Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Wow. Thank you for all 10
Speaker 1: of you that stood. You're good people. Extra blessings for
Speaker 1: you in heaven. You may be seated. Man, I'm so,
Speaker 1: so glad to be here. I'm honored to be here today.
Speaker 1: And we did not make things easy for the children's workers.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that. We started attending New Horizon back
Speaker 1: when we were at the community center. And my dad
Speaker 1: worked on setup and teardown teams. And so my parents
Speaker 1: believed that church was a good place to punish your children.
Speaker 1: And so when we would misbehave, I ended up on
Speaker 1: the setup team. And I'll never forget rolling out that
Speaker 1: giant carpet. And I was stacking chairs before it was
Speaker 1: cool in Master's Commission when I was 10 years old here,
Speaker 1: 8 years old here. But anyways, we're family. You may
Speaker 1: not know me that well. I might be that weird
Speaker 1: uncle who shows up for Thanksgiving that was uninvited. But
Speaker 1: we're here and we're family. And we're so grateful for you.
Speaker 1: Just the opportunity for me to say thank you. For
Speaker 1: some of you, maybe just your gift was not even super,
Speaker 1: maybe you didn't even put a ton of energy or
Speaker 1: effort or even thinking into it. But I get to
Speaker 1: see the impact of what you do every single day.
Speaker 1: And I was just with our Congo team last March.
Speaker 1: I brought them into Uganda because it's just so hard
Speaker 1: to get into that nation. We brought their board in,
Speaker 1: brought them in, and spent a few days just training
Speaker 1: them to send them out. And just the things that
Speaker 1: they've seen and experienced, just to be able to purchase
Speaker 1: land and even build a temporary facility. I was talking
Speaker 1: with Gotina, who is the head there, just last week.
Speaker 1: It's amazing what God is doing there and the challenges
Speaker 1: that our brothers and sisters in Christ face in different
Speaker 1: nations today. And the land that you purchased in Nakapiri,
Speaker 1: I was just there last month as well, in March.
Speaker 1: I actually just got back from Uganda on Wednesday, so
Speaker 1: I sort of know where I am right now, time-wise.
Speaker 1: But I was there, and we walked the facilities with
Speaker 1: his team and with some of our staff, and we
Speaker 1: prayed over it. And guys, I just got to tell you,
Speaker 1: that area is very, very poor. I know you've heard that,
Speaker 1: but to experience it for yourself, it's mud huts everywhere.
Speaker 1: Very little electricity anywhere. Maybe a couple of brick and
Speaker 1: mortar buildings. Most everything is just half falling down. There
Speaker 1: isn't clean water in the area. And so we are
Speaker 1: local church based. Like we believe in the local church.
Speaker 1: I believe very strongly in it. I've pastored for 23 years.
Speaker 1: I believe the local church is a vehicle that Jesus
Speaker 1: chose to spread the gospel to a community. I'm unapologetic
Speaker 1: in that. And so we do a lot of things
Speaker 1: in communities at World Outreach. We're really involved in five
Speaker 1: different things. And one of them is water. And people
Speaker 1: have asked me before, you know, you're not preaching the gospel.
Speaker 1: You're just, that's a humanitarian type project. And my response
Speaker 1: to that is, yes, that's true. But a local church
Speaker 1: needs more than one tool. And so if you can
Speaker 1: go into a community and say, hey, we're putting the
Speaker 1: flag in the ground here. and we're going to preach
Speaker 1: the gospel in this place, and then we're also going
Speaker 1: to put clean water in. You just don't understand the
Speaker 1: impact that that makes. It's massive. Over 300 million people
Speaker 1: in sub-Sahara Africa suffer from water insecurity. 300 million. In
Speaker 1: the nation of Uganda, 50% of the population is under
Speaker 1: the age of 17, and last checked, it's 60 million people.
Speaker 1: 30 million children in that. And here's why water is
Speaker 1: so important, because it breaks the cycle of poverty. Because
Speaker 1: it's not the adults that go and get the water.
Speaker 1: It's the kids. They send the kids to go get it.
Speaker 1: And so rather than going to school, they're just going
Speaker 1: and getting water for their daily needs. To have clean
Speaker 1: drinking water in some places in that area because it's
Speaker 1: so swampy. You're walking a couple of miles with five-gallon
Speaker 1: jerry cans. And it's not uncommon to see little ones
Speaker 1: who are four or five years old with the one gallons.
Speaker 1: It's important. It's valuable. It's meaningful. And so I just
Speaker 1: wanted to say thank you for that. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for partnering with us to do what we do,
Speaker 1: for partnering with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And
Speaker 1: some of you may never go to that nation or
Speaker 1: any of the nations that we work in, but because
Speaker 1: of your generosity, you're participating in that. And so I
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you. Thank you to your pastors.
Speaker 1: We appreciate your consistency, your faithfulness through the years. I
Speaker 1: want to honor you with that. Missions is something you
Speaker 1: fight for inside of your local church community because everybody
Speaker 1: always says, well, we could do something else. It matters.
Speaker 1: So thank you for that. I appreciate it. If you could,
Speaker 1: could just give your pastors a huge hand clap for
Speaker 1: their faithfulness through the years. And then let's pray. And
Speaker 1: then let's dive into the word. God, we thank you
Speaker 1: for the opportunity that we have to be here today.
Speaker 1: Thank you that we just open up our heart to you.
Speaker 1: And we ask God that you would speak to us.
Speaker 1: We ask that we'd hear your voice clearly. The Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit would lead us and guide us into truth. God,
Speaker 1: we want to change. We want to be who you've
Speaker 1: called us to be. In Jesus' name, everybody stand. Amen.
Speaker 1: If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Romans
Speaker 1: chapter 12. We're going to read through verses 1 and 2.
Speaker 1: And last September... The New Horizons team was with us
Speaker 1: at a pastor's conference. And so Pastor Dwayne was preaching
Speaker 1: to our pastors. And we had, I think it was
Speaker 1: four or five other senior pastors were there with us.
Speaker 1: And so there was about 300 pastors, 300 plus pastors
Speaker 1: at that conference. And then Pastor Joel took a team
Speaker 1: from New Horizons and they went way up there. And
Speaker 1: that video is not lying. When they said that even
Speaker 1: in the nation of Uganda, Ugandans don't want to go there.
Speaker 1: It's the truth. I was just there and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'll pay your way. I'll put you in a hotel.
Speaker 1: And they're like, I don't know. It's a nine hour
Speaker 1: minimum drive. You leave at three, four o'clock in the
Speaker 1: morning just so that you can miss all the traffic.
Speaker 1: It's not smooth roads. It's challenging. And so we're preaching
Speaker 1: to all of these pastors and leaders and it's thousands
Speaker 1: of people represented from the senior pastors. And so we
Speaker 1: took all the senior pastors out and said, hey, let's
Speaker 1: just from the U.S. and said, let's just go to
Speaker 1: a restaurant. just to say thank you, thank you for
Speaker 1: coming and giving of your time. And so we were
Speaker 1: sitting there, and all of us are just talking. There's
Speaker 1: probably 10 or 11 of us around this table, ordered
Speaker 1: our food, and Pastor Dwayne gets this text from Pastor Joel,
Speaker 1: and it's a video. And so as we're sitting in
Speaker 1: this nice restaurant eating this food, we get a video
Speaker 1: of Pastor Joel and Sandy Sims and some of the team,
Speaker 1: and they're literally wearing gumboot waders up to here, and
Speaker 1: they're like leveling concrete. And so they're doing real missions work,
Speaker 1: leveling concrete. And we did the most spiritual thing possible.
Speaker 1: We sent them a picture of our food and said,
Speaker 1: God bless you. So, good time. So Romans chapter 12,
Speaker 1: verses 1 and 2, it says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers,
Speaker 1: by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as
Speaker 1: a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
Speaker 1: your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world,
Speaker 1: but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that
Speaker 1: by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
Speaker 1: what is good, acceptable, and perfect. So the first 11
Speaker 1: chapters of Romans, before we get to Romans chapter 12,
Speaker 1: Paul is telling the Roman church, which is filled with
Speaker 1: Gentiles and Jews alike, and he explains the mercies of God.
Speaker 1: He's saying to them, He explains justification by faith. He
Speaker 1: explains adoption of sonship into the kingdom of God. He
Speaker 1: works through that we're not saved by works, but by
Speaker 1: grace alone. He talks a bit about atonement in Christ,
Speaker 1: the blood of Jesus. He explains it's really rich in
Speaker 1: doctrine for 11 chapters. And then in chapter 12, he
Speaker 1: moves away just from doctrine into application. In saying, because
Speaker 1: of the mercies of God... chapter 12, verses 1 and 2,
Speaker 1: here's the way that you should live. Your reasonable act
Speaker 1: of worship, your reasonable act of service as a follower
Speaker 1: of Jesus, this is where it begins. And it starts
Speaker 1: with being a living sacrifice. Being a living sacrifice. This
Speaker 1: idea of a living sacrifice is so strange sounding when
Speaker 1: you really think about it. Because they understood in that
Speaker 1: context from the Jews had temple worship. By the time
Speaker 1: that Jesus showed up, it was very firmly established. There
Speaker 1: was the shedding of blood for the covering of their
Speaker 1: sins that happened inside the temple. And then even in
Speaker 1: the Gentiles had their own temples where the shedding of
Speaker 1: blood took place on an altar for their own things
Speaker 1: that they believed in. And so when Paul says, take
Speaker 1: your life and be a living sacrifice, it probably set
Speaker 1: off all sorts of crazy alarm bells in their head.
Speaker 1: Because things got on the altar to die. Things got
Speaker 1: on the altar, they died. They didn't get off the
Speaker 1: altar alive. So when the sacrifice came in, they put
Speaker 1: it up there. They didn't just pray over it and
Speaker 1: send it on its way and say, thank you for
Speaker 1: your service. No, that thing died on that altar. So
Speaker 1: Paul is saying to them that there are things in
Speaker 1: your life, as a follower of Jesus, you're going to
Speaker 1: have to climb up on this altar and you're going
Speaker 1: to have to be a living sacrifice. That something's going
Speaker 1: to die on that altar and that you need to
Speaker 1: do this every single day of your life. Now this
Speaker 1: becomes important because why we live the way that we do,
Speaker 1: the motivation behind it is super important. And so I
Speaker 1: want to work through a couple things real quick to
Speaker 1: help us get to the right place so that when
Speaker 1: we work through a process of change or when we
Speaker 1: deal with the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we come
Speaker 1: from the right place that it's not motivated by guilt
Speaker 1: and shame. And so the first facet of God that
Speaker 1: we have to understand is the justice of God. The
Speaker 1: justice of God. Justice is is getting what you deserve
Speaker 1: right justice is what we desire for others and not
Speaker 1: for ourselves right I'm not a seeker of justice for
Speaker 1: myself I'm a seeker of mercy for myself but have
Speaker 1: you ever been a person who wants to be the
Speaker 1: dispenser of justice I have I I'm super guilty of that.
Speaker 1: So I grew up in church. I've shared a little
Speaker 1: bit about that already, but what you have to understand
Speaker 1: is my dad didn't. My dad was a street kid, right?
Speaker 1: So my dad was raised in the streets. He was
Speaker 1: in and out of juvenile detention since he was 13, 14. Listen,
Speaker 1: I don't know really anything about it, but he informed
Speaker 1: us when we were younger, which I'll tell the story,
Speaker 1: is that the rules on the street are different. than
Speaker 1: just the rules that the church playground, right? And so
Speaker 1: I'm raised in church. My dad had a different set
Speaker 1: of values because he came from the streets, and he's
Speaker 1: still renewing his mind to the Word of God and
Speaker 1: was figuring all that out when I was much younger.
Speaker 1: And I have a great dad. I love my parents.
Speaker 1: They're amazing human beings, and I'm very blessed. But I
Speaker 1: say that just so that you understand the story that
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell. You know, when my kids were younger,
Speaker 1: my son came running in and he ratted out my daughter,
Speaker 1: who's his older sister. And my dad looked at him
Speaker 1: and was like, hey, snitches get stitches. And I said, dad,
Speaker 1: he's four. Like he's four. That's a real true story
Speaker 1: that happened. So anyways, we were younger. We were the
Speaker 1: way it used to work in those days. Like I
Speaker 1: was raised, you know, I was born in 1980. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm dating myself here. and raised in the 80s and
Speaker 1: the 90s and things were very different then right you
Speaker 1: just things were done a lot different like my youngest
Speaker 1: son said to me a couple of weeks ago he's
Speaker 1: like dad what was it like to be raised in
Speaker 1: the 19th century and it's like why are you gonna
Speaker 1: say it like that that is so rude um But
Speaker 1: in those days, like you'd go into this church, Sunday school,
Speaker 1: and this was a small community church that our family
Speaker 1: was attending. Not here. This was not a New Horizon, right?
Speaker 1: But they would do the flannel graph board thing, right?
Speaker 1: And Joseph looked the same as Moses, so you added
Speaker 1: the coat of many colors, and now it was Joseph.
Speaker 1: You took it off and added a staff that was Moses.
Speaker 1: And so after about 15 minutes, they sent us outside.
Speaker 1: They're like, that's enough Bible for you. Go outside and
Speaker 1: go play out in the playground. So we're running around
Speaker 1: outside the church, and there was a guest kid who
Speaker 1: came into town. And he was a bigger kid. And
Speaker 1: so I'm the middle child of three. And so this
Speaker 1: kid comes up, and he starts messing with my older brother. Now,
Speaker 1: once again, raised in church. Well, this guy turns into
Speaker 1: a fight because my older brother starts arguing with him. Well,
Speaker 1: he thumps my older brother. like beats them up pretty
Speaker 1: good on the playground. I just, my younger brother and
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do. So we just watched.
Speaker 1: We're like, that's a bad day for you, bro. It's
Speaker 1: too bad. Once again, raised in church, don't understand that world.
Speaker 1: It was shocked by it. And so we got home
Speaker 1: that day and my dad found out about it. Now
Speaker 1: to this day, my, my kids gave my dad a
Speaker 1: present that he keeps in his garage that says, snitches
Speaker 1: get stitches. Okay, that's my dad. And so we get home,
Speaker 1: and he said, did you watch your older brother get
Speaker 1: beat up? And we're like, yeah, it was crazy. And
Speaker 1: he said, you didn't help? We're like, no, didn't know
Speaker 1: that was allowed. And so my parents loved the scripture
Speaker 1: verse that foolishness is bound in the heart of a child,
Speaker 1: and the rod of correction shall drive it far from them.
Speaker 1: That was the second part they liked way too much.
Speaker 1: And so we were disciplined. We were spanked because that happened.
Speaker 1: And my dad said, never let your brother, because he's
Speaker 1: from the streets, never let your brother get beat up
Speaker 1: like that again. So next Sunday comes along. And me
Speaker 1: and my younger brother, we're like, that ain't happening again.
Speaker 1: No chance. I'm not getting spanked again. I don't even
Speaker 1: know this kid. This kid shows up to church again.
Speaker 1: Starts messing with my older brother. Y'all, we beat the
Speaker 1: trash out of that kid. Dispenser of justice. Right? It
Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah. And then my mom was so mad.
Speaker 1: My grandpa, who's the founder of the ministry that I
Speaker 1: now work for, let my dad have it. We're confused.
Speaker 1: We're like, we didn't know what to do. And so
Speaker 1: the point is we have to be careful because our
Speaker 1: justice is flawed. Our justice is based off what we know,
Speaker 1: what we've experienced, and what we think is right. God's
Speaker 1: justice is perfect. And it is a discipline to submit
Speaker 1: to let God be the dispenser of justice and not ourselves.
Speaker 1: It's a discipline. It is real easy to preach on
Speaker 1: Sunday morning, right? It's like, yeah, the Lord is my vindicator.
Speaker 1: And then you get on I-5 and you want to
Speaker 1: be the vindicator. And we even get spiritual about it.
Speaker 1: Somebody messes with you, you get stolen from, lied about, whatever.
Speaker 1: You're like, may you reap what you sow. You start
Speaker 1: quoting verses at people. You start praying those prayers of
Speaker 1: David when he's like, grind my enemies up to dust.
Speaker 1: Make them my footstool. Like we get real spiritual when
Speaker 1: we're wanting God to dispense justice to other people. And
Speaker 1: so it's a discipline to say, all right, God, not
Speaker 1: my will, but your will be done. And your justice
Speaker 1: is perfect. And your word says that you are vindicator.
Speaker 1: And that's really hard to practice, but it's the life
Speaker 1: that God has called us to live. And it's why
Speaker 1: being a living sacrifice is a challenge. Because you have
Speaker 1: to trust and believe that God knows what's best. That
Speaker 1: even what you're going through in the moment is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: His word hasn't changed. And the best thing that could
Speaker 1: happen is that God would be the dispenser of justice.
Speaker 1: Because his justice is perfect. And his justice will draw
Speaker 1: that person back to him. Our flesh doesn't want that.
Speaker 1: Our flesh wants revenge. Our flesh wants them to feel
Speaker 1: the thing that we feel. The pain that you've caused me,
Speaker 1: I want you to experience so that you'll be sorry.
Speaker 1: But God doesn't work that way because his justice is perfect.
Speaker 1: It always brings us to a place of repentance and
Speaker 1: brings us to a place where we come back to him.
Speaker 1: The second facet of God that we have to understand
Speaker 1: is the mercy of God. The mercy of God. Mercy
Speaker 1: is not getting what we deserve. Justice is when it
Speaker 1: is getting what we deserve. Mercy is when we get
Speaker 1: what we is. Mercy is not getting what we deserve.
Speaker 1: It's like when you get pulled over and you know
Speaker 1: you're guilty is all get out. And you're just praying
Speaker 1: and you're so kind to that police officer. Hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I was distracted and I'm in a hurry. And they say,
Speaker 1: you know, we're going to let you off. You're throwing
Speaker 1: yourself on the mercy of the court. You're like, please,
Speaker 1: I promise my heart is good. I go to church.
Speaker 1: I'm a tither. I'm not one of those other people.
Speaker 1: We're pleading for mercy. And so we're grateful when mercy
Speaker 1: gets into our life because that's really what we desire
Speaker 1: for ourselves. And the third is grace. Grace is getting
Speaker 1: something that you don't deserve. You sinned, yet you receive
Speaker 1: forgiveness and eternal life. Grace is the greatest gift that
Speaker 1: we can ever get. It's God extending to us something
Speaker 1: that we can't earn and that we don't deserve. It
Speaker 1: means his unmerited or unearned favor. And this is a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing. We were on the end of the most
Speaker 1: lopsided trade in human history. We said, God, here's my brokenness,
Speaker 1: my sin, my shame, my guilt. In exchange, God said,
Speaker 1: I'll give you Jesus and eternal salvation, and I will
Speaker 1: take that sin, that sickness, that disease, that rejection, that brokenness.
Speaker 1: I will take that from you and give you something
Speaker 1: that you can't earn and that you don't deserve. Grace
Speaker 1: is the fuel for change in our life. This is
Speaker 1: really important because when we talk about being a living
Speaker 1: sacrifice and not being conformed to the spirit of this world,
Speaker 1: but transformed by the renewing of our mind, our intentions
Speaker 1: and the fuel for what drives that change becomes really important.
Speaker 1: Because if it's based out of behavior modification, we'll constantly
Speaker 1: be trying to earn something from God that he's already
Speaker 1: freely given to you and I. And so an understanding
Speaker 1: of God's grace fuels us to change. And why does
Speaker 1: God want us to change? Because when we don't, the
Speaker 1: things we refuse to lay on the altar are the
Speaker 1: things that stop us from living our best life. And
Speaker 1: God is consistently trying to free us from the things
Speaker 1: that chain us. It's why he asks us to give.
Speaker 1: I remember having a conversation. I pastored for 23 years.
Speaker 1: Tithing is the least important, or sorry, the least popular
Speaker 1: part of the message. It's an offering time. They're like,
Speaker 1: here we go again. And I had a guy confront
Speaker 1: me one time, and I said, hey, I just got
Speaker 1: a question for you. Do you really think God cares
Speaker 1: about your paper money? Like seriously, think about it for
Speaker 1: a moment. He walks on streets paved in gold. He
Speaker 1: has angels literally on both sides singing, holy, holy is
Speaker 1: the lamb of God for all eternity. The gates of heaven,
Speaker 1: it says one of them is carved by a single pearl.
Speaker 1: Like precious gems or sandals. scattered into the walls like
Speaker 1: heaven is an incredible place and we pull out our
Speaker 1: dollar bills or your shillings or whatever it is you're
Speaker 1: like hey this is super important and how dare you
Speaker 1: ask me for it is it possible that god is
Speaker 1: asking you for that thing not because he needs it
Speaker 1: but because of what it's doing to your life And
Speaker 1: he will constantly ask us to lay on the altar
Speaker 1: and he will show us the things that are holding
Speaker 1: us back. And so it's super important that we understand
Speaker 1: the grace of God, his unmerited favor. Because when we
Speaker 1: know God loves us, we know he's not asking us
Speaker 1: to change because he's frustrated at us. Because he's mad
Speaker 1: at me. Because you're viewing him through the eyes of
Speaker 1: what your earthly parents did or didn't do for you.
Speaker 1: He's a good father. His justice is perfect. His mercy
Speaker 1: is perfect. His grace is extended regardless of whether you
Speaker 1: can earn it or not. You can't. It's given to
Speaker 1: you freely. It is the free gift of salvation. It's
Speaker 1: the biggest tragedy is when people think to themselves, man,
Speaker 1: I got to clean myself up. I'm going to get
Speaker 1: my act together and then I'm going to start going
Speaker 1: to church and then I'm going to surrender my life
Speaker 1: to God. You're missing the entire point. You don't get
Speaker 1: clean to come to God. You come to God to
Speaker 1: get clean. And his grace fuels us for the sanctification
Speaker 1: part of Christian living, which is I've given my life
Speaker 1: to him. He's accepted me into, adopted me into his beloved.
Speaker 1: I'm born again and been made the righteousness of God
Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. I'm transformed. I'm a new creation in Christ.
Speaker 1: I'm new. Old things have passed away. All things have
Speaker 1: become new. I'm a new creation. I'm a new kind
Speaker 1: of thing, a new kind of person. But he says
Speaker 1: you need to work out this salvation thing in your
Speaker 1: life because these addictions, these habits, these poor behaviors, this
Speaker 1: lack of generosity, this negativity, these things are destroying you
Speaker 1: and they're making your life harder. And so you remember
Speaker 1: the grace of God because it begins to fuel the change.
Speaker 1: I've never thought about the grace of God and thought, man,
Speaker 1: I'll just sin a whole bunch more. It's such a
Speaker 1: weird way to view grace. And there are some that
Speaker 1: that's how they view it, right? I remember my daughter
Speaker 1: when she was much younger, she used to do this
Speaker 1: thing and a pastor's kid, right? Like she'd come to
Speaker 1: church early and the kids run the church when service,
Speaker 1: before service starts. If you don't know this, volunteer kids,
Speaker 1: all of it. They're just, they're in charge of everything
Speaker 1: that's going on. And I love it. I think it's great.
Speaker 1: But I remember my daughter, I was running around doing
Speaker 1: stuff before church started and she figured out she was
Speaker 1: obsessed with bubble gum. and she figured out that she
Speaker 1: could go through volunteers' purses and find bubble gum. And
Speaker 1: so this service coordinator comes to us, and she says,
Speaker 1: Pastor Jeremy, this is just really awkward. I don't mind
Speaker 1: that she's doing this, but I don't really know what
Speaker 1: to do. Your daughter every Sunday comes into my purse
Speaker 1: and steals bubble gum. And I was so embarrassed. So
Speaker 1: we sit her down, and we say, okay. And Elise's like,
Speaker 1: Morgan's like, my wife is, hey, you know, you hurt
Speaker 1: Jesus' heart when you steal. And we're doing this whole lesson, right,
Speaker 1: laying it all out. And she looks at us and
Speaker 1: she says, well, God still loves me? And we're like, well, yeah.
Speaker 1: She's like, okay. Wait a minute. Learned the wrong lesson there.
Speaker 1: It's like, wait a minute. You'll still go to jail.
Speaker 1: There are consequences for our bad behavior. Let's go to
Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 4. Praise God for kids. Genesis chapter 4,
Speaker 1: and we're going to start in verse 3. It says,
Speaker 1: But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
Speaker 1: So Cain was very angry and his face fell. And
Speaker 1: the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And
Speaker 1: why is your face fallen? If you do well, will
Speaker 1: you not be accepted? And if you do not do well,
Speaker 1: sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary
Speaker 1: for you, but you must rule over it. This is
Speaker 1: a very popular story. It's the very beginning of everything.
Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 2 and 3 is the failure of Adam
Speaker 1: and Eve inside of the garden. It's creation right there.
Speaker 1: And then Genesis chapter 4, it's the first family outside
Speaker 1: of the garden. And so it's the first opportunity that
Speaker 1: we see for sacrifice to take place. It's the first sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And I just want to point a few things out
Speaker 1: to you. The first is, the first sacrifice was not
Speaker 1: brought by Abel. It was actually brought by Cain. Cain
Speaker 1: is the one that said, I'm going to take of
Speaker 1: the fruit of the ground. He was a farmer of
Speaker 1: his toil, and he's going to bring it to the Lord.
Speaker 1: And then Abel, with the most little brother energy ever,
Speaker 1: sees what Cain does, one-ups his sacrifice, and lays it
Speaker 1: before the Lord, and it says that God accepted Abel's
Speaker 1: sacrifice and rejected Cain's. Now, we don't know in Genesis
Speaker 1: chapter 4 why it doesn't tell us, but if you
Speaker 1: read through Hebrews chapter 11, it explains to you that
Speaker 1: the sacrifice that Abel gave was given in faith and
Speaker 1: the sacrifice that Cain gave was not given in faith.
Speaker 1: It was not the content of the sacrifice that was
Speaker 1: the issue. In the book of Leviticus, what Cain brought
Speaker 1: was just called a wave offering or a cereal offering.
Speaker 1: It was a grain offering of vegetables and it was acceptable.
Speaker 1: And then what Abel brought was also acceptable. He brought
Speaker 1: the fatty portions of the meat. He brought that Wagyu
Speaker 1: steak before the Lord, right? He brought a good thing.
Speaker 1: So it was not just the content of what he gave,
Speaker 1: it was how he gave it. And that right there
Speaker 1: is the rub, isn't it? We can put ourselves on
Speaker 1: the altar and have a bad attitude about being on
Speaker 1: the altar, right? And God says, it's great that you
Speaker 1: did the right thing, but you did it with the
Speaker 1: wrong heart, and so you won't get God's reward. We
Speaker 1: know this intuitively with our children. When you discipline them
Speaker 1: and say, hey, you need to go upstairs right now,
Speaker 1: and I want you to clean your room. And you'd
Speaker 1: have thought you just asked them to do the hardest
Speaker 1: thing in the entire world. It's like, why do you
Speaker 1: hate me? What did I ever do to you? It's like,
Speaker 1: just pick up your clothes off the floor. But they
Speaker 1: go running up the stairs or down the hallways and
Speaker 1: slamming doors and somehow aggressively vacuuming. You know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about? It's like just like aggressively vacuuming. They're mad
Speaker 1: about it. They clean the room, put it all back,
Speaker 1: and they're like, I did it. Are you happy with them? No. No,
Speaker 1: you're like, seriously? Why? They did what you asked them
Speaker 1: to do. but they did it with the wrong heart.
Speaker 1: They did the right thing, the right action with the
Speaker 1: wrong attitude. And so what did it create in you? Discipline.
Speaker 1: So now your kid did the right thing, but they're
Speaker 1: under discipline. You know, it's so possible for us to
Speaker 1: be in church, somewhere in your seats, and worship is going,
Speaker 1: and you're lifting your hands, and if you've been in
Speaker 1: church long enough, you know all the power motions, you know,
Speaker 1: you're coming to Jesus, and the arm pumps, like you're
Speaker 1: doing it on beat, and in your mind, you're thinking
Speaker 1: about lunch. You're processing your schedule for the next coming week, because,
Speaker 1: oh man, the kid's got school, and we got... after
Speaker 1: school activities and they got jobs and what's my husband doing?
Speaker 1: What's my wife doing? Where are we going? And you're
Speaker 1: in the moment where you're supposed to be worshiping the whole,
Speaker 1: the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And
Speaker 1: we're thinking about lunch. No one else knows you have
Speaker 1: the right actions, but not the right heart. And so
Speaker 1: it never produces the right results. God never sees, God
Speaker 1: never sees the worship outside of the worshiper. He sees you.
Speaker 1: He sees all of you. And he wants you to
Speaker 1: have your heart connected to the thing that you're doing.
Speaker 1: And the reason why he wants that is because he's
Speaker 1: not asking you to change out of guilt and shame
Speaker 1: or any of those things, but because he knows the
Speaker 1: thing that he's asking you to leave on the altar
Speaker 1: is the thing that's destroying your family. It's the thing
Speaker 1: that's hindering your marriage. It's the thing that's holding you
Speaker 1: back in your finances. It's the thing that's stopping you
Speaker 1: from getting promoted or moving forward or moving ahead and
Speaker 1: walking in God's best for your life. He's asking you,
Speaker 1: he's saying, connect your heart to the thing that you do.
Speaker 1: And if you'll do that, he said it to Cain.
Speaker 1: Why is your face fallen? If you do well, Won't
Speaker 1: you also be accepted? For the first time ever, we
Speaker 1: see God expressing displeasure and we see him telling Cain,
Speaker 1: here's how you change. That's how God works with us.
Speaker 1: He reveals something in us and then he directs us
Speaker 1: on how to change. He doesn't leave us where we're
Speaker 1: at stuck. That's the beauty of relationship with God is
Speaker 1: he doesn't leave you. It's one of those prayers. I
Speaker 1: just call it a yes prayer. I promise you. There
Speaker 1: are dangerous kinds of prayers that you can pray because
Speaker 1: God just answers them. One of them is you sit
Speaker 1: on the edge of your bed, nobody around, and just
Speaker 1: sit there and have a moment with the Lord and say, God,
Speaker 1: what's the thing in my life? that I need to
Speaker 1: lay on the altar? I promise you, he'll say yes
Speaker 1: to that and he'll answer that prayer. You'll hear it
Speaker 1: through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. You'll
Speaker 1: hear it in a Sunday message where the pastor says
Speaker 1: it and you're like, how did they know? You'll see
Speaker 1: it when you open your scripture verses in your Bible
Speaker 1: and you go right to it and you're like, that's
Speaker 1: exactly what I'm dealing with. He's a good father and
Speaker 1: he knows exactly what we need. He'll say yes to that.
Speaker 1: The other is praying the prayers that David prayed, not
Speaker 1: the ones about justice, about God, search my heart. Search
Speaker 1: my heart. See the things inside of me that are unrighteous.
Speaker 1: And if you have a true understanding of God's goodness
Speaker 1: and God's grace, his justice, his mercy, you know that
Speaker 1: you can trust him with that prayer. Because whatever he
Speaker 1: reveals to you is going to be for your benefit,
Speaker 1: is going to be to set you free of the
Speaker 1: things that so easily ensnare our lives. But nobody can
Speaker 1: do it for you. Your spouse can pray for you nonstop.
Speaker 1: Your mom can pray for you nonstop. Your kids can
Speaker 1: hope for the best. But you have to be the
Speaker 1: one that activates your will and says, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to let the culture of this world dominate how
Speaker 1: I'm a father. I'm not going to let the culture
Speaker 1: of this world dominate how I give or how I
Speaker 1: don't give. I want to read the scripture and I
Speaker 1: want to change and only I can get on the altar.
Speaker 1: Nobody can put me on it. Only you can do it.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes it so hard, isn't it? But
Speaker 1: you can do it. Because God said that you could.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you'll want to. There's probably not too
Speaker 1: many comfortable sacrifices. I think the challenge we have as Westerners,
Speaker 1: and I'm lumping myself in this, is we pursue comfort
Speaker 1: at the expense of almost anything else. We do. It's
Speaker 1: an idol for us. When I have a bad day
Speaker 1: at work, I come home and I'm like, I just
Speaker 1: want to sit on the couch. I want to binge
Speaker 1: watch a show on Netflix. You're pulling the ice cream out.
Speaker 1: I'm eating the whole carton today. We have comfort clothes,
Speaker 1: comfort food, comfort shows. We reject anything that's uncomfortable. It's just,
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but that's kind of just how
Speaker 1: we are. But guys, that's not how God works. God
Speaker 1: works with holy pressure. Good pressure. He's trimming. He's knocking
Speaker 1: things off. And it happens under pressure. And there's been
Speaker 1: so many times where I've been in the middle of
Speaker 1: nowhere in Africa and I've called out and I said, God,
Speaker 1: why did you bring me here? You read the scriptures
Speaker 1: when they're like, did you bring me here to die?
Speaker 1: I have felt that way before. I remember one time
Speaker 1: I was going to the middle of nowhere. It was
Speaker 1: somewhere along Lake Victoria. We got stuck. We are hours
Speaker 1: away from any civilization. We sunk in the mud. It
Speaker 1: was a taxi. We got out and they asked us
Speaker 1: to start pushing. I'm like, but I paid. Like, well,
Speaker 1: you ain't going anywhere then. So we're pushing this thing
Speaker 1: and we're going nowhere. And this guy looks at us
Speaker 1: and he says, well, you'll want to start walking that
Speaker 1: way in very broken English. Sun's getting ready to start set.
Speaker 1: It's not safe for me to be out, especially in
Speaker 1: those days. I'm walking. I don't have hip waders or
Speaker 1: gumboots or anything. That stuff wasn't even there at the time.
Speaker 1: I'm just walking through the mud. We get there late
Speaker 1: at night, and this so-called hotel that we found, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget it, go to open the door, and the
Speaker 1: door hit the bed. Clink. And I was much thinner then.
Speaker 1: And I had to scoot in, close the door behind me.
Speaker 1: I didn't have to worry about anybody robbing me. You
Speaker 1: couldn't get in. And it's just like I'm laying on
Speaker 1: this bed and all night long I heard the rats
Speaker 1: fighting above me. I said, God, why did you bring
Speaker 1: me here? Why am I here? I want to go home.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do this anymore. And that's not
Speaker 1: what missions looks like all the time. But there are
Speaker 1: moments in your life where God brings you to a
Speaker 1: place that is uncomfortable. And in that moment, you better
Speaker 1: make the decision. Only you can make it. Will I
Speaker 1: be a living sacrifice? Will I suffer the uncomfortableness in
Speaker 1: order for God to do the thing inside of me
Speaker 1: that I so desperately want him to do? It's going
Speaker 1: to be uncomfortable, but you have to say yes to God.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that looks like going to your neighbor and telling
Speaker 1: them about Jesus. Sometimes that looks like helping people that
Speaker 1: you don't really like very much. Sometimes that's praying for
Speaker 1: a political party that you don't like. Sometimes that's giving
Speaker 1: money that you didn't want to give or you didn't
Speaker 1: think you have. Do you trust God with every facet
Speaker 1: of your life? And I'll just tell you on this adventure,
Speaker 1: if you want to call it that, This beautiful chaos
Speaker 1: that can be following Jesus that often looks like a
Speaker 1: car crash but ends up beautiful. That's what pastoring is.
Speaker 1: It really is. It's wild. It's the most incredible thing.
Speaker 1: Our life can be simultaneously amazing and terrible all at
Speaker 1: the same time. I'll never forget having Sundays where it
Speaker 1: was like the most attended Sunday we'd ever have. And
Speaker 1: then three people came to me after church and said,
Speaker 1: we're leaving the church. And I'm like, really? Really? Submit
Speaker 1: to the process. Do not be conformed to this world.
Speaker 1: The world is shaping you or God is shaping you.
Speaker 1: It's only one or the other. There is no third option.
Speaker 1: It's it. You choose. That's why the Bible says, choose
Speaker 1: this day who you shall serve. Who are you serving?
Speaker 1: What are you serving? You find it on the altar. Father,
Speaker 1: I pray for my friends. Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1: that we have to change, to grow, to be who
Speaker 1: you've called us to be. God, I pray for those
Speaker 1: that are here that have just, they already know the
Speaker 1: thing that they need to let go. Maybe some that
Speaker 1: have been struggling with an addiction and they want to
Speaker 1: be free. that they just haven't been able to wrap
Speaker 1: around that to activate their will. God, I pray that
Speaker 1: your Holy Spirit would come into their life right now,
Speaker 1: that bring the freedom they so desperately desire and need. God,
Speaker 1: for those of our finances that you've called them to
Speaker 1: give a gift that is just doesn't make sense to them, God,
Speaker 1: that you would show them, that you would reveal to
Speaker 1: them how to live by faith in that area, God,
Speaker 1: for marriages that I know right now that may be
Speaker 1: on the verge and they're just having, going through a
Speaker 1: rough time, God, that we would put individually ourselves on
Speaker 1: the altar, that you would show us where we can
Speaker 1: serve our spouse better, how we can serve our kids better. God,
Speaker 1: I just pray that your peace that passes all understanding
Speaker 1: would rest and rule on their hearts right now, even
Speaker 1: in this moment, in Jesus' name. Amen.