Arise: Consider Him

You know, one of the first things Pastor Kevin did when he

became the lead pastor at the church was he said, I

want to call them gatherings instead of

services. I want to call them gatherings because of the way the

family of God comes together. And.

And I have always appreciated that. That the way the

Lord brings the gatherings of the family together.

And that's what I see in

this room. Ooh, I'm ringing a little bit. That's what I see in this

room. When we come together to worship up here and when we come together like

this. Guys, can I tell you, I don't know

what an energizer bunny feels like, but I have a pretty good

idea. It feels like when you stand in with your brothers and your

sisters and there's just a charge

in the room, there is just something where we can stand with one another

and worship this God that we call our God.

And I will always encourage you to do that. I

know sometimes it may feel like, oh, no, they're gonna make us come to the

front again. It isn't. It's cause we wanna hide in your midst

is what it is. But actually what it is is we want you to

experience that. You know, it's like when your brothers and sisters come and lay

hands on you. And it's not just one person praying and you can just

sense the presence of the Holy Spirit and you feel like you're covered.

That's what it is. Like if you've never come forward

and just been a part of mass worship. Now, some of

you were in mosh pits when you were young and you're

like, oh, I can't go up and be with them. I'm sure there's video out

there somewhere would prove otherwise. Anyway, I just

wanna encourage you. And at the end of this gathering, at the end

of this teaching, I'm gonna offer you another opportunity

because there's something that I was sensing in my spirit earlier as I was

worshiping. And it's exactly what they've been saying is he

is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of our praise, and we

have come together to worship him. Right? Our eyes are

set on him. Well, last week we talked about

seeing the goodness of the Lord, right? And how the

stars. On the fourth day, when the stars were created in the canopy of the

heavens, the word said that they were set in place to mark sacred

times and that we would be witnesses. The stars

are witnesses. And we are witnesses of what the Lord is doing.

And my encouragement last week was to allow the Lord to

hide you in the cleft of the rock and to be still and know

that he was God until you saw his goodness pass by. And if you

remember, I said, don't judge a moment, don't judge a season

until you see God's goodness in it. Right? And so

that is my heart, and that is what I believe the charge is to do,

but rightly so. After the gathering,

someone came up and said, what if I cannot see his goodness?

What if I've been standing and I've been waiting for a long time and

I have not been able to see him in this situation?

And I just said, you know, what if that is the case and you've been

standing a long time and you still can't see the goodness?

Can you just remember his faithfulness?

Can you remember his faithfulness in your life over time?

Can you trust him, knowing that he is

sovereign, knowing that he is holy and knowing that he is good?

In the midst of moments where it's difficult to be still

and see his goodness, can you just trust

Him? Can you just trust Him? We are going to

jump back into that same passage of Scripture a little bit, because when I left

you last week, I had shared with you the

idea and the concept if we are witnesses in the

earth, and According to Hebrews 12, we are

surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses that

we are a part of that. We are part of that bigger picture with

them. I felt like it was really important to go and see. Okay,

well, what was the encouragement in that? What came after that?

Because if you can't see him in the moment, you can still know

he's there. You can still, by faith, know and trust him

when you cannot see how this moment is going to go.

He is a good God. That much you can know. Amen. So

we are going to stand and we are going to read Hebrews

12 if you would stand with me, because we are going to touch on this

cloud of witnesses for just a moment,

see what the Lord has to do with that. So, all right, guys,

let's read this thing. Therefore, since we

are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

let us throw off everything that hinders. Stop just a

second. What are we throwing off?

Part of it. The part we don't like. All of it.

Let us throw off, because we are part of those witnesses.

Let us throw off everything that hinders and

the sin that so easily entangles. And let

us run with perseverance the race marked out

before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,

the pioneer and perfecter of faith, for the

joy Set before him. He endured the cross,

scorning the shame and sat down at the right

hand of the throne of God. Consider

who endured such opposition

so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Look for a second at that third verse. What does it say? It says,

consider him, consider him.

Why? So that you will not grow weary

and lose heart. We grow weary and we lose heart

when we consider everything but him, when our eyes

get on everything but. But him, the one who for the

joy set before him, endured the cross

scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of

God. And guys, he is still standing. He is still sitting at the right

hand of God. Nothing is lost in this. So consider

him so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Father, God, I

thank you so much for your word. I thank you for your truth. I thank

you Lord. As my granny used to say, the truth will stand when

the world's on fire. And I thank you Lord, for your truth.

May it burn our hearts. May it

burn in our hearts. Father, let my stuff fall in your

stand in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. God

is so faithful. He's so good. I couldn't get out of this passage of

scripture. I've been living in it this week

because I was thinking about another gentleman came up last week and he said,

you know, I've been doing that all week. You just described my life. I've been

sitting outside looking up at the stars and seeing the goodness of

God sitting under those stars. And guys, I just want

to ask you at least once or twice this week

or 17 times because that's a little bit more

memorable than once or twice. Go out and sit

on your step, sit in the grass, sit outside,

get a lawn chair after dark and look up at the

sky. Look up at these stars that are still marking time,

sacred seasons. Look up at them. Because see, the word of God says, the

heavens declare the glory of God.

And sometimes we need to recenter and we need to refocus

and we need to allow the heavens to declare

the goodness of God. One version says, the heavens speak

of him, the heavens speak of him.

And that is where I would like to encourage you this week to

spend some time with him, bringing your

focus in to his presence. I

really feel like this will be an abbreviated teaching this morning, but

you never know because things happen.

But I was looking at this passage of scripture and the thing that kept staying

with me was, consider him,

consider him, consider him so that you do not grow.

Has anybody been weary of. Has anybody Been tired?

Has anybody been distracted? Has anybody got their eyes

off of the Lord? Has anybody got their eyes on circumstances or

situations or pains or diagnoses

or you've gotten your eyes off center and see, when we

come into this room, I want us to focus

on him. I want us to focus on Him. I grew up on a farm,

and we had horses, and we would put blinders on those

horses because did you know that with the

positioning of a horse's eyes, they can look to the sides?

It's pretty funky when they do that. I'm just saying. But they can look to

the sides, but they can see behind them, too. And so they're

skittish. And so you put blinders on them in order to

take them across something that they don't trust. Like a

gate that we would put across the branch or the creek. We

call it a creek, you put a gate across it that you would have to.

When you would have to take those horses over something that they couldn't really

trust, you had to put blinders on them so that all they could see

was you, and all they could see was that you

were gonna take them to that place.

Sometimes in our faith walk, we get so

distracted by the things on the side and the things

that are behind us and the things that are happening. And we need

to add prayer and fasting and studying the Word

and focus on Jesus Christ so that we

keep our eyes on him. Because here's the cool thing, guys.

He is the author of your book. Even if you don't like

the chapter you're in, there's another chapter coming,

okay? And it says that all the days of your life

were written, were ordained before even one of them came to be.

There is nothing that is happening in your life that caught God

by surprise. There's nothing. And you can trust

him. You can trust him. God is. Pours into

us so that in good seasons and bad seasons and testing

seasons and trying seasons, we can remain fixed

on him. To remain fixed on Him. And that's what

this says. It says to consider him. And see, when

we think of the word consider, we're like, oh, I will consider

these things. No, this is a verb.

This is an active verb, to consider. And what's

interesting is that this particular word is only used

one time in the whole Bible. In the Old Testament. In the

New Testament, it's only used one time. And it is

literally, it means, okay, I can spell the word

for you, but I can't really say it. But it is a N, a L,

O G, I, Z, O, M, A, I.

I felt like I just went through the Alphabet anyway.

But it literally means to add weight

to this thing that you are considering, this weight that you're gonna be,

this thing that you're gonna ponder, that you're gonna set your mind on, that

you're gonna engage in. And he's saying, add weight to

what I'm doing. Add weight to what the Lord is doing

in this moment. Actually, one of the other things

it says, compare it to everything else. Compare it to

everything else. Every other instance, every other thing that

might be happening in your world, in your life, what spoken.

Compare his goodness to that.

And add weight in your situation to the

goodness of God. And add weight to the fact that we are part of

so great a cloud of witnesses and we are still marking

sacred times on this planet to add weight

to that. And here's what it says so that you will not grow weary

and lose heart. God, you can't lose heart. You can't grow weary. We

don't. Ain't nobody got time for that.

We just don't. We just don't have time for that. We're still running

a race. We are still running a race. And not

only are we running a race, we got people behind us in that race.

And we are setting the pace for that race. And we have got to

finish strong. No matter what God is calling us to do,

we finish strong. Our middle son, Matthew,

decided he felt like the Lord told him to run a marathon.

And so he trained for that marathon. He trained for

probably a year or two, trained for that marathon,

and it was scheduled and he was gonna come and run that.

And Covid happened. Covid hit. And it

was early enough in that season to where they weren't okay with you

hanging out outside together either. You were limited to the number of people.

They cancele that marathon.

And Matthew said, I wasn't

running that race for them. And he decided to

get up on a typical day. Could have been a Tuesday, Justin.

Or he could have slept in on a Tuesday afterward, we don't know.

He sent me his GPS location.

And I watched that man, boy in my eyes,

but that man, I watched him run around warehouses

and neighborhoods and all around the city,

all by himself, running the marathon that God had

called him to run. Because he wasn't running that race for anybody

else. He was running it because God told him to. And he said, I knew

I had to go out 14 miles if I was gonna come back 14.

You know, he's like, I was gonna go out A little bit further than I

intended to. Guys, you're running the

race for him. What he has called you to do, he has

called you to do. And I. I want us

to throw aside every weight that would hinder us

from accomplishing and going and running the race that God has called us to

run. Amen. Because every single one of you have

something that God has poured into you that he is

waiting and watching you to run. You know what? I don't believe for a second

that Matthew ran alone. I believe there was a wind

with him. I believe that there was someone. Because we are never

alone. We're never alone. There's a

song in that. Oh, my goodness. But here's the thing. So we do not

grow weary and lose heart. Why,

if you jump back, if you go home today, I want you to get

your Bible. If you have a paper one, I hope you do.

I want you to go to Hebrews 10 and jump

down. You got it up here, Hebrews

10. So do not throw away your

confidence. It will be richly. What confidence

in your abilities, in the way that you do things. No,

guys, you know what? I had this dream. Just leave that there. I'm going to

let that camp there. I had this dream, and in my

dream, I was in a really nice hotel room, hint, hint, Hal

Laughlin. Anyway, it was a really

nice place, but it was nighttime. And the curtains were

drawn, you know. Cause if you're near the ocean, if

you'll open the curtains, there's the ocean. Well, it was nighttime in my dream, and

you couldn't really see it,

but I could hear it. And, man, it sounded like it was right on

my doorstep. And so I pushed the curtains back and I

pushed, opened the doors, and I stepped out onto the edge of this balcony.

And I couldn't see anything, but I could hear

everything. I couldn't see what was

beyond my balcony, but I knew who

created those waves. I knew who made

that water. And the scripture tells me that his

voice is the sound of many waters, right? And so

I was afraid. But I went all the way to the edge and

I just heard the Holy Spirit just say, will you trust me?

Will you trust me? Now, let me tell you why that's funny.

Because when I was a kid, it was difficult for me to learn to

swim. And I used to fake being able to swim.

I know. How do you fake being able to swim? I'm

gonna need some help over here. The way you fake being able to swim

is you use one leg and one arm, and on the surface, you

Pretend to swim while you hop with your left foot.

I thought I was swimming so sublimely across the

surface when what everybody else was seeing was this.

Because I wanted one foot on the ground.

I wanted to be able to be in control, and I

couldn't trust that. And so what I was having

going on on the surface in my mind looked like, oh,

that girl knows how to swim. But my left leg was

cramping under the water because I wasn't

being able to do it. So to me, this dream

showed me God's sense of humor from one standpoint. To go,

you want to keep your foot on the bottom, even in a pool, and I'm

asking you to step into something. You have no idea.

You have no idea. And I said, but, Lord, in my dream, I

said, but, Lord, I can't touch bottom there. And he said, the point is

not to touch bottom. The point is to trust

him. Because as long as we can touch bottom,

we are still in control. But once you're in over your

head, baby, it doesn't matter how deep you go, because it's

all him. It's all Him. And so what was in

my spirit is, do you trust him?

Do you trust him? When you are in a situation that you don't

know anything other than that first step that he's calling you

to? You don't know how wide that

ocean is or how high those waves are,

but you know someone who does. And see, we don't back

up and we don't back down because that's not what God has called

us to do. No matter what's coming at you, that is not your

option. I'm just gonna call you up in that. We do not back

up. In chapter 10, it says this. Do

not throw away your confidence, not your confidence in how good you are, how fast

you can run, and that you can actually swim with both feet,

you can't do that. It will be richly rewarded. You need to

persevere. You need to persevere so that

when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has

promised. Oh, guys, come on. Grab this. We. For in

just a little while. For in just a little while.

He who is coming will come and will not delay. Never

lose sight of that. Never lose sight of that. The world

wants you to put you in a state of perpetual. Oh, well, he's not

coming back. You don't know when he's coming back. But I know he's

coming back. And it says, just a little while. He who is coming

will come and will not delay. And that's why we can't give up. That's why

we can't faint. That's why we can't back down. And it says,

but my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no

pleasure in the one who shrinks back. But we do

not belong. Say this one with me, guys, read that last part.

We do not belong to those who shrink back and

are destroyed. But to those who have faith and

are saved. We do not belong to the ones

who shrink back. You are cut

from better cloth than that. If I can quote Granny again.

You are cut from better cloth than that. You are the sons

and daughters of the most high God. And so

we do not shrink back. We consider him and his

goodness and what he's done. My

encouragement is this. It doesn't say,

run the race better than everybody else. It doesn't say,

look really good when you're running it. It doesn't say, you

are never gonna fall once you start this race. You are

never gonna stumble when what it

says is, keep going, Keep going. Persevere.

Did you know? It's not perseverance unless it's hard.

It's not perseverance if you're enjoying what you're doing.

Perseverance costs us something. And when you continue

over time to follow after him, to run the race,

whether anybody sees how you're running or not,

finish your race. Finish the course that God has laid out for

you. Some of you have stopped. Stopped

at times in my life where I've been like, oh, Lord, that looks too hard.

That looks too hard. And then you know what I see in those moments?

Anybody in here old enough to remember the commercials about Nesty

Plunge?

That's what I see. Just trust

fall. Not with humans.

With him. Trust fall. Go, God. This

is what I believe that you said. I'm gonna need some worship leaders out here

because we're gonna worship. Because I do believe what he said when we

were talking earlier. He's worthy of praise. And when you've got a

spirit of heaviness, we're gonna put on a spirit of praise in a minute, and

we are gonna worship him.

God finishes what he starts.

God finishes what he starts. His people finish

what they start through his strength, by his wisdom. And

if your race has not finished yet, you're not finished yet.

So we're gonna run our race together, aren't we? You know what the scripture

that stayed in my heart all

week was When Jesus looked out over Jerusalem and he said,

jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I longed for. Gather

you in my arms. How I longed to gather

you in my arms. But you wouldn't have it. You wouldn't

have it. And what's in my spirit today is a

gathering. What is in my spirit today is a calling up to

go. God finishes what he starts. And I don't know where you are in your

life, but I do know where God is in your life. And he is watching

to see if you are ready to take that step, if you are

ready to just trust him and run the race that he's called

you without excuses. Not going well. I can't run

that anymore. I can't do that anymore. This is my reason.

What if you just trust him? And what if you move over

to the edge of that balcony because you don't have to see it to hear

his voice. You don't have to see him to know that he's there. What

if you just step over to the edge of that balcony,

catch the sound of what God is doing, and make

a decision to persevere and

stay and take that step into the

unknown and trust Him. Don't shrink back.

Do what God has called you to do. And here's the beautiful part of it.

You don't have to do it by yourself. You don't have to be

alone. Matthew ran that marathon.

We got a whole lot of people

that'll run with you, that'll walk with you,

that'll have conversations with you that need to be had. People

who will hug you and love you and care for you and

cover you when you need to be covered. That's what the body

of Christ does. That's what the great cloud of witnesses.

I think when I always picture it this, I always picture them, like,

leaning over. I don't think they have to lean over to look

through the clouds, but that's how I picture it. But I see them. And

we are surrounded. We're surrounded

by so great a cloud of witnesses. And one day when we

join them, if he tarries,

we'll be part of that, watching as our sons

and our daughters and our grandchildren and our

great grandchildren stand witness to what God is doing in

the earth. God is good. And we

don't shrink back. We don't back up.

We stay focused. We fix our eyes on

Jesus. We fix our eyes on the author and

the finisher of our face.

Author and the finisher. So here's what I have asked the worship team to do.

Because I know they're not tired enough from what they did earlier.

I have asked them, we are going to do two Songs.

And if you

just need to make a declaration in your life, we're getting ready to

speak Jesus. We're going to speak Jesus over our families.

We're gonna speak Jesus over our church. We're gonna speak Jesus over our life. We're

gonna speak Jesus over our kids. We're gonna speak Jesus over our

communities. Because that's what it's about.

That's who it is about. It is about Jesus. It

is about his redeeming power and all

that he is. And we are witnesses and we

testify of the goodness of God. So I'm gonna invite you to a

gathering. Yeah, I just came up with that. Anyway,

I want you to gather with me. Will you come down here? We're going to

gather. We're going to make a declaration of. I speak Jesus. If you are

physically capable of coming, I just.

In the words of Paul, I beseech ye, therefore, brethren,

because you know what I need

the family of God together. And

we're going to speak. I speak Jesus. And then there's something else. We're going to

shift, and you might not have danced in a

while, but clogging is an

option.

I didn't really mean that. River dance.

Whatever. We are going to go into the. The final song is

Praise. I praise. I praise

when I feel it. Come on up, guys. You get up closer.

I praise when I don't.

Everybody, do your hands still work? Can you point

like this and go. Can you make a declaration? I speak

Jesus. I speak Jesus over my family.

I speak Jesus over every situation. We're

gonna go there, and you can't leave after I speak Jesus, because

we are gonna put on a garment of praise for a spirit of

heaviness. And we are gonna watch God go.

Amen. Let's go, worship team. Hey, sound people, push

the buttons. All the way up. All the

way up. Yeah, let's go.