Christian-ish: Week 4

Well, good morning, welcome to Church of the Cross. Say

my name is James, and today we are in our

fourth week of our series called christian Ish. Now I

was thinking about it and praying about it this weekend,

and this christian Ish series is extremely blunt. Okay, it's like,

all right, here's what scripture says, here's what God calls

us to, and that's the way it is. And you

know what, sometimes in tone it could feel pretty tough,

pretty rough. And you know what, I was thinking, like,

all right, do I tone it back? Do I tone

it back? Do I tone about it? But then I

started to think when I was praying this weekend.

No, I love you and I want you to become.

The disciple that Christ has called you to be. And

if you're going to become the disciple that Christ has

called you to be, then there's one to some things

you're gonna have to lay down, the things you're gonna.

Have to address. And so this series has been tough.

At the same time, it's been truth and truth will

will eventually it's gonna set you free because you're gonna

stop listening to the lies that the world says to

compromise or to go this way.

So today's another tough one.

Uh. But today is more of a philosophical and a

theological one. So let's prepare our hearts for this today. God,

we give you praise today and we thank you for

the opportunity to worship you, to be in your presence,

and we know that you know our name. Speak to

us now and shape us today in Jesus' name. Amen.

You know I am a natural blues music lover.

I love blues music.

And there is a man born in early nineteen hundreds.

His name was Robert Johnson. Let me tell you a

little bit about Robert Johnson. He grew up very poor

in the South. His family was a deep poverty. They

moved around a lot, and he grew up with a

tremendous amount of racial tension in his culture. But here's

the thing about Robert. Robert loved to play the guitar.

He loved the blues, and people who knew him would say, yeah,

he's all right, he's okay, and then they didn't see

Robert for a while.

The next time they saw him, he was a virtuoso

and he blew everybody's mind. And the legend goes that

in between time, one night. At midnight, Robert went to

the crossroads and he met a man there and they

made a deal. And the deal was simply this, that

Robert would be given these almost like supernatural power when

it came to the guitar and music in exchange for

his soul. And so that's where we get the famous phrase,

someone made a deal with the devil. What's interesting is

is that when Robert kind of got back on the

scene in nineteen thirty six.

In nineteen thirty seven.

Robert recorded twenty nine blues songs that he wrote. Now

here's the thing. I don't know if you guys are

in the blues, but I used to love listening to

Robert Johnson's original recordings, and there's twenty nine songs on there.

And these songs are the foundation of blues music. All

of blues music is built off of these, which, by

the way, rock and roll music is built off of those.

So Robert Johnson is, what he was saying, maybe the

grandfather of the music that we've grown up to. And

he has songs like you know, the Song's Roads, the

song hell Hound on My Trail, And all that did

was build the legend up about him making a deal

with the Devil. Well in nineteen thirty eight, just right

after he made those famous recordings, his career blew up.

In nineteen thirty eight, at age twenty.

Seven, he mysteriously died.

They believe he was poisoned, and they believe that he

was poisoned by a jealous husband. Now, even though he

died and many save us from a jealous husband, what

people like to say is simply this that the devil

came to collect what was his. He made the deal,

he became famous, and now it's time to collect his soul. Now,

this man who Robert Johnson, who famously made the Deal

with the devil, Most of that story I don't believe. Okay,

I believe all the biographical because all the graphic cool.

You can look it up. It actually happened. Okay.

He did write those songs.

Those songs are still there. He did become famous, he

did die mysteriously. They do think it's all this suff

But I don't know about the deal with the Devil part.

I think because of how great he was at his craft,

people said it has to be Satan's influence. Now I

tell you that story because it leads to a bigger

idea today. You know, in our vernacular we have this

phrase that we have heard for years, someone made a

deal with the devil. We also have this phrase, someone

made a deal with God. Some of you might have

said in.

Your life, I made a deal with God.

And if we look at cinema, oh through the decades,

that is mentioned over and over again, and they actually

play it out in a lot of movies. When we

see the movies that told about somebody making a deal

with the devil, it almost always ends bad. And then

we look at the people who make a deal with God,

and it almost goes in two directions. The first direction

is God, if you do this for me.

Then I'm gonna give you my life.

Do this for me, save me from this, help me

in this situation, and I will give you the rest

of my life. Quite interestingly, when we look at history,

we actually see.

This actually play out history.

At fifteen oh five, Martin Luther, he was the one

who went on to write the Protestant Reformation, or excuse me,

went on to lead the Protestant Reformation. He was out

traveling one day and he got caught up in this

vicious lightning storm. It knocked him to the ground because

lightning hit right beside him, and he thought for sure

that he was gonna die, and he cried out, Saint Anne.

So he cried out to you know, one of the

patron saints of the Catholic Church, and he says, Saint Anne,

if you rescue me from this storm, I will become

a monk.

And what's interesting, he had been working for.

Years on his career to become a lawyer.

He survived that storm.

He quit pursuing being a lawyer. He then joined a monastery,

became a monk, became a professor, and then eventually, one

day he walks up to a door in Vintenberg and

he nails the ninety five theces that rocked the rest

of the world's history is from that moment on, the

prost Reformation changed the world. And it started with some

dude yelling out saying, Anne saved me from the storm,

and I'll give God the rest of my life. Another

way that this deal with God prayer goes is a

lot of people will say God, if you do this

for me, or if you save me from this, I

will stop doing this.

You don't have to raise your hand. But how many

of us I prayed that prayer.

Think about it. In many alcoholic anonymous testimonies, they include

moments like if you just get me through this night,

I'll never drink again, followed by decades of sobriety. Now,

some might call this transactional living. Here's what transactional living is.

And you know, I want you to understand this today.

Transactional living is I give you something and in return,

I get something. It's simply a transaction. Is simply an exchange. Now,

when I was a kid, we had these grocery stores

in Middletown, as a chain of them called Dilman's. And

I used to love to go to Dilman's Grocery store.

And as soon as you walked into Dilman's grocery store.

They had like eight of these do you guys remember these?

Yes, yes, yes, And man, I just look at him like, man,

this looks awesome, and you know, and I'd already knew

it was coming, so I'd already scrounged through the couches

of the house and the seats of.

The car to make sure I had my quarter.

And the hard decision was, am I gonna get? You

know peanut eminems, which, by the way, as I got older.

Now I think about how disgusting that is to eat.

Put M and ms out of that.

But you guys, remember chicklets.

Chick lits were one of the things you could get jawbreakers,

not good for kids. But bubble gum some of the

best tasting bubble gum on this.

Earth for six seconds, and you could buy it for

a quarter. And I loved it.

So I would go in and I would carefully make

my choice. I'd put the quarter in, and then I

would hear this beautiful sound. You guys know this sound

be quiet, that is the sound of childhood.

And then you would get your ball.

Now, I'm gonna lay this here because Thursday night I

kept putting the balls in my pocket after service. For

some reason, nobody wanted the ball that had been in

my pocket for forty five minutes. But anyways, but I

could count on it. I could count on I could

go in and I knew that if I gave a quarter,

I was going to get a reward. And that's how

the system worked. But how many of you ever experienced this?

You go in, you put your quarter in, and then

all of a sudden, nothing you ever experienced that? What

do we do when we get nothing, what did you

guys do?

What did you hoodlums?

Do you know what you hoodlums did? You?

That's what we did.

And then we went and found a manager and be like, uh,

I need to report a crime because we've been robbed.

Here's the interesting thing, the problem that we're gonna address

today is that many of us treat God like he's

a candy machine. I'm gonna put my quarter in of obedience. Now, God,

where's my blessing? And when we don't get what we expect,

we shake, we pound, and we complain. Now, we're probably

not any of us ever gonna go up at midnight,

go out to a crossroad and make a deal like

Robert Johnson. But a lot of us have stood in

front of God like a like a candy machine, a

dilman's quarter in hand, expecting a return for what we

put in, maybe not our twenty five cents, but.

Our but we put in good behavior.

We've put in church attendance, we Bible read, we give

our tithes, and then we push open and we do

the prayer crank and we expect God to give us

exactly what we want. And we're shocked when God does

not give us everything we want in our life. After

we've been coming to church, we've been doing our prayers,

we've been given, we've been doing our part. God. Now

it's time for you to do your part. So we're

baffled because we're like God, I serve you every week.

How can I lose my job? God? We're at church

every week. I don't earth to coud you let my

wife get cancer? God? I give faithfully, but my family

still live in paycheck to paycheck.

When does the abundance come?

God? I'm in a small group and I lead it

sometimes Why do bad things keep happening to me? And

we have to understand today that God and I think

we understand this here, But sometimes when we're desperate, we

forget about this and we accidentally shift into God. If

I do this, you're gonna give me this right.

It becomes a transactional relationship.

See, we believe in Sometimes when things are not going

our way, calls and affect faith. We tend to think,

if I do my part, then God has to do

his part, and without even realize that, we turn our

faith with God into a transaction with God. Now you

might be sitting here thinking like, surely, James, you as

a senior pastor, are significantly above this. Have you ever

had ten eight week old black lab puppies in your house?

They were so cute for seven weeks. When they turn eight,

I do believe a spirit much like who Robert Johnson

met at the Crossroads, entered into my eight puppies, and

they became destructive, and our house became chaotic.

The weather also happened to be ninety six degrees in humidity.

And in actually eat and we got desperate, and house

became chaotic. And I am just throwing money at Meta.

I'm throwing money at puppies dot Com like crazy, trying

to sell these pups. They're not moving. And I'm ready

to go to work one day and I look in

the room because I got all the puppies into the

room and they decided to eat my wall. And of

all rooms that they decided to eat my wall, it

was my workout room, which I plan on using a

lot in twenty twenty six or maybe twenty twenty seven.

I mean, they were chewing through this wall like any

DeFraine on the Shawshank redemption.

I mean, and I remember going out.

Walking to my truck, and I said, God, whatever you

need me to do, I will do anything you asked.

Me to do if you will sell these puppies.

And then I thought to myself.

Oh, my Lord, I just made a deal with God.

I have preached against this like ten times in my life,

and I made a deal. I can't tell you, by

the way they've all sold.

I can't tell you what I have to do.

But anyways, but you know, here's the thing. When we

get desperate, we shifted to negotiating with God. And then

when God does not give us what we want, after

we've been serving him or we've been in church for years,

we feel hurt, we maybe even feel betrayed by God.

And so what I want to do today is I

want to expose one of the most dangerous lies that

keeps many of us from real faith, because so many

in the church fall victim to transactional faith, which is

a false faith.

What is transactional faith.

It's the belief that God owes us if I do

my part, then God has to do his part. And

it's a seductive lie, by the way, and I believe

that this lie, almost more than any other lie, has

led more people out of the church and out of

a relationship of God, because when God doesn't do something

big for them, then there must not be a God.

I have someone that I've known pretty much my whole life.

Their mother was on her deathbed unexpectedly. He goes into

another room. He's a young man in his late teens,

maybe early twenties, and he goes into another room and

he says, God, save my mom. I'm asking you right now,

don't let my mom die. Within a couple hours she died.

Everyone that knows him knows that we are not supposed

to bring up God around him. He's in his late

fifties and he is still angry at God. He gave

God one chance. God didn't do it. There must be

no God. And religion is a fraud.

That my friend is transactional faith.

It's God, if you love me, you're gonna do something

for me. And here's the thing we need to understand

that true faith is relational, not transactional. True faith is

about knowing and loving God for who he is, not

for what he does for us. True faith is not

a contract. It's a relationship. It's about trusting God for

who he is, and so it does give me comfort

when I look at the Bible and I look at

some of the main characters in the Bible, and I

don't know about you, but when they blow it, I'm like, good,

I'm not the only one.

Anybody else like that, Like, oh good, they're an idiot too.

All right, all right. When we get to Genesis.

Twenty eight, I want you to understand something.

Jacob's life is an absolute mess. Who is Jacob? Let

me give you a real quick rundown. Who Jacob is.

Jacob's grandfather is Abraham. Abraham was given a covenant by God.

The covenant was, I'm gonna give you land, I'm gonna

give you a nation, and also through your offspring, the

Messiah is gonna come someday and bless the whole world.

Big big deal. This is the start of the nation

of Israel. Abraham had a son, Isaac. Isaac had two sons,

Jacob and Esau. Esau was the older one. Esaul was

set up in that culture in that day. He was

gonna get the inheritance, family leadership.

Spiritual leadership.

And then also there was a second thing he was

to receive, the blessing. And the blessing was the covenant

would go from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, and it

is through East excuse me, it is through Esaul's line

that the Messiah was supposed to come. So when we

get to Genesis chapter twenty eight, we find that Jacob

is an absolute mess. And here's why. First of all,

his brother came to him one day and his brother

had been out hunting all day. He was probably maybe

had maybe hyperglycemia, I had his insulin drop, I don't know,

but he was in an incredible sugar low. He actually

felt like he was gonna die, okay, and so he's

feeling horribly. He feels like he's gonna die. He says, brother,

you got some food here, give me some of this food.

If you don't give me some of this food, I'm

gonna die.

And his brother said, well, give me give.

Me your birthright, which is the inheritance and spiritual leadership

over the family. He's like, well, what good is it

if I'm dead? Yeah? Here, and he traded and he

traded that away in desperation. Well that wasn't enough for Jacob.

His mom, Rebecca came to him and said, no, only

do I want you to have the inheritance, but I

want you to have the blessing. I want you to

be the covenantal Air. And so Isaac by this time,

was blind, and they went in and they tricked Isaac.

And let me tell you, Isaac prayed a blessing on him,

which meant that God was going to be with him

and God's covenant was going to remain with him no

matter what.

So what does this do?

This leaves Esaul broke and humiliated and desperate. And so Esaul,

here's all about all this? He's mm hmm, Should I

kill my brother? Yes, I am gonna kill my brother.

Here's what you got to understand. He's a phenomenal hunter.

He doesn't have to be close to his brother kill

He kills his brother from far away. Jacob hears that

his brother's gonna kill him, and understandably, So just to

put this in modern day context for you don't understand,

imagine that you, in your greed, decide you are going

to rob a bank. So you successfully rob a bank,

you get a ton of money, you get away with it,

You're on your way to an eye. Unfortunately, your brother

was the president of that bank, and they blame him.

Your brother goes to prison. Your brother has a miserable life,

and then you go live your life on an island

eating steak and lobster to rest your life. That's in

our modern terms, basically what happened. So Jacob's like, okay,

I did my brother wrong. Ethel's like, I'm going to

kill you, and Jacob knows it. So he runs. And

let me show you how far away he ran. And

think about this. You're on foot back then, and he ran.

It was hundreds hundreds of miles that he ran away.

He went all the way back. He started here and

went all the way back to where his mother's people

were to hide in Haran. Now, when he gets there,

all he has is his clothes and whatever food he packed.

He lays down. He doesn't have a tent, and he

uses a pillow as a rock. He's hit literally rock bottle.

And then God breaks in. Now the way God breaks

in is something very fascinating because God gives him a dream.

Now this dream has been interpreted over the years. I

want to just hold this picture up for a moment.

When you look at this, this is a ladder or

some people call a stairway to heaven. And what you

have is you have God at the top who's in control.

And then you have angels descending and ascending. And this

is continuous descending and ascending, descending and ascending while God

is up on top in control. Now, this dream that

Jacob has is very perplexing. So let's look at the

scripture here. As we look at this scripture here, what

does it say. It says that he had a dream

in which he saw a stairway resting on earth with

his top reaching to heaven, and angels of God were

ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord,

and he said, now pay attention. Is I am the Lord,

the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.

So again he sees this stairway to Heaven reaching from

Earth to heaven, angels going up and down. Now, now

what does this dream mean other than being great inspiration

for the song Stairway to Heaven. Okay, this what I

want you to understand. God has given Jacob a.

Picture showing him that Heaven and Earth are connected, that

God is in charge in God.

His angels, who are considered in Hebrew theology the agents

of God's will. God is sending them down. They work,

they come back, They report to God. He sends them

back down. They report, they come back, and then he

sends them back down. God is at work. Heaven and

Earth are not too distant. They are not unrelated. Now

what do these movements actually mean to Jacob? What was

God trying to help Jacob? Butterstand Number one, that God's

activity is unfolding on this earth, so the things that

he's involved in, God is at work. Number Two, God.

Is protecting him.

In Jacob's context, these angels who are sitting in descending

means God is constantly in care of Jacob during his exile.

He's sending his angels down to take care of him.

They come back up, report how he's doing, and then

they go back down. The third movement, this SE's helping

with Jacob. Butterstand to listen, Jacob, I am orchestrating stuff

behind the scene.

I'm still in control.

I'm in charge today. Your life looks like a mess,

but you have no idea. I just want to pull

the curtain back a little bit. And now I want

you to understand I'm working, and I am at work,

and my will is going to be done. You're laying

your head on a rock right now.

But you have no idea what I'm doing behind the scenes.

This is a beautiful picture of.

God's omniscious and his power.

So here's the thing.

God then speaks to Jacob.

Listen to what he says. He he says, I am

the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God

of Isaac. Now pay attention. I will give you and

your descendants the land on what you're lying right now.

All the people on the earth will be blessed. So

we see this covenant happen, all the people on earth

will be blessed. Talking about the Messiah's gonna come through

your line. He's going to give him the land through

you in your offspring. And I am with you, and

I'm gonna watch over you wherever you go, and I

will bring you back this land. I will not leave

you until I have done while I have promised you

this little moment right here.

This is pure grace because I don't know about you.

But I did not see Jacob repent.

I did not see Jacob say I'm sorry.

I did not see Jacob say I'm gonna change my way.

I'm a liar, I'm a deceiver, I'm a horrible guy.

He doesn't do any of that. No, no, no, no,

God says, listen, Jacob, when your father prayed on you,

even though you stole that covenant, it is still a

covenant that was made by God, it says, as covenant

was made by God, despite your actions, God's will is

still gonna happen, despite your character. God's will is still

gonna happen. Why because God he bounded himself into that

will by his own name. He made a covenant in

Genesis twelve. And God's gonna keep his covenant. In other words,

he made despite Jacob's flaws, he was still gonna get

the land of the sentence, a nation, and the blessing. Now,

when Jacob wakes up, he's overwhelmed.

He here's what he says.

He goes. When Jacob awoke from sleep, he thought, surely

the Lord is in this place and I was not

aware of it. Early the next morning, Jacob took the

stone that was placed under his head and set up

a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He

called the place Bethel. So he makes a vow. Now

check this out. Ready, here we go, Here we go.

Here's Jacob's response to God blessing him. If God will

be with me and will watch over me. And if

you will give me food and clothes to wear so

I returned safely, then pay attitionis.

Then the Lord will be my God.

And of all that you give me, I will give

you a tenth God. If you do a whole bunch

of stuff for me, I'll let you be my God.

And as a result of letting you be my God,

I will be obedient to you. What does that sound like?

Trans' actional faith? It's transactional faith. Here, God says Jacob,

here a scoundrel.

You're a deceiver.

But my covenant will say true, I will take care

of you because I am bound by my word.

And then Jacob says, well, if you do all that,

I'll let.

You be my God. I don't see the word scumbag

in here, but I want to be graceful to him

because I understand that sometimes we got to look in

the mirror, because how many of us have prayed God.

If you get me out of this debt, I'll never

overspend again. Lord. If you'll just heal my child, I'll

go to church every Sunday and serve Jesus. If you

just get me that job, I'll start tithing faithfully. See

it's human nature to negotiate when we feel desperate. But

the danger of that is our faith becomes conditional. And

what's conditional faith? We follow God because of what he

does for us, not because of who he is. And again,

the remarkable part of this story is that God does

not revoke his promise because Jacob's being u s gumbag no, no, no.

He still protects him, he still blesses him, he still

brings it back, he still gives him the family wealth.

God's covenant, his purpose is march forward because they're rooted

in God's character, not Jacob's performance. I'm gonna repeat that.

Pay attention to this. Okay, this is huge. God's covenant

purposes march forward because they're rooted in God's character, not

Jacob's performance. By the way, Scripture is full of reminders

that God is faithful even when we are not faithful.

Two Timothy says this, if we are faithless, he remains faithful,

for he cannot deny himself.

God keeps his word because he's God.

So as we shift today, what does covenant faith that

God has for us? How do we shift into be

in people of covenant faith? Where our faith with God

is not conditional but covenantal. Just give me this definition here. See,

true faith is relational.

Not transactional.

It's about knowing and loving God for who he is,

not just for what he does. And one way to

do this is is this pray, this prayer, and this

is a prayer. I would encourage you to take your

phone out snap a picture of this prayer. This is

a really good prayer for you to do, maybe even weekly.

We're gonna practice this prayer together. Okay, So I'm gonna

I'm gonna say it, and then you're gonna say it

back to me. Okay, So here we go.

God, help me to know you and love you for

who you are, not just for what you do.

Let's pray that today other as a church today. One

two three, God, help me to know you and love

you for who you are, not just for what you do,

because that's the type of relationship we want.

Somebody said to me Thursday night after church. They said

that there's.

This one lady that they had been a Bible study

with for years, that she would always close out the prayer.

And even if you don't answer our prayers.

You have already done enough why Because this person understood

that they were looking at the goodness of God. And

in order for you to pray this prayer, you have

to look back and understand what He's done for you,

and then you have to trust him with the future.

Because we're looking at the moment.

But when we trust God for who he is and

love God for who he is, we're loving him for

what he has done, and we're trusting him of our future. Now,

I want to show you what a picture of covenantal

faith looks like. I want to go to David, Okay,

just for a few moments, okay, And I want to

go to Psalm sixty three, and I want you to

listen to this language of relationship. Let's look at this.

He goes on and he says this, you God, You're

my God. Earnestly I seek you, I thirst for you.

My whole being longs for you, because your love is

better than life. My lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live, and

in your name I will lift up my hands.

And on my bed I remember you.

I think of you through the watches of the night

because you are my help. And I sing in the

shadow of your wings. I cling to you. Your right

hand upholds me. And here's what David's saying. He's saying, God,

I am under your protection. I can sing, and I

can have joy, and I can have life because I

know you're with me, and I know you're gonna protect me,

and I know my future belongs to you. And because

of that, I just want you to know.

God, how I feel about you.

I'm crazy about you. God.

I love you.

I trust you with my life, and I know that

You're good. And I just want you to know that

I long for you and.

I trust you.

That is a picture.

Of relational faith questions.

I want you to ask yourself today, and I want

you to be honest with yourself. Do I follow God

because of what he does for me or because of

who he is? Let me tell you me and he

stoped following God when he doesn't do the things they

want him to do? Two? Do I still trust God

when he doesn't answer my prayer the way I want?

Or do you feel betrayed when God doesn't answer your prayer?

Number?

Three? Do I serve God because I love him? Or

because I'm hoping for.

Something in return?

Those are real questions to ask, and these questions are

the difference between relationship and a conditional, transactional relationship with God.

And let me tell you something that doesn't mean that

we don't get upset with God. I'm not preaching something

like no, because if you're in a relationship, you have

highs and you have lows. Went off the Bible College.

My senior pastor who had he was the one who

shared the gospel with me. He did a lot of mentoring,

He loved on me, spent a lot of time my

senior year of high school. He had to get a

stem cell replacement and he was in a hospital for

like eight or nine months. He was healed. The church

had a literally we had a parade when he got

into his neighborhood. He was back in a pulpit. The

church was rock and he was doing awesome. I went

off the Bible College and we see a bright future

for our home church. And then I get a phone call.

His shoulder was hurt and they found the cancer.

He already defeated it, victory already happened. But then the

cancer came back and within a few months he was dead.

At that funeral, they had all the pastors and people

that were going into ministry because of Andy's ministry and

his pastoral friends. They were all they all set up

in the balcony during his funeral, and two or three

people came and got me, like you're supposed to be

sitting up there, and I refused, I said, all the

way in the back of the church because I was

mad at God. I didn't want to get up on

stage and act like I was okay with it. A

few weeks ago, when the Bryant family passed away tragically,

that's some tough nights. I told God. I wasn't I

don't get this, I don't see I don't get it,

and a lot of.

Other things I said to him.

But you know what, that's okay because I'm in a

relationship with him, and each one of these things where

I get upset at him, I do find myself all

growing all the way back to But I know that

you were good, and I know that those people are

in heaven and they wouldn't trade heaven for this life

for anything, and because you're good, and because you can

give us something way better than life, all right, all right,

So I do bring myself back to that.

But when we're in a relationship with God.

It's a relationship, not some transactional thing.

You know what transactional relationship with God is.

It's called a religion. And we're not part of a religion.

And see the antidote to transactional relationship with God is

a covenantal relationship, one rooted in love, trust. And then

sometimes we just have to surrender and say I don't

get it, but I know you're in charge. And then

no bargaining, we.

Go from God, I'm yours.

You know, we basically say God, I'm yours no matter

what you give or withhold, because you've already given me yourself.

So three things that show that you have a covenantal

relationship God. Let's go through them real quick. One you

seek him for who he is, not just what he does. Two,

you trust us character even when the outcomes aren't what

we wanted. And three it's moving from.

God if you to God even if.

Sometimes I'm greatly inspired by the people of our church.

One of our worship leaders, he's up on stage almost

every week. He's faithful, got a beautiful family. They're away

this weekend. They came Thursday night second service. They typically

all set up here and a few months ago. He

is a delivery driver and he was on Keystone Avenue

and a motorcyclist who was going twice as speed of

the speed limit zip by him as he was turning,

and a motorcyclist hit his delivery truck. He got out,

saught the motorcyclist was not a good state. He pulled

a motorcycle off of him, and he realized this guy

was dying. And so our church member got down on

his knees, his palms up and just prayed and prayed

and prayed, and then that man passed away. Our church

member was devastated. We've talked a little bit about maybe

some PTSD. His heart broken absolutely for the family. What

he didn't expect to happen was how his company would

try to take care of themselves instead of him, and

so he immediately went under investigation. Then they terminated him,

and then he had some trials set up for April,

all ready for the whole thing to be figured out.

Then they delayed in a month. Everybody's praying, praying, praying

the next one gets delayed. We're all praying, praying, praying,

the next one gets delayed. No money doesn't know what

his future is nothing and devastated. And then finally in July,

even the corporate lawyers said, we don't understand why this

hasn't went your way. They have found that you're not

at fault. Finally, last week he had a head up

to Minneapolis and there he was vindicated. They said that

there was no way he could avoid that. So he

just got to do a couple other things and he

should have his job and his career back.

The reason I tell you this story is because.

I talked to him an awful lot through this trial,

and a lot of the choir member, the worship team

members taught to him a lot during his trial. And

when we all know this about him, he had pressure

unlike he's got two boys, a lot of pressure, no income,

and he kept saying, I need God to do this miracle.

Pray for this, Pray for this, pray for this, and

then he ended every prayer request with this phrase. But

even if God does not do this miracle, I know

God's going to take.

Care of our family and He's got our future.

He said this to me at least ten different times

when his life was an absolute mess. James, I need

you to pray for this. But even if God doesn't

do his thing, that's okay. I know he has our future.

That, my friends, is the faith I'm talking about today.

It's not transactional. It's not based on what gives you.

It's based on your trust and who the character of

God is. Do you trust God for who he is

or for what he gives you? Let's pray.

God search our hearts today.

Search our hearts. God, help us help us Father to

worship you and to know you and to seek you,

not based on what we think we can get from you.

There's some of us in this room. We're not going

to be healed. There are some of us in this room.

We're not going to get a better job. Will you

help us to worship you anyways, because we're in a

relationship with you, not a transaction situation with you.