Sermons tagged with Heroes

Good morning. Good to see everybody. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. Happy New Year. If I had known that worship was going to be that good, I would have prepared a better sermon. So we just had the best part of the service already. And let me just say to you, if coming to church more regularly is one of your New Year's resolutions, I am rooting so hard for you. I am happy for that. And we are doing everything we can to make it worth your while and enriching and good to get up and get ready and come and hopefully be pushed a little bit closer to Jesus when you left than when you were when you came through the doors. And I would also say this, if that is a New Year's resolution for you, and so grace is the place that you're choosing to do that, if you get a couple weeks in and this just ain't cutting it, man, this is not doing it, can you just please go visit another church before you just quit church? Because there's a lot of great churches in the area, and some of them are probably hitting notes that we're not. And I would really love to see everybody involved in a church family. It's such an important part of life. So I would just throw that out there to you. This series that we are focused on now for this month is called Known For. And we're going to be talking about this idea of reputation and what we're known for. So in week one, to be known for, and then we're going to say, what do we want our faith, big C church, Christianity, and our culture today, what do we want it to be known for? And so if you're a praying person, you can be praying for me for that fourth week, because there's things I want to say that I shouldn't. There's things that I need to say that I'm going to be scared to, and I'm going to have to find a good balance there because there's a lot to say about how Christians posture themselves in our current culture, and I want to talk to Grace about how we can be on the right end of that, helping Christianity in our culture. But that begins with focusing first on ourselves and on our reputations. Now, everybody, I would think, is known for something. Everybody has a bit of a reputation, right? I think when we think of people who are known for things, that maybe we think of people who have lived bigger lives than most of us. Politicians or athletes or celebrities or authors or people who influence in some way, but I would argue that everybody's known for something. I mean, if you think about it this way, what would you say your dad's known for? When you think about your dad, what do you think of? What's your mom known for? When you think about your best friend, your husband or your wife, what are they known for in your circles? Right? Something comes to mind. When you think about your favorite co-worker, what are they known for in the office space? When you think about your least favorite co-worker, what are they known for in the office space? In this office space, it's youth ministry is what they're known for. That was the joke of me making fun of Kyle, our student pastor, just in case you guys didn't catch on to that. He's the worst. He's getting married in six days. Yay, Kyle! Everybody is known for something. You're known for something. You're known for something by your acquaintances, kind of concentric circles of concern. By your acquaintances, you're known in certain ways. By your close friends, you're known in certain ways. And by your family, you're known in certain ways. And so the question that I would put in front of you this morning, and it's a good question to consider at the beginning of a year, the time when we do New Year's resolutions, What are you known for? What is your reputation? And I think those concentric circles of concern are important to consider because it's really easy to be known for certain things, to put on a good face with your acquaintances, with the people that you interact with at work sometimes, with your neighbors that you see sometimes, with your friends that you hang out with when you want to. We can put on a good show for those kind of outer edge people, right? And then our friends who may text with us more, call us more, interact with us more, they kind of know us a little bit better. I was 17 years old, and I had this really incredible experience at camp. And I was really moved towards Jesus. I grew up in the church, but God kind of got a hold of me, just reinvigorated me, and I was really just, it was one of those spiritual highs, right? And my dad was, he was the chairman of the board growing up. He was a big church guy. All my memories are church memories, and I was so proud to tell him, Dad, I'm really going to choose Jesus. I'm really going to push after him. He totally changed me while I was there, and he looked at me, and he said, that's great, son. Be nice to your mom. I was like, dang you. He just crutted on my spiritual high, but he was right. Our families know us best. We can't fake it with our spouses. We can't fake it with our kids. They grow up in our homes. They see us at our best and our worst. What are we known for in our families? And so then I would ask you, what do you want to be known for? What would you hope to be known for? When people hear your name, what do you want them to think? Your kids growing up in your house, what kind of stories do you want them to tell about you? When your coworkers talk about you behind your back when you leave the room or when you're in the meeting, what do you want them to say? When your friends that you play tennis with or you do trivia night with or you do whatever neighborhood stuff with find out that you're really involved in your church, what do you want them to think? Do you want them to go, yeah, that checks out? Or do you want them to go, really? Him? Huh. What do you want your reputation to be? Now, some of you could be like my wife, Jen, who's not here this morning. John's got a little bit of a fever, so we're kind of tending to that. So I can say this and not embarrass her. She's got a pretty good reputation. If you know Jen, you know that everybody calls her Sweet Jen. She doesn't have a lot of work to do on how she's perceived by the general public, nor does she have work to do with how she's perceived by me. She's got a pretty good name in our house. And so maybe that's you. And as you think about your reputation and you think about what you want to be known for, God and his goodness and you and your humility have done a good job in actually making a good name for yourself. And so we just need to continue there. That's great. But maybe you're like me. Jeff, what are you laughing at, man? Yeah, maybe you're like me and Jeff. And you've got some rough edges. You have probably a good reputation. You're known for positive things. People think of you well, but there's also some parts about you, and you know them, and they know them, that, man, you'd love to shave off. I know for me, I think I'm known at all three levels of my life. I think I'm known for being loyal, being honest, hopefully for being a good and loving friend, being present. But I can also be known to be gruff and grumpy. And if I'm being honest, one of my least favorite things about myself right now is I can get into moods that begin to affect the tone and tenor of everything around me, whether it's at staff or an elder meeting or at my house or with my friends. And I don't like those moods, man. I don't like being that grumpy sometimes. I don't want to be known for that. And maybe you have some things in your life that you don't want to be known for either. So as you move into this year, I would ask you, what do you want to be known for? And there are others of you who may just feel like no matter what you do, you're known for your mistake. You're known for screwing up. You're an addict, and you'll never not be. You're a cheater, and you've just got to live with it. You've made a big, huge mistake. And you feel like that when everybody sees you, all they see is that mistake, and all they'll ever see is that mistake. And I just want to tell you that it's never too late to rebuild your reputation. I told you guys at Christmas Eve, and I've mentioned stories about him before, about my pawpaw. And I hesitated to share this because it's, first of all, I don't want to talk about him all the time, and second of all, this is his business, it's not ours, but he's in heaven now, and I don't think he'd mind too much. I think when you get to heaven, you get a lot of grace for people's humanity. But I told you guys, he's my favorite person that's ever lived, and that's true. I've told you I have glowing memories of him and how present he was and how much he loved me. But his name was Don. Don also grew up real poor in South Georgia, I guess in the 30s. Had a daddy that was abusive, had a dirt floor. And then he had kids in the 60s and 70s, and he raised them. And he raised them like a man without a good daddy, without Jesus, would. And he had a temper, and sometimes it got the best of him. So the kids who grew up in that home did not know him like I knew him. But at one point, he came to know Jesus. And I don't know that he did it intentionally, but he began to rebuild his reputation. So that now, I don't know that part of him. I don't know that side of him. I never experienced it. And his children all have fond memories of him, all love him, all continue to mourn him. It's never too late to choose a new reputation. So the answer to that question, what reputation do you want to have, if it feels impossible to you, it is not. By God's goodness and through your humility, you can begin to work towards it. And there are others of you who fall into this camp. I'm not going to linger here long, but it is worth saying. There are some of you in here who have a good reputation. You have a good name. And that's good. And people think highly of you. And that's good. But you got a secret. You got some stuff going on in the shadows. And if people found out about it, you wouldn't have that good reputation anymore. So you look good, but you're not. And you know it. Maybe this can be the year that you finally leave those shadows behind. You finally leave those in the past. And you finally walk as the person that everybody believes you are and that God created you to be. And maybe it's possible that God in his goodness and his love for you has kept those things in the dark for you to give you opportunity to move away from them and be who he wants you to be this year and moving forward. I pray that none of us have stuff going on in the shadows that could ruin what everybody sees in the light. But if we do, let's be done with that too. But as we consider this question, what do you want to be known for? Not what are you known for, what do you want to be known for? I think it's actually way more important to ask the question, what does God want you to be known for? What does God want you to be known for? If you're a believer, if you're a Christian, if you're a child of God, which means to be someone who is a Christian, you believe that Jesus is who he says he is. He's the son of God and he came to earth. That he did what he said he did. He died on the cross and he rose again on the third day. And that he's going to do what he says he's going to do. He's going to come back one day and he's going to make all the wrong things right and the sad things untrue. If you believe those things about Jesus, then you are a Christian. You are a child of God. And what does God want your reputation to be? What does he want you to be known for? And that might sound like a little bit of a silly question, but I actually believe, based on the counsel of scripture, that this is an important question, that it matters to God deeply what your reputation is. I think it matters to your heavenly father very much how you're known with your friends and in your co-workers and your good friends and in your family. I think it matters to your heavenly father very much how you're known with your friends and in your coworkers and your good friends and in your family. I think it matters to him a lot how you're known. And I don't just think that intuitively because as I was thinking about it this week, of course God cares what his children's reputations are because don't you care what your kids' reputations are? Doesn't your heart fill with pride when the teacher says, you've got a great kid here, they're doing wonderful? Isn't it filled with shame when your teacher says, your kid is terrible, I wish they weren't in my class? We want our children to have good reputations, not just because they're a reflection on us, but because we want them to have a good name. So does God care about the reputations of his children. But again, it's not just intuitively that I believe this. It says so in Scripture. In Proverbs 22, verse 1, it says, God says if you have the choice between great wealth or a good name, choose a good name. I do not have that choice. I get to choose a good name or nothing. It's not an either or situation for me. But if you do have the opportunity to choose wealth or to choose name, choose name, choose reputation, choose standing, choose favor. That's how important it is that you have a good reputation to God. It's so important, in fact, that in the New Testament, when they start to name church officers, things for people to do within the church, they make reputation one of the requirements. In the book of Acts, there's this scene, I believe in chapter 6, where they had to choose deacons, people to do the ministry of the church, kind of think church staff, because the disciples were getting, they were trying to focus on prayer and teaching, and they were getting so caught up in the daily needs of the church, they could no longer meet them. And so God instructed them, go and choose seven men to be deacons and to meet the needs within the church. And there was two requirements to be a deacon. One was to be faithful and filled with the Spirit. The other one was to have a good reputation in the community. God didn't want anyone in leadership in his church that wasn't well-known and well-thought-of in the community in which they were serving. And then to further that, to choose elders, Paul writes to Titus, when you're choosing elders, when you're choosing the leaders of your church, among the things that I want to be true of them, that God wants to be true of them, they need to have a good reputation amongst outsiders. There's another place where God says in 1 Peter, God says through Peter, that Christians are to be a good example, to set a good example, to have a good reputation amongst the Gentiles, amongst non-believers, so that they can find no fault in you. Your reputation and what you're known for matters a lot to your God. So what does he want you to be known for? Well, this is an interesting question, because there's so many instructions about this all over scripture. There's so many different times in scripture where we are told what he wants us to do and who he wants us to be. I think of Philippians 4, 5 when it says, let your reasonableness be known to all people. So God, and I think this is interesting and worth pointing out, God wants his children to be thoughtful, reasonable people. I don't think that we often associate that with a Christian trait, but it is. We need to be thoughtful, reasonable people. And let me just kind of put a finer point on that. If you learned everything you needed to learn in your life by the age of 33, and you don't have any new opinions since then, and no new information has entered your brain since then, you're not being a thoughtful, reasonable person. Or you're a freaking smart 33-year-old. You really nailed it. God calls us to be thoughtful, reasonable people. In the Beatitudes that we're going to focus on next month in February in a series called Blessed, he calls us to be meek, to be peacemakers, to hunger and thirst for righteousness. In different areas of the Bible, he gives us different lists of characteristics that we are to pursue. In Galatians, he tells us that we will be known by our fruit, either the fruit of an evil life or the fruit of a life filled with the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I think you can make a very strong argument that God wants his children to be known for those fruit. And then in Ephesians, we get kind of a seminal passage of what is the picture of what a Christian should be? What is the picture of what God wants us to be? Read with me in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. Paul writes this, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So Paul kind of lays it out there in Ephesians. Be humble, be gentle, bear with one another, be loving, be patient. And we see these kinds of verses over and over again through scripture. And the reality of it is, it's really hard to wrap your mind around all the things that God wants us to be known for. I grew up, I don't have any memories of my life without church. We were there every time the doors were open. My parents were highly involved. I went to a Christian elementary school and high school. I went to a Bible college. I went to seminary. I've been in ministry for 20 years. And I don't think I could get 50% of all the characteristics that are listed out in the whole of Scripture as to what God wants His children to be. It's a lot there. So when you ask, what does God want us to be known for, that's a tricky answer because it gets long. And it can be confusing and intimidating, which is why God boiled it down for us. And the more I thought about this, the more I thought there really is a simple answer here for all of us. What does God want us to be known for? God wants his children to be known for loving well. That's what he wants you to be known for. What does God want you to be known for? He wants you to be known for loving well. And I didn't put a person there, loving him well, loving your neighbor well neighbor well. Loving your spouse well. Loving your church well. Just loving well. To be an excellent lover. That's why we're told in scripture that God tells us that we should love him with all our heart, soul, mind. Amen. And that we should love our neighbor as ourself. And then he says, on this rests the whole law and the prophets. The entire Bible. All the commandments in the Bible are summed up in those two, love God well, love others well. And then Jesus makes it even easier. He tells the disciples this new commandment I give you towards the end of his life, love others as I have loved you. And then John, 30 years later, writing his letters to the general church, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, basically says, if you say you know Jesus and you do not love, then you are full of it. Now that's a loose paraphrase, but the spirit of it is there. He says you're a liar and the truth is not in you. What does God want his children to be known for? He wants us to be known for loving well. And if you think about it, it makes sense. How can I love someone well if I'm not humble? How can I love someone well if I don't bear up their burdens? Well, if I don't bear up their burdens, if I'm not patient with them, if I don't listen to them? How can we love people well if we are not reasonable and we will not listen to what they say or what they think? If we're not open to new understandings and new ideas. How can we love people well if we're not meek but we're just brash all the time? And so the reality of it is there's a lot of different characteristics that a lot of us need to work on, but what God wants us to be known for and what I want you to be known for in 2023 is to love well. And that looks different in different seasons of life, but I can tell you this. If you have a spouse, God wants you to love them well, to respect them deeply, to serve them, to live for them and not yourself. God wants you to choose them. God wants the people who see your marriage to go, man, they love each other so much. He serves her so well. She honors him so much in the way she talks about him. That's what God in your marriage, if you have children in your home, God wants for your children to look at your marriage and say, that's what I want when I grow up and I'm not going to settle for anything less. So what do you want to be known for? What does God want from you this year? He wants you to be a good husband and good wife. He wants you to be present for them. If you have kids, if they're at home, what does God want for you there? He wants you to love them well. He wants you to be present with them. He wants you to get off your phone and turn off the TV and get on the floor and play with them. He wants you to listen to them. He wants you to be interested in them or feign interest the best way you know how. When the Bible says in Isaiah that you will run and not grow weary and walk and not be faint and will soar on wings like eagles, I think he's talking to parents who have seven-year-olds and have to watch the seventh thing of the day. What does God want you to be known for? He wants you to be the person in the office that people come to and share with. He wants you to be the consistent one. He wants you to be the one that will listen to other people be human but will not run down your boss or their coworker just for the fun of it. He wants you to be the one that exists above that fray. He wants you to be the one who honors him in all that you do, who loves your co-workers well. He wants you to be the one in your friend group who loves well, who points people towards Jesus. He wants you to be the one in the neighborhood that's the most patient with the other kids, that's the most giving and hospitable with your time. He wants you to be known for how well you love. And I wondered why this was so important to God. And why is reputation so important that we're going to spend four weeks on it? And this occurred to me, and I'm going to throw this out here. You guys try it on. You see if you agree with this, because it's going to come up every week. I'm going to remind us of this. We're going to tie back into these two ideas. Into one, that God wants us to be known for loving well. And then this idea too, that there is nothing more persuasive than a name. I don't think there's anything in life more persuasive than somebody's name. And here's what I mean. Think about recommendations that you get from people. Some people you get bad recommendations from, some good. There's somebody who was in one of my small groups a couple years ago, and in that small group we were sharing about this experience we had with sushi in New York City. And if you want to hear about it, I'll tell you about it, because it was amazing. It was the best food I ever had in my life. It was a great meal. And we were kind of telling them about that. And he pipes up and he says, oh, yeah, I know where to get great sushi. I said, really, where? He goes, yeah, there's this place in Boone. It's the best sushi in the world. And I'm like, Boone? Five hours from the ocean, Boone? Like that Boone? Hill country of App State? Where they're still nailing chicken fried steaks? Like that boon? That place? And I said, did you mean like best in, like boon? Or like Western North Carolina? He's like, nope, the world. Better than like New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo? Like the place where they invented it? Better than those places? Yes, way better. You'll never have better sushi. And in that moment, I realized I will never listen to you again in my life. That dude could tell me, dude, I tried this great barbecue restaurant down the street. I will never, ever go there. I do not trust. Now, he can tell me about other things. This book is good. These things are nice. But if he tells me about food, you can shove it, buddy. I've got this other friend who I've been really close friends with him for 30 years now. And I trust his recommendations on TV shows and movies and podcasts and books so much that he doesn't even have to talk me into them anymore. He can just text me the name of a show and I will just go binge all 12 seasons of it right there. Like I know it's going to be good. He doesn't even have to do anything. If Tyler tells me I should do this, I will because I trust him. Over time, he's built a good reputation of taste and I know that it's not to let me down. There is nothing more convincing than a name. And where this becomes particularly important is when we are trying to reach a lost world. I've mentioned this to you before, but if you are a believer, the only reason God doesn't snatch you right into heaven the very second you come to faith is so that on your way to that eternity for which he created you, you can bring as many people with you along the way as possible. The only reason you still draw breath is so you can bring as many people to eternity in heaven with you as you go as is humanly possible. If there was anything else to do, if that wasn't true, he would just snatch you right to heaven just as soon as you accepted him. Why wouldn't this place with so much pain and hurt and whisk you right up away to heaven immediately so you can begin to experience paradise with him? Why wouldn't he do that unless he's leaving you here so that on your way to that place that he's preparing for you, you can bring as many people with you as possible. That's why you're here. And if you want to bring other people with you, what could be more persuasive than a good name? What could be more persuasive than someone who claims to love Jesus and then loves them like they actually do love Jesus? Because in our culture, in 2023, your neighbors and your coworkers and your friends who do not embrace Christ, maybe they've outright rejected him. Maybe they're one of those people who say that they've accepted Jesus, they believe in him, but they're good and they don't really prioritize their faith at all and it makes us wonder if there is genuine faith there. If you have people in your life like that. You know, in the past, we talked about evangelism, this act of sharing our faith and pushing people towards Christ and hopefully seeing them come to faith. In the past, we were told about how to tell people about Jesus. 2023, guess what? They've all heard of him. It's very likely they have a reason. Can I tell you it's pretty likely it's a good reason? That deserves a thoughtful response? Are those people that you know who do not embrace faith, are they more likely to be won over by a theological argument? By digging into the science so that you can try to disprove atheism? By sending them to a blog post or a website or a case for faith by Lee Strobel? Or are they most likely to be won over by a name that's loved them for years? By someone who says they love Jesus, who says they love others, and in your marriage, and in your relationship with your children, and in your relationship with them, they see it. I'm not saying you're faultless, but I'm saying what's more convincing to the outside world than someone who actually practices what they preach and walks what they talk and has a good name that can be trusted. So that when that name says, hey, my church is pretty special to me, I'd love for you to come too, That actually carries some weight, and they go, because they think there's something different about this family. And I don't know what it is, but if it's their faith, then I want to understand that. A good name gets your foot in the door when you say, yeah, I do actually have a faith. I do believe in Jesus, and let me tell you why. If you have a good name and a reputation that supports that statement, they're going to listen to you with a lot more attention than if you don't have a good reputation with them, if the video does not match the audio. So I believe that God cares deeply about your reputation and what you are known for because a good reputation is more persuasive than anything else on the planet. So I hope that 2023 will be a year that you choose to ask yourself regularly, what am I known for and what do I want to be known for? How am I loving? Am I loving well? Am I being lazy? Am I being sloppy? Am I being selfish? Or am I being someone who loves like Jesus loves? Understanding that as we love in that way, there is nothing more persuasive to those around us than a consistent love of Christ and love of them. And please understand that the only way, you're not white knuckling your way to good love. You're not doing that. You have to wake up every day, spend time in God's word, time in prayer. You gotta pursue him. You gotta seek him. You gotta have friendships in your life that feed you spiritually. You gotta talk about Jesus to your children and to your friends've got to focus your eyes on Christ, the found love, and that love will be noticed. And people will come to faith because God is using you in their life. I went this year at Grace. We're back open. This is hopefully the first normal year we've had in three years. We're ready to run. We're ready to do ministry. We're ready to go. I want to see a lot of new faces at Grace. I want to meet a lot of your neighbors. I want to meet a lot of your coworkers. And listen to me. I don't want to do that because of church growth. And the people who know me best know I don't give a flip about church growth for the sake of church growth. I don't care about that. Can I just tell you this? Here's what I realized last year. If we just stay this size with this size staff and you guys all just keep coming, my life is so easy. But I want to see new faces here. Because new faces mean you're out in your community and you're sharing about your faith. New faces mean that you're trusted. New faces mean that you have a good name and you're using it to bring people to eternity with you. I want to see a lot of baptisms this year. Because baptisms mean people have been awakened to or have come to faith. I want to see the way God moves in our church this year when we are people who focus on loving well. I want this to be a year where we reach our community well, and I think that's done through building a good reputation. So we're going to take the next three weeks. I'm actually excited about this series because often in a series we'll have kind of a list of topics, reputation, faith, grace, love, whatever it is. And I'll kind of hit those and then move on. But this time we're going to spend four weeks in what we're known for and really deep dive into it. And I'm excited at the opportunity to do that. And I hope that you'll come along with me. And I hope that people will come to love your Savior because of how well you have loved them. Let's pray. Father, we always say that we love you, but we acknowledge that we love you because you first loved us, because you first cared for us, because you created us, because you created us to share yourself with us, and that you have designed for us and purposed us for in eternity. God, I pray that we would bring as many people as we can with us on our way there. Father, for those who feel like their reputation is tarnished, I pray that you would give them a vision for a new one and a belief that if they simply love you and love others well, that that will change. God, for those with secrets or rough edges, would you move us away from those and towards you? Would we embrace your goodness in our life? Would we embrace the firm foundation of love that you have given us and walk in that love and trust you alone and not other things to bring us happiness and joy. But would we lean into you more this year and in doing so be a magnet for those around you and God for those that you're using with good names already. Would you just keep on giving them energy as they go. Father we pray at the beginning of this year for a lot of new faces in this church so that we can have the opportunity to love on them and see them come to know you and that because we love them well, they open their eyes to how much you already love them and they come to love you too. It's in your son's name we are able to pray all these things. Amen.

Oh, hey there, pals. Don't you just love this music? It's nostalgic, isn't it? Takes you back to a simpler time, when you were a kid and things were light and fun. I love times like that. I'll tell you what else makes me feel nostalgic. It's those old Bible stories. The ones that we learned in Sunday school or maybe just picked them up somewhere along the way. I love the heroes, David and Goliath, Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the whale. The list really does go on and on. And I wonder, pals, how long has it been since we heard those stories? I bet it's been a while. And if we could tell them again, I wonder if we would find out that those stories aren't really kids stories at all, but they were meant for grown-ups all along and that there's still lessons we can learn from them today. Let's find out together. Speedy delivery. For me? Thanks, mailman Kyle. Oh, today, Moses and the Ten Commandments. That's enough of that. We are, we are. That was 10, 10 long weeks, friends. Once more time with feeling on that. If this is your first Sunday with us, this is the 10th part of our series, Kids Stories for Grownups. We've been showing that video or a portion of it every week, and I want to throw up in my mouth a little bit every time I see it. So I'm glad, I'm glad that that has run its its course and we've got more videos for you in the future. As we wrap up the series, we're going to wrap it up looking at the story of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. And though it is one of the shorter stories that we will tell in this series, I would argue that it is perhaps the most impactful one that we've covered in these 10 weeks as far as how what happens here in Exodus chapter 20 through 32, what happens there resonates and reverberates throughout all of Scripture. And that when we share this story, we have to ask about the story. What were the Ten Commandments for? Why did God give them? And so we're going to dive into that. But in answering that, I really want two things to happen. First, I want God to stir our affection for Jesus this morning. I'm going to tell you right up front that the whole point of the service and the message this morning is that you leave here with more affection for Jesus than what you entered in with. That's my prayer for everybody, that simple prayer. The other thing about talking about the Ten Commandments and the law is properly understanding the law and the commandments helps us understand our Bible better. So I say often, as often as I can, A, I can't be the only source of Bible that you're getting in your life. 30 minutes a week of whatever Nate chooses to share is not enough. It's not sufficient to learn God's word for ourselves. And you'll learn it with my terrible slant and biases, and you'll be as off kilter as I am. So don't do that. The other thing that I say as often as I can is the best habit that anyone in the world can develop is to wake up every time, wake up every day and spend time in God's Word and time in prayer. To do that and to understand our Bibles better, we have got to understand the law because it shows up over and over and over again in the New Testament. Half the tension in the New Testament is these new believers trying to figure out what to do with the old law. So we might be tempted to kind of throw it away and be like, well, you know, a sermon about the Ten Commandments doesn't apply to me too much because those laws really don't apply to me too much anymore. I don't have to worry about those. That's for Old Testament people. But as a New Testament Christian, we're going to see today how the law turns and puts our affection on Jesus. And we're going to, I hope, have a deeper understanding of God's word as we read it with a proper understanding of the law and the intent behind it. So the story of the Ten Commandments takes place in Exodus chapter 20. And many of you probably think that you know the story. Moses goes up on the mountain. You might even know that it's Mount Sinai. Two points for you. You can get your free coffee on the way out the door today. But in Exodus chapter 20, Moses goes up on the mountain. God gives him the Ten Commandments on two tablets. He carries him back down the mountain. He's like, here's the rules now. This is what we have to do. Except a careful reading will tell you that that's not really what happened. What happened is in Exodus chapter 20, the presence of God rests on Mount Sinai and all the people of Israel, all the descendants of Abraham, the Hebrew people who have been wandering the desert and following this God, backed away from the mountain and said, we're terrified. Moses, you go. You do it. You go see what he wants. We're scared. And so Moses goes to the mountain, and from the mountain, the voice of God tells him the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20, but he doesn't stop. He actually continues to give Moses laws for his people all the way through Exodus chapter 32. So for 12 chapters there, God is doling out laws. If you carefully study the Old Testament, you'll find that there's about 632 laws, and most of these show up in this discourse from Mount Sinai. And then when he gets to the end of it, at the end of chapter 32, he writes, God writes everything down. He said he gives them the meeting notes. He said, here's what we talked about. Here's the laws for the people. Carry these down to them. And so Moses goes back down the mountain with the stone tablets that do contain the Ten Commandments, but more than likely, because the Bible says things were written on the fronts and backs of them, more than likely is all of the discourse from those 12 chapters. And Moses carries those down the mountain. So if you don't learn anything for the rest of the sermon, maybe you've at least learned something about how the story of the Ten Commandments actually goes. Just to tie a bow on the story, Moses gets to the bottom of the mountain and sees that the people have made a golden calf out of earrings and jewelry, and he's ticked because they need this sign for their God, and he's so mad at them that he throws these freshly inscribed tablets on the ground and breaks them, which I don't know if he was supposed to do that or not, but Moses has a very clear anger issue throughout his life, and this is more evidence of that. God calls him back up on the mountain, and he says, okay, listen, I'm going to tell you all that stuff again, but this time you're writing it down. Okay, Moses has to write it down. God says, I'm not your secretary. All right, I did it before you once. Now you've got to copy it down. So Moses writes it down, brings those tablets back down the mountain, and those are the ones that existed in the Ark of the Covenant for the rest of the Old Testament. That's the story of the Ten Commandments. Now, whenever we cover the story of the Ten Commandments, the right question to ask is, what are they for? What are they for? Why did God give them? To what end? Especially now in New Testament, post-Christ era, or during Christ era, he's eternal, but after Christ was on earth and he's changed everything, and after the crucifixion and the resurrection, now how do we handle the law? Now what is it for? So this morning, we want to look at that story of the Ten Commandments, but then really ask, why did God give us those things? Because understanding this, again, will point us towards Christ and will help us understand our Bibles far better. The presumed purpose of the law, when it was given and when we encounter it, I believe, is to provide a path to spiritual sufficiency and in our sufficiency, earn God's approval. When the law is given, there's a very clear path forward. Okay, good. Now I've got a plan. Now I know how to move forward. These are the rules that God wants me to follow. These are the ways that I can relate to him. For his children, there's a very clear path forward. I can follow these 632 laws. I can learn to follow them really, really well. And as I learn to follow them well, I can be spiritually sufficient and I can earn my God's approval. God says, we say, God, how do I make you happy? He goes, here, here's all the rules. Follow these rules super well and you'll make me happy. And I will give you my approval. And we can, in a sense, behave our way into eternity. We can behave our way into harmony with our Creator if we will simply learn to follow these rules well. And this, to us, and to the Hebrew people at the time, had to feel like good news, great, clarity. Finally, we know what to do. Think about it this way. Think about if you could sit down and read the Bible on your own without any knowledge whatsoever of what's contained in those pages. You don't know who Jesus is. You don't know anything about the Bible. You don't know how the story ends. You're reading it from Genesis on, and you're just paying attention to the narrative, trying to figure out how it's going to go. And so in Genesis 1, you see this instruction, hey, don't eat the fruit of this tree. Why not? Don't worry about it. Just don't do that. And then they mess up and they sin. And sin curses the earth. And curses the earth so bad that as you read along, you realize that in Genesis chapter 6, God decides I need to hit the reset button. I regret the way that this is going. And so he sends the flood. And all that's left behind is Noah and his family. And all God does to Noah, his only instruction to him, he doesn't give him the rules. What does God say to Noah? Hey, man, I want you to build a boat. What's a boat? Well, it floats in water. Well, what for? Just trust me, man. Just build a boat. But he doesn't give Noah the rules. And so you're reading along, you're like, man, this God is mysterious. How does he, how is he speaking to Noah and not the other people? And then you get to Abraham. He's called out of Ur of the Chaldeans in the Sumerian dynasty. And God comes to him and he says, hey, man, I want you to give up the future that you thought you were going to have in your dad's estate and I'd like you to move. Okay? Where? Don't worry about it. I'll show you. Man, this guy's mysterious. And how do I know that he's talking to other people besides Abraham? Is he only talking to Abraham? Where is this God? What are his rules? And when does he need us to follow them? Where is the clarity? And yet, Abraham gets to where he he's supposed to go and he meets a king there named Melchizedek who knows the will of God just as well as Abraham does. And we see that God is speaking to people all through this time, but we don't know where and how. And then he doesn't really give any more clarity to his son Isaac or to Jacob or to Joseph. And then 400 years go by and this Moses guy shows up. And what does he tell Moses? I want you to free my people, okay? Where do you want me to take them? I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna be a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Just follow me. And you're reading along going, man, this God is tough to follow. And then out of nowhere, Exodus 20. Hey, hey, hey, here's the rules, guys. This is what I want you to do. And I think our knee jerk as people would be to go, good, finally, thank you. Now I've got a plan. Now you're not just this weird cloud that I follow around and try to hear or just trust that Moses is hearing your voice. I mean, how weird would that be? If I got up here and I said, listen guys, I'm the only one who can really hear God very well, so you just need to listen to what I have to say. But that was the situation. And so with the law, good clarity, I have a plan. I can move forward. And don't we love that as Americans? Don't we love a good plan? I know in my life that when things start to go bad, when I'm not happy about what I'm doing at church, or I don't feel like I'm doing my job over here, or I don't feel like this part of my life is going very well and it's caused some pain and I try to figure out the best thing to do, what do I do? I sit down and I come up with a plan and then I work the plan. And there's great comfort in a plan that you think is going to succeed. And then you can work the plan. And so here, God finally gives some clarity. You want to make me happy? Here, follow the rules. And I think our human brains go, great, finally, a plan. I can do this. But I've always wondered, why did it take God so long to give him this plan? Why did God wait so long into the history of his people, a couple thousand years, to give him the rules? I think it's because God wants a relationship with us. And if we go back and we follow those first rules, those first instructions that he gave the early saints, we see that that's all he was really looking for. Adam and Eve, just trust me, don't eat of that. Why? Don't worry about it, just trust me. Noah, build a boat. Why? Just build it. Trust me. Listen to me. Do what I ask you to do. You're safe with me. Abraham, I want you to move. Where? Don't worry about it. Just go. Trust me. Follow me. Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your only son. But why? How? Abraham, don't worry about it. Just go. Obey me. Moses, lead my people. Where? Just follow me. At every instance, the beckoning of God is to follow him. Trust me. Work into a relationship with me. Get to know me. Pursue my heart as I pursue yours. And I think the real reason, when we consider it, that God waited so long to give the rules is because he knew that we would make them into a code, that we would begin to codify our relationship with him. Instead of pursuing him, we would just codify it, make a code of laws out of it, and go, here, this is all I need to do. I don't need the relationship anymore. What God knew is that relationships become contracts when we reduce them to codes. Relationships become contractual arrangements when we reduce them to a code of laws. Imagine if we did this in our marriages. I did a wedding yesterday, and I got to the portion where I did the vows. And at the vows, you vow affection to one another. You make promises to one another to have and to hold, richer for poor, in shape and not. However, we promise we will always love one another. What if instead of exchanging vows, we exchange our contractual agreements that we had negotiated prior to our marriage? And then on our anniversary, we revisited our contracts to see if we wanted to update them at all as ways to maintain the approval and affection of one another. Can't you just hear the contract negotiations? I think I would open with, for weekends in the fall when football starts, from noon on Saturday until when I go to bed on Sunday night, I would like to be able to treat my children like a railroad tycoon from the early 1900s. I would like to sit in my parlor, unbothered by them. Occasionally, they come in, and I laugh at them, tousle their hair, tell them they're cute, and then send them back to the nanny and I watch my football. This would be where I would start. And my wife would inevitably say, okay, but on Fridays and for at least one hour a night, you will engage with imaginative play with your children. You will even do Barbies. Also, once a week, I need some mom time. I need to go to Target, and I need to have lunch with people, and I need to go waste money on Starbucks. I'm going to need to do this, and I would say, okay. Once a week, I would like fresh flowers on the table. What kinds of flowers? You've got to help me out here. Can you imagine if we just negotiated our relationships and went back and forth? You give me this and I'll give you that. It robs it of its heart. It robs it of the love and affection that we experience in those things. The joy of marriage, the depth of marriage is getting to know one another over the years, is knowing when I do this, she's going to feel loved. When I do this, she's going to feel aggravated. When she sees me do this, this is what stirs her affections for me. So that by the time we've been married 30, 40, 50 years, we know each other better than any other soul on the planet. And that connection there was not achieved by making rules and negotiating contracts with each in attempting to follow those rules, we would rob the relationship that we have with him of its heart. And we don't need to look very hard in Scripture to see that he was right and that this is true. There was 1,400 years between Moses receiving the law and the gospels beginning, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where Jesus comes on the scene. And when we get to the gospels, we see Jesus address the Pharisees. The Pharisees are the rule keepers, man. It is their job to read the rules, to interpret the rules, and to tell everybody what the rules mean, and to tell everybody how you're going to follow them. Like, it says don't work on the Sabbath, okay? Well, some Pharisees interpreted that as don't go out and plow the field with your donkey on the Sabbath. That's not allowed. Others were so strict with it that they said, if your sandal has a nail in it, that's heavier than it needs to be because it's metal and you cannot wear those sandals on Sabbath because that's work. So they had to figure out what do the rules mean and how do we apply them and how do we tell people whether or not they're following them. They were the keepers of the rules, the watchers of the rule book, and they should have known as well as anybody how to follow them. And if you follow them well, the way that God intended, their hearts should be rendered to God. They should be some of the greatest, most trustworthy people on the planet, except you guys know, what does Jesus call the Pharisees? Whitewashed tombs. He calls them a brood of vipers. He says, You're a brood of vipers. You're a bunch of hypocrites who had taken the religious authority that they were given and leveraged it for personal gain and personal power and then set up a system around themselves to protect their personal gain and their personal power. And they were complete hypocrites and their heart was very far from the Lord. They have figured out how to heartlessly follow God's rules and maintain a facade of righteousness. And I just wonder if that sounds like any segments of the church that we have today, where men, and it's almost always men, are in charge and they've set up systems so that they stay in charge and they can personally profit from the spiritual authority that they have. And it's gross. And it happened then and it happens now. Whenever we set up a system around who follows the rules the best, what inevitably happens is people claim that they follow the rules best and that you should follow them, and then they cast judgment on you and they exact taxes from you. And it's disgusting. Which is why I hope that if Jesus saw me, he would at least say, well, you're a messy tomb. You're dirty. And I would be like, that's great, because you're going to wash me off. But that was the condition of the Pharisees. They were a brood of vipers and whitewashed tombs, because they had so perverted the law over the years as to make it this thing of if you can follow it well enough, you can behave your way into God's affection and approval. And we need to watch it because we do that too. I remember when I was in high school, there was certain rules you had to follow. Every church, every group of Christians has them. Some rules that if you follow these rules, now you're righteous, now God loves you, now you're a good Christian. When I was in high school, if you didn't drink or do drugs, if you didn't cuss, if you didn't do anything with your boyfriend or girlfriend that you're not supposed to do. And you're a good Christian. Congratulations. Are you a jerk to everyone in your life? Yes, but you follow those rules, so you're fine. Meanwhile, we take the person over here who has a genuinely good heart and is gentle with people, but doesn't check one of those boxes, and we tell them that they are apostate and they need to go to youth group and probably some camp where they pledge purity or something like that. Every community of faith has its rules that it wants to default to. And we have our rules too. And we have our things where I just need a plan. If I can do this and this and this, then I'll be a good Christian. And without realizing it, we begin to try to behave our way into God's affection and approval. The end of that road is the Pharisees. The end of that road of trying to behave our way into God's affection is frustration and hypocrisy and a heartless obedience to God. And what's more frustrating is, in this following of the rules, it is possible to do it completely heartlessly, to follow the rules and not even love the rule giver. I went to a Christian college. There was lots of rules at that Christian college. I thought they were all stupid. But I followed them. Well, a better example is Jen went to a Christian college. And they had a lot of rules. And she didn't agree with all of them. But she followed them. Not because we had this deep and abiding affection for Toccoa Falls College and just a sense of loyalty to it. Not because we loved the rules and thought they were great. But because that was what was asked of us. And so we did. We can do that with God too. We all know how to go through the motions and follow the rules so it looks like everything's together. Meanwhile, our hearts are empty. And then Jesus comes along and he makes this heartless obedience harder. Jesus makes the heartless obedience harder when he shows up because he starts to redefine the law, to correctly define the law, to fix people's understanding of it, to help them see it's really impossible to follow it without heart. You can't follow the essence of the law without following the heart of the law. And he comes along with what is the single most convicting two verses for any man who's ever lived. He says this in Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 and 28. You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. What that means is, I can only speak for the dudes, every one of us is an adulterer based on what Jesus taught. Now, we should not back away from that and consider it figurative. He meant what he said, and it's true. But until Jesus said this, plenty of us are going through life going, if I just don't commit adultery, the physical act of it, with someone else's spouse, then I'm squared away. I'm righteous, I'm good. And Jesus says, no, no. If you even look at them with intent, you're guilty. And then we all go, well, then I'm guilty. He even says that you've heard it said that we shouldn't murder anybody. Thou shalt not kill. And all of us, I would hope, can check that box. Yeah, you know, 40, I'm going 41 years. I'm in my 42nd year so far, no murders. Really nailing that one. But if you've hated someone in your heart, then you're guilty of that as well. And you go, oh, well, then I guess I'm a murderer. And the more you examine the law, the more frustrated you should become. Those of you in your life who have tried to white knuckle your way to holiness, who have just tried through sheer determination, I'm going to be a good Christian. I'm going to follow the rules. I'm going to do what God asked me to do and behave our way into God's affection. What always happens? You fall on your face. And when you fall on your face, you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and you go, I wasn't holding on tight enough that time. Now, this is the time when I'm going to white knuckle my way to God's affection. And Jesus, in this gentle way, whispers in your ear, no, you're not. No, you're not. And so when we examine the law and we hold it up to ourselves, what we realize is this is impossible. It brings us to this inflection point of frustration where sooner or later, sooner or later when you've fallen off the horse enough times, when you've tried to follow the rules well enough, when you've tried to behave your way into God's affection and approval, and when you've disappointed him again and you've let him down, and you've got to pick yourself up again, sooner or later you're going to say, I don't want to do this anymore. And it's at that point that a lot of people walk away from the faith because they believe that faith is following rules well, and it's not. But the law has to get us to this point where we surrender. We say, I can't do this anymore. There's no possible way I can follow the law. And when we're there, when we understand that we cannot behave our way into heaven, and I know, I know, listen, I know that I say that, and all the Christians in the room go, yeah, no, it's God's grace. I cannot behave my way into heaven and into God's affection. And yet, you live out your faith like that's what you can do. You know intellectually that you can't behave your way into God's approval for you. And yet, boy, you try, don't you? I'm just talking to myself here. So lest we sweep aside, no, I don't do that. Yes, you do. We all do. But it's at that point when we realize that we can't, that we're ready to hear the message from Romans 8, 1 through 4, where Paul writes about this exact thing. And I'm going to read it to you, and it's going to be a little bit murky, but there's a couple phrases we can key in on to really help us understand what he's talking about. He writes this. He washed off our tombs. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For those of us who trust in Jesus and his sufficiency, our tombs are clean. We are alive in Christ. He's taking care of us. Because God has done, by sending him to die on the cross, to live a perfect life and to die a perfect death and to have a perfect resurrection, God has done what the law, listen, weakened by the flesh. But he sent his son who condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. He sent Jesus to live a perfect life and to perfectly follow the law, the only person in history who's ever done it, to die a perfect death, to have a perfect resurrection, to ascend back into heaven, and then begin, according to Romans and Hebrews, to advocate to the Father on our behalf. And in that action, he covers over our weakness, and we are restored into the life of the Spirit and into harmony with our Creator and into affection from our Father God. That's what Paul is saying in Romans. He's telling us the purpose of the law is to show us our need for Jesus. And so in light of that, I told you at the beginning, we presume the purpose of the law is to provide a path to spiritual sufficiency. And in our sufficiency, so earn God's approval. But what we see through a careful examination of ourselves, standing up against the law, what we see in the teachings of Jesus is that was never the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law is to provide a path to spiritual surrender and in Christ's sufficiency, receive God's affection. You see the difference? When we act like it's to achieve our own spiritual sufficiency, we butt our heads up against the wall until we reach a place of surrender. And we say, Jesus, I can't follow the law. You followed it perfectly. I'm totally reliant on you. I'm done trying. I'm done trying to behave my way into heaven. I'm done trying to behave my way into God's affection and into my Father's approval. And I surrender to you. I confess, you died, you lived a perfect life, you died a perfect death, and then you resurrected for me. And you are my path to harmony with my creator. And I am insufficient entirely to do that at all. I am completely and totally reliant upon the sufficiency of Christ and his death on the cross. That is my only path to affection with my father. And then in Christ's sufficiency, we receive, not earn, God's affection, which is far better than approval. We don't want our dads to simply nod in a condescending approval to us. Yeah, you're good. Yeah, you're okay. Yeah, you're allowed. We don't want a distant, heartless approval from our God. We want that affection. We want Him to love us. We want Him to take joy in our joy. We want Him to mourn when we mourn. We want Him to hurt when we hurt. We want Him to love when we love. We want to know that our Father God is right there. We want his affection. And to get that, all we have to do is surrender. Quit trying so dang hard. And what it looks like is this. How about, how about instead of deciding all the things you're going to do to live the life that you think God wants you to live and to be the person that you think God wants you to be and all the plans and all the rules and all the white knuckling that we're going to do, how about we scrap that? And how about we make our only plan is to wake up every day and remind ourselves of the love that Jesus has for us. I heard one pastor call this preach the gospel to yourself. Remind ourselves that we fall at the feet of Jesus, that we rely on his sufficiency, that we trust in his perfect life and in his perfect death, and that God, the Bible says that this is love, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Before we earned it, before we deserved it, before we had any claim to it whatsoever, God sent Jesus to live a perfect life and die a perfect death so that we could experience eternity in heaven with him, so that we could walk in the affection and the love of our Father, so that we could be at harmony with our Creator. Remind yourself of that every morning. Remind yourself every morning, Jesus loves me. My Father loves me. Not for who I'm going to be, not for how I'm going to behave, but He loves me because He sent His Son for me. And if anyone were to ask me, why does God love you? I would point to the cross and I would say, because of what Jesus did, not because of anything that I've done. And remind yourself of that overflowing love every day. I love that verse in the book of John that says, from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. Remind yourself of that grace every day. And what you'll see happening is when we surrender to Christ and we remind ourselves of his love, that our affections for the people around us are stirred as well. We'll be more gracious with our husbands and our wives and our children and our friends and our co-workers and the bad drivers. When we daily remind ourselves to surrender to Christ's sufficiency, when we choose surrender over sufficiency, God stirs our affections for Jesus. When we simply remind ourselves, I am insufficient, I have nothing to offer, Jesus has everything to offer, and I rely on that. When we remind ourselves of that, God stirs our affection for Jesus. And in stirring our affection for Jesus, he stirs our affection for one another, which by the way, isn't that the whole point of the law anyways? Didn't Jesus say that loving God with all your heart, soul, and your mind, amen, and loving your neighbor as yourself sums up the whole law and the prophets? This is how it does it. Instead of trying to be a people who are worried about the rules and all the right behaviors for Christians, which, by the way, will stop us from looking at other Christians and saying on social media, well, it's pretty unchristian. I thought you said you were a Christian and now you're da-da-da-da-da. If we would move away from a rule-following Christianity and towards a daily surrender to that Christ, we will find waiting for us an affection for Jesus and an affection for others that will help us walk in harmony with the law anyways. So the whole point of the law and the whole point of this morning is to grab our faces and point them to Christ and help us remember that he alone is worthy of our affection, that he alone is worthy of our devotion. And if we would quit trying to follow the rules so darn well and fail and get up and try hard again, if we would just surrender instead of trying so hard, surrender to the sufficiency of Jesus, that he would fill our hearts with affection for him, that that affection would overflow to others, and then we would finally be people who keep the law and walk in devotion and affection to Jesus. So I said my prayer for you at the beginning was that you would leave here with your heart stirred more for affection to Jesus than when you came in. That you would leave here desiring Jesus more than you did when you entered in. And my further prayer is that that would be a sustained thing, that some of you, gosh, maybe a few of you, would finally quit trying so hard and just wake up tomorrow morning and say, Jesus, thank you for loving me, and see where that leads. In a minute, the band's going to come up, and we're going to sing a song called Jesus, We Love You. There's a chorus in there, our affection, our devotion poured out on the feet of Jesus. Let's stand and sing this song as one church with one voice and one agreement and one surrender to pour everything out at the feet of Jesus and let him stir our affections for him. Let's pray. Father God, we are grateful for you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us the law so that we can see how much we need you. God, I pray that we would want more of you, that we would simply want more of Jesus, that we would want to know you better, and that in that pursuit we would feel a freedom from the things that trip us up, from the things that seek to hold us back, that so easily entangle. But that maybe, God, by focusing on you, by focusing on your son, we can run the race that's set before us as we were finally, finally intended to run. Focus our eyes on you, Jesus. And let us trust you to take care of everything else. In Jesus' name, amen.

I wonder, pals, how long's it been since we heard those stories? I bet it's been a while. And if we could tell them again, I wonder if we would find out that those stories aren't really kids' stories at all, but they were meant for grown-ups all along, and that there's still lessons we can learn from them today. Let's find out together. Speedy delivery. For me? Thanks mailman Kyle. Today, Jonah and the Whale. Well, good morning, Grace Raleigh. My name is Erin, or as I have affectionately somehow been now dubbed, Girl Erin. So I am so glad to be here this morning. I am excited to see these beautiful faces. And so thanks for joining us, whether here or online, or maybe later this week. We appreciate your time. So thanks for being here. I feel like I kind of need to start out our morning with a small confession. And that confession is, I'm a bit of a history nerd. And I'm in love with the Old Testament. And I know there's lots of you in here that are looking at me going, but the New Testament, Aaron, is where it's at. And you know what? Yes, it's the gospel. You know, we get to see all of the creation of the church and then the beautiful letters that show the church how to act and how to behave and how to love each other. And it's great. And I love that part too. But to me, the Old Testament, it just has me. It's got a special, special place in my heart. The 39 books that make up the Old Testament do a spectacular job of showing us the history of God and his people. And it shows us all about Jesus. It continues to point us in his direction. And then it just does a really cool job also of showing us how much God really kind of cares about us and thinks that we're special and our everyday lives mean something. So hear me out on this one because it really is like it's the cool place to be. It's full of really cool heroes that you guys have been seeing, some of them. And I know our world today has all kinds of great heroes too. We got a little Captain America over here. Maybe there's Thor. I think there's a new Thor movie out. There's also some Iron Man. I seem to be stuck a little bit in Marvel for DC folks. I'm sorry. But it's all the heroes. We have sports heroes. We have all these places that we could put and look to to put our faith maybe. But the Old Testament gives us really, really cool heroes too. And what I think makes them the coolest is the fact that they're big old mess-ups just like you and me. And so we have this place to land. The Old Testament tells us the good, the bad, the ugly. There's no filter put on these guys. You know, Instagram has that beautiful filter where everybody looks perfect and pretty and all of the other things. You're going to find in the Old Testament those heroes aren't filtered. They come to us raw and in their natural glory. We have Adam who was God's first creation, the man, but we find out later that Adam is a bit of a blame shifter who lacks some self-control. And then we also have Noah who was considered the last righteous man on earth and yet the minute that the ark landed Noah was over served and ended up falling asleep in his birthday suit and thus embarrassing his sons greatly. And then there's Jacob. We've learned all about Jacob in the past. Jacob from the very beginning was a manipulator. But you know what? Jacob's other name is Israel. So we think he's this big spectacular hero, which he was. But he also has his flaws. He convinced his brother to give him his birth, just like we are. And yet God chooses to use them in pretty spectacular ways. And I want to introduce you to another one of the heroes, I personally think is a hero, of the Old Testament. And his name is Jonah. And you're going to see as we talk about Jonah that Jonah was a little bit headstrong. And Jonah liked to do things his way. And that because of all this, Jonah gets to sit in some pretty stinky circumstances for a little while. But I've gotten ahead of myself. So let me introduce you, first of all, to Jonah before we jump into Jonah's story. You will find the book of Jonah in the back part of the Old Testament sandwiched in between Obadiah and Micah. And if you happen to have a Bible that has sticky pages, which mine can sometimes, you'll miss it because it's four short little chapters long. That's it. And it's back there waiting for us to dig into it. Jonah was a prophet. All that means is Jonah was God's mouthpiece. It was easy and simple. God gave instruction to Jonah. Jonah, in turn, then gave instruction to his people. And that was his job. He lived in a small little village outside of Nazareth. It was called Gas Heifer. Just to give you a little information, that's what it was called. It was called Gas Heifer. It's also speculated that he lived during the time of the Assyrian Empire's reign. And at this point in time, the Assyrian Empire was to the north and west or east, whichever. I'm directionally challenged, y'all. I'm so sorry. But it was up here to where he was down here. How about that? Does that work? And so he's, and this empire liked to try to take over all of the territory surrounding it, which included the lands where the Israelites lived. So unfortunately, or whatever, the Assyrian army was a huge enemy of the Israelite people. That becomes important later, so hold on to that one. The other thing to know about the Assyrians as people is they weren't nice. They were classified as idolatrous. They were proud. They were ruthless. They were bent on world conquest. They were known very specifically for their brutality and torture when it came to how they fought, as well as once they conquered an area, they were then known for their intimidation and fear factors that they used in order to hold these people in their control. So just the kind of people you would want to have as your neighbor. Just saying. Okay, so hold on to all that because, again, that information we'll come back to. So now let me introduce you to the book of Jonah. I did not prepare slides. So you have nothing to look at. I'm so sorry. But you do have your Bibles in front of you. So if you want to pull out and look at Jonah, again, it's towards the back of the Old Testament, you can kind of follow along there. We pick up in chapter one, verse 1, and it starts out and states that the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for the evil has come up before us. Well, that sounds pretty simple, right? God's doing exactly what it is. He's giving instruction to his prophet, and he's telling his prophet to go talk to people, but the thing is that he's not saying go talk to the Israelites. He's telling Jonah, I want you to get up, and I want you to go, and I want you to go talk to the Ninevites. Any idea where Nineveh is? Ah, Nineveh sits right in the Assyrian Empire. Right in the middle, y'all. So here it is as God's telling him, I want you to get up and I want you to go over here to our mortal enemies and I want you to tell them that they're in trouble. So Jonah, being the good prophet he is, decides to get up, and he decides to go, right? Well, unfortunately, his compass is about as directionally challenged as I am, and Jonah did get up and go, and if you look in verse 3, it says, but, oh, that word in the Bible is never a good thing. But Jonah rose and fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa. He found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. So here it is. Jonah is just like all the other people that we've talked about. He's not the perfect little hero that we kind of would hope he is because he gets up and he goes in the direction that he wants to go, not in the direction that God has asked him to go. No, he has chosen, and y'all, this one makes me laugh a little. If he wanted to go from where he was in Joppa to Nineveh where God asked him to go, it's about 500 miles, which is about like going from Raleigh to Buffalo, New York. And instead, though, Jonah has said, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm going my way. And his way, though, is to go 2,500 miles in the opposite direction. And 2,500 miles is like going from Raleigh to Los Angeles. So not only is he fleeing, he's fleeing really hard, really fast, and completely in the opposite direction. And why is he doing this? All because it says here he's fleeing the presence of the Lord. So how many times is it that we've done that? How many times is it that we've had some sort of call from God to go and do something, and we've chosen to go our way or to the opposite way? Be honest. What in here is your Nineveh? Everybody has a Nineveh. Everybody has some place that you're avoiding. For whatever reason it is. Maybe it's that it's just too hard to even think about. Maybe that it's a little too dangerous. Or maybe it's going to require a little too much sacrifice on your part. And it's just so much easier to do it your way, even if, like in Jonah's case, it's a whole lot farther in a different direction. Maybe it's a relationship that you're supposed to be mending. Maybe it's something to do with your job. I don't know what your Nineveh is, but you do. So what is it? And I know also you guys are thinking, well, I might have my Nineveh, but I definitely don't run from God. I would never do that. Well, I tell you what. How about if I give you a couple of things to think about to see if you possibly are running from God. What does it look like for you to run from his presence? Are you avoiding those places where he shows up? What does your church attendance look like? Are you avoiding being here on a Sunday morning because you don't want to listen to these worship songs because it may hit someplace? Or you definitely don't want to hear something that Nate may have to say because it's going to convict you and then you're going to have something to do because of it. What does your activity inside of Bible study or small group look like? Are you part of one? If you're not part of one, why? And if you are part of one, are you actively engaged? Are you participating? Or are you trying to stay away from where God may show up? And the last one is, what does your daily time with God look like? Are you spending time with him each day? Do you sit? Do you reflect? Do you pray? Do you allow him to speak to you? Or do you just continue to run? Because, you know, Scripture tells us he's not going to leave us. He's not going to forsake us. But it's us that turns and runs. Thankfully, though, when he sees us on the run, quite often he does something to stop us and move us back into his direction. He tries to fix our compass a little bit. And I don't know about y'all, but I can be stubborn. As my family agrees, I can be stubborn. I can be hard-headed and sometimes I just don't listen very well. So the way that God has to move me, unfortunately, can become a two-by-four situation, like right here between the eyes that says, hey, Aaron, wake up. But then there's others. Maybe y'all are lucky and his still small whisper is what will get you where you need to go. I don't know. But in Jonah's case, we find out that God does a pretty big work to get his attention. So Jonah has moved and he's now on this boat and this boat is heading 2,500 miles away to Tarshish. And all of a sudden, God says, it's time for you to come home. And he sends a mighty wind off to the sea, which creates what they call a tempest. So basically, y'all, this is a big storm unlike anything we would have ever seen before. And this poor little boat is out in the middle of it, rocking and shaking and probably being pushed really, really hard at the seams. The crew that's on this boat knows. They're sailors. They're seasoned sailors. They know that this is not any normal storm. They're trying to figure out how not to sink. So they start picking stuff up and throwing it overboard. Like, I got to get rid of this so that we don't go down in this storm. And all the while, the captain's like, oh, wait a second. We had somebody on board with us. Has anybody seen Jonah? The captain goes looking for Jonah. He goes, y'all, Jonah is down in the hull of the ship, sound asleep. Of all things, it's rocking and rolling and the wind is blowing and it's probably raining and the whole works. And I don't know about you, but I might have been a little seasick at that moment. But Jonah's taking himself a little nap. And the captain looks at him and says, hey, you need to wake up. And you need to start praying that we don't all perish in the middle of this storm. And I hate to say it, but Jonah doesn't pray at this moment. But he does get up, and he does go up onto the deck. And somewhere when the captain was looking for him, the rest of the crew is just trying to figure out exactly what has caused this supernatural storm that's around there. And so they do something called casting lots and it all comes to a point that it's Jonah is the problem. So when Jonah appears up back onto deck, these crew members look at him and they literally start throwing all kinds of questions at him about as fast as you can hear them come out of their mouths. Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation and where do you come from and what is your country and of what people are you? And then Jonah in turn responds, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. And right there, Jonah just told them everything that they needed to know about what was happening to him and why it was happening. He's a Hebrew, and he worships the one true God, the one true God who made the sea that they're sitting on that's now in this huge storm. And so they know it's Jonah's fault. And so they look at Jonah and say, what do we need to do in order to fix this? Because you're our problem. And Jonah just looks at him and he very calmly says, just throw me overboard. Okay. The crew members have probably got this going in their head though. Like the, the guy, God's already angry. He's already got this sea all churned up. And so if we pitch this guy overboard, don't we think he's going to be even more mad at us because we've just now killed this guy? And so instead of doing what Jonah said, they proceed to row as hard as they possibly can row because they're going to get him up on shore and kick him off and their problem is going to be solved. Well, the faster they row, the angrier the sea gets. And so finally they stop. But before they pitch Jonah overboard, these men stop and they pray. They don't pray to their idols or to their gods. They pray to Jonah's God. And they say, hey, Lord, we're going to do what he told us to do. And we're going to throw him overboard. And please don't let his blood be on our hands. Mind you, Jonah has still not prayed. But these pagans are praying to his God. And so they then pick up Jonah and they throw Jonah overboard and the seas stop. Whew. That was a whole lot in 12 verses. So I'm going to stop for just a second. I'm going to back us up and I want to look at something really fast. We've got our little rebellious prophet who has defied God. He's boarded his ship and I can only imagine what's going on in his head when he boarded the ship was I had a conversation with God. He told me to go to Nineveh. Nobody knows about that but me and God. And so it really doesn't matter that I'm going to get on this ship and I'm going the other way because nobody's for the wiser. It's just between me and God. But what do we see? This is that Noah's disobedience brought calamity to that ship and to all that were part of it. So ultimately what he shows us in this moment is that our obedience and our disobedience affects so many more people than we could ever begin to imagine. There are very, very few instances where our choices only affect us. Our choices echo through generations. A great example of these choices is, let's say, I'm the kids pastor, so I can use this as an example. But let's say you choose to volunteer inside of kids ministry or inside of Kyle's student ministry. You've made a choice to do it. In a lot of instances, it's not like you're getting a bunch for this choice. In most instances, there's a whole lot more sacrifice that happens on your part because you're giving up a Sunday to be hanging out with kids or a Sunday night on your couch to hang out with students. You get to laugh at all the 12-year-old humor, which, y'all, that's the best part right there. You get to answer crazy questions and weird texts and all of the above. But somewhere in there, that time that you spend with these kids or with these students is impacting that generation, which in turn will impact the next generation and the next and the next. You may never see the fruits from all those seeds that you planted, but I promise you heaven does. And there is a party happening because of your yes. And the same thing, though, goes with our disobedience. Let's say you've got that relationship that you know darn well you need to do something about. It's broken, and it needs some reconciliation. But by choosing the easy way and saying no, what have you told that other person? Maybe you've kind of told them that they're not lovable or that when the going gets hard, you're going to pack up and go the other way. What about your kids, your big kids, little kids, any of the above that are watching this. You know, this may be communicating to them too that it's really okay to give up on a friendship. It's really okay to hold a grudge. That forgiveness is not always the way to go. And maybe you have somebody else that's watching this in the background. Maybe it's a neighbor. And all of a sudden, by you choosing the easy way, it all of a sudden validates to them that Christianity is kind of a farce and that somehow most Christians are hypocrites. Our disobedience or our obedience affects so many more people than just us. So let's jump back into where Jonah is. We know Jonah is now overboard, but we also know that God is not done with Jonah. So God sends Jonah his little saving grace, which happens to be a rather large fish that swallows him up. And a bit of a side note, we don't know if this is a fish, a shark, a whale, or some creature that lives six miles down at the bottom of the ocean that we've never seen before. We have no idea. Scripture just calls it a big fish. So I'm going to call it a big fish. It just works that way. And Jonah is given now three days and three nights to sit in his circumstances and the consequences of his actions. And I don't know about y'all, but when I was little and I used to get in trouble, quite often my mama would look at me and say, hey, Aaron, and she used to call me Aaron Beth when I was in trouble. She's like, Aaron Beth, you need to go sit over there and think about what you've done, and then we're going to talk about it. Well, this is exactly what God is doing for Jonah. Hey, Jonah, you've messed up, and I'm going to give you some time to think about it and then we're going to talk about it. So that's what Jonah gets, three days and three nights in the belly of a very stinky fish. And while he's in there, Jonah does sit, Jonah does think, and then Jonah does what we hoped he would have done in chapter 1, and he prays. And all of chapter 2 is Jonah's prayer from his repentant heart as he pours out to God. And so I'm just going to pull out verse 2. I'm not going to give you the whole prayer. You guys can read it. But verse 2 says, I called out to the what that just says to me is that even after we've messed up and even after we're totally disobedient, God still hears our prayers. He still hears us. He still wants that relationship with us. Jesus is currently seated at the right hand of God, waiting to intercede for us, waiting to be able to say, hey, I'm going to give you a second chance or a third or a twelfth or a twentieth, whatever it is that you may need. He wants to give that to us because he longs to be in relationship with us and he longs to take the messes that are our lives and turn them into something very, very beautiful for his purposes. And that's exactly what he does for Jonah. After Jonah pours out his heart to him, God says, okay, it's time. And the fish deposits him on dry land. And again, some of the other reasons I love the Old Testament is it doesn't mince words. And my version says that he vomited Jonah onto dry land. So just add to the stinkiness, okay? So then we come to chapter 3, verse 1, and this is just so amazing because it says straight up, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Again, he loves us, wants a relationship, and he's going to give us second chances. He doesn't need us to accomplish his goals. God, at this point in time, y'all, he could have taken care of Nineveh all on his own. He didn't need Jonah, but he wanted Jonah to join in, and that's exactly what He wants from us. And the next part, if you look down into the second verse, it says, Arrive and go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against in the message that I tell you. I think this is so amazing too because guess what? Not only is he a God of second chances, but he's also not going to let Jonah off the hook though because he's now telling him to do exactly what he told him to do back in chapter 1. Arise and go to Nineveh. You don't get to, you spent all that time and you were repentant. But you're still going to do what I need you to do. I need you to get up and I need you to go. And so this time, thankfully, Jonah gets up and Jonah goes. And he goes to Nineveh. But the really cool part or the hard part or whatever you want to say here is that Jonah has 500 miles to go. Jonah has some hard work that he needs to do. And that is this hard work of obedience. Because I can guarantee you in this five mile walk, or 500 mile walk that Jonah is about to take, he's going to do a whole lot of thinking. Because here he goes, stepping, hey God, like, I'm doing what you're asking me to do. I'm making this journey. I'm going. But what about like Amos and Hosea who were two other prophets at the same time as Jonah? You know, they're over there talking to the Israelites. Why can't I be over there like them? No, Jonah, keep walking. Jonah keeps walking. Okay, well, could you just send me a friend then so I don't have to do this by myself? No, no, Jonah, keep putting that foot in front of the other. And that's exactly what Jonah does in this act of obedience. And is it easy? No, it's not easy because guess what? Obedience doesn't come with a convenience clause. God doesn't make it easy because God wants you to have to rely on him with each step that you take. So like that broken relationship that we talked about, it may mean that to do the hard work of obedience is that you have to be the first person that puts out a hand and says, can we talk? Is it easier the other way? Of course it is. It's so much easier the other way. Because guess what? The other way is our way. And all we're trying to do is run the other way. He doesn't need our excuses. He just wants our obedience. The other thing to remember about Jonah at this point in time is he's probably a bit of a sight to see. There are actually two recorded versions of men who have been swallowed by a whale and later lived to tell the tale. And these men emerged hairless and covered in yellow and green splotches. And I imagine they smelled really good also. So now I'll get a picture of Jonah also in his 500-mile walk. We don't know if he bathed or not. We have no idea on that one. But he's also walking 500 miles, so we know he probably doesn't smell very good. We also know that he looks really, really strange. This is what he does. This is how he looks as he walks into the city of Nineveh. I'm here. And all that's going through his head at that point in time is like, really? Lord, are you sure about this? These people are going to run the opposite direction. I look pretty scary, and oh, I don't smell very good. And God's like, no, no, no, keep going, keep going. So Jonah keeps going, and he starts crying out, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And he goes another step and yells again. And all I can think about is at this moment, the Lord is loving the position that he has Jonah in because he loves to put us in these challenging positions where he gets to be who he is. Jonah thinks it's impossible. Jonah thinks these people are not going to respond. There's no way this is going to come out for any kind of good. And God says, oh, but watch this. And in chapter 3, verse 5, it says, and the people of Nineveh believed God. And then verse 10 says, God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, and he did not overthrow them. So here's this one little guy who walks in smelling, and he's full of sores, etc. And yet because he did the work of obedience, these people believed God, and they turned from God. It was an unprecedented response because remember Ninevites are horrible people by nature and yet they turned to the one living God. It was a revival beyond all revivals. And I think it would just be fabulous if we could end right here. We're done. Let's have the baptism. We can call it a day. But the thing is, is if you remember correctly, I told you there's four chapters to the book of Jonah. And we just got to the end of chapter three. Because the fourth chapter does so much to show us Jonah's humanity in full color and full display. And, yeah, hear what happens. Because the beginning of chapter 4, verse 1 says, but, there's that word again, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. Come on, y'all. Seriously? Greatest revival ever, and Jonah is now mad because it happened. Why? Why would you be mad at something like that? I think what it really comes down to is Jonah is mad because God didn't do it his way. You see, back then the Israelites all believed that God's blessing and God's favor was for them and them alone. And it wasn't to be shared with others. But yet God said, oh, no, no. These Ninevites are part of my plan. And I need them to be taken care of. And so Jonah's mad. That's why Jonah's mad. But can I ask how many times we've done something like that. Where we've had our plan for ourselves. I am going to, and you know, you've just got it all written down. You know where your life's going. You know what your plan looks like. It's all great and good. And then you walk up to God and go, would you please just, will you sign off on this for me? Give it a good stamp of approval. Because it's my way, right? That's the way I want it to go. But we cannot. We cannot do that to God. We can't do that to ourselves because ultimately what happens is we're putting God in this box. And we're saying that your way, my way, has to be your way. That's not how he works. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He knows what he wants to do. And we should be just getting out of his way instead. And so I don't know. You know, he's very good at what it is that he does. And I am so not sure why we choose not to trust him and what his plan is for us. And I kind of sat and thought about this. And the thing that I kind of came up with is I think that we're more concerned about ourselves than we are with actually showing others who God is. We don't believe that anything that we do, that the choices that we make, actually affect anybody around us. It's kind of an all about me. And I also think that, again, in that all about me, we don't want to be inconvenienced by having to do some hard work of obedience. But I'm so very thankful that God, in all of our ugly humanness, still chooses to use us. And in this case, we know he used Jonah in a mighty way. Chapter 4, unfortunately, does not tie up Jonah's story in a big red bow. We don't know if Jonah ever even got over himself. And I'm sorry. I like a good ending. This one's not a good ending, and I'm sorry about that. But that's just the way that it is. But I think that the lessons that Jonah brings to us before this ending are ones that we can hold on to for a really, really long time. God wants desperately to be in a relationship with us, but he doesn't need us. He wants us. He wants to use us to accomplish his goals. But the thing is, being the gentleman that he is, he's going to ask. And we, in turn, have to respond. We have to be willing to surrender to him. We have to be willing to do the hard work that he's going to ask of us. And when we choose to do that, we, in turn, bring glory to him. And again, maybe a little growth to ourselves. In the beginning of the book The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, there's an exchange between two characters, two of the main characters, Gandalf, who's kind of a kindly old wizarding folk, and then Bilbo Baggins, who is the hobbit. And the exchange starts like this. Gandalf says, I'm looking for someone to share an adventure that I'm actually in the process of arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone. And Bilbo's response to him is, well, I should think so in these parts. We are plain, quiet folk, and we have no use for adventure. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things make you late for dinner. So my question for y'all is, the next time God says to you, I'm looking for someone to share an adventure, or I'm looking for someone to step out to do something for me, are you going to be like Bilbo, and are you going to avoid it at all costs? Because it's uncomfortable. Because it doesn't quite fit in with your plans. Because you just might have to sacrifice something. And maybe something a little bit more than dinner. Or will you be willing to say yes, knowing that your yes is for God's glory and for your growth? And will you all pray with me? Lord, thank you. Thank you, thank you for these examples in the Old Testament, these human characters that give us such a beautiful picture of the fact that no matter how messed up we really are, you can use us. And we ask that as we go through this week that you give us what it is that we need to turn towards you to begin that beautiful walk of obedience, no matter how hard it might be, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. Give us what we need to do that. And Lord, we love you. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.

Oh, hey there, pals. Don't you just love this music? It's nostalgic, isn't it? Takes you back to a simpler time, when you were a kid and things were light and fun. I love times like that. I'll tell you what else makes me feel nostalgic. It's those old Bible stories. The ones that we learned in Sunday school or maybe just picked them up somewhere along the way. I love the heroes, David and Goliath, Noah and the ark, Jonah and the whale. The list really does go on and on. And I wonder, pals, how long's it been since we heard those stories? I bet it's been a while. And if we could tell them again, I wonder if we would find out that those stories aren't really kid stories at all, but they were meant for grown-ups all along, and that there's still lessons we can learn from them today. Let's find out together. Speedy delivery. For me? Thanks, Mailman Kyle. Today, pals, Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. That has to be the coolest Mr. Rogers. I mean, a little bit creepy, but mostly, mostly, mostly cool, right? Hey guys, if you are new visiting or we just hadn't had the chance to meet yet, my name is Aaron and I am so excited to be sharing with you today. If you weren't here last week, it was a really cool week, especially for me being the newbie at Grace. It was a ministry partner Sunday and we got to hear from some of our ministry partners and just kind of hear exactly what was going on. And then afterwards, we gave you tacos. And I kind of wish the tacos were this week, because if I do a bad job, but we give you tacos after, you're going to leave and say, that was pretty good, right? So no, no, Nate, man, thank you so much just for the opportunity to come up and share what's been on my heart. Really excited about it. So, to kind of get our minds going in the right direction, I just kind of want to gauge the audience, see if anybody is like me. Is it anybody else who is extremely frustrated and gets angry when something doesn't go according to plan, but because of someone else, right? Like somebody else doesn't do their job, right? Have you ever had a bad haircut? I realize some of you guys are looking at me right now and you're like, 15 years ago, and your wife's looking at you and giggling. I didn't mean to bring that up. I'm sorry. But you understand what I'm saying, right? That happened to me not long ago. And now I'm realizing that I thought of this illustration this morning, getting ready for church, and now there's a bunch of people looking at my hair to see if I'm telling the truth. And stop it. But no, it's the most frustrating thing that can happen, right? Because it's not just that moment that you walk away angry. It's every morning afterward, you're looking, you're trying to fix your hair, and he's like, are you kidding me, right? You go get a hat, go to work, and it's done and over with. But it's frustrating because I went in with a plan, right? I went in and said, hey, this is what I want to do. I talked to him about showing pictures. I didn't walk out looking like Brad, but I looked like one of the little creatures from the Where the Wild Things Are. It was terrible. And every day, I'm like, bro, you had one job. I did everything that I could possibly do. Is anybody else like that? But let me ask you a question. Have you ever had that experience with God? You do everything that you could possibly do, and at some point you kind of sit back and you say, I mean, God, are you going to do anything about this? Like, God, is there, like, I can't, how long am I going to have to keep going through this same thing day after day? God, are you going to step in at any point in time and change things? That's one of the things that I think is so inspirational about, have you ever seen people that just have this unshakable faith? Have you ever encountered that before? It's like it doesn't matter what they deal with. It doesn't matter what they go through, what happens to them in their life. There's this solid confidence in tomorrow. Well, not necessarily tomorrow, but more in the God who kind of controls tomorrow. It's like nothing can be thrown at people like, no, it'll be okay. And they're not void of emotion, right? It's not like they're walking around saying, oh, no, everything's whatever. No, they grieve, they hurt, they have pain, they do all of this other stuff, but there's still this confidence. If you ever have a chance to speak to somebody who is kind of like that, they just have this solid, unshakable faith, I want to encourage you to just ask a lot of questions. And what I believe you will end up hearing is some variation of this, this confidence that God is not simply an observer of our life. He is actively involved in our life. God is not simply up there watching and hoping you get things figured out, hoping things work out according to plan. He's actively involved in the shaping of who we are and the world around us. It doesn't mean everything is going to be perfect all the time, but it means we're never going to be alone in this. And if you ever encounter someone who just kind of walks with that bold confidence that regardless what happens to them, I know that God is not just watching. And that's one of the things that I loved this last week about studying through and reading through Joshua and the battle of Jericho. You're probably familiar with the story. We are going to be in Joshua chapter 6. Joshua is the sixth book of the Old Testament. You can turn there, thumb to it in YouVersion, or we'll put it in this fancy digital Bible in the sky, right? But to catch you up, make sure we're all on the same page, Joshua, where we pick up in the story is he is a newly installed leader for the Israelites. It has been for hundreds of years, not hundreds of years, but for years and years, Moses was the leader. It starts back in when they were in slavery to the Egyptians, right? Moses stepped in, God used Moses, freed them from slavery to the Egyptians, walked them on this extremely long journey, got to see God do some incredible things while they're in journey to this land that God has promised them. And because the Israelites are super creative, they called it the promised land, right? And so now they get to this place where the promised land is in sight. They can see the land of Canaan and it's like, okay, that's it. That's where we're headed. Like everything they had been hoping for, they see it with their eyes. Moses dies. Joshua is raised to be the new leader. And God says to Joshua, hey, listen, there it is. We're going to walk into that land, that land that I promised you, the thing you've been hoping for. You're going to go there. And you're going to go and you're going to conquer all of your enemies there. It will be your land. The very first thing in their sights is Jericho. And so in Joshua 6, 1, it says this about the city of Jericho. It says, Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites, no one entering or leaving. And the Lord said to story, right? Because it's not just any normal boundary. You can see that they really weren't worried about fighting. That's not what Jericho was depending on. They were depending on being able to keep the Israelites out, and that's what was going to keep them safe. I've done a little bit of reading. Without getting too bogged down into the details, the walls are actually made up of two sets of walls. They have an outer wall that starts with a stone retention wall, keeping the resources in. It goes above ground about 12 to 15 feet. Then on top of that, you have a brick mud wall. And it just goes up. It goes up an embankment for a little bit, and you come to the second brick mud wall, and it's built up. A lot of archaeologists, and I've read some commentaries, and what they would end up saying is if you're standing at the base of this wall and you look up, it would be similar to looking up at a four-story building. And that's what God says. That's the first target. But did you catch what he said in verse 2? He says, look, I have handed you. That's past tense. That's already happened. And so God sends them to this place that says, the wall, you can do nothing about. Like, it is absolutely impassable. You cannot touch this. I'll take care of that, and you're going to take care of everything else. And in verse 3, he says, here is the plan. I'm going to try to read this, but it's small. My large print Bible is still in transport, and I'm from Kentucky, so there's that too. But it says this in verse 3. It says, That's not that funny. I mean, come days. Have seven priests carry seven rams horn trumpets in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times while the priests blow the trumpets. When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear it sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse and the people will advance each man straight ahead. So to kind of flesh that out just a little bit, it's essentially this. This was the plan. He said, I want you to have your fighting men in the front. Right behind them, I want you to have seven priests with seven trumpets. And then I want you to have a couple of priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant. And behind those, pulling in the rear guard, have the rest of your fighting men. And then he said, walk. Like literally, God's plan was take a hike. Like that was what God told them to do. Now listen, I am not much in way, I don't know much about like military strategic battles, right? The extent of my knowledge with warfare strategy begins and ends with Call of Duty. And I'm really not good at that either. But I do know this, that's a bad plan, right? Like, if I'm Joshua, I've got some questions. It's like, okay, God, that was a great broad stroke about what's going to happen, but there's some details I really kind of need to know about. Like, just feel me. Like, so we've got these guys. We've got our swords. Anything at all you want us doing with that? You want us making a lot of noise while we're circling just to strike some fear? No, no, just walk. As a matter of fact, just be real quiet while you're walking, too. Okay, God? I saw Bob has a shovel. Like, we can dig around, build something, like, to make the walls a little... No. Just walk. You poke it with a stick. I mean, what? Just literally just walk? Yeah, just walk. And so we have a tendency when we're reading stories like this, especially if you're anything like me, we kind of dehumanize, right? Like we will pull all of the emotion out of the text that we're reading. So just to kind of put you in that, let's say Nate comes up next week and he says, hey guys, listen, I have a vision from God. The city of Raleigh is going to be ours. We are going to remove all things evil from this city, right? There will be no more cats in this place. Like everything, everything evil is going to be, we'll get rid of it. Like there's, there's nothing else. The first thing we have to do, we have to conquer the most evil place in all of Raleigh. So we meet at Walmart and he says, so what we're going to do is I want you to just kind of walk around. He was like, okay, okay. We walk around, we get excited. We're ready to go. Yeah. We walked around. What now? He said, well, go home, and then come back tomorrow. Okay, okay, we can do that. What, you want us to bring? No, no, you're really good. Just walk. As a matter of fact, guys, we're going to do this for seven days, and on the last day, we're going to walk around it seven times. Listen, I trust Nate. I'm not doing that, right? Like, I'm sending my text. Hey, man, shoot me a message after y'all scream, and I'll show up, right? Because it just doesn't make any sense. Like, maybe the first couple of days, the Israelites were excited. Again, they just saw the land that they had been hoping for. They just saw the place that they had been traveling. They just saw the place that their grandparents and their grandparents, that everyone has been telling them that we're about to walk into it. So maybe there was some excitement. Maybe there was some enthusiasm on day one, two, and three. But what about day four, when they walk around it again and nothing changes? Day five, they walk around again, They look up, and there's not a brick that's fallen. Six and seven, much the same. I mean, again, let's be real. They're not superheroes. They're people like you and people like me. I mean, have you experienced that before? Were you're doing exactly what God has asked you to do, and the end result just doesn't seem to be happening. Maybe it's in your marriage, right? Like your marriage hasn't been exactly what you would hope it would be. And so you try to be obedient to who God has asked you to be as a spouse. You love sacrificially. You put them first. You're consistently serving, but they're just not reciprocating. And at some point, do you step back and say, is it worth it, God? Are you going to do something here? Because the unchangeable thing, Jericho, I can't change their heart. God, you said you would do something. You gave me your promise. Like, I know you want this. Maybe it's with work, right? Like you try to be a hard worker. You are the first one there, the last one to leave. You're trustworthy. You're always looking out for your coworkers, but time after time, year after year, you get passed over for the promotion. Somebody else gets in like, God, what are you doing? Maybe it's with finances in general, right? Like you start saving, you stop eating out, you try to create some margin, you put a little bit of money into saving, except the thing you can't control, inflation just seems to keep going up. And it's like, God, man, I'm doing everything I can. Are you going to step in at some point? Like, what do you do when the right thing no longer seems like the right thing to do? What do you do when you're doing exactly what God has asked you to, but nothing is changing? That's where these guys were. Like, again, if you're anything at all like me, well, the wall starts to influence my behavior a little bit. That unchangeable thing starts to have a little bit of control in who I become. Think about how crazy that is. That the thing you dislike the most ends up influencing who you become. And I get it. I'm not up here talking at you. I'm probably doing more counseling to myself than I am anything. Because it's hard when you're doing exactly what God has asked you to do. You're stepping in the exact path that he's asked you to step, but nothing is changing. You take another trip and the brick doesn't fall. You take another trip. There's no rain to make the ground soft. There's no winds. There's nothing. It's like, God, all right, what's going on, God? But that doesn't seem to be what happens to the Israelites. I'm not saying that's not what they felt. Because I believe with all confidence they had to have those wonderings. But what we see Joshua say in verse 16 tells us that they consistently had a hope. That God was not simply an observer, that he was involved, that God's promise wasn't forgotten. And here's what he said in verse 16. After the seventh time, this is on the seventh day. Remember the seventh day they were supposed to walk around at seven times. This is after the seventh time. The priest blew the ram's horn, and Joshua said to the troops, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Did you catch the tense that he used? He said, the Lord has given you the city. Joshua, the wall's still standing, bro. How is the city mine? But he had this confidence. And what he did was echoed God's promise. From the very beginning, God said, hey, listen, the city's yours. Don't worry. I'll take care of the walls. And there's something about Joshua. There's something in Joshua's world that allowed him to consistently do the same thing, consistently be the person God is asking him to be, consistently follow in the steps, consistently let his faith influence his steps versus the opposition. And he said, hey, we did it. We're there. We won. It's good. And it was simply the promise. There was something that he did that kept him gripped to the promise versus the not tumbling wall. It's that confidence that we were talking about. Joshua had a hope God would fulfill his promise by remembering the promises he fulfilled. That's what he did. So maybe that needs to happen kind of in your world, right? Hey, God, I'm having a hard time here. But Joshua encouraged his men. That's why I said, shout. Victory is won. And as I'm reading this, I'm like, okay, Joshua, that's not the problem. The problem isn't believing God can, or the problem isn't believing that God is able, but what is it when you're in that moment that makes it so hard to cling to the promise of God? And as I'm reading through, I come to this portion of the instruction that is right in the middle of everyone, the Ark of the Covenant. Now see, to everyone, to the citizens of Jericho and everyone watching, the Ark of the Covenant really represented who the Israelites were, who they were fighting for, exactly whose people they were. But to the Israelites, it was a little something different. To the Israelites, when they looked at the Ark, it actually contained three different things in it. The first thing was Aaron's staff, which was crucial in a big part of being freed from the Egyptian slavery. The second thing was the stone tablets, which Moses chiseled the Ten Commandments on. And the third thing was manna. Manna was something that as they were walking through the wilderness, they didn't have any food, they were starving, and it's where God provided food for them. All three of those things were sitting in the ark. And everywhere that the ark went, not only did it represent the presence of God, but it represented the promise of God. And I think it's by no accident, no accident at all, that when God said, hey, listen, I want you to have some guys up front. I want you to have some guys in the back. And right in the middle of everything, in the middle of everything you're doing, I need you to put the ark. I need you to be able to see the ark. When the wall's not falling quite as quickly as it needs to, I want you to be able to see the ark and remember how I've provided for you in the past. As the walls and you're walking around and something's not necessarily happening, I need you to be able to see the ark and remember, oh man, I remember whenever we were in captivity, God stepped in and freed us for no reason other than the fact that he loved us. I need you to be able to see the ark, and I want you to remember that when we didn't have a direction, he gave us a direction. I need you to see the ark, and I want you to remember as soon as you start thinking, I'm not going to come through for you, I want you to remember how the bread came from nowhere, and you had plenty of food. I need you to see those things. And it was right in the middle of everything that they were doing, in the middle of their frustration, in the middle of the waiting, in the middle of the, God, are you going to do something? Suddenly they caught a glimpse of something that was a reminder of God's presence and God's promise. And they held onto this hope because they remembered God's promise. Joshua said, shout. And is the thing in your world that cannot be taken away from you? What is your experience with God, your encounter with God, that when things aren't happening the way that you would like them to happen, when you're moving toward what you hope for the most and you aren't quite seeing it yet, what is the thing that catches your eye, that you can go back to, that you can remember? And hope. Hope comes in. Like there's hope in a tall obstacle. So, just to be very transparent, very honest, a couple of years ago, serving at a church in southeast Georgia as one of their pastors, and it was a dark, dark time. I grew up in a church where it was really very behavior and rules oriented. I'm not saying anything except for what I ended up taking away from that is that I had to be good enough in everything that I did. I'm grateful, in part, because it made me so awesome today. But no, there's another part of it that I kind of shifted that same type of approach to God. I felt like I had to be good enough for God. And from time to time, that would creep up in my world. And serving at this church, leading people, and I'm not saying that to elevate myself. I'm saying that to say, hey, listen, I, none of your pastors are any different. I was at a place that I felt like God didn't want me anymore, that I felt like God didn't care for me, that God kind of took his hand off of me, that God wasn't going to use me anymore, and he was just kind of done. Go. I gave you too many chances. I'm done. I'm over with. And I'm telling you, I was at a dark, dark place. And I remember, I'm an artist. I'm going to get emotional. Just deal with it. It'll be fun. I remember I went into the church one day, and I was so desperately, I needed to see a brick fall. And I'm saying, on my knees, I'm praying, God, listen, I need to know you haven't given up on me. I need to know that you're still here. I need to know that you still hear me. I need to know that you still care. I was so desperate for some type of a sign. After I would pray, I would look up at the lights and kind of hope for them to flicker. I needed something. I stayed there for 10, 15 minutes, glancing, looking at my phone. Maybe he would say, I love you or something. Just anything. Silence. Day seven. No brick. No lean. And I remember I stood up. I walked right down the middle of the aisle, headed out. And in my mind, I said, I guess I still got to be that good Christian kid, huh? I was angry. I went home. And I was about to sit down and just work on my call-to-duty skills, right? And before I did that, it hit me. I was like, I guess I got to, again, do my devotional thing. And I sat down. I don't need to read it. I sat down. Opened my devotional. And it was actually, it was Louis Giglio, an incredible speaker. He was probably good. I don't remember what he said, though. But I read the text with it. It was Isaiah 43. And it said, this is the Lord your God, and I love you. I chose you. I'll be with you. And I'm telling you, I got broke. Just like, there's my arc. I don't care what happens tomorrow. I can always look at that. I can always remember. He heard. He remembered me. He didn't give up on me. And I'm telling you, I suck really bad at remembering that. So much so I had to get it tattooed on my arm, right? And every day at two o'clock there's a notification that pops up on my phone that says, hey, remember how God is for you. Believe that he'll do it again. Every day, 2 o'clock. What's your arc? What is that encounter? What is that moment? What is that experience with God? Is it a car accident that should have killed you? Is it your spouse still loving you? Is it a home, being able to close on a home in 2022? Good Lord. What is your arc? How different, how different would those moments of walking around the wall be if you started and stopped your day with a journal? Like at the end of every day, sit down and write down, man, this was my God moment. This is what I saw God do in my world today. And then next week, recount back to the week prior. Read that, oh man, that was incredible. And you're sandwiching your day with your God moments, with your ark. How different would your world look if every night at dinner you sat down and you just asked your kids, asked your spouse, hey, what happened in your world today? What did you see God do? What was that cool thing? Not for any type of you have to to be good enough, but I'm telling you, you've experienced it. I've experienced it. The Israelites experienced it. This hurt and this heartache and this wall that kept me from having the hope that Jesus said he came to offer. What's your arc? In just a minute, I'm going to pray for us, And there's a new song. Maybe you're familiar with it, but I believe it's a newer song for here. And it comes right out of this text. And so what I want you to do, I don't want you to necessarily sing along at first. You're more than welcome to. You can read the words if you don't know it, whatever. But what I want you to do is take just a moment and find your ark. Like think back to those God moments, those God encounters that cannot be taken away from you because I promise you this, we need those in our journey because one of the things we were never promised is easy. Find your ark. And then we get to this bridge. The bridge of this song says, I've seen you move. You move the mountains. And I believe you'll do it again. You made a way when there was no way. And I believe you'll do it again. What I'm going to ask you to do at that moment, you've got your ark. I want you to stand up and do exactly what the Israelites did. Shout it. We declare praise to a God who is worthy of our praise. And I believe with all of my heart, right, he is involved in the world that you're living in. I can't tell you tomorrow is going to be easy, but I can tell you if it's not, you've got an ark that can still bring hope into your journey. Let's pray. God, thank you. Thank you for being a God who is good, a God who is kind, a God who is faithful, a God who has blessed us with encounters with you that we can take along with us for the rest of our life. And it's in those moments, I believe that's what helped your disciples ask and pray for boldness, to pray for moments of new experiences with you. Because it just strengthened their faith and it built them to a place of unshakable faith in you. So God, I know sometimes it's hard to remember, and again, you have this promise that your Holy Spirit will speak to us and guide us and lead us. What I ask you to do, Lord, is we sit in just a couple of moments and we reflect on our encounters with you. We invite your spirit to just come and flood our minds, God. Just pour these encounters with you, maybe even moments that we didn't give you credit for. Just flood our hearts, flood our minds with an ark that we can carry with us for the rest of our life. In Jesus' name.

Oh, hey there, pals. Don't you just love this music? It's nostalgic, isn't it? Takes you back to a simpler time, when you were a kid, and things were light and fun. I love times like that. I'll tell you what else makes me feel nostalgic is those old Bible stories. The ones that we learned in Sunday school or maybe just picked them up somewhere along the way. I love the heroes David and Goliath, Noah and the Ark,, Jonah and the whale. The list really does go on and on. And I wonder, pals, how long has it been since we heard those stories? I bet it's been a while. And if we could tell them again, I wonder if we would find out that those stories aren't really kids stories at all, but they were meant for grown-ups all along and that there's still lessons we can learn from them today. Let's find out together. Speedy delivery. For me? Thanks, mailman Kyle. Oh, this week is David and Goliath. Well, good morning. It's good to see everybody. Thanks for laughing along. Don't worry, we're not going to show you the full minute and 40 second version of that for the next 10 weeks. We can shorten it, but we'll let you watch it a couple more times. Thanks for being here this morning. Those of you who were able to make it in person, thank you. Watching online, wherever you are. I am excited about this series because I love these old stories from the Old Testament that many of us, as I said in the video, picked up when we were kids. Many of the stories that we're going to be telling over the next 10 weeks or so are stories that most, if not all of you could tell. I'm sure everyone in this room can tell some version of David and Goliath that wouldn't be wildly inaccurate. But the thing is about these stories that I'm willing to bet has probably been a long time since we've heard them, since we've read them for ourselves, since we've mined them for fresh details with a different perspective. And when you do read these stories and you look at the details of them and you look at the humanity of them, I think what you see is that the Bible really is unflinching in the details. That we teach these stories to kids. Here's a little secret in ministry. We teach these stories to kids because 1 Samuel 17 with the narrative story of David and Goliath goes over a lot better in the elementary school classroom than does a detailed theology mind out of Romans 8. Okay? So usually we teach kids stories because we put volunteers in there for the history of the church, and a volunteer just needs a story to tell because that's way easier to do than teaching theology to four-year-olds. So we tell stories, but make no mistake, these are not kids' stories. These are stories for everybody. And when you get into the details of it, you learn real quick, these are stories for grown-ups. So this morning, I get to tell you my favorite story to tell. It doesn't mean I'm good at it. It just means I really like this story of David and Goliath. So to set the scene, we're in 1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel is the ninth book of the Bible. It's sandwiched between Ruth and, you guessed it, 2 Samuel. So if you want to pull out the Bible in front of you and just kind of read along as I read, you're more than welcome to do that or grab your Bible at home and do the same thing. But the author of Samuel sets the scene at the beginning of chapter 17 and he says the Israelites and the Philistines are at war with one another. They're out for battle. The Philistines lived on what is now the coast of modern day Israel. So there was always tension and infighting and this battle between Israel and Philistia is pretty regular and pretty common. Eventually Israel wins because you've never heard of Philistia before and we all know where Israel is. But in this time they were big rivals. And so they assembled at a valley and drew up a battle line and the Philistines are on one mountain and the Israelites are on another mountain. And they're basically waiting for the other to get tired of waiting and come into the valley and give up the advantage. Neither army is going to go down into the valley and then try to fight uphill to a fortified enemy. So they're both just trying to wait the other party out. And in the midst of this steps a warrior named Goliath of Gath. And I'm going to read what scripture says about Goliath. This will not be on the screen, but I'm going to read what it says about Goliath and then try to sum it up for you because there's words like cubics and shekels and things like that, and we don't know what those are. So this is the description that we are given of Goliath. I'm in verse 4. Okay. So let me just paint a picture of what this actually describes. If you do the research and you look up the conversions and you try to figure it all out, I'm going to give you numbers that are in the middle, more conservative. Okay. Goliath was very likely between nine and nine and a half feet tall. Okay. That's really tall. That's almost a basketball goal tall, or it's about a foot and a half taller than a goal that I can dunk on. So however you want to think about that. I also instantly regret claiming that I can dunk on an eight-foot goal. I haven't done that in 15 years, and neglect and old age might have something to say about dunking on an eight-foot goal. So nobody put me to that. I'm crying uncle on that bet right now. But he was about nine, nine and a half feet tall. We'll call him nine feet tall. And if you're nine feet tall, just go with me on this, because I don't know. There's no guesses. But if you think about Shaq or a defensive lineman or these big behemoth dudes that we know of, and they weigh about 400 pounds or 350 pounds, and they're six feet tall, Shaq's seven foot tall. I don't know how much Goliath weighed, but 450? Five? 550? I don't think he was a skinny guy, nine feet tall and stocky. He was a heavy dude. And his armor, it says, if you add up all the shekels for his helmet, for his, for his breastplate that was made of chain mail and his bronze greaves, clocked in somewhere between 225 and 250. So that's like going to battle. I give my son John a ride on my shoulders and then you give us a piggyback ride. All right. That's what that's like. He goes into battle with an extra 250 on him. And not only that, he can walk down that hill apparently with ease. So he's walking down the hill. He's nine feet tall. He's somewhere around 500 pounds with an additional 250 pounds of armor, which makes me think that maybe Goliath was closer to 600, 650 pounds because of the ratios. Anyways, he is a walking giant tank. He's a bad dude. And it says that he's the champion. And when this tank gets down into the valley, this is what he says in verse 10. And the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now here's the challenge that he gives. And we see it in the verses above 10. I just can't read the whole chapter to you. But in the verses above 10, Goliath says, send me a man to fight. And it'll be winner takes all. You send me your champion. I'm the champion of the Philistines. Me and him will fight to the death. And if he wins, then all my brethren and all the people I'm fighting with and their wives and their children, we will be your slaves and servants. But if I win, if I defeat your champion, then all you guys up there on that hill and all your wives and all your children are our slaves and servants. So let's go. Who wants some? And this is what tells you that Goliath is a bad, this is how you know he was a bad dude. First of all, he comes down there and he says that to them. He says that to the Israelites. There's a whole army arrayed. They've been in a lot of battles. These are not new soldiers. They've all put their sword in something before. And he says, any one of y'all, come fight me. And if you win, then you win. The whole thing. Let's go. And all of them avoid eye contact like a kid in geometry class that's just been asked a question by the teacher. just straight down to the ground. They were afraid and greatly dismayed. When an entire army of men encountered another warrior, all of them and all their machismo and all their might and all their hoorah and all their battle cries and all that toughness, when push came to shove, they looked at Goliath and went, I think I'll just stay on the mountain. They were afraid and greatly dismayed. But what we don't think about that I actually think is pretty interesting is the response of the Philistines. Because if you're in the Philistine army and some dude walks out from amongst your ranks and goes down into the valley and yells up at the enemy, hey, if you got anybody who can take me, then you can have all them and their wives and their children as slaves. If you're in the Philistine army and you hear a dude do that and you think you can take him, are you going to let him say that for you? I'm not. If I'm in that army and somebody walks down and they say, hey, if anybody up there can defeat me, you can have Jen and Lily and John as your servants. If I can take him, no way. Not a chance I'm letting him say that for me. And let's just be real clear as I stand up here and be tough guy. Nate, I could take no one in either army. Probably in thumb wrestling, no way. But for the sake of argument, the Philistines just let him do it, which means they were just as scared of Goliath as the Israelites were. You got two full armies who don't want to mess with this guy. And the Bible says that he comes out every day and he offers that taunt every day for 40 days. It's interesting to me that the number 40 pops up in this story too. You've heard me say before, and my Bible scholars know, that the number 40 is pretty significant in Scripture. I don't know why. I'm not going to make any guesses. I just know it's significant, and here it is again in the story of David and Goliath. So while Goliath is coming out every day and challenging the Israelites to a one-on-one fight, there's this kid back home with his dad, Jesse, named David. And Jesse has some sons who are in the army, notably, and we'll see him in a minute, the oldest brother, Eliab. And so Jesse loads David up with cheese and grain and bread. And he says, I want you to take this to your brothers and to their commanders, which is interesting that the ancient world was into charcuterie. We thought that we invented it, but it was cheese and grains and bread. It was clearly arrayed on a nice wooden tray, and they all took pictures of it before they ate it, and it was great. So he takes that to his brothers, and while he's delivering it, he hears Goliath again. Goliath comes down. He does his daily taunt. And all the men of Israel are terrified. Except for David. David's response is different than the rest of their responses. Look at verses 24 and then 26. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. Then there's 25 and then in 26 it says, Okay, look at David's response. Every man there, again, hardened warriors, sees Goliath every day for 40 days and walks away dismayed and in terror. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? David, a shepherd boy, who we don't know how old he was, maybe between 14 and 16, so we'll call him 15. He could have been 12. I really don't know, but we'll call him a 15-year-old kid. Comes to the battle lines with his charcuterie, and he hears Goliath, and he sees him for the first time. And everyone else's response to Goliath is, please don't hurt me, Mr. Goliath. And David's response to Goliath is, who's that guy? Who does he think he is? You guys hear what he's saying? He's defying God. He's in trouble. I love that David's response to seeing Goliath for the first time in a sea of warriors is, who's that punk? Who does he think he is? God's going to be ticked. I would not want to be that guy. And then what follows, and I love this, is his oldest brother's response. Listen to what Eliab says to him. It's what every older brother in the history of mankind would say. It's also what all of us would say to David if we were in those battle lines and heard a punk 15-year-old saying this. Now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled, yeah, no kidding, against David. And he said, why have you come down and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil in your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. I love it, I love it. I love it. And you got to kind of read stuff into the Bible sometimes to pull out the details and make it come alive. This is his oldest brother of eight sons, his youngest brother, who is the shepherd. He has the lowest job, the easiest job, the least respected job in the family. comes to the battle line with meat and cheese and then says, who's this punk? And his brother's like, shut up. Who are you? How are you here? Who's watching those three sheep that you tend in the wilderness, that big important job you're doing? Who's doing it now? Get out of here. You're just here to see a fight that's gross and disgusting. These men's lives are at stake. Go home. It's a totally reasonable response. But I think David's response here, the first time he encounters Goliath is the most interesting. And I think it kind of tips our hand to the question that underlies this entire story. This whole story begets this question. What made David different from all of Israel? What was it about David that upon encountering Goliath for the first time, he responded completely differently from his entire nation? What is it about David as we move through the story and we see him make different statements? What is it about David that makes him act and talk like that? What is it about David that gives him this sense of calm and confidence that God's going to take care of things. What makes David different? A lot of people, and it's how I was taught when I was growing up, would say it was his faith. David had bigger faith than everybody. He had more faith than everyone in Israel. He had more faith than all of his countrymen. I don't think that's true. Samuel was still alive during this battle. You want to tell me that 15-year-old David had more faith than Samuel? Maybe, but I don't think so. How about the praying widows in Israel who had been seeking the presence of God on behalf of the army for days and hours on end. He had more faith than them. He was a better Christian in our vernacular than everybody in the whole country. He had more faith than everyone at 15. Maybe, but doubtful to me. So let's hang on to that question. What makes David different? As we move into kind of the next scene of the story. So he's on the front lines and he says, who does that guy think he is? What's going to happen for the person who kills him? They're like, you know, King Saul, who by the way, is head and shoulders above everyone else, the Bible says, and therefore is the most likely candidate to go and take on Goliath. And lest you think that this was an army full of guys who just weren't skilled fighters, that they didn't really have a champion, they had Joab and they had Abner in their armies. And we see later their exploits, that they are great warriors and great fighters. David's mighty men, the people who have become David's mighty men are no doubt in this army at the time. So let's not pretend that there aren't capable fighters in the army. There's just a bunch of scared fighters in the army and David is not. So David goes to the guy who should be picking the fight and taking the challenge. And he says, and he goes to Saul and he's like, hey, I'll take care of your Goliath issue. I noticed you got this giant, seems really annoying. I'm gonna handle it for you. Just cool. And this is the conversation that they have. Saul asks him, why should I let you do it? And David's response to me is remarkable. I'm going to pick it up in verse 34, and then verse 37 is going to be on the screen when we finish. And Saul said to David, go. And may the Lord be with you. Good luck, kid. Now here's what we miss in this passage that we just breeze right through. Because the point of the passage is, David said, God's been with me before. He'll be with me now. Except you missed the fun part. Look at this. Read it again. Saul says, why should I let you, why do you think you can defeat this giant? And David casually says, well, I don't know if you know this, I'm a shepherd. And so when I've been out in the wilderness and a lion or a bear would come and take one of the sheep, I would take my shepherd's staff, my stick, and I would chase down that lion or the bear, and then I would hit it with my stick. And it would drop the sheep, and I would take it home. And then if he arose against me, if the lion bowed up and wanted a piece, then I would grab him by the mane and beat him with my stick until he died. And I've done that multiple times because the Lord has delivered them into my hands. And I don't see any reason why this giant would be any different. And listen to me, if you don't think that's a big deal, go to the zoo. It's like an hour and a half. It's a wonderful drive. It's really worth it for your kids. Go to the zoo. Go to the lion's exhibit and choose a stick, any stick you want. Do research about it beforehand and buy one on Amazon for maximum density and flexibility so it doesn't snap the first time you hit the lion. Do whatever you want to do. Jump in the habitat and hit it, and then you see what happens. Hit a girl one, see what happens. And then David says, the Lord has delivered those into my hand and this giant will be no different. And I love the humility there of David. Takes no credit at all for it. If I did that, if I killed a lion with a stick, I would take a picture of the lion and me with the stick. And I would put it on 14 different colored t-shirts. And it would say, I killed this lion with this stick. And I would wear it every day. And I'd be Nate, the lion killer. But I'm not. I'm just Nate. I've killed zero lions. He's so humble about it. He gives the credit right to God. And Saul says, okay, all right, go ahead. And then there's that famous scene where he tries to put his armor on David. And David, if we had to guess based on archeological data, because I wanted to know the height comparison, so I did the research one time, 5'4", 5'6". Saul was probably closer to six foot. Saul's armor is not going to fit David. Saul has grown man strength. That strength you have when your wife has your first baby, your strength grows by 10. It just happens. It's old man strength. It's just a thing. David didn't have that yet. He's just a 15-year-old kid who later we hear is ruddy in complexion. He was a good- kid and ruddy, we think, some Hebrew scholars indicates ginger, redheaded. So for my redheaded friends, you and David, y'all are pals. So he tries on the armor, it doesn't fit. He's like, no, I'm good. And he goes to battle in the equivalent of a t-shirt and jeans. On his way, he goes down to the brook and he grabs five smooth stones. And there's a lot of ideas about why he grabbed five smooth stones. Goliath had five brothers, so it was one stone for each brother. Maybe, I don't know, it's fine. He was being prepared. I've heard pastors make this a lesson on preparedness. Even though you have faith, do all the work. I don't think that's true, which is nice because I don't like to do all the work. So he just, he got five stones and I don't know why, but he got them and he goes. And by the way, the sling that he's using is a leather strap with a pouch in the middle of it. You put the rock in there and you sling it around and then you let go of one end of it and the rock comes flying out at 90, 95, sometimes a hundred miles an hour or more. And this weapon, the sling was a common weapon and is the precursor to the bow and arrow in ancient battle. So it was not uncommon to have slingers as units in your army. So David had a sling and that's what he was going to use. So he goes into battle with Goliath. And this is where the good stuff happens. He goes down into the valley and approaches Goliath as Goliath is there issuing his daily taunt. And when Goliath turns and sees him, he responds in A, the most predictable way possible, and B, the stinking scariest way possible. Look at what Goliath says in verse 42 when he sees David. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? Which is a fair question. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. That's ancient smack talk. I don't know if you know that or not, but that's ancient trash talk. The large tank of a man, Goliath of Gath, turns and he sees a 15-year-old snot-nosed punk walking at him. And he says, this, this, this is what you're sending me for your country? This, this kid? What am I, a dog? Are you going to hit me with your stick? And David's like, it's worked before. You're going to hit me with your stick? And then he says, I am going to kill you. And then I'm going to watch the birds of the air and the beasts of the field pull apart your carcass. And we're going to have a party. It's going to be great, David. Let's go. To which 100% of us, if we were in David's shoes and Goliath said that to us, would immediately lose control of our bodily functions and scamper back up the mountain just as quickly as we could. I'm sorry, Mr. Goliath, there's been a big misunderstanding. I've got to tell you, from up there, you really look a lot smaller, and this is a huge mistake. I don't know what I was thinking. My bad. Listen, the one advantage David has over Goliath is that he's very likely quicker. So just go back up the mountain. That's not what he does. David's response is epic. And I get chills every time I read it. Verse 45 and 46, then David said to the Philistine right away, he responded, you come to me with sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your big fat head and I will give the dead beast, I will give the bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. You done boogered up, Goliath. You've been defying the wrong God for too many days. And it's time to pay the piper. Goliath says, what am I, a dog? Are you going to hit me with your stick? And David, unflinching, unflinching, he says, you come at me with weapons that man made for you? I come at you in the name of the Lord God Almighty, and he's not happy. And I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to cut your head off, and then this army is going to run down the hill and kill everyone in this army. And then we're going to have a party while we watch the birds pull their carcasses apart. How do you like them apples, big fella? Goliath, it turns out, liked those apples as much as you would expect and enraged, charges at David to kill him. David, in this moment, as the story goes, puts the rock in his pouch, whips the sling around, and sinks it right in between the eyes of Goliath as he charges. And I know that he charges because the Bible tells us that after he got hit in the front of the head, that he landed on his face. He fell face first in a big dusty thud, I imagine. And how else could he fall face first unless enraged at David's response? He just grabbed his spear and started to yell and charge directly at David, who couldn't have been further away from me than the back of the room. And David calmly, confidently, puts that rock right between his eyes. And then David did what he said he was going to do. He walks up to the shield bearer, and he says, give me Goliath's sword. Give me the sword. He takes the sword. He cuts off the head. I bet that took a few swings. And then the armies of Israel rush down, killing the armies of the Philistines all the way back to their village. And when David gets done with that, he carries the big, fat, ugly head of Goliath into Saul, and he says, here you go. I told you what God would do. That's the story of David and Goliath. But the question remains, what made David different? What was it about David that at every turn allowed him to respond differently than everyone else around him? And really the question is, is there anything that David did there that we could possibly emulate in our life? And I said that I doubt that the answer is that he was the most faithful. I really think, and this is my opinion, you chew on it, you do with this what you like, but my opinion is that what made David different was his perspective. David's perspective made him unique amongst his peers. It was David's perspective that made him unique amongst his peers. And here's what I mean by perspective. The armies of Israel, they would gather every day and every day Goliath would come down and he would challenge them. And they would look at Goliath, and they would look at themselves, and they would go, that problem is too big for me. That is, my skill cannot handle that, my ability cannot handle that, my just natural genes cannot handle that. I cannot take that guy. I cannot overcome this. I cannot climb that mountain. I cannot get past that obstacle. I cannot solve that problem. I cannot fix that situation. I can't do it. I'm not big enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not good enough. I'm not bright enough. I'm not young enough. I'm not old enough. I'm not enough. I can't handle that. It's bigger than me. So I'm scared and I'm dismayed and I'm going to avoid it. That was their perspective. David's perspective was, you are nothing compared to Almighty God. See, everyone else, when they looked at Goliath, they saw a problem and compared it to themselves and knew that they weren't enough for it. But when David saw Goliath, he compared the problem to God himself and thought, oh my gosh, God is overwhelmingly going to destroy you. He is so much bigger and mightier and smarter and capable than any one of us are. God is sovereign. He is all knowing. He is all powerful. And what he wants to happen will happen. So Goliath, you're in trouble. Everyone else, when they saw Goliath, compared Goliath to themselves and got scared. And David saw Goliath and compared him to God and had faith. His faith didn't come from just doubling down and being more determined that he was going to love God and trust God more. His faith came from his perspective. When he encountered lions and bears in the wilderness, he didn't think, I'm going to take down this animal. I've got what it takes. He thought, I think God wants me to have that sheep. He's on my side. I'm going to go get it. When he saw Goliath, he didn't think, I think I could put one between his eyes. I think I'm a pretty good shot. I've done this a couple of times. He thought, God has helped me before and he will help me again. God is not happy with that. He's bigger than Goliath. He's going to handle it. And if you think about it and you go back to the story, what else could it be besides perspective? The very first time he sees Goliath, who's this guy? He goes to Saul, how are you going to kill him? Well, you know, God's done this stuff before. He'll do it again. And then he's down on the battlefield in the heat of it, and he says, you're going to come at me with man-made weapons? I'm here as God's representative. It doesn't matter what weapon I use. At no point did David compare Goliath to David. It was always a comparison to God. And God wins every comparison. He made sure of that when he sent Jesus to conquer death and sin. And if that's not the biggest victory in the history of the universe, I don't know what is. He's already proven to us that he overcomes everything. And if this sermon sounds familiar to you, it's because I did it five years ago with most of the same jokes. I didn't have charcuterie in there, but the rest of them. And it was about my fourth or fifth Sunday at Grace. And we put rocks underneath all the seats. And then we had markers up front, which apparently in five years, my preparation has slacked. I'm sorry, you have no rocks under your seats today. Just this one. And the encouragement was to get that rock and whatever you have going on in your life that feels too big for you, as cheesy as it is to say, whatever your Goliaths are. If it's raising your children, if I had these rocks today, I would write Lily and John's name on them. It's too big for me. I don't know how to raise kids that love Jesus and want to hang out with me who I respect. I don't know how to do that. Maybe it's your career. Maybe it's an illness that you or your family is facing. Maybe it's a tough decision or a broken relationship or just a big task that you've got in front of you and it just feels too big. Or maybe you're in a period of grief and you don't know how you're going to pull out of it and how life is going to feel the same and the sun is ever going to shine bright enough again. Maybe you just don't know, but everybody's got something in their life that when we look at it and we compare it to ourselves, we know that we know that we know that we are inadequate for it and that we cannot overcome it. And whatever that is, I would encourage you to take something that can remind you of that. I did five years ago. I took and I wrote grace on this rock. It was five weeks into being a senior pastor. I knew and still know it's far too big for me. I don't know how to lead a church. I don't know what we're supposed to do all the time. And every day I see this rock. It sits on the shelf right above my computer screen. And every time I see it, I'm reminded, yeah, this place is too big for you, man. So just worry about following God and God's going to handle the church. Just worry about pursuing him and loving people well and treating people right and having a heart for God and letting him inflame it more and more. Most of the time when I pray before my sermons, I'm really not praying about my sermons. I'm just praying that God would fill me up with a desire for him. It's just a weekly reminder that God, I want to want you more. That if we do that, if we just pursue him, God's going to take care of everything else. So the big problems in our life that feel insurmountable, that keep us up at night, that stress us out, that give us anxiety, maybe part of the problem is we're just comparing those things to ourself and admitting our inadequacy, when what we need to do is compare those things to God and admit His supremacy. And what we don't need to do in these moments when we feel overwhelmed is just double down on being better Christians. I've got to have more faith and then everything's going to work out. No, that's not fair. You need to change your perspective. And when you change your perspective and you have the perspective of David and we compare these things in our life not to ourselves, but to our Father, that brings us a peace and a confidence that in turn builds our faith. A few minutes ago, Aaron made the great point that David declared that he would always worship God. Even in the valleys, he would worship God. We said your praise will ever be on our lips. The only way we can possibly mean that is if even in the most dire of circumstances, we compare those circumstances to God, we have the perspective of David and we know, somehow we know that God is going to make a way. And so even though we don't feel the emotion of crying out in praise, we will go through the act of crying out in praise in faith because we have the perspective that God can handle whatever comes up in our life and we hand it over to him and we exist in that peace. And because we exist in that peace, our faith grows and we want to worship God more. So I hope that moving forward, when you remember the story of David and Goliath, that you won't think of a young man that had more faith than the rest of the country, but you will think of a young man who had a different perspective from everyone around him, who had the wisdom to compare his problem to God's ability, and that you'll be reminded to have the perspective of David. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the stories that you've chosen to share with us down through the centuries. Thank you for the bravery and courage of David. But God, I pray that we would always be well aware of where that bravery and courage and faith came from. That it came from comparing his obstacles to you instead of himself. I pray that you would give us the strength to do that. That we would see through your eyes our sin that we don't think is possible to overcome. Maybe be convinced for the first time that it is possible to overcome that. That we would see our grief, our desires, the decisions that we have to make, our careers, our children, our marriages through your eyes and know that you are more than capable of piloting us through any circumstance. And God, thank you for overcoming death and sin for us and winning the greatest victory that could be won. It's in the name of the winner of that victory, Jesus, that we pray these things and we praise you. Amen.