I shared with my kids yesterday, I said
Jesus and his disciples, they never celebrated a
Christmas meal together.
You know, it's a good time of year
and everybody gets together with their families and
stuff, but I said the one meal that
he did celebrate with them was the Passover.
And I shared with them the story of
how they would have to take a lamb
that was maybe their prized possession.
And I was speaking to my children, they
love animals and they have their prized possession.
And I said, you know, I said the
Israelites every year at the Passover, they had
to take their prized lamb, pure and spotless,
without blemish, and they had to offer that
as a guilt offering to the Lord.
And they had to eat that as a
reminder to them of what the Lord had
done for them, and how he had brought
them out of land of Egypt, a land
of affliction and a land of slavery, and
how the Lord had delivered them.
And I said, that was the meal that
Jesus chose to have with his disciples.
And he says, I longed for that.
And at the end of Jesus's life, the
last thing that he did with his disciples
was he sat and he had fellowship with
them at a meal, and he washed their
feet.
He humbled himself to the lowest place and
he washed his feet and he even said,
I long to have this meal with you
guys, so that you guys would know that
I love you, that I care for you.
And, you know, when I was sharing this
with the children, I said, guys, you know,
the things that we get together for these
gatherings, you know, nowadays the world mistakes it
for such a pleasant thing, but when Jesus
brought them together, it was a reminder of
what God had done for them and how
he had delivered them out of a land
of slavery, out of a land of affliction.
And I said, it's good for us to
remember.
It's good for us to remember from where
the Lord has brought us from.
You know, I remember 16 years ago, 17,
actually 17 years ago, I was kicked out
of my house, sleeping on my sister's couch,
and without God and without hope in this
world, I owed $30,000 in debt.
I had no job.
I had nothing.
I was a slave of sin.
But the Lord in that place, he could
have, he could have judged me, he could
have, which he rightfully was, he could have
done worse to me, but he had mercy
on me in that place.
And I remember at that time, crying out
to him in my affliction, saying, Lord, have
mercy on me, a sinner.
You know, at that time, I was really
justifying myself and pointing out all the faults
that other people had done to me.
And the Lord, you know what he did
to me is he pointed it right back
at me, and he said, you're the one,
you're the one who made the decisions.
You're the one who made the choices to
sin, and this is a result of your
actions and the fruit of your decisions.
And when I started to take ownership of
it, there was a change in my heart,
was a change in my life, and the
Lord's mercy started to be poured over my
life.
And he took me from such and such
a place.
I had no fellowship.
I had no friends.
I had nothing.
I had no godly fellowship.
The Christian friends that I was hanging out
with were the guys I was going to
the pub with after church, you know, and
I had nothing.
And I remember crying out to the Lord,
Lord, I need you to bring friends into
my life, fellowship, people who you can put
into my life who will be a good
influence.
And it was a short while later that
I ran into Randy and his family and
the church that was here at this house.
And I remember the first time I came,
I heard a hard message.
I didn't hear a peaceful message.
I heard a very hard message.
And you know, I think Randy afterwards, he
told me later that he never expected me
to come back again after he heard that
message.
But you know what?
It stuck with me.
And I didn't come back for three weeks,
but you know, that fourth week I was
so tired of it and I knew that
the Lord wanted me to go back and
I went back and it was good for
me.
And I look back over those times.
It was such a process of the Lord
having to cleanse me of all the sin
and wickedness in my heart.
And he's still doing it.
And you know, when you're younger in the
Lord, you're really hungry for him.
And I really valued those times because I
could sense the presence of the Lord.
I had nothing.
I had no money.
I would walk to work.
I had no friends.
I had nothing, but I had Jesus.
And I would call on his name and
he would be near to me and I
would see the nearness of God was my
good.
As I shared that verse a while ago,
the nearness of God was so close to
me and I had such trials and difficulties.
The battle in my mind was so fierce
because the devil didn't want me to change
my ways.
The devil wanted me to turn back to
the life that I was living.
And that's what happens when you turn from
sin and you turn from a life of
ungodliness.
The devil wants to keep you from moving
forward.
And this is what happens when you turn
from a heart of lukewarmness or heart of
deadness, a heart of being stagnant in the
church, or a heart of having no hunger
for God, and you start to seek after
the Lord, do not expect that it's going
to be easy.
It's going to be difficult.
The battle against you is going to be
fierce because the devil doesn't want you to
be in a place where you're on fire
for the Lord.
The devil doesn't want you to be in
a place where you're not lukewarm because if
you're lukewarm, you're useless to the Lord.
You're useless to the Lord.
You're just another religious man.
You're just another religious woman.
And so in that time, the Lord, he
brought me from that time and he slowly
worked on different areas in my life, sharp
areas, areas in my heart that needed to
be cleansed.
We don't see the pride in our lives
until we go through difficult situations where we
have to yield ourselves, where we have to
submit, where we have to die to ourselves
and the things that we want.
And we have to learn to be led
by the Lord and allow the Lord to
lead our decisions.
I remember many times I didn't know what
decision to make in my life.
I didn't even know what to do.
And I'm saying, Lord, what do I do
with my life?
Which direction do I go?
Which direction do I take?
And I would just say, Lord, I don't
have any wisdom.
You're the one with wisdom.
And I pray that if the decision I'm
going to make is from you, then you
will open the door.
But if it's not, I ask you to
slam the door in my face.
And you know what?
There were many times where the Lord would
slam the door in my face.
He would shut it so fast.
And I remember being at the time discouraged
and wondering, what is this?
Why is the Lord seem to be keeping
me in this one little spot?
Why does he keep me here for such
a time as this?
It's because he's wanting to work on our
character and he doesn't want us to run
from it.
We can go outside of God's will really
quickly when we decide to make decisions and
go in a direction that the Lord doesn't
want us to go.
And we have to be careful that we
don't do that until the right time.
It says, you young men, humble yourselves under
your elders.
Humble yourselves until the Lord exalts you at
the proper time.
And the Lord had to do that with
me.
He had to do that with me.
I remember for seven years, you know, I
had a desire to share the word of
God with people.
And the Lord would, he would just keep
me and just say, Dad, I want you
to listen.
I want you to receive.
I want you to learn from the things
and the people who've gone before you.
And it was a blessing and a value
to me because I learned many valuable things
at that time.
And you know, that hunger that I had
at first, I look at myself now, I
don't owe $30,000 in debt.
You know, I have a lot more.
I have a lot more.
The Lord has taken me from that place
and he has now, he has filled the
bank account.
And I'm not, I'm not saying that for
that reason because, oh, this is the blessing.
This is not the blessing of God, my
friends.
The true blessing of God is when you
are rich spiritually, not rich naturally.
And many of us seek after the riches
naturally here and not after the spiritual riches.
And we need to ask the Lord to
give us a heart's desire for that, not
for the things of this world, because quickly
as it came, quickly it can go.
And we have to be careful that we
don't chase after these things and let these
things get a hold of our heart.
And I found myself as I, in the
last couple of years, I found myself going
stagnant.
And why do you go stagnant?
You want to know why?
It's because we've become full.
We've become full.
We've become rich and increased in goods.
We have everything that we need.
And sometimes the Lord, like Randy, prayed today
that he has to shake us and order
us to get us to have a hunger
and a thirst for him.
But I wanted to read from John chapter
6, verse 26.
And Jesus says this to the people.
Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek
me not because you saw signs, but because
you ate of the loaves and were filled.
And why do you seek the Lord is
really what I want to ask you.
Why do you seek the Lord?
I think the Lord, when we're younger in
the Lord, we seek the Lord for what
we can get, like Jacob.
Like Jacob, he sought the Lord so he
could, hey, if you give me safe passage,
if you give me a home, if you
give me riches, I will give you a
tenth of all that you give me.
He was seeking after the Lord for what
the Lord could give him.
But as you grow in the Lord, the
Lord wants to change that, where we can
say, Lord, it's not what you can give
me, it's what can you do for me
in my life?
I want to seek after the true blessing,
and that's knowing you, Lord Jesus.
That's knowing you and the power of your
resurrection and the fellowship of your sufferings.
It says later that when God met Jacob
on his way home after 20 years of
the Lord dealing with him in his life,
that he changed his desire from giving him
a tenth to wrestling with the Lord and
saying, Lord, I will not let you go
until you bless me.
And I want to ask you and leave
you that question today.
The world today celebrates such a holiday at
such a time where it's, what can I
get?
This is what little children ask for.
What can I get?
No, what can I give you, Lord?
What do you need today?
What are your interests today?
This is the mark of a truly spiritual
person, is somebody who has learned over time
where it doesn't matter what happens to them
in their life.
It's saying, Lord, all things that are from
your hand are for your glory.
Let me receive it with gratitude, whether it's
good or whether it's bad.
But what can I offer you, Lord?
What can I be concerned about you and
your interests?
I remember one time in the church at
Randy's, we were there and I remember one
time we were all hanging out and having
a good time together, which was a wonderful
thing.
But the Lord gave me a dream that
night.
And in the dream, there was the church.
And in the church, everybody was having a
fun time together.
They were fellowshipping.
There was this and that.
And I looked over in the corner and
I could see Jesus in the corner.
And nobody was hanging out with him.
Nobody was hanging out with him, worried about
what his interests were.
And I remember getting up and walking over
to him and I said, what are your
interests?
You know, the Lord, he's calling, he's bidding
many people to say, is there anybody out
here?
Is there anybody in this room who's concerned
about his interests?
I know for a fact right now, guys,
that the wrestle that goes on in my
heart is I don't know if I'm concerned
about his interests because I'm rich in increasing
goods.
And in my mind, I feel I have
need of nothing.
But I'm telling you, when you're in a
broken place and you're poor in spirit and
you have a need in your heart, that's
a wonderful place to be.
Lord, what are your interests?
What are your interests?
I think the hardest thing for the Lord
to do is to still the soul of
a man or a woman.
Is to cause them to be at rest,
to sit at his feet, to listen to
him.
And that doesn't mean you sit at your
feet.
I mean, it literally means to learn to
have peace in your heart, no matter what
situation the Lord brings you in.
No matter what, if you're working during the
day and it's very busy, to be able
to say stop in the middle of it
and say, Lord, do you have anything to
say to me today?
Do you have anything for me today?
Or what are your interests today, Lord?
Is there anything you want to teach me
about you?
You know, my wife's reading this book and
in the book, he says our relationship with
the Lord is like when you first get
married.
When you first get married, you realize that
your love for each other is so shallow.
It's very just surface stuff.
But as you grow together, you have children,
you raise a family, you start to realize
that that love was very shallow and it
needs to go much deeper and so much
more with our relationship with Jesus.
Are we seeking him so that we can
eat of the loaves and be filled?
Or do we want to know him more?
What is our genuine care?
That's something that we should be asking ourselves
all the time is what is my real
motive for seeking and serving the Lord?
Am I serving it?
So like Jacob, he served seven years with
Laban so he could get a wife.
Then he got the wrong wife.
Then he served seven more to get the
wife that he wanted.
And he went through many hard trials in
that situation.
We have to ask the Lord in these
times, why do we seek you?
And it says right here, verse 27, it
says, do not work for the food which
perishes, but for the food which endures to
eternal life.
Which the son of man shall give to
you, for on him, the father, even God
has set his seal.
And I don't know about you, but in
this next year, I don't want to work
for the food which perishes.
I want to work for the food that
endures to eternal life.
I hope our desire and leave that with
you is that you would ask the Lord
to help you in your heart to not
seek after the food which endures or food
which perishes, but through the food which endures
to eternal life.
Are your interests earthly?
Are your interests earthly so you can have
a happy family?
So you can have a nice home?
So you can have a great career?
So you can have peace and satisfaction wherever
you're at?
Or are you willing to say, Lord, not
my will, your be done.
I'm asking you to lead me and guide
me to help you put you first in
my life.
And when I shared this with my children
yesterday about the Passover meal, I said, when
he came together, he brought them together and
they had to sacrifice that lamb.
And I asked them, I said, you guys,
would you be willing to give up your
favorite thing?
And I asked them each individually, what's your
favorite thing?
And they each told me what their favorite
thing was.
And I said, would you be willing to
give that up for the Lord?
My one daughter, she was very honest.
She says, I don't think I could, dad.
And I said, you're honest.
I said, that's an honest answer.
And you know what I told her?
I said, you know what my favorite thing
in my life?
I don't know if I could give it
up, but I'm asking the Lord to help
me to surrender all into his hands and
say, Lord, mold me and shape me after
thy will.
Help me, Lord, to be concerned about your
interests in this coming year.
Help me, Lord Jesus, to have your ambitions
and your desires and to do the things
that please you and help me not to
seek after you so I can have my
loaves and be filled, but help me to
seek after the food which endures to eternal
life.
It says right here, and they said, what
must we do that we may work the
works of God?
And Jesus answered and said to them, this
is the work of God that you believe
in him whom he has sent.
You know, I think it's good when we
gather, we celebrate certain times that we remember
what the Lord has done for us and
from where he's brought us.
You can look back at certain milestones.
Some of you guys may not remember certain
milestones, and it can be simple things like
even success at a job or something that
you've done in a daily thing where the
Lord has helped you in a certain situation.
I think it's good to write those things
down and to remember those milestones of what
Jesus has done for you.
And he can look from where he's taken
you to where you are now, where you
are at now, and you can start to
see the change in how the Lord has
worked in your life.
And you may not see it, but you
look back over the past 17 years.
I look back over the past 17 years
of my walk with the Lord, and I
can say, Lord, I was so stubborn, so
proud, so selfish.
I didn't see the strong will that I
have in my life.
You know how the Lord helped me to
see the strong will that I have is
he brings me through dealings.
He's brought me through trials, and he's humbled
me.
And I don't take that as a bad
thing.
I take it as a wonderful thing, because
the only way sometimes to work in a
man or a woman's life is to bring
them through circumstances which break them.
And I can look back, and I can
thank the Lord and say, praise you, God.
Praise you, God, for your mercy on me.
You haven't given up on me.
You're working in my life.
Help me not to forget all that you've
done for me, and help me, Lord, to
continue to allow you to work in my
life and to allow you to do the
things that you want to do to finish
the work that you started in my heart.
May the Lord bless us at this time.
May the Lord remind us of the things
that we've done.
And I said to my kids, I said,
it's good to remember all that Jesus did
for you.
And so that night when we prayed together,
you know what?
Their part's prayer was a little bit more
earnest.
They had a deeper cry.
You know what they prayed?
They said, Lord, I pray that you would
take away the bad thoughts in my mind
and give me good thoughts.
Then they all prayed it fervently.
I was very convicted.
They all said, Lord Jesus, take away all
my bad thoughts and give me good thoughts.
Give me good thoughts of you, Jesus.
You know where it starts this year, how
we're going to grow with Jesus, is we
need to renew our mind.
We need to renew our mind.
We need to take thoughts captive.
And we just say, Lord, what are your
interests above my own?
Because every single day, from the moment you
wake up to the moment you go to
bed, in your mind, you get fired, fiery
darts that come and buffer your mind and
give you ideas, imaginations, bitter thoughts, things and
arguments against other people.
You need to learn to take those thoughts
captive.
You need to say, Lord, this year, I
pray that you would renew my mind so
that me may prove what is the perfect
will of God.
And every single time that I have a
high thought about myself, I say, Lord, help
me to humble myself, because it's not of
me.
It's you.
It's you who's done the work.
It's you who started the work.
It's you who's going to finish the work.
Even thoughts of unbelief, where the Lord, you
can't do it.
You're not able to.
I don't believe that you're working in my
life at this time.
No, my friends, we have to trust the
Lord, that we believe in him whom he
has sent, that we can say, Lord, even
though this situation seems very plain, you are
able to work this for my good, and
you are working it after my good.
I'm trusting you in this situation.
Guys, we need thoughts of faith this year,
thoughts of faith to trust the Lord, to
believe in him, to say, Lord, you are
greater than anything.
It says in the Bible, if he who
is in you is greater than he who
is in the world.
So I don't care what situation you're in.
God is greater than it.
And you can rely on him and the
resource of his strength, the resource of his
Holy Spirit.
You can rely on him to help you
endure and to overcome in that situation.
And Jesus said to Peter, he said, Peter,
I do not pray that you won't fail.
I pray that your faith won't fail.
And I pray this year that your faith
will not fail, brothers.
I pray this year that your faith will
not fail.
That you will say, you know what, in
times past, I haven't got the victory.
But today I'm trusting you for the victory.
Because the Bible says clearly, faith is the
victory that overcomes the world.
Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
We don't have to be unbelieving.
It says, do not have an evil heart
of unbelief.
And every single time you have that thought
of unbelief come in your mind, you need
to take a captain.
You know, I remember I worked seven, eight
years at a job where I made very
little.
And I said, Lord, it is impossible for
you to change my life in this situation.
I'm telling you right now, I look back
with shame in my heart and in my
tongue saying, I can't believe I said that.
Because the Lord is able to do more
than we ask or think.
I'm now married.
I have five children.
I own two businesses.
I can't believe it.
A guy like me, a worthless lout, living
on my sister's couch, and the Lord had
mercy on me.
I can look back and say with gratitude
that the Lord has done great things.
Some of us would say the Lord's not
doing anything in my life.
No, my friends, the Lord has not allowed
me to perish in the way.
He has had mercy on me.
And he's even allowed me to make dumb
mistakes, trip over my feet, fall face first
in the ground.
But the Lord, he's been my stay.
He's held me up.
And he says, Dan, let's keep going.
Let's get back up.
Let's keep walking with him.
No, we can't be discouraged.
Discouragement comes through unbelief.
No, we have to have faith.
And we say, Lord Jesus, you're greater than
my ambition.
Why is it always about me?
That's why we get discouraged and unbelieving, because
it's always about us.
My situation.
What about your situation, Lord?
Help me to take my eyes off of
myself and to put them onto you.
What are your interests, Lord Jesus?
Is it your interest that I would have
two businesses so I can be successful?
No, it's your interest that I would have
this.
So it can be a place of refuge
for people who can work there, for customers
who come in and we can help them.
Things that I can do for the glory
of God.
I get on my knees and I say,
Lord, let this not be my place.
Let this be your place.
And let me use it for your glory.
You've given it to me for a season.
And I pray that in this time I'll
be faithful with it.
Help me, Lord Jesus, to not use it
for my own glory or gain, but for
your witness and your testimony.
You know, I was so encouraged.
I had one customer come in the other
day and she wept and she said, Dan,
you've always helped me.
You've always helped our family.
You know, it brought joy to my heart
and I said, Lord, help me to do
this with everybody in every situation that you
put me in.
Help me, Lord, to remember all the good
things that you've done for me and how
you've delivered me from a life of slavery,
a life of affliction.
And you want to bring me to a
place of abundance and life in you.
Let us reflect on the promises of God,
because the promises of God are true and
yes and amen in Christ Jesus.
Promises of God will get you out of
the situation you're in.
But you need to call on the name
of the Lord.
You need to suffer in the flesh.
You need to deny yourself.
You need to take up your cross and
you need to follow after him and you
need to ask him to have mercy on
you.
God is able to deliver you from every
power of darkness.
He is able to deliver you from every
sin.
He's able to deliver you in every situation
that you're in.
As David said at the end of his
life, the God who has delivered me out
of all my troubles.
Let us ask the Lord to do that
in our lives as well, too.
Amen.