SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we've come to echo that very same thing and to say, Jesus, what you said in the garden, not my will, but yours be done.
SPEAKER_01: Life takes on deeper, richer, fuller meaning when we can say that and mean it.
SPEAKER_01: When we can say it's a good thing that I don't get my way, because there's a God who's better than me and He's getting His way.
SPEAKER_01: He works all things out for my good so I can trust Him.
SPEAKER_01: I can live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is not just a noun, it is a verb.
SPEAKER_01: It is the reality that I apply to my life and leverage me to act in a way that is in keeping with the worth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is why the Bible says, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Let your life reflect to everyone around you the sufficiency and the value of both God and gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is our privilege, God.
SPEAKER_01: We do that by faith and we do it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, so illuminate the scripture today that our capacity to do that, our pleasure in doing that is enhanced and increased.
SPEAKER_01: This is our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat if you got a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take it and open up to Genesis chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: And we are finishing up a four-part series on our core values today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting our church, uh, we have four core values, four things that guide and govern everything we do.
SPEAKER_01: And they are sequential.
SPEAKER_01: They're in order for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: They are gospel, community, mission, and blessing.
SPEAKER_01: We believe the gospel produces a community of people on the shared mission, and central to that is to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've been unpacking each one of those.
SPEAKER_01: Today we're to the last one of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you today about the privilege of being a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: The privilege of being a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody wants to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Sure you do.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_01: But do you want to be a blessing?
SPEAKER_01: Because what you're going to see in the way God relates to this man, Abram, in Genesis chapter 12, whose name is later changed because it to Abraham, is that God blesses his people in order for them to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So you cannot just say, I want to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: You have to grapple with the biblical responsibility to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, the blessing stops with you.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the problems in America is individualistic Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It's just me and my wife and our two kids, us four and no more.
SPEAKER_01: If our prayers don't extend beyond our household, we're not a blessing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And I want us, because God wants to bless you so that you would turn then in turn be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So the privilege of being a blessing, uh, Genesis chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read the first four verses.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.
SPEAKER_01: And in all in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So Abram went.
SPEAKER_01: And as the Lord had told him, and Lot with him, Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's four things that people uh lot like Abram understand.
SPEAKER_01: The people that are understand the privilege of being a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: There's four things from what we just read that they demonstrate in their life.
SPEAKER_01: You see this in the life of Abram.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and the first one is simply this is that obedience is often disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: Obedience is often disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: When God asks you to do something, he knows full well the ramifications involved in the obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And so, can we just agree on that this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: When God asks you to do something, he understands already the ramifications of what he's asking you to do.
SPEAKER_01: If that makes sense, would you say amen?
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of times God asks us to do something or tells us to do something, and our first response is, well, yeah, but what about and da-da-da-da-da.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not careful, you can insult the sovereignty of God that God already knows.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing we can inform him about.
SPEAKER_01: Now you can tell him how you feel, and I think that is great, but it doesn't change the nature or the certainty of what God knows.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want us to just embrace that obedience is often disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He says there, uh, go from your country, your kindred, and your father's house.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: Translation: leave your nation, your tribe, and your people.
SPEAKER_01: Go from everything you've ever known.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is fresh on my mind because my wife and I and our youngest daughter drove up to Birmingham on Thursday, spent the night, got up Friday, moved into the old college dorm, third floor, no elevator.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not bitter or anything, but I'm like, come on, what's the endowment at this school?
SPEAKER_01: And so we're lugging stuff up there, get moved in, and they said, Hey, we want the parents to be out by five o'clock because we got things starting at 5 30.
SPEAKER_01: And at about 4 50, I'm looking at the clock and I said, Hey, we need to get going.
SPEAKER_01: We all stood up, we all hugged, and I said, Let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: Started praying, got about two sentences out, broke down, wife started crying, daughter started crying.
SPEAKER_01: I said, God, you've been good to this family and you've been good to this girl for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna stop being good.
SPEAKER_01: It was great, kind of pulled it together, walked out, got took all the trash out on the way out, threw it in the dumpster, got to the parking garage, got in the elevator, door closed, my wife burst into tears.
SPEAKER_01: Just turned towards me.
SPEAKER_01: And I just got, now, if you're not married, this is for you, okay?
SPEAKER_01: There are going to be moments in marriage that do not require words.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, just shut your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say, God's good and God's sovereign, God got baby girl.
SPEAKER_01: I just say, Come here, baby.
SPEAKER_01: And I just held my wife.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, please don't let this thing stop on the next floor and the door open and somebody get on.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all didn't take the stairs, we're not done here yet.
SPEAKER_01: And we got to our floor, got to the ground floor, and we got in the van.
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of quiet.
SPEAKER_01: My wife was kind of a little bit weepy, and I I'm feeling, I'm just kind of like, so when I read in the Bible this morning, God says to Abram, Go from your country, your candidate, and your father's house.
SPEAKER_01: Very fresh for me.
SPEAKER_01: Later on in the night, I thought this was helpful, but apparently it wasn't.
SPEAKER_01: I said, We raised them to leave.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Do you feel that?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you women kind of took a deep breath, like, you idiot.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't say that out loud, did you?
SPEAKER_01: I thought, not only did I say that loud, I thought right before I said it, I thought this will really be helpful.
SPEAKER_01: And the look on her face was just like, what are you, a moron?
SPEAKER_01: I was like, never mind.
SPEAKER_01: Never mind.
SPEAKER_01: I was so, I was so fluxed, I just threw the remote to her.
SPEAKER_01: Here, you can you can watch something now on the TV.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go to bed.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to get up early and drive back with everyone who's fleeing New Orleans from the hurricane.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, We're not going down to I-10, we're going down Interstate 20 all the way to Street Port, drive it down.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit longer, but we're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_01: So here's my point.
SPEAKER_01: Fresh on our head and heart today is this whole idea.
SPEAKER_01: God says, hey, I understand obedience is often disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: Leave your nation, your tribe, your your people.
SPEAKER_01: And now why?
SPEAKER_01: Why would God say, do that?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta ask yourself, what motivates your obedience?
SPEAKER_01: When God tells you to do so, do you motivate, are you are you motivated out of fear or understanding or trust or experience?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you know what, God, we've been here before.
SPEAKER_01: You said you disrupted our life or you disrupted me in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: And I've learned to trust you because obedience is often disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: I like what Eugene Peterson says.
SPEAKER_01: He says that obedience is the thing, living in active response to the living God.
SPEAKER_01: The most important question we ask of this text is not what does this mean, but what can I obey?
SPEAKER_01: A simple act of obedience will open up our lives to the text far more quickly than any number of Bible studies and dictionaries and concordances.
SPEAKER_01: All that is good, but there's no that there's a difference in information and experience.
SPEAKER_01: When you read the Bible, you should just ask, hey, not just what does this mean, but what what can I obey in this passage to get the meaning of any verse in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Just ask this question what does this require of me?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not careful, uh because you should notice this in some people.
SPEAKER_01: Many people stop growing spiritually in relation to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's not they stop reading the Bible, it's not they stop coming to church.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you may be in here today and it's kind of like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I kind of relate to that.
SPEAKER_01: Keep talking.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I will.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can keep doing all the right things, but what's happened is okay, you're reading and you're getting information, but you are not obeying what you already know.
SPEAKER_01: So God stops revealing things to you.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a terrible feeling to be doing all the right things, going through all the emotions, coming to church, it's like, hey, if anybody knew how disconnected I am to all of this, they would think I'm a big hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're not a hypocrite, it's just that this has become information, not experience.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing about the Bible: the learning is for living, it is for bearing that out.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say that obedience is often disruptive, this is what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you stop obeying what you know, God will limit what you can know in the future.
SPEAKER_01: Because God doesn't want to produce hypocrisy in you.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that God's mad at you, it's just that God understands, I can't really trust you with much more because you're not obeying with what you've already got in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first thing that the people that understand the privilege of being a blessing, they understand is that obedience is often disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, they understand that God reveals.
SPEAKER_01: That God reveals.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He says to Abram, go from your country, your kindred, and your father's house, very disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the back half of the sentence to the land that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: To a land that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: When God says, go from, look at me, he already knows the two.
SPEAKER_01: When he says, Go from this to a land that I will show you, he already knows.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you have to leave, you have to go in order for him to show.
SPEAKER_01: He's not going to stay here and you go, well, exactly where we go.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this would be like, get this in context.
SPEAKER_01: This man is 75 years old, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He's lived in the same place.
SPEAKER_01: He's got his grandparents, his parents, everybody lives right down the street.
SPEAKER_01: If they had kids and they don't, we'll get to that in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be free babysitting.
SPEAKER_01: It would just be incredible.
SPEAKER_01: Just this little, hey, right here.
SPEAKER_01: And 75 years old.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be like going to your grandma's house today, unannounced, backing up a U-Haul truck, and just ringing the doorbell, walking in and going, hey grandma, hugging her.
SPEAKER_01: All right, get your stuff, get your yadro figurines, get your precious moment collection, get on the U-Haul.
SPEAKER_01: We're going.
SPEAKER_01: And your grandma's like, What in the world?
SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Where are we going?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Just get in the U-Haul, grandma.
SPEAKER_01: Your grandma's like, hang on a second, look at her point, where's my piss so I can shoot a fool?
SPEAKER_01: This is exactly what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Now you have to believe that God is a God of revelation, or else you're gonna be like, uh, uh, uh, uh.
SPEAKER_01: He says, go from to the land I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, go from to go to.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta go from before you can get to.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us can't go from and we never get to.
SPEAKER_01: Like I use my own life as an example.
SPEAKER_01: When I was in college, uh, now towards my senior year, there was a lot more pretty girls in my college.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I noticed or there was just an influx, they bust them in.
SPEAKER_01: But when I first got there, there was maybe five girls that every guy wanted to date.
SPEAKER_01: And by the grace of God, I happened to get to date one of those.
SPEAKER_01: The relationship was enjoyable, she was beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine said, that's probably one of the prettiest girls I've seen.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like, I mean, that's like she is great, man.
SPEAKER_01: And oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, hey, dude, that's my girlfriend.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be weird about it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going along there, and we've been dating, I don't know, three, four months, five months.
SPEAKER_01: And it was, she was like, hey, I think this is going somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Me too.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you're pretty, I'm pretty.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, yeah, okay, let's be pretty together.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so, and one night I'm sitting in my room.
SPEAKER_01: This is how long ago it was.
SPEAKER_01: I was on the cutting edge of technology.
SPEAKER_01: I had a Sony Walkman Sport Edition, yellow, with the little clasp that locked it down, and the little headphones that go in your ear.
SPEAKER_01: I'm at my desk in my room studying, listening to music, and my roommate Joey's across the room, and clear as a bell, it wasn't audible, but it felt tangible in my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, Hey, I want you to break up with her.
SPEAKER_01: This relationship has come as far as it can.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Lord, the devil's trying to get me to break up with one of the five pretty girls on this campus.
SPEAKER_01: Now get back, devil.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I sat there, and I mean the Bible says test the spirits and see if they be of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the longer I sat there, the more it was just confirmed.
SPEAKER_01: So I got out a piece of paper, I wrote a letter, I walked out of my roommate and said, Where are you going?
SPEAKER_01: Because we would study till midnight, stop, and then go to the hot biscuit and eat breakfast at midnight.
SPEAKER_01: Because you were in college back then.
SPEAKER_01: Uh by the way, the other night I went to bed at 8 47.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a loser, that's why, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I was glad to be in bed.
SPEAKER_01: My wife said, Are you going to bed right now?
SPEAKER_01: And I went, shamer, turn the light out.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but I said, Hey, I'll be back.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you do?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm going to go obey.
SPEAKER_01: Walked across the campus to her dormitory.
SPEAKER_01: It was Merle Bruce, and I called her down.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, excuse me, Lineberry, the one of the girls dormant at my college, and I called her down, and I talked to her, I said, Hey, my car.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Oh, I didn't think I was going to see you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad to see you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is not making this better.
SPEAKER_01: So we get in the car, and I thought, because you said, Why'd you write a letter?
SPEAKER_01: Because I thought I'll get over there and I'll just look at her and kind of go, you're really pretty.
SPEAKER_01: Never mind, God.
SPEAKER_01: You want to go to Hot Biscuit?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but instead, I just said, Hey, take a moment and read this, let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: I thought that was a very gentlemanly thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: She got about halfway through the ladder and she went, Oh no, nobody breaks up with me.
SPEAKER_01: That's a quote.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, I wasn't very discerning back then, but I thought, this isn't going well.
SPEAKER_01: I thought in my dorm room I was going to be honest with her because I said I said in the letter, uh, thank you for the time, this opportunity to get to know you.
SPEAKER_01: I've so enjoyed getting to know you, but this relationship has come as far as it can.
SPEAKER_01: And for me to stay in it any longer would be me defrauding you, me leading you on, and trying to make you think that my heart is somewhere it's not.
SPEAKER_01: My heart has come to a stop.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think it's time to end this relationship.
SPEAKER_01: I thought this as well, ladies, Hallmark is gonna want me to write cards after this.
SPEAKER_01: This is so well, this is so, because my thing back then was just be honest, just tell the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't ruthless, I was truthful.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she wadded that up and threw it against a dashboard in my car.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think you're doing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm trying to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, wow, and at a small private Baptist school, when you break up with one girl, you break up with all of them.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the cafeteria the next day, I was at the salad bar, and a girl called, Oh, who do you think you are?
SPEAKER_01: And Yama McLean.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I hi, my name is Neil.
SPEAKER_01: What's your name?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so lives on my floor.
SPEAKER_01: You broke her heart.
SPEAKER_01: I said, So what?
SPEAKER_01: So I just stay in the relationship when I know that I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know it's done?
SPEAKER_01: You should just keep dating and see if God changes your heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: That's called defrauding.
SPEAKER_01: Guys do it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: Just for the record, we all hate you.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm standing there holding my track.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not making this up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, welcome to this Christian college.
SPEAKER_01: This is going well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh should have gone to AM, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
SPEAKER_01: That never happens at AM.
SPEAKER_01: I went up on Northgate and I come back, and there was a woman in my apartment.
SPEAKER_01: What happened here?
SPEAKER_01: I was just like, yeah, it was really, I was thrown because I thought I'm doing the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Almost four years later, I'm in grad school.
SPEAKER_01: Not dating anybody, traveling all over the country.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm I'm out almost every weekend, and I'm just standing talking to the baby.
SPEAKER_01: We're walking, and I look up, and probably 50, 60 yards away, I see this long blonde hair blowing in the wind, faded Levi's, a white t-shirt, no makeup and boots.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to a friend of mine, I said, Hey, who is that?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Oh, that girl's from Florida.
SPEAKER_01: Her name's Marcy.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't date, she's like God's girlfriend.
SPEAKER_01: That's a quote.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I think God wants to break up with her.
SPEAKER_01: Now, fast forward in that, and by the way, in that moment, you know I went back to in my head and in my heart was four years earlier when God said, Break up with this really pretty girl.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't make sense until that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Now that Marcy and I have been married for 28 years.
SPEAKER_01: And it's been, my cat, is it hard to be married a long time?
SPEAKER_01: Not when you're married to this.
SPEAKER_01: This is easy.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's reading the magazine, she went, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that was, and it didn't make sense, and I was just like, it made sense now.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: God reveals, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: He reveals, but he doesn't always explain.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: God reveals.
SPEAKER_01: Leave the land of your fathers and go to a land that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't always explain.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Neil, this relationship has come as far as it can.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Say what?
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't always explain.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say God reveals, this is what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in the habit of explaining himself.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time to go into this, but you you do not want, and I've heard it a few times in my life, and it scared me to my core.
SPEAKER_01: You do not want to hear God say, never mind.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you won't do it, he'll find somebody else that will.
SPEAKER_01: And there's been a few times in my life where I've tried to negotiate with God and be like, oh, well, you know, uh, uh, and God's like, never mind.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't mean to bother you.
SPEAKER_01: Go on with your really busy life, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third thing that the people understand, people that understand, like Abram, the privilege of being a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third thing they understand that God sees his promises through the lens of himself.
SPEAKER_01: God sees his promises through the lens of himself.
SPEAKER_01: That means it cuts both ways.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you struggle with worthiness.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't give it to you because you're worthy, because on your best day you weren't worthy.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to live in fear of your worst day.
SPEAKER_01: On our best day, I mean, the Bible says in Isaiah that all your righteous deeds, all the good things you've done, are like filthy rags on the sight of a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: So on your best day, you didn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to live in fear of people finding out about your worst day, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so God sees the promises through the lens of himself.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: After he tells him, Leave your kindred, your country, your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you, verse 2, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: When I say he sees the promises through the lens of himself, I brought a graphic that will help us understand this or at least visualize it.
SPEAKER_01: Now that big line in the middle, that's like that, that's like a wall.
SPEAKER_01: You're on one side of the wall.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by nature, most of us, if you're like me, uh your eye and your affection and your attention is drawn to will.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I will.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the first thing I think is, will you really?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, because I mean, I know you said you would, but when and how and oh what?
SPEAKER_01: 15 years ago, it's been over 15 years ago now, I started this church as the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: All we had was this one building right here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and it didn't even look like this.
SPEAKER_01: It looked totally different.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it was not very well cared for.
SPEAKER_01: It needed some tender love and care.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just say it like that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God said, when people of this church reached out to me and said, Hey, we'd like, I remember a man followed me out that door and the other door.
SPEAKER_01: I had a suburban back then.
SPEAKER_01: I missed that suburban, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I sold it to a man in our church who still has it.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I see him, I'm like, You still got my suburban?
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so I'm walking out to get in my suburban, and a man follows me out and says, Hey, Neil, uh, people are writing notes and putting in the offering plate and saying, Hey, have you talked to Neil about being our next pastor?
SPEAKER_01: Because he's a member here, he's hardly ever here, and stood right there.
SPEAKER_01: And that man looked at me and said, Would you prayerfully consider being our pastor?
SPEAKER_01: And I looked at him and said, No.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't a very good Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: Baptists always say, I'll pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: That's Baptist for no.
SPEAKER_01: I said to him, You have lost your mind.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want me, I've never done this.
SPEAKER_01: And and and this is no, no.
SPEAKER_01: And I got in my suburban, drove home.
SPEAKER_01: My wife said, Hey, I thought you were talking to so-and-so.
SPEAKER_01: What was that about?
SPEAKER_01: He said, People are writing down on pieces of paper, have you talked to Neil about being our next pastor?
SPEAKER_01: He's here, he's a member of our church, he's hardly ever here.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife just said, Well, what'd you say?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: I eat out and live in hotels 190 days a year.
SPEAKER_01: I like this gig.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife said, I don't know if you get to say that.
SPEAKER_01: You shut your filthy mouth right now.
SPEAKER_01: You.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, here's my problem.
SPEAKER_01: I was looking at, you know, because they were like, we will, we will, we will.
SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, I was honest.
SPEAKER_01: I said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I he said, why not?
SPEAKER_01: I said, because I'd blow this thing up and start over.
SPEAKER_01: I was looking at it through the lens of myself.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But other people were looking at it through the lens of God.
SPEAKER_01: See, God sees the promises through the lens of himself.
SPEAKER_01: We're drawn to will he, will he not, ah, ah, I God's drawn to I.
SPEAKER_01: God is very uh uh very has a very high opinion and high view of himself.
SPEAKER_01: If you read the Bible, that's one of the things that you will see.
SPEAKER_01: God loves God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: God is really into God.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds crazy or egocentric, or if you're just visiting a church for the first time today, or you're listening to the podcast, or you're part of our online community and you're at home checking it out, you're like, no, wait a minute, what did you just say?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: God is very into God.
SPEAKER_01: God is very God-centered.
SPEAKER_01: God loves God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, that doesn't sound right.
SPEAKER_01: Only because you want him to put you at the center of his affections.
SPEAKER_01: And you've been told and taught, oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Like my own wife, I remember she came with me when we were dating, I spoke at something, and I talked about the God centeredness of God to a bunch of teenagers.
SPEAKER_01: That was fun.
SPEAKER_01: Uh And she said, Well, I want you to know that growing up, my Sunday school teacher said to me that God made people because he was lonely and wanting friends.
SPEAKER_01: I backwrecked my car.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what?
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't create out of need.
SPEAKER_01: God creates because he wants people to understand how gloriously awesome he is.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I know that now, but I mean I grew up in a church like that.
SPEAKER_01: Good church, but that's what I was told.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, that is terrible.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, when God says, I will, we're drawn to that part that says, will you?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really, will you?
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say, get your eye back to the other side that says I.
SPEAKER_01: Focus on the nature of the person making the promise.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why, for some of you, it's dad, for some of you, it's mom.
SPEAKER_01: When my kids do not know what to do, they rely on the nature of the person that they believe is the most certain.
SPEAKER_01: And for in certain circumstances, it's me.
SPEAKER_01: They call me, hey dad, can I pick your brain for a minute?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's their mom, depending on what the issue is.
SPEAKER_01: But I just want to say over and over that God has a very high view of himself.
SPEAKER_01: It's demonstrated in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And not because he's egocentric, because he invites you and I to have a high view of him as well.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to read some passages that kind of reinforce what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: This is Isaiah chapter 40, verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: It says, God says, To whom then will you compare me?
SPEAKER_01: That I should be like him, says the Holy One.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.
SPEAKER_01: He who brings out their hosts by number, calling them all by name.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about the stars.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Who are you going to compare me to?
SPEAKER_01: Check this out.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you think this guy?
SPEAKER_01: I just sneezed, and you people got galaxies.
SPEAKER_01: Don't jerk with me.
SPEAKER_01: But he goes on, he says, He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right, and my right is disregarded by God?
SPEAKER_01: What a great statement.
SPEAKER_01: God's forgot about me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God doesn't know what I'm doing down here.
SPEAKER_01: God picks back up and says, Have you not known?
SPEAKER_01: Have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: He does not faint or grow weary.
SPEAKER_01: His understanding is unsearchable.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Is anything too hard for me?
SPEAKER_01: You have to think a lot of yourself to say that.
SPEAKER_01: Or it simply has to be true.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last one.
SPEAKER_01: This is Psalm 50.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Starting in verse 1, the mighty one, the God, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
SPEAKER_01: Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
SPEAKER_01: Our God comes, he does not keep silence.
SPEAKER_01: Before him is a devouring fire, and around him are mighty tempest.
SPEAKER_01: He calls to the heavens above and to the earth that he may judge his people.
SPEAKER_01: Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: The heavens declare his righteousness, for God Himself is judge.
SPEAKER_01: Selah.
SPEAKER_01: Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel.
SPEAKER_01: I will testify against you.
SPEAKER_01: I am God, your God.
SPEAKER_01: Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you.
SPEAKER_01: Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
SPEAKER_01: I will not accept the bull from your house or goats from your folds, for every beast of the forest is mine.
SPEAKER_01: The cattle on a thousand hills, I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
SPEAKER_01: If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world in its fullness are mine.
SPEAKER_01: Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
SPEAKER_01: Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you.
SPEAKER_01: And you shall glorify me.
SPEAKER_01: Just take that last phrase right there after the comma.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And you shall glorify me.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to see how unique that statement is, how that is so God-centered, I encourage everyone in you in this room to say that phrase, and you shall glorify me to any other human being today before you go to bed.
SPEAKER_01: Go to lunch today.
SPEAKER_01: Stand up at Papasitas.
SPEAKER_01: Just rip your shirt off, men, and say to your wife and kids, and you shall glorify me.
SPEAKER_01: And just see what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Look at your wife before you go to bed when there's nobody.
SPEAKER_01: You brushed your teeth.
SPEAKER_01: You got in bed.
SPEAKER_01: Just reach over and tap your wife and say, Oh, by the way, you shall glorify me.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you right now are looking at your wife, I'm not going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's just him talking.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: You're right, you're not going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: See, there are things, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: There are only God has a capacity that no one else has.
SPEAKER_01: And so therefore, there are things that only God can say and actually mean.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not creepy for him to say them.
SPEAKER_01: Were you to say that to anybody, and you shall glorify me, you'd be like, what is your deal, weirdo?
SPEAKER_01: But when God says it, you're like, oh yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_01: Now again, remember this.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about that.
SPEAKER_01: God sees his promises through the lens of himself.
SPEAKER_01: What promises?
SPEAKER_01: He makes three promises there.
SPEAKER_01: And they are, look at me, they are preposterous by nature and in context.
SPEAKER_01: In the context, and I'll show you in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: There's three of them.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll make you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I will make you a great nation.
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy talk.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I'll multiply you.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have descendants.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that crazy talk?
SPEAKER_01: Look back up.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 12, look at the end of chapter 11, verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: Abram was married to a woman named Sarai.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 30 says, Now Sarai was barren.
SPEAKER_01: She had no child.
SPEAKER_01: And God said to a 75-year-old man whose wife was barren.
SPEAKER_01: The womb was dried up and done with.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, I'm going to make you a great nation.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, you check me on this.
SPEAKER_01: Look over in chapter 18, where God tells them, hey, this is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Sarah laughed.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, that is so funny.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, seriously, God, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: What are you really going to say?
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question today.
SPEAKER_01: What could God say to you today that would make you laugh?
SPEAKER_01: It would be so far outside the realm of possibility.
SPEAKER_01: That you'll just chuckle, you'll just be like, oh man, that is.
SPEAKER_01: I'll make you a great nation.
SPEAKER_01: I will bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You believe that?
SPEAKER_01: You see, well, because if you're not careful, the older you get, the higher that standard of what it means for God to bless you becomes.
SPEAKER_01: Just travel to a poor country in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll realize you're already blessed so far beyond your wildest imagination.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a third one.
SPEAKER_01: I will make your name great.
SPEAKER_01: Can we just admit this morning that for most of us, not just in this room, but in the world, this sums up our life.
SPEAKER_01: Our lives are wasted trying to make our name great.
SPEAKER_01: Had this conversation with a guy the other day, the NCAA, has passed this new thing called N-I-L.
SPEAKER_01: It stands for name, image, and likeness.
SPEAKER_01: And we have 20-year-olds, 18-year-olds who get people in their ear and they tell them your name is great.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, Well, what's the big deal about that?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you some context before I rant and you go, he was just mad today.
SPEAKER_01: No, not at all.
SPEAKER_01: I'm deeply concerned, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because look back in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to go far.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what happens.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Lest we just be dispersed all over the nations, over the face of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: Come, it's the tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_01: Come, let us build a tower into the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: And what's the motivation?
SPEAKER_01: We want to make a name for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: The reason social media is so addictive and so destructive is because we as a people have bought in that we are breathing to make a name for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Someone said to me not long ago out loud, I said, What do you do these days?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I'm just working on my brand.
SPEAKER_01: You had brand for supper?
SPEAKER_01: What'd you say?
SPEAKER_01: No, my brand, B-R-A-N-D.
SPEAKER_01: TikTok, every day I'm on a different platform.
SPEAKER_01: I'm pushing out content.
SPEAKER_01: I started losing my peripheral vision.
SPEAKER_01: I thought, is Jesus coming right now?
SPEAKER_01: This person's like 30 and unemployed, working on his brand.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, there's a very gifted high school quarterback up in the Dallas area who skipped his senior season to go to college early.
SPEAKER_01: Because in the state of Texas, as a high school athlete, you cannot profit off name, image, and likeness.
SPEAKER_01: And so he went to Ohio State a year early, just so he could profit off his name, image, and likeness.
SPEAKER_01: And here's my concern that we've raised a generation who believe this is their life goal to make their name great.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the question I'm asking, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I love everybody, but I just, just, just, just, pardon me, crazy mind.
SPEAKER_01: If God says, I'll make your name great, why do you have to waste your life trying to do the same thing?
SPEAKER_01: Is he not going to make it great enough?
SPEAKER_01: Is he not going to just, oh, I'm not going to make enough money, have enough fame?
SPEAKER_01: I love the lady whose name I can't remember.
SPEAKER_01: She was in the Olympics.
SPEAKER_01: And she won two gold medals.
SPEAKER_01: And she put out a thing.
SPEAKER_01: I was just reading because I didn't take my computer because I was stuck on my phone in the hotel.
SPEAKER_01: It was late.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't sleep.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's snoring.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, just reading here.
SPEAKER_01: And I called her, I think her name's Lindsay McLaughlin, or the last name is McLaughlin.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, and she said this.
SPEAKER_01: And I quote, she's a strong believer.
SPEAKER_01: She said, We were not created for fame.
SPEAKER_01: We were created to give God glory.
SPEAKER_01: Fame is a feigned substitute for the glory that belongs to God.
SPEAKER_01: I just set up, I just set up on the side of the bed.
SPEAKER_01: I went in the bathroom and closed the door and turned the light on so I could just keep reading.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what in the world?
SPEAKER_01: This is an Olympic athlete, great godly woman who says, I was persecuted.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted people to acknowledge me, but that's not what it's about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to get fame.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to give God glory.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, and you run track for a living.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: This is absolutely what we need.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why does he do all that?
SPEAKER_01: It says right there in the text.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will make your great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, comma, so that you will be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question today.
SPEAKER_01: If this is what God says to Abram, hey, I'm gonna make these promises to you, and here's why, so that you'll be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Are you a blessing today?
SPEAKER_01: Strip away all the other stuff and just ask yourself, hey, am I a blessing?
SPEAKER_01: That's awkward to say.
SPEAKER_01: I get it.
SPEAKER_01: Like, am I a blessing?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask other people.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Or are you a curse?
SPEAKER_01: People see you coming, they got like brace.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, here it comes.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says this is what God does, and this is why He does it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing these people understand.
SPEAKER_01: The privilege, like Abraham, the others had the privilege of being a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: They understand that fourthly that God sees the nations through the lens of you.
SPEAKER_01: He sees the nations through the lens of you.
SPEAKER_01: This got shrunk down on me this week.
SPEAKER_01: We were in Birmingham.
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine works at the school.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to him, I said, Hey, Marcy, now it's always got stuff going on on Friday, or I mean not orientation, but welcome weekend, whatever it's called.
SPEAKER_01: We buy you guys dinner.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh man, it'd be great.
SPEAKER_01: And so we go to a nice barbecue place.
SPEAKER_01: We're sitting there, we're just eating and talking, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And his wife, this is on Friday night.
SPEAKER_01: His wife says, Oh, did you ever tell Neil about Walter?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, And he goes, Oh, I don't think I did.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey, because back when Don Minton was in youth ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Like 19, what, 27?
SPEAKER_01: Years ago.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Don Minton used to work on staff here and is now retired in Auburn, worshiping Auburn football.
SPEAKER_01: I hope he sees this on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna have a losing season, Minton.
SPEAKER_01: And so the guy says, What about Walter?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Walter, for some reason the name Walter stuck in my head.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, remember, Don used to do a spring break camp called Beach Breakaway.
SPEAKER_01: And he would ask me a lot to come speak at.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Remember, he was a kid, he was an African-American kid that would come and we play basketball and you would talk a lot of smack.
SPEAKER_01: And you would just, I mean, you were hard on all of us, but Walter's like, I could cover you.
SPEAKER_01: And you told him you couldn't cover, you couldn't hold me if I had a handle sticking out of my back.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, my wife looked at me like, you said that to a kid.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say that, babe.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Yeah, you did, because you knocked him down one time and said, Get up, game's not over.
SPEAKER_01: My wife just got, I don't know what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what this is.
SPEAKER_01: I don't pick on kids, I involve them in a learning process.
SPEAKER_01: And his wife said, Well, get to the part.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, Walter has developed, and Walter's now an MMA fighter.
SPEAKER_01: And I started looking around like, hey, Walter ain't walking in, is he?
SPEAKER_01: But then they said, Walter is an MMA fighter.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: If you watch any kind of sports center, you saw the story.
SPEAKER_01: He's the MMA fighter whose daughter was killed last year.
SPEAKER_01: And they passed a law in Alabama named after her.
SPEAKER_01: And they're telling us all the story.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's this got to do with this simple point that God sees the nations through the lens of you?
SPEAKER_01: My friend said, yeah, Walter said he loved that.
SPEAKER_01: He loved coming here to teach the Bible, and it really helped to kind of shape who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I was just playing pickup basketball, talking smack, just having a just chopping it up, just having a good time.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, no.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember seeing the story.
SPEAKER_01: And he and his wife said, you know, the thing that sustained us in this is our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Every interaction you have, see, when you were converted, when you became a Christian, uh, the gospel came to you on its way to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: And and and and for Abraham, it's not about your individual well-being and your peace of mind and you and your wife and your two kids and us four and no more.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel doesn't stop at your doorstep.
SPEAKER_01: It comes to you on the way to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say that God sees the nations through the lens of you, let me be clear.
SPEAKER_01: This is not idolatry, like you're so important.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This is about involvement, all right?
SPEAKER_01: It comes to us on its way to someone else, and for Abraham, that someone else was the nations.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will bless you, and whoever uh uh whoever dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: No, what is it that God says, I'm gonna bless you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed?
SPEAKER_01: What is the blessing that comes from Abraham and it's for all the families of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Is it material?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We've poured billions of dollars of aid into countries all over the world.
SPEAKER_01: And and they're still jacked up.
SPEAKER_01: Haiti, Afghanistan, just pick one.
SPEAKER_01: Is it economic?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Is it political?
SPEAKER_01: This is free, folks.
SPEAKER_01: Not every nation wants a democracy.
SPEAKER_01: If you've learned anything from Afghanistan, you cannot make a nation out of tribes.
SPEAKER_01: You just can't.
SPEAKER_01: They've been warring for thousands of years.
SPEAKER_01: How about we let them sort it out?
SPEAKER_01: I wish I could see your faces.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting political.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not, actually.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a very political person.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying that we have this concept in America that everyone, every country wants to and should be like ours.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to, and they shouldn't be like ours.
SPEAKER_01: Diversity is good.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you send me emails, spell my name right.
SPEAKER_01: It's N-E-I-L, not N-E-A-L.
SPEAKER_01: I love America.
SPEAKER_01: Also, I got in trouble because I told somebody the other day the president wraps himself in the flag and quotes Isaiah 6, 8, whom shall I send and who will go for us to justify sending troops to fight another war?
SPEAKER_01: We're getting on business fighting.
SPEAKER_01: Leave the Bible out of it.
SPEAKER_01: The blessing isn't political.
SPEAKER_01: What is the blessing then?
SPEAKER_01: Galatians 3 tells us in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Know then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
SPEAKER_01: See, Abraham wasn't just justified by faith, he lived by faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is why he's referred to as a man of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: You got one more minute in you?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: He was justified by faith, okay?
SPEAKER_01: People in the Old Testament were saved the same way we are today.
SPEAKER_01: It's by faith.
SPEAKER_01: They just looked forward in faith.
SPEAKER_01: We look back with faith.
SPEAKER_01: But they were justified by faith.
SPEAKER_01: He was justified by faith, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He lived by faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is why he was a man of faith, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so it's not faith is not just a noun, it is a verb.
SPEAKER_01: It is this reality that governs how we are in our circumstances and situations.
SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, this is in Genesis chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Talking about God sees the nations through the lens of view.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter, um in chapter 18, he tells them, How are you gonna have a child?
SPEAKER_01: And Sarai laughs like that.
SPEAKER_01: That's just crazy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm old, dude.
SPEAKER_01: I'm past childbearing age.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, You're looking at Will.
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at me, I'm looking at I, the nature of the being making the promise.
SPEAKER_01: You're on the wrong side of the line, Sarai.
SPEAKER_01: And then in chapter 22 of Genesis, you can read it for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: God tells after they have a son, they name him Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: And he God says to him, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, and offer him up on the mountain that I will show you.
SPEAKER_01: And so again, I will show.
SPEAKER_01: You go and I'll show.
SPEAKER_01: And what does Abram do?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, when God said Abram, he said, Here I am.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, and offer him up on a mountain.
SPEAKER_01: You mean the son of the promise?
SPEAKER_01: You mean the son that you promised?
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing Hebrews 11 tells us that Abram had so much faith in God that if he killed him, God would raise him back to life.
SPEAKER_01: Because he understood that God had this capacity.
SPEAKER_01: If someone sacrifices their son, God can raise him back to life.
SPEAKER_01: So he gets wood, he gets servants, and he gets his son, they're going along, and his son's like, hey, dad, well, we got wood for the fire, but where's the lamb?
SPEAKER_01: God will provide the lamb, son.
SPEAKER_01: At one point he stops and says to his servants, You got to stay here.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, This crazy talk.
SPEAKER_01: I and the boy will go and worship, and we'll return again to you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: He sacrificed an act of worship for you.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't say, Hey, go over there and sing some songs, have a little worship jam, come back.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I want you to lay your son down on the altar and take his life, sacrifice him to me.
SPEAKER_01: And Abram was such a man of faith.
SPEAKER_01: He believed in God so deeply, he just said, We're gonna go worship.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go be increased in our affection for this big, faithful God, and we'll be back, boys.
SPEAKER_01: He gets there, lays out the wood, lays his son down, raises the knife, and God says, Now I see.
SPEAKER_01: Now I see.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And behind him was a ram caught in a thicket, and he sacrifices the lamb.
SPEAKER_01: And they come back.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Abraham wasn't just justified by faith, he lived by faith, which is why he was considered a man of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women of faith are the lens through which God sees the nations.
SPEAKER_01: I played basketball with a 16-year-old kid that was funny, that would foul me, that would get on the low pope, put his elbow in my back, and I said, You do that again, I'm gonna knock you out.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Bring it, big boy.
SPEAKER_01: I looked him up.
SPEAKER_01: I think he's like 6'6 now.
SPEAKER_01: He's an MMA fighter.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get on his, I'm gonna try and find if he has a website so I can get on, hey, remember me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm that camp speaker that was really nice to you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying, and we're done.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You never know who you're influencing.
SPEAKER_01: You just don't.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God looks at the nations through the lens of view.
SPEAKER_01: So every relationship you, you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham was justified by faith.
SPEAKER_01: He lived by faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he was considered a man of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Are you considered a man or a woman of faith?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Some questions come up on the screen for you just to kind of think digestively for just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Let me voice a prayer and let's just think to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: God thanks for the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That it is uh it's it's it's thought provoking.
SPEAKER_01: It's just what it is.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, man, you said go, but you also said I'm gonna show you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, do you know me enough to trust me to show you what's next so you can leave right now to get to what's next?
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says of Abram, and Abram left.
SPEAKER_01: All he needed was to hear God, and he's out of there.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit brood over us.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be men and women of faith that live like that because we realize that you're looking to the nations, those around us, through the lens of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's not pressure, that's privilege.
SPEAKER_01: We get to be the blessing.
SPEAKER_01: We don't shrink back from that, God.
SPEAKER_01: We step into that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And brood over us while we think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thanks for the privilege of being who the Bible says we are.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a person in this room that wouldn't have to admit that we've been blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And you blessed us to be a blessing, to be a tangible reminder of the goodness and the greatness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, just to press in on us that privilege.
SPEAKER_01: We don't take it lightly, but it's not heavy on us like a burden.
SPEAKER_01: It is a privilege.
SPEAKER_01: And so for that we're grateful.
SPEAKER_01: So we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone says, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, let me say thanks for being a part of this service.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't already, would you take a moment just to grab one of those guest cards in the seatback pocket in your row and just fill it out on your way out the door here in just a minute?
SPEAKER_01: There's a wooden box by all the doors.
SPEAKER_01: If you just drop that in there, we'd love to have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_01: That's all we ask of you.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of you, if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: One reminder before we have our video announcements, uh, our our daily devotionals are available.
SPEAKER_01: These are free.
SPEAKER_01: They're at every exit.
SPEAKER_01: Our fit team has them.
SPEAKER_01: Uh basically, it's just a little half-page reading each day.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it has a Bible verse and then some thoughts around that.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of gets your head and your heart kind of aimed in a spiritual direction.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like one of these, they're a gift.
SPEAKER_01: They're for three months.
SPEAKER_01: This one starts in September, just in a couple of days.
SPEAKER_01: Just grab one on your way out this morning, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But for now, let's check out our video announcements.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Janna McKee, the children's pastor.
SPEAKER_00: We are very excited about our upcoming Turchwide picnic, which will be held on Sunday, September 12th from 4 to 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: at Jones Creek Ranch Park on FM 359.
SPEAKER_00: This will be a great afternoon to catch up with friends, enjoy some games, and relax.
SPEAKER_00: We've reserved the entire park, and food will be served in the air-conditioned lodge, so we will gather rain or shine.
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking to get involved in a community group, it will be a great day to meet the leaders.
SPEAKER_00: So come with your whole family and invite your neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Sign up and pay at grandparkway.org slash event by September 8th to let us know we'll see you there.
SPEAKER_00: But tickets are limited, so don't wait too long to register.
SPEAKER_00: If you are new today, have questions about anything you've heard, or would like someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage after the service.
SPEAKER_01: One last thing, I sent you an email this week and said, save the date for October 17th.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you wrote back and said, What's October 17th?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'll tell you in due time.
SPEAKER_01: Today is due time.
SPEAKER_01: Uh October 17th, we have what's we're having what's called a hilarious Sunday offering here at our church.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been here any length of time, you understand that.
SPEAKER_01: Give me 30 seconds of your attention if you've never heard that before.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, our building will be finished, our new sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the end of October, we'll be in it, late October, early November.
SPEAKER_01: And we do this every time we build something.
SPEAKER_01: We take up a special offering that goes towards the note.
SPEAKER_01: So it's like buying a car.
SPEAKER_01: If a car costs, and they cost a lot these days, say a car costs$30,000.
SPEAKER_01: The bigger down payment you pay down, the smaller your monthly payment.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: We try to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: So right now it's a construction note, but when the building's finished, we get the keys, so we get the uh the occupancy, uh, all that stuff, then it flips into what's called a conventional uh loan.
SPEAKER_01: We like to pay down as much principal as we can before we start making monthly payments.
SPEAKER_01: So on October 17th, we'll have a special offering.
SPEAKER_01: I'll send you an email later tonight, explain the difference between tithe and offering.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and and so just kind of mark it in your mind right now, October 17th.
SPEAKER_01: And why is it called the Hilarious Sunday?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9, it says, when it comes to an offering, it says, let each man uh purpose in his heart what he's what he should give.
SPEAKER_01: For God loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_01: That word cheerful is the Greek word hileron.
SPEAKER_01: It's where we get the English word hilarious, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We don't do pledge cards and we don't pass out cards, ask you to sign up.
SPEAKER_01: We don't paint like a red thermometer on the wall of the lobby and go, we're this close to our goal.
SPEAKER_01: We say this pray, listen, and obey.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't get involved in that.
SPEAKER_01: You just whatever got.
SPEAKER_01: If you're like, dude, we're strapped, we can't give a thing, don't sweat it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But whatever we take up on that day, uh that's marked Hilary Sunday, that's not in your regular tithe, will go towards paying down our note before it rolls into monthly payments, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, on September the 19th, uh it's an active construction site, but the building's gonna be open.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to be able to walk in and see it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's not our church, we're like hiding it over here.
SPEAKER_01: It's your church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so we want you to see is our new sanctuary that connects to the children's building.
SPEAKER_01: It's got a wide wraparound lobby, no more human pinball between services.
SPEAKER_01: Uh anybody?
SPEAKER_01: No?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so uh just mark those two dates in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be sending you more information about each of them, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Your God is committed to blessing you.
SPEAKER_01: Not just meeting your needs, but blessing you for the sole purpose that you would be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and be a blessing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.