The WORD // LEVEL UP | Ps. Jamie Corcoran

Today we start a brand new series called

Level Up. Now the other day one of my

kids was asking me about a particular

video game and he said, "When you were

my age, Dad, did you play this video

game?" And I said, "No, I was like a

teenager when that game was invented."

How many of you are at an age where you

can remember when stuff was invented? Uh

most of us will be familiar with the

classic debate of which is better, Xbox

or PlayStation. We won't even talk

because we know PlayStation wins the

day. And I was telling my son, no, I

remember when the PlayStation came out,

I bought the first one. He's like, "Man,

that's like like years ago, like like in

history books." I was like, "Yeah." Um,

when I was really young, my first ever

console that I owned was a Sega Mega

Drive. Come on, where's my where are my

Sega people? Sega. And of course, back

then, the debate wasn't PlayStation or

Xbox. It was it was it was a Sega or

Nintendo. And the big Sega character was

Sonic the Hedgehog. We all love Sonic.

We all love Sonic. And the big Nintendo

character was Super Mario. Now, I can't

cache Super Mario because I love Super

Mario. And if you never played Super

Mario, then you don't know the power of

a mushroom, not magic ones, video game

ones in the Mario game. And what happens

is when you start off the game playing

as Mario, you're you're really small.

You're Wii, right? And then for some

reason, I guess the designers got a kick

out of this. You eat a mushroom and you

grow up. You so to speak level up. Now,

what really is the purpose of leveling

up, Mario? Well, it's insurance, right?

Because you know that down the road be

some gloomba or some turtle from hell

who's going to get in your way and cause

you to make a mistake and power down.

And so the more you can level up before

you get to the difficult parts of the

stage or or or map, the more chance you

have exceeding. And so we see in a video

game format or reality for life, there's

something about leveling up that doesn't

just prepare us, but bolsters us for the

future when it comes to our the context

we find ourselves in today. Which, by

the way, if you're brand new here or

anyone of location, we're so glad that

you are here in our parent lounges.

We're just so glad that you are here.

But when it comes to our our connection,

when it comes to our devotion to God,

the question this series is asking us

over next weeks is, what does it look

like to grow in our devotion to God, to

level up in our devotion to God? Now,

August is an interesting season because

if you're a secondary school or primary

school student, it's school bags and

pencil cases and school uniforms. If

you're someone who just did a

leavingert, you know that leavingert

results are coming up very soon. that's

going to play a massive part in

determining your future. Maybe you're a

college student sorting out dorms,

figuring out where how you're going to

get A to B and and this new stage of

life. Maybe you're starting a new job.

Maybe you're moving into a new home.

Maybe you're starting a new

relationship. There's something about

like August into September, it's all

about growth. And so, as we think about

our personal growth, why not consider

our spiritual growth? Now, if you're

here at one of our locations and you're

a Jesus follower, here's kind of my

thinking. Here's my motivation. Here's

my heart. The reason for why I wanted to

do this series. I want to pastor you for

the next few weeks. And I want to give

you the opportunity to level up in your

faith so that the gumbas and the turtles

from hell that are coming in the light

and they are coming and for some reason

or somehow God is going to bolster and

prepare you for those things so that you

can overcome. If you're not a Christ

follower, which is great because that's

how I started my journey. And if you

find yourself one of in one of our

environments today and you're that

cynical person, critical person,

sarcastic person, broken person, you're

a person on the outside, you seem to

have it all together, but you know

inwardly you're dying because something

in you is fundamentally broken. You're

far from God. You don't know how to fix

things. You're sitting there just just

trying to keep it together. Understand

that that's exactly where I was. And

sometimes I find myself back there. It's

the grace of God that gives us power to

change. It's the grace of God doesn't

just level up our faith. He levels up

our life if we give him the opportunity.

So, I want to also hopefully over the

next few weeks give you an opportunity

to experience something of his person

and of his power so that you too can

level up. Here's the bottom line. If we

want to grow with God, we have to go to

God. If we're going to grow our devotion

to him, we got to be with him. If we're

going to grow, we need to be in

communion with God. Now, if you see that

word communion, you probably think as I

thought or thought back in the day, I

think about holy communion like like

bread and wine and the and the ceremony

and the symbolism and the event of

communion. But actually, when you break

down the word communion, the English

word communion is compound of common and

unity. Common union. common unity. What

it refers to is communion is a close

relationship with someone in which

feelings and thoughts are exchanged. To

be in communion means that we are in

relationship. Now God in sending his son

took the first step to establish this

relationship. And every day his mercies

are made new. Every day his grace is

available. Every day in every place

every in every circumstance we have

access to his presence. But the question

is is are we reciprocating that? Because

for it to be relationship has to be

exchanged. It's two people, two persons

actively working on and shaping this

living relationship. So what we're going

to do next week is we're going to ask

ourselves what does it look like to

level up in our relationship with God.

Next week in part two, I'm going to talk

to you about worship, the the importance

of worship, what worship is, how worship

plays a role in our leveling up in our

relationship with God. Then after that,

in week three, we're looking at prayer,

the importance of prayer, kind of

demystifying, debunking some of the the

false narratives or false dichotoies we

have around prayer and just getting to

the heart of what it's all about. Then

we're going to close this series in week

four looking at service. How when God

moves powerfully in us, we want to be

like him. And in serving the world

around us, we're only serving him, but

actually we're being like him. And

before you know it, September will be

here and we'll be doing vision Sunday.

Now today in part one I want to lay a

foundation of ali the foundation of

alies by talking to you about perhaps

the most fundamental the most important

the most basic of all these four and

that of course is the word of god how do

we level up with the word now here's I

want you to understand if you're a

Christ follower I want you to notice if

you're someone who's looking in

skeptical curious I also want you to

notice because you may want to notice

the word of god is key to the

infrastructure of our faith it's key

it's key perhaps not in the way you

think. Sometimes people say, well, you

know, the word of God aka the Bible. The

word Bible in English is actually

derived from a German word which which

basically describes a library because

the Bible isn't a book per se. It's a

library of books, 66 to be precise, two

testaments, uh 50 plus authors, several

thousand years of authorship, three

different languages, one singular

message and still the number one

bestselling book in the world. Why?

Because it isn't a book. It's much more

than that. But the reason why it's key

to us isn't because we worship the book.

The book is not our faith. The book is

not God. The book isn't a holy relic.

The we could we could take a Bible right

now and burn it. It doesn't really mean

I mean obviously wouldn't do that

because we respect it, but it doesn't

there's no power in the book. What's

powerful is what the book talks about or

more specifically who the book talks

about. So you think about our faith. Our

faith is like a relationship. It's like

a career. It's like a house, like a

building, like a service. There's parts

that go into building it. And Jesus when

he was on the earth talked at length

about the importance of building a

robust and solid faith. So we think

about our faith having an

infrastructure. The word of God is so

important. Why? Because it conveys the

message about the truth of the person of

Jesus.

Understand? Before there was a book,

there was Jesus. And if ever there's a

day where there is no book, there will

still be Jesus. In fact, Jesus is the

word made flesh. And it's so

fundamental. We we just simply cannot be

Jesus followers and not know Jesus

through the word. And one of the ways

sometimes I'll talk to people who who

are who are maybe skeptical about faith

or uncertain things like, well, there's

so many variations and so many versions.

And I often say, no, those are opinions.

You can go to the source text today. You

can go there and you can go to the

effort of learning Hebrew, Aramaic or

Greek if you want to. I did I did I I

did New Testament Greek for two years.

It's a it's a dead version of Greek, the

same Greek. The New Testament was

written because you can actually learn

that language and read it for yourself

and see what it says. And what you'll

realize is it says what it says. The

reason why churches still exist, the

reason why we're launching churches all

over Ireland is because despite the

current trend of our culture, people

need truth. need hope, need help, need

healing. And these things only come from

Jesus. And the word shows us this and

conveys this and confirms this. Now, if

we think about prayer, and I don't want

to give away too much for for week

three, but prayer essentially is a

conversation. So, if prayer is how we

talk to God, then the word is how God

talks to us. It's like learning a

language. Most of you don't know this,

but I speak Portuguese. Uh, I was beaten

into it by my wife. I didn't have a

choice. She's a very persuasive woman,

hence five children. And so when I first

met her and got to know her family, they

would be talking about me in front of me

in Portuguese. I don't know about you,

how you roll, but that's not how I roll.

Like they would talk my name about me. I

don't know what you're saying. So I was

like, you know what? I'm going to learn

this language. And so I just START

ASKING QUESTIONS. HOW DO YOU SAY turn

off? DESIGAR. HOW DO YOU SAY TURN ON

LEGAR?

But if I'm turning a loose, that's a

pagar. I'm like, what? That doesn't make

sense. And so I just start asking

questions and I'd learn phrases. One of

the first phrases I ever learned in

Portuguese, I worked at McDonald's with

a bunch of Brazilian guys. I walked in,

I said, "Yay, Gordo."

Which roughly translates as yo fatso,

how are you? And so I'd walk around

calling everyone a fatso. And it was a

painful journey. I'll tell you this. I

want to learn one thing. If you're going

to learn a language, okay, not

academically, but practically, you got

to be prepared to have what they call in

Portuguese a kaja. Uh, you got to be

stubborn, you got to be unashamed

because you're going to make mistakes,

but you persevere. You learn language.

And now I can I can talk to people in

Portuguese.

The truth is when I was in the room,

even though I couldn't understand what

was being said, other people could

because the language was was fluent. I

couldn't understand it. I had to learn

the language to understand to be able to

talk back. In the same way, when we

understand the language, when we

understand God's word, when we when

we're when we're active in relationship

to him, not only are we talking to him,

but we can clearly discern for ourselves

what he is saying to us. And now more

than ever in a world that is so marked

by confusion and upheaval and so much

change and challenge and you see the

news every day whether it's in lecture

halls and UCD or you know the Middle

East right now wherever we find it find

ourselves paying attention we see chaos

and consternation and conflict. It's

like man how are we supposed to

interpret or react or respond to all

these things? And here's what I would

tell you pastorally speaking. Before

they were, the word was.

As they are, the word is. When they're

all gone, the word will be. If you're

going to anchor your life to something,

my friend, you might as well anchor

something that has stood the test of

time and will be here long after we're

all gone. This is because number one,

the word of God is active. It isn't just

a book. It isn't just like pa words on a

page. In fact, here's what the word says

about the word in Hebrews 12, chapter 4,

forgive me, in verse 12. For the word of

God is alive

and active. Now, is the word of God

alive and active because like it's a

hocus pocus magical book? No. Because

the word of God is of God and God is

alive. And I love this. It's active.

Isn't alive and passive. Isn't alive and

sleepy. Isn't alive and lo. It's alive

and active. SHARPER THAN ANY

DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. That would have been

a a metaphor. But back think about back

in the day, a sword was the most one of

the most, you know, uh most obvious

forms of of of battle of of of conflict.

And so think about like the sharpest

version of AI. Like it's it's sharper

than any AI, any program, any virus. It

penetrates even to dividing the soul and

spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the

thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

WHICH IS WHY SO OFTEN WE don't like the

word because we want to surround

ourselves with people we follow on

Instagram who agree with us and friends

who don't call us out on our nonsense.

We want lots of yes people even though

deep down inside we wish that someone

would just tell us the truth. Well, your

heavenly father lovingly every single

day will tell you the truth if you meet

him in his word. It is active. But

number two, it also activates.

In Romans chapter 10 verse1 17, it says

Romans 10 · chapter mention

this. So faith comes by hearing and

hearing by the word of God. Faith is

trust. Faith is the bridge that connects

us in relationship to our heavenly

father. If we want to grow, if you're a

person with no faith, go man, I got no

faith. I challenge you. Read the word of

God for 30 days. Start the Gospel of

John. Just read it and see if faith does

not come alive in your heart. If you're

a Christ follower, you're feeling like,

man, I just haven't felt that the

strength of conviction, that trust, I

feel weak in relation to God. Well, let

me ask them, when's the last TIME YOU

HABITUALLY, NOT like verse the day, like

cheating, like screen, you know, in, you

know, Bible advert. Oh, yeah. Praise the

Lord. Like when's the last time you

habitually were in God? Like when you

allowed yourself to rest in his presence

so he could speak to you in an unrushed

kind of way. If we want to grow our

faith, it comes by hearing the word

which is why again being in church is so

important. I mean there's seven days a

week and x amount of hours but when you

devote that's the key word when you

because it is a devotion. Like no one.

Well, let me say this. Most people don't

naturally fall out of beds in the

MORNING GOING, "LET'S GO TO CHURCH.

WOOHOO." Like Mario. No, that's not

that's not a normal human condition.

It's like if you're healthy, I get to go

to church and I'm excited for it. If

you're not, I have to go to church. And

if you're really far, I hate church.

Which is exactly where I was. Maybe

that's who you are today. But the point

is being here is important because when

you hear the word of God corporately,

pastorally, it helps your faith grow.

See, we need to be in the word

habitually. We can't just superficially

scan read on the train, on the dart, on

the Lewis, on the bus, like you know, on

the walk through. We can't be just just

like glimpse a verse. We have to be in

it. Why? Because when we are in the

word, then the word is in us. And when

the word is in us, it's like being it's

like someone downloading a program that

enables you to understand a language.

Now, there's verbs, there's nouns,

there's there's clarity as God speaks to

us. And simply put, again, this is if

you kind of boil down our church to what

it's all about. We're a church that

wants to inspire ordinary people to an

extraordinary purpose in Christ. if

we're to live out our extraordinary

purpose. If you're a person who's here

today, you're not not a Christ far,

don't know Jesus. God has a plan for

your life.

Like you're here for a reason. And so

much what you're looking for and

searching for is not found in a thing or

a place or a person outside Jesus. It's

found in him. And if you're a Christ

follower, we know this. But if we're

going to live out our extraordinary

purpose in life, then we have to level

up in our faith. So the question is, how

does the word help us to level up in

life? I'm going to give you six ways we

level up with the word. I'm going to go

quick. So, uh, trying to get lost as we

fly through these. And again, if you're

one of the many, many young people who

were at Pulse Camp last week and had a

great time and you're thinking, man, how

do I not lose that that that that PULSE

FACTOR IN MY LIFE? UNDERSTAND, it wasn't

pulse camp that changed your life. It

was the presence of God. And so if

you're thinking, how do I keep leveling

up post pulse? Don't worship pulse.

Worship the Jesus pulse. And listen

carefully to the next six things I'm

about to show you. Number one, we level

up in the word with conviction.

With conviction. It says in 1

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 4:5, the

Apostle Paul speaking, "For we know,

brothers and sisters loved by God that

he has chosen you." What a crazy

thought. God chooses you because our

gospel simply means good news came to

you not simply with words but also with

power with the Holy Spirit and deep

conviction. So what the apostle Paul is

saying is you didn't this wasn't just

like a bunch of opinions that we shared.

We didn't come and offer thoughts. We

didn't come and offer perspective when

we talked about the person of Jesus.

when we spoke God's word to you, it was

something that was done with power from

the Holy Spirit and with deep

conviction. If we want to level up in

the world, the word, my friends, we need

to believe in the word and to believe in

this instance means to put your weight

on it. It's like allowing someone to

carry you. Most of us can't remember the

last time another human being carried

us. The older you get, the bigger you

get, the less the less people there are

in the world who can do do those things

for you. But if you can remember the

last time you were carried, there's

something about, you know, like someone

holding the weight of your person,

right? I remember when I severed my

Achilles tendon uh two years ago playing

rugby and uh my brother, Pastor Sam and

Navin, he kind of like carry me into

hospital. It's a very humbling thing to

be carried. You better trust the person

when they're carrying especially when

half your leg is like gimpy and fallen

off. And so, you know, there's something

about I have to tr I have to I have to

demonstrate trust in my brother's

ability to carry me by by allowing him

to hold the weight the weight of my

person. To believe in the word means we

allow the word to hold the weight of our

person. My opinions aren't formed by my

culture, my family of origin, my

political outview outlook alone. My my

my views are fundamentally shaped by

what does the word say about this?

What's the word's opinion? What what's

the word like his opinion? What's the

truth of God's word when it comes to

this moment? And when we as Jesus

followers believe allow the weight of

our person to be in the word, this is

where our passion comes from. Because

when you know something to be true, you

can't help but feel passionate about it.

IT'S LIKE, I KNOW IT'S TRUE. I KNOW THAT

I KNOW THAT I know it's true. AND SO I

CAN'T H HELP IT BECAUSE I KNOW IT'S

TRUE. WHICH IS WHY SO OFTEN, listen

carefully believer, this is why so often

the enemy goes after your conviction.

He goes after your belief. Why? Because

if he can erode the foundation of

belief, he attacks your passion. And one

of the most powerful weapons that we

have as Jesus followers is that we are

passionate. In fact, one of the things

that makes my faith real to me every

single day, I started following Jesus

many, many years ago. I was a

16-year-old teenager. I put my faith in

God and his presence changed life. One

of the things that excites me all these

years later is he's still real to me.

His presence is still here. His person

is still changing me, which keeps my

passion going. It was Winston Churchill,

the former prime minister of Britain,

who led Britain through one of its

darkest hours during World War II, who

said, "One man, one person with

conviction will overwhelm a hundred who

have only opinions." See, if we're going

to level, we we need to we need to when

we're reading and engage with God's

word, decide, choose, I believe in this.

This what I believe. You got to believe

in something. And it's real belief. It

isn't changing every week what a

different Instagram uh person's opinion.

It's it's it's rude. It's established in

truth. Number two, if we want to level

up in the word, we got to level up in

character. In character isn't enough

just to look at the word. We have to

live the word. In fact, we need to live

it in a world right now where where

people don't value it or don't don't see

the the the uh benefit of it. It was in

2 Corinthians uh chapter 3 verse two of

the apostle Paul. In fact, he was

writing to the church because there were

some accusations against him. He was the

one that founded the church and some

leaders had come from another church

with letters of recommendation. And I

start asking questions like that Paul

guy, I mean he talks a lot. Where's his

letter of recommendation? He's like

letter of recommendation. YOU ARE OUR

LETTER. Like I don't need a letter. You

are the fruit of our ministry. Like you

are the proof of God's love at work in

this world. LIKE IF PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW

IS GOD still real? Is God still love

Ireland? LOOK AT OUR CHURCH ALONE. LOOK

AT THE HUNDREDS AND SOON THOUSANDS of

people that come to a lighthouse church

every single week. Look at the stories

of life change. Look at the connections

and friendships. The the liberation

happening IN FREEDOM GROUPS. ALL

HAPPENING ACROSS THE WORLD in Brazil

and we were in Latvia this year. Like

look at all the things that God is doing

in us and through us and you yourselves

will see we are a letter to Ireland that

God loves this island and he is a plan

for it and even though we have run away

from him he has not run away from us.

We are the evidence of the proof of

God's love. You show that you are a

letter from Christ the result of our

ministry written not in ink but the

spirit of the living God not in tablets

of stone but in tablets of human heart.

It's very important we understand that

the word is not something that we can

live in by ourselves. Solo Christianity

is nolo Christianity. There's no such

thing as a solo Christian. Like to be a

Christian means we're we're part of a

group who follow Jesus. Solo

Christianity is no Christianity. And so

if you're going to be Christ followers,

we're going to follow him. And we look

to our right and left, we're going to

find that other people are following

him. And it's probably worth our while.

It's probably wise for us to get

connected to some of those people to

build lifelong lasting friendships. So

not only could we have the crack and

hang out and you know share a pine but

also we have people in our corner who

will pray for us.

How many people in your life fast for

you? Like how many people do you FAST

FOR IN YOUR LIFE? Like we to be so

committed in communion not only with God

but with each other that there's like

three or four people in this church.

They're my people. That's my tribe. Like

I'm I can't be connected to everybody

but I'm connected to somebody and

therefore everybody is connected. This

is why we do connect groups and they'll

be launching just a few weeks and

launching a brand new season of groups.

And there's so many groups in all

locations and and and we try our best to

offer different times and different

activities. There's studies, there's

courses, there's hobbies, there's

freedom, so many things. But the bottom

line is here's the principle. We need to

be connected. If we're going to live out

God's word together, we need to be

together. Number three, we to level up

in connection. You think, man, is that

just talking about the last point? No.

No. I don't mean connection to each

other. I mean connection to God. We need

to be the word in our world. In fact,

oftentimes I think about this in many

instances, especially in Ireland, you

might be the only uh version of the word

that the world sees. Like you might be

the only word our world sees. People

don't know God. They don't know the

truth. They don't know how to even get

it. And so all they have cuz God planted

you in that street, in that apartment

block, in that office, on that train, on

that bus, he puts you with that group of

friends playing for that team. Like

everything about your place has purpose.

And in fact, if you really want to live

a fulfilled life as a Jesus father, if

you really want to begin to experience

your extraordinary purpose, rather than

looking at all the holes and flaws in

where you live, where you work, where

you play, ask yourself a better

question. What is your purpose here,

Lord? If I'm on this street, if I'm in

this apartment block, if I'm on this bus

every morning, if I'm in this place,

surely there's a all of my days, all my

steps are end. So surely there's a

purpose to my place. When we align

ourselves to God's purpose, there's

power in that. And one of the most

important

uh things at stake there is that for

some people on that bus, on that train,

in your apartment block, on your street,

in your office, is you may be the only

representation of Christ they'll ever

see. It was in John's gospel chapter 1

vers4 where the apostle Paul apostle

John Freeman said this the word became

flesh

and made his dwelling among us speaking

of Jesus John says we have seen his

glory the glory of the one and only son

who came from the father full of grace

and full of truth the word dwelling

there he came the word became the word

came as a person that's referring to the

incarnation of Christ

what's what's what's so cool are crucial

is he came and he dwelt. He didn't come

to pay a passing visit. He didn't come

to pop in to check in. He wasn't just

passing by. He came to dwell. He came to

put down roots. Why? Because love is

permanent. Love is consistent. Love is

practical. Love stays. Love endures. In

fact, the apostle Paul would say in 1

Corinthians 13, love perseveres. And if

we are to be the representation of this

love to the world in which we live,

North Dublin, West Dublin, Nav and all

the other locations by God's grace that

we will plant in the coming years. We

need to be love in action in our

communities. And we can only do that

when we're in connection to him, when

we're when we're we're we're we're close

to him. We're we're we're interacting

with him. came. It was Christine Kaine

who said, "Jesus didn't come to make us

safe."

Boom. He came to make us dangerous to

the kingdom of darkness. You see, we're

told over and over again that there's

there's a kingdom of darkness and

there's a king of darkness. And what

this king of darkness does is it it

enslaves people spiritually. It binds

them up in addiction, in hopelessness,

in depression, in guilt, in debt, in

shame. It make What do we do when we're

ashamed? We hide. We isolate. We

withdraw. We create another version of

ourselves that isn't the real version

because we feel like if people were to

know who I really am, they would reject

me. And this kingdom of darkness is

literally destroying lives. Jesus told

us that he came to destroy the king of

darkness and we as his people are called

to be a representation of that love in

every community where God planted us.

The only thing that the king of darkness

is afraid of is when God's people wake

up to their calling and start leveling

up in the word. Because when a church

starts being a church, praying and

fasting, giving, serving, seowing, doing

all the things a church should do, and a

church is at its best, well then the

gates of hell, Jesus promised us would

not prevail. God's not going to make us

safe, to give us a comfortable seat in

churches in the morning. The gospel came

to make us dangerous to the kingdom of

darkness. Number four, we level up in

content. This is so important. We to

know the word. One of the challenging

things I think about growing our faith,

especially in a world where we're so

information saturated, but we can

literally right now, touch your finger,

Google, fact, check anything. Back in

the day when I first became a Christian,

if I was in church like you are right

now, and the preacher said something and

I wanted to check it, well, I had to get

in my car. I didn't have a car, get on

my bicycle and cycle home and go to my

bookshelf, realize, oh, I don't have any

Bible books. So, I had to go to the shop

on the train to Dublin and go to the one

Christian book store in the whole

country and buy things like a

concordance.

Anyone ever heard of a concordance?

Anybody? No. No, of course not. Well, a

concordance was basically a book that

had every single word in the Bible

listed in alphabetical order. So, if I

was looking for apple, I go to

accordance and here's all the scripture

reference for Apple. That's how you

found stuff back in the day, people.

Okay? If you wanted to get more

information, you go to home to your

bookshelf and oh, I don't have Bible

commentaries. On the train to Oh, I got

to buy another book. AND BEFORE YOU KNOW

IT, JUST TO like know something, you had

like a whole bookshelf of books

explaining things. Whereas now, all you

have to do is Google it. Now, here's the

challenge. That's a great blessing, but

here's the challenge. The challenge is

we begin to get lazy by what we know.

We don't know because someone else

knows. And we trust our knowing to

software. And that's okay. For example,

if you're trying to make a Thai chicken

curry, I'm totally good with you like

not knowing that all the time in your

head. Okay. But like knowing your way

home for me, it's valuable. I I wouldn't

always trust Google Maps to know. You

should at least know where you live, how

to get there. It's a basic one for me.

But more importantly, knowing your way

home spiritually, knowing the word.

Jesus told us in in in Matthew's gospel

12:35 he said a good man brings good out

of the good stored up in his heart and

an evil man brings evil things out of

the evil store. Of course there's a

primary application but the secondary

application is this that whatever is in

you will come out and whatever is not in

you cannot come out. And so there are

times where we're going to need the

truth and power of God's word to be a

made available to us. But if it's not in

there, it can't come out. Which is why

it requires discipline. It requires

devotion. It requires

uh habits. It requires a plan. It

requires a program. You have to do

something consistently to get God's word

into you. Now, one of the things that we

recommend if you can't find something

better for yourself is a system called

SOAP. And we often joke about how it

isn't actual soap. It's an acronym and

it stands for this scripture observation

application prayer. What we encourage

you to do and you can do this with a

Bible app which is free. You can

download online. I don't know if you

know this but every single week all of

our message notes are on the Bible app.

So if you got the Bible app and find La

Church in your location you can find

today's notes there for you too. Um, but

you can go well and then there's plans

you can do like, man, I'm struggling

with worry or fear or anxiety or

addiction or my marriage or I'm a young

person or an old person, an unemployed

person, employed person, homeless

person, not a homeless person. Like

there's all sorts of of plans you can do

which are very good. There's like five

day plans, 7-day plans, there's 14-day

plans, 21 day plans, there's whole year

round plans. You can find something in

there to talk to you. And what it'll do

is it'll give you God's word every

single day. And what I what I what we

ask you to do is simply take a verse,

one scripture out of every read every

day and simply begin to make some notes

of what you see because it's important

you you engage. So like okay well you

know what Jesus talked to this guy and

this guy needed healing because he was

blind and that's pretty interesting and

then Jesus heal him. That's my

motivation. The key is then what what

does it mean for you? Like if that's

what what the scripture is that's what

you see what does it mean for you? Well

I guess it means two things. one, I

might be spiritually blind and not even

know it because if you've never seen

spiritually, how do you know if you're

blind or not?

Or maybe I'm going through something

right now and I and I it seems

impossible, but the same Jesus that

healed that blind man can heal me today.

And so, what's the prayer? Jesus, open

my eyes. Help me to see what's unseen.

And also, give me faith to trust. No

matter what I'm faced with, you're the

God of the impossible. like every single

day in God's word. And what's so cruel

and what's so amazing to me because you

can't make it up is like how when you're

going through stuff like God custom in a

custom way speaks to you. Sometimes

you'll be he'll be doing a going man

that's so interesting. Why is God saying

to me? And like ah I see I'll never

forget when one day I was speaking at an

event in Germany and I was doing my soap

and I was doing my thing. I was in

Proverbs and I felt God say, "I'm going

to give you a house." Like, because we

were renting, I was like, "Man, I mean,

my dream is to own a home, but being a

pastor in Ireland, own a home is

probably not going to be a reality, and

that's okay. I I'll gladly sacrifice

that for King of God." Uh, but I felt

God said, "No, this is for you." And so,

I got really excited and I phoned Lord

and I was like, "No way. I'm at home."

And I felt like GOD SAID THE SAME THING.

LIKE, THIS IS AMAZING. The next day, my

landlord found me and said, "You guys

got to go in two months because I'm

coming home."

Oh, okay. And then that led to us being

like homeless for a year.

Okay. AND THEN WE GOT A HOUSE. BUT THE

POINT IS I couldn't fully understand.

But God was giving me what I need before

I even knew I needed it. He was saying

to me, "Hey, I got you. It's going to be

tough, but hey, I'm going to be with you

and you're going to see something

incredible." Here's a picture of my soap

from last week. This is a typical soap

for me. So, I don't like big books. I

don't write too much. which I'm very

succinct. So I'm very slowly broken to

the book of Romans uh day which is

Thursday 3rd of July 2026. Who are you

to judge someone else's servant to their

own master servant stand or fall and

they will stand for the Lord is able to

make them stand. So my observation is

someone else's freedom or restoration

uh as a ma someone else's freedom or

restoration may be a matter of for

discussion but not judgment. Good

thought. Um, essentially another Christ

follower answers to Christ as king and

not us. Therefore, it is not our place

to pass judgment. That's my observation.

That's good. That sounds good for a

sermon. How does it apply to me? This is

an issue of the heart. And critiquing

and discussing is one thing, but

criticizing and judging is another. So

basically what I'm saying myself is it's

okay to have a thought a feeling about a

certain thing but when you cross over

into judgment that becomes an issue of

the heart. It is not our job to judge

another person's freedom. They stand or

fall based on the Lord's grace. Father

help me to be tolerant to show

be slow in uh criticism uh and just to

love. Amen. That's it. And so for the

rest of the day in the back of mind was

this like thing of like you know what

anytime I see something where someone's

doing something I don't agree with or

don't like or don't understand rather

than jumping to judgment I'm going to

hold back and understand that especially

in context if they're a Christ father

they answer to Christ I'm going to pray

for them and rather critiquing and

criticizing judging I'm going to trust

that God's grace will give them what

they need to stand with me now you

imagine this being a hab single day

God's just slowly shaping working

changing you. It will change life. So if

you have never soaped, here's my primary

application today for you from this

message. What make commit commitment

tonight on your phone, in a notebook,

wherever to open God's word, to get a

plan, start a book, go to get a Bible

app plan, and just start soaping and

just keep doing it and just keep doing

it until the day comes you go, man, this

is so important to my life. I cannot

live without doing it. I started soaping

in the year 2008. That's how long I've

been doing this. It's changed style over

the years because life changes, but

essentially I've done the exact same

thing for whatever that is now, almost

20 years. My goodness, I'm old. Um

because it works

because I can hear God's voice. It was

Charles Haden Spurgeon, the famous

Enlightenment preacher who said, "If you

wish to know God,

you must know his word. If you wish to

perceive his power, you must see how he

works by his word. If you wish to know

his purpose before it comes to pass, you

can only discover it by his word. If you

wish to know God, you must know him in

his word. Okay. Second last, we level up

in confidence. Now, I talked about how

we to trust the word, how we to believe

in it. Um, when it comes to our

confidence, if you think about

conviction as being this idea, next

slide, please. So, we trust in the word.

Yeah. And so conviction is trusting that

the word works in me. But confidence is

trust the word will work in others.

Conviction is like this thing like if I

trust and if I give my if I allow the

weight of my person be it God will do

something. But also confident that God's

work God's word works in the lives of

other people. It was Jerry Jerry Bridges

the Christian author who said this. He

said trust is not a passive state of

mind. It is a vigorous act of the soul

by which we choose to hold on the

promise of God and cling to them despite

the adversity that at times seeks to

overwhelm us. Meaning we're faced with

things in our marriage, in our

friendship, in our in our in our school

school or place of work. We can trust

not only does God God's word work in our

lives, but God's word works anywhere.

Which is why one of the greatest gifts

we can give people isn't just a hey man

praying for you but actually I have

prayed for you and God gave me this word

and the word he's given me isn't my word

it's a scripture from his word because

his word never returns empty but always

fulfills the purpose for which it was

sent. It was why the authors author of

Hebrews said in verse one of chapter 11

faith is confidence in what we hope for

and assurance of what we do not see. Let

me close off last point then we're going

to pray. We level up finally with

courage. Courage. This this is kind of

kind of another application. There comes

a point where like we're leaning in the

word. We're communing with God in the

word. God is speaking to us through the

word. We're understanding the word.

We're so at some point the word's got to

get out of us. And it is a word. So

what's the primary way you communicate a

word? You speak the word.

And our world right now is desperate for

messages of hope. Not just not just

variations or opinions or versions, but

the capital T truth of hope. It was the

apostle Paul who said in Romans chapter

Romans 1:16

1 verse 16 and 17 said, "I am not

ashamed of the gospel." Gospel means

good news. Why? Because it is the power

of God that brings salvation to everyone

who believes. No person's too far, too

sinful, too broken. No person's fallen

beyond the reach of God's grace. God's

good news is this good. No matter who we

are, what we've done, or where we find

ourselves, when we put our trust in him,

there's power that changes our life.

Paul goes on to say in verse 17, for in

the good news, the gospel uh the

righteousness of Christ of God is

revealed a righteous that that is by

faith from first to last just as written

the right to live by faith. See,

righteous means made right with God.

It's like when you do something uh that

offends someone you love or care for, a

work colleague, a neighbor, a parent, a

spouse, it's like you ask question, WHAT

CAN I DO TO MAKE IT RIGHT? WHAT DO I HOW

DO I repay? What do I have to do to win

back your trust? And of course, if

you've ever been in a human relationship

with your broken trust, you know, it's

so quick to so quickly lost but so hard

to get back, isn't it? Well, imagine if

you will that you have offended the

creator of the universe.

And imagine that on his chest table, he

doesn't deal with not answering text

messages or ghosting at parties. He

created the universe. He deals in life

and death.

He deals with separation which for him

is eternal not temporal like our life.

How do we fix that?

And the answer is we can't we can't fix

that. And God knew that. So God sent

Jesus to fix it for us. They go that

doesn't sound very fair. Like you tell

me Jesus went and paid the price that of

my mess and I have to Yeah. So what do I

do? Receive it.

What? Just Yeah. Just take it. like I've

already gone. I know you screw up. I've

already gone and paid that for you. Just

have it. Like but I FEEL BAD. I feel

like what should I do? It's like yeah,

enjoy it. In fact,

this is why Christians worship.

Thank you, God, that he would do this

for me. Wow. See, it hits different when

you sing a Christian song having

experienced the power of Christ. It's

why sometimes people watch

go, man, that dude's really he's not

into it. God's in him. If you knew what

God did for him, if you knew what God

did for me, then you begin to understand

the way I worship. The good news, the

gospel is that Christ made it possible

for all of us who are far from him to

come home.

And it is our job, our duty, our

responsibility

as his people to speak the word. It was

Francis Aisi the famous Catholic saint

of the 13th 12th 13th century said

remember that when you leave this earth

you can take with you nothing that

you've received only what you were given

only what you have given a full heart

enriched by honest service love

sacrifice

and courage