Signed, Sealed, Delivered

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CCW, how are you?

Good.

We got really dark.

That's okay.

They will get it fixed.

I do know that.

The preaching continues.

I want you to turn your Bibles to Psalms chapter 34 this morning.

Psalms 34 · chapter mention

And as you're turning there, we are going to be discussing, continuing our series on the summer songs.

Signed, sealed, and delivered.

And um, I was thinking this week.

You remember when you were 16 and you got craving for some sweets?

Any teenagers here with me?

About two in the morning, there was only one thing for me: donuts.

I looked at my friend, we were playing Mario Kart on Super Nintendo.

It was two in the morning.

I looked at him, he looked at me, and at the same time, we said, donuts.

Now my parents were asleep.

And so that presented a problem, but not too big a problem, because we could sneak out the house and then we would go get my friend's car.

He had an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

And if you know anything about that kind of car, it was a real babe magnet.

I mean, you could have fit 20 or 30 of them in there if we ever had one.

But anyway, this thing, we called it the boat, and we would even joke, like, pull the anchor.

Well, to get out of my driveway and not wake my parent, we snuck out the window, we got the car, we put it in neutral, exerted a lot of energy, pushed it out the driveway to clear everything, started it, and went down the road to the local convenience store called Wawa, which was always open where we could get Intamin Cinnamon Crumb Top Donuts.

Yes! Do I have an amen?

And so we got them donuts, we got back in the car and we got headed back towards my house, and we had like, you know, a system.

So that you know, we may have done this a time or two before.

We had a system, and we turn off the lights going down the drive, headed towards our house.

There's a little driveway off the drive, and uh is about a quarter of a mile down the road to my driveway.

Well, my friend turns off the lights, and for some reason that I still don't know to this day, he begins to try to do burnouts in the Oldsmobile Cutlass, which has no power, no strength, it's a boat, and he's just trying, he's like, watch this.

And so he gets maybe like kicks a rock off the ground.

I don't know.

Well, the next thing I know, we're just inching close to my house, and we see something behind us that we did not want to see.

Lights that were blue and red just going.

And they got on a megaphone talking to us, and they're like, put your hands where I can see them.

I'm like, what has happened?

I'm looking at my friend and I'm like, what have you done?

And so they are talking more.

We get our hands up, and the guy says, This, I said, where I can see them, I've got canines.

I look at my friend, I'm like, canines?

Who do they think we are?

And so the guy gets out of the car, he rips me out the door, puts me on on the side of the car, and he begins what I will call a frisk.

I don't know what's happening, but his hands are all over me.

He's touched and gone through, and I'm like, over here, and he put my hat back on sideways, and he goes around like, oh, Tom's about to get it.

Pulls him out of the car, same deal.

Well, as he walks over, and my hat is sideways on my head, I go to move my hat and he said, I said, put your hands where I can see them.

And I'm like, Oh my god.

Who does he think I am?

What has happened?

While this is going on, he's checking my friend.

Another cop car begins pulling up, and he begins barking out stuff to his friend, and he says, Have they been frisked?

I'm like, I've been frisked.

Tell you that right now.

So he comes over, they're checking things out, and he's going through the car, and the cop looks at me and he says, What's in the bag?

And I said, Donuts?

And he said, Is that some kind of joke?

And I said, No, you want what?

My dogs, I had beagles, they'd begun barking, the lights, the sirens never stopped.

I want to tell you, as I think back on that, it is a miracle that my parents never once in all that woke up.

Today I want to call that deliverance.

I thought about some physical times.

Twice I've almost drowned, and God sent something that would actually physically save my life.

I was in a moving truck crash that went down a hill and up, hit three trees, and God delivered me.

That was physical deliverance.

Have you ever been delivered from something today?

God delivered my mother spiritually in a revival just a little bit before I was born.

She gave her life to Christ.

He in so delivering me from a life of what I don't know.

My dad was delivered six months after I was born.

He went into detox for alcoholism, and God saved his soul in detox.

I want to call that deliverance today.

God delivering my father also delivered my life.

He is a deliverer, and I want to tell you, he can deliver you.

There's three secrets I want to show you today from God's word in Psalms on deliverance.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you, and we are so thankful, God, that you had a plan and a purpose.

And God, that you sent Jesus Christ to deliver us from a much different life.

And God, I pray for every person here today.

Lord, that would hear your word, that we would not waste this time, that we would not shut it off.

But God, that there's somebody here today in need of deliverance.

Lord, and I pray that you would prick their hearts.

Lord, help us not to leave here unchanged, but changed by your holy book.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Psalms 34, I want you to see as we jump in the first point.

The Lord delivers those that fear Him.

The word fear means unrivaled awe or a reverential awe of a position, power, or authority.

The question that I want you to think on this morning is what has your unrivaled awe?

I want to say gently, understanding the nature of Christianity as a relationship, we do not put down and pick it up, we treat it daily.

Do you have a daily awe of something in your life?

It made me think of Heather's aunt, Aunt Debo, Aunt Deborah.

We go to Aunt Debo's house.

Aunt Debo takes a lot of care to taking care of her things.

One time we were there and the kids hit a coaster, the coaster fell to the floor, and I said, No! It broke.

And I knew that wasn't gonna go over well.

We went and we went to a bell and replaced this uh glass coaster, but Aunt Debo would say things like, Boy, don't you get on my couch with them shoes.

You don't wear shoes on the couch, you took care of things, and and and because she cared for things, you better care for things.

And I had learned early that Aunt Debo has a soft spot for me, and I was gonna tend to that.

Because every time I came and visited, Aunt Debo would make me peanut butter rice crispy treats.

And I don't want to mess that up.

And so we would go to her house, and and because of who she was, I wanted to honor that.

I want you to think God can do whatever he wants, but he delivered those who would fear in him, respect him.

And it says it so in Psalms 34, 7 through 9, who says, The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear.

There's that word, who fear him and delivers them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who trusts in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints.

It says to fear the Lord.

And letter A is this the Lord sends an encampment.

I don't know if you notice that, but verse 7 said that there is an encampment of angels around those who fear the Lord.

Don't just skim by that and say, that's some good spiritual talk.

Angels.

There's a debate here if this is talking about the reincarnate Jesus, the angel of the Lord, or in a general sense, a picture of the heavenly host being with those that fear the Lord.

Most commentators would defer to the latter that this is in power, the angelic hosts.

But I want you to know today, I believe in this book and what it says in Hebrews 1.14, it says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent unto us who are saved?

When he says, encampeth, it literally means to pitch a tent, like the army to guard and defend from danger.

It says the Lord sends that to those who fear in him.

Psalms 91:1 says, He shall give his angels charge over us.

Psalms 91:1

It's important to understand the control of this life that the Lord has, his sovereign, his defense is out for those who fear him.

It says in Psalms 139.5, you have hedged me behind and before.

He's behind me, he's before me, and has angels that surround Nahum 1.7 said he's an ever-present help.

This psalm was written, interestingly, as David had feigned madness, insanity, his life was on the run from King Saul, and he shows up at King Aesus Phalas, who, by the way, it's not the greatest time to be on the run and go to that king because that was the king of the Philistines, of whom David just killed their greatest warrior Goliath.

He left the friendship of his ally, Jonathan, and he was there alone.

So the weight of a statement like the angels encamp those that fear him is deeper than just somebody who's going through a bad day.

This is a man who is on the run for his life, and he's feigning madness in a moment to keep his life, and he writes, There are angels, there are a host of angels, Christian, at God's employ.

But David acknowledges that it takes the reverential awe.

God acknowledges David's fear, and God, and he who moves the pieces of our chessboard encamps his child.

It reminded me of, y'all remember when the tornado hit at Eagle Point?

A couple years back, tornado hit, and when it did, it did a lot of devastation in that neighborhood.

And I got talking to the Neeleys afterwards and went and visited their home.

And really interesting, because if you study a tornado, they come down and drop like whirlwind icicles from the sky.

I don't know what you want to call it, but they drop, come back, and drop again.

And so we went into their neighborhood and went looking, and the Bible says he encamps.

He is before and behind those who fear in him.

Well, I went and looked at their house and their one broken shingle.

And the house over here that was totally destroyed, and the house behind them that was totally destroyed, and it looks as like as if they were dropping, and the angel said, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not that one.

Just move on by.

Those people fear me.

The angel of the Lord encamps those that fear in him.

I've been driving before in ice, not in Alabama, and done a 360 on the highway and watched my life in a blur.

What's about to happen?

And be untouched, unscathed, no accident.

The Bible says in Psalm 68, 17, the chariots of God, talking about the angels of God, or even thousands of thousands.

They're talked about in scripture in another way as the stars in the sky.

It is hard for the writers to express a number to the amount of angels.

The Lord sends encampment.

Church to those who fear, who have a reverential awe and respect for that relationship.

Well, the Lord also let her be stops emptiness.

Look down at verse 9 and 10.

We see David's situation, but it's interesting where the writing takes a turn.

Remember, think about David's desperation.

It says, let's read verse 8, and then we'll read 9, 10.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Bless is the man who trusts in him.

O fear, there's a word again, the Lord, you his saints.

There is no want.

Circle that, underline it, highlight it, no want.

To those who fear him.

The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Letter B was the Lord stops emptiness.

It says, There is no want.

You remember last week, Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Here we're coming back to it, and it's an enormous the enormity of this assertion here is the concern of want.

An obstacle to deliverance is want.

In verse 10, it says something interesting.

We're tracking along, and then it says, the young lions do not lack.

What is or the young lions do lack?

What are the young lions?

Interesting.

The young lions in the Latin means the rich.

I want you to go to Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

There's a point here.

Remember who David is running from.

Remember what David has seen and gone through.

He's been in the palace.

He's been with the wealth of Saul.

A man who had, but had not.

He was in want.

It says the young lion's lack.

What does that mean?

Matthew 19, 23 through 26.

It says, then Jesus said to his disciples, Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard, hard, not impossible, it is hard, but feasible, for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

When the disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished.

But Jesus looked at them and said, With God, all things are possible.

I want you to see this, the eye of the needle, you'll hear this a lot, and people, I think, mentally go to sewing, and they go, Man, I could never get a camel through the eye of a needle.

But the eye of a needle is a narrow gateway.

It's a narrow gateway that they would be walking with their camels, and because their camels would be loaded down with a pile of their goods, it would make it outlandish to believe that they could fit through the eye of the needle as long as they were full of all their stuff.

They couldn't fit as long as they were full of all their stuff.

Remember the man in the New Testament that had a barn that built it so big and so great, and he said, I've got more goods.

I've got to take that barn down, and I just gotta build a greater and bigger barn to fill it up with more stuff.

There was never enough.

The young lion lacks.

The picture is this: there's a world that is incapable of filling this heart.

Our camels are loaded down.

We can't get hardly any more load.

We go to the metro stores to get more load.

Our camels are loaded and we have to offload stuff to find purpose.

I'm not just talking about physical things.

But this heart is loaded with bags of things.

The metaphor here: young lions do not know where to look to get food.

The older, wiser lion doesn't lack because it knows where to find food to be satisfied.

A young lion hasn't learned, it hasn't lived enough, it hasn't been through enough things to realize that it's not enough.

Do you feel lucky?

No, I'm just kidding.

94-year-old Clint Eastwood talking about luxury.

He said, do not look for luxury in watches or bracelets.

Do not look for luxury in forks or sails.

Luxury is laughter and friends.

Luxury is rain on your face.

Luxury is hugs and kisses.

Don't look for luxury in shops.

Don't look for it in gifts.

Don't look for it at parties.

Don't look for it at events.

Luxury is being loved by people.

Luxury is being respected.

Luxury is having parents alive.

Luxury is being able to play with your grandchildren.

Luxury is what money cannot buy.

What pursuits are impeding your purpose from getting through the eye of the needle?

You see, David understood what Saul couldn't get.

When they started singing that Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands, Saul said, What?

How can they be praising this man, the man who just killed your biggest enemy?

They're praising, and he doesn't get it.

He cannot share glory.

I was thinking about where we live, Shelby County wealth.

The average wealth, and I'm not, listen, we've got a great church at giving people, but average wealthy people, the challenge in pastoring an area like this, average wealthy people don't need God.

They've got money for that.

I want to tell you today, church, God does not need your money.

He wants your heart.

And if God has your heart, then he'll have your treasure.

But money, listen, it's great.

It provides a wonderful opportunity for us to live in purpose, to fulfill purpose, and an opportunity to show generosity, but it's all just an amount to glorify God.

Matthew 5, 16 says, Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

It's an opportunity to shine God.

And that's why it says it's not impossible for them to get to the kingdom of heaven.

With God all things are possible, but their heart, a heart of somebody living that way, has to be dedicated.

It's like the parable of the talent.

Some are given two, some five, some ten.

And the amount is not nearly as crucial as the stewardship of the amount.

We are all just stewards of an amount.

Nobody in here is unlevel.

The Bible says, or we sung it before, the foot is level at the cross.

God is not in heaven caring about your amount.

He cares about your stewardship of the amount.

I get the opportunity to shepherd now around 450 people.

I do not own them.

I do not own the buildings.

I do not own the grounds.

I don't own this pulpit.

I don't own anything here.

I am just a steward of an amount.

You are a steward today of God's assets.

Would he come and find you faithful in the family business?

Are you using what God's given you in time and talent and treasure?

Are you tithing?

Are you giving?

Are you being productive for God's kingdom?

Look at what verse, I want you to look back at verse 5 for a moment.

It says, They looked to him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.

This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him.

If you fear God, you won't struggle with want.

If you have a reverential awe of an understanding who God is, you won't be filled with that feeling of lack because God, who you have awe of, who you worship, fills the gaps of those needs.

And he fills you with purpose and passion.

They were delivered from want.

Well, the second thing I want you to see, the second secret this morning.

The Lord delivers those that find him.

Look at verse 4, and then I want to read verse 10 through 14.

Verse 4, we sing it.

We sing this great song of worship here often, I trust God.

And it's right from this verse.

It says, I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

And then verse 10 through 14, it says, The young lions do suffer or lack and suffer hunger, but those here who seek the Lord, there's that word seek, shall not lack any good thing.

Come, you children, listen to me.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord, who is the man who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good.

Keep your tongues from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Depart from evil, do good, seek peace and pursue it.

Letter A is this Seeking the Lord opens his ears.

It says they sought and he heard.

You see that?

He sought and heard.

It wasn't that we're sitting on the sidelines and he heard.

It wasn't that they were doing nothing to get his attention and he heard.

He heard and answered and delivered me as that power phrase.

The question has to be as a result of what?

I sought the Lord.

Well, I wanted to be a guitarist once, and I wanted you to see a picture that looks like my blue guitar.

Got this blue guitar for a hundred dollars at the local farmer's market, and I knew that getting the guitar was gonna make me a guitarist.

I sat on my top my tailgate late at night and I strummed and knew magic someday was gonna happen to these fingers.

And I'd strum my guitar and I would look at that guitar, and I knew one day, well, that guitar moved with me a couple of states.

I loved the idea, so I didn't throw it away.

That guitar sat in a closet for three years, but I wouldn't throw it away.

It came out for a yard sale.

I took it back and I said, What are you doing?

How am I gonna become a guitarist?

Never once, not even close to one time, did I consider seeking guidance to understand the guitar better?

Near I paid one lesson.

In reality, I was not at any point seeking to know the guitar.

Many of you have a Bible.

Some go to church, some even serve.

But to actually seek the Lord, it says, I sought the Lord and he heard.

I sought him and he heard.

In just a few moments, we're gonna have an old-fashioned church invitation.

And the whole point is to come and to seek the Lord.

I want you to see this slide.

You think seek the Lord is important?

Look in scripture and you'll find it.

Second Chronicles 7, 14 says, If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and heal their land.

But I gotta seek him.

You see that?

Lamentation 3.25 said, The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Jeremiah said, If you will seek with me and find me when you search with your whole heart.

Matthew 7, 7, and 8.

Everybody knows it.

Half people here have it hanging somewhere in your house.

It says, Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek.

Are you seeking him?

Seek and you shall find.

Knock and the door will be open.

Matthew 6, 33.

It says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.

But it says, seek.

Are you seeking the Lord?

It says he heard, well, he cannot hear what is not spoken.

James says, We have not because we ask not.

It's in the sermon on prayer, but I want you to know my favorite prayer quote.

John Piper said, prayer causes things to happen that would not have happened if you had not prayed.

I don't know why it's God's button, but God is activated when he hears one of his children crying out.

And so we need to seek him in that way.

We need to seek him.

Hearing the voice of his child brings forth his special work.

Are you seeking the Lord today to open his ears?

Letter B is this.

Seeking the Lord opposes our fears.

Seeking the Lord.

I want to say this morning, inactivity is the gateway to fear and paralysis.

Fear defined as a response to any threat of physical or emotional harm.

And with that comes anxiety.

Anxiety defined as a reaction to the possibility of threat.

Heard a man once say anxiety is interest paid in advance for a prophet never to receive.

It is mental immobilization, fear and anxiety muddle reality, making a person see a different picture, the worst picture.

Seeking the Lord, transversely, is the antithesis.

If I will seek the Lord, then my fear and anxiety is moved.

It is movement.

I'm seeking.

Hear me.

It is grasping by faith toward the help just on the other side of the wall of something that I cannot see.

When someone has to wait for results, has a church body, and they're going through something physical, a disease, waiting on results is sometimes like the most anxious a person can get, right?

You've been waiting and waiting.

It seems like people on the other side, they, you know, what do they got to do?

I don't know what they do with that blood draw, but it seems to me that some chemist, some biologist, somebody somewhere could figure it out a lot faster than three weeks.

I'm sorry if you do that work today.

But we're waiting and waiting and waiting, and our mind goes, what if, what if, what if?

When we seek the Lord, we put our faith and trust in that.

Retirees today.

I want to give you a better word.

Don't retire.

Voluntire.

Voluntere.

Don't retire.

Don't be inactive.

Right?

It's good to retire, but that means that you just get to tell your schedule what to do instead of somebody else doing it.

Voluntere.

Do some work.

You see, David, we find out here, David was not sitting quietly on the side waiting for impending doom.

David was on the run.

What do you do?

When the king of the land wants you dead, he was on the run.

He ran to Akish.

That is a problem because, again, king of the Philistines.

But David, here, he was afraid of Aegish.

But I want you to see a moment.

The gap between fear and feigning madness is interesting.

David had lived right, he loved the Lord, and he had just the right crazy idea at the right moment because he was moving.

It wasn't a battle strategy that he thought about three months before.

He got before King Achish, who could take his life, and it says that he spat in his beard and began scratching at his door.

He was feigning madness in King Aesus, right?

The man who just killed Goliath, he's can you picture it in the moment?

Just he's moving.

He's trying.

He's not sitting down.

Listen, he wasn't sitting on the edge of his bed going, whoa, it's me, David.

Can't believe this.

I love King Saul.

I killed Goliath, and now they hate me.

He's not having a pity party.

He's moving.

Benji's father, David Wilson, said often, I'd rather be doing the wrong thing than doing nothing.

David was seeking.

He was working on it.

He saw it in the moment.

I spit on myself and scratch at the door.

I'll try something.

Instead of just laying down and dying.

It says he was moving.

Philippians 4, 6 through 8.

It says, be anxious for nothing, but with prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God.

And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.

But it starts with, be anxious for nothing.

Instead, do something.

He was supplicating unto God.

When you fear the Lord and you find the Lord, church.

I want you to know what's coming.

You should experience worldly frustration.

Point three this morning is this the Lord delivers those of a frustrated heart.

I want you to see verse 15 through 22.

Frustrated heart.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their trouble.

The Lord is near to those, hear this, who have a broken heart.

I would highlight that phrase.

And save such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

Picture David.

But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

God's perception, God sees your battle.

It's not in vain.

Proverbs 5.21 says, A man's ways are before the Lord, and he ponders them.

Three times in the New Testament, Paul pled to be delivered from an infirmity, from a battle, and you know what?

God said no.

God's perception was this: in order for God to get the most glory, Paul needed to continue with an infirmity.

He needed to continue with a frustration.

Paul needed a little world-felt frustration.

Anybody feeling some of that today?

I want to give you good news.

Your infirmity is not your eternity.

I'm going to say that again.

Your infirmity is not your eternity.

I want you to look with me in 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians chapter 4.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

I want you to see something.

Paul had this infirmity.

And Paul had a lot of battles.

Probably not anyone here today gonna go through shipwreck.

You might get bit by a snake, but not at the island of Malta.

Probably not gonna get beaten.

Paul has been through all of this, and look what he says.

This is so good.

Verse 7 through 10.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not us.

We're hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed.

We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in this body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Now I want you to look down at verse 17.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Wow.

Paul says, I'm fighting a good fight, and I'm still enduring.

You might be seeing your fight for this week or for this month or this year, but God says, I can see forever ahead of your battle, and you're fighting, and I want to tell you that your fighting is not without purpose.

He says it's creating grit and determination and heart.

And so Paul says later, so be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, so that your labor is not in vain.

And in Galatians said, in Galatians 6, he says, Don't get weary in well-doing.

In due season you will reap if you don't faint.

He says, just keep pressing on.

Keep going.

You will need to be in this world frustrated.

Is this world not frustrating?

Amen.

Anybody here frustrated today?

Who brought kids to church?

I mean, every time I see you, I go, you made it.

The hardest part is over.

Give them to Pastor Eli.

Woo! We love Eli, thank God.

For people that work with the children.

But I know it's hard.

I know that you have frustrations.

Your work causes frustrations.

Your family life causes frustrations.

Finances cause frustrations, and sickness causes frustrations.

And we we live in this.

Because letter B.

The presence of the Lord is near your brokenness.

I want to venture boldly to say today that brokenness is a prerequisite for sanctification.

That sounds real churchy.

What I mean to say is we have to be broken in order to grow.

If you will not be broken, church, if you're so bent on this facade of perfection, if you will not be broken, God will not fix you.

If you're vesting your energies and composing a self-contained bubble that we're perfect in a broken world, in reality, you will not be able to serve out of a clean heart and grow.

Because this world is broken.

John 16, 33 gave us a promise, and it's not a good one.

He said, In this world, you will have tribulation.

It doesn't end with that.

It says, but be of good cheer.

I've overcome this world.

But you're gonna have tribulation.

The Bible says, gold is purified through the fire.

I think so much, so often, we're yielding our hours to the non-stop Americanized pursuit of comfortability.

If I get there, then I can just get comfort.

If my account reaches this, then I can just get comfort.

If I can just go there, then I can just get comfort.

If my kid gets this degree, then I can just get comfort.

If I can get them in this sport, then I can just get comfort.

If I can reach this level in my surroundings and people will look at me, then I will have comfort.

I'll be cozy.

And I don't think God in heaven, listen, he loves you, he wants so much for you.

But you know what?

He looked at Paul, his choice servant, and he said, No, keep the affliction.

Because I want you to have a reason to be broken.

Some of you are wondering today, why do I have this thing?

Why, God, why is this on me or my kids or my family?

Maybe it's because God wants to give you a reason still yet to be broken.

We have so idolized comfort.

It's sickening when you look at other societies.

Last week, we made a promise to Weston, who always makes sure that we deliver.

But you promised, we promised we would take him to see Inside Out too.

Okay, I gotta tell y'all.

When I go to see a movie, an animated film, I got one goal to get a$10 nap.

And I was in.

He and his friends were there.

I ate my pretzel bites and cheese.

They were so good during the previews.

I sat my head back, and I'm I began my glorious$10 nap pursuit.

It was evident that it was going good when Heather tapped me on my arm and said, You're snorting.

Well, she woke me up, and then I was forced to watch Inside Out 2.

I didn't know nothing about Inside Out.

I don't know if y'all have seen this movie.

All of a sudden, I'm thrown in.

Riley is full of emotions.

That's what the movie's about.

And Riley has these emotions, and all of a sudden in the movie, I don't know where I'd left off, but I woke up and anxiety had taken control of all the emotions.

And she tried to press out all of the other things with bubbles of what ifs.

What if, what if, what if.

And as anxiety began to take over, Riley lost sleep.

And Riley began to do things that wasn't normal to Riley.

And Joy is over here desperately trying to gather the troops and regain some semblance of order so we can get Riley happy again.

But she's fighting with anger and she's fighting with self all the while and sadness.

She just wants Riley to be happy.

Anxiety keeps eliminating Riley's memories and covering them up in what ifs.

When you get to the apex of the movie, Riley, joy and anxiety, and all of them realize for Riley to be who Riley's supposed to be, nobody, no emotion has to be in control.

She has to feel everything to be who she is.

And when Riley gets all that and figures out who she is, there I am, finding tears coming down my cheek.

I'm like, what happened to my nap?

Supposed to be taking a nap.

The moral is this.

You are equally parts happy and sad and angry and glad and scared.

God made all of you.

And we get messy.

Church, I stop pretending to be something else.

Stop walling up so that you won't have to be broken.

Stop holding back brokenness here.

It says the Lord is near to the broken heart.

What is the opposite to that?

Oh, I'm just fine.

Every day is fine.

I've got my facade and I'm fine and I'm okay.

Then God is not near.

It says He's near.

Is beautiful to God.

He doesn't expect you to be human and robotic and perfect.

I want you to think about this.

Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life.

But the epitome, the apex of God's glory defined to any human, is all in the moment when Jesus Christ died and was broken on the cross.

The apex of God's glory, the moment, the crescendo of all time is Jesus' broken bloody body on the cross.

It shows all of God's glory, all of his care, all of who he is for you and for me.

But it took a brokenness.

We're trying to keep this thing up.

All the while we're hurting.

Today, church, you can be broken.

You can mourn.

Maybe somebody told you somewhere along the line, a dad, a mom, or somebody said to you, You gotta be strong.

It's wrong.

The Bible says, My grace is sufficient.

In weakness, my strength is made perfect.

Be weak.

Please be broken.

Secret three today to the deliverance of God is brokenness.

Psalms 51, 17.

When David realized his sin with Bathsheba and came crying back to God, he said, My sacrifice, O God, is a broken and contrite heart.

What happens today, church, when you choose brokenness?

He'll be there.

I wanted to share with you in closing a story of Louis Zamperini.

If you've seen the movie Unbroken, the movie depicts his life.

He was an Olympic athlete who was drafted and went into World War II to fight in the Pacific.

He was a bombardier, and his plane went down in the ocean where he was lost at sea for 47 days.

Picture that.

He said, God, if you're real and you'll spare my life, I'll spend mine to serve you.

Well, not long after that, Louis was spared but not rescued.

The Imperial Navy of Japan came and picked him up and took him to a concentration camp.

He was subsequently imprisoned and began more and more torture.

Beaten, broken, hit, demeaned, spat on at the hands of his captors.

Thankfully, the war ended, and Louis Zamporini was able to come back home.

And I want to tell you what happened in September of 1949 to Louis Zamparini.

You see, Billy Graham was running a crusade in downtown Los Angeles in a big tent.

Louis' wife went there the night before and she gave her life to Jesus Christ.

She came home and she said, Louis, you gotta go with me.

You gotta hear the man of God, and they went that next night, and Billy Graham, unaware of anything of Louis Zamporini's history and his experience at sea, said these words, convicting words to a man that made a deal with God, remember?

He said, If you will save my life, I'll spend mine serving you.

Billy Graham said these words.

If that's you, won't you come to Jesus who bled and died to save you from your drowning?

And in that moment, Louie jumped to his feet, tears streaming down his cheeks, walked an aisle, and he gave his life to Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you what happened when he returned home.

Louis Zamparini returned home and he was a new man.

He poured all the liquor that he had down the dream.

He dumped his pornography in the trash.

He crumpled up cigarettes, he found a Bible and began to read something that he had never understood, and now it made sense to him.

A former prisoner of war discovered this time.

This time he discovered the joy of what it was like to be broken.

He discovered for the first time he'd been beaten and broken before, but now he understood what it meant to be broken and it to be beautiful.

God delivered Louis that day.