Sermons tagged with Strength

Well, good morning. It's good to see everybody, particularly the UNC fans this morning. If you don't know this about me, I'm wearing neutral colors, but that's really what we're wearing today. This is just to keep you guys from getting mad at me. I would like to personally thank Alan Hill, Kyle's future father-in-law, for inviting me to their UNC tailgate yesterday, where I was able to bring what is apparently my son, who is a good luck charm, and we won, which was great. And you'll have to forgive my exuberance. Georgia Tech doesn't get a lot to cheer for. This is essentially my national championship, okay? This is the one time in a calendar year I've been able to be proud to be a Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket. As a matter of fact, I think the last time was when we beat UNC last year in Atlanta. So I'm high on the hog right now. All right, thank you for indulging me that. I'm sorry, I'll settle down. But we are in the fifth part of our series called Powerful Prayers, where we're looking at prayers that we find in Scripture and just examining them, seeing what we can learn from them, from the heart that's revealed in them. And I thought that we would be remiss if we didn't ask the question for ourselves as we look at powerful prayers, how can we become more powerful prayers? How can we become more powerful and more consistent in our prayers, right? How can we be people of prayer? I know that for many of us, you share my experience. To be a Christian for a while is to hear things like, man, you should probably pray more. And instantly you go, yeah, I should. It's a thing that we know. So how do we go from knowing that we should pray more, that it should define us more, that we should be what's called people of prayer, people who are defined by a rich and vibrant prayer life? How do we go from knowing that to actually doing it, to actually experiencing it? How do we become more powerful prayers? And to answer this question, I think we can look at an example tucked away in an Old Testament story. We're going to be in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is tough to find. If you don't know where it is, just use your table of contents. But turn there with me if you want to. We're going to be in chapters 1 and 2. Now, Nehemiah is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I know that doesn't carry any weight with you guys because all the stories that I talk about are my favorite stories in the Bible. I get that. But I love the story of Nehemiah because it's such a great picture of how we are supposed to build God's church here as Grace Raleigh, but how God intends to build his church in Raleigh, how God intends to build his church in America, how God intends to build his church internationally. I think what we find in Nehemiah is examples and lessons for how God intends to build his church that have applications all over how we think of church. But I don't get to talk about that this morning. I just get to say it and hope that it sparks enough interest in you to go read it and figure it out for yourself. What I do get to focus on is the prayer life of Nehemiah. So I want to look at this instance, this little snapshot of his life at the beginning of his story. We encounter him when he is the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes. Now, Nehemiah is a Jewish man who was carried over after the Babylonians conquered Israel or Judea, and they carried the best and the brightest over to Babylon to be slaves. And clearly, Nehemiah was a sharp man. He was a trustworthy man because he made it up the ladder to where he is the cupbearer for the most powerful king in the world. This is the man, Artaxerxes, that called himself the king of kings. He was the king of Persia and Babylon and Egypt all at the same time. So we're going to call it the Babylonian empire, but it's really, it's even larger than that. And here Nehemiah finds himself as the cup bearer to King Artaxerxes. And one day Nehemiah gets word that his hometown Jerusalem has been just laid waste, that the walls are torn down, they're broken down, and the city has been destroyed. And this is a big deal in the ancient world for a city not to have walls, because when a city doesn't have walls, it has no defense. Anybody around it that wants to come in and take from the city whatever they want, just with enough swords can come in and take what they want. They have no defense. They lay vulnerable to the entire countryside, to the entire surrounding countries. This city is vulnerable to whatever they want to come and do to it. And so Nehemiah goes into this phase of fasting and mourning and sadness and prayer because he's distraught over his hometown, Jerusalem. And you've got to remember, too, it's not just finding out that your hometown has been ransacked. That hometown, I'm not going to get into it too much this morning, but that hometown represents promises from God that the Jewish people clung to all the way back to Abraham, all the way back to Genesis chapter 12. And so it's not just that the hometown lays in rubble, it's that he's feeling that his promises from God need to be restored. And so in his spirit, he's wrestling with all this and trying to figure out what to do. And so when he heard this news, this is Nehemiah's response. In chapter 1, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keeps his commandment. And then in verse six, I just go on. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants. And so he goes on and on praying, but he essentially prays that Israel would be restored. God, hear my prayer. Hear the prayer of your servants in Israel. Restore Jerusalem to its former glory. Let the walls be rebuilt. And in the interim, you know that Nehemiah, it's implied all throughout the passage, is wondering, what can I do? How can I help? God, what would you have me do to fix this problem? I'm a thousand miles away, the cupbearer for a king. How could I possibly help repair the walls of Jerusalem? But I guess at some point or another, he gets an idea. And we see him admit to this idea in Nehemiah chapter 2, when he's in the throne room of Artaxerxes. And Artaxerxes notices that he's sad. And this is not a good thing because when you serve the ancient kings, you needed to be glad to be in their presence. You needed to be happy, okay? You had to fake it until you made it. You did not want to be bummed out and depressed and bring in your bad mood into their presence. But Artaxerxes cares about Nehemiah, and he notices that he's downtrodden. He notices that he's been bummed out the last little while, and so he asks him about it. And this is the interchange between the two of them in Nehemiah 2, verses 2 through 5. Yeah, why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then the king said to me, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, then you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I might rebuild it. So he's in the presence of the king. And he's clearly depressed. And the king says, Nehemiah, what's been going on, man? You're sad. You're sulking. You're not sick. So your heart is sick. What's going on? And he was afraid, but he admitted to it. The city of my fathers and my grandfathers has been torn to rubble. And then Artaxerxes says, what are you asking? What are you requesting? And then I love that phrase that he stopped, he paused. Nehemiah paused in the middle of what was going on and he offered a prayer to the God in heaven. And he asked for a blessing from God before he asked for the blessing from Artaxerxes. God, I'm about to ask this really bold thing. God, this request could potentially cost me some jail time or my life if he decides he's in a bad mood. So I need you to bless this for me real quick and just confirm for me that this is actually the idea that you placed in my mind before I submitted to the king. So he stops and he prays. He says, God, bless this. And then he turns to Artaxerxes and he tells him what he wants to do. And Artaxerxes is moved by Nehemiah, cares for his servant, and releases him to do that. Not only does he release him to do that, but he hands him a letter. It's a letter of free passage through each province between Babylon and Jerusalem. And it's a letter that once he gets to Jerusalem, that he can get all of the lumber and all of the stone that he needs to complete the wall and he can bill it to Artaxerxes himself. So it went pretty well for Nehemiah. But the reason I'm focusing on the story when we ask the question, how do we become more powerful prayers, is because Nehemiah models the importance of scheduled and spontaneous prayers. In Nehemiah, we find the model of a life of a person who is a person of prayer. He models both scheduled and spontaneous prayers. He models scheduled prayers. When he heard about the destruction of Jerusalem, he went into a time of mourning and fasting. He picked the time when he was gonna sit down and more likely kneel before the Father. And just as an aside, in your prayers, if you're able, I don't know if some of us are not, if you're able to kneel when you pray, it really changes your mindset as you pray. I would encourage you as a regular practice to be someone who kneels when you can. But Nehemiah was likely kneeling to pray. He set this time aside and he poured his heart out to God. He prayed everything that was on his heart. And so he models for us scheduled prayers. The greatest model for us of scheduled prayers in the Bible that I see is Daniel. Daniel set aside three times a day to pray. And we've preached about him before. But that's the first place where I would push you a little bit. In your own prayer life, whatever your regularity is, however much you pray, however often it is, if it's not very often at all or if it's very, very regularly, I would encourage you to follow the model and the example of Nehemiah and of Daniel and schedule your times to pray. And we all know this is true. You've heard this before. People have told you this. You've heard this in seminars. You hear this in corporate world. We hear it in church world. Someone, one of your friends has told it to you over lunch as if they've unearthed some sort of wisdom that's never occurred to you before when they tell you, if you don't schedule it, it won't happen, right? We know that. We know that to be true. This is America. We schedule things. We're very busy. We're the busiest. We have not, Europe has figured it out. We have not figured it out. We're a bunch of dum-dums. We just, I mean, every block of time that we have is scheduled out. And so what we know is if we don't schedule it, it's not going to happen. How many of you, don't raise your hand, but how many of you have left church or left a small group or read a book, something that emphasized prayer and thought to yourself, I'm gonna pray more. But you didn't pick a time to do it. You didn't commit to a set schedule of it. And then you didn't pray more. I think it's probably happened to all of us. It might sound unspiritual to schedule your prayer, but I'm telling you it's one of the most spiritual things you can do. I would recommend starting with prayer in the morning. I've said it since I started here. I'll say it until you guys get rid of me. But the single most important habit anyone can develop in their life is to wake up every day and spend time in God's Word and time in prayer. You've got to schedule your time in prayer and you've got to figure out what works for you. There was a season of my life where I set my alarm a little bit early and I thought the first thing I'm going to do during the day to begin my day is pray. And my alarm would go off and I would swing my legs out of the bed and I would kneel on the bed and I would pray and then I would wake up and there would be drool in my beard. And I would think, this seems to be an unsuccessful practice. I need to schedule this a little bit better. So I learned for myself that I need to get up. I need to have coffee. I need to read God's word. And then let God's word push me into prayer. So that's been my pattern and habit. And then after I pray, just if this helps anybody, I have a book that I'm reading that's spiritually encouraging. So my practice and my devotionals is to wake up, get a cup of coffee, perk up, be somewhere with a little bit of light, but not too much light. I mean, come on, you don't want to ruin it. And then read God's word, let God's word carry me into prayer. And then I read whatever spiritually encouraging book I'm reading until a child makes a noise and ruins my peace, right? That's what I do. But we've got to have these times that we schedule. That used to be what I do. I do that on the weekends now as much as I can. But now what I do is I just get up and I get after it and I get Lily to school and I get into the office and I'm usually here first because Lily has to be at school earlier than everybody else has to get up. And that's when I have my time of prayer. But you need to pick a time for prayer that works for you. You need to schedule it. There was a season of my life where I set an alarm that went off every day at three o'clock and I would pause at three o'clock and I would pray. I'm not that spiritual anymore. I don't do that. I missed pray, but I do know that if you don't schedule it, it won't happen. So maybe the first baby step for you in being a person of prayer is to schedule a time of prayer. And I'll just tell you this too, practically as your pastor, if you're sitting there right now and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna do that. Tomorrow morning, I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna do a couple things, I'm gonna pray. Tomorrow when I have the space, when I park, I'm gonna get to the office five minutes early and I'm gonna pray. Whatever it is, however it is, you figure out how you can begin to be a person of prayer and you intend to pray tomorrow or later today. I'll just tell you, the first time you pray, you're gonna really mean it. You're gonna last about two and a half minutes and you're gonna be done and you'll be like, God, I'm sorry, I ran out of things to pray. And you're going to feel like a terrible Christian. That's because you are. I'm just messing around. You're going to feel like a terrible Christian, but you're not a terrible Christian. You just haven't developed the pattern and the habit of prayer. So just let two and a half minutes be two and a half minutes. And the next day, pray for three minutes. And the next day, pray for three minutes. Just pray. Just talk to God. Pour out what's on your heart to him. Schedule a time to prayer and then pray about whatever it is you're supposed to pray about. And I tell you, if you do that day after day, you'll start praying longer. If you do that day after day, you'll learn the art of listening prayer, of just sitting in stillness in the presence of God and trying to hear him and be encouraged by him and receive love from him. But you don't just start on day one praying these 45-minute prayers that are 15 minutes of silence and other stuff. So just take the baby step, start the prayers, and start to make your way to being a person of prayer. Now the other thing Nehemiah does is he models for us spontaneous prayers. Just these single shot prayers as he goes throughout his life. He's just going throughout his life. He's just going throughout his day. He doesn't stop in mid-conversation with King Artaxerxes and say, hang on King, and kneel down and pour out this elaborate prayer. No, he just says, God, bless me. Like, let's see what he says. So I prayed to the God of heaven. That's it. So God, bless this conversation as I'm about to have this conversation. Bless the thing I'm about to do. He just stops, he pauses, gives a momentary mental, God, I need you, and then he steps into what he needs to step into. And this is the pattern of prayer that we need to follow. These spontaneous prayers as we go into and out of different situations to just stop and say, God, I'm inviting you into this situation. God, I'm not enough for this situation. God, I need you in this situation. God, I need you in this conversation. I need you to calm me down right now because I'm about to lose my mind. Whatever it is, he models for us this time of scheduled prayer and this time of spontaneous prayer. And as I read the story, I began to wonder about us. And really, I began to wonder about me. Because I'll confess to you, I don't pray enough spontaneous prayers. I don't stop enough times throughout my day and go, God, just be with me as I go into this lunch meeting. I mean, I was thinking about it, and I don't pray before staff meetings. We have a staff meeting every Tuesday. And this last staff meeting, we got in there and we went to plan the semester. To plan next semester, the series from January all the way to Mother's Day. And we prayed as a group in there. And I prayed earlier in the day. But going into that meeting, I didn't stop and pray, God, just bless this time, just be with me as I lead us through this. What's the matter with me? Why doesn't that trigger my prayers? Why aren't we triggered to prayer more? And it just made me wonder what actually triggers our prayers. What is it in your life that makes you stop and go, yeah, I'm gonna pray real quick? Whether we, like, one of the things that triggers my prayer sometimes is when I go inside my kid's bedroom and I look at my sleeping children. If you're a parent and that doesn't trigger the occasional prayer, you're broken on the inside. It's even worse than not liking dogs. You're totally dead on the inside. And I'll go in and I'll see Lily lying there and I'll kind of just be overwhelmed and I'll kneel and I'll pray. And sometimes things will happen, I'll get nervous, I'll get worried and I'll stop and I'll pray. But the things that trigger me in my life, there's very few of them. There's not enough. And it made me realize that I go through my life feeling pretty adequate to the things that God would ask me to do. And I think that when we don't pray a lot of spontaneous prayers, God be with me here, that's a pretty good sign that we're too prideful. We think too highly of ourselves. Or we think too little of God, one or the other. But I wonder what kinds of things trigger you to prayer. Because the reality is, the model that we see in Nehemiah, and the model that we see throughout the powerful prayers in Scripture, is that powerful prayers pray about everything all the time. Powerful prayers pray about everything all the time. People who are powerful in their prayer life, people who are people of prayer, are in constant prayer. It's not just the scheduled prayer where they wake up and they get on their knees and they pray, or the midday prayer, or the end of the day prayer. It's this constant communication with God. They pray about everything all the time. And that has to be true because it's the only explanation for Paul's little pithy throwaway instruction in 1 Thessalonians, I believe chapter 5, where he's wrapping up the book. He's writing a letter to the church in Thessalonica in the New Testament, and he's wrapping up the book. He's giving them five chapters worth of encouragement, and then he tells them, he gives them kind of a list of things like, hey, just to review, do these things. And one of the things that he just throws in there is if we're just supposed to receive it and do it all the time is he says, pray without ceasing. And whenever you read it, it's like, what are you, how man? Like I'm not a monk. I have things to do. I have a life. I have stuff I have to get accomplished. And even monks, they like make beer and honey and stuff. Like they got things. I don't know what happens in monasteries. Everybody has stuff to do. How do we pray without ceasing? It's got to be that we maintain this daily communication with God. I heard a story years ago that illustrates this point very well. And it's a totally made-up story. Somebody made it up. When they told us the story. They told us they made it up. This is not real. This is more of a parable. Okay. So there's a guy who is renowned in his church for the way that he prays. He is a person of prayer. He prays about everything all the time. He has this incredibly vibrant prayer life. And some other dudes in the church wanted to learn from this guy. They wanted to hear him pray. And so they got together and they figured that the best time to hear him pray is going to be his nighttime prayer. When he kneels beside his bed and he's praying before the end of the day and he's talking to God and he kind of downloads this whole day, this is going to be the best time to hear this guy's prayer. And so while that guy's out doing whatever he's doing, probably feeding the homeless or something, they go to his house, and they hide in his closet. Now this guy, this hypothetical non-existent person, is a single man without a wife, so it's not weird that they're in there, okay? They're not going to see anything they shouldn't see. So they're hiding in his closet, and dude comes in the bedroom, and he does his nighttime routine, and they're kind of sitting there waiting, and this is when he's going to kneel by his bed, right? So they're kind of waiting there, leaning in, and he doesn't kneel by his bed. He just gets into his bed, and they're like, oh, oh, he's going to go prostrate. He's going to go face down on the bed. This guy means it, but he doesn't do that. He just kind of gets in, and he rolls over on his side, and he reaches over, and he turns out the lamp, and he says, good night, Father. And he closes his eyes, and that's it. Because that man had been in prayer all day. That man woke up. He said, good morning, God. This is the day that you have made. Let me rejoice and be glad in it. It's yours. Let me be who you need me to be today. And then at one point or another, I'm sure that man had a time of scheduled prayer where he sat down and he prayed about all the things. And then as he went through his day, he kept God as an active participant in his day so that at the end of the day, when it was time to say goodnight, the only thing left to do was to say goodnight because he had been talking to God all day. This is the model of prayer that we are supposed to pursue. And I know that that might feel far off for some of us. I heard that story before and I've heard pray without ceasing and this attitude of prayer and I've sat you are, and I've thought, gosh, forget it. I barely can remember to pray every day. I don't pray for some of my meals. Like, I don't know if I can ever do that. And it might feel pretty impossible to be someone who wakes up talking to God, who goes throughout your day talking to God, and ends your day talking to God. But I don't love you if I don't put that in front of you as the standard. If I tell you that something short of that is actually what God wants for you, that praying without ceasing, that being people of prayer, that being people who have conversations with God throughout the day, every day, if I tell you that that's only for some Christians, that that's only for some churchgoers, that's only for some of God's children, then I'm lying to you and I don't love you. And so even though that goal may feel very far off, how dare me sell you short of what you should be and of what God wants you to be and of what he implores you to be through model after model and verse after verse in his word. We are to be people of prayer who exist in communication with God. And if you're not there yet and it feels very far off, that's okay. There's grace for that. But we cannot accept less than that. We must be people who pursue God in prayer. And there's so many reasons why, but I think one of the big ones is that when we pray, we confess. Do you know that every time you go to God in prayer, you are making an implicit confession with the simple act of praying. When I see Lily sleeping in her bedroom and I'm overwhelmed and I stop and I pray, I'm confessing in that prayer. God, I'm not big enough for this. God, I'm not adequate to raise this girl without scars that are going to send her into counseling later. I don't have the character to do it, God. I don't have the wisdom to do it, God. God, I can't see around corners, but you can, so I'm just asking you to be with her. God, I know that you created her as your workmanship to walk in those good works, but I don't know what those good works are, God, but you do. So would you please help me raise her in such a way that moves her towards what you intended her to be because I know that I'm inadequate for this. When we pray for our children, we confess that we are inadequate to make them who God wants them to be. And so we need God's help. When we go into a meeting, and before that meeting, maybe it's a difficult conversation. Maybe you're having lunch with a friend and they're going to ask you about a thing, or you have to ask them about a thing, and it's not going to be easy. As we go into that and we say, God, just please be with me as I go to meet with so-and-so. We confess. We confess that we don't have the wisdom for that conversation and that God does. We confess that God loves that person more than we do. We confess that God is going to be present there and that his spirit is needed to give me the words I need to say and to soften the ears and the heart of the person who has to hear them. We confess that God is needed there. Listen, when we're going into a business meeting in sterile, corporate, sometimes vulgar corporate America, when we go into those meetings, and before we go into those meetings, we pray. And we say, God, help me remember that I'm your agent here. Help me remember that they're your children too, that I'm about to meet with your sons and daughters, and that there's something bigger going on than just the decisions that we make or the deal that we close or the pitch that we agree upon. Help me remember, God, that there is something divine happening in that room when I get in there and that I need to be sensitive to it. Help me be sensitive to what everybody else in the room is experiencing. When we pray before we walk into a business meeting, we confess that there's something bigger than business happening in that room. So we stop and we pray. When I pray before a staff meeting, I confess that there's something more important than the day-to-day decisions that are going on in that room. I stop and I pray and I confess. When we schedule time and we pray about everything, it's a confession that we are inadequate for all of those things. And these confessions are important to make those confessions through prayer. It humbles us. It attunes us. It focuses us when we make these confessions. Every Sunday I pray before I come up. And one of the things that I pray is, God, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to do this. And it confesses, right? It's a helpful thing for me to thank God for the opportunity to do it, to ask that my words would be a reflection of his words and would be helpful for his people. It's helpful for me to do that because it reminds me. God made me for this good work. He made me to teach and run my mouth. I didn't get good at it. I don't know if you think I'm good at it now. I don't really, I don't care if you do. But God gave me a gift to teach. But every time I thank him for the opportunity to express that gift, I acknowledge that it is a gift. I acknowledge and confess. He can take it from me whenever he wants. He can give someone else this stage whenever he wants. It is only by his grace and by his protection that I'm up here this week. And I hope Lord will and I'll be here next week. That's all up to God. And so when I confess that and I acknowledge it and then I get done and someone says, oh, that was good. Oh, that was helpful. I get to celebrate with them that God has worked in their life and that has been helpful, not that I did good because I've already confessed to God that this is his. When we pray, we confess. And by making those regular confessions in our lives, we put ourselves in a posture of humility before God and before others. We see other people as God's children or people who need to be turned on to God's love. Not projects or things that are in the way or simple coworkers or simple friends, but we see God's children. When we pray, we confess our own inadequacies, our need and reliance for God's wisdom rather than our own. I said earlier, I think I'm not triggered to pray enough because I think too highly of myself. I think that I'm too capable for things. I'd be willing to bet we all think that. I want us to be a church of powerful prayers. I want us to follow the model of Nehemiah, to have times that we schedule to pray, And maybe that can be your step of obedience this morning, is to schedule times of prayer. If you're a person who already does that, then maybe your step of obedience can be, God, help me open my eyes to the times that I need to pray. Help me see the times when I'm not doing it. Maybe we can create more triggers. Every time I'm going to make a phone call, every time I'm going to be in a meeting, every time I have a presentation, every time this happens, I will pray. Every time I drive home, I need to pray, God, give me grace for my children from 5.30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Let me be the dad that I need to be to them and not the one I feel like being. We need to set up things in our life where we need that remind us to pray. And I think that we need to acknowledge as we pray that we confess and think through what are the things that we are confessing with this prayer and let that confession humble us before God and for others. With that being said, let's pray together. Father, we love you. We trust you. We're grateful for you. We are thankful that even when we don't know what to pray, that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and that even as an added help, your son sits at your right hand interceding for us on behalf of our prayers. God, make us a church filled with people of prayer. And in those prayers, may we confess our insufficiency in light of your all-sufficiency, your greater love for the objects of our prayers that we love so much. May we confess, Father, you as a source of all our wisdom, of all our peace, of all our strength. And may our bowed heads and bent knees acknowledge your sovereignty over this world and your lordship over us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. Good morning. I'm DJ Hill. I'm a partner here at Grace along with Laura, my wife, and three daughters. Today's reading is from Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verses 9 through 12. Two are better than one, because they have good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two can withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Thank you. Thank you, DJ. I was pleased to discover that you're literate. Well, good morning. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. This is the fourth part in our series called The Traits of Grace, where we're going through and we're just talking about the things and the aspects that make grace, grace, that make us who we are. Part of it is getting to pick on each other a little bit. And so this week is one that is, this is near and dear to all of our hearts. If this is, If you have been at Grace for any amount of time, then this is something that resonates deeply with you. It's something that characterizes us and who we are, and it's something that we choose over and over again in the way that we structure ourselves, in the way that we do things, and in the kind of church that we want to be. And so this morning, we get to talk about the fourth trait, which is that we are partners at Grace. We are partners. And we say that we don't have members at Grace, that we have partners instead, which is actually kind of funny to me that I'm such a stickler about having partners instead of members, because I've been doing vocational ministry 20 years. And one of the things I've always thought is kind of funny about the church is the way that we like to name stuff. Like we're super cool and we're coming up with new things. I was the small groups pastor at my previous church and I watched those things. First, when I was growing up, it was called Sunday school, right? And then in the 90s, we changed it to small groups. Now we're fancy. And then small groups weren't fancy enough, so we started calling them community groups or life groups or discipleship groups. And then there was this whole movement in the last couple of years to start house churches. And you're like, well, what's a house church? Like, well, you gather together and you kind of pray for each other and you talk about things you worship. I says, oh, it's like a small group. Like, no, no, no, house church. Well, what do you do on Sunday? Well, we go to big church together. Oh, so it's a small group. Like that's what we do. We like to rename things so that outsiders can't figure out what's going on in here. And it's really, it's just stupid. And I did it too. I was talking about this with my wife, Jen. And I was like, what are some other dumb church names that we've come up with over the years? Like on Sunday mornings, instead of calling it the service, we call it the gathering. And instead of calling it a sermon, we call it the talk, right? Because we're just trying to be cooler and more relevant in what we do. And she got on to me. She was like, you were guilty of this. She said, what was your ministry called in your first church? The first church I worked at was in Franklin County, Virginia, Rocky Mount, close to Smith Mountain Lake. And I had a buddy that started a church called Covenant Community Church. I believe it's still going. And we met in this old colonial home out in the middle of nowhere in the farmland of Franklin County, Virginia. We had about 30 people who came every week, which, by the way, we're about the same size as Grace is now based on the amount of families that stood up. We don't have space but for 30 people a week if you guys, if you families come every week. But I led a ministry. It was the student ministry, and I called it One because it was based on, I believe, Luke 15 where Jesus is talking to Mary and Martha, and he tells Mary, you need to worry about but one thing, and it's loving me. And so I called it One, which was aptly named because that's about how many kids I had per week on the Wednesday, right? And then I get to the big church with 200 kids in the middle school, and that was my ministry, and I called that Up and Out, right? Well, what's Up and Out? Well, it means love God, love others, love up, love up, love out. Oh, that's great. Well, who's it for? Well, it's for middle school. So it's middle school ministry? No, it's up and out. It's up and out, right? And this is what we do. We come up with dumb names for stuff and they're unnecessary and we don't need them and Grace is guilty of this too. I don't know if you know this, but if you haven't been going to Grace for a long time, you might not know that this is called Grace Hall. Now, I've never called it that, but the people who came before me call it that. This is an auditorium, and really, that's insulting to auditoriums. This is a big room with a pole in it, right? That's what this is. So I'm real big on just call it what it is. If it's Sunday school, call it Sunday school. If it's a small group, call it small group. But if it's ministry, call it ministry. So why am I such a stickler about, no, no, no, at Grace, we have partners, we don't have members. And I catch heck for this. I'll be talking to elders or leaders in the church or people who have been going here for a while and they'll be like, yeah, yeah, well, how many members do we have right now? Or what's the membership vote on that? Or are they a member of the church? I'm sorry, they're partners of the church. Like, we got you, buddy. We'll help you carry this load of calling things partners. And everybody kind of giggles at me that I'm a real dummy for insisting that we use the term partners. And I understand. I would make fun of me too if I were you. But let me tell you why I'm such a stickler about this word partner and why it really does define who and what we are at Grace and what we're trying to do. The first reason is not the main reason, but the first reason is the one that I repeat often. A lot of you can probably say this as well. You probably know how the sentence ends, but members tend to consume and partners tend to contribute. That's one of the first reasons. At Grace, we have partners, we don't have members. Members tend to consume and partners tend to contribute, right? If you become a member of something, what do you become primarily concerned with? What are the rights and privileges afforded me as a member of this thing? If you joined BJ's, what are the rights and privileges I get? Costco, you get a dollar slice of pizza. That's a pretty good right and privilege. You join Northridge Country Club, what are the rights and privileges afforded me as a member of this place? Right? When you're a member, you kind of sit back and you go, well, what's in it for me? What do I get out of this? What can I consume? When you're a member, you expect a certain experience. You expect to consume a certain experience. And then when you can't consume it, you critique it. Until you do get to consume the experience you want. As a pastor, I don't really want a church full of members who consume an experience and then critique it when it's not what they want. We want partners who partner with us because partners tend to contribute. Partners take ownership and what they're partnered in and see it as their personal responsibility to see the success of this thing work out. And really, the more I thought about it this week, because we're going to talk about how this is true, but the more I thought about it this week, the more satisfied I was with understanding partners this way. Partners share the burden. That's what partners do. Partners share the burden in myriad ways. The greatest picture of partnership that I've seen in the Bible, and I love this picture in the Bible. I don't have any tattoos, not because I think they're sinful or something, but there's nothing I want to put on my body that I'm sure I'm going to want there in 20 years. So I haven't done anything yet. But if I were going to get one, it may very well be an image of this story. When I think about this story and this scene in the Bible for too long, I'll tear up. I'll start to cry. And I'm going to read this to you, and you're going to think, why is this dude tearing up at this story? Listen, first of all, the older I get, the more I tear up at. Jen and I are back onto watching the Great British Baking Show, and we cry at the end of every episode because we're so happy for Juergen that he gets to call his wife again. Like, we're so thrilled that we tear up, and then we look at each other, and we laugh. And the older I get, the more stuff I cry about. And if you want to judge me for that, I'll tell you right where you can put your judgment. But when I think about this passage and the picture here, it moves me to tears because of how powerful it is. So what's happening is we're in the book of Exodus. I'm going to read from chapter 17. And in the book of Exodus, God's children are wandering through the desert. They're being led by Moses. And a man named Amalek comes up against them with his army and he attacks the Israelite people. He attacks the Hebrew people. And so Moses sends his general, Joshua, out to battle. And he says, I want you to go and I want you to fight against Amalek. And I'm going to go up on the top of this hill and I'm going to hold my staff over my head. And when you're down there fighting and you look up at me, as long as my staff is up over my head, you will prevail. So go and fight. So Joshua does. He gathers the army and he goes and he fights. And this is what happens. We pick it up in verse 11. It's such an incredible picture. Moses says, go down there and you fight that battle. And I'm going to hold this staff over my head. And as long as I hold it up, you guys will prevail. But you know, holding a stick over your head burns the shoulders a little bit. It fatigues the muscles. And so every now and again, he had to shake it out. He got weary. He got tired. He couldn't hold it up. He couldn't carry that burden. And as he got weak, the men on the battlefield began to suffer. And so he had to find the strength and pick his hands back up again for as long as he could to carry that burden. And eventually Aaron and Hur, H-U-R, burden. The burden was too great for Moses. The responsibility was too much. It was too much for one person to handle. There's not a single person here who could have held that over their head for the duration of time that it would require for Joshua to defeat Amalek. And so he needed help because it was too much. And so God sent him partners to bracket his arms, to hold up the staff when he was too weak, to carry that burden when he couldn't. And it is, to me, one of the most poignant pictures in the Bible of community and friendship. And if I'm honest with you, I think that's exactly why it's in the Bible. Whenever you read anything in the Bible, you've got to ask yourself, why is this so important that God wanted me to know about this thousands of years later? Why this detail? Why this story? Why not just write Joshua defeated Amalek? Why not just write Amalek came up against the forces of Israel and God blessed Israel and Israel won? Why not just skip it and go on through? It doesn't matter. I'm sure they had plenty of skirmishes over the 40 years that they were in this desert that we don't know about it because they're not recorded in history. Why this one? I'm convinced. This is just me. I didn't learn this in seminary. Okay, this isn't gospel truth. But if you were to ask me, why is this in the Bible? It's because it's a picture of community. It's a picture of partnership. And it's to show us that there are times when we can't carry the burden on our own and we need people around us to bracket us and hold it up. There's times when the people who we love very much are weary and they can't hold the burden up anymore. And we come and we bracket them and we hold their hands up for them until their strength returns. It's such an incredible picture. And so at Grace, that's what we are. We are partners. We see and we notice when the burden gets too much. And we bracket and we put our hands on the people that we love and we help them carry the load until their strength returns. At Grace, we are partners. And so that word partner is so much deeper to me than a simple, clever replacement for member. That comparison, members consume and partners contribute, that's just the surface level of what a partner is at Grace. Partners carry the burden. And so at Grace, we partner in ministry. We partner in the things that God would have us do here. This starts at the staff level. We have staff meetings every Tuesday. And we talk about everything that everyone is doing. And no one carries their burden by themselves. We talk about when Summer Extreme is coming up, we talk about it in staff meeting. We begin talking about it in February and March and saying, Aaron, our children's pastor, Julie, what can we do to help you? How can you use us? The weeks leading up to Summer Extreme, I tell the staff, hey, we all work for Aaron. She's our boss. Whatever she needs the next couple weeks, that's what we do. When we're heading into the Christmas series and the Christmas service, we work for boy Aaron, worship leader Aaron, the bad Aaron. We work for him. For two, three weeks leading into that, what can we do? How can we help you? What do you need? We speak into everything that we do. What's going on in student ministry and how can we help? Before we do a series, we all talk into it. Before I do sermons, we all talk into them. We share the burden across the spectrum. And so we believe that trickles down to everyone in all that we do. And so at Grace, we partner in ministry. We don't just sit back and say, well, I hope the church is able to do that. Let's see. No, we jump in and see a personal responsibility. There was a great example a few minutes ago. I ran to the hallway after the children's dedication because I like to make sure that while I'm preaching, I don't need to use the restroom. I like to be 100% focused on you. So I ran over there to take care of business. And then I came back. And as I was in the hallway, it dawns on me, gosh, we've got a lot of babies being handed into that small space back there because we got child dedication today. I wonder if we're double staffed. And I looked at a lady who just happened to be standing in the hallway. She was just fodder. She came to attend the service this morning, and I looked at her and just presumptuously said, you might have to jump in that room this morning. She goes, yeah, no, I'm going to stick around and see. That's partnership. There's a need here. I'm a partner of the church. I'm going to step in and I'm going to help carry that. We're going to build a building. We have land we're looking to build. We need partners, which are not to stand back. I hope the church can do this, but actively, how do I partner with the church to make sure that this can happen? In our small groups, your small group leader asks a question, and it's a bad one. It's a dud, right? It's just a dead fish in the middle of the room. You're like, I don't know. I don't know how to answer this question. Your partner in ministry, bail them out, man. Say anything. Say what you're doing for dinner tomorrow. It doesn't matter. Just get the conversation going again. If Erin looks tired, if her hands look weary, if we see the same faces in those hallways and in that back room week in and week out, volunteer, step in, bracket, hold. We jump in. We are partners in ministry. We share the burden in what's happening here. We believe wholeheartedly in that. So at Grace, we are partners in ministry. More importantly than that, at Grace, we are partners in life. We partner with each other through all the seasons of life. One of the things that I've gotten to see more than ever in my position is the wisdom of Solomon when he writes in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. Everything that happens to you happens to everyone else. Every struggle that we walk through is shared by those who came before us and will come after us. And when I think about life and how I get to see these common struggles meted out through all the folks that God allows me to minister to, I just think of people coming out of college in their 20s. And that place where you are, where you're just trying to figure out, who am I? Can I get a job? I'm going to be homeless or live in my parents' basement forever. Can I figure this out? Who am I going to marry? Who am I going to meet? Do I want to build a family? Is that a thing that I want? And then you do get married and you're trying to figure out how can we make it together? What's going to happen here? And then maybe you build a family or maybe you start to build a career and you're just thinking about how do I take the next step? And you have people around you and you have all the same stressors. It's all the same stuff. How am I going to figure this out? How am I going to work out work-life balance? If I'm single, when am I going to meet the person that I want to spend my life with? If I'm married, is this the right person that I actually did want to spend my life with? Like all the things, right? And then you have kids and I'm standing up here and I don't have too many years as far as parenting is concerned on the people who were up here, but there's some with just brand new babies and I've got a six-year-old. I know that I don't know what's ahead of me, okay? So don't hear ignorant arrogance in this, but I also know that these folks over here that just have this tiny little baby and I've got my six-year-old, boy, there's a lot of space and stress to cover between six months and six years old. And so I know a little bit about what they face. And we know a little bit more about what to pray. And then those of you who have kids in high school or older, you know that I'm sitting at six years old and I'm going, gosh, I'm so stressed. And you're like, you don't know nothing. Shut up with your stress. You know what I wouldn't give to just lose an hour of sleep a night and know that my kids are okay? And then they go to college and then they get jobs. And then you look at your husband and your wife and you try to figure out, do we still like each other? Because we just ran a small business for 25 years. We were ships passing in the night trying to get things done. How do we figure out this marriage, right? And then it's not too long that you're empty nesters when you start to take care of your aging parents and all the challenges that are there and everything that awaits you doing that. There is nothing new under the sun. I have watched so many of my friends enter into that phase. And then you leave that phase and you get the joy of being a grandparent maybe. And then you start to age. And aging stinks. And you move into that phase. But in all of that, everything that you're experiencing where you are, all the folks who are older than you have walked through that. And all the folks who are younger than you will. And there is nothing new under the sun. And we face those things. And in the midst of those predictable cycles come the unpredictable diagnoses and loss and triumphs and promotions and surprises and tearful blessings. But it's all things that everyone else has experienced too. And so at grace, you should never walk through that alone. Whatever that is, whatever the fill in the blank is, if you're a part of grace, you should never walk through that alone. You should never, ever walk through parenthood alone, through trying to figure out what to do with this little human, you shouldn't feel like you're facing that alone. When your kids are in middle school, you shouldn't walk through that alone. When you're single and you don't know if you're going to meet your person or not, that you shouldn't walk through that alone. When you experience tragedy, you shouldn't walk through that alone. When you experience triumph and celebration, you shouldn't walk through that alone. Is there anything sadder than someone experiencing tremendous joy, getting the best news possible, and not having anyone to share it with? No, that's heartbreaking. You shouldn't walk through caring for your aging parents alone. You shouldn't walk through empty nesting alone. We shouldn't walk through any of that stuff alone. We were not designed to walk through it alone. That was not God's intent. We are partners in life. We walk with each other. And we have a friend whose strength is failing. And she doesn't have the strength to fight for her marriage anymore. She's done. It's hard. Her shoulders are tired. We come beside her. We get her a seat. And we bracket ourselves against her and we hold her hands until she has the strength again. We have friends who are parents and they've given up and they don't know what to do. We bracket them and we hold them up. We have a friend who's facing addiction or sin and they feel like giving up. Their arms are tired, and they just can't hold out anymore. We come alongside them. We press up against them, and we hold their hands up in the fight until their strength is restored to do it again. We are partners in life. I am convinced that one of God's greatest gifts is that of community and friendship. There is almost nothing in my life I hold more sacred than the people who I love, than the friends who are close to me, than the people who have come alongside me and held up my hands when I was too tired, than the people who I've stood beside and watched them regain their strength and stand back up. At Grace, we are partners, and that means we are partners in life. And here's the other thing I'll mention. I had a lunch with someone this week. And I found out that over COVID, one of them lost both of their parents. Another one of them had to put their parents into memory care and separate his parents. That's an incredible burden. And they've been carrying it alone. And I told them I was going to say this. Grace, don't walk alone. They didn't tell anybody. How can the church do what it needs to do if you carry all that yourself? If you sit there on the top of the hill, holding it up, struggling, crying, failing, knowing that it's all going to have to collapse. Tell us. Tell us. Let us come alongside. Let us hold you up. And this is where I would press in and chide you a little bit if you're a longtime grace person. At grace, and I would assume most places, we love to be, are anxious to be, excited to be, happy to be the person who stands in brackets. We will do this for you all day long. We will do this for you for as long as it takes until your strength is restored. We're happy to do that. We do not at all want to be the person here needing help. But this doesn't work if we don't let other people partner with us too. So get over yourselves, Grace. Let people help you. Let people be your partner too. Finally, we are partners in faith. We do not walk the spiritual journey alone. Most importantly, we're partners in faith. We come alongside one another and we help one another grow. We're going to talk more about this next week, how we can be partners in faith when we talk about how we are step takers. But at Grace, we are partners in faith. We come alongside one another. We foster one another's spiritual life. I saw somebody say this week or last that they are convinced, and I am too. I totally agreed with this, the longer they are in the Christian faith, the longer they are in this Christian life, the more they believe that it is simply about hanging on. It's simply about clinging to Jesus. That's why I think when Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 to put on the full armor of God, he says, put on the full armor of God, and he goes through all the things that you're supposed to put on so you can stand against the wiles of the devil. And then at the end, he says, and when you have stood firm, stand firm therefore. Just another one. When you have done it, when you fought the good fight, keep fighting, keep standing firm, keep clinging. In every list of Christian attributes, you will eventually find perseverance. Just hang on. Just cling to faith. I'm reminded of what Jesus says to John the Baptist when John the Baptist essentially says, hey, I'm pretty sure you're Jesus, but you've kind of let me down here because I'm going to lose my life in this prison. And Jesus says, yeah, you are. And blessed are those who do not fall away because of me. Blessed are those who still choose faith in me when I've let them down because their expectations of me were wrong. I'm reminded of when Jesus told the gathering of people that unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And all the crowds went, that dude's weird. And they left. And he looked at his disciples and he said, are you going to leave me too? And Peter says, you're Jesus. Where are we going to go? You don't make any sense to me. I don't want to cannibalize you. I'm not into that. But I also know who you are. Where else am I going to go? That's faith. We know Jesus. Where else are we going to go? Even when he mystifies us, even when it doesn't make sense, even when it's hard to figure out, even when we're faced with those situations where we go, how does a good God let stuff like this happen? We cling to faith. And sometimes our hands get tired. Sometimes clinging to faith is hard. And so we need godly people around us who love us and who love Jesus to hold our hands up for us and help us cling to faith when ours is failing. That prayer that's prayed, Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief. When we pray that, you know how he helps you sometimes? By bringing friends in to encourage you. A phone call or a text or an email or a lunch. So most importantly, Grace, we are partners in faith. We help each other cling. We help each other thrive. We help each other strive. We help each other take steps towards Jesus. That's what we do. That's why I asked DJ to read a 300-fold cord. I want us to use our tremendous community and our tremendously deep friendships to be partners in ministry, to be partners in life, and to be partners in faith. And my closing encouragement would be that if you were one who feels like you don't have that yet, pray for it. Pursue it. Ask God for it. You'll find it. If you are one who does feel like you have this, and you do have good and rich and deep friendships here, please know that God did not give you that community just for you or the people who are already in it, but that the job of a good, godly, biblical community is to turn outwards and to say, who else needs what we got? Because it's pretty good. Who else can we partner with? So when I say at Grace we have partners, we don't have members, this is what I mean. And this is why I'm a stickler about it because I believe it's that important. Let's pray. Father, we love you. We thank you for who you are and what you've done for us. Lord, I pray that if there's somebody here who doesn't know you, who hasn't accepted Jesus as their Savior, that they would do that. God, I lift up once again these families that are represented today. Would their extended families partner with them in the raising of these children in godly homes? Would the friends of these mamas and daddies rally around them and raise their hands up when their arms are weary? For the people in this room and listening who are caring for aging parents, God, would you surround them with people to raise up their hands? God, for the folks here who need you, who are tired, in whatever it is, would you surround them with godly community? Would you surround them with partners who pick them up? And God, for those of us who need help, for those of us who are tired, for those of us who just don't know if we can hold it up anymore, would you give us the humility to reach out to our friends, to our community, and to our partners, and experience the life-giving goodness of your community, God. We pray all these things in your son's name. Amen.

Thank you. Well, good morning. Welcome to Grace. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. Before I launch into the sermon, just point of clarity, when Mikey was doing the announcements earlier, there was some pictures of Grace Serves, and there was one picture that one of our elders, the esteemed Doug Bergeson, was in. And in that picture, he appeared to be just leaning up against his rake and resting. And I would love to tell you that that was not typical for the morning, but it was. After that, he was sitting, and that was it for the whole morning. So anyways, we're launching into this new series called Traits of Grace. And this is a series that has been a year in the making, and it's one that I've been very excited to share with you. So I thought that it would be helpful for you to understand how we came about this series and how we arrived at a need for the series and a need for the traits of grace and what they even are so that as we go through them each week for the next five weeks, you'll have an appreciation of where this comes from. So a year ago in our staff meetings, we have staff meetings on Tuesday afternoons, and this is when we talk about things like this. A year ago in our staff meetings, I kind of brought to the staff that I wanted to start doing some more liturgical elements in the church service, which if that's a church word that you're not familiar with, that's kind of from high church, from old school church that's fancy and proper and has an order of service that they go through. There's reading. Sometimes you stand and read. Sometimes there's prepared benedictions. But some of those elements can be really good and really helpful and really encouraging. And some of you come from backgrounds with those liturgical elements. And so we wanted to try to serve everyone in the church and bring those into our service. But as we were talking about what elements to add and what to do, I think it was Kyle made the point that, you know, we really can't just start adding things to Sunday morning services willy-nilly. We really need to know, like, what is the goal of a Sunday morning service? How do we determine if it's good? Is it when people sing loud and the sermon ends on time and people seem to get five or more compliments in the lobby? Is that what a good service means? I heard a snicker over here. I get compliments sometimes. Like, what denotes a good service? And so we started talking about that. What's important to us? What do we want to do? What is the goal of a Sunday morning service? And as we started having discussions about what the goal of a Sunday morning service was, we realized we really can't adequately talk about that until we understand who we are as a church. So what defines us as a church? What are we trying to do as a body of believers? What makes grace, grace? And then let's work backwards to that. And then let's work back into what we should include in our services. And so as I enjoy doing, I pulled out the whiteboard in multiple colors and so that it can all be color coordinated and clear for me up there. I pulled out the whiteboard and I said, that it can all be color-coordinated and clear for me up there. I pulled out the whiteboard, and I said, okay, and this is over the course of several weeks. I said, okay, what makes Grace Grace? Who are we? Like, just throw out things, our traits, our characteristics. And I started to throw them up on the whiteboard, and we got them up there, and there was some that were true but maybe not as true or maybe not us or whatever it is. And there was some that's like, well, those three kind of seem similar. I think we could combine those into one. And after talking about it for a couple of weeks, we arrived at these five traits. And we said, these things we feel as a staff are the things that make grace, grace. It's what we feel we are as a church. So as I put these in front of you, as we put these in front of you, this is not a new direction for grace to go in. These are not new directives for us to walk in. These are putting words around things and around values and around passions that I hope you all share. And this just gives us common language for them. So this is a process by which we are defining the church and who we are. And before I could just come out with it and say, these are the new five traits of grace, I had to take these to the elders because the staff doesn't decide who grace is. I don't decide who grace is. Our elders do. So I typed these out and I presented them to the elders and I told them the process that we went through. And I said, what do you guys think? Do you want to add to or take away? Do we want to tweak some descriptions? What do we, what do you think of this? And the elders were actually excited about it. I was a little bit surprised. I thought they'd be like, all right, great. You know, run with your traits, buddy. But they were, they were actually a little bit animated by it, so animated that they put it in my yearly goals. At the end of my work year, I'm going to get assessed, and when I do, part of the assessment is how well did we begin to integrate these traits into the culture of the church. So my goal is that all the partners of grace would know these five traits, at least like two or three of them, okay? Just like we all know that our mission as a church is to connect people to Jesus and connect people to people, we want us to start understanding these traits and to start understanding this common language. So much so that when we build a new building, which I'm going to talk about at the end of the service today, when we do that, because that looks like that's what we're going to be doing, we're going to put these in the lobby in some decorative way so that we can see them and be reminded of them and who we are and what makes us us. And I kind of think about it like this. I think it's important for us to have these traits and for us to know what they are because I think it helps us stay focused as a church on what we do. And I think that this is important because I'm not going to belabor the story. This story is not the point of the sermon, but there's this great story in the Old Testament, the book of Nehemiah. A man named Nehemiah, he's a captive of a Persian king and he is higher up in his kingdom and he hears that his home city of Jerusalem has been laid to waste and that the walls are no longer standing. And he begs the king for the opportunity to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. And the king gives him that permission. So he goes back to Jerusalem. He gets a lay of the land for a little while. And then to rebuild the walls, he looks at the families that live in Jerusalem. And he says, okay, you guys, you build the wall from here to here. And then you guys, y'all build it from there to there. And then you build it from the gate to that post. And he assigned portions of the wall to all the families of Jerusalem. And every family had their portion that they built. And I think it's a great picture of what the church is. That in church, we all have our portions of the wall that we're supposed to build. Your family's assigned to these things. Your family's assigned to these ministries and those tasks. But I also think that that's a really good picture of how God builds his kingdom in the cities, how God builds his kingdom in communities. I personally believe that there's plenty of great churches that you could be at this morning. There's plenty of churches that you could be at with good worship, with likely better preaching, with better looking people. I mean, the whole gamut. You could go out and you could find other churches and they would be good churches. I would never argue to you that Grace Raleigh is the one church nailing it in the city. We're just doing great. And everybody else is apostate and they need to get on our level. Like that's ridiculous. There's Catholic mass happening right now where Jesus is being honored. There's other Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, Methodist churches all over where Jesus is being honored and that's good. And so I think that God designed and gives a DNA to churches and assigns them portions of the wall to build in his communities. And I think that there's a portion of the wall in Raleigh that's been assigned to Grace Raleigh. And there's a portion that's been assigned to Summit. And there's a portion that's been assigned to Providence. And go on down the list, we all have the portion of the wall that we're supposed to build. And so as a church, as we think about it, these traits are how we build our part of the wall. This is what we do. This is what we focus on. This is not a statement of faith. This is not a statement of what we believe. That's on our website. That's a different thing. This is believing that Jesus is the son of God and that he came to save us and that we love him with all of our heart. What should we do in light of that belief? These things. So the first trait that I would talk with you about, it's what all the songs are about. You ought to be able to guess it by now, is partners of grace are kingdom builders. Partners of grace are kingdom builders. Now, these traits define us as a church holistically, but they also should define what a partner at grace does. I've actually shifted in our Discover Grace class that we do for people who are coming here and are newer to the church. We spend more time on the five traits than on the old boring stuff we used to focus on. So if you came in previous years and it was boring, come again, maybe it's better. But partners of grace are kingdom builders. This is based on a principle that I've shared with you before. And I would say, if parts of this sermon sound familiar to you, they should. I preached a very similar message to this back in January when I talked about what it meant to be all in at grace in our Consumed series. It was the one that I had to come in and film early, so I was actually wearing a hat for the sermon for the first time in my life. And then a couple of years ago in the spring, we went through the book of John, and when we got to the story of John the Baptist, I talked about this, about building kingdoms. So if this sounds familiar to you, it should, if you're a partner of grace. If you're not yet a partner of grace, this is a great series for you to go, for you to know good and well what you're getting yourself into. But when I say that partners of grace are kingdom builders, the idea behind this is every one of us, every one of us to one degree or another is building a kingdom. Every one of you is building a kingdom. It could be your kingdom. It could be God's kingdom. You could be a real sucker and it's someone else's kingdom. You don't even get any of that. But every one of us is, we spend our lives building kingdoms. We go through adolescence. We grow up. We're told somewhere around college age that we've got to make a way for ourselves. We get a degree or we learn a trade and we jump right into it and we just start building our kingdom, right? I had an old pastor that would use the phrase, the American dream is to get all you can, can all you get, and sit on your can. That's what we do, man. We're just building our kingdom. Look at all my stuff I got. Look at my, I'm the king of my quarter acre lot, right? And now some of us have big dreams and build huge kingdoms. Bezos has got himself a big old kingdom. But compared to God's, it's a little baby kingdom. We build our kingdoms too, and sometimes we have big dreams, and we want to build big kingdoms, and we got big goals, and they include multiple vacation houses all over the world. And sometimes we have smaller goals, and our kingdom is our family, and that's what we pour our lives into. But I want to turn, I want to open our eyes to the idea that every single one of us invests our life building a kingdom. And so the question becomes, whose kingdom are you building? And to answer that question, we define kingdom builders like this. A kingdom builder is one who realizes that all the talents, gifts, abilities, and resources they have were given to them by God for the purposes of building his kingdom, not their own. I know it's a longer note than we normally put up there, but I wanted to be very clear. A kingdom builder, someone who's not building their kingdom, someone who's building God's kingdom, is one who realizes that all of the talents, gifts, abilities, charisma, resources, finances, everything that I've been given or the tools that I use to acquire the things that I have are not mine. I am a steward of those things. And God gave them to me to build his kingdom, not my own kingdom. Many, many, many, if not a vast majority of us in church and outside of church go through life believing that all the talents that we have and all the abilities that we have and all the ways that we can find to build relationships, power, money, whatever it is that we're after, that we just came by those by hard work or luck or some combination of the two and that we're supposed to employ those for our benefit. But to be a Christian, to be a believer, to be a child of God is to understand, no, no, he didn't give you those things to build your kingdom. He gave you those things to be a part of building his, which is a much more thrilling invitation than building our paltry kingdom that will all fade. They all will. I remember when this clicked for me for the first time. I was about 28 years old, and I was taking kids to summer camp. And I had always been marginally athletic growing up, all right? And that's not false humility. I really was. I was good enough. I was marginally athletic, although I don't think I really need to claim that. No one's looking at me going, I don't believe you, man. You were apex predator out there on that soccer field. Yeah, all right. So we're all on the same page here. And I don't, I mean, I don't know if you know this, but you are looking at a member of the 1998 Georgia Association of Christian Schools All-State Soccer Team. So, yeah, I know. I know. I don't want to intimidate people, so I don't bring it up a lot. There was like four schools in that association. I really thrive in low-bar situations. It's been a theme of my life. But I was marginally athletic. I was athletic enough that I could get in just about any game, any sport, and jump in and participate and not embarrass myself and sometimes do well and usually not get picked last. And so that served me well in high school and college and particularly growing up in my culture in the, where you, as a dude, your worth was your ability to play sports. And so I had that ability, and I could jump in. Clearly, I'm no longer in a position where that attribute is relevant. So that is atrophied greatly. I'm not a marginal athlete anymore, but I used to be. And I remember I was going to summer camp, taking these kids, and I had just been hired by this church. It was a larger church with a youth group of about 200, 225. And I was hired as the middle school pastor. And when we went, we had a high school pastor who was a friend of mine. But I knew that when we got back, they were going to fire him, which was an uncomfortable week. But I also knew that these high school kids are really close with him, and they're going to be bummed when we get back from intense relationship building camp. And then they have to say goodbye to their buddy, and they're not going to understand why. So I knew that I needed to create relationships, bridges with these high school guys as quickly as I could, because I was going to need to be there for some conversations when we got back home, but they didn't know that. So I'm racking my brain, how do I even get these guys to talk to me? They don't care about me. I'm the middle school pastor. They don't care about the new guy. They have their relationships. But every day during free time, they'd go down to the ball courts. And so I would too. And we'd roll the basketball out on the court, and I'd get to playing with them, and I'd spend two hours every day playing basketball with these guys. Building rapport, making jokes, and whatever, whatever. And it built a bridge for me so that when we got back and everything hit the fan, I was able to lean on some relationships that I had begun building. And that's when it dawned on me, oh my goodness, God did not give me marginal athletic talent so that I could get people to like me in high school. He gave it to me because he knew that I would spend 15 years of my life in youth ministry and that it is an essential and crucial part of building necessary relationships with the people around you. And I thought, oh, getting to be on the All-State soccer team in 1998 was a happy byproduct to what God really cared about, which was putting me on the courts with those guys in 2010 so that I could build some rapport with them as their pastor. That's the first time it really clicked with me that everything I've been given has been given to me to build his kingdom, not my own kingdom. And that it is so easy to get caught in the pattern of putting our head down and building our own kingdom without remembering regularly that we are to be stewards of the gifts and abilities and the resources that we have. And Jesus actually preached this in the Sermon on the Mount. He addressed this. He talked about it like this. that we can build here on earth. And how eventually, no matter how big we build them, they will fade. The moth and rust will destroy. They will be corroded away. And what we build will not matter. Rather than investing your life in something that ultimately doesn't matter at all, invest your only finite resource in eternal things, in God's kingdom, and things that will matter for eternity. That's the invitation that God gives the Christian. I think it's one of the greatest apologetics for the Christian faith. Where else in this world, where else in our lives can we be imbued with purpose that great as to wake up every day and have the opportunity to build something that will last forever? And yet that's the invitation that God gives us, to be kingdom builders. So how do we build kingdoms? What does that look like? I hope by now you're asking that question. Yeah, Nate, I get it. We're supposed to leverage our gifts and abilities to build God's kingdom. But what does it mean to build God's kingdom? I think this is how we build God's kingdom. We build God's kingdom by adding and strengthening souls. Supposed to be a souls there. Sorry. I must've been moving fast when I put in the slides. We build God's kingdom by adding and strengthening souls. And here's how I know that's true. Because this is what Jesus told us to do. The very last instruction he gave the disciples. He's trained them for three years. He's died. He's resurrected. He's heading back up to heaven to be our high priest and to leave the Holy Spirit with us to guide us as we go. And he gives them final instructions. What does he tell them? Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He says, go, build my kingdom. I'm giving you the keys. You're the only pastors the world has. Now go and tell everybody what you saw for the last three years. Go and make disciples. And because Jesus says go and make disciples and not simply go and make converts, that I know that Jesus wants us to build the kingdom not only by adding souls to the kingdom, by sharing our faith and seeing people come to faith and seeing people trust in Jesus. And again, just so I can be clear, what it means to be a Christian, as I understand it, is to believe that Jesus was who he says he was. He's the Savior and Son of God. He did what he said he did. He died. He conquered death. He rose on the third day. And he's going to do what he says he's going to do, which is to come back and make all the wrong things right and the sad things untrue. You believe those things about Jesus Christ, you're a believer. But it's not enough to just bring someone to the point where they believe those things and we so add them to the kingdom and make the kingdom grow in number. We are commissioned to strengthen those souls that are converted. That's why Jesus says, go and make disciples. So not only do we build the kingdom by sharing our faith and adding people, adding numbers to the kingdom, but we build the kingdom by walking with one another, by helping one another deepen our faith and grow in our spiritual life and become more vulnerable with one another as we share this journey together. We add to the kingdom. We strengthen the kingdom by discipling one another. And that's one of our traits. That's step-takers. We're going to talk about that one. But if you're asking, how do I build the kingdom? You build it by adding and strengthening souls. And so our job is to set about with our lives doing that the best way we can. And I think when I think of people who are building God's kingdom, I can think of so many people at Grace who are kingdom builders, inside and outside of Grace. I think of a man that I deeply respect who's a business owner. And within his business, he has the opportunity to develop leaders. And he sends those leaders out and they start their own businesses. But they grow up within his culture. And his culture is founded on Christian principles and Christian values. And the people that he leads are almost always believers and creating work environments where people are treated rightly and justly and fairly and they're loved. And all the people under the umbrella of his business are people who are loved well and led well. And then he develops people within that and sends them out so that they love and they develop well. Adding and strengthening souls to the kingdom by simply doing. Everybody from the outside would look at him and say, well, he's doing his job. But what he knows is his job is boring. What's fun is developing leaders and sending them out and watching them replicate these cultures. That's what my life is for. I think about Lynn Lemons, who's been given a gift of organization and been given a heart for missions. And she uses that as the chair of our missions committee, who, I don't know if you know this, decides what happens with 10% of our budget and how we partner with ministry partners outside of the walls of grace, using gifts and abilities that she's been given to add to and to strengthen God's kingdom. I think of Phil Leverett. Y'all probably don't know that Phil is our head usher, which is, I hate to say it publicly because it always goes to his head, but he is. He's our head usher. And he shows up early almost every Sunday. And he makes sure everything's in line. If stuff needs to be on the seats, he'll double check that. He'll make sure everyone's scheduled. He's just faithfully devoted to doing that, to building God's kingdom, strengthening souls, adding to the kingdom by making everything in the church work. I think of Debbie Bergeson, who sits in the COVID baby room and just holds a screaming child once or twice a month, just completely nonplussed, shuts the door, just sits there, the kid screams, and mom and dad just hold on for dear life, hoping they can get an hour to themselves and enjoy church and enjoy one another. Just silently, thanklessly doing that week in and week out. I think of some of the moms we have in the church who are devoted to homeschooling. And they get together and they teach their children. And they build them up and they make disciples and they form them and that is their ministry and that is how they build the kingdom. I think of somebody who had an opportunity to become an elder, and he said, not right now. It's not my season to lead the church in that way. We're so busy with all of our schedules. I need to focus on my children and be the husband and the father that I need to be. And he's going and building God's kingdom that way. But I happen to believe that all of us are given gifts and abilities and talents that God intends for us to use to build his kingdom. And I believe that not only because I've seen it, but because it's in the Bible. It's in the verse that Tamara read to us during the worship this morning. Ephesians 2.10, I don't know when or how I stumbled upon that verse, but it was in the early years of me at Grace, 2017, 2018. I was just reading my Bible, and the all-star verses in Ephesians chapter 2 are the two that precede it and talk about salvation. It is by grace that we are saved through faith, that not of ourselves, that it is a gift of God, so that no man may boast. And you always read those, and you're like, yeah, and you highlight those, and those are the important ones. But this one right after it, for the Christian, who understands the doctrine of salvation, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You know what that verse tells us? Whether you believe it or not, God created each one of you with a design for good works that you would walk in, that he's laid out for you with the sincere hope and with the will and with the desire that as you move through your life and as you move through your faith, your eyes would be opened to what those good works are and that you would walk in them. I believe that this is true of every human that's ever lived, that God has created them and imbued them with certain gifts for a purpose so that they might deploy those to build his kingdom. I think of my uncle, Uncle Deg. Those are his initials, but everybody knows him as Deg. If you knew him in the 80s, you knew him as Flash, so that's the kind of dude he was. There was Camaros and motorcycles involved. Deg is a militant atheist. It breaks my heart. But when he was growing up in the 70s, he went to a hyper conservative independent Baptist church that just ruined his faith. And I don't really blame him for walking away from that God, because I would have too. And I'm grateful that my mom didn't introduce me to that God that she met when she was growing up. But Deg, Deg can tell a story, man. That guy can own a room. He can take over a dinner party. And people follow Deg. People listen to him. And he's smart. And I just know he would have been a great pastor. I just know it. I'd love to go to his church. I think when God formed him in my grandmother's womb, that that's what he purposed him for. But Degg's just lived a life and he hasn't been able to have his eyes open to see his good works. And so he doesn't walk in them. But if you're at grace, let's have our eyes open to that. Each one of us, no matter how talentless, talentless, or insignificant, or unimportant we might feel, your God doesn't think that of you. We don't think that of you. We think that Ephesians 2.10 is true. And that when God formed you in your mother's womb, that he laid out for you good works that you should walk in until the day that he takes you back up to heaven to be with him. Because we believe that, and because we believe, and this is so important, and I'm so glad, Aaron, that you referred to this in your prayer earlier today. When you are walking in God's purpose for your life, when you are walking in obedience, when you are walking in the good works that God has prepared for you, there is no greater happiness or peace. To walk outside of those, to build our own kingdom, to refuse to walk in the good works that God laid out for us, that's where life feels disjointed. That's where we feel out of whack. That's where we beat our heads against the wall trying to find a sense of purpose. But when we walk in the good works that Jesus laid out for us before time, there's no greater peace or joy than being exactly who God created you to be. Parents, while we're here, do you know what you're raising? Kingdom builders. You're raising humans that God formed, knowing the good works that they should walk in. And it is your primary job as a parent to help them love Jesus and be able to identify the good works in which they are called to walk. That's what a successful parent is. Parents of adults, you get to help coach them through it. But because that's what we believe, because at Grace we are kingdom builders and we believe that everybody has a portion of that kingdom to build, I want to leave you with these two questions. I want you, honestly, I want you to think about these, talk about these with your spouse or with your small group people or with some friends at the church. And I would really love it, small group leaders, if we could spend a portion of our small group time this week in our groups talking about these two questions. Not all the time, but just give folks who heard the sermon a chance to respond to these a little bit. Five, ten minutes. Here's the two questions I want you to go thinking about this week. Whose kingdom are you building? And what is my good work? Whose kingdom am I building? Am I building my kingdom or am I building God's? Have I rallied all the resources in my life to make my name great or am I doing it to make God's name great? And then what are my good works? What can I walk in right now? If you don't know, ask somebody who loves you and knows you. But everybody has them. And we all should walk in them. I hope you'll go and you'll think about those things. Whose kingdom am I building? With the time I have here, whose kingdom do I want to build? And what is the good work that God has prepared me to walk in. Let me pray. Father, we thank you for who you are and for how much you love us. God, I just pray particularly right now for folks in the room who just really might not know. Maybe their heart position is, God, I want to serve you. I want to do what you want me to do. I want to build your kingdom, but I don't know what. Lord, would you please show them? Would you have someone who loves them speak into their lives and in their hearts this week? Would you show them the good works that they could walk in, that they might experience your joy as they do it? Father, if there are those of us here this morning who have had our heads down building our own kingdoms, would you convict us of that? Would you show us that in ourselves? Would you help all of us be people who are zealous to build your eternal kingdom? And God, as we do this, I pray for courage and I pray for strength and I pray for the peace and joy that comes with taking the steps of obedience and faith as we begin to live out the purpose that you've given us. 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. This week, Gideon. Well, good morning, everybody. It's good to see you. Thank you for being here. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. And if I hadn't gotten a chance to meet you yet, I would love to do that in the lobby after the service. Right now, while I'm preaching, probably wouldn't be an appropriate time, but after that would be great. As a pastor, I often find myself in conversations where questions like this are asked. Questions like, hey, people talk about being able to hear from God. I'm not sure that I can hear from God. How do I hear God's voice in my life? How do I know his direction? How do I know what God wants me to do? Sometimes that manifests itself in questions like, hey, I've got this job opportunity. We have this opportunity to move. We're trying to make a big decision about this or that or what to do with our children. How do I know what God wants me to do? Sometimes this conversation will take on the shape of, hey, I've been a Christian for a while, and I just feel like I'm in a rut, and I don't really know how to get it back. What do I need to do? How come I'm not grown further in my walk yet than I have already? Why is it that I feel behind? Or sometimes it's conversations with people who are new to the faith or relatively new to the faith. And they just kind of feel like they're not getting traction. It's not taken off for them. What is it that I need to do so that I can grow in my faith? And I think that to be a Christian for any amount of time is to, at some point, to have asked those questions or questions like them, or at the very least, to feel this sense of, gosh, I thought I would have grown past this by now. I thought I would, I see other people talking about this rich, deep faith, and they seem to hear from God, and they seem to have this courageous faith that other people would seek to emulate, but no one would seek to emulate me, and I don't know how to get from where I am to where they are, but I know that I'm not content here. If that's you, and if you've ever had a thought like that, then Gideon's your guy. Gideon may be the most relatable story in all the Bible. Gideon, I find to be a character that resonates with me and with us as I tend to go through it very, very much. Because in Gideon, what we see is we see typical Bible hero stuff. By the end of the story, he's threatening kings and he's conquering armies and he's sitting on, he wasn't on the throne, but on the magistrate seat, I guess, as the judge of Israel. And he judges Israel for 40 years and he's the unquestioned leader of the country right underneath God. And so that's typical Old Testament hero stuff and none of us can relate to that. You're not about to rule over the United States for 40 years, although it may go better if some of you did it. I don't know. But we're not about to do that, right? But the beginning of Gideon's story, he's timid and he's fearful and he's characterized by doubtful hesitancy. The beginning of Gideon's story, we can relate to very much. And so as we go through this story, there is this overarching question that becomes very important to us if we feel like we can relate to Gideon in any way, in his fear and in his timidity and in our uncertainty of how to live out our faith. The overarching question, I think, over the narrative of Gideon is simply, how does Gideon move from doubtful hesitancy to confident clarity. How does Gideon begin with this rickety, secondhand, doubtful, timid faith and move to a place where he is the judge of Israel for 40 years, moving and acting with confident clarity? Because the guy at the end of the story barely resembles the guy at the beginning of the story. So the question becomes, how does that happen to Gideon? To discover this, we should look at the story of Gideon. I love the story of Gideon. I know that I say I love all the stories that I tell you, and it's true. I do. But this one in particular is special to me because I had the chance to go to Israel in 2013. And I've always loved the story very much. And in the story, they go to a brook and some soldiers drink from a brook. And when I went to Israel, they take you to that brook and they say, this is the stream of Gideon and this is the field of Gideon. And in the crease of my Bible, I have grass from the field of Gideon that I'm not going to pull out because I'm afraid I'll break it, but I'll show it to you after the service. But I've got grass in here from Gideon's field next to the brook that shows up in the story. So when I get to tell the story of Gideon, I get excited because you could say that I get giddy about Gideon. That one just occurred to me. Where's Kyle Tolbert? Is he in this room? That was just for you, pal. That was it. I don't care if anybody else laughed, buddy. That's great. You guys don't know this, but after I preach or after Kyle preaches, we have about 30 minutes where we talk about each other's jokes and how they were like, we'll always make one joke just for the other person. Just so you guys know, it's a little inside baseball. Probably shouldn't do it. I don't know why I'm talking about it right now, but we do and it's great. So I'm excited to tell you the story of Gideon. When we pick up the story, we're in Judges chapter 6, and we find Gideon in a wine press milling out grain. And you might wonder, why is Gideon in a wine press using it for something that it was not intended for, hiding out from whomever? Well, that's because in the verses preceding it, we learn that the Israelites, God's people, were being oppressed by the Midianites. And that oppression didn't look like just coming in and taking all the way over. That oppression looked like just waiting for the farmers to till their land and produce their crop, and then just going in and taking whatever they wanted, taking all the wealth and all the fruit and all the vegetables and all the livestock back to their cities to use as they saw fit. So they had subjugated the Israelite people. And Gideon, he is experiencing this subjugation. And this is in the period of the judges. I explained this last week, so I won't belabor it this morning, but in the period of the judges, God himself was the king of Israel. He ruled over Israel, and they followed God, and they obeyed him, and they followed his laws, and they acknowledged him. And God would appoint a judge to serve as a judge, a magistrate, kind of a one-person supreme court, and rule over the different disputes that would come up in the land between families and between tribes and individuals. But occasionally, Israel would forget that God got them there, would forget that God was their God, and they would start to live by their own rules and do their own thing and not really care about who God was and what he thought. And they would say, God, your hand over us is kind of annoying. Would you please remove it so that we could just do whatever we would like to do? And God would say, okay, I will, but you're going to have to experience the consequences of your actions. And because he moved his hand of protection from the Israelites, because their actions and their attitudes and their devotion basically said, we're not really interested in your rules or your hand of blessing over us. So if you could get out of our way, that would be great. God said, okay, I'll get out of your way. And then sure enough, the Amorites and the Midianites and the Amalekites and the various ites from surrounding cities and towns would come in and they would oppress Israel until Israel would cry out and be like, God, we forgot about you. We're so sorry. These people are really bumming us out. Could you come in and save us? And God would appoint a judge and raise them up and they would overthrow the oppressors and they would live in peace again until they forgot about God. And so the cycle continues. Judges, before it gets really, really bad, that we meet Gideon. And we see him in the wine press in chapter 6. And an angel of the Lord appears to him, and it's pretty clear that Gideon's not yet sure that this is an angel of the Lord. It appears to him, and he says, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. Which is a really interesting comment. Because as far as we know, Gideon was neither mighty nor did he possess any valor. He's just a dude, tread and grain in a wine press. But the angel says, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. This guy and an oppressed people who's never fought a battle in his life and is by no means mighty and does not seem to display any courage in any way. And so it's like, what are you doing, angel? Like, are you making fun of Gideon? Are you being sarcastic here? Because if you are, that's a good one. But I think what's happening here is that the angel knew because God had told him. The angel knew who Gideon was going to become. The angel knew who Gideon was. The angel knew the path that Gideon was about to walk and what he would be as a result of walking it. So he called him what he knew he wasn't yet, but knew he would be, O mighty man of valor. And Gideon's response to me is one of the funnier responses in the Bible. Now the Bible's not really known for its jokes, so when I read it, you're not going to fall over laughing at this, but the honesty of it is interesting. Chapter 6, verse 13. So the angel comes to Gideon and he says, the Lord is with you, almighty man of valor. And Gideon says, are you sure? Because I'm down here. I'm treading this grain in this wine press. You sure about that? Because if God's with us, like our fathers say he is, then why are we oppressed by the Midianites? If God's with us, then what am I doing? And why has the God who's promised us that he's going to protect us, why has he forsaken us? Which I think it's interesting as an aside to see Gideon blaming God for decisions that he and his people made. Gideon, brother, God didn't forsake you. You forsook him. God didn't take his hand off of you. God didn't take his hand of protection off of you. God didn't take his blessing off of you because he just got tired of you. You didn't want it there. So he removed it. And now you're living in the consequences of your actions. And I think it's a good lesson for us. It's not the point, but I do want to make it. Sometimes in life, we walk through hard times because broken things happen in a broken world. People get sick. We lose people too soon. Tragedy strikes. It's not fair and it will never make sense on this side of eternity. And sometimes those things simply happen because this world is broken. But a lot of times things happen because we did them. A lot of times things happen because we kind of said, God, your hand on my life is uncomfortable. Your control and sovereignty over my life is uncomfortable. I don't like it. I'd like to be able to do whatever it is I want to do. So if you could kind of leave me alone for a little while, I'm just going to do my thing. And God says, okay. And then we get to the end of the consequences of those choices. And like Gideon, we're like, God, why have you forsaken me? And like Gideon, he didn't forsake us. We forsook him. So I thought it was worth it to pause. I have a note in my Bible from years ago when I first encountered this story in this Bible. It's interesting how Gideon shifts the blame there to God for something that Israel had done. But to his better point, if God's with us, why am I here? If God's actually good and he actually promised us this stuff, then what am I doing in this spot right here? Why am I down here? And I think that's a question that all of us can relate to at some point in our life. If God's so good and if he's so loving, then why am I down here? Whatever down here is. And so the angel responds to him. And the angel says, the Lord is with you. I promise he's with you. You can go in confidence. And so Gideon says this in verse 15. Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. And he said to him, If I have now found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. There's a lot going on there in those verses. But the first thing we see I think is very interesting. The angel doubles down and says, no, no, no, you're the one that God is going to use to save Israel. And Gideon says, but why me? My father's tribe, clan, is the smallest in all of Manasseh, and I am the youngest of all the brothers. You couldn't have picked a less significant person to lead your charge than me. No one's going to follow me. No one's going to believe me. I am not a mighty man of valor. I've never done any of this stuff before. You've got the wrong guy. But the angel doubles down and says, no, no, no, you are the one. God has chosen you. And so now Gideon realizes he's hearing from God. He's being told to walk in a direction, but he does so timidly. And he says, okay, I need to make sure that you're an angel from the Lord. I need to make sure that I think I'm hearing, that I'm hearing what I think I'm hearing. Will you stay here? I'm going to go make us dinner. And I need to see a sign. I need something so I know that this is the direction I need to move in. And so he goes back to his house. He leaves the angel under the tree. He makes some dinner. There's some hotcakes or something involved. And he serves dinner to the angel. And the angel takes his staff and taps the dinner. And the dinner catches on fire. It was baked Alaska, and he didn't know about it. And so he's like, man, this is amazing. I can't believe this. That's a neat trick and a pretty clear sign from God. Okay, I believe you, and I trust you. I'm in. What would the Father have me do? And the angel says, do you know? Now, this, the following dialogue is a loose paraphrase of scripture. It's in Judges 6, you read it. The angel says, you know those gods that the Midianites erected in the middle of town to kind of snub their nose at everyone and say like, hey, we're the boss now. Like those idols mean that, that's from that Tom Hanks movie. I'm the captain now. That's what those idols mean. Like we're in charge here now. Don't mess with us. We got you. And Gideon's like, yeah, I know the ones. And he goes, listen, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take your dad's bull, the biggest one. And then I want you to take a young bull from your dad. And I want you to go and tear down the idol in the middle of town and then I want you to sacrifice the bull to our God. And Gideon's like, now what now? Because that, friends, is poking the bear. That is walking into the middle of town, these idols that the Midianites constructed in the middle of town to make everybody know we are the boss now. It is not you. Our God is superior to your God. We've got a handle on the situation. Go and tear it down. What do you think is going to happen when Gideon tears it down and the Midianites wake up and they see that it's been torn down? Do you think they're going to show up in the middle of Gideonon City and be like, all right, guys, now come on. Who did this stuff? Fix that idol for us. You guys are the best. That's hilarious. That's not going to happen. They're going to be mad. They're coming for blood. And Gideon's tribe knows that. So they wake up in the morning and word starts to spread. Oh my goodness, somebody tore down the idol. Who was stupid enough to do this? What in the world? We got to figure this out. And so they figured out it was Gideon. They go to Gideon's house. And they're there with their pitchforks, man. They're crying out to Gideon's father. Give us your son Gideon so that we can kill him so that we might mitigate the anger of the Midianites when they come crashing down the hill to come make us answer for this stuff. We've got to be able to show them that we did our part. Please don't hurt us. They're terrified of the Midianites. And Gideon's dad gives this impassioned speech about who they are and they're the chosen people of God and that they need to band together and that they can defeat the Midianites. It probably was a really cool speech. I'd love to see it in like an HBO or Netflix series, this big climatic moment where the tide turns, it shifts. And the people who came to kill Gideon by the end of the exchange are now ready to follow him into battle. Yeah, let's get them. No more. It's Braveheart crying freedom, right? So then word goes out throughout all of Israel. We have a leader now. His name is Gideon and he's going to face off against the Midianites. Send all your fighting men. And as that cry, as that call is going out to the nation of Israel to send Gideon your fighting men in Manasseh where there's going to be a face-off, Gideon gets nervous and he goes to God in prayer. And this is part of the story that you guys may know. It's the most famous part of the story. He goes to God in prayer and he says, God, if you really want me to do what I think you want me to do, if I'm meant to lead these men after a lifetime of never leading a single fighting man in my life, we see no evidence in the text that Gideon had even fought, besides the fact that he had brothers, so he probably got into a couple scraps. But we see no evidence that he was a soldier of any kind. And so he says, God, if you really want this guy who's not a soldier, who's the youngest of all the brothers in the smallest tribe and one of the smallest clan in the smallest tribe, if you want me to lead the people of Israel, I need to know that I know that I know. So please, can you do something for me? I'm going to put my fleece out when I sleep. I'm going to put this lambskin out in front of my tent when I sleep. And if I wake up in the morning and the ground around the fleece is bone dry, but the fleece has dew on it and is wet, I'll take that as a sign from you that I'm supposed to lead these men into battle in your name and that you will give us the victory. So Gideon goes to sleep, wakes up the next day, pokes his head out of his tent, feels the ground around the fleece and it's bone dry. He feels the fleece and it's soaking wet. He's got a sign. God showed him. Ride into battle, mighty man of valor. But that's not what Gideon does. Gideon does this. In Judges 6, verses 39, Then Gideon said to God, Let not your anger burn against know why you picked me either. I'm a total drag. But if you could just do that do trick again, but this time the old switcheroo, then I would certainly know that this is what you want me to do. And so it happens. The fleece is dry, the ground is wet, and Gideon knows that this is what he needs to do. And so he goes and he leads. And it's worth noting at this point in the story that Gideon, he's frightened out of his mind. He's scared senseless. He is timid. He is doubtful. He is hesitant. He does not want to step forward and do this. He needs assurance from God at every turn. And he is right and good to be terrified. He would have been terrified to pull down the idols and have to face off with his townsmen and know that he's going to have to go to battle. And now a call has gone out to make him the general of all the armies of Israel. And he's never led a single person before. He knows he's wildly inadequate for this task and he is scared. But he steps. And it's worth noting that terrified obedience still counts. Terrified obedience? God, I don't know what's going to happen here. I don't know what's on the other side of obedience. You're asking me to jump over this fence. I don't know what's on the other side of it, but I know that this is what you want me to do, and I'm scared senseless, God, that I could take this step of obedience, and it could cost me this friendship. It could cost me this relationship. It could cost me money. It could cost me experience. It could cause animosity between me and my wife or me and my husband. It could cause me to take the wrong step with my children that there's going to be ramifications for for decades to come. God, I'm terrified of taking this step. And yet terrified obedience still counts. I would say it's probably the most forming kind of obedience. Some obedience is easy. You get lunch with your friend and you say, I really, I've got this decision to make. I really don't know what the Lord wants me to do. I'm trying to just discern. I feel like God wants me to move in this direction, but I just want to be sure. It's this new job. I get a lucrative signing bonus, better hours, more flexibility, 40% more money, and I get stock options. I just don't, does God want me to take this step? Yes, yes, he. Take the step. Take the step. And then you take us out to dinner. Alright, take the step. That's easy obedience. Some obedience is hard. Some obedience terrifies us. Moving six and a half hours away, taking your one year old away from their new grandparents with a wife who's not sure about whether or not to go. That's scary. That's scary obedience. But scary obedience is some of the most formative obedience. And so it still counts. And we're all called to it at some point. So Gideon decides to obey. He's going to be the general of the Lord's armies. And 32,000 men show up from all over Israel. It's like an act. We don't know. I searched the text. We don't know how many men the Midianites had. And by this point, they had partnered up with the Amalekites because they see that there's a revolt going on in Israel and they're trying to thwart it. So 32,000 fighting men show up and God looks at that and he tells Gideon, listen, that's too many men. If you guys go into battle and you win and people hear about it, they're going to think that you did it, man. And they need to know that I did it and that you had nothing to do with this. That's too many guys. Go to them and tell them that if anybody's scared, then they can go home. So Gideon goes back to them and he says, if any of you are afraid, if you're trembling, if you've been forced to be here against your will, if you don't want to go, if you don't want to fight, then you go home. No harm done. No one's going to hold it against you. Go home. It'll be fine. 22,000 men leave, leaving 10,000 behind. Which, if I'm one of those 10,000 men, and let's be honest, I would not have been. I'd have been like, all right, we'll see you later on the first chance. But if I'm one of those 10,000 men, I'm going, I made the wrong choice. But we're stuck here now. Let's rush to death together, boys. And God looks at those 10,000 men and he goes, yeah, Gideon, I'm sorry, buddy. That's too many. We need less than that so that people know I'm the one who brings victory. So he says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take your men down to this brook to get a drink of water. There's going to be two kinds. There's going to be lappers who put their face in the water and lap it up like a dog. They just hoover it right in like some animals. And then there's going to be scoopers who keep their eyes on the horizon and scoop the water and drink from their hands. All right? I want you to keep the scoopers and send the lappers home. The lappers are weird. We don't need them anyways. The scoopers have their eyes on the horizon. They're good soldiers. Let's keep them. So that's what Gideon does. And when he's done with this winnowing process, there's 300 men left, 300 scoopers. And he's like, okay, God, what's the plan? God says, here's what I want you to do. Arm all 300 men with a clay pot and a torch. And I want you at night to go to the camp and surround the Midianites and the Amalekites. And when you give the signal, everyone's to shatter their pots and scream a sword for the Lord and a sword for Gideon. And then you're going to win. There's at least 30,000 men in this camp. But this is the plan. And God in his goodness to Gideon says, if you need a sign, because I know you're that kind of guy, if you need a sign, you don't have to ask for me this time. Take Pura, your servant, and sneak down the hill and listen at the camp of the Midianites and I'll give you a sign. So that's what Gideon does. He says, he could have gone right then, but he takes the sign from God, and he goes down, and he sits next to a tent, and at that tent, he hears some Midianite soldiers talking to one another, and one of them says, I just had a vision, and the soldier says, what was your vision? And he says, there's a man named Gideon. He's an Israelite, and he's going to come down, and he's going to kill us all. And upon hearing this vision, Gideon does this in Judges chapter 7 verse 15, as soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. There's so much to learn from that response. We can make the whole sermon that response. What was Gideon's response to the good news from God? He worshiped. What should be our response when we get good news from God? We should worship. What should be our response when we struggle to know what to do? We should worship. What should be our response when we're sad and we're down and we're low? We should worship. What's our response when we're at peace? We should worship. He turns and he worships God. And then he goes to the men and he says, let's go. God's given the Midianites into our hands. So they go down and they surround the Midianites and the Amalekites and all 300 of them and at Gideon's signal, they light their torches and they bash the clay pots and there's this great clamor and they yell a sword for the Lord and a sword for Gideon in unison. And the Amalekites and the Midianites wake up, they come out of their tents and they look. And as far as they know, in total darkness, they're surrounded by 300 torches. And on the other side of those 300 torches are the 32,000 fighting Israelite men who have come to destroy them. And so they wake up and they just start fighting whoever they can see. They start to fight each other because they can't recognize who's in their army and who's not. All they know is that there's an invading force trying to kill them in the middle of the night and they start killing each other. And listen, I know that might sound crazy, but even though I have never been a part of hand-to-hand combat, which I know is surprising news, but I've never been a part of hand-to-hand combat, but I have watched a lot of Viking and medieval shows, okay? And I've seen this happen a bunch of times. So I can tell you from pretty good second-hand knowledge, based on the way that the director chose to depict it, that these are incredibly chaotic scenes. And often I watch them and I wonder, they don't have uniforms. They're not wearing flags. How do they know who belongs to who and who's fighting for who? So they rushed out of their tents and all they know is that guy has a sword and I don't know him and I'm going to defend my life. And if anybody tries to escape, we presume that Gideon's army just kind of steps over. It's like, no, no, I don't think so. And then they kill that person. They just kind of wait until they defeat both armies at once. The Midianite king escapes, gets out with a small contingent, and Gideon goes to chase him. The Midianite king goes, and he goes through intentionally territories that are favorable to him, that are going to let him pass through their land without hassling them. But when Gideon tries to go through their land, the kings of those lands are like, hey, buddy, you can't bring your army through here, all right? We don't want to have to support you and your whole crew, so you've got to find another way around. And Gideon, without missing a beat, without waiting on a sign from God, says, hey, listen, listen, listen, listen. We're going to go, listen to me, we're going to go and we're going to kill him. And if you don't let us stay here, when we get done killing him, we're going to come back and kill you. So what do you want to do? And the kings go, we're sorry, Mr. Gideon, you just please use all the land you need. And he goes and he kills the Midianite king and he overthrows the oppressors. And scripture tells us that he faithfully judges Israel for 40 years. And the question to me is how did he go from this fearful timidity in the wine press to this confident courage on the field of battle? Because those are two totally different dudes, man. Those are two totally different guys. The guy in the wine press that talks to the angel, oh yeah, if God is with us, then where is he? Because I don't see him and I'm down here hiding out from everyone because I'm scared. The guy who needs a sign from the angel, who needs two signs from God, who needs to feel good about attacking, like the guy who's needed God's pushing all along the way and can barely hear him and barely obey him. By the end of the story is threatening kings and moving decisively and with confident clarity at hearing the voice of God and acting on the instructions? What changed for Gideon? He experienced God. He experienced God. At the beginning of the story, we get some insight into who Gideon was. He says, if God is here, if he's up there, then why am I down here? And then, I don't know if you saw in the text, he calls him the God of our fathers. If the God of our fathers is real, he didn't call him my God, the God of my fathers. See, at this point in Gideon's life, I would surmise he had only heard about God. Other people had only told him about who his God was and what he did. God was an experience of other people, of the people who came before him. God was not someone that he had personally experienced. He was still their God, the God that he had heard about. And I think this is so important because for so many of us, for so many years, God is the God that other people talk about. God is the God that Nate gets up and preaches about. Jesus is the Savior that other people sing to, that other people experience, that other people cry out to. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that guides other people, that speaks to other people, that convicts other people. But we haven't personally experienced those things, and we kind of wonder when it's going to be our turn. And I think so many of us can relate to Gideon because to Gideon, God was someone that other people talked about. And to so many of us, so often, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are things and gods and people that other folks seem to experience and talk about. But we haven't experienced them. And so we talk about them like I talk about Viking battles, secondhand from what I see. And so I think what changed with Gideon is that he experienced God. He walked in terrified obedience. God shows up and says, hey, I want you to go tear down those idols, but I can't, I'm gonna get killed. Just trust me, do it. Okay, can I please get a sign? Yeah, I'm gonna burn your dinner. Okay, I'm gonna go do it. And he does it. And he does it in the middle of the night because he's fearful of the ramifications. But God's faithful to him. And instead of having him be killed by the mob, the mob now wants to follow him. And then all of Israel is coming to follow him and Gideon says, God, are you sure I'm the guy? Are you sure I can do this? And he gets a sign and then another sign and with timidity and fear he steps out and he says, okay. And then God widows down his army to 300 men. And he says, are you sure, God, I need to do this? Yeah, I'm sure. And those 300 men conquer 30,000. And then we see him walking with confidence. Do you see this transition that happens in Gideon? This man who hasn't experienced God and doesn't recognize the voice of God and isn't sure if he can trust this voice of God becomes a man who, without blinking, recognizes God's voice and walks in confidence that God will do what he said he was going to do. So what happened to Gideon, what moves him from this doubtful, timid hesitancy in his faith to courageous clarity in his faith is nothing that he did. It's not following the rules better. It's simply walking in obedience to God. And in taking those steps of faith and walking the path that God called him to walk, he experienced the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God and the reality that God is one who keeps his promises. And Gideon learned the lesson that as long as I step in the path that God has laid out for me, nothing can happen to me that God doesn't want to have happen to me. He will keep his word. He will be faithful to his promises. And the same invitation is extended to us. Quite simply, if we want to experience God and grow in our faith, we need to obey. We need to take a step of obedience. In a few weeks, I'm going to do a whole sermon on the fact that at Grace, we define discipleship and spiritual growth as taking the next step of obedience. So I won't belabor that point now except to say that we believe that everyone has a next step of obedience that's been placed in front of them. And I would contend that if we feel weak in our faith, if we feel timid in our faith, if we feel like our faith hasn't progressed to where it should, if we feel like God is someone that other people talk about, but that we haven't experienced that maybe, maybe, maybe it's because we haven't been taking those steps of obedience, the easy ones or the fearful ones, to watch God come through for us. So we train our spiritual ear to hear the voice of God, to see him in circumstances, and know that's the way that he wants us to walk. And so for all of us, in light of the story of Gideon, as we move from timidity to courage, as we sing, I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. As we sing in a few minutes and we say over and over again that God makes us brave. Let's understand he makes us brave by our obeying him, even when we don't know what's on the other side of obedience and trusting that when we get there, God will take care of us. So God, even though I'm scared and even though I don't know how it's going to work out and even though this is a really difficult step for me to take, I'm going to take it and I'm going to trust that you're going to be there for me when I get there. And I'm telling you, the more you do that, the easier the step gets the next time. Not because you've got it figured out and you're great and you're awesome, but because you know that you can trust your God to come through when he says he's going to come through. And so we become brave as Gideon became brave. I don't know what your step is. I have no doubt in my mind that with this many folks in a room, some of you, your step is right here. You know good and well what God would have you do. It may be terrifying. Terrified obedience still counts. Maybe it's to have a conversation that you've been putting off and dreading and avoiding. Maybe it's to mend some fences and offer forgiveness in a place where you're not quite ready to do that yet. Maybe your simple step of obedience is to actually set the alarm 30 minutes early and get up and spend time in God's word and time in prayer like we talk about all the time. Maybe your next step of obedience is to actually turn around and invest in your spouse and invest in your marriage and double down on it instead of finding small ways to escape it whenever you can and see what goodness comes from God in that. Maybe it's to be present for your kids and not try to avoid them so much. Maybe it's to take a step and begin to trust God with your finances and give generously. Maybe it's to deprioritize some things that are getting too much of your time. I don't know what your next step is, but I know that you have one. And I know that if you take it, as happened to Gideon, you will experience God in the taking of that step. You will experience him come through for you. You will walk with bravery as you take step after step, and you will become the person who God has created you to be. So, grace, go from here, mighty men and women of valor. Go from here, wise men and women of grace and patience, kind men and women of goodness and mercy, and obey God and let him make you brave in that step. Let's pray. Father, thank you for being the one constant that we have, the one thing that we can count on, the one constant in our life that will absolutely never, ever let us down. Lord, I pray that you would make clear for those who can hear me what our next step of obedience is. God, what would you press on us that we need to do? What step would you press on us that we need to take, God, and give us the courage to take it? Let us embrace the fact that terrified obedience still counts. You'll take it, and it is sometimes the most formative obedience. God, as a church, make us brave. As a church, give us the faith to take the step of obedience that you lay out in front of us. Let us move as one as you seek to impact corners of the community of the city of Raleigh and Wake Forest and the surrounding towns. Make us brave as individuals so that we might be brave as a church and so walk in your might and in your truth and in your identity and serve you well as we go. It's in Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen.

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. Today, Samson. All right. Well, good morning, everybody. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. It's been a minute since I preached. The elders were kind enough to allow me to take the month of July off from preaching. And as I said last week, thank you so much for being a church that lets me do that. I'm sure that as I converse with people and continue to process what the month allowed me to do, one of the things that I'm coming out of July with is a profound gratitude for you. I'm so grateful that I get to be your pastor and that I get to be in this place. It is one of the most profound joys of my life. So thank you for letting me serve you in this way. As we jump back into the series, Kids Stories for Grownups, it's kind of born out of this idea that there's these stories. If you grow up in church, there's these stories that we learn all along the way, right? David and Goliath and Noah and the Ark and Jonah and the Whale. We hear those stories and then when we grow up and we still sit in church on Sunday mornings, we don't talk about kids' stories. We talk about important theology and Romans and things like that, but we don't revisit the kids' stories. Sometimes when I put Lily to bed, my six-year-old daughter, she'll ask me for a Bible story, and I love telling Lily Bible stories. I love telling Bible stories to anyone, especially if they haven't heard them before. And it's funny how I'll remember the stories that I liked when I was a kid and I'll think, oh, I'll tell her about Noah and the ark. Oh yeah. I mean, the animals are cute, but like the whole world dying. That's, I don't think she's ready for that yet. So let, not that one. And then, well, maybe I'll tell her this one. Ooh, that's a, that, that, that, that, um, the holy war is, is tricky right now. Let's, uh, let's, let's wait on that one. And then, well, maybe I'll tell her this one. Ooh, that Holy War is tricky right now. Let's wait on that one. And you kind of realize, my goodness, these are not intended for kids at all. These are intended for adults. And there's no story to me that personifies that better than the story of Samson. When you read, when you're a little kid, if you grew up in church, and this isn't everyone's experience. Not everyone grew up in church, and I understand that. And maybe if you didn't grow up in church, you've heard of Samson before, and you know he was like superhuman, like Bible Hercules, that was him. But when you're a little kid and you grow up in church, especially if you're a little boy, Samson's the best. Samson was the Hercules of the Bible. He accomplished things of superhuman strength. He killed 1,000 people with the jawbone of a donkey. And when you're eight, that sounds amazing. When you're 41, you're like, but why did he do that? What's the matter with Samson? That's awful. And when you revisit this story, you realize this guy was a jerk. And I'm saying he was a jerk because it's church and I'm on the stage and there's children in the room. But that's not the word I want to use. I would like to string together more colorful words to describe who Samson was. And so when you go through the story of Samson, overshadowing everything is this constant why. Why did God use him? Why is he in the New Testament referred to as one of the heroes of the faith? How? Why? Why does God continue to use him and bless him? This doesn't make any sense. And I'll just tell you up front, the goal for this morning is not to answer the why question. The goal for this morning is to see what we can see in the life of Samson and how God interacts with him and how that might inform how we interact with God and how God pursues us. But we're going to take a stab at that as we go. But the story of Samson is not the story of a hero of the faith to me, or at least not what you would think it would be. We pick up Samson's story in Judges chapter 13, where we learn that there is a, and I would encourage you to grab a Bible. There's one in front of you. Judges 13 through 16 is where we're going to be today. If you're at home, follow along there. But just double check me and make sure I'm not making this stuff up because it's going to sound like I am, but I promise you I'm not. His life was just nuts. So in Judges chapter 13, we pick up Samson. We learn of a woman who was married to a man named Manoah, and she was not able to have children, but she desperately wanted some. And so she's praying to God that God would allow her to have some children. And this is what God says to her. In Judges 13, verses 3 through 5. Okay, so there's a couple of things going on there. First of all, you see that he can't, no alcohol, no touching unclean things. You cannot cut his hair ever. It's a Nazaritic vow. He was going to make a vow of the Nazarite. And that just means someone who is set aside intentionally and purposefully from birth to be used by God. And so the vow incorporates no alcohol, no haircuts, no touching unclean things and following God's law. So before Samson is born, God goes to his mom and says, I'm going to give you a son and your son is going to be used by me. He's going to take the Nazaritic vow and he can never drink and his hair can never be cut. And I am going to use him to overthrow the Philistines. At which point it's helpful for me to explain that what is going on in the period of the judges. As we read the book of Judges, we're in an era of Israel called the Judges before they had kings. So it's after they wandered into the desert, they've established themselves as a nation, or rather God has established them as a nation. And now they do not have a king or a ruler, rather God is their king. And in his rule, God appoints a judge to sit and do just that, to settle disputes, to help people figure things out, to say you're right and you're wrong and you have to pay them punitive damages and all those things. He appoints a judge during peaceful times to keep everything harmonious. But the role of the judge was also at times to overthrow the other tribes oppressing God's people in Israel. Because the cycle of the judges is God would establish them and freedom and they would be in charge of themselves. He's their king. They would have a judge and they serve him well and in peace. But eventually they would forget about the blessings of God. They would begin to make their own choices, follow after their own gods and go into a stage of rebellion against God. And to get their attention, God would allow them to experience the consequences of their actions by removing his hand of blessing from his nation of Israel. And they would get oppressed again by the Midianites or the Amorites or the Philistines or some other ites until they would cry out to God, we've messed is, I'm going to give you a son who will take the Nazaritic vow, and he is going to become a judge over Israel and will begin to overthrow the Philistine oppressors. That's the promise God makes to this woman. So she has a son. They name him Samson. And we don't know a lot about his childhood. When we see him come on the scene, he's walking back and forth to this village that was, I guess, a neighboring village to where he was, except it was a Philistine village. And one day on his way, it says a young lion attacked him. And it says that the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he ripped the lion apart with his bare hands. So this is where we see Samson's gift from God is this kind of superhuman strength. And while he's in this village, he meets a girl. And he goes back to his parents, and he says to his parents, hey, I've met a woman, and I want her to be my wife. Will you please make the necessary arrangements with her parents, which fellas, if only it were that easy, right? So they say, and this is the response. I love this response. You can find it in the text. When he says, I want to marry this woman over here from this Philistine village, his parents are troubled because he's supposed to marry an Israelite girl. He's supposed to marry a Jewish girl. That's kind of part of the deal. When you're part of the Jewish faith, you don't intermarry with other faiths. You stay with your faith. This is something that's really important to God and the Old Testament. It's really important to Samson's parents, but Samson doesn't care. And so their response when he says, hey, I've met this Philistine girl and I'd like to marry her. Can you make the arrangements? His parents' literal response is, Samson, have you considered your cousins? That's the response. Now imagine some of you have kids that are of marrying age. Let's say they bring them home and you guys are talking and that person goes off to bed or they go to the restroom or whatever it is and you lean over to your child. How bad would that person have to be for you to say, have you considered your cousins? Like what about your family at least? They didn't want to marry her, but he did. And for whatever reason they allowed it. You get the impression that Samson's not the kind of person that you can say no to, so they make the arrangements. And he's on his way to the village for the marriage celebration. It's like a seven-day celebration. It's like a seven-day long wedding reception, which is my nightmare because I hate wedding receptions. But there, which I'm sure no one's surprised by that. Like, I didn't see that one coming, Nate. Yeah, I don't like dancing. All right, they're the worst. So it's a seven day reception to go to for a wedding. And on his way there, he passes by the lion that he killed, except now it's a carcass and some bees have built a hive in it. And there's some honey in there. And so he's like, well, that looks nice. And so he scoops some honey out and he eats some of that honey, which seems like an inconsequential thing, except it's a violation of his Nazaritic vow. He's not supposed to touch unclean things and that was dead. So it's unclean. So Samson already is pretty cavalier about the vow that he made to God, that his parents asked him to make to God, and about his fidelity to this God that's empowering him to rip lions apart with his bare hands. And he gets down there, and at the reception, he's been assigned 30 companions. They've chosen 30 men from among the town to be his companions, to be his friends, which that's 30 is a lot. It's a large wedding party and also does not sound very fun. Like, hey, to celebrate your wedding, here's 30 people that you're going to spend the week with that you don't know. But that's how they did it. So those are his companions. And on the first day of the celebration, he says, hey, I'll make you guys a bet. I'll bet you that I'll give you a riddle. And if you can solve it, then I'll give each one of you a set of clothes. And if you can't solve it, then each of you, all 30 of you, has to give me a set of clothes. And apparently, this was a pretty high-stakes bet, all right? There was no Old Navies. We're not running to the store to buy shorts for $12. Clothes were very expensive. They were handmade, and having one or two sets was a pretty big deal in life. So betting 30 of them is a pretty large gamble, except, and you can read it, it's kind of a dumb riddle, honestly, but it's a riddle that's impossible to solve. The answer to the riddle is this carcass that has honey in it down the street, but you're never going to guess it. So it's a totally impossible riddle. And now you're just going to beat your heads against the wall for seven days. And then I'm going to take all of your money. This is great. So he's made a jerky, impossible bet to his new friends. So as the celebration goes on, the 30 companions are really putting pressure on Samson's fiance to tell him, hey, figure out what the answer to this riddle is and tell us. Like, he's going to come in here and embarrass all the Philistines ever. So you got to figure it out. You got to figure it out. So she's pressing on him to figure it out. He won't tell her. He won't tell her. Finally, on the seventh day, he tells her. So she goes and she tells the guys, and then the guys publicly say, hey, we got it. And they give him the answer to his riddle. And he's so incensed and so angry that they used his fiance to figure it out that they came about it in an unfair way. They didn't just figure it out on their own. They had to cheat to win and now they've won and now he owes them 30 sets of clothes. So Samson, in his rage, goes into town and murders 30 people, and then takes their bloody clothes and goes and pays off his bet like that. What? He just goes into town and kills 30 people, and then takes their, I'm sure, blood-stained clothes and goes and gives them to the people to pay off the bet and then storms away. Samson's evil, man. That's crazy. That's maniacal. That's like the first three murders, okay. But then 27 more. Are you kidding me? That's so bad. So after a period of time, I don't know what kind of cooling off period you need after 30 murders, he goes back to the father of the bride and he's like, okay, I'm ready to take my bride now. And the father of the bride's like, oh, you were, you were so angry that I didn't think you wanted anything to do with the family. I gave her to one of your companions. I have another daughter if you'd like to talk about her, which seems like a totally reasonable response. I just did a wedding this weekend. I went to rehearsal on Friday morning, and then the ceremony was yesterday afternoon. If in between the rehearsal and the ceremony, the groom murdered 30 people associated with the bride, I would just assume that the wedding was off. Like, I don't need a confirmation email on that one. I'm just not going to go. So it's a reasonable response. And Samson is so mad that he then goes, the Bible says, and he captures foxes, 300 of them, we are told. And he ties their tails together and he puts a torch in their tails and he sends them through the fields of the Philistines. Now, I'm not an animal lover, okay? You guys know this about me. That's still crazy. That's still wildly evil to just do that to animals and burn down all the crops of the whole city. These farmers didn't have anything to do with Samson. Just the huge impact that would have on that town. Now, yes, God has raised him up to be a judge and to overthrow the Philistines, but like this? When the Philistines hear about what happened, they send an army after Samson. Samson's cornered, and all he has is the remains of a donkey, so he grabs the jawbone of the donkey, and he starts fighting, and God's spirit was with him, and he slayed a thousand Philistines that day. Now, it's wild to me that after the first, like, 20, he didn't grab one of their swords and make it a little easier for himself. He's like, no, I'm riding with this jawbone, man. It got me here, so let's go. And he kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. And in the aftermath of that battle and that life lived so far, we have these verses that kind of sum up this place where the story pauses. And he was very thirsty. No kidding, Samson needed some Gatorade. And he called upon the Lord and said, you have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant and shall I now die of thirst and fall at the hands of the uncircumcised? God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, the name of it was called Enhachor. It is at Lehi to this day, and he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years. How about that last sentence? I bet you didn't see that coming, did you? This guy that just murdered 1,030 Philistines and burned down their crops and in no way at any point in his life has honored God or seemed to care about him at all. Doesn't care to marry a Hebrew girl like he's supposed to. Doesn't care to honor his vow like he's supposed to. doesn't care to try to be tempered and measure in his character at all like he's supposed to, and then, great, let's make him the judge of Israel for 20 years with God's blessing. What in the world? How can God use Samson? How is that allowed or fair or right? You know, I don't know. But at this point in the story, when you see who he is, you see his stripes, and yet he ruled Israel peacefully for 20 years that God gave him. I can only conclude that it's because God faithfully uses the profoundly broken. He faithfully uses the profoundly broken. We see this over and over again in Scripture. Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer. Noah was a drunk. And on and on it goes. But we, all of us, ought to be grateful that God faithfully uses the profoundly broken. Because there is not a person in here who isn't. There is not a person within the sound of my voice who has not been at different times in their life for different reasons profoundly broken. Scripture says that God's law is a mirror that we hold up and essentially see our ugliness and therefore need for God. You cannot be a Christian and walk with God for any period of time and not be well acquainted with just how sinful you are. And not at some point be disgusted with what's in here and what you're capable of. Every one of us has walked through a season and gotten to the other side of it and turned around and thought, who was that person? If you have never been profoundly broken, I have good and bad news for you. You will be, and it's for your better. So lest we look at Samson and think it's unfair that God would use him, let's be reminded that God faithfully uses the profoundly broken, those wandering far off, those who do not seem to have a life that's in harmony with the faith that they claim. God still uses those people, and we ought to be grateful for that. We sang, all three songs that we sang up to this sermon were about that. It was about God's pursuit of us, how God doesn't give up on us. This God of revival, pour it out, pour it out. There was no one in need of revival more than Samson, and God continues to faithfully use him. And I've told you guys before, I tell you as often as I can, Ephesians 2.10, we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that we might walk in them. God has a plan for you. God has a purpose for you. God designed you and intended you to be used and deployed in his kingdom. Who cares if it's in a big way or a small way? They don't matter, but it's in a way. God intends to use you and he will continue to use you despite your brokenness, despite your rebellion, despite your wandering. And the other reason, the other thing that we see in God using the profoundly broken is the fact that he is a God who keeps his promises. He promised that woman before she ever had Samson, I will use him to overthrow the Philistines. He made a promise. And we serve a God that keeps his promises. That's what this means. That's what that tells us. That's what that reminds us of. The cross is a symbol of the fact that we have a God who keeps his promises. There's a scholar named N.T. Wright who defines God's righteousness. If you want to say, what does it mean that God is righteous? How do you define God's righteousness? It's his commitment to keeping his promises. The cross is a reminder that God keeps his promises. That's why I say that to be a Christian is to believe that Jesus is who he is, that he did what he said he did, and that he's going to do what he says he's going to do. That he kept those promises and he's going to keep the ones in the future. God made a promise to that woman. And so despite Samson's best efforts, he keeps it. He keeps his promises to you too. We pick up the story 20 years later. Samson's in Gaza. And in Gaza, he goes and he sees a prostitute and he's like, yep, she looks nice. And he goes and he lays with her. They find out that he's there. They want to kill him. He leaves. He rips the gates off the hinges of the town and he throws them into the ground. I don't know why he does it or why it's in the Bible. It's just kind of showing off. Look at this thing I can do that God lets me do. So he just does the gate thing. And we all probably have gifts that God gives us that we've misappropriated somewhere. That's definitely one of them. But the casual nature in which it's written tells me that this was not the first time that Samson went to see a prostitute. If you think that just because it's the first time it shows up in Scripture that it was the first time he did it, then I think that you are stupid. From there, he meets a woman named Delilah. We often think that Delilah was a prostitute as well, but there's nothing in the text to indicate that, that I saw. So she was a Philistine woman. And you guys know how the story goes. The Philistines saw that they were in a relationship and the officials come to Delilah and they're like, hey, we'll pay you a lot of money if you'll figure out what the secret to his strength is so that we can subdue him. She's like, all right, I'll figure it out. So she goes to Samson. Samson, if you love me, if you trust me, if you really want to be with me, you know, all the things, then will you please tell me the secret to your strength? And after a little bit, he relents. And he says, sure. If you get seven fresh bow strings and bind me with them, the strength will leave me. I'll have none of it and I'll be easy to subdue. But don't tell anybody. I added that last part because it makes sense for him to say that. He goes to sleep that night. She gets seven fresh bow strings. She binds him with them. And she tells the Philistines, I've got him. He's in big trouble. And they come in and she says, Samson, Samson, the Philistines are upon you. And he breaks the bow strings like they're nothing. And he takes out his assailants and he defeats them and he's not arrested. And then she goes to him, and this is remarkable. And she says, Samson, you've embarrassed me in front of my friends, okay? You told me that it was bow strings, and it wasn't. And now, don't I look like an idiot? I have no idea about this exchange. Why, Samson was like, yeah, yeah, I mean, that's fair. I did lie, but you also tried to have me murdered, so. So he's like, you're right, baby. I'm so sorry. Here, let me tell you the real secret. Weave my hair into a loom and then that's going to get me. So that's what she does. Falls asleep. She weaves his hair into a loom. Samson, Samson, the Philistines are upon you. He breaks out of there and he defeats them. The assailants are defeated and he's not arrested. And she again, Samson, man, I'm so mad at you. I've got a bone to pick here. You've embarrassed me in front of my friends again. What are they going to think? She presses on and presses on him, and Samson says, okay, fine, listen. If you cut my hair, it's never been cut. The Spirit of the Lord will leave me. I will not have any strength. I'll be like a baby. Which I can only guess. Like, why would Samson tell her that? She's done the other two things to him that he said, and he knows what's going to happen. She's going to do it. The only reason can be that after 20 years of Samson doing what he wanted in the spirit of the Lord being with him, that he started to think he was the man. And he forgot he wasn't. And he forgot he was reliant upon God for that strength. And so he said, yeah, you know what? Forget it. Yeah, cut it. See if I care. I'll be fine. So he tells her. And she cuts it. And they come in. Samson, Samson, the Philistines are upon you. And they take him because he has no strength. And they pluck his eyes out and they put him in a mill grinding grain to live out the rest of his days like livestock. And he is brought low. And it's at this low point that my favorite verse in the story occurs. If you just read the story yourself, my guess is, like I did the first several times, you're going to miss this verse, but I want us to stop and look at it at this low point where his head is shaved, he is bald, he has broken every vow that he's ever made, his eyes are plucked out, he has been forced to live out his days like an ox in a mill. And he was supposed to be the leader of Israel. We get this gem of a verse at the end of chapter 16. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. Just this little pause. Just this little transition in the story. Yeah. Yeah, God says they shaved his head. They didn't scalp him. That hair is going to grow back. And my promises are still true. And I'm still here for Samson to call on whenever he decides he needs me. And I love that verse because it reminds us that at our lowest, God still sees a future for us. At our very worst, at our very least, at our bottom of the barrel moment, whenever that is and whenever it occurs, wherever we are, God still sees a future for us that we have not forfeited. He still envisions a purpose and a plan for us that our sins are not too great for. At our lowest, at your lowest, God still sees a future for you that's better than the one that you would imagine for yourself and it's better than the one that you deserve. While Samson was milling, they came in and got him. There was a large festival going on wherever the Philistines had festivals to their God. And we're told that he was placed in between two pillars for the people to gawk at. He was the entertainment. Look at the mighty Samson. Look at the one who's killed thousands. Now look at him. Look how pathetic he is. And he's placed between two pillars, and on the top of this roof was a couple thousand Philistines, and in the courtyard was a couple thousand Philistines. And Samson asked the girl next to him, can you place my hands on the stones? I just want to feel them. And he cries out to God right as a last act in Judges 16, 28, then Samson called to the Lord and said, Oh, Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once. Oh, God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes. So there's like some positive and negative there. Oh, God, please be with me this one last time. Like he remembers. He remembers what he was supposed to do. He remembers that it was God who provided him the strength. And so he cries out to God. But then he tacks on to the end of it, so that I may avenge my two eyes. Not like, so that I may avenge you, God, not so that I may bring judgment on the Philistines, not so that I can be your servant once again, but so I can get them back for me to the very end. Samson, jerk. But he cries out to God, and God blesses him. And it's interesting to me, and I missed this, we're going to go back and get it, but it's interesting to me that God only allowed Samson to experience the full consequences of his action once his betrayal was complete. Did you catch that? That hair that Samson allowed Delilah to shave was the last thing tethering him to his God in any way. It was the last acknowledgement, either implicit or explicit, that Samson was tethered to God in any way. It was the last symbol of his fidelity to a God that he had long rebelled against. When he scooped up the honey out of the carcass, he doesn't care about his vow. You're trying to tell me that Samson never had wine? When he's sleeping with the prostitutes, he doesn't care about his vow. When he's marrying the Philistine woman, he doesn't care about his vow. Nothing in his life shows that he cares about his God and fidelity to his God at all, except his hair. It was the one thing tethering him to his father. It was the one symbol in his life that God still mattered to him. And when Delilah shaved it, he said, yeah, you can have that too. And his betrayal was complete. And it's just interesting to me that God did not allow him to experience the full consequences of his actions until he had completed his betrayal. This is not for everybody what I'm about to say, but for some of us who think we've been getting away with things and that we'll never really have to experience the consequences of those actions. Maybe God is just giving us enough space to see if our betrayal will be complete. As he continues to pursue us, and we continue to make rebellious choices. When I saw it as I prepped, I paused. And so I wanted to pause here too. And just submit that to you for you to consider. Now from the life of Samson, what do we learn? What do we see? What can we take from that? I think we're tempted to look at Samson and to look at what he did and to say like, I'm not capable of that. I can never do those things. I'm not going to murder 30 people and sleep with a bunch of prostitutes. I'm not going to do all that stuff. Know what? I would say you're probably right. But here's what Samson did. Samson did whatever he thought he could get away with. Samson did whatever he wanted that he thought he wouldn't have to suffer the consequences for. You've done that, right? We've all done that. Had seasons of life where, you know what, we're just going to do, I'm just going to do whatever I want to do that I think I can get away with. And in that way, we're all like Samson. Because of that, I think we need to acknowledge this morning that a rebellious life is built on small rebellious choices. A life of rebellion is built on small rebellious choices. Look at the progression of Samson. He just wanted to marry the girl he shouldn't marry. He wanted to break that rule a little bit. It's just scooping the honey. It's not that big of a deal. Everybody likes honey. It's got a little sweet tooth. Who cares? It's all going to come out in the wash. I'll just give this impossible riddle and take their money. I'm taking advantage of them. But, you know, everybody does this sometimes and then it's murder and then it's theft and then it's sleeping with people that he shouldn't, and then it's a total betrayal of all of his fidelity to God until one day he breaks the last tether. And he ended up with a life of rebellion, but that life was built on small rebellious choices. I'm going to cheat here. I'm going to lie over there. It's just small lies. It's not that big of a deal. I just need to save face in front of my boss. Just a little flirtation there. I'm out of town. It's not a huge deal. I'm never going to see this person again. We're not going to actually do anything. I don't think I really need to go to church. I'm just going to hang back. I'll catch it online when I can. Not this week. Not small group this week. Not reading my Bible this morning. I'll start that next week. This week's busy. A full life of rebellion is built on just small, inconsequential, rebellious choices, where before you know it, this is just our MO. And here's what I would say based on the life of Samson, that a life of rebellion will always come crashing down around you. A life of unrepentant rebellion will always come crashing down around us. We cannot continue to take these rebellious steps. We cannot continue to move away from God, to wander away from him, to have these seasons where we just don't have any faith and we have very little fidelity to the one that is faithful to us. We cannot walk like that forever and not have that life come crashing down around us. So when I look at the story of Samson, to me, it's a story that's very confusing, very tricky to understand, but also it's a story that's incredibly sad. Because when I look at Samson, I think of the life that could have been. What joys did God have stored up for him that he could have walked in? I think of what if Samson had believed the Psalm of David that would come generations after Psalm 1611 that says, you make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. What if Samson had chosen a life of obedience rather than rebellion? What if he would have trusted, yeah, I want these small joys now, but God, I know that you have a much better plan for me. I know that that's who I want to marry, but God, I know that if I follow your plan and your path, that in your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hands there are pleasures forevermore. I know that the life that I envisioned for myself could never be the life that you have for me. And when I look at the life of Samson, I wonder what goodness did he forfeit? What did he give up? What kind of peace could he have had with the family? What kind of peaceful reign could he have enjoyed? What kind of children could he have had around him? What kind of goodness could he have built in a community of nurturing and loving? Kindness. What did he miss out on by choosing that life of rebellion? I think that we each have a choice too. We have a choice to live a life of small rebellious choices. Or we have a choice to live a life of faithful obedience to the God who is faithful to us. I would put to you in reflection on the story of Samson, which are you going to be? Which life will you choose? Because that life can begin to be built this week. If you, up until this very morning, have lived a life of rebellion, let the hair on your head begin to grow back. God still has a plan for you. God still has a purpose for you. Anytime you want to choose him, you can. He's there. He's waiting. Many of us live a life where we try to straddle the fence. Seasons of rebellion followed by seasons of repentance and obedience. Get off the fence. Let us take the story of Samson as a sobering warning to choose a life of obedience where there are pleasures forevermore, where we'll sit at the right hand of the Father and experience the fullness of his joy. Where from his goodness we have all received grace upon grace. This week we looked at a life of rebellion and we see the results of that. Next week we come back and we talk about Gideon who lived a life of fearful and faithful obedience. And you're going to find out exactly what happens for those who choose to build their life that way. But for now, I would press on you. Which will you choose? You can start building an obedient life anytime. Let's pray and then we'll worship together and close out. Father, you are so good to us and patient with us. Lord, if there are people who hear me, who have wandered, who have left you, who have allowed you to be faithful to them while they are not faithful to you, would you bring them back? God, if there are people who hear me who have lived a life of rebellion, God, would you pull them back to you before they experience the full consequences of their actions? Would you save them in their wandering? Could this morning be a marker for them? Where their hair begins to grow again? And God, would you strengthen those saints who are living lives of faithful obedience? May they experience the depth of joy that you promise us when we walk there too. It's in your son's precious name we pray. Amen.