Overflowing With Hope - Matt Romett - 5/31/26

Thank you for taking the time to listen to the Well Church Satterton's podcast.

We pray that you enjoy this message and that it creates a well of hope in your life today.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I'm so glad you're here.

You guys can open your Bible or navigate over to Romans 8.

We're going to end up in Psalm 31, but we're going to go through Romans 8 first.

We've been in the middle or maybe even the beginning of a series,

guys. The series has been on the authenticity of the Word of God,

how it got to us, why we have so many translations, and how we can trust them.

We talked about how it's investigative reporting, eyewitness testimonies of

events that were experienced by real people.

And when the gospels were written, some of the real people were still alive

and they would have been able to say, hey, you made that part up.

Or yeah, I remember that.

And everything in the Bible that we read Is true and happens,

Or if it's prophecy It's true and will happen Because we serve a supernatural

God That isn't limited by the constraints Of the creation But exists in a very real spiritual realm,

And we can see and experience The supernatural And.

As we ask and believe he's moving among us. So everything we read in the Bible

happened, even if it seems impossible.

And we looked at it for multiple Sundays, how it's been accurately preserved.

And specifically around the Gospels of Jesus, it's what actually happened,

written down, historically preserved, and translated accurately into English for us.

You may have seen this in the news cycle about two weeks ago.

There was a news story about Codex H.

Codex h h is hero sully midteneus if you told us you had that in the prayer

room we would pray for you but it's a codex it's a 1400 year old copy of the letters of paul,

and over time 42 of the pages that ink had fainted and become black they used

some ink made out of iron and,

yellow jacket venom in oak trees and they wrote on these,

animal skins and eventually 42 pages had faded and become blank the writing

on these pages that were referred to as the ghost pages was considered lost,

but a few weeks ago researchers use multi-spectral imaging which is different frequencies of light,

to be able to read the writing that's currently invisible to the naked eye,

And you know what they found.

They found that it said exactly what every other copy Of the letters of the

gospel of Paul said They didn't find anything new Anything that said hey guys

we made this up Just kidding,

It was exactly the same They also found something really interesting I know

many of us study the Bible digitally And you can make notes in your digital

Bible too But some of us remember when you wrote writing your Bible Right,

Okay, so these people 1400 years ago wrote right in the Bible notes and they're

able to read them. So that was pretty cool.

Anyway, we've been delving into some really Bible nerd type stuff,

and maybe it's not your cup of tea, but I really nerd out on it.

And we started because we were using one of our core values. We have six of them.

The core value that says, it focuses on the word of God. It says the word is a lamp and a light.

It lights our path. It shows us which way we should be headed.

It also is a lamp unto our feet and shows us what's going on around us.

The word of God is not just true. It is truth.

And while we value prophecy and culture, and I wanted to clarify that,

I'm not talking about the culture of the world necessarily, I'm talking about

Christian culture, Christian tradition, we value those things,

they must line up with what the Bible says.

And we're going to continue chatting about the Bible's trustworthiness,

and eventually a little bit about how to study it in the near future.

But today I felt like we should focus on another one of our core values.

And it's the one that seems a little more obscure.

And maybe we haven't fully embraced it. Maybe we just embrace it for others and not ourselves.

Our core values say we value the presence of God.

We value the word of God. We value community. We value every generation.

We are generous. And to me, all those seem easy. And we shouldn't have to explain them.

But there's one more that for most of us, we have a little trouble applying

it to ourselves. And here it is. This is what it says. it says, we are full of hope.

We are a people that overflow with hope.

Our lives should stand out because of God. In a field of flower buds,

you should be the one that is in bloom.

We are not a crushed and defeated people. We have a good God,

and he's working everything out for our good.

Any negative beliefs that we experience about our present or our future is an

imagination that we've made up that does not include the goodness of God.

So you're all in Romans 8. In Romans 7, Paul writes about the law and sin.

Please take the time to read that on your own.

Paul shares in Romans 7 that his mind wants to follow the law.

The law was the rules that God gave the Israelite people to know that they couldn't follow the rules.

And we all want to be, well, maybe not all of us, a lot of us just want a set of rules.

We'll do X, Y, and Z, and we'll be good, and we'll go into heaven.

And actually, there's a lot of religions that are like that.

You do these 10 things, you're good, have fun.

The rules that God gave the Israelites to follow, they couldn't follow.

And Paul refers to this as waging war inside of him. He wants to follow the

rules, but his flesh wants to sin.

And if we're honest, the thought of wanting rules and a formula for salvation is appealing.

But we also have to be honest that we have a flesh that wants to sin.

And I think for a lot of people, when we say our core values is we are full of hope.

It doesn't compute because we think we need to manufacture the things that give

us hope in our own strength.

When it comes to being a people full of hope, it's trusting in the goodness

of God to make our circumstances.

Better, not in our ability to make them better.

There's a level of partnership we're invited into, but when we say we're a people

that overflow with hope, our lives should stand out because of God.

In a field of flower buds, you should be the one that's in bloom.

Every one of us can plant a flower. None of us can make it bloom.

Some of us, when we plant a flower, we see nothing.

Nothing happens It's okay for all of you that can plant things We're grateful

and we will eat your harvest and enjoy with you and even sow into your seed

fund But the things we plant in our lives matter,

And everything we plant in our lives tends to grow if we plant our six core

values If we plant our lives in the presence if we plant our lives in the word

If we plant in christian community in being generous if we value each stage

of our lives and each stage of other people's lives,

if we put our hope in the goodness of God, then our lives bloom.

We're full of hope. We're a people that overflow with hope.

Our lives should stand out because of God. In a field of flower buds,

you, you, you. I don't normally say you when I'm preaching. They told me in

Bible school that when you say you, people get mad at you.

But in a field of flower buds, because of God, your life should be in bloom.

We're not a crushed and defeated people We have a good God He's working out

everything for our good And what really is the purpose of your life in bloom?

It's not so you can drive a Corvette Even though you can I was shopping for

him last night I'm far away.

I was shopping for him I found a really nice one I'll talk to some people about it later Anyway,

It's not so you can lavish yourself You can enjoy your life God gives you things

to enjoy The purpose of your life in bloom is to bring glory to God.

It points others to Him. In a field of flowers, in our spheres of influence,

when people look around, our lives should point to the goodness of God.

Now, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about this core value,

and I really feel like I'm letting the men down by asking them to be flowers in bloom.

And I can't think of anything else. I was like, you know, in a field of power

tools, yours are the best. I have nothing for the men because,

you know, we don't think in this term. But you're also the bride of Christ.

So some things you're going to have to get over.

But I am open to feedback. If you can think of something we can put in there,

you know, that makes, you know, in the gym, your biceps are the biggest.

I don't know how what we would do.

But we're in Romans 8, and we're going to read to verse 28 to support this core value.

But I want to break down a few parts of this chapter together while we're here.

And remember, Paul just wrote about the war inside of all of us to want a formula

of rules in order to save ourselves. and the fact that we can't do that because

our flesh desires to sin.

So this is where it'll tie in with what we're singing today.

You know, we're inviting the Holy Spirit to be part of what we're doing and

to be the worship leader and to bring the pieces through different people.

But in your Bible, you may have a heading. That heading says in this translation,

life through the Spirit.

Chapter 8, verse 1, therefore there is now no condemnation.

So if you're in Jesus, you are not condemned. All your failure,

sin and shame, none of it disqualifies you.

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, and if you want to hear more about

this, you can go back in the podcast, the woman caught in adultery to go and

sin no more, not depart from me, I never knew you.

When God finds you in a sinful state, a sinful struggle, He's bringing connection.

He's not seeking punishment.

Sometimes the consequences of our own actions get our attention.

Not that anyone's going to rob a bank on their way home so they can buy more

gospel cubes. But if you were going to do that, you will go to prison.

Right? So, but there is no, therefore, there is no condemnation for those in

Christ Jesus means you are not condemned. Your sins and your past sins and your

current struggles, you're not going to be condemned for.

Therefore, thou is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

Verse 2, because through Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit who gives life

has set you free from the law of sin and death.

And here's something to hope in.

You can't be condemned because you're not under the law of sin and death.

You're under the law of the Spirit. Verse 3, for what the law was powerless

to do because it was weakened by the flesh. So remember, religious system is

powerless because of our sinful nature.

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,

God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.

And so he condemns sin in the flesh, verse four, in order that the righteous

requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to

the flesh, but according to the spirit.

So Jesus came, he paid the price, he died. I wish I had my gospel cube to show you.

He came, he died and he paid the price.

And then verse five says, those who live according to the flesh have their minds

on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the spirit

have their minds set on what the spirit desires.

So those who live according to the flesh desire the flesh.

Those who live accordance with the spirits have their mind on what the spirit

desires. And I think this is something we should really consider when we look at our desires.

Are we living in accordance with our flesh or by the spirit?

And the reason we should really consider this Is because verse 6 says The mind

governed by the flesh is death And the mind governed by the spirit is life And not just life and peace.

Verse 7, the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

Have you guys ever talked with someone about God who went from zero to angry very quickly?

And you were like, whoa, that must be a demon. Maybe not. Maybe it's just the

mind governed by the flesh.

Don't tell me I can't sin.

I can't accept the goodness of God Because it means I won't be able to do that

thing That I like doing Oh,

All right, verse 8. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Verse 9. You, Paul says you all the time. Why can't preachers?

Verse 9. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm

of the spirit. So who's not in the flesh?

Us. Us. Thank you. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh,

but in the realm of the spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God lives in you,

and if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, he does not belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you, even though your body is subject to death because of

sin, your spirit gives life and righteousness.

Verse 11, and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living

in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal

bodies because of the Spirit who lives in you.

We sing this all the time when we're praying for healing.

The Spirit of God dwells in me, that same Spirit who went into a tomb with a

body that was destroyed and there for three days and raised it from the dead.

Two or three Easter's ago, we did this whole study on the Shroud of Torin.

And we saw that the imprint on the Shroud of Torin is actually created more

from a huge electrical impulse than from stains.

And if you want to go back in the podcast and listen to all that, it's really cool.

But it just shows the super powerful jolt of electricity that healed Jesus'

body and brought it back to life.

And that same spirit that did that dwells in you.

You. Every time I say you, I try to tell myself not to. It dwells in you.

All right.

Therefore, verse 12, therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation,

but it is not to the flesh. Now, a lot of people think their obligation is to the flesh.

If you all watch TV, they do this thing all the time. And if they're doing it

in what you're watching, find something else to watch.

But this man and this woman see each other and they can't help themselves at

all. They are totally driven by instinct, like they're some kind of animal and

they end up in a relationship.

It doesn't matter if they were married. It doesn't matter what they wanted out of life.

They saw they had fleshy desire and they had to fulfill it. We are not like that.

We don't have to do anything we don't want to do. Now, I know we have addictive

patterns and sometimes we have to go through counseling and prayer and accountability

to break those patterns, but

we do not have to do something we don't want to do when it comes to sin.

We have power over our mortal bodies. So.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it's not to our

flesh, to live according to it.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if you live by the Spirit, you will put to death the misdeeds of your body,

and you will live. So your obligation when you come to Jesus is not to your

fleshly desires. You can walk past the 12th donut. You can.

This is a good way to practice this. I don't have to consume the whole dozen.

Work your way back till you don't want it at a time or share it with your friends

anyway i laugh because at our house if we put the chocolate up in the cabinet

and try to pretend it's not there,

that works good right everybody's in the chocolate so but this is a good way

to work on controlling your flesh like,

i'm not going to eat that till later all right anyway practicing discipline

we have corporately fasted so you guys are there and we'll do it again,

all right verse 14 but those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Those that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

What this doesn't say is those that are led by the Spirit of God are the weird children of God.

This says those that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Verse 15, the spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live

in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought you into adoption to sonship.

And by him we cry, Abba, which is Daddy, Father.

The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

There's a lot of people trying to be God's children without his Holy Spirit.

It's supernatural, so it feels unnatural. Verse 17, now if we are children,

then we are heirs, heirs to God and co-heirs with Christ.

If indeed we share his sufferings in order that we might share his glory.

Verse 18, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with

the glory that will be revealed upon us.

Whatever hardship you face right now is not worth comparing to your future glory.

I know it seems all powerful right now in your life.

Have you guys ever looked at how they force different sized things in movies?

Look this up on your own. You know the movie Elf.

You know how Elf looks like a giant in the beginning when he's in the North

Pole. Look at the forced perspective shots of how they did that.

He's sitting really close to the camera. The other people are really far from the camera.

And this is what's happening. We're seeing something little close.

Our temporary trial, tribulation, whatever we're fighting right now.

And God seems way over there and they seem the same size, but we have to have a perspective reality.

Verse 19, for the creation waits an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subject to frustration, not by its own choice,

but by the one who subjected it.

This I thought about this morning. I have a lot of wood in my house,

things like decks and steps.

And that creation has been subject to frustration. And it's getting weaker and

weaker. And I'm going to have to fix it.

But I keep putting it off. But I thought about this this morning,

that the world was created in such a way that there was no death.

And now all of the creation experiences death because of the choices made by man in the garden.

All right. So I'm rebuking the frustration of the wood at my house.

Anyway, so in hope that verse 21, that the creation itself will be liberated

from the bondage of decay and brought into freedom and the glory of the children of God.

Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains

of childbirth right up to the present time.

Verse 23, not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit

grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption to sonship and redemption of

our bodies. Verse 24, for in this hope.

In this hope, we are a people full of hope. In this hope, we were all saved.

But hope, we're a people full of hope that is seen as no hope at all.

So for who hopes and what they already have, verse 25, but if we hope in what

we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently as a people full of hope.

If you're not following along, I added that last part.

Verse 26, in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

So again, we're not these weak fleshly people that have to eat all 12 donuts at once. All right.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes

to us through wordless groans.

We actually see Jesus do this just before he raises Lazarus from the dead.

You read it. It records he made a noise.

He was interceding with the Spirit. Verse 27, he who searches our hearts knows

the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in according with the will of God.

Now we're talking about praying in the Spirit, speaking in tongues.

It is something active today on the earth for all believers.

Listen to what he's saying here. He's not saying that me and the other apostles

and whoever we lay hands on can pray in the Spirit.

He's saying we to everyone.

And we read all this to get here. This is why we are a people full of hope.

Verse 28, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who

love him and have been called according to his purpose. I've seen that on coffee

mugs, baseball hats, t-shirts, flyers.

And it's really funny, you know, we talk about context all the time and we laugh

about the people who get real serious about context.

But that verse is in the context of praying in the Spirit.

Make a little intercession over your own life by the Holy Spirit.

Spend some time praying in the Spirit with the Lord.

All right, turn over to Psalms 31. Again, the core value is we are a people full of hope.

We are a people that overflow with hope. Our lives should stand out because

of God. In a field of flower buds, on a shelf full of chainsaws,

you should be the one in bloom that's the most sharp.

We are not a crushed and defeated people. We have a good guy and he's working

out everything for our good. Our lives should stand out because of God.

We know some Christians struggle with this.

And I want to lean into it a bit. The phrase, my life should stand out because

of God, is one of those things that we don't believe for us personally.

We can picture Bob in a Corvette, but not ourselves. In a field of flower buds,

my life should be in bloom because of my relationship with a good God.

So we just read Romans 8, that we've been adopted as sons and daughters by the

Spirit, and our lives should stand out because of God. All right,

you guys are in Psalms 31.

There's a song title here. Now, I know a lot of times we talk about the headings

in the Bible were put there by translators to give us tools to find what we're looking for.

This actually heading was, yeah, it was put there by a translator,

but it exists in the original because it's a song title. The song title is,

The Lord is a Fortress in Adversity.

And I got to tell you, I was talking to someone earlier today.

It's really interesting because there is a senior pastor worship leader dynamic,

Everyone's hearing from god and everyone's right But the senior pastor will

often kind of boss the worship leader around I don't struggle with that here for whatever reason,

But what happens in other places and i've been part of it Bob and mike and I,

are leading at a christian camp this year And i'm on this zoom call as the worship

leader with eight pastors years.

And they all have ideas about what I should be doing.

And some of them are hymns. I have no problem singing your hymn.

Some of them are popular songs. Some of them are like nitpicking at songs that

I wrote that I said I'm going to sing.

And they want to talk about theology. And that's fine. We can do all that.

But when they asked me to do this, I said to them, you have to allow me to follow

what the Lord is leading me or you need to ask someone else.

And I have no problem if the one guy, he's an old Baptist guy And he wants to

sing some of them really good old hymns No problem,

But when it's my turn to lead worship I have to lead what the Holy Spirit says

So then they sent me this giant spreadsheet It's eight worship times And they

want all the songs filled in.

And I sent them back I said, here's what's going to happen Every morning,

I'm going to spend time with the Lord I'm going to know by the time that we

practice with the band at 4 30 p.m.

What songs we're doing i have the core band coming out if the holy spirit tells

me to change in the middle it's gonna be fine i'm gonna have all my,

jonah has a lot of tablets i don't know if you guys know this i'm gonna have

all jonah's tablets synced to my screen and when i click my pedal to the song

everyone else's page is gonna turn bob and mike won't even get to see their tablet and all the,

trail trail life boys playing with us will know what we're playing Whether we practice it or not But,

all this was said Just to get here I could only imagine saying Hey guys,

I wrote a song called The Lord is a Fortress in Adversity And I want to sing it on Sunday.

We would have meetings with elders and pastors and stuff. Anyway,

but funny thing about this, the reason they probably sung it is it was written

by King David. So I'm pretty sure you had to sing it.

So fun stuff. All right. So basically picture this as a memo from David.

I wrote this song called The Lord is a Fortress in Adversity,

and he sent it to the chief musician.

Basically, hey, guys, you're going to sing the song I wrote because I'm the

king. All right. Verse one.

This goes really well, but then it takes a turn. So in you, O Lord,

I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in your righteousness.

Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily.

Be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me. Verse three,

for you are my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for your name's sake, lead me and guide me.

Verse four, pull me out of the net, which they have secretly laid for me. You are my strength.

Into your hand, I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord,

God of my truth. Now, Kathy and I have taught songwriting at different kind

of worship conferences.

And I want to tell you, if a guy came with this song, right about here,

I'd start making notes, things that I would ask him to change.

And it says, I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in the

Lord. Okay, you can have that one.

Verse seven, I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy for you have considered my trouble.

You have known my soul and adversities. Verse eight.

Now, this is a really important to what we're going to talk about in a minute.

It's he says, David says here, and you have not shut me up in the hand of the enemy.

You have set my feet in a wide place.

In this prayer, in this song, David declares, you, God, have set my feet in a wide place.

And this is why our lives should stand out because of God.

The enemy has laid a trap for every one of us, everyone that has lived,

everyone that will ever live.

We have an enemy that's bent on narrowing the wide place the Lord wants to put us in.

We have an enemy bent on our destruction.

But just like David, God has not shut us up into his hand.

God has set our feet in a wide place, a wide place.

What a good thought to consider. Another translation says a spacious place.

The King James says, you have put me in a large room.

What does a life that the enemy has set traps to destroy That has been redeemed Bought,

and paid for by Jesus Brought into son or daughtership With a good heavenly

father look like It looks like a life lived in a wide place Not shut up or limited

Or squeezed or barely surviving

In the parable of the prodigal son,

That Jesus told The son wanted to return to his house and just be a servant in a narrow place.

But the father would not have that. He returned him as a son, as a wide place.

You weren't bought by the blood of Jesus to be a servant or a slave.

We were slaves to our carnal desires. We were slaves to religious systems that couldn't set us free.

And Jesus with his sacrifice has bought us.

And not only were we set free, we became sons and daughters.

And verse eight again, And God has not shut us up into the hand of the enemy.

God has set our feet in a wide place.

Now, my wife likes to watch British people on TV compete in silly games.

Baking show? Sometimes it's the baking show. Sometimes it's like the baking

show. You and Kat are going to have a, you can watch it right here on the big screen.

So the baking show, this other one, they compete for these tasks.

Those are all different tasks.

And the particular task that I noticed was they had the people all start in

the same location in the city of London.

They gave them four objects and their goal in 30 minutes was to get the four

objects as far apart from each other creating the widest place,

all right so i'm watching this and one guy runs out and he he like flags down

a guy on a bike and he's like where are you going can you take this to your

destination you can throw it away when you get there

and then you know he takes off and they're doing all that stuff one guy like

chucks his as far as he can i don't know what he was thinking.

And then this one lady I thought was really like a genius.

She goes up to the river Tames, the river Tames in England.

She takes off her sock. She puts the item in her sock. She puts a board in her

sock. She chucks it in the river.

It goes, then she gets, grabs a bus driver, says, where are you going? Gives them another one.

She gets somebody in a car and whatever she did with the other one.

It seemed like she was going to win.

She was the genius. And when they were all done the competition,

they show it on a map, the square footage of the wide places they created.

And the guy that was just chucking stuff, you know, he was nothing.

And they showed the lady last that put her tracker thing in the river, right?

And what had happened was, of the four things, three of them went in the exact same direction.

So what she had was a long line, the longest line, but she didn't have a wide space.

And I feel like that speaks to what we're talking about. We're going to talk about it a little more.

But it's like, if we put all our energy into the two things that are easy,

we're still going to get a narrow space.

We have to press into the areas where the enemy's trying to carve our space and narrow it out so.

And God has not shut us up into the hand of the enemy. God has set our feet in a wide space.

So let's continue David's prayer. Remember, if he submitted this for worship

on Sunday, I would have like, hey, we need to rewrite this part. But here's what he says.

He prays, verse 9, Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.

My eye wastes away with grief, yet my soul and my body, for my life is spent

with grief and my years with sighing.

My strength fails because of my iniquity My bones waste away I am a reproach,

among all my enemies Especially among my neighbors I am repulsive to my acquaintances,

Those who see me outside flee from me And I know guys, those were the encouraging

verses You came here to hear this morning,

And exactly what you needed to believe That your feet are in a wide place But

in those verses, and you may want to write this down, note takers straight to

heaven, you may want to write this down.

In these verses are seven areas David was attacked in.

Seven places his enemy tries to narrow down his life, to make his life smaller,

to chip away at the wide place God had placed David in.

And as we look at this, I want you to consider if these traps of our enemy are

limiting what God can do in your life.

So here's the seven traps We're going to go through them quick Then we're going

to go through them with a little more detail The seven areas the enemy lays

traps To limit your ability to live in a wide place The first one,

is in your vision David said, my eye wastes away with grief,

The second one is an attack on your inner health Your emotional health Yes,

my soul Grief, regret, jealousy, anger.

The third one, my body and my life, my health.

And David said, and my body. Verse 10 says, for my life is spent with grief.

The fourth one, my years and my years with sighing. It's like wasting our time, wasting our years.

Verse five, my strength.

My strength fails because of my iniquity. The Hebrew word there for strength

is literally my position of strength.

If you look it up in Strong's, it says fruitfulness, wealth, and substance.

The sixth one, my bones, and my bones waste away, my bones physical strength.

The seventh one, my reputation.

I am a reproach among my enemies, but especially among my neighbors.

And I am repulsive to my acquaintances. those who see me outside flee from me.

These are the seven areas. I'm going to explain a little more that if you're

going to live life in a wide place, the one the Lord set your feet in back in

verse eight, these are the seven areas you're going to have to guard.

You're going to have to protect for your life to stand out, to be the sharpest

chainsaw, to be the flower in bloom because of the goodness of God.

And those seven areas of your life come under attack because the The enemy is

trying to convince you to live in a small way.

First, my vision. My eye wastes away with grief.

Individually for our lives and corporately when we come together,

we need to be visionaries.

What impact is Jesus calling you to have in your life as an individual?

What people group has Jesus called you to reach?

What thing does Jesus want you to release on the earth as an individual,

a family unit, or part of this body?

The Bible says in Proverbs 29, 18, where there's no vision, the people what?

Perish. Let's all be a people full of vision for our lives to live in a wide space.

What's your vision? Where are you going? What's your expectation for your life?

Y'all laughed at it. I was looking at Corvettes. If I never look, I'll never get.

If I don't save up money for it, I won't be able to buy it. Well,

there's another way that I don't do that way.

And what's your expectation for your life who are you believing to to reach

what are you believing to do,

if the answers to those questions are narrow because of your circumstances,

then get with your supernatural god and let him increase your vision for your

life my family is a family thing my family lights a lot of fireworks and every

once in a while you light a firework and nothing happens.

And we call that a dud.

And we accept it. And we accept it because we know where it was made and how

it was made and by who it was made. We accept it. But here's the thing.

We are a people individually, uniquely created by God, and he does not make duds.

Your body may be the result of biology, but your spirit, the part of you that

will exist forever was created by God, he's more than able to overcome every challenge in your life.

So let's get with him and get some vision for our lives as individuals.

The second area, the Lord has set you in a spacious place, a wide place,

that the attack of the enemy and life are trying to narrow down,

David describes as, yes, my soul.

And I'm going to give you some things that I believe he's saying here.

Grief, regret, sorrow, depression, anger, jealousy.

Things that we feel that limit our lives.

It's really the internal us, our inner man. John 7 talks about those who receive

God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, out of them flows living, rivers of living water.

Out of your inner man, out of your soul, out of the condition of your heart,

does the things you think about, ponder about, listen to, watch, view,

do those things support living water flowing out of you or do they narrow your life down?

The third area David says And my body In,

verse 10 For my life is spent with grief My body and my life Our health is something

we need to consider If our energy is down Because we aren't eating right Or

exercising It can affect the wide space The Lord wants to lay our feet in.

Recently, I've had to put a little more thought into what I'm eating and how

much I'm eating and when I'm eating it.

Don't misunderstand me. I still will enjoy some pretty great food with you guys.

But not every meal can be decadent or in my world wrapped with bread or covered

with sauce and chased by a bowl of ice cream.

Can't do that if I want my feet in a wide place.

And I'm being honest with you here. The Lord led me to make some recent decisions

around my eating habits and health earlier this year.

And I don't want to create a culture here where we're afraid to eat together.

So I already declared Sunday our cheat day. So we can be a people that look

after our health and don't create an unhealthy environment here by being afraid

to enjoy great meals together.

That said, we tend to prioritize easy, less healthy food, likely more to gain

emotional comfort than nutritional value.

And I know some of you think I'm meddling right now, and I promise you I don't

have you in mind at all when I'm saying these things.

Your value has nothing to do with your physical health, but if you don't take

care of our health, it makes it easy for the enemy to narrow the wide space

the Lord has placed us in.

Fourth, my years, David said, and my years with sighing.

And I want to call this wasting our years, my years, my future.

If we want to live well, we need to live long.

There's a formula to wealth that works But it takes a consistent lifetime of hard work,

My grandparents did it I've seen people in my parents' generation do it I'm doing it,

And I taught it to my kids Because they have a mazillion influencers Telling

them they don't have to do it Yep.

That there's a shortcut and there may be a shortcut and there may be a big score.

There might be easy money and instant comfort.

But if we focus on that, we miss that the generations that went before us went

to work every day, lived on less than they earned and saved for their future

and ended up with a good future. Hallelujah.

Are we living long or are we wasting our years?

Proverbs 5 talks about the foolish man that goes to the adulterous woman.

And if you read in verse 5, it says, Her feet go down to death.

Her steps lay hold of hell.

Her feet go down to death. God's placed your feet in a wide space.

And you can waste your years if you sin and don't guard against this.

If you partner with someone whose feet go down to death. Sin can narrow the,

wide place God has placed you in. Sin can cost you years.

We're seeing more and more people that were in Christian ministry that gave

their whole life to building a ministry.

And they send inappropriate texts to an intern and it's gone.

And they wasted their years. And they could have prevented. They can be restored.

But you're trading your legacy and your reputation for sin.

If we don't have a long view of our life, we need to count the cost of our choices.

We're trading our legacy if

we don't have a long view where we count our choices. Fifth, my strength.

My strength fails of iniquity is what David said.

Literally, my position of strength. If you look up the Hebrew word there,

translated strength, you'll find words fruitfulness, wealth, and substance.

Some of us are not in a position of strength around our fruitfulness, wealth, and substance.

But if we're gonna live in a spacious or wide place, God wants to place you

in a position of strength around your finances.

Some Christians are really against prospering. Some Christians only believe

in the prosperity of others.

They don't mind others being prosperous, but we need to think about ourselves.

When I said, let's run a boat and float a mazillion gospel cubes onto the land,

some of us could pay for that.

And if the Lord's leading us to do those types of things, we want to be in the

place where we can prosper into that.

All right, listen to Psalm 25, 12.

I think this verse is describing us Psalm 25, 512 Who then are those who fear the Lord?

I think all of us would say We have a healthy reverence for God People are going

to nod at me, thank you He will instruct them in the ways They should choose

I think all of us would say yes Yes, Lord, teach me the way I should choose,

And then attached with those two thoughts Is this thought They will spend their days in prosperity it.

And their descendants will inherit the land. The New King James Version there says, He himself.

Who's he himself?

It's not just me. It's us.

He himself. If you need to say she herself, I'll add one letter to your Bible,

she herself shall dwell in prosperity.

That said, we don't have a one-dimensional perspective of prosperity.

It's not just about money. Living your life in a prosperous way,

where your efforts prosper, you're prospering in life, you're prospering in

your marriage, you're prospering in your,

mindset, you're prospering in your relationship with God, you're prospering

in your understanding of His words, you're prospering in your real connections

in your Christian community,

and you're prospering in your finances.

There's a difference between being rich and prosperous. Rich is about me,

prosperous is about blessing others.

God wants to build your position of strength so you can bless others.

And he usually does it over years by blessing the work that you do every day.

Wealth isn't usually built by shortcuts. It's the reward of faithful stewardship,

tithing and sowing, hard work and effort.

Number six, my bones. And my bones waste away. My bones, which is David's physical

strength, David said, and my bones waste away.

If we want to live in the wide place God has placed our feet in.

Then we have to get active and stay active. Listen, I care.

I care about you guys. And again, I'm not thinking of any specific person.

I love you and I care about you. I've noticed some things about physical strength

that I'd like to challenge you with.

We, our society, we, our society, American life as a whole, has grown very fond of rest and comfort.

But the truth is, the less active we are, the harder it is to be active.

A few extra steps a quick workout a few days of week is what i'm challenging

us with No need to run for hours,

But maybe we can remove some excuses I know most of us are tired And we need

to have some priority on rest and getting a good night's sleep You're all here this morning.

So this may not describe you But I hear loads of people tell me They're too

tired from their week to get here.

That mental fatigue causes us to feel exhausted.

It limits our ability to build physical strength. And I'd like you to consider

that a lot of our mental exhaustion is not caused by the things we do,

but it's caused by the media we consume.

The news and social media that

gets us all riled up about things we didn't cause and we can't change.

Often it's worry and fear around those things that won't ever happen,

and we should be trusting God about those things anyway.

So in order to live in wide spaces, the wide spaces God has placed us in,

there has to be some sort of commitment to activity that maintains physical strength.

We're all going to feel tired in our bodies, and our bodies will protest,

but we are building our lives in wide spaces.

In the wide spaces God placed us in, and we're playing the long game,

our physical strength can be maintained so it helps us and doesn't injure us.

So I watch a lot of older guys retire, really active guys at work.

And the things that happen are weird. First, they take a really long rest.

I mean, they've worked 37 years on their feet, under pressure,

timelines that are now made by AI.

They take a really long rest, sometimes three, four weeks. They catch up on

all the TV they missed over their career.

And then they either get active or they stop being able to be active.

One guy, his spine basically fused. He had to go to all this physical therapy.

He had to start swimming.

And then they were able to loosen it back up.

But it's like, we have this mentality where we're entitled to rest and we need

rest. And rest is important. And probably two weeks from now,

I'll preach a sermon on rest.

But we need to keep our physical strength as well.

Yeah all right,

Number seven, my reputation is the last one. You guys hanging with me?

All right. I'm a reproach among my enemies. Okay, that's normal,

right? Your enemies, they don't want to see you. All right.

But especially among my neighbors. Okay, not every one of my neighbors is my best buddy.

And then, well, here's the thing. Your enemies are supposed to not like your

reputation. Your neighbors, you should have good reputation.

And I am, he says, I am repulsive to my acquaintances. So when I just meet people, they're repulsed.

And then he says, those who see me outside, they run away. They flee from me.

I am reproached among my enemies. Literally, my enemies despise me. Our reputation.

If we're not happy with our reputation, there's only one way to change it.

Change how we behave.

Here's a few quick habits that make for a great reputation. Ready?

You guys ready? Again, I'm not thinking about anybody here. I'm picturing you

all fit, healthy, driving Corvettes. All right.

A few quick things, habits, that make for a good reputation.

Doing what you say you'll do. Yeah. Hallelujah.

Finishing what you start. Amen. Being kind. Yep. Serving others.

Being generous. Yes.

Showing up to places on time. We don't stop when you show up here.

Don't worry. Working hard.

Somebody does.

I think here what David is talking about is people despising him for who God

created him to be. And this is going to happen.

It's so funny because poor Kathy

gets it worse than me because I think they're afraid to say it to me.

Sound men, other places we play, they'll call her a diva.

They'll act like she thinks she's a rock star. And she is the exact opposite

of this. You guys know her.

She doesn't want everyone watching her sing. If we could put her outside right

there, she'd be fine with that.

But it's like people see the gift of God in you and they despise it and they

draw conclusions about what you're thinking.

We've talked about before how we should not do that to each other.

The Bible says that our heart, the heart inside of you, the one that belongs

to you, is deceitful above everything else.

So if your own heart deceives you, how do you know what's in Bob's heart?

How do you know what Keith thinks about the shirt you're wearing that day?

Or whatever. So it's a matter of if your own heart deceives you,

stop deciding what other people think. Like if you think someone has an issue

with you, then do the right thing and say, hey, I feel like there's tension

between the relationship I have with you.

I value this relationship if I've done something or said something.

Could you please let me know?

Because we're going to have misunderstandings. And we have to be a people that

value the relationship more than our right to be mad about what we don't know. All right.

So David said, I'm a reproach among my enemies. The footnote in the New King

James says, a despised thing.

And if you're serving God and us serving God together, the well church releasing

the kingdom of God onto the earth, there's going to be people who despise us.

They're not enemies to us, but there are people out there who hate seeing the

kingdom of God move forward.

And ultimately, they do not determine our future.

And I believe the enemies that stand against us will likely be swept into the

kingdom of God because the Lord has set our feet in a wide space.

And maybe over the years, the enemy has tried to narrow that wide space.

Today I tried to expose some of the ways the enemy does that,

And give you some practical ways you can regain what's been stolen from you

So I'm going to close in prayer as I close Ask the Lord where he wants you to

partner with him To widen those spaces again.

So, Father, we thank you for your word and how it exposes the conditions of our heart.

Lord, we thank you that you have not let the enemy shut his hand around us,

but you have placed us in wide spaces.

We pray that you would give your people vision, vision for their lives of what

you would have them do, who you would have them reach.

Lord, we also pray for their inner health, their emotional health.

Lord, that you would shift our focus onto the things of you,

not things that depress us, that tax us, that make us angry or jealous.

Lord, we also pray for health in each person's body.

And Lord, we pray that you would give them the steps to take to increase that health.

We come against the wasting of our years. We pray for the restitution of all

the years the enemy has stolen through attack.

Lord, that you would give your people more good years to see the harvest that

you want to bring through their life.

Lord, we also pray that their strength does not fail because they're inadequate,

that you would give them a position of strength that's fruitful,

that they would have wealth and substance, that their bones would not waste

away, that there would not be an attack on their physical strength,

that they would be an active people that maintains their health.

And Lord, we pray that you would give us divine strategy to change our reputation

on the earth, that we would be known as a person experiencing your goodness.

That you would give us grace and wisdom to be people that other people can rely

on, that finish what we start, that do what we say will do.

And we thank you, Father. We bless your people to expand the wide space that you've put them in.

We rebuke the devourer on their behalf.

We pray for prosperity for your people to abound to every good thing that they want to sow into.

And we thank you for that, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, guys, don't forget about the Gospel Cubes. Have a great week.

Thanks for taking the time to listen we're glad that what the lord is doing among us encourages you,

for more info about the church follow us on facebook or connect with us on instagram

visit dwell at the well.com or come out and see us on a sunday morning.