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.

Pre-Decide: Part 7

Pre-Decide: Part 7 - I AM A FINISHER

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

So we've been in this series talking about pre-decide and we're going to wrap that up this week but but first I want to kind of maybe talk to those in the room who have ever felt like giving up. You've felt like you want to give up. You got you got into a place in life maybe maybe you at one point... Oh wonderful thank you sir. Maybe at one point you had a dream or you had a goal you had a vision maybe you started with great anticipation you're all excited about you kicked it off. It was going great, but then you hit a wall. You hit resistance and then all of a sudden you found yourself in a place with little to no progress. Frustration started to set in. You felt like discouraged. You wanted to give up. Anybody ever been in a situation like that? Maybe this week. Maybe yesterday. Maybe this morning. I don't know. But maybe you found yourself in a situation where you had a relationship where you really wanted to restore it. You wanted amend it and you tried everything you could you poured energy and time and effort into it and then you found yourself with an even more broken relationship on the other side maybe you're fighting to save your marriage you're doing everything you can you're pouring everything into it but you're just running out of fight you're maybe you're believing for a miracle you have something that you have been praying about every single day for God to do in your life maybe your kids live maybe in a friendship maybe a healing a financial situation like God I need you to do something here I need a miracle you need God to help you overcome maybe an addiction and you tried and you've prayed and you believe but you have seen little to no results and you're losing hope I want to talk with those today who have ever felt in that place or maybe you're in that place today and I want to if you're gonna write something down this morning I want you to write this down when you want to give up we're gonna talk about that today. If you would pray with me. Jesus we thank you for this morning God thank you for those who are here to be able to gather with us God we pray for those who aren't able to be here but are still watching us and joining us through the awesome thing called the internet Jesus we thank you for your blessings in our lives every day and Jesus I pray that the word that you have for us today that you would make it absolutely 100% clear that we would know exactly what you want us to do you know exactly how we're supposed to take that first step today we thank you Jesus, Amen

Well we are concluding a series today and called pre decide and we've been in for five, six weeks or so. And we've been talking about this idea of our decisions. And we first started off, the first week we talked about the quality of our decisions, of your decisions, my decisions, determines the quality of our life. Problem is, we're not good decision makers, right? We try really hard and there's times where we just nail it. We knock it out of the park, we kill the decision. we're like, yeah, look at what I did right here, yes. But then other times you're like, I'm just so, just, I can't. And we just make the wrong decision. Well, our series we're focusing on the statement we've been talking about and this idea of when we're faced with a certain situation, we have pre decided to take a specific action. So when you find yourself in this place, but beforehand without emotion, with the leading of God's will on our lives and His word and prayer and focus and encouragement from our community, we have pre-decided to make this specific action when faced with this certain situation. We've had this statement, we had this circle, we handed out stickers. And if you want one of these cool circle stickers, we got some in the back on the table, we'd love for you to take one home. But we have these six things that we're focusing on. And we've been talking about how I am ready. Say it with me, I am ready. Oh, you're ready, I love it. Talking about I am consistent, I am devoted, I am generous, I am faithful, and by the will of God and His faithfulness in our lives, we will be a finisher. And that's what we're talking about today. I know one thing about the desire to finish. I'm a project guy, I love projects, I love to do things, I love to get my hands dirty, but the desire to finish, it is so easy to start, right? So easy to start, but it is so not easy to finish, right? My wife, God bless her heart, has been living in a kitchen now for over a year. She's got really awesome countertops, painted cabinets, new appliances, but no backsplash. It's just cement board. Just basically plywood on the walls. Everything else looks awesome. New sink, garbage disposal, it's beautiful. No backsplash. I am famous for starting things, but never getting to the point of finishing them.

See, this idea for us is a lot more important than I think people understand, right? Because I want to ask you a certain question, and I think you'll be able to understand, is what do you think separates average people from amazing people? What's the difference from those who are really fulfilled in life and those who are often empty, maybe those who struggle or those who succeed? I will tell you, it is not their intelligence, it's not their appearance, it's not their It's not their education. It's not who or what they know It the difference is their perseverance their perseverance Their willingness to stick to it their grit to finish their drive to preserve Persevere the refusal to quit there was this big study that was done recently that that interviewed successful people And we're talking talking a fortune 500 business leaders. We're talking successful military leaders We're talking teachers, we're talking even like spelling bee champions, like the whole spectrum of people. They did this research and all this was down to one quality that separated unsuccessful people and successful people. And it's one quality and it is this. It is grit. Grit. The definition of grit, if you don't know what word I'm talking about, is the strength of character that refuses to quit. If you follow the NFL, there's a team out of Detroit right now that is all about grit. They got into the playoffs, but not very far in the playoffs, okay? I'm just kidding. It's going against my whole sermon. But the lady who did this whole research, her name is Angela Duckworth, and she has this quote with this giant study that she did. She said, "Enthusiasm is common." You can find it everywhere. Everybody's excited about something, right? So excited for this. I can't wait for this, can't wait for this. This is happening, I'm really pumped. But endurance is rare. Endurance is extremely, extremely rare. Grit is this difference that it is not what you know or who you know, but it's your willingness to stay in the fight. Easy to start, it's hard to finish. And this is why we wrap up our whole series with this one statement we just said, it said, I am a finisher. We are pre-deciding to be finishers. And by nature, we wanna take the easy way out, right? We wanna take the simple road, the easy path. The one of least resistance, that's like boom here to there. Like I am constantly when I drive on ways with my app. Why? Because I wanna know if there's traffic, or something in the road, I want the easy way, I wanna get home as quick as I possibly can. We live in that world today.

But our big decision today that we are making when we pre-decide to be a finisher is this. It says, "When I commit, I don't quit. "I am a finisher." Say this with me, he says, "When I commit, I don't quit, I am a finisher." a finisher. And why is that? Well because us as disciples of Jesus, how do we persevere? How do we strengthen? Because the devil wants to pull us back, right? The devil wants us to quit. The devil wants us to throw off our game. So how do we strengthen ourselves so when we get to the point where we want to quit that we don't? There's this moment, I want to look at the words of Apostle Paul. And he's in prison, and he's writing this letter to basically his spiritual son Timothy. And he's in jail under the Emperor Nero, and he's basically waiting to be beheaded. And he's in a dungeon, well really more of like a sewer. So he's like underground in a sewer, and he's just waiting to be killed. And this was a really common place for these people to wait to be executed. And a lot of them honestly wouldn't even survive just being in the sewer. They would just die even before their execution. But Paul is writing this letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, with all of his emotion and everything that he has. Essentially, these are his last words. And he writes it to Timothy. We see this in 2 Timothy 4:5. He says to him, Paul, “Do not be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry that God has given to you.” You think I'd be here to encourage you this morning? I am, but we gotta get through some stuff first. But here's the reality. If we're gonna finish like we say we are, we're gonna likely suffer. We're likely gonna go through some hard times. And honestly, being a Christian doesn't mean that you don't have hard times. It actually means honestly the opposite, that being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a disciple of God Almighty means that we're probably most likely absolutely going to suffer. And in other words, Paul here is trying to tell Timothy that don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, but carry out the ministry that God has given you, even if you're going to suffer. He continues on, "As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have remained faithful." Paul here is saying, I've been in the battle. I've not given up. I fought the good fight. I have remained faithful and I have pressed forward even in the face of suffering. Here is what is really powerful about this. And I think Paul here has finished his race. There's nothing that's gonna save him. There's nothing that's gonna rescue him. History shows us that after this point, he is beheaded, he is killed, he no longer lives here on earth, but in heaven.

And what is powerful is that it's obvious that Paul has finished his race, but you and I have not finished ours. You and I have not finished our race yet. And if you find yourself in a place of discouragement or feel like giving up, maybe God might be saying to you even today, if you're not dead, you're not done. If you're not dead, you're not done. There is more for you to do. God has more for you. I see some of you checking yourself. Am I alive in this moment right here? Yes, you are. God's got more for you to do. He still has more plans, more assignments. He's got more stuff for you to do. He's got more ministry for you to do. He's got more business for you to do. He's got more content for you to take. He's got more hope for you to share, more friendship for you to make, for more addictions to break. Turn to the person next to you and say, "God's got more for you." Come on, come on. God's got more for you. If you're not dead, you're not done. There's more for you to do. And Paul here is encouraging Timothy, I might be done, but you aren't done yet. fully finish, fully finish the work that God has started in you. But you don't get it, Pastor Chris. I'm tired. I'm tired, and not just tired, but I'm turd. I am tired, I'm tired. I know, I talked to some of you guys. Hey, how was your week? I'm tired. How you guys doing? I'm busy and I'm tired and I'm tired and I'm busy. I'm tired, I'm busy. I'm tired, I'm busy. I'm tired. A lot of us feel like there is so much to get done, right? So much still to get done. Author and speaker, David Allen has this quote I think might help encourage us today. “It's as much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do, it comes from not finishing what they've started.” Maybe some of you have this just constant stress in your life that what you have to do isn't getting done. and that you don't know how you're gonna move forward.

If you guys would with me, just kind of have, just mentally right now, just kind of shift into this posture of prayer. I wanna read some scripture of you and ask you a question, but kind of just have this moment of posture or prayer is that I want you to set yourself up for maybe what God wants to share with you this morning in this moment today that you would be listening to him and maybe something that God is prompting you of something that you haven't finished. And I'm not talking about like, oh yeah, pastor, I haven't finished season four of that on Netflix. But like, I'm talking about something really spiritual, okay, something spiritual. Jesus says this to the church in Sardis in Revelation. He says, "I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you're dead." Maybe you feel like that this morning. Someone would say, "Oh, you're such a good Christian, but deep down inside, you're like, I'm just not feeling it." Jesus says, "Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of God." Here's the question I want to ask you. What is your unfinished business? Maybe it's a unfinished assignment. What is it more specifically though as a follower of Jesus? Maybe you once were prompted to do something, you know you were supposed to do it, you thought you were going to do it, you really wanted to go and do it, You hoped to do it, you thought about doing it, and you knew you were supposed to maybe say something, you were prompted to give something, maybe you were looking to reach out to someone. What is it that you were prompted to do? Maybe you were supposed to reach out and mend a relationship. Maybe you were supposed to step out in faith and take a step that you didn't know all that was gonna happen after that, but God said, I need you just to take this step. Maybe you were something as simple as you were supposed to go finish your degree, but you just, you haven't yet. Maybe you were supposed to start some kind of hobby or you're supposed to start join a community group. We're kicking off on Wednesday. Maybe you're supposed to start serving in the church in a way with the gifts and talents that God has given you. Maybe you were supposed to follow through with something, but you just never got there? Maybe a physical goal, a spiritual goal, maybe even to just apologize to someone, but you just never got there.

What's the unfinished business that you have in your life that God has asked you to do? What just, let that kind of sink in for a moment. What would God be saying to you? Paul has some really incredible advice And this in 2nd Corinthians, he says, “Here’s my advice It would be good for you To finish what you started a year ago church.” and Corinth got off to this great start They were doing all these amazing things and it kind of just Like all of us it just fizzles out, right? “Last year you were the first who wanted to give and you were the first to begin doing it Now you should finish what you started.” What's your Maybe you're thinking about it right now. Maybe you're like, "I don't even know what you would want me to do right now." But I think we have to answer the question of, "What if we don't do it?" What if we don't follow through? I mean, honestly, there's some things in life that we should quit. So I'm not talking about those things and we can't do everything, but each of us has something that we are called to do. Some of us have divine assignments on our lives, but we have yet to finish them. So what does it matter if we quit? Today, you are going to face an opportunity to determine who you are. You're gonna show that, let's put it this way. You are going to cast a vote for your future self in this moment, that you are going to either decide to do what you're supposed to do and cast a vote to be a finisher, or you're gonna decide not to do that, and you will then in turn cast a vote for being a non finisher.

So the question for us is, who are we? This is why it's important. You're gonna come, you're gonna face a moment in life, whether maybe some of you have faced this before, you're probably gonna face something in the near future where you're gonna have to make a tough decision. And you're gonna have to decide the kind of person you are. you are going to cast a vote into which camp of the person that you want to be. And you're gonna face something and some moment where it's gonna seem like impossible odds. It's gonna seem like everything is stacked against you. It's gonna seem like you're gonna have people and friends in your life that are gonna turn to you and say, there's no chance that this is ever gonna come through. But God is standing there saying, I want you to take this step of faith. And you're gonna have to decide, will I face this adversity? Will I overcome the greatest pillars of faith in the halls of history have faced this and chosen correctly? Was it easy? Absolutely not. Was it all fun and celebration did a confetti cannon go off when they made the right decision? No, most likely not, maybe. But they at some point had to make the tough decision. It didn't mean they didn't struggle through it, but you didn't see them quit. Just because I'm up here with the carpet, the table, and the podium doesn't mean that I have it figured out. Can I be honest with you? I wanted to quit yesterday. I did. I 1,000% wanted to quit, but then I knew that I was going to have to be here at 10 a.m. to give a sermon to myself and you guys. This sermon is so much, just as much for me as it is for you guys here today. Saturdays for some reason in our house have just been chaos. And I think it's because the devil knows that Sunday's coming, right? The devil knows Sunday's coming and he's like, I gotta knock that pastor off of his path. 'Cause if I can, then I can start messing with Spring Valley. So if you guys are thinking of Pastor Andre and myself on Saturdays, people will be praying for us. We covet your prayers, you guys are amazing. I know there's so many of you that pray for us every single day and we feel it, we feel it. But I wanted to quit yesterday. But I knew I couldn't. And I struggled through it. So you may see me struggle, but I'll tell you 100% here today, right now and forevermore, I will never quit. I will never quit.

And the apostle Paul is this incredible like superhero of the faith. He's just this stellar pillar of the early church. And he even himself struggled, but he never quit. He fought through day after day after day. And he shares what I would consider his life motto in Acts chapter 20 at the end of his life. He says, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. "My only aim is to finish the race "and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, "the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace." "My only goal in life," Paul says, "is to finish the race." But there's this little phrase in there of this power-packed verse that I think some of us just kinda gloss over real quick. And it answers the question of, how could Paul finish the race? He says this right at the beginning, because he wasn't running for himself. He says, I consider my life worth nothing to me. Paul says, it's not about me. It's not about my dreams. It's not about my desires. It's not about his popularity. Paul says, "I consider my life worth nothing." And I had this thought yesterday in the midst of wanting to quit. Me wanting to quit what God has called me to do was maybe because I cared something about more than running God's race. And I think for some of us, we might find ourselves in that place. That there might be something that we care about more, whether we want to admit it or not, than God's race that he's called each and every one of us to run. And we have to really wrestle with this. And this concept of, I consider my blank worth nothing to me. What would that be? Maybe your comfort. Maybe your net worth, your opinions of others, social media follows, your personal hopes and dreams that you can only finish the race that God has called us to run when we commit to him and we don't quit. So how do we run our race? How will you and I finish? We can't run it for ourselves. We can only run it for God. And when you run it for God, the only way that you can is to take it one step at a time. So I want to encourage you this morning, take the next step. Take the next step. And here's what's even greater. You don't have to finish your race today. This is a life long journey day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, decade in, decade out. centurion in, I don't think we'll get there but just take the next step. This is how Paul lived his life moment by moment. If you've read his story it is crazy.

When we look at the greatest example of Jesus, he lived this life. He took it one step at a time. And Jesus is on the cross right before he looks up to his heaven and basically cries out, "Into your hands, God, I commit my spirit," and he breathes his wrath. Just before that, he says, "Telestai, it is finished." finished He's saying I did everything you sent me here to do dad I'm coming home. I finished my race Jesus wasn't running for himself He was running for his father Day by day week by week month by month year by year painful moment after painful moment, he just took the next step. When they hated him, he just took the next step and loved them back. When they struck him on the cheek, he just took the next step and turned the other cheek. When he was carrying the cross up the hill, he fell down. He stood back up and took the next step. When he was hanging there on the cross and they cursed him and they mocked him and they shamed him He took another step and says father forgive them. They just don't know what they're doing From that very moment Jesus decided that he is going to always be ready He's always gonna be consistent He's always gonna be devoted. He's always gonna be generous He's always gonna be faithful, and he's always gonna be a finisher. So what are you and I gonna do? The trajectory of our life is always towards what is easy, what's convenient. And the devil's gonna want you to quit, I'll just be honest here. He's gonna want you to give up on what God has called you to start and to do. So you and I are going to have to pre-decide that no, we're not gonna do that, but that when we commit, we will not quit. When you run for God, you run one step at a time.

There's the story of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. And there's this runner sprinter by the name of Derek Redmond. And he was basically the shoe in for the 400 meter. He was gonna win it hands down. There was no other competition. There was nobody that was gonna even come close to him. It was all his, it was basically you might as well and put the gold medal on him before the gun went off. And the gun goes off and they start the race and about halfway through, he collapses to the track and he ruptures his hamstring. All the training, all the early mornings, all the late nights, all the perfect meals, all the perfect schedule, all the travel, all the meeting with coaches and doctors and trainers, everything that he had put into this moment in an instant is completely shattered. Everything is gone. The Olympic hope and dream doesn't exist anymore. And as he lays there on the track in pain and agony, his dad is there to watch him. And his dad gets up out of his seat, gets down on the track, walks up to his son, picks him up, and the two of them hobble to finish the race. Here's what I want you to get. You and I running this race don't run alone. We don't run alone. The Father is there with us every single step of the way. So when we slip up, when we fall down, when we mess up, when we don't make the right choice, God is there with us, carrying us along. It says in Philippians, "Be confident of this, "that he, being God, who began a good work in you, "will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

You never run alone. So, you may see me struggle. You may see me want to quit, but I won't quit. Because when I commit, I don't quit. I'm a finisher. And you, because you're a disciple of Jesus, and he is the ultimate finisher, he is the author and perfecter of our faith, that when he says he started it, he will finish it. 'Cause Jesus says, "When I commit, I don't quit. "I am the finisher." Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we are so incredibly grateful for your grace, your mercy, your hope. And so Jesus, today I pray that you would speak truth into our lives. God, that you would reveal where maybe we have unfinished business. That God, you would reveal this to us right here, right now, today, in this moment, or maybe this week, God, that you would reveal of where we need to finish. And God, I pray that you would give us the strength for us to be faithful. That every day that we would find ourselves running for you, not for ourselves, not for our own glory or our own recognition, but running for you, God. Taking that next step, even when we don't understand, even when it might not make sense, even when we don't fully understand how the race is going to finish, God, but that we would just take the next step in you and that we may at the end of our life here on earth when we see you in heaven that we ourselves may be faithful as Paul and as Jesus and as so many others before us have been so faithful to finish that race God made we to finish the race that we may be faithful to you that we may be be a finisher. Jesus, thank you for being the ultimate example of a finisher.

Pre-Decide: Part 6

Pre-Decide: Part 6 - I AM FAITHFUL

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I wanna ask you a question real quick. as we jump in, if you had one word, it would be a goal or something to achieve in life, what would that one word, what would you choose to be that one word for you? Just one word, one word that you would do everything you can that you would want and desire for it to represent your character, maybe your nature, everything that would summarize for what you stand for in life. What would that one word be? There was a recent survey, a study done of people both in and outside of the church. And they were asked this very same question and the top three common answers that came out from this survey, the first of which, and these are all really good things. The first of which are the word that people says they wanna be successful. And I like this, I like this. I think God wants us to be successful. God makes successful people. God creates successful people and gives them opportunities. And I hope and pray that you find success in life. The second word would be influential. And this is a good word. This is another good word. And for us as Christians, this is a good word because as Jesus calls us, we're to be salt and light in the world, to push back darkness, to change things, that we are called as ambassadors to make a difference in this life for the kingdom of God. The third word was happy. I think each and every one of us deep down inside, we can really resonate with this word, right? Another term might be used here would be a blessed or a fulfilled life. But even as good as these three words are, there is what I believe one word that in God's eyes should stand above all of the rest. So that when we get to heaven, and if we live a life that pleases God, he won't say to us when we meet him face to face, "Well done, my good and successful servant." He won't say that. He won't say, "Well done, my good and influential servant." He's not gonna say, "Well done, my good and happy servant." What he will say to us, Jesus will say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." And that there was one word that would stand above every other word I believe that we should strive to be faithful, that we should be the faithful of Christ. Turn the person next to you and say, you're looking faithful today. Looking faith, yeah, there we go. That's right, I like it, I like it. If you were to write something down this morning, I want you to write down this morning of one word that will change your life. And that's what we're gonna be talking about this morning.

Pray with me. Jesus, thank you so much for this morning. God, we pray for those who aren't able to be with us, those who are joining us online. Jesus, I pray that you would touch their hearts right now, wherever they are. God, whatever they're walking through in life right now, Jesus, you are right there beside them. They are not alone in what they are going through. And Jesus, I pray for us who are here, present, in person, Jesus, that your word would speak over our lives today, that we would, you have something specific for us, Jesus. And so I pray that you would reveal that to us and that we would not leave here the same as when we walked in those doors this morning, Jesus. Transform our hearts, transform our lives, make us into who you want us to be today, Jesus. We thank you for your love. Amen.

Today, we're gonna be talking about this idea of being faithful. And if you've been with us, we've been in this series, Predeciding, And we've been talking about our decisions and how the quality of our decisions determines our quality of life. But the reality is we're not all really good decision makers. Sometimes we get it right and that's awesome. And we're like, thank you, Jesus, I made it. And sometimes we royally mess up and we say, thank you, Jesus, you're here with us. Thank you for your grace, right? And we've had kind of this saying that we've been talking about that when faced with a particular situation, that we are by the health of God with the direction of Scripture, pre-deciding what we are going to do in that situation. We're not gonna let emotions drive us, we're not gonna get caught off guard, we're not gonna play catch up, we're not gonna be trying to figure things out on the fly, but we are pre-deciding that we are gonna take a particular action when faced in a certain situation. There's six specific things we've been talking about. And a couple of weeks ago, we handed out these stickers for you guys to take, to place different. We got a bunch of them in the back still. If you want a second one, please, second, third, please take those. You are welcome to those. Put them everywhere. Put it on a water bottle, put it in your mirror, put it in your car. I don't know, put it on your computer or wherever you see this to remember. We've been talking about these six topics. and the first of which was ready. Say, "I am ready." There we go. We talked about this, that the enemy is out there scheming, trying to get us off our game, but we have to pre-decide to be ready. We had to pre-decide to be consistent. Say, "I am." Let's go. Now you're waking up. All right, now you're getting the flow. Say it with me. "I am devoted. I am generous. I am faithful." And next week, Pastor Lauren's gonna wrap us up with I am a finisher.

Now, today, we're specifically talking about being faithful and that the reason that we are pre-deciding to be faithful is that you never accidentally, by happenstance, just fall into being a person who is consistently faithful. I'm talking about a day in, a day out, a week in, a week out, a month in, a month out, a year in, a year out, a decade in, a decade out type of faithfulness. That we will constantly be faithful, but that doesn't come without intentionality. See, the reason I think that we find this really difficult, let's call it what it is. Can we be honest this morning? Is that the trajectory of our life, we like to follow the easy path, right? We'd like to follow that path of least resistance, whatever's convenient and being faithful, like especially faithful to God is rarely easy. It's often hard, it comes with a cost, but I wanna tell you today that it is always, always, always worth it. I love these words from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. In Habakkuk 4:2, he says, "Look at the proud. They trust in themselves." Anybody know someone proud in your life? Don't point at them, don't make eye contact, don't elbow them, keep focus for them. We're gonna leave friends today, okay? But everybody knows somebody who's proud, right? They trust in their own wisdom. They have all the knowledge, right? They got it all figured out. They have the righteousness. They have the goodness. They got the bank account. They have the abilities. They have themselves. But what does scripture tell us? They trust in themselves and their lives are crooked. But the righteous, righteous will live in their own wisdom. by their faithfulness to God. Say that together, the faithfulness to God. Unfortunately, I'm usually in the earlier crowd and I find myself proud at times. I often think that I can do it on my own. I think that I have it figured out. I think that I'm sufficient enough, that I'm good enough, that I can do it all by myself. But if the scripture is true, we believe it to be true that being proud is not good, but that we have to be intentional to press into the righteousness of God and to live in His faithfulness.

Now this raises a question for us. What does it mean to be faithful? What does it truly mean to be faithful? How do we practically live that out? If you would have asked me probably before this week or the week before working on the sermon, I probably would have said that I would not cheat on my spouse, wouldn't cheat on my taxes, that I would be honest, I try to be a good person. And I think all of that is true. Yes, that is faithfulness. But when we look at who Jesus is, he's really intentional on how he shows faithfulness. And if you were to do a study on the life of Jesus, the moments of where he shows faithfulness, there's really three big categories that come out of looking at his life. The first of which we would see how Jesus treats people. You would see how Jesus talks about stewarding resources, and you would look to see how that you respond to God. And we look at Jesus's faithfulness, it boils down to three categories, relationships, taking care of what has been given, and how we respond to God. See, when you look at these ways that Jesus says, This is how you are faithful. We as Christ followers, following in the footsteps of Jesus in his example, we have to pre-decide three things. That we are going to pre-decide in faithfulness that every interaction is an opportunity to add value. We're gonna pre-decide that we're gonna be faithful in relationships. We're gonna talk about every resource is an opportunity to multiply. That because Jesus designed faithfulness is how we steward what He trusts to us. And that every prompting is an opportunity to obey God. Because every time Jesus talks about faithfulness, He talked about how you treat people, how you steward resources and how you respond to God. Let's dive into this first one. Every interaction is an opportunity to add value. If we are going to be faithful, we're going to have to pre-decide that every interaction with every person that we have is an opportunity to add value. So what does this mean? How do we see this played out? I think for you, whoever you come in contact with, every person you meet, Everyone that you see is an opportunity to bless, to encourage, to be generous with, to add value to their life. And we are going to pre-decide that every person is an opportunity for us to show love of God in a way that brings value and blessing to their life. And see, the reason is it isn't because we're focused on ourselves, because we are, right? We all are focused on ourselves, you and I both. And I can prove it, right? If there's a picture of eight people, you're in a group photo, you see that group photo, who are you looking at first? Yourself, right? You're looking at that photo, you're looking at yourself and you're going, okay, how do I look? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it not good? Because the reality is that you are looking at yourself. If you're blinking in it, you're thinking, oh my gosh, how embarrassing. That is completely un-postable. And anybody who does post that does not love you. Like that really, right? Like you're thinking there's no way that this can be shared. We have to immediately delete. I don't want anybody to see this. You look at you first, we all do it. And so how does that translate into adding value to people? When you interact with them, when you talk with them, what are you usually thinking? Do they like me? Is what I'm saying interesting? Did what I say just make sense? Oh no, what did I just say? I can't believe I just said that. How do I end this conversation and walk away immediately? I am so embarrassed, right? That's what's going through our mind. Each and every one of us, we're thinking, how can this be happening? And you walk away and you think about the conversation and go, okay, I shouldn't have said that. Shouldn't have said that differently. Oh man, I wish I could go back and take that back. And oh, just all this stuff.

But what if instead of saying, will they like me? Am I saying the right things? What if, because the reality is that Jesus lives in you and you have pre-decided ahead of time that every moment you have interacted with others is not focused on yourself, but that you are in this moment going to add value to others' life, that I am going to bless others with everything that I do, and I am going to focus on them. This is faithfulness. Ephesians 4:29 says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your nouns, but only for what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." I love this. This is so good. To be faithful to God means that you are going to add value to others. that when you walk into a room, you are a climate change. Because when you walk into the room, if we believe what scripture says, that the Holy Spirit is on us, that we are ambassadors of Christ, we are different than the world, right? That when we walk into a room, we bring Jesus with us. And because we bring Jesus with us, the room is different. Right? So that wherever you go, whether you're in the grocery store, you're at school, you're at work, you're picking your kids up, you're at a soccer game, you're out running errands, wherever you're at the gym, I don't know where, wherever you are at, you are bringing Jesus with you. This isn't a, you come into church, you sit down, hey Jesus, what's up? How's it going? I'll see you in six days. Peace out. But that we take Jesus with us, that you are an encourager, you are a blessing. You tell the truth, even though it may hurt, but with love, cover in love, okay? But you are that, when you walk away, because of you living intentional, they are different. That they are not the same, why? Because they just had a spiritual encounter with the living God. They may have no clue what's happening. But you and I do, right? That they are not the same because in being faithful, You bring and you add value to people's lives.

When you look at Jesus and how he treated people, the words in which Jesus said were incredible. When the disciples got worried, what did Jesus say? Oh, you guys are the worst. I can't believe it. How are you worrying? You know, this world, oh, have you seen society today? It's going to hell in a hand basket. You see who's in politics, left side, right side of the aisle. I don't care. It's just all going into the, down the drain. It's just all into the pooper. It just, oh, that's it. Might as well give up. No. What does Jesus say? Jesus says, don't worry. God's got you. He loves you. Don't worry about what you're gonna eat or what you're gonna drink or what you're gonna wear or what tomorrow brings. God loves the birdies and they're taken care of. How much more does He love you? Seek first His kingdom, His righteousness. And when you do that, everything else is gonna be taken care of, right? What did Jesus say to the woman who was caught in adultery? This pretty intense moment in scripture, these righteous people are ready to just stone her 'cause she has sinned very publicly. And Jesus walks in and He puts something in, He draws something or writes something saying, "We don't fully know what it is." But then he says, "Who's without any sin? Go for it." Crowd disperses. Jesus turns to the woman and says, "Where are your accusers?" She goes, "They're gone." So Jesus says to her, "Go, send no more. Live in God's grace and His mercy. Live the life that you know you should be living." He forgives. When Peter decided to deny Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times, what did Jesus say? "Peter, you're canceled. Get out of here. Can't trust you anymore. No, what do you say? Says, "Peter, do you still love me, dude?" He goes, "Yeah." Jesus says, "Okay, go take care of my people. Love them, serve them." Jesus himself specifically tells us, he said, "I came to show the love of my father and I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. And that when Jesus left, He sent the Holy Spirit, He sent somebody even greater. And even a covering, a leader, a perfect comforter to be with us as we take these steps every single day in life, what a blessing. What a blessing. Every interaction with anybody is an opportunity to show the love of God, to build them up, to show them grace, to pour blessing upon them. You have no idea how God might use a single word of encouragement to change someone's life. This is faithfulness to God.

I want to tell you a story that's really important to my life, kind of the reason I'm even in this place here today. Out of college, Laura and I, my wife and I, got married in college and graduated, and I had an opportunity to take a job, one of the few jobs in about the '08 downturn that churches were even hiring. Most of my friends who graduated from school with a pastoral degree just went off into the world to try to start paying for student debt. They didn't get an opportunity. I was fortunate enough to get hired on staff at a church, And we moved there and got settled in. And a couple of weeks into me being a part of the team on staff there, I was leading worship and I was assistant pastor. We started having some conflict. Started having some issues where I wasn't necessarily performing at the level that the pastor wanted. There was a lot of confusion and missed communication with each other. And after eight weeks of being in my first pastoral job, after spending four years studying and writing papers and reading books and doing everything I had, God had called me this place in this moment, the pastor meets me and says, "Hey, it's just not gonna work out, we're gonna move on." And here I am with my wife, thousands of miles away from family, I have a year long lease on a house, and I have to go home and tell my wife I'm no longer employed by this church. And through a crazy, crazy series of events from a pastor who knew a pastor who knew a pastor who knew a pastor, I get a random phone call one day. This is like just a couple days after this had happened. And for whatever reason I answer it. And I had said, "Hello?" And I hear a voice on the other end. He goes, "Hey, this is Pastor John. You don't know who I am, "But I heard about your story. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?" I'm like, "I'm freshly unemployed. Nothing else to do. I'd like a free cup of coffee because I can't afford one right now." So I go and I sit down with this guy and he begins to tell me the story of his dad, who had been in a church for a really, really, really long time, and the church one day decided they didn't want him as their pastor anymore. And they kicked him out of the church. He goes, "I know your story isn't the same." He goes, "But I saw what happened to my dad, and I saw another local pastor come alongside my dad and said, 'Hey, just come sit in church.'" And I remember the coffee shop, I remember the conversation, I remember the pastor sitting there or across the table from me. And he told me, he goes, "You are called to be a pastor. God has placed that on you. And you are too important to be put on the bench right now. You need to stay faithful to God's calling." I was ready to walk away. I was so angry with God. I was like, "How could you take me to this place?" I had all the conversations with God. And he says, "I'm starting a church. I'm not asking you to do anything." He goes, "You and Lauren just come and sit." So we went and we sat. Couple weeks later, he needed some help with stacking chairs. I was like, "I can stack chairs. I got a four-year ministry degree. You betcha I can stack chairs." (audience laughing) I had A+ in that class. So it started with stacking chairs. And it started going to a small group. It started helping with a small group. And then it started helping with some of the teams. Started doing this thing and that thing. And pretty soon I found myself basically on staff working with this pastor pro bono, just being back, falling in love again with the church. you will never know what a opportunity to add value to someone's life may turn into. And one of the great ways to be faithful to God is to be a blessing to others. And that pastor that day and that season of life, even to this day, is an incredible blessing to me and my wife. You may even have a divine appointment on your calendar right now that you don't even know about, but God does. And the question for us will be, will we pre decide that every opportunity and every interaction is an opportunity, a moment to share love to other people and to be a blessing.

The second thing we see from Jesus is that every resource is an opportunity to multiply. Jesus in Matthew 25 tells this parable of a man, a rich man, who went on a journey and he trusted his wealth to his servants. He handed out bags of gold to the first guy, he got five bags of gold. To the second guy, he got two bags of gold. And then to the third guy, he was given one bag of gold. And the first two the five and the three bag bros went out and they risked their gold. They risked their investment and they multiplied it. They multiplied it. They were able to add more to it. And it says in Matthew 25, 21, he says, "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with the few things. I will put you in charge of many things.'" They're saying, "You multiplied what I gave you, and in the kingdom of God, that is faithfulness." The Greek word here for faithfulness is actually pistos, and the definition here I want us to see is a person who shows themselves faithful in the transaction of business, the execution of commands or the discharge of official duties. One of the ways that you can be faithful to God is caring for what God gives to you. God gives you an ugly yard, you make that grass green, right? You make that yard better, that is faithfulness. God blesses you with a clunker of a car, you betcha you have the cleanest clunker on the road today. If God gives you a body, you take care of that body and you steward it.

If you are in business, and I have this conversation all the time, I feel like sometimes in business, maybe you own your business or you're high up in a business or you just work for a business, sometimes those people, because they're in the world of making money, making profit, sometimes they get viewed or they think of themselves as second-class Christians. That well, you know, I'm not a pastor, I'm not really like working for a nonprofit, like I'm not in the in the world to just like give things away that I am less than. Let me tell you this, you being faithful in your business, your job, your work, whatever you put your hands to, you being faithful in that is an incredible, incredible witness to God. Because the world's what? Trying to cut corners. World's trying to get ahead. World's clamoring, climbing over people, pushing them down just to elevate themselves. But for you to say, "I'm gonna have 100% ethical behavior in my job, that is a witness to Jesus. That you're gonna treat your co-workers with kindness. That you're gonna maybe treat those that you're a supervisor over, you're gonna care for them and how you lead them. That is an example that the life that you live, the way that you conduct your business is a massive, massive opportunity to show Christ to those around you. And that just because you're not one of the pastors, it doesn't mean you're less than. We're all called to be witnesses, we're all called to be ambassadors. Your workplace may just look a little different. And that's okay because God has called you there for a purpose and for a reason and a lot of that is to be faithful. And then there was the guy with the one bag. He had the five, the three, the one. He was afraid. I've been that guy. I feel him. I've been anxious. I've been worried. I've tried to be careful not to make a mistake, but what does the master say to to him. He says, "So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. So here is what belongs to you." I was scared. I was nervous. I didn't want to lose any of it. I didn't want somebody to steal it. I wanted to make sure it was still good. You trusted a lot with me, boss. So here you go. His master replied, "You wicked, lazy servant." Here's what I want you to see and to feel in this. The one who multiplied, the master said, "You are faithful." But the one who buried it, he wasn't just lazy. He wasn't just, hey, boss it was a busy week, had all this other paperwork I had to do, like stuff happened with the family. Like, he says he's wicked. If we're going to choose to be faithful, every interaction is an opportunity to add value. Every resource is an opportunity to multiply. And every prompting is an opportunity to obey God.

I love this part in Acts where Paul is really happy with where he's at in Ephesus. He's like locked in with the church, he's doing great. He's like, this is all set, we're golden. But he has this emotional farewell. He says, "Now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there." This word compelled means that it's kind of like wrapped up or like bound by a rope and kind of pulled in this direction that you can't resist that the spirit says, "I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there." It's one of those opportunities where you can't explain it, you don't understand it, you don't know the details, but you know is God, you are being drawn in that place. And when you follow Jesus, He will prompt you, He will compel you, and faithfulness is responding when you don't know what will happen. Sometimes we know, sometimes we don't. That job with that church or that pastor, I had to, God actually eight months later asked me to just completely resign from the job without having the next job lined up. And I didn't understand, Lauren, I didn't get it, but we felt like we had to just kind of let go before God would add the next thing. And after we did through a series of crazy events, I get an opportunity for another job and another church, and God takes care of that next step. So good. Other times where God's asked me to step out and to do something, even this last week, I stepped out and did something. I felt like God was saying, and then it just kind of went. Nothing happened. I was like, okay, really thought I was, okay. But the reality is that obedience is our responsibility, but the outcome is God's. Our job is to be responsible. And when he leaves, we say yes and take a step forward, even if it doesn't make sense.

Habakkuk 4:2, we started with this. "But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God." I haven't always gotten it right. 'Cause I'm up here doesn't mean I've always gotten it right. (chuckles) But I've tried everything I can to be faithful in the small things. 'Cause when you're faithful in the small things, there's this incredible spiritual compounding interest, return on investment that God builds up. And I've seen it in faithful people in the church for generations. I said, "How did you get there?" He was just like, "Every moment of faithfulness." It's just like grains of sand. It's just being thrown onto the beach. And all of a sudden you look down and it's just a shoreline of just sand upon sand upon sand. And I think we will vastly overestimate what we can get done in a season. Well, thank God I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna fix my marriage. I'm gonna fix my finances. God, 2024, like this is the year it's gonna be done. But I think we will also underestimate the faithfulness of God in a lifetime. That we will underestimate what God can do when we are faithful in little things time after time after time again. Every interaction is an opportunity to add value with relationships and people. Every resource is an opportunity to multiply. How do we steward with what God has blessed us with? and every prompting is an opportunity to obey God. Just do it. Obedience is our responsibility, the outcome is God's. We just have to be faithful. That's your life, to be faithful to God.

Pray with me. we thank you for this morning. God, we are so grateful for your faithfulness. Where you, since the beginning of time and the broken relationship in the Garden, God, you started the world on a path towards redemption and that even in the midst of that, when all hope seems lost, you, God, were still working a plan to make the world right once again. And when you sent Jesus, You fixed the biggest problem that we had in our life and you took care of us and you reached down and you said, "I love you." It's going to be okay. Jesus, we're so grateful that you are so faithful to us. God, may we in return be faithful in the little things so that we may then have opportunities to be faithful in the big things when the time comes, when you prompt us to step out. God, as we look forward to this next week for the divine appointments you have on our calendar already, God, may we be obedient even if we don't know the outcome. We thank you, Jesus. We praise you. We love you. We worship you today. Everybody said, "Amen."

Pre-Decide: Part 5

Pre-Decide: Part 5 - I AM GENEROUS

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in our series that we kicked off about five or six weeks ago called Pre-Decide. And the premise and the big idea of this series is that we would, before we're placed in any situation, pre-decide a particular action that we're gonna take. And we've been going through a couple different of these. We've talked about being ready, consistent, devoted, generous, faithful, and a finisher. And today I'm excited to kinda jump into something that not everybody is necessarily excited to talk about in the church, but it's something that we need to talk about and it's something that Jesus really commanded us. I read an article back in 2007, I know the good old days, right? '07, anybody remember '07? Yeah, okay, just me, okay. This was before Instagram, this was before like Netflix originals, this was before like Venmo and Cash App. I mean, how did we survive? Like honestly, like I don't even know how we lived. But in 2007, there was a study that was done that you on average every day were exposed to about 5,000 ads, 5,000 advertisements, whether that was in '07, do they have cell phones? Yeah, okay, cell phone, maybe the interwebs, your dial-up, your AOL chat messenger. Maybe it was a billboard, old school, right? The ones that aren't digital, but like the ones, maybe the ones that like rotated and like they were like three billboards in one, no? Okay, I'm a nerd. But you were exposed to over 5,000 ads every single day. Fast forward to now, 2024. I know everybody's like, huh. You are on average exposed to double that. Over 10,000 ads every single day. You look at, you scroll past, you try to block on your web browser. Everything that you do has an ad, right? Whether you're in an app, you're on social media, you're trying to read a blog to get that perfect recipe. Maybe you're watching an influencer on Google, you read a news article, YouTube videos. Anybody else just really YouTube? You're like, just get me to the video. Like I don't need like some, and they start stacking up. You get like skip one, skip two, skip. I'm like, how long is it? These ads are gonna be longer than the 30 second video that I was trying to watch on YouTube. But this is really bad news. This is really bad news because that study in 2007 actually told us that the more ads that we see, the more miserable that we are. I'm just here to bring hope and excitement to you in your life today, right? But the reality is that the more ads we see, the more miserable we are, why? because this ad wants to convince you and tell you that you don't have the perfect life, that you're missing out. You don't have what you need. And let me tell you today, ladies and gentlemen, what you need. I feel like I'm in my own infomercial right now in front of you guys. But the more ads that we see ad-plaked us to this place where we're just miserable. And the only way that these ads tell us and the world tells us to get happy is to get, get, get, accumulate, acquire, hoard in, hold onto it, have spares, have extras, why? Because then at that point, then you'll be happy that you have to have the new iPhone. You gotta have your favorite brand of shoes. You gotta have that purse. Ladies, you gotta have the Lulu leggings, right? I don't know, I just been told that that's where it's at, but we're told that it is more blessed to get. It is more blessed to acquire, it's more blessed to accumulate, and the world is yelling at us every single day, 10,000 times, that it is more blessed to get.

But Jesus has something different to say about that. I love what he says in Acts 20 verse 35. Jesus says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." This word, the original word here actually means more blessed, doubly blessed, or some might translate it or look at it in the realm of you're happier, you're more generous, you're more joyful when you give, you're more fulfilled when you give, You're more blessed when you give than when you receive. And I think for the most part, we know this, right? We know this kind of deep down inside and we wanna give more. We wanna be able to help people. We wanna be able to take care of our friends and our family and to love them in a way of meeting a practical need. But the reality is that a lot of us are in a place where we just feel that we can't do it right now. Inflation is through the roof. It is bonkers out there, it seems like, what it costs to just... I was talking to my wife about just going and getting a cheeseburger the other night, and we were just like, "$15? Excuse me? When did that happen?" We're like, "No, we'll have a sandwich at home. Thank you very much." But it's like this crazy space that we live in where we want to give, we want to be generous with everything we have but we feel that we just we can't I want to share today and not an infomercial style but to share some principles where you and I can become irrationally generous if you were writing anything down this morning you want to write something out if you want to write today's title for the talk would be when you stop holding back. Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, we are grateful to be here in your presence. God, we continue to invite you into this space. God, lead me with your words from your scripture, not what Pastor Chris has to say or what Pastor Chris thinks, but God, what you think and how you view generosity even in our world today in this moment in 2024. We thank you, Jesus. Amen. If you've been with us, we've been talking about this pre-decided thing, and specifically we've had this saying that we have, we can put this on the screen, that says when we're faced with this situation, we have pre-decided to take a specific action. We are pre-deciding even before we're in the moment, even before when we're looking at this face to face, we have pre-decided a specific action that we are going to take. We're not gonna let our emotions drive us, we're seeking God, we're going to Him, we've thought about it, we've prayed about it, we're trying to pre-decide in a very specific situation area. And we talked about six of these. And we had these stickers we gave away a couple of weeks ago if you didn't get one or you want a second one to put somewhere, they're on the table on the way out, next to hand sanitizer. And we would love for you to have one of these to have with you where your water bottle, you can put in your car, put it on your mirror, kind of wherever you want to be reminded of these statements of who we are. And I wanna say these together with us. We can bring this on the screen. Talking about being, I am ready. Say it with me, I am. - Ready. - Oh yeah, let's go. It's talking about being, I am consistent. I am. - Consistent. - Let's go. Talking about I am devoted. Pastor Andre shared with us last week, I am devoted.

Today we're gonna talk about being I am generous. I am faithful and I am a finisher. This is what we are talking about. This is who Jesus has called us to live as Christians, not only for the world around us, but for one another, and for what we would call our Spring Valley family, our church family, for each other, for our family family, for our neighbors, for our community, for our world. This is who Jesus called us to. And if we say we are a follower of Jesus, this is who he says that we are. So we are pre deciding, choosing ahead of time by God's grace that today talking about we will be more blessed by being generous and we are pre deciding to do so. Why? Why does any of this matter? Why does any of this matter? That no one ever accidentally becomes irrationally generous. Nobody just by chance stumbles into tithing or giving offerings or paying rent for someone who's need or buying groceries for someone who can't afford it or funding ministries or missions trips or having so much fun with tithing that they start with 10% and then go to 12, and then to 15 and 20, 25%, and then accidentally give away almost everything to God, more and more and more, and allowing him to be blessed, and to leave our kids an inheritance to our children, to our children, our children. No one ever stumbles into irrational generosity. It doesn't happen. And we tend to think that we will be generous when the time comes. that we will be generous, but I just can't right now. And we get in this circle of thought that when I have more, I'll give more, right? When, you know, God, when I just get that next pay raise, when I get that next bump at work, God, I'm all in on generosity. I am all yours, God. When I finally get that mortgage payment taken care of and I get the utility bills paid, I go, then God, you know what? I am generous. I am all of yours. You can have everything that I have when I get here. But I want you to understand that this isn't how generous people think. This isn't their thought process. Generosity isn't about what we have or don't have. It's about our heart. Generosity is about our heart. How do we know this? Well, we've seen some poor people who are crazy stingy, right? We've seen rich people who have it set for life, who you can't get a 20 spot out of them. And then on the other side, we've seen poor people who have literally nothing that just give it away. That just absolutely go, it's all yours, God. It's not much, it's all yours. And then we also see really, really rich people, philanthropists, who are incredible and change the world with what they have been blessed with. Generosity isn't something we just stumble into.

There's a story in Luke chapter 12, Jesus tells that illustrates this really, really well. And there's this rich guy who is getting richer, and then he has this incredible harvest. Okay, so farming terms, probably us city people don't get that. But this dude just basically just hit the jackpot, okay? We'll say that. He is loaded. And he probably, at one point, said, "Oh, what am I gonna do with all of this? Man, I have so much more than what I can store. the harvest, it's a grain, they gotta store it or it goes bad, they gotta keep it safe. Gotta keep it dry, gotta keep animals out of it, anything from eating, they gotta protect it. And so this rich guy, he's like, man, what am I gonna do? And I would venture to say, because I think each of us would be similar, that this rich dude at one point or another said, when I have more, I will give more. But what happens? We read this in Luke chapter 12, he said, "Then he said, I know, "I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. "Then I'll have enough room to store all my wheat "and other goods. "And I'll sit back and say to myself, my friend, "you have enough stored away for years to come. "Now take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry." Similar story, right? Written over 2000 years ago, but still rings so true to today. That this story of, when I get more, I'm gonna, God, when I have that harvest, when it comes in, baby, oh man, I'm bringing it to the church, we're gonna celebrate. I'm sending it to my buddy who's a missionary overseas. I'm gonna fund this, I'm gonna take care of this. I'm gonna take care of my neighbor's mortgage. I'm gonna take care of this rent over there. I'm getting groceries for the lady down the street who's a single mom. Like I am all in God when this harvest comes in. But what happened? His heart was revealed. And the reality is, I'm sorry, this one's gonna hurt. More money just makes more of what you already are. That one hurt. Money doesn't change who we are, it just reveals maybe our true self deep down inside. And that is why if you want to be generous, which I think we all do, when we have more, we have to learn to be generous when we have less. We have to learn now and we have to pre-decide to be generous even if we have less than what we think to be generous.

Giving is not just something that we do, it's an identity of who we are. In my, for some of you who would look at me, say my short time here on earth, other yous would look at me and say that old dude up front who's been around since dirt, In my life, I will say that I've seen two really big qualities of generous people. Whether in the church, I know a lot of generous people who have nothing to do with God in the church and they're incredibly generous. They make some Christians look really bad. Wherever they are on the spectrum, they are a generous person. Two things I constantly see from them. and the first of which is generous people plan to be generous. Generous people plan to be generous. You might think, I'll say this, and I felt like this for a long, long time, that being generous was spontaneous. You saw somebody on the side of the road and you're like, "Hey, here's a five," or, "Hey, here's my lunch," or you went and got food for them and brought them food. Maybe it's buying the meal or the coffee or whatever for the person behind us in drive-through, right? Or maybe it was, you would see these poor, poor puppies in cages, and you would start to hear Sarah McLachlan singing. That they have to free the puppies. We have to, they're so sad. And so then maybe you get to, You go down and you give some money to the local animal shelter, or you go do an adoption day, or you bring home a new family member, four-legged friend. But we think that that's generosity, but I wanna tell you today, that's not, that's giving. And that's fantastic, it's wonderful. And I wanna tell you, don't stop doing that. That is great, great stuff. We should be giving people. But what is the difference between giving and generosity is that generous people don't have to be guilted into giving. Generous people don't need to be inspired to give. Generous people are not reactive. Does that make sense? Generous people, they don't give whenever there's just a need. They don't give when they have something extra. They don't give when they're prompted to, but generous people actually have a plan. And scripture tells us this very clearly in Isaiah 32, chapter eight, it says, "But generous people plan "to do what is generous." Generous people plan. Generous people pre-decide. Generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity. They stand firm, I think stand firm as in maybe a stance where you're not gonna get knocked over, but they plan to be generous and they stand firm in that. Giving is not what I do. Generosity is who I am. And we have to plan to be generous. Pre-decide to be generous. See, what's funny about this is that all people have a plan for finances. All people have a plan for finances. Some, you might say, "Hey, pastor, no." No, I really don't. I really don't have a plan. You have a plan. Is there ever something that you really, really wanted? Like really wanted? You get strategic real fast, right? You start doing research, who's got the best price? Is it free shipping or not? Are they charging tax or not? Can I get a coupon? Can I get a discount? Do I buy it used, but still has maybe a couple of year warranty, so it may last a little bit, or do I buy it locally, so that I'm not paying for shipping, I'm not paying for taxes, a cash transaction. Where do I have the cash? Do I have the cash? I can get the cash. Wait a minute, okay, now I gotta meet this person. You're messaging in Facebook marketplace, offer up. Oh, then all of a sudden Amazon, boom, it's on sale. Oh my gosh, add $5 clip coupon. It's the word of the Lord. He has spoken to me. We have had it, here it is. Just me? Okay. Generous people don't plan to consume. Generous people plan to give. And when we become generous by nature, you are strategically and prayerfully designing your life around generosity. It's not something you do as a reaction. It is a strategy, it's a mindset. When we think differently, you sit down and you think, man, how can I bless somebody? How can I take what God has given me and make an even greater difference? How can I maximize what I have? How can I be a blessing to people around me?

Here's the key, it's not just spontaneous. Maybe it is, but not, certainly not all the time. That's not how it works. It's not emotional, strategic. It's not random, it's intentional. And along with our series, we are pre deciding before in the moment that we will be generous. So you might say, I'm just not a planner. It may not be a good plan that you have, may not be written down, but there's a plan. I'll show you kind of what I'm talking about today. I have the circle illustration I wanna show us. That for the most of us, the reality is where we are is we spend more than we make. God supplies us, God increases us, whether that's an income or an allowance or something special we get in our lives every single month or maybe quarterly, I don't know, it comes in and we probably most likely spend more than we make. But then that puts us in a really bad place because then we start lacking margin. And we don't have any wiggle room with where we're at financially. And then what does that cause us to do? It starts bringing worry into our life. And then to combat the worry, we go and have retail therapy and we spend more than we make and then we're lacking margin, and then we worry more, and then we spend more than we make, and then we lack margin. You guys kind of get the picture of this. This is not a money problem. It's a spiritual problem. Everybody like super excited they came to church today. Like, yeah! It's a spiritual problem. I'm preaching to myself up here by the way, this is hard. We are trusting in things rather than putting our faith in God. And what happens is that generous people, they break the cycle. Not accidentally, not by happenstance, not by just falling into it, but intentionally, strategically, pre-deciding with a plan. We break the cycle by choosing God first. Jesus said this, what did he say? He said, "Seek first the kingdom of God "and his righteousness, "and then all things, everything else, "will be added to you." We don't seek the shoes, we don't seek the countertops, we don't seek the new car, we don't seek the new watch, but we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We put Him first, then everything else will be added. We seek God first.

There's actually a principle in scripture that talks about this very, very powerful, important, life-changing thing, and it's called a tithe. Maybe you guys have heard of it, maybe you haven't, but we find this in Malachi. And it says in Malachi 3.10, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, "that there may be food in my house." What is a tithe? It's not a word that's typically used in society. It actually comes from the Hebrew meaning masser, which means 10%. And we see this in scripture as to bring 10% of what God has blessed you and me with back to him as an act of worship that there may be food in God's house. Confession, first time I heard about some of this, I was becoming a kid and I'd started mowing lawns and I started earning some money from family members and doing some yard work. And I first heard about this idea and I was like, Wait, what? A tithe? 10%? That is way too much. That's ridiculous. I can't afford to do that. God, you don't understand, I got things I need to buy. I got basketball shoes I need. I got the Backstreet Boys CD I need. I got the Pokemon cards. They just dropped. Like, God, you just don't understand. In order to do that, God, okay, I would have to completely rearrange my entire life, all of my priorities, everything that I have chosen to do, and put you, God, first. It's almost like he knew. It's almost like he knew that this would be a place where I would have to change my priorities, I would have to put him first, I'd have to fully trust him, I'd have to worship him with everything that I had, I'd have to step into a place that is completely uncomfortable, a place that I didn't like, a place that meant I probably had less, a place that rearranged all of my priorities, every single thing that I had focused on my mind, on my wishlist, I was working towards, it was almost like he could see the future. God can, by the way, just letting you know that.

God put us in this place You know what he said? Test me. This is the only place in the entire Bible where God says, I dare you. I double dog dare you. Put me to the test, bro. Test me in this. Says the Lord Almighty. and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it. If you put him first, God says, "See if I'll take care of you." See what happens. Now you might say, hey, hey, hey, Chris, let's, eh, careful here. It kind of sounds like a little tell the evangelist prosperity gospel here. If you give money to the church, then you will be rich. What I'm talking about today is not prosperity gospel. What I'm talking about today is the generosity gospel. And Jesus, God himself first did that, right? John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave." God was the first one that was generous. God was the first one that poured out. God was the first one who blessed us, even when we did not deserve it whatsoever. God was the one who first gave, and this is the difference. And when you and I start to recognize giving, we begin to see that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. And it breaks the cycle, right? It puts you into this new cycle. And it says this, when God supplies, we give, we trust him. We go, God, don't make no sense. My calculator on my phone, it doesn't add up, God, you don't get it. But then what happens? God blesses. And we go, wait, wait, wait a minute. I did this math. I'm not like the most brilliant person, I'm a math guy, I like numbers, and my math was not math in God. But then you took care of it, somehow. You took care of it. And then that builds our faith. And then it builds our faith and we go, okay God, you did this last time. Maybe we can do it again. And we give. And God blesses. And it builds our faith. And we give and God blesses and it builds our faith and it builds the faith of those around us. And then they see us giving and they go, Wait, how are you doing that? And you're like, I don't know, it's God, but I'm still giving. And God continues to bless and it builds faith and we keep giving. This faith that builds replaces the worry in our life. It pushes back those feelings of going, God, I'm living paycheck to paycheck. I don't get this. I got this stuff coming in. I don't understand what's going on. God, I need you. I'm stressed, I'm anxious, I'm worried. I don't know what the interest rate from the feds, what they're gonna say next month. I don't know what's gonna happen this summer with the housing market. God, I don't understand if they're laying people off at work, God, you don't understand. I just, you, ah, ah, ah, ah. And this faith that starts to build just pushes all of this stuff out. and we start living in this generous place. And it doesn't have to be a lot. If there's anything that you wanna take away with this morning, it's being generous doesn't mean it has to be a lot. Being generous doesn't mean we have to have our name on a hospital or on a plaque in a hallway somewhere or for people to see it and to be recognized. My grandparents were an incredible example of this. They would constantly just bring money to the church and drop it off, and they told the pastor, "You know who needs it this month." And every time they would show up, the pastor would look at him and go, "You have no idea. "We just had somebody call. "They need this much money, "and you just handed it to me in an envelope." That's God. That is generosity.

It's a mindset that changes who we are when we put God first, but we have to pre-decide. It's not just giving when it's convenient. It's not just giving when you might have some leftover, But we do it and we give God our first and our best, and we trust him to do what he's gonna do with the rest of it. We pre-decide to put him first. And I would say that it starts with a tie, that it starts with a decision to say, God, this is yours, but it doesn't stop there. There's a lot of people I know in the church, not in this church, my other old churches that nobody just, you just don't talk about it. That's a joke, it's okay. They were good churches. But I've met people in the church, they're like, "Hey, pastor, 10%, I'm in, buddy. Just wanna let you know, check the box. God's happy with me." And I would challenge them. I was like, "Dude, you're not being generous. Like, I appreciate it. You're helping keep lights on and ministry going and coffee and food on Sundays. Like, hey, awesome, thank you. Still got some hard work, man. This isn't an end all be all, boop, there we go, I'm done. That's where we start, that's like step one in our plan of being generous, but we don't stop there and we're not accidental about it. I heard this story one time of a guy who literally has in his monthly budget 50 bucks. And he gets paid, sets the 50 aside, and he says, "God, you know this month where this is going. "I don't know yet, but you know." And he goes throughout his day. "Hey God, you got anybody in mind yet?" "Hey God, what?" Every single month, God has a place for that $50. But he pre-decides. This isn't like, "Hey God, January 31st down here on earth. "Got 27 bucks in the checking account, where do you want this to go, God?" Pre-decide, put it in the budget. There's no accident, it's not planned spontaneity. You have pre-decided that this dude is gonna bless somebody with 50 bucks every single month. I've heard stories of people who have decided to increase 1% every year. So what does that look like? Well, it looks like they start one year at 10% and then it's 11, it's 12, it's 13, it's 14, 15. But they pre decided that this is what they're going to do with what God has blessed them with. And they've done some incredible, incredible generous things in their life. I know somebody who was a small business owner. And he talked to me and he was like, "Hey, can I give from my business to the church?" And I was like, "Totally, bro, absolutely." He goes, "I didn't know that. "I didn't know if like the whole tithe thing "was just like my income." Or I was like, "Dude, if you're feeling led "by the Holy Spirit to give through your business, "then do that." Well, say this, the caveat, business blew up overnight. I've also heard stories of people with business plans to get to a point where they are giving away 50% of their profit every single year to world missions. To fighting hunger around the globe, to ending diseases that we don't even have to think about in America, to changing the trajectory of cultures around the globe, people that have way less than anything we do.

That doesn't happen by accident. Now we probably don't do that tomorrow, but it takes strategy, it takes planning, it takes thinking, it takes pre-deciding what you're going to do to be generous. The other thing that I see when we close from generous people is that generous people always round up. Generous people always round up. What do I mean by this? I heard a story one time of some believers. And they had gone to a restaurant to have a meal. And the server knew who they were. The server hated God, the server hated the church, the server hated everything to do about Christian, server just utterly despised everything. And she goes, here's my chance. Gives them the most horrible service that they have ever received in their life. She goes, I'm gonna stick it to them. It comes time for the bill. And they feel led by the Holy Spirit for some reason. I mean, they were talking, "There's no way we're going to tip this gal. We're not paying her anything. We're just doing a fat goose egg under tip." I'm getting food comped. But the Holy Spirit's tugging their hearts saying, "You got to pay. You got to tip. You need to round up." round up. And they're like, oh, okay, God, that's what I gotta do. And they tithe, or not tithe, tip, round up, minimal to go, hey, God, yeah, I got you, I got you. Here we go. And she was floored. Fast forward a couple years later, she hits a point of just rock bottom in her life. And she goes, "You know who I need to go see? "Those Christian people who blessed me "when I had done absolutely nothing to be blessed by them, "and they rounded up." They rounded up. She knew what she had done. She knew how she had treated them. She knew that she was undeserving of anything, and fully expecting no tip or anything, whatever, just to be like, see, told you, feel that fire. God flipped that upside down, she went to church, she found the saving message of Jesus Christ and she's living for God. Generous people always round up.

Proverbs 21:26 says, "All day long, the lazy, he, the selfish craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back." Generous people round up. We see this all over scripture. I love this, real quick. See this all over scripture. First thing I will say, the Good Samaritan. You guys heard that story maybe? If you've been in church, you're Good Samaritan. This dude coming along the road, see this guy who just got beat up, he got jumped, he got everything stolen from him. He got just the living daylights beat out of him. It's basically moments from dying. Good Samaritan, bandages him up, says, "Hey, we're taking you to town. "We're gonna get you well." Takes him to basically a hospital in the inn and basically says, you gotta take care of this guy, you gotta take care of, and he says this in Luke 10:35. He says, "The next day, he being the good Samaritan "handed the innkeeper two silver coins, "telling him, take care of this man. "If his bill runs higher than this, "I'll pay you the next time I'm here." Good Samaritan bro could have just been like, hey, bandaged you up on the road, good luck, peace. He bandaged him up, picked him up, took him to town, Hey, he could have just dropped him at the doorstep of the inn and said, "Hey, innkeeper, "somebody out here, see ya," and rolled. But he takes in there, he pays the bill and then gives his word, "Hey, if anything else comes up, "it's on this dude." No, he says, "If anything else comes up, I'm good for it. "Next time I'm in town, tell me the bill, "I will take care of it." Generous people round up. Anybody remember Zacchaeus? Zacchaeus was a wee little man A wee little man was he Okay, some of you are like, who is that? It's okay. It's like early 2000s, late 90s church. It's okay. But Zacchaeus, this short little dude, he climbs up in a tree so he can see this guy, Jesus, walking on the road, and he's like, I wanna see who this dude is. And Jesus comes along and says, hey, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house for dinner. What you making? And the dude basically falls out of the tree in shock. And it's like, are you okay? Okay, cool, let's go to your house. He's like, ah, he fell on the tree, bro. No, but seriously, he goes to his house and he's having dinner with him. And this guy was the worst of the worst. He was a crook, he was a swindler, he was a manipulator, he stole money from people, he was taking taxes, but then he was taking his taxes, and then his friends' taxes, And then his friend's tax is on top, really he was taking it all, but he was taking all this extra tax stuff, and Jesus shows up in his life and radically changes him. And he says what? In verse, Luke 19, verse eight, he says, "If I've cheated anybody out of everything," newsflash, he cheated everybody out of everything, "I will pay back four times the amount." That's pretty generous. That is pretty generous.

Jesus himself, he tells us, he says, "Anybody demands your shirt, "give them your really cool jacket too." If somebody says, "Hey, go a mile with me, round up, go too." Jesus says, "Generous people round up." It's not what you're not doing, We're just not randomly giving. We're not just waiting until we have more. We are generous people who make a plan and round up. My wife, amazing, she's incredible. You haven't met her, she's really, really cool. She came up with this idea somewhere of creating these pre-made packs of stuff for people who are unhoused. And it has like deodorant and socks. And I think there was like a beanie in there and there was like a Starbucks gift card and all this stuff. And because we were driving around and our girls kept saying, "Hey, can we help this person?" It was just like, "Sorry, we have a water bottle." We hand them a water bottle and the girls were like, "That was cool! We gotta do this more. And so then we started having water bottles and it was just like, we didn't have enough water bottles. And then we came, my wife found this idea. She came probably with herself, she's brilliant, to make these packs that have all this stuff in it ready to go. And we would call them our bless packs. I think that's the term. But we would have them in the car ready to go. So when we pulled up next to them, one of the girls was like, "Hey, let's do a bless pack from the back of the van." And one was like, "Okay, Lauren, okay." And we would hand it to them. This incredible, incredible, and they, seven bucks maybe? A pack? 'Cause the Starbucks gift card? But it was just something so simple and so easy, but we had to pre-plan. Does it take some time? Yeah, does it take some effort? Yeah, you gotta go to the store, you gotta buy some stuff, you gotta put some, but that generosity in a practical way for someone.

There was another time I was working at Starbucks in college. Lauren and I were just early married, and we were living paycheck to paycheck. And we were trying to do the tithing thing, and every month or so we'd try to get there. Sometimes we didn't make it. But I had a coworker of mine who was a single mom. She had gone through a really ugly divorce, and she was living at home with like six kids. And a couple of them were in high school, and we were talking one time, she was my shift manager, and we were talking and she's like, I just, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I was like, what do you mean? She goes, it's a couple days before payday and we are literally out of food. She goes, I got nothing. She goes, I think the kids might be able to get something at school. She goes, but I really don't know what I'm gonna do. And we were like, okay, what can like, they're like, no, it's nasty, but here's a bunch of old muffins and some breakfast sandwiches, and here's a gallon of milk. We'll just turn a blind eye. And she had never asked for anything ever. And so I go home and I can't stop thinking about it. Can't stop thinking about it. And God's like, you gotta do something, bro. You gotta do something. I'm like, I don't wanna do it. So I talked to my wife, Laura, and I'm like, this is what's going on. And she goes, "We're going to the store." I was like, "What do you mean?" She's like, "We don't have the money." She's like, "Yeah, we do." She's like, "We're going to the store." And I was like, "Okay." And it was a couple of days before our payday, and we were looking at our fridge, and we were going, "Okay, God." And one time she turned to me, she goes, "We have to do something." And I was like, "Okay." So we went to the store, and we filled the cart, and we checked out. And we went to their house and we doorbell ditched them with a load of groceries. The math didn't math. God took care of the bill. It wasn't Lorna me. God took care of the bill. There was enough. We made it to payday. And then I had that next shift with her at work. And she was like, I gotta tell you a story. And she was in tears. She was like, I don't know who it was, or how it happened. She goes, there was just enough food. Young married couple buying for a family of six. We had no idea who could buy it. And I was like, man, that's incredible. And she was like, "I don't understand." I was like, "Probably not meant to understand, "but just say thanks God." And she goes, "Oh yeah, I've been talking to God "like I've never been talking to God these last 48 hours.”

Being generous is a heart, attitude, mindset change. It's not what you give. Being generous is who you are, and this is who God has called us to. If you want to be more generous when you have more, learn to be generous when you have less. This isn't, it wasn't like that day after Lauren and I did that, like we never struggled with generosity in our life. No. It is a constant battle and struggle. But when we seek God first, and we trust Him with everything that we have, He will take the portion that is left over, and it will go further than you could ever have best plans for the whole. It's the only thing I could tell you that. And I know generous people in this church that say the exact same thing. It's like we started just being generous. We didn't understand, it didn't make sense, and it just happened. But you have to pre-decide. We're not waiting till later. not making excuses of why we can't. We stand firm in our plan of generosity, pre-deciding, rounding up, because we serve a God who went above and beyond and was the most generous, who pre-decided to send his son to take care of everything for us as the ultimate gift. our choice is to then share from that generosity.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for your generosity of the rain outside, even this moment. God, you are so caring and loving. We are so incredibly grateful. And so God, I pray for us as we go from this place today that we would start maybe having some hard conversations, God, of where do you want us to give? Where do you want us to be generous? How do you want us to handle the increase, God, that you have given to us? Jesus, may we be people as Christ's followers who are identified as generous people, not because of the amount that we give, but because of how we care and we love for those around us, God. May we pre-decide, may we pre-choose to trust that you're gonna be the one who's gonna take care of it. Give us eyes to see, give us the strength to plan strategically to be generous. God, be with us as we go from this place. We love you, we praise you, we thank you for who you are. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

Pre-Decide: Part 4

Pre-Decide: Part 4 - I AM DEVOTED

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I wanted to ask this as we jump into our sermon this morning. I want to ask this. Have you ever felt disappointed in life? Have you thought, man, by this time in life, I thought I would have more? I thought my life would look different. Maybe it's your job, your car, your living situation. Have you ever just thought, man, I thought this would be better? Or I thought maybe by this point in life, I thought I'd be doing something more significant. Maybe you've gotten to the place where you've gotten those things. You've got what you wanted. you've accomplished whatever you set out to do, and then you start wondering, "Is this all there is? Is there anything more to life? Is this all worth it?" And so that question of, "Is there anything more after getting everything that I wanted here on Earth, the spoil..." Oh, the answer is spoiler, yes, there is more. There's absolutely more. And that's what we're going to talk about this morning, about how when we live our lives, we should revolve around getting closer to God. We're gonna talk about pre-deciding, about getting closer to God. Would you pray with me one more time? God, thank you again for our morning together so far. We pray that through your word, we would be encouraged and empowered. And God, that we'd be drawn closer to you. Our desire this morning is to learn more about you so after we leave our time together, that we could go out and be your representatives in this world. So we give you all the glory and honor. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Alright, so again we're in our series Predecide, and we're talking about how when we predecide, those decisions that we make can positively affect the direction of our lives. And the direction is determined by the quality of our decisions. We talked about how when we get into challenging situations that inevitably come in life, those stressful and difficult moments, we're not the best decision makers in those moments. And so we want to, instead of waiting for those challenges, we want to pre-decide everything beforehand as much as possible. We're going to pre-decide now. We're going to pre-decide how to best follow God and honor God in whatever comes up. And so we have this situation that we've been going through which is, when faced with whatever you're - fill in the blank for you - whatever you're going through, whatever you foresee happening in your life, you're going to pre-decide, follow, you're going to make a decision to say, "When this happens, I want to be ready. I'm gonna honor God, I'm gonna live like Jesus through that situation by doing the following. So far we've talked about being ready. You guys ready to do this? We're getting this every week now, you ready? So say, "I am ready." I am ready, good. I am consistent. I am consistent. Yes, you guys are, good. And so today we're talking about devotion. With God's help, we can be devoted in all that we do. And we're not just talking about being devoted in our eating habits or our spending hats or our workout regimen. But as Christians, we need to know who we're devoted to, what it means to be devoted, and how we live a devoted life, and also when do we live this devoted life. It's the classic who, what, how, when. We covered the why last week, and so if you don't remember that, go ahead and listen to that sermon last week. But let's go ahead and start with the who. As for the who, as followers of Jesus, this one might be pretty obvious. We are devoted to Christ. We are fully devoted followers. If you are a Christian, you are a fully devoted follower to Jesus.

Let's go ahead and read Matthew 6. This is Jesus talking, and he says in verse 33, "But seek first His kingdom, God's kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Jesus is telling us to seek God first. When we're devoted to God, we're devoted to His kingdom, to His way of life, then we will experience the truest and fullest, the deepest sense of fulfillment. When we live according to Jesus, then this question of "Is there anything more than this on earth?" we don't even have to ask that question, because we'll experience true fulfillment living the way that God intended us to live. No matter what our worldly circumstances are, as great or as challenging as they might be, seeking first the kingdom of God is for everyone. So from this, this is going to be our umbrella theme for today, is we want to seek first the one who matters most. We want to seek first the one who matters most. Paul had his own way of saying this in Philippians 1:21, he says, "For to me," this is Paul speaking, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." All this life, all that I do is for him. I want to seek him in everything. Jesus is looking for and truly demands all of our devotion. As much as we may love other things in our life, our spouse, our children, our family, our best friends, our job, our money, whatever situation we're in, we may love that. But first and foremost, we must be fully devoted to God. That's the who. All right, so now what does it mean to be devoted to Jesus? Well, the disciples do a great job of showing us what that looks like. I want to give you the setting here. We're going to be in Acts. Jesus has spent three years with his disciples, mostly the twelve, but there's other followers of him. And then as we know, Jesus died on the cross, and he's buried, and then three days later, he is raised from the grave, and that's when we celebrate Easter. And then when he's raised, he's 40 more days with the disciples. And then he ascends into heaven to be back with the Father, and he leaves the disciples in charge of what he had begun. He had been prepping them, He'd been training them, teaching them, discipling them. And so what do the followers of Jesus do? Well, they continue the work of Jesus, and the early church comes to life. And we read this in Acts 2:42, verse 42, it says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.”

So the early believers, they devoted themselves to the teaching, which is the reading of God's Word, Jesus's interpretation of the Old Testament, they were learning God's instructions for humanity. Also fellowship, just spending time with each other, intentional time with each other, the body of Christ, so whenever they had their church services to throughout the week, just fellowship with each other. It says the breaking of bread, meals, communion, specifically communion, remembering, taking time to remember what Jesus had done on the cross, and also hoping in what he was going to do in the future. And they did this out of obedience to Jesus' instruction at the Last Supper, and then also the prayers. This is communing and talking and listening with God, listening for God. This could be in a communal setting, but also just the daily individual time spent in prayer. This is what devotion to Jesus looks like. And while some of these things might look different over the years, over the centuries, church, we're still doing this today. All these things. This is what we devote ourselves to. Teaching. Well, we have our Sunday sermons, we have our Bible studies, community groups. Fellowship. We have things like Morning Blend, family meals, community groups. hanging out with each other outside of church, breaking bread when we do our communion Sundays, anytime we're sharing a meal with each other, and then prayers, we pray in our service, we pray for each other through those monthly emails that go out of how we can be praying for each other. We pray, hopefully you're praying on your own. So followers of Jesus today are still devoting themselves to these things. The word here for devoted in the Greek conveys this, that their devotion is ongoing. It continues, they were continually devoted. And so we see from the disciples, the followers of Jesus, they had one thing on their mind, and it's this ongoing pursuit of Jesus. Now, that was the disciples back then, the early church.

What would a book about today's Christians sound like? Or at least a book about those who call themselves Christians today? What would the world describe Christians as today? If we were brutally honest, it might sound something like this. Christians today are devoted to themselves, continually and passionately pursuing a self-centered life of comfort and ease. Christians in the year 2024 wanted to be liked, they wanted to be comfortable, adored. They want to finish school, have a job they love, marry someone, have a nice house, travel the world, and at the end of their life go to heaven. Now if you didn't like the sound of that, good. That's not what we should be known for. Those things in and of themselves aren't bad, but are they the first thing that we are pursuing in life? Are they what we are devoting ourselves to the most? It should make us think and reflect, Are we devoting ourselves fully to Jesus? Are we seeking first the one who matters most? Would people ask this question to yourself, would people in your life identify your love in pursuit of Jesus first and foremost as a characteristic of who you are? If so, great, good job. Keep living in the spirit and if there was any conviction through the spirit then bring that forward to God. Say, "God, how do I change this?" How do I change being known from this to being known by you? We today as followers of Jesus can take our cue from those early disciples. We need to have an ongoing pursuit of Christ and have one thing on the forefront of our minds before anything else, and that's following Jesus.

Pastor Groeschel has an example that I think is really helpful. We're going to do it today. So I have a tape measure here. I hope this works. I've tested this. So I'm going to measure out-- OK, we're going a long ways-- 156-- OK, right here. Did I do it? Stay. Stay. Uh-oh. I'm not going to touch it. OK. Nope, I got the measurement wrong. Got to touch it again. 168. My bad. OK. Stay. Good. There we go. Sorry for those watching at home. Yeah, I can't see anything. There's a tape measure down here, and I measured 168. If you want to do this at home, go ahead. Go grab a tape measure. Put it out there in front of you right now. All right, so we have in front of me 14 feet, 168 inches. And this represents one week of our lives. If you can do math really quick, there are 168 hours in a week. So we have, for every inch here, we have an hour of our lives. OK? I want to show us how much we spend in devotion to different things in our life. Now, this is general. I didn't do any research here specifically. This is general numbers. OK? So your life may look very different, how much sleep you get, how much you work. But this is generally, we have-- OK, I got to start over here. This is one. Generally, we spend 56 hours a week, a third of our week sleeping. Some of you are like, I don't get enough. And some of you are like, well, hey, I get lots. And I'm way over there. That's great. But generally, 56, a third of our week is sleeping. We go another 56 inches, another third. This is work or school, whatever you're in. Generally, we're about here. So we're about 2/3 of our week sleep and work. Here's a surprising one. The average person spends 17 hours a week on social media. So now we're over here. Oh my goodness. Conviction yet? I know that was-- I was like, that's for sure me. I'm definitely doing that for church work, obviously. Obviously for church. That's-- no. So that leaves roughly 39 hours of our week. But we haven't yet factored in other things you guys are doing. So things around the house, chores, cooking, spending time with your kids, commute, working out, fill in the blank. But let's say we fill the rest of our week up and we're really close to the 168. And what we haven't factored in yet is how about our devotion to God? So let's say you guys are here, you spend one hour at church at least. So we'll dial it up right there. And we're really, by the way, 168 is right at that tape measure. So we're at the end. Our week is very full. And how much can you get from something that you're only giving one hour a week to? I won't ask that. There's a lot of things we can't control. You have to work. You have to sleep. But there is a lot of time that you do have some freedom in. If you invest only one hour a week into something, you're not going to see any significant growth or improvement. So one hour of exercise in a week, probably not going to be at peak health. One hour of time with your spouse, you probably won't have the healthiest relationship. One hour of study for the whole week, you probably won't graduate top of your class. The point is, if we are only partially devoted to God, only spending a little time with him each week when it's easy or comfortable, when there's nothing else to do, so you're like, "Hey, I finished everything else, might as well try to read my Bible right now." If we treat it in that way, if we treat our relationship with God in that way, then it's no wonder that we'll struggle with reoccurring sin in our life. It's no wonder that we don't often share our faith with other people. It's no wonder that we care more about what people think than what God thinks of us. And it's no wonder you find yourself only partially bought into a faith of living like Jesus. Partial devotion isn't going to help you have fulfillment in your life. It's not going to help in your pre-decisions of honoring Him in every area of your life. And it's not going to help you understand who God is and what He wants of you.

So then the question becomes how? If we want a fully devoted life to Jesus, it's not going to happen accidentally, it must be an intentional decision. You're going to have to pre-decide to live this ongoing single-minded pursuit of Jesus. And Jesus tells us how to do that in his Word. So if you want to turn with me again or look on the screen to John 15, Jesus, I'll start in verse 5, it says, "I am the vine," this is Jesus speaking, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing." So here in this verse, we have Jesus as the vine. Think of that as the trunk. It's the main one. And off of that, you have all these branches, and those are believers. So when we are abiding in Jesus, devoted to him, connected to him as the branch, then we will bear fruit. We're abiding with the source of life. What does that fruit look like? Well, that's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, the fruits of the Spirit. These things are evidence that one is living life with Jesus. If you see that in a person, if you've ever encountered someone had an interaction and you're just like, "Man, there's just something about them," maybe because they're showing the fruit of living with Jesus. I was talking with someone this week who's losing their mother, she's passing away, and this person I was talking to does not have a good relationship with their mom and is struggling in this process because, by their words, their mom was not a very nice person. And they said, "I've never ever seen the fruit of the Spirit in them, and so I don't think they're a believer." And that saddens her. They want the mom to believe, but she just, I loved her process, she was like, "I don't think she's a believer because I've never seen any fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of abiding with Jesus is the evidence of faith. And so church, hopefully people see and experience some of the fruit of the Spirit when they experience you. When you are not living as the branch, when you're disconnected from Jesus, not devoted to him, maybe only spending one hour a week with Jesus, how do you expect to bear fruit in your life? Do you remember that question that I asked at the beginning? Do you ever feel like life seems a bit empty, meaningless at times? Well, when we devote ourselves to Jesus, when we live as the branch connected to the vine, when you dwell in him, life will start to feel full. Because again, This is what truly matters, and this is what truly lasts. This is what we were made for, to be Jesus' representatives in this world.

The author of Psalms, one of the books of wisdom in our Bible, says this about abiding and dwelling, remaining in God. It's Psalms 1 verse 1. It says, "How sit is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But the light is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night." And this is the part that I want us to just envision this in your mind. "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and whatever he does he prospers." We want to be that tree. If we imagine Jesus as that river, as the source of life, we want to be the tree that's right next to it, always getting the nutrients and the nourishment that we need. And when we live right by the source of life, Jesus, then we will be exactly who we're meant to be. We will yield fruit. In our passage back in John with the vine and the branches, there's a word that appears a lot, 11 times in this chapter, so therefore we know it's very important, and it's the word remain. I'll just read verse four, right above verse five. It says, "Remain in me," again, Jesus speaking, "and I also remain in you. "No branch can bear fruit by itself. "It must remain in the vine. "Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." This Greek word for remain is meno, which means to abide, to live and to dwell. And so that's not just one hour a week with God. This is constant, ongoing, full devotion, being all in to the one who matters most. And if we think of a vine and a branch, the branch needs the vine. The branch cannot survive without the vine. If the branch loses the vine, it dies. It has no life source, it won't get what it needs, and over time it will wither and die. It's the same for us. Jesus is the vine, you are the branch, so be the branch. Know who you are. Pre-decide to be devoted to Jesus. And make the decision today, "I will seek first the one who matters most." Alright, so we have the "who." We have what it means to be devoted, what a life of devotion looks like, and you have the "how," which is abiding in Jesus. And now I want to get to the practical. What's our game plan to make this a reality in our lives? How are you going to seek first God in your life? Like we said, it's not going to happen by accident. Not going to stumble upon a life of full devotion.

So, I have a plan. I have to reveal this plan to you. And I love how this is coinciding with our community group. We're talking in our community group, which meets on Wednesdays, about solitude and spending time with God. And so if you're in that community group, you're going to hear some similar things right now. I have three things for a plan of success for you. First is to pre-decide time. You gotta know when you're spending time with God. Are you gonna do it in the morning? First thing when you wake up? Or is it on your commute to work? Is it after the kids get dropped off at school or daycare? Is it at the end of your day? When you know that your mind is gonna be able to focus? You need to find a time that works regularly and has very little interruptions or distractions. And you need to decide how long. Are you spending 10 minutes, 15 minutes, a half hour, an hour? What does that time look like? Predecide. Don't go in it with like, "I guess I'll just go until I feel like it," because that will not work. You will fail. It's not going to go well. Predecide a time. When in the day and for how long? Secondly, predecide a place. You got to know where you are going to work best in a relationship with God. Is it that like perfect that couch with like your coffee table and the lamp, you got your Bible and your coffee setting is sometimes more important to some. I know for me I got to, everything's got to be right. I got to have the lamp on so I can see real up close and I got to have the coffee. Or maybe is there, is it on the back patio? Is it in the bathroom where you're just like, I can close that door, no one will bother me. This is my place of silence. Whatever, you know, whatever works. Is it in the laundry room? Is it in a park? Are you walking? Are you just moving? Are you in the car again in the commute or just like once you get to work you park and like before I go in I'm spending 15 minutes right here So find your time find your place and then pre decide a plan You got to have a plan for what you're spending if it's 15 minutes an hour know what you're gonna do Are you gonna be praying? How are you gonna be praying? Are you praying for people for other people? Are you? Praying through Scripture. Are you reading through the Bible? Are you listening to worship music? Is it a combination of things? I'm gonna spend some time here and then I'm gonna do this and then I'm gonna do this. I want to say this too. Remember to leave time to listen to God. We often have this need of getting caught up to fill the silence with noise. We don't like being quiet with God. And so we're just like as soon as we pause like, "Hmm, maybe a song will be good." Or, "Maybe I should talk some more. God, do you want to hear some more of my thoughts?" He knows your thoughts, by the way. It's good to express them, but you have to listen. It's got to be a two-way street. You talk to God and allow Him to talk back to you. Sit in silence with Him. So those are the three things. A time, a place, and a plan.

And I want to just mention a couple other things. If you are put in, I encourage you, put this into practice this week. But I want to give you a heads up. There's something called the J-curve. And if you've been in our Bible study, you've heard about this. But the J-curve is, and this is true of anything outside of spiritual practices too, if you just start a new hobby, or you try something out, you may experience some initial success. You start in this place of like, "Wow, this is going great, I'm actually, I can do this. I'm kind of good at this maybe." Maybe if it's devotion with God, you're like, "Man, that prayer time, that was awesome. I felt great after that, I felt close with God." But the J curve is studies show that over time, in the next week or two, you're going to be discouraged. And that is going to get really hard. And this new habit, this new thing you're trying to do, your feelings about it are going to go down. You're going to be like, "This is not working out anymore. I thought it was good, but I'm just struggling. It's challenging. I don't like it. I don't feel like it anymore." But studies also show that if you stick with it, in that downward turn, you will come back up and you'll go higher than you were before. So they call it the J-curve. You start off with maybe initial success, you like it, you get discouraged, but stick with it, and then you will experience more success. And so that is true of anything outside of spiritual practices, but it's very true in starting a new spiritual practice. So if you have all these things already down, you have a time, you have a place, and you have a plan, good. Be encouraged, continue that. You are living out a life of devotion. If this is new for you, then don't be discouraged when in the next week or two, it gets a little tough. That's okay. And I want to remind you of this too. The success in this quiet time, in this life of devotion, is not what you are checking off the list or gaining from this time. Some people go into this quiet time and they'll leave and be like, "I'm just discouraged. I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel God's presence. I didn't hear from him. I don't know if this is really working." But success in a life of devotion is showing up day after day. Just constant devotion to God, that is success. God loves it when you keep prioritizing Him day after day. That's what we talked about last week, is being consistent.

Be consistent in your devotion. And then also this, you've got to realize that your time of devotion, especially, I would encourage you to try to do at the beginning of the day, you are gearing up for what that day holds. This life, as we talked about two weeks ago with Pastor Lauren saying, "We need to be prepared. Are we ready? Because we will face resistance to our relationship with God." The enemy does not like when we spend time with God. The world does not really allow for us to spend time with God. It's going to try to distract us. It's going to try to pull us away. And even our own flesh. Our minds can be racing when we enter that time of solitude or that time of devotion. And So you have to know that that time is so important, you are gearing yourself up with the Spirit to face whatever happens that day. It is an essential time. Jesus practiced this, and so I think we should practice it too. If Jesus had to do it, we should definitely see that we have to do it too. So, our last question is when? If you have a plan of abiding, of spending time with him, but when? And we see our - I want to bring out our tape measure one more time - we see all this. Well, if we do those times in the day, that's still like only this much, right? If we were - only had a couple hours left, it's still maybe if you do 15 minutes, I mean, you're not - that's not - what about the rest of the week? What about the rest of the hours? I know maybe this is - here's where the perspective shift comes, all these 168 hours that you have in a week, God wants all of them. God doesn't just want the time where you're intentionally spending time with Him, He wants that too, but He wants all of your life. Through everything we face in a day, we should be talking with God, listening for God, and aligning our hearts with God. We want to be seeking God first, the one who matters most in every situation in life. He's not just some segment, some hour of our to fit in when it works for us. God wants all of our life. Seek God first. When something unforeseen comes up, when you are abiding in Him, you can hear from Him, He'll direct your steps, He'll give you the wisdom you need, He'll guide you through that, through His Word, through community, through prayer. You will have the wisdom to navigate life in the most God-honoring way when you are abiding in Him through everything. God doesn't want your leftovers. He wants all of you. God wants all 168 hours of your week. So, pre-decide, church, pre-decide to be devoted, to seek Jesus first and to let him impact every hour of your life. Whether that's at work, whether that's in how you spend your money, whether it's through parenting, relationships, whatever it is, abide in him while you are doing it. Remain in him. him, be devoted to him. So be ready, be consistent, and be devoted to God. Seek him first, the one who matters most, and devote all of who you are, your heart and mind, to Jesus.

Let's go ahead and pray. God, thank you again for your word, thank you for your example through the life of Jesus to show us what devotion looks like. And God, we pray that you would, through your Spirit, reveal to each and every one of us, because it may be different, how we can live a life that's more devoted to you. God, it really is a joy to know that you want all of our lives, you want every hour, and you're not satisfied with just a a little bit of every day, well that's essential and that's important. You want us to see that it's all of us that you want. You want all of our lives. So I pray, God, that you would help us to come before you, to hand over the burdens that we carry, to hand over the mess that we may feel our life is, and to surrender it to you. And to be before you with open arms, humbled, and say, God, use me. God, through your Spirit transform me. God, that's our prayer that you would continue to do work in us and through us. We are so thankful for all that you have done, for all that you're doing, and we know and trust that you will continue the good work that you have started. Be with us today and for the rest of our days. We pray this in your name, Amen.

Pre-Decide: Part 3

Pre-Decide: Part 3 - I AM CONSISTENT

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We're continuing in our series this morning and I've heard from a few of you in this past week or so. You guys are enjoying this series, which is good. I'm glad that God is speaking to you through these messages and through His Word, and I hope that it continues today. In our series, we're talking about pre-deciding, those decisions that can positively affect the direction of our life, and that direction is determined by the quality of our decisions. The problem is that often when we get to these stressful moments or difficult, challenging we may not be the best decision makers. And so we want to pre-decide now to follow God in whatever happens. We're gonna have something for you this morning as we have our ushers handing out stickers to help you remember where we're going in our series, what we've covered. And if you remember, our scenario is this, when faced with whatever happens in life, I have decided to, and you fill in the blank. And these stickers, it's a sticker by the way, you get a little sticker with everything that we're covering and you can stick that wherever's helpful, in your Bible, I don't know where you stick, on your water bottle if you're one of those people, which is awesome. But we are, there's six things.

And so we've talked about last week, Pastor Lauren talked about being ready. And so, can we try this out? You say I am ready. I am, there we go. You guys were ready, kind of. We'll get there. Today we're going to be talking about consistent, how we're consistent. We're going to talk about how we're devoted, generous, faithful, and how we are finishers. So this morning, like I said, we're going to be covering, I want to share with you one of the most important spiritual qualities that has the potential to not only impact the trajectory of your year, but your entire life. And this quality can be the key to your physical health, your finances, your relationships, your goals, but more importantly, your spiritual strength, your ministry impact, and your ever-deepening relationship with God. And this quality is not based on appearances or background or education or experience. It's your consistency. Being consistent, disciplined, and steadfast has the potential to impact your life more than you might imagine. So what's the problem? Well the problem is that naturally many of us are inconsistent. We're inconsistent with what we eat, when we exercise, sticking to the budget that we made. We're inconsistent with spending time with God, praying, reading our Bibles when we said we were going to. Maybe some of you relate more with the sentiment that the most consistent thing is how inconsistent you are. Personally, I resonate with that a lot. As I was preparing for this sermon, I was praying, God, is there a reason is where I'm preaching this sermon, is where I'm preaching this consistency. I often have, thank you, I often have good intentions, but I struggle with the follow through. For example, I have this devotional app that I use, maybe some of you have heard of it, it's called Lectio 365, and my aspirations, my intent is to do that 365, 365 days of the year, every day, to use the app for my devotion. But I haven't made it a whole year yet, I've used this app for a couple years now. And I've usually gone like a month or so, and then for whatever reason, something comes up, maybe it's a holiday, and then all of a sudden I haven't done it in a week. And I'm like, oh, there that goes. And I gotta start over again, and I'll go a couple weeks, and then I'll skip a day here and there. And I just, I'm inconsistent. And I want to be, my desire is to do it every single day, but it doesn't happen, it hasn't happened yet. It can be hard to remain consistent. And I know I'm not alone in that, and if you're feeling the same way, that you're not alone in your struggle with consistency.

In fact, there's an apostle who wrote much of the New Testament, Paul, who also struggled with being consistent. He wrote this in Romans, Romans 7, 15 says, "I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing." He was very wordy when he said that, but you get the point that he's not doing what he wants and he's doing what he doesn't want to do. And if we can relate to Paul, I think we're in okay company right there. But if you're tired of having good intentions, but then failing and falling short, then hopefully this morning is going to be especially encouraging for you as we talk about the power of consistency in our spiritual life. Today we're going to pre-decide, adding to our readiness, we're going to talk about consistency. And here's the key, you're not doing this on your own. Not only do we have each other, but we also have the help of the God who created us. Because it's with God's help that we can be consistent. With God's help, I can be consistent in my daily devotion. Why does consistency matter? Well, successful people do constantly what other people do occasionally. Successful people, experts in whatever field or practice, they don't just do those things occasionally or familiarize themselves with it when it matters. They are surrounded by it. They're immersed in it. They are in it all the time. They are doing it over and over and over again. One pastor said, "It's not what we do occasionally that makes the difference, it's what we do consistently." Think of a skill or some area of knowledge that you know really, really well. You're an expert in it, in your circle. You probably just didn't, it's like one time I looked it up and I figured it all out and I became an expert in one moment. Or with this skill, whatever sport you play, I just practiced one time and I was the best. I doubt it happened that way. Maybe you have some God-given skills, but you had to be in it over and over again and commit time and devotion to it.

So today, we're gonna look at how scripture says that consistency matters and see how growing in our consistency is a way to better honor God. We'll be in the Old Testament today, looking at a particular man in history that demonstrated incredible consistency, who had pre-decided to follow God in all situations, even in captivity, even when faced with conspiracy, and facing death. And that man is Daniel. So you guys can find, turn in your Bibles if you want to Daniel 6, and as you're turning there, let me explain some of where we're at in Israel's history. Shortly after Israel was defeated, and Jerusalem was destroyed by the kingdom of Babylon, life changed very quickly for God's people in the Old Testament, the Israelites. Babylon began taking young men from Israel captive, the best and the brightest. They took back to Babylon to help them contribute to the Babylonian kingdom. They took Israel's potential leaders to have them be leaders for the kingdom of Babylon. And Daniel is one of those people. He stood out to King Nebuchadnezzar as one of the best young men from Israel. And later after King Nebuchadnezzar died, the next king, King Darius, saw the same potential in Daniel, said this is one of the best that they have to offer. He noticed Daniel's leadership and consistency and promoted Daniel to a very high position in the kingdom. Now Daniel's rise to power did not settle well with some of the other leaders, the non-Israelite leaders. And so they tried to undermine Daniel's credibility. They tried to find fault with him. And if this was happening in today, it means that they were looking for dirt. They're looking on his social media. They're looking for anything, and he runs with the law. They're just looking for anything to get Daniel canceled. So we don't like this guy. We don't like how he keeps rising in power. What can we do to take him out? And you know what they found? It says in Daniel 6, verse 4, "At this, the administrators and the satraps "tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel "in his conduct of government affairs, "but they were unable to do so. "They could find no corruption in him "because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Another version says he was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. Daniel showed consistency in practicing his faith in God. Even in a foreign country, even in captivity, he showed consistency in being responsible and trustworthy and faithful. So what happens? Well, because Daniel is consistent and there's no dirt on him, these jealous leaders attempt to create a problem for Daniel. They're hoping to trap him by using his consistency against him. They go to the king and they schmooze their way into creating this new law. They're like, "King, because you're so great, "because you're amazing, we think that only you "should be worshiped and prayed to for the next 30 days." And the king's like, "You know what? "I am great, you are right. "Let's do that, let's make that a reality." And so, for 30 days, there's a decree given that everyone must pray only to King Darius, no other god. And if anyone were to break this law, the punishment would be being thrown into the lion's den. Now we are not necessarily familiar with lions and a den of lions, but this was certain death. This was not, hey, you might survive, it might be entertaining to see if you could try to make it the day. No, this was certain death. And so we have to recognize that this plan was put in place solely for the purpose of killing Daniel. In the minds of the jealous leader, this thing was as good as done. As soon as King Darius signed the sins of law, they said, "We got him. We've got Daniel. We can get rid of this guy." And so let's read what happens next.

In verse 10 of chapter 6 of the book of Daniel, it says, Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. What do we see right here? We see Daniel's consistency. It's not a sudden decision that, hey, I'm in a really hard time right now, let me go to God and figure out what I'm supposed to do. No, he continued in his regular practice of prayer. I have a hard thing going on, God, right now, but let me just talk to you like I always do at this time. His relationship was established, and he just continued in his regular rhythm of talking with God. Well, the jealous leaders were able to trap Daniel in his integrity and took it before the king. And they said, "We found Daniel praying "to someone besides you, King Darius." And the king was bound by his own word and by the law that he had made to make Daniel face the punishment. Now, there's a whole other story here that King Darius didn't wanna do this. King Darius really liked Daniel. And so he was really saddened to have to throw Daniel into the lion's den. But he does. And so Daniel's thrown into the pit, lion's den, and everyone is thinking, "This is it." It was good knowing Daniel. He was great. good faithful servant of God and to the king, but it's over now. If you already know the story, then you know that it's a good ending. But instead of Daniel dying, a miracle happens and God sent angels in the night to keep the mouths of the lions shut. And in verse 23, it says, "The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in God. He lived, he survived certain death because he trusted in God. Now church, I wanna ask this, and this is the key. When did Daniel learn to trust God? It wasn't in the lion's den. He learned to trust God in his routine, on his knees, in prayer, three times a day, day after day, week after week, month after month.

Daniel's faith wasn't built in battle, his faith was built in remaining consistent in pursuing God every single day. It's not what we occasionally do that makes the difference, it's what we consistently do. Most of us pray occasionally, Daniel prayed consistently, and so our desire is to be more like Daniel. just in prayer, but in every aspect of our life that is God honoring, we want to be more like Daniel and be more consistent. So let me give you three thoughts regarding consistency. These are from Pastor Greg Groeschel, and I think they're really helpful for us today to hear and to understand. And they are starting with the why. We want to plan to fail, and we want to fall in love with the process. So let's start with the why. Why did Daniel pray consistently? Well, it wasn't about outward appearances. It wasn't about appearing spiritual. This is the problem that the Pharisees had in the New Testament that Jesus reprimanded them for, saying, "You're just praying out loud to boast "and to seem and come across so spiritual." Daniel did this in the quiet of his home upstairs, so it wasn't about that. But he prayed consistently because he was devoted to God. He was committed to having the best relationship with God. It wasn't just desire, it was devotion. And devotion stems from the heart. Devotion to God sees that we are God's creation, made to serve him with everything that we have so that we can and others can know him. Really, any goal, be it financial or personal career, it goes beyond your personal desire. And it has to come from wanting to honor God and live according to his will. Because we have to understand that God is God, we are not. His ways are perfect, and that means that we want to be devoted to the one who is perfect. We won't really change if we don't know our why. Transformation is not based on our desire or willpower, because eventually our desire and willpower will fail us. We will run out of willpower. We will stop wanting or desiring at a certain time, relying on our own strength. We will eventually take the foot off the pedal. We'll come to a place of not exercising, even just for a day. We don't like it anymore. Whatever it is, we will fail ourselves. Like my struggle with my daily devotion of Lectio 365. When I'm trying to do it all by myself, there's mornings when I wake up, I'm like, I'm just so tired. I don't wanna do it today. And then I don't. But when we know our why, when we remain devoted, when we, like Daniel, continue to pray three times a day, no matter what, we can continue through. We can continue through disinterested moments, challenging schedules, or any other stumbling block. The why is really pointing us to rely on God to be what God created us to be. Like we said at the beginning, it's with God's help that we can be consistent. and how we rely on God who is perfectly consistent. Well, how do we know that God is consistent?

Well, this whole Bible is a story of God being consistent, but there's a specific scene I wanna point us to. It's in Exodus 34, and this is a moment where God is with Moses, and Moses and God are having this conversation, and Moses is saying, "God, I wanna know you more. "I've been leading your people, "but I still don't know who you are. "Can you tell me who you are?" And God says, "I'll tell you exactly who I am." Exodus 34, 6 through 7 says, "And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'The Lord, the Lord,' which in the Hebrew is his name." God is saying his own name, he's introducing himself. And he says, "The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin." That phrase, abounding in love and faithfulness and maintaining love to thousands, that's talking about God being consistent. The Hebrew words there are a covenantal love steadfast commitment. God is eternally consistent. No matter how many times his people failed him, doubted him, denied him, or actively rebelled against him, God never failed them. God continued with his plan of redemption. The Old Testament is a story of God's people continually turning away from God over and over again deciding, you know what God, I just I don't want to do this anymore. And God never giving up on them. God sending person, prophet, leader, miracles, bad things to say, hey I'm trying to get your attention, I have a plan, I'm remaining consistent in pursuing you. God remained consistent in his pursuit of humanity and it all led to him bringing salvation through his son Jesus. Church, no matter how much we wrestle with our consistency and relationship with him, we can recognize and praise God that he is always consistent with us. So, we rely on him. We know our why because we are devoted to the one who is eternally devoted to us. And when we know our why, we'll find a way. So, we begin with our why and next, we plan to fail. This sounds really counterintuitive. Why are we planning to fail? Well, we have to plan not to be perfect. Do we have any perfectionists in the room? You don't have to raise your hand. I know there are some. I won't point you out. Perfectionists will be-- this is tough for everyone. This is especially tough for perfectionists. Failure is tough. Failure can make it feel like it's not It's not worth it to continue anymore. But let me remind you that you are not perfect, and the only perfect person to ever live was Jesus. Everyone else has had to work through imperfections and failures, but everyone else has also had the opportunity to grow from them.

Any of the heroes of the Bible that we tend to put on a pedestal and think that they were perfect, they were not. All the heroes of the Bible had their inconsistencies, their imperfections, even Daniel. And so why is it that so many of us are inconsistent? We've already talked about losing the willpower. It can also be because we can have an all or nothing mindset. If we fail one time, we think that we are a failure. We can wrap up our identity and our actions of success or failure, which is not how God sees us, by the way. We have to remember that being consistent does not mean being perfect. We need to give ourselves grace to fail. I'll say that again for everyone, and especially for the perfectionists in the room. Give yourself grace to fail. If Jesus has enough grace to give to you, then you should certainly have grace on yourself. You're gonna mess up. You have to plan for what happens next. What are you gonna do after you fail? Predecide for your failure. Again, Pastor Craig Groeschel says, "Know that a momentary failure "is actually a part of the process. "And really the problem for many of us "is the illusion of perfection "keeps us from getting started." We think, I'm never gonna be great at that, so I might as well not even try. Have you ever been invited to participate in something, an activity, and you say, oh, thank you so much, but that's okay, I'm good. Not because you're being polite, but because you're like, I'm not gonna be good at that, so I don't want to embarrass myself, I don't want to try, I don't want everyone to see me fail. That's me, for sure. I noticed this in our daughter at times, when she gets so upset when she messes up. And we're just trying to, it's okay. You're gonna mess up, you're gonna fail, you're not gonna get it, that's fine. And she gets so worked up that she just didn't do it perfectly and she wants to give up. And it's a reminder, I see myself in it, I'm like, oh my goodness, this is me all over again in so many areas of life. Because some of us are viewing our relationship with Jesus like that. There's some of you who may not be following Jesus today because you think, "Well, if I start following Jesus, what happens when I mess up? What if I fail and my language is bad, or I'm not loving, or my thoughts are completely terrible, or whatever it is that I struggle with, what's going to happen when I fail? Because I don't think I'm going to be a good Christian, so I don't think I'm going to try.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you will fail, and everyone in this room who is a Christian has also failed. But don't let that stop you from pursuing God with everything that you have. And letting God love you and show you mercy and compassion and grace in your failure. It's all part of the process. There are growing pains. There are moments that aren't great, but it's not all a complete loss. So, know that you won't be perfect. Don't confuse being consistent with being perfect. Start with the "why." Plan to fail. And then lastly, fall in love with the process. In our story of Daniel, Daniel wasn't doing something to get this promotion. He wasn't like, "Hey, if I remain consistent in my faith and all these things, my end goal is to get this position in the Kingdom of Babylon." No. He was consistently doing what he knew to be important, being devoted to God. It's the process of being devoted that matters to God, not this goal. We tend to be a very goal-oriented people. task, I got to get it done, and here I want to measure my growth, I want to measure how successful I am. And we tend to measure success by only one metric, which is accomplishing the task. It is either pass/fail. Either I did it, or I didn't do it, and either I'm a success or I'm a failure. And again, that is not how God views us. So we shouldn't necessarily view ourselves in that way either. In fact, I think that's a terrible way to measure your spiritual journey, or to measure how you are as a Christian. Rather, it's in how we honor God that we can measure. We can have a moment of failure, but if we got back up and committed ourselves to God, we should say, "That's what matters. God cared about that right there, of how after I sinned or after I failed in whatever way, God loved that I got back up and I kept pursuing Him." Again, Pastor Groeschel says, "You're not successful when you achieve the goal in the future. You're successful when you honor God today." I think that's really wise. Now it's good to accomplish things. We can set our minds to things and want to do them, but ultimate success is when we honor God. You won't hear that from the world. This is not the world's definition of success, but this is what God cares about, is when you honor him. He is so overjoyed and happy and content with you when you honor him. Learning to honor God in the process, even when you mess up, that's the important part. This process includes ups and downs. Recognize that, acknowledge that, and plan accordingly. Pre-decide for when you fail.

A professor once shared with me that when we're younger in life, we tend to have these big ups and downs in life. When we're up, we're feeling great, we're overjoyed, we're loving to everyone else, we have a lot of energy. Life is so good, and we're feeling on top of the world. And then whatever happens, it can knock us down. And when we're down, we're really down. I think of high school and college, and it was a lot of this with friendships and just everything going on. And when you're down, you're empty, maybe you're bitter, there's not a lot to give, you're selfish. But we notice, he was sharing that with older people, older Christians, those same things may be happening, but you're not getting this big sweep. You're kind of just getting a more consistent line. I wish I had a graphic here, 'cause my hand, I don't know if you can follow my hand on what I'm trying to do. But instead of these roller coasters, big up and down, it's still an upward trajectory towards God, but you're a more consistent line. You're still feeling those things, maybe, but they're not dominating your life or just taking over you. You are more in tune with God and what He has for you in that moment. And so that's our desire. Instead of having these big ups and downs, we wanna remain consistent with God in our relationship with Him. That's the process, steady, consistent devotion to Him. So I wanna end by reminding us that we can't do this without God's help. And so I wanna invite you right now to reflect. We're talking about pre-deciding to follow God in all areas of our lives, and maybe in this series, there's something specific that God has brought to the forefront of your mind. And I wanna ask, where is God calling you to be consistent? In what area of your life is God bringing to your heart and to your mind that you need to be more consistent in? So think about that. And if it helps, if you're not sure, ask God, God, where do you want me to be more consistent? Where can I honor you more? Where can I be more faithful? Is it with your family, your spouse, your kids? Is it with your prayer time, your Bible reading time, your speech, your attitude? Maybe how you treat those around you, how you spend your time in general or your money. Whatever God is putting on your heart, give it over to him, ask him for his help in that area. Rely on him to be consistent. Pre-decide, church, with me. Start with the why, plan to fail, and fall in love with the process of being made more and more like Jesus. So say it with me. With God's help, with God's help, I am consistent. I am consistent. Yes. So you are ready, you are consistent. You'll find out more in the weeks to come how you're also generous, how you'll be devoted, and how you're faithful, and how you're a finisher.