Build The House | A Holy House Without Compromise - Pastor Rusty Nelson

We unpack Ezra 4’s subtle trap—when adversaries ask to “help” build—and why holy separation protects purpose, favor, and joy. We call listeners to renewed minds, deeper abiding, and a witness shaped by truth and love, not cultural pressure.

• The Ezra 4 invitation to mix and its hidden danger
• Separation as sanctification, not superiority
• Identity as carriers of glory from glory to glory
• Renewed minds resisting cultural molds
• Jesus as fully God and fully man, shaping self-understanding
• Your body is the temple, and worship is a whole-life posture
• Abiding over striving, producing fruit and joy
• Guarding your voice from causes that breed hatred
• Grace received internally versus law achieved externally
• A call to rebuild the house without compromise

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Confession Of The Word
• 0:51 Ezra 4 And The “Let Us Build” Temptation
• 6:42 Separation, Not Superiority
• 10:00 From Glory To Glory: Identity As Carriers
• 14:40 Story Of Presence On A Plane
• 16:50 Renewed Mind Versus Cultural Conformity
• 22:00 Who Do You Say I Am
• 27:10 Your Body As The Temple
• 31:20 Abide, Don’t Strive
• 37:00 Guard Your Voice And Witness
• 43:20 Grace Over Performance
• 49:00 Marked To Shine In Darkness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from Pastor Rusty Nelson.

SPEAKER_01: 0:21

Come on, take them, hold them up. Turn them on, whatever you read from. Say this with me. I am what his word says I am. I can do what his word says I can do. I can be what his word says I can be. So right now, I will hear his word, I'll receive his word, and I'll obey his word because I love his word. Take your Bibles, turn with me to Ezra chapter 4. I want to jump in on this series, Build the House. And I want to entitle this just simply, it's kind of one of my things, but it's marks for glory. We've been marked. I believe this house has been marked, but this house is made up of you. We are the church. We're not an organization, we're an organism, we're live. How we walk life, how we live life, how we love, how we care, how we get up in the morning, how we love our families, how we love our neighbor. Everything really matters. It actually becomes the mark, the brand, and the brand is not about a name nor an image, except one image. And that is the name of Jesus, and that is the brand of his character, his nature, and who his love is all about. And so I pray today you'll open up your heart. I just want to share this with you that we're marked for his glory. And here it is in Ezra chapter 4, verse 1. I want to give you really one verse. It's going to be a combined of the first three, but here it is. Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, they came and said, Let us build with you. I want to dig in that today. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. I ask you in these next few moments that once again would you allow my tongue to be the pen of a writer? That somehow I could write your heart to your amazing people today. Father, speak to us. Father, I pray for those that are searching that they would find you today. I pray for those that are broken, that they would find healing. I pray for those that are in confusion and chaos. That Lord, somehow through this moment of worship, they would find clarity. We surrender this day to you. Thank you for the honor of knowing you, Lord. And it's in the mighty name of Jesus. And everyone said, Amen. You know, I still find in so many people's lives that it's kind of the struggle to kind of measure up to something. So many strivings, so much turmoil that they don't feel like they could ever measure up to people's expectations, much less God's expectations. It kind of makes you feel like second-class Christians or just get by. And that maybe God will understand people that live to just tempt God in a way that will somehow gain his acceptance or at the time that it's needed. Maybe I can just do something to impress God. I'm going to line up the scripture in just a moment, but but I want you to hear me. There's a lot of pressure still to measure up to something. But God says, this is who I am. I just, in in in its warning, and I want you to know who I am so you can know who you are. This thing of making excuses saying it's just because of who I am. I've got to just be me. Well, what if me has got some significant issues? What if me need help? Now look at your neighbor and say, I know he's probably gonna talk to you today. But in all of the confusion and chaos of what is what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a believer? What is what is this admixture many times that we've we've watched happen over the years where it's hard to know the difference between the world and the church, and the church and the world. There's been such a mixture that, you know, sometimes it's it's a mixture of holiness with compromise. We face the temptation to try to just blend in. Where we lose the sharp edge of holiness in exchange for a cultural acceptance. This passage I just gave you was really a temptation of Israel. They've been sent by Cyrus, the king. Not only were they able to go back and rebuild the wall, when Nehemiah now in Ezra, they're getting to rebuild the temple, the place of worship. And here, the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, they hear that they've returned, the exiles are back, and they're going to be building a temple to the Lord. And the adversaries, the enemy comes up to them and says, We want to build with you. Let us build with you. Now that sounds like a collaborative moment until you realize the intent. Because the enemy rarely begins with a sword, he begins with an invitation. And he says this, hey, we can do this together. Let's just, let's just kind of mix this thing up. Let us get in the middle of who you are. Let us let's just link arms together, and we kind of forget the whole fact that bad company will corrupt good morals. But Zerubbabel discerned the danger because not everyone who offers help carries holy hands. And the decree of Cyrus was for Israel alone to allow others, it would risk both the spiritual compromise and even for them the legal consequences. So here's the rubbable. He discerned that the adversary's involvement would not advance the work, but it would probably, more than likely, yes, it would abort it. We can't mix. A.W. Tozer says this when the church seeks to be accepted by the world, she ceases to be a voice of God and becomes merely an echo of her surroundings. You see, when you mix what is holy with what is compromised, you forfeit the favor that sustains the mission. I want to say that again. Whenever we mix the holy with what is compromised, you forfeit the favor, what it takes that sustains the mission. It says in 2 Corinthians 6.17. So where are you going with this? Just hold on. It says, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing. See, separation is not superiority. It's not this holier than thou. No, it is about sanctification. It is about being set apart. It's the declaration of a believer that says, I belong to him. Are you hearing me? See, the spirit of this world is trying to baptize Christianity in the waters of culture and of politics. And God is again, He's drawing a line of distinction. Charles Spurgeon put it this way: I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church. Now just hold on. You see, we have to learn, and God brings us, He birthed us into a family, into a kingdom, to be distinct and not conformed. The church must not be an echo to the world. We must embody the kingdom and bear the character of the king. And when the world says blend, heaven says be distinct. When the world says agree with us, heaven says align with heaven. It's not about the agreement to try to bring compromise in this moment because you were made to reflect his image. We are called to bear his image, his likeness. It says in 2 Corinthians 3, it says, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and are being transformed. We would say transformed. It's not a transformer. We're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as the Spirit of the Lord. So when Paul says this, he's saying we all are being transformed from glory to glory. He's revealing something. He's revealing that glory is not just a destination, it is an identity. We're not chasing glory, but we're carrying it. Look at your neighbor and say, You old glory-looking thing, you hear me. Watch this. Moses carried glory on his face, but we carry glory in our being. We're not just spectators of his presence, we are carriers of his presence. It goes much deeper than a song or a time of worship right before a message. This gets into the very fabric of who we are. It is the way we think, it is the way we live, it is the way we move, it is the way we display everything about. There is a fruit and a fragrance of those who bear the name of Yeshua. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And he is marking you for glory. The mark is not visible ink, it's visible evidence. And every time you choose to behold Jesus over the world, you've branded again. You are branded again with his likeness. Every time you say yes to his presence, you carry another layer of this glory, which is the weighty recognition of who he is. Whosoever will today. I'm talking to just everyday people. Last I looked, I'm just an old country boy from Double Springs, Alabama. Not even two springs there. How many know that again? But I love where I grew up. I love it that Pastors Spencer and Ashland are now pastoring the Smith Lake campus as of two weeks ago. That's the legacy of my father and my mother, and I'm so glad he planted that church 40-something years ago. And to just see God continue to do things. But see, there is a weighty recognition. There is something. I remember I was sitting on a plane years ago, and I was sitting right next to a little lady from Asia. I think honestly, I think she was China, but she could not speak English. And I so I she was over at the window and I was on the aisle, so I would hand things over to her. I was just trying to serve her. I would smile. You know, I didn't, I couldn't speak, I didn't speak Mandarin. I barely speak English. But I kept looking, I just smiled and I'm good at that. You know, I can do that, I figured that one out. Julie, I can do that one. I got that one. And after about, it was a long flight. After a couple of hours, in a moment, she turned over and she looked at me and she said, uh, something different about you. And I've had people tell me that before. It had nothing to do with Jesus, you know. You just you're weird. You, you're mine, you need help. But you know what? All I could do is I could turn to her and just say, it's just Jesus. He changed my life. You say, does that make you perfect? No, but he is. And what it does is he waits for us because you were made not for mediocrity, you were made for majesty. You were not created to blend in, you were created to shine, you are marked for glory, not fading but increasing, not visiting but abiding. So build the house that he has redeemed. That's you. That's me. It says in Romans 12, too. It says, Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is. Anybody just need, I just want to know the will of God. He said, So let me change the way you think, and I will give you clarity about what to do. So what is good, what is acceptable, and what is perfect, what is complete. See, this battle begins in the mind. The Greek word for conformed, it means to be pressed into a mold. Culture is constantly pressing believers to think, to act, to speak in an image. But transformation is not a behavioral modification. The work of the king, the work of the spirit is not to make a better version of you. That's not the sign of maturity. It has nothing to do. Jesus didn't die to make you better, He died to kill you. He died so we could die so we could live. This kingdom, it's an oxymoron. I mean, you gotta you gotta lose to win. You gotta die to live. This whole thing that he prepares a table before us, sometimes you're like, okay, is that is that wonderful? Fruit of the vine, or is that strict nine? But what he's doing is he is, he, he's, it's, it's more of you, less of me. It's it's this whole transformation, because you cannot live a separated life with a conform mind. We we have to come to 2 Corinthians because it's not behavioral modification, but it begins with a mind that is renewed in the word and it's ruled by the Spirit. We got a 2 Corinthians 6. It says, Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing, then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons, and you'll be my daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Is anybody getting anything out of this today? Stay, stay with me. Watch this. Here's what watchmen need, which we're talking about China. Let's here's what watchmen needs that. The greatest problem with the church is not the world outside, it's the world inside our thinking. In Psalm 139, it says, I praise you because I'm fearfully and I'm wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. See, until faith gets personal, becomes personal, it will never come alive. It's not livable until it's believable. So this whole walk with him, this thing of being branded, I if I let the world define me, then I will mix in things that has nothing to do with what he redeemed me for. See, there is, it's why I read the word. It's why the word comes alive that begins reading me. Hey, why is it so important? It's just that, okay, I have my devotions this morning. No, it's not your devotions, it's what stirs by his spirit for devotion. It becomes this thing that says, as for me in my house, I cannot swerve. I cannot. No, it's a conviction. See, a preference is something that you will negotiate. But a conviction is something you will die for. It is something that gets so deep inside of you. Because if we're not careful, we will allow what we're the reflections around us to start shaping us. We're all a reflection of this, of our culture. That means family, teaching, learning, schooling, instruction, a mindset. It's how you think within a culture. It's a crisis that can define us. Some disaster, some catastrophe, some things that you're having PTSD over, something that's trying to shape you. It could be your conquest or your wins, the bio of a conqueror. Man, you you you so gravitate to your success that you can't, you don't even know how to fail anymore because you you have succeeded for so long you have no idea how to how what it means to appreciate the win. See, sometimes he lets us get knocked back three steps, so it makes us run to him faster to get moving for the future. But reflection of compromise, of failures, of scandals. Or we can be a reflection of our Creator. Christ, that all things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was the fullness of the Godhead. In Christ, He made available to us everything to build the house, to come and rebuild the temple, to build a place that the enemy wanted to join in and say, Come on, let us work with you. And Zerubbabel says, No, we can't do that. Because if we let you in on this holy work without you being changed by the holy, never forget what Jesus is, the living word. God was so holy he could never be touched by what was unholy. So the holy wrapped himself in human flesh so that for the first time what was unholy could touch the holy and be changed. I'm gonna say that one more time. What is the living word? What is the gospel? It's that God was so holy. Nothing unholy could ever touch him, nothing could ever come into his presence. So the holy wrapped himself in human flesh, so that for the first time what was unholy could touch the holy and be changed. So wherever you are, whatever you've come out of, you say, I don't deserve. There is no performance you could ever do to earn your right into his kingdom. It is he is waiting. He said, Come unto me all, you that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How you view the Creator right now determines how you will ultimately view yourself. And we can only produce after our own kind. I just have to look in the mirror sometimes and say, What kind am I? What kind of believer am I? What kind of person am I? What kind of Christ follower am I? Because you we He wants to bring us to a place to know who He is and to know who we are. I love it when Jesus asks the disciples, said, Who do men say that I am? Who do men say? Who do people say the Son of Man is? They say some say you're but you're John the Baptist, others say you're Elijah, you're Jeremiah, or you're one of the prophets. And he said to them, But who do you say that I am? And Simon spoke up and said, You are the Christ, the anointed one, and his anointing. You are the Son of the Living God. And Jesus said, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not, no shall it ever, ever, never shall it ever prevail against it. You see, the Son of Man, Jesus identifies with us. But when he revealed himself as the Son of God, we now get to identify with him. And Jesus is saying, what is revealed in this? Hell can't stop it. Hell cannot stop that Jesus identified with us. And hell cannot stop when now we can be identified with Him. It's why it's so important for the disciples to know not just He's a man, but He's God. If we just live to humanize Jesus, we will justify our own life. Can I say that one more time? If we just live to humanize Jesus, we will justify our own life. But when we live submitted to the Godhead of Jesus, he is God. We will glorify him. I'm grateful he identified with me. He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He understands. He knows. He knows what loss feels like. He knows what death is like. He knows what it is to be betrayed. He knows what it is to be slandered. He knows what it is. He's touched, he's moved. He's moved by what moves us. But he says, I want you to know I became human. But never forget I'm God. Fully man, yet fully God. And in this submission, that's why when you build a temple to the Lord, do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? You have of God, you are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, you're able to glorify God. Out of this moment, you're able to your life to glorify him in this body, in this temple. This temple, this sanctuary, this auditorium will one day, even though I mean, I mean, come on, man, they built this as a nuclear fallout. So if it happens, you better get to church. Came into churches, say that. But do you understand that we we are the temple? Is it a gamma ray? It's not like I'm speaking to nuclear scientists in this room. Dear God, do you know how do you know how humbling it's been to preach to engineers all these years? That God takes foolish things and freaks out engineers. He has no idea what he's talking about, doesn't he? That's why I never add or multiply or subtract in front of you people. Never. I did it one time. And I made up, I made a vow, an inner vow. I said, if I don't have a calculator, religion says this. Do that. It puts us in charge. It says, look at me. But all what he did at the cross for this temple, it says, done. It puts God in charge. And it says, look to him. So Jesus would say, Are you tired? Are you worn out? in Matthew 11. Burn out on religion. I love the message. Translation in this. He said, Come to me. Get away with me. And you'll recover life. I'll show you how to take a rest, a real rest. Walk with me. Work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Could anyone really tell the difference? You know, as we stood in this room today, it's hard to, honestly, it's hard to tell the difference of those who are truly surrendered to God and those that are not. You know why? Because we all we all sang the same songs today. Some of us, I I I've grown up in church my whole life. I know how, I know how to do church. I know when to raise my hands. Now I didn't as a Methodist. We didn't do that. I learned that from Pentecostals. I mean, we do the half-mass thing, you know. But I didn't, I didn't when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, it changed everything about my life, changed how I worshiped, how I but we can become very acquainted with worship. The thing about the American church is you can go to churches all over the city, all over this region, all over this nation. I just got back from Brazil. You can all over the world. Except for maybe a few different songs here and there, we're all singing the same thing. We're all in the same cadence. We're all basically doing church kind of the same way. Some are a little more liturgical, yes. Some have a few more apostolic readings, some have you know things that they kind of help direct their worship. But surrender and change only comes by choice. It's why in this thing we're branded for glory. What does it mean? I'll I'm gonna tie this in, just hold hold with me. See, abide, don't, don't strive. Jesus said in John 15 that he is the vine and we are the branches, but we have to connect to the vine to bear fruit from the vine. The proof that we are disciples is found in the living conditions of fruit that starts being born from our life. There is there's a fragrance to some, it's the fragrance of death, to some, it's like life to them. But it but but it's the fragrance of Christ, it is the fruit of his character, it is the fruit of his nature. I don't know how he does it, but what I do know is I was once lost, but now I'm found. I was dead, but now I'm alive. There is something about abiding in him. He would go on to say, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you will ask what you desire, and it'll be done for you. By this, my father is glorified. That you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. And as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to. You that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full outside of this dwelling is what's in it for me. Or I want to please everybody just because I want to be loved and accepted by everybody, but where I'm painting on the outside, all the while I'm living in a deficit on the inside. God wants to get you from He to be able to live from the inside out. That it's not just the painting on the walls, man. It is the intimacy that's in the heart. Anybody, are you hearing me today? But it's so easy to get caught up in a rat race, a treadmill, running in place, going nowhere when life is getting faster and faster. You got to be careful who you lend your voice to, who you give your reputation to. And I want to say this: anything, anything you try to attach yourself to that is going to disdain and cause a hatred instead of a love for the people Jesus died for, it is not the Lord for you to attach to it. I think I need to say that one more time. You see what Zerubbabel realized was it was bigger than the government. It was bigger than some enemy that was at the gate that wanted to mix with them. You have to be careful sometimes who you lend your voice to, who you lend your reputation to. I know everything in a moment feels very right and very good, but if it's creating something in you that you now hate and despise the very world that Jesus gave his life for, that he died for? If you can't stay in the same room because they have a different political opinion than you, listen, I believe in standing for right and justice. I believe for standing in a biblical stance. The one thing I do not believe in, I will not adhere to, and I will not give my voice for, is anyone that wants me to give them my voice and give them my life, and it causes a hatred in me that I can no longer love the ones Jesus died for. We have to be a people of his own possession, and if your spirituality can't handle the depth of that, my friend, you hadn't met Jesus yet. He wants to change you from the inside out that you can run and not be weary, you can walk and not pass out on this journey. There is a fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus. I believe in being politically sound, and we I want to see our government thrive. I want to see people walk in freedom. I believe I'll give my life for freedom, but what I will not give my life for is what he gave his life for, and that is all my belief. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And if I still can't run with a heathen, listen, this church was after it for one year, we were in a bar for three years, and people were coming on Saturday night thinking it was party, it was belly on up to the bar. And so we met him at the door and we said, belly on up to the church. You gotta remember what we're in this for, who we're out to reach. We're out to reach the ones that haven't found him yet. We're going for the lost sheep, we're going for the lost souls. Pastor said just a moment ago, souls, souls, souls, souls, souls. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He didn't come for those who didn't need a physician, he came for those that were sick. He came to get right in the mud with them, he came to bear himself. God was so holy, wrapping himself in flesh, so what was unholy could touch holy. Every time you turn around, though sometimes just trying to do your best, you can't just you can't just fake it till you make it. I don't even like that term. I used to, I used to use it years ago. Well, brother, you know, until you feel it, you just got you just gotta fake it till you make it. It's like it's kind of that fake it mark, you know. I'm just too old to fake it. I just I just wanna. When I was in my 20s, I I thought everybody was had an opinion about me. Then I got my 30s and 40s, and you know, it just I kept thinking, well, that's you know, I gotta work harder, I gotta do this, and I got in my 50s. Now I'm 61. I realized nobody was even thinking about me then. Every time you turn around, you're trying, just trying, trying, trying, and he's saying, No, I want you just to be.

unknown: 35:45

Come here.

SPEAKER_01: 35:50

It's that constant feeling the furniture's been moved at night. Has that ever happened to you? You get up in the middle of the night, you gotta go to the bathroom. And your toe found something that was placed there in the night by some demonic presence. I have broken toes, literally, from middle of the night encounters. It's why it's one of the reasons why people reconstruct their faith over that one. I'm almost done. It's this abiding. He says, abide in me, reside in me, remain in me. Where we really live where it really matters. It's because we've been branded, we've been marked by the weighty recognition of him, and he says, You don't, you can't earn me. Just come and follow me. Trust me, believe me. I remember the rich young ruler. Remember, he came to Jesus and he said, Good master, what good things should I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus responded pretty quickly and he said, Well, you know only God is good. See, good is an absolute term. Only God is good, and you you have to look to him for your goodness. It's not based on performance, it's not based on living arrangements, you can't do enough to good be good enough. You you can't just keep the commandments. I I've done all that. He said, What have you done? Notice Jesus gave him ones that good people could keep. Look at this. Jesus responded to him, and he he gave him the commandments that just good people can keep. And here's what he said you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man said to him, All these I have kept from my youth. What else do I lack? And Jesus goes now from good to perfect. And he says, Oh, then go sell all you have, give it to the poor, and follow me. He said, I can't do that. He wanted to act the part, but not do the part to follow Jesus and let him be his perfection. Because law is about achieving, that's eternal. Grace is about receiving, that's internal. One is external, one is internal. You say, Where are you going with this rest? Hear me. Because Christ is in you. Here's the mark of glory, He is the hope of glory. When we are in God's house, he is in ours. And there we are. We're made righteousness of God in Christ. I can't be more righteous now than I will be in heaven because Jesus is my righteousness. I'm not going to walk through the gates of heaven and become a super saint. No, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So when I walk through the gates of heaven, the Father looks through me and sees his son, and he says, There is my righteousness, and you are now my righteousness because of Christ who is in you. Because the life you now live, you have been living by the faith of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you. So I can't work anymore, do anymore, become more righteous. No, Jesus is my righteousness, and from that I'm branded. I am marked by the reputation and the recognition of who he is, not only in my personal intimacy, but also heaven is adjourned. The righteousness of Christ. And you become like the people you hang with, and Zerubbabel refused to work with the world to give them any reason to take glory that only God could take. And I'm closing with this. Prophetically we are always saying, well, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. No, I believe it's here. I believe the days when God is, there is a dividing line. It's not a holier than thou, but it's saying, I'm wanting to bring you into a place where my life is so marked on you. It affects your marriage, it affects your children, it affects your neighbors. See, we are the only Jesus. That little old lady sitting that I've never forgotten, it was a mark on my life. It was years ago. I've never forgotten that because somehow, I don't know how, she saw him in me. And I thought, if she who's never met him or necessarily knows me, all I've done was I showed up to Manor House and I just served somebody. I showed up at an outreach, I showed up at church, and I started engaging our family. It wasn't to try to perform for God or to try to be super spiritual. It wasn't to try to look Christian. It wasn't to try to act holy. No, it's because he's branded me, he's marked me. And now I'm there's there's a there's a darkness that is covering the face of the water, face of the deep, covering, but he said, gross darkness, the people, but he said, but my radiance will shine through you. He uses everyday ordinary people that are just willing to say, here, Lord, yes, I say yes to you. I Lord, I let your word be the reflection. I look in the mirror. I just want to know you. I want even the encounter, what we experience at church, I want that to become my lifestyle. I want to I want to get up in the morning and maybe I, you know, I'm allergic to mourning until I get awake. Are you with me? I'm just it's taking me a while, but I'm allergic to morning. But once I get awake and once my my head clears, it's still the same prayer. It's still the same. It's been for years. It's it's not to be a famous preacher, it's not to have a platform. I'm so grateful in my life now at 61. I don't need a platform, I don't have to preach, I don't have to go and try to prove something, but I'm so grateful that there is a security, there is a knowing. I know in whom I have believed in. I am fully persuaded I know him. It's an intimate walk. It is this thing that I never knew was was developing. And it's even when all hell is lying and trying to connect and trying to mess and trying to filter and trying to slander all these things. Isn't it amazing that when peace comes like a river, that when you know my Redeemer lives, it just settles issues. This house is called along with houses of worship all over the city, all over this region, we're called to be bearers of his presence. We're called to be marked with his glory, his weighty recognition, his reputation, to not allow our voice to even raise up that would ever contradict or connect. Because people will try to say, hey, let us go with you. It's okay if we're gonna take you to the cross. But if you're wanting to shift what God has done and what he's doing, I know this house, I know these pastors. We have a focus on his call. And God, we just want for the praise of your glory. Would you bow your heads today, please? Thank you, Lord. I want to ask if the altar workers would come and stand on me. If you're here today, you say, you know what, Rusty? I've just been. I've been a part of building the church. There's still the deficit inside my life. I'm still struggling with faith. I'm still struggling with this walk with him, but Rusty, I I realize today I I just want to clean the slate. I I want to bring my life to him and say, Lord, here, here's my life. There's nothing I can do to earn, there's nothing I can do to perform. God, I'm not trying to impress. I just need you. I just need you. And if you're here today, no one looking around just for a minute, you just say, That's me, Rusty. Would you pray for me? Lift your hand all over this room. I just want to pray for you. Yes. Someone else lifted high. Yes, yes, yes. In the balcony, yes, yes, yes, God bless you. Someone else, just I just want to pray for you today. If you're here today, you can put your hand down. Thank you. If you're here today and you say, you know what, Rusty, I hear was Zerubbabel when he said, We've got to, we've got to keep the focus on what God has called, how he's instructed. We're building him a house of worship. My life is a house of worship, and I there's just been some stuff, man, that have caused, I've been battling bitterness and unforgiveness over some issues that I kind of gave myself to. Maybe I just lost sight, but Rusty, that's me. Would you pray for me? If that's you today, lift your hand right now. I just want to pray for you. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Bless you, brother. Anyone else? That's me. God bless you, buddy. God bless you. Yes. There have probably been about 30 hands go up in this room today. Today you're in a you're in a place that loves you. If you're a guest, you're welcome here. This is not, I pray this has not been a message to try to divide or try to cross-section someone, but man, today has been one to call us up, build the house. Let him build this house that he redeemed, that he purchased. Don't let anything mix that would try to divide it. Anything that would tell you anything contrary, anything. He said, God, here is my temple, here's my house, it's my life. Search me, try me, see if there's anything in me that would lead me in anything outside of your everlasting way. I want to be a vessel of honor, useful to the master, prepared for every good work. Anyone else, just say that's me, pray for me, lift your hand. Anyone else? Yes, yes, yes. Would you stand with me? Please, no one's leaving. I'm about to dismiss you in just a moment. Everyone stand with me. He has called you with a holy calling. And because he who's called us is holy, we can live for him. We can be holy because it's him. Amen. I love you today. It's been so good to be home. I pray that you'll pray for us. Pray for me as I still not only just step out in the things that God's allowing us to do now, but to represent this house still. And um, and I'm thankful for that. But here's how I bless you today. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance on you, write his name all over you, and say you belong to me. I bless you today, and I pray you have a Jesus-filled week.

SPEAKER_00: 49:26

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