Arise Dependently

All right, well, guys, welcome. We are actually starting the

second portion of our year series. So

over the last several months, we have been in

the side of abide, and we're about to start with

Arise today. And then in the fall, we're going to be going into

advance. And so I'm excited about where the Lord is

going to take us in this, and I hope that you are, too.

We're gonna read one scripture today. One scripture. And because

it's one, I'm gonna ask you to read it twice. So if you'll stand with

me, we're gonna read that. The first time you read this, I want you to

read it and you go, oh, that's the scripture we're reading. And then

the second time you read it, I want you to read it like, oh, that's

the scripture we're reading. Okay, are you ready? Here we go. Let's read it together.

Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not

receive the kingdom of God like a little child will.

Will never enter it. Whoa. Let's say it again.

Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not

receive the kingdom like a little child.

Father, I thank you for your word. And I thank you for its truth. I

pray, Lord, that it would transform us today. I pray, Lord, that you would speak

to our hearts today, God and Lord, as you do the work,

Lord, help everything that I'm saying, that's nonsense, fall to the ground. But those things

you have stick for eternity in Jesus name. And everybody said,

amen. Amen. So we have spent this year,

the first quarter, talking about the principle of abiding

and abiding. If I were to sum it up in one phrase,

abiding is this. Jesus is your source.

Jesus is your source. John 15 tells us. He says, I

am the vine and you are the branches. And as we step

into arise, what we're looking at is coming from the

vine as we are the branches. We're looking at this budding

that's happening on the branches. And as it starts to

bud, we're going to find out what it is that's supposed to happen during this

season of spiritual maturity in the Lord as

we have surrendered to him being our source. Now, if you're anything like

me, I have the propensity of whenever I'm given a green

light, man, I wanna take off and go, I'm just ready to. I'm ready

to run. And what I believe some of us as

believers have also the propensity to do is to do the same

thing whenever we have surrendered our lives to The Lord we say,

lord, I fully recognize that you are my source.

Now what do you want me to do? Now what do you want

me to do? And so we become, real quickly human

doers instead of human beings.

And we're gonna learn a little bit about what that first step looks like. And

it may not be what you think it

is. As we step into this arise now, if you can transform

your back to the beginning of the year, the beginning of the series. And

let me tell you something, I know you've slept. I know some of you don't

even remember what you did yesterday. So I'm gonna remind you what that looked like

back then. But we were talking about, we live in this Kingdom of

God culture in the context of this broader

world that doesn't want really anything to do with the Kingdom of God. And that

can be hard. That can pose some

challenges because the context with which we live, we're rubbing

elbows at work, at school, at the grocery stor,

people who do not ascribe to biblical principles and wanna

shove their way of living down your throat

every chance that they get. And so here you are trying to really own and

learn biblical truth, biblical standards of living, a

biblical worldview. Yet you're in this context of this world. And

it can be a bit of a struggle at times. But

here's the thing. The question that we have to ask ourselves in the midst of

that as we acknowledge it, is this. Will we be

formed by the world we live in, or will we be rooted

in the kingdom to which we belong? This is the question that we asked at

the beginning of the year. And it's gonna play a role in it. Played

a role in abide, it's gonna play a role in arise, and it's gonna play

a role in advance as well. Will we be formed by the world

we live in, or will we be rooted in the kingdom

to which we belong? And so what my hope is is as we mature and

grow in the Lord in this series, and then we get into advance, we're actually

gonna look when a believer takes a

stand for biblical truth, we're actually going to look at what it actually looks like.

What is the action point that happens that's going to come in advance. But

here's the thing, we got a lot of spiritual surgery that needs

to happen inside us before we get to this place where the Lord releases us

to go. And so my hope is that

as we get in this middle section, that the Lord begins to really do a

work inside us, because we've been In a place where we say, God, I now

fully acknowledge you as the source. That's where it starts,

acknowledging you are the source. I'm not the source. My

friends are not the source. The TV is not the source.

Social media is not the source. God, you are the source. You're the

source of my life. So will we be formed by the world

or will we be rooted in the kingdom to which we belong?

Okay, so we're going from this place of abide to

arise. And in order to do that, I believe we have to go

all the way back to Genesis. We have to go back to

the beginning. Did you know that in the beginning, God

created the heavens and the earth? In

the beginning, God created. In other words, this idea

was always God's. This idea was always

his. In the beginning, he created. Day one, God said,

let there be light. And there was light. And so he

created day and night. And you know what he said after that? He said,

day two, he created the sky and the heavens. And after he got done with

that, you know what he said? It's good. Then he

created the land, the sea and the plants. And after he was done creating

those things, you know what he said? It's good. You're catching on.

The sun, moon and the stars on day four. And God created it

and said, then he created the fish and the

birds. And after he did that, on that day, he said,

and then day six, he created animals and he

breathed into man. And he said, you know what

this tells me? Everything God created is good.

Everything that God does and has a hand in

is good. Because God inherently,

He is good. There is no strain, There was

no effort. Real effort, no real resistance.

Beginning only authority and completion. With God's sovereignty

on display. God was providing order.

God was the provision. He was the

completion of all things. God creates the world. He

forms man. And he breathes life into

man. And as we see man there laying down, and I want

you to jump and parallel from John 15 to Genesis 1,

he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. In

Genesis 1, God breathes into man. He breathes into man.

And guess what that breath is? It is the source of life. It's the

source of life. So we're drawing from, from the beginning, we've always

supposed to been drawing from God. We've always supposed to been drawing from

God. And here's the thing. He breathes breath into man. Man breathes

and he gets up. And guess what? The first thing

Adam breath gets to experience with God, the

very first thing that Adam gets To experience with God

is rest. What?

Wait a second. I mean, I would

think if God is breathing into Adam for the first time,

I mean, if it was me and I'm laying there and he's breathing into Kevin

for the first time, I want to get up and start running. Let's go, game

on, Start taking on. Let's start doing stuff. Let's start doing stuff. I want

to do it. I want to get. I want to get into it, right? But

the very first thing that humankind,

mankind gets to witness is listen to this.

A completed creation

and a God resting. Not because

God was exhausted, not because God needed

to take a break. He was resting so that

he could enjoy the beauty of what he had

created. God is resting from a place

of enjoyment of his creation, and man

comes on the scene, and the first thing man sees is God

enjoying the beauty of what he created. I want to

suggest to you today that the first man, the first

thing that takes place as you have submitted and surrendered your life

and said, he is my source, the very first thing that happens is God

invites you on a journey of rest in him. The very

first thing that takes place is not take up your swords, look at your

ability, look at your talents, look at the platform. He

says, no, the first thing that we do is we rest in everything

that he's created. He is the source. He is

God, and we. And we are not.

God's intention was always this. You

don't carry this.

You are supposed to trust me, says the Lord with it.

See, when it comes to rest, guys, we tend to view

rest through the lens of the, of recovery.

In other words, okay, if somebody says rest, it's, I'm tired,

so rest. I'm exhausted, so I'm going to rest.

I'm anxious, so I'm going to. I'm going to rest. I'm empty, so I'm going

to rest. Guys, can I tell you, Adam was not tired. He was

not overloaded, he was not empty. He was not anxious.

And this tells us that rest is a part

of God's design. Rest is a

part of. In other words, your creator

created you. And an aspect of you from

the very jump is supposed to be this rest,

this beautiful, wonderful rest that

happens naturally. But here's the thing. We live in a

culture that fights tooth and nail against this principle of

rest, tooth and nail

against rest. I've been on staff

in some way for about 15 years here, but for the last five,

a little bit over five years, I've been in this position. And

after year one, I remember we were going to an admin board meeting,

and we've got a fantastic admin board here at the church. Really

has served us well for a very long time. And we're going in there

to do the year review. Now, I'm walking in from the lens of, okay, this

is the first year around the. You know, this is my first circle around this

thing, and we're reviewing how things are going and all that stuff. But the Lord

says to me, kevin, when you go into that admirable meeting, I want you to

tell them that you're supposed to take a month off. And I

go, oh, I can't do that. Who goes into a new

position? And after less than one year, you go, hey, guys, I just

want to let you know, I'm supposed to take a month off.

I was nervous, and now I know these brothers, but I'm like, what

are they going? Lord, I can't go in there. And can we wait at least

five or six years in. I mean, go in there. I mean. Or, okay,

how about a week? Can I take a week off? You know? No. He said,

I want you to go in there, and I want you to tell them I

want you to take a month off. So I went in there. I

was so nervous. I don't know that they know this, but, I mean, I was

sweating. I was like, in there. And I said, okay, guys, well, thank you. We've

reviewed the whole thing. Things are going well. And I said, okay, I don't really

know how this works, but God told me and

Shari that we're supposed to take an entire month off this next year.

And do you know, like, the minute the sentence left my mouth, there

was an amen on the table. Like, it was as if the

Lord had already prepared their heart in their mind, like they had already gotten

there before I had gotten there. And I want you to know that it

wasn't me presenting this because I was exhausted. I wasn't.

In fact, I was actually opposite. I was geared up and I

was raring to go for the next year. I'm like, what are you

talking about? Rest? Here's the thing.

Sabbatical. The principle of sabbatical, typically culturally,

is assigned to someone who gets identified. As you're worn

out, you're depleted, and so now you need to take some time off.

But how much better is it for the pastoral team to serve you

from a position of proactive rest than reactive

whenever there are down in the ditches, worn out?

And so we went on this sabbatical and can I tell you, for the first

time in my life, I remember turning off my cell phone,

completely backing out of everything. And it

was the most wonderful time that Shari and I have ever

experienced with each other and more importantly, with the Lord.

And the Lord downloaded me to me principles and things

that I needed for this house. And I came back

and I was ready to march into that admin board and say, I think three

months will be the ticket next year.

I was so thankful for that time off. I was so thankful

for that time of rest. Now I went to the staff and said, the admin

board has also given permission for you to take off. And guess what? It was

met with resistance. Some of the staff said, I don't want to do it.

I'm not going to do it. This is. I don't know that to say this

is dumb. But they said, you know, this is weird. Do you know what

FOMO is? Right? I mean, I don't want to miss

out. Okay? And so there was a little bit back and forth about this whole

principle of rest. But here's the thing, that's a natural response

because we are culturally conditioned not

to rest. We are culturally

conditioned not to be able to slow down

and actually take time. And as these staff members began to

get into a place of sabbatical, guess what they realized,

Whoa. What is it like to go into a place of

rest when you're not depleted? What can the Lord actually speak to you during

that time to get you ready to come back and really run?

I'm so grateful that we go to a church with the leadership that sees the

value in the leadership resting in the pastoral

team, resting guys culture says it's

uncomfortable to rest. When somebody comes to us and

suggests, hey, you need to take some time and rest, our

defense mechanisms kick right in. It's like

we've been wronged in some way by somebody saying, you might want to consider

resting guys, we were never designed to manage

our life's outcomes. We were designed to live dependent

on the one who already holds everything together.

And if you don't understand that basic principle,

you will spend your entire life trying to do God's

job for him. Here's the thing.

Something tends to happen to believers who have been around

the track a number of times, who have heard the word, who have gotten into

a Bible reading plan. We begin to understand

the language, we begin to see the patterns, we begin to

recognize the platitudes, we begin to get into all of the

minutia, and we end up, listen to this if we're not careful, we

end up moving from a place of dependence from confidence to

understanding, and from understanding

to confidence. But the confidence is

not in him. Our confidence, listen to this.

Is what we think we know about Him.

And so we begin to order our life, not dependent on the

Lord, but out of the confidence in what we think we know about

Him. Are you with me? And so, so

this, I believe, is where the disciples are. And so the

Lord took me to Luke chapter 17. If you have your word, you can go

Luke 17 · chapter mention

there. Luke 17, 18. And what I wanna pay

attention to here we've done on Thursday nights, the letters in red.

Well, today I wanna look at the letters in black. So the letters

in red are what Jesus says, and that's where we really need to

draw from. But the letters in black actually give

not only context to what Jesus is saying, it also is the response,

response of the disciples and the people around on what

Jesus is saying. And we can fit into the shoes

of the people and the writing in black. Okay, and so we're

gonna get there in just a moment. But so the reason I'm picking up in

Luke 17 is because the previous chapters, Jesus is

building and building and building a case for who he

is, what he's doing. We see the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep,

the lost son. He's building all of these things. And Luke 17 is the

first time we see these black letter come up. And there's a

response from the disciples. And I want to start, I want to start in Luke

17 because of that. So we open in

Luke 17. Jesus has been walking with the disciples.

He's building a case for himself. And let me say this first. I have

been so noticing the thread of God in my life lately.

I want you to know that if you will open your eyes, you will see

the thread of God in your life. Our

God, the one we serve. The God we serve, the God who breathes stars. He

is super. He is ultra intentional.

If you will pay attention, A connects to B connects to C, if you

will pay attention. And what we tend to do with these scriptures is we take

a parable and we plop it out of the context and then we teach on

it. There's nothing wrong with that. We dive deep in that way. But I want

you to understand, I believe that Jesus was on a mission with these

disciples and he was showing them something. He was dismantling

things all along the pathway that were not

isolated moments. It was a journey together

because he was trying to get them to a Place of utter

dependence on him. Utter and complete dependence

on him. And so we're opening Luke 17, and

Jesus is here. And it is the part of Scripture where he's saying, if a

brother sins against you, you ought to forgive him over

and over and over and over again. How many have

had to forgive somebody over and over and over again? And did you have to

do it over again? And did you have to do it over again, again? And

did you have to do it again, again, again? Here's the thing. It's okay. We're

okay forgiving. We're okay forgiving again

until the again comes. Are you with me? And here's what

Jesus is doing in this moment, okay? He's saying, you need to

forgive again. Okay? But here's the deal. I don't know about you.

When I've gotten to a place where I have to forgive again, again,

okay? I am sussing

through such hurt, such woundedness, such

brokenness and all this, that for me to forgive again, again,

I actually have to draw from the source of God. So what's

happening here is Jesus is saying, forgive again, again,

again. But in order to forgive again, you're going to need to draw from

me. Cause you're not going to be able to do it on your own strength.

And let me tell you something, if you do it on your own strength, you're

probably gonna have strings attached. Jeremy, I forgive you, but I expect

you to do X, Y and Z. No, that's not the forgiveness he's talking about.

Forgive again, again, again. You're gonna need his

strength, the source of life, to

fuel you and work in your brokenness so that you can walk in true freedom

and liberation and forgiveness. And so he's

saying, forgive again, again, again. And here's where we see they say something

for the very first time. They say this, Lord, increase

our faith. That's the response. Lord, increase our faith.

Now, I used to read this. I used to read this

from the angle of. I thought this was a quantity thing, but I

don't believe it is. I used to read this. In a way, it's kind of

like, Hannah, you got faith at level five, so you need

actually faith level seven to do this. Okay? You're not quite there. So just get

some more in your tank and then you'll be able. Sam, you're at level three,

and you need, like level eight to get here. So you need something to happen

so you can kind of measure. And the reason

I quantified it is because of what Jesus says next. He says if you have

faith like a mustard seed. Right? Okay, I don't read it. This is

how I kind of. I've kind of begun to read this. In this way

they say, lord, increase our faith. And Jesus is saying, if you have faith like

a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. In other words, you're not focused

on the right thing. This isn't about you. Listen to

this. This is the point. This isn't about you accumulating

enough faith so you don't have to be with me anymore.

Are you with me? It's not about quantity. It's not about, okay,

my faith tank is full enough. So, Jesus, I don't need you until my faith

tank is empty. He's saying, no, you must be dependent

on me all of the time. You can't forgive again,

again, again. Unless I'm the source.

Faith, all you need is a little bit of faith. You can move a mountain.

That's not even a big deal. Don't connect your. Don't

disconnect yourself from me is what he's trying to do. Listen, he's taking them

on a journey. These are that have walked and lived and

breathed with Jesus, okay? So they're walking with him. He says, listen,

listen, you need me as your source. The

issue is not how much you have. The strength of your faith is

revealed by the object of your trust. Because

faith is revealed by how much you depend.

Think about it. Your faith is revealed by how

much you choose to depend on the source.

I decided about five, six

years ago, I decided I was gonna get some muscles. And they were

selling these muscles at Lifetime Wellness, you know, on a package, you know,

annual package, monthly package. And so I went over there and they

said, you know, in order to get you some of these muscles, you're gonna have

to meet with a guy named Spike. And Spike's gonna help you out. He's gonna

do a consult with you. And so I went down to Lifetime Wellness

and, you know, I sandwiched it. In my day, I had a meeting, like at

12 and a meeting at 3, and I was at 2, and

I get down to Lifetime Wellness and I'm like, okay, I got this tight window,

but I'm gonna go in here and do this. And I go in there to

the gym and I go up to the receptionist and Spike has

left a packet of information for me to read. So I get up

there and the lady says, if you'll just have a seat right here, here's some

information for you. Spike will be right out. Now, I'm thinking To myself.

I've got an appointment coming up right behind this, so I need Spike to be

on time, okay? Now Spike is five eight, I'm five' eleven, I'm a little taller,

but Spike is like, he walks like this. I mean, he's got the muscles on.

He got muscles for sale, okay? He's just walking over, okay? And

Spike, I'm waiting for Spike to come out and it's 20 minutes. And what I

do is I sit down, listen to this. I sit down

and I want to be productive.

I want to do something. Like I'm not wanting to just sit.

And so what I do is I grab my phone and I start to go

through and answer emails and start to set up appointments, and

guess what? About 2:10 I start getting upset. Why? Because Spike has not shown up

yet. And so I'm like, I'm answering emails and I'm getting things done. I'm like,

listen, I don't care if spike comes at 2:20, I'm not leaving here at 3:20.

I have an appointment. He's got to get done in the 30 minute time. I

mean, I'm like, what's going on? Okay, so I'm scrolling right here about

2:20ish, Spike comes out the door. Now this is the first time I met Spike.

First time I see him, he's walking out like this. Now here, when you see.

I don't care how tall they are, you see a guy like this, you don't

tell them you're mad at them. You just go, hey, hey, nice to meet you,

Spike, you know, nice to meet you. Now internally I'm kind of like, man, you

wasted 20 minutes of my time. What's going on? Right? So he comes out, he

introduces himself, and we go down into the gym and he asked me, have you

ever done a lunge? Okay? So he said, I'm gonna have you do these

lunges, okay? So I said, okay, now here's the thing. I'm wired to be an

overachiever, okay? So I'm gonna do the best lunges

I can do as fast as I can do them, right? So I get down

and I'm like, whoosh, you know, whoosh, you know, I'm doing it

all the way down and come all the way back. I'm like, yeah, here we

go. He said, okay, great, do it again. Oh, okay, okay,

yeah, let's do it again. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Back and forth, all the way back.

Great. Okay, I need you to do it again. Oh, okay.

Thought to myself, I'm gonna slow down a little bit this time.

Whoosh. You know. Okay, so I'm

doing it. He has me lift some things. He has me do some leg exercises.

3 o' clock on the dot comes. He says, thank you for coming. You're just

gonna need to go down the two flights of stairs to the bottom and get

your checkout slip. And I will be emailing you what you need to do. Now.

I had a couple things going off in my mind at that time. Three o',

clock. I thought to myself, first of all, you cheated me on my hour. But

I'm not saying that out loud. The second thing I thought to

myself is, I'm so glad this is over, because I am tore up from the

floor. I am so sore. I got over there to.

And I tried to step down the first step, and

I could not lift my leg.

I mean, I'm serious. I could not lift my leg. So Here

comes Spike, 5, 8. And he says, are you okay? I

said, I can't lift my leg.

Spike picks me up like a baby and

walks me down five, eight, walks this five,

eleven man down the two flights of steps in front of all of these hunky

guys walking in, just ready to work out. I was so embarrassed.

I said to myself, I will never be at the gym at two o' clock

again. And so I get to school

that day and I'm in so much pain. And how many know that you have

friends in your life that like to broadcast your pain? Anybody? Okay, this

is my friend.

Have a good day. Oh,

Shut up.

We have adopted this mindset. I want to do it myself.

See, here's the problem. That paperwork that Spike

gave the first 20 minutes, it literally says in the

instructions, take the first 20 minutes and do these stretches

so you will not be in pain.

You see, there's something that's supposed to be done before

you get moving. There's a process. The Lord

is intentional with our lives. He's intentional with what he's

doing in our lives. And then that place of rest, there is

stretching of your muscles. That's happening. There's things that he's doing

to equip you and prepare you to advance. You can't

skip from abiding to advancing. There's gotta be a place in the

middle, which is the place where. So we start with

this thing that says, I want to do it myself. Now, the disciples are

unintentionally working their way toward this

I want to do it myself mentality. And Jesus is

teaching them that the only way that this works

is by depending on him. That's

literally the lesson. He's saying, I need you to depend on me. So

we then go into the story about the servants,

and he talks about servants who don't demand reward.

Why? What he's doing here is he's dismantling

this idea of entitlement. Have you ever met anybody

who seemed entitled? So here's the thing.

Listen, I've read the Bible a few times. I've been at church all my life.

I've been around Christians, you know, so, yeah, I should have that

special seat in the congregation. I should have that special notoriety.

They should be giving me a platform. They should be doing. There's this sense of

entitlement. I say it out loud and absolutely sounds ridiculous,

but let me tell you something. There's so many actions out there that match those

words. Just because you don't say it off the cuff

doesn't mean that your actions are not mimicking this. And here are some

disciples. And it's kind of like he's dismantling this idea

that if you get it right, you get a pat on the back. What

he's actually saying is, if you do it right, your

posture should be, I'm unworthy to have even been chosen to do it.

That's the heart posture. Because you understand if you do it right, it's

actually that you were drawing from the source. That you were

drawing from the source. Are y' all picking this up today? Okay,

so he's dismantling his entitlement. So in other words. Okay, guys,

I did not earn this position as lead pastor. It

wasn't like the elders got together and said, okay, here's the way to

achieve the title of lead pastor if you just meet these benchmarks. In

fact, I think I'm God's greatest joke to this church, honestly. Okay, but

here's the deal. There is a call on my life.

And the reason that's important is because, I mean, none of y' all do this.

But I get these emails and these opinions. It's never y'. All, but I get

these emails and these opinions and these thoughts, you know, that are

targeted, that are. That are left field. Like, I don't think you should have done

this. I don't think you should. And I'm so grateful for the feedback. Again, all

y' all only give me positive stuff,

right? Okay, but you get these. I get these

emails and I get these opinions. Because here's the thing. And here's the thing. Do

you know what? I'm actually Supposed to get those things

because I'm the leader, and leaders have fewer

privileges than followers. Okay, leaders have things. But here's the thing. You

know why my peace is not disturbed when somebody sends me something that is

kind of out left field, or maybe as a. I don't take

it as a personal attack, but maybe it's meant that way. I don't know. You

know why my peace is not disturbed? It's because I have a call on my

life today, this position. And so if I'm drawing from the

source, which is Jesus, then what you say to me is not

my source, which means it doesn't affect how I feel or how I walk or

what I do. Does that make sense? Now? It doesn't mean that it's not

valid. Doesn't mean it doesn't have to be addressed, all of those things. But

emotionally, it's like people are like, can you believe they said that about you? Well,

yeah. I mean, I've been a doormat for a long time in my life, you

know, to certain people. But guess what? I draw from the source. I

draw from the source. Now, here's the problem. When he lifts the call and I

continue to be in this position, then we're in trouble. I'm not just in trouble.

Y' all are in trouble, too. You don't need a pastor. You don't need any

of your pastors to be in the position without the call. You need

God to anoint the people who are leading you. You need to recognize

that anointing. But here's the thing. You need leaders in your life who lead from

a posture of, I cannot believe God would choose me worthy to do this. I

cannot believe that the Lord would choose me to do this. So, Lord, I want

to be. You need to be. You need me to be drawing from the sour

source. If you want truth in your life conveyed from any

of your leaders, you need them to be drawing from the true source. Not from

their ideas. Not from Facebook, not from Facebook,

not from Facebook,

not from Facebook. Okay,

so then we go into the story of the ten lepers. You see, ten lepers

are healed. Ten are healed from Jesus, and only

one comes back. And here's the thing. Everybody

can receive from Jesus. Everybody's able to come and

receive from Jesus, but very few are actually made whole. You

see, here's the thing. The 10 experienced the healing, but only one in that moment

was made whole because that one came back.

So the principle here is, I don't just need what Jesus

gives. I need Jesus. So the Principle

here, disciples, as you're walking is you don't just need the things I'm giving

you. This isn't like a three year window for you to get everything I give

you and then adios, okay? I don't have anything to do with your life

anymore. I hope you learn what you learned and do it. No, he's like, I'm

going to be with you. Like, the idea is that you need to depend on

me. And so that leper comes back completely healed, but doesn't just

receive healing, receives wholeness. And guys, you will receive

wholeness. If he's your source, if you go back to him. Jesus said,

whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, but whoever loses their

life will preserve it. In other words, when you proactively

surrender to this king and say, I surrender to you, Jesus,

and I acknowledge you as my source, you will have life, and you'll

have life abundantly. A life that you can't even. It's so extraordinary,

the peace that he gives you. And so if Luke 17 kind of

defines faith, Luke 18 demonstrates it. And so,

so Jesus takes everything he's just exposed and he

begins to walk them through what it actually looks like. And so this is

where we're gonna go to those words in black. And so in chapter 18, verse

1, it says this. Then Jesus told his disciples

a parable. Now, parable means story. Jesus told his

disciples a story to show them that they

should always pray and not give up. Okay,

so when you see this parable of the persistent widow, what are we supposed to

be taking away from it? We

should always pray and we should not give up. Okay,

so he goes through this story with the widow. She

has nothing. She has no power, no leverage, no influence, just need, just

dependence. And here's what dependence does. Dependence will keep

you going back to the source. What Jesus is teaching here is

when you depend on him, dependence, repentance is

infectious. You depend, you get, you go back. You

depend, you get, you go back. You depend, you

receive and you go back. This widow keeps

going, keeps going. Don't you think that Jesus is okay with

you continuing to come to him over and over and over

and over again? Some of you are one over again away

from a breakthrough in your life. Some of you are one

more persistent prayer away from God shattering the

ceiling and everything breaking free in your life. Some of you have

given up on this God who breathes stars by saying, well,

I guess he doesn't see me, I guess he doesn't know me, and I'm gonna

Draw to my own way of doing this. But he's saying, come back again, come

back again, come back again. His source never runs out. His source

never runs out. You might not have the breakthrough yet, but I'm gonna give you

the sustainability to walk until the breakthrough comes. Y' all aren't hearing what

I'm saying today. He is the source that we depend on.

And she keeps going and going. One of the largest indicators.

Listen to this. One of the largest indicators of independence

is a shallow, non prayer life. One

of the greatest indicators. If you're wondering am I independent or I'm dependent, how

often do you talk to God? If you do not talk to God, if you

do not have a prayer life, active in your life whatsoever, you

do not talk to him, then you are the source of he's not.

Prayer unlocks all types of pathways to the king

who breathes stars. And guys, we've got to start talking to him.

We've got to be going to him. We got to be bringing our hurts, our

wounds, our confusion needs to be going to him. Our distractions.

We need to be going to him, not to the person next to us. We

need to be going to the source. Prayer. Prayer is the indicator on whether

we're depending on God. So she keeps coming back. She

keeps coming back. Then we see the story of the Pharisees and the tax

collector. Let's read those words in black. And it says this

to some who were confident of their own

righteousness and looked down on everyone

else. Jesus told this parable. So when we read this

parable, it is to those who were confident of their own

righteousness. What does that mean? I'm confident? Hey,

I'm doing everything right. Have

you ever talked to somebody and they're never wrong?

Like, it doesn't matter what you say to them. It's like they're never wrong. They're

never wrong. They're confident in their own

righteousness. Confidence in all the things that they

say and they do. I mean, they listen. They've read this book a couple times

and they've got the law on this book. They know exactly what's

supposed to happen. They're so confident

in their righteousness. And then he says this. He says,

and look down on everyone else. Here's the thing. This is

how this works. When you are so confident of your

own righteousness, then the only one you can see is yourself.

So then by proxy, you are looking down on everyone else, but you can't tell

that you're looking down on everyone else because you're too busy looking at yourself.

Are you with me? So when you're looking in the mirror and all you see

is yourself all of the time, and you go, I don't look down on other

people. Yes, you do. Because all you see is a version

of yourself everywhere you go. And God is

saying, put down the mirror and start looking at me. When

you look in the mirror, you should see Jesus. If you don't see Jesus, you're

not there yet. Y' all are quiet

today. Okay, here we go.

Jesus says, the one who walks away right with God is the

one who knew he needed him. In other words, the kingdom

cannot be earned. It can only be received.

It doesn't matter how gooder you are, how much you've worked, no

matter how much you've put in. I've been. Man, I've been going to this church

for 25 years. I'm just a little bit higher now. No, it doesn't matter.

There's no earning. Let me give us something that

will help us in this culture. Okay? I want to earn my

way into the kingdom. I'm going to give you an antidote. I'm going to give

you a pathway. Okay, here's the pathway. If you want to earn your

way into the kingdom, then the way to do that is

equivalent to your level of surrender. If you want

a mathematical equation, then surrender more, and then

you will receive more of the kingdom. Surrender more. Let go of more.

Let go, let go, let go, says the Lord. Okay, so he's

walking these guys. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is for us today. But

he's walking with these. His friends are right there, and he's taking.

This is like, boom, boom, boom. And he's like. He's

literally nailing all of these things on the head. And he's like. So if he

says to some who were confident of their own righteousness, it meant that

there were people there who were confident of their own righteousness

and looking down on other people. Are you with me? He's speaking to these

people. That's the whole reason of telling this story. Okay,

Then something interesting happens. Okay, now I wanna

say this first. Connected to this, I'm

gonna say something that some of you are gonna email me about. You ready? Okay,

here we go. The greatest barrier

between you and God is not sin.

It's not sin. Sin separates us from God.

But God sent Jesus to give us a pathway right

to the Father. In fact, in Hebrews, there's a verse that says, because of what

J, not only do we go to the Father. It says you can go to

him with boldness. So if sin is not

the barrier between us and God post resurrection,

then I would suggest today that the biggest barrier between you and

God is your independence. The biggest barrier

between you and God is when you decide, I'm gonna do it on my own

strength. I know enough, I've seen enough, I've heard enough. So I'm

gonna do it on my own strength. That's the biggest barrier between you and

God. Jesus said this, for all who exalt

themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves

will be exalted. There was a pastor that said this. God, I am so glad

when you correct me in the privacy of my own mind.

There are times when he will correct you in the privacy of your own mind,

and then there are times when he will put it on display for everybody else

to see. If you humble yourself, he will lift you up.

But there will be a point where you will be humbled if you're going on

your own strength. And let me tell you something, it's a lot easier to let

man humble you than it is. It's a lot better for man to humble you

than for the Lord to humble you. And

so then this wonderful, interesting thing happens. And this is kind of

gets us to the crux of where we are. He's traveled through all of

these things, and then something happens. The Word says

that they brought the children to Jesus. Now, I looked this up and

I learned something new as I was preparing for that. I learned a lot of

things new when I prepared. But one of the things I learned is the word

that's used there for children is the word breathe. And the word

breathe actually translates into the word infant.

Infant. So when they're bringing children to Jesus,

it's not necessarily they're bringing 7, 8, 9 year olds. They are

bringing infants to Jesus. They're bringing babies

to Jesus. Why is that significant?

The infants are brought to Jesus and the disciples stop

them because they don't see value

in the infants. Here's what they see. Listen, with the

infants, they can't contribute, they can't

perform, they can't understand. In other

words, the babies are inconvenient because all

they're doing is there to receive from Jesus.

Now listen, this is my baby. Oh, yes, she's cute. Okay, here's the thing.

She poops, we clean her diaper, she

cries, we give her a bottle. All Eliana can

do at this moment is sit there, sleep, eat and

breathe because she is completely Dependent

on us. The babies are being

brought to Jesus and they say, don't worry

about these babies. They can't do anything here. They

can't do anything here because the culture says it's based on

what you do instead of who you are. And who you

are is who the source says you are. And he

says, listen, let the babies come to me.

Bring those babies to me. Because here's the thing. If you don't

receive the kingdom like a baby, you don't get the kingdom at all.

Which means unless you have utter dependence

on him like a baby, until you become like

Eliana, until I become like Eliana in the kingdom, until

I'm laying there going, gah ga goo goo, God, please,

please change me, feed me, help me. Until we can get to

that mentality, we're not going to receive the kingdom.

Are you with me? He's saying, let them come. I've just taken

you on this journey I'm trying to dismantle. It's not about.

Not about good works. It's not about entitlement. It's not about all these things. It

is about you becoming dependent on me. John,

Luke, Thomas, Vonda, April, Deanne,

Keith. It's about you becoming dependent on me. Jesus says,

let them come. Whoever does not receive the kingdom

like this will not enter them. Listen, the kingdom belongs to those

who depend on the Lord. The kingdom of God depends

on. Depends, belongs to those who depend

on the Lord. Babies don't strive, they trust.

Babies don't perform, they rest.

They don't manage outcomes like we talked earlier. They

depend. And Jesus says, this is how

we enter the kingdom of God. This level of

dependence. Now, I'm going to say this, and this is another email. You

ready? There is a boldness rising up

in the church. Big C. There's a boldness happening right now, okay?

And that's not wrong. And how I know there's a boldness is

because Instagram and Instagram has these little things that

pop up and it tells you. It gives you one little snippet of a little,

like, sharp sword that says, churchgoers, believers should believe

this, and this is what we should do. And I don't necessarily think

isolated. Those little micro things that we see on

Instagram, they're not necessarily false. In fact, a lot of justified

right through the word. But here's the problem. The problem is, is we got

dependent statements in the hands of independent believers.

And what happens is when we get dependent statements and independent

believers, what they do is they begin to depend upon their own Idea of how

we should execute the thing that they're reading. And that becomes

dangerous. That becomes. If boldness is not rooted

in this infant style dependence, it becomes

dangerous to us and to believers all around us.

Boldness with dependence becomes spirit led power

and spirit led power leads to transformation in people's lives.

Spirit led power leads to transformation in people's

life. If it's not flowing from him, it's not worth it

if it's not flowing from the Lord. Listen, guys, I'm going to suggest something.

The process of discipleship can become an

idol in your life. The process

by which we call out other people's faults can become an

idol in your life. Why am I saying that? Because some people

live their day in, day out, breathing life, trying to

make things happen, manipulate situations, tell people what they're going

wrong, and they have not spent any time with the source. They're deriving

their information from the right place, but they're not being led

by the Holy Spirit. In other words, here we go.

Dependence feels like loss when your identity is built on

control. Dependence feels like

loss, like I've lost something when your identity is built on

controlling the outcomes. It's so

easy to masquerade dependency when your security is your

own sense of control. Like maybe for your finances. I

talked about our admin board just a little bit ago. Here's the

thing. Our church, like when we review the financials and stuff,

there is Holy Spirit led intervention when it comes

to stewardship that allows us to have

wisdom, exercise discernment and having some cash over here

in case something goes down or goes wrong. When the air conditioning goes out, we

need to have money to fix the air conditioning. Okay, so. And that principle

can apply in your house. But here's the tension that we work with

all the time and we got a great group doing this. The tension is we

don't need to be a church that's sitting on $5 million in the bank account

when there's a dying world out there. We don't need $5 million to fix

air conditioning. Because what that says is we're relying on our bank account. We don't

need to trust the Lord for our finances. There's wisdom in figuring

out where that balance and tension is, where you don't have the tools

in front of you to control the situation. You have to get to a place

where you understand, listen, I'm exercising discernment in this situation.

I'm being steward in this situation. I'm doing and saying what I'm supposed to do.

Based on what I've seen in scripture. But there comes a point when I go,

I surrender. You're the source. I surrender. You're the source. I

surrender. What you tell me to do? Guys, Shari and I used about three years

ago, I was like, I'm gonna start saving up our bank account. I'm literally gonna

start saving. And I start saving, I get up to a certain amount, and you

know what the Holy Spirit says? I want you to give it all away. I'm

like, what? Okay, I started storing up. Storing up, give it all away.

He did that about four times to me. I said, forget it. I'm not saving

up any. I'm done. I'm done. I don't wanna wait on the

blessing for when I got that much money. I want the blessing now. Lord, just

use me today. What do you need me to freely give today? Because every time

I try to stock up, you know what he's doing? He's saying, kevin, if you

start saving up, you're gonna rely on your bank account. And you're not gonna rely

on my voice. Now, that's for me. For you, he might have you do

5 million. I expect your tithe check next week. Okay, so

now Peter does

something here that is. Is just outrageous. Okay. If

you know the story. Oh, my goodness. It's that time. Okay, Peter does something outrageous.

Okay, we're about to close down here. Peter does something

here. Okay, I'm gonna tell him my sister. Is my sister here? Is Alexis

here? Oh, good, I can talk about her. Praise God. Okay. All right, here's the

deal. Now, my mama raised us pretty much.

My mom was a single mom for a while there. And she raised my brother

and I, and my brother and I. I mean, we got away with things, but

we also knew who brought home the law. Is that right, Joey?

We knew. Mom's in charge, Right? Okay. Have you ever had a

moment where your soul left your body? Okay. We were on

an airplane coming back home from vacation, and

we're adults. My brother and I are adults. And my sister's in middle school. And

my mom's on the plane, and we're all on vacation together.

And we're there, and my mom's standing. I guess we're getting situated. Cause I remember

I. I was in a standing position. And my mom said, alexis,

sit down. To which Alexis turns around and says, mom, you sit

down. And I believe she said, and

be quiet. My soul left my body, went around

the airplane and came back, and I fell down in my

seat because all I could See, was my mama's hand coming across

the seats and smacking her. I was beside. I mean, it sucked

the air out of the room. Okay, was that true, Joey? I mean. I mean,

we were sitting there like, what is about to go down here? Now, here's the

thing. Youth get ready. As your parents get older, they get softer. See,

let me tell you something. Alexis got out of that so easy.

She should have been beaten down. And we didn't. She was just like, sit down,

man. I was so unfair. But

I read this scripture that what Peter says here. And my

soul left my body because Peter

has something to say. We get through all of these things. I want you to

picture Peter here. Okay? Peter. Now, Peter's stepping out of the boat.

All of the things. I mean, Peter, we like Peter, okay? He's the pronounced

one. But Peter actually stands up to

Jesus. He says, look,

look, Jesus, we've left all our

family for you. Now, here's the thing. The reason this doesn't

escalate is because he was talking to Jesus. Now, Jesus is compassionate. He is

kind, he is patient, right? But when I read that

in the context of this buildup here, and Jesus

said. And Peter's like, look, I'm gonna say. I'm gonna speak on behalf of everybody.

Look, let me tell you something. We get to places in our life where we're

looking at the Lord and we're like, look, Lord. We buck up to him and

we say, now, we might not say it out loud, but I've been around some

people. I've literally been around some people, and I'm like, let the lightning

strike tomorrow. I rebuke that in the name of Jesus.

Okay, here's the thing.

He's not rebelling. He's reasoning. But here's the danger. And

this is if you don't leave with anything else, this is what I want you

to leave with. When you think you understand how God works, you stop

depending on how God will. When you think you understand,

Peter's coming. Listen, Peter wasn't. It wasn't like Peter

decided, I'm going to stand up to Jesus. It's what he did.

But it's not like he's meditating on this. Peter believes he

understands what's going on. Peter. And so Jesus is making

the assertion, here you've got all your family's got to leave, and brother

over sister, all this stuff. And Peter's sitting here going, look,

we've done this. Did I get it right, Lord? I mean, what's going

on? It's the same Time when he, it's the same thing as, you're not gonna

wash my feet, you're not gonna wash my feet, you're gonna wash

my whole body. Soul sucking

out of the room. Peter had been with Jesus, but now he's interpreting everything through

himself. And we read and say, how could he say that? But we

do it all the time. Every time we evaluate our lives based on what we've

done instead of who, who we trust. You can

leave everything and still be depending on yourself.

Peter approaches the kingdom like a contributor. A baby approaches the kingdom

like a recipient. Peter says, look what I've done. A baby says,

I'll trust what you will do. Listen, Peter

didn't need to do more. He didn't need to say more. He didn't need to

be more. He only needed to rely

on the lord more. Proverbs 3, 5 says this,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on

your own understanding. Guys, all is all, all

is all. But what we do, instead of relying completely

on him as we do this, we say, it's going to be Jesus and

Jesus and

Jesus and leads to destruction.

It's Jesus, period. Eliminate

the and in your life. Eliminate whatever that and is,

eliminate it. And lastly, in this worship team, you come on back and get

prepared. The blind man is the story. Next, all of this

happens and the Word says that Jesus approaches Jericho.

You know what Jericho means? Jericho literally translates to the word walls.

Jesus is approaching walls, and at these walls, there's a

blind man. I love where this is in the story because he's gone through all

of this with the disciples. And it's like, I want to show you a blind

man. I want to show you a wall in your life. And guys, some of

you came here this morning. You've got walls in your life. You've got blind spots

in your life. And this blind man has no choice. He

can't see with his natural eyes. So he has no choice but to

depend on people, to depend on others. So he's

fully dependent. And he cries out and they try to silence him, but he gets

louder. And Jesus asked him a question. He says, what do

you want? And he says, I want

to see. Guys, I think some of

us need to acknowledge that we are blind. And I want

to see God. I know the scripture,

I've been around church, but God, I got blind spots and I

want to see from the source. Because here's the thing. Dependence often

comes before clarity. See, we want the

clarity first. We want to see what the plan is. And then we'll depend.

But God says, no, that's not faith. I want you to depend on me, and

then I'll show you things that you've never seen before.

Dependency often comes before clarity.

So what if we actually lived what Corinthians says, We walk by

faith and not by sight. What type of

exponential things would be happening in our lives?

So we abide from a place. We abide from a place of knowing he's

the Source, and we arise in this place. And the very

first step, friends, is to rest and depend on Him.

I found this video on Insta and I want to play it for you

because I believe it might connect to our hearts, on how our. Our

posture should be with worship.

What if today was a breathing moment for you

where you looked at your circumstances, your

situations, the things that you've been holding on to, and

you said, lord, make me an infant. Make me like a

child in this.

What would it look like if you approached what you're going through

with total and utter dependence on the Lord? Would you

guys stand with me and those who are going to minister? Would you come forward

this morning?

Guys, the God of the universe, he is on the throne

and he knows you. He cares about you. He sees

you and he says, come again. Just like

that widow. Come again. Come again. Come again. Come.

Come to me. Come to me, those who are weary and

brokenhearted. He is the giver of rest. He is the giver

of strength. He is the giver of peace.

But when we say we draw from the source, we're not

drawing from the source. As people who bring our own ideas,

our own methods, we're drawing from the source. Like

infant babies who say, God, I actually think I know what

to do. I think I know what's going on. But God, actually, you have the

answer here. And I can totally, fully trust you. That's my

faith stuff. I trust you. I lean into you. And I believe

that you will radically transform anything going on in my life.

Because you care about me that much. If we don't take care of Eliana,

she will die. You have a heavenly

father that does not want you to die. So believe

me, he's looking to feed you. Stop eating the crap the world's giving you.

He's looking to sustain you and to hold you. He wants to hold

you. Stop being held by other people who aren't God.

He wants to breathe life into you. Jesus says, I am the

way, I am the truth. I am the life. I love that

it's the and not a He is the way so come this morning

if you have anything at all all remember that verse in Hebrews Come boldly

and let's agree together that this guy can actually do what he said he'll do

he's the source, let's worship.