God's Call and Promise

0 (11s): Okay. I sing praises to your praises to your name that so much. Hi. Oh, . 0 (9m 38s): Thank you for your presence here this morning. Thank you for the joy in our hearts is welcoming you to come into move, to speak. This, make a life to refresh our souls latest beside those still waters. Thank you for mercies that are new today, your grace follows us coming out of your way in our hearts and our lives. 0 (10m 25s): We welcome you. We were all one Sloss, but now we're all found. And so we thank you, Lord reskilling, your amazing, amazing grace. We sing amazing grace together. Amazing how soon we see end first. 0 (14m 57s): One more time. 1 (15m 42s): Lord God, we come before you. Now we thank you for that amazing grace for it. Wasn't for your grace Lord, we would not be here. We would be nothing but the objects of your wrath. God, you pour out your grace abundantly upon us to bring us to faith in you and to sustain us from day to day, you pour out your grace in general, Lord God, over the whole world, you rain on the just, and the unjust we come our way. Thank you for that. Amazing, amazing grace. The penalty paid by Jesus that we might walk in freedom. 1 (16m 26s): Our chains gone and being, being set free. Thank you God that we can enter into your presence. We can boldly approach the throne of grace. We can come before you, Lord God, as your dearly, dearly beloved children. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. And amen. Take two minutes. Steve gave you a five. I only get to preach once in a while. So you get the whole load today. 1 (17m 7s): So you only get two minutes to greet each other. So All right. 1 (18m 42s): Let's let's bring it back in. We're glad you're here this morning. If you're with us here in the sanctuary on the patio and the loft, or if you're watching us online, we, we really appreciate that you're with us today. I am Dave . I'm associate pastor here and pastor Steve and Jolene are taking some well-deserved time off. And so just kicking back and enjoying on this holiday weekend. Can you believe it's Memorial day boy, it comes around in a hurry, comes around in a hurry this morning, I'm going to be continuing with the theme of faith that Steve has been on. 1 (19m 26s): He's been preaching through Hebrews 11. I'm jumping back into the old Testament this morning and the prophet had guy and we're going to be looking at what God is speaking to the people of Israel. And I think it's a word for us for today. It's so easy folks to, to look at some of the things that have happened in the past. As you read scripture, as you are going through the word and, and you, you look at it as simply as a historical event, but you know, God is still speaking to us through those historical events and those words are still applicable to us today. 1 (20m 8s): So we want to look at what the prophet has to say here. Hey guy was a prophet during the time of the return to the promised land after the Babylonian captivity. And he and the Zechariah were the ones who were prophesying when the people had come back into the land and they're starting to get settled. And, and so here we're, we're picking up in our, in our story here about where the people are back there, settled in. They, they came and they, they kinda got things cleared a little bit, but they also got established. You know, we got to got to get there and you gotta start your farm, or you got to take over and get that vineyard cleaned out. 1 (20m 52s): So you can start producing again, those orchards, whatever it is that you're doing, we've got to get our sheep together, figure out what all this stuff clears some areas. So they've got placed to graze. It's not just, you know, living among the rubble and that sort of thing. And, and we got to have a place to live. And so we got to hear them, got to build their houses, and we've got to do all this kind of thing. And that this is what's been going on now for years and God sends the prophet to them. And he says, you know, you need to, if you notice how, when you, when you, you go, you scatter your seed. And when it comes harvest, you're expecting a lot. And there's only a little and you notice how there's blight and mildew and how your, your crops get knocked down by the weather. 1 (21m 40s): How you go to gather up the wine and there's not near as much as what you thought there was going to be. Yeah, you need to get busy about the business of God. You need to get busy about the, the kingdom of God and not just living your life, not just, not just go on around your day-to-day routine and everything and forgetting to build what I've called you to build. So he does that. The people obey and they start the process and then God comes back and he speaks to them a second time. 1 (22m 21s): And so we're going to pick up there in chapter two of hat guy, the first nine verses, here's the word of the Lord in the seventh month on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet speak now to Zerubbabel son of Sheltie, Al governor of Judah and to Joshua son of Jozadak the high priest and to all the remnant of the people and say, who is left among you? Who saw this house in its former glory? They're starting to rebuild the temple. How do you see it now? Is it as nothing in your eyes yet? Now be strong as the rebel declares, the Lord be strong, oh, Josh have a Joshua son of Jehovah deck. 1 (23m 5s): The high priest be strong. All you people of the land declares, the Lord work for, I am with you declares the Lord of hosts. According to the covenant that I made with you. When you came out of Egypt, my spirit remains in your midst. Fear, not for thus says the Lord of hosts yet once more in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine. And the gold is mine declares. The Lord of hosts. 1 (23m 45s): The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace declares. The Lord of hosts. God, we thank you for your word. Pray God that you would anoint it to our hearts, that you would speak down deep into us. Lord, even into me as I deliver this, I pray God that you would speak through me, that you would speak to the hearts of these who are are here right now. Lord, I know sometimes you speak words that I don't say and that's okay, but speak Lord, because we need to feast upon your word. 1 (24m 36s): We need to be nourished by you. Send us forth, Lord God, full of your word, full of your spirit, full of your truth, full of your love that we might see this world transformed and let us walk in faith to the praise of your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So God, here we see God's call and then God's promise. We're going to be looking at those two aspects of, of this today. And God's calling to his people here. There's a threefold. All right, we've already talked about they're back there. 1 (25m 18s): Now there they've been back for a long time. God's on them and said, Hey, let's get about the business that you're supposed to be doing here. And they get started building the temple. And so he gives them a three-fold call as encouragement to get started. Be strong, do the work fear not, or as I like to put it from looking at it from the other direction, have faith be strong, fear not have faith. So the first part of this calling he gives is to be strong. He gives them the word that they can do this because he has enabled them. God has given them all that they need to, to do the work that's ahead of them. 1 (26m 3s): He's giving them, given them the abilities he's given them. The, the, the strength that is there for them. That's why he says be strong. It's there already be strong walk in it. Walk in the strength that I have given you be strong as a rebel declares, the Lord be strong. Oh, Joshua son of Jozadak the high priest be strong. All you people of the land declares. The Lord notice here. God is calling every level of Hebrew society. He's calling Zerubbabel Zerubbabel's Bellm. My secretary at my old church, grew up the church and said, when she was little, the pastor who was there was whenever you come to those, those names, you can't pronounce just say tea, kettle. 1 (26m 50s): And so what teakettle son of teakettle well, no, it was the Ruby bell was, was there. He was direct descendant in the line of David through David's son. Nathan, you read it. He's he's in the genealogy of Joseph. He is, if there had been no captivity, he is one who is eligible to be sitting on the throne of David. He is there and, and that was known. And that's why when Cyrus sent them back to the land, told them they could go back and rebuild the temple. He was made governor because he was really in line to be king. 1 (27m 33s): And then Joshua, he says, be strong. Oh, Joshua Joshua was the high priest directly from errands line. He was next in line at if the Solomon's temple was still there, he would have been the high priest. So he was given that authority. First thing they did when they got back as built the altar. So they could start the sacrificial system again, even before they had the temple in place, but they had this system that, and now they're working and he's saying be strong. And we see Zerubbabel as, as the governor, as, as the king figure, you know, in our, in our church, say we can compare that to our elders, Steve and Ron and Neil and Jim and Gary, they carry the mantle of the leadership in the church today. 1 (28m 27s): They carry the mantle of, of having to discern the will of God for our body. And it's, it's a mantle that God has given them, but it's also a great responsibility and it's easy to be overwhelmed when you're in that position. I know I've been there and it's it's really, as you, you are trying to discern the mind of Christ. That's it? That's it huge. Wait. So we say, it's not a burden it's, but it is a weight. And, and as you, you carry that weight, you need to be strong. 1 (29m 8s): So God is calling Zerubbabel to be strong as the governance in the land, Josh, the high priest, I kind of likened him to the rest of the staff at church work Joshua's that he ministered before God and, and to the people, you know, he's the, the man in between going to God, going to the people and the, and as they do this, that's the function of a priest to do that, to stand, be the intermarriage intermediary between God and man, while the, the elders kind of give direction. And we mediate that to the people. And then, you know, sometimes we hear stuff and we bring it to the elders and bring back and we tattle on you, we test, but we take good things. 1 (29m 56s): We say, Hey, this is what we're hearing. I don't know if you're hearing this, but just, we need to be in communication one with another. And we've, as we carry out the ministry, as we do all the functions of the things that are going on in the church, and then there's the call for all the people of the land. You to be strong, walk in the strength and the enablement that God has given you, as we move forward. As we, we, we carry out the business of the kingdom of God, as we work towards the goals that our God has given us, this is what we're called to do. 1 (30m 41s): See Israel had been living just a fairly routine life, not unlike us today. We got back and this includes, I mean, the high priest was going about his business. was the governor he's going about his administrative business. People are going about their business farming store, owners, market, all this stuff. There probably weren't any computer specialists then, but other than that, there was, you know, all the normal day-to-day stuff of life, it was going on. And as they're doing this, they're pursuing their business. 1 (31m 23s): They're taking care of their own things. They're watching over their own houses. They're putting themselves and their needs before anything else. And unintentionally, as a result before God, we don't ever mean to put stuff before God, as followers of Jesus, we, we know what it is to be removed from, from the carrying the burden of sin. We have the weight of the responsibility of a follower of Jesus. But, but we understand that God is on the throne. God is Lord of all, God has made a way, but yet we're still dealing with this. 1 (32m 3s): And it's so easy to get caught up in the routine. And God kind of gets shoved to the side. We put him in his God box, we get them out each morning. When we open up our Bibles and spend a few, few minutes in prayer and in the word, we get them out again and let them stay out longer on Sundays. But other than that, he goes back in the God box and we get busy with life. see it's such typical behavior because our flesh wants to rise up. We get ourselves the rhythm of the world and we go with the flow of life and we follow the path of limited, if not least resistance, because there's a lot of resistance out there. 1 (32m 55s): And we do what Israel said over in chapter one that God spoke to them and said, yeah, you've got people here who were saying, it's just not time. Yet. At that time to build yet the church I served in South Carolina, every time the subject of expansion or building or anything came up, he always got out his book when it's time not to build. And it just senior pastor told me, he said, you know, Kenneth is going to get out his book again at our meeting this week, because we're talking about expansion. We're talking about what we need to do to grow, because we say it's just not quite time yet. Just let me finish the project they've got. 1 (33m 36s): And then we'll start with kingdom work. Just let me take care of this or let me make sure that I can build up some funds so I can afford it. And then I can help out with kingdom work. Yeah. Oh, it says just the opposite. He says, seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be added to you. You see, we were upside down. We speak about the kingdom as being upside down, but we're the ones who are upside down when Paul was there in, in Ephesus and the craftsman, all of a sudden this guy who's turning the world upside down is here. 1 (34m 22s): No, it's turning the world right side up. And so it doesn't make sense to say, okay, we're going to put God first. We're going to take care of all this first. I'm going to go neglect my business. I'm going to neglect and we're not really neglecting it. But we automatically, our flesh takes us to the opposite end and we start digging our heels in because it's not just seek me first out, take care of everything else. I will see to it. That things are taken care of. You will see the blessing of God. If you put me first, if you make me an afterthought, well, I won't kill you, huh? 1 (35m 8s): But she'll just scrape by. Why not walk in the abundance I have for you? If you put me first, rather than you walking in my afterthoughts, God never calls you to a task without supplying what you need to complete. It. That's so hard for us to grasp sometimes, you know, and here again, this is where we talk about the be strong what's going on. They they've been at it for about three and a half weeks. The first prophecy that hat guy brought, the people were convicted. 1 (35m 52s): They went to work. It took three and a half weeks to get started. But we're talking, we're not talking about, you know, rapid communication here. They had to get the word out to everyone who back in Israel and say, Hey, we're starting on the temple three and a half weeks. They're at it. Now it's been another three and a half weeks. They'd been working. And you know, when you've got a big project and you get about three and a half weeks in and it looks like nothing has happened. Yes. Yeah, yeah. A little dirt moved around. We've got some of these rocks and some of this rebel pulled out of the way and we can kind of see where things are, are starting. 1 (36m 33s): And we see the outline of what's going on. But boy, this is overwhelming. Will this ever get done? And so God brings this word once again, be strong. Those, the rebel be strong. Oh, Joshua, be strong. All the people of the land declares the Lord, see the people needed the encouragement to continue. I needed to move forward. Clearing rebel by hand takes time. And you know, these big projects take mind. Numbing amounts of time. You think about the cathedrals in Europe, those, those big old Gothic cathedrals hundred and 50 years, 200 years to build. 1 (37m 20s): That's a lot of work that continues and continues and continues and continues and it's will it ever end? So he says, be strong. When we built in, when I was in Kansas, we built it a church building and we had to bring a soils engineer out and he had to, to look at the ground and, and, you know, study the compaction of it and everything. You were brown ground penetrating radar and out and figured out, oh well we're 88% compaction. So, oh, wow. That's great. It needs to be 95. 1 (38m 2s): And so they had to come and they, they had to dig out for the foundation. Fortunately we're farmers, everybody has heavy equipment and yeah, hallelujah. So you dig out that where the church was going to be that where the building was gonna gonna stand. And then we had a young teenager who was more than happy to come in and just, they had a sheep's foot, what they call a sheep's foot, which has compacts the soil. And they had one on the farm. So he brought it in and he spent two days driving back and forth through the whole ad in a little, put a little dirt back in driving back and forth through the hole, but a little dirt back in two days. 1 (38m 48s): And it's like one, I don't know how he stood just being in there, just driving back and forth on that same half a block. And I talk about mind numbing, but it feels like nothing's happening, but it's what makes everything ready. All the prep work. All the doing people needed to be strong in order to continue to persevere. They were enabled. God says, walk into your enablement. Second part of God's calling to us is to do the work. 1 (39m 29s): He has empowered us. He's given us the strength that we need. He's given us the abilities that we need. He's given us all that we need to do. We just need to do it. He says, work. This is in verses four B and start in the middle of the middle of verse four. Work for, I am with you declares the Lord of hosts. According to the covenant that I made with you. When I, when you came out of Egypt is not only is there an aspect of calling. There's a promise with it. There's encouragement with it. Yes. Do this. But know that I am with you. Work. I am alongside you when God calls us he not only supplies what's needed to complete the work he works with us. 1 (40m 15s): God is our yoke fellow. God, as a matter of fact is the master builder to our common laborer. God does the majority of the work. He gives us the privilege of working alongside him. See if we try to do that in our own strength. If we tried to do it on our own, it's not going to work. What is someone 27 first verse, unless the Lord builds the house. Those who build it labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the Watchman stays awake in vain. 1 (41m 1s): It's all gone. Okay. This is not to say that we sit back and watch God do the work. God specifically says to work. And at the same time he blesses us abundantly. He, God magnifies the work of your hands. As you, as you're leaning on him, as you are, are working in his strength, we're called to be strong. As we're in his power, doing the work he somehow or another in God's economy, he manages, well, it doesn't manage. 1 (41m 43s): He just declares. It manages. Sounds like he's got, has to figure out a plan. He's already knows what it is. God takes what we do and makes it more, don't know how he does it, but he does it. The third aspect of our calling is to fear not, or from looking at it from the other direction, have faith. See the opposite. Opposite of faith is an unbelief. The opposite of faith is fear. 1 (42m 24s): When you, when you get afraid, it's because you are looking forward into life, looking at the scenario without the benefit of the presence of God. In that scenario, this is what is called you. Look ahead and your mind starts thinking what's going to happen if this, if this, if this is, this is if this, and if we don't put God into the mix, income, be good. But when we know that God is with us, that God has empowered us, that God has enabled us. And that God is doing the work alongside of us. We can be encouraged and move forward. 1 (43m 10s): And then we don't have to walk in fear. He says, my spirit remains in your midst. Fear, not isn't it. The greatest encouragement of all that God is with us. That God remains in our myths. And not only in our midst, but in us, Jesus promised his disciples and thereby us. When he's speaking to his disciples, he's talking to us. He says, the holy spirit is with you, but would be, can you, the holy spirit is in you. 1 (43m 50s): You are a follower of Jesus Christ. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the spirit of the living, God lives in you. And the spirit is given without measure. You have all that God has for you in the holy spirit, living in you right now. Why should we be afraid? Psalm 27. It's not on the screen, but the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. I've home. Shall I be afraid? We have no need to fear because God is with us. We can walk in faith. 1 (44m 33s): So you haven't. So, or we have so infinitely better than what Israel did you think about Israel in the wilderness? They had the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And we think wouldn't that be so cool? Wouldn't it be so cool to stand at the foot of Sinai and just be kind of afraid because God's up there talking to Moses and there's thunder and lightening and fire and smoke and all of this stuff. And, and, and we, we crave and experience in our flesh. We have better than an experience in our flesh. We have the spirit of God in us. And so we can walk forward in faith. 1 (45m 20s): See we have the witness of the indwelling spirit of the living God in our hearts, Romans six 16 tells us the spirit himself, bears witness with our spirits, that we are children of God. Okay? And our heavenly father is attentive and caring and kind and loving and compassionate towards his children. He calls you to be strong and he will strengthen you. He calls you to work. He will empower you. And he calls you to have faith in him. 1 (45m 60s): And he promises. He will never leave us or forsake us be strong. Do the work have faith. So where is that taking us harvest church? Let's take a look at God's promise. God's promise to his people is that he would be with them just that he has always been. So God asks this question through Pega, to the people who is left among you, who saw this house in its former glory. 1 (46m 42s): How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? They looked at the foundations that was there and, and those who were older and they saw where the new foundation was starting to be laid. And these older ones who had seen it before the exile to Babylon were grieved in their hearts. It was going to be different. It was going to be less glorious, but at the same time, the younger ones were overjoyed and they were shouting for joy. And this second temple was just nothing like Solomon's temple. 1 (47m 22s): It was plain. Where's the gold and the silver and the bronze. Where's all the, the car of decoration. Where is all this other ornamented beauty that just reminded us of who God was and what he had done for us. And that he was the creator of all that. He brought us out of Egypt, that all of this was happening. And now we do well it's stone . But then again, the young ones had never seen the temple and they were, it was amazing for them. You go back to the book of Ezra. You read about this as a chapter three, starting at the 10th verse. 1 (48m 2s): It says in when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets and the Levi sites, the sons of ASF with cymbals to praise the Lord, according to the direction of David King of Israel. In other words, we've looked back at the scriptures. This is what we're supposed to do. And they sang responsively, praising and giving. Thanks to God for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever towards Israel and all the people shouted with a great shout and they praise the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, but many of the priests and Levites, and the heads of fathers houses, old men who had seen the first house wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid though many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of peoples weeping for the people shouted with a great shout and the sound was heard far away. 1 (49m 3s): So often the case, younger ones, rejoice at something new and different and fresh. And we who have, so we say more years behind us than ahead of us. I don't expect to live to 128, but we grieve when there's change. We grieve when something is different seems when you're young and your life is spread out ahead of you, everything is fresh and new and exciting and interesting. And then when we become a little more mature, we embrace the past and the familiar and the safe and the secure you see, this is why God not only calls us to do things he provides for it. 1 (49m 60s): And he makes a promise with the calling, that word of encouragement, that word of strengthening that word of hope, that word, that doesn't make any difference where we are. I am with you. God not only reminds the people in our passage that he will continue to be faithful to his covenant promise that he made. When they left Egypt, go back to Exodus 27 and says this, I will dwell among the people of Israel and I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord, their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord, their God. 1 (50m 42s): That's the promise that he made as they were coming out of Egypt. He further promises that what seems different and new and uncomfortable will be truly more glorious than what was familiar and stable and safe. Okay. Nine, the glory of this house shall be greater than the former. The glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace declares. The Lord of hosts. You know, he also promises them. 1 (51m 23s): Not only that their space would be more glorious than the old space. He promises them. Look, once again, in just a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth and the seas and the dry lands and all nations and all the treasure of the nations will come to you. The silver is mine. The gold is mine. I will take care of it. If you're obedient, then just do what I've called you to do. You don't have to worry about it. I love worshiping in this space. You know, this is part of what drew us here when we came, because it's it's well, well, yeah, reminded me of myself. 1 (52m 13s): It's old, but it's, it's cozy and it's comfortable. And there's a spirit of love here. A spirit of worship here, not just a spirit of worship that gets it's gets us around the temple and, and, you know, having a good time in Jesus. But we entered into the holy of Holies where we can fall on our face before God, that just really, really drew us. That was part of, of why we came. We looked at other places after I retired from my old church and we found places that were good and the word was being preached. But in worship, we kind of felt like we never really quite entered in. 1 (52m 53s): And, and we felt that here, and we felt the love of the people here. We felt like this is a place we can fit. And, and our space had a lot to do with it. I think I shared with you before. I used to think that was the loft terminology, but God has seen fit to cause us to outgrow this space holiday weekend. So we've got some empty chairs right now, but, but God has been blessing and blessing and blessing to the point where we we've outgrown it. 1 (53m 38s): The truth is that on Sunday mornings, especially in second service, over half of our congregation is in the other venues. We don't realize that here in the sanctuary, because we come in there, get here early enough. So we get a seat and it feels like this is us and it's full and it feels so good. And, but we don't realize that over half of our congregation is out there between our two services. There's 80 or 160 to 190 people that meet here in the sanctuary and two services. But there's 220 to 250 in the other space. 1 (54m 19s): Okay. I meet new people every Sunday. I see new faces every Sunday. People I have never seen before here. And some of them have been coming here far longer than I have, but I don't get to see them because they're in different places. I asked many people, oh, is this your first Sunday here? No, I've been here for seven years. I was having a tough enough time learning all of your names. And now we've got all these new people. Praise, God, see, I got white hair. I don't have to remember everybody's names, but God is doing great things here. 1 (55m 9s): No, from a nuts and bolts of ministry standpoint, just from a state of practicality, we don't have room here to do the ministry that God is calling us to. Jeremy mentioned in the, in the announcements this morning about our prayer ministry. You know, you can be on our prayer chain, 52 email addresses on our prayer chain that when we get requests that I send out, we have a, the prayer group that meets on Thursday morning. Small. I'd love to see many more of you be a part of that eight o'clock. Some people say eight o'clock is too early. I get there. And that's a, that's a big deal, but it's, and then we have people who are ready to pray with you every Sunday. 1 (56m 2s): At the end of the service, we like to invite people to come forward. If they have a need of prayer, if they need to respond to the word that was given, or if there's some other special need, we have people assigned to pray when the elders or most of them come to second service, but they're here. We're ready to pray. And very rarely do people come because when they do come there, isn't room and people are walking by and it's gets interrupted and whatnot. We need more space. You already have heard that we're having to turn kids away from Sunday school. 1 (56m 46s): So we need to expand. God has bigger things in store for us, bigger things in congregational growth. And it's not just about being bigger. We talk about this all the time in staff. We've had a lot of folks transfer in from other churches, and we're so glad to have you glad you're here, but God's kingdom. Isn't about moving sheep from one pasture to another. We need to go out and find the lost sheep and bring them in. Jesus says, I have sheep, not of this fold. 1 (57m 28s): And they need to be found and brought back and brought in. And so, as we're limited in space here, we need more rooms so we can grow. We can do bigger things in ministry and prayer and training and evangelism. We can do much bigger things in missions, both at home and abroad. We can do much better things in ministering to our community. And all these things will be easier and more practically facilitated. If we have that space over there at one oh two west branch, and you know, we have a five-year lease there. And what I've been praying is, oh Lord, when that five years is up, I pray that that's not enough space. 1 (58m 12s): I pray. We have to move again. I think I've shared with some of you before a friend of mine told me, he says, you know, Dave, you'd be hard pressed to find it in scripture, but I'm sure there will be moving in hell. We have lived in our married life. We have lived in 10 different places, done a lot of moving in our ministry years. We have been involved in three church building projects and one church moving project. You get into those new spaces and it's uncomfortable for a little while to kind of feel like, oh yeah, it's kind of exciting to be here, but I'm not even sure exactly where which cupboard to put the canned goods in, in the kitchen. 1 (59m 0s): How, how are we going to arrange the closets? How are we going to do this? What's what about that in the new churches as well? Yeah, we kind of think this is the way Sunday school is going to be laid out in those new classrooms, but chances are we're going to have to rearrange and do other things. And it's, it feels a little bumpy for a little while, but soon home, it doesn't take long because home isn't about the space. Home is about the people who are gathered there. The people that fill the space, that's what home is about. 1 (59m 40s): We've. And so what will be with us, God never changes. Remember Hebrews 13, eight, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, but he is an agent of change in our lives. He constantly is working in us to change, to, to, to transform us, to grow us, to renew us, to change us, as it says in second Corinthians, from one degree of glory to another. And until that one day when he will glorify us, when we cross over and then at the resurrection, get our glorified bodies and we'll be like, Jesus, have a body like Jesus. 1 (1h 0m 24s): Like he could, you know, walk through a door or walk through walls was great, showed up in the, with the apostles in the upper room and the night of his resurrection. And when all the doors were bolted and locked, he was just there. That'd be kind of cool. Just squat, walk out this way. And this upcoming move that we're making as part of that process of being transformed and grown and renewed and changed for the advancement of the kingdom of God, be strong, do the work be full of faith. 1 (1h 1m 10s): Let's pray. And I want you to make a note of this, to pray this week and continue while we're in the process. Building projects take notoriously longer than what the time budgeted it is. Thanks worship team. When we built in Kansas, after all that driving back and forth with the sheep's foot, they promise that we started in August and they promised us we'd be in at the end of the year, the end of March, I finally told the contractor, says we are dedication is scheduled for next week. We will be in and they finished. So be patient. 1 (1h 1m 52s): This is where it can get discouraging. When things take longer than what we think they're going to take, oh, I would love to say, we're going to be in the next month. I doubt it, but know that God can do it and work around all the hoops that have to be jumped through and get the work done. So be strong. Do the work, have faith and have willing hearts to follow after what God is doing. Let's pray, God, we come to you now and we pray for strength. You said, be strong. So Lord, we know as we come to you and pray for strength, you will strengthen us because it's your will for us. 1 (1h 2m 33s): It's your word to us that we would do so thank you, Lord goddess that to help us to persevere in the tasks, because you have enabled us to do all that you're calling us to do help us Lord Jesus, to do the work, the work that needs to be done, whether it's on the building or whether it's in the ministry or whether it's in reaching out and doing the work of the kingdom, just loving our neighbors. As we love ourselves and loving you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, Lord God, you have empowered us by your spirit to do that. So we will do the work, help us and Lord help us to be full of faith, to not walk in fear that we might overcome any intimidation and any opposition that we might face. 1 (1h 3m 34s): Thank you, God, that, that promise of your spirit, the guarantee that you put in our hearts, that your spirit bearing witness with our spirit, that gives us the encouragement to stand in the face of opposition. And finally, Lord give us willing hearts, willing hearts that we might follow after your leading and that we would trust you that we would not look ahead and worry that we would not look back in grief, but that we would look forward to all you're doing and what you have done and take the history of what you've done and that you will embolden us to live up to this calling that you've given us because of the promise that you have made to us. 1 (1h 4m 34s): Pray. If there are any here who don't know what it is to be filled with your spirit, don't know what it is to be born. Again, made new in Jesus Christ to be a new creature in Christ, new creation in Christ Jesus, because they're still bound in sin because they have never responded to the truth of the gospel. I just pray that your spirit would speak to them this morning and draw them to yourself because you are God and you loved them and you want them to be your children. Thank you, Jesus. We pray all this in your holy name. 1 (1h 5m 16s): Amen. And amen. Let's worship. And then if, if you need prayer for anything, there will be people up here after, after we worship this morning. So let's go to the Lord. 0 (1h 5m 34s): the song. I am yes. 0 (1h 11m 19s): but I might bring you in to the kingdom of God that will strengthen your and thinking that'll bring you forward. 0 (1h 12m 6s): It's through. 0 (1h 12m 53s): There was a moment when the lights went out oh, geez. 0 (1h 17m 37s): Oh geez. Oh, geez. oh, geez. Oh, geez. 1 (1h 18m 20s): It's feel there's somebody here on campus today. I don't know if you're here in the sanctuary or if you're in the loft or on the patio, but you need to be set free that we've been singing about breaking bonds and breaking chains and being set free. And you just feel like I'm not free. Do you know you've been trapped in darkness. You've been trapped in a place of where you feel as if you thought you were free, but you're, you've been in a dungeon. So reminded of Charles Wesley's old him where one of the verses says I was in the darkness of night trapped in nature's night bound in chains. 1 (1h 19m 12s): I can't remember the words now, but you came and you set us free. Lord, God, you set us free. And for you, if you're out there and you feel bondage, if you feel something is holding you back, if you sense the weight of your sin, and even if you feel like, oh, what I have done is far beyond God could never forgive me. Don't let the enemy live to you like that. He's saying that to you because he doesn't want to lose you out of his kingdom, into the kingdom of God. You can never be too. God God's arm is not too short. If you need to know Jesus today, just, just come to him in your heart. 1 (1h 19m 56s): You just speak from your heart. You can even speak without moving your mouth. If you need to, but just say, Lord Jesus, I need you. I'm a sinner. And I know I'm lost. I know I don't deserve forgiveness, but would you come in and forgive me anyway? And he will, and he'll make you new. And if you've done that today, I want you to tell somebody, look for a staff member. If you're here in the sanctuary, you come tell me if you're in the patio or the loft. 1 (1h 20m 38s): Look for one of the staff members, tell them, you know, today, I just feel like I need to be set free and they'll talk to you and just give you more information to help you get started. Thank you God, for your grace. Once again, an amazing, amazing grace man.