Still Present. Still Worthy.

I was telling them in first gathering, in first service,

I could just sit and listen to Michael and just

go exactly where you need to go in your spirit to worship because

of what he carries. So I'm just going to ask you to play

for just a second while I share that with him.

I will exalt you, my God, the King.

I will praise your name forever and ever. Every

day I will praise you and extol

your name. Great is the Lord and most worthy of

praise. His greatness. No one can fathom. One

generation will commend your works to another. They will tell

of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious

splendor of your majesty. And I

will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell

of the power of your awesome. And I will proclaim

your great deeds. They will celebrate your

abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all.

He has compassion on all he has made.

All you have made will

praise you, O Lord. Your saints will extol you. They will tell of

the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might

so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the

glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your

dominion endures through all generations.

His kingdom. His kingdom. The Lord is

faithful to all his promises and loving toward all

he has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall

and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of

all look to you and you give them their food

at the proper time. You open your hand

and satisfy the desires of every living creature.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways

and loving toward all that he has made.

The Lord is near to all who call on

him. To all who call on Him. In truth, he fulfills the

desires of those who fear him. He hears their cries and

saves them. The Lord watches over all who love him.

And all the wicked he will destroy. But my mouth.

My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.

Let every creature praise his holy name

forever and ever and ever and

ever and ever. And that is why we are

here this morning. We have come to worship

a holy God. That's why I'm here.

Thank you, Michael. Father. God, I thank you so much.

You know how to recenter us. You know how

to bring us back to what is important. You etched it through the

pages of eternity, Lord. And you released it to us.

This is about you, Father. May it always be

about you. We love you, God. And

we Will sing of your great love and your greatness and your

goodness and the way that you open your hands. We will speak

of your kingdom, God, because it all belongs to

to you. Thank you Lord for letting us be in your field for a

while. We will bless you and give you all of the glory. Let my stuff

fall and your stand in Jesus name. And

the people said, amen. God

is so faithful. God is so

faithful. You know, I don't think any of us plan to

be here like this. The last two weeks have been very

interesting and

I've had my own struggles, I'll be honest. But this is

what I know. This is what I know. God is

good. God is good and he is faithful.

They just said he opens his hand and satisfies the

desires of every living creature. God is good. And

nothing changes that. Nothing changes that. Ro and

Kai, our five year old grandson, walked into the.

Hal and I were sitting on the porch and Rowan walks in. He and

Nora are playing in the grass and Hal and I are talking

and Rowan walks up on the step up on the porch and he goes,

hey, good news. The bees

have pollinated your front yard.

And he said, that's always a good thing. Listen,

good news is anything that comes through his hand. Amen.

Anything that comes through his hand is good news. So good

news, the bees are pollinating your front yard right now as

you speak. Because you know what? The work of God continues.

It's his kingdom, it's his field. And I'm so

grateful for that. Do you know how much pressure that takes off?

You have no idea.

You know, when I took this job about

25 years ago, however long, and

God, yours is kind of like dogs. I think I've been here two centuries.

But anyway, I knew

what the Lord had assigned me to do. Hal and I both felt that the

Lord had called us to hold up Pastor Ronnie's arms and support

him as he carried out the ministry that the Lord had given him. And

I was 110% certain that I

was going to leave when past Ronnie retired. And I told

Pastor Ronnie that for the last 10 years that I served with him.

And when Pastor Kevin came into this position,

I actually started to pray

and felt like the Lord told me to stay.

And Hal felt that too, that we were to stay and we were to support

Pastor Kevin. And I went to Pastor Ronnie and I said, pastor

Ronnie, I've lied to you the last 10 years. And

because I told you I was go when you left. And

that was my heart's desire in all honesty, And I said, but

I believe the Lord's told me to stay. And he went. I

knew that. He said, the first

time you told me you were leaving, I knew you hadn't prayed about it.

Oh, that gift of discernment can come back to bite you from time to time.

And. And, you know, so it didn't end with Pastor Ronnie the way

that I expected. And when I began to serve with Pastor

Kevin, I thought I knew how that would end. And this was not it,

because I'm 61 years old, and

I know. I just made the

assumption. Boy, you get in trouble when you assume anything with God, isn't it? Except

for his goodness. And so my assumption and, you know, to share with Kevin,

you know, my heart's desire is to pour

into this house. As long as you have me, pour into this house. And then

when it's time for me to go, my prayer would be that the Lord would

raise up somebody behind me to serve and lift your hands and all of

those things. But see, that was my plan.

And at some point, God has to giggle, you know,

don't you think? God has to go, I so trust him, guys.

I just trust him. I just trust him. And it

didn't seem like I trusted him as I was weeping and wailing in my car

driving home the other night. And the Lord just began to minister

to me. God is still present,

and he is still worthy. God is present,

and he is worthy. He hasn't changed his mind.

And I said, lord, what do I do? God,

what do I do there? I've got about 100 voices coming at me

right now, things I should do or shouldn't do or should be or, this is

a good idea. And why did you ever do that? And I'm like, lord, what

do I do here? And he took me back. See, the Lord taught me to

dig wells a long time ago in the Spirit. And

so he took me back to my first well. And my first well that he

taught me to cultivate in my life was this. Seek

the Lord, trust the Lord, obey the Lord,

seek the Lord, trust the Lord, obey the

Lord. And I wasn't in any of those categories. In my car that day,

I was in Lamentations. And

he said, pick another book.

Seek the Lord, trust the Lord,

obey the. Is that not the most simple thing you've ever heard?

It's easy to read, it's hard to do, but it is

the truth. And that's the first well he allowed

me, even as a child, to learn. Okay, Lord, if I will seek you

If I will find you in your truth and dig

myself into that place in you, I will come to a

place that I can trust you. No matter what. No matter what.

And when I can trust you, Lord, I can be set free to

obey you. And see, that's my heart for this body,

always has been. That we would seek him,

that we would trust him, and that we would obey him. Because

it's about Him. It's not about who's standing on the

platform. It's not about me. It was never about Pastor Ronnie, and it wasn't

about Pastor Kevin. It's not about the elders. It's not about any of it.

It's about him. It is about him. And you know

what gave me great comfort? I'm like, lord, this was an un. You did not

tell me this was coming. All the days

ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Even the unexpected ones. All of the days ordained for

you were written in his book

before they happened. Here's the thing. God is never surprised,

confounded, caught off guard, or taken aback by our circumstances.

I do not see anywhere in the Word, or would it be consistent

with the Lord's character for him to go? Man, I did not see that coming.

Uh, we might not have seen it, but not only

did he see it, he prepared us for it. Do

you know how many amazing pastors you have in this house?

Let's see. Pastor Will. I'm so scared to do this because I'll miss

somebody, and there'll be somebody new standing up here

next week.

Seriously, man, there's, like, nine of us. You are

surrounded. If God didn't have you surrounded. Well, if God didn't have you surrounded,

there would be no need for the nine. He's got you.

Pastor Will. Pastor Jonathan, Pastor Allen, Pastor

Justin, Pastor Carol, Pastor Doug,

Pastor Robert. I mean, all of them. If I missed

you, please just stand up and shout. Do it now in front of everybody. Go

ahead,

Pastor kurt.

Oh, Lord, help us.

I appreciate your boldness, my brother. I

love that, though all the days ordained for us were written in his

book. And so, as I decided to start moving out of

Lamentations, I was like, lord, what do I do?

God, what do I do? Because I don't have answers on all of this. The

Lord has given me great vision for about three weeks going

forward, and then I'm trusting him for the next one. Okay, but he's good. But

you know what he said about this? This next, like, two to three weeks

is this worship anyway.

Worship Anyway, when he gave that to me in the car,

my first thought was, I gotta get a T shirt.

Did you know that this is a thing? Did y' all know this? I went

to look for a T shirt. And it's a whole webpage. I can buy a

30 by 60 flag if I want to

that says worship anyway. And that is my heart,

guys. It should never be about a human. It's about

him. And he is worthy. He is

worthy for us to anchor ourselves in worship and get to

the other side of this, whatever that looks like. Worship

anyway. And you know what else? And guys, I'm just taking you down this path

and trying to be as transparent as I know to be. Cause that's all I've

ever known to do with you all. And. And I just want

to be honest. And so as I was, you know, struggling my way through it,

Lord, you know. Cause what are you going to do about this? How are you

going to fix this? What are you going to do about this? And you know

what he said? I love when the Holy Spirit speaks. So

shepherds do not own the field. They merely tended under the direction

of the owner.

We don't own it. I'm basically working a 7 11.

And if you've got problems, I'm going to refer

you to the owner.

I'm like, you're gonna need to see the owner about that.

I have such peace in that, because I know the owner,

and he is good, he is faithful,

and he has never, ever, one time in 61 years

let me down. Not one time. And I don't expect him to.

That's just who he is. He's that good. And not only is he good,

he knows how to humble you, too. If the field's. If this was not

enough, I said, lord, you know, what if I need to do

this? Or, lord, what if I need to do that? Oh, my gosh,

guys, the word cracks me up in the way

that it just pierces straight to the heart. And I said, lord, you know,

what do you need of me? And here's his answer. I have no

need of a bull from your stall or goats

from your pens. For every animal of the forest is mine. And the

cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains.

And everything that moves in the field is mine. For the world is mine and

everything in it. I am going to use that so

often. I have no need

of a cow from your stalls.

We don't have anything to offer him that he

doesn't already have. But he gives us the Privilege of

bringing our worship, of participating in what he is

doing in the earth. That's what I want. I want a

sovereign God who needs nothing from me, but

allows me to be able to work in his field. Allows me

to walk with his sheep in the pasture. And if that isn't enough,

know that the Lord himself is God. It is

he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his

people and the sheep of whose pasture

His. It's all His. It's all his that

should bring us great peace. Actually, I was real peaceful about

that until Pastor Jonathan shared last week that sheep are flammable.

And I'm having to ponder that one a little bit. But you know what?

We are. And I've seen a few fires in the last two weeks.

Cause sheep are flammable, but the

owner of the field isn't. He is fire.

He is. He is sovereign and he is good. So

here, say this with me. His field,

his sheep. Isn't that peace inducing?

His field, his sheep. And let me tell you

something. He is not an absentee owner. He just

isn't. He isn't an absentee owner. His word

tells me this. I will never leave you

or forsake you. He will never leave us

or forsake us. Elvis has not left the building.

I mean, seriously, we sometimes. It's

just one of the things the Lord told me many years ago

was if it ever becomes about you, I will remove you.

And I pray that he does. I pray that

anybody, if it ever becomes about anybody or

anything other than him, that the Lord would just

watch over his church, cover his church,

minister to his church, regardless. Because it

can never be about anything but that. Now I had a couple people

going. I'm really struggling to, you know, sense God's

presence. Doesn't matter if you sense his presence.

Presence is not about a feeling. It is a promise. I will

never leave you or forsake you. And he took me to the best passage of

scripture. After the last one, are you looking forward to the next one?

The sheep and pins and bulls and things. I love that. The

Lord took me to this passage and I know it's familiar. The King Nebuchadnezzar

leapt to his feet. Did we not cast three men bound into the

midst of the fire? I see four men loose

walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt. And the form

of the fourth is like the Son of God. We have read that passage. We

know that story. Ch. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they were told that

they would bow to the king, and they refused to bow to

the king. And so the king had the furnace heated up

just all so powerfully that even the men that were

taking them up there were killed. You know, died because of the heat

of the flames. And so they throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

into that fire. And this is what happens after a

period of time. King Nebuchadnezzar, he looks in and he

sees four men walking in that

fire. They are loose and walking in the midst of it.

And for some reason, it just struck

me, nowhere in scripture,

nowhere does it tell us that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

saw him. Nowhere does it. They.

I'm making some suppositions here, but like if you were thrown in a fire and

there was a fourth man in there who loosed you and looked like the Son

of God, don't you think that might be the first thing you said when you

came out? Did any of you see what I saw?

Now, they might have, but that wasn't what they came out with. Or it wasn't

important enough for God to have it put in the Word. Because sometimes you're

not gonna see him. Sometimes you still gotta carry the

testimony of God's goodness and his faithfulness. When you don't

even know he's been walking through it with you,

it doesn't say, I would have told somebody, did you see

him? Did you see him? But God doesn't give

that portion to us. Because sometimes we're called to walk by

faith. Because God's presence is not determined by our

awareness of him, but by his promise to never leave

us. It's his

promise. It all goes back to him.

Whether you feel him, whether you see him, whether you're sensing

his presence or not, he is here and he is

with you, and he will not leave you. Whether you are at

Springhouse or Lifepoint or wherever it is that

God has for you, your assignment is to seek the Lord,

to trust the Lord and obey the Lord. That's all.

I believe that would be all that any pastor would ask of you.

Seek the Lord, trust Him and obey Him. That's what we do.

His presence is not a feeling, it is a promise.

And here's something that I think if we can

grab hold of, it is super important. Because sometimes

we so expect the woo hoo moments and, you know,

deliverance from fire moments. But you know what one of the greatest gifts in the

fire was? Sometimes our deliverance looks like

companionship. We want out of our mess, but he wants to

walk into the middle of it. God deliver me.

This is not what I wanted to do, Lord. This is not where I wanted

to be. This is not my decision. Aren't you so glad it wasn't?

Aren't you so glad it wasn't? We went out and he could have

just delivered the guys out of the fire, but he walked in it with

them. He walked in it with them. And I'm so grateful that

we have a God who does that. A famous

philosopher once said, Barbara Jean Price, my

mother. God ain't scared.

God ain't scared of this. He knew it

was coming before we did. He planted our

feet deep in faithful soil.

And he is sovereign and he is good, and God ain't scared

when life shifts and God's presence remains. The

faithfulness of God is not subject to the fluctuations of our

circumstances. It just doesn't. And this is going to. I mean,

I know this is going a little bit quick. I'm just trying to share with

you what he shared with me. Okay? Though the

clouds obscure the view, the sun is still right where it

is supposed to be. He hasn't changed.

Now let me give you the paraphrase of yet another

philosopher, my papaw. It don't matter

what the clouds are doing. The sun's still exactly where it's supposed to be.

It doesn't matter what's going on around us. It does

not matter how distracted we are and how many things that the

enemy would love to get our eyes on instead of what's important.

The sun's still exactly where he's supposed to be.

God is still sovereign and he hadn't changed.

And you know what one of the things about clouds is? They change from day

to day. The sun remains stable. And

he is still worthy. He is still worthy

of worship. He's worthy of praise. And my heart's

desire would be that when we come together, that would be the focus.

To worship him, to exalt him, proclaim

him, to magnify his name, and then to go out and do

it outside the doors, tell people about the goodness of

the Lord and what he's done.

This is the God we serve. For the Lord, your God is the

God of Gods and the Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty

and awesome, who shows no partiality. He defends the cause of

the fatherless and the widow. He is he. He

is your praise. He is your God. Now

to the King, Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God.

The only God. Be honor and glory forever

and ever. Amen. Then I Heard

every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the

sea and all that is in them, saying to him who

sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be praise and

honor and glory and. And power forever

and ever and ever. We don't worship because our lives

are consistent, but because our God is.

If we're waiting for our lives to have no change, there to be

nothing that's inconsistent in our lives. We gonna be waiting a while. That

sounds like another philosopher. I know we're gonna be waiting

a while. We do not worship because our lives are consistent, but because God

is. And he is worthy. And you

know what else he reminded me of? We're just going down this path. Worship that

depends on blessing is worship that has not yet dropped its anchor into

trust. If you can only worship

when things are good, then there's an issue. Do you know

how much in the last two weeks I have drugged the anchor behind

me? But we're not designed for that weight.

Drop that anchor into a place of trust. That

says the God that I just read to you about. That's the God

we're going after. That is the God who is worthy of worship and

praise. That is why we are here. Worship

anchored. Worship says the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's not about Kevin,

that's not about me. That's not about Ronnie, and it's not about

you. Whatever comes into your life is a blessing of the lor,

whether you have it or you don't have it. Blessed be the

name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

That is the call in my heart. That is what the Lord

has worship just planted in me because that was the

first place I met him as a child. That was the

second well, the second well he allowed me to dig in my

life was to learn to worship him in spite of what was going

on in the world. To go. God, you are good. I don't understand any of.

I don't even like any of this. But God, I love you and I know

you are good and know that you're going to work this out. I know that

you are going to give us beauty for ashes. I know, God, that you are

sovereign and you are faithful and this is your field.

May I hear your voice so that I can work it well.

And that's not just for me, guys. That's you. We're all in this field.

We are all in this field. Worship team.

Here's another thing I might want to mention to you, we're probably not going to

last until 1230 most of the time. Because I feel like God is

pretty concise. One of the things that I feel like he has birthed in my

spirit is for the next three weeks, I want us to

press in worship. I really do. He allowed me to write a song

this week, and the line in the song that is pivotal for me was, let

worship start its healing. Let worship start its

healing. It worked for David. When David lost his son, and he

mourned, and he threw ashes on his head and he mourned

for a season. But the day came when he had to get up and

wash his face. And his first act was what? Go worship.

Go and worship. And that's what I believe the Lord would have

us plant in for the next three weeks. That's as much as I got, guys.

And we're going to trust him beyond that. But fortunately for you, I

need no bull from your pen.

I have a feeling I'm going to hear that back at me many times.

I told him, I said, that's going to be my quote this week on social

media. It's not unless

Courtney overrides me. But anyway, here's

the thing, guys. True worship remains

anchored in who God is. Who God is.

Not on how we feel. Not on how we feel.

It's about him because he is present

and he is worthy. He is present

and he is worthy. So here's

the thing. Yet another transparent moment. Just

because this is how I work things out with the

Lord, I just said God, I'd really like

to do a fast song at the end of service, but

some people might not be in a fast song kind of place.

And you know what he said?

Worship. Anyway.

Worship. Anyway, so I'm

gonna read you one more passage. And as I'm reading this

passage, I want you to grab it in your spirit

as you make your way toward the altar space.

Cause you know what we're gonna worship through? We're gonna worship

because he's worthy.

The hundred and third Psalm.

Guys, here's your weapon right here.

Praise the Lord. O my soul, all my inmost

being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul. And

forget not all of his benefits, who forgives all your

sins, heals all your diseases, redeems your life from

the pit, crowns you with love and compassion, satisfies

your desires with good things. So. And I need this one so that your

youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord is

compassionate and gracious, slow to

anger, abounding in love, and he will not always accuse nor will

he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sin

deserve. Can we hear an amen

or repay us according to our iniquities? For as high as

the heavens are above the earth, so great is

his love for those who fear Him. As far as the east from the

west, so far has he removed our transgressions

from us. As the Father has compassion on his

children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Jump down to verse 17. From everlasting to

everlasting. The Lord's love is with those who fear him

and his righteousness with their children's children.

A little further. And his kingdom, his

kingdom. His kingdom rules

over all his kingdom. And so would you join me

and. Can we just worship him for a minute? Because the thing is, is we

got a thousand reasons to worship him and we need to

draw from those wells just a little bit and. All right,

you, let's go. Let's go.