Latest / Faith Church Podcast / Men of Faith - Father's Day | Pastor Darren Palmer | Faith Church

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Men of Faith - Father's Day | Pastor Darren Palmer | Faith Church · Faith Church Podcast

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Well, we want to welcome you here today, Father's
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Day. Thank you, men, for being here. I said last
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week, I challenged you last week to have this
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place full because you know what most men want
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to do on Father's Day? Not be in church. But
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we are glad that we have men in this house that
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love Jesus and that love the Lord with all of
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their heart, with all of their soul, mind, and
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strength. Can we give the men in this house a
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big hand this morning? Praise God. And if you
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would turn in your Bible with me to James chapter
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1, we have five men that are going to be preaching
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this morning. And so I'm going to ask them to
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come and join Pastor Ben on the platform. If
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you are a part of the preaching this morning,
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come on up. Because I want you to just be able
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to switch right away. And you need to time each
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one of these men. And when they get to five minutes,
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you can go ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. No,
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I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You what?
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You're going to do that to me? Okay. But I believe
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that God has called us to be men after God's
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heart. And this message this morning is talking
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about what we believe men of faith to be. And
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so I've assigned each one of these men a portion
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of that. But this applies to everybody. James
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1, verse 17 is kind of our covering scripture.
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And it says this, And every good gift and every
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perfect gift is from above. And comes down from
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the Father of lights. With whom there is no variation
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or shadow of turning. Hallelujah. And so I just
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want you to join me in prayer for a moment. And
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then I'm going to come back up at the end. And
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we're going to pray at the end. We're going to
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pray over the men in this house. And we're going
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to believe God to touch every one of our men
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here. But I just want to pray right now. Father,
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every good and every perfect gift comes from
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you. And I thank you, God, for fathers. For some
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in this room, this day is a difficult day. Because
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of the fathers. That we have had here on earth.
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God I pray. That today would be a healing day.
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Because of our heavenly father. And we thank
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you God. That you. Are a perfect father. And
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we give you praise right now. Lord. We as men
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in this room. We as fathers and grandfathers
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in this room. We recognize our own failure. But
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we recognize God. We want to be like you. And
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so I ask God that you would take the words that
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these men share this morning. And I ask God that
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you would just apply them to our hearts and make
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us like Jesus. Hallelujah. We thank you, Father.
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And everybody said, Amen. Now, men of faith.
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And so we've taken the word faith, F -A -I -T
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-H. And we've given each one of these men a letter,
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and they're going to share. I'm going to ask
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Brian Rage to come, and he's going to begin.
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Men of faith, can we welcome Brian as he comes?
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Actually, before I start, we're going to take
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a little detour. A detour already. So, when I
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knew... I was going to have to be up here. The
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Lord began to speak to me about an open heaven.
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An open heaven. And what does Darren's breakfast
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tables about an open heaven. So what I feel like
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we need to do is just take a couple minutes.
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A minute. I want us to still our minds. Close
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our eyes. Still our minds. And turn your... Mind
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to heaven. Turn your gaze to heaven. See. Yes,
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Lord. See him. See him. See him standing in clouds
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of glory with his hands outstretched. See him.
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He's the lover of your soul. He's your ever -present
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help. See him. We worship you, Lord. We see you
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standing in the clouds of glory. And we worship
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you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank
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you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
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I think what the Lord is saying, some of you
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are going to actually see things. And you may
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think that's just my imagination, but it's not.
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There is an open heaven that is available to
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believers to see their Savior. It's not your
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imagination. It's an open heaven. There's an
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open heaven over this house in healings and miracles
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and deliverances. See him. See him. Thank you,
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Father. Thank you, Father. Well, what the Lord
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gave me for Father's Day. and F being the first
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word, of course, would be faith. And what the
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Lord spoke to me is, faith is forward -looking.
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What do I mean by that? What do I mean by forward
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-looking? And he took me to, of course, the great
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chapter of faith, Hebrews 11, and verse 7. By
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faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things
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not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared
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an ark for the saving of his household, by which
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he condemned the world and became heir of the
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righteousness which is according to faith. The
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vision that God gave Noah was a salvation for
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his family. And we as fathers and mothers, we
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make and prepare an ark. Church history, church
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fathers would call the church kind of a type
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of the ark of the covenant, the ark of Noah's
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ark, that there's a door in the side. There's
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one entrance. There's a window in the top. You
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look up. It brought his family in for the saving.
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And as we press into God as men of faith, we
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make a way for God to do works in our families.
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Amen. I know I didn't say come in when you want
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to. Attend church when you want to, when it's
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convenient. It is vitally important. When I got
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saved, I knew that I knew that I knew I had to
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be in the house of God. Now, I wasn't there every
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time the doors opened, but when I was able, I
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was there. It was a priority. And there's fruit
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that comes from that priority. One of them is
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sitting right back there today. Rachel. Now,
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I've received provision, miracles, direction,
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protection, strength, and comfort. Being part
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of the body of Christ. And I've got a couple
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examples. I told Rachel I was going to talk about
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her today, and she didn't particularly like that.
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But when she was in kindergarten, my mother stopped
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across the road to pick her up, and she went
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running right out of the school building in front
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of a car. That was my aunt driving the car. And
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two invisible hands. Grabbed her from behind
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and yanked her back. And my mom saw that. It
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was like on a rubber band. Back. Rachel, I don't
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know if you still can feel those hands. You still
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can feel those hands that pulled her back. Protection.
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I didn't even know I needed protection that day.
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But God was there. And then another thing that
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was very important. That is part of my church
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history. Was my granddaughter Kennedy. Now she
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just turned 16. And when Holly was pregnant with
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her. Her 20 week checkup. No amniotic fluid.
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None. Maybe one. One out of six. I think it was
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one out of six. But very low. Two weeks bed rest.
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Drink all you can drink. Another checkup two
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weeks later, no improvement. That was a Tuesday
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night prayer meeting that I was part of. And
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I told everybody, I have attended prayer meetings
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all my Christian life. I need prayer. I need
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prayer. And one by one, people had different
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pieces and parts. Different pieces and parts.
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I was the last one and put my spiritual authority
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against the enemy. You'll not steal my first
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grandchild. Holly had a checkup the next day.
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Nothing wrong. I don't need to see you. Those
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are the kinds of things that we as part of a
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body of faith. part of a body of believers that
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believe in miracles, that believe in healing,
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that believe in provision. I could go on and
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on, but my five minutes is up, but probably passed
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up. But anyway, so men of faith, men of faith,
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and you will receive the reward for your faith.
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Question, did anybody see anything? When we're
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in the presence of God. Did anybody have. Any
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kind of. No. Okay. I did. Awesome. Praise God.
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So I got letter A. For action. Action. Faith
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requires action. As I was preparing this, God
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reminded me of a time that my family and I, we
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were moving from Illinois to San Diego for the
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Navy. And on that trip, we mapped it out to hit
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as many states as we could along the way. So
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we cut up north and we started heading west and
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then went west for quite a ways, cut south. And
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we wanted to hit as many milestones as we could
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because, hey, the Navy's paying for it, gas,
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food, and lodging, everything to get us there,
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right? Because they got to move me and my family.
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And so one of the stops along the way was Mount
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Rushmore. Isn't that a great picture of Mount
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Rushmore? And so we're driving, and we're getting
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closer, and we're getting closer to Mount Rushmore,
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and it just starts looking like that. And we're
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like, oh, my gosh, like, come on. The one time
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that we're going to be in the area, and we're
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not going to be able to see it. So we start,
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like, looking up weather reports, and they're
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like, yeah, this fog isn't clearing for two days
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or three days or something like that, a couple
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days. I looked at the radar, and you could just
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see it, even on the map, like, all the way from
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there to, like, almost to the west coast, which
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is a pretty big area. And I'm like, ah. And so
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we get there. We drive up, and the lady at the
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gate, she's like, hey, it's going to be $10 to
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come in. However, you can't see anything. She's
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like, you can come in. You can look at the gift
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shop. But other than that, you're not going to
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see anything. And so we're like, well, I guess
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we won't worry about it. And then we turn around,
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and we park at the first little spot you can
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pull off, and there's a sign that says, hey,
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if you look up right here, you can see Abe Lincoln's
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nose or something. And we look up, and we just
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saw more of that. And so we talked to the kids,
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and we're like, you know what? Like, we're already
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here. We're going to pray, and we're going to
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believe God, because if God can part the waters
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of the Red Sea, God can clear a little bit of
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fog. And so we prayed with the kids. We got in
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the car, and we headed back to the gate again.
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And so the whole time, Charlie and I are, like,
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praying, you know, under our breath. We're driving.
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We're praying the rest of the way there. We get
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back to the gate. I got a different gate this
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time, and this lady's like, hey, do you happen
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to be military? I'm like, yes, I am. She's like,
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oh, you're free. Come on in. I'm like, sweet.
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See, I would have paid $10 if I had not turned
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around and come back. And so anyways, we get
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there. We're walking all the way up. We walk
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all the way up, and you just, like, there's this
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grand opening where you should see it. It looks
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about like that. That's what we saw. And we're
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like, okay, well, we're going to keep going.
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We're going to start hiking the trail up to it.
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And there's like three or four stops along the
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way. It's like, okay, you can look up here and
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you can see it. And fog and fog and fog every
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time. And we got to the last spot and we're standing
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there and we're all taking pictures of the fog
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with another group of people taking pictures
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of the fog. And within about, I don't know, 20
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seconds of us hitting that final spot right underneath,
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the fog went from looking like that. I've got
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a couple more pictures to that. And within a
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matter of 20 or 30 seconds, it went to that.
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God can turn it around. And the way back, we
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stopped at each one of those checkpoints again
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and was able to get pictures at each stop. And
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we got back to the Grand Expanse at the beginning,
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and we could see it. And then we went in the
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gift shop, and when we came back out, it was
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covered again. We left, so did the favor of God.
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But it was because we prayed. It was because
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we did something about it, all right? So James
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1, verse 17, which Pastor Darren kicked us off
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with, right? Every good gift comes from above.
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It comes from the Father. And God has blessed
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us with a lot of things. And I believe that means
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that as followers of Christ, we are called to
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action because we are called to be good stewards
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with what he has blessed us with, with those
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good gifts. In fact, if you read a few verses
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later, And then the next chapter, verse 14 and
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17, says, My brothers and sisters, if someone
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claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such
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faith save them? In verse 17, in the same way,
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faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
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action, is dead. It's dead. So yes, every good
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gift comes from God. We are to steward those
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gifts. We are called to be stewards, right? To
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steward first and foremost our relationship with
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him, to walk with him in the garden. than to
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steward the good earth on which he placed us,
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to tend the garden, to steward the relationships
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of those he has entrusted to us, our children,
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our families, our friends, our neighbors, to
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be fruitful and multiply. And God's not just
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talking about having physical children anymore,
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but making disciples everywhere you go. As a
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father, our children need to see that our faith
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makes us men of action. Do not just come to church
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when the doors are open, but be the church everywhere
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that you go. Let your faith overflow into your
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home, overflow into your car rides, into your
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vacations, into your workplace. Let your faith
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dictate the choices you make and the actions
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you take. I'm going to close with one more story.
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When God called me into the Navy, I was doing
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a church plant up in the East Peoria, Peoria
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area. And I felt God calling me out of that and
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to join the Navy and to be a light in the dark
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place of the Navy. I had no idea what it was
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going to look like. I just knew that's what God
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was telling me to do. And so I did it. I joined
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the Navy. I get to my ship about a year and a
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half after joining, after all my schooling and
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everything. And the first thing my supervisor
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says to me, she's like, hey, we snooped you out
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on Facebook. I know that you're a religious guy.
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Would you be a lay leader on board our ship?
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I said, what's a lay leader? She's like, well,
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we don't have a chaplain on board. So a lay leader
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represents your faith group to the entire crew.
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And when we go out to sea, you hold church services
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and prayer meetings and whatever you do for your
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faith group on board. And I had no idea that
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was a thing in the Navy. I just assumed everybody
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had a chaplain. And so here I was with a crew
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of 320 people. And I was on deployment for seven
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months. And every Sunday that we were out to
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sea, we got to do a church service on board that
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ship. And then every single evening that we were
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out to sea, I got to pray over the entire crew
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every night. And then we even had a chaplain
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try and stop it because he was like, no, no,
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no, you're not a chaplain. You can't do that.
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But my captain was like. This is too good. This
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is too good. What are we going to do? I said,
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I'll stop saying amen at the end, and we'll call
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it a motivational minute. But my message didn't
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change. My message didn't change. I was saying
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the same things, right? But God used me in ways
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I didn't even know. I got a message from a guy
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I served with on the ship just, I don't know,
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two weeks ago. I hadn't thought about this dude
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in a very long time. And to be honest, he wasn't
19:38
somebody I really thought of a lot when I was
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there, but he sent me this long Facebook message,
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and he said, Hey, I don't know if you remember
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me. You would have known me as MA1 Jones on the
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ship. But thank you. God saved me through you.
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He said, I would come to work smelling like booze
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and smelling like women, cheating on my wife,
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doing all kinds of stuff. He said, I would come
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to you, and I would ask you for prayer, saying
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that, hey, somebody I know died. I need some
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prayer. He said, that wasn't true. I just wanted
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you to pray with me. He said, and you never said
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no. You were always there. You always said yes.
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Just by you showing up and doing what you did
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every day because of the action that I took.
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It's not about action in here. It's about action
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out there in your home and in your workplace.
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God has called you to be a man of action. I'm
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not nearly as animated as Ben. In fact, I was
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just thinking as I was sitting up here, I'm like,
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man, these guys have a lot more microphone training
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than I do. But so my word is, or my letter is
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I, and the word is integrity. And I'm just sitting
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there thinking, I'm like, it's kind of an interesting
20:56
topic to talk about integrity in front of people
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that know a lot of your shortcomings. So kind
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of reframes that a little bit. So I grew up knowing
21:07
kind of the definition of integrity as doing
21:10
the right thing when nobody's watching or whatever
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it may be. And kind of an example I want to use,
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pulling in my dad for a little bit, whenever
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my brothers and I get together, we always say,
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well, what would dad say? And that's kind of
21:26
a funny thing. So speaking on the topic of integrity,
21:32
whenever... My dad was somebody that if you needed
21:35
something done, he knew the person. But he also
21:40
knew the people not to choose. He would say,
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oh, so -and -so, they're a liar. They'll cheat
21:47
you out or whatever, whatever. So I was like,
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okay. But what was he basing that off of? He
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was basing that off of what they knew, kind of
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how they operated their character. Now, it may
21:55
not be a true intention of their heart, but based
21:58
on their actions. Going back to kind of the more
22:02
official version of integrity, it refers to the
22:05
quality of being honest, having strong moral
22:09
principles, and consistently adhering to ethical
22:13
standards. So it's kind of like, hmm, there's
22:17
a lot of action -based stuff in there, even like
22:19
what Ben was talking about. It's one thing to
22:21
say it, but it's another thing to do it. And
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so kind of ever since Pastor Darren asked me
22:30
to do this, It hasn't left my head. And the hard
22:34
part about that is how do you bring it into something
22:37
that makes sense that you're going to share with
22:39
other people? So kind of where I've landed on
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this is that the world that we live in is full
22:47
of half -truths, stress, anxiety, being overcommitted,
22:52
and being stretched thin. And all of these can
22:56
lead to cut corners and compromises. Sorry, I'm
23:01
not used to this. But here's the other part of
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it. This world has no use for more shallow, more
23:09
phony. They are looking for depth and authenticity,
23:12
which is integrity. So when you operate out of
23:21
that place, it's something that becomes visible,
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even though a lot of that happens, you know,
23:26
in what you do in secret. So we also have an
23:31
accuser, which is Satan, that will try to trap
23:34
you and then condemn you for being trapped. So
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going back to that word, condemnation. And so
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I thought of that when you said that. And so
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I treat it this way. God sees it all anyway,
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and there's no fooling him. So if we operate
23:52
out of a place of pleasing God, then we've set
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the bar. Way higher than the standards of the
24:00
world around us. But it's also a very high bar
24:03
if you're not pursuing God's heart. By action
24:08
alone, it's kind of a trap to fail. Because we
24:13
do have those shortcomings. So here's the scripture
24:17
that I pulled out. Proverbs 20 verses 7. The
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righteous man walks in his integrity and his
24:24
children are blessed after him. So when I saw
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that, it's like, it's more than just about you.
24:36
It's about those that come after you. Now, whether
24:38
that means your actual children or people that
24:44
you've ministered to and were a light to, spiritual
24:47
children, it comes with a high accountability
24:52
for that, you know? And so... From that perspective,
24:58
leading your family should be the priority because
25:01
God has entrusted them to you. God has entrusted,
25:07
like when Ben was talking about, God has entrusted
25:10
those people to him. So we've got to operate
25:13
out of that place of doing that. And so the example
25:16
that I had, so probably last fall, I think it
25:21
was, I needed to order Carter a new headphone.
25:25
for his snare drum so he could use it in school
25:27
for band. And so I ordered one, and there was
25:32
a problem with the order through Amazon. Okay,
25:34
I canceled that one. I ordered another one, and
25:38
there was something wrong with it, so I canceled
25:40
both of them. One of them showed up on the porch.
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I'm like, okay. So then the question in your
25:48
mind, well, what do you do? Well, I contacted
25:51
the support and I said, hey, look, I know I canceled
25:54
both of these things, but... One of them showed
25:56
up, so go ahead and whatever order you want to
26:01
pick, just charge because they were both the
26:02
same price. And the person said, no, don't worry
26:05
about it. It was our goof. You know, don't worry
26:07
about it. And I remember telling Carter about
26:10
that. He said, well, why did you say something?
26:12
I said, well, because that's just what you do.
26:15
Because there's no blessing in even though it
26:20
was like, well, it was a technical goof, but
26:22
yet I felt like. I need to still pay for something
26:25
because I received something. And so there's
26:28
blessing in that when you operate out of integrity.
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And so, and I just wanted to encourage some people
26:38
in here that maybe kind of feel like I have in
26:40
the past a little bit where you don't feel like
26:42
you've hit the, where you feel like you measure
26:43
up to that bar. It doesn't matter how you started.
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What matters is that you choose to be a man of
26:51
integrity. from there forward. And so there's
26:55
always going to be the people that remember the
26:57
things that you didn't do right. But again, what
26:59
are you pursuing? The heart of God. And he will
27:02
back you up every time. So I just wanted to close
27:06
with this. And again, going back to using my
27:10
dad as an example, he wasn't here to witness
27:13
this comment that I made because it was at his
27:15
memorial service. But even, I remember standing
27:20
up there. It's kind of like, again, what do you
27:22
say? And what came to me was at the very end
27:27
of that, because there was a lot of people that
27:28
prayed, a lot of people that stood and believed.
27:31
I mean, it's like, you know, Lord, heal them,
27:35
save them, whatever you got to do. But I made
27:38
this statement, is that for those on the outside,
27:46
they're watching us to see, do these people,
27:51
really believe what they say they believe. And
27:55
in a situation like that, it's kind of like,
27:57
you know, where are you going to go with that?
28:00
And so you stand on what you believe, and you
28:04
stand with God, and you say, all right. And that
28:06
oftentimes is a bigger witness to people than
28:09
the person getting healed or the person getting,
28:12
you know, whatever it may be. And so I just wanted
28:18
to share that encouragement. Be a man of integrity.
28:23
And, you know, it seems like a pretty high bar
28:26
even for me to share. But you know what? I'm
28:29
just leaning into God. And he's making it better
28:33
every single time. There we go. Amen. Men of
28:49
truth. Men of truth. That's my phrase that I
28:56
was asked to share on. You know, many times I've
28:59
made commitments and then later think, why did
29:03
I do that? I don't have time for this. But if
29:07
we're going to be men of truth, we have to swear
29:11
to our own hurt sometimes. And that's not always
29:13
easy to do. I know emergencies may come up or
29:17
different things like that, but day in and day
29:20
out. we need to swear to our own hurt. If we
29:23
make a commitment, we need to stay true to it.
29:28
This phrase, men of truth, is actually found
29:31
in Exodus 18, verse 21, and it's Jethro's advice
29:35
to Moses in choosing leaders and being judge
29:42
over Israel. And that advice carries about four
29:48
characteristics with it. Truth and faithfulness
29:51
means they are going to honor the word, act with
29:56
sincerity, and conduct themselves according to
29:59
God's standards. To fear the Lord, they recognize
30:04
God's sovereignty and have a reverential awe
30:07
for him that guides their actions. Hating unjust
30:14
gain, they reject bribery, corruption, and covetousness
30:20
and integrity as David shared on. They take responsibilities
30:24
for their duties and avoid deflecting blame when
30:30
mistakes are made. So those are the characteristics
30:34
of men of truth. And those characteristics are
30:37
hard to find today in our society. All you have
30:41
to do is turn on the news and you'll hear the
30:42
false narrative. People trying to make themselves
30:45
look good. or they're caused to look good. And
30:49
so many times, it's just contrary to the truth
30:53
of God's Word. And we have to be aware of that.
30:57
At the times and seasons that we're in, Paul
31:00
warns us. He says, the Spirit expressively says
31:03
in the last days, there will be seducing spirits
31:07
and doctrines of demons. And we're in the midst
31:10
of that right now. We're seeing that happen time
31:13
and time again in our society. And we have to
31:17
be aware of what's going on around us and stay
31:20
true to God's word and his principles and standards
31:27
that he sets forth in his word. And that's not
31:31
always easy to do because we're bombarded day
31:34
in and day out. Statistics say that we're bombarded
31:39
with 4 ,500 negatives every day. That's a lot.
31:44
That's not a lot of positive, is it? But we need
31:48
to be aware of what's going on around us and
31:51
heed God's word. But I think I found a solution.
31:55
And it's in John 1, verse 14. And it says, Jesus
32:02
Christ came full of grace and truth. He is the
32:07
way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was all grace.
32:12
He welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate
32:15
with them. He had compassion on the crowds when
32:18
they were hungry and far from home. He welcomed
32:21
little children to sit on his lap, gentle and
32:25
kinder than most department store Santas. He
32:30
healed the leper, the lame, the blind. He saved
32:33
criminals on the cross. The one next to him confessed
32:37
that he was truly the Son of God. And Jesus was
32:42
all truth. He condemned many religious leaders
32:45
of that day, being liars and hypocrites. He talked
32:49
about hell more than he talked about heaven.
32:52
He called all those to be his disciples and take
32:55
up their cross and follow him daily. Jesus came
32:59
from the Father, full of grace and truth. All
33:03
grace, all truth, all the time. But it didn't
33:09
just come simply to give us an example of grace
33:12
and truth. He came to save us into grace and
33:16
truth. It's only after we've been saved and made
33:20
right with God that God says, all right now,
33:23
I have saved you, but I want you to look like
33:27
Jesus. We desperately need grace in our lives.
33:31
We need to hear from Jesus. Come to me, all you
33:35
who are weary. and heavy laden, and I will give
33:38
you rest. That's Matthew 11, 28. We need to know
33:42
that God doesn't just expect us to clean up our
33:45
act before we come to him. He implores us to
33:49
come now, today, just as we are, in pain and
33:54
in humility, and in repentance and faith. That's
33:58
Luke 15, 20. And we desperately need truth in
34:02
our lives. We need to hear from Jesus. The truth
34:06
will set you free. And we need to hear from Jesus
34:09
what this saying really means. I tell you the
34:13
truth. Whoever sins is a slave to sin. But if
34:18
the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
34:21
We need someone as gracious as Jesus to tell
34:25
us the truth. We need truth. We need grace. We
34:29
need Jesus. Only Jesus. lived the perfect grace
34:34
and truth. Only Jesus can save the hard -headed
34:38
sinners full of lies, deserving judgment. And
34:44
only with union to Jesus Christ can we grow in
34:47
that same truth and grace that walked among us.
34:51
We need to be people of truth. I told Pastor,
35:08
last time my tag team preached was here. It was
35:13
me and Benjamin. We were talking to Pastor David
35:20
Andreessen at the time. And Benjamin bent down
35:24
in the pulpit to get something out, and I tackled
35:27
him. Because that's what I think of when I think
35:30
of tag teams, wrestling or something. So I tackled
35:34
him on the stage, and the pastor said, oh, make
35:36
it happen again. And then I'm sitting up there
35:38
thinking, I'm sitting up there thinking, it's
35:42
four against one now. But they all left. They
35:46
all went back out there. So it's just me and
35:48
you. But Benjamin's a lot older now. He might
35:51
get hurt. I got my phone here. I got a timer.
36:02
It keeps going back to one hour and three minutes
36:04
every time I turn it on. So do I get that long?
36:07
No. Jesse said, how are you going to make it
36:10
in five minutes? Have you practiced? I said,
36:14
no. I have pondered and thought about it all
36:18
week. I listened to probably, I don't know, 30
36:20
sermons. I listened to a podcast. I listened
36:24
to all these things. So I had notes. I'd crumple
36:28
them up and throw them away. I'd write more notes.
36:30
I'd crumple up and throw them away. And last
36:34
night at like 8 .30, Jesse goes to bed, and I'm
36:39
picking up the rest of the stuff off the table
36:41
from what we'd been doing, paying bills, I think.
36:43
And I thought, oh, I need to write that down.
36:47
So I started writing again. And I write this,
36:51
and I'm going to push this right off there. I
36:52
write this down. And speaking of the five minutes,
36:55
my mind's going a million miles an hour. My dad
36:59
used to complain. You know, we had gross preacher
37:04
a lot on Sundays for lunch. And my dad would
37:07
complain that the preacher preached too long.
37:11
And he'd say, now I know he can get his point
37:14
across in seven minutes. Because that's how long
37:19
it is on the radio every day when he does his
37:22
radio program. And he gets a point across every
37:25
day in seven minutes. But yet at church, it's
37:28
how many ever minutes, you know. So, now I'm
37:31
down to four and a half minutes because I pushed.
37:34
I had to tell you that story. So, my final draft
37:39
you get today. Humility. H is for humility. The
37:44
second you say you're humble, you're not. It
37:50
is not a sign of weakness. But today, what I
37:56
come up with last night, and I know this has
37:59
to be God, Daniel 1 .8 says, but Daniel purposed
38:02
in his heart that he would not defile himself.
38:05
To purpose in your heart means to plan ahead,
38:08
decide before temptation comes. It's kind of
38:11
like when we go to a buffet. I purpose in my
38:15
heart that I'm only going to go up one time.
38:20
I don't purpose very well, I must tell you. But
38:26
when it comes to humility, we need to purpose
38:28
in our heart that we want to be humble. We want
38:31
to be a man of humility. C .S. Lewis says, humility
38:35
is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking
38:39
of yourself less. Talking about action, today
38:44
we got to choose. What first action we're going
38:47
to do is we're going to choose that we're going
38:49
to choose we're going to be humble. And I know
38:51
that this came from God because Jesse was watching
38:55
a real spiritual show last night called Monk.
38:59
And I walked in the bedroom as I wrote this.
39:04
I wrote... choose. Humility is a choice. I walk
39:08
in the bedroom and Monk, I think it was Monk,
39:12
I don't know, I didn't see it. She was walking
39:13
on her phone. I can't see that. But I hear these
39:17
words that somebody on that show said. It's a
39:23
choice. You can choose to be happy. Well, just
39:28
so much as you can choose to be happy, just so
39:31
much as I chose what hat to wear today, this
39:34
one says faith over fear. I thought that was
39:36
fitting for the day. It's basically the only
39:39
religious hat, Christian hat I have. And I need
39:42
to get more because I took a challenge at work.
39:45
One day they said, how many hats do you have?
39:48
Do you wear a different hat every day? I said,
39:50
challenge accepted. So for like a month and I
39:55
don't know how many days, I wore a different
39:56
hat every day. And there was a couple people
39:58
that would walk up to me and read my hat to see
40:01
what hat I had on today. So just as much as I
40:05
choose what hat I'm going to wear for the day,
40:08
we have to choose and make it of ourselves that
40:11
we are going to be humble. Oh man, I only got
40:16
a minute left. I'm going to have to reset my
40:20
timer. So, walk, choose, walk. Micah 6 .8 says
40:27
walk with God. James 4 .10 says humble yourself.
40:32
So this is something we got to do ourself. It's
40:37
not like God's going to just strike us with humility.
40:40
We have to choose it. We have to do it. We have
40:43
to put it on. Knowing who you are, lay aside
40:49
in John. Chapter 13. Verse 3, 4, and 5, I think.
40:59
It says, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given
41:04
him all things into his hands, and that he had
41:07
come from God and was going to God, rose from
41:10
supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel
41:13
and girded himself. So he took his garments and
41:18
he laid them aside. There might be some things
41:20
that we have to lay aside. Sometimes when I choose
41:22
which hat I'm going to wear, I have to lay the
41:24
other ones aside. And the good thing about wearing
41:26
a hat is you don't have to comb your hair. And
41:28
at work we did have to wear hats, but now we
41:32
don't have to, but I still do. But he took it
41:38
off. He took his garments and he laid it aside.
41:40
But then he picked up a towel. He picked up a
41:43
towel and he became a servant. If we want to
41:46
be humble, we have to choose to be a servant.
41:51
And a few months ago here, we had all kinds of
41:55
opportunities to choose service. And I think
41:59
there's probably still availability right here
42:02
in this building where we can choose to be of
42:05
service. And my timer's going off. And we can
42:09
choose. We have to choose to do it. After that,
42:14
he poured water into the basin and began to wash
42:16
his disciples' feet. I'll stop eventually. He'd
42:25
wash the disciples' feet. Sometimes, if we're
42:30
humble, we may have to wash some feet. Sometimes
42:37
we may have to simply change the way we think.
42:41
In Philippians 4, 8, it says, think on these
42:44
things and all those things it says to think
42:46
on. And humility, I'm reminded of humility every
42:53
time I'm driving and somebody in front of me
42:57
does something like they don't turn their turn
42:59
signal on. There was actually a police officer
43:02
in Lincoln the other day on the square, didn't
43:04
use a turn signal. But how many times have I
43:08
been looking at the person in front of me without
43:11
their turn signal on and realize, I don't have
43:15
mine on. So I've changed my wording. to where
43:20
you're a dumb driver, because I'm number one,
43:23
but I've changed it to where instead of saying,
43:27
why don't you have your turn signal on? I could
43:29
have went if I'd known you was turning. Instead
43:33
of that, I say, quit driving like me. There's
43:36
only room for one of us on the road. Choose today
43:40
to be humble. Wow. Wow, was that good? I want
43:57
to close this morning by reading from one of
44:01
the spiritual fathers in the Bible who in the
44:07
New Testament after Jesus' ascension probably
44:10
became more of a father, though he had no children
44:15
of his own, to the church than any other man.
44:22
And his name was John. And John knew that there
44:30
was warfare over men. Do you know there's spiritual
44:38
warfare over the men in our culture? The enemy
44:43
wants to turn the men away from God. Do you know
44:50
most sitcoms who the butt of the joke always
44:53
is? It is the men. The men are always the goofy
45:00
ones that have the strange ideas. And there is
45:05
war right now against men rising up to be who
45:11
God's called them to be. Men of faith. And he
45:17
wrote in... chapter 2 of 1 John, in verse 12.
45:24
I'm going to ask the worship team to come because
45:28
we're going to pray over men this morning. 1
45:34
John, chapter 2, verse 12. He says, I write to
45:39
you, little children, because your sins are forgiven
45:42
you for His name's sake. Good news. I write to
45:48
you, fathers, because you have known him who
45:54
is from the beginning. We need fathers that know
45:58
the Lord. Amen? And then he says, I write to
46:02
you, young men, because you have overcome the
46:08
wicked one. The wicked one. The wicked one is
46:13
after our young men. He goes on, says to the
46:20
little children again, I write to you, little
46:23
children, because you have known the Father.
46:28
Good. I write to you, fathers, because you have
46:32
known Him who is from the beginning. There he
46:35
says that again. I have written to you, young
46:40
men, because you are strong. And the word of
46:46
God abides in you. And you have overcome the
46:55
wicked one. You see, in this house, God wants
47:00
the men to be overcomers. God wants the young
47:04
men to be overcomers. But there is a spiritual
47:07
battle. There is a spiritual battle at war. against
47:14
the men in our culture. And I just want us to
47:21
pray right now. There's a battle for your soul.
47:25
There's a battle for who you are. There's a battle
47:29
to keep you suppressed from ever fulfilling God's
47:34
intention in your life. But God's got a calling
47:38
on your life. God's got his hand upon you. brand
47:44
new at this, you might be saying, you know, all
47:47
this feels like a tall task to me. I don't know
47:53
if I can live up to that or not. But God's wanting
47:57
you today to just take a step toward Him. You
48:03
know, the one that talking about humility, Pastor
48:07
Tim, Jesus said that two men went to church.
48:14
And one of them looked up in heaven and said,
48:17
God, I thank you that I am not like all the other
48:20
people. I tithe. I give what I have to the poor.
48:30
I thank you that I'm not like everybody else.
48:35
But there was another man that went to church.
48:39
And Jesus said, he just hit himself in the chest.
48:45
And he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
48:53
And Jesus said, I tell you the truth. That man
48:58
went home justified before the Lord. How many
49:02
of you men would just freely admit, I'm not perfect.
49:07
I've got a long way to go. But I want, I want.
49:15
To walk in the footsteps that God has for me.
49:20
How many of you men would say that's me? I want
49:23
to walk in the footsteps that God has for me.
49:27
And the call today isn't to perfection. It isn't
49:31
to live up to every dotted I and cross T. But
49:40
the call today is for us as men to simply Say,
49:44
God, here I am. I'm yours. And I want to walk
49:48
after the heart of Jesus. I need your mercy.
49:52
I need your grace. I need your help. But here
49:57
I am. And if that's you, men of God, I just want
50:02
to ask you to stand around this room right now.
50:06
And we're going to pray over you. And we're going
50:10
to believe right now. Thank you, Lord. Thank
50:14
you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
50:21
I like it. Some of the young men are standing
50:23
up. They're not married or they don't have families
50:26
or children, but they're standing up before the
50:28
Lord right now. They're saying, God, that's how
50:32
I want to live. I want to overcome the evil one.
50:37
I want the word of God to live in me. Father,
50:44
I want to lift up these men right now because
50:48
it's only at the cross that we can overcome.
50:53
We just bring all of our failure, which we know
50:55
we have. We bring all of our stuff and we just
51:02
give it to you, Jesus. And we say, Lord, have
51:08
mercy on me. Help me. I want to. Have a heart
51:14
that is after the Lord. God, I pray grace over
51:19
these men. I pray your touch over these men.
51:23
Just stretch your hands towards the men right
51:25
now, those of you that are seated, and just stretch
51:28
your hands towards them. Father, just impart
51:31
grace to the men of this house. God, raise them
51:36
up strong. Raise them up, God, overcomers in
51:41
Jesus' name. Raise them up to be like Christ
51:45
day by day by day by day. God, to be men of faith,
51:51
to be men of action, to be men of integrity,
51:54
to be men of truth, to be men of humility. God,
51:59
I pray that these characteristics would belong
52:02
to us in Jesus' name. And we just want to declare.
52:13
want to declare, God, the victory that is in
52:16
Christ. Hallelujah.