Recalibrate - Leaders' Talks

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills.

This is the Road Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

Here now is our guest speaker.

I'm Pastor Ryan.

For those of you that don't know, I also get the privilege of working with our youth group here and uh get to wear those other hats that he says too.

Maybe I wear too many.

Um my wife would agree with that.

So, those of you that have been with us that are roadies, you know that at the beginning of every year, we kind of do this three-day summit, this conference where we come in, and for three nights, we focus in, we think about what the Lord has for us as a church, as a body.

What's the spiritual theme of our year?

And we've done that since we've been a church since inception for the last seven years.

For those of you that weren't able to be with us this year or joined us after that, uh, the theme for this year for the road is abide or abiding in.

Some of you got our journals.

And so I thought with mid-year, we're almost exactly just past that point, but I thought it'd be good to just do a checkup.

And so the title of my sermon is actually Recalibrate, but we're gonna move into, and I'm gonna tie this into a hymn, but I want to just say that for us, as we think about how we're doing, as we're abiding, as we're working through the problems, the surprises of 21, 2021, where are we in our journey?

Where are we in that process?

And how are we walking with the Lord?

Because there's an opportunity for all of us to go deeper in our trust with Him.

And so two weeks ago, I think Pastor Al was talking about the unity in the body of the church, the global church, and how we're doing and connecting and doing ministry and kingdom work together and this beautiful opportunity to go deeper.

And it was in that worship service where Pastor Brian actually went into a short little snippet of 'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

And I don't know if you guys were, some of you were probably at that.

But that grabbed a hold of me, that took me back to my childhood hymn book, you know, page 1035, you know, in my hymnal growing up.

And it was so sweet because there is something so rich about some of those classic hymns.

And I would say that this one is definitely within my top five, and it's something that ministers deeply to my heart, and I was reminded of it because we sing a lot of newer songs today, but it brought me back.

And so for the last couple weeks, I mean daily, I've been just going there and listening to this and just soaking in the beauty of this song, and it's raptured me, it's pulled me in, and uh, God gave me a word, I believe, for you.

Um certainly has been ministering to me.

And so I just want to go into this.

We're gonna start today, and kind of our core verse is gonna be Isaiah 12, 2.

Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.

For yea, the Lord is my strength and song, he also has become my salvation.

That this would be our song today, that this would be sown into our hearts, sown into our lives, and that we would be standing on these words, that we would trust and not be afraid.

That the God would we allow him to be our strength and our song, and that he has become our salvation, and we step fully into what that looks like and what that means.

So I'm gonna share a story about uh the author of this, and some of you may know this story.

Uh, so many of the great hymns were produced from points of pain and humanity and growth, and this journey and this expression that they travel along, these authors.

So the hymn, 'Tis So Sweet,' this was penned by Louisa M.

R.

Steed.

She was born in Dover, England at the age of nine.

She was converted to Christianity, came over to the U.S.

and did her formal schooling at a college here.

Her heart was for missions.

She had a deep passion to go and do missionary work, but illness and physical issues with her body kept her from being able to fulfill that dream in this season of her life.

And so in 1875, at the age of 25, she married Mr.

Steed, and they had a daughter named Lily.

Now, when their daughter was four years old, the couple decided to take a picnic day in the summer at Long Island Sound and they went to the beach.

During that day, there was a point in the day where the husband heard a boy struggling in the water, in the ocean.

He ran in to save that boy, but unfortunately was pulled to his own death by the struggling young man, and they both drowned, while the mother and daughter looked on from the beach to witness this very thing.

The next several years were very hard for her, being a single mom in the late 1800s, let alone struggling with just the reality of losing your spouse in that very nature, in that way.

Being a single mom, struggling through poverty, financial concerns, very tough.

There was a day in 1880, though, which started like any other day.

Barely getting by and living in poverty, Louisa went out to her front door and discovered that there was a basket of food and money were left for her, at which she penned these words in her journal for the first time.

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

She would later complete that hymn in its entirety as we know it today in 1882.

My hope and goal today is that we're going to go through some of the beautiful sentiments of this precious hymn as we tether to and we tie and we connect an opportunity that Jesus calls us.

There's an offering, there's a table set before us to eat and drink deeply at his well and experience the sweetness of what it's like to live a life and walking and trusting in him.

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, which is to take him at his word.

I know he is with me and will be until the end.

Perhaps the hymn might be best described as a mantra on the name of Jesus.

Indeed, Jesus is sung twenty-five times if one sings all four stanzas and the refrain.

The stanza one is a simple statement of trusting in him.

And the singer is then invited to rest upon his promise.

And that promise, as we'll get into the message, is really what happened at Calvary.

The sweetness of that expression and what that looks like.

And learning to trust the sweetness in Jesus, the sweetness of trusting in him in our most desperate hour, the biggest pain of our lives, our greatest fear.

This is not an easy task, but yet it's an invitation nonetheless.

And one if we're not careful, we'll we'll we'll miss and we'll move beyond what the full opportunity and expression is for him.

We'll tend to reach out when we give bad news.

You know, for those of us that know him as Father and have accepted him as salvation, he is a go-to.

Sadly, sometimes for us and even in myself, my daily walk hasn't reflected consistent community and trusting him in every way.

I think that we're maturing in this process, and there's this sanctification in life where, as young, at some point in your journey, you come to know the cross and you enter in into a childlike state of the reality of what you do get from the blood and from God's salvation in our lives and the covering of our sins.

And then it's a process of sanctification as we grow and we mature.

And um, I shared in the first service that you know the goal is that by the end of this journey, spiritually, we're moving from child to like a Gandalf-like figure in our spirituality.

And we're kind of sitting there at the end of all things, and we've got our staff and our wizard beard, and we feel like we've arrived.

Um, hopefully that's everybody's journey.

But I think for some of us, we're probably still maybe more in that strider moment before we're accepting and realizing what we're called into, the kingship that's placed on our lives as sons and daughters, what's available truly.

But despair, trouble, pain, unknowns that seem questionable at best, and at worst they're life devastating.

And so last week, for those of you that were here, we have Bob Sorge, and he was talking about where we get stuck in our chapter, and that our story is continually being written, and that there's another chapter coming.

Perhaps the best chapters, in fact, the best chapters of your life, as we looked in the Gospel of John, the best chapters of his life were pending Revelation when he was old and imprisoned on the island.

And so for us, for those that feel stuck in the chapter, or for those of us that even maybe feel like we've moved into a new chapter of unknowns and uncertainties, there's this idea of how we trust God and what that looks like.

See, and I and I've said this to our youth group too a couple times, is that when we show up in our life, God doesn't give us this like megatorch spotlight that shows us the finish line.

No, his word says that he is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

Now, you've been in the woods, you've been camping, you take a lamp out.

It's only showing you the next couple steps of your journey.

There's darkness beyond where that illuminates, and a lamp's light does not carry too far into the darkness.

And why does he do this?

Because God knows in his sovereignty and his grace and his mercy that if he gave us spotlights to the end of our journey, to the end of the road, we're gonna screw it up.

There's the finish line.

Okay, God, thank you for showing me that.

But I can get here, I can take this shortcut, I can go over there, there's a ditch, I can hop that, and we're gonna mess it up.

So he's like, no, no, no, there's there's a different process in this.

And the process is you trust me to be that lamp, and I'm gonna show you the next part of your journey, the next process of your steps.

I'm not gonna bring you all the way to the end.

You don't get to see that all the way to the end.

And so that's done out of love, but it's also done out of a deeper relationship because he's asking for a dependence.

He's asking that we could experience his sweetness in the journey because he wants to partner and come along and give us these moments where we're deeply connected and we're relying on him in obedience to trust him with something we haven't seen.

And we can look at our lives, and we always have the beauty of maybe, no, it's not really beauty sometimes, but when we have the benefit of the rear view mirror, we can see God's fingerprints where we've allowed him and invited him in.

We can also see the other side where we've done it without him, without it in our own understanding and our own strength, where we've fallen short of God's glory.

But the beauty of those moments, we see his fingerprints.

Now, he doesn't leave us in those moments where we step into our own will.

He's still there, but he's like, Okay, you're gonna grab the wheel.

Well, I'm gonna be with you.

This isn't gonna go the way that I have planned for you, but I'm gonna be with you through this.

It's gonna hurt, it's gonna be painful, and you're doing this in your own understanding and your own way and your own strength.

But I'll be here at the end and I'll be with you through the duration of it.

And that's the beauty, that's kind of the sweetness that we can look in the review.

Now, as Bob was talking about this in that story, he's talking about the baseball, right?

He's like, Okay, God, I'm frustrated, I'm here, and I'm going through this.

You want me, I'm gonna trust you in this journey, but I'm gonna need to catch a baseball today.

I've never been to a baseball game, I've never caught a baseball, but I need to catch a baseball today.

Can I ask that question?

And I love his authenticity there.

He's like very sincere.

He's like, Can I ask that of God?

Can I ask for a baseball today?

And so he does, and then his daughter catches one, right?

He tells the whole story, it's dynamic, and everybody's like trying to steal her ball, and he looks kind of down and in his heart, he's like, That's not your baseball.

That's my baseball, right?

You're like, Yeah, okay, I've been there.

So God wants to talk to us.

He so desperately wants to invite us in.

And I want to share with you that in this immediate season, you know, my wife and I and our family, we we are seeking God for big answers and big dreams.

And sometimes God calls us without a plan, without a blueprint in front of us.

Sometimes he says, Go without a plan.

Sometimes he says, take the lamp, and I'm gonna walk with you into the darkness, but I'm gonna light your path so that you stay on that path.

You're not gonna get off the path if you follow my light, but there's gonna be an obedience, there's gonna be an invitation to trust him in that.

And so I had this opportunity.

We've been praying and fasting various times of this summer, just seeking God's wisdom, direction, and and in our home uh over many things.

Uh, school and finances and all the stuff that we're facing in our in our lives right now, and I know that we're not at all unique in this.

I'm sure many of you are also praying in these ways in these situations.

But I'm having this moment, and we're up and we're fishing, it's this rare moment where we got out of the office, and so it's it's Al and Steve and I, and he had just got kind of like his mountain res uh mountain home, and we're up there grabbing some fish, doing a fishing thing.

And I'm not a good fisherman.

I'm just gonna say this right now.

Let me put this out there.

If my family does like relied on me to feed them as a fisherman, some days they're gonna eat, and some days they're gonna go hungry.

All right.

This is the thing.

I'm not up here to tell you that I'm like the thing.

In fact, I even joked about like when Jesus is looking on the Sea of Galilee for his disciples.

Uh, if he's looking and I'm there that day, he like, that dude don't catch a lot of fish.

He probably ain't gonna catch a lot of men either, so I'm good.

But I'm kidding.

Um I'm not an awesome fisherman.

I do get lucky from time to time, but I'm having this moment and I'm being very real in my heart with Jesus.

And I'm like, Jesus, I need some answers today.

Mandy and I just got off the phone, we're having a conversation.

She brought some ideas to my mind.

I'm like, okay, I need to hear from you, Father, and what this looks like.

What does this next situation look like in my heart and this next process?

I need a little bit more light.

God, I could really use the flashlight right now.

He's like, nope, you only get the candle or the lamp.

And there's a good reason for that because he's asking me to lean in and trust him.

And so, in this process of praying and communing, we kind of all break up on the shore and we're all kind of doing our fishing thing and getting going.

And Gideon comes into mind, and I'm thinking about the fleece, right?

He's God has asked him to take 300 men against 100,000.

And in Gideon's complete humanity, we see him go, okay, I'm gonna need the fleece to be dry, and I'm gonna need the ground to be wet.

God's like, there it is.

Dry fleece, wet ground.

Gideon's like, cool.

Well, okay, but but you said 300 guys and 100,000 men, okay, let's do this.

Can you make the fleece wet and the ground dry this tomorrow?

Can we, you know, because I'm not quite there yet.

And he's like, we can do that too.

So then Gideon's like, okay, fine.

Yes, we're ready to go.

I'm gonna take the 300.

We're gonna go do something for you that only you get the glory for, that only you can be described as our Savior.

God wanted the numbers to be so diverse, so obscured, and so um up um uneven that only he could have the glory for that victory.

And that's what he wants in our lives.

But rarely are we willing to go into that space, to go into uncertain odds where on the balance sheet it doesn't make a lot of sense.

And we add it up three or four times.

I get out my abacus, and I'm like, nope, it's not getting me there.

Right.

Some of those homeschool kids should be laughing harder at the abacus joke, by the way.

It's all good.

So I'm on I'm on the lake, I'm fishing, and I'm like, okay, God, seven fish.

I need seven fish to be obedient in what you're calling me to right now.

Because this is a little bit out of my comfort zone, it feels a little weird.

And in Bob, it's like very much like Bob, I'm going, it feels a little, I don't, I don't, I don't, this feels a little wrong to ask for this.

But I'm like, you know what?

Let's have fun today.

Jesus, let's fish.

And if you give me seven fish, which I've never caught that many in my life, I know that you're speaking to me, and I'm gonna go do what you want to say and what you're gonna do.

He's like, okay, let's do this.

So we jump out and like seriously, like first 15, 20 minutes, one, two, and I don't mean listen, okay.

So here's the deal.

Let's just set the rules of engagement here.

Getting them on the line and feeling like, oh, I had one on, but it got off.

Yeah, that doesn't count, guys.

In the net.

So God and I had this conversation.

I go, listen, seven fish in the net.

Not on the line.

I need seven fish in the net.

Like, okay, so boom.

One, two, three.

We're like at three, and things are looking really good.

I'm kind of like starting to go, wow, this is a pretty big day.

I see storm clouds kind of starting to come in and getting kind of nasty, but I'm like, I don't care.

I'm waiting on God.

I'm gonna be here until I get my answers.

And I'm at I'm at three fish within the first 20 minutes.

This is new ground.

Family's eating tonight.

Let me also say this.

It was catch and release that day.

But the stuff I'm catching, guys, this is not trophies.

I'm not saying like whoppers, they're not going on the walls.

And um I I was actually uh a little bit amused because when the next day we decide to have fish and I let them all go.

Man's like, you let them all go?

We're gonna have fish?

You could have kept a few.

So I'm like, okay, I'll go to King Super.

I forgot to keep the fish, or I chose not to keep the fish.

And I'm like, plus, babe, I'm like, you wouldn't want to eat these things anyways.

I mean, they were like, you know, little guys.

But um, they're serving these porks poor excuses of trout at King Super, too.

So I could have kept these and we would have eaten well.

Point is uh we're there, we're catching them, and then I go into a little bit of a dole, like a little bit of a lull.

Start talking with Jesus again.

I'm like, okay, here's the deal.

God, I'm trusting you.

I'm needing, I'm needing some fish.

We're we're half, we're almost halfway there.

And uh I'm like, God, bring the fish.

And I'm and I'm not kidding you, fourth cast, I say that, God, Jesus, bring the fish.

I'm like, whoa, yeah, all right, here we go.

Four, five.

And then something happens to me, and I start to get like kind of giddy, and I kind of start chuckling to myself.

And I kind of Pastor I was off to my right, and he kind of looks over and sees me, and he's like later be like, man, it looks like you're having fun over there.

And I'm like, I was having a blast because I'm connecting and I'm seeing Jesus start to develop this thing, and he's growing my trust and my faith.

And I'm like, this is and I know it's just a fish story.

And the person I was well, I'll I'm jumping ahead.

So four and five get in the net, and then we go for like a good chunk.

There's like about a half hour, like nothing.

I start talking to him.

I'm like, there's no way you brought me here just to do five.

That's not what we talked about.

Seven in the net, dude.

Seven in the net, let's go.

And then I start talking, praying again.

I'm like, okay, Jesus, bring the fish.

Boom, six.

And then I like almost like I'm I'm almost belly laughing and I'm cracking up.

And it was like another 10 minutes after that, and number seven's in the net.

And I'm going, okay, all right.

Um, I don't want to be greedy, but then I kept throwing it out, and it was eight and nine, and I'm going, all right, that's never happened.

I need to pick up the phone.

I need to have this conversation.

And I had this conversation, and in the moment of this, I'm sharing with this individual.

I'm sitting here because I had a conversation with God that I would have this conversation with you if I caught fish.

And he's like, I get it.

I'm like, you do?

You get you really?

I mean, he's a brother, he's a he's a believer, and he's he's a good brother and doing awesome kingdom work.

But I'm going, you know, I'm here because God and I'm being obedient, and I made an agreement with him.

And so, and again, where that all lands, all that's to be uh determined and remains.

I don't I don't know where God is taking that relationship.

Um, but it's it's a beautiful thing to step into that and step into boldness and just say, Papa, I need seven fish, and I'm gonna do whatever you're calling me to do.

And so stepping into that and do that.

So, why do we struggle sometimes with trusting in Jesus?

Here's the deal trust.

Trust the key word here.

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

For many of us, if you're over the age of five, you know the disappointments of sometimes giving trust to the wrong person.

Okay, and the closer the relationship to your heart, the harder that can be.

Because you've given trust.

Everybody in the sound of my room, and everybody in the room and the sound of my voice has given trust and has also broken somebody's trust.

That's the reality.

And you know the pain on both sides of that.

The disappointment in yourself, the pain of being betrayed and hurt by somebody else in your life.

And again, the closer the proximity of the relationship to your heart, the harder that is.

But Jesus is saying to us, listen, you can trust me.

There's a sweetness here, and you don't have to worry because my word is good, and everything that I came to do, I did on the cross, and I left it all there.

So in our journey, he sets the invitation out and he says, I know that humanity can hurt, humanity can be fickle.

And I have a proverb here.

Proverb 29-25 says, Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety.

We can take our trust to him, he's gonna protect us, he's gonna take our hearts, he's gonna be the father that many of us sometimes have.

We have parental situations because our parents are human and they're broken and they're beloved too, and a lot can be said about that.

We, those of us that are parents with have kids as well, we're in a journey with them as parents, and we're processing and we're trying to do that with God.

But the reality is we get hurt in this world, and trust, trust can be a dirty word for us sometimes.

It's a painful word when we connect it, but Jesus is saying, connect it with me, and when you connect trust with me, there's A sweetness on the other side.

The next line in the hymn is just to trust his cleansing blood and simple faith to plunge me beneath the healing, cleansing flood.

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him.

His cleansing blood, the heart surgery that happens for us, the opportunity to get a brand new heart with the Father to let him do that work in us.

The cleansing flood, the healing, cleansing flood.

When we step in and trust that he's going to do the work that he says he's going to do because he's already done the work that he said that he did, right?

We have a uniqueness in our Christianity.

Christianity is different than any other culture.

Yes, our God's alive, but what makes us different is that our God died.

He went and he died and he experienced every pain and suffering beyond our comprehension so that we can take our hearts to him and trust in that sweetness.

Trust that he is good.

When we experience the cross, when Jesus experienced the cross, it killed him.

When we experience the cross, the idea is that it kills us.

And we're able to put to bed, to get up on that cross and crucify ourselves with Jesus and then be resurrected with him in a new life with a new heart in this journey of life, so that we can in those moments trust that he knows all about the biggest pains, disappointments, sufferings, and losses of our lives.

Because when we understand that, and we can fully go, and some of us live, you know, for many of us, maybe we gave our hearts to Jesus as young men and women in Sunday school, and then we've lived along the way, and that was like kind of good enough, but we never went there again with the other things that happened between our childhood and our adulthood and the hard parts and the strains and our sin and some of those things, and said, you know what?

God accepted me as a little person because I was kind of clean and ready to go.

But as an adult, I'm all messy and I've already done it once, and I don't know that he's gonna still want me.

I don't know if he still wants this person or he's not gonna accept me the same way that he does.

And we start negotiating and agreeing with the devil, and we believe those things in our hearts, and it's a bondage tool that he holds us captive in.

But when you're willing to go there and you receive the cleansing, healing blood, then you can sing out from the depths of your heart, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him.

And we're reminded of the prodigal.

You know, we want to show up on the doorstep.

This is our Father's house, who always has a table set for you, who's always ready to have dinner with you if you're willing.

Whenever you're ready to go there, he's ready to meet with you.

But instead, we stand at the door and we like kind of knock.

And I just I need a job.

I'll work in the pen, I'll work in the pigs, I'll work over here.

I'm not, I'm not ready, I'm not worthy for that.

That's not how you're gonna see me, but that's not what Jesus did on the cross.

He didn't come to give his all for only our parts.

He wants all of us to him.

He says, No, that is not who you are in my kingdom, that is not who you are in my eyes, that is not who you are in my creation story.

I created you at the pinnacle of creation.

You are my delight, you are my beloved, and no, you get a ring, you get a robe, and here's the fatted calf, and we're gonna celebrate you because you're allowing me to love you.

And that's the stick.

Sometimes we're like, how do we allow him to love us?

Because when we do on the other side of that, the sweetness of that trust is like nothing we've ever known.

And if you're in bondage and you allow that and you step into that kind of trust, I guarantee there's a whole heart recovery, freedom, and redemption and restoration that you walk completely free from, that the enemy is so upset that when you die, he's gonna rejoice because you're done with this earth.

He's like that person was a pain in the butt.

They got completely healed, completely restored, and I got nothing on them.

I'm glad they're out of here.

I want the devil to say that about me when I'm gone.

Psalm 33, 20 through 22.

We put our hope in the Lord.

He is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.

Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.

There's that sweetness invitation again.

This offering, this stuff that we're talking about, the things that Louisa Steed came to realize and pen that precious hymn about, it's riddled.

This book is riddled.

I didn't have enough time today to come through and put all the promises and trust opportunities, invitations of Jesus in my notes today.

But I would say go through your own study, pull them out, put them on your windows, put them on your mirrors at home, remind yourself that there's an invitation from the Father to walk you through right where you're at today.

The pain, the hurt, even the joys.

He wants to celebrate with you in the victories in your life as well.

How I've proved him over and over and over and over and over, and I'm saying that about myself.

I've been at the great moments of my life and I've known firsthand the dark night of the soul.

A moment of deep fear, doubt, darkness all around me.

This is as St.

John of the Cross refers to in his writings, the dark night of the soul.

It's this moment where there's this transaction to where you step in, you stop trying to use your own spotlight, and you take God's lamp and you go to the cross and you stay under the cleansing blood.

It's a purging to bring me into total healing and love.

And I've cried out to his name, Jesus, Jesus, I need your rescue, and I'm trusting you with this.

My wife and I have cried that out together.

Our family has joined together, and we have come together, and we've cried and we've called on the name of Jesus, and we've been visited in such beautiful moments where his kingdom settles on us and we experience open heaven in our times of worship and Bible study.

And you get hungry for that.

Whoever goes to a restaurant has the bomb meal, like the best you've ever had, and you're like, I only needed one.

That was it.

I'm good, that was enough.

To go back would feel greedy.

Who I'm a foodie, you know.

We were hanging out with uh Brian and Kristen.

We're talking about food.

But the thing is, once you taste and see that he is good, all you do is you want more, and you get hungry and you build that muscle and it gets stronger, and you're going back to the well, and then you become you get more clarity.

You're like, wait a minute, I feel weak.

I feel like I'm in my own understanding.

I'm in my I'm operating in my own strength again.

Nope, I gotta go back to the well.

I gotta go back to the well, I gotta go back to Calvary.

I need to get covered with the blood.

I need to stay covered with that.

Because when I stand with my Maker, just like everybody in this room will do one day, it doesn't matter what you think about me.

I may care today, but I won't then.

It won't matter what I think about me.

It's only gonna matter what Jesus thinks about me.

And when he looks my name up in his book and he starts reading through my stuff, and by the way, the scriptures say we're gonna give an account for everything that we've done in this life, good and bad.

He's gonna read the resume.

My hope is that when he's reading my resume, he's gonna come to the stuff that I'm not so proud of, the things that I'm not so ashamed of.

And we're having a conversation, and he's gonna look in there, he's like, that's kind of hard to read.

There's blood on that.

Oh, I can't, I can't see that because there's blood on that.

That's my blood.

That's my blood on your life.

Welcome into the delight and the joy of your father.

There's refreshment and there's recovery at Calvary.

There's a deep well of an invitation that's available to all of us.

And even if you've been like a Christian since you can't remember, life has happened in between.

And I would argue that there are still moments, there's still things, there's still healing work, there's still a refreshment, there's still an opportunity at the well to go deeper, to get healing, to grow, to get more sanctified, to strengthen that walk.

Because I can tell you, every time I go to that well, I get strengthened.

My trust goes deeper.

I'm like, I've trusted you with everything, God.

Everything.

You know everything about me.

Even if I didn't tell you, you knew that, anyways.

So who are we kidding?

We think we're gonna keep it between us, and then one day he's gonna be surprised when he opens the book.

No, no.

I live that way for part of my life.

I'm like thinking, well, maybe we can overlook that one.

Maybe that one won't go.

No, no, no.

Everything is recorded for our lives, every moment.

And so when we miss the opportunities to trust the sweetness of trusting in him, we're missing, we're missing on the things that he has to offer.

We're missing that beautiful meal that he has before us.

Um we're missing the opportunity for him to crush us when we relent and bring forth the sweet juice of our lives.

So last week I shared with our students the difference of allowing us to stay firm and unplyable like a rock or a marble versus allowing us to be a blueberry or a grape and let him crush us to bring forth the sweetness of his life.

It's painful to get crushed, but the sweetness on the other side is so beautiful.

And that's available.

That's what he wants to do in our hearts.

Isaiah 26, 3 through 4.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all those whose thoughts are fixed on you, trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal rock.

We're contemplating eternity a little bit.

We've had a couple series here in our youth group too, just about the concept of forever.

We don't think about forever a lot.

I don't generally get up in my days.

I'm just gonna admit this, get dressed for work and then think about forever.

Putting on my socks.

Well, forever.

That's a long time.

I need to do laundry.

Uh we're out of half and half.

Put that aside.

Forever.

God is saying in this moment that he is going to be our eternal rock.

He lasts forever.

And he's giving us this metaphor of a rock.

It's hard, it's foundational, it's permanent.

He is forever there.

And I am connecting more and in my growth and in my process, inviting him into even the smaller things.

The beauty of the day that's filled with little touch points and connections.

Jesus, what do you think about this?

What do you think I should do?

Get aside from my pride.

Like, get aside out of my pride in my own head that I should know what to do here right now.

Wait, I have enough strength for this.

I can handle this.

He's like, Well, you might be able to handle that, but you won't handle what's coming after that, and you're gonna need me, and I want to be there for you.

So step onto the eternal rock of my promise to you.

All who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you, trust in the Lord always.

Well, how do I do that?

Because, again, pain, life, familiar, I feel out of practice, I don't feel connected.

God's like, I poured out all my blood, and you can trust my word, and you can stand on it.

And if you haven't experienced that in the fullness or in the entirety that you need to, then come back and restore yourself and drink from the well and come back to what I did here because I've already done that work and I want to pour it out over you.

As kids, you know, at for guys, and I don't know, I mean, I had two older sisters, and I don't think they did this, but this is the kind of thing like boys do before we know about infection control and other various disease issues, is that when we mean something and we're going into a deeper relationship, and it's like, you're my bro, like I would die for you.

We're like, we should be blood bros.

Okay.

So in my childhood, my best friend growing up, I was like, ooh, that's gross.

It is.

You think about it now, but as a seven or eight-year-old, you got a pocket knife, you're in the woods, this dude just like saved your life from falling out of the tree or whatever the situation was.

You're like, I can trust that guy.

We're gonna be blood bros.

Take your knife out, sliced our thumbs.

Ah, blood bros! You know, it's like, yeah, and now we're blood brothers, and and like I'll die for you, man.

I'll be there in the gap.

Jesus is like, he's like the first blood brother, man.

I mean, he just he he he gave that all so we don't have to doubt that promise or his trust.

I'm so glad I learned to trust him.

Precious Jesus, save your friend.

Oh, the weight of that.

Some of us haven't learned to trust him the way that the invite has been extended.

For those of you that know what I'm talking about in this room, and I know, I know many of you, and a lot of your stories, and I know the sweetness that you are walking in, the aroma of God's glory over your life.

And you're so grateful.

I'm so grateful that I took the steps, the processes, the crushing to allow that I could learn to trust him.

Because now that's just a deepening process of trusting him more with everything and every opportunity and decisions and life's processes as he invites me in.

And that's not unique, that's available to all of us.

He wants that with everybody here.

Because in Jeremiah 17, 7 through 8, this is one of my favorite scriptures.

Mandy and I actually made this a life verse for our son Sawyer.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

We're blessed.

We receive a blessing from the Father when we make him our hope and confidence.

Okay, so what's the blessing?

What does that mean?

What do I get?

What's a transaction here, God?

I'm gonna give you those things.

It's a risk for me because I've been hurt in this world.

But what am I gonna get when I give you my hope and my confidence?

He says, these are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.

Oh, that we would have that story, church.

That we would never stop producing fruit, that our leaves would stay green, that we would weather the hard times, the drought times.

You look at man's forecast right now in our human timeline with our country and our humanity and the government and all that stuff, right?

It's bleak at best for the Christian church.

We hear hard times are coming, we don't really know what that means or how to filter that or process what that looks like.

So we prepare in our own minds and we buy an extra bag of rice and we figure out how to filter our pond water.

That's great.

Cool.

Right?

But God's saying you don't have to do that.

Okay, be prepared, fine.

But if you're truly going to put your hope and confidence in me, I'm gonna hold you through the drought and the dry times.

That's beauty.

There's richness there.

There's something to anchor into that.

What am I gonna anchor that into?

Oh, I'm gonna anchor that into the eternal rock.

That's right, I remember that.

I'm gonna anchor my hope and confidence into the eternal rock so that he'll sustain me in the drought and dry times.

An invitation is being extended today.

The Father wants a bigger part in your story.

If you're willing to invite him in, step into that deeper trust with all things.

Just start having conversations.

And here's the deal, right?

The next line, at least in my notes, this is out of order in the song.

But oh for the grace to trust him more.

Oh God, that you would give me grace to trust you more.

Because even in my best moments, I'm still gonna battle my humanity sometimes to reach out and trust you.

It's getting weaker, and those muscles are atrophying, and you're calling me into a deeper space.

But God, I need your grace.

Luisa, when she got the provision, the money, and the food, she said, Thank you.

You're still writing my story, you're still here, and we're still connected.

But God, I need grace for tomorrow.

Sometimes we need grace to finish today so that we can finish and start tomorrow.

Our request of Him and the real challenge of our hearts today is that God would give us more grace to trust Him.

Because He promises in His Word, and you've read it many times, that His burden is light and His yoke is easy.

But we want to hold on to that like it's gonna be some sort of achievement for us, something to accomplish.

Like I can handle this burden, I'm getting stronger.

It's not Rocky, you're not fighting the Russian.

Give him your burden, man.

You know, let it go.

Jesus' perfect work at Calvary is giving us freedom from ourselves.

We need release sometimes from ourselves.

All of us have a destiny that we can step into at Calvary.

And when I chose to do that, what was released, the impact, the delight, the freedom, you don't trade bondage back when you've tasted those kinds of sweetnesses and that kind of freedom in our lives.

There's a song that I like to listen to in addition to this one.

I listen to two songs, to so sweet in this other song.

Oh.

Um, I have a bigger playlist.

Song is there's there's a line in this, and I and I love it.

Um, it's by Josh Gerrels, and and it's called At the Table.

But it's the second part, and it's so sweet because it he goes into wondering where I might begin.

Okay, we look at it, we're like, here's this reset button, boom, here we go.

Just cleared the hard drive.

Where do I begin?

I hear you whisper to me, a voice on the wind.

Listen close and follow me.

I'll take you where you're meant to be.

Just don't lose faith.

And I'll look forward to the day when at last I see my father run to me and say, Oh my child, because this life is hard and this world is painful, and Jesus understands that better than anybody.

And so there's this vision, there's this offering that says, When you run to me, I'm gonna take you in my arms.

And I see you, my child.

And so some of us, when we're younger, we get hurt.

Mom and dad, we go up and we're little, we just we lift our arms up, we're saying, pick me up, it hurts.

I need you, I need to be in your lap, I need to be in your arms, I need your your embrace over my life, I need your comfort right now, and that's and I can trust that love.

But as adults, we're like, we get we somehow find a way to grin, bear it, go forward, and just kind of drag our almost amputated appendages with us, and we're bleeding out.

But really, what we need to do is to the best of our ability, just throw our hands up and say, Father, hold me today.

Let me trust you with some of the most painful, broken parts of my heart, and trust that you're not done with me, and I can trust the work that you're gonna do because it's way better on the other side when I do that.

The Lord is my strength.

This is Psalm 28, uh 28, verse 7.

The Lord is my strength and my shield.

Not I'm my strength and my shield, the Lord is my strength and my shield.

My heart trusted in him, and I am helped.

Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise him.

When we get helped, our heart's full of love for the Father, and we rejoice, and this should be an expression of pouring it back when we allow him to do the work.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this road podcast is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to theroad.org.

God bless you.