another chance.
SPEAKER_00: The God of another chance.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may hear that and think, don't you mean the God of a second chance?
SPEAKER_00: No, and here's why.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you in this room have needed more than a second chance?
SPEAKER_00: Could I see your hand?
SPEAKER_00: Hold it up.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's called the God of another chance.
SPEAKER_00: Because uh some of you may be here today and you, you know, somebody invited you, and your first thought was, man, if I go in that church, the building's gonna fall down.
SPEAKER_00: Building didn't fall down.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're you're you're good, so just relax, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh what we're gonna read here in just a minute is like two people uh who are coming to renew their wedding vows.
SPEAKER_00: Uh someone asked me a while back, I said, What's the best wedding you've ever done?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't really a wedding, it was like a renewal of uh of their covenant, which is what we're gonna read in Exodus 34.
SPEAKER_00: But it was a couple that the woman had gotten off the reservation.
SPEAKER_00: She had had multiple affairs, and for about two years, she was just out there just living.
SPEAKER_00: She kind of had kids early, and she said, You know what?
SPEAKER_00: I it's my time now.
SPEAKER_00: And she just walked away from her husband and her two kids, went off the reservation, and for two years her husband, she would file, and he wouldn't, he wouldn't go through the divorce.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, you're gonna finalize it.
SPEAKER_00: And so finally, God did a work in her heart, and so they got back together and they never divorced, but and he said, I want to marry you all over again.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, we technically never divorced, so they did a renewal of their vows.
SPEAKER_00: And and it was well, it was beautiful, but it was powerful because before the wedding ever started, everybody there knew what had happened, and everyone was crying.
SPEAKER_00: I came out to say a few gathering words, and people were crying.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Hey, this isn't a funeral.
SPEAKER_00: This is a renewal of their vows, these people, and but here's here's why it's one of my favorite weddings or things I call it a wedding I've been a part of because I was talking to her beforehand and I said, How you doing?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I'm not doing good.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh gosh, don't, don't.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm thinking she's gonna run out the side door.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I'm not doing good.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: She said, I can't believe that this man would love me and forgive me and take me back.
SPEAKER_00: It's more than I can bear, Neil.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did he do that, but when she came down the aisle, he he had her daddy, he said, I want you to walk your daddy, your dad was just like when we first got married, and she's like, No, I don't deserve that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just get married at the Holiday Inn over by the buffet in the banquet room, okay?
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, and that's like a rent, it was beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: She came down the aisle and stopped about halfway with her dad.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Who gives this woman to be committed to this man, her mother and I?
SPEAKER_00: And he's and and he turns to walk.
SPEAKER_00: This voice says, Just as Jesus is gonna come for his bride one day.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and he said his name is goes to receive his bride.
SPEAKER_00: She is sobbing uncontrollably, and he looks like he just won the lottery.
SPEAKER_00: He is just beaming, and I mean, I'm bawling.
SPEAKER_00: By the time they get to me, I'm like groomsmen are crying, bridesmaids are crying, and that cat's just standing there like, isn't this awesome?
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna read in the Bible is a renewal of covenant.
SPEAKER_00: It's God coming to his unfaithful people and saying, I know everything you've ever done, and I forgive you, and I'm gonna take you back.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it like this in Exodus 34, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Moses, Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on top of the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain, let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first, and he rose early in the morning, and he went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand two tablets of stone, and the Lord descended in the cloud, and he stood with him and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiven iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses quickly bowed his head towards the earth and worshiped.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, If now I found favor in your side, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: There's three things, three points I want to make in the Bible, but I don't want to I don't want you just to hear the points that I make this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I want to hear, I want you to hear and think about the questions that rise out of the text.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that I want you to talk about in your community groups tonight.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest to our church, we have what we call community groups that meet in people's homes twice a month, the first and third Sunday of the month, and they're sermon-based.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about what we hear on Sunday because we don't want to just hear sermons.
SPEAKER_00: We want to process that and get around our friends and ask, hey, what does this look like with our life wrapped around it?
SPEAKER_00: So listen for that today, because there's three things the Bible says, but it's also three or four questions by way of application.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that the Bible tells us about this God of another chance is that God's word is authoritative.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is authoritative.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse one.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The Lord said to Moses, Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I when I say God's word is authoritative, I'm not so naive.
SPEAKER_00: I know that we live in a culture that kind of says, hey man, the Bible's written by a bunch of guys that burp dust, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Is that really, I mean, that's just a book written by men.
SPEAKER_00: And because here's what we do we kind of look at the Bible through the lens of our preferred behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what we believe about the Bible is limited to what the preference, the preferred behavior, the lifestyle we want to live.
SPEAKER_00: So wherever the Bible contradicts what I want to do, the Bible's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: That's the culture we live in.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying I agree with that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that's right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that's the way the people, we we figure out, hey, this is what I want to live, this is what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so if the Bible tells me that this is wrong, I'm gonna discredit the Bible before I repent of my sinful behavior.
SPEAKER_00: And I would just say, be careful.
SPEAKER_00: And I know I sound like a dinosaur coming to this culture and saying, hey, God's word is authoritative.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1, that part where God says, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablet.
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about the tablets for the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I will write on there.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're in Exodus 34, just look down to verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Look what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Moses, Write these words, for in accordance with the words, I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.
SPEAKER_00: He neither ate bread nor drank water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Now when it says, He neither ate bread nor drank water, that's talking about Moses.
SPEAKER_00: When it says that he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten the Ten Commandments, that's talking about Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible doesn't contradict itself.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible, when it says in verse 1, God says, I will write this down for you.
SPEAKER_00: What the Bible's saying is what God is saying is that, hey, I recorded, I inspired.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says of itself that all scripture is breathed out by God.
SPEAKER_00: It's literally the thoughts and the intents of God.
SPEAKER_00: But what God is saying is, hey, when I say that God's word is authoritative, he's saying, hey, I wrote the Bible, Moses is the pen that I used.
SPEAKER_00: So God's not just, it's not, the Bible doesn't uh disagree with itself in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: When God says, I'll write on the tablets the words, he's just saying, hey, I Moses is the vehicle that I use to write these words, to spell out not just the Ten Commandments, but the entire book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't discredit the Bible because God used people to record it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says later in the New Testament, no prophecy has its origin in the will of man.
SPEAKER_00: But men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing I want to say to you is that God's word is authoritative.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we can't build and bank our life on the word of God, then what are you going to trust?
SPEAKER_00: Here's a question I want you to think about this week, and it's this What would your life be like if you considered the Bible to be authoritative?
SPEAKER_00: What would your life look like?
SPEAKER_00: If you just considered the Bible, hey, this is true.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's word, this is divinely inspired, this is not a bunch of guys got together and made up rules to make people miserable.
SPEAKER_00: This this is really the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing the Bible tells us today is that God's character is clear.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is authoritative.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, God's character is clear.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse six and seven.
SPEAKER_00: Now, have you let me ask you this question before we read.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, have you ever heard somebody describe somebody?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way they describe them, you thought, oh man, I think I'd like to meet that person.
SPEAKER_00: And then you meet that person and you're like, This is one of these things.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like the other.
SPEAKER_00: Look what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody, by the way, has that experience with God.
SPEAKER_00: It says, verse 6, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, hold on to that thought right there, verse 7, because that's probably one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: But when I say that God's character is clear, what I'm saying is when God self-discloses, he's proclaiming in word what he's already demonstrated indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: When God says all these things about himself, that I'm merciful, that I'm slow to anger, that I'm abounding in steadfast love, he's not making it up on the fly, okay?
SPEAKER_00: He's not like putting together a Facebook profile to make himself look interesting.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's been all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And so now he is saying in word what he's been indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's my confession for the week, okay?
SPEAKER_00: When I was a senior in high school, I failed my senior English research paper because I had more secondary sources than primary sources.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Scudder took a red pen and put a big F and wrote on there in a nice little paragraph, kneel.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a fundamental principle of research that you have more primary sources than secondary sources.
SPEAKER_00: Because of this, I had to fail you.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to, and went on all this stuff, and I wrote back, you didn't have to.
SPEAKER_00: I still got an F.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Because some of you in this room, you are failing to see God as it really is because you have more secondary sources, things on the internet, bad experiences with the church or with Christians or things you see on TV.
SPEAKER_00: All these secondary sources about God, and you kind of cobble them all together, and you got this kind of uh the this stewing pot of bad experiences and opinions and one-offs and third-hand opinions, and well, they say, and that's what you think God really is.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why God says, Hey, let me let me represent myself.
SPEAKER_00: Put all the secondary sources aside because no one's ever come and got primary source material about God and looked and said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I I don't think I I want to have anything to do with that.
SPEAKER_00: God self-discloses and he says seven things about himself.
SPEAKER_00: He says he's merciful, he's gracious, he's slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: He's a uh he's loving and faithful.
SPEAKER_00: After he says he's slow to anger, it says he's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, it says keeping steadfast love for thousands.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a Bible open, underline that little word keeping in verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Keeping, keeping steadfast love for thousands.
SPEAKER_00: I have a friend of mine that used to work at a for a grocery distributor.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they had this huge warehouse, uh, and I mean hundreds of thousands of feet.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just a building.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You want to come by and see where I work?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, in my mind, not really.
SPEAKER_00: It's groceries.
SPEAKER_00: How exciting is that?
SPEAKER_00: And so they had that and they had loading docks for these 18 wheelers, like 36 of them, where these 18 wheelers would back up.
SPEAKER_00: This is a massive facility where they back up and load up with groceries and take them to the grocery store.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember driving to it and just thinking, here's two hours of my life, I will never get back.
SPEAKER_00: So I get there and I'm like, oh, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: But as I'm walking in, I notice up on the top of the building, about every 30 yards, there's these little bubble things.
SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of like, well, that's different.
SPEAKER_00: Probably like a satellite communications device or something.
SPEAKER_00: And I walk in, he goes, Well, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What's the things on top?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Oh, those are machine gun turrets.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm interested.
SPEAKER_00: I just thought, you we get to shoot stuff?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, in case of a national uh of a famine or a natural disaster, this place will get overrun because people will come and try to loot the food because if there's a food shortage or something, and so we have a plan in place where we will defend our facility.
SPEAKER_00: Are you hiring?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I saw it through a whole new lens.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Here, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today and you're like, yeah, I'm not really much on the whole God and Jesus thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming to church today to feel better about myself.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, the only thing, because the Bible says here in verse 7 that he's keeping steadfast love for thousands.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that is bigger than the love God has for you is the ferocity with which he guards it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a bunch of machine gun turrets up on top of the building.
SPEAKER_00: He is keeping steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: People come and try to get their hands on that, and God just kind of says, Nope, nope, that's got Susie's name on it.
SPEAKER_00: Susie, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: Susie is shocked up with her boyfriend.
SPEAKER_00: She smokes two packs of palm alls a day.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: And God just smiles and says, right now she does, but she ain't always gonna be that way.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm keeping the steadfast love for her.
SPEAKER_00: So when she comes for it, it will be here with her name on it.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're far off today, he's kept he's keeping some love for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's not giving up on you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, my parents are giving up on me, your parents aren't God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and I ain't getting in the middle of all that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying what the Bible says, He keeps steadfast love for thousands.
SPEAKER_00: He's merciful, gracious, slow to anger, loving, faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says this, he says, for uh he says, forgiving that uh forgiving iniquity, the light apart of verse 7, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not careful, you can read that real quickly and just think, well, that's three different words for the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: It's three totally different things.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just unpack it just a little bit and tell you what iniquity is.
SPEAKER_00: Iniquity, that's a word we don't use a lot.
SPEAKER_00: That's a put a star by this because this is not good.
SPEAKER_00: Iniquity is this deeply rooted, it's it's more deeply rooted than just I did the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: Iniquity means premeditated choice.
SPEAKER_00: I continue without repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Iniquity left unchecked leads to a state of willful sin with no fear of God.
SPEAKER_00: Iniquity is this disposition in your heart, it's this guilt that's worthy of punishment because we kind of bend and twist the law of God in our hearts and in our heads long before it expresses itself in our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Iniquity is a thought in your heart that says, Hey, I I'm gonna do what I want.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what anybody says.
SPEAKER_00: Iniquity smiles when you're 17 at your parents and says, Yeah, going to church is great.
SPEAKER_00: When deep in your heart, you're you're so angry at God and the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it feels good when you're 17 because you're a rebel.
SPEAKER_00: But when you're 22, you'll be the loneliest, saddest person anybody knows.
SPEAKER_00: Because that doesn't wash off in the shower.
SPEAKER_00: No one knows about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like lotion you put on last week, you can't get it back.
SPEAKER_00: It's this disposition of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You can't blame anybody.
SPEAKER_00: And mom and dad, here's the thing: when you see iniquity in your kids' heart, you can't beat it out of them, you can't discipline out of them, you can't buy it out of them.
SPEAKER_00: You better pray that out of them.
SPEAKER_00: And you better love them enough to say, hey, sweetie, this isn't just behavior.
SPEAKER_00: This is belief deep in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is iniquity, and this will get you.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you identify iniquity in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's that thing that you know is wrong, but you reserve the right to do it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: He says, forgive, but but here's the thing God says, I'll forgive your iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he says, forgive transgression.
SPEAKER_00: Transgression refers to just presumptuous sins.
SPEAKER_00: It's to choose to intentionally disobey, it's a willful trespassing, it's sitting out here at the red light to come to church or come to the office for the staff, and the light on 1464 is green, but the turn arrow is red, and you sit there for about a minute and you look around, and there's no cars coming, and you just hang a left and come to church.
SPEAKER_00: But enough about what you call your.
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, when that light red, well, no one was coming.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Man, God's gonna shave that beard off of you for that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like it was in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't get up, you didn't go to bed last night and go, I'm gonna run a red light tomorrow so I can get to work faster.
SPEAKER_00: No, just in the moment, you're like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing he says is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sin means to miss the mark.
SPEAKER_00: It's doing wrong against God or a person doing the opposite of what's right.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this part failing to do what you know is right.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is not just doing the wrong thing, sin is not doing the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: If you grew up in church, you heard this phrase.
SPEAKER_00: They're called sins of commission, sins of commission, things you do, and then there's sins of omission, things you didn't do.
SPEAKER_00: That that's the Bible says to him who knows right and to do it not, to him it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: You you should look around.
SPEAKER_00: Because, see, the way God relates to you is that God doesn't relate to you like I'm gonna spend the rest of your life watching you, waiting for you to screw up.
SPEAKER_00: That's not Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I talked to somebody this week, they they say, hey man, last week I talked about the mediator.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I told you what God does for Israel, he does because of how he feels about Moses and this role of the mediator and interceding on behalf of people just gets us ready to understand Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because what God does for us, he does based on how he feels about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so the way he feels about Jesus, and I told my friend this week, we have I said, Hey, the way God feels about Jesus, that that's an indication of the way he feels about you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, Be careful, Neil.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Now this person's grown up in church, and so because they've grown up in church, they think, man, I'm just I'm just a scum of the earth, I'm just a worm in the dirt, I'm just horrible, and it's amazing that God even puts up with me.
SPEAKER_00: And I just think, that's not the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't go, the Bible, and he goes, Well, I mean, you gotta be careful.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you understand what you just said?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I could tell you it was shocked, and I thought, I must be telling the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, I'm here to tell you that the way God feels about Jesus is the way he feels about you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_00: You better watch that.
SPEAKER_00: Because, see, here's the thing there's a part of the religious people that want to make that not true because that explains your consistent sin.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, You got a Bible?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Well, I got on my phone.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Here, let me see it.
SPEAKER_00: I just scrolled down, I said, I'm just randomly right, boom, 2 Corinthians 5 21.
SPEAKER_00: He Him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're righteous now.
SPEAKER_00: You're righteous because of what Jesus did, not because of anything you've done.
SPEAKER_00: His righteousness ought to affect the way you live every day.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, I mean, uh, uh, uh, no, I'm telling you, this is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I tell you what, I didn't start hearing crazy things like this if I came to this church.
SPEAKER_00: Did the church you went to, did they preach the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we had a real pre-printed little outline, had three or four blanks, and we guessed the word before the preacher started.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus is sad.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why why why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because we we we we get away from from from from telling what the but what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, hey, hey, he's keeping steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: He's slow to anger, he's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
SPEAKER_00: Forgives all that.
SPEAKER_00: And David sinned.
SPEAKER_00: David was a guy in the Bible, he was a king, he was a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: Totally went out and had an affair with another woman, got her pregnant, and to cover up what he did, he had her husband killed.
SPEAKER_00: And God sent a man named Nathan along to confront King David and say, Hey, you're the king, you're the president, but you can't treat women like this.
SPEAKER_00: This is sin.
SPEAKER_00: And David was so repentant.
SPEAKER_00: He broke down.
SPEAKER_00: There's two chapters in the Bible David wrote out of this brokenness from this affair he had.
SPEAKER_00: One of them is Psalm 32, the other one's Psalm 51.
SPEAKER_00: And in Psalm 32, verse 5, David says this of God, that he forgives my iniquity, my transgression, and my sin.
SPEAKER_00: He forgives all that.
SPEAKER_00: He forgives that deep disposition of my heart that says, It's my body, I'm gonna do what I want.
SPEAKER_00: And David says, You know what, God, I thought that.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I forgave that.
SPEAKER_00: Last thing the Bible tells us about God is that He's just.
SPEAKER_00: He's just you still with me today?
SPEAKER_00: He says, right here in the Bible, he says, He starts off, he's slow to anger, merciful, uh, slow to anger, abounded in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say he's just, not only that, but God is consistent in his justice.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is God just, but he's consistent in his justice.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like Mercurial, he's not up and down, he's not like an alcoholic stepfather that gets just flies off the handle in the spur of the moment, and you're like, you you never quite know how he is.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of people read this and they think, well, if I if I commit this sin, then then God's gonna punish my kids for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: What God is saying is, hey, I told you way back in Exodus chapter 20, verse 4, 5, and 6 about the price, the high price of idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I told you last week everything in the Bible happens in a context.
SPEAKER_00: So Exodus chapter 34 happens in the context of chapter 32, where Moses is up on the mountain meeting with God, getting the Ten Commandments, and the people are like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what happened to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron make us an idol.
SPEAKER_00: And so they broke the first and second commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, back when God forbid idolatry, this is what he said in Exodus chapter 20, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not make for yourselves a carved image or any likeness or anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
SPEAKER_00: Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you say, remember we talked about iniquity?
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm gonna visit the iniquity of the fathers.
SPEAKER_00: That means, hey, mom and dad, what's deep down in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: That little reserve place that you think no one knows about this, God knows about it.
SPEAKER_00: This disposition that's away from the clear teaching of the Bible and towards you and your preferred lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: God knows about it.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, hey, hey, if you you have iniquity in your heart, it's not that he says, I'm gonna visit.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't, he didn't say, I'm gonna, I'm I'm gonna make this happen to your kids.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna make this happen to your kids.
SPEAKER_00: When I visit your house, I'm not building a house, am I?
SPEAKER_00: I'm showing up as a witness to what's already there.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful about your iniquity, about the private thoughts and the dispositions of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because your kids will worship what you worship.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a question to think about this week.
SPEAKER_00: If we asked your kids, hey, what do your mom and dad value?
SPEAKER_00: What would they say?
SPEAKER_00: Would they say Facebook?
SPEAKER_00: A cell phone?
SPEAKER_00: Money?
SPEAKER_00: What would they say?
SPEAKER_00: Work?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not judging you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying you're you're our kids are perceptive.
SPEAKER_00: Be honest with yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Because whatever you bow down to, your kids are watching and they're picking up and they're kind of going, okay, that's what it means, and that's what it looks like to be a dad, to be a husband, to be a father.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think I'm getting this.
SPEAKER_00: And the hardest day is when you see, man, when you see your son treat his wife the way you treated your wife.
SPEAKER_00: And the greatest day is when you treat your wife like you're supposed to.
SPEAKER_00: When you're you're when you're a man of honor and integrity, you work hard and provide for your wife.
SPEAKER_00: You see your son doing that, you see your son sacrificing and lead his family, you see your son being intentional with his sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: That's that you can't put a price tag on that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want to say to you, to us today.
SPEAKER_00: Think about obedience to God as provision for your children.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just put money in the bank.
SPEAKER_00: Put obedience in the bank so that that will speak so much louder than all the things you try to tell your kids on the way home from church.
SPEAKER_00: They're watching, they are seeing what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: We said to our 13-year-old this week at dinner one night, my wife and I, hey, we have our hilarious Sunday offering coming up this Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Want you to be praying and kind of asking God to give us a number as a family.
SPEAKER_00: And she looked at us kind of like, isn't that y'all's job?
SPEAKER_00: And we were like, yeah, yeah, but we want you to be a part of that, you're part of this family.
SPEAKER_00: Because God may speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Is there any more flank stake?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Would you like some seconds?
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and we left it.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say, go to your room, cross your legs, and wait on God to speak.
SPEAKER_00: I just very casually said, hey, think about these things.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I want my children to start thinking in a spiritual way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want my kids just to go through life being shaped by the Disney Channel.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, all the dads on the Disney Channel are buffoons and can't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: And kids have to rescue them.
SPEAKER_00: So I rest, I don't let my kids, I every once in a while I say, hey, you've watched enough of that nonsense.
SPEAKER_00: Turn it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you want me to watch?
SPEAKER_00: ESPN will help.
SPEAKER_00: You see Clemson last night, don't ever give up.
SPEAKER_00: That's the moral lesson on this.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever, dad.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing I want to say to you, we'll be done today is that worship is the proper response to God's revealed character.
SPEAKER_00: Worship is the proper response to God's revealed character.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Because God says, hey, my word's authoritative.
SPEAKER_00: My nature is clear.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what do you do with that?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Look what Moses does.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses quickly bowed his head to the earth and worshiped.
SPEAKER_00: You can always tell the weight of what just happened by how someone responds to it and how long it takes them to respond to it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Moses quickly bowed his head to the earth and worshiped.
SPEAKER_00: He just kind of prostrated himself before God and just said, Oh, oh man.
SPEAKER_00: Five, ten years ago, when somebody in sports would do something really good, remember this?
SPEAKER_00: Everyone would do this.
SPEAKER_00: And what they were saying was, What?
SPEAKER_00: We're not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Moses is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Moses quickly bows his head to the earth in worship and says, Oh Lord, if we found favor, please take us as your inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I don't have time to preach this, but in verse 9, when he says, Pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance, an inheritance is something that someone has to die for you to get.
SPEAKER_00: And when Moses says, take us for your inheritance, he's saying, Hey, I understand that somebody's gonna have to die to make this real, to realize this thing.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Worship is the proper response.
SPEAKER_00: There's always a response.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you another question to think about when you're sitting in traffic tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do when you really want God to understand that you get it?
SPEAKER_00: How do you convey to God what response do you have to God that says, oh God, I told, oh, that was so good.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's always a response.
SPEAKER_00: There's three kinds of response.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you this and we'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There's three kinds of response to God.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, there's the responsive relationship.
SPEAKER_00: There's the response of relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're here today and you've never begun a relationship with God, you've never said to God, you know what, God, I've sinned against you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: But I understand today that you're merciful and you're slow to anger and you're abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: You've been keeping steadfast love for me.
SPEAKER_00: You've been waiting for me to get to the end of myself.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm there, God.
SPEAKER_00: I want a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: That is a response to God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So that if you're here today and you've never done that, just know that that's available to you.
SPEAKER_00: Second kind of response is repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It's repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It's as the Christian, you go, oh, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: God, I totally sinned.
SPEAKER_00: I missed it.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't premeditate this in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I just in the moment I did the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: Or in the moment I didn't do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: I knew the right thing, God, and I kind of blinked on the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: God, I know I'm forgiven, but I want to repent.
SPEAKER_00: I want to turn away.
SPEAKER_00: That just means to turn away from that.
SPEAKER_00: It means I'm walking this way, and all of a sudden I'm just like, you know what, God, I don't want to be that way anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That's a response.
SPEAKER_00: The third kind of response is righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness, a response of righteousness says, hey, I see the right thing, and I see that the right thing needs to be done here, and I'm going to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Like last night, I was at the emergency room at Memorial Herman up here on South Memorial Herman Southwest at 59 in Beatsnut.
SPEAKER_00: A guy in our church was at his deer lease and he re had an accident on ATV.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's okay.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to be in the hospital for a few days.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I'm going to get deer meat this year, so see me after the service.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm there, and by the way, if you ever feel sorry for yourself and you think you got it hard, go to the emergency room at one in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Cause dang.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a woman in there, and she had a big old bandage across her nose, and her eyes were swole up, and you could tell her nose was broke.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a guy walking around, had the Mr.
SPEAKER_00: T Starter said about nine gold chains going on, and he was kind of shadowing her.
SPEAKER_00: And clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, That's her pimp.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd look at her and she wouldn't make eye contact.
SPEAKER_00: I'd look at him and he was just kind of walking around, just looking at everybody, checking out her.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to stand up and go, hey, we all know what's going on here, my man.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't because I'm a man of the cloth.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, I just put the mom stare on him.
SPEAKER_00: Where that one eye gets small and the other eye gets big.
SPEAKER_00: You know how you do?
SPEAKER_00: You're looking at your kids with evil intent, like, I will snatch a knot in you so fast.
SPEAKER_00: I just looked at him and he's like, I'm like, why'd you say something?
SPEAKER_00: I felt myself getting sad for him.
SPEAKER_00: Really sad for her.
SPEAKER_00: All the nurses that were attending to her were kind of like, we want to take a scalpel to that cat.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knew.
SPEAKER_00: Say, what are you what are you saying?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: That young man, he regarded iniquity in his heart a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he got to be this way, to treat women like that.
SPEAKER_00: And I just kept saying, you know, God, what's what's what's the right thing to do in this situation?
SPEAKER_00: I kept trying to find a way.
SPEAKER_00: He was very defensive of her.
SPEAKER_00: She was kind of sitting over here, away from where we were sitting.
SPEAKER_00: I was sitting with a family in our church.
SPEAKER_00: She was over there, and he was like, didn't want anybody to come near her.
SPEAKER_00: And all I wanted to say to her was, it doesn't have to be like this.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be like this.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes righteousness is not involved quoting verses from the Bible to people.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes righteousness, like I met some friends in Waco, Texas, a couple weeks ago for breakfast, and we're sitting there and we're having breakfast, and I said to my friend, he works for YWAM, which is Youth with a Mission, a Missions Organization.
SPEAKER_00: And our waitress comes over and I said, Hey, at the end of this, I'm gonna ask you how I can pray.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me how I can pray because I want to pray for you by name.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want something lame like for good health.
SPEAKER_00: You have good health?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's don't board God with good health.
SPEAKER_00: Let's rouse God to action with some prayers that matter.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, I got that.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you right now, my roommate moved out yesterday and didn't even tell me, left me hanging on this month's rent.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, How much is that?
SPEAKER_00: She said,$400.
SPEAKER_00: It's$800.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't got the other$400.
SPEAKER_00: Now you do.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, What?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, We're gonna lay the kingdom down here and we're gonna tip you faux hundred.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Are you sure?
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, I got my church credit card in my back pocket.
SPEAKER_00: And my friend said, Are you gonna get in trouble for that?
SPEAKER_00: We'll find out.
SPEAKER_00: I said, When's your rent due?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, two days from now.
SPEAKER_00: Anywhere you can get$400 in two days?
SPEAKER_00: You ever had somebody look at you kind of like, well, I know how I could, but I don't want to go back there.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, No, I didn't put on my church credit card.
SPEAKER_00: We tipped her.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Oh, she came over at the end of the meal and she goes, Can I hug you?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm really not a hugger.
SPEAKER_00: And my friends were like, dude, I like I hug my wife, I hug a few people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a hugger.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Really?
SPEAKER_00: And I went, Yeah, hey, I just paid your rent.
SPEAKER_00: Leave me alone, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna hug you.
SPEAKER_00: It's my own issue.
SPEAKER_00: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, I walked out to go to my truck and thought, I gotta drive back to Sugarland.
SPEAKER_00: That's two hours and 45 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: I need to go back in.
SPEAKER_00: I drank a lot of coffee, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: So I go back in.
SPEAKER_00: Every waiter and waitress in there is like, hey man, one guy's like, and so I threw up the deuce and said, fight the power.
SPEAKER_00: He walked me out to the door, he goes, Hey man, that was straight up right there.
SPEAKER_00: That was straight up.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, hey, dude, I'm old and fat and white.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_00: I just, man, I just want to shake your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Here, let me say this and I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: People do not know how to respond to righteousness, they're starving.
SPEAKER_00: Just for us to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Just you say, Well, wait, wait, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Wait, wait, righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you find righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how to start doing right the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Think about all the things you complain about.
SPEAKER_00: And just stop complaining about them and do something about them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're like, is there another suggestion?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's the easiest thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: Just don't just don't waste your life complaining.
SPEAKER_00: Men, let's don't get old and crotchety and bitter.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's the Bible says in Psalm 92 that the righteous flourish.
SPEAKER_00: They are green in their old age.
SPEAKER_00: That's the three kinds of responses.
SPEAKER_00: There's a relationship, repentance, righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And which one of these categories does your response need to come out of today?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: We like to teach the Bible, and then we'd like to give you some soul space to think about what the Bible just said.
SPEAKER_00: So my friend Lindsay's gonna come and sing something over us, and this time is just for the sole purpose of you just kind of thinking, okay, what had my name on it today?
SPEAKER_00: Let everything else fall to the wayside.
SPEAKER_00: What had my name on it today?
SPEAKER_00: And just think about that for about three minutes.
SPEAKER_00: God's not mad, remember, He's slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: Abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: He's keeping steadfast love for some of you that are way off in the far country.
SPEAKER_00: And God is just calling out to you today, Ollie Oli, in free, come out, come out wherever you are.
SPEAKER_00: I got some steadfast love with your name on it.
SPEAKER_00: Said differently, to get us back to where we started, he's come to forgive you and take you back.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about this God of another chance.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, the reason we can say forever that you're the Lord our God is because you said to us, you initiated all this, and said, Forever, you're my people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm unchanging in my posture towards you.
SPEAKER_00: I love you with an everlasting love.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna have my mind changed, so you're gonna have to start thinking about how to live as the beloved, accepted, forgiven people of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's our privilege today, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We don't find our identity in who we used to be or in what we fear.
SPEAKER_00: We find our identity in who the Bible, the authoritative, God-breathed out Word of God, says we are.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we find our identity.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we see primary source material on who you are.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get it from Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get it from our bad religious experiences.
SPEAKER_00: We see today that your nature's clearly on display.
SPEAKER_00: You told us your name, and then you told us what you're like, and you said, You can have a relationship with me.
SPEAKER_00: You can repent of anything, or you can go do righteousness, you can go do the right thing in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do that, Lord, the Bible says it's like we're letting our light shine before men so they see our good deeds and they glorify our Father as in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason they glorify you is because the Bible tells us that we're your workmanship, we're your point, God, created in Christ Jesus to do good deeds.
SPEAKER_00: So when we do the right thing, there's no cookie for us, there's glory for you, and that's the way we prefer it.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, get glory from our lives today.
SPEAKER_00: Get glory from our lives this week, get glory from the way we love our wives and love our husbands and raise our kids, get glory from how we work, get glory from how we pray, get glory from how we love God.
SPEAKER_00: We want to just be people that bring you much glory.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of our creative purpose.
SPEAKER_00: So we ask all of this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest today, uh, let me say thanks for being part of our church.
SPEAKER_00: When you came in, you give a little worship folder, it has a tear-off portion on there.
SPEAKER_00: If you've had a chance to fill it out, just tear it off, drop it in one of these wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_00: And if today's the day that you you practice obedience or generosity, that's where you would do that as well, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're new to our church, you may be thinking, no, wait a minute, you didn't have an invitation or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Invitation is always open.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we just think it's a more natural environment to talk.
SPEAKER_00: So after the service, myself and some of our staff and elders are available down front.
SPEAKER_00: We're standing down here in case we can help you answer any questions.
SPEAKER_00: Uh or if you're curious about what a relationship with God looks like, if today is a day you're like, hey, I got some questions about that.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you just say, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to get coffee or breakfast or lunch or something.
SPEAKER_00: I got some stuff I want to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last thing I want to say to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting today, or if you've been visiting for a little bit, we don't want to just preach to you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to pastor you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to sit in the emergency room with you at one o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to text us because we want to be there, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We want to look around and kind of go, man, God, we're a long way from the garden.
SPEAKER_00: This is messed up.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but also that's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: I said to the wife of the guy that had the ATV accident, I said, Hey, you know, this is being your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, You got to preach three times tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And if I wasn't ready before Saturday at midnight, I'm not very good.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all should find another one.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.