Keeping Your Feet 1 Sam 2:9-10

Thanks for choosing this podcast by New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo,

including the sermon, Keeping Your Feet Under Ya.

God bless you today.

Every day, if you want it more.

Every day, I'll follow after you.

Every day, I want it in my life.

Every day.

Woo!

Alright, just real quick, you see it on the screen, it's in your bulletins, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday.

Coming fast, gonna be a big deal, I hope.

That's the goal.

Flash for the Lord, share the gospel.

The kingdom's advancing even more in the city of Toledo.

That is our back to school block party.

It is the last block party of the summerish weather, probably.

So, this Saturday at 1 o'clock, and I think we're targeting 1 to 4, is that not correct?

1 to 3.

So, notice it says live music by our phrase band.

So, you know every time we do that, that means a little more manpower, a little more work.

We're gonna have more people tied up with that, and so we need to all kind of pile in and get that done.

That's gonna be exciting.

We will preach the gospel.

We will have backpacks of school supplies.

Still have the opportunity to donate to school supplies to add to that if you want.

We'll have backpacks of school supplies.

This is like a basic four or five items in your backpack.

And I think that they still need to be stuffed, don't they?

The stuff has to go.

We have the stuff, and we have the backpacks, and so if you want to stuff backpacks,

we still have to purchase the rest of the stuff because it didn't show up.

Oh, so we bought stuff online and it didn't show up.

So, it's semi-perfumed, okay?

So, thank goodness for supply line difficulties.

Wherever we be.

Jesus never has any difficulties supplying us, okay?

And so, we'll get that done, and Saturday's gonna be a fun time sharing more with anybody that comes.

We'll do some promotion again between now and then.

And it's gonna be cool.

Pray for good weather.

Pray for souls to be saved.

Pray for people to serve.

It is better to give than receive.

So, you comment, he gives, over your time and resources and so on.

And then, there's one more thing.

Okay, don't forget today, the God's kids, those of you who are in the school age, God's kids,

that if they made their goal, they had to memorize the verse and earn 20 points on their point system.

But if they made their goals, they're going putt-putting after service with Aaron and fellow Japanese.

Aaron, are you gonna be able to putt-putt with your hand wrapped up like that?

Yeah.

Okay, Aaron is confident that he can deal with his hand wrap.

Aaron Perkins, great for that, for healing.

Right?

I work, if not in your own pit, then I won't.

Okay.

All right, and then also today, after service, briefly, a meeting with Brother Josh for the Arts and Crafts team is scheduled.

Brother Josh is back here, sorry.

And so, if you'd like to stay and hear what the Arts and Crafts team is up to,

give some input as to what we can do going forward, then please go to that meeting, which will be after service today.

And those are the things that are pertinent to the email.

The rest of it is in your bulletin.

But we're really here to serve, to pray, to witness to one another, to worship God, the God of heaven,

to reach new heights in Jesus as we go to His Word and as we live for Him again today.

Okay?

That's what it's really all about.

And so, we're gonna pray together now and kind of just plow forward and let the Lord work in us.

That sounds like a good plan.

Let's do that.

Remember, as I pray, you are praying as well.

If I pray something that you don't want to pray,

then you pray something different with your head or even out loud in your seat,

and give God the glory and seek Him out.

Okay?

But we're praying together.

It's not me praying for you.

This is us praying together.

Here we go.

Father in heaven, you're an awesome God.

You've done amazing things.

Our minds swim sometimes at how blessed and how careful we are.

Yet, at the same time, we do face trials and we do face temptations,

and we do face distractions, and we do wander, and we do turn from the narrow path.

And before we confess our need to you, we ask you now to redeem us,

to hold us together, to make us firm, to lead us forward, to reach new heights in Jesus.

Forgive us for we failed you in Jesus' name.

Let me know that in Jesus' name, that forgiveness is available.

Thank you for letting us be here.

Thank you for letting us care about one another.

Lord, thank you for letting us worship this way.

We're crazy for instruments and chairs and the building and believers who do believe

and workers who work and worshipers who worship.

And it goes on.

You are awesome.

We have so many things to thank you for.

We ask you now, Lord, to take over this service and lead it and guide it.

We have a plan.

But somebody said, I think, you know, you want to make God laugh, make a plan.

That just came up again this week.

And so what we we ask you to lead the guide.

We ask you to handle every note and every voice and every heart and every thing that goes on in this room for the next part of our long work year.

We turn it over to you.

It's not our service.

You serve you.

And we're here to serve you.

You know, you deserve a lot more than you can do.

We worship you today, Lord.

We declare your work.

We ask you, Lord, to take over and make it possible.

We pray all this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

OK, stand up and join us.

We're going to go back in time a little bit.

Back in time.

All right.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Oh, I love this song.

Praise the Lord! That was awesome. High five.

I haven't done that in a while.

All right.

So we come to that moment in time where we ask ourselves,

How has the Lord been speaking to you this week?

Listen, we have been talking about meditation,

and so by now if it hasn't sparked your interest,

I hope you have meditated on the Word at some point in time.

We haven't done a few meditations together, right?

We haven't done a few together.

And so you get the basic gist of how to do it.

Take any verse, any passage, any paragraph,

any caricature, I didn't even know until somebody told me what I meant.

You can get something meaningful from God.

So what are you seeing this week? Go ahead, Casey.

Um, one of my friends' grandma, um, her husband had surgery on his knee.

Okay.

And he... and his... and she had a wheelchair, but it's broken and she's been having some tough times on it with...

Um, so she's been using that wheelchair for a while because she's...

So when her wheelchair broke, she switched over to a car and she's...

Um, okay.

My friend's name is Colton. I want to play for his grand... grand parents.

You can do that. Personally, frankly.

You know, if God gives us...

Colton.

Colton.

Colton. Okay. Colton.

And, uh, God gives us a heart of compassion.

We see people suffering.

I hope you care. I hope you take the moment.

You gotta... sometimes you gotta stop with all the business and care about what's going on around you.

We've heard that recently and it's pretty cool.

Alright.

What else?

You getting the word this week?

See something that you don't need?

I'll share one with you. Maybe it'll jog your memory about something you were thinking about.

Ariana and I, um, I want to say first and I keep the record if I get three, she knows what night it was, but...

We played a game. We bought this game.

Uh, I bought it at, uh, Chippewa in the flea market.

You may know what that is.

Flea market over in Indiana, basically.

It's an honest country, but they have this huge, vast, gravel-covered flea market.

And, uh, we're going table to table to table and we went to this one section and the first thing I walked into, there was this game sitting there.

And, uh, I bought it for like two bucks.

And I thought, you know, because this guy's selling the game for two bucks, it's probably not going to be much.

We'll try it once and we'll see, you know, whether we'll ever play it again.

And, um, then Thursday night we broke that game on and we played it.

And here's what happened.

We played this game. It's variable, so depending on, like, you could play this with a preschooler very easily.

You've got school-aged kids, youth, adults, whatever, because you select your level of hardness. It's questions about camping.

It's about fun, it's about animals and things like that.

We're playing this game and they come with this little insert on there.

And, uh, it says you can click this QR code to go see a demo of the game.

And I thought, well, that would be cool because then we would see somebody else playing it, see how it's supposed to go.

And I clicked it and the QR code doesn't work anymore, but it took me to the catalog.

And the game is for sale online right now for 25 bucks.

And I said to Arianna, I said, you know, she said we could buy another copy of this game in case we're missing any parts.

I was like, I don't know, I don't think so. 25 bucks. We're not buying it.

You know, let's see if it's all here. And it was. It was all this brand new, it's still all shrimp wrapped and everything like that.

Not the box, but everything inside it.

We're playing the game and this is what the Lord said to me.

This is how it often goes with Jesus Christ.

We think, you know, hey, maybe there's something to that.

And then you go and you buy in.

You start to listen to the sermonist, read your Bible, you pray and whatever.

You start thinking, hey, this is OK. This is cool.

But because it didn't really cost you nothing, because he didn't really.

It was a bargain, right? You didn't really spend a lot upfront, even though people are like,

it took a lot for me to walk up front and tell people I believe in Jesus.

It took a lot for me to tell my friends I believe in Jesus.

So I had to overcome my fear or whatever.

But the truth is you didn't die on the cross and your salvation didn't cost you a million bucks.

Even though it was worth way more than that, with every penny of money that we would ever touch in our entire life.

You didn't give up all your relationships, although it's worth all that.

It would be worth giving up all of our relationships to be saved by Jesus.

You didn't fight blood, sweat and tears your whole life to be saved.

You just kind of went and listened and went, yeah, I get it. I believe that.

That's really all it cost you, is believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Easy.

So then you go, well, you know, maybe if Jesus doesn't solve all my problems

or maybe if Jesus doesn't take care of everything for me, I'll just buy a new version.

I'll just buy a new one. I'll have spent all my money, all my relationships,

but I can just put a little bit of money or a little time or a little effort into some other kind of Jesus,

some other kind of belief in God, some other way that people say it works,

or some false religion altogether, right?

That doesn't have anything to do with God.

And then you're living that way.

So then that way, meanwhile, God gave you cheaply, at least for our expense anyway,

it was very expensive for Him, but for us He gave you cheaply the thing you wanted,

the thing you needed, the game, the battle, the kingdom of advance, everything was all there for you.

But because you didn't pay enough for it, you were ready to dismiss it and go and maybe try something else.

Believe me, if you look into world religions, if you study world religions,

you will find that they all place very heavy demands on the believer, very heavy demands.

Think Christianity places heavy demands? The truth is, there are some heavy demands.

We are obligated to God to follow Him, to do what He wants us to do, and so on.

So there are some heavy demands.

But that's no different than anywhere else.

What is different than anywhere else is that Jesus is with you through thick and thin.

He doesn't ask you to do what He asks you to do without being with you, without providing for you,

without taking care of you, without teaching you how to do it, and so on.

Don't trade the bargain salvation that you got for something you think is worth more because it costs you more.

Pretty cool game. If you ever want to borrow it, come to my house and play it.

I'll be happy to. By the way, we played this game, so most of you probably have played a board game or a card game.

This game takes literally ten minutes to play and was very fun.

We wound up playing it five times.

In all fairness, Ariana beat me every single time.

It's playable by any age, but she beat me every single time we played the game.

The fact is, we had a lot of fun doing it.

Another thing, take this massive, grandiose affair and invest in God.

Take the little steps. Do the little things that God would have you to do, and watch how God blesses you.

Now, you've had a chance to think. If not, we're going to pray and move on.

Do you have a word you'd like to share?

Going once.

Yesterday, me and Aaron went out to powers in the refugio.

I'm not an excellent shot, but I'm good at it.

I was hearing the comment, and it had me getting it.

I shot it already after he did, and it was a lot of peri-grouping.

He said that it was not even a look at it.

I was home and talking about it, and I was explaining how to improve.

Late last night, when I was playing in bed, I was thinking about it.

The biggest thing I can remember is the fundamentals.

You have to get fundamentals down. You have to know how to stand. You have to know how to hold it.

If you get the fundamentals down, then you can start working the littler stuff so you can get better.

When I was laying down last night, that came back up again.

If we can put that with Christ, if we can get the basic fundamentals with Christ down,

and learn how to build off the basic fundamentals of what Christ teaches us,

then we can work on the bigger picture. It's kind of like what you just said.

You have to start with the basics. You have to start small.

You can't just jump right in and expect to do something you've tried before.

It's not going to work that way. It's like swimming, for example.

You can't just jump in a pool and expect to automatically go out and swim.

You have to work it. You have to know the basics. You have to know the fundamentals.

Our walk with Christ, if we build off those basic fundamentals that God teaches us,

then we can see the bigger picture. We can see the bigger blessings that God will give us,

and we can work on those, but we have to remember what the basics are.

Never forget the basics.

You were an amazing help.

One discipline, one thing that you're doing, and it can be looking at the waves,

and diving, and shooting, it can be working on a car, or whatever.

All of those things, God can speak to whatever you're doing and show examples.

It always relates to His Word.

You can find it in the book if you're listening to God in Austin, A.D.

I just want to say one thing to build off of what both of you said.

I don't like to do that because I don't want anybody to get offended

that I'm thinking a certain way that they're not.

Both of what you guys said reminded me of what Jesus said in the Gospels.

He said if you can understand this one parable, you can understand everything else.

That was the parable about the sowing of the seed.

I think we need to take that into consideration.

Our mind and our heart literally is just like a field.

Jesus told Nicodemus, he said, if I told you about visible things,

earthly things, and you don't believe, how are you going to believe if I tell you about spiritual things?

Because inside us, it's just like how it is out here on this earth.

If we plant seeds in our minds and our souls of the Word of God,

and we nurture them and let them grow, then life is going to spring up

in the forms of revelations and visions and out points of the Holy Spirit

that are going to transform us and totally make us fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Amen. That's a very good word.

That did not suddenly be one bit, brother. That was awesome. Thank you so much.

Alright, so we're going to pray together at this time,

and we'll take a thousand offerings and we'll worship that and go to the Word.

I'm going to ask whether Ron Mack, our Christian games leader, would you kindly lead us in prayer at this time?

Remember, we're praying with him. So don't be distracted. Here we go.

Father in Heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today,

be with our Christian brothers and sisters, have right fellowship with them and with you.

Lord, I pray for the rest of the service. I pray for the tithes and offerings that will be given,

that it will be given with a joyful heart, that you will use them for the purpose of furthering your Kingdom.

God help us and guide us to show us, so that we can know what it is your plan is

and we can bring about your plan on this earth.

Lord, please be with us the rest of the service. Be with Pastor Dan as he brings the sermon.

I pray you help us speak with boldness and conviction.

Lord, bless the music, help us lead everybody in worship of you.

I pray, Lord, that it will sound pleasant to your ears. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

As the prayer team is coming forward, I just want to mention this to you so you can be aware.

We give part of our tithes and offerings for our Co-operative Program.

We have a team, a huge team in Louisiana. You've heard about the hurricanes.

We have a team in Louisiana that began two days ago and they will prepare 10,000 meals every day.

And then the program with our Salvation Army and they will distribute those meals all throughout the hurricane affected area.

That is made possible by Co-operative Program getting with our Co-operative Part of.

We also have a team from Ohio that are going down there. So continue to pray for those that are already in Louisiana

as the teams that are going down. Always a lot of salvation and obviously there's a lot of people who need a hope down there right now. Praise God.

Thank you.

Now is the time to worship.

Now is the time to worship.

Now, just as you want to worship.

Now, just as you want to be.

Now you're right.

Now, now is the time to worship.

Now, now is the time to live your life.

Now, just as you want to worship.

Now, just as you want to be for your God.

One day every child will confess your death.

One day everything will bow.

Till the finished treasure remains for those who can't be carved in half.

Now, now is the time to live your life.

Now, just as you want to worship.

Now, just as you want to be for your God.

Now, now is the time to worship.

Now, just as you want to be for your God.

Now, just as you want to be for your God.

Now, just as you want to live your life.

Now, just as you want to worship.

Now, just as you want to live your life.

Now, just as you want to live your life.

Now, just as you want to live your life.

Now, just as you want to live your life.

Now, just as you want to live your life.

Now, just as you want to live your life.

Praise the Lord

I'm gonna lay me out and show me off

I'm gonna lay me out and show me off

I'm gonna lay me out and show me off

I feel like I'm counting on you

I felt another year

This little brownie

These little dragon ladies

I feel pretty fine

But still I'm feeling so itchy

I feel like I'm up to the top

With running water pull me out

And show me how

I feel like I'm up to the top

With running water pull me out

And show me how

I'm sick of the seasong

Going up and down

I stay the rescue

But when I'm down I drown

The waves are lasting

I never learn to

I'm sinking baby

And so I play a fool

I feel like I'm up to the top

With running water pull me out

And show me how

I'm laying my head to the top

With running water pull me out

And show me how

You're gonna show me how

Show me how

A few thousand years later,

Hannah has been teaching us

from her song

out of First Samuel

and today we will conclude

that series.

And so we're gonna start

with a little bit of

a little bit of

a little bit of

a little bit of

a little bit of

a little bit of a series.

And so we're gonna pray briefly

because while we have

we're gonna get a just a

very, very short snippet summary

and I know about half

of the children's workers

will know the first service

about half will know the second

but you gotta kind of

plug it all together

to get where I think

she's going today

and I hope we'll get

to the same place.

We don't we always want to

try to learn in context

learn that what the writer

was thinking and to

people to whom

the writer was writing

to do that. And so pray with me if you would. Father in heaven as we turn to

your Word, please add the blessings upon the reading. Please call us away from

self and sin, selfish nature, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, out

of trials and tribulations, temptations and distractions, to learn from you our

source through your Word which you've blessed us with. And we pray this in

Jesus' name, amen. So two weeks ago from the beginning of Hannah's song, the first

couple verses, we realized that there was joy of the Lord, strength of the Lord, and

a big mouth. And that is the natural results of having been saved by the Lord.

And we encouraged ourselves out of that text to use our joy of the Lord, strength

of the Lord, and our big mouth to honor God. We also said to be very, very careful

because the world does play games with this and attempts to mimic, if you will,

the work of God. And so you have the joy of the Lord. If you have joy without the

strength of the Lord or without the big mouth, sometimes you might even still

have the big mouth, just not a godly big mouth, you wind up with happiness and the

world wants you to be happy or wants you to want to be happy anyway because that

way they can drive you after things, right, try to get you to go after what it

is they say will make you happy. And so we caution ourselves in that. It is not

happiness but joy of the Lord. We talked about strength and how boldness of all

kinds does come out of people and people do things, people step up, go places, get

promoted, make huge investments, work hard, etc. But it must be the strength of

the Lord. And then the strength of the Lord without the joy that God provides

will not last. It will not stand the test of time and it will fall apart. We'll

even see that again explained in the verses that we're about to read today,

okay. And then so you need essentially to keep them together. We talked about how

the joy of the strength of the joy of the Lord, strength of the Lord, and the big

mouth will yield a song and how that song cannot be held back even by

oppression, even by your own sorrow, even by depression, which is a very real thing.

And nothing will hold back that song. That if we do not enact that song, if we

do not lift up our voices to speak of God, that the very stones themselves will

cry out in honor to the Lord. So it wasn't meant for the stones or the

cartoons as the song goes to praise God the way we can and so we should. Joy,

strength, and a big mouth. Also, and we looked at this last week, we are not to

be using that joy, strength, and a big mouth with an ingredient of pride or

arrogance. And very simply put, pride or arrogance, pride is that moment at

which you feel okay or good about yourself because of the way things have

unfolded or what you've accomplished or whatever and you begin to feel okay

outside of God. Where arrogance is that moment in which you feel like you

put yourself forward or you put some way forward outside of God. And how we are to

be using our joy, strength, and a big mouth with a primary topic of God our

Father. And he is known to us. If you are saved, he is known to you and that is

your primary topic. And so we encouraged ourselves to turn every discussion to

God and what God would think on the topic and stop expressing your opinions

without godly input. And I will tell you that that has come up in my thinking

over and over again this last week and I've tried to do it and I'm finding

that I am not as prepared to do it as I should be considering I am not a brand

new Christian. I think what has happened over the years is that we have found a

lot of topics to talk about. We talk about those things and we're okay

because we're saved and the topic is not sin per se. But the truth is the topic

should be invaded by God and anything less than that is a sort of pride and

arrogance and will even come to control you eventually if you're not careful. And

then now an introduction if you will to what Hannah is saying. You already know

we're in 1st Samuel chapter 2 and we're going to do verses 9 and 10 the last two

verses of her song. Okay here we go. It says talking about God remember so that

she's begun talking about God. He keeps the feet of his godly ones. So the phrase

here keeps the feet is similar to putting a hedge around. It's actually a

Hebrew co-oculism to put a hedge around and I was thinking was that God give me

a picture of what you're talking about and Amalia will resonate with this and

some of the football players in the room will resonate with this. We have been at a

number of football games Amalia was a cheerleader and most of our kids come on

come on come on yeah find a seat you're good. Don't matter what time you show up

brother you here now. All right we're good together. Okay so anyway the

cheerleaders do stunts. They call them stunts right? Am I getting that right? They

do stunts okay and the flyers of the cheerleaders will get thrown or stood

up in the air. So I'll ask this as a question Amalia when a flyer goes up in

the air to stand so they're your head above everybody else what parts of their

body do the other cheerleaders hold on to? Okay so and in Jewish anatomy the

ankle and the foot are the same right so they hold on their feet right and

consider if you ever seen this you know exactly what I'm talking about they

throw them up in the air and they get up there and then they hold their feet they

don't push their butt up they're not touching the back of their knee right to

keep it straight they have to keep themselves straight and then they throw

them up and they hold their feet and what they've done there is they've kept

their feet per this text and so she says God does that for the God for his godly

ones those who choose to go the way that God would want them to go and we'll

break that down a little bit better later God keeps their feet now if you

are not physically capable of standing up on your own then when you if you're

thrown up in the air and God keeps your feet that is not going to be very good

because you're gonna your feet are gonna be held and then you're gonna fall over

at the knees or fall over at the core and bend and topple and maybe hurt

somebody on the way down hurt yourself and on that hard pavement whatever all

right but God keeps the feet of his godly ones according to Hannah next it

says the wicked ones it says but the wicked ones notice that word but there

it's in contrast so the godly ones get their feet kept but the wicked ones are

silenced in darkness okay so the wicked ones wickedness in the Bible is an

interesting concept okay we want to say that wicked is whenever they do

something wrong okay remember maybe you remember the wizard of Oz and remember

to show the Wizard of Oz and used to play every year at Halloween and newer

versions often still do and sometimes even the older version does on TV you

have broadcast TV around Halloween okay and there was a wicked witch in the

story okay and we say well when I'm growing up I think wicked just means bad

she's the bad witch there's the good witch and there's the bad witch but that

is too simplistic of a definition of wicked okay wicked does not mean bad in

fact in check me but in modern slag wicked actually means good right oh

that's wicked right wicked means bad after being corrected or bad after

seeing the difference knowing right it's a choice to continue in a choice of

action and so here what she is saying the wicked ones those who could choose

to continue to go in the the direction that God would have them not go in

right once they know something once they begin to figure it out once they have a

hint or an inkling or a stopping point the wicked ones that continue on in that

course of action are silenced in darkness let's take the darkness first

darkness in the Bible most often is ignorance most of the time you see

darkness is a picture of ignorance okay but this word here used for darkness is

something a little different it means obscurity or you could say get this

lost miss right wandering outside the realm of control so darkness and

ignorance sort of but more like outside safety obscurity mm-hmm

worthlessness right and then now let's back up to a second where it says they

will be silenced this word here silence is maybe and other another translations

don't necessarily say silence maybe that's not even the best translation as

we would understand it I'll give you an example we were playing hide-and-seek

happened to be a few times in fact at our house and I was playing hide-and-seek

outside we call it night ball tag because the main person has a ball and

I'll try to hit the person that's hiding and I and I hid and I was high and I

hid in a way so there's a light on the house across the street and there's a

tree and it casts a shadow in the opposite direction of the light so I

could have hid behind the tree and if you're behind the tree can't be seen

right big tree stand behind the tree can't be seen but also know the way the

human eye works so I actually hid in front of the tree so in plain view in

the shadows okay by the way if you're a hide-and-seek player listen right now

because I'm giving you how to win this game okay so I hid I sat in plain view

in front of the tree with the bright light on the other side so if you look

across the road at that tree I'm sitting in plain view but you can't see me

because when you look in that direction your eye sees the light and the tree but

the silhouette covers me so I'm sitting in front of this tree and the game

basically ends you were walking around looking for me and there was me and a

one or two other people that they just couldn't find and they're like okay

that's fine we give up whatever and we're end the game start again and as

this game is ending the person had just checked this big pine tree that was

nearby and then they walk over and they're literally walking past me like

within five feet okay but if they look toward me they can't see me because

there's a bright light behind me and the tree shadows blocking me so they're

literally walking by with five feet and they go okay that's it it's over and

every social and it's over and I stood up and I'm like by time I stood I jumped

up and I'm like two feet away from them and they went back what where were you

right that's silenced in this verse it's not

silence it's flabbergasted amazed taken aback flat-footed now what do I do and

so what Hannah has realized is that the wicked ones those who are plowing

forward in their path doing what they kind of know they shouldn't do they will

be taken aback flat-footed or silenced in obscurity now listen would anyone die

in lostness if they had the choice would anyone die outside health life love

happiness away from all that is good in the universe no no one would do that

but these people are taken aback they're caught unawares to use another term while

they think it's good I saw somebody posted a post on Facebook and it was

late last night and they said one day you're gonna go to bed thinking it's

just a normal night or you're gonna wake up and start your day thinking you're

gonna do all the things you normally do in a normal day and just a few seconds

later Jesus is gonna come again and all that you had planned and everything you

thought you were gonna do that day or that night is gonna not happen all your

plans are gonna be shot and that's the way it's gonna be with the wicked but

the difference between the wicked and us is as soon as it happens if you're a

follower of Jesus Christ as soon as it happens and you go you can be with Jesus

you're going this is it this is what I've been waiting for yes it's not it's

not oh what it's yes now you just chose the right door on let's make a deal but

for those who are plowing for wickedly at all their plans and everything stolen

from them suddenly they're gonna go oh no what happened that's what it's like

verse 10 those who contend with the Lord will be shattered so those is those

people so these are the people who resist or who struggle with God they

they don't necessarily agree and the word here contend is like to wrestle or

to strive right those who strive or wrestle with the Lord will be shattered

and you guessed it the word here shattered means dismayed broken amazed

and wait for it discouraged struggling trying to figure things out now this is

not just talking about the end right that we know because we talked about this

a few weeks ago in our sermon about where we talked about the punishment is

already God is already preserving people in the punishment or by the

punishment through the punishment etc that these people are like that already

so when you see discouragement one major source of discouragement is the fact

that a person is contending with God you say well I'm a follower Lord Jesus

Christ if I'm a follower Lord Jesus Christ I got all the blessings of the

kingdom and God loves me and so on we're gonna get to why that doesn't work that

way but let me tell you to preface it right now that is not that simple if you

are contending with God even as a believer there is discouragement for you

and it's a struggle those who contend with the Lord will be shattered which and

again that word there means dismayed broken amazed discouraged says against

them he will thunder in the heavens and this sounds bad when you first read

about it right it's like oh my goodness that sounds terrible God's gonna thunder

he's got all this power right God's gonna thunder against them that sounds bad

and against them clearly it's talking about opposition like wrath right but

actually this is a blessing this is God's grace shown because in this

lifetime if you are opposing God God will speak up God will show you something

God will give you a hint he will give you a clue he will direct you he will

guide you he will lead you to sit under a sermon he will lead you to read a

Bible study he'll lead you to see a verse on social media he will lead you

to read your Bible and hear from him or whatever God will speak up he is not

silent even as his destruction or currently his wrath and punishment comes

against people who are contending with him he thunders to let people know that

this is not right almost done with the text the Lord will judge the ends of the

earth the Lord there is the Creator God he is the ultimate in power he is the I

am God he was before anything was and he decided what was and then because he did

that he will judge the whole earth now this word here that's judge is different

than what you see a lot of times in the Bible so it really stood out in my mind

it means to contend with so God God is gonna go to fight against wickedness now

he's gonna win the fight right because God doesn't lose fights but he's gonna

go to fight against wickedness they are those who will contend against him and

then he will contend against the wickedness and judge them because they've

chosen to do that it does mean judge it also means govern he will rule over

those who stand against him just the same as he rules over those who stand

for him and the last one and I'll just tell you what it means and then we'll

come back to it is he will plead it means we'll plead as if to say no please

I love you don't do this and it's all wrapped up in the statement the Lord

will judge the ends of the earth and then it says and he will give strength

to his king this verse is particularly odd does anybody know why all right

Bible scholars put your thinking caps on not rhetorical let's do a little Bible

trivia here why is it so odd that Hannah would say that God will give strength to

the king of his people come on Bible scholars anybody they've done get the

answer or even have any clings to where it should study their Bible this week go

ahead that's right they don't have a king yet is that what you're gonna say

they don't have a king she doesn't have a king there's no king of God's people

very good so it's powerfully important here this is to show us that this medic

this message is both current and prophetic in fact there are scholars who

wrongly think and I'm showing my colors in this in this all right there are

scholars who wrongly think that this text was edited or added later because

Hannah would not say strength to the king okay because she didn't have a king

got to have a king but they wrongly think because all the way back in

Deuteronomy Moses talked about a king all the way through all along they've

been talking about that they would eventually call out for a king so she

knows that God's people call out for a king right so that she knows God's people

will have a king in fact in her day the people were surely already hoping for a

king because they saw all the other nations had kings and because that adds

lasting stability to a kingdom when somebody when you have a king when you

have a kingdom right but it says and he will give strength to his king and this

this is interesting when he says strength here because the strength that

is given here is not the same as the strength that was earlier on in verse

nine where we read which we read last week where it says for by might I'm

sorry now I read it earlier and I skipped this part for by might shall a

man not prevail or for not by might shall a man prevail right not by might

shall a man prevail that might there is a different kind of strength the word

there is firmness or vigor you can say health a strength the capacity to

produce something so your ability if you would in modern language and now we get

the word strength and it isn't this is a generic word strength that's used in all

kinds of applications it means it can mean majesty or boldness okay and so she

would say that he would she God sorry will add strength to his king and it's

all kinds of majesty holiness goodness to his king even though they don't yet

have a king and then the last part it says and will exalt you know what that

means will lift up the horn of his anointed the horn is the strength

again but it's this symbolic figurative language for strength what's so

significant about the phrase his anointed also let's let us do it

together somebody tell me what what if you if I said his anointed who would you

say that is okay more than that a little bit more than that and yes it's pointing

to the Messiah you know why this text is so significant this is it this is the

very first time that the word Messiah which would be in the Greek but the

original word that's translated Messiah into the Greek and then into the English

is used in the Bible nowhere before this has anyone prophesied straight up the

existence of an anointed one of God to whom get this God will add all strength

all ability all power right okay now we've looked at it as I was reading this

I wanted to make this sermon about the wrath of God and I'm gonna tell you what

I came up with briefly I noticed that as Hannah was talking about the wrath of

God she talked about whom it threatens who was that the wicked those who go

against God those who contend with God those arrest that's whom the wrath of God

who the wrath of God threatens also talking about the wrath of God in here

God makes its approach known with warning signs God says listen to me I am

trying to tell you something and that's the thunder that rolls into heavens how

many times in Scripture is there thunder that rolls and even not followers of God

there's a battle with the Philistines and the thunder rolled mightily in the sky

out of nowhere there was no storm all of a sudden boom the thunder went off and

the Philistines routed because they knew that God was on the other side of the

battle the wrath of God its approach is covered in warning signs God makes it

known and so when you are not doing what God would have you to do when you are

opposing God and you're not doing right if you are a father Lord Jesus Christ

you should well know that already by the conviction of the Holy Spirit but beyond

that God makes it known that you are approaching the opposition of God God

does not oppose you because he doesn't like you or because he doesn't love you

in fact he opposes you because what you are doing is not good for you God makes

his the approach of his wrath known with warning signs and then notice that God's

wrath is discharged against opposition those who oppose him you contend with

God you wrestle with God think I want to do with it I know God doesn't want me to

do that but I kind of want to do that anyway or you don't know that for sure

that God doesn't want you to you start to go that way and God gives you an

inkling a friend a verse something pops up he's like ah okay maybe maybe I've

been given pause at least need to pause and stop and think for a second and then

you go no I'm gonna do it anyway and you go on and God's wrath then his

opposition to course is discharged against those who contend with him and

then the last part that I had come up with was that this wrath has one main

purpose to promote the perfection of God's kingdom God is himself opposing

those actions which are not godly which don't fit in the kingdom of God except

guess what that ain't it that's not the outline it's there but God showed me

that there were three very practical I think they're practical I hope they're

practical I hope you would find them practical hope you would put them to use

three very practical things in there that we can see the first one is about

strength does anybody know I think many of us do how strength works in a human

body so you have a muscle in your arm or in your leg if you don't use that muscle

what happens get smaller it's called atrophy right it gets bad it really only

atrophies completely if you get you wounded in some way but what actually

happens is the fibers get less and less dense the muscle same stays the same

basic size but you're no longer using it and so unless something detrimental

say the same basic size but it won't have the capacity to constrict the way it

could years ago I wounded my knee right here I wasn't at the battle of wounded

knee that's another thing altogether I just happened to be playing football or

something and I wounded my knee right here and this little muscle got tiny

little tear in it and I didn't know it at the time it hurt for a while and then

it went away but I didn't know it was a muscle atrophied and by the time I went

to the doctor it was as thin as a thread it was tiny like like really little like

this because it had been torn and if your muscle is torn and it not does not

heal properly that's what you get it shrinks down to next to nothing and so

my kneecap would slide out of place and every time I go upstairs run anything it

hurt and I had to go to physical therapy and they put electrical shock in there

wake it up electrical shock wake it up wake it up and every time I they would

have me step up on a step which should activate that muscle and put electrical

shock in there that was wake it up and over time the muscle had little tears in

it and it began to grow build new muscle fibers that's how it works and so we

understand that strength breeds strength if you go out and mow if you go out and

clean if you go out and fix cars daily if you go out and do if you do physical

labor all the time you will get stronger right if you sit at the table literally

just sit at your dining room table do nothing else this you can't up put your

hand out you can't up put your hand out if you do that a thousand times a day

your bicep and the other muscles on your arm will get stronger you don't have to

run you don't have to lift weights just repetitions will make it stronger tiny

tears develop the tears are repaired and then they get stronger so we have this

belief that strength plus activity equals more strength and that is

generally speaking how the world works that is how God created human bodies

it's how things work if you work and you're working your job and you work

your 40 hours a week and you do well on the job you'll have a job unless your

company goes out of business something else happens whatever you'll be fine but

if you pile in you do a little extra you work an extra hour or two you do a little

extra ask for more responsibilities you do what doesn't have to be done you pick

up the litter on the way into the building you take the garbage out when

you leave you offer to do different things you will be recognized soon as an

important piece and they'll start taking a little better care of you and if they

don't you should get a different job but the bottom line is it if they're

pouring in creates growth that's what that's what happens that's how the world

works you can find it all over the book of Proverbs but what this text tells us

is pouring in activating your strength in opposition to God does not result in

greater strength but it literally said was that not by might shall a man

prevail and we look at that word prevail a little closer I didn't do it before

for this very reason in the Hebrew it is gober or maybe go bow depending anyway

it means to have strength but then to have that strength still right it means

to have strength but to prevail literally means to have it still so what

the verse actually means is not by might shall a man have might still God is

going to undercut and take you contend with God you face the wrath of God with

a warning yes but you can tell with God you will face the wrath of God and all

your strength and all your might will avail you not in the end you will wind

up in the darkness in ignomy without an identity worthless to the Lord because

you contended with him throughout your life instead of accepting who he is if

you exercise your strength in a corrupt manner with morally wrong behaviors that

equals not strength the math problem goes like this strength plus corruption

equals not strength or does not equal strength you will have nothing you're

strong now we're all strong in some capacity but Hannah realized that that

strength she did not say that strength will not avail you she did not say that

strength will not profit you she not say that strength will not take you

somewhere or that strength will not do something all of those things are still

true you're working functioning within the system strength will do all of that

what she said is that strength will not cause you to still have strength in the

end if you contend with God the wicked ones are silenced in darkness for not

by might shall a man prevail second thing that was in there that I felt like

God really wanted us to see is prophetic blessings to King and Messiah point to

the first hope of God's eternal plan which is the alternative to facing God's

wrath this Messiah who would come in him would be the exalted the horn the power

the strength the might the ability the way for God to do what he's going to do

and we now live on the other side of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Hannah's

song God has already done it God has already exalted the horn of the Messiah

which he did in a way that no one would expect he put him on a cross and then

the amazing thing is that him on a cross became a stumbling block both to Jews

and to Greeks people say oh man that don't make any sense why would God kill

the anointed one of the Messiah I can't I can't follow a God that would do that

because they didn't understand that sins and wrath of God must be paid for and

then there were the Jews and they couldn't accept it because everyone who

hangs on a tree is cursed so if he's cursed that can't be the anointed one of

God and they couldn't accept it what happened they were taken aback what oh

and they wound up stuck there for their life and died and I'm gonna say it

plainly if they didn't accept Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior went to hell

for an eternity this is the first mention in the Bible prophetic for sure

of the hope that is God's plan get this Hannah's song which arises out of the

joy of the Lord the strength of the Lord and a big mouth which must be sung had

to include an aspect of God's plan Hannah's song is an example of the

thunder that rolls in the heavens so that people can realize they are in

opposition to God's plan in her day they had to say okay I accept the way that

God would make I accept the anointed one that God would send I accept and we

would use these terms they would not Jesus the Christ as Lord and Savior as a

way to go to heaven these prophetic blessings blessings here

pronounced make it evident that they already understood that they were under

wrath from God even as a chosen people of God and they had to be saved the

third thing is it says God will judge all and I mentioned to you that that

essentially means that he will contend with them he will judge them and

especially he will plead with them not only is there thunder that rolls in

heavens to announce God's wrath is upon you but on top of that God's wrath

includes him personally in treating that person the Bible says no man cometh

unto the father lest he be called and there is only one way unto the father

which is Jesus Christ John 14 and so God actively calls people unto himself and

then they choose not to be not to answer the call and they do not go to heaven

they go to hell in some cases or they choose to they're tearing with the

thought of answering the call or they've pushed past that are living in witness

wickedness not answering the call and that is the place of a believer to then

come in somebody who knows Christ who knows what Jesus has done to come in and

say hasn't God called you isn't God already at work in your life don't you

want to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior as God is calling you to do you

act like we act like we're bringing up a new topic with non-believers when we

don't share the gospel don't go there fairly readily don't teach about God

remember the topic of the joy of the Lord strength the Lord to big mall the

primary if anything the only topic that really matters is God you just have to

go and say I know God and if they are already on the edge if God's already

calling them they already have the nagging question and you have come not

to ask the question but to answer the question because God points to the

anointed one as they live in wickedness his wrath produces the momentum of the

kingdom of God in their life I was at Tony Paco's at a mission guy it was

actually youth pastor from Mississippi Alabama I don't remember and he brought

two teenagers with him they're 14 15 years old maybe maybe one 16 I think one

was 14 something like that we went to Tony Paco's for lunch and they were busy

and so we sat in the bar area not at the bar but in the tables in the bar area and

the bar the waitress became the bartender became our waitress and she

came over to our table and while we were there I said we're gonna pray for you

with our meal is anything to pray for you about and she said she gave me

something to pray for her about but it was it was one of those kind of generic

things just pray for peace for me you know it's kind of a generic things

right and a little bit later in the meal I asked her I said you know can I ask

you a question she said sure and I said do you have any spiritual beliefs and I

listened to her while she told me what her spiritual beliefs was and right now

I couldn't even tell you what the arts I guess I didn't listen all that well and

then I said well do you know what the Bible says about that and I shared the

gospel out of John chapter 3 you know John chapter 3 that's your homework now

John 3 · chapter mention John 3 · chapter mention

you know through John 3 16 but now you have to read the entire chapter all

right so John chapter 3 okay and and she said you know I kind of feel like

John 3 · chapter mention

something happened that I got a fresh start and she began to explain to us how

she'd been in a car accident coming out of the car accident she'd realized that

she'd been very close to death and she started to try to find out the meaning

of life and she was searching it out and she was starting to think about God but

then she didn't know anything she's this her literal words were I was trying to

think about God but I actually don't know anything about God and then she

went on to say so tell me about what you're talking about and so I explained

John chapter 3 being born again and she prayed standing in the middle of Tony

John 3 · chapter mention

Bacchus and we all cried and it was up very exciting and she accepted Jesus

Christ as her Lord and Savior by her profession but the point is she could

honestly say beyond a shadow of a doubt yes God has already been working in me

bringing me to himself RJ and I went for coffee one night he was going through a

difficult time we were gonna talk out some issues he was having we went for

coffee down at still there today Coney Island on Wales and Oregon Wales and

Oregon yeah across from the gas station and they have a pretty broad menu and we

just basically I had hot chocolate he had coffee and maybe cost like four

bucks five bucks something like that and we talked and they were getting ready to

close at that time they closed at 11 I think and we were there at like 10 and

they were getting ready to close and so we're talking and she comes to the

table and I start talking to her about God and and her name was Kendra which is

ironic because I have had the blessing of being present at three different

young ladies named Kendra who have accepted Jesus Christ her Lord and Savior

when I was there and there's a character that my wife plays one of the games we

played named Kendra so it's kind of ironic joke in our family that we've

seen more people named Kendra come to Christ than any other name anyway so her

name is Kendra and we're sharing the gospel with her and asked her to pray to

be born again to ask God to make her new and she said she would but then she left

the table she had she had to go do something and she's not back at the

table then it got the time they were closed so we RJ and I went up to pay the

bill we're standing at the counter and she come up and and I and I said did you

did you want to pray and she said yeah I do and she looked to her left and her

boss who was the cook at the restaurant was walking toward her and mind you now

by now it's after close at five minutes after close and I'm thinking oh she's

not gonna get to pray or whatever so this guy was a practicing Muslim you

know the Muslim is okay it ain't a Christian okay in fact they are

anti-christianity and they believe in Jesus they believe he was a great prophet

along the order of Muhammad but he was not the Savior they also don't believe

that he died on the cross they and and there's a lot more that they don't

believe the Bible lines they are not a Christian religion and he come up and he

said oh I love to pray and I said okay so we were just getting ready to pray

shoot Kendra was gonna pray to accept Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior and he

said well I love to pray I'll pray with you and so we all this Muslim guy and

she and me and argue we all prayed there she accept Jesus Christ to the Lord and

Savior and you know what she said right after she got saved after she said Jesus

in my heart she said you know what this has been coming for a long time you guys

remember the block party on Main Street do you remember Danny anybody remember

Danny Danny was the guy who came up and he had a choice I could spit in his hand

or he could spit in my hand you remember him now some of you do and so he chose

for me to spit in his hand and then right afterwards his daughter came up and

she said daddy why why would you let that man spit in your hand especially in

the middle of a pandemic I was so he told me after this that was not very

good like public I stuff because we're in a pandemic and I'm spitting in his

hand if I had cove it I'm giving him cove it and I could have gotten all kinds

of trouble and blah blah but anyway and I was standing a little distance away

and I heard him saying he said I told her he told her that God no mind you he

wasn't saved he said God is big and I wanted her to understand that it's okay

to do something for God but he was getting saved that day previously didn't

know did God I said well you didn't know Jesus before that you know God before

today right he said no but wait for it he said no but God's been working on me

for a long time we have got to stop acting like when we show up and talking

to somebody about Jesus that that's the first time anybody ever talked to them

about Jesus even if no human being had ever talked to them before about Jesus

the prophetic blessings of God are real he is calling he is pleading it says he

will judge all meaning he will plead with all they will not die without

hearing the gospel I understand it's in rudimentary forms it may not be in

English it may be in a different language it may be through creation as

it glorifies God and they go you know I think maybe there's something big here

but I'm missing something they have already heard and if they have not

already heard hear me now if they have not already heard then you will be the

first encounter with somebody who is supposed to plead with them to retreat

to stop contending with God to give God this place if you think they have not

heard and therefore you are not going to talk to them about it you are contending

with God yourself and we say well I don't think they want to hear it if you

say I don't think they want to hear it you are contending with God because

either a he has already shared it with them and he is waiting for you to do

your part and do what you're supposed to do to help lead them to him personally

because you say you know him personally because you say he lives in you

personally because you say you know what he wants so either a you are contending

with him because you are not sharing because you think he has not done his

part or B you are contending with him because he is trying to use you to do

his part there is no see that's it God will plead I recently watched the the

series and I'm coming to my conclusion the series Star Trek Picard which they

first just called it Picard and then I think maybe it wasn't good enough you

know like people weren't getting enough then they changed it about like the

third episode called it Star Trek Picard anyway it's based on Star Trek and

there's a character in there who is a basically like a samurai but he comes

from Romulan culture and they practice the way of complete candor which means

you just tell your feelings like it is and and you put everything out there

right and so you made if you've seen it before you know I'm talking about if you

don't it doesn't really matter if you know because I'm going to explain to

you the important part okay guys names Elrond by the way he's a master swordsman

incredible like he can take on guys with blasters with a sword and win because

he's so fast as the fight begins Elrond says please choose to live and at one

point he explains why it is that he says that at the beginning of the fight all

the time because to go and fight against a guy like him one of his kind if you

will is to choose to die to fight against God to contend against God to

face God's wrath willingly is to choose to die and he says please choose to live

maybe you need to start interjecting a saying something like that please choose

to live in your conversations about where you went out to eat and your

coupons and your sports and your whatever maybe you start saying please

choose to live and I say what are you talking about please choose to live well

I mean please choose to live hear me now anyone who is contending with God is not

choosing to live they are choosing to be in the darkness to come to an end to

their strength and to be without to be an obscurity and to be silenced

surprised amazed flabbergasted taken aback flat-footed the moment Jesus comes

again and they go forever into hell away from God we come to our conclusion

according to Hannah's great song God places a hedge about the feet of those

who are pulling for the kingdom of God it's the tug-of-war of a sort you got to

know which side you're on and you should be pulling every day all time you ask

about everything that you do you say is this pulling for the kingdom of God or

if it's in the middle and it's not pulling for the kingdom of God then

understand it's contending with God because you are saying you're a Christian

you're supposed to be pulling you're supposed to be working for God we went

to Camp you can and there they had a tug-of-war which will forever go down in

infamy because they used a rope that gave off these fibers and it made them

itch and everything but but this tug-of-war our side our boys were all on

the underdog side there were more people who were adult sized on the other they

weren't adults or teenagers they know adults were allowed to participate but

they were teenagers sized as adults on the other side and our team weighed

probably 200 pounds maybe 400 pounds maybe 600 pounds less than the other

team and so they were definitely the underdog and we our biggest guy was on

the back and he wrapped the rope around his stomach and he was holding on but

our biggest guy was maybe Jordan size on the whole team and we were outnumbered

they had like two more people than us and and whatever and they balanced the

team out as much as they could they weren't gonna keep swapping people

around and say so okay we're gonna go we're gonna go and they started to pull

and the first time they started to pull they were losing bad I mean it's got like

their feet slipped out from anything they went right into the neutral area

and they lost the tug-of-war but it had to win best two out of three and they

this reset and they got he wrapped the rope around his waist and and I realized

that when we lost half of our students were on their butts on the ground they

were still pulling but they were on their butts and in case you didn't know

this your butt is slippery on a gym floor your shoes are not right so as you

get on your butt you're pretty much out of luck they're just dragging you along

at about half your body weight and so I went up next to team and I said no

matter what happens no matter what happens keep your feet under you if you

start to slip if you fall down stop pulling for a second jump back up get

your feet under no matter what happens get your feet on keep your feet you

you're worthless unless your feet are under you and they all are listening to

me and no one else was really talking in there it was loud but they were they're

talking softly but no one was talking to the team and I said keep your feet under

no matter what and and sure enough they did it they're like they started falling

like I saw somebody slip and I said get back up get back up now get back up even

though they were sliding on four they would stop pulling for a second get back

up and they would get back on the rope and that 30 pounds that they were

adding was which was next to nothing they could go back and they could get

like 80 or 100 pounds 70 pound kid pulling with all his might getting more

weight on the rope and they kept their feet all of them kept their feet more

than 90% of the time and amazingly inch by inch by inch the root the rope the

little flag in the middle crept across the line and they won and just as

they won they pulled and the other team kind of was discouraged and they all lost

their feet and they all fell down all almost all of them all fell down at once

and now it's one to one the underdog team has won and the obviously larger

stronger team has won and they're over there and they're talking and they're

saying I keep your feet under you keep your whatever just keep pulling stay

together just work together as a team you got to work together as a team and

they're all kind of like encouraging each other and stuff and I thought okay

that's gonna be even harder and I get and they get up there and I'm they're

ready and everybody's ready or firm and I said keep your feet under you no

matter what I said pull keep your feet under now this time they kept their feet

under them like only one person fell down the whole time they kept back

pedaling or or shifting their weight to make sure they didn't fall down at all

and I and I didn't have to yell keep your feet under I just said pull and I

said it over and over again we yelled as loud as I could pull pull pull and they

kept their feet under them and inch by inch centimeter by centimeter the

underdog team inch the rope across the line it took like five minutes you ever

see a tug-of-war take five minutes I thought there was like strands breaking

in the rope it's like a little bit a little bit a little bit and both teams

had their feet under both teams pull with all their money I said just pull

pull and finally I'm like yeah I'm losing my voice and the last time I said

yeah and the last time I said pull the rope was across the line and they pulled

across the line and the other team all lost their feet they all fell down and

they all kind of back like this and they all stood there silently for a second

and then they're jumping up and down they yell yeah we did it we won with our

team we won we won we won and the other team was like you pull enough and you

didn't send yeah and they're all getting all nasty each other and stuff and you

should have done harder that's not right there's not fair they won they had more

people they know they didn't have more people they actually had two less people

they're bigger they know look at them they're not bigger every excuse in the

book for why they lost wasn't me and it wasn't any kid on that team it was they

kept their feet under them and they pulled and that is what we are asked to

do as Christians that is what we are asked to do in the kingdom of God we

cannot be like the wicked you say real quick what the heck are you talking

about what am I supposed to do the Bible says first John 2 practice

righteousness do what's right the righteous will practice right so what I

mean by that righteous will practice righteousness well actually it says in

John 6 29 that the work of God is this believe in the one he sent believe in

the Messiah what did Hannah say God will give him all strength God will lift him

up God will exalt him in all ways we must believe in Jesus why do you believe

in Jesus you believe in Jesus because when you believe in Jesus you get

righteousness his God's righteousness he made him to be sin who knew no sin that

we might have no I said it that way wrong a number of times but if you look

it up it's not have that we might become the righteousness of God through him are

you becoming the righteousness of God that was gifted to you the moment you

were saved or have you never received that gift because you have never in fact

believed in Jesus Christ as Lord that means he tells you what to do and you do

it and as Savior that means he paid the price for your sins believe in the

Messiah that's the chief work of God you do that every day by doing what it is

that he would have you to do by not finding things outside or neutral

finding things that are right stay the course Paul told Timothy do his bidding

Jeremiah told every believer that ever existed in Jeremiah 7 do what God would

have you to do trust in his provision the psalmist wrote in Psalm 125 know what

he wants you follow his commands Jesus you're my friends you follow my commands

and proverbs says oh the writer of proverbs probably Solomon says over and

over again in chapter 2 and chapter 4 and chapter 4 again in chapter 7 and

chapter 4 over and over again just do what you know God wants you to do it is

that simple and if you will not and it does not mean that you have to go okay

well I'm gonna go sin against God I'm gonna commit adultery on my wife or I'm

gonna murder my neighbor because I hate his dog or I'm gonna whatever you don't

have to do anything that extreme all you have to do is find the things of the

world because he was a friend with the world is an enemy to God and you oppose

God and when you oppose God the thunder rolls and don't tell me you don't know

it does not take a Christian brother it can happen but it does not take a

Christian brother coming to you and saying listen what you are doing I think

is sin you already know and we stretch ourselves this is what we do we stretch

ourselves in Psalm 91 there's a great passage scripture I'm not gonna go there

and read it for the interest of time but it says that that your his angels will

take charge of you they will keep you from even dashing your feet against the

stone does that sound familiar to anybody from the temptation you probably

actually read it there probably didn't read it in Psalms the first time during

the temptation of Jesus Satan said leap off this temple down at the courtyard

because it says this about you do you know why Satan the devil was saying that

to Jesus to get him to screw up God's plan did Jesus deserve all honor yes was

he gonna be exalted yes but it wasn't his plant God's plan that he jump off

the temple be seen by everybody being saved by angels that wasn't his plan to

make a grand entrance a big splash that wasn't God's plan it was God's plan that

he would be crucified on the cross but that text hang on now that text is not

written to Jesus it's not written to the Messiah or the anointed one it is

written to those who follow God because it is a text about how God will hold

your feet firmly and give you the ability to do what you're supposed to do

if you will choose to follow him but we keep compromising we keep falling back

we keep only going halfway we keep adding things to our lives that are of

the world and have no place or business and that is contending with God and as

we contend with God like that the thunder rolls hear me now pandemic or no

pandemic you can never go wrong trusting in God we say tempting the Lord I

preached a sermon I encourage you if you're interested in this topic go back

and listen to the podcast is from about four to six months ago I think although

my time concepts are sometime a little bit off about how trusting God too fast

is not tempting God you trust God with all you are every day and stop playing

games with his truth if you trust in God but use your strength for the world or

for corruption you will wind up with no strength at all that's what the text

says your strength will not prevail you will not prevail the thunder will roll

God is calling you now into his race and into his grace God is calling you now

into his grace and into his race now it's amazing isn't it that God's race is

inside God's grace God's race is inside God's grace do not be dismayed be found

worthy as much as you can every day and if you need to as motivation remember

his wrath and his opposition will come against you if you're contending with

him then do that but you're not supposed to be fearing God I'm not supposed to be

fearing God fearing God is the beginning of wisdom and then one recognizes the

anointed one of God whom took the wrath of God for us and is free are you free

you're not if your feet aren't under you you're not if you're contending with the

Lord and you're contending with the Lord if you're not sharing God's grace with

your family with your friends with anybody you possibly can you're

contending with the Lord if you're tearing with the world messing around

with things that don't have anything to do with God it does not even have to be

sin but if it becomes important to you and you cannot specifically relate it

to what God is doing then you're contending with God and the thunder

rolls keep your feet under you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and let him

lead you in all actions at all times thanks for listening and I hope reaching

new heights in Jesus today this is pastor Daniel Stevenson I'm pastor of

New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church and also the director of the Southside

Life Station I encourage you to check us out online you can check out church

Toledo comm all aspects of the ministry are there presented we're always looking

for people to partner with us perhaps you'd consider praying for us in this

day when we are praying for those who are suffering from Hurricane Ida down in

Louisiana and those in Afghanistan are trapped sort of behind enemy lines

because of the pandemic and Delta virus variant or Delta variant we've got a lot

to pray for asked for protection in the ministry protection for the brothers in

the kingdom all over the world and healing for the sick and strength for

doctors and nurses and for medical personnel of all kinds and for

missionaries and for soldiers of the United States of America who serve to

protect our country and our freedoms for police for those who fear for whatever

reason because fear is an enemy that ought to be overcome in Christ and Jesus

Christ and being our Lord and Savior and having us on the highway of holiness and

protecting us providing for us and giving us purpose should put an end to

fear so we pray for those who are in fear there may be much more what you're

praying for please go to the your thoughts page on the church leader comm

website and share what you're experiencing whether it's what you're

praying for what you've read in the Bible what you're thinking about these

days what the Lord seems to be trying to get your attention the direction of your

ministry where God is taking you what you're trying to accomplish in the

meantime please pray that God's people will be able to have the resources that

they need to continue sharing the gospel the world over pray in particular for the

life station as the life station is in a difficult time right now where our grant

from previous days has run out and has not been renewed at the state level and

then we're risking financially being able to continue what we do we're

currently delivering food to the entire city of Toledo but we need help with

volunteers and financial donations and please pray that God would provide so we

can see you to do that you know honor him and to overcome evil with good much

more could be said just encourage you to check us out online on Facebook look at

our Google website if you want kind of review us and look at that there come

join us Sundays at 1130 if you want to worship in person or online at New

Heights Toledo on Facebook you can watch the services live God bless you today

next episode coming up