Well, good morning. What's up?
Illuminate Church, how are you guys?
Good to see you. It has been.
I was thinking about it this week over like 12 years. 15
years I've known Pastor Tim. We served together on staff over
in Brandon and then I remember driving over as a youth pastor
during a season where we were doing youth over here some
sometimes over here by over by the Chickfila and that old like
Strip Plaza. Do you guys remember that And?
Man, congratulations just on all that God has been up to here at
Illuminate Church and congratulations on the new
building. Are you guys excited?
It's just incredible And so when I send my greetings from
Meadowbrook. And lead pastor, Pastor Tim
Gilligan wanted me to say hi to you guys.
And we're just so. Honored to be.
I'm honored to be here today to get to share with you and we
love. Pastor Tim and Christine and and
this team and just it's just been cool to.
See all that God has done in and through Illuminate Church and
you guys are just getting started.
Amen. Hey man, to get into that new
building, I saw the. Pictures out in the lobby Man it
is. I know you guys are excited and
so. Going to be praying for you guys
as you guys continue to make your impact even bigger in this
area and so well, I am so glad to be.
Here I'm here with my beautiful wife of 32 years.
My high school sweetheart and I got a little picture, a picture
of my family and I've been married.
For 32 years and ministry for 32 years.
And I'll have two. Amazing kids.
Two inlaw kids that we just Absolutely.
And then we just had our fifth. Grandbaby in a Matter of about
5-6 years and so grandpa life and grandma life is the best
life. Can I get an Amen from any
grandma and grandpas out there like it is the best life?
And so man, I'm just excited this series.
How many of you all enjoyed this series?
It has been so good and I know I've been.
Watching along this summer and I know God's just encouraged me in
in huge ways throughout this series.
And if you remember just a little bit of review and I would
encourage you if you missed a week, go back and check out.
Some of the weeks or one week that you missed and I.
Guarantee you God's going to use this entire summer, man.
It's been an encouragement. It's given me hope, and I know
it has you too. But pastor.
Tim kicked off this incredible series anecdote and it's been
this deep dive in the Romans 12 and and as Pastor Kim even
talked. Just a minute ago, this whole
series has been designed to give us hope and we've either walked,
we are walking right now or we will walk through some
difficult. How many of y'all can give a
testimony to that that you've? Been through some things and
this series we've learned a little bit.
Too about the opposing forces that are at work.
The good and the evil, but we've.
Also learned that it's possible to overcome and in that first
week as I was. Listening to Pastor Tim.
He talked about first Peter 5 and it was such an encouragement
to me and I don't know if you Remember Remember this, but he
said stay alert. The scripture said stay alert,
watch out for your great enemy, the devil.
He prowls around like a roaring lion.
Looking for someone to devour but verse nine.
I love this, it says. Stand firm against him and be
strong in your faith and remember that your family of
believers all over the world is. Going through the same kind of
suffering you are. And as Pastor Tim was unpacking
that first message, Man. God.
Just begin to stir something in me and I just believe that in
order for us to live out Romans 12, we got to, we got to we have
to stand. Firm against the enemy, and we
have to be. Strong in our faith and we have
to remember that we are in this together.
And then Pastor Bernard, I don't know if you remember, but Pastor
Bernard, what an incredible message on holiness and how
holiness. Has been put on the inside of us
to give us peace. And then Pastor Kim.
Where's Pastor Kim? Couple weeks ago.
What an incredible word. And we should never be lacking.
In Zeal and Pastor Kim, I've been trying to live at a ten
since that moment. And then last week.
What an incredible just. Word testimony from Pastor Juan
just on the power of forgiveness.
And remembering how much God loves us.
And so I would just encourage you to go back if you miss one
catch one of those weeks. And so today we dive in to the
last part of Romans, 12, verses 17 through 21.
And just so you kind of have like a big picture of this
passage. This is teaching us as believers
to reject this whole cycle of vengeance and instead respond to
evil with goodness, with love, with forgiveness.
And it emphasizes the importance of us living a righteous.
Life, pursuing peace and trusting in God's justice.
And I think as we've listened to this whole.
Series this summer we have, man, we've.
Gotten so much encouragement in order to do those things, to
respond with goodness, with love, with forgiveness.
And so today we're going to pick it up in verse 17.
You guys ready? Is everybody ready?
All right. Verse 17.
It says never pay back evil with more evil.
Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are
honorable. In verse 18, I love this.
It says do all that you can to live in peace with just a few
people. No, no, no.
It says with everyone. And then in 19 it says dear
friends never take revenge. Leave that to the right to
singer of God, for the scripture say, I will take revenge, I will
pay them back, says the Lord. And instead, if your enemies are
hungry, feed them. They're thirsty, give them
something to drink. And in doing this, you will keep
burning coals of shame on their. Heads, don't let evil conquer
you, but. Conquer evil by doing good and I
love what the verse. Says in the message.
It says don't hit back, Discover beauty in everyone, and if
you've got it in you, get along with everybody.
Come on, look to your neighbor and say he's talking to you.
You got to get along with everybody.
Don't don't insist on getting even.
That's not for you to do. God.
Says I'll do the judging. I'll take care of it.
I love that. But the question is, and I think
we've been trying to answer this this entire summer, how in the
world can we do this? How can we live this out in the
chaotic world that we find ourselves in?
And I think it just gets simple. It's just so simple, right?
We just got to get close to Jesus.
Like, if that's that's it. Like we got to get.
Close to Jesus and that's it. Let's pray.
No, I'm just kidding. No, but seriously, let's let's
pray before we dive in this morning.
God, thank you for your word. We thank.
You God, for the opportunity that we've had to lift you up.
And God, this morning we pray as we dive into your.
God that you would speak to us. You would encourage us, God that
we would leave with something. God that we can take and apply
to our lives to help us. Be a light in this world.
And so, God, we pray. That when everything is said and
done this morning, God, that you would be glorified, you would be
lifted up, and every single one of these your people, God, that
they would be encouraged today, that's our prayer.
And then we pray this in Jesus mighty name.
And everybody said, Amen, Amen. Well, we got to get close to
Jesus. And I was, I was thinking about
that verse and that Peter was kind of say he he was giving
this to that encouragement to stand firm against the enemy, to
be strong in our faith. And I started thinking about
Peter, like what was it about Peter that he could say that
that he can say You got to stand firm, you got to stay alert, you
got to be strong in your faith and remember that that we're
together in this. And I think we, as we look at
Peter's life, I mean we can see, I mean his name was changed from
Simon to Peter, which means rock.
But I really think we have a lot to learn from the guy,
especially when we start. Talking about being in peace
with everyone, we can learn something from the guy who was
called to be. A Fisher of men.
And think about it. I mean, God had big plans for
Peter. He was among the first called.
He changed his name to Rock. It was in his boat that Jesus
taught the multitudes from. It was his boat where Jesus
helped him bring in that big hall of fish.
If you remember it's where Peter first believed He walked with
him with Jesus all the way to the end.
He was actually Peter's sword, if you remember that cut off the
soldiers ear in the garden when they came to arrest Jesus.
And of course, we know that Peter went on to be one of the
most prominent leaders in the early.
Church Despite. Denying Jesus three times, Peter
and I think Peter had the same problem that we have.
And this series, the antidote has been really trying to help
encourage us to answer. And we know and we've learned
that there's always 2 opposing forces always at work in our
life. There's good, there's evil.
There's these things that happen where we man, we battle with
trust or doubt. You know, we have at times where
our faith is engaged and then boom, we're fearful.
And so it's trust. Doubt, it's faith, it's fear.
It's our past. Like we sometimes get so caught
up in dealing with our past and maybe for some it's we're too
focused on the future. And then there's God's way and
then there's the world's way. And I love Ephesians.
Chapter 2, verse two. In the message it says you let
the world. Which doesn't know the first
thing about living, tell you how to live.
And the reality is though, that often what's happening in our
world, and it's happening around us, it's always happening on the
outside, but we always feel it. And deal with it on the inside.
And a couple weeks ago, Pastor Kim taught that we are body,
soul and spirit. You guys remember that.
And when we experience things on the outside, we often deal with
it on the inside, and our soul is where we process life.
It's where we think, it's where we decide.
It's where we feel, It's where we remember.
It's where we can imagine. And we need peace.
We have to have peace in our souls in order to live in peace
with everyone else. Because if we don't have peace
in our souls, and I know you know this is true, I know it's
true. We often will have inflammation
in our souls. Like it.
It can get rough in there at times.
But we know that God alone. Is the source of real peace, and
we also know if we're believers, that there is no peace.
Apart from God is that Isaiah? 26 Three through four, it says.
You keep him in perfect peace. Whose?
Mind is stayed on you because why he trust?
In you. And then verse four says trust
in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
I love this verse. And the perfect and the peace.
It's the same word. And in the Hebrews this method
adds like it adds great emphasis with those two words and it
means you will keep him in everything.
Shalom as we were singing this morning about peace and being
encouraged to think about God's goodness, it it will keep us in
everything that Shalom peace implies.
And I love it when we can. Reverse this verse because I
think when we reverse this verse it gives us a little bit of
clarity. And it kind of reads like this
because you trust in him, you keep your mind stayed on him and
he. Keeps you in perfect peace.
Do you see that order? Because you trust in him.
You've put your life in him. You've trusted everything in
him. And as a result of that, then
you keep your focus, you. Keep your mind stayed on him,
and then he. Keeps you in perfect peace and
the hard part is. Keeping our eyes focused on
Jesus because there's things that happen.
In life, on the outside. And then we have to look at
Peter's life. I mean, how did Peter keep his
eyes focused on Jesus? And I think if we look at
Peter's life, we can see that he did it oftentimes the hard way,
right and nowhere. This is greater illustrated than
in Matthew chapter 14, verses 22 through 33.
And just before this passage is the passage where the disciples
fed the five. 1000 And so just as that was finishing.
We pick up in verse 22 and it says Immediately after this
Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat
and cross to the other side of the lake while.
He sent the people home. After sending them home, he went
up. Into the hills by himself to
pray. Night fell while he was there
alone in the verse 24 it says. Meanwhile, everybody say
meanwhile the disciples. Were in trouble far away from
land, for a strong wind had risen and they were fighting
heavy waves. And about 3:00 in the morning,
Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.
When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were
terrified in fear. They cried out.
It's a ghost. I mean, can you guys imagine
that? But Jesus spoke to them at once
and he said don't be. Afraid, he said.
Take courage. I'm here, and then I love this.
Peter calls out to him. Lord, if that's really you, I
can't see you, but I hear you tell me to come to you walking
on the water. And Jesus said, yes, come.
So Peter jumped out of the side of the boat and he.
Began to walk on the water toward Jesus and then the verse
30th says. But when he saw the strong winds
and the waves, he was terrified. And he began to sink.
Save me Lord, he shouted, and Jesus immediately reached out.
He grabbed him, and then he says, You have so little faith,
Why did you doubt me? When they climb back into the
boat, the wind stopped and then the disciples worshiped him.
You really are the Son of God. If I get.
Titled My Message Today and I really believe that as we think
and unpack this a little bit this morning about living at
peace with everyone, I would like to title this Life is Lived
in the Meanwhile, Life is lived in the meanwhile.
And if you look at that word meanwhile, it's literally
mentioned 189 times and it means while something else is being
done or was being done, it means for now, for the moment, for the
present. It's also an an adverb and I had
to do a little English lesson. Any English teachers in here?
Oh, there's a couple. So I hope I'm doing this right.
But we know that nouns are things.
Adjectives describe things, Verbs are what things do, but
adverbs are how they do it. And the meanwhile, as an adverb
is how we do it is how we do life.
Life is lived in the meanwhile, and we all face them these
seasons in life where we feel like we're kind of like in
between. You guys know what I'm talking
about. Like, we're not where we used to
be, but we're not yet where we want to be.
We're in the meanwhile. And sometimes in the meanwhile.
There's man, there's difficult times, there's difficult
circumstances, there's tragedy that happens in life in the
meanwhile. And sometimes we can feel like
in this, like in between season. It can feel like a wilderness
experience, like we've read in the Bible.
And the danger that you and I face in this meanwhile, man, is
we often look at this time in the meanwhile, the present, the
now, we often view. This time, with so much
impatience, maybe sometimes believing that man, God, I just
want to get through this right. I just Get Me Out of this
season. I'm ready for this season to
end. But.
Sometimes we can miss and what? God really wants to do in the
midst of the meanwhile. And I know you know this because
you've had these seasons. You've had.
These things happen where God shows up in the present and in
the now through a difficult time and circumstance, and our faith
is encouraged and built up even in those really hard, dark
times. And then I think about Peter and
this story. And Peter wasn't putting Jesus
to test. He was.
Instead, if you think about it, Peter was the only one in the
boat. To react in faith this impulsive
request. Led him to experience this like.
Crazy demonstration of God's power.
I mean, think about it. His faith in that moment.
I mean, it had to be big to get out of that boat.
I mean, think about all the things that Peter had.
Seen Jesus do previous. That ignited him in that moment
to step out in the midst of a storm and come to Jesus.
And then of course we know in the.
Story Peter began to sink. He took his eyes off of Jesus,
and he began to look at the winds and the waves and.
Begin to focus on them, and I think he learned such a
valuable. Lesson that he would begin to
take on even further into his ministry.
And we may never walk on water. I mean, some of us have tried.
Maybe when we're little kids. You guys ever done that?
Like when you get in a pool, you try to?
Yeah, it doesn't work, does it? But we may never.
Walk on water, but the truth is we all will.
Go through really difficult seasons and circumstances, and
I've learned that when I focus merely on what's happening
outside, my focus sometimes drifts to the past or to the
present. And oftentimes, it's in those
moments that we feel like we begin to sink.
And so we must keep our eyes focused on him.
Because Jesus brings peace, right?
He brings peace to the storm. He brings peace in the midst of
the meanwhile. And so whatever your season,
you're in today. You might be in a really.
Difficult season right now. Or maybe you're in a season
where it feels. More like a promised land and
everything's going great and man, you're just.
So you're just, everything's just just squared up right now,
wherever it may be. This meanwhile, right now for
you being faithful, remaining faithful, being strong in your
faith, and allowing God's peace to come into the midst of that
truly is a God honoring act. So what do we do?
Psalms, 39, says. What am I doing in the meantime?
Lord, I think David understood this really well, he said.
Hoping. That's.
What I'm doing, I'm hoping. And so today I want to take a
moment, as we close out this series, to look at the
importance of faith and the importance of remembrance as we
were. Singing this Morning and even
being. Encouraged to remember God's
goodness. There's so much power in
remembering what God has done in our life, and we need to lean
in. To the meanwhile, right now,
this season that we're in so that God can bring peace and
that we can live in peace with everyone.
And I think we'll also get a glimpse into how Peter kind of
wrestled this out. But faith?
Faith. At its core, it's a.
Reliance upon It's a trust in God and it's central.
To us as believers. And the Hebrew word for faith is
Amman, and it's this root word that.
Denotes, and I love this stability, firmness,
reliability, like faith is this thing that's.
It upholds us and it also concretely meant to support or
uphold like a child, like a parent would would hold an
infant. And I just told you, I just had
a grandbaby, born six weeks ago, six weeks ago #5.
And I got a picture of her, Adeline Joy King, right there.
She is the most precious little. Thing, but you can tell I got
her like. My arms are wrapped around her.
She is not going anywhere. I'm not going to let her little
bobble head go anywhere. Like it's we got her and she's
just the most precious thing. And then my grandson Carter,
he's about 2 1/2 now. His faith might look a little
bit different, but he's like, I'm not sure about her, you
know? Look, Mom, no hands kind of
thing. And it was so funny, like in
that first week when she came home, I think.
Carter was kind of like, oh. She's staying.
Like, I thought she was going to go back somewhere.
Like, yeah, he's getting used to that, but but faith, Faith is
that firm, strong. Stable like when we build and
get strong on our faith, we can stand in the midst of the
meanwhile, and God can bring peace into that.
And so many people, though I've run into so many people that
treat faith as belief. In nothing even wishful thinking
you've probably heard. People call it blind faith.
But I really believe that blind faith has no place in
Christianity, because what we believe and what we have faith
in is solid. Peter addresses this in Second
Peter 116. He says.
We did not follow cleverly. Invented stories when we told
you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we were eyewitnesses to His Majesty.
Eyewitness accounts are not the stuff of blind faith.
What God has done in your life, no one can discount.
Listen this section over here. What God has done in your life,
no one can discount. I mean what He has done, this
section, what He has done in your life, nobody can say
anything about because it's real is.
God has showed up in your life and done some incredible things.
This section, the things that you've witnessed, your story,
your testimony. Nobody can take that away and
when we have. This personal encounter with
Jesus, we have knowledge of the gospel, and not only do we have
knowledge, but we acknowledge it, and then we have personal
trust in those facts that God is going to save me.
He's going to show up in the midst of whatever.
It is that I'm going through. I mean Peter, I mean he knew
this. I mean he knew that Jesus was
not just a mere man. I mean Peter had seen Jesus give
sight to the blind. He had cleansed lepers, caused
the lame to walk. He had raised the dead.
I mean Peter's preparation to be a witness of Christ.
I mean it included some very up close, close encounters with
Jesus and he approached him with questions and with doubts and
whenever man Christ perceived that he needed further training.
I mean, Jesus leaned in and taught Peter lessons, even in
the story that we just read you. Have little faith.
He was trying to build his faith in that moment, and I don't know
if you know this, but Peter was perhaps one of the most
reprimanded disciples of all the disciples, but yet he never got
offended. He rather continued to follow
the master. Daily adding to His witness and
learning of Him. And so today listen your story,
your testimony, What God's done in your life, man.
It shapes your faith, It shapes your theology, It shapes who you
are so that you can live in peace and be at peace with
everyone. But Peter's faith was built.
Up and encouraged songs. 7711 gives us a clue how to build up
our faith. And it says I will remember the
deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your
miracles of long ago. I was reminded of this about
just a little bit over three years ago.
We had just come out of man a really rough meanwhile.
It had been probably a period of about six years where we lost
all all of our parents in. Man, that was just a really
difficult season. And we walked with my wife's mom
through a five year battle with breast cancer and that was just,
that was a rough time. And I remember processing
through that and just working through some of that things and
grieving and going to counseling.
And man, I found myself in a season where I was really
battling, like, just really deep, severe depression.
And I'll never forget my counselor in one session.
And I was trying to I I was so focused, and I was almost too
focused on the future that it wasn't allowing me to process
correctly in the present. And he said this thing and I'll
I'll never forget it, he said. You're so focused, you're so
busy focused on the future, trying to get out of the season,
that you forgot to remind yourself how much God has done
in your life. And then he said this, he said,
Remember this. Remembrance unlocks faith.
And as faith begins to be built
up in us, we begin to as a result, our increases our trust
and that peace that he so much wants to give us in our life.
And I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but one of
the. Greatest themes that I've
noticed and through throughout the entire scripture is
remembrance. All throughout Scripture, God
calls His people to remember His goodness.
I mean, if you look back in the book of Leviticus got appointed
weekly yearly rhythms of remembrance.
For example, the Sabbath was a weekly.
Rhythm to remember that God rested on the 7th day.
The Passover was a yearly rhythm to remember how God delivered
the Israelites from Egypt and then throughout the Old.
Testament The Israelites regularly created altars of
remembrance to commemorate what God had done and Joshua four.
They stacked 12 Stones in remembrance.
Of how God miraculously parted the Jordan.
River and let them cross on dry land.
And then the psalms. I mean, if you look at the
Psalms, David and the writers meditate on the works.
And the wonders of God. They call us to remember God's
past faithfulness and dwell on his goodness.
I mean David. Think about it.
He used past faith. He used past things that God had
done in his life to defeat Goliath.
He called upon those moments that God had showed up
previously that allowed him to step into the meanwhile and
defeat Goliath. And then, of course, we see it
in the Last Supper. Jesus invites his followers.
He invites us as we take communion to remember the great
thing that he did, to remember the bread, the cup, and
remembering of the sacrifice. And it's clear all throughout
Scripture, God calls us to be people marked by remembrance.
And we know that. I mean, there's power in
remembering God's goodness. We were.
Encouraged last week to even In order for us to be able to
forgive, we have to remember how much God loves us and how much
He's forgiven us, so that we can then live in peace and forgive
others. I really like it's really love
and. Chaos is what it is.
We. Are called to live love and
chaos. And then we also know that.
I mean, there's so much power in remembering, but how many you
know? There's danger also in
forgetting the Israelites. If you think about it, they
repeatedly forgot the Lord in his.
Goodness to him, To them, I mean, they cycled through
seasons of faithful. Remembrance and seasons of
forgetfulness. And when they forgot God, they
became captives to idolatry and oppression.
Check this out. In Psalm 78.
They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by His law.
They forgot what He had done and the wonders He had shown them.
They did not remember His power the day he redeemed them from
his oppressor. And I don't know about you, but
I've noticed that I'm most vulnerable to these opposing
forces in my life, and them dominating me when I focused my.
Attention on disappointment or pain or the past or.
Too much on the future. When I dwell on everything that
seems to be going wrong around me and in my life, that's when I
don't know about you. But that's when the enemy really
attacks me and it's hard. In those moments to remember.
But the opposite is always true when I dwell.
On God's goodness in my life, I have this man.
When I can do that, I noticed the ways that he's been guiding
me. He's been sustaining me.
Since the day I was born, I mean when I'm.
Dwelling on God's goodness in my life I can remember.
Back to those times when I was little or in high school where I
didn't even know Jesus then. But man, God was protecting me,
and he was providing a way and beginning to to move things in
place and plant seeds and do all those things.
And man, I'm reminded. When I dwell on God's goodness
that He carried me through and the growth that He's.
Done in my life, even in those really difficult seasons, and
I'm always struck by the deep and meaningful.
Relationships that God provides in those different seasons.
And most of all, though I'm able to remember the way he is, man,
he is unconditionally loved me and forgiven me.
Now this doesn't mean that I just.
Put my head in the stand, right? I I I don't just ignore the pain
and. Disappointments in my life.
But I don't dwell on them. I don't focus on them alone.
Instead what I do is I want to invite God's interpretation and
peace of the painful events that I experience.
And there's no doubt some of us have been through through some
very. Man, difficult things.
Some traumatic things. Even as children, like we carry
things into our adult life. A lot of pain and
disappointment. And I want to encourage you
today. Maybe today you needed to be
reminded to invite God's interpretation and peace into
those painful events and ask God to show you the ways.
And I guarantee you he will. He'll show you the ways that
he's acting redemptively in your life, bringing good out of what
the enemy. The enemy wants to take you out.
He wants to devour you. But God will bring good out of
what the enemy meant for bad. And then we can really truly
begin to walk and experience peace and live in peace with
others. So as we kind of close this.
I want to give you 4 practices. I just did 5 4 practices that
I've been. Working on for several years to
kind of help me build my faith and then to keep peace in my
soul. And the first one is daily
gratitude. Everybody say gratitude,
gratitude. Gratitude is such a powerful
weapon against man, against all the stuff that we've been
talking about in this series. And So what I've learned to do
and this is how it works for me. Because I have to be reminded of
even the small things that God's doing.
Because man, if we can just. Take a moment.
And so I like to take inventory of my day.
At the end of the day, and I asked God to reveal his.
Goodness and grace to me. And it's been pretty cool
because it really does include a lot.
Of small moments, like the grace to handle a difficult
conversation. Energy when I felt weak or man
the beautiful sunrise this morning as.
I drive into work looking for God's fingerprints in those
small things that happen through your day will able you to see
that God is at work even in larger patterns of your life.
So what do we do? We give thanks.
We rejoice. We lean in.
We see all. That God's doing even in the
little things and then we pray, Philippians 47 says.
Don't worry about anything. Instead pray about everything.
Tell God what you need. And then thank him for all he
has done. Then you will experience God's
peace which exceeds anything that we can understand.
His peace is honestly mind. Blowing at times and his peace,
it says, will guard our hearts and minds as we live in him.
And the second thing is so daily gratitude.
The second thing is, one of the things that I've been doing for
several years is reading old. Journals, and I have a pick of
some of my journals that I've. Collected over the years and
what I love to do every year or so, I read back.
Through some of my journals and I don't.
Man, it's each time I'm. Struck by the ways that God has
been so faithful during really difficult seasons.
And I remember when I see that man, there are.
Times when I was lost, when I was afraid, when I was doubting,
when I was angry. But God was at work at ways that
I couldn't see at that. And I'm always awestruck by how
God repeatedly uses painful. Man situations to draw me deeper
and deeper with him, and reflecting on old journals for
me, it gives me a fresh perspective even on the
meanwhile, right now. Because I realized that God's
peace is permanent is secure. It does not change with
circumstance, God's. Peace is secure in spite of
circumstances, so I just want to encourage you if you're not get
into daily intake and exposure of the Word of God, like we have
to be in the Word in order to have.
Peace in our souls. And I just want to encourage you
as you get into his word, God's going to reveal things.
He's going to show you things. You're going to read a passage
of Scripture, and there's going to be a word.
Or a a phrase that pops out at you, man.
And get a journal, get something to put that in and catalog or do
whatever you got to do with. It so that you can pull those
out and remember how much God has done previously in your
life. So daily gratitude reading old.
Journals and then my mentor of one of mentor of mine.
Gave me this one and he encouraged me to write a.
Psalm and he encouraged me to take Psalm 1. 36 And rewrite it
about my own life, following each example of God's goodness
with the phrase His love endures forever.
So my Psalm started like this. God thank you for.
Saving me when I was lost. His love endures forever.
God, thank you for the. Call in my life that gives me
purpose. His love endures forever.
God, thank you for my high school sweetheart that you
brought into my life celebrating 32 years of marriage.
His love endures forever. God, thank you for to my 2:00.
Precious kids, their spouses, our five grandkids.
His love endures forever. And God, thank you for bringing
us through and the lessons learned the past six.
Years As we've grieved the loss of our parents.
His love endures forever as soon as we practice.
Daily gratitude as we engage in things that God's already.
Done in our life and we. Write a song, but it just remind
ourselves just how good God has been in our life.
And then the last thing I'll encourage you with is create an
altar of remembrance. And sometimes just drawing an
altar of remembrance. Like the Israelite people didn't
Joshua for. Maybe it's just writing a
specific way that God. Has been faithful in my life,
and you can do this in a lot of creative ways.
That visual man can be a powerful reminder, and a lot of
us are visual learners, and it's good to remind.
How good God is whether that's a verse.
Maybe you display in your house or something on the wall or.
Maybe something on your mirror that reminds you who you are in
Christ. Whatever.
It may be but setting something. Maybe there's a rock by your.
You know by your sidewalk, that just reminds you of God's
goodness and his faithfulness to you.
When I was a youth pastor for 23 years, I was a youth pastor and
we. Did some crazy things with
students and one of the things that we did for several years
was called the 40 day revolution.
And during that 40 days, we'd encourage students to.
Fast and pray for God to. Move on their school campus and
then for 40 days they would do random.
Acts of kindness on their campus every day for 40 days.
And it was incredible. Students would be praying for
God to move. They'd be praying for students
that sit in front of them, on the side of them, behind them,
for teachers and principals. And one year I'll never forget,
we had about 50 students doing this.
Prayer and fasting and serving. And doing acts of kindness on a
campus. And before that end of 40 days,
we saw like 30 teachers come to Christ.
A principal gets saved over 500 students.
That encountered Jesus and we're joining that F.
CA club that those students were a part in and then the last day
of the 40 day revolution was called Paint the Rock.
And it was just a simple reminder of all that God had
done. And we encouraged students to
paint that rock whatever color they wanted to.
And then they were going to place that somewhere on campus
and the. Year that we did it, the second
year we had hundreds of students doing it.
And then it ended up being thousands of rocks planted on
campus. And I remember the principal
coming to me and say, hey, pastor.
Tom, we got to chill with the rocks like it's too many.
But create an alter of remembrance.
Create a visual of what God has done in your life, because He
invites us to remember who He is and what He's done.
So as we close today, I just want to encourage you,
especially those of you today that are going through a really
difficult time where your faith is being tested and listen, I
the enemy would love nothing more that while.
You're in your meanwhile to isolate you and to men just to
come after you. And it's often in this place we
find ourselves maybe doubting, and we know that God allows our
faith to be tested. It's in the meanwhile that we
really see the genuineness of our faith.
But I really. It develops character in us.
It does a purifying work sometimes in us.
And also God always promises help during these times.
So as we stand today, if you could have everybody stand, I
just want to. Declare these two verses over
you today, Jose of 43 two says. When you pass through the
waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the
rivers, they will not sweep over you and.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.
The flames will not set you. Ablaze, and then first Peter 510
says in the God of all grace, who calls you to his eternal
glory in Christ after you have suffered.
For a little while. In your meanwhile will himself
restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
And what our broken, confused world needs more than anything,
it needs people who will just walk with God.
And so I want to encourage you, and I want to invite you into a
moment this morning, a moment of remembrance.
And maybe today you're here and you're in a difficult season and
just want to encourage you to this week, maybe today.
Just remember a time when God was faithful in your life, and
allow that time to encourage you.
And it's maybe in this meanwhile that you need to borrow someone
else's faith. You might need to reach out to
somebody and say, hey man, I I I can't do this alone.
I need some faith from a brother or sister to walk with me
through this. But this morning, most
importantly, it starts with a relationship with Jesus getting
close to him. And so this morning, with every
head bowed and every eye closed, I just want to take a moment.
If you're here today and maybe you've never given your life to
Christ, maybe you've never, you've never really said God.
I want to invite you in. I want to surrender my life.
I want to give everything over to you.
And maybe you're here today and maybe you, you have done that.
But you find yourself in a really difficult time where
you've kind of drifted. You've maybe walked in a
different direction. And today you came and maybe
even with an intention that God, I'm going to give you one last
chance and today's your day. God wants to meet you right
where you're at. And so if that's you today,
you've never given your life to Christ or you need to come home.
Maybe you just need to come back to where you used to be with
him. And if that's you on account of
three, I just want to see let hand lifted up in the air.
I I would love to pray with you real quick.
And so if that's you've never given your life to Christ, or
maybe you just need to come home today and say, God, man, I'm
going through a really difficult time.
I need to just reset and recenter my life.
If that's you, on the count of three, just lift up your hand.
123 Any hands across the room, they'll have some ushers to put
cards in your hand. And if you're here today, and,
man, you may be just going through a difficult time.
I'd love to pray with you too. And so if you would, let's join
me in prayer. God, we just thank you.
We thank you for your goodness. We thank you, God, for your
faithfulness. And God, we just take a moment
and just God, we just recenter, refocus our eyes on you and God,
we thank you for sending your son Jesus to die on a cross for
us. And so today we invite him into
our lives afresh. God renew us, give us peace so
that we can live in peace with others.
And so God come into our meanwhile.
And God we pray for healing, we pray for reconciliation.
God, we pray that you would move, even move.
Things out of the way so that we can walk through where you
desire for us to be. And so God we'll give you all
the praise, we'll give you all the glory and God we pray that
you'd use us in a mighty way. This week we ask these things in
Jesus mighty name and everybody said Amen.
Amen.