Life is Lived in the Meanwhile | Pastor Tom Fox

Well, good morning. What's up?

Illuminate Church, how are you guys?

Good to see you. It has been.

I was thinking about it this week over like 12 years. 15

years I've known Pastor Tim. We served together on staff over

in Brandon and then I remember driving over as a youth pastor

during a season where we were doing youth over here some

sometimes over here by over by the Chickfila and that old like

Strip Plaza. Do you guys remember that And?

Man, congratulations just on all that God has been up to here at

Illuminate Church and congratulations on the new

building. Are you guys excited?

It's just incredible And so when I send my greetings from

Meadowbrook. And lead pastor, Pastor Tim

Gilligan wanted me to say hi to you guys.

And we're just so. Honored to be.

I'm honored to be here today to get to share with you and we

love. Pastor Tim and Christine and and

this team and just it's just been cool to.

See all that God has done in and through Illuminate Church and

you guys are just getting started.

Amen. Hey man, to get into that new

building, I saw the. Pictures out in the lobby Man it

is. I know you guys are excited and

so. Going to be praying for you guys

as you guys continue to make your impact even bigger in this

area and so well, I am so glad to be.

Here I'm here with my beautiful wife of 32 years.

My high school sweetheart and I got a little picture, a picture

of my family and I've been married.

For 32 years and ministry for 32 years.

And I'll have two. Amazing kids.

Two inlaw kids that we just Absolutely.

And then we just had our fifth. Grandbaby in a Matter of about

5-6 years and so grandpa life and grandma life is the best

life. Can I get an Amen from any

grandma and grandpas out there like it is the best life?

And so man, I'm just excited this series.

How many of you all enjoyed this series?

It has been so good and I know I've been.

Watching along this summer and I know God's just encouraged me in

in huge ways throughout this series.

And if you remember just a little bit of review and I would

encourage you if you missed a week, go back and check out.

Some of the weeks or one week that you missed and I.

Guarantee you God's going to use this entire summer, man.

It's been an encouragement. It's given me hope, and I know

it has you too. But pastor.

Tim kicked off this incredible series anecdote and it's been

this deep dive in the Romans 12 and and as Pastor Kim even

talked. Just a minute ago, this whole

series has been designed to give us hope and we've either walked,

we are walking right now or we will walk through some

difficult. How many of y'all can give a

testimony to that that you've? Been through some things and

this series we've learned a little bit.

Too about the opposing forces that are at work.

The good and the evil, but we've.

Also learned that it's possible to overcome and in that first

week as I was. Listening to Pastor Tim.

He talked about first Peter 5 and it was such an encouragement

to me and I don't know if you Remember Remember this, but he

said stay alert. The scripture said stay alert,

watch out for your great enemy, the devil.

He prowls around like a roaring lion.

Looking for someone to devour but verse nine.

I love this, it says. Stand firm against him and be

strong in your faith and remember that your family of

believers all over the world is. Going through the same kind of

suffering you are. And as Pastor Tim was unpacking

that first message, Man. God.

Just begin to stir something in me and I just believe that in

order for us to live out Romans 12, we got to, we got to we have

to stand. Firm against the enemy, and we

have to be. Strong in our faith and we have

to remember that we are in this together.

And then Pastor Bernard, I don't know if you remember, but Pastor

Bernard, what an incredible message on holiness and how

holiness. Has been put on the inside of us

to give us peace. And then Pastor Kim.

Where's Pastor Kim? Couple weeks ago.

What an incredible word. And we should never be lacking.

In Zeal and Pastor Kim, I've been trying to live at a ten

since that moment. And then last week.

What an incredible just. Word testimony from Pastor Juan

just on the power of forgiveness.

And remembering how much God loves us.

And so I would just encourage you to go back if you miss one

catch one of those weeks. And so today we dive in to the

last part of Romans, 12, verses 17 through 21.

Romans 12:17–21

And just so you kind of have like a big picture of this

passage. This is teaching us as believers

to reject this whole cycle of vengeance and instead respond to

evil with goodness, with love, with forgiveness.

And it emphasizes the importance of us living a righteous.

Life, pursuing peace and trusting in God's justice.

And I think as we've listened to this whole.

Series this summer we have, man, we've.

Gotten so much encouragement in order to do those things, to

respond with goodness, with love, with forgiveness.

And so today we're going to pick it up in verse 17.

You guys ready? Is everybody ready?

All right. Verse 17.

It says never pay back evil with more evil.

Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are

honorable. In verse 18, I love this.

It says do all that you can to live in peace with just a few

people. No, no, no.

It says with everyone. And then in 19 it says dear

friends never take revenge. Leave that to the right to

singer of God, for the scripture say, I will take revenge, I will

pay them back, says the Lord. And instead, if your enemies are

hungry, feed them. They're thirsty, give them

something to drink. And in doing this, you will keep

burning coals of shame on their. Heads, don't let evil conquer

you, but. Conquer evil by doing good and I

love what the verse. Says in the message.

It says don't hit back, Discover beauty in everyone, and if

you've got it in you, get along with everybody.

Come on, look to your neighbor and say he's talking to you.

You got to get along with everybody.

Don't don't insist on getting even.

That's not for you to do. God.

Says I'll do the judging. I'll take care of it.

I love that. But the question is, and I think

we've been trying to answer this this entire summer, how in the

world can we do this? How can we live this out in the

chaotic world that we find ourselves in?

And I think it just gets simple. It's just so simple, right?

We just got to get close to Jesus.

Like, if that's that's it. Like we got to get.

Close to Jesus and that's it. Let's pray.

No, I'm just kidding. No, but seriously, let's let's

pray before we dive in this morning.

God, thank you for your word. We thank.

You God, for the opportunity that we've had to lift you up.

And God, this morning we pray as we dive into your.

God that you would speak to us. You would encourage us, God that

we would leave with something. God that we can take and apply

to our lives to help us. Be a light in this world.

And so, God, we pray. That when everything is said and

done this morning, God, that you would be glorified, you would be

lifted up, and every single one of these your people, God, that

they would be encouraged today, that's our prayer.

And then we pray this in Jesus mighty name.

And everybody said, Amen, Amen. Well, we got to get close to

Jesus. And I was, I was thinking about

that verse and that Peter was kind of say he he was giving

this to that encouragement to stand firm against the enemy, to

be strong in our faith. And I started thinking about

Peter, like what was it about Peter that he could say that

that he can say You got to stand firm, you got to stay alert, you

got to be strong in your faith and remember that that we're

together in this. And I think we, as we look at

Peter's life, I mean we can see, I mean his name was changed from

Simon to Peter, which means rock.

But I really think we have a lot to learn from the guy,

especially when we start. Talking about being in peace

with everyone, we can learn something from the guy who was

called to be. A Fisher of men.

And think about it. I mean, God had big plans for

Peter. He was among the first called.

He changed his name to Rock. It was in his boat that Jesus

taught the multitudes from. It was his boat where Jesus

helped him bring in that big hall of fish.

If you remember it's where Peter first believed He walked with

him with Jesus all the way to the end.

He was actually Peter's sword, if you remember that cut off the

soldiers ear in the garden when they came to arrest Jesus.

And of course, we know that Peter went on to be one of the

most prominent leaders in the early.

Church Despite. Denying Jesus three times, Peter

and I think Peter had the same problem that we have.

And this series, the antidote has been really trying to help

encourage us to answer. And we know and we've learned

that there's always 2 opposing forces always at work in our

life. There's good, there's evil.

There's these things that happen where we man, we battle with

trust or doubt. You know, we have at times where

our faith is engaged and then boom, we're fearful.

And so it's trust. Doubt, it's faith, it's fear.

It's our past. Like we sometimes get so caught

up in dealing with our past and maybe for some it's we're too

focused on the future. And then there's God's way and

then there's the world's way. And I love Ephesians.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Chapter 2, verse two. In the message it says you let

the world. Which doesn't know the first

thing about living, tell you how to live.

And the reality is though, that often what's happening in our

world, and it's happening around us, it's always happening on the

outside, but we always feel it. And deal with it on the inside.

And a couple weeks ago, Pastor Kim taught that we are body,

soul and spirit. You guys remember that.

And when we experience things on the outside, we often deal with

it on the inside, and our soul is where we process life.

It's where we think, it's where we decide.

It's where we feel, It's where we remember.

It's where we can imagine. And we need peace.

We have to have peace in our souls in order to live in peace

with everyone else. Because if we don't have peace

in our souls, and I know you know this is true, I know it's

true. We often will have inflammation

in our souls. Like it.

It can get rough in there at times.

But we know that God alone. Is the source of real peace, and

we also know if we're believers, that there is no peace.

Apart from God is that Isaiah? 26 Three through four, it says.

You keep him in perfect peace. Whose?

Mind is stayed on you because why he trust?

In you. And then verse four says trust

in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

I love this verse. And the perfect and the peace.

It's the same word. And in the Hebrews this method

adds like it adds great emphasis with those two words and it

means you will keep him in everything.

Shalom as we were singing this morning about peace and being

encouraged to think about God's goodness, it it will keep us in

everything that Shalom peace implies.

And I love it when we can. Reverse this verse because I

think when we reverse this verse it gives us a little bit of

clarity. And it kind of reads like this

because you trust in him, you keep your mind stayed on him and

he. Keeps you in perfect peace.

Do you see that order? Because you trust in him.

You've put your life in him. You've trusted everything in

him. And as a result of that, then

you keep your focus, you. Keep your mind stayed on him,

and then he. Keeps you in perfect peace and

the hard part is. Keeping our eyes focused on

Jesus because there's things that happen.

In life, on the outside. And then we have to look at

Peter's life. I mean, how did Peter keep his

eyes focused on Jesus? And I think if we look at

Peter's life, we can see that he did it oftentimes the hard way,

right and nowhere. This is greater illustrated than

in Matthew chapter 14, verses 22 through 33.

Matthew 14:22–33

And just before this passage is the passage where the disciples

fed the five. 1000 And so just as that was finishing.

We pick up in verse 22 and it says Immediately after this

Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat

and cross to the other side of the lake while.

He sent the people home. After sending them home, he went

up. Into the hills by himself to

pray. Night fell while he was there

alone in the verse 24 it says. Meanwhile, everybody say

meanwhile the disciples. Were in trouble far away from

land, for a strong wind had risen and they were fighting

heavy waves. And about 3:00 in the morning,

Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.

When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were

terrified in fear. They cried out.

It's a ghost. I mean, can you guys imagine

that? But Jesus spoke to them at once

and he said don't be. Afraid, he said.

Take courage. I'm here, and then I love this.

Peter calls out to him. Lord, if that's really you, I

can't see you, but I hear you tell me to come to you walking

on the water. And Jesus said, yes, come.

So Peter jumped out of the side of the boat and he.

Began to walk on the water toward Jesus and then the verse

30th says. But when he saw the strong winds

and the waves, he was terrified. And he began to sink.

Save me Lord, he shouted, and Jesus immediately reached out.

He grabbed him, and then he says, You have so little faith,

Why did you doubt me? When they climb back into the

boat, the wind stopped and then the disciples worshiped him.

You really are the Son of God. If I get.

Titled My Message Today and I really believe that as we think

and unpack this a little bit this morning about living at

peace with everyone, I would like to title this Life is Lived

in the Meanwhile, Life is lived in the meanwhile.

And if you look at that word meanwhile, it's literally

mentioned 189 times and it means while something else is being

done or was being done, it means for now, for the moment, for the

present. It's also an an adverb and I had

to do a little English lesson. Any English teachers in here?

Oh, there's a couple. So I hope I'm doing this right.

But we know that nouns are things.

Adjectives describe things, Verbs are what things do, but

adverbs are how they do it. And the meanwhile, as an adverb

is how we do it is how we do life.

Life is lived in the meanwhile, and we all face them these

seasons in life where we feel like we're kind of like in

between. You guys know what I'm talking

about. Like, we're not where we used to

be, but we're not yet where we want to be.

We're in the meanwhile. And sometimes in the meanwhile.

There's man, there's difficult times, there's difficult

circumstances, there's tragedy that happens in life in the

meanwhile. And sometimes we can feel like

in this, like in between season. It can feel like a wilderness

experience, like we've read in the Bible.

And the danger that you and I face in this meanwhile, man, is

we often look at this time in the meanwhile, the present, the

now, we often view. This time, with so much

impatience, maybe sometimes believing that man, God, I just

want to get through this right. I just Get Me Out of this

season. I'm ready for this season to

end. But.

Sometimes we can miss and what? God really wants to do in the

midst of the meanwhile. And I know you know this because

you've had these seasons. You've had.

These things happen where God shows up in the present and in

the now through a difficult time and circumstance, and our faith

is encouraged and built up even in those really hard, dark

times. And then I think about Peter and

this story. And Peter wasn't putting Jesus

to test. He was.

Instead, if you think about it, Peter was the only one in the

boat. To react in faith this impulsive

request. Led him to experience this like.

Crazy demonstration of God's power.

I mean, think about it. His faith in that moment.

I mean, it had to be big to get out of that boat.

I mean, think about all the things that Peter had.

Seen Jesus do previous. That ignited him in that moment

to step out in the midst of a storm and come to Jesus.

And then of course we know in the.

Story Peter began to sink. He took his eyes off of Jesus,

and he began to look at the winds and the waves and.

Begin to focus on them, and I think he learned such a

valuable. Lesson that he would begin to

take on even further into his ministry.

And we may never walk on water. I mean, some of us have tried.

Maybe when we're little kids. You guys ever done that?

Like when you get in a pool, you try to?

Yeah, it doesn't work, does it? But we may never.

Walk on water, but the truth is we all will.

Go through really difficult seasons and circumstances, and

I've learned that when I focus merely on what's happening

outside, my focus sometimes drifts to the past or to the

present. And oftentimes, it's in those

moments that we feel like we begin to sink.

And so we must keep our eyes focused on him.

Because Jesus brings peace, right?

He brings peace to the storm. He brings peace in the midst of

the meanwhile. And so whatever your season,

you're in today. You might be in a really.

Difficult season right now. Or maybe you're in a season

where it feels. More like a promised land and

everything's going great and man, you're just.

So you're just, everything's just just squared up right now,

wherever it may be. This meanwhile, right now for

you being faithful, remaining faithful, being strong in your

faith, and allowing God's peace to come into the midst of that

truly is a God honoring act. So what do we do?

Psalms, 39, says. What am I doing in the meantime?

Lord, I think David understood this really well, he said.

Hoping. That's.

What I'm doing, I'm hoping. And so today I want to take a

moment, as we close out this series, to look at the

importance of faith and the importance of remembrance as we

were. Singing this Morning and even

being. Encouraged to remember God's

goodness. There's so much power in

remembering what God has done in our life, and we need to lean

in. To the meanwhile, right now,

this season that we're in so that God can bring peace and

that we can live in peace with everyone.

And I think we'll also get a glimpse into how Peter kind of

wrestled this out. But faith?

Faith. At its core, it's a.

Reliance upon It's a trust in God and it's central.

To us as believers. And the Hebrew word for faith is

Amman, and it's this root word that.

Denotes, and I love this stability, firmness,

reliability, like faith is this thing that's.

It upholds us and it also concretely meant to support or

uphold like a child, like a parent would would hold an

infant. And I just told you, I just had

a grandbaby, born six weeks ago, six weeks ago #5.

And I got a picture of her, Adeline Joy King, right there.

She is the most precious little. Thing, but you can tell I got

her like. My arms are wrapped around her.

She is not going anywhere. I'm not going to let her little

bobble head go anywhere. Like it's we got her and she's

just the most precious thing. And then my grandson Carter,

he's about 2 1/2 now. His faith might look a little

bit different, but he's like, I'm not sure about her, you

know? Look, Mom, no hands kind of

thing. And it was so funny, like in

that first week when she came home, I think.

Carter was kind of like, oh. She's staying.

Like, I thought she was going to go back somewhere.

Like, yeah, he's getting used to that, but but faith, Faith is

that firm, strong. Stable like when we build and

get strong on our faith, we can stand in the midst of the

meanwhile, and God can bring peace into that.

And so many people, though I've run into so many people that

treat faith as belief. In nothing even wishful thinking

you've probably heard. People call it blind faith.

But I really believe that blind faith has no place in

Christianity, because what we believe and what we have faith

in is solid. Peter addresses this in Second

Peter 116. He says.

We did not follow cleverly. Invented stories when we told

you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But we were eyewitnesses to His Majesty.

Eyewitness accounts are not the stuff of blind faith.

What God has done in your life, no one can discount.

Listen this section over here. What God has done in your life,

no one can discount. I mean what He has done, this

section, what He has done in your life, nobody can say

anything about because it's real is.

God has showed up in your life and done some incredible things.

This section, the things that you've witnessed, your story,

your testimony. Nobody can take that away and

when we have. This personal encounter with

Jesus, we have knowledge of the gospel, and not only do we have

knowledge, but we acknowledge it, and then we have personal

trust in those facts that God is going to save me.

He's going to show up in the midst of whatever.

It is that I'm going through. I mean Peter, I mean he knew

this. I mean he knew that Jesus was

not just a mere man. I mean Peter had seen Jesus give

sight to the blind. He had cleansed lepers, caused

the lame to walk. He had raised the dead.

I mean Peter's preparation to be a witness of Christ.

I mean it included some very up close, close encounters with

Jesus and he approached him with questions and with doubts and

whenever man Christ perceived that he needed further training.

I mean, Jesus leaned in and taught Peter lessons, even in

the story that we just read you. Have little faith.

He was trying to build his faith in that moment, and I don't know

if you know this, but Peter was perhaps one of the most

reprimanded disciples of all the disciples, but yet he never got

offended. He rather continued to follow

the master. Daily adding to His witness and

learning of Him. And so today listen your story,

your testimony, What God's done in your life, man.

It shapes your faith, It shapes your theology, It shapes who you

are so that you can live in peace and be at peace with

everyone. But Peter's faith was built.

Up and encouraged songs. 7711 gives us a clue how to build up

our faith. And it says I will remember the

deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your

miracles of long ago. I was reminded of this about

just a little bit over three years ago.

We had just come out of man a really rough meanwhile.

It had been probably a period of about six years where we lost

all all of our parents in. Man, that was just a really

difficult season. And we walked with my wife's mom

through a five year battle with breast cancer and that was just,

that was a rough time. And I remember processing

through that and just working through some of that things and

grieving and going to counseling.

And man, I found myself in a season where I was really

battling, like, just really deep, severe depression.

And I'll never forget my counselor in one session.

And I was trying to I I was so focused, and I was almost too

focused on the future that it wasn't allowing me to process

correctly in the present. And he said this thing and I'll

I'll never forget it, he said. You're so focused, you're so

busy focused on the future, trying to get out of the season,

that you forgot to remind yourself how much God has done

in your life. And then he said this, he said,

Remember this. Remembrance unlocks faith.

Remembrance unlocks faith. And as faith begins to be built

up in us, we begin to as a result, our increases our trust

and that peace that he so much wants to give us in our life.

And I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but one of

the. Greatest themes that I've

noticed and through throughout the entire scripture is

remembrance. All throughout Scripture, God

calls His people to remember His goodness.

I mean, if you look back in the book of Leviticus got appointed

weekly yearly rhythms of remembrance.

For example, the Sabbath was a weekly.

Rhythm to remember that God rested on the 7th day.

The Passover was a yearly rhythm to remember how God delivered

the Israelites from Egypt and then throughout the Old.

Testament The Israelites regularly created altars of

remembrance to commemorate what God had done and Joshua four.

They stacked 12 Stones in remembrance.

Of how God miraculously parted the Jordan.

River and let them cross on dry land.

And then the psalms. I mean, if you look at the

Psalms, David and the writers meditate on the works.

And the wonders of God. They call us to remember God's

past faithfulness and dwell on his goodness.

I mean David. Think about it.

He used past faith. He used past things that God had

done in his life to defeat Goliath.

He called upon those moments that God had showed up

previously that allowed him to step into the meanwhile and

defeat Goliath. And then, of course, we see it

in the Last Supper. Jesus invites his followers.

He invites us as we take communion to remember the great

thing that he did, to remember the bread, the cup, and

remembering of the sacrifice. And it's clear all throughout

Scripture, God calls us to be people marked by remembrance.

And we know that. I mean, there's power in

remembering God's goodness. We were.

Encouraged last week to even In order for us to be able to

forgive, we have to remember how much God loves us and how much

He's forgiven us, so that we can then live in peace and forgive

others. I really like it's really love

and. Chaos is what it is.

We. Are called to live love and

chaos. And then we also know that.

I mean, there's so much power in remembering, but how many you

know? There's danger also in

forgetting the Israelites. If you think about it, they

repeatedly forgot the Lord in his.

Goodness to him, To them, I mean, they cycled through

seasons of faithful. Remembrance and seasons of

forgetfulness. And when they forgot God, they

became captives to idolatry and oppression.

Check this out. In Psalm 78.

They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by His law.

They forgot what He had done and the wonders He had shown them.

They did not remember His power the day he redeemed them from

his oppressor. And I don't know about you, but

I've noticed that I'm most vulnerable to these opposing

forces in my life, and them dominating me when I focused my.

Attention on disappointment or pain or the past or.

Too much on the future. When I dwell on everything that

seems to be going wrong around me and in my life, that's when I

don't know about you. But that's when the enemy really

attacks me and it's hard. In those moments to remember.

But the opposite is always true when I dwell.

On God's goodness in my life, I have this man.

When I can do that, I noticed the ways that he's been guiding

me. He's been sustaining me.

Since the day I was born, I mean when I'm.

Dwelling on God's goodness in my life I can remember.

Back to those times when I was little or in high school where I

didn't even know Jesus then. But man, God was protecting me,

and he was providing a way and beginning to to move things in

place and plant seeds and do all those things.

And man, I'm reminded. When I dwell on God's goodness

that He carried me through and the growth that He's.

Done in my life, even in those really difficult seasons, and

I'm always struck by the deep and meaningful.

Relationships that God provides in those different seasons.

And most of all, though I'm able to remember the way he is, man,

he is unconditionally loved me and forgiven me.

Now this doesn't mean that I just.

Put my head in the stand, right? I I I don't just ignore the pain

and. Disappointments in my life.

But I don't dwell on them. I don't focus on them alone.

Instead what I do is I want to invite God's interpretation and

peace of the painful events that I experience.

And there's no doubt some of us have been through through some

very. Man, difficult things.

Some traumatic things. Even as children, like we carry

things into our adult life. A lot of pain and

disappointment. And I want to encourage you

today. Maybe today you needed to be

reminded to invite God's interpretation and peace into

those painful events and ask God to show you the ways.

And I guarantee you he will. He'll show you the ways that

he's acting redemptively in your life, bringing good out of what

the enemy. The enemy wants to take you out.

He wants to devour you. But God will bring good out of

what the enemy meant for bad. And then we can really truly

begin to walk and experience peace and live in peace with

others. So as we kind of close this.

I want to give you 4 practices. I just did 5 4 practices that

I've been. Working on for several years to

kind of help me build my faith and then to keep peace in my

soul. And the first one is daily

gratitude. Everybody say gratitude,

gratitude. Gratitude is such a powerful

weapon against man, against all the stuff that we've been

talking about in this series. And So what I've learned to do

and this is how it works for me. Because I have to be reminded of

even the small things that God's doing.

Because man, if we can just. Take a moment.

And so I like to take inventory of my day.

At the end of the day, and I asked God to reveal his.

Goodness and grace to me. And it's been pretty cool

because it really does include a lot.

Of small moments, like the grace to handle a difficult

conversation. Energy when I felt weak or man

the beautiful sunrise this morning as.

I drive into work looking for God's fingerprints in those

small things that happen through your day will able you to see

that God is at work even in larger patterns of your life.

So what do we do? We give thanks.

We rejoice. We lean in.

We see all. That God's doing even in the

little things and then we pray, Philippians 47 says.

Don't worry about anything. Instead pray about everything.

Tell God what you need. And then thank him for all he

has done. Then you will experience God's

peace which exceeds anything that we can understand.

His peace is honestly mind. Blowing at times and his peace,

it says, will guard our hearts and minds as we live in him.

And the second thing is so daily gratitude.

The second thing is, one of the things that I've been doing for

several years is reading old. Journals, and I have a pick of

some of my journals that I've. Collected over the years and

what I love to do every year or so, I read back.

Through some of my journals and I don't.

Man, it's each time I'm. Struck by the ways that God has

been so faithful during really difficult seasons.

And I remember when I see that man, there are.

Times when I was lost, when I was afraid, when I was doubting,

when I was angry. But God was at work at ways that

I couldn't see at that. And I'm always awestruck by how

God repeatedly uses painful. Man situations to draw me deeper

and deeper with him, and reflecting on old journals for

me, it gives me a fresh perspective even on the

meanwhile, right now. Because I realized that God's

peace is permanent is secure. It does not change with

circumstance, God's. Peace is secure in spite of

circumstances, so I just want to encourage you if you're not get

into daily intake and exposure of the Word of God, like we have

to be in the Word in order to have.

Peace in our souls. And I just want to encourage you

as you get into his word, God's going to reveal things.

He's going to show you things. You're going to read a passage

of Scripture, and there's going to be a word.

Or a a phrase that pops out at you, man.

And get a journal, get something to put that in and catalog or do

whatever you got to do with. It so that you can pull those

out and remember how much God has done previously in your

life. So daily gratitude reading old.

Journals and then my mentor of one of mentor of mine.

Gave me this one and he encouraged me to write a.

Psalm and he encouraged me to take Psalm 1. 36 And rewrite it

about my own life, following each example of God's goodness

with the phrase His love endures forever.

So my Psalm started like this. God thank you for.

Saving me when I was lost. His love endures forever.

God, thank you for the. Call in my life that gives me

purpose. His love endures forever.

God, thank you for my high school sweetheart that you

brought into my life celebrating 32 years of marriage.

His love endures forever. God, thank you for to my 2:00.

Precious kids, their spouses, our five grandkids.

His love endures forever. And God, thank you for bringing

us through and the lessons learned the past six.

Years As we've grieved the loss of our parents.

His love endures forever as soon as we practice.

Daily gratitude as we engage in things that God's already.

Done in our life and we. Write a song, but it just remind

ourselves just how good God has been in our life.

And then the last thing I'll encourage you with is create an

altar of remembrance. And sometimes just drawing an

altar of remembrance. Like the Israelite people didn't

Joshua for. Maybe it's just writing a

specific way that God. Has been faithful in my life,

and you can do this in a lot of creative ways.

That visual man can be a powerful reminder, and a lot of

us are visual learners, and it's good to remind.

How good God is whether that's a verse.

Maybe you display in your house or something on the wall or.

Maybe something on your mirror that reminds you who you are in

Christ. Whatever.

It may be but setting something. Maybe there's a rock by your.

You know by your sidewalk, that just reminds you of God's

goodness and his faithfulness to you.

When I was a youth pastor for 23 years, I was a youth pastor and

we. Did some crazy things with

students and one of the things that we did for several years

was called the 40 day revolution.

And during that 40 days, we'd encourage students to.

Fast and pray for God to. Move on their school campus and

then for 40 days they would do random.

Acts of kindness on their campus every day for 40 days.

And it was incredible. Students would be praying for

God to move. They'd be praying for students

that sit in front of them, on the side of them, behind them,

for teachers and principals. And one year I'll never forget,

we had about 50 students doing this.

Prayer and fasting and serving. And doing acts of kindness on a

campus. And before that end of 40 days,

we saw like 30 teachers come to Christ.

A principal gets saved over 500 students.

That encountered Jesus and we're joining that F.

CA club that those students were a part in and then the last day

of the 40 day revolution was called Paint the Rock.

And it was just a simple reminder of all that God had

done. And we encouraged students to

paint that rock whatever color they wanted to.

And then they were going to place that somewhere on campus

and the. Year that we did it, the second

year we had hundreds of students doing it.

And then it ended up being thousands of rocks planted on

campus. And I remember the principal

coming to me and say, hey, pastor.

Tom, we got to chill with the rocks like it's too many.

But create an alter of remembrance.

Create a visual of what God has done in your life, because He

invites us to remember who He is and what He's done.

So as we close today, I just want to encourage you,

especially those of you today that are going through a really

difficult time where your faith is being tested and listen, I

the enemy would love nothing more that while.

You're in your meanwhile to isolate you and to men just to

come after you. And it's often in this place we

find ourselves maybe doubting, and we know that God allows our

faith to be tested. It's in the meanwhile that we

really see the genuineness of our faith.

But I really. It develops character in us.

It does a purifying work sometimes in us.

And also God always promises help during these times.

So as we stand today, if you could have everybody stand, I

just want to. Declare these two verses over

you today, Jose of 43 two says. When you pass through the

waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the

rivers, they will not sweep over you and.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.

The flames will not set you. Ablaze, and then first Peter 510

says in the God of all grace, who calls you to his eternal

glory in Christ after you have suffered.

For a little while. In your meanwhile will himself

restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

And what our broken, confused world needs more than anything,

it needs people who will just walk with God.

And so I want to encourage you, and I want to invite you into a

moment this morning, a moment of remembrance.

And maybe today you're here and you're in a difficult season and

just want to encourage you to this week, maybe today.

Just remember a time when God was faithful in your life, and

allow that time to encourage you.

And it's maybe in this meanwhile that you need to borrow someone

else's faith. You might need to reach out to

somebody and say, hey man, I I I can't do this alone.

I need some faith from a brother or sister to walk with me

through this. But this morning, most

importantly, it starts with a relationship with Jesus getting

close to him. And so this morning, with every

head bowed and every eye closed, I just want to take a moment.

If you're here today and maybe you've never given your life to

Christ, maybe you've never, you've never really said God.

I want to invite you in. I want to surrender my life.

I want to give everything over to you.

And maybe you're here today and maybe you, you have done that.

But you find yourself in a really difficult time where

you've kind of drifted. You've maybe walked in a

different direction. And today you came and maybe

even with an intention that God, I'm going to give you one last

chance and today's your day. God wants to meet you right

where you're at. And so if that's you today,

you've never given your life to Christ or you need to come home.

Maybe you just need to come back to where you used to be with

him. And if that's you on account of

three, I just want to see let hand lifted up in the air.

I I would love to pray with you real quick.

And so if that's you've never given your life to Christ, or

maybe you just need to come home today and say, God, man, I'm

going through a really difficult time.

I need to just reset and recenter my life.

If that's you, on the count of three, just lift up your hand.

123 Any hands across the room, they'll have some ushers to put

cards in your hand. And if you're here today, and,

man, you may be just going through a difficult time.

I'd love to pray with you too. And so if you would, let's join

me in prayer. God, we just thank you.

We thank you for your goodness. We thank you, God, for your

faithfulness. And God, we just take a moment

and just God, we just recenter, refocus our eyes on you and God,

we thank you for sending your son Jesus to die on a cross for

us. And so today we invite him into

our lives afresh. God renew us, give us peace so

that we can live in peace with others.

And so God come into our meanwhile.

And God we pray for healing, we pray for reconciliation.

God, we pray that you would move, even move.

Things out of the way so that we can walk through where you

desire for us to be. And so God we'll give you all

the praise, we'll give you all the glory and God we pray that

you'd use us in a mighty way. This week we ask these things in

Jesus mighty name and everybody said Amen.

Amen.