11th May 2025 All Age All Nations - Ian Byrd - The Power of Dependence

Oh yeah, it's good to be here, you know. He

Dave was saying, you know that you're glad we're here.

We're glad we're here. We feel really welcome, and you know,

God's doing good things in the UK. We just had

our conference last week for Life Links up in Stoke

and it was wonderful. And the thing I always hear

in my spirit, the Lord say is, do not despise

the day of small beginnings. Sometimes we do. We go, Oh, Lord,

I can hardly wait till you do this greater thing.

God says, enjoy now, I'm doing good things now. One

of the regrets I have at times in ministry is

that I didn't enjoy more of what happened in the past.

I was always thinking ahead to what would happen that

would be bigger and better. And Lord said, enjoy now.

I'm touching people, you know. I know these are students

from the university here, and I really sense you're like

a first fruit in your universe. I know a number

of you are in the first year, and I just

sense that this is like a snowball. You don't have

snowballs here very much, but we do at home. Right.

It's a good analogy for us, snowballs go down the hill,

and they will the snow will be sticky, and they'll

pick up speed, and they'll pick up snow and they

get bigger and bigger and bigger, and they get to

a point where if a snowball is big enough, you

couldn't really stop it very easily. It would be going

down the hill getting bigger. And I really feel for

your school that it's like the snowball. It's early days,

but it's going to the mass is going to pick

up and increase the critical mass in your school. God

wants to do something in your school. You know, in

the United States there are in various universities right now

that are experiencing revival. God is moving and I sense

that your school is right for it. It's right for it,

and you are the right people. So I want to

encourage you as you come back next term to really

continue to set your sights on those around you. The

Lord's going to give you favor, He's going to give

you wisdom. He's going to show you. It's like light

will shine on you. It's the sense I get, and

it's like people will be drawn to you more than ever.

So you let your light shine brightly. God has a

plan at Royal Holloway. He really does. He wants to

touch countless people. And this church is meant to be

a safe place. It's already a safe place for them.

But I want to encourage you in this church. I

want to say this to you. It's very important that

us as the older generation, adjust our perspective and our practices.

We're often set in our ways. We expect things a

certain way. And there's a movie, and I won't go

off in this too much, but there's a movie. It's

called Jesus Revolution. It's about the nineteen seventies when there

was a move of God and the Jesus people in

the US. And something in it when I watched it

that I saw is that there were people that couldn't

handle when God moved because it wasn't the way they

thought it should be. It offended them because it was different.

But there were those who were older who embraced it,

and they were willing, as it were, to sit with

those who were being touched by God. Listen, I hear

this from the Holy Spirit. If this church, if this

church will embrace the students that God brings and the

harvest he brings. If this church will embrace them, the

Lord says, I will bring you more. I will bring

you more. If there's inconveniences, deal with it. If there's attitudes,

deal with it, God says, ask me to give you

a greater heart, because I feel like you know, Dave,

you have an academic background, you're teaching and even at

Royal Holloway, and I think there's a lot of linkages

here even with this church, and you haven't seen yet

what God will do. But I really feel for this church.

If you will embrace the young people that God brings,

he'll bring more. They'll feel welcome, they'll be mentored. You know,

younger generation, they need fathers and mothers more than ever.

And we in our generation, we can be those fathers

and mothers. We can. But if we're kind of stuck

and we're kind of rigid, we won't be and we'll

push them away. This is a safe place, Dave. The

reason these young people are here is because it is

a safe place and they feel welcome. So Church, keep

doing a good job, even more so, and watch what

God will do. Seriously. Oh well, let's pray. No, I'm

just kidding. We're not done. So I have written a book.

And the reason I mentioned the book is because it

was really hard and it took a lot of effort, okay,

And so I want people to read it because that's

why I wrote it. I didn't write it to make

you know, tons of money. That yeah, that's not why

I wrote it. I wrote it so people could read it.

It's called Life as a Highway. It's a very practical

book based on a lot of our experience and my

wife and I journey through the years. And it won

a little award, you see, it's got to just so

you know. It's a Book Excellence Award winner. But you

can get it on Amazon. You can get it in paperback,

you can get a kindle, and you can get it

on audible. You can actually listen. It's not me, unfortunately,

it's someone else. I hired a professional to speak. I

should have done it myself, but I didn't. But you

could if you're in I don't read books, but I listen,

you can listen. Okay. So you can get it on Amazon.

You online? Where am I looking with the online people? Oh? Hello?

People online? You can get the book too, all over

the world. All right, there you go. My commercial's done,

so I want to talk to you. I want to

talk to you. You can tell I'd like to have fun.

Is that okay? Are we okay to have a bit

of fun? So I want to talk to you today

about something that's really important. I want to talk about

what is success? What is success? Now? This is an

important reality for everybody because I don't know about you,

but I've never heard a person that told me they

wanted to be a failure. You ever, you ask someone

their goal, you say, you know, what's your goal? I

want to be an abject failure in life. No one

says that, right, says no one ever? No one wants

to be a failure. Everyone wants to be a success.

But here's the problem. What is success? What is it?

Because really that definition affects how we live and affects,

you know, the way we perceive things. So I want

to give you a few quotes on what success is

from some famous people. The first one you'll really recognize

Winston Churchill. And here's what he said. He said, success

consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Now,

why would Winston Churchill say that? Because he had a

lot of failure in his life before he became prime minister.

We know him as the great Prime Minister during the war,

but he had a lot of failure before that. Mark Twain,

the American writer, said, succeed in life you need two

things ignorance and confidence. Ignorance and confidence. Sometimes we don't

know what we don't know, but we're confident anyway. David

Brinkley said this. A successful man is one who can

lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown

at him. You've had some bricks thrown at your life.

He's saying, Hey, we can use those bad experiences and

be successful. The Great General George Patten said, I don't

measure a man's success by how high heclines, but how

high he bounces when he hits bottom. Wow. These are

not getting the response I was hoping for. That's okay, though,

I'm still a success all right. J. Paul Getty, the

oil tycoon, said this formula for success rise, early, work, hard,

strike oil. I come from a place called Alberta in Canada.

We have oil there. That would be my goal. If

we could strike some oil in our backyard, I'd be happy.

That would be success. So there's different attitudes about success.

You know, in the world there is a whole picture

of success. But I want to say something. The Bible

actually spells out success in a very different way. In fact,

the Kingdom of God is often referred to as the

upside down Kingdom, upside down kingdom. Why is that because

often what the world says is one way, the Kingdom

of God says, no, actually it's this way. So one

of them is success. Because in the world's eye, success

is independence. And you know you've heard it. You know

that the song I did it my way, or you

know the guy who shows up in a country with

two dollars in his pocket and is a multimillionaire and

self made man or a self made woman, Right, that's success.

The Bible has a different definition of success, and it

comes from Teo Crindians, Chapter twelve. I want to give

you this little nugget here today from a passage that

the apostle Paul shares, And here's what he says. There.

Now a little bit of background on Saint Crinthians twelve.

Paul talks about how he was taken into heavy and

saw these great things and had visions and dreams, and

it was so extravagant that God said, you can't even

tell people what you've seen. Anybody in the room here

have had that experience. You've been into heaven and seen

all these things, and you can't tell people. Yeah, most

people haven't. I haven't, but Paul did, postle Paul did,

and so God's system. You know, Paul, I don't want

you to get proud and fat headed, because that'll hinder

your success. To me, So the Lord gives him what's

called a thorn in the flesh. We don't know what

it was. We just know that it bothered him and

affected him. Some people think it was the Jews that

followed him around and created trouble. Others believe it was physical.

Most people think it was some kind of physical ailment,

maybe his eyes, maybe headaches, maybe who knows, I was

American writer Pete Scazarro. He says, whatever it was, it

was embarrassing probably for Paul, was probably visible to people.

Some people think maybe ed Parkinson's disease. Like there's lots

the theories. But whatever it was, it limited Paul, and

it says he says, here, three times I pleaded with

the Lord to take it away from me. Three times

when he says pleaded, I don't think he was a

quiet prayer like, Oh Lord, please take away this from me.

I think it was. I think it was more like,

oh God, and I think it was fasting. Oh God,

take this away from me. I would be so much

better if I didn't have this problem. Have you ever

felt that way in your life? Oh God, this is

a thorn in my flesh. This is a pain in

my side. This is causing me to struggle with my walk?

Can you take it away? And here's what God says

to me. He says, my grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness. My power

is made perfect in weakness. God says to Paul. Listen,

I know this makes you weaker. But the good news

is when you're weaker, I'll be stronger in you see

upside down Kingdom. When you're weaker, you're stronger. So Paul goes, Okay,

if that's the truth, I'm really gonna grab a hold

of this, he says. Therefore, I will boast all the

more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may

rest on me. Ever, gone to a party, you know,

and stood around and talked to people. What do people

talk about at parties right? Probably their successes or good

things happening. You've never heard someone go, oh, you think

you're weak? Oh, let me tell you how weak I

am last week? Like nobody talks like that. Do they

stand around at parties sharing about boasting about how weak

you are? That's what Paul saying. He says, I'm actually

gonna I'm actually gonna tell you how weak I am,

because when I do, I actually get stronger. He says,

That's why I delight in weaknesses and insults and hardships

and persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then

I'm strong. Why you say that with me? When I

am then I am strong upside down Kingdom, Paul says,

when I'm weak in myself, but my weakness causes me

to depend on God and reach out to God, then

I'm strong. You know, I last fall going through a

hard time, just a bit of a season where I

was feeling a little assaulted at different levels and struggling.

We all have moments like that, And the Lord spoke

to me. Actually used a leader in our network who

called me. I don't talk to him very often, and

he called me one day and he said, I was

praying for you today, which blessed me. You know, you

know when you tell someone you're praying for them, it

actually encourages them. It really does do that. You know,

I was praying for you today, And he said, the

Lord gave me this passage Secretyan is twelve. He said,

the Lord told me that there's areas where you feel

weak in your life, but He's going to actually use

those areas of weakness and he will bless people through it.

And you know what that was. It was perfect. I

was actually just what I needed to hear because I

felt really weak. And sometimes I don't know about you,

but if you feel weak enough, you feel like I'm

not suitable to do this. Anybody ever felt that way,

I'm not the best to do this, And God says no, no.

If you turn that into focus on me, you become

the best. You know. Something a weakness that I've had

through through my life is anxiety. My mother was a

very anxious person and when I when I was young,

my dad had mental health issues, and so there was

a lot of instability that came with that. Handicapped brother

really unstable early few years in my life. We moved

a lot, and it created an anxiety in me. It

created a tendency to immediately go to becoming anxious in

uncertain circumstances. In fact, I wanted to have more control

over my environment all the time. Anybody related to me

on this at all, And so you know that's not

a it's not something you want to have. And you

know God has healed me, He's helped me. I've grown

a lot, but I still get anxious. It's still a

tendency that I'll go to immediately in uncertain circumstances. But

here's the good news. Listen, you need to understand this.

When we have a weakness like that. And when I

talk about weaknesses, I'm not talking about blatant sin, by

the way, I'm not saying, you know, there's something I'm

blatantly disobeying God in and I'm not serving him. That's

not a weakness. We need to repent of that. We

need to say God help me, even in that we

need his help. But I'm talking about something like what

I just mentioned, where where there's just a tendency and

a weakness in our spirits and our souls, and God says, listen,

if you take that weakness and it pushes you towards

me and you begin to depend on me, it'll become

your superpower. Isn't it amazing that anxiety could be my

superpower if I turn it into dependence on God? Like?

Isn't that mind blowing? That actually, at my best could

be that I'm feeling a But I get on my

knees and I look to the Lord and I depend

on him. All of a sudden, I am stronger than

if I never felt that way? Do you see what

I'm saying? That's what God was telling Paul Henry Blackaby writes,

if you feel weak, limited, ordinary, you are the best

material through which God can work. All of us feel

that way at some point or another. I want to

give you a story today. I'll roll through it here,

and I have three points for you out of it.

But it's in Second Chronicles, chapter twenty. And the three

steps I'm going to give you are steps I use

all the time to help myself to depend on God.

Really seriously, very practical. If you remember these three steps,

I think that in any circumstance, you can immediately get

your focus back on the Lord. I'm going to use

this story. So here, let me give you background on

this story. There are two kingdoms. Israel became two kingdoms,

the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel never had a good king.

The kings were terrible. They were evil kings. The Southern

Kingdom of Judah had some good kings and some bad kings,

all right. So the Northern king had a Northern kingdom

had a king named Ahab, his wife Ahab and Jezebel.

Let me ask you questions. You ever hear anyone calling

their kids Ahab and Jezebel. No, you don't. Why because

they're awful people. You would never do that to your child.

This is my son, Ahab, this is my daughter Jezebel. Terrible,

terrible decision because they're bad people. They served bail, they

were awful. And so the Southern Kingdom had a king

named jehoshah Fat. Say that ten times in a row, right,

jehoshah Fat. That's a tough one, jehosh Fat. So he

was a good king though. So the good king in

the south, so Ahab, the bad king in the north.

He reaches out and he says Hey, Joe. I don't

know if he called them Joel, but I might have. Hey,

would you and the troops of Judah join us in

a battle against the Arameans, And for some reason, Joe's

fat says, yeah, I feel like having a fight with you.

Let's go together and we're we're as one. Well, they're

not as one because he's godly and Ahab is evil.

So here's what happens. Though. Ahab knows they're going to

try and kill him because he's the king, so he

says to Jehosha fatz one of the weirdest things in Boble.

He says, listen, jehosh Fat, you dress up in your

kingly robes and look like a king, and I'll go incognito.

I'll kind of wear my civilian clothes and hang out

in the back. But you'll be like, the king. Is

that okay with you? And jeosh Fat must have lost

his brain for a while because he's like, yeah, that

sounds good. It's like, don't you realize you're the target?

Because they want to kill the king, And sure enough,

if you read the story, they go after jehoshavat the Arameans.

They think it's Ahab and they want to kill him,

and he cries out to God and God actually saves him,

and they go, oh, I guess it's not King Ahab.

So here's here's something that's one of the weirdest stories

in the Bible. It says there's one of the Aramian soldiers.

He's got some extra arrows obviously in his quiver, and

I don't know, maybe it's like what I heard in

World War Two where some people who didn't want to

kill others, they would before they went back to the

you know, to the barracks, they would actually randomly fire

off their gun to get rid of amos. So it

didn't look like, you know, it looked like they did something.

I've heard stories of this. So maybe one of the

Aramien soldiers is like, I got three arrows left. I

better fire them off or they're going to go what

were you doing? So it says he randomly takes an

arrow and fires it into the air. Random he just

fires it off. There used to be a song, you know,

I shot an arrow into the air and where it landed,

I know not where. Well that's what he did, just

fired off, and you know what happened. It says it

hit King Ahab, who's hanging out, just hiding out. It

hits them between his armor and eventually it kills him.

Like he dies later that day. It's like a heat

seeking arrow and it gets Ahab like, to me, this

is you can't make this up. And what it tells

me is you can't get away from God. Right like

you know, aheb's hanging out and a random arrow finds them.

So anyway, Ahab dies, which is terrible. Jeho well, maybe

not so terrible. He was a bad guy, but Jehoshavad

almost dies, which would have been terrible. They lose the battle.

They go back home. As they go through the gates

of Jerusalem, there is a prophet there and the prophet

says to him, you're now under God's wrath. He's not

happy with you. I don't know about you, but I

wouldn't want a prophetic word like that. Anybody want that.

You wouldn't be putting that on your refrigerator. You know, Oh,

I'm under judgment. Let's remember that. No. So, so what

happens is they're in trouble. So here's here's where the

story Second Chronicles twenty. It said it happened after this

after what after everything I just shared with you, After

Joshfat goes to battle, after they lose, after he disobeys

God and he messes up. After this that the people

of Moab, with the people of Ammon and others came

to battle against jehosh Fat. Three armies come to battle

against joosh Fat, and so he has a decision to make.

What's he gonna do? Now, let's remember that he brought

this on himself. Have you ever had problems come because

you did something dumb? Yeah? Me too, right, kind of

like you made your bed, now lie in it kind

of thing. Don't you feel that ways size Ah, it's

kind of my fault. I guess I just take it

on the chin. I deserve it. And that's that's what

josh Fat like. He's messed up. And actually I think

this is part of the judgment. But you know what

he does, he doesn't He chooses to go to God.

It says, he sets himself to seek the Lord. Smartest

thing he could have do. And he proclaims a fast

throughout all Judah, and they gather together to ask help

from the Lord. From all the cities in Judah, they

come to seek the Lord isn't that amazing? So they

all joined in Jerusalem. He's really humbling himself. He stands

up in front of them. He has a prayer that

he gives where he honors who God is, how God

has saved him to that point, and how God is powerful.

And then he reminds God, hey, we're being invaded by

these three armies. And here's what he says in verse twelve,

Oh our God, will you not judge them for we?

Number one, we have no power against this great multitude

coming against us. Let me ask you a question. You

ever had something happen in life where you think I

have no power against this? You ever had something really

terrible and you just think, I can't even I don't

even know what to do. And secondly, that's the second

point is nor do we know what to do. I

don't have power, and I actually don't even know what

to do. So he's being really humble. Don't have power,

don't know what to do. But number three, look at this,

our eyes are upon you. Don't have power, don't know

what to do, but you know what, God, I'm looking

to you right now. Wow, isn't that powerful? We can

do that? Next time you don't have any power to

accomplish something, and you don't know what to do. Look

to the Lord. It's so important. So it says, they all,

with their little ones, and their wives and their children,

they stood before the Lord. I see it that there's

like a hush that falls over the crowd. Josh Fat's

just talked, just prayed to God, and all of a sudden,

they're just waiting. I see families holding hands quietly looking

up to God. I see God looking down at them,

seeing all these people who are dependent on you. They're

looking up. He's looking down. And suddenly the prophet says this, listen,

all of you of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem,

and you King johosh Fat, do not be afraid nor

dismayed because of this great multitude. For the battle is

not yours but God's. Wow. God has suddenly taken control

of the battle, and now he tells him, he says,

go down against them. He does tell him, though, that

even though he's taken the battle, they still have to

do their I mean, it's not like they said, great

the battle's Gods, where's my lazy boy, bring the popcorn?

We're gonna watch we're gonna watch what happens. They don't

do that. God says, the battle's mine. But you're gonna

have to position yourself. You're gonna have to to do

march out against your enemy verse seventeen. You will not

need to fight in this battle. Position yourself, stand still

and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you.

Do not fear or be dismade tomorrow, go out against them,

for the Lord is with you. So Lord says, you

have to go against them. You're gonna have to take

some steps. But when you do, I'm with you. Wow,

that's powerful. And so what happens is they decide they're

gonna appoint singers to go on ahead of the army.

So they put they put worshippers and singers ahead of

the army, and they go out in the morning and

they they're declaring praise the Lord for his mercy and

jurors forever. And so they're ahead of the army. And

when the army rounds the bend and looks into the

valley where there should be thousands of soldiers, they see

that the enemy is utterly destroyed himself. Some people think

it was like a sandstorm something like that. Could you

imagine sandstorm disoriented? Like why would they kill each other?

What happens? Something happened. They're all dead. So they got

the worshippers, they got the army. They come around, no

one escapes. Then they it takes them three days to

carry off all the plunder. Three days they get all

the stuff left behind, And they actually call that the

value of blessing because that's where they bless the Lord.

When you bless the Lord, you had to it looks

like you're gonna get wiped out. Instead, you take three

days and you have all this plunder. So what should

have been the value of destruction becomes the value of blessing.

Isn't this powerful? Shouldn't this encourage us that sometimes what

should be our undoing can actually become our greatest victory.

Only God can do that. Isn't that right? Only God

can do that? And so it says in verse twenty nine,

the fear of the Lord, fear of God was on

all the kingdoms of those countries. And when they heard

that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel,

then for me, then the realm of josh Fat was quiet,

for God gave them rest all around. Wow, this is

a great story. It's an amazing story. There's three points

I want to give you out this story here. They

are give up, look up, and step up. Three steps

you can walk through. The first one is give up. Now,

when I say give up, I don't mean that that

you're gonna lie down, you know, go to bed like

I give up. I'm defeated. You know, I'm gonna curl

up in the fetal position and I'm just gonna let

the world go. Like that's what I'm talking I'm not

talking about that. That's not helpful. Right. When I say

give up, I mean you're giving up to God. You're

letting go of your own ability to succeed in this situation.

And you're saying God, I'm looking to you. I'm gonna

seek your guidance. Now here's the problem for all of us.

We often want to seek God, but we also want

our own devices. Like it's like, I want God's help,

but I want to do it my way as well.

Let me give you an example. Jonah two verse eight

says this, those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the

grace that could be theirs. Now, I'm not going to

go into the story of Jonah. But I'm going to

say this. Jonah was somebody who chose to do it

his way right and brought some big consequences on himself.

But he chose to do things his way, and in

the end he had to really turn his focus and

do it God's way. God literally cornered him, so he

had to. But he's saying this when he reflects on

he says, those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the

grace that could be there. Let me show you what

that means. So we want God's grace. So God's grace

is God's ability to do his will. Did you realize

that you and I can't even obey God unless he

helps us to obey him, unless he actually gives us

the ability to obey him, which he does by his

spirit by in dwelling us and giving us the power

to obey. So we want that, We say, God, we

need your grace, but we want to there's some things

in our life that we want to cling to when

we're in trouble. We want to grab a hold of

those things too. So it's almost like, you know, what

are some of those things? Well, they might be some addictions,

and habits that we have that we turn to first

when we're in trouble. We turn we turn to that

addiction because we need to salve our souls, we need

to help ourselves. You know, in our world today, there's

drug addictions, there's pornography addictions, there's entertainment addictions, there's food addictions,

like lots of things people reach to when they're in trouble.

They're triggered and they go, I need this, I need this,

and God says, okay, you need that, but you need

me more. So sometimes we're like this, We're like, God,

can I just kind of keep a hold of this,

but I have you too, Like I need you, but

I need this, And God says, actually, I need you

to let go of this and trust me. Now, sometimes

that's not easy and we need help, We need others

to help us to make that shift. But we need

to decide that we're going to do that. And so

like I remember one time in my own life, oh

not one time, multiple times, but one thought that I

have about this is I remember one day I was

going through a little bit of stress. In the ministry,

those in the ministry know that occasionally you do experience

some stress occasionally anyway, maybe a little more than that.

So I was there was something I'd heard about or

was trying to press through, and I thought, Okay, what

am I going to do? So my mind's thinking about

this processing right, So it's almost like I'm in this zone.

But before I knew it, I was standing in the

pantry eating crisps. I just almost like a trance, you know,

just and I was like, I went well, and it

was like what am I doing? Like I was just

like thinking about this, and I was eating all these

crisps and they did taste good. I must admit they

were really delicious. But I thought I realized what I

was doing though, I thought, I'm saving myself. I'm comforting

myself with and I've seen myself do this at other times.

Do I realize you're comfort eating right now? Don't do that?

Stop right? And you could say, well, is God really

gonna leave you if you eat a beggar crisp? No,

he won't. He's there, but he's just saying anything I

depend on other than him, right, can be a problem.

Those who cling to worthlesidols forfeit the grace that could

be theirs Isaiah fifty says this verse ten, who among

you fears the Lord and obeys his servant. If you're

walking in darkness without a ray of light, trust in

the Lord and rely on your God. But watch out

you who live in your own light and warm yourselves

by your own fires. This is the reward you received

from me. You will soon fall down in great torment again.

Another one for the fridge, right, put that up on

your fridge. Such a positive passage. But you know what

it's saying. It's saying, Listen, if you're in a place

where you don't know what to do and you're tempted

to just do anything, you ever been there, you're tempted,

Like part of you is like, I have to do

something now, but I don't know what to do, but

I should do something. Anybody ever made that decision and

found that wasn't very helpful? Ever done that? I have?

Like I reacted out of the moment and I thought

it would help me, and actually it was worse for me.

And so here's what it's Isaiah is saying. He's saying,

if you're in that place where you don't know what

to do, just stop and look to the Lord and

say God, I'm in the dark right now what to do?

But my eyes are on you kind of the same idea.

I'm not going to light my own fire. I'm not

going to try to figure it out myself without you,

because when I do that, I usually don't succeed. I'm

going to stop, and here's some of the ways we

gain the illumination we need to move forward. It's from

God himself, his word and our prayer. It can be

other people, it can be the community we're part of

right when we're part of a church community. That's why

we're part of a church community. Sometimes it's so helpful.

We get used to walking individually and just isolated. Instead,

it's like, Hey, I have friends in my church. Listen,

would you pray with me about something I'm trying to

figure something out? Would you help me? What are you

hearing from God? Can you do you understand? I'll just

say this. I'm going to say this because it's so important.

The people I have found that got into the most

trouble are the people that never asked for any outside input.

I've had multiple people in our church days who came

to me and told me what they were doing, but

didn't even bother as their pastor to ask me for

my opinion. Right, they just came to me. I had

won family once they decided in their tough situation, they

were just going to move away into another province in Canada.

And they came to me and told me, we're moving away. Okay,

I guess you don't want input, You don't want anyone

to pray with you about this. You just you've decided, yeah, yeah,

we're moving away. Well, you know what, they moved away

and their family fell apart. They did. It was a terrible,

terrible thing they did. They all their kids, who were

so connected with the community we were in and the

city we were in, went to nowhere and they all

fell apart their relationship with God. I mean seriously, it

was a terrible, terrible thing. And I look back and

I go they could have aborted all that difficulty if

they had just asked other people to pray with them.

I just want to tell you, as a church family,

to keep that in mind. Are not isolated. The reason

that we're part of a family is because we need

other people to weigh in. We need other people to

help us, and we need to trust those that God

has put in our lives. So wait for him and

he'll show you. I remember you know. I won't go

through the story, but my wife and I experienced that

in a community we lived in. We wanted to leave.

We were so ready to leave and had everything set,

and God just told through my wife and also my

own sense was that if we left that community, we

would be aborting His plan for us. And it's true.

And so we stayed for another three and a half

four years in a really tough circumstance, trusting God because

he said, don't leave here. I'm doing something in your

life through this. Sometimes you got to hear this. I

feel the really, Sometimes we put comfort ahead of what

God is doing in our lives. So we say this

is uncomfortable. I don't want to be part of this anymore.

I don't want to do this anymore. And God's saying

that uncomfortableness is what I'm using doxy change you because

you're having to adjust, You're being stretched. So stay in

this tough moment because if you jump out of it,

I can't grow you and you won't become the person

I want you to be. So stay, trust, remain dependent

on me, and watch what I'll do. Does this make sense.

Some of you need to hear this because you may

not sense it now, but there will come a day

when you'll be tempted to jump out of what God's

doing in your life. You'll be tempted to turn your

back on it because it's uncomfortable, and you'll be reminded, Hey,

wait a minute, God is using this, so stay because

He'll bring good out of it in the end, all right,

so give up. Second one is a look up. Our

eyes are on you, jehosh fat praise. He takes his

focus away from how small he and his nation is

and their troops to how great God is. We don't

know what to do, We don't have the strength, we

don't know what to do about our eyes. We're looking up.

I don't know about you, but sometimes in my life

I am too focused on the problem. You ever been there?

Too focused on the problem? All I can see is

the difficulties, Like I'm in the weeds of the problem.

It's so big, And God says, hey, wait a minute,

did you know that I'm bigger? Would you put your

focus on me? Oh? Yeah, Lord? And one of the

ways we do this is we remind ourselves what God

did in the past. Right, you ever done that? We

have very short memories about what God does? You ever

find that? Like some days you have a great day

here you know, this is like the best day ever. God,

look where you did? And then the next day we

hit some circumstance. It's like where are you God? He goes,

I'm the same place that was yesterday. We're kind of

like Dory and finding Nemo. We have no memory. Anybody

ever been like that? Do people understand what I'm even saying? No,

I'm sometimes I wonder you know, you want to translate things.

I'm sure you've watched Nemo? Okay, good, I want to

be relevant. I'm really trying. Okay, So what we have

a short memory? We can't even remember from day to day?

God says, remind yourselves. Think about what what the king

does when he stands up in front of the people,

he reminds them of what God has done. He reminds

them of all that He's taken care of and who

He's been in their lives. We need to remind ourselves.

Go back and remind yourself of what God has done.

And then the second thing, the next thing they do

is so they look up, they put their focus on

the Lord. Let me ask you a question. Why did

God suddenly take the battle? Why did he You know why?

Because they bet the farm on him. That's a term

we have. They bet the farm on him. They put

everything on him coming through. They said, we are not

going to depend on any of our idols. You're it God,

either you come through or we will not succeed. And

you know what, God loves that when his people trust him.

He says, hmm, I can do something. I'll take the battle.

I'll help them. He takes ownership. So give up, look up.

And then the third thing is step up, step up.

Remember what I said. Sometimes, you know, we want God

to come through and we think he'll do all the work,

and he says, no, no, no, no, I'm going to

help you win the battle. But there are some steps

you take. Now. Part of the situation is sometimes those

steps in themselves is not sufficient. Error fond that out

Like you're you think, well, what do I do next?

I have this next step, but I don't think it's enough.

Well just do it. Just do what God calls you

to do. Take the step, and he'll show you the

next one. Anyone Another movie reference Raiders of the Lost

arc the Holy Grail, remember that one, and and you

know the one where they're trying to determine what the

holy Grail is. You know, you have chosen poorly, you

know that whole thing. Well, when he walks off the cliff,

remember there's like the place of faith and there's like

a chasm there and he and you know, the riddle

says basically, take a leap of faith. And he's like,

there's nothing there, right, but he takes the step. Remember

when he takes a step, and then all the steps

show right, the other stone show, but he had to

take the step first. Sometimes that's the way with God.

It's like, we want the whole plan, we want the

whole Lord, Lord, just show me the whole plan, show me,

map it all out to me, and then I'll take

a step. And he goes, actually, I'm just going to

show you the next step, oh how many? How many?

Rather he map the whole plan out, I would, But

but he just take the next step. Okay, I'll take

the next step, which leads to more steps. And that's

what these guys did. That's what jehosh Fat did, because

what did God tell him? He said, the enemy's is

going to come in. You need to march out. And

then the thing they did that was so powerful is

they put worship in front. You know, it's that they

sent the singers ahead. I mean, Caris, how would you

love to be on the worship team that weekend? Right? Yeah?

You know, like, hey, by the way, we're gonna put

the worship team out front. Oh really? Yeah? Are we

gonna have weapons? Because like we're gonna be in front

of the army. No, you'll be okay, just take your tambourines. Okay.

I don't know about you. I mean I've thought of this.

I mean maybe I think differently, but I'm thinking I mean,

maybe i'd be full of faith, but I might be

a little tentative being out front. Where's the army? Oh

it's behind you. But just just do your best, just worship.

Oh yeah, so that'll be great. You know I'd be like, oh, Lord,

I'm looking around, where's the enemy? You know? Anyway, but

they're you know, all seriousness. They declare the Lord's greatness,

you know, they're singing and what have you. And when

they come around the corner, the enemy's wiped out. We

need to send praise ahead. I don't know about you.

But I find it easy to worship after everything works out.

Isn't that easy do the dance of joy because it's over.

But it's hard to do that on the front end,

isn't it. But that's what takes faith. When we're in

a problem. It's like I don't want to worship, but

then we decide we're gonna give up, We're gonna look up.

I'm gonna step up by worship being God. I don't

know what's gonna happen here, but you're big enough, and

I'm declaring that right now. You know. I had a

situation in January where I have an older vehicle and

I was driving into we live in a cul de sac.

Dave's been there, and I was driving into our call

to sack And is that what they call they call

that here? Right? What do they call it here? Okay?

It is okay, good. I just want to make sure

I'm relevant trying to connect anyway. So I was driving

in and we have snow, as I mentioned earlier, and

blocks of ice form when it gets colder, and so

all of a sudden I heard with my car and

I just ground to a halt. I thought, oh, I

wonder if one of those blocks fell off, and you

know what was worse than that. I get out, I

look and my tire fell off. Yeah, the ball joint

broke in my tire and literally my tire. My car's resting.

I was like, oh, that's not good, right, and so

but this was a good moment for me to practice

what I preach. And so I'm like, Okay, how am

I going to respond to this because Ian could respond

quite stressfully, right, might not be a pretty sight. So

so so I decided in that moment, no, no, no,

I'm gonna trust God with this. So as I walked

to my house, I started worshiping God. First of all,

I started worshiping God. I gave up to him. I said, Lord,

my car's messed up here. It's probably gonna cost a

bit of money. It's a bit stressful, but Lord, I'm

looking to you right now. I give up. I give

up on my own efforts. I can't I couldn't determine

this is going to happen. And now I'm looking up

to you, and I started worshiping. I said, Lord, thank

you that it was in my own call to sack.

So I can walk to my house and I make

call and I can wait there while the tow truck

comes and I can foam my mechanic. Thank you, Lord,

thank you for thank you that it was at sixty

miles an hour on the highway when the wheel fell off.

That could be bad. Thank you for that. And so

I started worshiping, and then I stepped up and I

did what I knew to do, and you know, the

Lord provided. But what blessed me more was the fact

that I stayed at peace and I didn't freak out.

That's what meant the most to me. That anxious Ian

didn't kick in. Whoo. You know, no, no, Ian stayed peaceful.

He took his focus, and he put on the Lord.

I literally used this all the time when I come

into trouble, I give up, I look up, and I

step up all the time. Lord, I literally walk myself through.

I deescalate myself. Lord, I give up right now. Lord,

this is a bad situation, but I'm giving up to

you and I'm looking up to you. I thank you

that you've taken care of me always. And I don't

know how you're gonna take care of this, but you will.

And Lord, what's my next step? How do I step up.

Do you see how it works out? So that's what

they did, and as they obeyed the Lord, the Lord

came through, and our times of difficulty can become moments

of great blessing. They can become moments of dependence where

God shows up. Let me ask you a question. What

is are you sensing the war of the enemy in

your life right now? Where is he attacking you? Maybe

it's your health, Maybe it's relationships, Maybe it's your finances.

Maybe it's just a discouragement, a heaviness, an anxiety. Maybe

it's what I was talking about. I don't know what

it is, but whatever it is, God's big enough today,

isn't he He's big enough today? Will you stand with me?

We're going to close right now, but I want to

I just want to give you an opportunity to respond

to the Lord today, because here's the good news. The

Lord understands perfectly where you are today. He owes you personally.

That's what I love about him. Being a room full

of people, and God says, I know where you're living

right now, I know the difficulty you're experiencing. Let's just

close your eyes. Let's let him speak to us, because

this is meant to be applied in our lives right now.

Maybe you're here today and maybe God's saying, you know what,

I need you to give up. I need you to

repent of those things you've been holding on to because

I want you to let go of them and receive grace.

Maybe when I spoke with some of the idols we

can cling to, you went, oh, ouch, that's one of

the ones I cling to. Ouch. Yeah, Well, good news

is today you can repent, which means to just say, God,

forgive me. I don't want to hold onto that idol.

Now let me just say something. It doesn't mean necessarily

you're one hundred percent. It might mean you need to

get some help. Say I need some accountability. He needs

to be able to walk with me to deal with

that problem and addiction. Right, but I'm going to repent today.

I want to give up. Maybe it's looking up put

your eyes on him. Maybe you've been looking at the

problem in your life and that's all you can see,

and he says, hey, listen, I love you. Come on,

take your focus, put it up on me. Or maybe

it's step up. Maybe he's already given you a step

to take, but you're afraid you know, I don't know.

I don't think that's enough. And he says, no, no,

come on, take the next step. What is it today

for you? What is God saying to you? Because whatever

it is, he wants to touch you right now. Let's

just pause for a minute, just listen to him. The

way I explain is is God can speak to us,

He can give us clarity in our spirits. Let's just

listen for just thirty seconds now. If you've heard something

and God has spoken to you, says, this is what

I want you to do today, this is this is

how you respond. Just slip your hand up for me,

put it up for me, because I'm gonna pray for you.

I want to agree with you right now. Whatever God's

speaking to you, I agree with you. Yeah, let me pray. Father.

You know why these hands are up. You know what

these people are going through. Hm hm hm. Oh you know. Oh,

I just I just felt Lord say to me. He

just wants you to know he sees the pain you feel,

he sees the anks that this circumstances created in your life.

But I've also sense him saying, I am working good

through it. You hold on to me because I am

working good through it and you're going to see good

in the end. I feel like he wants you to

know that. So Lord, I pray for each one who's saying, hey,

I want to repent of an idol and I want

to receive new grace. Help them right now to do that,

to let that go and to trust you. Help those

who say I need to put my eyes on you again.

I've been looking at the problem. God, I want to

look to you again. Help them right now to do

what josh Fad did. Don't know what to do, not

strong enough, but my eyes are on you. Help them

right now. And those Lord who maybe you've given them

a step, You've told them, here's what I want you

to do, but they're afraid. Help them today. Give them

the courage to step up, take the next step. God,

You're going to meet them. I pray for peace for

those who need peace, those who are in a storm

and they need peace. Father, you're the one in the

midst of Jehosha Phat and his nation storm. You brought peace.

You came and you did what only you could do. Father.

I pray for those who are looking at bad things

to come from some of the some of the things

around them, there's some potentially bad consequences or results. I

pray that it would actually turn into the valley of blessing.

I pray that it would turn into the valley of blessing,

and they would plunder the enemy where the enemies tried

to plunder them. They would plunder the enemy. I pray

that today I bless this group of people. Oh, I

sense the Lord. My sense is grace. Just receive it

right now. He's here, he's here, he loves you. Just

take it for yourself. Say Lord, I take that grace

right now. I need grace. I need the grace to

serve you. I take it today. I bless them right now, Father,

I thank you for the grace on this house. You know.

I just one last thing I sense for this church

that even as there's been steps of faith to this moment,

there will be others. There will be others as you

grow and as He leads you forward, there will be

other steps of faith you're going to take. But I

really feel the Lord wants you to know this. As

you continue to boldly step forward, he will always meet you,

and He desires to do amazing things in this house,

through this house, to this community so I just bless

this church. Thank you for running me Christian Fellowship. Thank

you God that these people are here for such a

time as this, and thank you that we can give up,

look up, and then we can step up. And you

will always meet us in Jesus' name. Amen,