Who is your King Contemporary (3)
First B Jackson
2017-05-14

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Hey. Good morning church family. Good morning. Good to see you all.

Moms, I'm really glad to see you. Happy Mother's Day to all of you. Can we let our moms know how much we love them and appreciate them? Yeah. And we're gonna show that today.

Right? Yes. Yes, we are. I wanna hear a confident mhmm. Alright.

We're here to worship though. And in first Timothy, says there's one God. There's one mediator between us and God, and that's the man Jesus Christ. Amen? So what do you say we stand up and we sing to him?

Alright. He takes our place. He takes our place and stands in front of God on high. He speaks on our behalf since we don't have the right. He pleads before the God who judges one God.

There is only one mediate standing between God and being. He's the only way to salvation Alright. He found the captives. He found the captives, broke the bondage of our chains. We have redemption through the price that he has paid.

He gave his life to purchase freedom from the fall. A mediate was a ransom for us all. You know the chorus. There is only one God. There is only one mediator descending between God and man is the only way to salvation.

Amen. Y'all can be seated. Alright. Welcome. Yes.

And once again, welcome, mothers. We're so glad you guys are here. Happy Mother's Day. You'll probably hear that a few times more today. First of all, we wanna say thank you to this band up here.

We've got Carl, Eugene, and Florine. They do a great job. I don't know where that slide came from, but I'm excited about it. Yes. You don't look like a goat.

You sound like a goat. So no. But we are very thankful for these guys who who who every Sunday and they practice in the middle of the week, but they give a lot of time. So we're thankful for those guys. Pray for Guatemala still.

Our team is on their way back. Actually, I think they will be back this afternoon. They all fly back in. But keep Guatemala in your prayers and just for those final safe travels as they make their final connecting flights and end up back home. No children's church.

Children's church is done for the summer. Just a heads up. So your children will stay in here with you today if you like. Do some of those serious motherly duties on Mother's Day. But there's no children's church.

There is nursery, however, downstairs, so the little ones have a spot to go. Connect hour is still happening between services in Fellowship Hall. There's some bagels and some donuts and some things I saw down there today. So stick around after the service, say hello to one another, and connect a little bit. Monday nights is happening 06:00 in the Fellowship Hall, and we have a special guest speaker Monday.

Dave and Kim would you guys just stand up real quick?

Dave and Kim Hatfield, if you didn't hear Carl. They have a they have a preschool in Kenya, and they're gonna share a little bit about their ministries over there. And I'll not say one more thing so that it's all very surprise on Monday. So you have to come and enjoy what they have to say. But that is Monday night.

Noel Wana, it is over. It wrapped up last Sunday. June twenty third and twenty fourth, we do have our VBS is starting up. Hero Central, Discover Your Strength in God. So if you have not signed up your kids or registered them, make sure to do that.

We are still looking for volunteers for that. So Vacation Bible School is looking for volunteers. See Krista Klemmer about that and or Liz Owens. There you go. Those are the two people to talk about that.

Nursery is always looking for volunteers as well. So you can see Bailey about that. Bailey Morley about that. The revelations. If you are here over Memorial Day weekend and that Sunday night and you want to see some serious good gospel trio music going on, be here at church 7PM on Sunday the twenty eighth.

The Revelations is a group that Ray has some connection with where he is from over in Georgia, and they're gonna come and they're going to play some music and put on a show for us. So that is May 28. The Turning Point, the Turning Point fundraiser, the Bar J Turning Point fundraiser is happening May 30. If you have not got your tickets for that and plan to do that and support Turning Point in that way, make sure to do that. You can get tickets either here at the church office from Diane or you can get those from Turning Point as well.

But that is happening at the bar J Chuckwagon place down there off 22. But that's going on. Make sure that if you wanna get those tickets, get them early. Are we afraid of running out of space, Diane? Not Okay.

So you still got time. But that'll be a great night kicking off the Bar J season, but also the the the Turning Point fundraiser for that. Check your bulletin for all other announcements. And once again, happy Mother's Day. Why don't we get up, greet one another, give a mother a hug, even if it's not your mother.

Tell them how awesome they are. And we will bring you back with some song.

And I look to you. Where does my help come from? From you, you alone. You're reaching out for me. Because you are my savior and you're the Lord almighty.

You are the Lord almighty. None can't stand against your name. Lord, your name has a power to save power to save you. The Lord almighty, there is nothing like your love. Lord, your love, you have given it all, given it all.

And I come to the cross, let's sing. I come to the cross, but there I find all I need. Surrender my heart. Surrender my heart. Jesus, draw near to me because you are my savior.

You are the Lord almighty. None can stand against your name. Lord, your name has a power to save power to save you. The Lord Almighty, there is nothing like your love nor your love. You have given it all, given it all.

And you are the one I live for. You are the one that saves. You are the light that shines. Let's sing that again. You're the one I live for.

You are the one I live for. You are the one that saves. You are the light that shines. You are. You are the Lord Almighty.

None can stand against your name. Lord, your name hasn't power to save. I want to save

God, do sing to you because you have indeed given it all. And so but thank you, God, for your goodness. We sing to you.

I've heard a thousand stories bar. They think you're like. But I heard a tender whispering love in the dead of not in until me that you're pleased and that I'm never alone. You're a good, good father. It's who you are.

It's who you are. It's who you are. I'm loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am.

It's who I am. I've seen many searching for answers, far and wide. But I know that we're all searching for answers. Only you, Probat, because you know just what we need before we say word. You're a good, good father.

It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. And I'm loved by you. It's who I am.

It's who I am. It's who I am. You're perfect in all. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways.

You are perfect in all of your ways to us. Let's sing that again. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all your You are perfect in all of your ways. Ways.

You are perfect in all of your ways. To unexplainable. I cannot hardly think as you call me. Deeper still as you call me. You're a good, good father.

It's who you are. It's who you It's who I'm loved by you.

Amen. From Psalm sixteen eleven, you show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. In God, there's peace and there's joy, truly as a good father. But, really, there is a satisfaction that God brings that really nothing and and no no one and no nothing can except for him. I got unplugged.

There's nothing we're more that will ever come close. No thank can compare your our living hope. Your presence, Lord. I've tasted and seen the sweetness. I've tasted and seen of the here today.

Holy I'm Spirit, we invite you to this place. Holy Spirit, you are welcome in. Comfort this vase and feel the atmosphere. Your glory, God is what our hearts long for. To be by your presence, oh, your presence, Lord.

There's nothing worth more,

You're presence, Lord. I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves when my heart becomes free and my shame is under. By your presence, Lord. Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Comfort this place and feel the atmosphere.

Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. To be older, Come by your presence. Oh,

your

presence, Lord. And let us become more aware. Let's sing that to the Lord. Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness.

Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness. And let us become more aware of your presence. And let us experience glory of your goodness. Holy Spirit, you are welcome welcome here.

Comfort this face and feel the atmosphere. Your glory, God is what our hearts long for. To be older come by your presence, oh. Your presence, Lord.

Amen. God, we do thank you for your presence. There's truly nothing like it and again nothing that the world can offered, offer that is quite like your your presence, with us. And I thank you, God, for being with us in all times in all occasions. Even when sometimes we we don't know it, you indeed are with us.

And you indeed are working out a greater plan that sometimes we can't see, but we do walk by faith. We don't just walk by sight. And, God, once again, I thank you also for every gift that you give. You are generous in in every way. And so I pray God that when it it's time for us to either prompting us to to give not just financially, but with our gifts and everything else that you've given us, that we would step out, that we would step out in faith and do what you're calling us to do.

And I pray God that you would use these gifts that are given today to just to help accomplish that means. And so all to say, we are giving you thanks with a grateful and and joyful hearts with hands open. In Jesus name. Amen. Again, moms, we are grateful for you.

Happy Mother's Day. And, I'd like to invite up my friend Nick, and just I don't know if you you know Nick Stern, but he's been coming here for a long time. He's on staff here in the office. Great guy. And, we asked him, hey, Nick.

Would you you share with us on Sunday? He said, I'd be glad to. And so would we just, give Nick a hand and just let him know we're grateful that he's here?

Alright. Good morning, and welcome to First Baptist Church. As Carl said, my name is Nick Stern. I've been going to church here for eight and a half years. Hard to believe, and I don't think there's a church I've ever been to, and I've been to over a 100, believe it or not.

That's not an exaggeration. That I felt more at home, that I felt like more more loving and more welcome. And I just hope that you guys take that out into the world as we go on today. It's been an honor also to work here. I don't know if you guys have ever got a chance to spend time with the staff here, but they're really fantastic.

They're funny. They're lovely. They're really caring, and they want to talk to you and be here for you. So if you guys ever need somebody to pray with you or just to talk to you, please just just give us a call. We're happy to to have you.

Now a couple weeks ago, I was reading my Bible and I was at home and I just got stuck on this one passage and it's first Samuel chapter eight. And I just kept feeling like God was gonna have me preach on this sometime And wouldn't you know, like a week later, Ray asked me if I would speak. And I was like, well, fantastic. I already got the verse. So way ahead of you, pal.

And then doesn't that make you feel good? But unfortunately, then they tell me it's on Mother's Day. So this sermon has nothing to do with Mother's Day. And I'm so sorry for that. But this is a picture of my mom and my grandma at a glacier, two very hardworking and lovely women that have sacrificed so much for my brothers and I.

And it's just a pleasure to honor them today because I'm sure they'll be watching this video and giving me detailed notes. So thank you mom, we do love you and your gift is not arriving, I'm so sorry. But it's just a fact, they don't pay a lot here okay? So, we do have a gift for all of you today though. I one of my responsibilities is to print out this little bulletin for little kids.

If your kids are anxious and squirmy in the seats today, feel free to stand up and go get one. There's a bunch of crayons back there. This is a gift to you, mom. You're welcome. I remember this one for you.

That's right. You can applaud for that. That's okay. I'm fine with that. So for those of you who know my brother and I, you know that we're big old testament fans, and that that frustrates some people.

Right? And they say, like, there's no grace in the Old Testament. The the God of the Old Testament is different than the New Testament. And I have to disagree because I think the Old Testament points a lot to grace. And there's a lot of moments where we really get to know God's grace through that and kind of what we've been saved from.

So we're gonna dip back out of our, our series about Ephesians today and go into the Old Testament. Went into one of my favorite chapters. And we're gonna look at this little chart, here. The Old Testament versus New Testament time. The blue section represents the Old Testament time from Abraham's birth on to 432, which is about when it was finished being written.

And that's not even the whole old testament. That's just like the dates that my Bible knows for sure. Okay? And so there's other dates before that. And the new testament is that tiny little red part, which is about ninety five years.

It's actually a little less than that. And I I think it's neat that we get to know God so much through the Old Testament because we get to spend so much time with him. We get to to know him through all of that time. So I think it's important to look at the Old Testament and then it helps us to to look forward to Jesus and understand his presence a whole lot more. So in the Old Testament, for a good section of it I'm sorry.

I'm still getting used to this too. In the Old Testament, there wasn't a king over the people of Israel. There were a lot of different leaders that God rose up throughout time to save them from the mess they got in. Okay? So a lot of you would recognize people like Moses, perhaps Abraham, and there were even women in there too like Deborah that came along to rescue the people, lift them out of the situation they were in.

But God was their king. And if we look at the stage like a timeline, over here would be like Genesis. And at that point, they're just walking in the Garden Of Eve with God Garden Of Eden, excuse me, Garden Of Eden with Adam and Eve, and they're just walking with God. They're spending time with God. There was no distinction right there between there's no king.

There's no other leader besides God. It was right there. But as soon as they walk out away from from the, the Garden Of Eden, they start slowly pushing them away. Right? We see that over time.

They're pushing God away, trying to make themselves king, trying to be relevant to the world, and God has to raise up these leaders along the path. And along the way, Moses Anybody ever heard of Moses, that guy? Say, he's raised up and he's one of those guys that brings us a lot of the old testament history. Right? So in Deuteronomy 17 is where we'll start a little bit of backstory.

And right here, Moses has come down. He's got the tablets. He set them down, the laws, the the 10 commandments. And there's actually a lot more commandments than just 10. And after those 10 commandments, there's a bunch of kinda like groundwork that God lays for the people of Israel to help them along the way to to make their lives a little bit easier and a little cleaner.

And this is one of the things he talks about. So Deuteronomy seventeen fourteen, when you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled it and you say, let us set a king over us like all the nations around us. Be sure to appoint a king over you, the Lord your God chooses. Okay. That's pretty nice.

Right? God's looking out for them. He's like, pick somebody who loves me, who spends time with me and focuses on me. Because before this, the people of Israel had been in Egypt. Right?

They've been enslaved. They were captive. You might remember God raising the people out of there, crossing the Red Sea, all that good stuff. And the people kinda start to grumble and complain. But here's a few other things that, little bullet points that I've summarized from the next couple chapters.

The king must be an Israelite. Must not acquire a great number of horses or go to Egypt to get more horses. This might sound a little strange in our modern age. Right? So if it was Jackson, don't go to Egypt to get more Teslas.

Does that that's does that make sense for the Jackson crowd? Teslas. I'll explain that after guys. I should've put a slide So But they weren't supposed to go back to Egypt to get anything. They were never supposed to go back there because the people kept grumbling and complaining and saying, wasn't it better when we were slaves and imprisoned by Egypt?

We should just go back to Egypt and become slaves once again. Am I am I wrinkled up? You guys are looking at me like, no, we're good? Okay. Something they told me this wire, when it gets wrinkled, we get little bumps.

So don't go back to Egypt to get more horses and that represented power. Must not take many wives or his heart will be led astray. Must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. Must not consider himself better than the other Israelites and must read the scrolls of the law daily. Now, it this actually goes a little further than that.

The king was actually supposed to copy down those scrolls of the law so that he was a participant in it. He was supposed to know it by heart and go over it day by day. That was one of the commands that were in there. It's really important. God said, if you have a king, he has to be focused on me.

Now, my brother says I have trouble keeping sermons light and keeping them hopeful. So I have a little present for you. And for those of you who don't just like one cat, here's a lot of cats. And for those of you who have Capybile, here's a dog. So are we awake?

Are we with it again? Good. We're we're back in the presence. We're feeling it. Good.

Okay. So that's the backstory. Right? God said, this is what you should look for in a king. Now, almost five hundred years later, we're gonna walk up to this point in our timeline where we we reach first Samuel eight four.

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and they came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, you are old and your sons do not follow your ways. Now appoint a king to lead us such as all the other nations have. Does this sound familiar? Point a king like all the other nations have five hundred years earlier.

God warns them through Moses that this is something that they would ask for when they enter the land. But, this is a critical word that pastor Ray's like to talk about, but when they have said, give us a king to lead us, this displeased Samuel. So he prayed to the Lord and the Lord told him, listen to all that the people are saying to you. It is not you they have rejected, but they've rejected me as their king. This hurts.

Right? There's this moment where you're like, wait a second, over here five hundred years ago, God gave them the instructions of what they should do when they're looking for a king. Right? But then five hundred years later, when they actually want a king, Samuel's displeased. He was their leader.

He was getting old at the time, But God is displeased that he feels rejected by the people of Israel. And this got this got me really confused and made me almost wanna switch my sermon topic for the week. But, you know, the more I prayed about it and the more I read about it, I realized it's a lot like a school bus. Okay. For those of you who don't know, I'm a school bus driver at one of my many four jobs in Jackson.

That makes sense, doesn't it? So God gives them the rules even though he may not want them to use them right away. And here's here's kind of how I relate to it. I As a school bus driver, I can't physically make a kid sit down. Right?

Don't Kids don't listen to this part. Okay? You don't know this. Alright? So I'm sitting there in the seat.

I've got this little mirror and I'm driving along. I can yell at the kids to sit down. I can go over the rules time and time again. They're safer if they stay seated. Nothing will go wrong if they see you seated and keep their hands to themselves.

But then I look in that mirror and they look in the mirror. That's the worst part. They look in the mirror to see if I'm looking and stand up. Carl, right, Shane? You guys are my bus driver buddies.

You know what I'm talking about, Michelle. They stand up anyway even though it's against their best interest. Russ, I didn't forget you. He's a bus driver too. Even though it's against their best interest, they stand up and do it anyway even though they know the laws.

I can't go back there and make them do it. That's part of the agreement we have. It's that healthy tension we have between our own individual freedom, our free will, and God's sovereignty that he gives them the directions to be able to pick a king, but then is disappointed when they turn away from him and ask for one. It's that healthy balance we talk about a lot about here at First Baptist, where God wants to pull on that. He wants to give us the leeway to walk away if we need to or want to, but he desires to have us have him as their have him as our king.

We have to back up just a little bit for the next section to make sense. But they have rejected me as their king as they have done from the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them, but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights. Remember, is ever since they came out of Egypt, they've been complaining. I mean, it's really bad.

If you guys want to read the old testament at some point, read the section about Moses and what he has to put up with and how many times they grumble. And think about how that kind of relates to ourselves too. And think about the grace in this last little part. It's easy to read over. Now listen to them, but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.

Warn them. God doesn't say, go out there, just stumble in the dark and when you need me, back. He's like, hey, I understand. I want to protect you. Here's my love.

There's grace in the old testament. There's a lot of it and he's looking out for the people right here. So in first Samuel chapter eight, it's eight ten. Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, and this is gonna get along, so I'm gonna read faster.

He said, this is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights. He will take your sons and make them serve as his chariots and chariot horses. They will run-in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest. And still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

He will take your daughters and to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants, your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys, he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks and you yourselves will become slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king.

You have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. This is harsh. Right? This isn't easy to wrestle with. This isn't the light and fluffy we hear the world tell us that our God is, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.

The people of Israel say, remember back in Egypt when we were slaves? Wasn't it great to be a slave? Let's be a slave to this guy. No. Why would you choose that life?

Why would you choose to be a slave to somebody that you choose to be a slave to? Why wouldn't you be free with the Lord? He's brought you out of Egypt, walked you through the Red Sea. Why would you walk away from that? And we have to wrestle with this part where it says that he will not answer you on that day.

Because sometimes God lets us make the mistakes and there are consequences for our choices. And we don't get to hear this very often. And I think there's a gravity to our decisions and our time and our relationship with the Lord that sometimes we try not to think about, we try to put away. This is sovereignty, and this is kind of where that a little bit of that healthy fear comes, that respect for God, because he has a path for us that he wants, and there's weight to it. And sometimes we suffer the consequences of our actions.

We'll get to this. We're not going to leave you at this point. But when Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered, give, listen to them and give them a king. But the people refused to listen to Samuel.

No, they said, we want a king over us, then we will be like all the nations and the king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles. There's one more slide. I think I locked up there. Oh, there we go. The king to fighter battles.

So that's that's where we're at right now. Does this sound familiar? Does this does this work well for the Israelites? I'm gonna click back to this slide here. Get yes, the cats.

We need to stay there for a second. Okay. This slide right here. Does this sound like anybody you've read about in the Old Testament? Samuel?

Solomon? Solomon. Yes. It is Solomon. Exactly.

Almost to a t. So we go from Samuel who's the the prophet who gives them a king. They right away get king Saul who is a rough king. It doesn't go well for him. In fact, I think he's one of the most tragic characters in the Bible behind Jesus.

Because of course Jesus didn't do anything wrong to deserve what he got. But Saul made some mistakes and struggled and just spun his wheels. The next king David, good king, strong king, but he makes mistakes too. But it's Solomon, the third king of Israel, get to my little slide here, who fits all of those characteristics of a bad king. He kind of thinks he's better than everybody else.

He kind of lets him go to his head. He has lots of silver and gold. He has many wives. He has lots of horses and the kingdom starts to crumble. It gets confusing in the old testament because after he, dies and his kids take over, the kingdom splits into a north and south kingdom.

And that's why when you're reading like Kings and Chronicles, you're like, how can these two guys be kings at once? There's two kings. There's two different parts of the the the kingdom. They they right away, it could be one generation. The kingdom starts to fall apart and they already see what they asked for by asking for a king.

God lets them suffer and it's for a long time and it's painful to see that. Now, I've got to tell you guys a little story and it's it's hard for me to know if sometimes if the stories are appropriate that I tell, because I'm ashamed of this one. Sometimes we have to confront what we're ashamed of. In summer of two thousand eleven, I was a camera operator for the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Greatest job outside of working for First Baptist that I've ever had.

And, it was a great summer. I had a lot of fun and all of a sudden this girl that I had been interested in for years was interested in me again. My brother told me not to date her. My friends told me not to date her. And the more and more I prayed about it, the more I felt like God told me don't date her.

I dated her. You know, I just walked right into that. I opened up that door and I walked right into it. And there was this one day, she lived two hours away. So she was, sleeping upstairs in my bed while I was downstairs on the couch.

None of that was happening. And I woke up in this sweat, just this panic, this fear was all over my body. I rolled onto my knees next to the couch. I knew that God's presence was near me. We don't talk about this a lot at first b, but it was a very real experience for me.

And I felt like God said, you have to break up with her. Quote, she will destroy you. Okay. And it was vivid, and it was it was so real, and the words she will destroy you rang in my head, and I knew I had to break up with her immediately. And did I?

I love this. Whoever said yes, this guy really loves me over here and I wanna take him out to coffee but no. The answer is no. I'm sorry. I'm weak.

They wouldn't be a good sermon illustration if I said yes, would it? So get with the program. No. I didn't. I I said no.

I kept dating her for like three more weeks. I chose my own path and it hurt, and God didn't talk to me for a while. And it was painful, and I'm ashamed of it, because frankly I sometimes I just know what God wants me to do, and I choose my own path. So the hard question I have to ask you today is, who's your king? What's your king?

Is it money? Is it attention? Is it that something your spouse doesn't know anything about? Now there's a lot of sins of course we don't talk about in church. There's the big ones, the big ticket sins, but gossip, you know, lack of mercy, greed.

Are we greedy people? Yeah. Yeah, we are. I have been to Christian conferences and speeches where they tell you essentially that if you're not rich, you're an idiot, that you're not obeying God. That is a sin.

That's a statement. The love of money. We have that. I have that. I'm ashamed to tell you how often I check my stock account.

Am I gonna retire anytime soon? Carl? He says no. I'm sorry. Apparently, don't pay enough.

We gotta we gotta work on these donations, folks. Come on. We gotta retire. But no. That we have these secret sins and we all know what they are.

We all selfish ambition is one that I think about a lot. I've been to other Christian conferences where they'll they'll rail on you if you're not ambitious, if you're not seeking after what you want. What? Why can't we be seeking after what God wants? Why can't we turn our hearts and say, no, I don't want what the world has?

I can't tell you how often I've gotten what my deepest heart wanted even though there was no logical reason why I should have it. You guys ever had that before? I think another baseball story. I I worked for the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Do you remember the last time they won a world series?

1948. 1948. And last year, I had stopped working for them and I was so ugly jealous of the fact that my Indians made it there after I'd resigned, and I couldn't be there, and I was a bus driver in Western Wyoming. What happened? And I was ugly.

And let me tell you, I prayed about it. God provided. Somebody called me and gave me $500 to fly home. You know how much my tickets were to game six of the world series? $0.

You know how much my tickets to game seven were? $100 when other people were paying $1,200 per ticket, and I got to take my dad. How cool is that? God works in these ways when we follow him, when we don't want what the world has. Yes, I can throw money at problems.

Yes, I can live wild and loose, but I can follow the Lord and get something so much sweeter and have a king that leads me powerfully and strongly daily wherever I am. Would you trade that for a new car for the respect of your peers because you go out and get drunk every night? And I I really ask for your prayers because this summer I'm planning on going to Chicago to try to be a stand up comedian and improv comedian there. For just two months, I'll be back, but Lord willing. But I need your prayers because that's a dark place and we all go to dark places all the time, don't we?

Protect yourself. Shore yourselves up. Pray for each other. And if you don't know what it's like to follow a God that gives grace through thousands of years, through millennia, talk to anybody near you. Because I know this church, these people would be happy to pray with you.

And today, if you've been coming to this church and you've been carrying a burden of a sin that's public or silent that nobody knows about or one of those things that we just skim over in the Bible, let's pray about that too. Let's confront that today and start feeling the grace and the goodness that God offers us when he wants to walk with us in the Garden of Eden hand in hand in the cool of day. Thank you guys so much. Have a great day.

Would you stand up with me? How many of you were encouraged by that? I was. The sincerity, articulate, funny. I think we're gonna ask you to preach again soon.

That's alright. This

last song really is fitting because in the chorus, is, God, I'm running for your heart. And really, that's what I heard in the sermon is that, God, I'm running for you. I I know that, you know, there are things that that that the world offers, but that that really, even even when I get those things, they're not always in my best interest. And, really, what God wants is he's got the best interest for us, but we've gotta turn to him. Amen?

Alright. God, I'm running.

God, I'm running for your heart, run for your heart till I am so long fire. Lord, I'm long for the wait. I'm waiting for the day when I am so on fire till I am so on fire. Alright. Let's sing that again.

God, I'm gonna. God, I'm running for your heart. I'm running for your heart. See, I am a soul on fire. Lord, I'm longing for your ways.

I'm waiting for the day when I am a soul on fire till I am a soul on fire Lord restore the joy I had when I have won or bring me back in this darkness lead me through until all I see is you got them running. I'm running for your heart. I'm running for your heart till I am so on fire, long for your ways. I'm waiting for the day when I am sold on fire, till I am sold on fire. Lord, let me burn for you again.

And if we are off, let us return to him. Let me return to you again. Amen. Let's make that our prayer song. Lord, let me burn for you.

Lord, let me burn for you again. Light that flame, God. Let me return to you again. God, I'm running. God, I'll run for your heart, run for your heart till I am sold on fire.

Lord, I'm longing for your ways. I'm waiting for the day when I am sold on fire till I am sold on fire. When I am sold on fire till I am so on fire.

And when I said earlier that God didn't leave us there, right, he didn't leave us to die in our sins, he didn't abandon the people of Israel forever, instead he gave them a king that was much mightier than they could have expected, but not in the way that they wanted. Right? Some Jews are still looking for this, but God sent it. And this is Colossians two thirteen through fifteen, one of my favorite verses because it takes basically all of the gospel and boils it down. When you were dead in your sins and uncircumcised, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our illegal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle over them, triumphing over them by the cross. Guys, go live in that freedom today in the redemption of our Lord and Jesus savior. Our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

Thank you.