You guys alright?
Let's pray.
Father, we ask Lord that you would cause
your word tonight to absolutely conquer us, Lord,
to rule over us, to reign over us.
Father, we pray that your very Bible, the
eternal word of God, that we have Lord
before us, invincible forever, so much so, the
word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And Father, as we look around at this
world and we see all that's going on,
Father, we just ask you to pull us
in a little closer, pull us in a
little tighter.
And Lord, just remind us again, remind us
afresh, even tonight in this gathering together of
your people.
Father, may there be a renewal of our
relationship with you.
Lord, just as it were with a husband
and a wife and a look, maybe it's
flowers, maybe it's a date, it's something that
invests in their lives, in their relationship to
draw closer.
We pray now, Lord, that by the power
of your Holy Spirit, you would woo our
hearts, you would date our souls tonight.
And so, Father, we pray that you would
not only go before us now and the
acquisition of your word, that it would become
applicable, Lord, down to the soles of our
feet, that where we go tonight, tomorrow, it
would be strength to us, it would be
activity, that the word would be not just
heard, but it would be done.
And Lord, we're committed to you, Lord, we're
going to keep doing this until you come
again, or we go see you, one or
the other, either way we win.
But Father, tonight we pray that you would
just inhabit the praises of your people as
we look, Lord, now to you in the
word.
We ask it in Jesus' name and all
God's people said, Amen.
Well, church, listen, grab your Bibles tonight and
turn, as you know by now, as we
are in this series, turn to Matthew chapter
28, Matthew chapter 28, you come on Wednesday
nights, you mark chapter 28, Matthew 28, and
I'll read that portion of scripture to you,
and then we'll go tonight over to 1
Peter 2.20. Tonight's message is the disciplines
of dependence, being dependent upon God.
And that is a discipline that you and
I need to work on in our series
of the disciplines of life, a discipline of
being dependent upon God.
It's all part of being a disciple, being
a follower of Jesus.
Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, And Jesus came
and spoke to them, saying, All authority has
been given to me in heaven and on
earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, verse 20, teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you.
And behold, or be very wide-eyed, I
am with you always, even to the end
of the world.
And then 1 Peter, turn to the right
and go to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse
20, about being dependent upon God.
1 Peter 2.20, Peter says, For what
credit is it if, when you are beaten
for your faults, you take it patiently?
But when you do good and suffer, if
you take it patiently, this is commendable before
God.
For to this you were called, listen, church,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us
an example that you should follow in his
footsteps.
Now, I got to tell you right now,
there's a high probability that if you go
down to the Bible bookstore someplace and you
buy, you know, the little memory packet of
verses, the memory verses, and they're great verses.
And if you don't own them, go buy
them.
They're great to have.
But usually you don't get those kinds of
verses where it says, hey, cheer up, you're
going to have a rough life.
It's going to be difficult.
People are going to spit on you and
hate you and shake their fist at you.
And they're going to wish you to be
dead.
That's not the most encouraging memory verse to
maybe memorize.
But I got to tell you this, it
sure is practical.
It sure is real.
And so as we look at our study
tonight, we are looking at in the Disciplines
of Life series, this discipline of dependence upon
God.
And nothing reveals for you and I our
sonship in Jesus Christ than how dependent we
are upon God.
How dependent are you upon God is a
very, very important question to ask yourself.
Can you do that?
Can you ask yourself in the recesses of
your heart, of your mind?
Be honest, Lord, am I very, very dependent
upon you?
And here's the tremendous thing about Christianity.
The weaker we are in self-strength, the
stronger we become, the less dependent we are
upon self, the greater dependent we are upon
God.
It is a kingdom that is upside down,
according to the way the world thinks.
If you were to look at a business
chart or a flow chart of a corporation,
you've got the president of the corporation at
the top, and then you've got all the
people that make all the money for the
president of the corporation down at the bottom.
You take that pyramid and turn it what
we would say as Christians right side up.
It's all about God's people all resting upon
the focal point of one set of shoulders.
And you know whose shoulders those are.
Those are Jesus's shoulders.
It's a kingdom that is in reverse than
what we know from this world.
And when we just sang the song a
moment ago, when we're weak, then we're strong.
By the way, we did not rehearse that.
That's very cool that they sang that song.
When I'm threatened to be panicking about something,
it's that moment where God's peace and strength
and comfort is most available.
If I discipline myself to recognize that.
Oh, my goodness.
What news have you heard this week?
What is going on in your life?
Stop.
What is it recorded?
It's this, Pastor Jack.
It's the other thing.
It's finances or it's health or it's relational.
What is it?
Whatever it is, that thing that troubles your
heart is an absolute open door to drawing
closer to God.
It's the way his kingdom works.
And it's a discipline that you and I
need to understand as believers as we go
through this series.
Some verses for introduction.
Very important.
Again, the more that we are weak, the
better off we are.
Second Corinthians 12, verse eight says, and this
is, again, by introduction, mark it down concerning
these things.
Paul, the apostle said he's talking about his
physical ailments in that second Corinthians chapter 12
verse.
He says these things I pleaded with the
Lord three times, three times.
I asked the Lord that it might depart
from me.
And he said to me, market church, second
Corinthians 12, nine.
My grace is sufficient for you.
Have you ever heard from God?
And he says, I'm not going to take
that thing away from you.
I have.
My grace will be sufficient.
My grace will be enough.
All you need is me in this situation,
Jack, for my strength is made perfect in
weakness.
Paul then says, therefore, most gladly, will I
rather boast in my infirmities.
The world wants to cover up their infirmities.
Paul says, no, the believer, we rejoice in
those because look what he says, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in
reproaches that is being rejected in needs, persecutions,
distresses for Christ's sake, he says, for when
I am weak, then I'm strong.
And this is a tremendous discipline for us
as Christians to learn tonight that those areas
that we think we want to cover up
those areas that we think we want to
hide are those areas that God says, move
over.
I'm going to use this.
And let me tell you, by personal experience,
those weaknesses will be things that you dare
not take glory for whatsoever.
It will be incredibly obvious that he'll get
all the glory and he will constantly remind
you of those weaknesses.
And rather than that, pull you down.
It actually lifts you up because he speaks
instantly and says, I'll be stronger in that
thing for me to stand in front of
you publicly to be speaking.
As many of you know, three years into
my Christianity, Jesus radically healed me.
I stuttered so bad all my life I
couldn't even get through the vows on our
wedding without stuttering.
And I always wanted to be able to
tell somebody about God.
I always want to tell somebody about the
word of God, but I dare not.
But the Lord touched my life.
He takes those weak things and he makes
them his strengths in you.
And there's a great difference.
And so we revel, as Paul says, I
revel, I take pleasure in those infirmities.
Think about it physically.
Well, what about emotionally?
Think about that emotionally.
That's in 2 Corinthians 10, verse five.
Our dependence upon God is an indicator, it's
a barometer.
And in 2 Corinthians 10, five, it says
that we're to be casting down arguments in
every high thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity
to the obedience of Christ.
Let me tell you, that is emotional stability.
Are you stressed about your thoughts?
Are you being tempted?
Do you hear this song or do you
hear that thing and it puts this image
in your mind?
Or when you hear that name, does this
happen in your head or emotionally?
How are you affected?
The Bible says that you can bring every
thought under the captivity of Christ.
Again, I remember being so convicted of my
lost condition that for so many years in
my life.
That verse, 2 Corinthians 10, five, was the
only thing that I could hang on to.
You guys, they didn't have Bible programs in
computers back then.
I'm not even sure if they had computers
back then when I got saved.
I think we had smoke signals and those
little...
But I took my Bible and I made
photocopies of that verse in 2 Corinthians 10,
verse five, and I put them in my
bathroom in the mirror where I shaved.
I put them on my dash of my
car because of my thought life.
Because your thought life affects your emotions.
And then your emotions, if they're not reigned
in, they'll affect your entire life.
Physically, emotionally, what about spiritually?
Proverbs 3, verse 5 to 7 is a
great verse regarding the Spirit of God at
work in us spiritually.
Proverbs 3, verse 5 says, trust in the
Lord with all of your heart and lean
not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He
shall direct your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord.
Notice, fear the Lord, be in awe of
Him, is what that word means, and depart
from evil.
So we've got a physical aspect of the
disciplines of life and our dependence upon God.
We've got an emotional understanding and we've got
a spiritual power to apply to our lives
that we are to be fearing God.
And let me tell you, if the fear
of the Lord is upon you and I,
that is if we love God.
Listen, we could post up a bunch of
rules, thou shalt not, thou shalt not.
Some years ago, I went to a church
and they had red curbs.
Of course, every building does.
By law, there's red curbs painted for places
that you cannot park.
And what they did was, they painted the
curbs red and then in white lettering, it
said, thou shalt not park here.
And I thought that was kind of cool.
But we could have a list of things
that say, thou shalt not.
And you know what that does?
That winds up breeding within you either a,
a wall of separation between you and God
that you can never scale.
Instantly, you're defeated.
Or if somebody can, at least in their
minds, begin to think that they're keeping some
of the rules, their head begins to get
as puffed up as a cream puff as
they think, boy, look how good I'm doing.
And that's equally as dangerous.
We are to fear the Lord, meaning we
are to love him.
That sin and the things of this life
will cause us to be so sickened and
terrified of it that we will depart from
evil.
Evil will come up and go, Hey, look,
take a bite of me or take a
drink of this or come run to the
other.
And you will run from it because you
love God more.
A dependence upon God.
So church market down as we go through
this discipline tonight of dependence upon God.
Number one is wake up, write that down.
Wake up.
Your life is too big.
Can you write that down?
Wake up.
Your life's too big.
So what do you mean your life's too
big?
Your life is too big this way.
Church market down.
Our life is too big in this sense
that for you and I to wake up
and be dependent upon God is to face
the facts that life in and of itself
is too big for you and I.
We need to understand that there is no
way that mankind was created to deal with
this life's situations.
Let's be honest.
You and I were designed to live in
the Garden of Eden until Adam and Eve
blew it.
You and I were designed to live in
perfection.
You and I were designed to live in
fellowship with God.
And now we find ourselves in a fallen
world and we find ourselves trying to cope
with this age in which you and I
live in and this flesh that you and
I live inside of.
And in the beginning, it was not what
God intended.
Life, you need to wake up to this
fact, is just too big for you to
do it on your own.
You can't do it.
That's why there's drugs.
Alcohol.
All the stuff that people invest their time
into trying to find meaning or trying to
fill a void in their life, trying to
somehow be somebody else or somebody more because
life's too big.
And then if that weren't enough, life throws
its curveballs at you.
Difficulty, challenges.
And I need not even talk about things
like that in this world today.
You know all about them.
They're even on the headlines of the papers
as the world is in such a terrible
condition.
Life and at times can be completely overwhelming,
even too big, as I say, in John
chapter six, verse 67, John 6, 67.
It says, Then Jesus said to the 12
disciples, Do you also want to go away?
This is when the ministry was heating up.
And Jesus said to them, Do you guys
want to leave, too?
You want to quit?
But Simon Peter answered Jesus and said, Lord,
to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
Also, we have come to believe and know
that you are the Christ, the son of
the living God.
Man, that's a great word.
The temptation today, church.
Listen, it's huge.
The world is pressuring against the church, and
that's OK.
That's what I'm here to tell you about.
The discipline of being dependent upon God.
It's OK for the world to hit us
and come against us.
It's OK.
That's what we expect from the world.
But why do Christians cave in?
Because they have failed to remember.
That Jesus Christ is the Lord, the son
of the living God, the absolute power in
your life.
We don't have to do this on our
own.
Life is too big.
And God steps in and says, I'll tell
you what, I want my life to flow
out of your life in abundance.
Can somebody say amen to that more?
That is absolutely true.
Jesus said in John chapter seven that the
Holy Spirit is to, as it were, gush
out of your innermost being.
Torrents of living water, he said.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit coming
out of the life of the believer.
That's what he wants in our lives.
But we need to wake up to the
fact.
Listen, so many people today are trying to
hold up life and they can't do it.
This great discipline of dependence is not something
to run away from.
It's something to embrace.
People will say, I can't take life.
I can't put up with it anymore.
Good.
You've come to the right moment in time
of your life.
It's time to quit this world and join
his world.
It's time to absolutely give up in your
own strength.
And I don't know why.
I don't know where we get this idea
that we're so strong anyway.
Our world is broken.
Sin is rampant.
We are fallen creatures.
But Jesus Christ came, died on the cross,
rose again from the grave to give you
and I eternal life and strength.
And then if that weren't enough, he gave
the Holy Spirit to empower the believer until
he comes again.
All of us are going to go through
life.
You're going through life right now.
Look, you're sitting down, but man, you're flying
through life right now.
You're going through life.
And the question is, how am I going
to go through life and to whom and
with whom am I going to go through
life?
And they'll always be the God factor in
the life that we live.
You may be here tonight and you may
be kicking against God.
I don't want anything to do with God.
I don't like God.
But you find yourself here.
Well, that's because my friend invited me.
But you're here and God is speaking.
He'll speak to your heart.
He'll say who you're running from.
You don't believe in me.
So then why are you running from me?
You don't believe in me.
So why are you so angry at me?
A friend of mine was telling me the
other day about his friend.
He's an older man, and he said, I
will not accept Jesus Christ into my life
until God accepts certain things according to my
rules.
Isn't that something?
Wow.
But, you know, there's people like that.
Best thing to do is to wake up
and realize how big life is, that it
was never intended for you and I to
live it alone in our own strength.
Psalm 55, verse four, Psalm 55, four says,
My heart is severely pained within me.
Do you find yourself ever in that place?
And the terrors of death have fallen upon
me.
Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me and
horror has overwhelmed me.
Boy, is that a commentary in our age?
So I said, listen to Psalm 55, verse
six.
So I said, oh, that I had wings
like a dove.
I would fly away and be at rest.
Is that not the cry of the world
and even the life of the believer?
We might want to cry that cry.
But as we'll see in a moment, the
Lord comes in and says, I'm here.
I'm with you.
But the world tonight wants to snap their
fingers as it were.
By the way, I just think it's actually
beautiful.
You do, too, actually.
You know the answer when people come to
that moment and they say, yes, you know
what?
I'm not a Christian, but I like what
that just said there on those screens.
I want to sprout wings and fly away
like a dove and get away from everything.
People.
That's what you do when you don't have
God, you run.
That's OK.
You just keep running and eventually you're going
to get tired.
And you're going to poop out, poop out
in Hebrew is a word for to become
very tired and you surrender.
I think it was a singer many years
ago, even when I was a little kid,
he was a famous guy, B.J. Thomas.
Remember that guy?
Raindrops keep falling on my head.
And in his testimony, he gave at Calvary
Chapel Costa Mesa one year, he said.
And this is way back in like 1869
or something like that, when he was he
said back then, I remember he said I
had a five thousand dollar a week cocaine
habit back then.
That was back then.
And he said, I couldn't hear from God,
I couldn't think about God until I was
flat on my back and I could look
any direction, he said, but straight up.
And maybe you're in that place tonight, wake
up to the fact that life is too
big.
The disciplines of dependence is coming to that
point of saying, God, I can't do this.
Psalm 61, verse one says, hear my cry,
O God, the psalmist says, attend to my
prayer.
You ever cry that cry from the end
of the earth?
I will cry to you when my heart
is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the rock that is higher
than I, for you have been a shelter
for me, a strong tower from the enemy.
Nobody cares about that verse until you need
a strong tower, until you have an enemy.
Oh, I pray enemies upon all of you
tonight.
You see, you got to be kidding me.
No, man, when you've got enemies, you run,
you run and run and run to that
strong tower.
God help us if our life is comfortable.
That's a dangerous place to be.
We need him.
Overwhelmed the crushing when my heart is overwhelmed,
where, listen, the spiritual situation upon your soul
is so intense because of the physical setting
around you that there is a crushing that
will either destroy you or bring you to
Christ.
You'll either throw your arms up and surrender
and worship and praise to him or you'll
shake your fist at him.
Isn't that what we see in the book
of Revelation?
We see a great number of people in
a numeral host of people accepting Christ during
the tribulation period.
And then at the same time, you read
in the book of Revelation that there are
those who will not repent.
And what do they do?
They shake their fist at the great God
that dwells in heaven.
Remarkable.
But we need to wake up regarding our
body, our physical strength and say, Lord, I
can't do it.
We need to wake up in our soul.
That is our emotions and say, Lord, I
can't make it.
And wake up in spirit to be awake
to the things of God, we need to
wake up your life, my life, it's too
big.
I'm going to give you this.
It just pops into my head.
I remember it from yesteryear.
It's good stuff.
Chuck, Mr. said this 30 years ago.
He said, when we worry, we are assuming
a responsibility that was never intended to be
ours.
Charles Spurgeon says that when we worry, we
are putting faith in the devil.
But when we give up and say, Lord,
you take control of my life, he does
that thing.
Number two, the disciplines of dependency upon God
is this to identify.
The second thing you want to do is
identify these things in your life, identify your
situation in light of Scripture.
I'm going to assume tonight we're all Christians
in here tonight.
Just make this assumption.
And what you want to do regarding your
life is identify what is happening or what
the issue is in your life.
And you want to identify that situation in
light of the Bible.
In other words, we put it this way.
What does the Bible say?
More affectionately, we used to have the bracelets
or the T-shirts that used to say,
what would Jesus do?
Remember that?
What would Jesus do?
Well, we're really saying, what does God's word
say about the situation that I'm in?
Are you dating somebody?
Yeah, how'd you know?
I don't, but it's springtime.
Is he a Christian?
If you have to think about it, lose
his number now.
Forget her email.
If she's not, that's a direct command of
the Scripture.
Identify the situation of your life now in
light of the Scripture.
Are you having a relationship trouble with your
mom?
The Bible's got the answer.
Is it a friend?
The Bible's got the answer.
Are you having a situation at work with
your boss and a coworker?
The Bible's got the answer.
You should know where to find it and
apply that answer.
Search the Scriptures, the Scriptures say.
Why?
In Romans 15, verse 4, it says, whatever
things were written before time were written for
our learning.
That's the Old Testament, that we through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
Isn't that a great word?
Identify those who have gone on before us
and have taught us is what Paul is
saying in Romans 15, verse 4.
Think about Adam.
Listen, identify yourself in light of Scripture.
Think about Adam.
God said, Adam, don't do this.
And Adam did that.
And I'm telling you, that's a painful yet
real identification of what he did versus what
God's Word says.
What about Job?
Wow.
Have you ever suffered?
Now, there's a great, great chance here in
this room tonight that none of us combined
have suffered like Job has suffered.
But if you find yourself suffering, I don't
care if you have a hangnail or you
got cancer.
If you feel like you're suffering, go to
the Word of God is your number two
discipline.
Identify your life situation with the Bible.
And this is going to keep the Word
of God relevant in your life every day,
every day.
By the way, for those of us who
are going through the daily Bible reading, man,
I tell you, these last few days, Lisa
and I are reading the Word of God
together, the one year Bible together.
And man, those things are applying to our
lives and or giving us counsel for the
lives of others.
Powerful stuff.
Great stuff.
Wow.
There's great wisdom there.
Identifying your life in light of Scripture.
Psalm 142, verse three says, For I am
overwhelmed the crushing.
There's the force of all these things coming
upon me.
He says, For I am overwhelmed and you
alone know the way that I should turn.
What a great prayer.
Oh, Lord, we are overwhelmed as Americans.
We're overwhelmed at times as Christians, but you
alone, God, know the way that I should
turn wherever I go.
My enemies have set traps for me.
I look for someone to come and help
me, but no one gives me a passing
thought.
No one will help me.
No one cares a bit what happens to
me.
Verse five, Psalm 142.
Then I prayed to you, oh, Lord.
Notice that.
Oh, my world's coming apart.
Many praise.
And he says, you are my place of
refuge.
You are all I really want in life.
The name of the Lord is a strong
tower and the righteous run into it and
they are safe.
Wow.
So these three things we identify with Scripture
regarding our physical body.
We need physical healing.
Identify with that.
Do you need a physical healing?
What does the Bible say about that?
Cry out to God.
You want to identify with Scripture regarding your
soul.
That is your emotions.
The souquet is the Greek word for your
mind, the seat of your emotions.
And do you need mental or emotional stability?
You go to God.
You cry out to him, Lord, I need
stability to my heart and my mind and
then identify with Scripture regarding your spiritual life.
Do you and I need strength tonight spiritually?
I'll answer for you.
Yes, we do.
And we say, Lord, give me strength.
Remember back in Exodus three, 14, when Moses
says, OK, I'll go, I'll do everything you
say, God, but who do I tell the
children of Israel sent me?
And God says, you tell them I am
that I am sent you.
And you look that up in the Hebrew
and let me tell you, if you have
socks on your feet, they will come off.
It is awesome.
You want to know why the word that
God gives as his name is not only
his name, but he's the conforming one.
He is the becoming one.
When he says I am that I am,
this is what he is announcing.
Regarding the deep inner meaning of Yahweh, the
name of God, I am the one that
becomes what you need or whom you need.
Do you need protection?
He's the Lord who will protect you.
Do you need peace?
He's Yahweh Shalom.
Are you sick and tired of trying to
walk in this life in your own strength,
of trying to keep yourself pure yourself?
Tell him I can't do it.
And he says, all right, Yahweh, I'll be
your righteousness, the Lord, your righteousness.
That's why Peter said, as I, the Lord
says, I'm righteous, so you be righteous.
And you say, I can't do that.
And the Lord says, scoot over and I
will be your righteousness.
And then he says to us, be holy
for I am holy.
How can we do that?
Because we are in Christ now and he
becomes our righteousness.
Yahweh to sit canoe is that the name
one of the great names of God.
What about Yahweh or Jehovah Jireh, Yahweh Jireh,
Yahweh Jireh, the Lord, our provider.
I heard on the news today foreclosures hit
a all time record this week in America.
Foreclosures, they're saying there's no end in sight,
people losing their homes.
And God says, I will provide for you.
See, what does that mean?
Does he mean he's going to make my
house payment?
I don't know what that means.
He can, he can do it if he
wants to.
But this he's committed to.
He said in the word, the righteous shall
never be seen baking bread.
He has committed himself to the righteous.
I like the old saying, do your best
and commit the rest.
Number three, the disciplines of dependence upon God
is this measure, measure your situation to God
or in light of God or measure your
life situation against God.
The magnitude of the things of your life,
measure them.
How great is the problem that is facing
your life?
Measure that against the stature of God.
Now, watch this.
Oh, please, if you need to be offended,
be please offended with this.
It's a good shot in the arm.
If you and I are freaking out about
stuff, then we have a very small view
of our God.
Think about it.
You know this.
When David saw Goliath, did David run away
from Goliath or did he run toward Goliath?
He was just a punk kid, probably a
teenager with a sling and some stones.
He ran toward him.
He took off toward him.
Can you imagine what Goliath must have thought?
This is this kid's on crack or something.
What is he doing?
He must think I'm a toy to be
played with.
David, if you look at it right and
measure the situation against God, David was running
right toward his Lord because there is nowhere
that Goliath could have gone to have been
safe from the eternal God.
And David knew from being a young shepherd
boy that wherever he went, God was.
So put that together.
Come on, think for a minute.
Pinch yourself if you have to get this
down.
If David runs toward Goliath and then what
is this kid doing?
I'm running toward the situation because I know
my God in the past has delivered me
from everything I've ever been involved in.
And so here, Lord, take this rock.
And let it sink right into the big
fat forehead of that uncircumcised Philistine.
Hey, I didn't make that up.
That's what it says.
And when the Bible says that that rock
sunk into his forehead, can you imagine the
stump that must have made you ever hear
somebody's head hit the ground?
It's a sickening feeling, isn't it?
Unless it's Goliath getting a rock in his
head and then it's like, yeah.
Can you imagine the angel that was behind
that rock?
That was a jet propelled turbo boosted egg.
I mean, egg.
I mean, rock and egg.
It could have been an egg.
It wouldn't have mattered.
That giant was going down.
I don't know.
I must be hungry with the egg came
from.
I don't know.
Oh, man.
Oh, but life is just so overwhelming, Jack.
I don't think I can make it.
Listen, you need to measure that situation in
light of God.
And all of a sudden, though it may
be unmanageable to us, it certainly is very
manageable to him.
And he gets all the glory.
Did I tell you guys last Sunday?
It was after one of the services.
So you may have missed this.
A woman came up to me last Sunday
in between services, and we had prayed for
her son Dylan as a church a couple
of months ago.
The little guy had tumors all over the
inside of his body, cancerous tumors.
She came up to me and she's crying.
I go, what's the matter?
And she said, my my son, they did
the test.
They did.
They took another look and there's not one
tumor.
There's no cancer.
It's gone.
And I said, listen, you got to write
that down.
You got to write that down.
And we got to give God praise, because
if we don't, we'll be robbing God, because
here is this life overwhelming situation measured up
to the power of our God.
It's our God who suspended the universe out
there in space.
It's our God that holds those constellations in
order.
And we panic about this or about that.
He's got the rings around Saturn.
He's doing it all.
And we don't think he's going to come
through for us or that he's going to
get us into heaven.
Proverbs 34, verse 18, says this.
The Lord is near to those who have
a broken heart.
Is your heart broken tonight?
Is your heart weeping?
Are you broken of heart?
The Lord says, I'm near you.
And listen, your emotions are screaming right now.
There's no hope.
It's out of control.
There's there's no sign of life.
And God says, hey, hey, that's why the
Lord is in the Bible.
You see it many times.
Martha, Martha, Abraham, Abraham, right?
Sarah, Sarah.
He has to repeat himself.
We're freaking out, we're freaking out, Martha, Martha.
And he's saying to you tonight, broken hearted,
hey, broken hearted.
Wake up.
Hey, you.
I'm near to you.
They may feel like a giant, but God
is there.
The Lord is near to those who have
a broken heart, and he saves such as
have a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but
the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Wow.
Now here's the here's the cool thing.
OK, Jack, so I measure up the situation
and my God's bigger and I understand all
that.
But you know what?
How does that work?
He delivers us out of them all.
See, here's the part that you and I
often want to fight with God about.
We want and back in the recesses of
our mind, we have the description of what
being delivered looks like.
Let's be honest.
We're dictating to him, though we don't say
it.
Lord, deliver me, deliver me from my situation.
And God goes to deliver us.
And we don't like his plan of deliverance.
And so we either fight him or we
argue about it, or when he does his
thing, we don't like it.
And I don't know what to say to
you about that other than get over it.
He's God, we're not.
And he knows what's best.
Matthew five, verse forty three says, Jesus said
it.
You have heard that it was said of
those you shall love your neighbor and hate
your enemy.
That was one of the proverbs going around
in Jesus's day.
Now, that's kind of stupid.
You.
That goes without saying.
Really, it's love those who love you and
hate those who hate you.
Well, no kidding.
Jesus said, verse forty four, but I say
to you, love your enemies.
Bless those who curse you.
Do good to those who hate you.
Pray for those who spitefully use you and
persecute you that you may be sons of
your father in heaven.
You think that's easy?
I'll tell you how easy it is.
It's impossible.
But now with God, for he makes his
son or the son, his son S.U
.N. to rise on the evil and the
good.
That means God's good even to the bad
people every day.
And he sends rain on the just and
on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you,
what reward do you have?
What is that?
Do not even the tax collectors do the
same?
It's easy to love people that love you.
I mean, how do you know if you
even love them if they love you?
That's what's scary about rich people, cute people
and talented people.
How do they know if the people around
them love them?
It's quiet in here.
How do you know?
None of us have that problem in this
room, so we'll just move on then, I
guess, apparently.
We need to see him for what he
is and for truly the fact for what
they are.
If they are enemies and he is God
and he says, hey, listen, love them.
In fact, he would be saying to us,
be like me to them.
In Psalm 92, verse five, I'm going to
give you several verses here, jot them down
one after another.
Psalm 92, verse five says, How great are
your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts.
Psalm 40, verse five, Many, O Lord, my
God, are the wonders you have done, the
things you planned for us.
No one can recount to you where I
speak to you and tell of them.
They would be too many to declare.
I read that verse today.
True story.
I read this verse today, walked outside at
my house.
I have a fountain in the front of
my yard and there's a little hummingbird sitting
in the fountain.
And he was just as the water comes
out, he's just dipping inside the water.
I mean, he looked like a one and
a half inch torpedo just going in the
water.
And I was thinking about that verse, the
wonderful works of God, there are too many
to count.
And I thought, you know what, that bird,
look at that bird, the sunshine.
He's taking a bath in my yard.
He doesn't pay for the water bill, the
electric bill.
He's oblivious.
And you think he cares?
Man, he's out there.
He's taking a bath.
He doesn't know whose yard it is.
And he's bathing in it.
And yet Jesus said the sparrows, which are
the most common of birds, hummingbirds are like,
wow, look, nobody says, look, a sparrow.
Right.
But people say, look, a hummingbird.
Huh?
Jesus said, your father in heaven cares about
the sparrows that fall to the ground.
And here's this little bird.
And I saw the colors in his neck.
So red and crimson.
And I thought for a minute, well, that's
an awesome verse, because right now I'm pausing
for a second to look at that little
guy taking a bath, having a great day.
And he's so pretty, beautiful thing.
And our God did that.
And you walk outside tonight at the service
and you look at the moon.
Our God is doing that as we look
at it.
You're going to watch the sun come up
tomorrow?
As you sit on the freeway and watch
the sun come up?
My God is doing it.
You ever watch it come up where it
goes like that?
You don't see the sun go across the
sky like that during the day, but you
see it come up like that.
You see how fast it's going?
Watch it next time.
Slow down.
Watch it.
It's amazing the things that he does.
Remarkable.
The Bible says in Psalm 139, verse 17,
how precious are your thoughts to me?
Oh, God, how great is the sum of
them?
Listen, young lady, God's thoughts toward you are
amazing.
His thoughts are so good toward you.
And there's so many of them that cannot
be counted.
Young man, listen, God's thoughts about you are
absolutely fantastic thoughts for you.
He's got an awesome plan for your life.
He's got great thoughts for you right now.
And you don't even think about that.
You should.
Isaiah 55, 8.
I love this.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts.
Aren't you glad that God doesn't think like
you do?
Like I do?
Nor are your ways my ways, says the
Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
That's our God.
How great is our God?
He's that.
He's that amazing.
Number four, the disciplines of dependence is this.
Understand.
Understand your life is in his hands.
That's nice.
Understand this one thing, church.
He knows what he's doing.
My favorite verse in the scriptures this week
is John 10, 27.
My sheep hear my voice.
He's not he's not doubtful about it, is
he?
My sheep, he said, hear my voice.
I know them.
They follow me.
Man, that's a matter of fact.
I give them eternal life.
That's a fact.
And they shall never perish.
True.
Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my
hand.
Say that again.
Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my
hand.
That's good stuff.
My listen, my father who has given them
to me is greater than all.
And no one is able to snatch them
out of my father's hand.
I and my father are one.
It's almost like he's like, you're in my
hand.
You're in my father's hand.
No one's able to take you guys out
of our hands.
I and my father are one.
And it's almost like anybody thinking about yanking
this jack out of my hands.
I'm going to knock him out.
I'll take him out.
And you insert your name in there.
If anybody tries to take, put your name
in there out of his hands, which is
not even possible.
You don't take him out.
I like that.
That's my shepherd.
My sheep hear my voice.
They follow me.
That's comforting.
I like that.
He knows what he's doing.
But why do we struggle with this truth
that he knows what he's doing?
He knows everything.
And we act like we're the ones who
know everything.
He knows everything.
We don't know much.
We've got more knowledge at the at the
tip of our fingers available now.
And we are getting dumber by the minute.
I mean, it's true.
I don't mean to insult anybody, but let's
be honest.
There's nobody in this room.
I'm convinced of it now.
I'm sure of it.
I saw a 18 or 17.
I forget what year it was.
It was either 1793 or 1693.
Entrance exam to Harvard.
David Barton owns it.
I think it was like 1693 or something
like that.
Harvard, either that or William and Mary entrance
exam.
And David Barton presented it to a room
of 500 pastors on the screens.
It happened to have been a math quiz
for the entrance exam to Harvard.
David Barton put it on the screen because
he hasn't had anyone able yet to do
the math under some considerable amount of time.
It's that advanced.
And now today it's like, you want to
come into our college?
How's your dad's bank account?
Sounds good to us.
And, you know, two plus two equals any
number you feel makes you happy.
It's remarkable.
Psalm 139, verse 23 says, Search me, O
God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my anxieties and see
if there's any wicked way in me and
lead me in the way everlasting.
Understand that your life is in his hands.
Knowing God's perfect will for your life.
Listen, everybody.
I'm not kidding when I tell you this.
You might be surprised to hear this.
Knowing God's perfect will for your life is
very easy.
We make it hard.
Knowing God's perfect will for your life is
found in the Bible, literally.
It's easier than you think if we just
decide right now to walk with him, understanding
that our life is in his hands.
Stop stressing about it.
Some people get so stressed out over their
Christian walk.
You had less stress as a non-Christian.
Now that you're a Christian, you're all stressed
out because you're trying to figure out, what's
God's will for my life?
Read the Bible.
Read it.
He tells you.
And here's the great thing.
Even if you haven't read the Bible and
you just became a Christian, just decide today,
I'm going to walk with God.
Listen to him when he speaks to you.
Down deep inside, he's going to speak to
your soul, and you're going to know it's
him.
It's stuff.
He's going to say stuff in your voice.
Usually, I mean, I don't know about you,
but I've only heard my voice in my
head, but it's his logic.
And it blows my mind because I don't
think like that.
And he will speak to you pure truth
from the scripture, but he will speak to
you in such a way that you go,
that's the Lord in my life.
It's very, very simple.
But listen, knowing God's perfect will for your
life, we have to throw out an all
stop.
If you're living in sin or a sinful
situation as a Christian and you're wondering, well,
what God told me to do this and
God told me to do the other.
Listen, none of us are supposed to be
sin sniffers and fault finders.
If you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit speaking
to you and he's saying you need to
stop this thing in your life.
Don't expect God to unfurl his Christmas list
for you while you're living as a Christian
apart from God's will.
Here's why I bring this up, because God
has a perfect plan, a perfect will to
be executed in your life.
There's something called the permissive will of God,
which you do not want.
And far too many Christians today settle for
the permissive will of God.
That is, I know that I shouldn't be
doing this.
I'm a Christian, but I'm going to do
it.
And my friends are doing this.
So I think it's OK.
And God doesn't kill you.
He doesn't beat you up.
He allows it.
But his allowance doesn't mean he's approving.
You can say, God, show me your way
as you are already mapping out the direction
you want to go.
Guess what?
You're still a Christian.
You're going to go to heaven.
You're just walking outside of his perfect will
and your life will not be as blessed.
You guys, Abraham walked with God.
His life was super blessed.
And when he got to heaven, he got
out of God's will.
His life got super in trouble.
That's how close you want to walk to
the will of God.
That when you're off base, it will be
so obvious.
Your heart will be so sensitive to where
he's not that you have to go back
there to where he is.
That's the relationship he wants with you.
He wants you to cry out for his
perfect will in your life.
I'll give you some verses.
Psalm 12, verse five, Psalm 12, five says,
because of the oppression of the weak and
the groaning of the needy, I, the Lord,
will now arise.
I will protect them from those who malign.
Wow.
That word malign means speak falsely with intent
to cause harm.
God says, that's it.
You can see him.
He's coming after those that are troubling his
kids.
When?
When you walk in the will of God.
James one, verse two, my brethren counted all
joy when you fall into various trials, knowing
that the testing of your faith produces patience,
but let patience have its perfect work and
you may be complete or perfect and complete,
lacking nothing.
That's walking right in the middle of God's
plan.
You may be right now in the perfect
will of God's plan for your life and
everything's blowing up around you.
Hang on to him.
Don't think that God's perfect will for your
life is some perfect rose strewn path.
A great example of this is that verse
in first Peter two, twenty one, first Peter
two, twenty one says for for this, you
were called.
We looked at it earlier, but it goes
on because Christ also suffered.
Leave in us an example that you should
follow in his footsteps who committed no sin,
nor was deceit found in his mouth, who,
when he was reviled, did not revile in
return.
And when he suffered, he did not threaten,
but committed himself to him.
That is his father, who judges righteously.
Amazing and awesome.
Number five point five will end with this.
The disciplines of dependence upon God is this
number five.
Mark it down.
It's very important.
It is rest, rest, rest because your outcome
has been planned.
Now, look, I'm going to give you some
stuff and some people are going to hope
they want to get all controversy about what
I'm going to say.
I'm going to read your Bible.
You have to deal with it.
I'm going to give you scripture and I'm
going to delight in it.
You want to kick against the Bible?
Go kick.
But I'm not going to kick.
I'm going to pull up my raft and
lay down on it.
OK, listen to this.
Rest in the fact that God has determined,
listen, the outcome of your life.
He's determined it.
Now, listen to me.
Do I have your attention?
What does that mean?
It doesn't mean what you think it means.
If God's determined my life, then.
Then everything that I do must have been
what he's determined.
No, God has a plan.
And as we just talked about, you walk
in in his will.
Can you walk out of his will?
Oh, yeah.
When we walk out of his will, guess
what happens?
We are not resting in the Lord.
And what happens is when we are not
walking in his will, we're not resting in
him.
We're out about on our own.
And guess what happens?
His plans not being fulfilled in our lives.
Does he have a perfect plan for us?
Yes.
Has it been determined by him?
Yes.
But can we go against his will?
Yes.
Painfully so.
Again, ask Adam, right?
Ask King David Bathsheba.
Now, he could have said, wow, God, you
built a beautiful woman.
Great work.
That's amazing sculpture.
And you did there, God.
And he could try to justify everything that
was going on in his head.
He was outside the will of God.
Did it listen in David's life, did it
derail God's perfect plan for his life?
Absolutely.
Was not his family riddled with trouble after
that?
Yes.
Did David suffer unnecessary things because David did
his will and not God's will?
Yes.
Same thing can happen to us.
Yes, God has determined a course and a
plan.
Here's the goal for you and I.
Are you with me?
We're almost done.
Are you with me?
It's this, that you and I yield to
his plan in every area so that his
plan that is determined is lived out in
our lives.
That's the key to Christian success.
I don't care how healthy or happy or
wealthy you are.
It's are you obedient to him and let
him determine the outcome.
And if you understand that, then you can
settle it in your heart that why are
there sick Christians all their life?
Why are there healthy Christians?
Why are they poor?
Why are there rich?
Why are there middle class?
Why is this?
Why is that?
Leave it in the hand of the all
-knowing God.
He knows what he's doing.
And the amazing thing is the outcome is
tailor-made for your life and my life.
But they're different.
You will be held and I will be
held accountable for what God has called you
to do, what he's called me to do.
So watch this.
I can mess that plan up.
That's why the Bible says in John 15
that we need to abide in Christ.
Every morning you choose to be with God
or not.
So jot these verses down.
Romans 8, 29.
For whom he, what?
For knew.
Circle the word.
It means he knew everything before it ever
was materialized.
He knew it all.
He already knew the outcome.
He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of his son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he predestined, remember it's based upon
his foreknowledge, these he also called.
Whom he called, these he also justified.
Whom he justified, these he also glorified.
Now watch the outcome of this.
It's great if you get this, your life
will be freed, liberated.
Verse 31.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be
against us?
He who did not spare his own son,
was Jesus in the middle of the will
of his father?
Yes.
He who did not spare his own son
but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not with him also freely give
us all things?
All things what?
All things that pertain to God's perfect plan
in your life.
That's why what God gives you, receive with
gladness and thank him.
And whatever it is, use it to the
glory of God.
And don't worry about that.
Anything else, it's to his glory.
Ephesians 1 verse 4.
Just as he chose us in him, that's
Christ, before the foundation of the world, that's
the definition of foreknowledge, that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love.
That's your position.
Having predestined us to adoption as sons, all
of us have been adopted.
Isn't that cool?
Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will, to the praise of
the glory of his grace, by which he
made us accepted in the beloved.
In him, we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace.
Rest, church, in the fact that he has
determined the outcome of your life if you
just let him live his plan out in
your life by yielding, surrendering, submitting to his
wonderful plan.
It's very, very fine.
In fact, Romans, no, excuse me, Hebrews, Hebrews
4, 9 says, there remains therefore a rest.
The word in Greek is repose, to recline.
There remains, therefore, a reclined, reposed position for
the people of God.
For he who has entered his rest has
himself also ceased from his works as God
did from his.
Let us, therefore, be diligent to enter into
that rest, lest anyone fall according to the
same example of disobedience.
Draw near to him.
In church, we're out of time.
I'll just sum things up by saying this.
As believers, when it comes to the discipline
of dependence upon God, in Romans 15, 13,
there's a great prayer that y'all ought
to just mark down and we just start
praying, and I'll pray it with you right
now, even.
This is a great thing.
It says, may the God of hope fill
you, that's us, with all joy and peace
in believing that you, that's us together, may
abound in hope by the power of the
Holy Spirit.
God wants to work his plan out in
your life.
That's why you have Jeremiah 29, 11, and
12.
God says to you tonight, I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, says the
Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon me and go
and pray to me, and I will listen
to you.
Isn't he wonderful?
Father, we thank you for your word.
And Lord, that we tonight get to exercise
the discipline of dependence upon God, upon you.
Lord, like any parent, there's the welling up
of the heart, the plumping up of the
soul, when our children ask of us for
a toy or a dollar or a helping
hand.
It's just a God thing.
We want our kids to cry out to
us, and we want to meet their need.
And Lord, tonight here we are, a church
in a very, very amazing prophetic time that
we're living, challenging times.
And yet, if we will let your word
rule and reign in our hearts, these are
going to be the most exciting days that
we could have ever known.
And on top of the fact that we
weren't born at a time like this by
accident, this is your absolute plan for our
lives.
And so as we get ready to worship
church, as we bow our heads and our
hearts together, I'm hoping for you right now
tonight, if you are in distress, I'm going
to ask you tonight, when I say distress,
I mean, if you just, you're emotionally stressed
or physically, or there's something that you want
to just unload at the feet of the
Lord, at the foot of the cross, then
as we're worshiping right now together, if there's
something that you want to dedicate to God,
then Christian, come forward and bow down, kneel
down, and give it to him during this
song.
Make this night, make it a hallmark moment,
make it a touchstone that tonight you're going
to say, I'm done with this thing, Lord,
I'm giving this to you.
Or maybe it's a decision you need to
make.
Do we do this?
Do we do that?
Do we move here?
Do we move there?
Do we get up or do we sit
down?
Do we, what is it?
Maybe tonight you want to come and you
want to just say to the Lord privately,
Lord, this is my altar moment.
So as we sing this song, and by
the way, of course, if you want to
accept Jesus, that Christ is your Lord and
Savior, recognizing that you need your sins forgiven,
then you come and grab a Bible up
here.
But people will let you out of the
aisle, they'll let you come.
So church, let's give to God those things
that are keeping us from being fully dependent
upon him.
Let's worship him now.
And you make your way forward between you
and God.
It's your moment to dedicate to him.