Feeding Yourself

Well, if you have your Bibles, turn to two passages of Scripture, John chapter 6, Mark chapter 7.

John 6 · chapter mention Mark 7 · chapter mention

And please be praying for our pastor for safe travel for the team as they return this week from the Philippines.

I know he's looking forward to get home, and he loves all of you very, very much.

We have such an incredible senior pastor and senior leadership, and so grateful for him.

So look forward to having him home.

Two passages.

The message today comes from the series, It Is Written.

Pastor Robert has preached the first two messages in this series, overcoming temptation, and then last week, staying alive.

The word is the breath of God.

Today the message is entitled Feeding Yourself.

Feeding yourself.

It says in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 6, feed yourself spiritually on the words of faith.

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

That's a challenge for us today.

To get into the word and study the word, to take the word of God and go deep into the word this year.

I pray that this year would be at Gateway, the year of the Word.

Now, I'm not the senior pastor, I don't get the opportunity to make those decrees, but I do serve the greatest senior pastor in the world.

And so I know his heart is for every one of us to live every day, feeding on the word of God for ourselves.

In fact, we're commanded to do that, and the challenge before us is noted in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

It says this in verse 15 do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, and notice this, who correctly handles the word of truth.

That's the challenge for us today.

And my passion, the burden of my heart for every single one of you, is that wherever you are in your faith journey, in your spiritual life today, in the Word, is that you would just grow deeper in the Word this year.

Commit yourself to just go uh deeper into the revelation that God has for you.

And that burden, that passion within me has been there for many years.

Many years ago, uh I was um uh for a season doing quite a bit of traveling, and and I remember being out on a trip, and uh I was on the phone with my son one day, and he was real excited, and he said, Dad, dad, dad, uh, dad, when are you coming home, dad?

When are you coming home?

And I said, Son, I'll be home tomorrow.

I said, Well, what's what's the big news?

Dad, dad, dad, I gotta tell you something, dad.

I can tie my shoes.

I know how to tie my shoes, you know, and that's a big deal, especially for a 15-year-old.

Uh no, it's not true.

He was four or five.

Actually, it was a six months old, he was a child prodigy, but uh no, he said, I can tie my shoes.

So the next day I made my way home and I couldn't even get the suitcase up to the bedroom.

There's Jake standing there at the front door, tennis shoe in hand.

And we sat right there at the steps.

And uh he started out, and you know, he he had that Michael Jordan look.

We're from Chicago, yeah, tongue to the side, and he's so intense, and he's pulling it, and just when it gets to that part, it falls apart.

And you just could see his excitement turns to question.

And then he said, Oh, said try it again.

So he tried it again.

He got to that critical moment, and just then he made a perfect knot.

I went, oh, this his shoulders slumped.

He said, Dad, I did it yesterday.

I promise, Dad, I just can't do it.

I can't do it.

I said, Son, son, listen to your father.

Let dad help you, let your father help you, do it one more time.

And so we tried it, got to that critical point, and when we pulled the strings apart, oh, perfect bow.

And we stood up and we jumped and we high-fived like guys do, and he said, I did it, dad, I did it.

And then he ran away to tell his mother the good news, and I pulled my suitcase upstairs to the bedroom, set it on the bed, and as I unzipped it and opened the flap, right then, God by his spirit spoke into my life.

In fact, it was so profound.

I sat on the bed, and the Lord said to me in that moment, I'll never forget it.

He said, You know how you inspire your son?

Well, I'm your father, and I'm calling you to give your life to inspire others to greatness through my word.

And I've given my life all of these years for one purpose to help people just like you, wherever I can go to say, this is the word of God.

This is where the answer is.

This is if you're hurting, this is gonna give you comfort.

If you need answers, this is where you'll find it.

If you need a promise, he's got plenty of them right here.

If you need assurance, he's never gone back on one of them.

This is the word of God.

It's the only thing I know that can transform the human heart and change a life that's going one way to a life that's following Jesus Christ.

It's getting in the word of God.

It is life, it is breath, it is God's revelation, it is God's owner's manual, it is his autobiography today, and it's available to you and to me.

Now, I know for some of you it seems very intimidating when you talk about getting into the word and reading it more intently and more deeply.

I understand that.

But let me tell you something.

You know, some people look at me and they say, Well, yeah, it's easy for you.

I've been blessed.

I had four years of Bible college, graduated, and so I have that Bible degree.

Uh, I went to seminary and have two different master's degrees.

I went to uh Fuller seminary and received my doctorate years ago, five more years and a bunch of money later.

And that that's that's all fine and good.

But let me tell you something.

Let me tell you something.

The things I'm sharing in this message today didn't come from any of those formal educational experiences.

You know how it came?

It came one way.

I have such a hunger to know God better, and I know his word is life and breath, and he reveals himself.

And if I'll just get into this word every time I do, God speaks to me by his spirit and he wants to speak to you.

God has a word for you.

You know, I just wonder, I just wonder in the society that we live in, if we wouldn't be in such a mess today in America, if our culture, if our society wasn't so bent on getting this word out of our society.

Would you say amen to that?

I just wonder where we'd be if we were more uh so passionate about trying to get the Bible into people's lives as people are trying to get the Bible out of every area of life.

Because this is the one thing whether you're an addict, a cheater, whether you're a drunkard, or you're just like the rest of us, you're a sinner saved by grace.

It's the word of God that brings deliverance.

This is what the Bible says.

It's the Bible.

Jesus says, heaven and earth will pass away, but what?

My words will never pass away.

They're eternal.

Jesus said, You will know the truth and what?

The truth will set you free.

Let me ask you a question this morning.

Do you want to live free from the bondage of sin?

Well, this is what it says in John 8.

If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

And it's not just the society that is ignorant of the word, if you will, or doesn't know the word of God.

So often it happens in the church.

The latest Faith in America survey points out that when it comes to engagement in the Word of God, that Christians, churchgoers, were uh confessing, were sharing, that 18% of them said on the survey that they read the Bible, the Word of God, every single day.

Another 22% said they read it weekly at least.

And 60% of church-going Christians in America said they rarely read the Word of God, if at all, in the course of the year.

So wherever you're at in that, my encouragement today is just you take it one step higher.

If you're in the 18%, go deeper in the Word.

If you read it occasionally, but not daily, try and get into the Word daily.

And if you read it rarely, make it a point, make it a commitment of this new year to dig into the Word more consistently because it's going to change your life.

So it's not just the world that struggles with the word, it's sometimes we Christians.

In fact, let me just give you a pop quiz.

I'm a professor as well as a pastor, so here it is.

Are you ready?

Everybody loves a pop quiz from the scripture.

Let me ask you this question: Are there computers mentioned in the Bible?

Of course there are.

Eve had an apple.

Of course there are.

Are there any Bible characters that did not have parents?

Well, yeah.

Joshua, it says, was the son of none.

Another question on the ark, why did Noah not go fishing?

Savvy, he only had two worms.

So there's just some of you'll get that on the way home in the car.

There's just so much to learn.

But here's what I hear people say so often about church.

Well, I'm just not getting fed there.

Let me tell you something.

It's important that when you come to church, that you get fed from the word.

And thank God we have a pastor who knows the word and delivers the word every week for us.

I mean, we eat very well here, don't we?

Spiritually of the word.

Let me tell you something, though.

It's not just Pastor Robert's responsibility to feed you, it's our responsibility to feed for ourselves from the Word of God.

Amen?

Amen.

Amen.

Seventeen of you believe that.

Okay, that's great.

Let's move on.

Maybe I can convince you before the message is over today.

Two points.

Here's the first one.

The word of God is not only breath, as Pastor Robert mentioned last week, it's the bread from heaven.

Now, I know we're fasting as a church, and so I take a risk when I talk about bread.

You know, wonderful bread, beautiful, straight from the oven bread.

Warm and tender loaves of bread.

Butter melting on top of them bread.

I mean, I know I take a risk in that.

But here is the point.

I mean no food's a sensitive subject, but Jesus says to us in the Lord's Prayer, which is really the disciples' prayer.

He says at one point in that short, wonderful prayer, give us, Father, our daily bread.

See he's not just talking about the nourishment for the body, but all through the New Testament, Jesus references references the bread, not just as being nourishment for the belly, but it's spiritual bread that's nourishment for the soul.

Give us this day your word, O God, your daily word.

Let me illustrate how this comes out in Scripture.

In the Bible, there are two places where there is a mass feeding of the people with bread.

The first one's in John 6.

I asked you to turn there.

And this miracle in John 6 of the feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels.

And what I want you to look at to better understand Jesus' words here, you need to do this.

And here's a feed yourself tip for the day.

You might want to jot this down.

This will help you in your Bible study very much.

Notice the narrative.

When there is narrative in Scripture, there are uh details that have been included.

Notice the details.

Notice the narrative.

Because many times where Jesus is when he says something may bring a deeper revelation of what he's trying to say.

That's true in the feeding of the 5,000.

Notice the narrative.

Look at verse, if you looked at verse 1, we're not going to read that, but in the early part of the chapter, many of you know the story.

It says there that Jesus crossed on the far shore of the Sea of Galilee.

And another part in one of the other Gospels it says, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee to the northern part of the Sea of Galilee.

So notice the detail.

It tells us that Jesus is in the northern part of the Sea of Galilee, in that region.

Look at verse 12.

They have the feeding of the masses.

Jesus has them sit down.

He says to Philip in verse 4, How are you going to feed these people?

And Philip says, I don't know.

You're Jesus.

And he said, That's good, I know what I'm going to do.

Have them sit down.

Jesus breaks the bread, feeds the multitude, right?

Look at verse 12.

Maybe you never noticed this about the miracle before.

When they had all had enough to eat, he, Jesus, said to his disciples, Gather the pieces that are left over.

Let nothing be wasted.

So they gathered them and filled, notice this, twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

Now, if you're a serious reader of the Bible or even a casual observer of the Bible, reader of the Bible, then you must, here's a key, you must approach the scriptures, the scriptures with an inquisitive mind.

You need to have kind of a CSI investigator's mind or a Sherlock Holmes mentality.

Notice some of the things that others don't notice.

Be observant.

It's a part of Scripture.

And I believe that that's what God is saying because notice what's happening here.

You have the feeding of the 5,000.

We say, what a great miracle.

Everybody was fed.

It's a miracle of Jesus' power.

But it says here, Jesus says, collect the leftovers.

Instantly, these questions start to come to your mind.

Why?

Why were there leftovers?

I mean, if Jesus is going to feed the 5,000 men, couldn't he have gotten the food just right?

I mean, he's Jesus, right?

But Jesus says, collect the leftovers.

Why were there leftovers?

Second of all, why did they gather them?

Third of all, why did they count them?

Fourth of all, why did John record it in the Word?

Just questions that you need to ask yourself.

Well, what we need to understand is in Jesus' day, the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee was a very heightened area of religious fervency.

There were over 200 rabbis that had their homes on the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee, including Jesus in Capernaum.

It would be like having Yale and Harvard and Princeton, all in about a three-mile radius in one city.

You don't think that would be the epicenter of intellectual thinking in America?

That's what it was like in Jerusalem, in Israel, on the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee.

And when they broke the bread and he distributed it to the people and they gathered the baskets, scripture records there were 12 basketfuls left over because in that area of Israel, that area was known in Jesus' day as the land of the twelve.

It represented the twelve tribes of Israel.

So without saying a word, Jesus was saying, I'm the bread of life for the 12 tribes of Israel.

Notice what it says now in Mark chapter 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

I asked you to turn there.

Here's the feeding of the 4,000.

So here's a feed yourself tip for you today.

Whenever you read the Bible, ask questions.

There's something typically in the narrative that may tell you where Jesus is and where Jesus is when he says something could have significance.

And that's the case here in Mark 7.

You know what happens to feeding of the 4,000, the second feeding of great masses.

It says there in verse 31, then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went down through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee.

Notice this, and into the region of the Decapolis.

The Decapitalis.

Again, questions should be alarms that go off.

What's the decapitus?

What do they mean by decapitus?

Where was it?

Why is it significant?

Why did Jesus go down there?

If you do just a little Google search, we're not talking about being a scholar.

Google is your friend.

If you just did a Google search, you would know that the Decapolis is Greek for Deca, Paulus, ten cities, and it was the ten cities, mostly on the eastern side of the Jordan River, and it was known as pagan land, the land of the Gentiles.

And only two times in the New Testament does it record Jesus ever going into pagan land, into the land of the Gentiles.

This is one of them.

So now he's not in Israel, he's in the land of the Gentiles.

And notice what happens then.

Same thing, there's a feeding of the masses, and then Mark 8, verse 8.

Mark 8:8

This is what it says.

The people ate and were satisfied.

Same recounting.

And after the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Now you say, okay, John, okay, now here's where your theory breaks down.

You just told us the decapitus where Jesus was is the ten cities.

Aha, but there are only seven basketfuls.

Your math is off.

Oh.

That's where Google comes in.

Because when you look it up, you'd realize that in Jesus' day, that area of the decapolis was known as the land of the seven.

And it represented the seven nations that Joshua and the people kicked out of the Canaan land, the promised land, when God delivered them and gave them the promised land.

And it's found in Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 1.

Deuteronomy 7 · chapter mention

It says, When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations, and then he lists them the Hittites, the Gergeshites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Termites, the.

Just checking to see if you're listening.

And the Jebusites, notice this, seven nations larger and stronger than you.

What Jesus is saying without saying a word, if you just feed for yourself, is that Jesus is the bread from heaven, the bread of life to every Gentile nation in the world.

And aren't you glad?

Because that's the category most of us here find ourselves.

And Jesus is not only the bread of life for Israel, he's the bread of life from heaven for you and for me.

Amen?

But you've got to have an inquisitive mind.

Scripture says you need to come, Jesus said you need to come to the Father.

You need to come as a child if you want to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

And what do we find with children?

They're inquisitive.

They're always asking questions.

What about this?

What about this?

Do you have one of those children?

Did you have one?

I did.

He said, Dad, dad, dad, dad.

Where do babies come from?

And of course, I had the perfect answer prepared.

Go ask your mother.

That was the perfect answer.

I mean, one child sat down next to this very elderly lady.

She was in her late 80s, and he looked up at her with amazement.

He said, Whoa, where'd you get all the wrinkles?

He was just questioning it.

He didn't know.

He had one four-year-old, she asked her mom this question Mom, where do thoughts come from?

Where do thoughts come from?

Five-year-old asked his dad this question.

He said, Why do I have two eyes if I only see one thing?

Good question.

I remember one Christmas years ago, uh, we were opening presents, and I have a daughter who's uh three years older than my son, and she was probably eight, he was probably about five or so, and she was excited.

It's Christmas morning, she's got a pile of presents, she's going through them, and it's just an exciting Christmas morning.

But halfway through the pile, my son tugs at my shoulder.

He says, Dad, dad, dad, why are gurus so loud?

Son, that's just being girls.

You get used to it.

You'll like it one day, but it's just, I get it.

You see, Jesus is the bread of life, and we need to approach, if we're gonna feed from the word of God, from the bread of life, you've got to have an inquisitive mind.

Ask questions of scripture.

Ask questions of scripture.

The second thing we need to ask ourselves is this the second expression of the bread and the word and the breath of God is the word of God second, is the living water.

The living water.

And this is referenced throughout scripture.

It's a shadow, it's a type.

Look at Psalm 105 and verse 40.

It says, They asked for meat, and he sent them quail.

It's talking about in the wilderness, and he satisfied their hunger with manna, bread from heaven.

Notice this, verse 41.

And they split open a rock, and water gushed out to form a river through the dry wasteland.

That rock is a symbolic reference as well.

Notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 4.

And all of them drank the same spiritual water, for they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.

So Christ is the rock, and the living water is the word of God in Scripture.

And Jesus as the rock has the living water flowing from him.

And we will drink, Scripture says, of that living water.

The woman at the well, John 4, so many other places.

But notice what it says in John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

All through John, there's this water analogy.

But in John chapter 7, Jesus, where he says this and when he says it is significant.

John 7 · chapter mention

Notice the narrative.

On the last day, the climax of the festival.

Again, what festival?

What is he talking about?

It's the festival of tabernacles, the feast of tabernacles.

It's a huge, huge event.

It's the most joyous time in all of Israel.

And says on the last day, significantly, it's the last day, the eighth day, the climax of the festival.

There's 200 to 250,000 people on the Temple Mount for this great festival.

And at that moment, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowd in a loud voice, Anyone who's thirsty may come to me.

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink.

For the scriptures declare, in other words, it is written rivers of living water will flow from his heart.

And when he said living waters, John says, he was speaking of the Spirit.

You see, what would happen during the last day of the feast of the tabernacle is the high priest would go down to the pool of Siloam with a golden pitcher and he would draw water from the pool because the feast was a celebration of God's provision in the wilderness as they pitched tents for 40 years and how God gave them manna, bread from heaven, and living water from the rock that was split.

And he takes as a symbol of their need for God to bring rain and rain from heaven, he takes that pitcher in a processional back up, and at the base of the altar of the temple of God, he pours out the water, signifying the need for God to pour out his rain, his spirit.

And not only that, it was a heightened time of messianic expectation because the Jews believed that Messiah would enter the earth on that day, called the Feast of Tabernacles, the last day, Messiah would arrive and reveal himself.

And when he did, the rock that was underneath the altar, which is there to this day in Jerusalem, called the foundation rock, or it's called the stone, or it's called the cornerstone, the living rock that is under the altar.

It's the foundation of the world according to the Jews.

All of the world was formed from that rock, and that's the place where heaven and earth came together.

And on that rock, they said, when Messiah arrives, that rock would split in two, and rivers of living water would flow from Jerusalem, and it would heal their land, and it would quench the nations, and all would know that the Messiah has come.

Think of it, John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

As the high priest is pouring water on the altar, Jesus stands in a loud voice and speaks to 200,000 people and says, Come to me, I'm the rock.

I'm the rock, I'm the living stone, I'm the cornerstone, I'm the temple, and out of me will flow the spirit, the river of living water that will quench your thirsty soul.

You will never thirst again if you drink from the rock, which is Jesus Christ our Lord.

We've got a hunger and thirst for his righteousness.

It's the Spirit of God.

Notice what it says here in Scripture.

I don't even know where it is.

Here it is.

John 6, 63.

It is the Spirit who gives life.

The flesh profits nothing.

The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

God, by his spirit, wants to give you living water today.

It's the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said in John 14, he said, I'm not going to leave you as orphans, but when I go, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit, the comforter.

And he's going to do two things.

And what were those two things?

He's going to remind you of the things I've said.

It is written.

And he's going to lead you into all truth.

It's the Spirit of God that's the living water.

Ephesians 5.18 says, Don't do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery.

Instead, keep on being filled with the Spirit of God.

Last week Pastor Robert was reading from 2 Timothy 3.16.

He said, All scripture is God breathed.

It's the ruach of God.

It's the authority of God.

It's the finger of God.

They mean the same thing in Hebrew.

All scripture is God breathed.

Literally, that word in English is the word inspirited.

That's where we get the English word inspiration.

Some of your Bibles say all scripture is the inspiration of God.

It's the word inspirited.

And Pastor Robert said that what happens when we open the word is we take it in like this.

I never did that.

Other part.

Not once.

But I do know this.

This is also true.

All scripture is the Spirit of God.

John chapter 20, when Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples and it says that Jesus breathed, literally in the Hebrew, in them.

John 20 · chapter mention

His breath, and that breath is the Spirit.

God wants, are you hurting today?

Do you need comfort?

Jesus sent his spirit, his word to bring you comfort.

Do you have questions today?

Are you confused?

Do you need an answer from on high?

God wants to give you his answer.

It's in his word.

Do you need to be reminded of his promises?

His promises are yay and amen.

Do you need to be strengthened?

Jesus says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

It's the beginning, the alpha and the omega, and heaven and earth will pass away.

But every time you open the word of God, he wants to breathe his spirit and fill you with wisdom so that you can.

Do you ever get a word from God that sustains you through a dry season?

Ever get a word from the Lord that gave you wisdom and direction?

You're not smart enough to know what to do, but his word is.

Spring up, oh well.

Never mind.

About 11 years ago, I was a senior pastor in Colleyville.

And it was a church that was difficult.

It was a difficult time.

Some of you know my Best Buy story, my gateway story, but we were there about 16 months, and God released me from that position.

The only challenge was he didn't have another position for us immediately, but I knew God is faithful, and so he told me to leave that position.

And so we took a small severance package and we waited on the Lord.

And but then I had offers that came to me, but every time I prayed about it, God said, No, no, no, no.

But now weeks turned into months.

And the severance package ran out, and funds were drawing, uh drying up, and our house was on the market, and we're taking offers and things, what are we going to do?

God, you said to resign.

Where's the next church to sing your pastor?

And I was frustrated and I was just desperate.

Ever been desperate for a word from the Lord?

I told my wife, I said, I need to get away for a retreat.

I need to hear from God.

And so I got a three-day retreat in May Pearl, Texas, a little cabin down there for pastors.

And you know how it is when you get there the first day and just your Bible and some worship music, and there's no television, there's no computers, there's no iPads, no cell phone.

What did we ever do before technology drove us crazy?

But it's just silent.

You could hear the crickets, and so the first day is adjusting, and you're praising the Lord.

The second day I got up and I took a walk, and then I came home back to the cabin and I wrote a long letter to God, 12 pages, single space, front and back.

It was not a love letter.

And I wrote in there and said, God, why is this happening to me?

I've just tried to be faithful to your word.

Where's the next position?

What are you doing in my life?

I don't deserve this, God.

Give me an answer.

The gates of heaven were silent.

Nothing from the Lord.

And I knew the next morning I'd get up and clean the cabin and I'd go home.

And the first thing my wife would ask me when I got home, when I made my way home, was, What did God say to you?

And I heard nothing.

Nothing.

Until about three o'clock in the morning on the third day.

I was sitting in a rocking chair in a little tiny bedroom.

There was a full moon shining in.

And in that moment, I'm crying uncontrollably to the Lord, crying out in desperation, God, why are you so silent when I'm so desperate?

And in that moment, the Spirit of God spoke words to me.

And God gave me one word.

I would have preferred a chapter, a paragraph would have been fine, long sentence would have been good, but it was one word and one word only.

You know what the word was?

Wait.

Wait.

That's not the word I was looking for.

But that was the word.

And then the Spirit of God spoke to me and gave me a promise from God.

Isaiah 40.

And the Spirit spoke to me, from it is written, and he said, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

And when I went back and looked that up in the Hebrew, it literally means, renew literally means that God will take your strength, which is failing, and replace it with his strength.

That's the promise of God.

The Spirit that day at 3 a.m.

filled my soul.

It goes on and says, You'll soar on wings as eagles.

You'll run and not grow weary.

You'll walk and not faint.

The Spirit said to me, I've been with you as you've soared in life and ministry, and I've watched as you faithfully run the race I've set before you.

But I'm asking you, and that caught my attention.

The Spirit of God said, I'm asking you in this season to walk and not faint.

Don't give up.

I went back home.

I told my wife what the Lord has said, said, wait.

She was so excited about that.

He said, wait.

Like, how long?

I said, I don't know.

He said, wait for what?

I said, I'm not sure.

But isn't that great, honey?

God said, wait.

Well, the house sold and we needed to move, and we moved up to Chicago with some family temporarily.

And as I was in Chicago, the Holy Spirit kept saying, every day, the answers to Gateway Church.

Because this had been our church home for months.

So I made my way back here to Texas.

I thought, I'm going to look for just a job to provide for my family.

Because God said, wait.

He said the answers to the gateway.

And he said, if I'll wait on him, he's going to renew my strength.

I started at Corporate America.

I put my resume in everywhere I could think of.

I finally made my way up to Coles, Walmart, and Target.

And I answered more questions about drugs I've never taken and things I've never stolen than I ever have in my life.

But I could, six weeks, I couldn't find a job.

Finally, finally, I was hired for seasonal full-time at Best Buy over here in Grapevine, selling cameras and computers to all of you fine people.

And I remember I was making$10 an hour, which was exactly a$100,000 cut in pay.

I remember standing there day after day, and I remember thinking to myself from time to time, God, what am I doing here?

You said, wait, but what am I doing here?

Asking a manager who's half my age when I can eat my sandwich and when I can go to the restroom.

You see, when God speaks to you by his spirit with living water, he'll humble you in the process.

And every day I'd get up and I'd iron my khaki pants and put on my blue Best Buy shirt.

And I'd drive from Keller to Grapevine.

And as I drove by 2121 South Lake Boulevard, the church home of Gateway Church, our former residence, every day, every day when I walked, I drove by Gateway Church, I would slow down and I would pray and I'd say to God, God, you said wait.

And you said the answers through Gateway.

Every day, every day I would drive by 2121 South Lake Boulevard.

And every day I would stop and I would say, God, you said wait.

Your answer is here.

Your word is true.

I'm faithful to that, Lord.

I've got a passion to do your work.

Every day I drove by the church building for 16 months.

And the answer did not come.

And then one day I was invited to join the staff at Gateway.

And that wasn't even what I was praying about, but as I prayed again, God said, Yes, that's the answer.

That's the answer.

Now for 10 years I've served as a pastor here at Gateway.

And now, now every day I drive by 2121 South Lake Boulevard.

Only I don't drive by.

I pull in the parking lot.

I park in my parking spot.

I get out of my car.

I go into the building.

I go into my office at 2121 South Lake Boulevard.

And when I turn the key and open the door on the wall, there is a frame, and in that frame is a Best Buy shirt prominently next to my office desk that reminds me every day.

God is faithful to his word.

His word is truth.

His promises living waters are flowing from the rock that is the foundation of the world.

And his name is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you bow your heads with me, please?

Hallelujah.

Heavenly Father, thank you.

With heads bowed today, in just a moment, we're gonna sing a closing song, and then we're gonna stand.

The altars will be full.

I'm gonna invite you to come down and pray.

The altar ministry team will be here.

And I want you to ask yourself this question: Do you need a fresh revelation from the Lord?

Do you need a word of hope?

Do you need a word of strength?

What is God wanting to say to you?

He wants to breathe revelation into your life.

He wants to answer your questions.

He wants to heal your marriage.

He wants to heal your body.

He wants to remind you of his promises.

He wants to give you life and that abundantly.

He wants for you to live free.

His word is truth and life, and it brings freedom if we'll get in the word and eat this book.

Heavenly Father, pour out your spirit, we pray.

Breathe on us again in this place with a revelation of your eternal word.

It's the only thing that can change the human condition, is a fresh breath of God, Spirit of the living God, flow in us that we might be the children of God you've called us to be and heal every life, I pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.