SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We ask if you would just to hold your palms up.
SPEAKER_01: In just a minute, I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I'm going to say is that, Lord, we understand that the Christian life is not always addition, that sometimes it's subtraction.
SPEAKER_01: And so by holding your palms up, what we're saying today is that God, you can subtract anything that doesn't need to be here.
SPEAKER_01: We love addition.
SPEAKER_01: I love addition.
SPEAKER_01: That's my confession.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the most formative thing God does is subtraction.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're just willing to just say to God, I got palms up today.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you need to subtract.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we stand before you as a blessed people, a bought people.
SPEAKER_01: But also we understand that sometimes we gotta lead the broad path, we gotta leave the broad path that leads to destruction for the narrow little road.
SPEAKER_01: We embrace that today, God.
SPEAKER_01: We say to you, our lives are just an open checkbook before you laid down a blank check.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, you remove from us anything that needs to go, add anything that needs to be added.
SPEAKER_01: We trust you, you're a father and you're good.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to relate to you on the basis of rules.
SPEAKER_01: We want to relate to you on the basis of intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: We're a people that can hear you and obey what you say.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, from your word this morning, remind us of these realities.
SPEAKER_01: We just want to say out loud, God, that we're palms up.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have a clenched fist before you today.
SPEAKER_01: We are palms up because you're so good, we can trust you with addition and subtraction.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just want our posture to demonstrate that to you.
SPEAKER_01: We so we just stand before you, just palms up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before I finish this prayer, I want you just to just take about 15 seconds and pray.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the Lord stirs up in you, just pray it.
SPEAKER_01: Father, don't let us be ruled by what we're afraid of losing.
SPEAKER_01: Let us be curious about what we're missing out on by holding on to things we should let go of.
SPEAKER_01: By holding on to people we should be letting go of.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, we stand before you.
SPEAKER_01: It's just an with an open posture.
SPEAKER_01: And we say, Speak, Lord, your servants are listening.
SPEAKER_01: We listen in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Psalms 40, the 40th Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll talk to you today.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a series where we're talking about life songs.
SPEAKER_01: Just your life song.
SPEAKER_01: What is your what every life has a lyric?
SPEAKER_01: And today I want to talk to you about this life song.
SPEAKER_01: This song ought to come out be coming out of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And it's simply this that God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: That God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I could talk a lot about God being merciful and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, in the 40th Psalm, we're gonna read there's a guy named David.
SPEAKER_01: He was King David, he was a great guy, a loved God with all of his heart.
SPEAKER_01: He was one of the only people in the Bible that the Bible says was a man after God's own heart, and yet he loved God and he did some really dumb stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Can you relate?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And so in the 40th Psalm, David's writing about a period in his life where he just said, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: God, I got it so screwed up.
SPEAKER_01: I made such bad choices.
SPEAKER_01: It was like my I was in this pit and I couldn't get out.
SPEAKER_01: I was just stuck.
SPEAKER_01: He refers to it as the Myri clay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and he comes to you say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I brought a picture to demonstrate what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: This is kind of what David's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a lady named Nicole Graham, and that is her horse.
SPEAKER_01: Her horse's name is Astro.
SPEAKER_01: They were riding on the beach in Australia, and they kind of got into the soft spot in the mud and the sand.
SPEAKER_01: The horse started thrashing about, and the more he thrashed about, the further he sunk down.
SPEAKER_01: She got off in a panic, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so she's in this picture, she's holding his head above the water so he doesn't drown.
SPEAKER_01: She holds him for three hours.
SPEAKER_01: It was three hours before someone could get to her.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what what happened, just so you'll kind of get some progress, because some of you right now are like, you're not hearing a word I'm saying, are you?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, I need closure.
SPEAKER_01: What happened was the uh the fireman came with a fire truck and they begin to just pump water in all around him to kind of break up the sand and make it more water than mud.
SPEAKER_01: And so they begin to make progress.
SPEAKER_01: I give you another picture, and so he's kind of coming out of the, and then finally, so you'll kind of know how it ends, he gets out.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing that I can't show you.
SPEAKER_01: When he got out, he was so physically exhausted from having exerted himself trying to get out of this pit that he just laid down, and for 30 minutes, they just had to just wash him off and just keep him down so his muscles could recover.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I show you a picture of a horse stuck in mud?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's gonna be situations and circumstances in your life and in my life where you're gonna get it all messed up and backed up and jammed up, and you're gonna get overwhelmed, and you're gonna get stuck.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say to you, over that, remember this that God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: That God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: What the Bible says, Psalm 40, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: David says, I waited patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He inclined to me and he heard my cry.
SPEAKER_01: He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my step secure.
SPEAKER_01: He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
SPEAKER_01: Many will see in fear and put their trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.
SPEAKER_01: You have multiplied, O Lord, my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us.
SPEAKER_01: None can compare with you.
SPEAKER_01: I will proclaim and tell of them.
SPEAKER_01: Yet they are more than can be told.
SPEAKER_01: In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.
SPEAKER_01: Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
SPEAKER_01: And then I said, Behold, I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
SPEAKER_01: I delight to do your will, O my God.
SPEAKER_01: Your law is written, excuse me, your law is within my heart.
SPEAKER_01: I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I've not restrained my lips.
SPEAKER_01: As you know, O Lord, I've not hidden your deliverance within my heart.
SPEAKER_01: I've spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I've not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the congregation.
SPEAKER_01: And what David says is that, hey, he starts off really low and it finishes really high.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, he says, Hey God, I've not withheld from telling the people at my church in this congregation about how great you are and how merciful you were to me.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what do we take away?
SPEAKER_01: Why do we say that kind of one of the life songs that comes out of our heart is that God is merciful?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's four things that the Bible tells us uh in these ten verses.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is this right here that waiting for the Lord is a learned behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Waiting for the Lord is a learned behavior.
SPEAKER_01: My meditation this week has been the first six words of uh uh of verse one, where David says, I waited patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I waited patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's one of the hardest things that we do is wait patiently because it but it's also one, I don't know if you're anything like me, but like when we go to dinner on a Friday and we forget to make reservations or whatever, and I just think, hey, the line's probably the wait's probably not that long at Papasidas.
SPEAKER_01: I pull up, I don't park.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, some of you have been there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't park.
SPEAKER_01: I pull up on the curve and I make my wife go in and ask the question, how long is the yeah, and when they say 55 minutes, I'm like, oh no.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not waiting 55 minutes because then I won't be hungry.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be hangry, and that ain't no good.
SPEAKER_01: And so, but then my wife goes, Well, by the time we drive somewhere else and get on the wait list there, it's gonna be the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't waiting 55 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: There ain't no wait back at the house.
SPEAKER_01: I go home and eat cereal.
SPEAKER_01: And every once in a while, my wife prevails.
SPEAKER_01: Like if it's 35 minutes, she's like, Well, by the time, and I was okay, go and put her name on the list.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'll go park, and I know everybody's over there at the bar, and people are waiting outside.
SPEAKER_01: Like, if this is a hostess stand, I wait right here by the hostess stand.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, hey, how long on that one right there?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, yeah, Neo Party and Trip.
SPEAKER_01: You got eight people in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll pull out money.
SPEAKER_01: How many people in front of me now?
SPEAKER_01: Eight people.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I hate waiting, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's a very unnatural thing.
SPEAKER_01: But what I'm saying to you this morning, what I'm learning, is that waiting is one of the most formative things that we can do.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Waiting is one of the most spiritually formative things that you could do.
SPEAKER_01: I got him David Mathis said this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, our perspective on waiting is one of the stronger ways that our society is out of stride with the biblical worldview.
SPEAKER_01: We're kind of out of sync with what the Bible clearly demonstrates that waiting is going to be part of the process.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it like this in Isaiah 40, verse 31, it says, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
SPEAKER_01: They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 64, 4 says, From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear.
SPEAKER_01: No, I have seen a God besides you who acts for those who wait for him.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that again, beloved, and look at that.
SPEAKER_01: From of old, no one has heard or perceived by the ear.
SPEAKER_01: No, I have seen a God besides you.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this last phrase, who acts for those who wait for him.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you wonder why God doesn't come through for you, why God doesn't do something in certain situations.
SPEAKER_01: It's because you don't give him a chance.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my concern is that most of us have enough network of friends and business connections and enough money in the bank that we never have to wait.
SPEAKER_01: Just ask yourself, when's the last time I had something going on?
SPEAKER_01: I had something really a pressing need in my life, and I just waited on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the reality: unless we learn to wait, we'll always speak about being in need to everybody we meet, just in in the hopes that they might come kind of come through for us and do something for us that we couldn't do for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And we rely on ourselves and other people.
SPEAKER_01: What you do is you teach yourself, hey, and when you've exhausted everything, God, instead of becoming the first option, is the last resort.
SPEAKER_01: So you say things like this, well, we've done all we can.
SPEAKER_01: I guess all we can do now is just wait.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's what you should have done in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you should have looked at your wife and said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what we're supposed to do, but I do sense we're supposed to just wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you three things about waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, just you can just jot down if you want, if you don't have to.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the Bible begins with an episode with a picture of waiting.
SPEAKER_01: The entire Bible, Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the earth was void and formless, and darkness was over the surface of the uh over the deep.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, and God, the Spirit of God, was hovering over the waters.
SPEAKER_01: Before God did anything, he's just kind of hovering, he's just kind of there, sovereignly in charge of everything that has anything to do with all things.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just kind of waiting.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in a hurry.
SPEAKER_01: He's not panicked, he's not, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: So the Bible begins with an episode of an all-powerful God that's just kind of waiting for the time and the timing to sync up with what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing I want to tell you about waiting is that when you wait, uh, there's a difference between identification and deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference in identification and deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean by that is there's people that can identify with you, but they can't deliver you out of this.
SPEAKER_01: They can say, Oh, I understand.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I see, I had a situation like that before.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not careful, you will get so much from people that you won't need anything from God.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta hold on to this sense of I waited patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing I would say to you is that there's a holy momentum that only comes from waiting.
SPEAKER_01: There's a holy momentum that only comes from waiting.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by holy momentum?
SPEAKER_01: I mean a sense that there's somebody bigger than you at work in you and in your circumstance and situation.
SPEAKER_01: There's something beyond all of your resources and all of your stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Allow me to demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: My senior year in college, I roomed with a guy named Joey Butler.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he was an abnormal human being, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He talked about God in terms like God was just like, you know, just it was it was it was unsettling.
SPEAKER_01: Uh one day he went out to get in his car on a Wednesday afternoon to drive to his church about an hour away where he was a youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: He walked out, two minutes later came back in, threw his keys on the dresser, and started taking his shoes off.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, I thought you were going to your church.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Ah, I went to crank my car, my motor just blew up.
SPEAKER_01: And I and he's taking his shoes off.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I'm gonna take a nap.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I got out of my bed.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Well, what hey, what what you're what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: It just locked up.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I lifted the the thing and looked at it.
SPEAKER_01: It just seized up and it's gone.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's been uh on its last leg for a while.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, Joy, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm standing over his bed, he's getting undressed, and I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_01: Whoa, whoa, well, I mean, I mean, you want me to get the guys, we can all chip in it.
SPEAKER_01: He looked at me and said, I don't want you to do anything.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Not my car, it's God's car.
SPEAKER_01: When God tells me what God's gonna do, then I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, I'm gonna take a nap.
SPEAKER_01: In five minutes, he was sound asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And here I was here's how I know that because when you get around somebody that knows how to wait on God, it drives you crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to do any, we want to do one of my spiritual gifts is giving.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, hey, come on, we'll all chip in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just wait and see what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Then I want to get in on what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't, and so, how do I know he's asleep?
SPEAKER_01: I was like, there's no way he's so I stood over his bed and I was doing this over his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Like, wow, wah, wah.
SPEAKER_01: That sucker was just deep breathing.
SPEAKER_01: And I walked back over to my side of the room and sat at my desk, and I was just staring at him like, What in the world?
SPEAKER_01: The next Sunday went he went to his church.
SPEAKER_01: An old man, this isn't a Baptist church, this is a sign from God.
SPEAKER_01: On a Sunday morning, this old man stood up and said, Hey, I know we're not in business meeting, but I make a motion.
SPEAKER_01: We get called into a business meeting right now.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, This man's taught us the Bible, he's taught our kids the Bible, he's modeled faith.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says he's worth double honor.
SPEAKER_01: That means that that doesn't just mean honor, that means support provision.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think we ought to take up a love offering for our youth pastor to get him a new car.
SPEAKER_01: And they did.
SPEAKER_01: And the next week he drove up on our campus in a new car.
SPEAKER_01: And me and all my friends were like, is that church hiring?
SPEAKER_01: He walked in, same way, threw the keys on the desk, sat down, started taking his shoes off.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, hey man, your car, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go riding around, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing, Joey?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take a nap.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember being, I mean, this is this is a private Baptist school.
SPEAKER_01: We were all broke, we were all in debt to be there.
SPEAKER_01: And he was just like, and I said, What?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Hey, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
SPEAKER_01: In this situation, the Lord took away and the Lord gave.
SPEAKER_01: What else is there talking about?
SPEAKER_01: See, there's a holy momentum that comes on people who know how to wait on God.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say that waiting for the Lord is a learned behavior, David said, I waited patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He inclined to me and he heard my cry.
SPEAKER_01: He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
SPEAKER_01: He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
SPEAKER_01: Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: See, the second thing the Bible tells us is that God's deliverance is evangelistic by nature.
SPEAKER_01: God's deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: When God does, when you wait on God and God does what only God can do.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: When you and I learn to wait patiently on God for God to do what only God can do, other people now.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says, because it verse 3 says, He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
SPEAKER_01: Many will see and fear.
SPEAKER_01: Now, it seems like with a song you would hear a song.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Many will see and fear.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about more than just the song.
SPEAKER_01: He says, many will see and fear.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say God's deliverance is evangelistic by nature, let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: What if God wants to relate to you in such a way that it makes other people want to know him?
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask it again.
SPEAKER_01: What if God wants to relate to you in such a way that it makes other people want to know him?
SPEAKER_01: Because David says, many will see.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey, God lifted me out of the miry clay.
SPEAKER_01: He gave me a firm place to stand, he put a new song in my heart, a hymn of praise to our God, and many will see what God's done, and they'll fear.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that?
SPEAKER_01: They'll see and they'll fear.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean, oh, please don't get us, God, don't hurt us.
SPEAKER_01: It's that's servile fear.
SPEAKER_01: That's the fear of a servant who's afraid he's gonna get beat for not doing his job.
SPEAKER_01: No, this is more like awe.
SPEAKER_01: This is more like, oh my gosh, that is incredible.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when we were pregnant with Sophie, our youngest, we didn't have maternity insurance.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we had a hard time getting pregnant, and our insurance guy said, Hey, you get a maternity rider, it's just got you're gonna pay for this baby twice while you have it.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to just save up money and pay for it out of pocket, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So we'd save up money and we'd meet somebody that had a need, and the Lord would be, Hey, I want you to give them that money.
SPEAKER_01: And we're like, Okay, here you go.
SPEAKER_01: And so our baby doctor is not a believer.
SPEAKER_01: Our baby doctor would scold me every time we went to an appointment.
SPEAKER_01: Why you always travel around?
SPEAKER_01: You stay home and get a real job.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Yes, ma'am, thank you for shaming me.
SPEAKER_01: I'll try.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so finally we had to have it all paid by like the seventh month of the pregnancy.
SPEAKER_01: She said to me, she said, you know, it's$7,400.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, that's what you tell me every time.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, What are you going to do?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I I'm doing, I'm working, I have a job, I travel around the country and preach.
SPEAKER_01: No, you need a real job.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever tried to explain faith to somebody that doesn't have faith?
SPEAKER_01: It's a very frustrating reality.
SPEAKER_01: And so I left that weekend, went to preach at a church for the weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Saturday night, we're praying with the college kids that are leading, and we're just talking.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to them, I said, Hey, how you guys doing?
SPEAKER_01: What you got going on?
SPEAKER_01: And this girl said, Hey, my dad lost his job.
SPEAKER_01: And I just go to the community college out here, and I can't even afford that.
SPEAKER_01: And Clarisabelle, the Holy Spirit, said, Whatever this church gives you, you're gonna give her.
SPEAKER_01: And Clarisabelle, I said, back to God, I got a baby coming.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: You can't put these kids on layaway.
SPEAKER_01: But I knew it was God.
SPEAKER_01: I knew it was God.
SPEAKER_01: So I went to the youth pastor and said, Hey, do you know what you're paying me for this weekend?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Well, you said you come on faith.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I do come on faith.
SPEAKER_01: But but but faith is evidence of things, you know.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to evidence this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Yeah, what's right?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Great.
SPEAKER_01: Is that girl over there?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to tear that check up, write a check in her name and tell it's for college.
SPEAKER_01: He said, God, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I called my wife, she's crazy as a loon.
SPEAKER_01: I called her that Saturday night and said, Hey, God told me to give the check away.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's obey.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's my sick confession.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted her to rescue me.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted her to say, I appreciate that, baby, but we got to be adults.
SPEAKER_01: We got a kid to pay for.
SPEAKER_01: But no, she said, Oh, bless God.
SPEAKER_01: You do whatever God says, we'll be fine.
SPEAKER_01: So that was Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: I got up and preached Sunday, drove home about five hours back to Sugarland.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.
SPEAKER_01: That, for the record, that's not a hymn of praise to our God.
SPEAKER_01: That is, everybody feel sorry for me because I had I did what God said, and it doesn't look good right now.
SPEAKER_01: That was on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: I go to my mailbox.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a little community mailbox at the end of our street down there.
SPEAKER_01: Open the mailbox, there's an envelope from this church in there.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I told him not to send me this.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: And I opened it up, and it was just a blank sheet of paper with a sticky note on a check, and it just said, Neil, one of our members uh felt like God told them to give this to you.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a check for$10,000.
SPEAKER_01: And so I walked into our baby doctor.
SPEAKER_01: BAM.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hate the play, I hate the game.
SPEAKER_01: And she burst into tears.
SPEAKER_01: She loved my wife.
SPEAKER_01: She couldn't stand me.
SPEAKER_01: She burst into tears.
SPEAKER_01: She hugged my wife and she looked at me and she goes, Oh, oh, and I said, See, God's faithful.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna provide.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when we walked out of there, people that worked there were kind of like, Are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: They weren't curious about us.
SPEAKER_01: They were curious about a God that takes care of his people like this.
SPEAKER_01: So when David says, hey, many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord, what I'm saying is that God wants to so relate to you, wants to deliver you out of circumstances and situations in such a way that people look, people that know you, God wants to heal your marriage in such a way that people that know you are kind of like, Hey man, you guys are on the verge of divorce.
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: You have a hymn of praise in your mouth to God, and you need to sing it in that situation, my man.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to say, Well, we went to counseling, and counseling helped.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Go to counseling, but praise God.
SPEAKER_01: He lifts you out of that Miry clay and he gives you a firm place to stand, and he puts a new song in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: This new song is a hymn of praise to our God.
SPEAKER_01: And when other people hear it, by the way, if you want the biblical context, you want to sit in the Bible, it's Acts 16.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 16 tells a story about Paul and Barnabas, these two guys that were walking around the city preaching the gospel, and this servant girl, she was like a fortune teller, and she was walking behind him and she was like, Oh, these men are servants of the Most High God.
SPEAKER_01: Did it for days, and finally Paul turned around and he said, Hey, he had enough of it.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this.
SPEAKER_01: It is no consolation to have the wrong people say the right thing about you.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul turns around and he realized she's doing this by an evil spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So he cast the spirit out of her.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh, the people that owned her couldn't make money anymore.
SPEAKER_01: So they got mad at Paul and they took him before the court.
SPEAKER_01: And he and Silas were thrown in jail and they were beaten.
SPEAKER_01: They were severely flogged.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 16, verse 25 says this about midnight, after they'd been beaten and severely flogged.
SPEAKER_01: About midnight, they were praying and singing hymns to God.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the next verse.
SPEAKER_01: And the prisoners were listening.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: The prisoners are listening.
SPEAKER_01: They're listening.
SPEAKER_01: And God, his deliverance is evangelistic by nature.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to work in such a way that it causes people to look at you and go, Oh my gosh, I want to know this God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, an earthquake hits that prison and the doors flew open.
SPEAKER_01: And the jailer comes in and he's so he's so nervous, he's going to kill himself.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, Relax, we're all right here.
SPEAKER_01: Then he comes in and falls down at their feet and says, What must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_01: Because God's deliverance is evangelistic by nature.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing the Bible tells us is it learn from your experiences.
SPEAKER_01: Learn from your experiences.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.
SPEAKER_01: You know why he says that?
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust?
SPEAKER_01: Because there were periods in David's life where he trusted in everything but God.
SPEAKER_01: There was a period in David's life where he was a king and all his men were out at war.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't out at war with them.
SPEAKER_01: He was home.
SPEAKER_01: He walked out on his balcony one day and he looked over and there's a woman taking a bath.
SPEAKER_01: He told his servants, Hey, go get that woman.
SPEAKER_01: I think she's good looking.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be with her.
SPEAKER_01: And he was.
SPEAKER_01: And he did.
SPEAKER_01: And she conceived and gave birth to a child, and David tried to cover it up because he didn't want people to find out what he was really like.
SPEAKER_01: He tried to cover it up and he had her husband killed.
SPEAKER_01: See, beloved, here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: When you and I stop trusting in God, there's no limit to what we will trust in.
SPEAKER_01: David trusted in deceit, in lies, in murder, in all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he speaks with a voice of experience, when he says, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful, students.
SPEAKER_01: You become like the people you hang out with.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason the Bible says bad morals corrupts, uh excuse me, bad company corrupts good morals.
SPEAKER_01: My kids go to public school, okay?
SPEAKER_01: People are like, oh, you're a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Shouldn't your kids go to private school?
SPEAKER_01: No, I can't afford it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not pity.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I want them to be able to defend their faith.
SPEAKER_01: But every once in a while, kids come into my home that my daughters are friends with, and I'm like, no.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: And it started when they were little.
SPEAKER_01: Their moms would be like, hey, we should get our kids together for a play date.
SPEAKER_01: I'd look at my wife like this is just a little tramp and training here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want my kids around this.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are like, you just said that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, mom, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, mom.
SPEAKER_01: If you dress her like that when she's seven, you have no idea the way she's going to dress herself when she's 17.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not judging, I'm not hating.
SPEAKER_01: I just know that bad company corrupts good morals.
SPEAKER_01: And I also know that I have the authority to say to my kids, you don't need to spend time around that kid.
SPEAKER_01: I got some bad juju on that kid.
SPEAKER_01: I remember one, she was like six, was one of my oldest daughters' best friends.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, uh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: David learned from his experiences.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: If I had to summarize what I've learned from the biggest mistakes in my life, what would it be?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says, hey, if you want to summarize it, boil it down.
SPEAKER_01: Got him Solomon, wisest man in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, hey, when at the end of the matter, when all is said and done, fear God and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Fear God and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing, excuse me, fourth thing the Bible tells us is that sin reveals how I relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: Sin reveals how I relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: He says, In sacrificing offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.
SPEAKER_01: Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
SPEAKER_01: And then I said, Behold, I have come.
SPEAKER_01: In the scroll of the book, it is written of me.
SPEAKER_01: I delight to do your will, O my God.
SPEAKER_01: Your law is within my heart.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on and says, I've told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.
SPEAKER_01: I have not restrained my lips, as you know.
SPEAKER_01: I've not hidden your deliverance within my heart.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on and on and on and on.
SPEAKER_01: What happens?
SPEAKER_01: How does he go from being, God, I'm in a pit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm stuck.
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm just bogged down.
SPEAKER_01: I've been trying to get out of this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm physically exhausted.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to sit here and wait to die.
SPEAKER_01: How does he go from that to this?
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference in here.
SPEAKER_01: There's a change in the way David relates.
SPEAKER_01: When I say sin reveals how I relate to God, look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: He mentions the three ways people relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: And so in the Hebrew, when it's translated in English, you have given me an open ear.
SPEAKER_01: The literal translation in the Hebrew is this you have dug for me ears.
SPEAKER_01: You have dug for me ears.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what I want you to know.
SPEAKER_01: The three ways that people relate to God, right here in verse 6 and 7, is it's sacrifice, offering, and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Sacrifice, offering, and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not careful, you will set your life up where you relate to God on the basis of sacrifice and offering and never obedience, because you're like, hey, I can't live like the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is just so hard.
SPEAKER_01: It's like impossible.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who are you kidding?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God knows I'm not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just a human being.
SPEAKER_01: And so what you do unconsciously and consciously is you set up this thing where, hey, I sin, I make a sacrifice or an offering, and then I just continue to sin, make sacrifice and offering.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why David says in verse 7, then I said.
SPEAKER_01: Then what happened before the then?
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, because he mentions, he says, hey, there's a burnt offering and then there's a sin offering.
SPEAKER_01: A sacrifice is like, hey, I did this.
SPEAKER_01: We do it nowadays.
SPEAKER_01: It's called karma.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I've done some bad.
SPEAKER_01: I need to do some good to balance out my bad.
SPEAKER_01: That's a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: It's just karma.
SPEAKER_01: Second one is offering.
SPEAKER_01: Back then, and then David mentions a burnt offering and a sin offering.
SPEAKER_01: A burnt offering was a what they're exactly what it sounds like.
SPEAKER_01: They sacrificed an entire animal untouched on the altar.
SPEAKER_01: And basically, it was for general sin.
SPEAKER_01: It was a sense of general atonement that kind of said, hey, I want to acknowledge that I'm a sinner and I kind of want a better relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: But then he mentions a sin offering.
SPEAKER_01: A sin offering is this, it was for a specific basically it was offered up for sins that you were unaware of.
SPEAKER_01: They were uh considered unintentional, but you later realize the guilt of, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I didn't realize what a oh, I am so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Because a sin offering, that's a reference to what Jesus was.
SPEAKER_01: Because in a sin offering, they would take the animal, they would sacrifice it, then they take the remains outside the camp, and they would put the remains outside the camp, which is why the Bible says that Jesus suffered outside the camp as a sin offering, as an offering for sin.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And now, a lot of people, you may be sitting here right now and just thinking, hey, I'm not a Christian, I don't believe any of this.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh just hear this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, a sin offering is an offering that's made for sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so when when a person comes to the realization, oh my gosh, this anxiety I have doesn't need medication.
SPEAKER_01: It needs forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: I feel this way.
SPEAKER_01: I am dis-eased.
SPEAKER_01: I am not at ease in my soul because I've been sinning against God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that can be overwhelming, lead to depression.
SPEAKER_01: That's why a sin offering is a is an offering that's made for unintentional sins.
SPEAKER_01: It's like the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it atones for this person when they realize, hey, I've sin, I've been sinning against God.
SPEAKER_01: What happens is when that person realizes that, they uh they ask that that atonement be applied to them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that can get hard to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a picture of it in modern day life.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, before I was a pastor, I was a youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm not anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I love my kids.
SPEAKER_01: I did.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and they were crazy.
SPEAKER_01: And because you always had to prove things to them.
SPEAKER_01: They're always like, I don't know, and I was just like, hey man, if you don't have appetite for the things of God, it's because I would tell parents, hey, your kid's a good kid, they should know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because you gotta you gotta rule over them with the law.
SPEAKER_01: That ain't the way God set it up.
SPEAKER_01: God wants them to be led from the inside out, not the outside in.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you're the youth pastor, you need to fix them.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Um so when it was the night, I said to them, I said, hey, who's the biggest helging in your school?
SPEAKER_01: Because I was talking about prayer.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to put people to sleep, talk about prayer or missions, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I was talking about prayer, and they were just like, mmm.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Hey, who's the biggest hellraiser in your school?
SPEAKER_01: And they and they didn't bat an eye.
SPEAKER_01: About eight guys said one name at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: I said, All right, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you hear a bell ring at school, we're gonna pray for his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're not gonna pray that he accepts Jesus because he is by nature God's enemy.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna pray that God reveals himself to this kid.
SPEAKER_01: Three days later, I'm at high school getting a football ticket.
SPEAKER_01: I see him in the hall and he goes, Hey, I hear you're praying for me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I am.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But, well, I mean, I ain't into all that.
SPEAKER_01: That's fine.
SPEAKER_01: You be into whatever you're into for as long as you can be into it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: See ya.
SPEAKER_01: Walked off.
SPEAKER_01: Eight days later, my secretary buzzed me, beep, beep.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Yeah, I know you're studying, but you have a visitor.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm studying.
SPEAKER_01: Who is it?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's Brooks Harris.
SPEAKER_01: It's this kid.
SPEAKER_01: Now my kids figured up, I think, between the three morning bells, class bells, and tardy bells, lunch bells, there are like 17, 18 bells.
SPEAKER_01: We counted up.
SPEAKER_01: There's 63 kids that night.
SPEAKER_01: I said, all 63 of us are gonna pray for his salvation every time you hear a bell.
SPEAKER_01: That cat walked in, sat down.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: I was hoping you could tell me.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't look, I just kept writing.
SPEAKER_01: I just kept writing.
SPEAKER_01: I looked up and I said, What can I help you with?
SPEAKER_01: I need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Are you sure about that?
SPEAKER_01: He comes to faith right there in my office.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Brooks, you got a Bible?
SPEAKER_01: I reached up, got him a Bible, handed it to him.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, start reading the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: It starts out telling you who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: He's it it's light and life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the theme of the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: He goes home, he doesn't listen.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know he didn't listen?
SPEAKER_01: Because I got a phone call at 318 that morning.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I answered the phone.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Neil.
SPEAKER_01: What's what's a fornicator?
SPEAKER_01: It's most of my family.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you asking?
SPEAKER_01: Who is it?
SPEAKER_01: It was him.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't listen.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What do you what are you asking for?
SPEAKER_01: He said, I started reading in Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: I'm up to 1 Corinthians, and he talks about these fornicators, and they can't inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I've done that.
SPEAKER_01: I said, fornication is having sex before you're married.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my God, I've done that a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I told you that a sin offering was an offering that was made for people's unintentional sins.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it can be applied.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even realize what I was doing.
SPEAKER_01: And now I realize it.
SPEAKER_01: It's overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh my gosh, there's no way God can accept me.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, hey, the blood of Jesus, what Jesus did on the cross was applied to your life the other day in my office, Brooks.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That means that everything you've ever done is under the blood.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm forgiven?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, yeah, I don't need details.
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: So look at me.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today and you have stuff in your past you're humiliated by, I want to say to you that the death of Jesus on the cross for that sin, for you, not just your sin, but for you, the sinner, can be applied to you the moment you come to faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, in a moment of sheer weakness, I said, call me if you have any questions.
SPEAKER_01: Brother will just blow my phone up.
SPEAKER_01: It was great.
SPEAKER_01: It was phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01: It was one of the freshest things I've ever experienced.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you all of that stuff?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not careful, you will relate to God on the basis of sacrifice and offering and never obedience.
SPEAKER_01: He says, look at this, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 6, in sacrificing offerings, you have delighted.
SPEAKER_01: You have not delighted, but you've given me an open ear.
SPEAKER_01: You've dug for me ears, burnt offerings and sin offerings.
SPEAKER_01: You have not required.
SPEAKER_01: Then I said, Behold, I've come.
SPEAKER_01: In the scroll of the book, it is written of me, I delight to do your will, oh my God.
SPEAKER_01: Your law is within my heart.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: Listening to God changes how he relates to God, which is what he's saying in verse 7 and 8.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, I have a desire in me to do what you want me to do.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not something on the outside trying to get in, it's something on the inside trying to get out.
SPEAKER_01: It's not, well, I just can't stop sinning, so I'm gonna make sacrifices and offerings.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: David said, Oh, oh my gosh, you dug for me ears, you've given me a mechanism and a means where I can hear you and I can obey you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says, Then, oh my gosh, that was over there.
SPEAKER_01: That was back then, but right now, oh then, when I realized that, it changed everything.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last question.
SPEAKER_01: I'll drive all of this with with the voice that I have left.
SPEAKER_01: I drive all this to this question for all of us today.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine having this increasingly delightful desire inside of you to do whatever God says?
SPEAKER_01: Because that, my friends, is biblical Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It's some form of American religion where we kind of say, Well, I sin and then I make a sacrifice or an offering, I do something to balance out my bad with some good.
SPEAKER_01: The problem with all that is it doesn't bring you any closer to God.
SPEAKER_01: But the good news today is that God, look at me, has dug for you ears.
SPEAKER_01: He has said, I want you to hear me.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to relate to me from the inside out, not the outside in.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to have this ever-increasingly delightful desire inside of you to do whatever I say.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to live every day palms up.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to have this inward compulsion that you don't have words for.
SPEAKER_01: I want to deliver you and relate to you in such a way that people that work with you want to know the God that you know.
SPEAKER_01: And so again, here's the question.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine having an increasingly delightful desire inside of you to do whatever God says?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, we like to teach the Bible and then give people some space just to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so now is a good time just to ask yourself, hey, what did God say to me today?
SPEAKER_01: What had my name on it?
SPEAKER_01: Because over all of this, one of the songs coming out of your life ought to be that God is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: God is not just He's not a God of punishment, He's a God of instruction, restoration.
SPEAKER_01: He restores things, He lifts people out of the miry clay and gives them a firm place to stand.
SPEAKER_01: When their legs are so wobbly they can hardly stand up, when they think in their mind, if my husband doesn't change by the summer, I'm gonna leave him.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I can so work in that situation, I can so change the both of you and your marriage.
SPEAKER_01: I put a hymn of praise in your mouth, and it's a hymn of praise to God.
SPEAKER_01: And many people will see and fear.
SPEAKER_01: Many people will see this and they'll stand in awe of God and they'll want to know God.
SPEAKER_01: And because God has dug for us ears.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take a moment to listen.
SPEAKER_01: God is not a God of condemnation, He's a God of provision.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're one of those people that when you come to church, you feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be reminded that Jesus was offered himself for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: So sin could no longer have power over you.
SPEAKER_01: To change the way you relate to God, and that begins, that relating to God begins with a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've never begun a relationship with God, maybe today's the day for you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you could get tired of relating to God out of sacrifice and offering, out of trying to balance out the karma of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe today you could just hear the voice of the Holy Spirit calling you into a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we understand from the Bible that you've dug for us ears.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And you speak loud and clear to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so let us be good stewards of what we've heard today.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, let me say thanks for being here today.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about anything you've seen or heard today, we'll be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: Also, uh, the couple, uh, Trevor and Carrie Nails that stood up here and read scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when they were talking, I sensed that Trevor talking about being gone for three years and his wife having three kids all by herself.
SPEAKER_01: I sense that connected with some of y'all.
SPEAKER_01: So I asked them if they would make themselves available down front to pray with some of y'all.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're like, hey, I want to talk to those people, great, they'll be available.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't got to talk to us, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh I tell people all the time the best part of this church is the people.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and and they are a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're married and sometimes it's kind of like, uh, we want to choke each other, they can help you.
SPEAKER_01: Because if your husband's gone for three years and you got three kids sucking the life out of you, you can love Jesus and still fantasize about choking your husband.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I heard your sister.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: As you're standing, let me remind you.
SPEAKER_01: We say this, I say this fairly consistently.
SPEAKER_01: Do what you're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: Give what you're supposed to give, and say what you're supposed to say while you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: That great theologian Tom Petty got it right.
SPEAKER_01: Waiting is the hardest part.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what you were created for.
SPEAKER_01: To wait patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and give yourself to this reality.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you or dismiss.