Faith!

Wy don't y'all extend your hands towards Ben and let's

bless him.

Father.

I thank you for Ben.

I thank you for his heart, for you, for family,

for men, Lord, for your kingdom. And I asked that

you would fill him this morning with your spirit, that

you would cause your.

Anointing to rest upon him and flow through him, that

everything that's on your heart, Lord, that you would just

say it, Lord, that he would stay sensitive to your

leaning and.

Your direction this morning in Jesus Mighty name, Amen.

Good morning, Cross Kingdom.

Amen. Mm hm h m h man.

It's gonna be still for a second, just listening the Lord.

Yeah.

M you know, one of the things I've had to

work on in.

My life really hard, especially if you know my wife.

You know this has been a challenge for me over

my lifetime, is slowing down. Do y'all know that there's

nothing in the Kingdom of God that's microwaved And there's

this all surrounding miracles, and they're great. I don't want

to take anything away from a miracle, but you know,

we weren't designed to live a life of miracles. Scripture

says we were designed to live a life of faith.

Amen.

More often than not when we we want to see

a miracle in our life, and often it's because something

has happened in our life, either unexpected or out of blue,

or something that we may have caused and want a

miracle to happen to fix it all. And that's okay,

but it doesn't take away from the fact that we

were called to live a life of faith. I say

this to you in this moment very humbly because I

taught them something in first Service and wrestle with it

since yesterday. Wrestle with it since yesterday to teach on it,

and then I taught on it, and Sean and I

were up here talking about the difference to be first

service and second service, and man, there is a difference

I have. Just I'm not saying batter good, worse or better.

There's a difference between first service and second service. And

I taught on it first service and it's really interesting.

Got done and I was just kind of like, well, okay,

and a lady came up in the back and she

grabbed me and she'd been fighting with all kinds of things.

Hope she doesn't mind me sharing this, but she's.

Like, everything you said today, if nobody else heard it.

It was just for me.

And that tends to get me because for most of

my adult time as a Christian, Kim and I have

often talked about this that I care about, the one,

the one in the back that nobody sees, the one

in the back that nobody sees.

You're worth it.

You're absolutely worth it. Hm, You're worth saying.

You have something to add to what God has. You're special,

You're absolutely amazing, and you're worth it. Yeah, So sitting

down and thinking about second service, man, we're just gonna

jump in.

I want to talk to you a little bit today.

M Hello, If you guys will go into your Bibles

to one Corinthians thirteen. I want to talk to you

guys today about hope. Everybody say hope.

You know in church, in church with a big C,

there's a lot.

I mean, you google podcasts, you look up stuff. You

find lots of teachings on faith, right, that's.

A pretty good one.

You can find lots of teachings on love. How many

teachings do you find on hope? Why don't we talk

about hope? The lack of it is slowly killing the church.

And I know in some reference you understand what I'm

talking about, because at some point, it's sometime in your

life you prayed for something and didn't see it immediately, and.

It drained you.

And as you're flying down the highway of Christianity from

that point forward, you questioned every prayer after that. And then,

as a church with a big sea church, Christianity as

a whole, we had the audacity to start blaming God

for our lack of faith. Why did I see that healing? Well,

you know, God's trying to teach you something. How many

of you all have heard that in your life? Okay,

think about the audacity of just that statement.

God's trying to teach you something.

You would go to jail as a parent if you

looked at your kid and said, give your hand that

stove's hot.

Put their hand on stove.

See pain, it's teaching you.

You go to jail for that.

But yet we blame God for the same thing. We

have the audacity to blame God for the same thing.

We start making up excuses, we take scripture out of

context to framework our lack of faith.

Am I standing up here today?

I'm gonna tell you why people get prayed for and

don't get healed.

Nope, I'm not God, but I will stand here, bold

face and look in the eye and say, God heals.

He would not send his son to the cross to

be beaten unrecognizably.

So that you could be healed, just to keep you sick.

So I want to share this weega. I want to

share it in love. Troy's pain over me up here

today and.

One of the things that I want to really impart

with you guys.

And I want to do this.

My life's been really good over the last twenty years.

If you've known me, I can be very aggressive with things.

So I want to deliver this message with with love

and know that I care about you, which is why

I want to say it. If you're asking for something

from the Lord, Scripture says that you may not receive

it because you ask a miss What does that mean? Well,

here's the fun part of my job. I don't know,

but you do. What do you mean by that? Too?

Long have Christians come to leadership in the Body of

Christ for answers when the whole time the answer is

sitting inside you. There are things that the Lord has

for you that he will not share with anybody else.

I want to say that because I can train wreck

a lot of people. There are things that God has

for you that he will not share with anybody else.

And we go down the list, Right, well, what about

the prophecy? What about this? And what about Ephesians four? Right,

we're all knit together and my brother's allowed to speak

into my life. So I got to run to him

and ask him. You're trying to avoid your relationship ship

with God. You're trying to avoid your relationship with God.

God is still standing there talking to you. Wait, Joe,

what do you think the Lord would have me do

about this? I want Joe to look at you and

go ask them. When Kim and I were pastoring up North,

lots of people would come to us with challenges, and

the first thing I would say is, well, what's the

Lord telling you? I think maybe I'm not gonna say

never majority of the time. Oh man, you've got a

problem in your life that you're not even talking to

the Lord about. I'm not gonna get in a seat

where you blame me for the errors in your life.

Amen.

I really didn't want y'all to go to onest Corinthia thirteen.

All right, y'all there yet you've had enough time, Amen,

Verse thirteen. Three things will last forever, faith, hope, and love,

and the greatest of these is love. Now, this is

a very interesting sentence to me. For all time, hope

will exist. I want y'all to take just a second

and think back to when you had genuine hope in

your life, like you were genuinely excited about something. And

then I want you to ask yourself, was it based

on so God said? Was it based on your relationship

with the Father? The word actually separates hope and expectation.

Did John know there's a difference Philippians one, verse twenty.

According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing

I will be ashamed. Webster actually defines hope as a

desire of something good or a belief that is obtainable.

According to Webster, expectation is the act of expecting or

looking forward to a future event with at least some

reason to believe it will happen. So expectation is expectation

is based on something giving you a reason that will happen.

Hope is based on believe. There is a fundamental difference here.

Hope originates in desire and may exist with little or

no grounds for its existence. Expectation is founded on reason,

which renders the given event probable. They are built on observation, memory,

and or circumstances. Now, this is really interesting, and you

may be looking at me going, why are you talking

about difference between hope and expectation because most of us

put them together. The reality is your expectation is poisoning

your hope. Give you an example, right, how many other

are Dallas Cowboy fans? You have a monstrous hope, right,

Like there's hope? Right? Lose a game or two and

all of a sudden your expectations for their Super Bowl

hopes are dashed. Right. Okay, we'll go something a little

simpler for those of you here and aren't football players.

Let's go to church services. Oh I like that one.

Most people in church hope we're gonna be done by noon. Yeah,

but if you cross, you come across Kingdom, you expect

it to be later.

Yeah.

Okay, so you got that one. Amen?

Amen?

What about what about let let's get let's get super spiritual? Now?

What about what about Christianity? Right comes to Christmas? Most

of us expect presents right as a whole Christmas. You know,

presence it would be odd for a lot of us

to see at Christmas tree with no presence under it, right,

that would be super odd. So expect presents at Christmas? Right?

How many of you hope you're saved? Right? It's not

based on anything you read it. Faith happened and you believed.

You believe that when you die you are going to

go to heaven. How many people you talk to lately

in your circle that have been to heaven? So my

point is you don't have some circumstance or person in

your life that is physically died, checked out, come back

and been like, man, your house looks good. I just

want to tell you that. So that's hope, y'all. Are

y'all getting the difference between hope and expectation? This is important, y'all.

So many times we are trying to conceive faith from

our expectations of failure.

I'll read that again.

Many times we are trying to conceive faith from an

expectation of failure. The soil of your heart is either

positive or negative in its expectations. Proverbs twenty three seven

says for as a man thinks, so is he. Proverbs

thirteen twelve Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when

the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

Go to Hebrews eleven for me.

Hebrews eleven, yep, Pastor Justin's favorite favorite book in the Bible,

because it talks about coffee.

And then.

Verse one. If y'all don't know it, it's in a

lot of circles. Chapter eleven here is called the A

lot of people refer to it different things. But it's

kind of like the Faith Hall of Fame, right, Like

this is like and what's said is we look back

at this and kind of reverence and all. But you

know you were supposed to get better from here, right

all right? Verse one. Faith is the confidence that what

we hope for will actually happen. It gives assurance about

things we cannot see. The New Living it's better. I

almost brought up the Passion translation. It's not a translation

for y'all, just the allawere. I'm reading The New Living

for the record of the people online and Justin for

it is the confidence that we hope for. Faith is

the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen.

It gives us the assurance of things we cannot see.

I read this Hi I love this because it's really

hope is the thermost stat of our faith. Hope is

the thermest stat of our faith. Let's not let's not

pick sick this, Let's pick uh, let's pick finances. Right,

let's touch that one for a second. When it comes

to hope, is your hope in God or your ability?

I fight the same fight. I'm not. I'm not calling

you all out. I nothing. I don't fight myself. Is

it in your ability or God? And I'll be honest

with you. I find that struggle myself, right. And there's

something in us. I don't know where it comes in

life that we all believe. We're all supposed to be wealthy,

like physical dollars in your bank account wealthy. But how

many of us have the maturity or the character to

handle it. I know in a previous world, I lived

in kim and I had a couple of houses, a

bunch of cars on that stuff, and I didn't have

the maturity for it. I'll be honest with you. And

and we know this if we use, if we use

wisdom in our own lives, none of you would toss

your car keys to your four year old because they

would die or kill other people. But we don't sit

back and honestly evaluate ourselves and the actions that we

we carry out throughout the day. We have to make

sure our hope is anchored in the right thing. Is

our hope anchored in people or circumstances or God? You

don't want to touch on this one for a minute, y'all.

If y'all get upset and me talk to Troy, he

pray for me. Let's talk about circumstances, our hope being

in people for just a second. Justin has talked a

lot here lately about pastors who have fallen. I want

to I want to just hear me out. Okay, did

God use them while they were in sin?

See how people? Should you struggle with that? Did God

use them? Did people get saved? Yes? They did. They

came to the Lord when they fell?

Right where?

What was that like?

Deep Southern? When they failed? When they fell? When they fell?

How many people walked away from the church? Wasn't he

always a man? Was he ever perfect? The Why don't

we act like the people that are up heround stage

are stop following me? Stop following justin follow God. If

we have something for you, amen, If we have something

for you. Amen, get it, sew it in your own lives.

Be responsible for yourself. We have a whole nation right

now that it's holding its breath in hope of one man.

Let me help you.

He wasn't our savior two thousand years ago, and he

ain't our savior today, and he is a man. What

I almost did the hope of good jokes versus the

expatation of dad jokes. I almost did it, but now

you're doing it to me. We have we have the

whole nation, even Christians, and look at what's look at

Let's talk about that for a second. Let what is

doing to our hope? What if he doesn't get into office?

Are you going to be?

Okay, let me help you. God's still God. He already

knows the outcome. God is not sitting up in heaven

holding his breath going a little closed one.

What about hope and circumstances?

You know, lots of people say, hey, if it's God's will,

He'll make it easy or I'll open the door.

Can that happen? Yes? Should we rely on that? Both

of you agree? Should we rely on that? Okay? You

know what? Man? Listen or sorry, folks talking to myself here.

In Jesus Name Acts, chapter sixteen, verse nine through twenty four,

Paul was told in a dream to go to Macedonia,

where he was beaten and put in prison. If it's easy,

does that make it gone? I know it's hard. I

get it. It's hard. Can God make it easy?

Yes? My point to.

You is stopped looking for the easy road in life,

because I promise you, if you're led by circumstances, your

circumstances will shape how you view God.

Well, God made it easy. Well, God made it easy. Well,

God made it easy. Sickness, well, God must want me

to happen. It's all been easy till now.

If you trust in circumstances, circumstances will dictate your life.

It's all through scripture. I just read you one verse.

Let's talk about two Timothy chapter three, verse two. When

God When people's Christians say, well, God will make the way.

You know, let's be honest. When we say God will

make the way, what are we really saying?

Yep, I want him to do it for me. What

we're really.

Asking, in my opinion, is we want God to prove

out what we're hearing. The problem with that is then

it takes no faith. Two Timothy Chapter three, verse twelve.

Yes and all who desire to live a godly life.

Who wants to live a godly life? Regionne Okay, so

he's talking to everybody in here. Yes and all who

desire to live a godly to live godly in Christ,

Jesus will hold on.

I got to read that right. It says suffer persecution.

But wait a minute.

I thought God was gonna make a way. If your

circumstances dictate for you God's will for your life, circumstances

will talk you out of God's will. I'm say that again.

If your circumstances dictate, if they dictate to you God's will,

then circumstances will talk you out of God's will.

Guys, it's on us. As I start to land this airplane,

I've been wanting to say that.

I'm actually a pilot, So I love that I'm on

short final wheels down. Amen, guys, we have to keep

our hope up. Go to Romans Chapter four were for

me verse seventeen. That is what the scriptures mean when

God told him I have made you the father of

many nations. This happened because Abraham believed in God, who

brings back, who brings the dead back to life, and

who creates new things out of nothing Verse eighteen. Even

when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping,

believing that he would become the father of many nations,

for God had said to him, that's how many descendants

you will have. I use Abraham as a good example,

because Abraham, there's more to Abraham's life that I can

get to. And while I'm on short final coming in

Pappy's are red and white, I'm looking good. There's more

to Abraham's life than just he said, yes, slept with

a maid, slept with his wife, and that's it. I

encourage you, guys, all of you to look at look

at the life of people of faith in scripture outside

of just Hebrews eleven. Abraham followed God, and he did

not do it perfectly. He gave his wife away. Most

of y'all would be sitting with Jesus if you tried

to give your wife away. Sarah was deeply anointed. I

want to encourage you and give you, guys hope today.

Hope Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven, for God's thoughts towards

you are good, not evil. They give you a future

and hope. Jeremiah is talking to people in captivity when

that statement said, and he didn't tell them to leave,

he didn't tell them to sharpen their battle axes. He said, hey,

don't forget God's thoughts towards you are good, not evil.

Despite what you're feeling and seeing and thinking, God's thoughts

forwards you are good not evil, to give you a

future and a hope. I want to encourage you. A

lot of times we can we can be misguided or

misled in how we view scripture. That some of what

how God sees good in our life only applies.

To certain areas.

Jesus said that he comes so that you can have life,

and have life more abundantly. That's in all areas. That's

in health, finances, marriage, I'll stop there, but marriage. Some

of y'all will have a more abundant marriage. I'm talking

about what you do close doors. That's all right, Salem.

Don't talk to you when you're married. I promise, like

and that even in that we all joke about it.

We giggled out of a bunch y'all turning red right now.

And I'm just gonna let the Lord ad minister to.

You, and that's okay. Of course, this is the moment

I get to tell all the husbands.

For you wives who don't know what I meant by that,

ask your husband later at lunch. He'll share with you

what more abundantly means. But more abundant in life, y'all.

It covers a whole lot of things.

Okay, let's go to that.

I hear you when God says I want you to

have life and have it more abundantly, tell me what

he wasn't talking about.

Now.

The train wreck that happens in a lot of us

internally is but I am not seeing it in my life.

Could it be because of you?

Now?

I know that sounds really negative, but I am trying

to give you hope because this church is full of

people who will come alongside you, who will help you.

It's one of the things I'm most excited about in

men's ministry this Tuesday six thirty.

By the way, guys, six three zero six thirty.

Right here in the sanctuary, we're gonna go through while

at heart, we're gonna talk about what it actually means

to be a man. There is a fierceness to us

that has slumbered for too long. We're going to have

life and have it more abundantly, say more abundantly.

My heart for you is that we'll look inside.

It's one of the reasons I believe that Justin is

the ministry that he has to help people with inner healing.

Because we need it. Say we need it.

We need it. We all do.

And Justin's calendar's full through February.

All right, So saddle up with the person next to you,

I said, saddle up with the person next to you.

Find people you can be vulnerable with men and while

of heart and in the men's meetings, we are going

to be vulnerable. I told you it's going to cost

you something. It is going to cost you something. And

some of you older heads in here been taught and trained.

Just keep it together, lock it up, put on that

good face. Some of these younger guys are gonna call

you out on it because.

They're really good at being vulnerable.

They're not ashamed. Amen.

Hope speak hope over you, guys. Hope I breathe new

life into you about the things.

That you're struggling with.

Marriage is whole, finances. I speak finances over you. Guys

who are mature enough to handle it. Yep, mature enough

to handle it. If you're on the prayer team, would

you come up.

Thank you for listening.

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