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We’re in a new series together called Four Things I Wish You Knew About God. And so this morning as we dive into part two. So if you’re wondering how long it’s going to last, it’s going to be four weeks, right? So part two tells you how far into it we are together. But this morning I want this, uh, this topic that we’re going to go through together to be simplistic, to be encouraging and to be relaxing. Um, I don’t know if maybe you’re in the same boat as me, but when I get to the summertime, there’s something about when I look at the summer, I think, ah, yeah, time to refresh and relax. And then and then I see on like Facebook, parents start posting. When does school start? You know, I get this. And sometimes we find out that summer’s just not as relaxing as, as as sometimes we had planned to be. In fact, if anything is more stressful than just staying at home, that’s that’s for sure. Vacations, um, they tend to be a good experience, but can also bring a lot of stress. And when stress comes in our life, so, so does the complexity of our walk with God and what it means to gather as as a church family. And so knowing how summers go for us, simplistic, encouraging, relaxed this morning is what we’re after in Christ as we walk out. So if we hit that, let’s let’s be excited together in the Lord, knowing that we’ve been refreshed.
Um, when we talk about this series together last week, we talked about God’s desire to want to hear from you in prayer. And today’s message is something, again, that you’re you’re going to know. Just like prayer, we know that prayer is important, but it’s not necessarily something that we always engage in. But today’s message is going to be similar. This is going to be something that we know intellectually, but oftentimes we we struggle with in our hearts. And this is one of the reasons I think this is important for us as a church family, what God has done in our church, um, over the years that we’ve existed, it’s not just a handful of years we’ve been around for, I think we this summer starts our seventh year as a church. We started in the living room and we’ve moved like 6 or 7 times, and we finally got this facility to to grow in. But God, it what he’s going to do in our congregation. Um, it’s it’s been done, but it’s going to continue to happen. And God’s going to keep doing a work in us as a family. And in fact, within a few weeks, we should start construction on the outside of our building. So if you’re wondering how that has been going, it’s still going. It’s not easy, but it’s still going. So we should be starting construction on the outside of our facility here soon.
And here’s what’s going to happen when we start construction. Um, a lot of people still don’t even know that a church here exists. And when you look on the outside of it, you’re probably driving by and not going to assume that it’s a church building. Right. And and so you have to really be looking for a church online sometimes to find out or be invited by a friend. But when this facility starts to take the shape of a church, more people are going to be attracted to our our location and start coming to check out what’s going on here. You guys I thought were scary on the outside, but now that your building’s starting to look nicer on the outside, maybe you’re not so scary. That kind of thing happening. But I love the fact that that we bought we bought a bar, right. And turn it into a church because that’s just a beautiful picture of of how our church started and what happens in the life of a believer. Um, the beauty of coming to know Jesus is that we all, we all start in the same place. We all, we all need to recognize we need rescued, right? If you haven’t caught that yet. Jesus is called Savior for a reason and because of who he is. It gives us a place to be honest with where we are. And if anything doesn’t paint a beautiful picture of redemption like a bar turned into a church, I don’t know what does.
Right? Um, but if you’d ever walked in this place before it started and looked around at it, you would think, what in the world are we getting into? And why in the world would we buy this? You would want to level it. In fact, when we were here working one day, a homeless guy came off the street and asked for money and didn’t have any, and he left mad. And that was the advice he told me when he walked back out. I don’t know why you bought this. You should just burn it down and level it. But but it’s a beautiful picture of of what God does. The outside still looks like a hot mess, but the inside has been transformed. And that’s what Jesus does in us. We come to him because we need rescued. We don’t come to him in our perfections. We come to him in our imperfections. We don’t come to him presenting the best of us. We come presenting the worst of us. And God embraces us and he transforms us from the inside out. And as that transformation continues to happen, people are attracted to that. That’s why I say the best days for our church family are still ahead of us. In that message rests completely on Jesus, not on us. And when we live in that message, it’s a comforting place to be for the body of Christ. It’s a secure place to be.
And so this is where I’m leading to. Out of the four things God, I want you to know, the one that I want to talk about this morning is I wish we knew how easy it is for God to lead us. I wish in our hearts, in the midst of summer, in the midst of trials, in the midst of obstacles, in the difficulties of life and the to do list that continued to grow. I wish we could recognize how easy it is for God to lead us. Now, as soon as I say a sentence like that, I know sometimes when you’re in the midst of of a season of challenges and adversity, you might begin by by just throwing out oppositions. Well, it doesn’t feel easy. Or if it’s supposed to feel easy, why? Why then do I feel like I’m failing at that? Or if it’s so easy, why aren’t more people doing it? Let’s not. I’m going to be honest and say, I’m not saying there aren’t obstacles, but when God talks about allowing him to lead our lives and you turn to Scripture. It. It sounds simple. And in fact, I believe it is. And I think God communicates it that way. One of the popular verses I think about when when I consider the simplicity of God leading, and I know that all of us are aware of this verse, but in Psalm 23, just listen to the simplicity of the way God leads here, and maybe you can measure in your own life.
Do you feel like that right now? Because the way this Psalm feels after you, after you read through it, and the way God leads us in our lives, sometimes we have to be honest and say, man, I’m not there right now, but listen to this. The Lord is my shepherd. Shepherd. My shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. And he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though. Look at this. Here’s the challenges. Even though I walk through the darkness valleys, I will fear no evil. For you’re with me. As David writes this Psalm, one of the beautiful pictures he creates, I underline this in this passage, is this God? God is leading him. And even in adversity, he finds himself refreshed in his soul, beside the green pastures and the quiet waters. And if you read throughout the Psalms, you find that when when David expresses himself to God, this this feeling of a, of a soul that’s coming to a place where it finds relaxation, it finds comfort, it finds joy, it finds peace. Listen to this in Psalm 139 and verse 24. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And this morning, as we consider God leading us and how easy it is together, I’m not going to turn to just one section of scripture.
I’m just going to discuss this topically throughout the Bible, because I believe this this theme is throughout Scripture, but I’m just going to describe for us and turning to different passages of the Bible three ways we find it easy for God to lead us. And the first one’s a doozy. Ready for this? It’s easy for God to lead us. When we are committed to him. Yes, I just said the C word. Commitment. If we’re honest in our lives and our experiences when it comes to the thought of commitment, some of us even beginning to express that word in any sort of relationship in this world, start to throw up reservations. Let’s build some walls. I’m challenged by that C word I don’t want to commit. Commitment is your battlefield. Sometimes we find it as a battlefield, because at some point in our life we’ve trusted in people. And that trust has disappointed you. And maybe along the way in your commitment and trust in things and persons and and seeing that commitment fail, the only thing that you learned in your life is that the one thing that you can depend on, if you have to depend on anything, is simply yourself. Nothing for us. It’s unfair to put God in the categories that we put, other things that we’ve determined as untrustworthy. And the simple reason is because he’s God. In fact, when you read first Corinthians one nine, there’s more to this, this verse than what I’ve put up here on the screen, but it simply says this for us.
And God is faithful. Now. Why would why would Paul start this verse expressing that to us in the very beginning of First Corinthians? Why would he just make this outstanding statement as he dives into the rest of this book? That God is is faithful? I think the reason he wants us to recognize it. It’s because everything else in life we’ve learned will disappoint. And this thought. And this character quality, this attribute of God. This makes them unique. And this sets them apart. The reason this commitment to the Lord is different than commitment to anything else is because of what Paul starts off with in this passage. And God is faithful. If you were to examine this, this character of God, these attributes of God, just a little further, just to see how faithful this God is. There are these these series of characteristics in Scripture that we call the omnis of God. That means all the word omni is all. And so we we call it omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. Omnipresent is everywhere present or all present. Omniscience is the word for science, the knowledge. And so he’s all knowing, uh, omnipotent, the potent, the power he is. He is all powerful. When you look at it throughout the the Bible, it’s described for us in Jeremiah 23 and verse 23, it says, do not I fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord.
His presence is everywhere. And in Colossians 116 and 17 it says this all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is omnipotent. The the world is in his hands, and his omniscience. In first John 320, it tells us God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. There’s nothing hidden from him. The Bible. Gives us the characteristics of God for several reasons. But this morning we examine it this way. The Bible wants to to say to you, finally, you finally have something to trust in because this is trustworthy. There’s someone who cares, someone who does not disappoint, someone who loves you. How do we know that? I mean, you read the characteristics of God in a book, but how? How do you know this is true and personal for your life? And the answer? It’s the cross. There is no reason on earth. God would give his life for you. Unless he cared about you. There is no reason to really care about the attributes of God as it relates to you. Unless you’ve seen a God who cares about you in the cross of Christ. Is it? What other reason would he come to earth and die? Then for you. This does not disappoint. When it comes to commitment. There’s far more he has given.
By offering himself to us. Then he’s asked us to give by committing ourselves back to him. Commitment comes at a cost. But Jesus, he’s the one that paid it. And so to compare God to these similarities of other things that we’ve committed to in our in our lives, it shouldn’t be done as it relates to God because God is different than all else. God does not disappoint. Which is why in first Corinthians 1013 it says this no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. It’s easy for God to lead us when we’re committed to him. And second is this it’s easy for God to lead us. When we’re able to face. Opposition and obstacles with him. Or may I just add or ad lib to that? It’s easy for God to lead us when we can overcome obstacles and oppositions in him. And this is the part where objectively we say, yeah, okay. Yeah, right. Easier, easier said than done. Sometimes we don’t want to be led by God, because when we look at the road that God may lead us down, it looks difficult. Maybe we could say, yeah, it’s easy to be led by Jesus, my personal life. But but sin and people just add complexity to that relationship. And what do we do when others make it look like a challenge for us to be led by Christ? Paul in the book of Corinthians, just continuing that that theme describes it for us and a couple of places in Second Corinthians chapter four, the beginning of chapter four and Second Corinthians starts off in a in a very beautiful way.
I think in the Bible it says this in verses one and two. He says, um, well, I’m going to give you the summation, God, God doesn’t do things in secret. And his truth is plain to us. I mean, if you’ve got to be hiding something to think you’ve found God. It’s not God. Because God wants his truth, declare to us that we can know him and it’s plain. But Paul goes on in verse eight and he says this, describing the life of a believer. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Like I know, Paul gives a negative and he ends it with a positive. That’s good, right? You always want to sandwich your your negative between a positive and in with a positive. So so that’s good that Paul at least ends it with a positive. But but even looking at his positive I’m thinking, man, we’re pressed. We’re crushed. We’re perplexed. We’re persecuted. Geez. How do you put up with that. And then Paul ends. Second Corinthians four and verse 16 with this thought.
Says therefore. We do not lose heart. Outwardly we’re wasting away. Yet inwardly, inwardly we’re being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory in the FA that far outweighs them all. And so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Look, Paul says, we’re wasting away. So let me, let me let me clarify that for us. Um, when you when you were born, you were dead and you started dying. We’re on we’re on a prolonged journey of of death. Right? Inevitably, the result of our life is is death. An outwardly. It will. We will come to the conclusion of our life one day. What God has created you for more than that. And God connects to you in such a way that it outlives the death that will plague us all. And what Paul is saying through the complexity of life. He recognizes that, yeah, we’re persecuted. Yeah. We’re perplexed. Yeah. We struggle and and everyone does. That’s the curse of sin. But here’s the first thought of overcoming. You get to live beyond that. You get to live for more than that. In comparison to what this life is. It isn’t even a blip on the radar for what eternity holds. Sometimes we get so tense in our lives and get so focused on the tension of things that life creates.
That we focus on that as if it’s the major issue of what life is about. Paul’s mind transcends the problem. You know, one of the things I love about Psalm 23, which we opened up with when I read it just in a personal time of my life, if I’m ever struggling. Is that when I open those pages and I begin to discover what the psalmist says about life related to God, it gives me an aha moment where I realize, man, I have been walking around tense. Like, if this doesn’t go the way that I want it to, like it’s really going to matter in the scope of eternity. Like, this is going to transform my life forever, and all it is, is just a minor issue in life. In comparison to what’s going to come. God, I don’t want to downplay our problems, and I don’t want to talk about our issues as if they’re not real struggles. But what I want to what I do want us to say is there comes a time in life, in the midst of the struggles where you got to look up. Got to focus on it from a godly perspective and recognize that your King, who is omnipotent, omniscient, all knowing. He’s with you. And he cares about you. And the plan that he has for you is far greater than the issue that you’re in. And he’s demonstrated it with his life. Paul goes on further in Second Corinthians chapter 12 and verse nine.
He talks about adversity from from another angle. And when we talk about adversity this morning, this is the last thing that I know that we need to hear. If we feel like life is a challenge right now and we can’t keep our head above water, the last thing you need to hear from me is try harder. Because some of us in that circumstance might feel like we have been trying and trying and trying. But when Paul approaches a similar situation, Second Corinthians chapter 12 and verse nine, he gives us a different thought other than try harder. It’s as if, if we’re to be involved with Paul in this discussion and we were to say to Paul, we come to Paul and we start talking about the the issues that we’re facing. We say, Paul, man, this is going on and this is hard. And and I feel like this is a struggle and I’ve brought it before God repeatedly. What would you do in in the beginning of, of chapter 12? If you look in verses seven and eight, Paul begins to describe, you know, similar shoes. For me. I had a thorn in the flesh. And I struggled with this thorn. And multiple times, three times I took it before the Lord and I asked God to remove it. And I told him, God, please take it away. And God, how can I handle this obstacle? And how how can you lead me through this? And this is what Paul says.
But he said to me. My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Here’s what Paul says. The answer isn’t give more. The answer is to give up. And give over. Nepal was attempting this in his strength to bring it before the Lord. Whatever this thorn he faced, we. We don’t know. But what Paul finally learned is that the obstacles he faced in his life, because his dependency is now on this omniscient, omnipotent God. That the strength to get through the obstacles are on this God who brought him to this challenge that he faced in his life. If I were to just put it in a summation for us, I would say it like this. The Christian life. Doesn’t start when you wake up and decide to try harder. The Christian life takes off when you give up and give over. God doesn’t force you. You will not be led until you give over to God to lead. But when you give up and give over, you’re allowing the Holy Spirit to take over. The reason we give up and give over as Christians is because what God has called us to do cannot be done by our power, but by His Spirit.
For the spirit to work within us, what he needs is a willing vessel. When we give up and give over. We give God permission to allow His Spirit to take over. As people, we are so good at standing in the way of what God wants to do. We don’t even know we’re in the way sometimes. And so what Paul is teaching us in a passage like this is to start your day every day as a believer in Christ, and allow God to take off by giving your life over to him. That’s where the Christian life is simplistic. And to be honest, this is why it’s important for us as a church when we think about our future. When are outside of her building, starts looking less like prison and more like something else. And people become attracted to that. They’re going to want to know Jesus. If you hear a message about the beauty of who Christ is, they’re coming to know Jesus. I’ve heard it said that there are five Gospels in in life, and four of them people won’t read. There Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But the fifth. The fifth is you. And people see Jesus in you every day or not. And the way that happens isn’t by trying harder. Just giving up and giving over. Because the King has already paid it all for you.
We gather on Sunday mornings. Our goal is simple and I want to keep it like that forever. It’s just to draw near to Jesus. We’re here this morning to give ourselves over to Jesus. When we do ministry in church, we have we have one main criteria that we want people that do ministry within our church to recognize that the goal of every ministry that we have here at our church isn’t to accomplish a task. Look, I know we got kids church and nursery and toddlers and all that, and there’s going to be people in there serving. Don’t worry. They’re going to take care of the things back there. And we got hospitality and we got sound booth and we got ushers. And you know, we got different places to serve and forgot. Worship band. I don’t know what I forget so don’t be offended by that. But but the goal. Isn’t to do that job. But the goal is to use that position to reach hearts, because we understand what the purpose of the church is to connect to God’s heart. We’ll walk out of our building this morning. This is what’s beautiful to God. When the people of God turn their selves over to God, that God may lead them. It’s not your power. It’s his. Do you know what that should do for those of us who stress out? I’m going to tell you this morning, the last 2 or 3 weeks in my life, I’ve been like, seriously, can this, can this stop just for a minute? Man how good it is to recognize that I can.
I can just stop. I can rest in him. Look, it’s not on my back. So on his. His grace is sufficient for me. I’m going to read this last point that Paul makes. It’s not on the screen, but let me just share this with you. One of the challenges I face this past few weeks was really ripping at me. And First Corinthians chapter four says this. Now it is required. Now that’s requirement. Now let’s not talk about requirements. Right now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. This is first Corinthians four and verse two. Now it’s required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court. Indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear. But that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. You’ve been given a trust and it’s required that you must prove faithful. Can I just tell you what faithful is? It’s not. Try harder. It. Stick to Jesus. Regardless of what happens if the world goes to hell in a handbasket. You are responsible for you. Stick to Jesus. If you stick to Jesus. You win. I had a challenge come up this week, and someone just trying to force me into their mold to be what it was they wanted me to be, and it wasn’t here at church.
Don’t worry about that. Who’s he gossiping about? But someone’s just pressing me, and it didn’t fit right. And it didn’t feel pleasing to God. And finally, I just said, you know what? I don’t I don’t care, I don’t care what that group thinks. I don’t care what you think. I don’t care about any of that. Here’s what I care about. Is when my life is over. I’m going to be accountable to Jesus. I don’t want to live my life in light of Jesus. So regardless if this puts me in your group or out of your group, I don’t care. I just want to live for Jesus. And when you live your life that way with all the things that you think are important, it really shoves the junk aside. What’s got me stressed out? And Jesus, what do you really think about this? I mean, if I did this tomorrow or didn’t, do you even really care if I over committed myself? Do I need to step back out of this and just say, hey, this, this, I’m going to finish this up because I committed to do it. But but from here on out, hey, I’m I am out. At the end of the day, it’s not going to matter how much you live to please people.
In fact, that shouldn’t matter at all. What Paul says for him in First Corinthians chapter four is that it was Jesus. And here’s why. It’s important for us to learn to be led by God in the midst of obstacles. Second Timothy three and verse 12 says this everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Look, I don’t know about you, but I think the Greek word for everyone means everyone. Everyone that wants to live a godly life. If you’re following Jesus, there is something that you’re going to have to give up. There is a time in your life we’re going to have to look at the rest of the world and say on you, Jesus is what matters, you know? But at the same time I should be careful and say, what God calls us to for sure is is to love people as we’re being led by Jesus. So don’t go out and be mean just because you think I said be mean. It’s not what I’m saying at all, but just make sure that what you’re doing is to honor your king first. And number three. It’s easy for us to be for God to lead us. When we connect with him. First we commit to him, we learn to walk with him through obstacles. And in addition to that, we connect with him. And God works through the willingness. The things you are committed to. As as people, you tend to have a passion for this and you love it.
And when you’re committed to God and you give yourself to him, you’re going to do what it takes to get with him and connect with him and grow with him. And here’s a place you connect with God. It’s in his word. Look, if you want to hear from God. God’s already spoken. Because his truth is timeless. He could actually write it down, and all of us could look at it together as this is what we’re doing on Sunday, but you can do it personally with God as well. You you can connect with him. Being faithful in the in the simple things. It’s important to learn the health of the Christian life. Growing up in an American society, we’re taught real well how to be John Wayne, right? We all want to be John Wayne and save the day. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a John Wayne movie in my life, but we all want to be John Wayne and save the day. We all, we all want to be the the hero in the moment when it calls for it. We all want the glory. But not the guts, right? We all want the game. Without the pain. We all want to be, I don’t know, Tom Brady. Win the Super Bowl. The glory. The hero. The home run hitter. But the truth is. Those heroes. Heroes aren’t born. Here is are made.
And to win that Super Bowl, or to hit that home run, or to be the guy that stands up in the last moment for the victory, those those individuals they started when they were young. I think it’s the same thing when it comes to Lord. Yeah, there may be a time where you just happen to be in the right place at the right time, and you stand up and you honor Jesus, and that’s good. But the truth is, when you go back over Christian history and you look at people who made an impact for Christ, you know who it was. Was the people who learned the consistency of meeting with Jesus every day of their lives. Corrie ten boom. Who stood for Christ in the midst of the time when Nazi Germany had taken over and put her in concentration camps, that that lady walked through Jesus throughout. At the end of her life, she goes to the Nazis and she and she ministers to them to help them overcome the war of just the trauma they experienced for for being, uh, uh, mean and angry and whatever despicable word you want to put on it towards the Jews. She helped them in their recovery. She walked with Jesus. Uh, Hudson Taylor. William Tyndale I don’t I don’t know who you would want. Just pick anybody in history. I can promise you, if they’re making a stand for Jesus. It wasn’t something. They just woke up and just went out and were just this incredible person for Jesus.
What they did is they learned to walk with Jesus. And you think on Sunday morning, our musicians that get up here and play for 25 minutes of worship music for us to engage in, you think about the way they hone that craft for us to be able to do that well. They started playing these instruments a long time ago. They didn’t learn it today. And in fact just to play on Sunday morning. They practice personally and then they come here on Wednesday and they practice for a couple of hours, and they come here on Sunday morning and they practice for a couple more hours, and then they stand up here and they play for 25 minutes. You know, one of the beautiful things about a musician is as they start to to play music is after you play for a little while, especially if you play guitar. When you start to strum the guitar, you begin to recognize when your guitar is off just a little. You’ve trained your ear to hear the tune. As a band begins to play together, they can hear if they’re off a little. And they can maneuver with instrumentation to make the sound resonate better. If you just started playing music today, you could pick up a guitar and you wouldn’t even know Jack from squat. Whether or not it was in tune, you just try to strum and it hurts your fingers.
That’s all you know. But the longer you play. The more your ear tunes to the beauty of the music. The more you can recognize if a chord is off. Let’s say that for us as we connect with Jesus. God’s given you his word. So you can tune your ear to the beauty of who he is. That way. As you walk in this world with him as he’s leading you. You can recognize as you’re taking those steps. Wait a minute. I just took this step, and it just sounds a little off. It gives our heart a place to draw back to him in Luke chapter 16 and verse ten. It says this in the Bible whoever can be trusted with very little. Can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. This passage of Scripture is dealing with stewardship. One of the things that God has given us is people to be stewards over is his word. The psalmist says this my your word. Oh God, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you? Your word, oh God, is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path. Like you want God to lead. You’ve got to be able to recognize the pitch of who he is. Sunday morning is great and it’s encouraging, but so is Monday, and so is every day thereafter that God has given you the opportunity.
And this is what God is saying to us. If you want to hit a home run for his kingdom, just start meeting with the King. Just take some time in the morning, late at night, whatever it has to be to quiet your soul and start to learn the tune of who he is. Or continue. Maybe it’s a continuation of learning the tune he is. So here’s the good news of God leading you. Being committed to such a loving God took more of a sacrifice on his part than ours, and we should find it easy to to be committed to him because you have found someone who is genuinely looking out for you. He cares for you and he’s demonstrated by sacrificing his life for you. He is faithful. He will not disappoint. Finally in him you have a place rather than giving more as the world might demand. You get to give up and you get to give over. The strength isn’t on on you. It’s on him. The failures aren’t on you. It’s on him. As a church, when we give our hearts to him on Sunday, having walked out in such worship, it is beautiful to the Lord. Hear from him. Allow him to build you up as you listen to the tune of your King. Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, and I lack nothing. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.