Don't Move The Furniture | 2 Kings 16:10-18 | Patrick Coleman

Well, good morning.

Thank you all so much for this opportunity.

This means a lot to me.

This church has been led by two men that really have been impactful in my life.

Larry was part of my life when I was a young Christian, poured into me.

And now my son to be able to lead this church is is very exciting for me.

So I'm very honored to be here this morning.

I used to get to do this on a regular basis.

I used to teach consistently, but it's been a long time.

So if I seem a little bit nervous, uh that's just kind of part of it.

I see a lot of familiar faces out here this morning.

I don't know a lot of names.

Uh this two minutes that they share each week and go around, that's like two hours to me.

It's the most fearful time in my life.

I'm just not real, and believe it or not, I'm in sales, so I have to deal with people regularly.

But one-on-one going out here and introducing myself, uh, that's a little bit daunting for me.

So uh if you watch this morning, I'll probably find a familiar face in there and I'll kind of stick with it.

I see Amy in the back, so I've known her for quite a while.

But I when this opportunity came out, I'm always excited because the Lord is so sweet.

And when it came time to find a thing, something to speak on, it's always there.

And he's always been very kind to say, hey, here's where it is.

And I remember when I was a young Christian, and and and Larry had encouraged me to read my Bible, and and I got up and I started reading.

And I remember the first time I got into you know the kings of Israel and Judah.

I go, man, this is gonna be great.

And I got in there, and they were a mess, an absolute mess.

I was like, I expected just grandeur, and and I've got a little chart that uh that I saw, and it showed all the kings of Israel, and it was pink if they were not good, it was green if they were good, and it was yellow if they were kind of good, but not so good.

And it is covered in pink and yellow.

There's very little green when you start looking at it.

So this morning I want to share uh from one of the kings of Israel, and he was one of the ones that wasn't so great.

Uh, it was a king by the name of Ahaz.

And 2 Kings 16, 10 through 18 is where we'll kind of start.

And I'm gonna try to read this from here, and uh that's gonna be a struggle.

It says, Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet with Tigalith Pilsar, king of Assyria.

He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar with detailed plans for its construction.

So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before the king returned.

When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it.

He offered up burnt offerings, grain offerings, poured out drink offerings, and splashed the blood of the fellowship offerings against the altar.

As for the bronze altar that stood before the Lord, he brought it from the front of the temple, from between the new altar and the temple of the Lord, and put it on the north side of the new altar.

King Ahaz gave these orders to Uriah, the priest, on the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering, and the grain offerings, and the burnt offerings of the people of the land, and their grain offerings and their drink offerings, splash against this altar, the blood of all the burnings of the sacrifices.

But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.

And Uriah the priest did as King Ahaz had ordered.

King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands.

He removed the sea from the bronze bulls and supported it with a stone base.

He took away I can't see them the Sabbath canopy that had been built in the temple and removed the royal entryway outside of the Lord in the in deference to the king of Assyria.

You know, there was something, there's a lot of things there.

There's a ton in that, and just those few verses.

But what really stood out to me when I started looking at Ahaz was his he was so intentional in this new altar.

He went to Damascus and he's like, hey, this is really cool.

I need me one of these.

I need y'all to come over here, and I need you to get me some sketching, and I need some detailed plans, and I need to send them back to Uriah, and I need Uriah to hook me up with one of these.

And that's what we saw.

We saw he sent it back.

And it got me to thinking in my walk and with our walk with the Lord, we have the option.

We can be intentional in our walk and doing things that are sweet and doing things that encourage our walk and our relationship with the Lord, or we can be intentional in things that are outside the goodness of God.

And on things that, if I say, you know, it's really not that big a deal if I pour into my work or if I pour into exercise or I pour into these things, they don't matter one way or the other.

But it's so important that we learn that it we need to be intentional.

Many of us, if you've read through your Bible, you remember that God gave us free will.

So we have the ability to make choices.

We can either follow in a path that is in line with where he desires us to be, or we can follow in a path that just kind of is what it is.

So I want to look at a couple areas this morning where I think if we're intentional in our walk and intentional in being very deliberate, that it will help us in our walk with the Lord and it will make our lives better.

The first area that I want to speak to is being intentional in guarding where you allow yourselves to be.

We see from Ahaz, Ahaz ends up in Damascus.

Do we believe Ahaz needs to be in Damascus?

Nope.

Ahaz is somewhere he doesn't need to be.

You know how I know that?

Because when he goes there, it makes him desire things outside of God's will for his life.

He desires an altar, and he desires an altar to take the place of the altar that was designed by God, given to Solomon, and placed exactly where the Lord wanted it to be.

So I can tell you that because Ahaz allows himself, has allowed himself to be somewhere he shouldn't be, he's in a place that he is in a bad place.

It's intentional he should be intentional in not being there.

And it's funny because uh when I started thinking about being intentional uh in where we are, uh many times are there are areas in our lives that we go, you know, this is a safe place for me.

A lot of us, our home is a safe place.

I can be in my home and I'm good.

As long as I can get home, I'm good.

Next slide.

In 2 Samuel 11, 1 through 4, this is on David.

It says, In the spring of the year, the time when the kings go to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.

But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened one late afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.

And David sent and inquired about the woman.

And one said, Is that not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him and lay with, and he lay with her.

Now she had been purifying herself from the uncleanness.

Well, here we see with David, David's in his house.

I'm in my safe place, I'm at home.

But David's in his home at a time that he shouldn't be there.

And I think for some of us, there are times that our home is not a safe place for us to be.

When we're in our home and there's not guardrails in place, there can be things that can happen there.

So I think it's very important that we're intentional in not allowing ourselves to be in places we know we shouldn't be, and in even places that we feel like we should be allowed to be at times that we shouldn't be there.

Does that make sense?

I hope it does.

So it's funny because when I thought about these, when I thought about these places and why uh a good place can be a bad place and a bad place can be a bad place.

Uh if we look at the next slide, 1 Peter 5.8 says, be alert and sober-minded.

Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking to looking for someone to devour.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna age myself here.

When I was young, uh there was a show that used to come on TV, and I thought it was one of the greatest shows ever, and it's back in the day when we had like three channels.

And it was Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom.

And some of you may remember that, and if you do, you know the joy that was because we didn't have Discovery Channel.

So when it came to seeing animals, and I love the zoo and I love animals, and this was something that I really and it was like Marlon Perkins, and the other day was Jim Fowler, and this is usually the way it went.

Marlon and Jim would go out, we're gonna look for an anaconda.

Hey, Jim, go over there and walk in that creek and see.

Next thing you know, a 20-foot anaconda's around Jim, and and it's not going well for him.

But um, but one thing I learned is is they they they did this show on lions.

And you'll realize if you've ever studied a lion, a lion isn't the most active animal out there.

It's kind of lazy, but what it does, it's very observant and very aware of its prey, how they go about their lives.

And the way a lion will usually hunt is hey, I know one thing.

If I lay down over here by this water hole, I bet something's gonna come over here and have a drink.

How do I know that?

Because I've seen it happen over and over.

Well, Satan is likened to a lion, and he's very observant, and he has spent enough time knowing if Colton goes to this place in this situation and I lay this in front of him, the likelihood that he's gonna trip up and be tempted is very, very hard.

It's probably gonna happen for him.

So that's why it's important that we as followers of Christ are very careful because Satan's desire, and it says right here, is to devour us.

It's not for you to have a sweet walk.

And what may seem simple and not so not a big deal, hey, and I can I can I can tell you, I used to duck hunt with some guys that were the sweetest guys I would go, I could be around.

I could not be around them, though, because when I went, things would come out of my mouth that I did not want coming out of my mouth.

Not because they were bad people, but because I put my place in a situation that I shouldn't have been.

And I had to make a choice.

I'm not gonna do this anymore.

And that's what we've got to do.

Next um area I think we need to be intentional is intentional in talking to God or prayer.

One of the most important things, parents, that you can do is learn to pray for your kids.

What we don't see in the verses on Ahaz is Ahaz was being threatened by another army.

They were gonna come in and attack him.

Uh and Ahaz says, Well, hey, what can I do?

I got all these treasures, so I'm gonna go out here to this king of Damascus and say, hey, dude, come on up here.

I'm gonna give you a bunch of treasures, and you get on my side, and then this other army will leave me alone.

And that's pretty much what happened.

He he hired this other guy to come in and pretty much be a mercenary and not allow this other army to come in and attack him.

What we didn't see, and what and and when you read through the the the guys, the kings of of Israel, and what you'll see so often is they never seek God's face.

Ahaz never went to the Lord and said, Hey, this dude's coming and I'm afraid of him, but can you please help me?

One of my favorite verses.

And Matthew 27, 51 says, And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

When Christ went to the cross and laid his life down for each and every one of us, and his blood spilled out, he said it is finished.

And when he said it is finished, the veil or the curtain in the temple split from top to bottom.

That veil was what kept you and I from having communion with a holy God.

We were separated from a holy God until Christ went to the cross, allowed his blood to cover us.

We did not have the ability to have direct access to God.

His sacrifice gave us the ability to come directly to the throne room of Christ with our request, with our praise, with our worship.

Satan's desire is for you to continue through your life without talking to God.

I think prayer for many of us is a hard thing.

Uh you will find what works for you if you try.

If you come to my house, I write my prayers down.

If I don't write them down, I get lost.

Things pop into my mind.

So I'm very conscientious about writing my prayers down, and it has worked for me.

And why does Satan not want us to pray?

Next slide.

In James 5, 16, it says, Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed.

The fervent prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Satan does not want you praying because he understands that when you do, it's powerful, it helps, it works.

Um next slide, because that righteous person for me kind of got me for a while.

I was like, oh, you know, the fervent prayer of a righteous person.

And I'm pretty simple.

I need things really simple to understand it.

And I was like, Lord, I really need to understand that righteous person thing.

And Genesis 15, 6 says, and he believed in the Lord, and it was accounted to, he accounted it to him as righteousness.

So if we take that verse, next slide, it says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The fervent prayer of a righteous, someone that believes in God's ability and God's promises, that person, when they pray, it's powerful and effective.

So when you come to the throne room of God, because Christ tore the curtain from top to bottom to allow you access, when you come there, you've got to come believing that what I'm bringing to you, you can fix it.

You can help me.

I think a lot of times we pray just prayers, and we don't expect anything from it.

I think when you come to the throne room of God and you pray, I bet if your child is sick and you pray for your child, you pray fervently.

All your prayers should be fervent, all your prayers should be instinctive, all your prayers should be powerful.

So be intentional, regularly pray in belief in God's ability.

His word tells us when we do, it's effective and powerful.

It's life-changing, it's generational changing.

Uh next area, uh, one that really kind of stands out is being intentional in our offerings.

2 Kings 16, 12 through 13, back to Ahaz.

He says, When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it.

He offered up his burnt offerings, grain offerings, poured out his drink offerings, splashed the blood of fellowship offerings against the altar.

And sometimes when I read God's word, I'm like, that's a little um sometimes I wonder why he's so specific.

All the offerings.

Why didn't he just say he brought his offerings to the altar?

And then this one really stood out.

He brought everything he had to that altar.

Everything he had, he brought to the new altar.

It wasn't for us, it's very easy for us to get um caught up in pouring into things that may seem uh important.

Uh I know many of us pour into our jobs.

It's how we pay the bills, how we support our families.

Many of us pour into um Billy and Susie's sports or whatever it is because that's important, because I want to be a good parent.

Uh many of us pour into being healthier, living a healthier lifestyle.

But it's very easy for us to allow those things to receive everything we have.

In the same way Ahaz poured everything out on the new altar.

Nothing was left for the bronze altar that was originally there.

He says, I'll leave that there, and if I need to seek God, I'll go over there.

But we see he instructed Uriah to go, and all the offerings were going to go on the new fancy altar.

So it's important that you are intentional in where you allow your offerings to go.

It's funny.

Um, next slide.

And to understand what God desires from us in our offerings.

It says, honor the Lord with his possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase.

So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

Um I used to teach with a guy, uh, and I really didn't understand first fruits.

I'm not gonna lie.

And I taught with a guy, and he was a um kept horses, and he had a hay field.

And one Sunday morning we came into church and said, you know, how what you do this weekend?

He goes, Oh, I cut hay.

He's got a hay field, and I cut hay this weekend.

I was like, that sounds horrible.

But he explained to me it was the first cut of the year.

So this field been growing all year and he'd never cut it before.

Hadn't cut it all year.

He says, I'm gonna, I cut this one and I put it in my barn.

This one I keep for myself.

He said, because the first cut of the year has the most nutrition in it.

Has the it's the best.

It's the best you can ever have.

And I don't think he really realized how much he taught me that day about understanding the first fruits or the first of our offerings coming to the Lord, why it's so important that we give God the first of our time, the first of our mind.

Because when I talk about offerings, I'm not just talking about your money, your time, your mind, what you allow in here.

Do you build it up?

Your money.

Does God get the first of your offerings, or does he get what's left over?

Do you give out of abundance or do you give out of the first that he deserves?

And I don't, I'm not getting into your finances, I'm just trying to share what he desires.

And I think it's really, really cool when you look at this verse, because when he says, When you do that, when you give me the first fruits, your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

When you give out of your first fruits.

He's gonna pour into you.

And it doesn't say your barns will have enough in there.

There's enough.

No, it says plenty.

Your vats will overflow.

You realize in when I think about overflowing, when we as Christians or we allow ourselves to be overflow with God's Spirit, it pours out and it gets on other people.

And that's what I see when you're obedient in your offerings, that God's Spirit will overflow and get on other people.

May not be biblical, but that's uh that's kind of my thing.

Uh the next one, I think it's important that we're intentional uh in our worship and praise.

We noticed in Ahaz really doesn't say he didn't he didn't uh uh worship God, but we also saw that he brought all his offerings to the new altar.

So most likely God was not a part of it, of his thing.

And I'll be honest, these guys, these young people that get up here every week and bless us with music, uh, it's biblical.

Uh I love that God's desire was that we come in, we are led into his presence by music.

And when men and young women come in here that are gifted by the Lord to do what they do, and they do it obediently week after week, it is just the sweetest thing that they have dedicated their lives to come in here and to lead each and every one of us truly into the presence of the Lord.

Um but I'll be honest, if each and every one of us allow these four songs a week to be my worship, we're in a place that we probably shouldn't be.

Four songs on a Sunday morning will never give you enough, will never be enough.

Um I think that it's um let's see here.

Sorry, I got lost.

See the next slide there.

So worship is for us.

Because I thought about that, worship changes who we are.

God, it says, all the earth worships you and sings praises you.

They sing praises to your name.

God is gonna get his worship, whether you and I give it to him or not, creation and all the the verse that was read this morning, sing holy, holy, holy.

All day, every day, he is gonna get his whether you and I give it to him or not.

So worship is the ability to change you.

Worship will change you, and it will be sweet.

Um there is a point in time if you allow worship to be authentic and worship to be real in your life, when your spirit that lives in you comes into one accord with God's spirit that lives in you.

It is one of the sweetest moments you'll ever experience in your life.

And it's available to you on a regular basis if you will just allow it to happen.

I think God not only desires our worship, but he desires it to be authentic.

And I'll share what that is.

I think a lot of us uh get very buttoned up in our worship.

And I think that is a lot of times directed because of traditions and religion.

I think we're very buttoned up.

Colton last week, he spoke that God loves celebrations.

And we don't when we button up our worship, when we try to keep it where, hey, this is where it needs to be, um it's not authentic and it's not real.

Uh I'll give you an example.

Uh I've got a cousin that lives in Pensacola and had the opportunity to see her a few weeks ago.

And my papa was a Southern Baptist preacher.

So he was hardcore, staunch.

He was he was all in.

And um my cousin gave her life to the Lord and loved Jesus.

And uh my papa was coming down, and he was gonna preach in Pensacola, so she was gonna go get to see him.

And he says, Julie, just remember you can't say amen and you can't say hallelujah while you're in church this morning.

My papa would never ask somebody to quench the spirit, but because of traditions in religion, he asked her, please don't speak out in church.

And she loved Jesus and she was very open to telling people about it.

Um next slide.

There's a song out there, it's one of my favorites.

Uh it's by, it's called Make Room by Community Music, and it says, Shake up the ground of all my traditions and break down the walls of all my religion.

Your way is better, oh, your way is better.

I think that should be the desire of our hearts that we look to break down the walls and the traditions and the things that don't allow us to worship authentically.

Worship the Lord the way that he desires us to worship him, worship him openly, not to be worried about what's going on.

Um and in the next one, uh, one of the uh modern-day prophets, really not, but uh I think uh this is like old school David Crowder.

This is not Crowder Crowder, this is old school Data Crowder.

But if you look at this, and this was based on David coming into the uh coming into Jerusalem, bringing the Ark of the Covenant in, and it says, I will dance, I will sing, to be mad for my king.

Nothing, Lord, is hindering this passion in my soul.

I will dance, I will sing to be mad for my king.

Nothing, Lord, is hindering this passing in my soul.

And I will become even more undignified in this.

Some may say it's foolishness, but I become even more undignified in this.

Leave my pride by my side, and I'll become even more undignified in this.

Some may say it's foolishness, but I'll become even more undignified in this.

I challenge you to be a little bit open with your worship.

It can be wherever it needs to be.

This may not be where you feel comfortable being open.

That's okay.

Um, but find a place to love on the Lord and allow the worship to come through you to Him, whether that's a walk, whether that's a drive, whether that's your living room, whether it's your office, whatever it may look like in your life, find time that you don't leave yourself four songs on Sunday morning to carry the worship that you have for the Lord.

And if you haven't experienced Maverick City music, one of my favorite, uh I listen to them every day, every day.

Uh Elevation Worship, the Come to the Altar, one of my favorite songs.

Uh just glad that they we played that this morning.

Uh feel welcome, Brandon Lake.

There's a lot of them out there.

Uh there's a dude, his name is F.

J.

Hugel.

Uh this is what he says about worship.

We do not come to God primarily to ask things.

We come to worship one who's infinitely adorable, whom to know is to love, and whom not even eternity will afford sufficient opportunity to praise.

The fact of Calvary alone and the redemption that springs from it is a blessing so immeasurably great that it's set ringing all the joy bells of the heart, and gratitude so overwhelming that praise for all eternity is not sufficient.

He says, if we start worshiping the Lord today and we worship him completely through the remainder of eternity, it's not enough for even the sacrifice that Christ made for us.

I think that's just incredible.

So please don't uh try to allow this to be your place.

And lastly, um be intentional in your witness.

Struggle for me, not gonna lie.

This is probably the hardest one.

Uh when it comes to uh sharing your faith.

Um I did EE with Colton and Tina.

Uh for me, it was a it was horrible.

You know, uh knock on strangers' doors and try to get them to talk to you about Jesus.

But you know what?

It taught me a lot.

It taught me that when you're willing to do something outside of your comfort zone, there's something that happens, and you need God's strength and his help to do those things.

So I did it, and I did it for a long time.

Uh, and and it was something that I'm glad I did.

But for most of us, when we're honest, um witnessing or sharing our faith with a stranger or family.

Family's even worse than than strangers.

Um but I think it's important, next slide, is that we look at Matthew 28, 19 through 20.

It says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

This was the very last thing that Jesus commanded the disciples before he ascended to heaven.

And I think it's really important to see that he didn't say, My blood has covered you, you're good, just live your life.

One of these days you're gonna meet me in heaven, and we're gonna hang out.

It was important for him to say, Hey, I'm not leaving you here just to enjoy life.

It's important because you know what?

There's a lot of lost people around here that you need to get out and help to uh spread the word.

You know what?

The disciples were freaking bosses, as Colton would say.

You know, they rolled out and like hammering everybody, hey, come here, come here, hey, over here.

Um but I think that is for us, some of us may say, and even some of the pillars of the Bible, Moses says, No, I can't do that.

I'm not a good speaker.

I can't speak.

Some of us may say, I struggle with memorizing verses.

I think when we look at our lives, um, God has given us all something that we can use, and that's our testimony.

Our personal testimony is our fingerprint of our relationship with God.

Our testimony is our testimony.

I don't care how similar your life is to someone else, it's still different.

And it's you.

And that's something that you can share easily.

Didn't say it's got to be full of verses.

This is what the Lord has done for me.

This is how he changed my life.

This is how he changed my family.

That is your testimony.

Powerful.

Sorry.

More powerful than anything else you can share with someone what the Lord has done for you and how he has changed your world.

Look at a story here.

Uh one of my showed you my favorite, one of my favorite verses.

Uh, sorry, next one.

So this one here says they went across the lake to the region of Garisonese.

When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.

This man lived in the tombs, and no one can bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke his irons and feet.

No one was strong enough to subdue him.

Not a dead night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell at his knees in front of him.

He shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?

And in God's name, don't torture me.

For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you impure spirit.

So uh kind of tell you, this one here, Jesus has been ministering, and they get in the boat and they cross the sea, they go to Garashenes, which is a place that nobody wanted to go, you shouldn't have gone there.

Um and he comes, and as soon as he gets out of this boat, this man is drawn to him.

And it says the man lived among the tombs.

He lived among the dead.

When the Lord has really spoken to me is that each and every one of us get up every day and we walk among the tombs.

We walk among the dead every day.

We have lost people around us every day.

And because Jesus allowed himself to come here, his spirit drew this man to him, and he fell at his feet and he was healed.

And each and every one of us has the same spirit in us as we walk through the dead daily.

If we allow that spirit we talked about overflowing earlier, if we are very intentional and allowing God's spirit to work through us, you can change lives of the dead that you walk among every day.

This point in time that we are at today.

I don't know, it's funny, I started reading through some books with my of my Paul Paul's, and you'd read from some of these pastors back in the 20s and 30s, and you would have thought that the earth was falling in because men no longer wanted to wear suits to church and women were wearing pants to shirt.

But I look at what we are experiencing today in our communities, in our nations, in the world, and no more than today, people need to feel and experience the Spirit of God coming through each and every one of us.

That's why we're here.

So be intentional in your witness.

It's life-changing.

There's a couple more.

I'm just going to hit them real quick because I think I'm about time.

Oh, this was just a couple more.

When they came, Jesus saw that the man had been possessed by legions, sitting there dressed in right mind.

When we allow people that are inundated with darkness to experience the light of Christ, they will be in their right mind.

They have the ability to be changed.

And it says as Jesus was getting in the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged him to go with him.

Jesus did not let him go.

Go home to your people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.

Tell them your personal testimony of what the Lord has done for you.

So the man went home and began to tell in the diopolis how much Jesus had done for him.

And all the people were amazed.

All he wanted him to do, no, don't come with me.

Go and tell.

Go and tell.

Share your personal testimony.

That man didn't know a verse.

Not a verse.

Not a verse.

Just knew what Jesus had done for him.

Next.

So intentional, other areas to be intentional.

Intention in reading and spending time in God's Word.

Psalms 119, 11 says, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

I think that verse is so great.

It says, I'm going to hide it in there, and I'm probably still going to stumble around, but the more I hide in there, the better off I'm probably going to be, you know, moving forward.

So hide his word in your heart.

Encourage your children to hide his word in their heart.

It's effective.

It works.

Be intentional and being quiet with God.

It says that, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire sound a low whisper.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice to him that says, What are you doing here, Elijah?

Oftentimes when God comes to us, he's going to come to us quietly.

We are inundated with noise, everyday noise.

I mean, some of us are full of noise from the moment we roll out of the bed to the moment we roll back into bed.

It's very easy to be full of noise.

God's desire is for you to get quiet with Him.

Find a time.

Intentional.

Put it on your planner, put it on your calendar, put it on whatever.

I can tell you right now, if I've got a meeting, it's on my calendar.

And I know I've got to be there.

If I put this on my calendar, hey, I need to meet with God.

Intentional with your time to be quiet with Him.

And lastly, be intentional being the person God created you to be.

It says, I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well.

And that and that came to me just in uh when you looked at Ahaz, he went through and he not only brought the new temple, but he moved a bunch of furniture around and he put stuff here and put it over there.

And and we are the temple of the Most High God, and things are in us that are supposed to be in us.

And if we're not careful, we can allow things into us that shouldn't be in there.

We can move furniture around.

So don't move the furniture.

Let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are our Father.

We thank you that you are a good, good Father, and that you take care of us each and every day.

We thank you that your desires for our lives is perfection, that you desire us to be taken care of completely.

And Lord, I pray today that some of the words that are spoken today will touch our lives.

Lord, that we'll take them.

We will be better in our attention and we'll walk with you.

And Lord, that we'll be effective and change the lives of our family and others.

And we just thank you for all that you do.

Thank you for your mercy and grace that you cover us with each and every day.

And it's in your wonderful name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.