Even More Practical Faith Living

1 (2s): Good morning. Welcome to church. Will you stand as we worship this morning, it's good to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Would you raise your faith? Would you lift your voice as be safe? we thank you for your presence. 2 (4m 24s): All right. Hey church. How's it going this morning? All right. Awesome. Awesome. That's great to see all, all of your faces here. Love you guys, and just got a couple of announcements for ya. My name's Curtis, by the way, so glad to have you here. If you need anything at all, the info center is the spot for you. So it's just up the driveway. Go check that out. If you want to sign up for anything again, more connected. Otherwise we do have a quick parking update that next door we've had some parking issues with other businesses and stuff. So just know that if you're parking behind these businesses over here, you can only park in the something different or the Anderson Burton spots. 2 (5m 7s): All the other ones are our businesses are using the on Sunday mornings. And we just want to be conscious of that. In addition to that, we've got right now media, we subscribe to it as a church for each and every person who wants to, to watch the videos and grow in their faith and their amazing discipleship videos, or just learning platform for anything that you can imagine in our Christian walk. So if you'd like to get connected with that, you can sign up on our website, just fill out a connect form and give us your email and just let us know that you want to sign up for that. Or you can stop by the info center. So with that, let's pray and we'll get back into worship. 2 (5m 47s): Jesus. We love you. We're so grateful for the opportunity to worship you this morning. We just pray that that your holy spirit would penetrate each heart. That's here in any building and every space that the people of the Lord are captured on this campus. Jesus, we just pray that that your word would penetrate through bone and marrow and Jesus that we would just focus on you wholeheartedly this morning. So God, we love you so much and we love worshiping you Jesus' name. Amen. 0 (6m 29s): The word . Now what a beautiful name. 0 (7m 16s): nothing. 0 (8m 12s): with my 4 (15m 32s): Lord. Thank you. 0 (15m 34s): God, 4 (15m 39s): God, that our praise would be fit for a king in Jesus name, God that our lives, The content of our lives, God, that there would be fit for a king Lord, that there would be God that our lives would speak of our adoration. Speak of our Love for you and our commitment to you. God, that we would be anxious To fall in line with your plans and purposes for our lives. 4 (16m 21s): Lord God, to say yes to you, Lord God that we'd be hungry For your will and for your word, Lord God, that we would, that we would long for your presence. God, not just on Sunday morning and when we gathered corporately, but God that we would long for your presence every day, Lord, every moment of the day, God, that we'd pray without ceasing Constantly in your presence Constantly checked in with you and looking for your leadership and your wisdom and your counsel. God, that would be we'd be filled with the peace of God and the joy of God that we'd be hungry, hungry for the things of God. 4 (17m 8s): So Lord, as we gathered today, We thank you Lord, that we have this freedom and this opportunity and this privilege to gather as the church and Lord for everybody gathered here on this campus or for those watching online Lord, I pray that you would reveal yourself and just tangible and powerful and profound ways. Lord God, for those who have been distant from you, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them, your plans, your purpose, your grace, your love, Lord God, that we're where we need to be challenged in our souls and our lives. 4 (17m 50s): Lord, we just avail ourselves to you. God, we say convict challenge, speak, teach lead guide, Phyllis, Lord God, to overflowing. I got to help our lives or every part of us Lord, to just align with your plans and purposes. God. So do you do something supernatural in us that maybe, maybe we've been trying to break get breakthrough in the natural in the flesh. Maybe we've been trying to get a victory over addictions or a bitch will sins. Lord, I pray God that supernatural, you would just do a work Lord God. And that the desire for those things would just be gone because of the work that you're doing in us. 4 (18m 37s): And because of the love that we have for you, God, that love would overshadow and make our love for those other things seem like hatred that we, we, we would just love you so much that those things would seem like what? How could we ever be distracted by those things, Lord God. So Lord do what you want to do today. Lord, I'm convinced that you're up to something good and powerful. And so your will be done. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Greet somebody. We'll come on back in a minute. 0 (20m 32s): Jesus Cruz. 4 (21m 60s): Alrighty, come on back. Let me fix this really quick. Something happened there. Thank you. Oh, welcome. How is everyone doing? Good. Good. I've got to figure out what to do with this bottle here. I need like a little cup holder or something, I guess. Ah, man, it's been a, it's been a good week. I had most of the last like week off or so. And man, it was really, really refreshing in some ways, in some ways it was just a challenge, but we're getting ready to go on this. 4 (22m 44s): I don't know why I want to talk about this backpacking trip, but we're getting ready to my son and my son-in-law. We're getting ready to go on this backpacking trip. And so I spent most of the day yesterday kind of getting my backpack ready to go for my birthday in April. I got this really light backpack. Remember the first time we went backpacking, I carried like 50 pounds. I'm like, this is net you can't backpack with. I mean, I can I, so the next time it was down to like 40 pounds and then 35 and yesterday I packed everything in there except some water and a couple other little things. And I'm at 20, just under 25 pounds. So I'm getting, getting there and it got me thinking about life a little bit and just wondering, what are we packing around? 4 (23m 26s): You know, how much do we pack around in our lives? It just kind of weigh us down and wear us out and make really the journey. So, so much more difficult because we're just loaded down with stuff. And I feel like, I feel like in our culture, we're loaded down with all kinds of stuff, just culturally speaking. And then life, life is challenging for so many people. Life is glorious for others and, but there's just, there's just heaviness that we carry. So my prayer for us as a church is that we would leave all of those heavy, heavy burdens just at the foot of the cross, know that we would just offload those things. 4 (24m 16s): And the, the result of that is just a greater capacity to, to, to do what God has asked us to do. It's it's a greater joy. I don't know when you're, when you're carrying around all this stuff, it's hard to have the joy of the Lord and the peace of God. You just feel this burden all of the time. So my prayer is that we would live in such a way that we would recognize when we're starting to get weighed down and burdened down and just get that stuff dealt with, confess the sin, whatever it is, deal with that heaviness that burden the enemy is always trying to heap condemnation on us. 4 (24m 59s): I woke up a couple of days ago what's today, Sunday. So I woke up on Friday and I was just feeling kind of out of sorts with the Lord. I said, Lord, I didn't, it took me like 24 hours to figure out to, to pray, you know, cause I'm just trying to figure it out, you know? And, and then sad, I think it was yesterday, maybe it was Thursday or Friday. I don't know whenever it was, but I I'm like Lord, I finally just awaken to the reality that God is, God, God can do something about this. You know, sometimes we live our lives and we forget that actually God's got the power to lift burdens and speak clarity and give us victory over things. And so I said, Lord, I don't know what I'm sensing. 4 (25m 41s): I'm trying to figure it out. If I've, you know, whatever I said, Lord, if this is from you, then show me if it's not, then just let it get away. You know, just, I rebuke it in Jesus' name and just immediately was gone. And I don't know how many times I've done that throughout the course of my life, but it's enough. And I was surprised that it took me like 24 hours to figure out, Hey, I just need to go to the Lord with this. So encouragement to you, to us, to always just, just be going to the Lord, praying without ceasing and just watch it with the Lord will do. We're talking about practical faith living today. 4 (26m 21s): The, the faith life is, is supernatural, but it's also very practical and we do the practical things that God calls us to do as he empowers us supernaturally through his word and through his spirit. And we actually can't do the practical things that he called us to do without the power of God at work in our lives. We just can't do it. We can muster it for a day or a moment, but we can't do it regularly and throughout the course of our lives. So that those practical faith things that we're talking about, mark our life and we're identified, we've known, we're known for those things. We can't muster it. And really why would we want to win the power of God to give us the grace to do what he's asked us to do is so present and available to us. 4 (27m 11s): We just have this power that is supernatural and wonderful. So we've talked and as we kind of looked at Hebrews chapter 13 and week one, practical faith living, we talked about loving each other and more specifically loving strangers, loving the forgotten, loving our spouse. And in all of that, we said, love all of these things, but don't love. Don't love money. Don't love money. Don't live in fear and, and then love your leaders was the seventh point there. And then week two, two weeks ago, more practical faith living. We said, keep focused on the changeless perfection of Jesus. 4 (27m 55s): And we said, live boldly and be willing to look the fool for Jesus. And then number three, we said, demonstrate faithful allegiance to Jesus. And this week as we look at the end of Hebrews chapter 13, and I know Ron preached the end of the same passage last week, but I, as I was trying to figure out where to go, I was going to be going into James. And I just kind of felt drawn back to Hebrews chapter 13, to wrap it up. He, Ron did a phenomenal job. I think he talked about me way too much last week, but, but he did a phenomenal job teaching through the last part of Hebrews chapter 13. And I was super honored by the way he taught that and what he communicated. 4 (28m 39s): But I, I want to go back and just kind of relook at it, not to correct anything that he said, but just to look at it from a different angle. So this will be Hebrews chapter 13, verses 17 through 25. Again, I promise you, Ron did a better job than I will ever do with this passage, but I'm going to give him my best shot here. So this week, even more practical faith living and we see in Ron talked about spiritual leaders last week, but number one, support your spiritual leaders. And so Ron talked about me a lot last week and I'm so blessed and honored that he did. And I was embarrassed as I was watching it at home, the first service last week. And Ron and I had been working together for 14 years and we've known each other for longer than that. 4 (29m 23s): And for him to say what he said was very, very, very humbling. And I appreciate it. So we'll talk about supporting your spiritual leaders today. What does that look like as we get into Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17, the word says this obey Hebrews 13, 17, the first part there says obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say again. So Ron said is probably more appropriate for him to speak that truth. And for me to speak that truth, but I want to broaden that a little bit and broaden the, the thought of spiritual leadership. Just just a little bit, but, but first of all, Hebrews 13, 17, obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. 4 (30m 8s): Why, why does the writer of Hebrews challenges readers to do this while their work, the verse says is to your spiritual leaders, their work is to watch over your souls. And they are accountable to God who as a big deal, right? I mean like our work as spiritual leaders is to watch over your souls and we are accountable to God. So who, who is the spiritual leader? Well, obviously pastors and elders, they're spiritual leaders, but beyond pastors and elders, we have other spiritual leaders in our lives. 4 (30m 59s): I, I didn't have this in my notes until this morning, but I like to read Ephesians five 15 through 33 because it broadens for us. This thought about spiritual leaders. I think the most, probably some of the most important spiritual leadership is, is in the home. We relegate spiritual leadership to people who are in spiritual leadership at church and that sort of thing. And that's all very good and appropriate, but, but the best opportunity to be spiritual leaders that we have is with our family, with our kids and with our grandkids. 4 (31m 40s): And so Hebrews chapter or Ephesians chapter five talks about the responsibility of especially dads, fathers, dads have a significant and, and a much more, much more opportunity than like pastors or elders. Cause you guys, you live with your kids. For those of you who have young kids. And for those of you have older kids, you, you have lifelong access. Like I've had lots of pastors in my life and I've got relationships with most of them still, but they don't speak into my life like they once did. But as a dad with my four kids, I ever raised four kids, two are, men are in the thirties already. 4 (32m 25s): So, and then I got grandkids. So my spiritual responsibility as a father continues and will continue all the days of my life. We've got that spiritual responsibility. And so it starts when the kids are young, but it continues. And so I, I just want to challenge us with Ephesians chapter five, verses 15 through 33. I'm just gonna read about half the chapter and it's not on the screen cause I just added it this morning, but I think it's pertinent. I think it's important. I think it's powerful for, for, for our understanding that we, that we hear this and that we apply it to our lives. 4 (33m 6s): It's just so it says, so be careful how you live. We could preach a whole sermon series on that one little line, be, be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. So don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life instead, be filled with the holy spirit, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your hearts, that powerful making music to the Lord in your hearts. 4 (34m 1s): So there's something very personal and internal. It, it's not just about what comes out of our mouth, but it's about what comes out of our hearts. We, we have this responsibility to worship the Lord from our heart and that's from a place of sincerity and honesty. And it's, it's, it's really the deepest place in our lives. And this is the place that we're meant to worship the Lord from and give thanks for everything to God, the father in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And then we get into verse 21. 4 (34m 41s): It says and further submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. What does this mean? Husbands and wives for wives. This means submit to your husbands as to the Lord for a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He's the savior of his body. The church has the church submits to Christ. So you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. So that's a heavy statement for men, for husbands and for wives for husbands be because you've got to live. We, we have to live in such a way that we have the ability to lead spiritually in our homes. 4 (35m 22s): I mean, this is what Paul is telling us as men, that we are the spiritual leaders of our homes. And that, that means we as men are going to stand before the Lord and give an account to God, the way that we've spiritually led in our homes. So how, how are we doing in that regard? Now I know there are women here who don't have husbands who are men of God and, and the scripture teach, teach, you know, speaks to that. And in some cases, women, by default, they just have to be the spiritual leader because that's just the way it is. 4 (36m 5s): But man, we have this profound responsibility to be leading. And so that's a 24 7 responsibility that we will give an account to God for. We will stand before God and we will give an account for our lives. And he will look at how we've led in our homes spiritually. We, he will examine our lives and look at how we've been leading in our homes spiritually. So for husbands, what does spiritual leadership look like? 4 (36m 46s): This means love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church, without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead she will be holy and without fault in the same way. Husbands ought to love their wives. As they love their own bodies for a man who loves his wife, actually shows love for himself. And no one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it just as Christ cares for the church. 4 (37m 28s): And we are members of his body. So a woman submitting to her husband actually is it won't be difficult when the man, when the man is loving his wife, as Christ loved the church, just the way it works. God, God has put it in the hearts of men and women to live in this way. And so man, if you're loving your wife, as Christ loved the church and serving her as Christ, serve the church and giving yourself to her as Christ gave himself to the church, your wives will have no problems submitting to you by and large. 4 (38m 13s): I mean, there's always a, you know, exceptions to the rule, but we, we have this profound opportunity to lead. I th I think about past generations, I've thought about this a lot lately, the, the impact of past generations, we are, we were watching a show last night about this ranch family. They've I don't know why this speaks to me. So, so, so much so impactfully. So, but so eight generations ago, this land was deeded or given to this family. 4 (38m 53s): Eight generations go thousands and thousands of acres in long poke in the Lompoc valley there. And eight generations later, they're still working the land and still do so. My point is that something happened generations ago. That's still blessing the families today. So I think about our opportunity and responsibility as men, men of God, to impact future generations, by the way that we live our lives today, we often think in, in terms of the here and now, but when we think about 50 years from now, if we, if we think about 10 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 years from now, a hundred years from now, how will our impact in this earth impact our family for generations to come? 4 (39m 44s): I pray almost every day that every future generation that that's coming out of me will, will serve Jesus every future. So like until Jesus returns like every future generation. And so we have this opportunity to invest in the future generations. This is more important than your job guys. It's more important than your hobbies. You're going to be on your death bed one day and you're not gonna, you're not gonna have regrets about anything other than your family. If you don't get that right, you're not going to say, oh, I wish I would have played more golf. And you've heard this before. I'm I wish I would've gotten more trips when we're on our deathbed guys, we're gonna think back missed opportunities. 4 (40m 32s): Did I take advantage of every opportunity? You, you are spiritual leaders and this is your first and foremost priority. So you can drop your kids off to Sunday school and we will do our best to partner with you. You can drop your kids off to fifth and sixth grade, high, high junior high high school. You can do it, but if you are not taking this serious responsibility of discipling your kids, there's nothing. There's not much we can do as a church. Our job is to help reinforce and partner with you to disciple the next generation. We're doing our best to make that happen, but we need to reevaluate everything. And this goes for women too. 4 (41m 12s): We met wives. We, you have a profound opportunity to disciple the next degeneration of kids and boys and girls that are coming up in your home. I, I, I don't think we talk about this enough. We get so busy in our culture. We're, we're busy taking our kids to soccer and baseball, all of these extracurricular activities. And we're barely, barely investing in them spiritually, maybe praying before meals, but are we really speaking life and truth and grace into our kids? Are we, are we like communicating hard and good trues with our kids? 4 (41m 53s): We, if we don't do it, they won't get it. And so we have this profound. So when we talk about spiritual leadership, it doesn't just fall on my shoulders. Thank God for that. It falls on all of our shoulders. And if we're not, if we're not even just talking about our kids, we're talking about other people who see us as spiritual leaders, people that are in our Bible study groups, people that are in our neighborhoods, we all have spiritual leadership responsibilities because we're all called to go and make disciples of all nations. We're all called to go and make disciples. 4 (42m 35s): Meaning we go and it's our responsibility to exercise with grace, our spiritual leadership and people's lives. And we will stand before the Lord and we will have to give an account for the way we've spent our time. What does I talked two weeks ago about our allegiance? What do we, what are we by our lives demonstrating our allegiance to, is it to the culture? To I, we could fill in the blank with a thousand distractions, A thousand distractions that are keeping us from doing the one thing that Jesus told us to do to go make disciples of all nations. 4 (43m 20s): So this begins with our kids and it continues with our grandkids and our great-grandkids. And the job is never ends until we stop breathing. Brisbane's this means, love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish and said she will be holy and without fault in the same way, husbands ought to love their wives. 4 (44m 4s): As they love their own bodies for a man who loves his wife, actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body, but feeds and cares for it just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body as the scripture, Sabres 31, a man leaves his father and mother, and is joined to his wife. And the two are United into one. This is a great mystery, but it's an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again, I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself. And the wife must respect her husband. 6 (44m 41s): Hm. 4 (44m 45s): Spiritual leadership falls on all of us. So what are we doing as spiritual leaders to make sure that those following our leadership are getting a good example and seeing what they need to see are, are we modeling for them integrity in the way that we speak and the way that we live and the way that we respond to God and act in response to his word, we just have to examine our lives because God will examine our lives. 4 (45m 26s): When it's all said and done our lives will be examined. God's keeping record. He's keeping everything is Before the Lord. How do we support our spiritual leaders by, by obeying them? We are to bear spiritual leaders according to scripture. What w how, what does that even look like? So as a spiritual leader, 6 (45m 55s): If, 4 (45m 56s): If your spiritual leader is telling you something that isn't aligned with the word of God, then you should obey your spiritual leader. If your spiritual leader is telling you to do something, that's contrary to the word of God, you're off the hook, because our first allegiance is to God. God's given us his word as an outline, a plan for life. And so our first allegiance is to God and God's put spiritual leaders in our lives to help us navigate life. And so we're to walk in obedience before our spiritual leader. So you, you have actually the responsibility to discern and to be knowledgeable of the word of God, so that when you're hearing something from me or from other, another spiritual leader, you say, was this aligned with the word, but it doesn't align with the word you're off the hook, but if it aligns with the word, then your responsibility is obedience. 4 (46m 54s): Just like my responsibility to my spiritual leaders is obedience. I've got elders in the church who are my spiritual authority. And if I come with the great idea that I think is a great idea, and they say, no, then we just abandon it. We There's there, there has to be authority in all of our lives. Men especially need that kind of authority, spiritual authority, cause we can become, and women, we all need that spiritual authority, people that were Hearing from and learning from and growing as a result of the apostle Peter under the inspiration of the holy spirit, wrote some words of wisdom for church elders. 4 (47m 41s): So now it's moved back to pastors and elders and because it helps us as spiritual leaders to understand that kind of our role and our responsibility. First Peter five, one through five says, and now a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, I too am an elder and I witness and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I too will share in the glory when he is revealed to the whole world as a fellow elder, I appeal to you care for the flock that God has entrusted to you care for the flock. So you imagine cheap. We were in, we'd been in Israel a couple of times and we see there are still shepherds in the fields watching over their flocks. 4 (48m 24s): And that's just their job. Their job is to live and to watch over and to care for their flocks, protecting them from bad water that they might drink from predators that might try to eat them from bad food, bad scenarios, dangerous situations. So our responsibility as spiritual leaders is to care for the flock care for the flock that God has entrusted to you watch over it willingly, not grudgingly, not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God, don't Lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. And when the great shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never ending glory and honor in the same way you younger men must accept the authority of the elders and all of you serve each other in humility for God, opposes the proud, but favors the humble. 4 (49m 16s): So place a spiritual authority is never about hierarchy. It's never about lording over. It's never about any of that stuff. It's about tender care with humility, recognizing our responsibility, doing what God has called us to do with the power of God and the spirit of God and the grace of God. So that people under our leadership don't have any problem obeying what we're asking them to do. So supports your spiritual leaders through obedience, Hebrews 13, 17 B again, their work is to watch over your souls and they are accountable to God support your spiritual leaders through obedience, but also be gracious to them. 4 (50m 6s): Hebrews 13, 17, the third part says, give them a reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That was certainly not be for your benefit. So that just simply means as we're under spiritual authority or spiritual leadership, we just need to be humble and teachable. And as spiritual leaders, we need to be humble and teachable, and we'll never get people to be humble and teachable. And unless we're humble and teachable, we do people will model or will live their lives and follow our example. So we have to be humble and teachable as we submit to authority. 4 (50m 51s): And then how else can we support our spiritual leaders? We can pray for them. Hebrews 1318 says, pray for us. Pray for us. For our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do. And especially pray that I will be able to come back to you soon. So you can hear the, the heart of the writer to the Hebrews. He, he needs prayer. He's acknowledging his need for prayer. So he's being humble and he wants to be back with people. Why? Because it's his responsibility to care for the flock. And so he wants to be with them. So pray that your spiritual leaders stay spiritually strong, pray for your spiritual leaders, protection, pray, pray that God protects them. 4 (51m 35s): I, I pray all the time that people are praying for me. And I asked you all of the time to pray for me. Pray, pray, pray. It's a, it's a job, right? Pray that your spiritual leaders stay spiritually strong and pray for God's protection over them and pray that they would have God's wisdom for leading. I was been reading in the old Testament and been in first Kings and Solomon prayed for wisdom to lead the people of Israel. He said, man, who, who am I demonstrating his humility? He found that humility and saw that humility and his father, David David was a humble man is a Solomon saw that and emulated that he said, who am I? 4 (52m 24s): And God gave him the wisdom that he needed so desperately. And you see throughout the course of Solomon's life, for the most part, he, he was a godly man, stumbled, but godly in his approach to his leadership, pray that we'd be healthy and humble and kind and tenderhearted filled with the joy of the Lord. Faith filled and obedient to the Lord. These are all things that you can pray for your spiritual leaders. So support your spiritual leaders. Number one, number two, even more practical faith living allow God to equip you. So all of these things that we're talking about require that God equipped us. 4 (53m 6s): First of all, with the desire. First of all, maybe before that the knowledge that we have a responsibility, maybe you're here today. And for the first time, you're really waking up to the reality that you've got a spiritual responsibility as a spiritual leader in somebody's life, your kids, your coworkers, your employees, your family, yeah. You have a spiritual responsibility and this can start really at any age. It doesn't have to start when you're 25 or 35 or 50, you, you carry a mantle of spiritual leadership when you're just walking humbly before the Lord. 4 (53m 52s): And it starts you, you can actually see it on people's lives when they carry that, that mantle, that spiritual authority, that, that mantle of authority. And so whatever your age is, you're not too young. You're just not C and you're not too old. So just begin to walk in that, begin to be that man, that woman, that God has created you to be, because we're all called to go make disciples of all nations. So allow God to equip you say, I'm not prepared for what you're asking me to do. Well, none of us are prepared ever until God equips us. 4 (54m 36s): And then by his grace, he gives us the boldness and the, the ability to do what he's asked us to do. But there's an equipping process. Our whole life is about equipping growing. Tell my leaders around us at the staff level all the time. I say, guys, we're never done growing. And if we're, if we're done growing, we just need to get out of the ministry because we're just going to get set and we're not going to be all that effective. We've got to constantly be growing in grace, growing in truth, learning how to love people, learning to obey God, learning, how to lead people with tenderness and, and, and passion and conviction. So it's, it's a, it's a learning it's it's. 4 (55m 20s): I was reading in first Kings this morning and I, I was late to church because I, I just was, I was, I didn't want to stop reading Kings because I'm learning from what Solomon was doing as the second king of the people of Israel. And I, I just think this is what God has called us to do. Equip, allow God to equip you. So we see the benediction here in Hebrews 13, 20 and 21. And now may the God of peace who brought up from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep and ratified in eternal covenant with his blood. 4 (56m 1s): May he equip you with all you need? And so we read all through Hebrews and really the scriptures of the old and the new Testament. And we see that God equips people to do the work that he calls them to do. What is the equipping as for the verse goes on for doing his will, he's equipping us for doing his will because his will is above and more important than any other agenda, or will your, will your agenda it's it needs to be submitted to God's will and his agenda. So God equips us to do his will and we're to live our lives, perpetually doing the will of God perpetually you don't get a vacation from it because it's just something that God has perpetually doing in us. 4 (56m 54s): And through us, it's just, it becomes a lifestyle. So Christianity, isn't some appendage that we attach to ourselves. Some thing that we do on the weekend or something that we do part it's, it's an all-consuming born again. Life changing life altering forever. Never. You'll never be the same. So allow God to equip you for doing as well. Once while Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, what, what would you do if you suddenly learn? What would you do if you suddenly learned that you were to die at sunset today? 4 (57m 38s): Hmm. He replied, I w I would finish hoeing my garden. Why would he say that? I mean, doesn't, he have things to do like important things to do. I think Francis of Assisi was able to say that because he'd been busy doing all of the important things. He'd been busy as whole life doing all of the important things. So if I die at sunset, I'm going to hoe get this part done. Cause I reading into it a little bit. I no regrets. I, if the news that you were going to die today at sunset, radically changed the way you thought or acted, then there's some things that need to be changed right now. 4 (58m 29s): Often we're S we will say, ah, I want to wait until I get out of high school or no, I'm going to wait until I get out of college to do what God wants me to do. Cause you know, I want to play. I'll wait till I have kids before I kind of get serious about the Lord, because then, you know, I got some responsibilities there. And then, you know, one excuse leads to another, excuse, leads to decades of lost opportunities. Instead We can right where we are right in the here and now begin to do what God has asked us to do, allowing God to equip us to do his will. 4 (59m 9s): So what is his will for your life? Are you going to wait until tomorrow? Because if you're going to wait until tomorrow to do his will for your life, you're probably going to put it off longer than just tomorrow. I'd probably wait until next week. Next year, we're half about halfway, the year 2020 to mid may. We're halfway through another year of our lives. I've been doing this long enough. I know that there are some in the room who won't make it till the end of the year. He just won't. Some will be dead because that is the journey of life. We it's appointed once for man to die. And then the judgment. 4 (59m 50s): And so somebody in this room will be dead. Maybe many will be dead. I don't know. Maybe I'll be dead. I don't want to die. Nobody wants to die, But you're going to die and I'm going to die. So are you ready to die? I mean, I want to go be with Jesus, right? I, But I, 6 (1h 0m 23s): I 4 (1h 0m 24s): Want to do what God's work is for me here and now. So if you knew that at sunset, you were going to be dead. What would you do differently? And why not just do that anyway? Is there somebody that you need to make amends with? Well, why not just go make amends with that person? Is there a step of obedience that you need to take? Why not? Why not just do that? You're gonna be dead soon, physically dead soon. You will. 4 (1h 1m 6s): You're going to be dead soon. What do you want? What in the world are we waiting for? We're going to wait for Retirement. Are we going to wait till what? What's, what w what is the excuse that you're using right now? And why not just eliminate that to do what God has called you to do, you know, this time next year, another year will have gone by and how will your life be different? Why not make a different right now? I mean, what's the harm and just saying, I'm doing this now, and then just stepping into it. 4 (1h 1m 47s): And maybe you're, maybe you're afraid to you. You sh you shouldn't be afraid to do anything that God calls you to do without his equipping. You should be afraid because you're not. You're up to your eyeballs in that's good. It's a good place to be, to be up to your eyeballs in your unpreparedness, because God will prepare you to do what he's called you to do Love your neighbor, serve God, making, manage, share the gospel. What do you need to do? God's desires to equip you for, to please him. Hebrews 13, 21 continues. May he produce in you through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that pleases that is pleasing to him, that's not, that's not really interested in your agenda besides that while he's not interested in your agenda or my agenda, because his agenda is just better. 4 (1h 2m 44s): It's like when your kid says, you have like, you know, whatever, you're like, you know, I've got a better plan for you than that, right? But we've got this limited, the kid perspective. What pleases God, well, first Timothy two says, praying for others, pleases God for some of the five taking care of elderly parents, pleases God for speed or for suffering. Sometimes pleases God. If you're suffering for the right reasons, God desires to equip you to glorify him. Verse 21 continues all glory to him forever and ever. 4 (1h 3m 26s): Amen. This is what, this is what Christianity is all about doing his will for his glory period, doing his will for his glory period. If you're not willing to do his will for his glory period, you've gotten into the wrong faith. Leave Christianity, because you're not actually living proper Christianity. And that's not meant to be critical. It's just a statement of fact, if your life isn't meant for doing his will for his glory, then you've, you've totally missed it. When Jesus called the disciples, he said, come follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. Like leave everything and follow me, leave it and follow me. 4 (1h 4m 10s): I don't know what that means in your life, but there's some things that probably need to be left so that you can follow him. Practical faith, living number three, pay attention to God's written instruction. Hebrews 1322. I urge you dear brothers and sisters. You pay attention to what I've written in this brief exportation. So the writer of Hebrews is referencing all of Hebrews and on a larger scale, he's referencing all of God's word, the scriptures of the old and the new new Testament. So paying attention means actually doing, I mean like you can hear, we can hear all day long, but we're not doing, we're not actually paying attention. 4 (1h 4m 58s): We need to be doing what is written and following the instruction. The word of God has written so that it's like, it's like a mirror held up to our face and the fool reads it and walks away from it. And there's no change and no transformation. Verse 23. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released from jail. Why is he in jail? Doing the will of the Lord for the glory of God and suffering, being willing to suffer. If he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you greet all your leaders and all the believers there. 4 (1h 5m 43s): The believers from Italy send you their greetings. May God's grace be with you all. Let's go ahead and stand up and invite the team forward. What I don't want to happen today is I don't want us to leave and do nothing. That would be a tragedy. 4 (1h 6m 26s): That would be a tragedy Lord. I pray that we would do and live God. The very breath of our being would be to do your will. And to glorify you, God, that we would be saturated in that desire. And as a result, Lord, I just know that we'll be transformed. And the things of this world will begin to fade and pale in comparison to doing your will for your glory. 4 (1h 7m 10s): Lord, God, wake us up, wake me up, wake us, Lord, God, God. We've got to people all around us culture, all around us. You who don't know you, Lord, I pray that we would start helping people to know you, that we use our spiritual gifts for the edification of the body of Christ. Lord God. So that people might be encouraged to, to know you and to, to walk with you, Lord, I don't know what you want to do, Lauren, but I know that if we will avail ourselves to you every day and every moment of the day that we would pray without ceasing, that we would stay in the spirits and listen that you will direct our steps. 4 (1h 7m 60s): You will cause us to pray for our enemies and love those who have been hard to love. You'll give us a hunger for the souls of people and a desire to minister it'll. It'll come out of the overflow of our lives. Lord God, thank you, Lauren. We are spiritual leaders to someone pray that we'd be spiritual leaders. The way that you've called us to be spiritual leaders. Lord, thank you for your grace Lord. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. You can leave it up. There is. 0 (1h 9m 2s): How has I've got a one with my aunts. 0 (1h 10m 24s): 1 (1h 13m 20s): Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. That we are here. Singing holiday. Thank you that we are here listening to your word. God, we want to go deeper. We want to grow in faith. We want to grow in our, in our spiritual walks with you. So we worship you. We give you things, you deserve all of our gratitude. You deserve all of our worship, all of our moments, all of the minutes in our days. So we surrender again. 1 (1h 13m 60s): We reminded of the cross. We are reminded after your salvage of salvation, God, your death and resurrection. We love you. Jesus is in your name. We pray. Amen.