Right, yes, I know. Well, hey, good morning. Good morning. It's good to see all of you here. It's funny how the attendance goes up when the Seahawks on a bye week. It's just funny how that works. It's great to see all of you online as well. Thank you for joining us. I'm excited. We're in week three of our series called it's personal or, or what we're doing is we're kind of looking at some of the obscure things that we find in scripture where Jesus talks about it or the Bible talks about it and, and really it's something personal that is trying to tell us that God is really trying to tell us until a couple of weeks ago we started this series with, with honesty and integrity, talking about those things. It was great. Uh, and then last week though, my friend Derek was here, and he talked all about hot tubs.
It was an awesome, awesome message. I hope you. Who was here last week for that? Who's here? Yeah, some of you are lying because I know you weren't here anyway like, but it was great. No, I think, I think it was a fantastic message. I really do. In fact, uh, but it never fails. Anytime anyone of my friends comes up and speaks a, they get more love in the lobby and on Facebook than I ever get you. I'm not bitter, but it's true. You know, like, I'm not kidding. This is not hyperbole. There must have been 20 people. They came up to me and said, rusty, did you just hear what Derek said? He was amazing. Like, you just don't know. No, rest of you understand. He was awesome and I'm looking. I'm like, yeah, okay. I get it, you know. But there was one guy, he's actually a good buddy of mine. He was out there in the lobby. He said, Rusty, why can't you be more like Derek?
I'm like, Bro, come on. I'm like, first of all, it's a pigmentation issue. But then second of all, here's the thing, okay. Uh, his church is in federal way. You are more than welcome to go there if you'd like, right? But I called Derek after and said, man, you were getting so much love. They really love that. Thank you so much for coming up. I really appreciate it, but that'll just be the last week that you're ever here. I'm just saying. Okay. This morning I wanted to hit on yet another topic that's somewhat obscure, but. But here's the thing. I think it's one of those topics that, that we are really good at talking to our kids too about. We're really good at talking to our, to our teenagers about where sometimes though it's a little more difficult for us to live out in our life. You know what we're going to talk about today?
Laziness. Mm. Lazy and yeah. His thing that I know, I say that word, I say that word and some of you already automatically write it off and say, yeah, this message ain't for me. Rusty. If you knew my schedule right, you would know that man I am. I'm constantly moving. I got no time. I mean I'm out there, I'm going to work and when I'm done with work, I come home, I take my kid to practice, right? We got soccer practice like eight days a week, you know, it's just a lot of practice. And then my youngest, I put, I've been put her in tumbling class. I mean, she's the most amazing tumbler out. You should see her tumble, right? And then after I'm done with that, I come home, and I make dinner and then we do homework. And then when I'm finally all said and done 9:00 or whatever, I kick my feet up, sit on the couch, right?
And I turned on something wholesome. So, watching the voice, this is us, right? The walking dead, just something wholesome. You know what I'm saying? Like I just turn on something, right? And I just, I just get to get to relax and say, here's what I know. I completely believe all of that to be true. I get it. I complete all of that is totally true. But here's what I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced that business is the Antonym for laziness. Okay? I'm not convinced that business is actually the Antonym for. I'm not convinced of that. And so, here's, here's what I'm going to do today. I'm a, I'm, I promise you, I'm not going to throw out a whole bunch of clichés to you, but I might, I'm going to challenge you a little bit on this because I believe that God actually challenges us all on this, on this topic.
We're might not even be in dealing with what you do, but maybe a little bit more and how you, how you think. Okay. Because here's the thing, laziness is one of those things in our culture. Uh, I don't think it's not only tolerant, but it's actually encouraged, like, have you noticed that? Like it is like, I mean, okay, I'll prove it to you. What is the, the one chair that every man when he's wanting to watch football, wants to sit in the lazy boy? Yes. My wife and I, we have been in search of a couch for the last, I don't know, six months or so. We're looking online trying to figure it out because our last couch, our, our current couch has a bunch of paint stains on it. Right. It's got some tears in it, you know, it used to be perfect and then I had kids sit on it and that's not perfect anymore.
Right. And so, and so we're in search for this couch. Well, well here's, here's my thought process on the couch. I have two prerequisites for providing any couch men. You'll agree. Every single seat has to recline and they all have to have cup holders. Like that's it, right. That's all I need. The problem that I knew I'd get an amen. The problem is though, is that she, she found a couch on like Esty or Pinterest or whatever made out of like pallet wood in mason jars. Right? Like, so it's like, it's not even comfortable. You know what I'm saying? Here's what I want to couch that's like, it's like a bed, like I just want to be cozy, you know? I want a bed like couch. That's what I. Because I want to be lazy. Right. Hey, thank you man. Jesus is here this morning for sure.
The funny thing though is that we don't celebrate other sins in our culture. Like we do. Laziness, right? Like we don't have the lust boy sleeper sofa, angry boy padded room, like we don't have these types of things. Right? But see again though, I think. I think scripture. I think. I think the Bible talks a lot about laziness. I mean Jesus himself talks about it in the parable of the talents. If you've ever read that, like he's, you know, he talks all about this and see, I think though, it's because God is trying to help us move toward a future that he has for us where we want that for ourselves too. But I think sometimes we get stuck. I think sometimes we can get stuck and so what does this reality really tell us about ourselves? Do me a favor. Pull that outline. Under your program, there's two things that I want you to write down.
Here's the first reality. The first one, it says, we all want positive momentum, right? That's a real thing. We all want positive momentum. We want to be moving forward, but reality too is this. Everything has a tendency to deteriorate, that everything if left on its own will drift when we don't give it attention. When we don't give it energy, everything has a tendency to drift. That is just how human life works. If you don't believe me, look at the person sitting next to you. No, I'm kidding. Don't, don't do that. I will tell you this though. Uh, I have not been to the gym in two months. Things are starting to drift. You know what I'm saying? Like they just, they just are. And See, this doesn't just happen to us physically, but I think it happens in our minds too. I think we get lazy in our inner, in our, uh, in our minds.
And when that starts adding things to our online to deteriorate, right, we begin to begin to become apathetic. We become complacent. We can settle for far less than we can settle for living. Not with a great life in mind, but we can settle with a, with a good enough life in, uh, in our mind. Right? I'll explain it this way. How many of you guys have ever heard of a guy named Gideon into bio? Anybody here to bring? Yeah, I've talked a lot about getting in the past, but, but, but I think there's, there's a section in Gideon story that really speaks to this and if you don't know Gideon story, basically Gideon is this guy that God calls to do amazing things. He's, he, he's called to be a leader. He, he judges over Israel. He winds battles all of this. But, but, but look at how this, how this starts out.
It's actually in verse 11, and basically, it's this section of scripture called the call of Gideon. Here's what it says. It says, the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak at Oprah that belonged to Joe Ashley, a Bs right where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the meionites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you. Mighty warrior, right? And see if you've never read this before, here's what you got to understand about getting, getting is scared. Okay? That's why he's actually in a wine press. And you've heard some of you have heard that before, that, that he's afraid because the meionites are taking everything. They're enslaving their people basically by, by starving all of them, and so and so. Gideon is sitting there and he's in a wind pant and he's, and he's threshing wheat by the way, you don't do that.
That's not where you do that, but he's doing it because he doesn't want the meionites to steal the food. Right? And yet in the midst of that, the angel of the Lord comes to him. And what does he say? He says, Hey, mighty warrior, right? He says, Hey, mighty warrior. And See, a lot of times when I've read this before, I think, oh, this is where God's just being funny, right? How many of you realize that God is sarcastic? Like he's okay? Y'All realize that? Yeah. No, if you don't read the Bible, like you'll see it a lot. Okay? Anybody here sarcastic at all? Like think. It's like the sixth love language. I believe it. These are the people that are closest to Jesus. I'm not even kidding. Like God is our sarcastic God. But see, I don't believe that this is one of those moments.
They. Yes. Gideon is afraid. Yes. Gideon is timid. Yes. Gideon is scared. He's. He said he's hiding out. Right? And what does God say? God says, Hey, mighty warrior. What's God doing? What's he doing here? Here's what I think he's doing. I think he's trying to introduce him to a hymn that getting doesn't even know yet. That makes sense. I think trying to introduce Gideon. Gideon, Gideon doesn't even know yet where he's trying to say, hey, you know what? I want to introduce you to your potential self where he's trying to tell him how his future self will be. If you would just realize what God, what God is calling him to see. Here's the thing, if God will do that to Gideon, I think I do the exact same thing to every single one of us where he calls us to something greater than we would ever even really, we would never even think of.
Right? The guy that can do more infinitely more than what we could ever dream or fathom or thinking, whatever they can cause us to that see, because of our natural downward spiral, we don't always allow ourselves to go there. That sometimes we can sit there, and we can think all you know, laziness, or just about our outward efforts, right? It's just about the things that we, that we do and so I'm not lazy. I'm good, and yet and yet you know why we do that. You don't. We do it because you will always settle when you compare your present to your past. Get that you will always settle with you. Compare your present to your past. You have to compare your present to your potential. That's what you have to do,
and then you realize, oh, I got work to do. God is calling me to this. I've got more stuff that I've got. I've got to become more. I've got. I've got to go after God even more that you, whatever you aim at determines on what you want. You'll see, right? It's about our priorities it folks. Here's the reality. Here's the truth. God calls you by name and in fact, he actually says that you are a new creation, right? Scripture says you are a new creation, and yet we don't often realize that because we allow ourselves to be lazy in this area of our life and we don't fulfill the potential that God has for us.
Max Dupree, he's a famous CEO of Herman Miller. He was fortune 500 company, all of that. Uh, you talked a lot about leadership. People used to ask them a whole bunch of stuff about leadership because he was, he was, he was great at it, but they asked them this one question. He said, what is the most difficult thing that you personally have to work on? They asked Max. Then Max, his response was this. He said, it's the interception of entropy. Define entropy as a tendency for everything to deteriorate. And so, for the rest of this message, that's kind of to be our, our working definition. And so, I want to look at some, some warning sides. First of all, just on, on what are some warning signs of, of entropy. See if you can see yourselves in, as. I'm going to go through these really quickly. So, write these down. These are from Max Dupree number one, a tendency toward superficiality, and this is where you just don't go deep with people. Maybe you kind of keep it at the surface level. You live a shallow life. Uh, and the downside of that is sometimes we become a very shallow, shallow person. Here's another one, unresolved tension in key relationships. You'll see that as a part of entropy. Another one is a, is a vague sense of guilt. All the Catholics in the room know what I'm talking about.
I'm going to get in trouble anyway. No time for celebration. I'm being honest. I fall in this a lot. I don't, I don't, I don't celebrate well, um, I just don't know when I confuse heroes and celebrities, folks, Taylor swift and Kanye west are celebrities. They are not heroes. Our, our teachers, our police officers, our firemen, our military personnel, those are our heroes, right?
Um, and then the last one is the loss of gratitude just sounds like my children, to be honest with you. But anyway, here's the thing, if you can see any of these as a in your life decreases, these are signs that entropy is setting in and, and, and what happens is you can damage friendships, you can damage relationships, work, family, character, finances. You can, you can damage all of these things. Where here's, here's why I've seen as the most you want know where I've seen this most is actually in the church. I've seen this happen in the church and I've told you many times that my wife and I, we planted five churches. We've been the associate and senior associate pastor of two mega churches and so and so. I've been around church for a long time, but I've also seen where our church can go from, hey, we want to, we want to take on more of the world for God's kingdom that we want to help people understand the grace and love and hope that Jesus Christ has for their life. We want to be able to invest in our youth and our kids and we want to do all of these things. But then it starts to wane, right? And we started doing the exact opposite.
We're just like us. Every single church has a tendency toward a deterioration and entropy consenting. And when entropy sets in dream start, dream start to fade. And the reason why is because it. It starts to shift. The focus begins to shift from, from what God is calling us to do the mission that God has for us. It's just from all of that to internal and we start getting caught up in this whole thing is saying, how does this benefit us? Right? How is this benefiting my family? And so, it becomes subtle. It's subtle, but it's. But it's dangerous. I'm thankful though that that scripture actually gives us a way. It gives us a warning, but it also gives us a way out of this as well, which is where we're going to park for the rest of our time together. Most of the verses were we looking at is in the book of proverbs, but.
But here's, here's the. Here's what proverbs 13 says. It says, the sluggard craves and buys lotto tickets and gets nothing. I'm kidding. Anybody here buy a lotto ticket is one point 6 billion. Now I'm a bilateral tickets. So anyway, here's. Here's what it says. If you need help on learning how to tie that, I will help you need to call me sluggard trays and gets nothing but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. How do we do this? How do we gain momentum? How do we, how do we avoid the sluggard? Right? How do we entropy in our lives? I think there's a few different ways. Here's the first one. I want you to write this down. How do we gain momentum? We look for opportunity. Look for opportunity. My kids are getting to the age now where they're not really always chasing me around and trying to hang out all the time and, and so.
And so just this last week I went up to my son and I was like, hey baby, you know what? Why don't, why don't we, uh, why don't we go play basketball together? Like, let's just go outside and we can hang out and just me and you just one on one time. And he looked at me, what he said, he said, you know what, Daddy, now I'm good. I'm going to go watch Minecraft on YouTube videos. And I looked at him and I'm like, okay baby. And then the very next morning I took him out of the will. That's called a natural consequence of actions we take. I'm just letting you put that in there. But here's the thing, uh, yesterday I was actually for the last couple of days were painting our house and so, uh, we're trying to get this all painted and I got a picture of it here.
The problem is though, is that I am terrified of heights. Anybody else in here? Like I'm, I'm terrified of I, I, I am so far. I mean folks, I am an anointed man of God. Have faith in power, but I cannot climb a ladder. Okay. So, I got up on it, see the top part up there. It's supposed to be black. And so, I had to get up there to try to paint that. But here's what happened to. So, I got halfway up this ladder. I freaked out, came back down, couldn't do it, so I tried it again. I couldn't do it. I like, I tried. So, what I did was on the other side, there's a, there's a smaller part so I jumped on the smaller part of the roof and then jumped onto the top part of the roof. But as soon as I got to the top part, you know what I did?
I went straight on my stomach and I did the army crawl everywhere I went because I was freaked like I couldn't do it. Like I was like, are you kidding me? I couldn't do it. And so, I was so scared. I started crying out to God. I'm like, Lord, there has to be asleep. Father help me right now. I need it right now. Help me. Right. And so, I'm crying out and, and uh, and he answered me. He did, he answered me, and I was like, oh, thank you Jesus. And so, he gave me this solution right here.
I was so thankful for this. This is called seizing the opportunity. Ladies and gentlemen, please do not call cps on me. This is called Hashtag father of the year right here. He did it and I was. I was literally going to pay somebody to do it and because I couldn't get up there and I paid him, but it was like 25 bucks, so it was awesome. It was so good. Right? There's a scenario in, in proverbs chapter 24, I think he can help us understand this whole opportunity thought process. It says this, it says, I went past the field of the sluggard pass. The vineyard of the man who lacks judgement. Thorns had come up everywhere. The ground was covered with weeds and the stonewall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned the lesson from what I saw, which you've got to understand is that when you read these, you got to understand the culture that was there and the culture during that time says a land that was capable of yielding crop was, was almost more valuable than anything.
I mean it was, it was one of the most valuable things in the world. Anyone who owns a vineyard was blessed. I not a billion of vineyard. Sorry can tell high I grew up, never mind, uh, but it was literally opportunity of a lifetime. It really was. There's another translation, it says this, it says, I was walking past this vineyard and I thought of what it might have been. And the writer is sitting there and he's saying, you know, it could have been great, right? It could've been this great source of joy and pride and income. It could have been a great blessing to everyone around it. And yet it felt tragically short of what it could have been. And the writer sits there, and he wonders why is that right? Is it could be, is that a catastrophe? Was there a fire? Was there what, what made that, was there some disaster? No, it was simply the negligence on the part of the guy who owned the video where he didn't take advantage of what he had. See, I think the same thing is true for every single one of us in this room, myself included, is that every single day that we come across opportunities and we can toss them away and sometimes. So sometimes it's okay, hear me. It's okay. Sometimes because you're pursuing something greater, but when it's not okay is when you toss something out because of fear
are you toss something out because of laziness or because something you because of selfishness and so we don't always capitalize on our potential where we don't make strides in becoming what God has called us to be, where I truly believe that some of you he's calling you might be worried and you're not chasing after him, that he's calling you to something greater that you don't even know you are a new creation that he says understand this, but we don't. We don't kind of strive after God to figure out what he's. What he really has for us. Number one, look for opportunity. Number two is take responsibility.
Have you noticed that as a culture we kind of suck at taking personal responsibility? We do a. owning our own problems were, were, were a lot of times we can see ourselves as, as a victim, right? Oh, I'm, I'm angry all the time. Or, or, you know, I, I, I really lose control of my emotions because of the people I have to work with, or it's, or it's my spouse that I have to deal with, right? Well, the reason my financial, uh, you know, life is a mess and the reason I don't save her, I don't give or whatever is because the economy or, or because my boss just doesn't pay me what I'm, what I'm actually worth it. The reason I'm not growing spiritually because you know, the pastor of the church, right? Folks, if I had a nickel, you're right. It's, I got to tell you though, that when I look at this victim mentality, I see it when I see people embody this, this victim mentality, I, I honestly, I want to hug them, I want to pray for them, and then I want to shake them like really, really hard, right? I'm not always a good pastor, but that's what I want to do.
Proverbs says this, it says he who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies, fantasies, lacks judgement. See, the truth is that every single one of us has fantasies, every single one of us do, and we might not say it, but we acted out. You know, how through our expectations we acted out through our expectations. Oh, I actually expect to have a perfect marriage, right? It's fantasy right Spec to, to have the perfect circle of friends where I expect to have perfect relationships, are expect to have the perfect career, I expect to have, you know, control, right? Anybody love control around it? Yes. Look at it.
We expect these things. My daughter, she is cute as ever. She's six years old. She loves to play dolls and play house and all that kind of stuff. But uh, the challenges, she has three older brothers so hurt her playing dolls and what is, it looks a little bit different. It was like Elsa and like hulk and iron man, right? Like they're all hanging out together. And so, so sometimes I'll play dolls with her and, and you know, we'll get down, we'll have a little tea party or whatever, but, but here's the deal. Like she doesn't, she doesn't just want to play with her, like she wants to tell me how to play with my dolls, you know what I'm saying? No, no, no, no. Daddy, you gotta. You gotta brush their hair like this. You got to drink tea like this. Right? And sometimes I just get fed up. I do. And so, I just go to the next room. I play with my own dollars in the next room while she's over there. Kidding. If, if, if control is one of those things that you struggle with, I'm going to give you just a little bit of a side note. Um, if you want control, people will give it to you. But here's what you're gonna find. You're gonna. Find that that healthy, helpful people will drift away and you will gather a whole bunch of codependence with the Ed will let you be king and let you be queen. But you'll wonder why afterwards, why you feel so alone,
because you're going to be like the emperor with no clothes and see, the writer of proverbs says, start with reality. No more fantasies. Take responsibility of the land that you're on. Take responsibility of your, of your time, of your life, your relationship, whatever it may be. Take responsibility. Here's the third one. Number three is don't make excuses.
How many of you know people that are good at making excuses? Yeah, I know. Look at proverbs 26, 13. I love this province is the sluggard. Says there's a lie in outside or I'll be murdered in the streets. I don't know about you, but I just found something very funny when someone says, you know, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it to work today. The lion factors really big out there right now, like maybe tomorrow we'll have to see. Right? Well folks, if you ever noticed that sometimes in our life that it doesn't take much to get an excuse that, that, that really any pretext will do, right? And, and we can justify or inactivity or we can just put it off or where we tell ourselves that we just have too, much to do or we were just so overwhelmed and so we'll do it well.
And so, what did we say? We'll do it later, tomorrow, whatever, right? We'll do it later. As Dr. Henry Cloud, he's a, he's a well-known counselor and psychologist, author, all of that. He says it's about the word later. He says later as a drug, you get a solution to your problem and you get to keep on doing what you're doing. There's a drug. I mean, it's kind of like, ah, I know that my health is important, right? Uh, uh, because I, but I still eat a whole lot of cinnamon rolls and all that and my wife documents this stuff on Instagram. I don't even know what's going on, but she does. And so, I know that I have to really, I have to work on my, on my eating habits. I'm going to, I'm going to do something about it, right? I'm gonna, I'm gonna. Uh, I'm going to work out some more.
I'm going to eat healthy. Right? But anyone who's ever said that also know there's also a day that you're going to start this new regime. What Day is that? Monday. Tomorrow. All the same. Right. Later, right? That's what we're going to start. Is he a, maybe, maybe you said this not only in, in uh, health, uh, arena, uh, but maybe you said this in your spiritual life, said, hey, you know what, I'm going to get into spiritual shape and so I'm going to get more involved. I know I need to get more involved in the church and in all that. And so you know what I'm gonna do, I'm going to do when I have kids, anybody ever said that when I have kids, as that's what I'm gonna do is I can have a sense of spiritual responsibility for, for them, it's a regardless of what it is that we say later or tomorrow or Monday to the slugger doesn't say no.
Right? Again, he simply just says later tomorrow or Monday, you see what the writer of the proverbs is, is doing? Is he sounding an alarm? When Jesus talks about the parable of the talents, they are sounding an alarm were my hope. My hope in all of this this morning is that this is sort of a wakeup call because the danger is not when we say never because we don't really do that. We just say the danger is actually when we say Monday and why? Because it gives us permission not to do today with God is calling us and so for us in this room. My fear again is not so much inactivity. Right? But my fear is that you won't realize the calling that God has on your life, that we can get so caught up in the in the things of light that that we forget how, how God wants to introduce you to a you that you might not even know yet, right?
We become lazy in that were again, it my. My concern is not your activity level because I believe that's probably really, really high, right? Or maybe you're the dad who's, whose career is going great. You're, you're climbing the ladder. You're going on your Rolodex, right? It's full of names. You know, your LinkedIn account. Linkedin account is on point, right? But you're. Your kids are drifting away. Well, maybe you're the supermom who's amazing and you're driving to every single soccer practice and you're killing it at work and you always have dinner there and you're crushing it and you're doing great, but your soul is shriveling up inside. Or maybe you're that, that great couple that on the outside, you have the great house, a great live, lots of friends, lots of stuff, but maybe you haven't had a meaningful conversation in months and, and everyday you're drifting a little further apart and everyday there's more weeds that are growing up in the, in the vineyard of your marriage and no one's doing anything about it.
And he folks to the wisdom of the sluggard convinces us to thing. Hey, I'm working so hard and all these other Irish just give me a break. And God is sitting there and he's saying, Hey, I get it. You're working. I understand. Just don't let entropy set in where I've called you to work because I've called you in this there. Don't let it sit in. Sit in there and sometimes we can look at what God calls us to and the word that he says and we can think, oh, but he's. He's just super restricted that that's why he called no, what, what, what we, we don't, we don't get it right. So, we think he's super restrictive and we, we don't trust his ways and sometimes you say, well, if it's gonna be its gonna, be up to me. You don't have to. What we don't realize is that he's not trying to be restricted, but he's trying to be protective and parents in the room. When you tell your kids not to, not to play with matches, you being protective or you don't want your house to burn down. You know what I'm saying? Like switch you one. See, the problem is that they don't see what you see because they don't sit where you sit.
Sometimes we don't. We don't. We don't see what God sees because we don't sit where God sits.
We don't, we don't. We don't see it. Right? Which is why we have. We have to trust him when we don't see what God sees. See, God is God is calling you to, uh, you that you might not even be aware of, but what that requires is surrendering and other areas of your life, areas that you think are important, areas that you think you're actually controlling, but it's working hard in, in, in, in the areas that God is calling you to do. We're again, final thought. I believe he's calling you to do that. Why? So he can introduce you to a you that you don't even know yet that he has so much more for you, but the question is whether or not we're going to run hard after that or we're going to say, ah, I'm better than I was yesterday, or I'm better than I was a year ago. Don't compare yourself to the past. Compare your present to your potential and I believe God has something greater for you than you ever could ever imagine. Let me pray for you. God, I thank you. I thank you God that you call us to something even more. I think you got the juice to say, wow, we are greater than who we might even think we could possibly ever become. And so, lord, I pray for every single one of us. Lord, I pray for the energy. I pray for the strength. I pray for the discipline, determination, whatever it may be to run hard after you understanding that, that, that you call us at it's not, not because you want to chastise or judge or criticize or anything,
but because you, because you want more for us, John Ten, 10, that you've come to give us a life and life to the full father. Help us to understand that I was to grab hold of that. Help us to wake up in the morning and seek you first before we seek anything else. Before we look at our phone, before we look at, at, at our email and our ESPN, whatever it may be, before we look at whatever it is, can we seek after you would say you, because we know that because that's where we're going to be able to find this live. We're going to be able to find more. Father, lead us as a church, be known, LifePoint being known as the church that seeks hard after God. Whatever you call us to, we're going to say yes to you before we ever know the question. God, I thank you for your love and your grace
further, push us because you love us in Jesus' name.
Oh, that's too good. That is too good in into the flow at the same time. Right? I don't know. Well, you know, I've been there. Actually, I am there. Um, hey, my name is Derek. It's good to be here with you all if you're happy to be in church. Makes so yes. All right. All right. Hey, well, I believe that God has a, um, has a word for us today. I'm in my prayer is that you take a posture of openness, posture, of humility, and let's really come really expecting God to do some great things today. Amen. Amen. All right. Hey, well, what we're going to do, we're going to turn right into our scripture. Scripture is a Luke chapter 24 verses 13 through 16. Will read that to, to gather. We'll pray a little bit and then we'll dive right in. Does that sound good?
All right, well, let's go on and look right at here at Luke Chapter Twenty four verses 13 through 16. It reads as follows, it says now that same day, two of them were going to a village called a may have someone say a going to a village called a May. It's about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened and as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked him, what are you discussing together as you're walking? Actually, I'll keep reading, or they stood still and their faces downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days? Let's pray. God, we thank you for what you're up to.
We thank you for what you're doing. We thank you for your spirit already being present with us today. Lord, we pray that we would encounter you in a new way, that our eyes would be open to, that our hearts would be attentive, that our minds will be clear so that we might see what you are inviting us to do. In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. I kind of just read another scripture there that you didn't really have a. that's kind of how the Bible works. We only read sections, but you know, there's able to keep going all the way through revelation. So, if I had a title of today's message, I'd simply call it a road trip for the person to the right of you and say a road trip person to the left. Go on, do it. I know it's different.
That's all right. Just do it right. A road trip. If I had a towel, the today's message, I would call it a road trip. And let me tell you about my first road trip as well. One. Has anybody ever been on a road trip? On a road trip? Okay. All right, good. Good. My first road trip was in 2015, so not that long ago. That was my very first one. My first road trip was in 2015. And I remember I had just finished finals, um, while I was finishing up my master's in Princeton. I just finished finals and I was on the road. I was ready to get on the road and I was going for a particular special reason, a specific reason with intentionality, purpose, clarity, reason, vision. I was going to go see a lady.
That's all right. It turned out to be the woman that I'm married so, so we good. Hey, how are you doing? Right. But I was on my way to. I was on my way to go visit my then girlfriend and I had just finished finals and I mean I was studying like crazy, so my brain, I didn't have time to really get all the logistics in order. I said I'll figure it out on the, on the day that I have to go. So, I go into my dorm room and I'm getting all my clothes. I'm not even really packing, you know, you just empty drawers and just put them in a suitcase because I have to get on the road. Right. And I, and I remember doing all that and I look above my tv, above my tv, there's a map and I looked really quick and I said, okay, let me see. I'm in new, I'm in New Jersey, I got to go to Orlando, I'll be there in six hours.
You know where this is going, don't you? I said, I'll be there at six. This is a true story. So, I'm looking, I get it, I get on the road and then mind you, I actually don't even say like, how did this full get to Princeton? I get on the road and I don't even look. And I just, I just say, well I just got to go south, you know, I'll just, I'll just, I'll get there when I get there, just start getting on the road. This is your story. I'm just driving. I'm driving about three hours. Go, go by, like, well let me, let me just figure out where I need to go. I'm in DC now and I'm like, okay, okay, let me, um, and, maybe, just maybe, maybe some on the holy words came out
maybe
and I had another 17 hours to go my first road trip, but you know, it turned out to be a great time, but here we are here. We find ourselves at this particular passage of scripture, passage of scripture. We have two disciples on a road trip, but that particular road trip that they are on is not a road to go to a love, but it's a role now of defeat. It's a role somewhere else. It's a road after love and hope has, has vanished if they are on this road to amaze. You. See, it's interesting to note that these men, these two disciples, right? They appear out of nowhere. It's clear that they're not on the inner circle of things. They're just simple disciples, simple disciples on a journey. They're disciples without a platform and apparently not too dissimilar for many of us in this room today, and like many of us, these disciples, they weren't famous.
They didn't have a large following. The recognition wasn't vast and evidently people didn't know them well enough to remember both of their names. You see the scriptures tells us that there was two of them. One is name, the other is not and we don't know much about them. The only details that we've gathered them is that they followed Jesus and had been in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, his death, his execution, and we also learned that one of them is named Cleopas. Somebody say clear purpose. One of them is named Cleopas, a name that literally means child of an influential father. He's so unnamed that his name is not who he is. He's. He has no name other than the fact that, Hey, we know your dad Cleopas, so sure we have the name of Cleopas, but even Cleopas isn't someone that stuff influenced because it's only his father that is actually recognized and then the other person we just don't get a name for them at all.
Some scholars say, hey, it might be as wife. Some scholars say it could be his friend and some other folks say it could even be just a buddy that he was traveling with. We don't know. And here's the thing, right now you're sitting in your chair and you're saying, all right, what, uh, what, what does it have to do with anything that I'm saying? Here's what I want you to know. Just hang on a little bit. This is important. This will tie in everything in the end. Okay? So here we always see these two disciples, Cleopas and this other person there on this road to a maze. And so here we are to make things even more interesting. We don't even know the particular name of the road that they're traveling on. We only know where they're intending to go. It's the road to amaze.
They're on their way to a mess, which is a seven-mile journey from Jerusalem. Now, I don't know about you, but I find this section of scripture right here, very interesting, very perplexing, very put, particularly peculiar, if you will, and it's largely because I'm fascinated by the level of radiation and nuance that Luke begins to speak about here he's. He speaks in obscurity. Now mind you if you're familiar with the gospel of Luke, you know this in the very first chapter as it opens up, Luke begins to say these words. He says, I decided after investigating everything carefully for a very long time to write an orderly account to you so that you may know the truth concerning all of which you have been instructed. You see the very first Gospel, the very first chapter of the Gospel, the very first verse, Luke says, I'm going to tell you everything. I'm going to give you an orderly account of chronological events. I'm going to be very specific, very detailed, very on the nose, very on the point, but then here we discover in Luke chapter 24 around verse 13 through 16. Now we
move into a space of gradation, a space of nuance. You see, I find this so peculiar, and here's why, because Luke just only a few verses earlier, was giving us a complete rundown and keeping into the theme of his original intent is what's given us a very, very informative rundown of every event specifically, especially at the resurrection mind. You Watch this at chapter 24 verse one. It opens up like this. Luke tells us the WHO, he says, Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James. We're all at the tomb, the WHO. Lou gives us the, where he says, Luke tells us the specific events were taking place in Jerusalem at the tomb of Joseph, a rich man in a Jewish town called Arimathea and a member of the council and a member of good and righteous standing. The why Luke tells us that women were going to the tomb to finish the burial rituals.
When they discovered that the tomb of Christ was empty, the what? Luke tells us that the tomb was empty. The stone is rolled away in the, in. The woman had back to report to, to, to the disciples. And then Luke even says, and then Peter ran out to go see it for himself, came back, right, loops, giving us the WHO's the, what's the, where's the why's, the how's the winds, the outcome is the wood, the could, the should the deed, the is, Luke is giving us every single detail and then we get verses 13 through 16 and immediately we transitioned into a space and into a place of watch this, two of them going through a village called the mayor, about seven miles from Jerusalem and talking with each other about all the things
that happened. And as they talked and discuss these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked alongside of them, but they were kept from recognizing him. You see the WHO's the, what's the, where's the why's? The house. They're not clear. Luke's nuance and gradation almost seems to force us to ask the question, who are these disciples? Why aren't you telling us? But here's what I believe is that Luke is doing this intentionally to give us a lens, to give us an invitation to find our own selves in the scripture. This is a space where Luke is giving us a chance to become the nameless and faceless, discipled and inviting ourselves to are inviting us to see ourselves on the road to a maze. Luke is positioning the readers to find themselves in this story. And so, here's my first point, and that is, this is what is your amazing story?
How do you find yourself in this story? What is your story? You see folks? What role do you find yourself traveling on these days? What role do you find yourself walking along? What highways and byways of regret? Remorse in defeat do you find yourself traveling most? What is your, uh, mayor story? You see? The Bible says that these disciples traveled down this road after they experienced the blows and woes of compounded grief. That is to say the grief that accompanies great loss, the greed that escorts hopelessness, the grief that comes with unfulfilled expectations. You see, these disciples experienced all of these things. These disciples had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel, but because it was already now the third day since his death, they find themselves in them themselves and hopelessness and despair and unable to recognize the presence in Providence of God. They thought that all hope was lost and now they found themselves on a road without purpose heading to a village whose name literally means hot springs mess, hot springs. They had become Jacuzzi seeking Christians.
They wanted to retire their belief in the palm springs of faith, the palm springs, if you will, of disbelief, and it's interesting to know this, that the word that's used for village here in its original language or in its original Greek, it literally means this. The place where laborers go to sleep. So here you have these once upon a time and go for inflamed and developed fierce. I'm filled with zeal, believers now heading to a city of disbelief where they can live into the hot tub and get one of those drinks with umbrellas in it. They want it to let it go and we have to ask ourselves. The question is, what road do we find ourselves traveling on? What is our particular mayor story? You see some of you are on the road to a maze because you've. You're tired of trying and failing and so now you just simply failed to try. Some of you are on the road to amaze because you've got that admissions letter response and it didn't have the favorable outcome that you wanted. Some of you are on the road to mass because you remember that you've now been sick longer than you've been. Well,
and some of you are on the road to a maze because you didn't receive that favorable doctors report and some of you are on the road to a mass because you were promised that they would spread and spend the rest of their life with you. Some of you are on the road to a maze because you've been trying and failing to have that child that you so desperately want. Some of you are on the road to a maze because you still. You still
still can't fit into those skinny jeans. You better give up on that and get some Jayden's. Let that go and find you something, Jake, because that thing stretched into snap back. You'd be all right. Go on and get you some Jacobs. He'd be all right, so I just simply stopped by to let you know this. If you don't have to lose hope, don't lose hope. Jesus meets us in the midst of our suffering on the road. Jesus meets us in the midst of our doubt on the road Jesus meets us in the midst of our misfortune. Jesus meets us in the midst of despair, in the midst of our turmoil, in the midst of our trouble, in the midst of temptation to give up and to let go. Jesus meets us on the role and I just pray that you would have the eyes to see and the ears to hear that God's been walking with you long enough, in every step of the way.
You see God has been with us. Jesus meets us on the street. Jesus meets us. Jesus meets the fully unnamed disciples. Jesus meets people like you and me. Those who aren't on the inner circle, Jesus meets you and me. Those of us who go unnamed, Jesus meets us on the street and walks with us, talks with us. Matter of fact, I remember growing up in church when I was growing up in church, I remember the old, the older women in the church, they often had a. they, they, they, they walked, if you will, with a cloud of witnesses or maybe it was just a cloud of perfume, but they would sit down in church and for the next four rows over, you would smell their, their perfume, and they would have the big hats, white hats and sometimes like loves and they rock and a home and a home in Iraq and sing the song.
But I remember one song that they used to sing, and they would say, oh, he walks with me and talks with me and tells me I'm his own in the joy we share as we tarry there. None other has ever known. He speaks, and the sound of his voice is sweet, that the birds hush, they're singing in the melody that gave hope to me within. My heart is ringing, and they rock. Oh, he rocks. Oh, he walks with me and talks with me. It tells me I'm his own. I think about also the, the, uh, the life of King David,
what King David was going through such struggle and turmoil and King Saul was down on his back. I remember in psalms 23 word ends with these powerful, prolific pronounce words and says, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I think, oh, he walks with me. He talks with me. Goodness and mercy follows me all the days of my life. You want to know how I know that God walks with me and talks with me and that goodness and mercy follows me every day of my life. I think a back only on my own story when my dad was strung out on crack. I think about those times when my dad was homeless, and my dad found the wherewithal within himself to pull himself up to seek hope. And even during his homelessness, my dad stole Christmas presents from a goodwill to ensure that we can have Christmas. Oh, he walks with me,
it talks with me and he tells me I'm his own.
I think about my own journey and my own temptation and frustration and wanting to give up and wanting to move into a place of disbelief and to a place of doubt and I have to find deep within myself, deep within myself the fact that we've got a god that walks with us and talks with us that meets us on our road of despair, of turmoil, of trouble, of wanting to give up a frustration in temptation. God walks with us, talks with us, moves with us, grooves with us. God is for us, amongst us, with us, within us and always by our side, and what we discover with these disciples is that they did not even realize that God was
there the whole time walking with you, talking with you. I want to bring your attention now to Luke Chapter Twenty four verses 27 to 31. Watch what happens here and beginning with Moses and all the profit, all the prophets. Jesus explained to them what was said in the scriptures concerning himself and as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going to go further,
but they urged him strongly, stay with us for nearly evening. The day is almost over, and so he went to stay with them and when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and begin to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. You see, according to verse 30, these disciples didn't recognize that Jesus had been with them all along until he had broken bread with them around the table in a mess. But verse 32 reveals that they're misunderstanding initially begin to gain clarity. When Jesus shared the stories of the old stories of Moses, the stories of the Prophet and the stories of all the scriptures that he fulfilled a scripture set were concerning himself. The disciples even go as far as saying, when Christ begin to tell these stories that they felt within themselves a burning at wellbeing, a welling up, if you, if you, if you, if, if you will, and so you see what we discover in this passage, we discovered that there's healing power in those stories from our ancestors have owed. If we look back far enough, each of us, we'll discover that we have all have already experienced the providence, the presence, the, the wonders, the works was the
enjoyment, the embodiment of God's activity amongst our life already. So, I have to ask you though,
question, what stories can you look back and see if where God has been with you every step of the way, what stories can you look back on your life, those stories that should have, I should have taken you out. Those stories. It should've made you lose your mind. Those stories of where you were this close to giving up, yet somehow things still worked out. What stories can you revisit in review of it?
God's presence, God's activity, God's focus. I don't know if it was a loss of a job, but somehow the mortgage will still get paid. I don't know if it's. If you found yourself in a hospital and you thought things were over, but somehow you find yourself here worshiping God today, I don't know if it was that, that that loved one, let's you that will never get their life right, but somehow God worked away and things are still beginning to play out, a little bit smoother, a little bit better. What stories of the old do you have within your own journey? Maybe it's not your story. Maybe it's your friend's story. Maybe it's your relative story. Maybe it's a story from, from the neighbor that's across the street. Well, God has always been in, is already active and present within our life, but we've got to wake up, open our eyes, open our minds, open our hearts to see that God has been faithful presence for a long time so that even in the midst of your despair, that even in the midst of your temptation, he even in the midst of your frustration and wanting to give up, you say, no, God, you've done it before.
I know you can do it again. God, you've been there in the past and you'll be here in my presence. God, you told me, you showed me. You are a way maker. You made a way out of no way in May and I know you'll make a way out of this difficult moment. What stories in your own life can you review and rewind and see the presence of God active and immediate and
and activated for you? What is your amazing story? Now, here's what we discovered. The very next thing. Jesus is now with these disciples in a maze around a table, and the Bible says that when Jesus took this bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. Did you catch it? Jesus took this brand broken, gave things, gave it to them. The scriptures then say at once they got up and went to Jerusalem. Here's my second point, is that the road to a mess is the same road to Jerusalem. The role of your disbelief, the road of your doubt and frustration and temptation and wanting to give up and wanting to let go, is the same road to Jerusalem. When you sit with Jesus, you say, is this place of hot tubs, a false Eden, but Jerusalem is actually. Here's what Jerusalem means, Jeru Shalom, Shalom, Shalom, peace.
The city of peace, Jeru Shalom. Here were these disciples that wanting to go to the place of hot tubs and hot springs and Palm Springs, but Jesus says, you think this is peace? Sit with me a little while and you'll discover that that job that you thought you needed, that yacht, that you really wanted, that that relationship that you thought was going to be the fulfillment of everything that you desire, that that type of income was going to make everything work out, that you'll discover that all of that when laid against me, it's false peace. If you want real peace, you can't stay here. You've got to get up and go to the real piece that's in Jerusalem, but you discover this when you sit with Jesus just a little while. Here's the solution. When you're experiencing those moments of doubt with the frustration of temptation, of wanting to give up a warning to let go, sit with Jesus just a little while in Jesus will shift perspectives and all of a sudden those cornerstones, those rocks, those bricks, that road that you thought you walked down and was full of disbelief of despair, becomes the exact road that brings you to a new piece, a restored hope, a restored mind, but you've got to sit with Jesus just a little bit and you can confront all of those things that you thought were going to destroy you.
You can confront all those doubts that you thought were going to have you throw in the towel. You can confront all those things that you thought were going to take you out. When you sit with Jesus just a little bit. That's actually my third point. Sit with Jesus in shift perspective. When you sit with Jesus, you can shift perspectives. Oh church. Oh People, oh folks. Listen to me. Listen to me. Sit with Jesus and I promise that things don't stay the same. You. You sit with Jesus long enough and you start reliving in reentry and replaying the fact that God has been already working on you. God has already been working on your situation. God has already been traveling with you. God has already been walking with you and watch this. If you've been paying attention, Jesus walks with them to mas. Jesus sits there with them in the place that they thought was the real thing and Jesus says, are you ready to go something bigger? Are you ready to go now to something better? Are you ready to get up from this thing you thought was going to fulfill you and move into a place of real peace? I want to ask you the question,
what things in your life have you found a false sense of security in a false Eden, if you will, a false relaxation and restoration that runs out? What things in your life are you building your hope on? What things in your life do you finally find? Do you currently find yourself giving more credit than the god that's been with you? Every step of the way? This becomes a question for all of us and I pray that your answer would be that it's not working, that you would turn to Jesus, turn to Jesus, sit with Jesus and shift perspectives. Once you pray with me, God we do thank you for this day. Lord, we do thank you for opening up our eyes to see we thank you for opening up our ears to hear, oh Lord, we pray that you would give us your insight that we might see how you are active. You are attentive and how you've always been present. Let us no longer turn to that, that false sense of relief. Let us sit with you a little while. Enjoy your presence. Experience your words, your challenge, your call. Let us get up
from the place that we've found a false sense of security and move to a real city of peace. Let us move to the real city of peace.
Lord, I believe
that in this place, there's someone who has, has a desire to make a commitment towards you. I believe that here in this room, there's someone, someone that's ready to make that next step. I do. I do, I believe here there's someone that's been relying on a false hope. They're beginning to discover and it's not working out, but I pray that you would sit with them, that they would sit with you
and that they would meet you around the table of brotherhood, sisterhood, Camaraderie, fellowship, and that they'll take that journey with you to a real peace, real peace centered in relationship with you say affects you, which you just and pop your hand right up there in the air. No one's watching. No one's looking. This is between you and God. God sees your hand. God sees your hand. God sees your hand. God feeds your hand. You can put it right back down. God sees your hand. Lord, here we are. Here we are where yours. Sit with us, change our perspective. Help us see you've been there every step of the way. Journey with us in this life journey with us to real peace, real hope or come into their hearts. Give them a renewed sense of purpose, a renewed sense of your faithfulness and presence. God. Journey with us. Walk with us, talk with us. Lord, let us not leave this place, leave this place saying, if you've partnered with me in that prayer, Lord is with you. If you partnered with me in that prayer, God is with you. Your life doesn't have to be the same. That's not to say that things won't ever get hard again. We know that, but it's to say that now you'll be able to recognize God is with you,
the name of Christ. Jesus, we pray. Amen.
How many hours got that? $5 check from grandma. Anybody in here? Yes, also. Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome again. My name is rusty. Good morning. And watched all of you watching online as well. It is a good day. I'm excited. We're in week four of a series. We started called hurdles where we're really. What we're doing is we're talking about some of the difficulties that we have in life, some of the struggles that we all kind of go through in our life week. One of my wife and I spoke, and we talked about dealing with difficult people, not so sure why she insisted on that topic as she spoke with me, but whatever. Then we went on and we talked about finances, how that can be a struggle. And then last week my good friend Derek, he spoke on how God is still working even in the dark. Right? And so, if you had a chance to see any of those, I encourage you to go online and watch those.
I think God might be able to speak to you in them. Uh, but also this week, here's what I wanted to do. Obviously, we all got to go through these difficulties in these struggles, but at the same time I think that a lot of times there's this underlying factor, uh, and this underlying issue that kind of happens in our life that I want to talk about today and it's this idea of fear. Anybody in here deal is a few fears from time to time just to go. Yes. And, but you say the person sitting next to you, their fears, a lot of irrational from time to time. A lot more of you. Yeah, I see that right? Yeah. But we all kind of have fears in our life and maybe there are small ones, right? Anybody afraid of spiders in here? Yes. Some of you like, that's not small.
Rusty. No. Maybe it's, maybe it's maybe, I don't know. Maybe it's a fear of, of what heights? Anybody afraid of heights? Around here? Yeah. How about, how about the fear of snakes? Maybe on a plane or whatever. You know, maybe the fear of putting Ikea furniture together. Like, there's all types of fears in our life, but sometimes they can be deeper than that, right? Sometimes it can be the fear of rejection. Sometimes it can be the fear of loss of maybe it's a medical fear. Anybody else have any medical for years and yeah, I am. I am afraid. I am deathly afraid of medicals. I just am. In fact, this last couple of weeks I didn't tell too many people, but uh, I've actually been dealing with some health issues over these last couple of weeks and so on, on Memorial Day actually I went to the ER and we got to check it out and they basically said, hey, you need to go to urology.
Oh, here's the thing. When he said, ER was like, yeah, you're right. I'm like, okay, cool. No problem. Because black men, I didn't know what that was like. I had no idea. Right. Let me tell you, if you don't know what urology is this a place that you don't want to go, you don't men kind of like target, right? Joann fabric, hobby lobby, like all those kinds of. We don't want to go. Right, but this is like another level of you don't want to go. Okay. Because I went, I went down to urology and, and uh, you know, they, they, they said, hey, you know, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna help you out. And basically, what they were doing is they needed to, they needed to kind of see into my, into my bladder right there to kind of make sure everything was okay and whatnot.
I'm going to spare you all the details for sure, but here's what the doctor. And literally I had no idea the doctor's like, yeah, rusty, we're going to have to go through the front to see that. I'm like, doc, I don't have a front. Like I don’t know, I don't know if you know, male anatomy, but I don't have a front. Like I don't. He's like, yeah, you do. I'm like, no, no, for real, for real. Like I was putting two to two together and I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. So, it took me a little while to get that and my wife is holding as soon as he tells me I was looking for exits. Like I'm not playing. I was leaving that room right then, you know, and she's holding my hand as she didn't know, honey, it's going to be okay.
It's going to be fine. I'm crying. Not really, but I am, you know, like oh my gosh. And so, and so he says, no rest is good. It's to be fun. I started to having a very spiritual moment at the. I felt like Jesus, I did because I was like, doc, if it is your will take this cup from me because I don't want this, you know, and so and so. He's like, no, no, no, there's going to be okay. You know, but here's the just go ahead and pull your pants down. And he said, this is going to seem a little strange. I said, Dr. this whole thing feels strange. What are you talking about folks? Four hours later or 30 seconds, but it felt like four hours. Okay. He was like, oh right, we're good. All done. Everything is good to go. You guys have a great day.
I looked at him and I said, the only thing I thought that I should say at that moment, you know what I did? Literally, that's what I did. I invited him to Christmas dinner. I did. I said, Bro, we're basically family now. Like know, hey, worse doctor visit per ever. Uh, but here's the thing. I was petrified like I was. My wife was sitting there and I said I was tripping. I really, I was, I was gone. It was so bad. I was, I had, I have a huge fear of anything medical. In fact, someone just asked me, you know, Russia, is it everything? I said, yes, I had a needle in my thumb once I've painted literally on the, I painted, he put a needle in my thumb. I had a beer of all of this stuff did. Here's the thing, you know, in, in, in the Old Testament or actually in scripture, did you know that there are 366 verses that say do not fear or something like that, right? One for every single day and leap year, you know, like there's 366 of them. In fact, in fact, in the Old Testament there's this guy by the name of Joshua. Some of you might remember Joshua, but the basically a Joshua was a great general. I mean he was. He is the commander of the army and he was. He was asked by God to take over the nation of Israel from one of the most revered and greatest leaders that Israel had ever known. Charlton Heston.
And so, he takes over, right? Actually Moses, half the crowd don't even know who I'm talking about. If you're, if you're 30 or younger people, they don't know who Charlton Heston is. We're old. That's what I just said. Okay? He takes over the reigns for Moses and when he does this, he starts freaking out. He does. And God, some of you know this in Joshua. One night, God sits them down and he begins to speak, and he says, I command you to be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord. Your God is with you. Wherever you go, here's the thing about that verse. I love that verse folks. I've been a Christian for over 30 years. I've been a follower of Christ. I love that verse. I think that verse is amazing, but I also look at that verse and I think, yeah, even though that's great.
There are times and points in my life where I'm like, ah, I'm not so sure I can do that. Anybody else in here? Like there's times in my life where I look at my situation and I say, yeah, God, I know this one's a little too big to throw a Joshua one nine at me. Like this is just a little and what you're asking for, Lord, I just. It doesn't seem all that all that possible and see for maybe for you in here who said you've been to that moment, maybe for you, you're in that moment right now and you're saying it's more about, you know, maybe housing prices around here. Right? And you're deciding, am I ever going to be able to have a house? Am I ever going to be able to provide for my family? I've ever gonna Really gonna be able to do that around it and that's a fear or, or maybe for you, it's, it's, you know, what are my, what are my kids learning in school or, or are they really safe in the school system that like, are they, are they safe there?
And this is a big fear that you can be going through. Maybe, maybe for you it's different than maybe it's deeper. Maybe it's about your past catching up to your present, right? Maybe it's about being found out. Maybe it's about, again, a medical diagnosis. Maybe. Maybe you sit there, you lie awake at night and you wonder, is my marriage I've been going to survive? Folks. There are dozens of families in this, in this church that, that sit there at night after night and they wonder if my marriage even going to survive and CNC. See, all of those are our natural. The problem is if we let it, these fears will begin to define our life and God actually wants something very different for us. Here's what I want to ask you to do. We don't do this very often. If you're new around here, but, but I'm going to ask you to pull that outline out of your program a cause.
I want you to write this down, okay? Seriously, uh, online. Uh, grab a piece of paper. Just write this down. I want you to write what your fear is. Folks, what are you afraid of? What is, what is it that you stay up at night that you toss and turn, and you wring your hands and you worry about. And you said, you know, what is that fear that I have that's going on in my life? And I tell you every single time, hey, make sure you do it in code when you write that, because people next to you are sinners and they're gonna peak. Okay? So, so seriously, what is that thing? What is that fear that you have going on and say, I want you to write that down because I think there's answers in God's word on to help us get through that.
In the middle of the Bible, there's this book called Psalms, and if you're not yet a Christian, first of all, I'm glad that you're here. I'm thrilled that you're here, uh, but there's a book called Psalms and basically, it's this, it's this, a book that has all these different songs and poems and all these types of things that are, that are written about God or to God. And in there there's this guy by the name of David that wrote a lot of these psalms and some of you are familiar with David, but he was a very complex person in scripture. He had a lot of mixed motives that we're going to hit some great successes, right? But then he had a huge failure as well, or one point in time, maybe you remember that he was described as kind of a man after God's own heart, right?
But even though he was a man after God's own heart, he was also very prone to going negative from time to time in his life as well. We're going, if you've ever read the Book of Psalms, uh, you'll, you'll be able to see all these negative thought process where he says, you know what? I got? He throws it out there. God, everyone is against me, right? Everyone is. Everyone in my enemies have surrounded me and he throws it out and says, where are you? He starts asking this question, got, where are you in in my life? All this stuff has happened, and then he gets even darker at times as well. He says, God, you know what? I want you to bash the heads of my enemies. Don't let their gray hairs go to hell. We're in peace like he all this Tony Robbins stuff. Like he just goes into it for sure.
But then at one point, at some point, there's a shift that begins to happen. The shift happens. See, let me give you a little bit of context. It's found in first Samuel. What you'll find is, is that is that David is actually banished from his country during this time. Uh, he's become a mercenary for foreign army and he takes all of these guys and he starts, he starts invading other areas. And one particular time he, he starts, he has a battle and he comes home and, and the, the other army had, had attacked the home, had attack their land, had, had taken some of their families. And, and basically, it's this tragic, tragic story, but see right after that, David does something very, very peculiar, right? Then for Sammy, verse 31 chapter 30, verse six says, David encouraged himself in the Lord. After all, it says, David encouraged himself in the Lord and see, I don't know about you, but I don't know how you do that, right in the midst of this fear, in the midst of this tragedy, in the midst of this really huge difficulty, it says, David encouraged himself in the Lord.
And I think if you're like me, when you read stuff like that, you wonder how in the world did he do that? How did he go from fearful to this tragedy to faith-filled? How did he make that transition? How did he actually do that in his life? And I think that's the same thing that, that a lot of us questioned and I believe that God has something to tell us about that. But again, you've got to remember, right? David's, David's life wasn't always, pretty right? How many of you grew up in church? Anybody? I grew up in church. Yes. You guys remember like the flannel graphs? Singing? Yeah, singing songs and Oh, when David beat Goliath you like, and then David had a best friend and his name was Jonathan and they were really good buddies and we'd sing songs about it and it was all awesome. Right? But then David also had another side where there are people that are trying to kill him a lot. Right? Where he murdered someone. He had a child die. He committed adultery. Right? There was no take home coloring sheet for that. Right? No. Thank you know.
But seeing all of this stuff, the question still remains. What did he learn? Like what did he learn how to again, how did he move from
fearful to faith-filled? See, I think that some of it we can find in the book of Psalms, uh, when we look in there, and again, if you're not completely familiar with, with psalms and we're going to get into the particular song that I want to look at a, but it, it's, it's the songs are kind of up there, more of a reflective theology, uh, meaning that it's an understanding of God through experience. And so what you're seeing is you're seeing a whole bunch of people who, who wrote these poems are these songs based on how they've experienced guy, which also find is that we're going to be delving into psalm 23, which a number of, you know, uh, but, but psalm 23 is one of those psalms that, that it's not written by a young shepherd boy. This is actually a psalm that was written when, when David was older and wiser. This is at the closer to the end of his life where he's writing this down. And he's saying, no, this is, this is what I've experienced, and this is what I know to be true. Really how he knew where he starts to finding how to go from fearful to faith-filled.
And so, here's what I want to do. And again, we don't really do this very often, but I want us to read it out loud together. Will you read this out with me? And around here, we do that with our outside noises. Remember, that right? And so, psalm 23, it will be on the screens. You guys ready? Ready? Read the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My Cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Folks, that psalm answers the big question. How do I live beyond fear? Write that though. That's the question that we often come up against that how do we go from fear, fearful to how do I live beyond fear? I think we can find it because, and here's the truth. By the way, you can't live without fear. You can't, but I do believe that you can have hope during it. You can't have hope in the midst of fear, and so here's the first thing I want you to write down. There's four things that we're going to have takeaways from. Number one is that will make up my mind about God. I will make up my mind to bike a. Now primarily I am talking about the decision of saying yes to Jesus as is really the leader of my life. But, but of course I think it goes beyond that as well.
I had a, I had a college professor at UNLV, which by the way, it's just a great Bible College. Um, those of you who know you, it is not a great Bible College, but, but none of my professors said this, said, ever since you've gotten here, you've been told to have an open mind. Keep an open mind. Right? But then he said, a totally open mind is a totally empty mind and I hope that you haven't reached the level of 18 years old and have come to no conclusions. Just a very profound statement. So, let me just throw it out to what conclusions have you made about God? What conclusions have you come to about God and see typically this is where if you, if you've been a follower of Christ for a while, this might be where you kind of tuned me out a little bit and say, Hey, you know, I've got.
I've got that part figured out. Here's what I would. I would encourage you not to do that because you may have and make conclusions about God in terms of your salvation in him dying on the cross for you and giving you a free gift of grace, but at the same time I think that that sometimes we make conclusions about God and we put them in this little box and we become and he becomes way too small in our life where even me right now, I'm wrestling with God. I'm literally, for the last couple months I've been wrestling with God and saying, God, I want to know you more. Show me who you really are. And I think has been coming back to me insane. Rusty, you know what? You think I'm way smaller than what I really am. That I am so much bigger and folks, I, my God is huge, and yet at the same time he's saying, I think you've put me in a box.
It's way too small. Verse One, David says, this is the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. And See. The funny thing is, is that obviously throughout David's life, he was in want, right? But he also knew that this wasn't going to be the final outcome of his life. Any of you ever heard of someone say, you know, I just can't trust God in body. Ever heard that before? I hear that a lot in my profession. And, and, and, and typically though, well, the reason why this happens or what happens is that basically, um, someone has gotten hurt by someone. Maybe that's a spouse or a child or relationship or whatever. And what they've done is a laid that distrust upon God. And I told you before, here's, here's the reality of God is the image of a perfect parent. Uh, your parents are not the image of a perfect God, right?
The same thing about a friendship or whatever it may be. Sometimes we can get confused and we can think that the opposite of faith is doubt, but it's not a doubt is often just faith seeking. Understanding the opposite of faith in a scriptural fence is fear. It's fear that we are fearful about moving forward. The Prophet Isaiah, he wrote this trust in the Lord forever for the Lord. The Lord is the Rock Eternal. Right? And over the years I've had so many people come up to me and say, yeah, right. You know, I can, I can trust God for my salvation. I'm just not sure I can trust them to run my life, right? I can, but I just don't know if he, he can run. And, and, and if that's you in this place, I'm glad you're here. This is a place that you can process God in your life. But here's a, here's a practical piece of advice. I actually had a bishop tell me this before. Uh, every step of faith. It's a faith in God will build your trust, right? But you can't do the big faith steps without doing the daily little ones that you'll typically fail in the large ones if you aren't daily walking out the small ones
last time.
How you discerned that right is that voice in your head, right? Not the voices. Okay? But the voice in your head that sounds like you, but it's too smart to be you, right? You mix that with, with scripture and wise counsel and you will be on the right track. You'll be on the right track of finding a where God is leading. Number one, you need to make up your mind about God. Number two, I will not believe in my life is a continual crisis.
Anyone here? Anyone addicted to drama? Anybody? Yeah? If you don't, it might be you. For sure. Right? How many of you remember y two k? Anybody in there? Yes. Folks, do you realize that people graduating high school right now didn't go through y? Two K? Again, we're getting old. It is, but I remember why I do. I remember people getting mad at me because I wasn't going to hoard food and by rocket launchers, you know, like he was, it was weird. Right? But see, it happened because why? Because the unknown can be scary. It can be scary. You know, I went through a time in my life where I was dealing with a little bit of anxiety and, and trying to figure out what that all meant and what I had to do just to make a long story, but what I had to do was kind of do some research, right?
Try to get some facts in my life. Maybe, maybe for you, it's something medical, right? Get a book, talk to a doctor, whatever. Just don't go on web MD, okay. Because you'll either have like an ingrown toenail or cancer, right? Like, that's, that's the two options that you have on that thing, right? Maybe it is buying a house, find the comps or whatever you need to do. But see, here's, here's why I say that because. Because in inverse two, David says, here's what I've learned about God. Here's what I figured out about God. He says, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters, folks. The simple truth is you can outlast most crisis in your life.
Let me say that again. You can outlast most crisis's in your life. Some of you this morning need to hear that. Some of you need to hear that because you're smiling in this one crisis and you're thinking, oh, I think God has something in that for you. Neil Clark Warren, he's. He's the founder of e harmony, longtime committed follower of Christ, and he said this about marriage as he says. He says, the number one thing that kills marriages, he said is the lack of hope, and so we decided to do is he came up with a strategy kind and throws it out there, and he says, here's the thing I, I would encourage people to do. He says, improve one area of your marriage, 10 percent every 12 months, one for one area of your marriage, 10 percent every 12 months. We're basically, here's the. Here's why.
Here's what he's saying is that because this. Here's what I know about some of you in this room that that sometimes you know, you can't believe that a miracle can happen in your life, right? I mean, sometimes that's just a hard stretch where you, you can't trust God for a miracle, but the question is, can you trust them for 10 percent? Can you trust them to 10 percent? Because here's the reality, if you can trust them for 10 percent, my God can give a miracle in your life. I have a mentor sit in three or at Rosen right now. That is a walking miracle right now.
[inaudible]. God performs miracles. And really what this is, this 10 percent rule where there's a. it's a principle of hope. Jesus said this, he said, in this world, you will have trouble, right? You should put that on your refrigerator is a is a memory verse, is there, but take heart. I've overcome the world and see, I know I know my source of strength, which by the way is different. The difference between positive thinking and positive faith, right is positive. Faith actually includes God, but you remember the story again of David and Goliath member that Goliath was a positive thinker for sure. Right? What? What did he say to David? Remember what he said. He said, I will feed your flesh to the birds. Little boy. That's what he say.
What did David say back? You said you come against me with sword and spear and Javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord. That's what he said, and he said, I come against you with God. See, positive thinking. Positive thing is helpful. Positive faith is transformation where you get that is helpful. The other is transformational. Third one. Number three, I will stop blaming other people for my problems. Anybody ever do any blame shifting? I figured I'd get no hands on that. Look, I got a handle pointed over here. That's what I got. Look on. Monday on Memorial Day, a bunch of us guys from the church, we went out to tracks in Michael Teoh. Anybody ever been there? Yeah, if the tracks is like a race car, go car kind of thing, here's the. I'm not very
good in those kind of environments because because as you know, I'm a little bit competitive, own Poquito, you know, and so and so. Jesus just doesn't shine through me when I go to those places. And so, this is my second time, the first time I ever went there. You know what we did? We did these races. There's probably 16 guys are, you know what I did? I got dead last dead last the first time I ever. It was, it was. And here's the thing though, I was totally convinced is because everybody else cheated. They were out to get me. Oh, I want to get the pastor, you know, whatever. Right? Well, this time there was 15 of us or so that, that showed up on Monday night. Good time. Whenever there is actually people who got there early just to practice. Okay? That's how big and important does it not mean they did.
And so think like Superbowl, right? Think Stanley Cup finals, ladies think final rose ceremony, right? Like this. This is legit. This is a big deal. Okay. And so, the gist is you're supposed to do three races and then whoever wins the third race actually wins the whole thing. Okay. So, the first race happens, the first race happens and, and you know what A. Again, everybody's talking trash because they need Jesus, you know. But, but whatever. Right. I ended up dead last again. I was so bad. I had some guy out there, yellow. There goes rusty feeding the Asian stereotype again. I'm like, Bro, you're white. You can't say that. Right? Like there's rules, right? I can second race comes up. Okay. Second race comes up. Here's the thing. What happened? I had a broken. My car broke down in the middle of the rice in the middle of the. Of the track. Do you think they came and helped me? There's zooming by me. I'm literally like this. I'm going to get t boned right with the functional. I'd tell you all the time. Join a growth group. You'll have friends. No, you won't.
That's a real statement.
Secondaries. But. But I must've done something good with a broken-down car by the way, to get a good qualifying lap on one of them. Uh, so I was in the championship race on the last race again with a broken-down car. I'm just going to throw that out again. But. So, I was in. I was in a championship race and folks, by the grace of Jesus Christ, and because he knew how mean my friends were,
I won.
Yes, I won. Now I promised that I would not gloat and I'm not. And so, I'm just going to leave you with a picture. That's all I'm gonna do. I'm gonna leave you with a picture. Am I show you my trophy? I'm gonna. Leave it right here for the remainder of the service. Zoom in on that. Here's the thing. I had every excuse ready to go when I was losing that third race. I mean, the first two, right? I literally had a broken-down car, right? I was blaming the cars. I was blaming the gas or the car. I was blaming the pit crew who didn't help me. Francis, every, all my friends were racist like I was blaming everybody out there, right? Everybody else's fault. But nine,
notice what David says in verse three, Moses what he says, he says, even though I walk right, nobody's saying there,
you're saying this is where I was going. This is what I am taking myself through. I'm not blaming anybody that this is where it is nobody else's fault but my own. Even though I walk through the Valley of the shadow
death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your Rod and your staff, they comfort me, alright? Bruce Larsen wrote a book because there's a lot more to health than not being sick. He says, the person who blames other people for their problems as the only person I can't help. You want to know what my one of my greatest fears are? It's in dealing with this area. One of my greatest fears when I pray about the church and I pray every single week and I pray for you every single week, all the pastors do
is that is that you're going to get involved in life point. You're going to start coming regularly. You're going to, you're going to start serving. You're going to start being a part of generosity, Rockstar. You're going to go ahead and join a growth group. You're going to do all of these things, but you're not going to let God deal with that
fear that you wrote down earlier that you have gotten, not going to let God do that, and here's why that scares me
because if you won't let God into these, these things here into one thing, typically that means
going to let God into a lot of different things in my life. You're going to say, God, I believe you for my salvation, but I don't trust you with the rest of my life. I'm going to take over the reins. Now. That is a fear that I have in this place, but I also know that God can nudge us to places of openhandedness. We're again, one of our values is we say yes to Jesus before we even know the question. That's what I want for this church, for our church,
and see I love this passage because David decides that although he walked through a lot of difficulties in his life that he said, this is not going to define me right where again I told you already be or can define your life if you let it. Folks, if you're afraid of being alone, you will often get into unhealthy relationships in your life. If you're afraid of, of not achieving, it will lead you to be a in a workaholic, right? If you have a fear of not having enough in your life, you will live life with closed fists
rather than with generosity, right? You will live life like this where you would try to grip things. I told you before you tell me your greatest fear and I can tell you the place where you're going to be the most tempted. That is where the devil will try to seek, and that's why we need to let Jesus into that place of fear again. Fear is not our problem. It's a normal reaction. It's what we do with it. Psalm 23, David says he restores my soul. Faith isn't getting my way. It's actually going God's way. That's what that means. Number four, write this down and I apologize. I have to go quickly. Uh, I will not allow my past to destroy my future.
Hmm.
Everyone in here is probably pretty well aware of how significant elephant memory is, right? I wish I had elephant memory. I skated buying college and now I'm your pastor. So, there you go. Elephant memory. Um, there was an article that was written about a trainers and how they trained elephants and someone asks, you know, is it difficult to actually train an elephant? And basically, uh, the respondent said no, it's not. And so what they do in order to train the elephant is they stick them down when they're babies, right? They stick them, they chain them down, uh, and the, and the baby will try to get away, you know, thousands of times, 10,000 times, whatever and realizes that he can’t, or she can't get away. Uh, and at that point, elephant memory kind of kicks in and when they get older, uh, they believed that they can't get away from that stake even though when they're older and they're huge, they could get away from it instantaneously if they just realized that what they could do, but their memory takes over and see.
For some of us, our childhood memories can tell us that, you know, coming of our shoots are should not right or what we can and can't do. And often times that changed us down in our life. David ends is his song this way, says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He says, regardless of what's gone on in my past, regardless of the struggles and the challenges that I've had in my past, hope still remains. There's a big psychological, I don't know, thought process out there about or, or, or something that they're trying to look at an adult child of an alcoholic syndrome, uh, where I believe it's totally true. And I know there's a number of you who might be adult children of alcoholics. I am an adult child of an alcoholic. Uh, we're, we're, this is, this has been clear. There's, there's patterns that, that kind of say that this exists.
But even in this I think, I think there's something that we can, we can get through this. Uh, but part of that is saying, I won't let my past dictate or control my future. Right? It's good for us to understand. It's good for us to process it, all of that. But ultimately, we have to make the choice and say it's not going to dictate my future. And See, David sits there, and he concludes his, his poem. And it includes a song by saying, you know, even again, even though I've walked through, I know God, that you know me. I know God, that you love me. And so, I'm going to walk through with understanding your goodness and mercy, this plans that you have for me all the days of my life. What's the question is, will we allow God to walk us through with that all the days of her life
where single one of us struggle with something but will we on the things that we bring our hands about and worry about, fret over what we truly be able to do, just like David said, and, and, and, and give that to God. I think if we can do that in those things, it's going to open up a whole different place for us, a whole different world where God wants to show us just how big he really is. Let's pray. God, I thank you. I thank you lord for the investment that you make in us. I think you got it for the love and the grace that you have for us. I think you got that, that you know us so intimately that you know how fearful we can be. You know how worrisome we can be God, that there's a verse for every single day of the year to tell us how much you're there for us to tell us how much you're in our corner, and so God, I pray for all of us in here. I pray for those, the beard that we wrote down that fear that, that, that grips us, that maybe we lie awake at night.
I pray, God, that we will be able to give that to you. Understanding that, that we can't live without fear, but we can still have a hope in the midst of it. Do we serve a god that's, that's huge and great. Bigger than what we can even imagine. And so, Lord, let us be able to take one more step toward letting you have the thing that grips us.
God, we thank you this morning. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.