TIME | Part 3 | Time to Wake Up

Heat.

Hallelujah.

Man, it's just a good day to be alive,

isn't it?

>> All right, guys. You heard the girls,

man. We got to step it up,

>> right? And listen, listen. The girls are

doing a retreat.

Oh, no. There's no retreating. We're

going to do man stuff. Yeah, we're going

to a conference, man. We're going to

knock it off the park. Hey, if you get a

chance, guys, uh look up Joby Martin,

Pastor Joby. Um he's he's one of the

keynote guys there. This guy is uh

incredible. Second to none. So, uh make

sure you sign up. And uh I think we can

not only beat the girls, I think we can

double.

We're not retreating. We're advancing.

>> That's right. We're not retreating.

Pastor Jack says we're advancing.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. Girls going to be What do you

girls facials and stuff? What do you do

at a retreat?

Praise the Lord. Hey, if you're watching

online, it's a lot more fun in the room.

>> Get here next Sunday. by the way. Hey,

Pastor Ross is coming next week and uh

man, he's just a powerhouse in the

faith. And uh the church that he's

pastoring, oh my goodness, they're

having good church problems. Uh they

just have thousands of people coming and

the parking lot doesn't fit. They have

cars lining up and they their church is

on a major highway, major road. There's

cars lined up all the way down the road

for all services and they're doing

ridiculous amounts of services. And man,

they're in a capital campaign uh trying

to raise I I forget 10 million or

something crazy. Uh so, uh there's an

anointing on his life. I say all that to

say, you don't want to miss next Sunday.

Uh we're going to be here next Sunday.

So, uh he's part of the link board

pastoring up in Big Rapids. Uh us and

our leadership team, we're going south.

We're going to Nashville this week to be

with another board member for Link. uh

because they're doing a conference down

in Nashville, Tennessee called the

Promise Conference, Holy Spirit

Conference. And so, man, we're going to

be we're going to be out there uh

Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday.

And then uh I'm already tired thinking

about it. We get to drive back Saturday

night uh late to be here with you guys

Sunday morning. So, man, we just got a

lot going on and and don't want you guys

to miss out. So, hey, last week was uh

Resurrection Sunday.

Hallelujah.

And uh man, we had a lot of people uh

give their life to Christ. And uh let me

share this with you. We broke a Grace

Summit Church record.

Uh first time in 15 years that we broke

the 300 barrier. We had 301 people uh

attend church Sunday

and uh right around 20 give their life

to Christ. So powerful powerful week.

And I'll say this, if you uh came last

week and gave your life to Christ, uh

we're glad that you came back this week.

>> And I'll say this, coming back this week

is just as important as the prayer that

you prayed last week.

>> Amen.

>> So, you are part of a good church

community. Uh I'm going to preach today

if that's okay. I didn't check I didn't

check with you first.

Yeah. Um, should we should probably pray

or something, huh?

Probably pray. Hey, let's bow our heads

and pray. Father, we thank you, Lord,

for revival breaking loose on the inside

of our souls, Lord. Lord, we didn't

come, Father, just to hear words from

men and to sit in a chair, but Father,

we came to hear from heaven. And Lord,

we're so grateful for the anointed

worship, God, leading us in to your

presence. And father, right now I pray

Lord as children sit at the feet of

their father. Lord, I pray that we just

sit at your feet and we hear words from

heaven today. God, I thank you for the

anointing upon the preaching of your

word that you communicate to us, in us,

and through us.

So Lord, we thank you for it now in

Jesus name. Amen.

>> Well, hey, I'm not holding anything back

today. I'm going to I'm going to uh

release uh the word that God has given

me to give to you today. And the title

of the message today is it's about time.

Look at your neighbor and say, "It's

about time."

>> It's about time.

>> Man, we've been in a series called Time.

And we're going to hopefully wrap it up

today. Uh maybe Ross will continue it

next week. I don't know what he's

preaching, but uh week one on Palm

Sunday, we were talking about uh that

Chyros moment. That's that moment when

God shows up, right? It's it's an

appointment that God had on his calendar

for your life. It's that Lord appointed

moment and how that contrasts a lot of

times with our Kronos moment which is

our calendars and our schedules and and

man, I would much rather God show up uh

than me stick to my schedule. Amen. And

so we kind of unpacked that last week

with Resurrection Sunday. We were

talking about how God is always on time

no matter what. And today I want to flip

it around a little bit. We've been

talking about God's timing for you.

Today I want to talk about your time for

him.

Look at your neighbor and say, "Uhoh."

You know, if God's always on time, and

we know he is. The real question is,

what are you doing with the time that he

gave you?

What are you doing with the time that he

gave you? Ephesians chapter 5 and verse

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

15, Paul said this to the church in

Ephesus. He said, "Look carefully then,

how you walk, not as unwise, but as

wise, making the best use of the time

because the days are evil."

And he kicks this thing off. He says,

"Look carefully then how you walk."

Look, look carefully

means to have

full attention,

to do

a careful examination

or an audit. This isn't just a casual

glance at your life. And too often when

it comes to things of spirituality and

Christianity for our own lives, we'll

take a casual glance at how we're doing

and not do a full Holy Spirit inspired

audit.

Oh my goodness. I'm about to drop some

bombs on you today.

What I found is that time is a trutht

teller.

Too often people's mouse and their

calendars

tell two completely different stories.

Man,

I've heard it over and over. Uh people

will say things that God is number one

in my life. God. I mean, he's he's I put

him first in my life and and uh the

issue is is that uh if you look at their

calendar, God gets the leftovers.

People say this, they say, "Man, I just

believe prayer changes things. I believe

in the power of prayer." And when you

look at their life, you look at their

calendar, you look at how much time

they've devoted to prayer, their

calendar would tell something radically

different.

Their

schedule says, "I only pray when I'm

desperate."

I've heard a lot of parents, man, my

family, I mean, God's number one, but my

family's a close second. Put my family

first and man, I I'm devoted to them.

And uh the reality is too often we give

the best part of ourselves to everyone

else

and our family gets our leftovers when

we get home emotionally and mentally.

You want to just come home and

decompress.

What does your schedule say about you?

If you're taking notes, you can write

this down. Your schedule is your

statement of faith.

Your schedule is

your statement of faith.

And years ago, I used to work with

several different churches and uh there

were times when uh I was able to uh get

in to kind of help a church rethink

things and reboot. And man, I would look

at their statement of faith and their

core values and I'm going, "Wow, this is

second to none." And I mean, they really

this is some powerful stuff here. And

and there was this disconnect somehow

between what they believed and what they

were practicing. And if you looked at,

you know, they said, "Man, we're we're

we're an evangelistic church. We love we

love to reach lost people. And I go,

"Well, how many people got saved this

year?" How many people got saved in the

last 10 years? You call yourself an

evangelistic church, but how many

sinners have become saints, now

disciples, turning other sinners into

saints?

Sometimes they didn't invite me back.

We all have statements of faith. You

might not have them uh written down

anywhere, but there are some things that

you have that you believe.

I'm a praying person.

I love God's word.

I believe in the Bible.

Well, how does that fit into your

schedule? Because your schedule is

actually your statement of faith, not

your church attendance,

not the Bible verse that you put in your

Instagram bio.

It's your schedule.

How many know talk is cheap,

right? Talk is cheap.

I love God. I just love God with

everything that I am. Then why do you

live like the devil, man?

Paul says, take a

really close look at your life.

Do a spiritual audit.

What I've learned is that before you can

change the way that you walk, you have

to be honest about how you're walking

right now.

Amen.

I want you to think about something for

me. What if God

pulled up your schedule for the last 90

days?

Our kids, man, we got the the apps on

their phone. Tell us screen time. time.

We like see their screen time and and we

limit them. And have you ever looked at

your own screen time and you feel like

an absolute dork? You're like, I spent

how many hours doing what? Like I am I

just a lazy, worthless bum? You ever

look at that? I mean, the report tells

the story. And in the moment, last week

I didn't think I was a lazy bum. But if

I look at the report, I go, my man, I am

missing the mark. I mean, Tik Tok

demanded my life for a whole week.

What happened, man?

What if God did an audit on your life

and and looked at your schedule for the

last 90 days and just looked at it and

would it line up with what you think

that you believe about God? What you

believe about your own life?

Man, I I believe in the power of prayer.

If I never met you and I didn't know

anything about your life, if I just

looked at your schedule, would I be able

to look at it, how you spent your time,

and go, "That's a praying person. That's

a person that believes in prayer." Would

I be able to look at your schedule and

go, "Man, I think they believe in the

word of God."

Or would I go, "Man, they're busy.

They're a busy person."

Would they even be able to know that

you're a Christian?

Oh, wait. You went to church on Sunday.

That must mean you're a devout follower

of Christ, right?

Look at your neighbor and say, "Wrong.

Sunday's a good start."

What if God did a survey

the last 90 days of your life? The whole

thing, every hour, every decision, every

yes that you made, every no that you

made.

Yes, you're scrolling,

every app.

What if he laid it out in front of you

based on where you spent your time? What

does that say about what you believe

about God?

Some of us might be embarrassed with the

report

as it came back. Do we live our lives in

such a way

that God can smile down on our life and

say, "Gabriel, Michael, come here.

That's my son with whom I'm well

pleased."

Can God smile down on your life with his

stamp of approval

and go, "Man, knocking it out of the

park. Doing great." because that's my

goal in my relationship with him. Amen.

Told you I'm going to be dropping some

bombs today.

Romans 13 11

says, "Besides this, you know the time

that the hour has come for you to wake

from your sleep." Number one in your

notes is it's time to wake up.

It's time to wake up.

Look at your neighbor and say, "Wake

up."

>> Hallelujah.

Oh man, I just heard a song from the

90s.

Get thee behind me, Satan.

wake up. You know, sometimes I have to

preach myself straight. I preach to you

like I preach to myself. Sometimes I got

to give myself a good oldfashioned kick

right in the old rear end spiritually

and emotionally. I got to say, man, it's

time to wake up.

Time to get up and get going. Amen.

Paul's not writing to unbelievers.

He's writing to the church. People who

say, "Man, I believe in Jesus." But

still need to wake up. He says, "The

hour has come for you to wake up from

your sleep."

Who in here has pets, you guys? Who are

my Who are my cat people?

I'm just playing.

Who are my dog people?

>> Oh my goodness. My people are in the

house of God.

Man, we have a dog at home. Um, his

>> There he is. Look at this. How did he

make it on Time magazine?

Witty, did you do that? I got a famous

critter, man. I didn't even know.

Yeah, I'm from the country. We say

things like critter.

Yeah, that's my dog. His name is Oakley.

Everyone say hi, Oakley.

>> Hi, Oakley.

>> Yeah, he's uh he's loving, man. He's

amazing. He does tricks. Maya taught him

all sorts of cool tricks and and all

this. Really smart uh dog. But as smart

as he is, uh he's one of the dumbest

smart dogs I've ever seen.

You ever have a really smart dog and

then you look at it and you go, "You are

an absolute idiot."

Yeah. Yeah. My dog's an idiot. Uh my dog

has this weird addiction to our bathroom

trash.

Anyone ever had this animal in their

house? Yeah. It's like the bowl of food

and we feed this dog really really well

and there's good food in the and and

then the dog will leave the food there.

He's coming back to it later, but if

you're not looking, he'll go sneak into

the bathroom trash and root around in

that stuff and eat it. And I'm going,

you are one disgusting, vile, filthy

idiot,

right?

Yeah.

Sometimes he goes into the kids' rooms.

Who knows what's hiding underneath those

beds.

Yeah. So, there's these times when it's

just uh myself and the dog home alone

and uh I'm not real good at tending to

things. I get busy, right? Doing stuff.

So, I don't know when the dog

disappears. So, rather than have another

issue where my wife comes back and says,

"Hey, the dog got in the trash again."

What I do when it's just us, I go

through and I go right down the hall and

I throw close all the kids doors, right?

And then I close the kids' bathroom cuz

that's the target area, man. that's the

one that he that he's after. And I make

sure our bedroom is is closed. And man,

we we've trained him. We've corrected

him. Uh again, we feed him well.

And if I'm not looking, he'll sneak

right in

and eat the bathroom trash.

He's not smart enough to not eat the

things that will hurt him. Can I just

talk about humanity for a minute?

Sometimes we're not smart enough to not

eat the things that will hurt us. And if

you can look back in your life and you

go, "Man, God closed this door. God

closed that door." Can you say, "Thank

you, God, for closed doors."

>> Because sometimes God is closing the

doors in our life to protect us from the

things that we we we can't even see it.

We don't even get it. I mean, if I just

let my dog go eat all the trash, the

dog's not going to be feeling. Matter of

fact, he's made himself sick several

times. He's an idiot.

Yeah,

thank God for closed doors.

Uh, you guys ever do this? Now we have

this social media stuff going on. You

ever look back at old high school flings

and you see them now? I'm in my mid-40s.

I've looked looked at some pictures and

I'm going, man, I dodged a bullet on

that one.

You know you've done it. You know you've

done it, right?

Like, man, I got to look back. I'm so ga

glad God closed that door, right? And I

got to tell you, man, God did a great

job. I have an amazing wife.

>> Yeah.

Thank God for closed doors. At the time,

we didn't understand it, but it was God

protecting you from yourself. Look at

your neighbor and say, "Don't be a dog."

>> That wasn't in my notes. That was just

for me.

Don't be a dog.

You know, with my animal, my hope is as

its leader, right? That I could train it

in such a way that I don't have to close

the doors.

That would be my hope for the animal.

I'm not sure. He's cute, but I'm not

sure he's ever going to get there. Maybe

God's hope for us

is that he doesn't have to go around

keep closing all the doors, but that we

have a relationship with him in such a

way. We have a Holy Spirit comforter and

counselor and auditor. We have the we

have the rule book. We have the standard

right here that we would mature to a

place that we can walk into the room and

not eat the bathroom trash.

Amen. Amen.

>> Proverbs 26:11, "As a dog returns to its

Proverbs 26:11

vomit,"

it's one gross scripture, man.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool

repeats

his foolishness.

If you've been saved for any length of

time, you can identify with that

scripture.

saved, cleaned up, and somehow like a

fool, you go back to the thing that's

going to kill you, separate you from

God.

The goal is the spirit of the living God

would be dwelling on the inside of us,

which means we don't have to keep going

back to the thing that keeps making us

sick.

We have resurrection power dwelling on

the inside of us. transformation power.

It's the power that gets on the inside

of us. The Bible says we're transformed

by the renewing of our mind.

We think about things different. The

things that we used to really desire,

like my dog really desiring that trash,

we no longer have that desire.

We're changed from the inside out.

gets so deep on the inside of us that we

begin to love what God loves and hate

what God hates.

Colossians chapter 3:2 says this, "Set

your minds

on things that are above,

not on things that are on the earth.

Establish your mind."

Doesn't say God's going to do all this

stuff. It's telling you establish your

mind. Set your mind on things above. not

on the things of the earth.

Not just avoid the things of the world,

set your affections on the things of

God.

Here's the truth.

You'll always find time for what you're

affectionate towards.

Always find time for what you're

affectionate towards.

You don't have to force yourself to do

the things that you love. You ever

noticed that

you don't schedule your favorite things

and then have to white knuckle yourself

through it? You run towards it. Man, I

love this. This is this is exhilarating.

This is lifegiving for me. I just I just

love it. And so I so I go do this thing

and man, my calendar somehow makes way

for that. My schedule makes time for

that because I'm affectionate towards

it. What does your schedule look like

with the things of God?

I love God. I just love God. I Does your

schedule

reflect the love that you claim that you

have for God? Man, I'm dropping some

bombs on you today.

So, when you can't seem to find time for

God, when prayer feels like a chore,

reading your Bible feels like a middle

schooler doing homework,

it's not a schedule problem, it's an

affection problem.

It's not a schedule problem. It's an

affection

problem. Matthew 6, Jesus said this. He

said, "For where your treasure is, there

your heart will be." Also,

we use this sometimes for issues of

money.

Jesus is referring to issues of

everything.

For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also.

Treasure leads, heart follows,

and the time on your calendar reveals

it.

You won't fix your time by managing your

calendar better.

You fix it by

fixing what you treasure. Look at your

neighbor and say, "Wake up."

It's time to wake up to our pre to the

presence of God. It's time to wake up to

our calling,

the calling that we have. It's time to

wake up to the voice of God ministering

to us. God's always on time.

Are you?

So, number one is time to wake up.

Number two, for your notes is time to

redeem your days.

It's time to redeem your days. Ephesians

5 again he says in verse 15 look

carefully then how you walk not as

unwise but as wise it's a wisdom piece

he says making the best use of the time

because the days are evil

that making the best use of the time is

directly translated from the original it

directly translates redeeming your time

redeeming the time

about that man we we know how to redeem

stuff don't

Who are my coupon people? You guys

redeem coupons.

Yeah, we got some couponers. We redeem

gift cards. If somebody gives you a gift

card for Christmas, man, you go redeem

that. Uh we know how to redeem things.

We'll we'll drive across town for 15

save 15 cents on gas.

>> Absolutely.

>> Right.

>> Yeah.

Takes you three hours to get down Dupont

to get there, but

it's going on with traffic these days.

Golly closed down Clinton. Now DuPont's

all wild and crazy. God bless America.

Talking about redeeming my time. Fort

Wayne. I got I need to redeem some time,

man.

Sat at that red light three times before

I could get through it. All right, that

was just me venting. I feel better. Feel

closer to you now. Thank you for letting

me share.

We know how to redeem things that have

value. Paul says, "Redeem your time."

Here's what I know. God didn't save you

just to get you to heaven. God saved you

because there's an assignment on your

life.

You're called. You're gifted.

You're set apart.

The question isn't, "Do you have a

calling?" Every believer has a calling.

The question is, is your calling on your

calendar? Uh-oh. Man, did you feel that

in the room? Woo, that was heavy.

Is your calling on your calendar, man?

I've had some conversations with some

old boys over the years. I'm thinking of

one in particular. I won't say his name.

Uh my wife's probably the only person

that knows who I'm talking about.

Anyways, talking to this guy, right

back in 1986, I was called to preach.

I'm going,

you've never preached a day in your

life.

call. God called me to preach. I said,

"The gifts and callings of God are

without repentance."

Right? You have a calling on your life,

but your schedule has never caught up to

your calling.

Time invested is the currency of your

calling.

You can write that down.

Time invested is the currency

of your calling. Paul says it's time to

redeem your days.

Most people are not failing in their

calling because they lack the gifting.

God equips those he calls.

They're failing. They're failing their

calling because they lack time

management.

They never give it space. They never

give it schedule.

They never actually sit down and

work on the thing.

Called to preach, but never sat down and

studied.

called to lead, but you've never done

anything to grow as a leader. I just

believe God's called me to be a leader.

Well, go lead something, then.

Go lead something.

God's called you to write. You've had

the same chapter in your head for three

years, but never put anything

typed into your laptop.

called to mentor somebody.

We've never blocked the time to invest

in mentoring. Time

is kind of like a wallet or a credit

card that resets every morning.

Every morning you wake up, there's

another 24 hours put on that.

The question is is how are you going to

spend

each minute?

This is the day that the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it. Wake

up, man, and connect with heaven. Get

with God and say, "God, here I am. I've

got I've got some ideas on what my day,

but I What do you got for me today,

Lord? Who do you have me to cross paths

with? Who do you have me to bless? Who

do you have me to minister to? Lord, how

do I how can I serve you today?" Now,

that's making him Lord of your life.

That's salvation.

Not, man. I got got to get my coffee and

get out the door and I rush through

traffic and I get to work and then I get

home and I'm tired and I'm wore out and

I'm late, but I'm going to make it to

church next Sunday.

God, here's another 24 hours

of mine that I offer you.

Getting heavy in the house of God.

Question is, what are you spending your

time on? Paul says, "Making the best use

of the time because the days are evil."

Busyiness is not the same as

fruitfulness.

Business is not the same as

fruitfulness.

I believe this, the biggest ploy of the

enemy for our culture in this day is to

get you so busy and so distracted on

good things that you don't have enough

time for the God things.

Boy, is it so demanding. There's always

more good things to do. More good

things. This, that, that.

I'm hungry for the God things.

Fruitfulness comes by the spirit.

You can be the busiest person in the

room and completely unproductive for the

kingdom of God.

Romans 8:11,

Romans 8:11

"If the spirit of him who raised Jesus

from the dead dwells in you, he who

raised Christ Jesus from the dead will

also give life to your mortal bodies

through his spirit

who dwells in you." What I've learned is

I'm not able to redeem my time in my own

strength. It has to be because I've

yielded myself to the spirit of the

living God. Amen.

You can't just make a better schedule or

set better habits.

We've tried that. You guys ever do the

New Year's resolutions? I mean, you mean

it this time. You mean it. You're going

to you're going to starting January 1st,

man. I'm going to do this and why I

mean, how many, right? You don't don't

raise your hand. How many of you've had

failed New Year's resolutions already?

Because, man, our human will, we're

fickle.

We're fleshly.

I'm really good. It's a It's a gift of

mine to make commitments that I'm not

able to stick to. Anyone tell on

yourself in church, it's okay.

But when the Holy Spirit gets on the

inside of you and you yield yourself to

that, you get an uncction and you begin

to love what he loves and you know that

that thing came by the spirit and man,

there's nothing that can stop me because

I'm going to go do because God has

called me to. Amen.

Spirit of the living God dwelling on the

inside of us.

Can I say this?

Jesus didn't die on the cross for

behavior modification.

Jesus died on the cross for heart

transformation.

Amen.

That's what salvation is. Psalm 37:4,

Psalms 37:4

the psalmist said, "Delight yourself in

the Lord and he will give you the

desires of your heart."

He will give you the desires of your

heart. That doesn't mean because you

want a Cadillac, God's going to give you

a Cadillac.

What it means is if you really delight

yourself as a son to the father, you

really delight yourself in the Lord, God

will begin to deposit these healthy,

fresh, godly desires into your heart.

Amen. God will give you the desires of

your heart simply because you delight

yourself in him. Paul says, "Not as

unwise, but as wise." Wisdom is not

working harder. Wisdom is walking by the

spirit of the living God.

It's time to redeem your days.

It's quiet in here.

The reality is you can hear everything

that I'm saying to you today

and walk out of here completely

unchanged.

You can do that year after year after

year.

Not because you don't care,

but because information without power

produces frustration,

not transformation.

That was a mouthful. Let me say that

again. Information without power

produces frustration,

not transformation.

And that's why Jesus after the

resurrection told the disciples, "Go

into the city and wait.

go into the city and wait. Acts 1:4 and

Acts 1:4

five, I'll paraphrase. He says, "Wait

for the promise of the father." And he

tells them, "You will be baptized with

the Holy Spirit." Power.

How many of you have lived in behavior

modification mentality at some point in

your life? You know the good you ought

to do, but you don't do it.

You really want to. I mean, you mean to

do it. has the best intentions in the

world. And you're trying and you're

trying, you try, you're just not able to

do it. Jesus knew that the disciples had

fleshly humanity in them. And just

because Jesus raised from the dead

doesn't mean that they've connected with

the power of the resurrection yet. He

says, "Hey, listen. You guys go into the

city and wait for me." And Jesus went

away to prepare a place, but at the same

time, he left his Holy Spirit for us.

They got baptized with the Holy Spirit.

They had seen the empty tomb. They had

walked with Jesus. They even at this

point knew that he had rose from the

dead. They had the information.

They didn't have the power.

The information of the resurrection

gives you the reason, but the Holy

Spirit gives you the ability.

What I've learned is that I need both

word and spirit. information and

transformation.

Acts 18 says Jesus said you will receive

power.

Say power.

>> You will receive power when the Holy

Spirit comes upon you and you will be my

witnesses.

Oh man, got to get the Holy Ghost and

fire.

Got to get the spirit moving on the

inside of me. I've got to yield myself.

If I really want power, if I really want

change, information is not enough. I've

got to have the power of the

resurrection. I've got to have the

transformation. I've got to have the

lifegiving spirit inspiring not just

behavior modification, but power.

Number one is it's time to wake up.

Number two, it's time to redeem your

days. And number three, it's time to

live like it's daylight.

You can't turn the lights on by

yourself. You can try,

but it's the Holy Spirit.

We try

resolutions. We try to start fresh on

Monday. We try to delete the app because

it's a problem to us. We try and try and

try and we find ourselves right back in

the dark. Not

because of lack of trying, but because

the light isn't a habit.

The light is a person. I call him Jesus.

John 8:12, Jesus said, "I am the light

John 8:12

of the world. Whoever follows me will

not walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life."

Jesus didn't say, "Here's here's some

light for you to carry, and turn it on

and off as you please." He said, "I am

the light, and if you walk with me, the

lights in your life will come on."

Well, I was thinking about our house

that we had in Michigan. Uh, so we

bought this house. It was great house.

At the time we bought it, it was an

upgrade, right? And, uh, we had we had

we kept having more kids.

Not sure how that happened, but all of a

sudden, the house started feeling really

small and a great house when we got into

it, but man, it only had one bathroom. I

want you to picture six humans in a

house sharing one bathroom. I know we're

a spoiled generation. People have done

it for gen all these. But I go, man,

this was tough. And four of those humans

are female.

There was a season in my life that I

really struggled getting some bathroom

time.

I just got to use the B. I knock. Daddy,

I'm in here. Okay, sweetie. I'll be out

in a little bit. I'm like, okay. So, I

got to go get my mind off of it, right?

I go do some stuff and and I think I

hear the door open and I'm like, "All

right, it's my turn now." And I go back

in, the door closes, and there's another

little girl in there. And I'm going,

"Golly, man, we need more more than one

bathroom in this house." And so there

were these times that, uh, bathroom was

taken.

Found myself a couple of times not

getting to use the bathroom during the

daytime. And so, uh, you know, the kids

were little at the time. They go to bed

at 8:30, whatever it is. And uh I I go

to bed. I pray with the girls and and go

to bed and and then I'm laying in bed.

I'm going, "Oh man, I got to really use

the bathroom."

Have you ever stepped on a Lego at 2:00

a.m.

That's a spiritual experience. Not the

kind that we're talking about, but man,

it'll take you out, buddy. Yeah. And And

it's interesting. I'm I'm the guy I

don't flip on the lights. I'm not going

to turn I just go into the bathroom. So

I leave all the lights off and I'm smart

boy. Know where stuff is, right? And

there's that that toy on the ground,

man. It about kills you.

Here's what I've learned

about darkness.

Darkness doesn't just make things hard

to see. It makes safe things, ordinarily

safe things, suddenly dangerous. Have

you noticed that? It's a Lego. If it was

daylight,

middle of the day, I would have seen the

Legos and I would have used a wise

decision. I would have stepped over the

Legos. But it's dark in the house and I

didn't see the Legos. And and a Lego by

itself is not a weapon, but it can be.

Romans 13:11, he says, "Besides this,

Romans 13:11

you know the time, that the hour has

come for you to wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us now than

when we first believed. The night is far

gone, the day is at hand. So then, let

us cast off the works of darkness

and put on the armor of light."

We're saved. We don't walk around in the

dark anymore.

We cast off the works of darkness

and we put on the armor of light, the

Holy Spirit,

Jesus. There's an illumination that

happens in our life

that we can see things that we wouldn't

have been able to see.

Look at your neighbor and say, "You're a

child of the light."

1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light

1 John 1:7

as he is in the light, we have

fellowship with one another, and the

blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us

from all sin."

Couple weeks ago, we wrapped up Pride

Detox on Wednesday nights. 40 symptoms

of pride.

Yeah. 47 symptoms of pride.

I was thinking about symptoms of

darkness,

symptoms of walking in the darkness. Let

me give you a few that I was thinking

about.

Symptom one is things that usually are

harmless cause pain.

You know, it's a simple thing. It's a

Lego. Shouldn't have hurt that bad. It's

it's just what she said in a in an

ordinary day. It shouldn't have hurt

that bad. It's a simple thing that that

they didn't invite me. It's a simple

thing. It's just this little thing, but

somehow because I'm in the darkness and

I didn't see it coming, man, it caught

me off guard and it hurt me more than

what it should have.

Things that usually are harmless

cause pain.

You're not over sensitive.

You're not weak. You're just walking in

the dark.

Symptom

number two,

you keep tripping over the same thing.

Keep tripping over the same thing. Same

sin,

same argument,

same wall that you keep running into

over and over.

You're frustrated not because it

happened, but you're frustrated because

you didn't see it coming. Again,

just like God closing those doors in

your life, you couldn't see what you

couldn't see at the time. And thank God

for closed doors.

But there's a point in our Christianity

when we walk with the illumination.

And we can see without God closing the

door that that's a door that I should

not go through. And now I have the power

of the Holy Spirit living inside of me

that I'm not going to

transformation of the soul.

Symptom number three is you're

navigating life by feeling instead of by

sight.

No direction, no clarity,

no vision.

I don't I don't know if I should take

this job or not. I don't know if I

should be in this relationship. I just

don't know. I just don't know. I just

don't know.

Well, God's

not wanting you to not know.

Matter of fact, the Bible says, "They

that are led by the spirit of God are

the children of God." God wants to lead.

God wants to ordain every step. God

wants to give you the understanding, the

clarity so that we can walk with a

boldness and a confidence. But some of

us are living in the dark and we're

feeling around and we just kind of never

know. And we keep bumping into things.

Just keeping it plain with you.

Tiptoeing through our own life.

Let me just make it through the day.

Let me just make it through this week.

Proverbs 29:18. Where there is no

Proverbs 29:18

vision, the people perish.

I'll ask the worship team to join me up

here. Symptom number four.

The people around you keep getting hurt

and you don't know why.

They never saw it coming

because you're just living your life and

you didn't even realize that you did it.

They're not they didn't real, man. You

just start keep hurting people and and

your sin catches people off guard

because you're hiding in the shadows.

There's a strange thing about darkness.

When you're in it long enough, your eyes

adjust to it.

In a dark room long enough, you start

thinking

it's just what normal looks like.

You stop expecting to see clearly

instead

of walking boldly

in the light of God.

Let's stand to our feet all over this

house.

In just a moment, we're going to

transition to worship and our prayer

team is going to be up here giving you

opportunity

to receive prayer.

God ministered to me that today is a day

to audit ourselves.

Does my schedule confirm what I believe

about God?

Am I really transformed?

Am I really allin?

Am I walking in the darkness or am I

walking in the light? Hebrews 4:16. Let

Hebrews 4:16

us then approach the throne of grace

with confidence

so that we may receive mercy and find

grace to help us in our time of need.

Run to him with boldness.

Second Timothy says, "God has not given

us a spirit of fear, but of power and of

love and of a sound mind."

walking through life fearful that I

might get hurt again, that I might hurt

someone else again.

God has not given you a spirit of fear,

but of power and of love and of a sound

mind.

Today is the day to step into the

calling that God has placed upon your

life. You have an assignment and it's

not to shrink back again to fear

in him.

Ephesians 3. In him and through faith in

him we may approach God with freedom

and confidence.

Can we just say this together? Could we

all say, "God, I'm all in.

>> Not walking in the darkness,

but I'm a child of your light."

Father, we thank you Lord for revival

of minds, revival of spirits, souls,

being illuminated

by the spirit of the living God.

Father, I thank you for those that have

received of you today, God, that your

Holy Spirit has given us enough of a

uncction, enough of a nudge to move us

that we would serve you well. Father, I

pray God over every soul in this room,

God. That today is the day of reckoning,

Father, that today is the day that we

step up and step out and move forward in

the building of your kingdom. Father, we

lift our hands. We say, "Send us,

Father. I pray that we're never too busy

to love you. That we're never too busy

to serve you. That we're never so busy

that we miss the calling that you have

on our lives.

Father, today we move forward.

And so Lord, I pray that you bless each

one now in Jesus name. Amen. The altars

are open this morning. Won't you come?