Room at the Table - The Blessing of Neither

Come on, if you know that you serve an on-time God in this place today, can you put your hands together?

Can you thank him for his goodness, for his provision, for the times that he showed up in your life?

I uh I realized I had a problem with this song uh just when I was sitting there about to come up because it doesn't say always on my time.

Right?

Do I have any uh honest people in the house today?

Any control freaks that say, Man, sometimes I want it on my time, right?

I want it when I want it.

But sometimes do you know that we serve a heavenly father that has a better perspective, that has a better vision, that can see that sometimes he's withholding something, not because he's mean, not because he's bad, but because he knows you may not be ready for it, or he may know, oh that's good, but I have something over here that's better for you.

I believe that today.

Can we just thank God for his on-time provision that he knows better, that he knows better?

Would you pray with me just for a moment, Multiply Church, and then we'll uh we'll get into this thing.

I'm excited to be with you today.

Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank you for the opportunity to be here today, God.

I thank you for every man, woman, son, daughter in this room, Lord Jesus.

God, I pray that over these next few moments, God, that your Holy Spirit would blow through this place in a fresh way, God.

I pray that there would be a revelation of Scripture, God, that um multiplies beyond the simple words that I say, God.

I thank you that your word describes the power of the Holy Spirit as an interpreter.

God, so I pray for every need.

I pray for everything on people's minds today, Lord Jesus.

I pray that through the power of your Holy Spirit, God, that you would interpret exactly what they need to hear, God.

God, my words are human, my words are frail, my words will fall short, God.

But in partnership with your Holy Spirit, God, I believe that we can accomplish something supernatural in this place today, God.

So may you be glorified and honored by our worship together, Lord.

We love you, we honor you, and everybody at multiply said, Amen, amen.

Hey, why don't you find na na na.

I know I'm a guest, I know I'm a guest, but I didn't say sit down.

I didn't say sit down.

You better find two or three people near you, you better hug them.

I feel like Kentucky people are friendly, right?

Y'all love one another.

The church is supposed to love each other.

Go meet somebody near you, introduce yourself, find a couple people, say hey.

Alright, now y'all can have a seat.

Now y'all can have a seat.

Y'all doing alright this morning?

Y'all good?

It's gonna be it's gonna be a good day, I believe, in the house of God.

I'm excited to be with you today.

I uh I know the ladies mentioned it earlier, but I um I bring you good tidings of great joy from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Um, it's been a privilege just uh getting to know and spend some time conversing and dialoguing with your pastor.

You guys know you got an amazing pastor and Pastor Forrest and Pastor Emily, amazing leaders.

By the way, it's Emily's birthday this weekend, and they're away, and he's spoiling her, so thank God for them getting some rest and getting some time together.

Um but man, he was just sharing with me, and it makes me really proud and really excited to be here because he was sharing with me just all of the incredible things you guys have done this summer.

Um I don't know if you're maybe newer to the multiplied church context, but um, you guys are really passionate about serving the community, right?

I just heard this thing about y'all showing up at KSU, right?

When is that happening?

Wednesday, okay?

So Wednesday, if you're not doing anything, or even if you are doing something, cancel your plans.

Go hang out with your church family, greet some college people at KSU, but you guys have done an incredible job this summer.

Forrest was telling me about uh shoes you guys were donating for kids going back to school, that y'all did a toy drive for some kids in need.

I also heard about some people that got baptized this summer.

Come on, hey, if you're in the room and got baptized this summer, anybody in the room that got baptized?

Anybody, anybody, anybody?

No?

They're all coming to the later service.

Okay.

That's alright.

That's alright.

But God's doing something.

Amen?

And we are in week two of a series called Room at the Table.

Room at the Table.

This is all about understanding the heart of multiplied church, the heart of the values.

And Pastor Forrest kicked it off last weekend.

Does everybody remember the sermon title?

What is it?

Bringing to the table.

What are you bringing to the table?

That's right.

It was close.

A for effort.

What are you bringing to the table?

He looked at value number 10, right?

Value number 10.

We bring someone with us.

And this wasn't really intentional, but we're kind of working backwards because I picked value number eight to share around today.

Uh, value number eight is about we are builders.

Let's just say that out loud together.

Say we are builders.

Great, great, great, great.

Um, by the way, I don't know if y'all talk back to Forrest.

I don't know, I don't know if he likes that.

But but preaching is not just uh me talking at y'all for 40 minutes, right?

Some of this is designed to be a conversation and a dialogue.

Um so if there's something that feels like it resonates in your spirit, feel free to say amen.

Feel free to clap.

That's not applauding me.

That's sometimes affirming and confirming something the Holy Spirit is speaking to you.

Sometimes it's a head nod.

Sometimes it's as simple as just an affirmation that no, I'm receiving that word.

Um but I'm excited to dive in today.

I know they um they showed a picture in the welcome, but can y'all throw that picture one more time?

Uh this is my daughter uh Lennon and my beautiful wife Danielle.

Lennon um just started kindergarten this week, y'all, which is wild.

Um I am officially at that age of parenting where it's like every older father that passes me gives me like the, you know, the days are long, but the years are short, son.

You know, next you know it, you're gonna be walking her down the I don't know why, but for whatever reason, at like five years old, every dad like engages me in public and like reminds me of this stuff.

But, anyways, she's beautiful.

Uh, my wife is beautiful, very um grateful for them.

But let's jump into this thing.

Um, would y'all do me a favor?

Can I go really old school?

Can we stand back to our feet for the reading of God's word?

Would that be okay?

I just think sometimes there's a there's power in honoring the scripture as it's being read.

And uh if you're newer to church context, it's a little bit of an old school thing to do, but it's giving reverence to the scriptures.

We're gonna be in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and uh he spends the first two chapters kind of admonishing and correcting some things because God is really doing a great work in the church at Corinth.

And uh God's doing some amazing things, but then they're also kind of getting sideways on some things, and uh these verses are kind of uh a little bit of a correction, but I think for us, don't think about it through the lens of correction and challenge.

Think about it more through the lens of man, what does it look like to actually build something in the kingdom of heaven?

Right?

That's what we're gonna talk about, that's what we're gonna unpack today.

So picking up in verse 5, you'll see it on the screens.

If you did not bring your Bible, it says this it says, What after all is Apollos?

And what is Paul?

Only servants through who you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

I, meaning Paul, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God.

Someone say only God?

Only God who makes things grow, the one who plants and the one who waters have but one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.

For we we are co-workers in God's service.

You are God's field, God's building.

Heavenly Father, through the time remaining today, God, I pray that you would just help this scripture come to life in a new way, God.

I thank you for what you have been teaching me through the studying of this, God.

I pray that you would help me to clearly articulate the things I've studied and that I would be able to appropriately cover and bring to life the scriptures in a fresh way today, Lord.

We love you, we bless you, we honor you, and everybody said Amen, Amen.

Take a seat, take a seat.

We are going to spend the next uh 90 minutes or so talking around I'm just I'm just kidding, just kidding.

Maybe, maybe 31 minutes.

We'll see.

Around this topic, this idea.

If you're taking notes, uh either on paper or on your phone, you can write this down.

The blessing of neither.

The blessing of neither.

Sounds kind of like a depressing sermon title out of the gate, but I promise it's not.

And I promise there will be a uh a lift at the end.

Do I have any um do I have any sports fans in the house?

Any sports fans?

Hallelujah.

Okay.

Who's y'all's team?

Are y'all Wildcats fans?

Yes?

And no?

Cardinals.

Cardinals! Uh-oh.

Uh a room device.

Did you say roll tide?

Oh, no, that's it.

I'm out of here.

I'm out of here.

I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

Um, it's the same, the same is true in North Carolina, right?

You've got like the UNC Tar Heels, you've got the Duke Blue Devils, Kentucky, you got Louisville, you got Kentucky.

Anyways, I am a massive sports fan, right?

Grew up playing uh soccer, baseball my whole life, uh, played every intramural sport I could at college.

Um, I consider it, I've been married to Danielle now a little over 10 years.

I consider it one of my greatest um feats of husbandry because I recently got her addicted to all the Netflix sports documentaries.

So I don't know if you guys have seen quarterbacks or receivers, full swing, break point, nothing?

Nobody?

A couple.

Okay, I got a couple affirmations.

Okay, thank you.

Well, they're very good, they're awesome.

It's this like amazing behind the scenes of all these um sports stars and worlds that you know really have no influence and positive impact on my life.

But I get to vicariously see kind of the behind the scenes of the PGA tour events and all that stuff.

Anyways, so I have been so proud of uh my wife, you know, watching all these because I love sports and I'm super competitive.

And uh it has just made me realize that sometimes in life I wish uh like life had a scoreboard.

Right?

Sometimes, even as a pastor, honestly, right?

Being a pastor is is is very confusing sometimes because you don't really know if you're like actually doing well sometimes, right?

You're trying to like encourage people in their faith.

You're trying to hope that people read their Bible, but it's like I'm not I'm not in my church's living rooms on Tuesday morning checking up to see like, did you read your Bible before you went home?

No, okay.

Did you spend time in prayer?

I don't know.

So there's this like inability sometimes to have a clear pulse on like, man, is this going well?

Right?

Sometimes I just wish in life there was like this scoreboard where at certain points you could at least have a clue, like, man, are we like running it up on them?

Is it 42 to 10?

Or are we getting trounced right now?

And do I need like, do we need we gotta show up early at 7 a.m.?

We better run suicides, I better go in with like a halftime series.

Like sometimes I wish life just gave us a scoreboard.

It would be helpful if things were more clear, right?

But life doesn't really work like that, right?

And as I was thinking about even this passage, I was just thinking about this idea of growth, right?

This idea of building something.

Because growth in the kingdom of heaven is very confusing.

It is not always external, right?

Anybody in the room been a part of multiplied church from the beginning?

Anyone?

Anybody?

Got a couple people back there?

Let's go, let's go.

The church has grown a little bit, right?

A whole lot, a whole lot.

There's some where did you guys start meeting at when you first launched?

Someone's living room.

Okay, this is no longer someone's living room, right?

The first gatherings of multiplied church were a few couples in a living room with Forrest and Emily sharing their heart to reach Frankfurt, right?

God has obviously grown some things visibly, but there is also some intangible growth.

There's also spiritual growth that happens that is beneath the surface.

You know, when I was uh growing up, I hit my growth spurt late in life.

Uh I say late in life, late in high school.

Uh going into my junior year of high school is when I hit my growth spurt.

Up until that point, I was 5'4, 135 pounds, soaking wet.

And then all of a sudden I kind of shot up, grew about six inches.

But since my junior and senior year in high school, I have been 5'11.

All I am ever going to be is 5'11.

Maybe 5'10 when I get a little older.

Who knows?

But I am not all of a sudden gonna hit another visible external growth spurt where the next time I come back to multiply, I'm 6'3.

You like how I just inserted that I'm just gonna come back to multiply?

It's not gonna happen.

Every bit of growth and maturity that has happened beyond my senior year has happened internally, has happened in my spirit, has happened in my maturity, has happened in my emotions, and that is true for all of us.

But there's a wrestle, right?

Because sometimes we want the visible growth, right?

We're conditioned to like love the external thing, right?

You go from like the 1,500 square foot house to the 2,000 square foot house, you go from the F-150 to the F-250, right?

I want my bank account, I don't want my bank account to be the same as it was when I was 19 years old, right?

Think praise Jesus, it's not anymore.

So there's like this this external side of growth that is very real, but then there is this spiritual side of growth.

There is kingdom growth that happens internally.

And uh what I want us to talk about just for a few moments today is this idea of what does it look like to sow?

What does it look like to build?

What does it look like to actually reap a harvest and build something special for the kingdom?

Because, friends, it is not always going to be visible, it is not always going to be moving from a living room to a building.

That's amazing.

But sometimes the growth that Multiply Church is gonna need is gonna be in your values, it's gonna be in your spiritual formation, it's gonna be in the number of small groups.

That's not as sexy, right?

It's cool, it's amazing, but sometimes real healthy relationships and community is not this like crazy explosive growth number.

No, but it's that like deep internal work.

Y'all tracking with me?

So let's just look at the scripture and we're just gonna work through this just as simply as I know how, right?

Because I'm kind of a I'm kind of a simple person sometimes, and so sometimes it's easy to just go, hey, let's just break this down kind of word by word and phrase by phrase.

So it picks up in verse 5, it says, What after all is Apollos and what is Paul?

Only servants through who you came to believe.

As the Lord has assigned to each his task, here's the first part.

I planted the seed.

I planted the seed.

So uh in preparation for today, I did two things.

I picked up my daughter's uh favorite fruit in seed form, watermelons, and I have been reading a lot of articles about planting and farming.

Hang on one second while I open these seeds.

Any farmers in the room?

Any like avid gardeners?

Farmer?

Avid gardeners?

Alright.

Planting.

It's not real clean, right?

You gotta get your you gotta get your hands dirty.

Yeah, you might have a little you might have a little dirt underneath your fingernails, eh?

Come on, it's good for you, right?

Come on.

Planting is not always easy.

And sometimes we come to the scriptures and we come to the the word of God and we read phrases like planting, watering, God's making it grow.

Woo! And we want to do like this dance and song.

And we forget sometimes that the actual origin of the word indicates hard work, indicates something uncomfortable, indicates something kind of messy.

Friends, if you want God to grow something in your life, let me just forewarn you, it might get messy.

It might mean you have to get your hands dirty, it might mean you have to actually put some things in the soil in order to actually produce something that God can bless.

And as I was thinking about it, um, I'm actually gonna switch hands.

Hang on.

I'm left-handed and I didn't like that those seeds were in my right hand.

And as I was thinking about it, I realized, can I ask you just like a really, really simple question?

In order for the seed, in order for this to be a watermelon seed, where does it have to go?

In the ground.

You gotta actually release it.

You know what will never produce a watermelon seed?

My hand.

And I worry sometimes that in churches, and I worry sometimes in our lives, a lot of us are walking around like this.

You're holding seed.

You are holding on to something that is meant to be in the ground, and the thing in your life that God has given you, it will only ever be in seed form when it is in your hand.

Now, what are those things?

What is the seed that could be in your hand?

It might be a seed of encouragement.

I don't know if God has given any of you the gift of encouragement or affirmation, but some of you are holding a seed of encouragement in your hand.

All it will ever be is nothing in your hand.

You have to actually sow the seed.

You have to actually encourage some people, you have to actually put the thing in the ground.

Some of you might be holding financial resources, right?

We talked about offering, we talked about your generosity enabling things like this college uh orientation celebration on the 20th, right?

Your financial resources go a long way to being able to help multiply church do those things.

But if you have financial resources and they are just sitting in your bank account, you know what they will never be?

Nothing.

They will just be in your bank account.

But if you sow your financial resources in the kingdom of heaven, it has an opportunity to return something, it has an opportunity to grow something.

But I have seen far too many people in church, I have seen far too many believers walking around holding seed in their hand.

Can I give you one more?

Some of you are holding a seed of forgiveness in your hand, and you are walking around angrier than you need to be, more hurt than you need to be, because you have not had a moment with God to actually release forget even forgiving the individual.

That is a piece of it, and that is a part of it.

Yes, that can come, and there are certain relationships.

I know it gets complicated in that context when you start talking about forgiveness, but sometimes forgiveness is not even about a conversation with the other person.

Sometimes forgiveness is about a decision in your heart.

And I believe God can set some of you free if you realize, man, I've got this seed of forgiveness, and what it's turning into is it's actually turning into a seed of bitterness in your hand.

But the seed will never produce something until you release it and put it in the ground.

Amen?

So you gotta actually release the seed.

That's super simple, super practical, right?

The other thing you need to do when you release the seed is you need to release a level of expectation.

Right?

This is a hard one for me, honestly.

And I I joked around about this a little bit when I came up to pray at the beginning because I talked about I'm a I'm a self-professed control freak.

But it is my level of expectation that also ruins me sometimes.

Because sometimes I will get so obsessed with what I think something should be, how I think this person should react, how this thing should unfold in my life.

And when it doesn't happen that way, or when it doesn't go that way, I walk away from the situation disappointed.

Can I just um again, let's just be very simple and let's just talk about a seed.

When you release a seed into the ground.

It does not come back the exact same way you sowed it, right?

If I put this watermelon seed in the ground three months from now, you know what I don't get?

A giant seed.

That would be weird and annoying.

I want fruit.

I want my seed to produce something.

But the plant and the fruit that this silly little seed produces looks a lot different than the seed that I sowed into the ground.

And some of us, I feel like, are walking around sowing a seed and expecting to get a seed.

And we sow a seed and we expect to get the same thing back.

And sometimes we just need to remind ourselves and we need to release God of the expectation.

Not everything that you sow in your life is going to come back the exact same way.

And that's a good thing, right?

That's a blessing.

Sometimes God knows, not sometimes, all the time.

God knows better.

God knows better.

If that could just be like a mantra that I underscore from my life, God knows better.

And so sometimes I could walk around with a lot more joy and a lot more peace if I had an ability to release my expectation of what the situation should be.

So we've got to release seed, we've got to release expectation.

But it talks about Paul planting and Apollos watering, right?

In the context of the passage, Paul is reminding the church, yes, ultimately he planted, Apollos watered, but God has been making it grow.

I think we all um kind of understand pretty simply and pretty practically that water is necessary for growth, right?

If we keep this in the horticulture planting, gardening realm, right?

Watering the ground actually allows the soil to soften, right?

It actually hydrates and nourishes the plant and the seed so that the seed can break off the shell and it can begin to produce something, right?

Water is necessary for life.

Amen?

Water is also necessary for your life, right?

Um, can I just be honest for a moment?

I spend most of my life probably partially dehydrated.

You know why?

Because I wake up, ironically enough, I actually have water in this coffee cup, so this is false for the illustration.

But I wake up and I start with coffee.

Amen?

Any coffee lovers in here?

Hallelujah.

Okay, so you wake up and start with coffee, but then I get to the office and about 10 a.m.

I'm sitting in a meeting, and I'm like, you know what would be really great right now?

Just a nice cup of coffee, right?

So I have a second cup of coffee.

Well, then I have a lunch meeting out with somebody, and I love Diet Coke.

So then at lunch, I switch from coffee to Diet Coke, hallelujah.

And then about 3 p.m., I'm sitting in another meeting, and I'm like, you know what I need right now?

Another Diet Coke.

And so I run a steady just drip of caffeine all throughout my day from coffee to Diet Coke.

I saw some Alani drinks running around the lobby here this morning.

Hallelujah.

We'll pray for you and lay hands on you at the end of the experience.

So I spend, I'm just kidding, just kidding.

I spend my days partially dehydrated because I'm just going from coffee to Diet Coke.

I'll even throw an Alani in the mix every now and then.

And it requires intentionality for me to actually know, hang on, Jordan, I need a sip of water, just H2O.

I need to do something to just refresh my body.

And uh, it is very simple and it is very practical, but there is a level of intentionality that you need to apply to your spiritual life to ensure a level of refreshment, to ensure a level of growth, because there are a lot of things that we go through the day and we walk through this life consuming things, taking things in.

I don't know how many of you know or are familiar with John Mark Comer.

He's one of probably like the leading pastors and theologians of the day on spiritual formation.

And he basically has this theory that everything is forming you constantly.

It is just forming you into what?

Right?

Some of us in our workplace we're around co-workers that are forming us into something and not a good thing sometimes.

Some of us it's on the device in our pocket.

You can scroll Instagram, you can look at XYZ Influencer or so-and-so's vacation.

There is a natural forming that is happening to us constantly because of cultural influences, and not all of those things are sinful, evil, bad.

This isn't a rant against social media.

It is just us bringing to the surface a level of intentionality and awareness that says, no, I need to be conscious of this.

I need to be aware of this.

I need to make sure that my spirit isn't operating from a dehydrated place, right?

I want to make sure that I have something that nourishes my spirit.

That can look as simple as getting in God's word.

Are you showing up every Sunday morning hoping Pastor Forrest has a good word to get you through the next six days?

That's not good enough.

That's not good enough.

It's wonderful to come to church with the level of expectation.

And I hope you you felt like I prepared and like I cared about delivering a good word.

Of course I did.

Of course, Forrest cares week to week that it's going to be a great presentation of the gospel and of the Bible.

But as a follower of God, as a mature believer, I also have a responsibility during the week to feed myself.

I have to open God's word for myself.

Don't let the praise team on Sunday morning be the only time you hear a song of worship.

Know how to put on some worship music for yourself because it helps nourish your spirit.

It helps form you into the believer that you're called to be.

It helps grow and cultivate something in your life because here's the reason the conditions matter.

Right?

The conditions matter.

And this is why I don't plant and I don't garden.

Like I'm gifted in a lot of ways, I'm skilled a lot, but I have like I have too much on my mind to worry about these dumb plants, some of which need six hours of sunlight, some of which need two hours of sunlight, some of which need a cup of water, some of which need three cups of water.

I'm like, I can't, I can't keep track of it all.

I don't know.

I would kill everything I planted if I actually did any gardening.

But I say all that to say the conditions matter.

The conditions of your soil matter.

The conditions of your heart matter.

So if there is a very specific way to grow a tomato plant and to grow a radish and to grow lettuce, if there is such specificity for those conditions, don't you think there's some specificity for the conditions of your heart?

For the soil of your life?

And so many of us were were desperate for water, we're desperate for nutrition, we're desperate to change the conditions and to really get some water in our life.

The conditions matter.

The greatest thing about this uh this little passage, though, is I was reading it, is there's a little bit of a sense of relief because at the end of the day, Paul says, Yeah, Paul planted Apollos' water, but God has been making it grow.

And there's just a little bit of a relief as a believer and as a follower of God to know that ultimately it's not about me.

And ultimately, I get the opportunity to partner with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

So, yes, planting matters, and yes, watering matters.

But the third thing I want to talk about just for a minute is the power of partnership.

The power of partnership.

Because I think sometimes you could you can read this passage and you get this idea of like, man, if God's making it grow, then like, what do I what does it actually matter what I do?

But I but I think we've got to be careful not to uh absolve ourselves of responsibility.

Because even though God makes things grow, God makes things grow through the power of partnership, right?

James uh chapter two, it talks about um faith without works, faith without action is dead, right?

So there is a responsibility that part of how I live out my faith is through action.

It is through the planting, it is through the watering.

It is not, it is not going, oh, God makes it grow, so hands off, no one to do anything, laissez-a faire.

No, all the more it should urge me into a level of responsibility and a level of action because I get to be partnered with God, who can produce something that can far exceed the expectations in my life.

So the goal is yes, I want to plant, yes, I want to water, but ultimately I am grateful that I'm partnered with God.

And uh I was just thinking about that, this specific dynamics, right?

So there's um there's planting, there's watering, but then there's like there's also time in between like when the thing actually bears fruit, right?

I think uh what's to say the radishes were um 24 days to harvest, the watermelon are 85 days to harvest.

God, it's almost three months.

You gotta wait a long time for a watermelon.

But there's this dynamic in in producing something and in growing something that it will require different things of you in different seasons, right?

For some of you in the ground, there may be a conviction in the room today that there is some seed in your hand.

And if you don't hear anything else from me today, that's fine.

Because I want you to do the hard work of figuring out what that seed is that's in your hand and releasing it.

That's the goal.

For some of you, the words you needed to hear today was around this idea of watering and refreshing your spirit and recognizing that there's a greater level of attention and detail that you need to bring to the conditions of the soil in your life that might be important.

For some of you, you might be in the waiting season.

I might be in day 36 of 85 until I get to harvest.

And then the other thing that I just was thinking about is man, sometimes it is so hard to know in my life what I'm supposed to be doing.

Like what I'm supposed to be doing when is it planting season?

Is it watering season?

Is it waiting season?

How do I know?

You want the simple formula?

Here's the answer.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I think it only comes through the process of discernment.

I think it only comes for you as you navigate this faith journey for yourself.

Because faith is not a formula.

And as much as I would love to make things black and white and very clear and very simple, it wouldn't be faith.

If we had all the answers and we knew exactly what God was doing in every season, and we knew exactly what it was going to produce in the time and the moment and the season, it would not require faith.

And what God calls us to as believers ultimately is faith.

And he calls us into relationship, right?

I think part of how you begin to understand at a deeper level and discern the season that you're in is you begin to know the Lord's voice.

You begin to sense his prompting, you begin to understand what the Holy Spirit is doing in which season, right?

That only comes with time spent in his presence, right?

I was reminded of the story in uh in 1 Kings 19.

I don't know if you're familiar with it or not, but Elijah gets really afraid of Jezebel for really stupid reasons, and he runs to the cave and he hides.

And basically God shows up and he's like, Hey, Elijah, you gotta come out, we gotta talk about this.

And it says in the Bible that there is an earthquake, there is a fire, and there's a mighty wind, but God wasn't in any of those things.

And then Elijah hears a still, small voice.

A whisper.

And he covers his face and he goes out to the mouth of the cave to meet with God.

Most of the time in your life, God does not show up like I do with a microphone.

And so sometimes as believers, really understanding and discerning and knowing the season that we're in, it comes from knowing his voice.

And knowing that most of the time God's not gonna yell at you like Pastor Forrest or like Jordan.

Most of the time it's gonna be a Tuesday, and you're gonna walk by a coworker and get a gut check.

And you're gonna go, oh yeah, I need to press into that.

I need to uncover that thing.

Right?

That happened to me yesterday.

Um I get on the plane to fly over here, and I was so excited because I was like, man, I got my laptop, I want to sit, I got like an hour to work on my sermon, look at my notes, da da da da.

I sit down, and I am sitting next to Mary Jane Patterson.

Who's Mary Jane Patterson?

Why does she matter?

Well, first of all, she's 90 years old and still flying and smart as a whip, man.

I she her and I her and I proceeded to talk for the next hour.

But the way we got into the conversation was she told me that her husband of 37 years died last November.

And well, in that moment, I'm like, I'm a pastor, I can't just breeze past that, you know.

I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry.

Tell me more.

And it like opened the door for me to be able to talk to her for an hour, right?

I didn't get her saved at the end, I didn't do an invitation on the plane or anything crazy like that.

But I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me in that conversation to keep asking questions, to stay engaged, to stay leaned in, right?

It wasn't this massive deal, and again, it wasn't this massive shift in her life.

Who knows?

Hopefully, she thinks, man, that Jordan guy was really kind to me on the airplane.

I don't know, but it was a seed, it was a seed.

I'm just trying to scatter seed.

I'm just trying to be kind.

I'm just trying to represent Jesus the best I can everywhere I go, right?

But it was just a prompting in the moment.

It was just a nudging to go, Jordan, you should you should ask her about that.

Jordan, you should lean into that.

And please, please, please, please, don't think I'm up here trying to I am not perfect at this.

I I can't tell you the number of times that I I see that little prompting.

I'm like, oh just flat out intentionally ignoring what the Holy Spirit is prompting me to do.

I do that too still as a pastor.

But even as I was preparing this sermon, I was like, man, I need to get better.

I need to get better.

At that sensitivity thing.

At that discernment thing.

And uh as I was thinking about just closing this sermon, I thought about the fact that no matter what, there are still moments and seasons that end up where things go wrong that are outside of our control.

Right?

You can plant faithfully, you can water faithfully, you can wait patiently, and you know what?

Drought can still come.

There can still be moments and seasons in your life where God doesn't actually produce the thing, where the thing doesn't actually come to fruition and come to pass.

And even the most faithful gardener, even the most faithful farmer, can experience seasons of drought.

And I just felt led to close today by a moment just for praying for somebody that might be in a drought season that would just say, you know what, like I'm doing everything in my power to stay faithful.

I'm showing up at church, I'm in a small group, I'm gonna go to that stupid thing at KSU on Wednesday, but by golly, it feels like a drought in my life right now.

And I just want to encourage you, I just got this idea of like, even in the midst of a drought, the farmer doesn't trade in his tractor.

And he doesn't go sell his property.

Don't go trade your faith.

Don't go give up on the thing just because you're in a dry season.

I just believe that even in the midst of dry seasons, God is producing something in your life, and it may not look like the thing you were hoping for.

You might have been praying for a baby, believing for a baby, hoping for a baby, and you still don't have a baby.

But maybe the thing God's trying to produce in your life wasn't a baby.

Maybe he was just trying to produce a level of faith and resilience that 10 years from now, for a situation that you don't even know about yet, you're gonna be able to walk through it with boldness, integrity, and strength of character.

Because you know what?

10 years ago, God brought me through that thing.

Ten years ago, God built that thing.

And so much of the time, even as believers, we get kind of not consumed with the external thing, but we can be in the midst of a sickness praying for healing, and we get consumed with the healing.

That is necessary and that is important.

But friends, sometimes God doesn't heal.

There have been people in my church that have had cancer diagnoses that I have rallied the prayer troops for and gotten the army around them and done a prayer thing and believed for healing and stood in faith, and they still had cancer, and they still passed away.

And I don't know what is the situation that differentiates, oh, this person got healed because I've seen that too.

I've seen God do the miraculous, but what I know so much is that God's not always even concerned about the healing, God's concerned about the level of faith, God's concerned about my spirit as I navigate that season.

Would you stand to your feet just for a moment, just for a moment as we close?

I don't really know um how to pray for the person in the room that might be in a drought season, other than maybe just asking you to raise your hand in a moment.

But I felt pretty clearly from the Holy Spirit that there was gonna be somebody in the room at both services that just that idea of being in the midst of drought, trying to be faithful and stay the course, and God's not doing the thing, and I'm getting frustrated and I'm getting tired and I'm getting worn out.

I felt very specifically that there was to be somebody in the room at post services that I could specifically pray for.

So let's just do this.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes just right where you are?

Nobody moving, we'll be dismissed in just a moment.

But specifically, if that is you, in the midst of a drought season, praying for something, believing something, but seeing absolutely zero progress, zero fruit, wanting to give up.

Would you raise your hand right now?

Just so I could pray for you.

Thank you.

See that hand, see that hand, see that hand, see that hand.

I got him.

You can put him down if you want.

I'm just believing right now that in the midst of the season you're walking through, God would strengthen your spirit in a way that you've never experienced.

That even in the midst of disappointment and frustration, you would be able to tap into joy unspeakable.

That you would find pleasure forevermore in the Lord's presence.

And that in due time, God would bring to pass everything in your heart and spirit, everything that is not realized, everything that you've been praying for, everything that you've been hoping for, that you would see Him do it supernaturally in your life.

Thank you for your vulnerability.

Thank you for your honesty.

I sense the spirit in this moment too, just to make sure that we don't dismiss without giving the opportunity for somebody to step into relationship with Jesus.

If you're in the room and I don't know your level of church exposure, how much time you've spent in church, maybe how much time you've spent running from God and something brought you back to this place today.

If you don't know Jesus, it would be my privilege and my honor to extend an opportunity for you to come into relationship with him.

Everything that we're talking about today is about building a life that honors God.

And the beautiful thing about relationship with Jesus is that it starts with simple acceptance, simply receiving grace, a free gift from God, because God sent his son Jesus to live and die for you.

Set him the cross to die a sinner's death that you and I could never die, raised him from the dead so that today we can live in restored relationship with him.

With heads bowed and eyes closed, I'm just gonna lead us in a simple prayer.

Just repeat after me, in your heart, if this prayer is for you, just say this quietly in your seat or in your heart.

Just say, Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a savior.

Thank you for sending your Son to live and die for me.

Thank you for raising him from the dead so that I can have life.

In this moment, I give you my life and I promise to trust you.

Head still bowed, eyes still closed, no one looking around.

One more time.

I want you to respond externally.

If that was you and you just made the decision to place your faith in Jesus, would you just slip your hand up wherever you're at on the count of three?

One, two, three.

Amen, amen, amen, amen.

Okay, let me take just one moment.

Let me just pray and seal it, celebrate with you.

My brother, that's incredible.

That's incredible.

So, Heavenly Father, God, we just thank you, God.

Thank you for how you've moved today, God.

Thank you that your Holy Spirit is awakening something, stirring something, shifting something, Lord Jesus, God.

I thank you that multiplied church is gonna faithfully sow, God.

God, we just commit today in this place to be a church body that scatters seed, God.

We're gonna put some stuff in the ground.

We're gonna be faithful.

We're gonna be obedient, God.

We're gonna water and nourish our spirit, Lord Jesus.

Thank you for the opportunity to partner with you as we build something that honors God, Lord.

We love you, we honor you, we worship you in this place, and everybody with one voice said, Amen.

Amen.

Let's worship together for a moment.