God's Will God's Way

Well, if you're new guys, first off, welcome.

My name's Justin.

Really, really excited that you're with us.

I will say this is, I think, my fifth Sunday in a row wearing a hat, and I am sorry.

Um, I just I really need a haircut and don't know what to do with it.

And so uh yeah, I'll probably not have a hat on next week.

And because I know some of us are like not hat people, and I'll I'll help you next week, but then I'll definitely have the hat the week after.

I'll take a break next week.

All right.

Um I had someone tell me the other day, like, you've worn a hat a lot lately, and I'm like, I I have.

I have.

I wear them every single day.

My kids haven't seen me without a hat on in months.

It's crazy.

Um, I'm really glad you're here.

Welcome.

We're a we're a church that believes in a few major things.

Number one, Jesus is the answer for life.

He is absolutely the answer for life.

We we need him more than we need anything else.

And so, no matter what you feel like you need this morning, no matter what you feel like is missing in your life, Jesus is the answer.

He is the answer.

And there's nothing in life that you could experience that would be more meaningful to you and more powerful than more category shifting than just knowing him more.

And so, if you don't know him, if you've never put your faith in him, you're new to the whole church thing, welcome.

And our hope is that you would feel zero pressure, but also you would feel compelled to understand that you were created by God and that you weren't just created to be a creature on this earth to live a life and then it's that's over.

You were created to know him.

You can know God.

I mean, Jesus left heaven, like Avery said this morning before that beautiful song, and he came to this earth to do a lot of things, but one of those things was so that we could know him, that we could relate to him in a whole different way.

And that's our heart, is that we would all know him and know him better.

And so, with that in mind, we're in a series that's gonna take us through most of the year called Getting to Know God.

Our whole purpose on Sundays is let's just get to know him better.

I'm not satisfied with how close I am to God.

I know how close he is to me, he's never far from us.

But I know that at least in how I think and how I live and how I prioritize my life, I could be much closer to him, and I want to be closer to him.

And so I want at the end of this year to be closer to him than when I started.

And I think for all of us, that would be the most worthwhile pursuit of your year is to say, Lord, I just want to know you better.

I want to get to know you more.

And to do that, we're doing something uh interesting, at least I hope it's interesting, hope you're not bored, but we're going through the story of a man named Abram and his wife Sarai, and later they're gonna have their names changed to Abraham and Sarah.

And these are people that God essentially adopts.

He chooses them, he sort of plucks them out of obscurity early in the story of the Bible in Genesis, and he starts to work through them, and ultimately he's gonna work through their descendants, and they're gonna become this nation, and he's gonna reveal himself to the entire world and ultimately bring his son Jesus into the world through that group of people.

We actually read about this in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.

Genesis 12:1–3

It says, The Lord said to Abram, Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make you famous, you will be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.

All the families on earth will be blessed through you.

And that has absolutely been fulfilled through Jesus.

God takes this couple, and they don't have kids, and that's actually a big deal for them.

They've tried and they can't.

And in their culture, in their time, that's even more difficult than it would be today.

And he says, I'm gonna make you into a family.

And then he said, I'm gonna make that family into a people.

And I'm gonna turn that people one day into a nation.

And through that nation, I'm gonna bless the whole earth.

But it starts with them.

And the crazy thing about it is, is God knows them really, really well, but they don't know him very well.

Abram knows of God, and he at least can recognize that God is calling him and speaking to him, but at the beginning of his journey, Abram does not know the heart of God, the nature of God, the character of God.

And so as the story of his life progresses, we get to learn who God really is, as Abram learns who God really is.

And many times it surprises him.

And I think it'll surprise us.

So even though we're going through the life of Abram and his family, he's really not the main character in his own story.

It is God.

He's the one we get to know the most.

Now, last week, where we left off, Abram had this amazing encounter with God.

I don't know if you've ever had an experience with God that changed your life.

Like in a moment, you knew nothing would ever be the same.

Abram has a moment like that.

And he has this vision, and God kind of walks him through this really interesting exercise, and it's God making him a promise.

And God is saying, Abram, those promises I made to you, they are going to happen.

I know it might feel like they're not going to happen.

I know that you don't have a child yet.

I know you don't have this land yet, but I'm telling you, I'm going to fulfill these promises through you and your descendants.

You can trust me.

And he makes this covenant, this deep promise with Abram.

It's very meaningful.

We talked about it last week.

So this is like a high point in Abram's life.

He encounters God, and God makes him this bold, powerful promise, and he has this one-on-one experience with God.

He's on cloud nine.

And this is where we pick up next.

Genesis 16.

Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had not been able to bear children for him.

But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.

So Sarai said to Abram, The Lord has prevented me from having children.

Go and sleep with my servant.

Perhaps I can have a child through her.

Abram agreed with Sarai's proposal.

So Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant, gave her to Abram as a wife.

This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.

So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant.

But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt.

Then Sarai said to Abram, This is all your fault.

I put my servant into your arms.

Now she's pregnant, she treats me with contempt.

The Lord will show who's wrong, you or me.

And Abram replied, Look, she's your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.

And then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.

Well, there's that.

Like I said, last week Abram's on a high point.

And look, this didn't happen the next day.

Sometimes in the Old Testament, you turn a page, ten years have gone by, right?

A decade has passed.

A lot's happened.

I want to stop and acknowledge a couple things real quick.

One, can we just acknowledge how wonderfully honest the Bible is?

It's so even in today's world, it's so refreshing.

Like there's no redacted lines in the Bible.

You don't turn, because like a lot of this chapter would be, it'd just be like black bars, you know, across the page.

Like we're just not going to tell people about it.

There's no like release the Abram Files outcries out there in the world.

You know?

There aren't.

And even though it's like, even though like that whole illusion is a disgusting thing, isn't it beautiful that in a world that is so corrupt where powerful people work so hard to hide the despicable things that they do?

Here's the Bible, and the people that it considers the heroes, it reveals to us their worst moments.

Guys, this is actually one of the most incredible uh testimonies that we have in Scripture to the authority of Scripture and the believability of Scripture.

Take the Gospels, for example, the books about Jesus.

Someone who would would make the argument that the disciples, the followers of Jesus, made up all those stories and wrote that all to you know mess with people and mislead people, and it was all made up.

It's so silly because one, we have so many historical verifications of things, but number two, all right, this was their plan, these obscure fishermen and the they're like, okay, here's what we're gonna do, guys.

We're gonna write this story, it's gonna get us killed.

And it's also gonna make us look stupid.

Because if you read the gospels, like they just mess up over and over and over again.

Like if Peter was about promoting Peter, he'd be like, no, don't put that in there.

Like, no, don't not that story.

Like, it's so genuine and it's so honest, and it records for us the worst parts of people's lives.

And I think that that is something when we read stories like this, we have to acknowledge that the Bible is so unique.

It doesn't put a shiny coat on life.

It is brutally honest and it tells us the truth.

And I think that that is wonderful and something that we should be encouraged by on a regular basis.

Second thing we can acknowledge, this is this is bad.

This is real bad.

I mean, it's just it's such a low point for Abram.

Here's his wife.

I mean, think about it.

It's easy to like blame Sarai because it's her idea.

Abram doesn't really seem to put up a lot of resistance to it, though.

You know, he's like, hey, I thought about it, and yeah, that's what I gotta do.

That's basically how that see.

I mean, it's it's actually like a super horrible example of leadership.

I mean, what would it have been like for Sarai as this wife who who has been promised by God to have children, can't seem to do it, clearly deeply insecure and filled with shame about that.

She feels like she probably feels like she's failing.

And if she would have come to Abram, who said, No, no, you are my wife, and I love you, and I'm committed to you.

And God made that promise to us.

And so I know you're at a low point, Sarai, but I am for you, I am with you, and we're gonna be okay.

That would have been an incredible moment.

But that is not what Abram does, it's not what he does.

And you know, it's a different time, different era, different culture, but regardless, God doesn't, this is not God's plan.

And the results are disastrous, truly disastrous.

This is not a happy-ending story.

Hagar's gonna have a son named Ishmael.

There's gonna be incredible division between Ishmael and his descendants, and the eventual son and the descendants of of Abram and Sarai.

And actually, if you know your history, much of that division still exists in the world today.

I mean, this is something that has had consequences that have lasted millennia.

The decisions we make are really important.

They're really important.

And we can obviously get into all the nuts and bolts of this and explore the fact that this is clearly something ridiculous and a level of stupidity that is truly noteworthy.

But let's let's be honest, how many of us, out of desperation, have convinced ourselves that something stupid was a good idea?

How many of us have done something that was wrong, or at the very least, morally questionable, because we were trying to make something happen?

I mean, all of us.

What this essentially is is an example, and we have many of these in scripture, of someone trying to do God's will, man's way.

Someone trying to do God's will, man's way.

And it is possible, even in a desire, a genuine desire, to see God's will and his promises fulfilled, to take matters into your own hands and choose the absolute wrong approach.

I mean, I've got stories of that.

I've got like goofy stories that are just like funny of times where you go, well, that backfired tremendously.

For example, when I was uh mid-20s, I was working here, I was hired here to be the youth pastor.

I moved from Kansas City, uh, Missouri, to come here in 2007.

So I've been here a long time.

And I was a child.

I was a child.

And so they hired us a child to take care of the children, is what happened.

And so I came and I was working with the middle school and the high school, and it I'll be honest, guys, it wasn't it wasn't going great.

I was way in over my head.

I really, really was.

And I felt very insecure in my standing because it wasn't it wasn't firing on all cylinders at all.

So one day I get called into the office of my bosses, and uh, I'll never forget this ever, for a lot of different reasons.

Steve, who was leading our church at the time, is my mentor, I love Steve.

Here's what he said He goes, you know, Justin, sometimes people just don't work out.

That's how he began the conversation.

You know, my mind is like, oh, here it comes.

And he says, so we've we've had to make a change in the children's area, and there was a gentleman named Penn, great guy, and it just wasn't working out, I guess, in the kids' area.

And so they're like, so Penn's not gonna be the children's pastor anymore.

And my first thought was, oh, thank God.

Which is a horrible thought, very selfish.

Like, clearly, oh whew.

Then I was like, Oh, poor Penn.

You know, like what are you what are you doing?

Pen Penn, he's fine, he's great.

But they're like, so next starting next week, you're gonna be the children's pastor, too.

And I was like, I didn't have kids yet.

I didn't particularly like small children.

You know, I was the they just have this kind of unpredictable energy, you know, like and I didn't have a say in the matter, you know, so I'm like, oh, okay.

And they gave me a week, and so I had a week, and they're like, we really want you to like bring life to it, like do something different.

And I was like, okay, what can I do?

So so here's what we did.

We found this uh vacation Bible school curriculum theme kind of thing, because we only had a week and we needed something to build on.

It was called Power Lab, and it was about God's power, but it had this kind of like scientific theme, and it was like molecules and you know, science experiments.

And so we we spent, I mean, I probably put in a hundred hours that week alone of just building a set and all this stuff.

When the kids walked in the room, it was like transformed, and we got these bubble machines that would like have bubbles flying in the air, you know, it kind of felt science-y, and it was like the kids are gonna think this is so cool, and we had music and all this stuff.

We had costumes, like we're all wearing white lab coats, like welcome to power lab, and it was this big deal.

And so here we are, first Sunday, and this is my big debut.

And I remember we're standing at the door, we got our white coats on, and this kid walks up and he starts to cry.

The first kid.

And he goes, I don't want to get a shot.

Like that's that was his that was his like understanding and context for people with white coats standing at a door.

He's like, I don't want to get a shot, and we're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no one's getting a shot today.

It's science themed, you know, and he's not loving it.

And so, you know, kids are coming in and we're like, we're we went from being excited to tell kids, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.

And then I'm like, but it's okay, I got an I got an AC in the sleeve kind of thing.

I've got uh I got a bubble machine.

So we turn on the bubble machine.

We might as well have fed the children drugs.

Uh it was like they had never seen bubbles before, and when that came on, the level of chaos that erupted in the room as children, and again, I have no experience with this, right?

I've never been a children's pastor.

I didn't even have children at the time.

So I'm just like, they'll think bubbles are cool.

No, they thought bubbles were, it was insanity.

The bubble machine lasted five seconds.

We shut the bubble machine off.

I it was the longest hour of my life.

Like when it was over, and this and our this is a true story.

This uh this little boy walked up to me at the very end.

His name was Leon.

And he tugged at my little white lab coat, and I look at him, and he's you know, he's here, and he looks right up at me.

And I'm thinking, okay, I'm imagining a sweet moment.

Like he, like, thank you, Pastor Justin.

And he looks at me and he goes, How dare you replace Pastor Penn?

And he walks away.

So the staff meeting, they're like, How'd it go?

I was like, it was good.

It was uh lot lots to build on.

Uh man, you know, and here's the truth.

I was trying to do a good thing.

I was trying to add excitement, I was trying to make the kids, you know, woo, and it just wrong approach.

Wrong approach.

That is an innocuous, innocent version of taking the wrong approach to accomplish something good and it doesn't quite work, but there are much more serious examples as well.

There's been so many times in my life where, you know, I I've decided to be less than honest.

So I lied.

In order to, you know, to get out of trouble.

I had moments where I could have done the right thing, could have stepped up, could have sacrificed of myself to bless somebody else, and I just said no.

But what's interesting is in this story, it's someone who's really trying to make a good thing happen, like God's will happen.

And it's it's almost like they want it so bad that the ends justifies the means.

And so I've been thinking about that all week long and just exploring this concept of what are the what are the things in life, what are the temptations and the moments that we face where we might feel a temptation or a draw or a pull to pursue something good in a way that isn't good.

You know, it's like God's will, man's way, God's will my way.

And I think that's a constant pressure.

Truly, I think it's a constant pressure to try to make the good things we know God has for us happen in our own way, and it very often ruins everything.

So I think we can learn from this story.

We're gonna learn something about God as well.

I just want to walk us through a few categories really quick.

I think these are categories that we often find ourselves tempted by, and I'll explain.

Uh, let's look at the first one.

Sometimes we decide to approach God's will in our lives, the good things that we know He has for us, and we get sabotage by trying to find the quickest way to make it happen.

And you see that here with Abram and Sarai.

I mean, it's been 10 years since they've settled in the land.

God said, I'm gonna give you a kid.

They probably thought soon.

If God spoke to you and was like, you're gonna have a child, you're like, awesome, you're probably getting a nursery ready.

And if he said a decade or so from now, like that would be a little bit of a bummer.

He didn't say that.

He didn't give them an expectation of time, and they thought it would happen much sooner.

So they're pursuing the quickest way possible.

And that's always a temptation in life.

How can I have it now?

There's a story that Jesus tells in Luke.

It's a very famous parable called the parable of the prodigal son, and here's how it begins Luke 15, 11, to illustrate the point further, Jesus told them the story.

A man had two sons, and the younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die.

This is like the OG J G Wentworth.

It's my money and I want it now.

Like this is the first guy to ever do that, okay?

Because he's basically saying to his father, I wish you were dead.

I just wish you were dead so I could have your money.

Because you're supposed to wait until your father passed.

That's the way it worked.

And so he goes on, he says, His father says, agreed.

Okay, fine, here's your portion to divide his wealth between his sons.

And a few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in a wild living.

I was talking about this story yesterday, and um, if you know the way that the story goes, things don't work out well for the son, and he ends up being impoverished, and he's his low point is that he's like having to eat what animals eat.

And I was talking about this with Megan, and my son Judah was in the room, and it was actually Megan's idea.

I was like, Megan, I'm trying to think through a story that's like someone wants something fast.

She's like, Oh, the prodigal son.

And my son Judas went, oh, the guy that had to eat the pig food.

That's his that'd be a great title on the top of that.

Like the guy who had to eat the pig food.

That is this man's that's what ends up happening to this guy because he couldn't wait.

I mean, he was a son, he had an inheritance.

It was his, he owned it, he just had to wait.

But he couldn't wait.

He wanted it now, he wanted it fast.

And it destroyed him, it destroyed his family.

And thankfully, in the story, it ends up being a story of redemption because God is so good, he can definitely compensate for our bad choices.

That's a beautiful thing.

But man, it'd be great if we didn't make them.

Is there something you want so badly in your life?

Is there something that you're desperate for?

And maybe it's a really good thing, but you're tempted to have it right now.

You're tempted just to take it, you're tempted to skip some really important steps.

And if that's the case, I'm telling you, wait, pause, relax.

Trust God's timing.

Because the right thing at the wrong time is not really the right thing.

You know, this man needed to grow, he needed to mature, he needed to learn some life lessons, he needed wisdom so that when he had that inheritance, he would know how to use it, and he didn't have that.

And there might be something right now that you really desire, and because you're you're impatient, which is normal, you might be tempted to settle for much less, or you might be tempted to try to force it in some way that ends up ruining it.

Don't do that.

Be patient.

Be patient.

The quickest way is usually not the best way.

The way that God has built the world, it's slow growth, is his way.

The things of this world that God creates, I mean, they grow slowly and genuinely strong, but over time.

So the quickest way is usually not the best way.

Sometimes it's not that we're looking for the quickest way, though.

There's another category.

Sometimes we're just looking for the easiest way.

Like, what is the path of least resistance?

Like, what is what is the, I'll never forget the first house that we ever bought as a family.

Uh is when we had our son.

We moved out of an apartment.

We're like, we need a house.

And I grew up with a father who's awesome, love dad, and and uh uh, but man, was he real serious about yard work, like super serious about it.

And we had at one point in time, we had five acres that we maintained, and Saturday was lawn day.

And it wasn't just that it got done, it got done right.

And my dad was was a big stickler on on the lines that a lawn mower makes straight lines.

And I'm not lying, and dad, if you're watching, this was weird.

Uh after after I would mow, sometimes.

Sometimes my dad would walk the yard with me.

And sometimes he'd like get real low.

And he'd look at the grass, like even with it.

And he'd stand up and go, What happened here?

So when we got our first house, we saw this house that didn't have a yard.

I mean, it it did.

It had a yard.

I literally got one of those old school mowers that doesn't even have a motor, it just spins, and I could be like, done.

Like that was how big the yard was.

It was it was a little bigger than that, but it was tiny.

And that's why I was like, yes, easy.

I want the easiest yard to maintain possible.

That was my filter.

Well, then we had Liam, and we wanted to build him a playground.

And so his his father-in-law, or my father-in-law, his grandfather designed a swing set that would fit in our strange yard.

It was the weirdest-looking thing.

It was basically like he hit the fence and he hit the wall.

He hit the fence and he hit the wall.

It was like just kind of pushed off.

And it was fine.

It's just a house, you know, we moved and all that, but it was my filter was just easy.

I just want easy.

One of the things I love about Jesus is he never chose easy.

And he could have.

Jesus knew that he was destined to be the king of kings.

That is who he is.

That is not something he aspired to be.

That is who he is.

But before he was given that title, he had multiple moments where an easier way was handed to him.

Kind of faster and easier.

We actually see one in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

He's being tempted by Satan himself.

He's tempted with three things.

The third temptation says this.

Again, the devil took him away to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

And this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me.

Satan says, I'll make you a king.

I'll make you the king of the earth.

And Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

And then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

In John chapter 6, Jesus performs an incredible miracle.

John 6 · chapter mention

And it blows everybody away.

There's thousands of people that see it, experience it.

And says in verse 14, After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, Surely this is the prophet who has come into the world.

Surely this is the Messiah.

Like they're recognizing this guy is, he's it.

Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

The people were going to make him their king.

And he is their king.

He said, No.

That's not the way.

That's not the way.

That might be the will of God, but it's not the way of God.

Philippians 2 tells us what that way was.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privilege.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God, and he died a criminal's death on a cross.

Therefore, because of that, that was God's way.

Think about that.

Because he died, because he suffered, because he gave everything, therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess, declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.

Jesus had easier ways to become a king.

But he chose the hard way.

Easy and good are not synonyms.

We often think they are, but they're not.

They're not.

And I've learned that in a variety of different ways in life.

But if you want what is good, be prepared for choosing what is hard.

We are marketed to and sold to, believing that easy is good.

And some things, sure.

But truly, ultimately, the best in life never comes easy.

And if you want the best, don't be don't give in to the temptation of the path of least resistance.

Because God's way is often hard.

We read the Bible, the people he loves, he seems very comfortable allowing the people he loves the most to go through some really hard things.

So if you're going through something hard right now and you're like, man, does God love me?

He might love you more than anyone else.

You might be his favorite.

You're like, God, why is my life so hard?

Because I love you so much.

And I'm making you into something unique and different and special.

And this is the way it works.

Could we have the humility to submit to that?

Jesus did.

Thank goodness Jesus did.

A couple other ones, real quick.

For me, this is one I struggle with.

Well, the next two I really struggle with, I'll be honest, is uh what is most logical.

Sometimes we try to make good things happen or experience the good things in life, attain the good things in life that God has for us just by doing what makes sense and what makes sense to us.

But a lot of what God does doesn't make sense to us.

Like I'm a really logical person.

Which is why marriage is so hard.

Right?

Because a lot of times, like how many of you are hyper-logical?

Just raise your hand.

Just be a chemical, come on.

How many of you that just raise your hand are married to someone who shares your passion for logic?

Why?

How logical of a decision was it to marry that person?

Why did you do that?

You know it makes a lot of sense to marry someone who just feels things out.

You know, like that's how it works, though, right?

We're logical, we marry.

Is that how God puts us together?

Our best friends are often very different than this.

If it's not a spouse, you have a really good friend.

I like things to make sense to me.

And if they don't make sense, I'm I I think they're dumb.

But listen to what God says through the prophet Isaiah, my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts.

My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord.

And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so many so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

I mean, what Sarai's proposing here kind of makes sense.

Like it really does.

In their culture, there's a cultural thing there.

Like the Bible never condones having multiple wives, by the way.

Some people say, oh, the multiple wives are in the Bible.

Yeah, it was always a bad thing.

It's never something God said, you know what, you ought to try.

No.

But it made sense to her.

It's like someone having a surrogate child in the way it was possible back then.

Like, I can't have kids.

We need a child, we need a descendant.

And so Hagar is my servant.

In their world, that was basically property.

Hagar is me, essentially.

And so let's have a child through Hagar.

It made sense to her.

It made sense to Abram.

And it just wasn't God's thoughts.

And so, those of us that are really logical, I would just challenge us that when something makes a lot of sense to us, stop and say, Lord, is this your way?

Don't let your logic or your mind be your God.

That doesn't mean we do dumb stuff.

Like God gave us brains for a reason.

It just means that your logic, your understanding, your mind cannot be your ultimate authority.

And so when you're making a big decision in life, if it makes a lot of sense, that's great.

But there's something even greater than that, and that's is this what God wants?

I gotta give a shout-out to my friend Jamie Case.

Uh Jamie is an assistant principal at Walton, and he's been a big part of our church for a long time.

I love Jamie a lot.

He's a Duke fan, which makes him a really good person.

And so Jamie and I, we we share a passion for that.

One time we actually drove to North Carolina to catch a Duke game together, and it was a lot of fun.

And so Jamie a couple years ago had an opportunity, and a school had offered him an assistant principal job, and this was something that he really wanted.

And we were hanging out, we were bowling, uh, and just catching up, and he was telling me about it, and I was like, man, it makes a ton of sense.

Like I was excited, he was telling me about it.

I'm like, this is yeah, this is everything you've wanted, this is everything.

And he said, Yeah, I'm not taking it.

And I was like, why?

And he goes, Well, because I prayed about it, I don't think it's what God wants.

And I'm his pastor, and I was like, I don't know about that.

You know, like seems to make a lot of sense, but I was really blown away in that moment.

I mean, truly, because I don't always, even though I am a pastor, I don't always operate like that.

Like I'm when something makes sense to me, I'm I'm going.

And that just ability to stop and go, yes, this makes a lot of sense, but is it what God wants?

It's powerful.

So don't just do what seems logical.

Go a step further.

Lord, is this your way?

Is this the way you want this to go?

And trust him with that.

And if you have a check, if something in you just doesn't, it's not at peace.

Even if it makes sense to your brain, if it's not at peace with your spirit, don't do it.

Wait.

And he's really grateful by the way that he waited because a better opportunity came along just a couple years later.

All right, one more worship team, you can make your way up.

This one I very much relate to.

Sometimes we we try to make God's will happen by choosing things we can control.

By choosing things that we can control.

James chapter 4 says, Look here, you who say, today or tomorrow, we're gonna go to a certain town, we'll stay there a year, we'll do business there, we'll make a profit.

James 4 · chapter mention

You know, this is like the five-year plan stuff.

I was talking to someone about that this morning.

Here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna do this, we're gonna accomplish this.

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog.

It's here for a little while, then it's gone.

What you ought to say is if the Lord wants us to, we'll live and do this or that.

Otherwise, you're boasting about your own pretentious plans, and such boasting is evil.

Ooh.

Evil.

It's very tempting sometimes to choose a path toward the good things we want that seems like something we can control.

I will tell you, in church, that is a huge temptation.

I'm just using my experience, this is where I work, right?

Um one of the best things that ever happened to us as a church, you may not know this, it's one of the best things that ever happened to us as a church.

And it was many years ago, about seven years ago, someone on our staff accidentally deleted our Instagram.

And we learned that if you delete your Instagram, it's gone.

It's gone.

It doesn't exist anymore.

I don't know why they built it like that.

You'd think that there would be like, oops, get it back.

They're like, nah, it's gone.

And we had spent years building up our social media strategy.

And this is, you know, I think ten years ago, you know, every everywhere you went, we're like, follow us on Instagram and this social media and the new one and the one that no one's ever heard of.

Like, follow us on this, follow us.

And it was well intended, right?

We were trying to, we're trying to grow as a church, we're trying to reach more people and do good things and all this.

And so we had we'd we would tell people we'd have signs like follow us on this, follow us on that.

And we'd spent years building up an Instagram following, and in one moment, gone.

And so then we were like, well, what do we do?

And we sat in the office and we talked about it, and we were like, Well, I don't even like Instagram.

I think it's mostly pretty terrible.

And our youth pastor Madison, uh, brilliant, he was like, I don't want the teens on Instagram.

And it's kind of weird that we're like, guys, don't be on social media, like, get off your screens, but make sure you follow us on Instagram, you know, or you're gonna miss the super pointless video that we filmed to try to hype up Sunday, as if you forgot when Sunday happens, you know, it's like that kind of stuff.

Um you won't believe what's gonna happen in church this Sunday.

Oh.

So we just we just were like, let's not have one.

And we still have a Facebook page that I think it auto-updates on Sundays with the live stream, and then maybe every once in a while we put, I don't even know.

And it's the it was the one of the best things that ever happened to us as a church.

And here's why, at least for me personally.

Because I have kind of a marketing mind.

Like I used to work at a marketing company, I actually owned a small marketing company before I was here, and and so my brain, just naturally, my flesh, really likes that.

Ooh, I got an idea, I think this will be cool, I think this will, people will like this, and it'll be exciting.

And honestly, guys, there were Sundays back in the day where if maybe we had a big turnout and we had done a lot of social media stuff.

I'm just being honest.

My thought would be it worked, not thank you, God.

It worked, and I think that that's really bad.

I think there's a beauty in letting go of control, and just going, Lord, you're in control.

I surrender to you.

Listen to what Romans tells us about how surrendered we're supposed to be to God.

This is how surrendered you're supposed to be.

Romans 12, 1 and 2.

So, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he's done for you.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable.

Give up everything to God.

This is truly the way to worship, and this is it.

That's the true form of worship.

It's not singing songs, it's saying, Lord, I'm yours.

All of me, every bit of me, you have control.

Don't copy the behavior and customs of the world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, and then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

I'm so grateful that I accidentally had to give up control.

And I think it's been one of the best things that ever happened to our church because we don't have a social media strategy.

And what it's allowed, it's allowed us to just trust the Lord.

And it kind of goes like it changed my mind.

I stopped praying for things like, Lord, how do we get bigger?

I haven't thought about that in years, truly.

And we started praying things like, God, what do you want us to do?

What do you want our focus to be?

Lord, what kind of church do you want us to be?

What are we supposed to put our attention to?

And it wasn't hype anymore, it was substance.

Does that make sense?

And so, with that said, we are launching a brand new channel on social media, and I really want to encourage you guys.

Bring it back MySpace.

Let's go.

Let's bring it back.

Oh.

No, like we have less control than we often think.

I actually think if God showed us how little control we have, it'd freak us out.

He'd be like, You think you have control?

Let me show you this.

You'd be like, oh my goodness.

So let it go.

Don't try to force God's good in your own way by only focusing on what you feel like you can control.

Let it go.

Pray.

Have faith.

Be like, Lord, I have no idea how you're gonna accomplish this.

If you have some big dream, big goal, great.

I'm not saying don't work hard, I'm not saying don't make smart decisions.

I'm just saying let God lead you.

And if you do something, you can you can do it honestly because you feel like that's what God told you to do.

Even if it's something you can't control, even if it's not entirely logical, even if it's really hard, even if it's gonna take a really long time, if you have the confidence to say, I'm doing what I believe God wants me to do, even if you're wrong, you can live with that.

That's so much, but I would so much rather stand in front of God one day and he'd be like, What were you doing with that?

Like, explain that.

I'm like, I thought that's what you wanted me to do.

I think that's a much more acceptable answer, even if you're wrong, then, well, it just seemed like the quickest and the easiest and the most logical and the most controllable way to do things.

You know, just live your life with the confidence that comes from knowing that you are seeking God's will above all else, and you're living with conviction.

And whatever you're doing in life, whatever good you're pursuing in life, you're doing it in what you believe, based on your knowledge of God's word and all the other resources that He's given us.

You you know that you're doing it His way.

Do it His way, see what happens.

See what happens.

And you know what?

It'll probably be really hard, it'll probably take a really long time.

It'll probably break your brain a few times, and it'll make you feel so out of control that it brings you to your knees, which is where you should be anyway, at the feet of God, asking for his help.

So let's be the people that let's be the people that do God's will God's way.

And let's encourage each other and surround each other with love and support as we do it.

Anyone up for that?

Alright, good.

Cool.

Alright.

Well, I'm gonna take Lord's, we're gonna take Lord's supper, and then we've got someone getting baptized.

So we'll be good.

All right.

Alright.

If you're new, we take this meal every single Sunday.

And when you walked in, there's tables with bread and juice, and you're free to grab that now.

Um it's very important.

Kind of mentioned it as we talked about H H U, the upper room before Jesus went to the cross, before he was arrested.

He knew that was happening.

They were having a Passover meal.

It was a huge feast and a tradition that they had in their faith.

And Jesus took the bread and he gave all this new meaning.

This had meaning before Jesus, but he changed it.

And well, ultimately he fulfilled it because it was always about him.

They just didn't know it yet.

He took this bread and he said, This bread is my body.

I'm giving it up as a sacrifice.

And he took some some wine, he said, This is my blood.

Blood to them was precious.

Blood meant life.

Blood was was constantly a symbol of life.

And he's saying, I'm giving my life for you.

You need this to happen.

That we have life because he gave us life, we have spiritual life because he gives us life.

And so here's the amazing thing.

Everything we've talked about this morning, uh, this moment, was it was it God's will?

Absolutely.

In fact, Jesus prayed in the garden, struggling with the idea of the cross, and who could blame him?

He said, Father, if there's another way, is there another way?

Father said no.

This isn't just his will, this was his way.

And it was hard.

And it was it was long.

Not just the the cross and the crucifixion, I mean the whole buildup to it, like these promises that he made to Abram about the whole world being blessed, and then you know, a few thousand years later, Jesus comes, it took a long time, and it was really hard and difficult, and it and it doesn't make sense.

In fact, scripture says that the gospel is foolishness to the world.

Oh, you just gotta submit your life to Jesus Christ.

Yep.

That's gotta be something else.

No, it's foolishness, it's silly, it's so simple.

And this is us every Sunday letting go of control and saying, I'm yours, I belong to you, you've given your life for me, I give my life to you.

That's how we get God's good in our life.

And so let's let's pray and let's take this together.

Father God, we thank you for this bread, what this represents.

This is your body, but Lord, this is a representation of what it means to have your will your way.

Jesus, thank you that you chose the will of the Father and the way of the Father.

Fill us with the courage and the strength to do the same thing every day of our lives.

And if we mess up, if we fall short, which I'm sure we will, help us get back up, know that we're forgiven, and keep pursuing your will in our lives, but your will in your way.

Thank you that you did that for us.

Thank you for the gift of salvation and freedom and grace and mercy, Lord.

We love you.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood.

It cleanses us, it makes us clean, it makes us holy.

Your life, your goodness, your righteousness covers our sin and it washes us pure and clean.

Thank you, Jesus, for what you've done for us.

Thank you for choosing the hard way.

Thank you for loving us that much.

We love you too.

Let's take the juice.