Unexpected Moments - Part 3

Unexpected Moments

Love - God’s Love Can Reach Everyone

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are in our Unexpected Moments series, week three. First week we talked about Mary and the peace that she experienced in her unexpected moment that she was willing to do, as the Lord had said, and the peace that she experienced. And then Joseph was week two and we talked about the faith that he had and his obedience in that, that it took a lot of faith for him to be obedient in his unexpected moment. But both of those situations were unexpected and then turned into holy moments. And so today we're going to look at the perspective of the shepherds and how they had quite the unexpected moment. But again, God used it and turned it into a holy moment. And you know, isn't it just like God that when you are talking about something or learning about something or really focused on it, you see it everywhere and he just like really hits the point home. You know, like when you're like needing to work on patients, you hit every red light on the way to the place that you're late to, right? Like he just is really good that way, right? He just really hits that point home.

Well, this week we had an unexpected moment ourselves. I've been telling friends and family for weeks that this past week was my doozy of a week. Good stuff, but we just had so much planned. We had something almost every night. It was just a big, full week. Well, then Monday rolls around and I'm like trying to mentally gear up for this week. Hey, we got a lot to do. My five-year-old says his tummy hurts. That is not what you want to hear at the beginning of your busiest week of the month, right? So I'm like, all right, buddy, we're just going to, we're going to, hopefully this is no big deal. We're just going to roll with it. And so he just didn't feel it. It wasn't like himself all day long. And he goes to bed that night seeming to do better. But we'll see. And then at 3.38 a.m., yes, I know exactly what time it was. 3.38 a.m., our second oldest, Ellie, who shares a room with her brother, comes in. Mom, this is sick, come on. So I run into there. Thankfully, we had a bucket already prepared. She had given her brother the bucket and it saved the sheets. Can I get an amen? Okay, so save the sheets. So he's, I'm trying to comfort him and make sure he's okay. And I go, okay, buddy, I'm going to get you a wet washcloth. Hold on. I turn around and his big sister already has a wet washcloth ready for him. I'm like, oh, thanks, babe. Okay. And he's like, Mom, I want something to drink. So I go to the kitchen to get him something to drink. By the time I get back, his older sister has rinsed out the bucket for him and brought it back into him in case he needed it again. And this unexpected moment, this unwelcome moment, turned into this almost sacred moment where I got to see my kid, my older daughter, serving her brother. And in turn, she served me. It was the easiest middle of the night sick kid experience. I think I was awake for five minutes. It was great. We were just all, we all went back to bed. But she was so caring and kind and just, she just had such this heart to serve her brother because she'd been there too. She understood what it was like to be sick in the middle of the night. And so she did all the things that she knew would comfort her. And it was just, it almost, I was so proud of her. It really was this holy moment of getting to experience that and see her love her brother that way. And so we're going to dive into that and see how God can take some of these unexpected moments and often unwelcome and turn them into really holy, sacred things for us.

But before we do that, let's pray. God, we just thank you for today. I pray that you will use your word to speak into hearts today. May you be glorified in all we do and say. Amen. Oh, one more thing I promised to say. He was better. He woke up the next day. The week was not derailed. So thankfully, he was good, but he felt much better the next day. Just want to make sure I clarified that on his behalf.

So the shepherds, we don't know a lot about these shepherds. We don't know their names. We don't know how many there were, but they are a crucial part of this nativity story. So we're going to be in Luke 2. If you would turn there in your Bible or in your phone app, or it'll be on the screens as well, we are going to read verses 8 through 20. It's 12 verses. We're just going to read all the way through today. Starting in verse 8. And it says, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth. Peace to those on whom his favor rests.’ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, ‘Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.' So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherd said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

So as far as we know, this was a run of the mill night for these guys. They were just out doing their job, taking care of their sheep, and then an angel appeared out of nowhere. I think glowing probably. It was, you know, it said there was light. So there was just this angel. And I think an appropriate response is fear. I would be a little nervous if all of a sudden an angel appeared and was talking to me. And so they were. They were terrified. But the angel told the shepherds, "Do not fear." It was the same message he gave Mary and Joseph when the angel appeared to them as well. "Do not fear." Now, having this creature sitting in front of you suddenly would bring about fear, but he was from God. This angel was a messenger from God. So there really was nothing for them to fear. So while it was unexpected, they did not need to fear because this message that the angel was bringing was from a loving God. And what do we know about love and fear? Well, 1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment." The angel wasn't there to bring punishment. The angel wasn't there to bring a terrifying message or bring bad news. He was there to bring a good message of love. That was his whole goal. And so we can take this truth with us too, that love drives out fear. We don't need to walk in fear when we're serving a loving God. We don't need to be afraid when God speaks to us through His word or through other people or through our time in worship. We don't need to be afraid. Now, maybe we're a little nervous about what He's calling us to do. That can be a little scary sometimes, but we don't have to be afraid of the call He has put on in His life or the messages He gives us. We don't need to be afraid when we get bad news or when we're facing a really tough situation.

Again, those things that are humanist may seem scary, but we don't have to be afraid because we serve a loving God, and love drives out the fear. I imagine the angel just kind of standing there going, "I know, I know. This is kind of unexpected, but don't be afraid. All right? It's good. It's good news." And that's what He said. He immediately told them why they didn't have to be afraid. "I bring you good news. So don't be afraid. It's all good." So what was this good news? Well, there was a new baby in town. That always feels like good news, right? New baby, the long-awaited Messiah. This was the good news the angel wanted to share. It says in John 3:16 through 17, I'm sure many of you are familiar, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him." This right here sums up the good news. This is the gospel, that God sent His Son out of His love for us. Now, the Jewish people had been waiting a really, really, really long time for a Messiah. God had been hinting at it since the fall of man. He'd been sending prophets and priests to help them know that He had a plan. But then there was also 400 years of silence. That's a long time to not hear from God. It was really dark times. There was a lot of waiting, a lot of hoping, waiting to see if God was going to come through on His promises. There was actually, in their case, a lot to be afraid of. But the angels told the shepherds not to be afraid because they knew that love can drive out fear.

Sometimes fear is our natural first response, fight or flight, right? That's just kind of the natural way our bodies react to certain situations. But what would it look like if we chose to rest in God's love rather than leaning into the fear? How would we live differently? I think we would actually live a lot differently. I think we would be more bold in our faith if we weren't afraid of what other people would say or think. I think we would be more confident in our identity in Christ. We would operate in a surer identity that we are Christ's, that we are His. Ultimately, I think we would just be more effective for the kingdom. We would share the gospel more. We would make different choices. We would respond differently if we weren't afraid. But we can. We can choose to do that because love drives out the fear. Now, although God had been silent for hundreds of years, the Israelites still had the prophecies from the Old Testament to hold onto. And that really is what they held onto as they were waiting for the Messiah. And one of these prophets was Isaiah. And in Isaiah 9, we see just one of the prophecies. Verse 2 and 6 says, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. For to us, a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

With Jesus' coming, He was fulfilling these prophecies. And the shepherds got to be the first to hear about it. In a literal dark of night on a hillside outside of Bethlehem, light came into the world. The light came to the world. This tiny baby brought light after 400 years of silence. Waiting is really, really hard. Ask my five-year-old. He'll tell you. "Mom, waiting is so hard." I know, bud. But waiting is even harder when you're waiting in the darkness. When you feel like your situation is never-ending. When you feel like you have no idea what the next right step is. When you're just like, "God, I've been praying for this one specific thing for a very long time." And your answer is still no or not yet. That is really hard. But I promise you that even a no or a not yet from God is not Him withholding His love. In fact, in His sovereignty, Him answering in the affirmative might actually be unloving. It might not be what is best for you. And that doesn't feel good, right? But because we serve a loving God and He can't do anything outside of His character, He will only do what is loving. And sometimes loving is no or not yet. So when He feels like He's silent, it's not a lack of love. It's an invitation for us to wait. To wait on Him. To surrender to Him. To be still. Maybe not literally still all the time, but a heart posture. Because when we do that, when we are waiting on Him, when we are still before Him, it's so that we don't miss when the breakthrough does come. When the light does peek through. When the darkness gets pushed back either just a little bit or blown out. We don't want to miss it. So it's an invitation to draw closer to Him. To draw near to Him, even in the darkness. Because He's there. He will never leave us. I don't know what these particular shepherds were going through in this time in their lives. Again, we don't know much about them. But I wonder, you know, did they have a fight with their wife before they went and watched the sheep? Were they having financial troubles? Maybe some health issues that they were dealing with? I don't know. We don't know, but they were human. So we can assume they had something going on. Just like us, we all have some sort of thing we're facing. But despite their struggles, this unexpected moment turned into a holy moment because the light came into the darkness.

Again, back to Isaiah. It says, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." Now, this particular idea is meant regarding people who are walking in the darkness of sin without the light of salvation. But it also can apply to those of us who are walking in seasons of darkness. Thankfully, the light came. They didn't have to stay in darkness. The light came and His love dispelled darkness, and it does the same for us, too. Darkness can be different for all of us, and even in different seasons. We might face different seasons of darkness or types. Maybe it looks like relationship problems or financial concerns. Maybe you've received a tough diagnosis or a close one has. Maybe you've lost someone this year like so many in our church have, and you're going through grief. It could be mental health struggles or feelings of loneliness. It could be sin issues. Maybe there's a sin that just has a hold on you that you're struggling to surrender. Or maybe you aren't walking with Jesus yet, and that's your darkness. But whatever it is that you're facing, whatever darkness you're experiencing right now, His light is bright enough for any of it. He can break through any darkness that we face. John 1-9 says, "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." That is some good news. So where do you need Jesus's light in your life right now? What darkness do you need Him to come and dispel? Because He's so good to do that. He is the light of the world, and He dispels the darkness. Well, here's the kicker for us. The angel said that they bring good news, which we've already talked about what the good news is, but it wasn't just good news for the shepherds that day. It was good news for all people. Good news of great joy for all the people.

Now, I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into this, so I went and looked up the Greek. I wanted to know what the original language meant. So the Greek word here for all is "pas." P-A-S. So "pas." And here's what it means. All. All of it. All against you. Individually, each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything, collectively, some of all types. It literally means everybody. How many people is that? All the people. It is for everyone. If that's not good news, I can't help you. That is some good news. No matter what we're facing, no matter what fears we have, no matter what roadblocks we're up against or feeling like it's never going to get better, he came for all of us. So my next question was, well, if this message is for all people, why did he come to a bunch of shepherds? We don't even know these guys' names, so why would he go to them? Why didn't he go to some king or some political figure that could send out some proclamation and spread the word quicker? Why didn't he go to maybe raise up some new prophets? They already had a history of hearing from prophets, so why didn't he raise up a new prophet to spread the message? Why didn't he do it in a more populated city? Bethlehem was already small, and then they were in the outskirts of Bethlehem in a hillside. Why didn't he go in a more populated city? Or why didn't he go in the daytime when more people were out and they could see this amazing display? Why did he choose to tell some shepherds in a countryside outside of a tiny town in the middle of the night? We don't know specifically, but we can look at the rest of Scripture and make some educated guesses. First of all, shepherds weren't necessarily like the lowest of the low by any means, but their job was real dirty. Like, if you've ever been on a farm and smelled the smells, it was not a glamorous job, right? They were taking care of sheep, they were sleeping outside, they did not have hot showers at the end of the day. It was not a job that people were necessarily envious of, but it was important. And there are some things that we can pick out that I think really speak to this. Shepherds were there to take care of the sheep who also had lambs. And in this time period, lambs were used for sacrifices. They were still doing sacrifices in the temple at the time, and so they needed shepherds so that their supply of lambs would continue. The Jewish is just a really important part of their Jewish culture. So while it was not a glamorous job, it was an important job. And this little hint for us, this little Easter egg that we see in the story is that the shepherds cared for the lambs that would be used as sacrifices so that it would point to Jesus, who was the lamb, who would be our sacrifice. He was the ultimate sacrifice. I think the second reason that God sent angels to shepherds was because Jesus also called himself the shepherd. It's like a hyperlink to another scripture.

In John 10:11, the same word for shepherd there is also what is used in our Luke 2 passage. And it says, this is Jesus talking, He says, "I am the good shepherd." The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So highlighting the shepherds points us to the grown man Jesus, who was going to lead his sheep, his followers, us, and he was going to sacrifice himself and lay down his life for his sheep. There's these little things that we can find that say, oh, maybe that's why God went and told some shepherds. And lastly, I believe that it was because they were ordinary. I think that was important. He could have gone to the elite. He could have gone to a king. But he went to ordinary men very intentionally to show us that God's love is for all people. It wasn't just for the rich and famous. It wasn't just for the ones who had it all together. It wasn't just for the elite or the upper class. It was for everyone. By verse 17, we can see that they were already spreading the word. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about the child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. They were already believing them. They were already getting the message. Because Jesus' love is for all people, the message of love went to the ordinary people so that the other ordinary people would hear it and know that it was for them too. The beautiful thing is that it's also for us. It wasn't just for them at that time. We can know that this message of love, of this Messiah that came to save us, to shine his light in the darkness, it's for us too. Because it's for all people. It's for those of us who have major fears or who are facing darkness. It's good news for all people across space and time. For those who are facing struggles, who think they're too far gone. Or maybe you think someone else is too far gone. It's for them too. It's for the ones that feel like their sin issue is too much. What they've done is too far out of God's realm of forgiveness. It couldn't possibly be them. It is. It's for them too. It is for the ones that don't feel important enough or polished enough or smart enough. It is for all people. The good news that these angels brought to the shepherds was that the light had come. Fear had no place with love. And that the good news was for all the people.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you came and that you told some ordinary shepherds in a countryside that you were here. In your sovereignty, in your goodness, and in your love, you came to us. And you did it in such a way that tells us that it's for all of us. God, I pray that in this season, whatever we are facing, that you would remind us of your light and of your love. That we have no need to fear. And that your light and your love is big enough to push back the darkness. Be with us as we face those dark seasons. Comfort us as we mourn. Be present as we're unsure of the next step. And remind us that the good news is for us just as much as it is for anybody. We praise you and we thank you for who you are. And then we get to celebrate you this Christmas season in Jesus' name. Amen.

Unexpected Moments - Part 2

Unexpected Moments

Faith - Obedience in Faith

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

The idea in this whole series is focusing in on moments that were completely unexpected with the Christmas story. But when we see them from a heavenly perspective, not necessarily our earthly perspective, we see the purpose in those. And what most people would consider earthly chaos, God actually has ordained and to put into motion for his heavenly purpose. And last week, Pastor Andre talked about Mary who came on scene and we know the whole story of her happening. But today I wanna talk about someone who may not necessarily get the limelight or the spotlight or the sermons or the paintings or the stained glass that Mary does. But first I want us to think about, it's been said that life is not measured in time, but life is measured in moments. Life is not measured in time, life is measured in moments. And this is true in so many ways when you think about it, when you look back maybe this past year or this past month, maybe this past week or even yesterday, we don't remember everything that happens in that time. But what we do remember are the moments, moments in our past, moments in our past year, in the past week, the past day, yesterday. And we really, when you think about it, moments are what we hold onto.

I remember as a kid moments of vacations with my parents. I remember moments of holidays and Christmases, moments with my grandparents who have gone ahead before me to heaven, the special moments with them. I remember the moment when I answered the call to become a full-time vocational pastor. I was at a youth conference in North Carolina. I remember that moment almost like yesterday. I remember moments when I proposed to my wife on the beach in Catalina Island in Southern California. And it was that moment, that special moment. I didn't eat any dinner hours before, I was so nervous. But I remember that moment playing her a song I had written her and getting down on one knee and asking her to be my bride. And then a year later, I remember the moment she walked down the aisle at our wedding just here in Loomis at the flower farm. I remember that moment. I remember the moment when I found out I was gonna be a dad for the very first time. And Lauren telling me and surprising me and we had been trying for a while and we were so excited for that moment I became a dad. I remember the unexpected moment. When I had to put our family dog Ace down, he had brain cancer and it wasn't doing well. I remember that moment holding him as he breathed his last breath. And I remember the other moments of holding my children for the very first time. They were just minutes old and get to hold them in my arms after praying for them for nine months in that moment. Time is measured by moments.

And in our series of unexpected moments, we're looking at specific moments in the story of the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. And to look at a very powerful moment this morning, a very unexpected moment. And when you hear about this moment, I think you might find yourself learning from this time. Because you and I have no idea what God can do through one unexpected moment of obedience. We have no idea what God can do. And some of you know that. You've been prompted at times unexpectedly to do something. To do something, to say something, to give something. And you did something, you said something, and you gave something. And you look back and you think, oh wow. Look at what God did through that unexpected moment in my life. I can't believe what he did through what seemed to be a small act of obedience. Other times you felt prompted to do or say or give something. And we didn't know all of the details. And because it was unexpected, we didn't do it. And maybe sometime in the future, we look back and wonder, what did we miss out on? What was God doing in that unexpected moment that he wanted to do through us? And because we chose not to obey, God didn't do it through us. If you wanted to write down the title for this morning for notes, it would be, When It's Hard to Obey, Obedience and Faith. And when we think about the obedience and faith that was needed, even before Jesus was born, it's pretty incredible. Surrounded by unexpected moment after unexpected moment after unexpected moment. And yet, even though it was hard to obey, they had obedience and faith. Pray with me. Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, I pray that our hearts would be open to you, that you would do a work in us through your word. Give us the faith to obey today, God, knowing that you are always good and that your word is always true and that you are always with us every single moment of every single day. We thank you, Jesus, for who you are. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen, amen.

Well, we're gonna dive into this morning a very special part of the Christmas story. And we're gonna be in Matthew's Gospel, chapter one, starting in verse 18. And I will read a portion of this to you right now. And it says, "This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit." Chances are pretty good here that many of you were very familiar with this part of Scripture. You may have heard the story before and you probably know Mary, right? Mary gets all the sermons, Mary gets all the limelight. Everybody focuses in on Mary. But what I wanna focus in on and talk to you about today is about Joseph. And who is probably one of the most important, least talked about characters in all of the Bible. One of the reasons he's not talked about a lot is we just don't know a whole lot about him. He didn't, what we understand is that he didn't live the normal length of a life in that day. We think that he probably passed away earlier in life than what was normal. But what I want us to focus in on here for a second is what we do know about Joseph, okay? So what we do know about Joseph is he was a carpenter. He says that in Matthew 13:55. It also says that he was a righteous and faithful man. We know that he was a descendant of David through the chronological order of Scripture in there at the beginning of Matthew, as well as in Luke 2:4. We know that Joseph was Mary's husband in Matthew 1:16. And we know that Joseph was Jesus's earthly father. But outside of that, we don't know a whole lot about him.

What we do know about him is that he had one unexpected moment of obedience that helped bring about a change that impacts each and every one of us even today. When we look at Joseph and we see him in Scripture, we see him very early on in the life of Jesus from this part of Scripture in Matthew through his younger years. And the last time that we actually hear about Joseph is when Jesus is about 12 years old, and then he seems to kind of disappear. And what scholars tend to believe is that he most likely died sometime after when Jesus was a teenager. And we believe this and understand this is because Joseph and Mary would have divorced, it would have been something very important to the story that would have been included in Scripture and it's not there. But what is mentioned is the fact that Jesus lived at home until about 30 years old. Now, they didn't have video games back then, so Jesus just wasn't living in Joseph and Mary's basement, like a bum, okay? But it was actually culturally seen as a way that if your mom was widowed, you lived at home to help her until you're about 30 years old. And so when we see this, we hear about Jesus, then at the end of his life on the cross, we see that Jesus asked the beloved disciple, John, to actually take care of Mary. And this would have been culturally accepted to pass off that caretaker of Mary to someone else because she was a widow. So in the context of our story, back to Matthew chapter one, the Scripture here says that he, Joseph, was engaged to Mary. Now, in our modern thought, we may think that being engaged happens, what, 22, 23, 25, 26 years old? But actually in this way, Mary was probably 14, 15, maybe even 13 years old. You may think, wow, that's pretty young, but that's kinda how they did it back then. And Mary was a virgin, and she comes to Joseph and says, "I'm pregnant." Joseph hears this news knowing that he had not been with her intimately yet, that Joseph would have been devastated beyond all measure. And the more that we think about this, probably because in the understanding, the context of the first century, engagement culture is when you got engaged. But it wasn't just the proposal, right? It wasn't just the proposal with the whole moment and the outdoors with the photographers, like that capture that moment for the gram, right? That moment for Instagram, you have that picture and that moment of hashtag ring before spring, hashtag I'm married, you're not, like hashtag check out the ring. Like that wasn't how the proposal thing was in the first century. It was a little bit different. A proposal meant a legal agreement when they got engaged, and they were technically, as we understand today, in our context, they were married, but they weren't allowed to consummate the marriage. And when they were engaged, until they had the official ceremony. And so Joseph and Mary would have not participated in any gift of lovemaking at that point. They would have been waiting until after the ceremony.

So when Mary comes to Joseph and says, I'm pregnant, she has gone off and slept with some guy. And for Joseph, I can only imagine the emotions and what he was feeling, and that the reality was that this was going to be a life ruining scandal for both of them. Because in that context, Mary, who he loved with all of his heart, who was gonna be the future mother of their children, who his best friend, everything that Mary was in that moment was broken. She had disobeyed God. She had dishonored her family. She had put Joseph in a place that he was going to be disgraced publicly. He'd been laughed at. He would have been mocked. He would have been shunned from his own friends and family and community. And it was considered such a horrible sin in that culture that in Deuteronomy 22, Joseph could have legally had her stoned. Now that wasn't common practice. What was more common practice was that to avoid all of the shame and all the scandal for Joseph's side, he would go before the city council and he would have basically his name cleared, showing that he had no part in participation with this, that he would have his name good. But for Mary, she would have probably ended up living by herself, raising her only child, giving herself away to make income, which most likely ended in prostitution that day. So for Joseph, he's in this horrible place. The woman of his dreams has apparently betrayed him. And how his next actions and how he chose to walk forward could potentially ruin her life even more. But what do we know about him? You remember we had just talked about him? We know that he was a righteous man, and he didn't want to disgrace her or to shame her. And so that's why when reading the scripture, he was thinking about basically separating from her or divorcing her quietly. But what Joseph didn't realize is that at this lowest unexpected moment, it was about to become one of his holiest moments. In his life. Moving from what was earthly chaos into heavenly purpose.

Scripture tells us continuing on in verse 20, “As he considered all of this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. ‘Joseph, son of David,' the angel said, 'Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.’” Before we look at what Joseph did, I want you to notice what Joseph did not do, okay? The angel of the Lord said, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. But what didn't he do? He didn't explain away the dream. He didn't wake up and go, man, I should not have had that pizza that late. That was weird. Right? He didn't argue with God. He didn't say, hey, hold on, wait a minute. You're asking me to put my name on a line and trust some random dream? I'm not gonna do that. Joseph didn't negotiate with God. Go, okay, God, if this is really you, next time I take a nap, I need a dream with 12 angels. And I need each of them wearing a T-shirt that says this is your sign. Okay? No, he didn't negotiate. He didn't fight back. He didn't ask for details. Ooh. Okay, God, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna need to know how all of this is gonna play out before I make one decision going forward. He didn't do any of that. As the angel said before, did you guys catch that? Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Verse 24, when Joseph woke up from the dream, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. I think if there was one statement for us, when we were to come to the end of our life, we would want to be known as we did what God commanded us to do, that we were obedient. Without understanding all the details. And Joseph proves this thought to us, is you don't have to understand completely to obey immediately. We don't. We don't have to understand completely to obey immediately. We don't have to know every single detail. We don't have to have every single thing ironed out. We don't need to have all of the information before us, before we make that decision. All we need to know is that if God is in it in the beginning, God will be in it through the end. 'Cause when you think about it, what Joseph didn't know he didn't have hardly any information at all, right? Think about the details that Joseph didn't know. Joseph didn't know that when Mary was gonna be nine months pregnant, there was gonna be a decree issued and they were gonna have to travel a hundred miles by donkey or horseback or walking to Bethlehem. They didn't know that. Joseph didn't know that on that journey, his wife was gonna be very, very, very, very, very, very pregnant. Probably wasn't the most joyful trip in life. They were gonna be traveling a long distance at winter time with low freezing temperatures at night. They were gonna go through areas of wild animals, of people known for robbing others along the journey. It was gonna be a dangerous trip. Joseph didn't know that when they arrived in Bethlehem, that there weren't gonna be any hotel rooms. Everything was gonna be sold out 'cause everybody was there for the census. Joseph didn't know that. Joseph didn't know that his wife was going to give birth in basically a farmstead in a barn next to animals. Joseph didn't know that. Joseph didn't know then that at some point, all this information was gonna get out that Herod, the king, was gonna issue decree that all boys under the age of two were to be killed and they were gonna have to go on the run. Joseph didn't know that. Joseph didn't know that he was gonna have to deal with the weight as they escaped with baby Jesus, knowing that their friends, their families, people that they loved that had children, boys under two, those kids were gonna be killed. They didn't know the weight that they were gonna have to hold and the guilt, knowing that their baby was safe and others were being killed. Joseph did not have any idea of the weight it would have been to raise the son of God. And yet, without knowing any details, he obeyed immediately.

So how does this apply to you? Well, at some point, God is gonna ask you and prompt you through his word, through his Holy Spirit to do something. And he's gonna ask you to do this without knowing any of the details. And you're going to find yourself maybe in a relationship, maybe dating, looking at the younger people in the room, and you're gonna think, I can't be with the right person if I'm currently dating the wrong person. And you're gonna have to have that conversation of thinking, I need to end this. But you're gonna think, well, God, I put so much time into this relationship. I've been with this person for so long. Like, I just can't cut it off. I'm gonna be all alone. But God's gonna prompt you to do something, and it's gonna be our moment then to see, do we obey or do we not? God's gonna stir in your hearts to use your gifts in the church. Because we know that we don't go to church, but that we are the church. And we all have gifts, and we all are important, and we're all valuable, and we all have our part to play in the body of Christ. We don't just watch what happens in the kingdom of God. We are partners in the kingdom of God. And you're gonna say, but God, I'm just so busy. I've got so much going on. And yet God's gonna prompt you to go, maybe some of that going on isn't what I want you to be going on doing. You need to change your priorities. God may prompt you to give something, to bless somebody. But God, money is just so tight. Have you seen the cost of a banana lately? Gas is expensive, life is expensive, inflation is through the roof. Interest is crazy. Stock markets are up and down, left and right, upside downwards, upside overs. But God, he's gonna prompt you to give something to be a blessing. Or maybe somebody betrays you, and God's word is gonna pierce your heart. And he's gonna say, you have to forgive others in the same way that I have forgiven you. And we have a choice to make. And it may be hard, and it may not know all the details. It may cost us something. God is prompting you, but you don't know how it's all gonna play out.

I want to encourage you in these moments, these unexpected moments, to remember that obedience is our responsibility, but the outcome is God's. Obedience is our responsibility, and the outcome is God. And he's gonna lead us to these moments of prompting, and all we can do is make the right choice and to trust him with the details. That's all we can do. That's all that he's asking us to do. And I think when I, the more I have conversations with people in the church, and I meet more Christians in my life, some of these things keep coming up. And what I would consider, or what I would call maybe more cultural Christians, the problem is that there are so many Christians that I would say are way educated beyond their level of obedience. In other words, we have all this head knowledge of who God is, and the Bible, and how church works, and how salvation works, and all this stuff, but our lives do not reflect a life of application of what we already know. People will say, "Feed me, pastor. "Feed me, pastor. "Feed me, pastor. "Teach me, pastor. "Give me more information. "Grow me, pastor. "Grow me. "Give me more. "Give me more. "Give me more. "Feed me, feed me, feed me." And I think what we need is to be obedient to what God has already told us. We need to be obedient to what his scripture has already said to our hearts, but we just want more information. We live in an information hungry world, right? We have to know what the details are. We have to know how things work. We caught ourselves this week Googling different things in our household of questions about Christmas that we didn't know because we couldn't just sit with the unknown, right? We have to know more, but this is not the life that God has called us to. We have to be obedient. We know his word and we should apply it. And we should also walk in obedience without knowing all the details and to trust him with the results. This is called faith. Joseph didn't have all the details. And yet he did what the angel of the Lord told him to do.

And the angel said this, verse 20, "For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." This is why Jesus came. This is why God sent Jesus to us. The child within Mary was a miraculous, holy birth conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Why does this matter? Chris, why are you telling us this? Well, I'm telling you this because what is happening here is that if Jesus was conceived by human seed, then what would have followed would have been sin nature because sin nature is tied with the human seed. But instead, the spiritual nature of God, he was born into Jesus without sin so he could live without sin in order to be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. I don't know about you, but I know that I need grace. I, every single day, I need God's forgiveness. So let me ask you, what is your sin? Where are you heavy? Where are you feeling the weight of that on your heart today because I wanna tell you, you battling greed? God's got grace for your greed. Are you battling jealousy? There's forgiveness for your jealousy. Are you, have you been angry? His grace covers your sins. There is no sin too great that cannot be covered by the grace of God. Jesus was born of a virgin without sin so that he could die and we could have the forgiveness of our sins.

And the angel says, "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife." And Joseph obeys. Knowing that there will be significant cost, knowing that he's gonna face serious opposition, he's gonna face ridicule. But time and time again in my life, see, I'm in this interesting place. Realize this this week. That I'm too old to be considered young but then I'm too young to be considered old. I'm in this no man's land, right? Right, I'm too old, right? Yeah, I'm too young, right? Right, yeah, I'm too, yeah. I'm too old and I'm too young at the exact same time. But I will tell you the life that I've lived, the short life that I have lived, of these almost 40 something years on earth, that every time that I have said yes to God and stepped out in obedience to where he has called me, there has been opposition. And there will be opposition. Your obedience will cost you something at some point. You'll have to say no to friends or others about being around them 'cause they're pulling you away from God. Maybe it's social drinking, maybe it's participating in activities you're not supposed to be doing. You know God's word and you know you're not supposed to do that. And yet you're gonna have to say no and step away in obedience, but you'll face opposition. Your friends will judge you. Those who call your closest in your decision to choose God will ridicule you. You'll have to step away from sexual proximity. You'll have to say no to those things. Why? Because you know that should be done only within the context of marriage. For those who are younger, the scripture tells us there's a better way to live and that's to wait for sex until you're married. And then you make up for lost time. Okay? It's not no forever. But we know that because God has a better life for us to live. There's gonna be times where God's gonna call you to be generous. And the world is gonna say, you're giving away your money. You're gonna give 10%, 11%, 12%, 15%. And if you're real crazy, I know people who will give away 50% of their profits to God for His glory, for His church and His kingdom. But the world's gonna look at you and go, you're nuts. Know what you could do with that money? You could have a vacation house. You could have a brand new car. You could have the vacations of dreams. The world's gonna ridicule you. You're gonna have to step out and trust God. And obedience is going to be difficult. But you have no idea what God can do through unexpected moments of obedience, just as He did with Joseph. And the angel said to him, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. And Joseph did as the angel commanded, a moment. Life isn't measured by time. It's measured by moments.

So where does this leave us? Here's a question for us to ponder. Where do I need to be obedient to the prompting of God? It may be as big as Joseph in this moment to stay with Mary. It may be as simple as I need to delete an app off my phone. But where do I, ask yourself this question, where do I need to be obedient to the prompting of God? God's gonna prompt you by His word, I promise you. I hope you're reading His word. You should be reading His word. I'll tell you that today. He's gonna prompt you by the leading of His Holy Spirit in your life. He might ask you to confess a sin. He might ask you to confess an addiction that you need help. You might need to apologize to someone for something you did wrong. He might lead you to forgive someone in the same way that Christ has forgiven you. He might prompt you to pray for somebody, not just pray for them, but to let them know that you're praying for them. He might prompt you to be a witness to someone. Probably not on the street corner with a bullhorn shaking a sign, but probably in the small moments of life in the way that you love others, the way that God has loved us. He might prompt you to invite somebody with the Christmas card this season. But maybe even beyond that, to have a relationship with someone who doesn't know Jesus yet and live a life in a way that is attractive to them, that is different from the world and to the place that they want to come to church with you because they want to know more about this Jesus and this God and this love and this peace that you have in your life that the world cannot understand. You have no idea what God might do in you through one simple, unexpected moment of obedience.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, stir within us today. God, I pray that you would give us the faith and the courage to obey. And as we're reflecting today, God, I wonder how many of us would say that I want to hear from you, God. And not only, God, do I want to hear from you, I want to be even more obedient. God, I see the courage and the incredible obedience that Joseph had in that situation with Mary. God, I want that for my life. If that is you right now, I would do something different. I want you to just raise your hand and say, I want to be obedient to God. I want to be obedient to Jesus. I want to say yes to God. Raise your hand right now if that's you. You want to say, I want to be obedient. And God, I pray that you would give us the faith, Jesus, you would give us the faith to be obedient as Joseph was obedient. God, speak to us, God, convict us, God. Wherever we are sinful, God, I pray that you would lead us in the right direction. God, search our heart. Lead us in your way that's everlasting. God, speak to us. I pray that there would be people, God, that couldn't even walk out of the church building today without reaching out to someone with a word of encouragement. A word of blessing, a moment of prayer, God, that you would help us to be available to you in every moment, in any moment, God, and especially in unexpected moments. That God, when you speak, you would give us the faith to obey just as the angel said and just like Joseph did. That when you speak, God, we will obey.

And as you keep praying this morning, there might be some here today that would say that you're hurting spiritually. And today, Jesus wants to bring you spiritual healing. I told you earlier that I need grace every single day. I need grace for my sins. I need grace for my mistakes. And I'd be curious if we were to sit down and have an honest conversation about spiritual things. And I said, where do you stand with God? Like chances that some of us would say that yeah, we messed up. I've done things wrong. And I want to know this love. See, we've all sinned. Bible tells us that, that every single one of us, and we actually inherit this sin nature. We were born into sin. Sin is passed down from generation to generation. And that is why Jesus was different because he didn't inherit the sin nature of man, but the spiritual nature of the heavenly father. See, this is the good news is that Jesus was without sin. He was the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. So if you're under condemnation, you have the weight, you have the burden of sin in your heart, I want you today to know that you can confess that and you can receive forgiveness. That we turn away from our sins. We call on the name of Jesus, our hearts and our prayers. He forgives us of our sins that you're not here in this moment right now by happenstance. It's not an accident that today you are here and Jesus wants to give you that forgiveness today. So today you would say to Jesus, I surrender my life to you. Those who would say that I'm ready. Today I leave my old life, I give my life to Jesus. Take a moment, show me, look at me today, raise your hand, say yes today, I want to receive that love of Jesus. I wanna receive that forgiveness. For those of you who said yes, this is my prayer for you. Jesus, I need your grace, I need your mercy, I need your salvation. Know that when you are in the presence of a good God who loves you so much, I want us all to pray this together. I think this is a great reminder. Even if it's your first time praying this prayer, maybe you've prayed this prayer before, you received Jesus before. I don't want anybody to pray alone this morning, I want all of us to pray together. I want all of us to pray and to have a reminder about this moment in our life when we say yes to Jesus. So repeat this after me out loud. Heavenly Father, forgive my sins. Jesus, I trust you to save me, to make me new, to fill me with your Spirit so that I could know you and serve you and obey you and show your love in all that I do. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. Thank you for your new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Can we just give God praise?

Unexpected Moments - Part 1

Unexpected Moments

Peace - Trusting that God is in Control

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Like Pastor Chris just said, I'm so thankful to have a season focusing on gratitude and now we're gonna turn our attention to Christmas. It's the first Sunday of Advent. You may hear the word "Advent" a lot in church and maybe you know, but in case you don't, I just want to remind us that Advent is the four-week season in the church calendar dedicated to anticipating the arrival or the advent of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah and King. Simply, it's a time of waiting for Jesus. One pastor says the good news of Advent is not that we are faithful in our waiting, we often aren't faithful in our waiting, but that God is faithful in His arrival. And it's that arrival that we celebrate every year. And I just want to take a moment for all of us to think and back up a bit to recognize and appreciate that Christians all over the world from many different backgrounds celebrate this time with reflections of peace and hope and love and joy and we are joining with them in anticipating the arrival of Christ. This Advent, we're gonna take some time to reflect on some of those moments of hope, peace, love, and joy, but through a unique lens. In our Advent series, we're gonna take a look at four specific moments in the birth story of Jesus, what we are calling unexpected moments. Moments from the human perspective that look like they may be full of chaos and crisis, but actually turn into divine moments, holy moments filled with heavenly purpose. We'll look at various angles of the birth of Jesus starting today from Mary finding peace in the midst of life-altering news, to the obedience that Joseph needed when being asked by God to partner with him in the birth of his son, to the news of Jesus' birth being brought to the shepherds of all people. Our theme throughout this series is what we see as unexpected may actually be God-ordained and might be a holy moment for us too. And as we look back on these unexpected holy moments in Scripture, we'll also look to our own lives and await how God might move in unexpected ways, producing something holy in and through us for his glory. So I'm really looking forward to seeing each one of these stories in an unexpected moment being used for God's divine purpose.

Today we're going to be in Luke chapter 1. If you want to turn there, it'll be on the screen. Luke chapter 1:26-38, which again holds this unexpected moment where Mary learns that her life will never be the same. Changed forever with the news from the angel that she would become the mother of the long-awaited Savior. I just want to quickly provide some context for where we're at in the story of the Bible. We're at the beginning of the New Testament where the Israelites have been waiting for the Messiah for a very long time. I'm gonna do--this is gonna be super brief--overview of the entire Bible, okay? Well, kind of. We're starting in the Exodus. But after the Israelites, God's people, escaped Egypt. They went to the Promised Land, but they were not satisfied with that fulfillment of God's promise. They wanted more, and they wanted a king. And so God sent judges and then kings, and then the kings led to Israel's downfall. And it was a sad downfall for the nation of Israel, and they were in captivity for a long time. And we just had a series earlier this year in Nehemiah talking about the end of captivity and Israel coming back to their land, but never reaching their former status of glory like they were in the days of King David and King Solomon. It was still a struggle, but God continued to reach out to them, hoping that they would follow him, specifically through prophets who brought truth and tried to, again, bring them back to what they were supposed to do, a life of obedience to God's Word. And these prophets always pointed them forward to a coming Savior, the Messiah, who would save them. And ever since captivity, ever since those glory days of Israel, other foreign powers had been the superpower of the world. And at this time, Rome is the world's superpower. And so Israel is hearing these prophecies and is thinking, "Man, we have a Savior coming at some point. We hope that our Savior, our King, is going to overthrow this superpower, Rome, and that we will be back on top in the world." But it's been 200 years since the last prophet. It's a time of silence, and the people are just waiting for God to move. It's a long, long season of Advent. And it's in that time of waiting that we come to our series and our sermon today.

So I want to go ahead and read our passage together, starting in verse 26. You guys can follow along. It says, "In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.' Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. You will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end.' 'How will this be?' Mary asked the angel, 'Since I am a virgin.' The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month, for no word from God will ever fail.' 'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May your word to me be fulfilled.' And then the angel left her.”

Let's pray one more time. God, thank you again for your word, for your truth, and for the arrival of your Son Jesus, the Incarnation, that bring about the redemption plan that you have had since sin, since before, since the creation of the world. And we are just so thankful to take time in our lives and in our calendar to celebrate. God, I pray that you would be with us this morning as we read about how you take unexpected moments that aren't unexpected to you at all, and reveal to us the plan that you are working, making things holy in our lives. Speak to us this morning, God, we pray this in your name, amen.

So I just want to point out a few things in our lens of unexpected moments. Really we're gonna see two sides of this unexpected moment. One that is earthly chaos, and the other side which is heavenly purpose, represented in these two parties. Mary being the one who embodies potential chaos and crisis, and the angel as one who carries this future heavenly purpose, this message of a divine purpose. So let's take a look at this situation through the lens of Mary. In verse 27 we find out that she's a virgin pledged to be married. This news is a source of possible chaos initially, disrupting her plans, what she thought her life was going and what her life was going to look like. Just like we do today, I'm sure Mary had dreams and expectations and a life forming in her mind of, "I'm pledged to be married, these are the relationships and the family, this is what life is gonna look like, this is what our home is gonna look like." Wondering how they're gonna fit in to the community and their family. I'm sure you guys have done something similar, maybe moving to a new area, getting a new job, and you just start thinking about, "Oh, am I gonna become friends with co-workers or my neighbors or what's it gonna look like in this dynamic and what is life gonna be?" And you start wondering but also hoping and expecting, "This is what it is gonna be, I'm gonna make effort for it to be like this." And then what if at some point in that, you just get news that it's gonna be totally different. That is a moment for me at least, for someone who likes control and wants to know what's happening, that is major stress, major anxiety, it's a lot. And so that's where Mary is in this moment. And then in verses 28 through 29, the angel spoke and Mary was terrified. This is another chaotic moment. Angels who were, you know, they're not the precious moment angels that we think of. They're not very cute and cherubs and baby halos and wings, they're terrifying. Every encounter in the Bible with an angel, the person is terrified and the angel has to say, "Hold on, it's okay. I'm from God, I'm good and God's got something good for you." And so this is, even not just mentally for Mary, in the moment, this is chaos, this is crisis. And then in verses 30 through 35, there's this future possible chaos, having a child out of wedlock, the unknowns of her relationship with Joseph. How would he take the news? The message that the angel brings is good news and we'll get to that in a second, but at first glance, when hearing these words, the situation is just boiling over with anxiety, confusion, doubt, and stress. What would people think? How is this gonna happen? What would become of, again, the relationship? Would she have to raise this child alone? What would this child be like? It was certainly unexpected and it could have meant a lot of chaos and led to a crisis. But instead, we know that the message is of good news and there's this presence of peace that the angel brings. So this other perspective of divine purpose, heavenly purpose, verses 30 through 33, the angel delivers the good news of the coming Messiah. And now we're getting to that divine meaning and that heavenly purpose. This is the Messiah that Israel has been waiting for, the one who would bring about God's kingdom. And as the prophet said, this would be the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, Emmanuel, God with us. And this is the holy news. Mary is being called by God to partner with him in his ultimate plan of redemption for humanity, a most holy calling.

And then in verses 35 through 37, the angel brings reassurance and heavenly support. Again, the angel is countering this chaotic mind that Mary is having with good news, the truth of Jesus and his incarnation, the arrival of the Messiah. And the angel encourages Mary with the truth, and I love this verse, "For no word from God will ever fail." I don't know where Mary's emotions were while the angel was talking, but I bet that this verse, when he said this, it gave her peace. Because that response in verse 38, "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled." I read that and I think that the chaos and anxiety running through Mary's mind dissipated so she could rest in the assurance of God and his word and his character, and it gives peace to her soul. So are we seeing this passage now through the lens of unexpected moments, potential chaos, future divine purpose? Let me just run through it one more time, summarizing everything. So in this conversation, verses 28, the angel greets and it's unexpected, very unexpected, but in verse 29 we have Mary trying to figure out some things.

And then in 30 through 33, the angel announcement brings the heavenly purpose to the forefront. But then in 34, we're back to unexpected and chaos, because she says, "How will this be? I don't understand. This doesn't make any sense." And then in 35 through 38, we see heavenly purpose again, heavenly support, this divine plan that Mary has been invited into. And the passage ends with Mary having peace in her heart. While we may not be able to personally relate to Mary's exact birth story, I know we can't, what I think we all can relate to is having an unexpected moment in our lives. That has the potential to lead us to chaos and crisis, or to heavenly purpose. It could be the news of a new job, means you have to move, maybe a diagnosis of health that could go either way, you're not sure. Maybe it's a relationship that you have that's on the rocks, and it could work out, but it takes work and it's gonna take a lot of intentional focus on healing and restoration. What I know is this, unexpected news, often at the onset, looks like chaos. It seems impossible, and it can easily turn into a crisis. And if we don't or can't see the heavenly purpose in the unexpected, it will turn to chaos, and it will become a crisis. But seeing and understanding that God has a plan, that He is present with us in that moment, changes it all. It doesn't mean that the outcome is now perfect and amazing, it just means that God is with us, and we can have peace as we go through that unexpected situation. I think it'd be nice, I mean think of Mary, if we could all have a Mary situation, not be terrified by angels, I think in the modern age maybe it was like a text or an alert from God, just being like, "By the way, unexpected moment coming up, I'll be with you," but just like a little ding from the phone and be like, "Hey, the next 24 hours, expect something unexpected." I would love that. It doesn't work like that, but what we do have, fortunately and even better, is the Holy Spirit in us, direct access to God in our hearts, dwelling in us. The Holy Spirit brings and assures us of God's plan, reminds us of the truth of God's character, and brings us the peace of God. Let me say that again, the Holy Spirit assures us of God's plan, reminds us of the truth of God's character, and brings us the peace of God within us. And here's what I hope speaks to you today, when we experience the unexpected moments that push us towards chaos, but we understand that there is a heavenly purpose, that God is at work, God gives us peace in that moment.

And if we look back on our passage again, Mary moved forward after this moment, her last words are, "May your word to me be fulfilled. I am the Lord's servant." I don't think she says that without the peace of God within her. She had peace to endure pregnancy unlike any other. She has peace to endure all the ramifications of what that means socially, facing friends and family and the neighborhood of judging her possibly for a situation that they don't understand. She has peace that surpasses all understanding of how this will work out, how is this going to happen. Even after the angel tells her, I don't think she's like, "Oh, that makes perfect sense. Thank you, angel. I get it now." But she has peace that allows her to keep going, peace that brought her into God's will, and peace that would give her the confidence to partner with God in his plan. And so from the emotional response we see in verse 29, Mary is greatly troubled to seeing her measured response in verse 38. It's because she understood that there was clearly a heavenly purpose for what she would endure, for what she was called to, and God gave her peace. That peace from God kept her from getting too hyper fixated on what was ahead and also kept her from being taken over by fear and a desire for control that would have kept her from being present. With the peace of God, she was able to face any confusion and uncertainty and be present in her new reality. I think that's true for us. The sooner that we turn to Jesus and accept our limitations, our limits in understanding, the fact that we are dependent on him, the sooner that we can be content and calm. And with the peace that God gives us, we can be more present with God, with others, and with ourselves. This unexpected moment for Mary changed her life. It had the potential to be a source of chaos and crisis, but as she surrenders to God, she accepts the heavenly purpose, and this unexpected moment is transformed into a holy moment for her, one that I'm sure she comes back to over and over again. In her pregnancy, raising Jesus as a child, I'm sure she remembers the moment she was visited by an angel, was told the plan of God, saying, "I'm calling you to something, and I will be with you as you endure." I want to spend the rest of our time thinking of our lives and our unexpected moments, hoping and praying that they might turn into something holy.

So let me ask a few questions as we reflect on our current situations. First is this, have you ever had an unexpected holy moment? Just think back in your life. Could be recent, could be a long time ago. Have you ever had an unexpected moment turn into a holy moment? In the moment, it was very chaotic, it was a potential crisis, but as you look back now, you see, you know what, God was working, God was moving, and there's something holy was produced from that. I'll share with you one of my biggest unexpected moments turned holy. It's got a happy ending, don't worry. But years ago, well, like four years--time is weird--four years ago maybe, I was working at a church for a long time, church I grew up in, had a similar history to here at Spring Valley Church, and at this moment in time, the pastor resigned. It was a good thing, but it was hard. And then soon after COVID hit, and we had an interim pastor, and that was actually great, and at that moment I think I started to see a divine purpose, but losing the pastor that was a mentor to me, like an older brother, that was hard. That was the first moment of potential crisis, and then COVID hit, and that was a crisis for the entire world, and then the church wasn't sure if it was going to continue. And so I just was kept being--the future was just unknown, and I just kept going to God, like, "What is happening right now? Lost my boss, my friend, my brother, and now the church that I'm working at that I thought I could work here forever is facing closure, and the world, the world is just chaos right now. What is happening?" In the midst of all this, too, my wife had a job change, and so because of the situation, we decided to live with my parents, just for temporary. And so that first year living with them, we were always looking at houses. We were putting bids, we were just going, visiting, having conversations, sending letters, just trying to advertise yourself, like, "Hey, pick us! Look at us! We're a wonderful family! Don't you want us to grow up in your home? And aren't we awesome? And we'll take care of it. We won't change a thing. It's amazing." You know, those conversations that, if you know, you know. And it was hard. That's taxing after a while. And then, through COVID, the housing market, just, we couldn't afford anything. And again, just coming to this moment of, "God, what is happening? We're here. We trust you. It's hard to trust you because I don't, I want to know the future. I want to know the plan. I want to know where we're gonna be." Many difficult conversations, hard nights, facing rejection from these people with housings and with the houses, and unexpected moment after unexpected moment. And for me, it was leaning more and more towards chaos and crisis. I was not yet seeing the divine plan, the divine purpose. And then, we found out that my dad had MCI, which is mild cognitive impairment, with a high likelihood for dementia. And that changed everything. And again, that was another moment where we, I think, God was cluing us into, "I have a plan. I'm doing something. You need to trust me." And I was actually interviewing at, not this church, a different church. And at that same weekend, that Sunday, went out and interviewed. And the Friday before that Sunday, I just found out about my dad's health. And on the way back, my wife and I were talking in the car, and we just felt like, "I don't think we're supposed to go anywhere. I don't think we're supposed to leave my dad." So I look back now, and I see the divine purpose. And what God was calling my wife, Becky, and I to do. And it was twofold. And it happened simultaneously, because at the same time, I had a great coffee with Pastor Chris, and this church was here and hiring. And so the plan, thankfully, and now I see clearly, was to come here and be a pastor on staff, and to stay home and take care of my dad, help take care of him.

But we had to trust God. And as soon as that became clear, that chaotic noise and the doubts and the fears within me were stilled. Being clued into what God was doing, saying, "I wanted you to be at this house. I don't know if on my own plan I would have chose to live with..." I can tell you, I would not have chosen to live with my parents. They're wonderful, and it works out. They're here, by the way, which was not expecting. Unexpected moment, live. I don't remember what I was saying. But yes, the chaos and the fears were stilled, because once you know that you are a part where you are exactly where God wants you, when you are partnered with Him and His plan, He does give you peace. And it's a peace that doesn't matter what anyone else is saying, the judgment the world is giving you, the confusion that other people, they don't get what you're doing. They're like, "Why? Just hire some help. Just do that." And it's like, God has a different plan for us. And I was able to be more free to be present with God, to be present with myself, and present with others. And it's not to say that now that it's all done and it's been going great that I never struggle with that. It's still things that come up after a little bit. But I come back to this moment, where God wants you. When you are partnered with Him and His plan, He does give you peace. And it's a peace that doesn't matter what anyone else is saying, the judgment the world is giving you, the confusion that other people, they don't get what you're doing. They're like, "Why? Just hire some help. Just do that." And it's like, God has a different plan for us. And I was able to be more free to be present with God, to be present with myself, and present with others. And it's not to say that now that it's all done and it's been going great that I never struggle with that. It's still things that come up after a little bit. But I come back to this moment, where God revealed His plan and said, "This is why." And I always come back to that and say, "That's exactly why." And it gives me peace all over again. So, have you had an unexpected moment turn into a holy moment? Again, maybe it's right now. Maybe you're in the midst of it. Or maybe you look back and it was four or five years ago and you can see now clearly what God is doing. Maybe you're in the crisis mode where it's like, "I don't understand yet. This is just a lot of chaos. It's a lot of stress and anxiety." And I'm praying that God does have a plan. I want to reassure you, He does. And you can continue to talk with Him and pray, "God, please let me know. Give me a little sense of the plan so I can just hold on to something and I can understand that this is of you and that you are doing something through this." Be reminded that chaos can easily turn into crisis without sensing the divine plan.

Second question is, "What is your typical go-to response when feelings of anxiety and confusion surface in your life?" We sent out this email yesterday and I don't expect any of you to have read it. You're on holiday mode. It's totally okay. But it is an Advent meditation. It's an invitation to meditate each week. There's four meditations on the peace that Jesus brings. And one of them brings up this question, "What is your typical go-to response when feelings of anxiety and confusion surface?" Because oftentimes we want to handle everything. We want to control something. We want to come up with a solution. And God becomes further and further from the solution and the answer to our problems in that moment. I want to read Psalm 131 because I think it speaks directly to this idea of, or this moment when anxiety and confusion surface. It says, "My heart is not proud, Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child, I am content. Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore." The psalmist is encouraging us to have a go-to response of humility and hope. Humility, understanding that God is in control. We can't do, we're limited in what we can do. And then hope, to put our hope in Christ as the answer, as the source of joy, of hope, peace. It's helpful to be mindful of our natural response when feelings of anxiety and confusion surface, to be intentional, to draw closer to Jesus in that moment. Instead of backing further away from him, sometimes we do that unintentionally, but to be intentional to say, "Jesus, I need you right now. I'm feeling stressed. I'm feeling anxious. God, let me meditate on your truth, on your character. Let me draw near to you. Let me just come with all my questions and let me just ask them all to you." And just release it and say, "God, you do the work that you're gonna do. I don't have to know everything, but we have a moment with Jesus." So take some time this week and think about what do you do in moments of anxiety and confusion, and is it drawing closer to Jesus? And if it isn't, what can you do to make that happen? And lastly, what chaos or crisis are you facing and have you seen the heavenly purpose in it yet?

This is similar to the first question, but again, just having a moment to assess your life. Maybe it's, again, three or four years ago. Maybe it's happened earlier this year. Maybe it's a recent development that's happened in the past couple weeks. But whatever that potential chaos and crisis, have you seen the heavenly purpose yet? And if you haven't, then ask these questions. What might God be trying to tell me? How is God trying to lead me right now? What is God trying to invite me into? What blessing and growth and opportunity might lie ahead if I follow Jesus? Will you trust God and rest in the peace that He alone brings? This Christmas season, during Advent, our prayer is that we experience the peace of God. That we can take joy in who He is and what He's doing in our lives, and that we can see clearly the love that He has for us, and that we are filled with hope for our future. Would you guys pray with me?

God, thank you again for this story, and I pray you know everyone's story here, and you know exactly where they're at, and you know the past moments that are unexpected that they've gone through, moments of chaos and crisis. Maybe presently you know people in this room who are going through a very difficult season or an unknown season. And God, you also know for those of us who are enjoying life right now that we will have future unexpected moments. And I pray for all of us that when those moments arise, that we would be able to see your divine purpose. God, that we would ask the right questions to you, to better understand that you are at work, and to rest in the fact that you are in control. Nothing is a surprise to you. And that you have a plan through it all. And God we ask that you would give us peace. Peace in this season. Fill us with hope, joy and love. We pray this knowing that you are a good God, that you are good for us. We pray all this, Amen.

The Guide To Gratitude - Part 3

The Guide To Gratitude

Gratitude and Contentment – Trusting in God’s Provision

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Been a while since I've been in front of you. Just wanna say, by the way, missed all of you. It was so good. We're a family, our church family, and so not seeing you for a couple of weeks felt it. And so we're so glad to be back. In case you haven't seen us or seen baby and mom, we're doing well, we're alive. And we're very thankful for that. And I think someone, people, I mean, you guys are all very kind in asking. And I think one of the best descriptions of how we're doing is we're doing well, but I am drinking coffee at seven o'clock at night, which I don't do. So that's just a little picture of, you know, sleep being still necessary. But we're in this new series of gratitude and in our new series, and because of it, I wanted to share some things that I'm thankful for. I know hopefully some of you or all of you have one of these and you're day by day going through, or maybe you do it at the end of the week and you look back on each day, but you're filling out this card and marking and acknowledging what you're thankful for. And so I'm gonna share some of mine from this past couple of weeks. I'm thankful for all of you, as I said, church family, you guys are so, all your prayers and support, especially in the last couple of weeks, they mean so much to us. I also wanna thank, thankful for all the meals that you guys have provided. We love those and they all have tasted delicious and they mean so much to our family and just feel your care and love. Also wanna be, I'm very thankful for the letters of encouragement and the financial contributions from pastor appreciation. I know pastor Chris and I are both super thankful and it is such a privilege and an honor to serve as pastors at Spring Valley Church. And so we're very thankful for how you show your appreciation, it means the world to us. And then lastly, I am very, but most importantly, I am very thankful for my family, for my beautiful daughters, Kinsley and Hallie and my beautiful wife, Becky, who sacrifices so much to make our whole lives work. And so just very, very thankful. I'm very thankful for this series to get me to think about what am I thankful for? What's going on in my life? What is God doing? How is he providing for me? And all to say that very, very thankful and hoping and praying for a spirit of gratitude within me to grow.

In this series, in the past couple of weeks, we've heard the importance of having a foundation of gratitude, a heart of thanksgiving. We've also talked about gratitude in action, living from a thankful heart. And today I wanna focus on the role contentment plays in living with gratitude. Gratitude and contentment, which really focuses on trusting in God's provision. This is the next simple step in living a life with a more grateful heart. Pastor Phil alluded to this last week through his sermon as he emphasized the need of naming things that we're grateful for throughout our day and throughout our week. Things that we aren't necessarily always wanting, but we see that God is working through it or is present in the midst of it. And it's still important to always express that gratitude. And so today we're gonna lean into that and talk more about being content. But before we begin, let me go ahead and pray right now. If you guys could bow your heads with me. God, thank you again for our time of gathering together. And God, I pray that in this moment here in this room, that you would reach each of us through your spirit exactly where we're at, you know what we need. And God, be it your word or the worship or just interactions with each other, God, I pray that we would be encouraged and pushed and drawn closer to you. God, I pray that your spirit would do work in our hearts, that you would move in us, that you would refine us and sanctify us. And God, we wanna give you all the glory for all that you're doing, give you all the praise. We pray this in your name, amen. Let's start by defining contentment. Merriam-Webster defines contentment as the freedom from worry or restlessness, also a peaceful satisfaction. The Oxford Dictionary defines contentment as a state of happiness and satisfaction. In the Hebrew, in our Bible, the Hebrew, it's translated as to be pleased. And in the Greek, it's very similar, to be pleased or to take delight or sufficient. A theological dictionary defines contentment as a state of mind in which one's desires are confined to his or her lot, whatever it may be. It reminds me of that song, "It is well." Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say, it is well with my soul. It's a song about contentment. This theological dictionary also says that contentment is more inward than satisfaction. It is a habit or a permanent state of mind where satisfaction is a bit more outward and is a response to outside realities that we encounter. Contentment arises from an inward disposition. It's an offspring of humility and thankfulness. And it's present when trusting in God's provision. So where I wanna head today, talking about God's divine providence, God's provision. And before we get there, again, covering contentment.

So we have those definitions, but what about contentment in the Bible? We know that the Bible teaches that Christians should exhibit contentment in the following areas of life. In their respective callings, whatever God has called you to do in your job. First Corinthians tells us that. With our wages, with the money that we make, we are to be content. Jesus tells us that in Luke. Also with the things that we have, that's found in Hebrews 13. And then also with food and clothing. We'll get to those passages in 1 Timothy later today. But before we dive into scripture, let's do something together. I want us to take a moment to measure our current level of contentment. So don't worry, you're not sharing this with anyone. You don't have to whisper it to anyone else. You're not gonna reveal it. But just be honest with yourself. And this isn't measuring of like, okay, this is where I wanna be, or this is where, you know, if I were to share this, I'd be at this number. Just be completely honest and vulnerable with yourself. On a scale from one to 10, I think, oh good, we have it up there. One is feeling the anxiety of greed and a desire for more in your life, specifically with money, possessions, or status. And 10 is feeling non-anxious and satisfied with what you have. Where would you plot yourself right now? Think about that. Take inventory of your life. Think of all the areas. Think of your work situation, your home situation, school grades, belongings that you have, clothes, shoes, vehicles, your home, all the maybe projects that you have going on, appliances. How many times in the last week or two have you caught yourself saying, oh, I just wish I had this, or I wish this was different. I wish, fill in the blank. Keep that number in mind, whatever that is. Keep with that in mind this morning. We're gonna come back to that at the end of our sermon. Today, we're gonna be in a New Testament mostly, in the following letters to the early churches where living with gratitude was a very pertinent topic and being content was so counter-cultural, just like it is for us today. We live in a world and a society that always wants the next best thing, that preys on you being dissatisfied and grows in you a desire for more worldly things. I don't mean worldly as in evil, just things of this world, which could inherently be fine, could be good, but the world wants you to have more of it, which often leaves us feeling stressed and anxious or less than. And that's not what Jesus wants, and it's not what Jesus teaches we should have. So in our passages today, we're gonna see that gratitude leads to contentment, and we'll see how practicing gratitude helps cultivate contentment within our hearts and souls.

You guys wanna get your Bibles out, you can follow along on the screen too, but our first passage this morning is found in Philippians 4:11-13. Let me go ahead and read. It says, "I am not saying this because I am in need, "for I have learned to be," this is Paul speaking, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. "I know what it is to be in need. "I know what it is to have plenty. "I have learned the secret of being content "in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, "whether living in plenty or in want. "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Paul is saying what's important is to have contentment despite life circumstances. That last verse, "I can do all things "through Christ who strengthens me," that's the version I grew up learning in the New King James, is very popular. You've probably heard it before. A lot of people, that's their life verse, maybe they have it tattooed somewhere. I mean, Philippians 4:13. We often think of that as a rallying cry. We use it to motivate us when things are tough. And that's not necessarily wrong or bad. It is a very motivating verse. But one pastor points out that for Paul, this was more than a motivational speech to roll up sleeves and face life circumstances. It was a statement about contentment in spite of life circumstances.

Pastor John Mark Homer, he writes, "Many of us long to experience the content life, but it can feel elusive. We wait for a sense of contentment to trail behind the next thing, a raise, a promotion, keys to a home we can finally call ours. But contentment in Paul's experience was not derived from his circumstances, but pronounced over them. It was not accumulated or purchased, but discovered in Jesus and his way." I love that quote. I think it's very convicting when I first read that. "That is often what I think of. "If I just have this, then I will be content." I think his words perfectly pair with Paul's words to the church in Philippi, that contentment can be and needs to be present in the believer's life, despite life circumstances, not because of life circumstances. When we can practice a deeper sense of gratitude, as we talked about in these previous weeks, expressing thanks in all things for what God is doing, then the next phase, the next state of our heart and soul is contentment. Like that theological dictionary says, "A state of mind in which one's desires "are confined to his or her lot, whatever it may be." This doesn't mean that you can't want more things necessarily. You can't want improvement in your home that you live in, in the car that you drive. But we can't let that turn into greed or discontentment in a way that we are now dissatisfied with what God has blessed us with. So this contentment arises from an inward disposition. It's an offspring, again, of humility and thankfulness. And it's present when trusting in God's divine providence.

Quick story, I try to go, I really enjoy going disc golfing. And there's a course about five minutes from here. And I meet a lot of different people on the disc golf course. Lots of different kinds of people in various walks of life. And I met this one guy, I have a friend of this guy named Casey, great guy. He's in his 40s. And he told me his story once as we're playing, just the whole round, I got to hear his life story. And it's a difficult story. He used to do a lot of drugs and drinking. And a few years back, he had a massive stroke and it completely changed his life. And he had to relearn everything. He had to relearn how to walk, how to read, how to talk. And his relationships at home became very strained and difficult. And as he's telling me this, he's not telling me this in a way of like, it used to be that and now we're good. He's like, my marriage is going through a hard, it's difficult right now. My relationship with my kids is difficult right now. His ability to work is limited. And yet as he's sharing this story, and he shares about how he met God through this situation, and he's very thankful that God is with him through all these hardships. You can tell, I could tell. He's one of the most content people I've ever met. And whenever I see him now, and he shares a bit more of the latest that's happening in life, within minutes, I can just sense this deep peace and satisfaction in where God has him in that moment. Doesn't mean he doesn't want life to get better, but he is content with what God has provided for him, where God has put him in, in that place, in that moment, in that time. I'm so thankful to have, to hear that through rough times, he has found God, he's clinging to God.

And it's such an example for us today that his contentment is not found in his current life circumstances. They are tough. They are discouraging at times, they're very challenging, and yet he is still content. And so we as believers need to be encouraged to be content despite life's circumstances. So first point. Our second point is found in 1 Timothy 6, verses six through eight. It says, "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, you'll be content with that." We see here that contentment and godliness are a sacred pairing together. Paul, in this verse, is stressing the importance of contentment by encouraging us to have an eternal perspective. We came into this world with nothing, we're gonna leave this world with nothing. And yet so much of our lives can be found focusing around what we can have, the possessions and the money and the status that we can gain. We stress, we get anxious, we spend time devising plans, we worry, we commit time and energy towards personal gain for us. And just like that quote earlier, we can be tricked into thinking that contentment will follow the next thing that I get, or the more money that I make, then I will be content.

That's not what the Bible teaches. Paul says, "If we have food and clothing and we'll throw in shelter, then we will be content." I'm not adding to scripture. Clothing, if you translate it, it can also mean shelter. So we're saying food, clothing, and shelter. That's Paul's way of saying, "We need the minimum." In the world's eyes, that's not a lot. But in the kingdom of God, that's more than enough. And the reason for that is because we have God. God is everything that we need. Meaning, let me back up here. We have to think of the future, right? Here, let me get, I strayed from my notes and then I got all off course. Okay, hold on. We're gonna get to the future in a second. Let me say this first. Paul mentions godliness, being like Christ, living a holy life, depending on God, just as Jesus did, as we see Jesus' life in the gospels. Every moment, he's depending on God. He gets away in the morning to connect with God so that he can go through that day depending on God. Contentment or godliness does not pair well with materialism, but rather contentment. And Jesus knew where true joy and contentment came from. Nothing on earth, nothing on earth brought true joy and contentment, but it came from God. God is our provider and our sustainer, and contentment comes from him now and forevermore. You see, contentment in the present depends on one's belief in the future. Think about that. Contentment right now depends on what you believe is gonna happen after you die. For those who believe in heaven, we know that nothing material is coming with us into heaven. The Bible is clear that storehouses of worldly treasures do not equal any heavenly treasure or benefit. But if one doesn't understand that or believe in the eternal life with God after death on earth, then of course, materials and wealth make all the sense. This life is all I have, so I might as well get as much as I can.

But for believers who understand that heaven is about being in the full presence of God in a world without sin, all in the fullness of God's glory, and everything material falls short, then that helps us understand that we don't need it now either. We want what we're gonna have in heaven, which is the fullness of God. We can be content with however little we have on earth. Again, Paul says food and clothes and shelter, and that's really enough. We don't wanna become attached to more than that, 'cause we're not gonna have those other things in heaven with us. And that glorious future can help our current state of contentment. I just read this book called "Giving is the Good Life" by Randy Alcorn, and it's a book all about needing to live a generous life. And in that book, there's story after story after story of people who give generously because of heavenly implications. And one of the stories is there's a couple who retired early, made a lot of money, and they were wondering, what do we do with this? We have calculated what it means to live by, still within means, and we have all this extra, what are we gonna do with it? And so they got connected, I think one of their sons was a soccer player, and so they had this connection with an organization overseas in South America that was wanting to build a soccer complex. And so they donated their money to build this soccer complex. This project took millions of dollars to complete, and they gave enough to make it happen because they understood that that money wasn't coming with them into heaven, and whatever they could buy with that money wasn't coming with them into heaven. But that Christian soccer camp, where we gather kids from the community and they were gonna hear the gospel, that would have heavenly implications. That would be money well spent. And so their contentment with what they had helped them to live more like Jesus and to give more like Jesus. And so we see that contentment and godliness are a sacred and powerful pairing that work both inwardly for our souls, but also to the benefit of God's kingdom to the people around us. That's our second point, contentment and godliness are a sacred and powerful pairing.

The third one comes from Hebrews. Hebrews 13:5-6, and it reads, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper, 'I will not be afraid. 'What can mere mortals do to me?’” So continuing that thought that gratitude leads us to contentment, which combats materialism and anxiety. The author of Hebrews knows that materialism fueled by greed and anxiety, stress, pride, and selfishness can be answered by the truth that God is the one that we truly need, and the one who provides everything that we need. I can't say it enough, our world that we live in does us no help in pushing us towards contentment. Again, just the opposite. Every ad you see preys upon your desire for more, your dissatisfaction with what you have. Living in the area that we live in, middle to upper-class America, is not gonna help you be content with what you have. Social media, you scrolling, all the ads, all the algorithms that have, know the things that you say, and all, "Oh, I wish I had this." And then all of a sudden you're like, "Oh, the clogs that I wanted, how's that? "Look at that." It's not gonna help you be content with what you have. All the things around us and more stir within you the opposite of contentment. Envy, greed, selfish ambition, anxiety, feeling discontent, dissatisfied. This world wants you to live out of a motivation of discontentment and fear. I don't have enough. I don't have what I need. I need to do something about that. And again, that's not how Jesus wants you to live. He wants us to be confident in his presence and in his power and in his provision. Says in this verse, "He will never leave us. "He will never forsake us. "He is our helper, "and we do not need to be afraid or anxious.”

I have a friend who I grew up with in middle school, high school, college. And because of some unfortunate financial decisions that happened from his parents, he has always made it a point that money is never gonna be an issue for him. And it has determined every step of his life. What major he was, the job that he took out of college, all the promotions and job changes that have happened, where he's lived, everything has been determined by this goal, which at first, I totally understand, I never want money to become an issue. I wanna be able to provide for my family. I wanna have this life. And so I'm gonna make sure that I have enough to have that. Well, his whole life is run, again, by what he would say is a good goal, what others might say, I call it fear. The job he's had, the hours he's worked, the priority that work and money has had in his life, it's caused significant worry, stress, anxiety, health problems. He and I have talked every couple of months for the last 12 years. We just keep up with each other. Sometimes he's lived close, other times he's lived elsewhere in the state, but we talk and sometimes, 'cause I'll bring it up, I'm like, hey man, it sounds like once again, you're really worrying about this. And let me just tell you, you have more than enough. You have a lot actually. And there's times where he recognizes the pattern in his life. And he understands that God is with him and that he'll provide for him. But by the end of the conversation or by next time we talk, it's his common lines of, if I just make this much, if I just take this promotion, I think it's gonna get me to where I want. If I can retire at this age, I think I'll be good. And gratitude and contentment have taken a backseat in his life. And I wanna tell him, man, you don't have to live with these anxieties and fears that are masquerading as strength. In the world's eyes, everyone around me, you're so good at what you do. Look at the promotions that you're getting. You've really risen in the corporate job that you've had. But no one's addressing what's inside of him, which is anxiety and fear. I always wanna challenge him to practice gratitude, combat that and remind him that contentment will be the best defense against those materialistic and anxious forces that are pressing in on him.

So again, the point is that contentment combats materialism and anxiety. This is both a spiritual and physical battle that we face and that we are fighting in this world, especially in a season that we're heading into with Christmas and all the sales and all the online deals. We need to watch our hearts and where we're at with greed and wanting things. I'm not saying don't take advantage of a good deal. I mean, if you need it, obviously God's provided, it could be the right deal. Be mindful, I'm giving myself an out for the things I'm about to buy. I'm like, but it's God's, it's God's provision. Not telling you yes or no, just hold it before God and be like, God, should I? Be mindful of how your purchases, the things, the way that you're approaching material, your job, whatever it is, be mindful of it and reflect on how it's affecting your heart. Is it feeding something bad? Is it just saying like, I got this, but ooh, now I want more and now I need this because I got this thing. That means these three other things. And maybe you're like, oh, I don't know if that's good for me. Or is it a place of like, hey, I've worn these shoes into the ground. There's three holes in them. My feet are getting wet. It's good to buy new shoes, whatever that is, but just hold it before God. Be mindful.

I wanna ask a few questions as we close for us to reflect on. Number one, are you letting your circumstances determine your contentment? Are you like that quote that says, if I just have this, this and this, then I'll be content. And you're letting, you're allowing whatever's happening in your life to determine whether you are content or not. Just as Paul was teaching in Philippians, we need to learn to be content no matter what is happening in the world around us, no matter what is going on in our lives, what we are going through. And just as he is implied, he says, I learned this. It is a learned skill. So have grace with yourself, but it's gonna take effort. It's gonna take time. You're gonna have to do it over and over again. You're gonna catch yourself being like, oh, I'm greedy again. Oh man, my heart is envious or man, I'm really pursuing the selfish ambition. And so give yourself grace and understand that it's a process, but start, put your time and effort towards wanting to be content with whatever you're going through and pray. Pray to God, God, give me what I need. Give me the contentment that I need. Help me to see how what I have is enough to have the right perspective. So that's the first one. Are you letting your circumstances determine your contentment?

Second, is your contentment in life bringing you closer to God? We want that sacred pairing of godliness and contentment. As true contentment requires a relationship with God, dependence on God, humility of oneself to say, God, I cannot be in control to provide for my every need. You, God, are the one who can provide for all my needs. And then it takes a trust that God will provide. And as we live with contentment, we should be brought closer to God and should develop this cycle of praise and thankfulness and gratitude. And as we thank God and we see that he provides again, and then we go back into praising him and being content. So being content with God molds us to live more like Jesus, dependent on him.

And thirdly, last question, are you being proactive to combat materialism and anxiety in your life? Now I wanna be clear, I'm not saying that you have to lie to yourself or pretend to be happy and be like, oh, if I just put on this face, if I just pretend that I'm good with what I have, but inside you're rotten and you're like, oh my goodness, I can't stand anything that, you know, that's not good. Don't do that. But are you taking steps to be content? And again, that doesn't mean that you'll never complain. I was talking with a pastor this week and we were talking about this idea of contentment. And sometimes when people ask, I'm finding myself this, this is true of me in the last couple of weeks, how are you doing? And we, there's the response, I can't complain, right? Well, the truth is you could, you definitely can. I could, and I have. But we were talking about how complaining can sometimes be a necessary act to get us to contentment. Venting, airing frustration or disappointment. It's much of what the Psalms is. You hear David crying out, God, why is this happening? Why are my enemies? Why does it have to be this way? But he always ends, but you Lord are worthy of my praise, but you, oh God, are so good. Blessed are you, God. And so I don't wanna hear me carefully. I'm not giving you permission to complain all the time. What I'm saying is that as long as you don't end on that complaint, as long as that's not your ending spot and your heart is just resting in a status of complaining, we're in the newborn phase and it's hard. A lot of you know, it is hard. Becky and I are exhausted and frustrated at times. And we are two people who like to have it dialed in. And this is not a phase where things are dialed in. So I'm struggling. And so when people ask, how's it going? Obviously I wanna convey the good, but sometimes I'm also like, man, that's really tough. But I try to be sure not to end on like, oh, this is all my complaints. I try to end with, man, but I'm thankful that we are blessed with another daughter. I understand that life is a gift and that having their child is truly a blessing. And so all the nights of sleeplessness and all the moments of losing sanity are worth it. And so I want to express, I wanna end on, but I'm thankful. I'm thankful for what we have as a family and in this world. But I do complain a little bit to get me to this place of contentment. Sometimes it takes airing the negative to land on the positive. In other words, sometimes it takes complaining to get to a place of contentment. And by doing this, this whole point is that maybe that's proactive in combating materialism and anxiety. Maybe you need to be like, man, I really wish, I'm so, I was just talking with Matt, who, I can't find him, but Matt, he's got microwave issues. And he airs his frustration about the microwave, but then he ends on this place of, but it's all good. I can cook, I can still cook food. And I just love that. I love seeing that sometimes you gotta air the negative and then we reach this place of contentment. And it's combating against this, I asked him, I was like, well, are you gonna buy a new microwave? He's like, no, I'm good. Just shut it really quick and it should be fine. Be proactive by expressing gratitude, living with contentment.

So, okay, I wanna come back or circle back around to that contentment measurement again, that one through 10. If you remember your number, great. If you're reassessing some things and you wanna come up with a new number, that's fine. But on a scale from one to 10 again, one, feeling the anxiety and greed and desire for more in your life, specifically with money, possessions and status, and 10, feeling non-anxious, satisfied with what you have. Where would you plot yourself right now? Now, the follow-up question is this, what steps can you take in this next week to get to a 10? Where are you feeling, where you're feeling non-anxious and satisfied with God? What needs to change in your life? Is it a perspective change? Is it a conversation with someone? Is it just some prayer time with God and just being honest, God, here's what's on my heart. I'm really discontent, but God helped me become a 10. Whatever it is, what do you need to do in this next week to get yourself to a place where you're living in a place of gratitude and contentment? As we close, I just wanna encourage all of us to identify areas in your life where discontentment may be present and to offer prayers of gratitude in those areas, trusting in God's provision. And as we trust in God's provision, we'll have gratitude for what he's doing, how he's providing for our every need, and it will lead us to a deeper sense of contentment.

Let’s go ahead and pray together. God, again, thank you. Thank you for your word, for our time together. It is a gift from you. And we wanna pray that through gratitude and contentment, we will be able to overcome some of the anxieties that we face. As we explore, gratitude may help shift our focus from anxiety and worry to your faithfulness, God, and how you provide for our every need. And I pray that it would provide a deep sense of peace and contentment in our hearts so that whatever we're going through, granted, it may be difficult, it may be challenging, God, that we would rely on you, depend on you, trust you, and be able to go through it and see how you provide in ways that we probably can't even think of. But at the other end, as we get through it, we can look back and say, God, you did that, and I'm so thankful. And now I'm gonna live my life content with what I have, with where you have me. God, some of this world does a really good job at making us feeling dissatisfied with what we have, with our current lives, our possessions. God, give us strength, give us endurance, perseverance, fortitude to fight against that, and to see that what we have is enough. Be it in relationships, be it in possessions, be it with finances. God, we trust you and we love you, and we give all that we have to you. Use it for your kingdom, God, we pray this in your name. Amen.

The Guide To Gratitude - Part 2

The Guide To Gratitude

Gratitude in Action – Living from a Thankful Heart

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

The story goes that husband and wife, they're retiree, they had grown kids and they were living life in another state, say Florida, and picked up the phone and he called his daughter and he said, babe, mom and I, we're getting a divorce. We've been married 50 years, it's time, she's driving me nuts, I can't do it anymore, but just wanted you to hear it from me that we're going to be separating. And the daughter is just distraught on the phone and she's like, I can't believe this, how could this happen? And he goes, hey, can you call your brother? I just, I can't call him and tell him the news. So yeah, dad, you got it. So she immediately hangs up, calls her brother who lives in another state and says, mom and dad are divorcing. They're splitting after all this time. And he's like, what? Are you kidding me? There's no way. We have to do something. And she goes, well, what do you think we should do? He's like, well, let me call dad and I'll call you back and we'll figure out a plan. And so he calls dad and he's like, dad, how could you do this? You guys have been married. For so long. How could you let this happen? Don't make any rash decisions before my sister and I get there to be with you guys. And he's like, dad, promise me you're not going to do anything until we get there. And he goes, okay, I promise you. And he hangs up the phone with a smile on his face, turns to his wife, said, hey, babe, I want to let you know tomorrow the kids are coming for Thanksgiving and they're paying for their own flights. What does that have to do with gratitude? I don't know. It's a funny. It's a funny story. I want to share with you.

No, we're starting a series today and on a gearing up to Thanksgiving and we're calling it the guide to gratitude. And we want to take this this month as some of us usually do and have more of a mindset towards being thankful, right? Thanksgiving, we usually maybe sit around the table and you tell maybe something that you're grateful for for the year. But I want us to take this whole month and make it a whole month of gratitude. And so today. We're going to start and it's going to really talk about what it means to have like a foundation of gratitude in our lives. And that starts with a heart of Thanksgiving. It says in scripture so many different places to talk about having a heart of gratitude to having a heart of Thanksgiving to have a mindset of giving praise to God and giving glory to him. But gratitude is really a spiritual practice. It's something we have to work at. This isn't. It's something that we just one day randomly just pick up and we get to carry with us. But I think I want us to shift our mindset to think about what does it mean to really be having a heart of gratitude and thinking about it as practice. I thought about this. I grew up playing saxophone in elementary school and up through like sophomore, junior year of high school. And when I picked up saxophone, it was horrible. Grace and peace to my parents who had to sit there. And listen to three blind mice played as if I was blind. And it was terrible. Honestly, those first couple of years, it was awkward. It was clunky. There was lots of squeaking and honking. Not really like what you would think the sound coming out of a saxophone would be. But it took practice. And eventually I figured out the different notes. I could look at the sheet music and go, OK, that G, this is how I play a G on the saxophone. And then you would learn a scale and you would learn. And you would practice this over and over again. And over time, you would have to celebrate the little victories because there are times where it was really bad. Not going to lie. It was bad at times. But you had to celebrate the little victories. You learned a scale. Maybe you learned a song and you played it for the first time and you didn't mess up. You're like, yeah, look what I did. Like twinkle, twinkle, little star. I own like, yes, I know this. I got this. And then you would show up and you'd play. You'd play with your friends at school and you would have band practice. And you would figure out when like the time you guys are struggling through a piece of music and then you finally get it. It was just exciting.

But it took practice. The same would be said about learning a language. Anybody tried to learn another language? It's hard. It takes time. You start with the basics. Like, donde esta la baño? Like, you have to know the basics. You learn your colors. You learn your numbers. You learn the little things. And you. You start working through to learn to grow and you become better and better and better. And the same is true for us with gratitude. When we see the progress and we see how far we've come, it's incredible. Right? It's so amazing and exciting when you see that. But you don't stop there. I know some of the best professional basketball athletes in the world that take upwards of 800 to 1,000 shots every single day in practice. I know some of the best professional basketball athletes in the world that take upwards of 800 to 1,000 shots every single day in practice. Just because they've arrived at the big leagues, they have the contract, they don't stop practicing. Because they know that how they practice is critical to their success. Repetition. Time in and time out. Every single day. Because it changes who we are. Our repetition and our practice and rhythms eventually change who we are. And when that changes who we are, it begins to live a life reflected. Out of our relationship to God. Our life begins to be gratitude. We don't just give thanks anymore. We live thanks. We live that out with people in our lives. Did you know that a musician only plays about 10% of what he practices? Why? Because he's only mastered 10% of everything that he plays. And we see these musicians and talented people who play these beautiful, beautiful songs. And we go, man, how many hours of practice did you get to learn that song? And they would say, it's not about the practice of the song. It's about my practice overall. That I learned to become better in my song. Just a sliver of it is actually seen and heard before regular people. There's something about when we don't practice, though, that we begin to lose it, right? I can't pick up a saxophone. I could. I could pick up a saxophone right now and try to play. And it would be just as bad when I started in fifth grade. There wouldn't be anything better to it. I would know notes. I would have some head knowledge. But I would get out of breath. My embouchure would just burn. It would hurt my mouth. Because I don't have those muscles. Because I haven't practiced. Could I know some? Yes. I don't think you lose all of it. But when you get out of practice, you lose some of that progress that you've made. So we have to think of it as a skill. As something that we continue to learn on and have a regular rhythm. Gratitude is not just something we do during the month of November. But it is something that needs to be in our week and week out habits.

I love what it says in Psalm 104. It says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him being God and praise his name.” This is an incredible psalm that was written for worship. It was written for those who, as they enter, entered into the presence of the temple or the church for the Israelites, they would give praise to him. But something there key, I don't, we kind of maybe read over real quick. But it says, Enter his gates, enter his courts. What does that mean? Well, the temple, the way it was built, would have these huge courts and gates around the temple. So if we were to take this psalm to heart, we would be praising God even before we get into church. They are praising God as they come before. They're not even inside church yet. And they're giving praise. It may sound like enter the parking lot with thanksgiving. Get out of your car with praise. We are called to worship God at every moment of our lives. Not just when we're in church and there's good music around us and, and things are going good. No, we're called to live a life of practicing praise all the time so that we can give a lifestyle. A life of praise and gratitude to him. This is why we gather weekly. Is to have a practice session. This is our practice together. Welcome. I'm running, running stingers here in a moment. But we're giving praise to God and who he is together so that we can learn. We can practice. We've become better. So then when we go out, we go out into the world. We know how to give practice and give gratitude to, to God. It keeps us in tune with who God is. This habit keeps us disciplined in a weekly routine to keep. Our lives.

And gratitude is, is a superpower. It, there, there have been thousands and thousands of studies on the physical change that gratitude brings into our, our brain literally rewires itself. It changes the nuclear molecules in our brain. When we have gratitude, that is a superpower. I don't know anything else that rewires our brains. It's pretty amazing. But there's just, there's power in Thanksgiving. Gratitude shifts our perspectives from focusing on what we lack to what we have. Did you know the average person will be exposed to upwards of 10,000 advertisements a day? 10,000. From billboards to apps to websites to mail to email to sign social media, TV, streaming games, texts, notifications. We are constantly bombarded with people telling us what we need to buy, what we need to own, what we need to eat, what we need to do, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And gratitude is a superpower to push back against those 10,000 lies that we hear every single day. To shift our perspective from what we don't have in our lives to truly thinking about what we do and what God has already blessed us with. We have friends. We have family. We have, we drove here in a car today. We have a roof over our head. There's food in our homes. We have, we have access to healthcare. And even greater than that, we have forgiveness in Christ Jesus. We have peace. We have God's hope. We have God's love. And so on and so on and so on. We are so blessed when we truly take a moment and begin to think about what God has blessed us with, which leads us into grounding us in God's provision. What do you mean? What do you mean grounding us in God's provision? God is our provider. God is the one that has given us everything in life. It's all because of him. When you think about what you own, your house, your possessions, your clothes, the phone probably in your pocket, the keys that you drove your car with today. He's the one who's blessed us with those things. Well, you think, well, pastor, you know what? I, I had to work the job. I had to save the money. Who gave you that ability to work that job? Who gave you the blessings of other things so that you could maybe save some money and put it aside? But pastor, I'm the one who drives to the store. I'm the one who bought it with my own money. I'm the one who brought it home. Who do you think gave you the car to drive to the store? Who do you think gave you the ability to even go to a store to purchase something and then to bring it home? Who do you think gave you the ability to even go to a store to purchase something and then to bring it home? It's God. God is our provider.

I love this word in the Bible. It's called Jehovah Jireh. There is literally a name of God that means the Lord will provide. That is one of the aspects of who God is. He is our provider. He is the one that has blessed us with everything that we have. It says in Philippians 4:19, “and my God,” Paul writes to the church in Philippi, “will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Another translation here puts it as God will take care of all of your needs. God will fulfill all of your needs. God will provide. God will supply. God will fill up until full. All of your needs. All of your needs. God will overflow into your life. Your needs. That's our God. This brings such great and amazing peace to our lives. Amen. It brings peace to our lives so that we don't have to worry about having everything figured out. We don't have to worry about how things are going to play out. We don't have to worry about how things are going to play out. We don't have to worry about how things are going to play out in life. Why? Because God has got us. Jehovah Jireh is on our side. That's something to give praise about. And that God in this will take care of us. Now, now, careful. We don't need to get lazy with this. Right? We can just not, I don't have to work my job anymore, God. You will provide. You're walking a dangerous line there, buddy. We do have a part to play in that. God provides us with a gift. With a job, we go, we work that job. We're there for a reason at that job. You ever thought about that? You have a job and God has called you to that place for a reason? Start praying about that when you show up at work. God, what do you have for me to do here at this work today? For your kingdom, not for my paycheck. That was a bonus point right there. But the pressure isn't all on us. God is working. God is moving. God is providing. Who better? Who better? To provide than the person who knows us even better than ourselves. Right? Who better to know all the things about us and all the things that we need to sustain us? God is there providing. He's the best person for the job. It's my God. That's my God. And the power of God is directly working in our lives. And this power is unleashed through thanksgiving. To him and for him. But things aren't always good, right?

Life isn't always just cruise control. And especially, especially when things are not good, we're called to give thanks in all circumstances. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” Gratitude isn't something that's dependent on circumstances. Well, you know, I'll give thanks when life is good. I'll give thanks when life is easy. I'll give thanks when my bank account is full. I'll give thanks when I finally get, the newest iPhone. I'll give thanks when I'm having a good hair day. I'll give thanks when I'm on vacation. When my toes are in the sand, God, I'm giving you thanks. I'll give thanks when I finally hit the lottery. Is that what that scripture says? No. It says I'll give thanks even when life is hard. I'll give thanks when I know, I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills. I'm going to give thanks even when my kids are not there. I'm not listening. Oh, pray for me in that. I'll give thanks when my boss is dumping more and more and more on my plate that I can't handle. I'll give thanks when I'm having a bad hair day. I'll give thanks even when I can't go on vacation. I'm going to give thanks when my phone is acting up. I'm going to give thanks when life is burdensome and heavy. No. We give thanks. Why? Because of who God is. You know, happiness is based on happenstance. But the joy of the Lord that is deep down in our hearts is rooted in the foundation of who he is. True joy is deep, deep, deep, deep down into God. And because of that, we can give thanks in all circumstances. Because God is almighty God. And he has overcome everything in Christ. That's why we give thanks. That's why we give thanks. So whatever we're facing in this short time that we're here down on earth, we know that God has already taken care of our eternity. We can give thanks no matter what we face this afternoon or tomorrow, this week, this month, this next year in 2025. We can give thanks to God because of who he is. The enemy would love to do nothing more. The enemy would love to do nothing more than make sure our gratitude is only based on our circumstances. That's where he gets us. That's where he comes after us and he starts poking us. Poking us. Poking us and telling us lies. Saying, you don't got it. You're not going to make it. You're not going to pay your bills this month. You're not going to have what you need. You're not going to be able to provide. You're not going to be able to take care of your kids. You're not going to be able to do this. You're not going to make it at work. Tells us over and over again. And we have to have a practice of gratitude, of rehearsing gratitude in our hearts and in our lives so that when those lies of the enemy come in, we can see them clear as day and go, not today, Satan. That ain't happening. We can push back.

Gratitude is an expression of faith in God's goodness, even in our difficult times. I see this as gratitude as like a handle we can hold on to life. Because life's getting crazy. Right? I don't know anybody who hasn't told me that life is not a roller coaster. It's life. Everybody who is asleep is just like, what's going on? Gratitude is the handle on that roller coaster that we get to hold on for dear life sometimes. And it's a blessing that God gives this to us. I'm thankful for some of you that right now life is great. I love it. It makes me so happy. But we know it always won't be like that. For some others in this room, life is hard right now. It's coming at us. We feel like we're stuck on that roller coaster and it's just on loop and we cannot get off and it will not slow down. But we got the handlebar of gratitude to hold on to even in the midst of all of that. We have to have a mindset or a rhythm of rejoicing always with God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. as the scripture says, of praying continually. Always having a mindset towards God in whatever we're facing, wherever we're at. It doesn't mean we need to be walking around with our eyes closed and our hands folded the whole time. That's not what pray continually means. It means that we have our mindset on heaven. Where we're looking to Jesus to go, you're my sustainer, you're my life, you're my hope. You are the reason that I can even put one foot in front of the other. That's how we pray continually. And in that we give thanks in all circumstances that we can grab on to hold the handle of that gratitude in our life. When times are good, especially when times are tough, holding on with everything we have because God is good. God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

Part of our series in gratitude this month is we have a card for you today. And this is, this is gonna be handed out, ushers are coming. And they're gonna give you one of these. And what this is, is we wanted something that would be more than just Sunday. We wanted something that would take us through our week and not just be a Sunday morning kind of a practice. And so we're gonna give you a card. And for the next 30 days, we're gonna challenge one another to take a moment every single day in prayer and in your time with God. Maybe you wanna do it while you're in the word with him during that time, maybe morning and evening. You wanna take a moment during your lunch break and just pause your busyness of life and to think about and to begin to inventory our lives and to practice gratitude every single day. And so when you're looking at the card, at the bottom, there's some examples. We wanna give you some prompts here to try to help you. Now, if you notice, there aren't enough prompts to do one of those every day, you're gonna have to come up with some of your own. But these are examples of things that you can think through during this month. And we're gonna do this every Sunday together as a part of our worship service. So you're gonna get at least four checked off. And right now, right in this time in our service, I wanna invite Daryl up. And he's just gonna, he's gonna play some piano in the background for us. We're gonna do three right now together.

So what I wanna ask you to do is I want you to just bow your head, go before God, and we're gonna take a couple minutes here. And I want you to specifically begin to think about three different things that you're thankful for. And if you're joining us online, maybe grab a scratch paper or pull out your phone, make a note, and be able just to begin to pray to God and say, Jesus, thank you for this. God, it's such a blessing in my life. God, thank you for, thank you for my car. God, it may not run right all the time. May have problems here or there. But God, thank you for my car. I know because I have a car, I'm in the top one, two percent of the world in wealth because I have a vehicle that can transport me. God, thank you for the blessing that is in my life. Thank you for that you've given that to me. God, may I use it for your glory. God, when I drive around town, God, may I be a kind driver to others to even be a blessing to somebody else around me. So take some time, I'm gonna take a couple minutes here. Begin to think and pray through three specific things in your life of what you're thankful for to God. As we start this month together. As you think of those things, maybe just instead of a check mark, I was just thinking about this, writing down what you were thankful for that day. So you can remember, you can go back at the end of the month and you can see the 30 different things that you're thankful for God in your life.

God, we are so thankful for who you are, Jesus. God, you're an incredible God. You're a loving God. And Jesus, we thank you for the many things that you blessed us in our life. God, I pray for us as we begin this journey of 30 days of gratitude together as a church. God, I'm reminded of our vision that we shared this summer of 20 salvations and baptisms, 10 new families, three key leaders, and our one united heart of gratitude to you, God. God, may we grow in our gratitude this month as you guide us in your word and through your scriptures and through our daily practice of gratitude. God, may we give thanks for who you are in our lives. May we practice with giving thanks for the things that you have done, God, but also in that knowing that we will grow in our gratitude to where we can begin to have a heart of gratitude. A heart for the things that you have yet to bless us with. For the things that you have yet to do in our hearts and in our lives. For the things that you have yet to do in our families, in our kids, in our communities, in our Rocklin, Roseville families. God, you are going to do some incredible things this year, God, but we have to learn how to practice gratitude even now. So Jesus, I pray that you would bless us and that we would stand tall with one another, to not let the enemy come into our hearts and begin to throw us off, but that we would have a foundation of thanksgiving deep, deep, deep down into you, God. That we will be reminded of so many things that you've blessed us with and so many things that we have yet to receive. You are Jehovah Jireh. You are the God who will provide. God, let that truth be locked into our hearts today. May we not forget that. Because we also know what comes in Thanksgiving. Wanting to buy things and shopping and evaluating what we have and what isn't good enough. And what isn't good enough. And how we need an upgrade. And these 10,000 lies daily of advertisers that come in and begins to cloud our mind. And sometimes it's hard to see you, God. I pray that our heart of thanksgiving with superpower would push back all of those lies. And we'd be able to continue to focus on you, Jesus. Not only throughout Thanksgiving, but even throughout Christmas. And the end of the year. God, may we practice and learn gratitude to set ourselves up for a year of gratitude in 2025, Jesus. God, thank you for who you are. God, we give thanks for everything in our lives. May we give thanks in all circumstances. May our gratitude be founded in the grace of God. May we give thanks in the goodness of who you are. So that we can rejoice always. We can pray continually. And we can give thanks in all circumstances. We love you, Jesus. We pray all of this in your son's name. Amen. Amen.

Well, I'm excited to see where this 30 days of gratitude goes. If you along the way have something that happened or you have a friend that you love, have a story to tell, please come tell myself or Pastor Andre when he gets back. We would love to hear your stories of gratitude. And we're looking forward on the fourth Sunday of the month. It will be our Friendsgiving, our annual Friendsgiving meal. We're actually going to have our service. We're going to have a time of testimony of gratitude of what God has done in our lives. So I'm looking forward to that Sunday together. Well, blessings on you guys. I love that you're here with us. Thank you so much for being here. I will be out under the green tent on the way. I will be out if you want to say hello. But may God bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you, be gracious to you, turn his face towards you and give you peace. Amen. Go in Jesus today.

The Guide To Gratitude - Part 1

The Guide To Gratitude

The Foundation of Gratitude – A Heart of Thanksgiving

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Hey, it was fun. I had a chance to listen to Pastor Chris's sermon from last week, and I just wanted a real briefly just share three key points that I pulled from his sermon to remind us as we flow into today. And there were three things that I heard him say. First of all, gratitude is a spiritual practice. Practice means you work at it. Gratitude is a superpower, which is actually fantastic. And then gratitude is for any circumstances. And I loved his story about the saxophone because as I heard him share that, I thought I already had a gratitude, a thankfulness right there that I did not have to listen to him practice that saxophone. He shared about that. In fact, I confirmed it today that the saxophone that he initially started with, I believe is correct, that our son, Ryan, our oldest son, Ryan, who's a few years older than Pastor Chris, he basically had that saxophone. And then after hearing him practice, we paid the Snider’s to take it and give it to Chris as a gift. So that was a fun time. I have a friend, he's written this wonderful book, says, that wrote, he wrote this book that is titled, "If You're Not Dead, You're Not Done." And so in his story, in this book, he shares a story actually of his pastor's wife that he had when he was a little boy. And he talks about the fact how encouraging she was and how she mentored many, many, many young people over the years. As she got older, she contracted cancer. And so as towards the end of her life, they had to put her into a extended care home. And she was in her late 80s, and her son-in-law went to visit her in this situation. And he went to her and he said, again, remember, she was a very encouraging lady. And he went and he was visiting with her and he said to her, "Mom, how can I pray for you?" And she said, "Pray that I don't get grumpy." I thought it was fantastic. That was a wonderful statement. She had this prayer, she's suffering from cancer, she's getting the end of her life. And her thing is she just did not want to get grumpy.

And so as I share this morning, kind of building off what Pastor Chris shared last week, we're going to talk about the fact that gratitude needs to become ingrained in our lives. And I love the fact that you're doing this thing with this card to remind you every day of something to be grateful for. And so as we get into this, I'm going to go to Colossians chapter 3. If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn there or your phone, whatever you use to pull up your scripture. And we're going to take a look at Colossians chapter 3. And Colossians chapter 3, verse 17 says this, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." In other words, he's saying we can have this lifestyle, this living out of our daily existence that we can be thankful and be able to represent God in every situation we find ourselves. And along the way, not get grumpy. All right? And so, but before we do that, it's funny when you read a verse, maybe when you've had this happen to you, it's happened to me. We record a lot of the TV shows that we like so that we can watch them on our own time. And so we were going in and one of the shows that we like is called FBI. And so we put the recording on and all of a sudden the FBI takes off and I felt like that we missed something. Something's going on that seems like we should know about. And it seems like it's getting to the end of this story. And I even said to Joni, my wife, I said, "Did we not record all of this? Did we miss part of it?" And as we're having this conversation, all of a sudden across the screen it says, "24 hours earlier." Ever had that kind of situation? You're in there and all of a sudden you think, "What in the heck is going on?" "Oh, well, let us catch you up." This is here we are now 24 hours earlier and they begin to catch you up to the story. And then Colossians chapter three, verse 17, that's kind of where we are. We kind of are at the end of what Paul is trying to say in this chapter. And so I want to kind of rewind back real quickly and I want to do an overview or a flyover or a summary of Colossians one through 14. And we talk about the fact that in this idea that Paul was laying out in Colossians, that we can have a new us. We can be new people. In fact, we are new people, just sometimes we forget that we're a new person. That's assuming you have a relationship with Jesus and you're living out that faith on a daily basis. As Paul says in Philippians, we need to work out our salvation. In other words, once we come into a relationship with Jesus, then it's a lifetime, not just a few weeks, a lifetime of living out and working out the salvation that he so graciously provided to us through faith in him. And so let's kind of just kind of walk real quickly through before we get down to where we started.

First of all, we learn in the first part of this chapter that we can have a new perspective. And he begins to lay out his, since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above when Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Verse two, set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. That's the new perspective that we can have, that we can set our mind on things above, not just on earthly things. Now you may or may not have heard this statement. It's been, when I was a kid, I heard it a lot. People would say, don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. And that's not what Paul is talking about here. He's just simply saying, we have this heaven, this reality that we have as a future hope. And we need to realize no matter what happens down here, we run that through the filter of our heavenly mind. We run it through the filter of our heavenly mind. And I don't know about you. We talk about gratitude and thankfulness, and I don't care how you voted. It makes no difference. I'm sure glad the election is over. Just glad that's all over. And so we have that idea that we have this heavenly mind and we run things through that, that this is not all there is in our life, what exists down here.

And then not only do we have this new perspective, but we have this new reality. He lays that out in verses five through 11, but in verses nine and 10, he really kind of, I believe, zeroes in on this new reality. He says, "Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator." See, we have this new reality. We no longer have this old self. And previous to that, he lays out a lot of the attitudes and actions that this old self had us wrapped up in. He says, "Now we have this new self." It isn't much different than the old self. You have a new reality and you need to live in that new reality. And as you discover that new reality and live firmly in it, yes, your lifestyle will change as far as how you look at things and you are grateful and thankful for.

And then he talks about our new identity. It's right there in verse 12, he says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved." That's our new identity. In Jesus Christ, that is our new identity. We are a chosen people. God chose us. And we can be a holy and we can be a dearly loved people. And so as we have these three things that have built up to where we kicked in here, that with this idea of having a new perspective, a new reality, a new identity, as a result, you and I, we can have a new lifestyle.

And it's a lifestyle that says in all that we do, all that we say, all that we think can glorify God. Does it mean that we're perfect? It just means that God can take all that we do and all that we are and all that we say and redeem that for His glory. Verse 15 says this, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you recall to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all the wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." So the foundation of the new lifestyle that Paul talks about here in Colossians is thankfulness and gratitude. They're kind of, in a sense, two sides of the same coin. In reality, one of them informs the other. Thankfulness informs gratitude. Because even though they sound similar, and frankly, we interchange them all the time, it's not a bad thing, it's just what we do, they are a bit different. Thankfulness is typically a response to a specific act that benefits us. Something happens to us, and we just respond in that moment at that time. For example, you start to walk into a store and someone's ahead of you. You stop and they open the door and they let you through. Typically you say, "Thank you." Or you say, "What took you so long?" No, you don't do that. You say, "Thank you." You have thankfulness for that really kind gesture.

Maybe you get an unexpected gift. Thank you. Someone helps you, ready for this? Someone helps you move. Have you ever moved from one house to another? My wife, we've been married, well, this next year we'll be married 50 years. And I know, we were 12 when we got married. But anyway, no, I'm just kidding. That was not our background. But we had this orange Naugahyde couch. Did I mention orange? And it really wasn't, it was a pullout bed. And this is when they actually made furniture very strong. And this was orange, Naugahyde is kind of a leathery type stuff, but it was bright orange. And we, for whatever reason, early in our married life, we moved a lot. Maybe we ran out of money and we had to get, I don't know, that wasn't the case. I'm just saying that. But we moved a lot. And literally, and I am not embellishing this at all, I only had one friend that ever would help me move that more than once. He was a real friend. We were moving it from up into a second story apartment and it wasn't really a, one thing that was wrong with it, the latch was broken. You ever carry a heavy couch up a stairway and it starts to unfold? That's an experience. So when we lived in San Diego back in the day and we were getting ready to relocate up here to Sacramento, we had in our family room, this orange Naugahyde couch. And so the people that we sold it to, the house, not the couch, walked them out into our family room and I said, "You see this orange couch? It's part of the deal. It's yours. You can leave it here. You can move it. I just want you to know when you move in, that couch is going to be sitting right there." The last I ever saw that couch and I'm so thankful for that type of thing. So that's what thankfulness is. It's just this everyday, but yet here's the thing. As we learn to say thank you for things, unexpected things, everyday things, that begins to build a pattern in our life to begin to create, and again, you probably have heard this term before, it's not new, an attitude of gratitude. Because gratitude is more deeper and enduring feeling than just thankfulness. It goes deeper than that. It tends to encompass just our whole general being. We just have this sense of gratitude and that's good. And I'm discovering this. You know, we sing about faithfulness and many times as we understand the faithfulness of God, we begin to understand and be more grateful for that. And I think part of that comes frankly with maturity or with age. I used to think as a younger pastor that only old people talked about faithfulness. And then as I've gotten myself older, I realized part of the reason for that is you have this entire history of seeing God work in your life. Even at the time you may not even notice that. And then you look back and say, "Ah, God is so faithful. I am so grateful for His faithfulness." And young people here, you have that too. And sometimes we just don't take the time to look back and say, "Oh my goodness, look how God entered into our lives. Look where His faithfulness became evident. I am so grateful for that faithfulness." So when we begin to consistently be thankful, it will feed a lifestyle of gratitude.

However, there are some perspectives that can get in the way of being a thankful, grateful person. Here's one person, I'm only going to share three. There's probably more. I'm going to share three. First, I earned it. So if you have the perspective, "I earned it all. I worked it out on my own. I did it all." Very hard to be grateful or thankful for what you earned. And I'm all for earning stuff. I think we should work hard. Nothing wrong with that. But we miss sometimes when we have the perspective, it was I who earned it. We forget of all the people along the way that were gracious to us. Some of you may have heard this adage and it basically is about a turtle that is sitting on the fence post. And here's the adage. If you ever see a turtle sitting on a fence post, you know it had helped getting there. I don't see very many turtles that can climb up a fence and jump on that post. And that's what it is when we say, "I earned it. Oh yeah, I think you probably did. You did a lot of work, but you had help getting there." Be thankful and grateful for the people and the opportunities that allowed you along the way to have the opportunity to earn the things that you have.

A second perspective that tends to erode our ability to be thankful or grateful is simply I'm entitled to it. If I'm entitled to something, if I deserve something, then why would I be grateful for it because I'm entitled to it. And it keeps us from seeing the reality of the situation that helped us to have that quote unquote entitlement and to be able to be grateful for that. Jesus talks about that in a wonderful story he tells in the book of Matthew chapter 20 and verses 1 through 16. I'm going to give you the ex-Twitter version of that. And basically there's this landowner and he needs work done on his property. So he goes out and he sees some guy early in the morning. He said, "Hey, I have some work. Would you like to work for me today?" And they said, "Sure." And he says, "I'll pay you denarii," which basically in there probably would be, "I'll pay you a fair day's wage. That's what I'm going to pay you." You got it. They went to work. And then later that same morning, the landowner went out about nine o'clock in the morning, according to the story. He saw some other people, frankly, kind of standing around. He said, "Would you like some work?" And they said, "Yes." He said, "Okay, you come on and I'll pay you fairly." He didn't tell them what. He said, "I'll pay you fairly." And they went to work. Then about five o'clock in the evening, he sees some other folks and he says to them, "Would you like some work?" And they said, "Yes." He said, "You come on and work." At the end of the day, at the end of the shift, the landowner called his manager in and said, "Listen, I want you to pay everybody. And I want you to start with the people we hired last and go to the ones we hired first and pay them all a denarii, pay them all a full day's wage." I wouldn't be happy about either, by the way, if you're thinking about that. So the ones who were hired first saw what was happening. The people hired at five got a full day's wage. People hired at nine got a full day's wage. They're thinking, "We're going to get more. We work longer, we're going to get more." They got paid what they were promised to be paid, the denarii, their full day's wage. And they got angry. They got mad. And they basically went to the landowner and said, "What are you doing? We work longer than those guys." And the landowner says, "Did I not pay you what I agreed to pay you?" They said, "Well, yes." He said, "Well, then I'm not being unfair. I've given you exactly what I said I would do. If I want to be a hypocite, if I want to be generous, then that's up to me." But what that story tells us, there's these guys that have this sense of entitlement. The oxen were entitled to more because we worked more than those individuals. And so they grumbled and complained. And yet instead of saying, "Well, I probably would have not preferred it that way, but I'm thankful that I had the work. I'm thankful that I got paid what I was said I would be paid." See, sometimes we have that entitlement mindset is we can never be thankful or grateful for what we've received, we'll begin to compare ourselves with what other people have and say, "Well, that's what we should have.”

And the last perspective that I think can hinder our ability to be thankful is that simply it's all about us. It's all about us. Now all of us in this room at some level, I know we're aware of what happened with the hurricane damage in the Southeastern part of the United States with Helena and also Milton. Just devastation. I'm sure you saw the pictures. They're online or on TV or something. Well, my son, Ryan, who I've already mentioned, who was trying to play the saxophone back when he was a kid, he now is a supervisor for farmer's insurance. And when something like that happens, regardless of what part of the country, he lives here in Northern California, regardless of what happens where they live, it's all hands on deck. So they're sending people, obviously, as they can, get them into these hurricane devastated areas to begin to process claims. And he was telling me one morning, he said, "Dad, we processed 10,000 claims in one day." He said, "Let me give you the context for that. The typical adjuster, a home adjuster for claims, will maybe process 300 a year." He said, "So at the time that we're trying to process all these claims of these people who have lost homes or they're flooded in this devastation," he said, "Let me give you an example. Someone here in the Rocklin Roseville area might have a stain on their roof about the size of a paper plate." And so they submit the claim for that. And it's a sunny day. There's no rain coming, the whole thing. They submit a claim for that and we're overwhelmed, so we're not able to process it as quickly as we would prefer to. And they start to complain. He has to sometimes handle some of these complaints when his adjusters are busy. And their thing is, "Why are you not calling me? Why are you not taking care of this?" And he's trying to explain it. Do you not know there's all these people in the Southeastern part of the United States that have no home or their house is underwater? And they said, "Oh yeah, but then I got this stain on my roof." Instead of being grateful that they do have insurance, it will be processed. And that's in human nature. I get it. But sometimes this gets in the way of us being grateful for what we do have in our lives.

So we need to become grateful, thankful people. How might we do this? And this is going to feed right into what Pastor Chris has been sharing with you about that 30 days of gratefulness or thankfulness. And I want to put it this way. There are just three things I want to encourage you to do. In essence, I want you to put pep in your day, P-E-P, pep in your day. Okay? A little pep. All of us can have a little pep in our day. A little energy, a little excitement, a little enthusiasm. And we can do it ourselves. The first one is this. Just simply practice grateful daily, gratefulness daily. Just practice that. Remember Pastor Chris said that gratefulness is a practice? And it is. It's something you practice it doing. Whatever it is, whenever you're learning something new or wanting to gain a certain expertise, what do you do? You practice it. And that's what it's talking about here. I have a, I don't know if I call him a friend. He's an acquaintance. I think I met him. We crossed paths many, many, many years ago. His name is Heath Mulligan. And I noticed on Facebook that regularly he will put out this little thing. Well, actually almost every day. Today I am grateful for, and he'll list a few things. And I, again, I don't know him well. I know him well enough to reach out. He would know who I am, blah, blah, blah. And so I messaged him through Facebook. And I said, "Heath, when did you start doing that?" That fascinates me. "When did you start doing that?" And then I said, "And what motivated you to do that?" He's a younger guy, well, younger than me. Of course, everyone's younger than me. Well, maybe some of you aren't, but most of you are younger than me. And he came back and he said, "Well, I started this practice in 2020, 2021." And he said, "I did it because I was reading some books. And it seemed like the books I were reading, every one of those authors somewhere in that book said it needed to practice being grateful." So he said, "I just thought I would start doing that." And this was just this last week I reached out to him. And just let me give you an example. This is actually from Monday of this week. Heath Mulligan says, "Today, I am grateful for the signs of change, not all of them visible. I'm grateful for back to back to back to back to back meetings. I'm grateful for quad stretches." I don't know why, but there you go. What does he do? He's just practicing gratefulness. And it doesn't have to be something huge or significant, just what was he grateful for that day.

That's the P, Pep, P-E, E, express appreciation to others. Make a habit of openly thanking people. My oldest grandson who lives here in the area, he plays football for Wood Creek High School, and I love football. So he's on the team and I got connected with a guy associated with the Wood Creek football program. And basically he now leverages me onto the sideline, which is great. I love being down there on the sideline. But just again, this was just this last week I'm coming on. There's this young man and he basically, I don't know what they call him now. In our day, we call him the water boy. He's in charge of going out when there's time out or whatever, making sure the players have water. So he has this little satchel on one side, there's their Gatorade field on one side, their water, filled with water. And so I was walking out of the sideline this couple of, actually this last Friday night, I said to him, I just stopped and I said, I introduced myself and I said, "I want to thank you for what you're doing. You really do your job well." And he does. He's very shy. He smiled real big. And, but when there's time, he's right out there and he's giving the players what they need and the whole thing. He always is walking up and down the sidelines in case one of the high school players need to have some water, wherever it might be. He does his job very well. And I just took a moment to say, thank you. That's what we're talking about. Just opportunities to express gratitude or thankfulness or appreciate somebody for what they've done.

And the final P is simply this, pay attention. Practice being fully engaged in moments throughout your day and look for opportunities to be grateful or thankful. Now, I don't know about you, but when I go, I'm in a hurry someplace, which unfortunately is almost all the time. When the light, I'm going down the string of lights and they turn green, I will say in my heart, sometimes outside I'll go, thank you, Lord. Now do I think God changed the light? Absolutely not. But I'm sure grateful that it is changed to green because I had to get someplace. So that's just being aware of what's going on. Being grateful and thankful for friends that you have, for family, thankful for a church community that you have. Hiroko Sanda, I probably butchered that name. The gentleman's not here, so I don't have to worry about it. He is a Japanese actor and producer. And I read a quote that he said, I don't know when he said it, but he read this quote and he talked about certain things. He went on and said, you know, sometimes people want an indoor pool. And when someone has an indoor pool, they never use it. Some people want a new car and some people will have a new car, always looking for the next car they can get. And he went down and used some of those illustrations and he came back around and his final statement was this, the key is to be grateful. Look carefully at what we have and understand that somewhere, someone would give everything for what you already have and don't appreciate it. Just being appreciative of the things that we do have. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever, just to look and see and we go out there today, what can we be grateful and thankful for? So if you practice those three things, that pep, that will help you fill out the card that Pastor Chris has provided for you.

And as I wrap up, I want to invite all of us to stand, if you would. I'm going to read the last final scripture verse. Stand where you are, if you're able. Psalm 150. "Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty heavens, praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his surpassing greatness, praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel, timbrel and dancing, praise him with strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with the responding cymbals, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord." Okay, here we go. Ready? We're all going to take just a real deep breath. You ready? Just ready. Okay, there you have it. We all can praise the Lord.

Nehemiah - Recap & Application

Nehemiah - Recap & Application

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm excited to kind of wrap up our Nehemiah series, we've been in it for like 13 weeks, so like a few months here. It's been great. I hope you've enjoyed it. I'll speak for Andre because he's not here. Andre's enjoyed it, I've enjoyed it, Pastor Lauren's enjoyed it, it's been great. But with this really cool story about God using a man who was just willing, a man who had a heart for the people of God and his tenacity, his grit, his willingness to just push through so many things that came at him. He didn't know when he signed up for the job. It was such a great thing for us. So we want to take a Sunday and actually make sure that we recap kind of what we learned and what we went through. So we're going to walk through some different themes this morning from the book of Nehemiah. If you don't know the story of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king who was in charge of the region. They were technically under captivity under King Artaxerxes. You said that five times, man. Exactly. He basically was the test guy for the king. He would eat all the food, he would drink all the liquid and wine and juice and all that stuff just to make sure that nobody was poisoning kings. So a pretty high stress job if you think about it. And he has some people come visit him from Jerusalem and he hears about the state of the city. They had rebuilt the temple, but Jerusalem as a whole, the city was just in shambles. It was a mess. There was no security with the wall. And so he's moved by God through prayer to actually ask of the king to have a leave of absence to go to Jerusalem and to help rebuild the wall. And so the king honors his request, which is a miracle in itself, and he goes to Jerusalem and he starts rebuilding the wall. And he comes across opposition, he comes across people who don't want the city to be good, he comes against outside countries and nations that are trying to control Jerusalem. He comes up against sin in the city itself, the Israelite people aren't living the way God has called them to. But this man of God, who a prayer warrior, walks through this season and stepping out in a role that wasn't his role essentially. I mean, he was never really trained as a masonry or this wasn't his side business where he built walls because he loved to build walls. But he was just a man who said yes to God's calling in the season and stepped up. And we see as we wrapped up last week that he has not only rebuilt the wall, rebuilt the city, reestablished the city, reestablished the leaders and the temple priests and all this stuff. And in the end, you see this moment of a leader just exhausted. He's tired, he's worn out, but yet he has rebuilt the wall and he's reestablished the city. And we're going to walk through some themes this morning, some really cool ones with us today.

Yeah, so one of the first themes that we really picked out of Nehemiah that we felt was really important to hit home is the idea of prayer. And Nehemiah, you see it throughout the entire book, he is a man of prayer. It was always his first response. It was never a second thought. It was never a last resort. It was always his first response when he approached anything. I mean, you see in chapter one, when he hears about the wall, he immediately fasts and prays. So he's already just talking to God about this. And then after he feels like the Lord is calling him, the king asked him what's going on and what he needs. And before he even responds to his boss, the king, he prays. He prays and seeks out God. And then he goes into, when he goes to Jerusalem, he kind of just takes inventory and rides around the wall and rides around the city and is praying and seeking God. Even when he knows what his call is by then and he knows what his job is supposed to do, he's still continuing to pray. He's still continuing to seek out, okay, every step of the way, Lord, I need you to guide me. I need you to show me what is next. He was just so intentional with that. Even when he thought he knew the right steps, even when he thought he was sure of things throughout the book, he continued to come back to prayer, to kind of this like recalibration and check in with God and always seek him and always allow God to guide him. It reminds me of Romans 12, 12. It says, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer." And Nehemiah exemplified all of these things. He was joyful in hope and he was patient in affliction, which he faced a lot of, but he was so faithful in prayer. He was so good to always make sure that that was a top priority for not only him, but for all the people. He led the people in seeking God, in how to go about all of this, in how to face the opposition, in how to actually do the job of rebuilding the wall. They constantly were seeking God. And really just the reality that we can take away is that it is helpful, obviously, to pray and to seek him, but it's just wise. It is a wise thing for us to look at prayer as a priority, to make it a priority in our life, to constantly seek the Lord, ask him to guide our steps. It's so easy for us to get out in front of God. We, "Okay, Lord, you showed me what I need to do. I'm going to go." And then we like run out in front of him. He was like, "Okay, I showed you the next step and you're like 15 steps ahead." So sometimes we need to take a breath and take a moment and really just be sure that we are seeking him every step of the way. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, "Pray continually." Now that doesn't necessarily mean that we're like sitting in our closet or in our, you know, our prayer chair at home and just always praying and never doing anything else, but it's continuing this conversation with the Lord. If we claim to be in a relationship with God, we got to keep talking to him. I can't just stop talking to Chris and expect a relationship to continue. That won't work. We have to continue this conversation with God. He wants to have a relationship with us. He wants us to come to him with our concerns, with our prayers, with our praise too. Prayer can be a time of praise and adoration as well, but he wants us to continue to pray continually to be engaged in that conversation with him all the time

Yeah, absolutely. And Nehemiah faced loads and loads and loads of opposition and it came from most unlikely places. He had opposition from outside, which they had surrounding nations and cities that were competing for the area, which was expected. But then he also had opposition from within. He had his own Israelite people turn against him and to come at him and to judge him, to ridicule him, and even opposition from themselves. The Israelite people at times just got in their own way. I have so many times where God's like, "Hey, this is what I want you to do. This is where I want you to be." God is leading them and calling them and then they just get in their own way by making their own choices, living the way that they want to. But there's a specific moment when, I love this, in Nehemiah when he started to build the wall and there's this group of, we'll call them the elite, I guess. I don't know other way, but Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. They basically come to Nehemiah and they're like, "Hey man, how about you come down the wall? We'll talk things out. We'll come up with a plan of what we're going to do here." And I love what Nehemiah says. He doesn't come down. He's like, "I'm too busy doing God's stuff," he says in Nehemiah 6.3. So I sent messages to them, the three bros. "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" Nehemiah knew his calling. He knew what he was supposed to do. And without a shadow of a doubt, he wasn't going to let anything get in the way. Even if it meant going against the "cultural norms" of the city that were established before he shows up, he pushes through. Even to the point where they have to begin to defend themselves by having a trowel for rebuilding the wall in one hand and a sword in the other after they were beginning to be attacked. Nehemiah wasn't going to let any threats, any other people's opinions, any outside influence, he wasn't going to let anything stop him from building the wall which God had called him to do. This is level of perseverance is just incredible.

It says in Romans 5, 3-4, not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings. Opposition wasn't fun. I don't know if you've ever been tasked with a project and somebody comes up against you. It's not the most joyous occasion. It's not that we hope to face when we feel like we're trying to walk the way God has us, but we know that there's an enemy too that doesn't want us to walk in the way that God has called us to. Also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, right? Perseverance, character, character, hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. We have an assurance as followers of Christ that when we're given a task by God and we're called to fulfill that task, to live it out, to walk step by step where he has called us, that we know we have the Holy Spirit who partners in that with us. We're not doing this alone. Nehemiah wasn't building this wall alone. Yes, he had people around him from the city helping him, but he had God. He had God with him through all of that, and that gave him a boldness that was unlike anything that we had seen before. It's so evident in this book that Nehemiah knew his calling and he knew his purpose in this season. See, I think that's key right there. That wasn't his first job. That wasn't his perfect gift. I know he may have been a really bad wall builder, but he had YouTube to watch and learn how to build walls. No, I'm kidding. But that wasn't his calling, but it was his calling in that season. He was a cupbearer to the king. That was his first role, and he had to ask permission to go away from it, and we read that he actually goes back for a time as well and comes back to Jerusalem. But for the season in that moment, in that time, that was his calling. I think for some of us, we have different callings in different seasons. I have a calling in a season right now to help lead worship at Spring Valley. It's not my primary job. It's not my primary role, but in this season and in this time, this is what God has asked me to step up in faith. And so we step up and we faith. Lauren serves joyfully. Joyfully. I say gleefully is a little long, but joyfully in our children's ministry. That's not her calling. That's not her passion. She likes preaching in here to big kids, not little kids. But she does it because of the season we're in and where we're at. There's so many seasons and people that I look around this room that you guys are stepping up in this church in seasons, and it's amazing. It's a huge testament to your faithfulness to God. And for us to see an example like Nehemiah, who had the grit to stick through this project, through the thick and through the thin, even in the face of any opposition.

Well, and right along with that, the perseverance, despite maybe not being in his giftedness, was this idea of service. These people, these Jews were coming together for a common purpose of rebuilding the wall. And it said in chapter three that there were priests, goldsmiths, perfume makers, there was all kinds of people with all different skill sets, all different careers. And they all came together for one purpose. And it wasn't so much that they were talented or skilled in rebuilding the wall or in leading the people, but they were willing. They made themselves available to the service for God. And I think that a lot of the times we think that we have to be skilled in something, or we have to be especially gifted in something. And we believe the Holy Spirit gives us gifts for the purpose of giving to the body, of edifying the church. That is true. If you are a believer, you have been given gifts of the Spirit. But also there is a willingness that needs to be there, an availability that we have in our heart to be used however God sees fit. And here we see all of these names listed out in Nehemiah. And it makes you wonder, because they were available and because they were in service to God, they have their names in the Bible forever. They get to have that praise, I guess, for them to be able to say, "Yeah, I was there. Make note, take record of this. I got to be there. I was part of the group. I was a perfume maker. I never had built a wall in my life, but I got to be in service to God because I made myself available.”

Colossians 3:23-24 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." We would all love to have earthly rewards for the service that we do in the church and in the community. That would be wonderful. But that's not always a reality. There are certainly benefits and rewards that come from serving, but we are serving God. We are serving the Lord when we volunteer, when we show up, when we have a smile and a welcome to someone else. That is serving others and therefore serving God. And that is making yourself available despite your skillset, despite your passions, despite maybe what you feel like you're lacking. Making yourself available to God is the key. It is the obedience, not the results. And so we feel like that is a value here is serving in the church, in the community, where you are, where you live. And that is so important because we are doing it for the Lord, not for man. And there's an obedience part in there.

And it takes us to our big final theme that we had through Nehemiah, and that's holiness. It's this obedience to what God has asked of us. And there were times, multiple times in New Maya when the people read the book of God. They read the Bible, they read the scrolls, they read the Torah, and they realized through reading God's word that their lives weren't right. They took God's scripture and they took their lives and compared them side by side and realized these aren't lining up. God's asking me to live this way and I'm over here doing this thing. That's not right. That's not what God has asked us to do. And they weren't living their life the way God wanted. They were living the way that they wanted to, which I think we all at times struggle with, right? We end up living the way that we want to or the way that we want to in our choices, in our preferences, in how we have our calendars. We live the way that we want to. And for New Maya and Jerusalem, it was specifically they weren't obeying God's commands in the temple for worship. They weren't obeying the Sabbath with God commanded them all the way back to Egypt, coming out of Egypt to set a day aside and worship and praise to Him. They weren't obeying Him in their relationships. There was intermarrying going on, relationships that weren't centered on God, and things were affecting their daily lives. And in the final chapter we read in New Maya, we see him after he comes back to Jerusalem and going back to the king as a cupbearer, he shows back up and everything is in chaos. He had left certain people in charge and they had failed at their job. He had told people this is how we're supposed to live their lives and they just somehow forgot it. They just started doing whatever they pleased. And New Maya comes back and goes, "This isn't what God has called us to. This isn't the righteousness that God said we're supposed to live." And once again, he helps lead them back into right living and right standing with God. And New Maya could have easily said, "You know what? I built the wall. I did my job. Peace out, Jerusalem. Good luck." Not my rodeo, but he knew what was important. He knew that the wall and the temple and the health of the city was just a tool or a resource or a plumb line or a guide to what God wanted for them. And that was for them to have a heart after God. And they didn't have that heart. And so, New Maya didn't care, I think he cared, but not cared that the wall had been built and that the temple was good and that the city was set. He knew that those were good and great, but he knew what was more important and that was their heart living for God. He really knew that they needed to honor God with all of their self.

It says in 1 Peter 1:14-16, "Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know better. You didn't know any better then, but now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the scriptures say, 'You must be holy because I am holy.'" Those are the words of God. But to do that and to live that out, it requires confession, it requires repentance. But also one of the things that I love about New Maya was that involves celebration. There were times where they had to repent for what they did. They had to grieve their disobedience, but it didn't stop there. They let God come into their hearts, restore them, change them, bring them back to life, and they celebrated that. I don't know that the church does that super well. Not enough. I don't think we do that enough to celebrate in God. We like to be hard on ourselves, go, "Oh, I messed up," or, "I'm not good," or, "God, you don't know the things that I've done." Well, first off, he does. He's been there the whole time. But you're just like, "God, you just don't get it. I'm a horrible person. I'm all messed up." And God goes, "Okay. I can fix you. I want to fix you, and I want you to celebrate. I want to bring joy into your hearts. I want you to celebrate this new life, to worship with joy and gladness for what God had done, has done, and what he is going to do and what he will do.”

So what about us? What do we take about this? What's our big number one thing we learn from Nehemiah? Well, I think a great question to start is, what is God asking of you right now in this season? What's God asking you to step up and do, to step up, to step in, even when it might not be our preference? Because that's true service right there. It's easy to serve when we want to, where we want to, how we want to. It's not much of a sacrifice. But Nehemiah uprooted his entire life, traveled far, sacrificed his years of service. There's times where he sacrificed income to feed people. He gave up of himself, probably not what he wanted to do, to answer the call that God had asked him for in that season. I think for us is, are we seeking God regularly? Are we taking time every single day in prayer, in scripture reading, in personal worship, silence, and solitude? Do we have a weekly Sabbath? Or are we living out this idea of walking with God in holiness, allowing him to come in and go through all the junk that we have, relinquishing control with the stuff that we have, letting him transform us into ultimately who he wants us to be, right? Do we keep prayer as the lifeblood of our lives? Do we pray as if our lives depend upon it? Nehemiah did. Nehemiah prayed like that was his only resource. I think that should be us too, that we should pray as if our lives depended upon it. And ultimately, are we trusting God to control everything, even in the midst of opposition? That we can persevere through life, we can make it through the next five minutes, an hour, the next day, next week, knowing that God's got our back, knowing that the Holy Spirit is there with us, interceding for us to God, praying prayers that sometimes we can't even pray ourselves because we're so overwhelmed in life from where we're at. Do we persevere?

Probably one of the key verses I love that comes out of Nehemiah, and a lot of people quote this and talk about this, but it comes from Nehemiah 8:10. And it says, "For the joy of the Lord is our strength." The joy of the Lord is our strength. Do we think about God as our joy juice? The one that recharges us? He gives us the breath in our lungs every morning when we wake up, right? He gives the energy to our bodies. He sustains our life. It's not us. It's not who we are. It's God. But do we look at it in a way of joy? Do we think about Mondays as joyful? I don't know. Some Mondays, it's a holiday. What if we saw every single day as an opportunity to let God's joy be our strength and to where His strength empowers everything that we do? I think our lives would look different. I think our lives would look a little bit more like Nehemiah.

Let me pray. Jesus, we thank You. God, thank You for Your servant, Nehemiah, who gave up everything for You, God. He gave up his plush job in the palace with the king, traveled to Jerusalem, faced ridicule and opposition, both inside and out, faced ridicule from people who were probably supposed to be the ones on his team, and yet they turned on him too. God, I urge us this week that we would make prayer the number one thing in our lives, just as Nehemiah did, to seek You in every single moment, in the joy, in the heart, in the twists and the turns of life that come at us so fast, God. God, may we stay connected to You in Your Holy Spirit. God, so when things come up against us, we can have this joy that is our strength to seek after You as You've called us to be a holy people. God, come into our lives today, in this moment right now. Remind us of Your sovereignty, Your strength, Your power, Your grace, Your love, Your patience, Your faithfulness. God, You're an amazing God, and I'm continually amazed, blown away, God, that You care about each and every one of us. God, maybe there's some people here today who would say, "I don't know this, Jesus. I haven't made a conscious decision to allow God to come into my life." And so, Jesus, I pray right now that in the quiet of their heart, they would just pray a simple prayer of, "God, I'm sorry. God, I need You. Jesus, come into my life. I give You what is the humbleness of my day-to-day, my family, my job, my whole being I give to You. God, cleanse me. Make me right again with You. Forgive the sins, the wrong things that I've done. Make me whole. I want Your holiness to come into my life to transform me so that I can live in turn the way that You've asked me to live. Jesus, I thank You for who You are and Your gift and Your sacrifice on the cross for my life to substitute for the death that I was facing. Or maybe we need to just make a decision right now in this moment to say, "I need to say yes to God again. I've been on my own thing. I've been running away. I've been angry at God maybe. Maybe I've been frustrated. You've been just let down, it seems like. Maybe we need to make a choice to say, "God, come back. I need You. I know You're my only source of hope, and I missed it. God, come into my life. Restore me. Remind me of who You are, and I may trust in You once again. God, we're so grateful for today. We're grateful for everything that You've blessed us with. God, may we continue to live out the calling that You have for us that may change in seasons from time to time, but God, may we joyfully serve and step up in those moments, knowing it's not going to last forever, but knowing that this is our calling from You right now. We love You, Jesus. We thank You. We praise You for who You are. In Jesus' name, amen.

Nehemiah - Chapter 13

Nehemiah - Chapter 13: Living a Life Pleasing to God

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Excited to be here. If I haven't met you, my name is Pastor Chris, I'm part of the team. And we are continuing in, actually in the last chapter of Nehemiah today. And we've been at it. You guys have gone, I don't know, how many weeks have we been in this thing now? Like 12 weeks or something? And we have been through good times, we've been through some hard times, and we're gonna wrap up the book today in the text. And next week, actually, we're gonna come back and we're gonna have, just 'cause it's been such a long time, we're gonna kind of tag through some of the main teaching principles that we learned from Nehemiah this past season. And so this chapter comes at right the end of Nehemiah's story. And it's kind of gonna have, heads up, it's gonna have a little bit of an abrupt ending to it. But I think there's some key things in there and intentionality with that, and some truths for us today. And so if we could, I'd love, I know we've been praying and we've been worshiping, I'd love to pray one more time before we jump into God's word together. Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, we are so grateful to be here in your presence. Jesus, we pray for those who aren't able to be with us. We know we've got some sickness going around, Jesus, we just pray against that right now in your name, that families would be healed and sickness would go away and we'd be able to bring everybody, our whole family, God, back together. Jesus, we thank you for this beautiful day this morning, I think for the cool, crisp fall air that we all shared in on our way into church this morning. God, thank you for who you are and your amazing creation that we get to enjoy. We love you, Jesus, we thank you, amen.

Well, Israel, or I'll say Israel as a general term, but Jerusalem and the people have finally started to obey God's word. Nehemiah came into the city, he rebuilt the wall, he had lots of opposition, different things happening to him, and he fights through all of that and the people rally and they get the walls built, they get Jerusalem secure again. So they're coming out of captivity, they've had the temple rebuilt, the wall rebuilt, the city is coming back together, things are going great, and yet there's still, there's something missing. And then they begin to read and open up God's word and they realize that they're not living the life that God has called them to. They're coming up short in how they treat one another, how they love each other, how they conduct business, how they live their lives, they're just, they're not up to what God has for his standard. And so they begin to change what they're doing, they get back into right worship in the temple, they start living their lives the way that God has called them to, they start being generous with one another, they're caring for each other, they're looking out for widows and orphans, they're living life to the fullest, and God's glory is just shining in on this amazing city and everything is just going so great. And so we have this moment where we think they did it. They finally did it. All of this text up here in this first half, up to this moment of when the Israelites kind of get it and then they fall off, and they kind of get it and they fall off, and they kind of get there and then they fall off, we think we finally got here, right? We finally arrived at this place where people are living right, they're worshiping right, they have right relationships, they are living righteous lives. Have you ever been around kids in the presence of a teacher or a parent or just someone in charge who's supervising? And all is good, right? All is good, I think we got some teachers in the room, you can attest to this, they're being kind with one another, they're sharing toys, they have their listening ears on, they're good and proper conduct, right? And then that teacher or parent or adult supervision just steps out of their presence for just one, even one second. What happens? Chaos, absolute chaos ensues. They're beating each other up, they're taking things from each other, they're starting to draw on walls, they just mass chaos, how does this happen? How does this happen? I don't get it, there's scientists out there that have studied this for generations and they still can't figure out how this happens. And we're gonna find ourselves in this place that Israel is living right, they're doing everything they're supposed to and everything is going great and they're walking with God and then it's gonna turn to chaos.

It says in Nehemiah 13, "Before this, "Elishab, the priest, had been put in charge "of the storerooms of the house of our God. "He was closely associated with Tobiah." Before all this happened, in the scripture we read that they had once again committed themselves to living the way that God had commanded them to live. And they're reading the word of God, verse one, it talks about the word of the Lord is being read. And all of this part of right living is set up in this place where they have proper leadership in place. This was Nehemiah's one final thing he did in the city of Jerusalem, he put all the right people, or he thought he was putting the right people in charge to make sure everything was gonna be run well. They had appointed a new high priest or senior or leader pastor over the city and that this priest and this pastor was needing a physical representation of God to the people and then the priest himself was a representation from the people back to God. And this is go between or liaison, a shepherd leading these people. And everything was set, everything was great in Jerusalem. And Nehemiah, we don't understand the terms of why, but he actually heads back to where he came from. He has to go back to his job under King Arxerxes and he heads back to take care of his duties that he had.

And it says this in verse six and seven, "But while all of this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, Nehemiah. For in the 32nd year of Arxerxes, King of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Sometime later, I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem." I don't know if he had heard, I don't know if he just had that leader intuition, "I gotta go back." He had that dad nudge or that mom nudge of like, "Something's not right. I need to go back and see my people, see my crew." And so Nehemiah heads back to Jerusalem and when he shows up, it is absolute chaos in the city. People have lost their ever loving minds and are just doing whatever they want to do. And everything that he had set them up going, "Okay, do this. Okay, be at bright worship. Like be kind to one another. Conduct yourselves in your relationships like this." All this stuff, he literally comes back and it's the complete opposite of anything that's happening. Anybody watch the show "Community" back in the day? It was about the community college. Anybody? Well, there's this scene where the one guy leaves to go get pizza and all of his friends are hanging out, I think it's his apartment. And he comes back and he flings the door open and he's holding pizza and the whole apartment is on fire. And he was like, "I was gone 20 minutes." Like what happened? Like I can see Nehemiah like walking through the gates and just like, the city's not on fire, but like emotionally the city is on fire all around him. And he's like, "What is going on? The temple is being abused." Nehemiah 13, four and five. He said, "Before this, Elishib, the priest, had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of the God." Good. "But he was closely associated with Tobiah." Not so good. "And he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive prescribed for the Levites, musicians, gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priest." If we flip back just a few chapters near the beginning of Nehemiah when he's beginning to build the ball, Tobiah is like his arch nemesis. This guy was against Nehemiah rebuilding the wall. He was against God doing anything in Jerusalem. He was all against Nehemiah. And so this Elishib actually becomes his father-in-law of Tobiah, he marries his daughter. But in this, he ends up giving his father-in-law a house, an apartment within the temple. This is a big no-no. And on top of that, Tobiah is just walking around like an unlimited buffet in this place and going, "I'm gonna have a little bit of this. I'll go over here, I'll have a little bit of this." He's like that dude, like he's probably like walking around in his bathrobe and like the church is going on. He's like, "Hey, what's going on? Let me just get some grain and a little bit of wine this morning, get the morning off right." Like he's stealing from God. And his son-in-law, who's supposed to be in charge of all this under Nehemiah, just lets him do it. Absolute chaos. To the point that Tobiah is taking so much food that the people who are working in the temple who are fed and provided for from the tithes and offerings that come to the temple for God, that's kind of their paycheck. Like they're having to go find their own food because he's taking so much himself and not allowing the people who are doing God's work. So they're not even able to be around. And then they're off having to provide for their own families, doing their own farming and such.

Then Nehemiah finds out that Sabbath isn't longer being observed. Verse 15, "In those days, I saw people in Judah shredding wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine and grapes and figs and all kinds of loads. They were bringing this all into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. The problem was with the influence on the outside of the neighboring cities and cultures. They didn't stop working on Sunday. They just kept plowing through. They wanted to make as much money as they could as fast as they could. And they realized, man, this city is huge. We got a great monetary business opportunity here, friends. And if the Jews are gonna stop working on Sunday, then all they got, we had no competition. So they start rolling in on Sunday, selling their stuff, price hikes, supply and demand, there's a lot of demand, there's a little bit of supply. Oh yes, here we go. And so they start selling their stuff. And then the Israelites are like, wait a minute, if they're selling, I'm gonna sell. So then they start selling. And then they're like, well, if he's selling and he's selling, I'm gonna get in on this opportunity. I'm gonna start selling. And so this Sunday where it was supposed to be a day set aside for worship in God's temple, turns into just another Friday afternoon in the city streets, hustle, bustle, trade, money being made all around. And then Nehemiah finds out that unholy marriage, ungodly marriage is happening. Verse 23, "Moreover, in those days, I saw men of Judah had married women from Asherah, Ammon, and Moab." After Nehemiah had gone through all this time setting right godly marriages, they just start marrying around. They're marrying these people over here who have all of these idols that they worship. And they're marrying this group over here that is not following God. And then they're bringing that into their house. And all of a sudden their kids are learning about different stuff. And God is in the center of everybody's marriage. And just like, just chaos is happening. These cults and these nations and all these outside religions are starting to influence even at the family level in Jerusalem.

The entire city has fallen into a place of living in sin. And just a short time earlier, they had gone through this time of repentance and grieving and asking for God for forgiveness to say we're not living the way that the Bible says. We're so sorry. We don't wanna live like that. We wanna live the way God, you said we're supposed to live and to be right with God. And it was just, seems like yesterday. Those thoughts and those convictions and those right moments of living righteously are just gone. And they're finding themselves in the place of complete opposite in total chaos. So Nehemiah starts getting to work. He kicks Tobiah out of the temple said, bro, you ain't living here. This ain't your place. This is not your home. Go find a home somewhere else. Stop stealing our food. He rededicates the temple and anywhere that Tobiah would have wandered in his bathrobe that week. He sends the people away from like selling on the Sabbath. He basically shuts down the market said, hey guys, we're not honoring God. We can't live like this. So he shuts down the markets. Well, they go around the corner. They start doing back alley deals and they're selling stuff out the backs of their carts and the backs of their archaic vans. They're making side deals. They're hustling. They're doing Facebook marketplace deals. Nobody knows secret handshakes. And so he says, fine. He goes, I'm gonna kick all of you out and I'm gonna lock the gates of the city. I'm not gonna let anybody in or out on the Sabbath. You guys can't come in here. And so people are traveling and they're like, oh, the gates are locked. Well, tomorrow's not the Sabbath. Nehemiah is gonna open them. We're just gonna hang out and spend the night. Then people start sneaking outside the city to make deals. People start coming around and they're still making deals outside. So Nehemiah runs them off, says, you guys get out of here. You can't even stay here anymore. He's like, oh my gosh, how can this be happening? And then he starts working on people's relationships. He's like, you guys married the wrong people. You're not honoring God with your marriage. And he just comes to this place of just frustration.

Three times we read this prayer that he prays to God in this chapter. In verse 14, Nehemiah says, remember me for this, my God. Do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services. This guy's beat up. He is exhausted. He says in verse 22, remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love. And then we finish the entire book of Nehemiah with remember me with favor, my God. And this is how the book ends. That's it. But why does it end like this? Like what about the perfect storybook happy ending? Where's that? And the Israelites honor God with the rest of their lives and live joyfully and loving community with one another. The end, roll credits. No. Why does this story end like this? Well, it shows us no matter how good of a leader, there's still a human. And no matter what the greatest leaders can have in life and throughout the history of Israel, we all need a savior. People need a savior. And see, Nehemiah is just one of the names in a long, long list of faithful, God-honoring, righteous leaders in the history of Israel, from Moses to Aaron to Joshua to Deborah to Samuel to King David to King Solomon to Elijah to Isaiah to Jeremiah to Daniel to Zerubbabel to Ezra and now Nehemiah. None of these leaders, how great that they were, were ever successful in leading Israel back to restoration with God. And I think it shows us even today that we need a savior. We all need a savior. We all need Jesus. And that's why Jesus came. That's why he left the right hand of God in heaven, came in such a humble, serving way, and lived his life perfect and gave himself for us on the cross. And apart from God, history will tell us time and time and time again, left to our own devices and convictions, we will find ourselves living a life of sin.

And Nehemiah's close to the book of asking God, I tried, I really did, God, I gave it my all. And you might think, he did. He built the wall, he brought security and life back to the city of Jerusalem. This is a huge accomplishment, but I think Nehemiah understood what was more important, and that's the condition of the heart. That we can have everything, and if we don't have God's heart, it doesn't matter what we've built. It doesn't matter what we gain through life. What matters is a relationship with God. And if we're not in right standing with God, anything that we've built here on earth doesn't matter. We could be the biggest church with everybody in attendance. We could have the fanciest building. We could have the greatest facilities. We could do every ministry perfect. But if we don't have any life change in the name of Jesus, salvations, baptisms, discipleship, it's worth nothing. We made a commitment this summer to having a goal of 20 salvations and baptisms this next year. And this is our number one priority this next year. And this is why. 'Cause we could have everything as a church. And if we don't have people coming to Jesus and having hearts changed, it doesn't mean anything. We could have the biggest bank accounts. We could have all the stuff in life that we could dream about and need. We could have the car. We could have all the clothes. We could have the latest technology. We could have everything that we think we need in life. And without God being number one in that life, it's worth nothing. I've met some of the most successful people in life that are Christ followers. But they have kids and grandkids who aren't going to church, who don't know God for a myriad of reasons. And I would tell you right now, and I've had these conversations, that they would give it all up to have their kids and grandkids and generations after that be followers of Jesus. Because they know what truly matters. I'm telling you, some of these people are, they're set for generations with finances. And they would give it up in an instant to either have their kids sitting with them in church or to know that their kids are following after Jesus. That's some true wisdom right there.

So what about us? What about our lives? What about our priorities? See, I think something very subtle but powerful in the story of Nehemiah that we kind of might skip over is that he had to remove things, whether from the temple, whether from the city, whether from the people's relationships, and he had to cleanse them and to restore the proper, right-living, God-honoring way with actions, priorities, and relationships. Think sometimes, and maybe intentionally, maybe unintentionally, we've kicked God out of our lives in the rightful place of where he should be. We got stuff in our lives. We all need cleaning out, right? I do. Being up here doesn't mean I got everything cleaned out. We all got stuff that we need to have God come in and fully clean us out in order to make the right room where he should be in our lives. And it's not easy. This takes sacrifice, hard choices, putting aside what we want, but there's no other way. There's no extra way we can do. We can't just add on some extra room and go, "Hey, God, I'm gonna put you over here." He still wouldn't have our hearts. There's no shortcut to this. And if there was a shortcut or a life hack or a way to work around this, we'd end up just like the Israelites did. Eventually left to our own devices. Slowly, the devil works slow, man. He works so slow. And yet we find ourselves right back where we were. See, sin keeps us from experiencing God's best in our lives.

You ever try to break a bad habit or stop doing something that you shouldn't? You ever done that in life? It's hard, right? It is super hard. And there's two major parts to this. And I think that's where some of this stuff breaks down. The first part, which is the hard step, is you gotta stop doing whatever you're not supposed to be doing, right? The second part, which I think is just as important, maybe even sometimes even more important, is you have to replace that thing with the healthy thing that you're supposed to be doing. You can do all the research and all the study on this. I mean, scientists and psychologists, they have massive research on all this stuff. But the second step of replacing is sometimes even more important than just stopping doing the thing that you're not supposed to be doing to begin with. But people just stop there, right? I'm gonna quit smoking. You just like, I'm gonna quit smoking. And then eventually, because there's nothing else there, you find yourself smoking again, right? You find yourself just right back in this place. Maybe it's eating or not exercising or not being kind to somebody or specifically sinning in a really strong way. If we don't replace that with God, we find ourselves just back in that same place.

Came across this quote, and it says, "People don't decide their futures. They decide their habits, and their habits shape their futures." Have you ever felt like you wanted to be in God's word, reading his scripture more? But you just, I can't get there. Maybe we're good for a week or two weeks, and we think, I finally got, and then it just falls apart, right? Or maybe it's, I wanna pray more. I wanna make sure I'm talking with God, and I wanna, maybe I'm gonna get up early. I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna read God's word, and I'm gonna be in, just in lockstep with God, 'cause I know that's how he changes me, transforms, that's foundational. But you just, you can't get there. You gotta change some other stuff. Maybe it's, you gotta actually put it in your calendar. Maybe if you're like, I'm gonna do this first thing in the morning, pastor, this is what I wanna do. Okay, then you gotta be going to bed earlier. So you can't just kinda just shove this stuff in there, which I think the Israelites did. They just shoved this into their lives, going, here we go, I'm transformed. But their heart wasn't there. Maybe it's, I wanna be at church every Sunday. One of the greatest things I've ever heard from a pastor, tell me, is that church isn't a Sunday morning decision. Church is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday decision for your week to be at church on Sunday. It isn't about just making sure the alarm goes off and you drag yourself out of bed on a Sunday morning. It's your decisions every single other day of the week that lead you to the place of making church a priority. Holy habits transform our hearts. And if that quote is true, then if we have holy habits, then those habits will begin to shape our future in God.

See, the Israelites wouldn't fully put away their selfishness, their greed, their lustful desires, their outside cultural influences. They would not fully put those away. And so in turn, before they knew it, they found themselves just right back in that place, living a life far away from God. So what about us? To experience God's true transformation, we have to let God fully in to our hearts. I've heard the analogy of our hearts are like a house. And we'll invite God into the living room, in the kitchen, can even use the guest bath down the hallway, but he ain't going to my closet. He's not going into that box. In the garage or the one under the bed. Like that's me. Like God can have everything else except for those places. And it's until we surrender that and give that over to God, every single square inch of every single thing in our hearts, in our homes, will we ever truly experience God's supernatural transformation in our lives. Is it a process? Absolutely. 100%. This doesn't happen overnight. This is a long, slow, step-by-step journey of following Jesus to get to that place. And it'll take a lifetime. I'll tell you, he'll go box by box, man. And when you think you're out of boxes, God goes, "Nope, not one in the back." You're like, "But God." He's like, "Nope." He goes, "I know the other ones you got hidden." We're going through those too, because he loves us. This isn't him trying to control us or put us in a place of shame. Like he loves us so, so much. And so we're gonna take communion together this morning, but I wanna do it a little bit of a different way. I want us to take a moment with the elements and just to pause our hearts. To take a moment and to just hand it over to God. To let him start going through the closet. To let him just have free reign. And some of us, we got something just sitting on the couch in the front room that God goes, "I see it." And some of us, we go, "I don't know." And we just gotta pray. God will tell us. Trust me, first experience there. You think you got the house cleaned up, it's all good. And God goes, "Oh, that's cool. What about that?" And he'll take us on this journey to find that place to fully surrender everything with him. So I wanna take us a moment, we're just gonna bow our heads. And I want us to go before God and just have open hands. To say, "God, search me, search my heart. Tell me what I need to hand over to you." I don't wanna be like the Israelites. I don't wanna be the ones that think they've surrendered everything, but are still holding on to stuff. Go before God right now. Go before God right now.

Jesus, we give you our whole heart. God, even if it may bring some anxiety or worry or hardship with this, God, we give our whole selves to you. God, we give you our anger or hatred towards others. We give you our lust, our worry, our pride, our greed, our envy, our gluttony, our drunkenness, our numbing mechanisms of drugs. Give you our thoughts, our thoughts towards others, maybe even our thoughts towards ourselves. We give you our selfishness, we give you our selfishness. Give you our gossip. Give you all of these things that we like to hide deep down inside of ourselves, but you see it, you know it, and you still love us. You're not scared by it, you're not put off by it, you're not afraid to give it away because all of a sudden something comes up. God, you already know what's there, and you want us to hand it over to you. You wanna set us free from this burden.