Clinging To The Promises | Clayton Hentzel & Kaleb Greenlief

Crossing family. It is so good to be with you.

We have a message today that we hope will not only increase your

thankfulness to God, but also unleash a power for everyday

living in your life. I want to welcome you joining

here and all of our different locations online and in side.

And if you were joining us for the first time or the first time

in a long time, I want you to take full advantage of the QR

code, that's on the seat in front of you.

It's a great way for you to take your next step.

Get a chance to get some of your questions answered and become

more connected. I need to do a little cleanup.

After last week's message, I received a text message from a

disgruntled wife about some of the, some of the implications of

that message. She was specifically identifying

a frustration that she had with her husband, because she had

left some trash by the garage door.

And after that, sermon, he felt empowered Just step over it and

go about the rest of his day. And people don't always come to

me for marriage counseling, but I'm kind of known as a problem

solver. And so, I leverage some software

that I have, you guys could have access to this too, but I just

typed in her address, and I sent her this picture of her house

and how far it is from there inside garage door all the way

the trash can, I circled the 23 feet, send it back to her.

I haven't heard back. From her yet.

What? I can't tell you if she's

friends with my wife and my wife has taken up her offense and

there is a furniture sale for couches in most of our

communities. And I've been doing some couch

shopping. So I wouldn't necessarily reach

out to me in the future, but I just want you to know I'm here

to help. Okay, here, I'm here for you

today. We are continuing in this sermon

series and I have asked someone to come and help me preach it.

And I want to introduce you to Caleb.

Greenleaf he joins us from our Macomb location.

He grew up going to church. He was dragged there by his

parents and he hated it. Some of you guys go.

I know this story. Uh-huh.

Maybe you had that experience as well.

Well at 18, he was given the choice and he left the church

and he headed off to college fast forward a couple years.

He's a student at Western Illinois University and he is

pursuing all the things that the world has to offer.

Then one day a friend invited him to a Thursday night service

at our Macomb location and while Jerry was preaching, he was

talking about Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch and ask the

question. Do you know what you're reading?

The eunuch responded, how can I unless someone explains it to

me, it was on that Thursday night, that Caleb learned, that

he could have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. He filled out a connection card

and check the box saying he wanted to accept Jesus as his

Lord and Savior. And the next week, he started

that relationship accepted that invitation to start an intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And was baptized, then he started getting connected with

the campus. There ended up going on.

Mission trips started to work. A part of our Crossing kids

extra, which is an after-school program that we have at our

Macomb and our 48th Street location.

Then when we purchase the camp, he was one of the first

employees that started working at Crossing camp this summer.

It first opened, then during Rec the roof, he came on as a

developer to learn about what it means to be in Ministry and

decide that he wanted to go into full-time Ministry.

Then he got hired as the student pastor at the Macomb location.

And is now the associate campus, Pastor, they're the reason I'm

telling you all that. It's amazing what God can do

with one invitation to church. And it's amazing what God can

do. If you just keep saying, yes, to

whatever, he's asking you to do. And so would you guys, please

give a warm welcome to Caleb Greenleaf as he joins me on

stage? Last time man, let's do it.

So good to be here, thanks for having me and I don't want to

single anybody out or name any names, but I just want you all

to know that I do not have fragile, Texas skin.

Okay, yeah, I'm I'm from here and so I don't need any extra

coats. I'm very used to this weather.

I've been doing Illinois, winter since I was about this big.

So no need for extra coats, but I need to give a huge shout out

to all my people in Macomb, you know.

I love you and I love this church.

The Crossing is dedicated to making leaders and because of

that dedication, they took a risk on me.

They invested in me. And now because of that

investment. I'm on this rollercoaster of a

ride called full-time Ministry. And I am so blessed to be here.

So thank you so much, Crossing Church.

So today we are going to continue in our collection of

sermons on the Book of John and we're finding ourselves in John

14, 15 and 16. If you're reading along in the

Bible, reading plan, or you have a kind of Bible that has red

letters. You'll notice that this chunk of

scripture is dripping in red ink.

Jesus is pouring out his heart with the, with the few remaining

hours, he has left with his closest disciples before he

leaves on a journey to the cross.

The last week, Clayton, Cole walked us through what to do

when God does not make sense, they gave us some tools to help

navigate this and help us understand that we don't want a

God that makes sense. We actually should be thankful

for a God who doesn't make sense.

However what do we do? When life doesn't make sense?

Some of you today are no doubt, just barely hanging on.

Dude, it's situations, you're in decisions.

You've made challenges, you are facing.

And if you could put all of your thoughts and feelings into one

phrase, you might be saying I'm just hanging on.

Maybe some of you have been in a tug-of-war match before at some

point in your life or maybe you grew up with a rope swing over

the water. And you know, it can be

incredibly difficult to hold on to that rope especially as Wait

in the tension increase so you know, you do you tie a knot in

that rope or maybe you tie two or three or maybe even four

knots into that rope. Because the more knots you have

the easier, it is to hang on to. And sometimes, as we read

through, scripture, we need some knots to tie to our faith so

that we can hold on and some of the bear.

Very best knots in scripture are the promises of God, anytime.

I'm you find a promise in Scripture.

It is an invitation from God, to step into a new reality, in a

deeper relationship with him. So, as we start going through

these chapters today, Clayton and his desire is not only for

you to see the promises, but to take a hold of these promises

and apply them to your heart and to your life.

In just three chapters by my count.

There are 24 promises, 24 promises and Make this easier

for us to all understand. I prepared a 72 Point sermon

that hopefully I can fit into two hours so that we're all on

the same page. Anybody looking forward to that?

No, I'm not either. Okay, there's no way.

I could sit to through even 24 promises.

But today, Clayton and I have highlighted, some of the big

ones in throughout this week, you can scan that QR code to

read along with the Bible reading plan with us, so that

you can see all 24 that are for you in Christ Jesus.

So here is Promise number 1 John chapter 14 verses 1 through 4.

This is what Jesus says. Do not let your hearts, be

troubled. You believe in God believe.

Also in me my father's house has many rooms if that were not.

So, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a

place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will

come back and take you to be with me that you also may be

where I am, you know, the way to the place where I am going.

Right off the bat. Jesus gives us this twofold

promise. He says, God is preparing a

place for me and is coming back for me to take me to the place.

He has prepared. Now, I want you to know Crossing

Church that the This Promise these promises were going over

today are not just for me, they're not just for Clayton

there for all of us who have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

So we're going to read all of these promises together.

So at all of our locations read this promise with me, God isn't

preparing a place for me. And is coming back for me to

take me to the place. He has prepared so many of us

get caught up in the lower story.

Our happiness, our possessions, our purpose are so rooted here

on Earth, we get trapped in the lower Storey.

This promise that Jesus is making us is so profound because

it causes us to lift our eyes and see the upper story.

It helps us to see beyond the Temporary and brings the Eternal

interview because we need to constantly be reminded that this

world is not our home. That this is not all that there

is, this is good news, if you're looking at your life and it

hasn't turned out the way you thought it would turn out, it

wasn't as easy as you thought it would be.

It's not going the way you wanted it.

Jesus is saying this is not it. I am making.

Eternal home for you. You are simply a traveler, you

are merely passing through, but not only, is he preparing a

place for you. He is promising that once he has

created it made it just right. He will actually come back and

take you to be with him. It's good.

His promise. Number two, John chapter 14,

John 14 · chapter mention

verses five and six Thomas said to him.

Lord, we don't know where you are going.

So how can we know the way Jesus answered?

I am the way and the truth. And the life.

No one comes to the father, except through me here is

promise number to read it with me, Crossing Church.

I can get to God through Jesus. You can get to God through

Jesus. The promises of God are useful

to those of us who consider ourselves Jesus followers.

When Jesus is Lord and savior of your life, you can take a hold

of the promises that Jesus makes here and other places in

scripture. And it's because of what Jesus

did on the cross, Jesus Redemptive work on your behalf

and some of these promises though can be really

uncomfortable, especially when we think through them from the

mindset of someone who's not a Believer it's offensive.

But this does not keep Jesus. From saying it though.

He does not want us to miss this.

Jesus made a way for every man woman and child to get to God.

And not just a God, the god of the universe.

Verse Jesus. Not only made a way, he is the

way and he makes it very clear. There is no other way.

No one gets to God. Except for those who have a

relationship with Jesus Christ period, you can't get to Heaven

by doing enough good things. That's just not how it works.

You can't get to heaven through any other religion, you can't

get to Heaven by ending world hunger, only through Jesus.

The promise here, there is a way to God, which is huge.

The caveat is there is only one way to get there, and his name

is Jesus. Yes, this can be offensive to

others, but it's not offensive to us.

Clayton, can you tell him why it's not offensive to us?

The reason this isn't offensive to us is because everybody with

a religious bone, in their body, has a desire to connect with

God, it is woven. Into our hearts.

And when you look at the spiritual landscape, there is a

huge difference between what Jesus teaches and what you hear

from every other religion. For instance, if you are a

Muslim, it's through works for Jews.

It's through following the Torah for Buddhist it's by the

elimination of desire for Hindus.

It's through self-actualization. But for Christians, are way to

God is through Jesus Christ. It's not based on our efforts.

It's not based on our it works. It's based on the finished work

of Jesus on the cross and our acceptance of that work over.

And in our lives, this is a huge not that God is trying to give

us to hang on to that my access to God is Not based on me, it's

based on him. If it was up to me, I couldn't

fix it. If it was up to me, I had all

I've already made too much of a mess of it to put it back

together. This is incredibly good news.

However, there's a Temptation for people to go.

Well, that's not my truth. There's a Temptation for people

to go. That's just too narrow-minded.

That's not open-minded enough, especially in 2022.

However, come here for a second. Let's say you go to the doctor.

You're not doing so well. The doctor says well if you want

to get this fixed, not a problem.

I just need you to take these pills and we're going to a

couple, you know, working through some things.

Yeah doc, I mean I know you went to school and everything but I

have Facebook and I think I'm going to eat more carrots.

And Doctor looked at she goes answer.

Grate carrots are good for you, but you have a broken leg and

character. Don't fix that.

Well, I thought hold on. Doc, I'm not just gonna eat

carrots. I'm also going to dabble in a

little bit of this. It's called walking.

I'm going to walk a lot. And how many carats doctor says,

well, when you have a broken leg, just going to give you a

heads-up, Think it'll work out well for you and then you get

out of your chair. You start walking.

You go, doctor why are, why is this hurts so bad?

Why is this not working? Sorry sis cause I I told you

that that's the exact opposite of what you should do.

This medicine is designed to take away the pain, put you to

sleep so I can set this sucker. How many of us.

So here's God saying. Look I have a perfect plan for

you and it is the plan that works.

This is not narrow-minded. It's called Truth.

And Jesus is inviting us into the truth of him.

So you and I can have access to God.

That's so good. Here's promise number three.

John chapter 14. Verses 16 through 18.

John 14 · chapter mention

And I will ask the father and he will give you another Advocate

to help you and be with you forever, the spirit of Truth.

The world cannot accept him. Because it neither sees him nor

knows him but you know him for he lives with you and will be in

you. I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you. Here's promise number three,

read it with me Crossing Church. I am not alone.

God's spirit is with me and will not abandon me.

I got a question for you with this one.

Do you know the difference between feeling something and

being something? Here's what I mean.

All of us know what it feels like to experience loneliness.

We all know what loneliness feels like, but how many of us

have truly been abandoned? How to spouse walk out on you,

had a parent leave. You stranded been thrown out of

the family, excommunicated disowned disavowed cutoff.

See, there is a difference between feeling lonely and

actually being abandoned. And for those of us who belong

to the family of God, you may feel lonely at times, but

there's always going to be a place for you.

At God's table. He will never throw you out.

He will never abandon you, he will never forsake you because

he has sent his holy spirit to prove it to you that the spirit

of God lives inside of us as Believers.

And he will not turn his back on himself or us.

That means that no matter how dark life gets no matter how

dire the circumstances, no matter how painful the situation

you and I serve a God who was always present with us.

So when we feel the distance between us and God, it's never

physical. It's like when my wife and I get

into an argument which probably doesn't happen to you.

So just bear with me. But when we get into an

argument, at the end of the day, we still get into the same bed,

she hasn't left, she hasn't abandoned me, she is still

there. The distance that her and I

experienced in that moment is emotional.

She has not abandoned me and God is telling us Us that he is not

going anywhere. He is right next to you always

and when it feels like he is distant, it is spiritual, not

physical. And this distance that we

experience the spiritual distance is never on him.

It's always on us when we experience this distance.

It's because we are believing a lie about God.

That he isn't there that he doesn't love us that he isn't

really in control when you experience this spiritual

distance, which one of these lies are you believing about

God? Because they're all not true.

He does love you, he will not leave you.

He is in control. They are all not true.

He is there with you always Or maybe it's not a lie that you

believe, maybe you're forgetting something about the very

character of God. Our God does not change.

He was the same yesterday as he is today and tomorrow he will

not leave you. That's why David says this in

Psalm 139. He says, where can I go from

your spirit? Where can I flee from your

presence? If I go up to the heavens, you

are there. If I make my bed in the depths

you are there, R2. Our God will not abandon us.

He will not leave you and that is a promise you can hang onto

promise number four is found in John 15, 1 through 4.

I am the True Vine and my father is the gardener he cuts off

every branch in me, that bears, no fruit, while every branch

that does bear fruit. He prunes so that it will be

even more fruitful. You are already clean because of

the word I've spoken to. You, remain in me as I By also

remain in you no Branch can bear.

Fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine.

Neither, can you bear fruit unless you remain in me?

Promise number four, is this, say it with me.

Now, at all of our locations, God will prune me and shape me

for productivity. Jesus uses some pretty powerful

imagery here, as it begins to talk to his disciples and those

of us who will follow after him. So, in this specific passage

Jesus refers to himself as the true.

Irvine into the Jews of his day. This would have connected

immediately all throughout the Old Testament.

Israel is referred to as the vine or the vineyard, but when

Israel is referred to, as the grapevine in this way, it's

always about how Israel has not been fruitful.

The prophet. Isaiah says that the vine of

Israel produced sour grapes, The Grapes on the vine of Israel are

wild. Jeremiah calls Israel, a

degenerate and strange, fine. And Hosea says Israel's Vine is

empty. There are no grapes on this

fine. All of these illustrations show

us that the whole point of planted a Vineyard is to grow

grapes, who knew, right? If you're a Vineyard, you better

have grapes to show for it and if there are no grapes then

there is no use for the vineyard Jesus.

Here is telling us that he is the true vine that came out of

the unfruitful Israel and he tells us that there is a purpose

to following him. There is a purpose to following

Jesus. We are to produce grapes.

He is the vine. We are the branches through him.

We are to produce fruit. And here's the thing about

growing grapes, it can take a really long time to grow grapes.

Once you plant a grape seed, it can take up to three years

before you get any grapes at all.

And I don't have that kind of patience whatsoever and

throughout all of those years where you have no grapes, you

have to prune the great plant over and over and over again.

Here's what God is promising us. That he will be our good

Gardener. He will be your good Gardener.

He will cut out the things that don't need to be there.

So that one day there will be fruit.

Pruning is not fun though, is it?

Raise your hand. If you like being told that you

are wrong. Yeah, this is my church, raise

your hand, if you've been told that you're wrong, all the

married people. Okay, yeah.

All right, that's what happens. All of us.

We have this desire to be better.

We want to be a better spouse. We want to be a better parent.

We want to be a better friend. We want to be a better boss.

We want to be a better neighbor. We want to be better.

And we want to be a better reflection of Jesus to a

watching world. We want to make a better and a

bigger difference. And what Jesus saying, yeah, in

order to do that, I'm going to have to cut some stuff out that

needs to be cut out of your life.

No coach or no coach. When he's running his practice

is going to be like, hey guys, today is just another fun day,

we're going to be sampling, Gatorade, right?

A good coach is going to make you do some conditioning because

when the game that matters the most, you want to make sure you

still have your legs. Pruning is never fun.

But it is always fruitful his promise.

Number 5, John chapter 15 verses 5 through 8.

John 15:5–8

Jesus says, I am the vine. You are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown

away. And Withers.

Such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words, remain in you ask,

whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

This is to my father's Glory that you bear much fruit,

showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Here's the promise, read it with me Crossing Church.

If I remain, I will bear fruit. The biggest question here in my

mind is, what does it mean to remain?

What does remaining mean? I like to picture this like a

little kid and their favorite movie, some of you remember

what? It's like to be a little kid or

others of you have little kids or grandkids of your Roan and

you know, that you can ask any child what their favorite movie

is and they will tell you all about it and you will get more

information than you bargained for.

They will just go off about this movie.

They can quote every line from the movie, they can sing you

every song from the movie and even though they can't read,

they can pull it up on Netflix without your help.

They know what they're doing. They start to take on the

personality traits of the main character, they start to act

like the main character on the playground.

And when they go to school, they've got the main character

on their backpacks and their bed sheets.

They dress up as the main character for Halloween.

They asked for the main character toys for Christmas.

And it's all because they've seen this one movie hundreds.

If not thousands of times, they have never met the main

character of whatever movie it is, but they know the main

character and we know this to be true for ourselves as adults.

Some of you, you grew up in the DC Universe and some of you grew

up in the Marvel Universe and you have strong opinions on

both. Some of you you are were Star

Trek people and some of you, your Star Wars people and some

of you are Star Wars people and you grew up where you got four,

five and six before one, two and three.

In other people, you grew up with one, two and three, and

it's a different world for you. And when the Mandalorian shut

up, you had strong opinions about it.

There's there's some of you for you, it's Sports.

Like you get it, you're in trench.

Do you understand what's happening?

Because you like football, your Thursday nights and Sunday,

afternoons and Saturday are and, you know, Monday afternoon or

evenings are just different. Your mood changes on a Saturday,

based on how your college football team is doing and

you're just in that environment and you've immersed yourself in

at the other day, I pulled up at a stop sign or really nice

vehicle. Pulled up next to me and they

had a sign on the side of their vehicle.

That said that they were a part of the, the Cat Club here in

Quincy. Apparently, if you have a cat

there's a club you know, so there's that and I'm sure if you

choose to join that club, they have all kinds of stuff and

opinions about, and I'm sure that I shouldn't go and I should

stop before I say something, I shouldn't But the more you get

involved in that environment, what happens it shapes you, if

you're a hunter, the more you're a part of that hunting group of

people, it shapes you. If you're a Fisher, if you're a

Knitter, fill in the blank. If you're a baker, the more you

remain in that environment, the more it shapes you and that is

what God wants to happen. Have happened in US Jesus asked

us to do the same thing with him to spend so much time with Jesus

that we just start. The acting and thinking like

him, this is what it means to remain or abide.

When we remain in him, the fruit shows up.

When we spend enough time with Jesus, we know what he says

about certain things. We know the way he thinks about

certain things. We know how he treats others and

what's important to him and eventually we don't have to

think about it anymore. We just start acting like Jesus

almost by accident. But Jesus says it's not an

accident. Jesus said, if you remain in him

you will bear fruit. You will start acting like

Jesus. And while there is no movie, God

has given us some serious Source material on the matter.

He gave us his word, he gave us other believers and he like we

saw earlier, he gave us his holy spirit so spend time in his word

read Book over and over, and over again.

Start with the gospels read, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,

these books are literal biographies of your savior.

Look for how he acts and how he responds.

And what he says, spend time with his people, join a life

group, make it intentional share.

What is going on in your life? And look for ways that you can

better. There's and spend time alone

with his Spirit. Listen for God's, ever-present

voice. What is God trying to teach you

right now? If you don't ever slow down to

listen for his voice. How do you expect to hear it?

So how do you spend time with Jesus?

How do you remain? You read the book, hang out with

his people. Listen to his spirit and

eventually, when you've spent enough time with Jesus, you will

start acting like the main character.

So, let's look back at these five promises and do a quick

review. Promise number one, God is

preparing a place for you and is coming back for you to take you

to the place. He has prepared even Life is

overwhelming or underwhelming and everything in between.

We can hang onto the not that God is preparing a place for us

and we'll come back for us one day.

The second promise is this. You can get to God through

Jesus. We can Rejoice that.

This is not on us, but it has been provided for us by Jesus.

Christ, that is, how much your God loves you.

The third promise is this? You are not alone.

Got spirit is with you and I will not abandon you when you

have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you have been brought

into the family of God and you will never be kicked out of

that. Family Promise for, is that God

will prune you and shape you for productivity.

Pruning is not fun or enjoyable, but it is always fruitful like a

master sculptor. He is going to remove all of the

rough images until his image appears in us.

A number five, is if you remain, You will bear fruit and that is

the whole point of following Jesus is to become more like him

because he is the most fruitful person who ever lived.

So if you put all five of these promises together, you get a

couple of things. The first thing that you get is

you get a very strong knot in your faith to hang onto to help

you navigate life when it does not make sense.

This is a knot. You can hang onto.

But the second thing that all five of these things put

together, it makes you an Unstoppable Force for God and in

God's kingdom. How so you ask?

Because, you know, your future is secure your access to God is

not dependent on you, you are not alone in this life.

You will be molded and shaped by the master of the universe and

you will live a life that makes a difference in this world and

the world to come. And it doesn't get much better

than that. So Crossing family in light of

all of these promises, we have so much going for us.

We the world is not stacked against us though.

When we look at, we are out our the world is outmatched.

Our flesh, is outmatched. Our circumstances are outmatched

because of all the things that we have going for us in our

relationship with God. And these promises are facts

when you and I make promises to each other.

We both know that there are circumstances that could impact

the reality of us. Being able to operate, I will

love you forever now, you died. You can't stick around forever.

I promise, I will now, you can't because things change, but not

with God. The moment, God speaks a

promise. It becomes a fact that you can

build your life on it is as reliable as gravity.

It is. As sure as sunrises and sunsets,

you can build your life on the Promises of God.

So, Crossing family, we have a choice.

We can either receive these and enjoy Them and take hold of them

in our lives or we can reject reject them.

Ignore them and run from them. And I hope you'll make the right

decision. We're moving to time of decision

if you are in this room here at 48th Street or wherever you're

joining us from online. I want to take just a moment and

talk to you who've never started an intimate personal

relationship with Jesus. All the problems that I just

listed and the 24 that are there in these three chapters in The

Book of John or the over 800 that are in the Bible.

They're not yours. But they could be.

But the moment you come into a right saving relationship with

Jesus Christ. Every single one of those

spiritual blessings, every single one of those heavenly

promises become your inheritance, but it's not an

inheritance that you access in the future.

It's an inheritance that you get to access in the Here and Now

And I just want to encourage you, not to put that off.

And there might be some of you have questions about what it

means to start that intimate personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. And I get it because I had

questions too, but I want you to know that this is a place where

you can ask them. If you're watching online, you

can ask those questions in the chat and if you're here in this

room is just a few moments. While the people around you

staying and singing others, come to the steps and get down on

their knees and pray. I'm going to encourage you to go

right over there by the baptistry, there was somebody

who would love a chance to talk with you about what that looks

like. to the rest of you in the room to the people who would

call themselves Jesus followers, can I ask you two questions?

One. Are you walking in these

promises? Are you living?

In the middle of these promises. With Jennifer, I moved to

Quincy. We bought a house and the people

that built that house, many years ago, under the influence

of Satan planted to sugar, maple trees in my yard and I'm way too

cool to be an arborist and even know that the sugar Maples, but

I had to figure out what kind of trees I had because I hate these

things. If you drive down our street,

almost every leaf and all of our other yards are all the other

guards are gone. Ours are like playing.

We're not dropping our leaves, when it's nice out, more windy.

Now, we're going to wait till, you know, drops to be about 28

degrees and all your neighbors have put their mowers up, then

we'll just bring it that way. You can make friends And

historically, I will go out even on, thanks.

I mean on Christmas Day. And have to mulch leaves in my

yard? Oh, They'll be no sugar, Maples

on my street in heaven. I can promise you that they are

but by the way, they are beautiful for like three days

every year. It really is pretty.

And what would you do if you came to my house?

And you saw me out there with chopsticks just picking up

leaves. McCarthy's knocked out.

I'll be in a month, honey. Alyssa.

If you go to my house, open up my garage door.

I'm a man's man. I got a mulch, kid on my mower.

I've got the leaf vacuum. I've got the leaf blower.

I've got the plastic rake. I've got the metal rake.

I've got the big trashcan that you put them in.

I've got big trash bags to Crunch down.

I got all the stuff. For would you do if I got all

that stuff in my garage and I'm out there with chopsticks and

some of your going playing. You're too fat for Chopsticks.

That's why God made spoons and forks.

I get it, but I like to surprise people and I'm out there.

What would you call me if you drove by my street and you saw

me out there picking up leaves with chopsticks, what would you

call me? You guys are weak sauce.

Now, you're an idiot. I don't trust.

You're a moron. You need help.

Okay, right. I got all these promises.

All of these promises going for me in the garage, and then I'm

ticked it. God, this is taking way too

long, this is not working out the way I wanted to work out.

I don't even like this stupid tree.

I don't like these leaves my back hurts.

My I'm not able to do the things I wanted to do because it's

taking longer than I thought it would take.

Hey, moron. The promises are in the garage

and you already have them. But listen, God is such this is

why I'm not God. You're like, is God calling me a

moron? No, he just loves the snot out

of you. I just want to tell you stop

getting mad at him when he's put all the promises at your

disposal. And you're choosing to ignore

him and then get mad at him and how long the process and how

much pain is going on. It's like I didn't give you the

chopsticks. You give you the leaf blower.

Give you the Kawasaki? 3.5 horsepower.

That's what I gave you. But you're not using what I gave

you and you're getting mad at me.

Anyway, right. My the only crazy person that

came to church today, is there anybody else you left a couple

of promises in the garage of their life and just walking

around with chopsticks going, honey, want to go to church

today. God ain't been showing up in my

life. You guys be doing that all week,

your wife will start talking to you.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And I apologize, second thing. Second thing is there any part

of you? But you're looking back over the

landscape of your life and you're going, I got all these

promises and I don't deserve a single one.

Not a single one of these things that I deserve.

But by God's grace. He delivered them, dropped them

off at my front door and then we'll make no mistake.

These promises weren't cheap They weren't free.

Someone paid dearly. Not price was the son of Jesus

or was Jesus Christ God's son on the cross for you.

And for me, and if that doesn't create in us, a deep sense of

gratitude, I don't know what will and so if you're in that

spot, maybe you're just thankful today or maybe you're going to

God. I need to start living like

these promises are in the garage and start putting them to use.

Would you just get down on your knees and spend some time

getting some of that sorted out because this world could use

some people who are walking in the promises and the power of

God. And I say, we As well be us.

Would you guys staying with me? God, I'm so thankful that we get

to be here today. and this place with your people and God I pray

that you do a mighty work in us a work that only you can do Got,

it doesn't mean it's going to be easy, doesn't mean that it's not

going to take time. We gotta we are just tired of

trying to do it all on our own power and our own strength.

And so we are inviting you in. Thank you for being patient with

us, long suffering with us. Your name I pray.

Amen.