Beach House - Week 2 (Pentecost 2025)

We're we're still in our We're still in our series

Beach House. And last week we talked about we we

talked about emotional fatigue. Uh about just you know, not

uh your your physical body seems to be able to go,

but emotionally you're just worn out.

Have you ever been there before? Amen? Amen? And I

want to uh, I want to go just I want

to dig just a little bit deeper.

I want to dig just a little bit deeper and

talk about finding rest for your soul. You know, the

Bible talks a lot about our soul. Our soul is

our mind, our will, our emotions. It's that it's that

part of us that is our our personality. It's the

way we think, it's the way we uh, the.

Way we believe.

Our spirit man is that part that's quickened the moment

of salvation. And then of course our flesh is the

the earth suit that responds to the cold and hot

and all of those things experiences pain. But it talks

about rest for our souls a whole lot in scripture.

And I want to talk about how we can position

ourselves to live emotionally rested so that we can have

maximum output to affect the people around us, and also

to worship the Lord with our mind as well as

the rest of our bodies. So if you got a Bible,

go to Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four, verse ten.

Let me put my other put my old man eyes on. Philippius,

chapter four, verse ten. If you're there, say amen, I

We'll just go ahead anyway. Philippius, chapter four, verse ten.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at

last your care for me has flourished again. Though you

surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Let me just

I just want to before I fin before I preach,

I want to give you this.

This is free. This is not part of it.

But Paul said, hey, listen, I'm glad that you finally

decided to jump into giving. Is he's talking directly about

giving here. But I want to put it in. I

want to put it in an application to you, he says.

And listen, it's not that you didn't care, but you

lacked opportunity. You lacked opportunity. You know, a lot of

times when we come to church, we put on this

strong face and we pretend we act like everything is okay,

and we think that's walking in faith. We think that

that's being a faith soldier. That we come and it

fills out the world's falling apart.

Amen. But we come and we put.

On that face and we smile, and we do all

those things, and we go through the motions and the

apostle Paul is he's apologizing here, he's looking and he says, listen,

I know you cared, but I didn't give you.

The opportunity to share what you had.

Do you know when we act like everything's okay and

we shoulder that load on our own, that we're robbing

other people of the opportunity to give of their anointing

and their resources and their love and their attention. That

we need to be vulnerable, That we need to allow

people to pour into our lives. It's not for you

just to carry the load on your own. It's not

just for me to carry the load on my own.

We all must come to the place where we allow

people to share in what's going on, both good and bad.

Amen.

You know I talk a lot about Hey, share your testimony.

It doesn't matter if it's finished, yet invite people right

into the messy middle of it.

It don't have to be clean and a bow.

If you invite people into the middle of your testimony,

it allows them to experience God with you rather than

just hearing a cool story afterwards. Amen, So give people

the opportunity to do what they do, to be who

they are, to share the anointing in their lives. He

goes on and he says in verse eleven, not that

I speak in regard to need, For I have learned,

in whatever state I am, to be content. If you've

got a good old fashioned paper Bible, or if you're

taking notes, underline that word content because it's something that

we here in our modern society, especially in America. That's

not a word that we really use in our vocabulary anymore. Amen,

Contentment is something that we don't talk a whole lot about.

We always talk about what's next, and we talk about more.

We live in a society of more, We live in

a society of need. We live in a society of comparison.

We don't really talk about contentment a lot. But the

apostle Paul says, Listen, in whatever state I am, I've

learned to be content. I know how to be abased,

and I know how to abound everywhere in all things,

I've learned both to be full and to be hungry,

both to abound and to suffer need.

And verse thirteen, that passage.

Of scripture that we love to quote, especially as Pentecostals.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Let's pray, Father, I thank you for your mercy and

your grace. Lord, Your word is the only change agent

on the face of this planet. And I pray that

you change us. Lord, that today you mold us and

shape us into your image. Father, that you allow us

to leave here a little like us and a little

more like you, Father, that we would be able to

rest completely in your peace in Jesus' name.

Amen. You know, when we.

Read this whole passage of scripture and we get to

the end and it says I can do all things

through Christ who strengthens me. We quote that passage of

scripture as a scripture of accomplishment. If it needs to

be done, Bless God, I can do it. If you

need it done, I'm the one. I can do it.

It doesn't matter what the situation or the circumstance. I

can do all things through Christ who strengths me. But

when we put it in context, come on, somebody.

We just read that.

The apostle Paul said, I've learned to be content in

all things. I've learned to have contentment. I have learned

that if I'm broke or if I abound, I've learned

to be content. I've learned that it doesn't matter what's

going on around me. I'm living in contentment. I can

do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Do you hear that?

It's different than the way we think about that passage

of scripture. Most of the time we think that if

things are going bad, I can do all things through

Christ who strengthens me, and things will go good. That's

the way we think about that scripture. But what the

Apostle Paul says is that I can do all things

through Christ who strengthens me. I can make it through anything.

I can survive any situation in any circumstance. I can

have a testimony in the bad time. I can have

a testimony in the good times. I can see God

when things are not going well, and I still see

it when things are going perfect. I can do all

things through Christ who strengthens me. It doesn't matter the

situation of the circumstance.

That comes against me.

I can stand completely rooted and found it in Jesus.

It reads a lot different when we put it in context,

because he says, listen, there's going to be struggles in life.

Come on, somebody.

He did not promise you that there would not be

struggles in life.

But somehow the enemy.

Has convinced us that if we're believers and we love

Jesus and we just passionately chasing after him, that it's

all gonna be puppy dogs and roses. Puppy dogs, listen,

listen to me. Puppy dogs poop in the floor, and

roses have thorns. So it may be puppy dogs and roses,

but there's some sticky stinky that goes with the puppy

dogs and the roses. And we have to understand that

troubles come, but we can do all things. And the

problem is is when we set, when we set our

lives based on this little thing we call happiness, Come on, somebody.

When we control and we govern our lives by happiness

and not contentment, we fall into that terrible trap of

comparison and the guilt of not accomplishing the things that

we thought we were supposed to accomplish. The truth is

is that we navigate our lives and we look for

whatever's next. We think about whatever comes next. I remember

when I went full time, when I went full time

in ministry, my bring home pay when I went full

time in ministry was two hundred and eighty seven dollars

in change a week, two hundred and eighty. Say, and listen,

I'm not old enough for two hundred and eighty seven

dollars to be a lot of money, you know. My

grandpa used to say I made so and so on

and so on and so on. Back in that day,

that was a lot of money, you know. Back in

that day, that was still two hundred and eighty seven dollars.

Amen.

And I remember thinking if I could make if I

could make three hundred and fifty dollars a week, I

would be the happiest person in the world. I mean,

I would not have a worry, I wouldn't have a

trouble if I could make three fifty.

And guess what. I passed three fifty and I went

to four hundred.

And I had the same worries and the same struggles

that I had at eighty seven. And I thought to

myself God, I told you three point fifty that was

the perfect number. You overshot it. And then I would think, Hey,

if I could just make this, or if I could

just have this, if I could just buy that, if

I could just get one of those, if I could

just meet that person, if I could just get to

know that person, and each one of those things.

I tied.

Happiness or this ideal understanding of what life would be

to these things.

And it's not just me. You do it too.

We paint this picture of the ideal scenario, and then

when we get there, it's not what we thought it

was going to be because somehow we made it about

a destination. We made happiness about a destination, and happiness

is not a destination. Contentment is not a destination. Joy

is not a destination. The kingdom is not a destination.

It's a journey. It's a journey from here to there.

So you can't make it about the car. You can't

make it about the mount, you can't make it about

the house. You can't make it about the spouse. You

can't make it about the job, you can't make it

about those days. It's never about those things. It's about

you and him. It's about you being content with who

God created you to be, no matter what the situations

and the circumstances are, you know. I remember we were

in we were in Haiti and we had driven up

this road. I mean it was we went in this

this van and there were curves around this mountain. Bruce,

I didn't think that. I thought we're gonna have to

bend the bus to get around it. I mean, it

was just like and we would meet motorcycles coming down

with four people sitting on them.

And they would never slow down.

We were as wide as the road and they just

swing just on and just keeping I'm just I'm praying,

I'm thinking. And we get up to this tiny life

village and.

We pull in. We have to go through this creek.

And we're pulling up to this orphanage and there's a

bunch of donkeys over here on the right side, tied

up by the creek. And I looked at tim shoulder

and I said, hey, Tim wants that. He said, that's

the parking ride. I said what he said, Yeah, they

go borrow the donkey and they ride it to town

and then they ride it back and they park it.

That's a parking ride.

I say, oh okay, And we pull up to the

orphanage and this lady comes down the.

Street and she's just singing.

She's just so joyful, and there's something making this awful noise.

It's a noise like I don't know that I've ever

heard it up until that point in my life.

It's just this this was And she comes by us

and she's.

Holding a stick, and on that stick there is a

cat and it's tied by its front and back feet

to the stick, hanging upside down, and she's toting it

down the road and it's just you know, I mean,

it's like it knows what's about to happen. And I

looked at Tim and I said, Tim, where's she going

with that cat? He said, you know where she's going

with that cat? I said, I don't know where she's

going with that cat. Where is she going with that cat?

Says she's going to cook dinner? I said, for the cat?

He said, the cat is dinner. And listen that song,

that joy in her heart as she walked down that road.

I'll never forget it, because she was so happy to

have something to eat that I would roll over before

I ate it. Because it's about our context, and it's

about understanding the conditions of our life. And those children

at that orphanage that got a little handful of rot,

and on occasion some eggs mixed with it, and this

green plant that they picked out of the yard, I

just think it's weeds. I don't know what it really was.

But they would mix it all together, and they would

be and they were dancing, and they were singing, and

they were so happy, and they just enjoyed each other

and the presence of the Lord, and there was contentment

in a terrible situation. And then I come back to

America and everybody's stressed out, and everybody's anxious, and everybody

is worn down, and everybody's angry with everybody else.

And it's not because we're really angry.

It's because we're emotionally exhausted because we time meaning to things.

We time meaning to these, to these things that are

going to change anyway. In Matthew chapter five, verse fourteen,

it says you are the light of the world, a

city set on a hill. It's the wor words of

Christ City's saying that you are a navigational beacon. Cities

hillside cities could be seen for tens, sometimes hundreds.

Of miles, just that single little light.

Out in the darkness, and people would use that as

a navigational beacon from where they were towards the city.

They would navigate by those cities built on hillsides.

There were no roads.

Like we know of them today in many places around Jerusalem,

and they would navigate their lives by that city.

On a hill.

And Jesus says, people are going to look to you

to navigate their life. And I want to ask you,

are you navigating people towards anything any different than what

they're experiencing themselves. In other words, are you still stressed

out about the same things? Do you still worry about

the same things? Do you still get mad about the

same things? Do you have the same discontent in life

that the world has? Because if you do, that's a

bad city to navigate towards. The reality is he's calling

us to understand that it's not about the trappings of

the world, but it's about something else, and it's not

about being stationary. At no point will we ever have

arrived until the Lord calls us home. The way we

know we have arrived is if we wake up in

heaven or the rapture happens.

For most of us.

I believe the second thing is probably more likely than

the first. I believe Jesus is coming back anytime now.

I believe he is. I believe he's getting ready to

put a bowl on this thing.

I hope so, I hope so, because listen, in Heaven,

every time I go fishing, I'm gonna catch fish. Come on, somebody,

it's just it's heaven.

It's Heaven. No tears, no pain, no worry.

But he says, listen, let my kingdom be on earth

as it is in Heaven. Adopt that same mentality that

there's not the worries that we create, the worries that

we imagine are not really that big of a worry

in the grand scheme of things. Do you realize that

if you make over twenty thousand dollars a year, twenty

thousand dollars a year, that's a part time job in

America for the most part, you are in the top

one percent of income earners worldwide, that you could go

somewhere else and live like a king. But we worry,

and we feel like we're not going to make it.

We feel like we're being crushed and that is the

enemy who has convinced us that it's about a destination.

It's about just having this thing. But nothing in scripture stationary.

He says, a city on a hill, But it's about

being a navigational beacon. It's not being planted so that

everyone sees us and comes up to where we are.

It's so that everyone navigates their life by the direction

that we're headed. In First Corinthias, chapter eleven, the apostle

Paul says, imitate me as I imm tate Christ. He said, listen,

I'm in the process of growing up and looking like Jesus.

Every day I look a little more like the Lord.

Every day.

I'm figuring things out. Every day I have challenges, and

I've learned to be content. Every day people are throwing

rocks at me every day. I'm getting shipwrecked every day.

I'm getting bit by snakes. Every day. People are hating me.

Every day, people are chasing me out of the city.

That was the apostle Paul life, and he says, listen,

I've learned to be content.

Imitate me. It's I imitate Christ.

Look at my life and the contentment that I have,

Because even though.

People are after me, I don't worry.

In his great farewell address, he said, hey, I have

fought the good fight.

I finished the race.

I'm already being poured out like a drink offer and

he knew he was gonna die. And instead of all

the other things that most people do, he wrote another

letter to you, and he said, hey, I'm okay, because

it's not about an earthly destination. It's about a spiritual journey.

And if we can embrace the spiritual journey mindset.

We will get peace and vitality at the very all

of who we are.

And not only that, he says in Philippians chapter three,

verse thirteen, he says, brethren, I do not count myself

to have apprehended, but one thing I do forgetting those

things which are behind me and reaching forward to those

things which are ahead.

Now, let's stop reading right there.

Because we can read that through very American earthly eyes,

and we can read that to say, oh, it's about

the things I don't have yet. It's about that next thing.

It's about that next event, it's about that next whatever.

It's about that. It's about that. But listen to what

the apostle Paul says, are the things ahead he's not

talking about wealth, he's not talking about things.

When he talks about the things he's reaching.

For, it's completely different than the things that most of

us reach for. Now, listen, I'm not preaching to you.

I'm not preaching at you. God is speaking to us

because I'm not immune to these things. I'm not immune

to wanting more. I'm not immune to enjoying things. And

I want to tell you, I live one of the

most blessed lives of anybody I know. God blesses me

and he opens the doors for me, and it's just

absolutely amazing that God does the things for me that

he does because I don't deserve those things. But I

believe one of the things is that it doesn't matter

to me because if I don't have them, I don't care.

I have the same heart and the same joy when

I don't have enough money to pay the power bill.

And I've been there, I've been there. I remember standing

in our first home. I was standing in the doorway

of the nursery and Angie was sitting in the nursery

holding Madison. I walked up and I was leaning against

the door, and our house payment was late, and I

know where the money was gonna come from to eighty seven.

Remember to eighty seven. You stacked two eighty sevens together.

And it takes a lot to get where you need

to go.

Amen.

I was leaning against that door, and I just told Angie,

I said, Babe, I don't know why you're so worried.

Now listen, you know, and this is just the way

my mind works. I'm like, listen, if we lose this house,

it's all right. We'll just moving when your mama and

daddy and I won't have to cook, I won't have

to do nothing. As a matter of fact, don't think

about just turning it over to the bank right now.

And I said, I said, babe, people, we're gonna be okay.

It doesn't matter. The Lord's got us. And maybe if

you come from nothing it's easier. I don't know, maybe

it is. Maybe I don't know. I think it may

be grace though. And just as we came to that

place where you know it's all right, phone rams, you

know one of those numbers, you know it's not in

my phone, it's like somebody wants more money, right, So

I answered the phone. Hello, They said, hey, is this

Steve Stewart And I'm like, sure, why not, because I

thought it was somebody that is about to tell me

I owe them money. Come on, now, I'd done the

Dave Ramsey thing. I already had the speech, you're below

the line, if you've been through financial piationing where you're

below the line, I don't have any money to give you,

so just.

Get in line.

And I said yes, and they said, hey, did you

used to live and they gave this address and hushion,

and I'm like, I don't know. I mean, that was

a long time ago. That's like when I was born.

They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, somebody took an insurance policy.

And like, yeah, that's me.

That's me.

They're like, well, listen, we believe this is you. We've tracked,

we've been looking for you for a few years. And uh,

I got a check for you, and what's the address

you want me to mail it to? I said, where

are you at? I'll just come pick it up, and

the insurance gonna gave me their address. I drove down,

got the check, and you know what, covered our house payment.

We were able to buy groceries.

But it wasn't until we found that contentment in not

having anything that the Lord really showed up and did

something to amaze us, because he wants to bless you.

He wants to give you.

More and more and more, but he needs you to

realize that it's more and more and more, and that

he's not behind trying to catch you up. When we

realize that it's all about us and him, and if

it's in a tent or if it's in a mansion,

we can live in the same contentment and with the

same emotional vigor that we can because situation does not

have to impact who I am at the very core

of my being. In Psalm chapter one one, it says,

I will lift up my eyes to the hills. You

know in scripture, bad things happen in valleys. Have you

ever notice that it always seems like it's the valley

of the giants, right, the valley of decision, the valley

of the shadow of death. It's not the mountaintop of despair.

I mean right, I mean nobody nobody under when you

say that, it just sounds crazy, mountaintop of despair. I'm

on the mountaintop. That's not There's no despair there. It's

always the valley. And it's it's funny that he writes

it like this, because the only way you can see

the hill is if you're in the valley, And he says,

I lift up my eyes.

To the hills. From whence comes my help?

He said, Listen, I'm looking up and I don't know

where my help is coming from.

I don't know.

I'm trying to figure it out, but in my earthly senses,

I don't know where my help is coming because I

don't even know why I need it. I don't know

why I'm stressed out. I don't know why I'm struggling.

I don't know why any of those things are. I

don't know why this is happening on the Do you

ever just wake up and you just feel like somebody's

sitting on your chest and you don't know why because

you don't have anything to really worry about. It's that

emotional fatigue because we think we should have reached the

destination that makes everything okay. But only he makes it okay. Clint,

you guys can come. Get ready, He said, I lift

up my eyes to the hills, and I don't know

where my help's coming. And then he comes to the realization.

The moment his pen gets to the end of the sentence.

It hits him and he says, my help comes from

the Lord. I don't know how he's going to do it.

I don't know where it's coming from. I have no

idea how he's going.

To do it. But my help comes from the Lord.

And then he throws this in on the end, who

made heaven and earth. If this can't bring you content,

but where you are, I don't know what will.

He says.

Listen, the very one who calls you air and joint air.

That means all that's his is yours. That's what that means.

The very one who calls you son, the very one

who loved you when nobody else would love you, and

picked you up out of the muck and the mire of.

Life, made heaven and earth.

He made everything we see.

And that we're trying to attain. He made it. He's

the owner of it. But hold on, let's don't just

stop there. He made everything to the place we're trying

to get to. He made the place that is described

of walls of jasper, streets of gold, a sea of crystal,

where there's no worry, there's no herd, there's no pain,

there's no sickness, there's not even a tear, and.

He made it. And if he made all of that

and he owns it, he can funnel it to you.

Because he owns it. He looks and he says, Hey,

there's my faithful servant Chairman. You know what, I'm gonna

send him three more yards, Jerry, Ain't that ain't a blessing.

I'm gonna send him three more yards. There's my faithful

servant Cory Man. He was serving me and fell through

the roof at the church and broke his ankle. I'm

gonna send somebody with a wheelchair. I'm gonna send somebody

with steakes. So I'm gonna there's my faithful servant Tina,

who feeds hundreds and hundreds of people through the effort

that she puts forth by leading the food.

Bak, and her moment of hardness, in her moment of difficulty,

I'm gonna send dozens hundreds to pray for and lift

her up.

There's my faithful service Steve. He don't really need much.

He's a funny fellow. He's got everything under control.

So I'm just gonna watch over him, and if he

does need anything, I'm gonna make sure that that it's

meant Amen.

That's the God we serve. Here's my faithful servant, Chris.

You served me his whole life. I'm gonna put my

arms around him and bringing peace and come, we're gonna

have to worry and stress.

Just rest in peace. Why don't we stress? Man, We're

children of the king.

In John chapter seven, verse thirty seven, I want to

close with this, it says, on the last day, that

great day of the feast, Jesus stood.

And cried out, saying, if any one thirsts.

The very most basic need of life.

Water, go three weeks without food, three days without water.

He says, if any if anyone thirsts, let him come

to me and drink. He who believes in me, as

the scripture has said, out of his heart will float.

Rivers of living water.

But this he spoke concerning the Holy Spirit, whom those

believing in him wouldn't see, for the Holy Spirit was

not yet given, because Jesus was.

Not yet glorified.

He said, come to me, and I'll make your struggle life.

Come to me, and.

I will make you the carrier. Instead of trying to

reach a destination that.

Flows down the river of living water that emanates from you,

and you will carry a quenching touch to the driest places.

That you, the stressed out.

Self medicating, worry yourself to death, can't sleep at night.

Will be a life giver, and I'll turn your trouble

into triumph.

To just allow Holy Spirit to pour out here.

You just allow him to pour out of the brokenness

and the pain and the herd and all.

The stress and the anxiety. He'll just turn it over

to him and let him go.

He'll bring you rest for your soul, your mind, your will,

and your emotions. We think he says rest for our spirit,

but he says rest for your soul, for the part

that is worn out and riddled with guilt.

I'll give you rest.

I believe we can all use a fresh touch of

the Holy Spirit this morning. You know, today's Pentecost Sunday.

This is the day where the modern churches, we know

it was born, where the Holy Spirit moved into believers

rather than just own believers, or what we believe is born.

What better day than today for you to come and

receive from God that life giving power of the Holy Ghost.

The band's gonna sing in just a moment, but I

want to give you another opportunity.

I believe some people got miracles already.

During our miracle moment today, I can just feel that happening.

But maybe you sat back. I don't know why, but

you realize, Hey, what I need is contentment. I just

se contentment so that the Holy Ghost can flow out

of me.

I've been hindering that flow because of my anxiety and

my stress, and I just want to I just want

to sit back and just let the.

Holy Spirit flow and watch God work hid me and

through me. Well that's you, man. It's gonna sing. But

I'm gonna count to three first.

And when I count to three, if you want that

touch from the Holy Spirit, no alter TV.

You don't have to come.

If you want that touch from the Holy Spirit, I'm

gonna ask you to step out.

Everybody got to stand up because we're gonna worship together.

If you've gotta be standing for that anyway, because when

the King comes in the room, we always stand upright.

Don't gonna count a three if.

You say, hey, I just I just need contentment. I'm

sick of being tired and tired of being sick. Let's

need contemple. I wanna pray for it. Just up stop

lay my hand on your pray for you real quick.

But when I count to three, step out, move

One, two, three, I'm gonna step out and move if

you need, just resp fore your soul