The Power of a Balloon | Nick Adams | 10-19-2025

Today we're going to be back in James, we're going to be in,

we're going to be going through 22 to 25.

And I told I told Carl this morning.

So I keep coming up with cornier titles just because they're fun

to come up with. The goal is to have a corny

title and a good message, not a good message or not a good title

and a corny message that you know, I'm hoping the message is

better than the title, but but the power of a balloon right And

what is that? What am I even talking about?

We're actually and he doesn't have it, but God put this this

is we're in James, but I'm going to read in first Peter to start

with and it's chapter one, verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again

to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled

and unfaded, fading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's

power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be

revealed in the last times. In this you rejoice through,

though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been

grieved with various trials, so that the tested genuineness of

your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is

tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and

honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.

Though you do not know, now see him, you believe in Him and

rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with

glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of

your soul. So, Lord, I just lift up, lift

up the day I lift up this time that you'd be here, Lord, that

you would speak to us and that you would show us your word,

that you would guide and direct us, Lord, that you would fill us

with your spirit. And I pray all this in Jesus

name, Amen. And I just that passage in Peter

just shows us how much continuity is in the Bible when

you as well as we went through James.

I don't know if you read if you're listening to that passage

and Peter how much what he's saying.

James is saying of just seeing the author and finisher of our

faith and knowing that we can go through anything because we know

the author and he's telling the story.

But picking up in verse 22, chapter 1 of James, it says, But

be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving

yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the

word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his

natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes

away, and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law and the law of

liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer

who acts he will be blessed in his doing so that verse 22 but

the doer but be doers of the world word and not hearers only

deceiving yourselves. Now I want to this is going to

be I'm going to beat this verse up a while so don't be deceived

playing churches not being a doer of the word right being in

Christ meanings means his light is reflecting off of this to

always remember that when I gave my life to Jesus, I didn't add

to that light. I didn't I didn't bring light

into his Kingdom. I just reflect his light.

Matthew 721 through 23 or some guys that that we would look at

from the outside and go there. They they know the Lord they're

believers. Verse 21.

It says not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the

Kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father

who is in heaven and it's verse 22.

It says on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we

not prophecy in your name, cast out demons in your name and do

mighty works in your name. And then I will declare to them,

I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

So how does that work? They were doing all these things

right? They they did so much in his

name and I like that if you go to Luke chapter 10, Jesus really

Luke 10 · chapter mention

explains this in a, in a, in a way, because he's Jesus and he

does a really good job of explaining himself.

If you just read starting in verse one after this, the Lord

appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two

in every town and place where he himself was about to go.

And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers

are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the

Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.

Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as

lambs a month midst of wolves. So Jesus sent them out to go be

doers, right? He gave them direct instruction

in, in verses 14 or 4 through 16, which we're not going to go

through. You guys can read that for

yourself, but they come back in chapter or in verse 17 and verse

17, they're excited. The 72 returned with joy saying,

Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name and

they were excited about all the things they have done right,

which we would be excited if they've been if I've been

casting out demons and and doing all this stuff.

But verse 18 he responds to them, and he says to them, I saw

Satan fall like a light, like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents

and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing

shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in

this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that

your names are written in heaven.

So our job is to keep focus on him.

Is he going to do things? Absolutely.

But at no point the the guys in in verse 7 got the idea that

they were doing something and they weren't doing anything, but

Jesus was doing it right. Jesus gives them caution about

it and says don't get excited about the work.

Be excited about the master that's sending you to do it.

So that brings us to the title, the power of a balloon.

So a hot air balloon flies because of the fire, right?

There's a, if you guys know how a hot air balloon works, There's

there, there are, I don't know if it's propane tanks or natural

gas tanks that and then there's a burner and it, it blows hot

air into the balloon. And the balloon because of the

hot air is lighter than the cold air.

It, it lifts. If the balloon was to say,

without me, the fire could not fly, that is, the balloon has

lost its purpose, right? Because its purpose is to be

filled with the heat of the fire.

The fire's purpose is to heat the flying.

It is not the fly, right? The fire's.

The fire's purpose is not flight.

Now the balloon's purpose is flight, and it needs the fire to

do it. God's purpose is to be the I am

that I am the All in all to be God.

My purpose is to be used by him. When I get to thinking that the

the doing that I'm doing is my purpose that I'm losing, I'm

losing focus on what's important.

If we when you move on, I like how the Bible is always, you can

always look at context, right? And as you're going through.

So when you get to Luke 10, verses 38 through 42, it's kind

Luke 10:38–42

of funny that after he went through that with the disciples,

now he's going to go to Mary and Martha and he's going to talk to

Martha, right? And, and Martha is an example of

our selfish nature on display because I think we can all be

this person without much effort at all.

And verse 38 it says Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered

a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her

house. And she had a sister called Mary

who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to

him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me

to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.

But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious

and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away

from her. And we because we're reading

this 2000 years later and we know the answer, right?

Well, Martha's just making a mistake and we need to be like

Mary now be honest with yourself.

Which one do you like right. We want, I mean, I understand

Martha, right? I mean this in this building it

take Matt was just talking about serving, right?

It takes bodies to serve it. You know, there, there is work

to be done, but why are you doing it?

You know, it's in. And that's really where Martha

ran into problem is why was she doing it?

I mean, Martha wouldn't do anything wrong, right?

This famous rabbi comes to her house and she needs to serve him

and his his apostles food. And there's there's there he

goes with the crowd everywhere. So there's, there's work to be

done, but where was her heart in doing it, right?

And this is where Martha's rebuke came from.

Martha was rebuked for serving with a grumbling heart, right?

It's if, if God asks you to serve, first of all, when I

stand up here and teach, the last thing I want to do is teach

what Nick has to say. My, my request to him is if you

got to throw, if you got to crumple up my study and throw it

away, Lord, do that. But make sure that I'm, I'm, I'm

telling them what you want them to hear.

And I want to be out of the way, but that, that goes for serving

coffee or greeting or shoveling snow, right?

Because all those things are going to happen and they don't

need to happen. But why are we doing them?

And I'll let you know if it's, if we're going to go, let's,

let's use the a firewood day. If, if you want, if there,

there's a day that we're going to go and see a bunch of guys

and we're going to stack firewood all day.

And you go because it's a requirement and you feel like

you have to go do it, but you're dreading it.

Don't bother. Because that isn't the heart

that Jesus is looking for, right?

And it's, it's really focused on him.

And that is our, it's about the reason for doing the work.

You know, the 72 that went out and came back excited, he

compared he, he threw a line in there about Satan.

And if, if you listen to that, it was that Satan got

distracted. If you, if you know the story of

Satan, he was Lucifer. He would been the, he would have

been the, the leader of the worship to the Lord.

And he got in his head that he was doing something that that he

was important in the room because when he looked at when

he looked at the Angel worship in the Lord, they were, they

were worshipping towards him. And, and Luke can probably vouch

for this. In the worship community, there

are guys that get that distracted, right, that they get

to thinking that that they're worshipping if they're not

worshipping them, but they're, they're important, right?

If you guys have ever been to a Shane and Shane concert, one of

the Shane and Shane is a duet of guys.

And they are, I don't know them personally, but they're the way

they do their concerts are very how you would, how you would

want to be seen doing that. So they are very unassuming as

far as they want you to worship the Lord, right?

They go through Psalms and do stuff, but at the end when it's

when everybody's clapping and stuff before they, I mean, like

they fade off the stage before they even start.

I mean, these guys don't want you excited because they showed

up. They want you excited because

Jesus is in the room, right? And that's, that is the desire

every day, right. Back to the balloon.

And like I said in the balloon thing that I'm, I'll give you

the whole picture of so hot air balloon blies because of the

fire. And if the like I said, if the

hot air balloon got the idea that it was doing something

because it was carrying the fire, it would be losing its

purpose. And a hot air balloon, like we

saw in the pictures, can sit on the ground and I can get a fan

and I can get a generator and I can I can blow up the balloon.

But will it ever take flight? Does it look like it will take

flight? Absolutely.

Does it look like all the other balloons while they're sitting

on the ground? Absolutely.

If I am, if I'm 2000 feet in the air and I throw the fire out and

I fire up my fan, I'm no longer flying, I'm just falling, right?

So it's important for us to recognize when it says be doers

of the word, what are you doing? And what you're doing is what he

says to do. And that I mean, I was, I was

talking to some of the other day and they've got a choice to make

in in their life. They're they're at a crossroads.

Sorry, that thing isn't loud. They've got a choice to make and

I can share with them. And and they have they have the

right to make either choice. Like biblically they are,

they're good if they go left, they're good if they go right.

And I said and, and there are going to be people out there

that give you advice for the left or the right.

What I'm telling you is you need to get along with the Lord and

you need to ask him to speak. And The thing is, guys, we serve

a living God, a living God who loves you and isn't hiding from

you, right? He wants to speak to you, He

wants to talk to you, but he isn't willing to yell at us,

right. He that still small voice, which

which takes us getting quiet, getting alone and and being

serious about the questions. So in verse 7 or sorry, chap

back in back in Chapter 7 of Matthew, when we were talking

about the guys that he didn't know, they were focused on the

work. They were focused on the on the

heat. They were focused on the

appearance of the balloon blown up, not the fire, right?

And what we need to be focused on, and I'm going to now I'm

going to start doing this back and forth to try and keep it

square, is the capital D doer, right?

There is a, there's a capital D doer.

And then we're the lowercase doings, right?

That we, we go do what he says to do, right?

And he's, he's the big one. And if we're following him and

we understand that what I do doesn't matter, right?

Anybody could stand up here on a Sunday morning if God's telling

me to do it, right? Luke and Jessica, anybody can

worship up there. Because the idea is that you

guys are worshiping the Lord, right?

It's, it's not, we are not special people.

We're just obedient. And being obedient doers of the

Word requires a couple things. First and foremost, you need to

be in Christ. Second, you need to read the

Word right. You can't you can't do what the

word says. If you were here on Sunday and

then you close your Bible and you're not reading it Monday

through Friday, Monday through Saturday, right?

So there are some requirements, but not those requirements do

not get you saved. Those requirements help you

grow, right? They help you fly with the

power, right? The power, like I said, it's a

corny, corny title, but it it's just the picture God gave me is

is he is that he is that heat that he's that heat and we can

get warm, we can reflect his light.

We can do, but I can't be the fire.

So Paul talks about this to the Corinthians.

He rebukes them actually, because they get in their heads

that he was somebody special or Apollos was somebody special.

And what he reminds them is that dead people, he doesn't say it

like this, but dead people don't, don't brag about their

burial clothes. They don't they don't talk about

how good the coffin looked coming up to the stage, right?

Because Paul talks about the old self dies and the new self lives

in Christ. And, and that's that old self is

remembering always that I got nothing.

And I know I'm going to, I'm going to beat that up.

But guys, we are not we, we live in a self help world that if I

just say the right thing, if I just do the right thing, there's

there's a method, there's a brain hack, there's, there's a,

a body hack, there's some way to, to fix the system.

And I'm telling you that there is only one way to be in Christ.

There's only one way to be a doer, and that's for him to do

the work in you and him doing the work in you.

Is is work like walking up like a sheep walks uphill following a

shepherd, right? Is there work there, but the

sheep is just following the shepherd?

First Corinthians 3-4 and eight. This is Paul really rebuking the

Corinthians about about trying to be really denominational is

kind of the the they're just picking and choosing what they

want to hear and they say and he says for when one says I follow

Paul and another says I follow Apollos.

Are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos and what is

Paul servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to

each. I planted Apollo's water, but

God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he

who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he who waters are one.

Each will receive his wages according to his labor.

So win or lose, we praise Jesus. If we are successful in this

life that Christ is giving us. Christ is to blame.

And the the success in a life with Christ is the peace that

comes with it, not the winning. I always say Pi, always.

That was my. My learning lesson, you guys

have already heard the story, but my learning lesson was

having a job that I was doing everything as unto the Lord and

not to men and I did that for most of my well, it's one of my

first verses that God gave me and and that's how I worked and

I always came out smelling like a rose.

I just went up and up in my company and I, I'm doing great.

And then I had a job that was kind of set up to fail and I

wasn't worried. I'd been on job set up to fail

before and I did everything under the Lord and came out

smelling like a rose. Well, this job I lost and I lost

bad. It was there was we, we can't,

we came in $100,000 in the hole and when we were done with the

job, I was probably $75,000 in the hole.

So I gained $25,000. But we were still, it was a lost

job. And if it could go wrong, it

went wrong. And my pastor at the time,

Pastor Mitch in the tri-cities, I, I shared the whole that I got

three days off because I had been my Superintendent and got

in a screaming match. And if you are going to get in a

screaming match with your boss, odds are good you're probably

going to spend some time at home.

And I was, I was like righteous indignation.

I did not. I was, I was doing my best and

and my and Mitch looks at me and goes, see, you don't like to

lose and I don't anybody here like to lose.

But what our job is is to do everything as unto the Lord.

Our job is not to win, right? It's it's it's God might ask me

to do something that I'm going to fail miserably at.

And the reason he asked me to do it and knowing that I was going

to fail is because he needed somebody to see that he might

even have needed me to learn from that, which I would tell

you, that's probably why I've had that is to learn how to

fail. But to learn how to fail still

standing in Christ, right, because that was the whole

conversation me and the Lord had on that whole thing was when it

came down to it, he said, Nick, did you lie?

Did you cheat? Did you steal?

Were you being manipulative? And I'd say no, no, no, because

what's your problem? Because I wasn't, I wasn't

guilty of, of doing it wrong. I was just losing.

And if you're, if you're where God wants you to be, doing what

God wants you to do, losing's an option.

You, you can go through the whole list of apostles and see

where they ended up right? In the world, in the world's

view, they were losing. Jesus asked if this cup could be

removed from him and in the world views he went and lost,

right? But he didn't lose and the

fossils didn't lose. It's do you trust the God that

we serve when he says go and do, do you have to do you do you do

it out of selfish reasons? Right.

It's it's that the the kids that say I'm sitting down, I'm

sitting down on the outside, but in my heart I'm standing up.

I'm I'm serving others, but I'm grumpy with all of them.

That isn't the heart you ever want to have, right?

You want to serve just like that.

We were come up a couple times being a cheerful giver or a

hilarious giver. Well, you want to be a hilarious

server, right? There is a joy in serving others

and and if you don't have that, ask the Lord to give it to you

and that that's serving others at work, that's serving others

here, that's serving others in the community, that's taking

care of the guy in front of you in the traffic jam or in the

grocery store line. There is a joy of taking care of

others and ask the Lord to give you that right.

That's part of being a doer is being a doer of his will in your

life, but keeping your eyes focused on him.

Think about the guy in the basket of the balloon.

If he was working to fly, does does he do any work to fly a

balloon? Now everybody, he had their

skill like flying an airplane, their skill and there's that

stuff. But if his skill is not what got

him off the ground, the fire did right?

So you can be a pastor, a teacher can be very skillful and

understand the Bible backwards and forwards, but if he's not

doing it in in Christ, he is, he is not where God wants him to be

doing what God wants him to do back-to-back to the guys.

You know, we cast out many demons in your name.

We we did all these things and I didn't know you.

It's leaning into his plan for your life is the doing.

And if you get back to the, the sheep, sheep trust their

shepherd, right? They, they follow their shepherd

up hills, down, down into valleys.

They do water crossings. They even, they even weather

wolf attacks with their shepherd because they trust their

shepherd. And that's that listening to the

Lord and all that you do is because guys, I don't know if

you know this, but they're, they're struggles in your life

that come up that the world. I mean, losing a job, having,

having any catastrophe going on your life, you have a living God

living inside you. If you're a believer that gives

you a piece that the world doesn't have and and can't

understand. They can, they can watch and go.

Why aren't you freaking out? And that's something we need to

remember as we look at world events, whatever they are,

whether whether there's the guy we like or the guy we don't like

in office or there is, there are there is turmoil around the

world, the World War Three's comet, whatever.

The thing is, guys, remember there is a capital D doer in

charge. All of it.

It's his story. We're in it, but it's not my

story. It's his story.

And when I understand that, then I can now they're still, there

are still things to do, right? We're supposed to vote.

We, we can be active in all the things, but we don't have to get

stressed out about it. We can rest in the fact that he

has a plan. And one of my favorites that I

just to throw out my political side that I like to poke at my,

my friends about, said, does everybody believe that Joe Biden

was the president that God wanted in office?

Now I can, I can, I could probably start an eruption in

here, but the bottom line is absolutely, because God's in

charge. And if you didn't want him

there, he wouldn't have been there, right?

That does. I would say he was the president

what he deserved. But that's that's my country in

a in a nutshell. But that is don't ever think

that the big conspiracy or the big thing has outdone the Lord

and suddenly he doesn't know what's coming next.

You know when you when you hit a wall, it's I will comes seems to

come up all the time, but that's when I was going through my

divorce and I sat down with my ex now and I said 21 years ago

when we got married, neither one of us knew we were going to be

sitting at this table having this conversation.

God did he isn't he isn't up in heaven at any point in your life

or my life and going well, now what am I going to do like that

that's we don't have that Jesus wasn't a response to Adam and

Eve. Do you guys get that?

When God made heaven and earth, Jesus was already part of the

plan. He knew Adam and Eve was going

to fall. He didn't make them fall, but he

knew they were going to fall and he had a plan to redeem them.

They didn't fall. And he goes, oh, now I'm going

to come up with a plan. What am I going to do?

Do you trust the doer that much that when he says do, do you

question it or do you just go do it?

Right. And and, and in America, we are,

I always say we're the yeah. But community because we're

really smart and we always have reasons we don't have to go.

Yeah, but Lord, you know, it's different now.

Yeah, but Lord, no, he just said go, right.

It says do we trust him to do what shepherds do?

John 1421, which is another one of my life versus he who has my

commandments and keeps them. It is he who loves me and he who

loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and

manifest myself to him. When you follow the doer, when

you are when you do what the doer wants you to do, do you

know what happens? He gives you more to do.

He reveals more in your life. He he becomes bigger and

brighter, right? He in the, in the balloon

analogy, he takes you higher and what we need to do is just trust

him and obey and he will do the work.

Then we're going to get into some of the guys that I, I love

the picture they, they show of this and it's Joshua.

If you look at Joshua with the Jordan, when Joshua and the

Levites cross the Jordan, did they do anything to part the

Jordan? They just walked into it.

That didn't part the Jordan. God did that.

But they had to have the, they had to have the obedience and

the faith to walk into a river that was at flood stage carrying

a three to £500 box. You guys imagine there's some

rivers around here that get the blood stage.

You want to wander in there with a 3 to 500 LB box.

There's some faith that's required with that, but that's

knowing the knowing Joshua knew. And we're going to get into why

Joshua knows things because Joshua's story is truly

inspiring as far as a man after God's own heart that David's

called to be. Joshua wanted to be that.

And but there's that scene, there's Joshua and the walls

falling down to Jericho. There is, if you know the story,

Caleb was 80 years old and he was the other spy that went

into, went into Canaan and God had promised him the Hebron,

which was the, the mountain that had giants on it.

And at 80 years old, Caleb said, I want that mountain and charged

up the mountain in front of them and took off the giants, right?

Because he, he had faith that didn't matter that they were

giants. God said, I get that and I want

it. And but at no point did did

Caleb think that he had the power to do it.

He 100% said, if God is with us, who can be against us?

If I'm doing what he said to do for him, I trust him to win.

I don't trust me to win. I trust him to win.

And then you have David, David and his mighty men and they do

some pretty amazing things. But Can you imagine any of them

finishing a battle where, you know, you got, you've got some

of David's mighty men took on 800 men and won when they got

done? Do you think that guy's like,

did you see me out there? I was swinging that sword and I

was just, I was amazing. You know, mostly I'd like

everybody to have me. No, because you know for a fact

that that that guy knows that he could not have beat 800 men.

You know, the, you have the Eleazar, which I've talked

about. You know, they, they beat an

entire host and his hand clung to the sword because it was

weary and the Lord brought a great victory.

Then you, you go on and there's another guy who who stood

against another, another horde and the Lord worked a great

victory, right? So these guys did because that

the Lord told them to go and do. But at no point did they come

back and say, we did all this stuff for you, Lord, look at

look at us. Look what I've done They they

truly stayed in him, but we're going to go to Joshua and last

week I read this and then never got this is how far this is

where we were supposed to get to last week.

So it's good I stopped or we'd have been here for hours.

Exodus 17, nine through 14 says so.

Moses said to Joshua, Choose for US men, and go out and fight

with the amount with the Amalekite.

Amalek, sorry, tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill

with the staff of God in my hand.

So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while

Moses and Aaron and her went up on the top of the hill.

Whenever Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed, and

whenever he lowered his hands, Amalek prevailed.

But Moses, Moses's hands grew weary, so they took a stone and

put it under him, and he sat on it.

Well, Aaron and her held his hands up, hands one-on-one side

and the other on another side. So his hands were steady until

the going down. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek

and his people with the sword. So picture Joshua in the battle

and he's winning, and then he's losing, and then he's winning,

and then he's losing. Now, Joshua's in the battle and

Joshua at that point, Scott, I mean, he's, he's thinking, he's

doing this right there. They're two equally matched

forces and they're going at it and there's winning and losing

and it's going back and forth because I doubt he had time to

look up on the hill and see what Moses was doing.

He was kind of busy. So then the Lord says in verse

14, then the Lord said to Moses, write this is a memorial in a

book and recite it in the ears of Joshua.

So make sure Joshua knows what was going on.

Make sure Joshua knows why the battle was going the way it was

going. And this would change Joshua's

perspective for the rest of his days.

And you can watch that. Read the book of Joshua and you

will watch Joshua. He gets he, he goes through

every one of his battles, right? He, he crosses the Jordan

trusting the Lord, but he, he took over for Moses, you know,

and, and the Lord says be strong and courageous, but Joshua knew

that strength and that courage was going to come from the Lord,

not because Joshua was going to figure it out when he hit you.

At no point when he crossed the Jordan did he think he was doing

anything. He was just listening to the

Lord. The walls fell down at Jericho

and Joshua, because he is a, he is a man like us, had a moment

where he got excited and thought he was doing something and he

sent because, and he had all the Israelites.

And we don't need a big group to go over to AI because look what

we just did at Jericho. It's a small amount and they

went to they went to AI and got stomped and men died because

Joshua lost focus. And and if you, if you read

that, it's it's one of those one of those moments where you get

to watch the Lord rebuke and how he has rebuked me over the years

is because Josh was like, you just brought us out here to kill

us. And if we're just good now we're

going to get wiped out and the Lord goes get up.

That's your you're there's sin in your camp.

You don't, don't don't blame me for this loss.

You were doing it in your own strength.

You were doing it your own way. And you didn't, you didn't come

to me. You didn't ask me.

You just decided you knew best. So you went and did it.

And there was sin in the camp. It wasn't Joshua's sin, but

there was a guy that had stolen from the Lord and they had to

work that out after Joshua wins at AI.

So they worked that out. They they got the sin out of the

camp after Joshua wins at AI. Do you know what he does next?

I'm glad we don't live in this time because what he does next

is he, he does a bunch of sacrifices and reads the book of

the law, all of it. Which means, which means we're

reading at minimum, you know, at minimum three books.

You know, we're reading all the Genesis, Leviticus, numbers.

You guys want to do that like in one sitting.

But that was Joshua going. Let's remember at all times why

we win battles. We don't win battles because

we're the big and mighty powerful men of God.

We win battles because of God and what he does in our life,

and that's being doers, right? Being doers is going OK Lord,

you have work for me to do and I want to do it, but I want to do

it with the right heart and I want to do what you want me to

do, which is that conversation you have to have with him be in

his word listening to him and then at the end of Joshua's

life. He will he will tell you exactly

this chapter 24 verses 14 and 15 says now therefore, and I Joshua

knew the Israelites and don't knock the Israelites as a

straight all they are pictures of every single one of us and

exactly how our hearts can quickly turn to all the other

stuff right. I when I first got saved, I was

going to a Bible study. Probably I'd probably been saved

two years going to a Bible study and we were going through judges

and I can remember, man, the Israelites are just not very

smart. They keep doing the same thing.

And and my one of my buddies looks at me, he been a believer

for substantially longer, looks at me and goes, yeah, he reminds

you anybody. Oh yeah, I guess that's right.

And but this is Joshua talking to them towards the end of his

life. Now therefore fear the Lord and

serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.

Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river

and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes

to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether

the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or

the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

But As for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord.

And that's, that's it, guys. That's how to be a doer for the

Lord. That's how to be a doer.

And not just to hear like, Lord, what do you want me to do?

I mean this. This this adventure that we're

on this adventure that we're on coming to Sandpoint and being

pastor and pastor's wife. And as I'm yeah, I started in

2010, so 15 years I've been going to be a missionary in

Uganda. I, you guys want to talk about

the divorce later? We can because I'm bringing it

up. So there might be questions, but

I was a supported missionary, went through a divorce and never

and paused, stepped down from things and and backed away from

everything for a year because I wasn't wasn't capable.

And but I still, I still love those people.

I still took care of those people as best I could from a

distance and didn't, didn't shift.

So when Ben called and asked if I wanted to do this, I mean, I

told him I don't really have time to pray about it at the

moment that I can't, I don't have time to give you.

This is what I'm supposed to do or what I'm not supposed to do.

But I would expect the answer is no, because that was, I mean,

I'm, I'm the burden on my heart is Uganda and and Africa.

And so the the doer and me was like, so unless the Lord was to

say the answer is probably no. But then I spent time with the

Lord and we talked about it and we went through it and the

answer was yes. But there's a lot to that.

I mean, I know you guys and and not complaining at all.

It's an adventure and a lot of fun in a lot of ways, right?

But you know, I am, I am more than willing to do what he says

to do. But if I was, but if I was

coming here with any heart other than whatever you want, Lord,

then the enemy would would twist that.

And just, I mean, if I had, well, I guess we can go do that.

If I had that kind of heart, it would be awful, right?

I, I am in it. I am in the joy of my life being

in the will of God, not the joy of my life doing it the way I

want to do it, right? I mean, my plan was to spend 6

months in Uganda a year and do nuclear outage.

That sounds like fun, right? And that was my plan.

That was that we've been aimed that way and and all of my plan

was lining up. And then God said, well,

actually, that's not the plan. You'll find that happens a lot

in your life with the doer. He may have a different plan,

but our job isn't to do my plan. My job is to do what he says.

That's it. And I get this finally into

verse 23 for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a

doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror and

and going away, not paying attention to it is what it goes

on in verse 24. But it and as a guy, I can

completely understand girls may not be able to understand this,

but I can completely understand how I can look in a mirror and

see what needs to be done and not fix it, not care to fix it.

Just walk away, right? My hair sticking up back when I

had long hair, my hair sticking up and just I don't care.

You know, now girls may have a a less of a time understanding how

you can look in a mirror and not fix what you see.

Like guys. Guys are just I, I me in favor

talk. We're just lazy for the most

part. Like do I have to you know, and

say anybody with anybody with young boys know knows the

wrestling match of even getting them to take a bath, right, or a

shower. It's it's do I have to do that?

Men, the only reason we take baths in showers is because we

found out it was culturally important, right?

And girls don't talk to us if we don't take baths.

It's the thing off topic. God, sorry, God's word.

So. So the mirror that he's talking

about here is God's word and it can and does shine light into

our lives. It shows us broken

relationships, pride, hidden or secret sin, hateful thoughts.

The question is, do we stick our hands over our ears and ignore

him, which is like walking away from the mirror, not fixing it

or like first one and that that'd be like 1st 2024 And it

says he observes himself and goes away and immediately

forgets what kind of man he was. So, so when you're in church on

Sunday, you convicted by something when you're reading

your Bible on Monday and Tuesday, is there are there are

there words jumping off the page and saying the Lord Lord says

you need to fix this. Are you listening?

Are you ignoring him? That's our job is to bend to

that God speaks to us to show us the do's he wants done.

Some of those do's are 100% personal.

They're in your heart. They're the one in my life that

always pops out as a as a do. That was 100% for me to be ready

to do ministry was quitting chewing and doesn't make chewing

a sin to the world. It makes chewing a sin because

he told me to stop and when I when I wouldn't stop.

Guess what we talked about every time I sat down and then I tried

to ignore him completely and went to a youth thing put my

account. I would never convey this is

when you know you're in trouble. I was not, I was not convicted.

And I kept saying it wasn't the Lord telling me to do it.

And then I went to go to a youth event to help out with the youth

and I took my can of shoe out of my back pocket and put it in my

truck so that high schoolers didn't see it, which was

conviction because I knew better.

And I went into the high school. I hadn't quit.

I went to the high school event and I, I didn't actually catch

on fire, but I felt like I did. I mean, I was, I had to get out

of that. I mean, we're worshipping.

I'm in the back. I'm worshipping and I'm going to

hang out with the youth. And I mean, like I said, I

didn't burst into flames, but I felt like I could have and I

knew at that point that I had to do something right.

You don't want to get you don't want to get to that level of

ignoring the Lord, right? He he is going to speak to you

and when he speaks to you, have you pre decided that you're

going to say yes? Are you his slave?

Because a slave does not. At no, no point is a slave hear

their master and then contemplate whether they will

obey. That isn't that isn't what a

slave does a slave a bond a bond slave in the Old Testament is

somebody that voluntarily gave themselves to their master,

which means or a or a knight to a king, right?

We a soldier in an army, right? When it's time to go, you go.

You don't decide on that. You don't weigh the pros and

cons. Have we bent the knee and said,

Lord, I will do as you direct. He is our Lord, the doer of all

things, or do we think that? Tell me what?

Tell me what you want me to do and I will decide if I'm going

to listen. That is that is not.

That's our job as believers is to submit to his leadership.

And when we do that, that's Hudson Taylor called it an

exchange life. And when you do that, the piece

you get is because you have, you have submitted to the author,

you have submitted to the knowledge that hot air makes a

balloon go up. Because when you look at a

balloon, why is it flying? I don't know the physics, but

hot air makes it go up right in Christ.

Listening to Him, I get peace and joy.

I don't have to understand why. I have to understand that my job

is to listen to what He's telling me.

Hudson Taylor says it much better than I do, but I am no

longer anxious about anything as I realize that He is able to

carry out His will for me. It does not matter where where

He places me or how. That is for him to consider, not

me. For in the easiest position he

will give me grace, and in the most difficult one, His grace is

sufficient. He has the power to do whatever

he's asking you to do. It It the the Copenhagen.

That was an example in my life of him having the power to do

something that I knew I didn't have the power to do because as

a non believer and I had probably tried to quit half a

dozen a dozen times and could not like absolutely 100% could

not. And so when he asked me to do

it, I was I knew that I couldn't do it.

And so when he when when I actually quit, I 100% knew that

he did it. That makes sense is I came to

the end of myself. And in everything we do, do we

come to the end of ourselves and say, Lord, you need to, you need

to serve the coffee today. But it's something that simple.

You need to greet the people today, right?

You need all the service that we talked about.

Lord, I want to do what you want me to do, but Lord, you need to

do it. And it's, it's no different than

the guy in the basket, right? The fire needs to do it.

The guy is never going to get the basket off the ground

without the fire. Verse 2025 says.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and

continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of

the work, this one will be blessed in what he does If we

take Jesus at his word and and back in James, it said, let it

be implanted in US, right? Let his word be implanted in US

and just follow his path and his direction on a daily basis.

And once again, how do you do that?

You're you're hanging out with the Lord, right?

You're you're with him and say it isn't a it isn't a play

church on Sunday thing. It's a it's a life, right?

You, you stepped into Christ the day you gave your life to him.

And it isn't, it isn't something you added to your life.

He becomes your life that day. When we do that, we will

recognize the lost and dying. We won't dispute with them over

their blindness to their sin, but share with, share with them

the heat that has been given to us, right?

You know, when I'm, when, when you're flying in the air, you

don't yell at the guy on the ground to get the flying right?

And it's, it's the, there's, there's so many different

analogies out there. When you're in the boat, when

you're in the rescue boat, you don't yell at the guy that's

drowning that he's wet and drowning.

Quit, quit being wet and quit drowning.

You, you save that guy, right? But you do that because of where

you're at. And that that in Christ you have

a joy and a peace and a victory in your life.

When you have that exchange that Hudson Taylor talks about that

you understand that in the good days and the bad days, His grace

is what gives me the good and sees me through the bad.

Are we ready to serve the author and master the finisher, the

doer. He is ready and willing to lead

us if you will follow. He's already done that done the

work. You guys get that, that that all

of this is done and we just need to submit climb in the basket

back to my corny stuff, climb in the basket and let his heat fly

us through this. So I am way over and we're doing

communion. I lost track of time, so we're

going to do communion. If you guys want to come up and

you guys will pass it out, why don't we're going to do it like

this. The guys are going to pass it

out and then we're going to take it.

You guys, just as you feel LED, take the take the body and the

take the bread in the cup. But I'll read, I'll read First

Corinthians. This is why we do it.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you,

that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my

body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, this

is the cup in the new covenant, in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you

proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So, Lord, just be with us today and this Time, Lord, just as as

we as we ponder and and remember what you've done in our lives,

Lord, if there's anything in our lives that needs to be given to

you that you would take this time with us, Lord, each and

every one of us individually and show us the things that we need

to give to you, Lord, the things you want us to do, but only in

you, Lord, guide and direct us. Speak to us.

She this name. Amen.