Latest / Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st / How Can You Know God's Plan For Your Life?
Transcript
- 0:11Thank you, John and worship team.
- 0:13Well, good morning. My name is Drew and for those of
- 0:17you that don't know me and many of you in here that I do not
- 0:20know, but it's an honor and privilege to be here with you
- 0:23today. As Pastor Kyle said, I'm
- 0:25currently the discipleship pastor at a church in Kennesaw
- 0:29North Star Church. And but right here at CFBC is
- 0:33where my ministry roots began right here.
- 0:36And it started in 2007 as my wife Lauren and I were praying
- 0:40that would give us friends in our stage of life.
- 0:44We were much younger then, only had one Gray hair, and we'd only
- 0:49been married for three years at that time.
- 0:51But I remember our first Sunday at CFBC, we visited Shep Hilton
- 0:56Study School class and through that class God provided us with
- 1:00some of our best friends, some who and many of of whom are
- 1:04still at CFBC today. But at that time in my life, I
- 1:08was teaching math, I was coaching baseball, and I was
- 1:11helping with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at
- 1:13Cartersville High School. But that was my mission field
- 1:18and God was doing some pretty amazing things with those
- 1:21students spiritually. But it was it in that time that
- 1:26the plans that Lauren and I had made for ourselves but kind of
- 1:31began to unravel in a sense, or should I say, go in a different
- 1:35direction than what we had planned.
- 1:37You see, our friends began having kids and we were trying
- 1:42but unsuccessful. And then our friends began to
- 1:45have more kids and yet we still had none.
- 1:50So Lauren and I wondered why us? We've been obedient up to that
- 1:55point at what God had asked us to do.
- 1:56So why was he withholding something that Lauren and I
- 2:00desire to be so deeply, which was to be parents?
- 2:06So raise your hand if you've ever asked God the question why
- 2:09before anybody? OK, good.
- 2:11I'm not alone. OK, good.
- 2:12Just making sure. But we all have, right?
- 2:14It's a natural question to ask. But here's something we all need
- 2:19to know today is that God has a plan.
- 2:25And it just might not be the plan that you have for your
- 2:28life. But something that I've learned
- 2:31in my 44 years of living is that God's plan is always better than
- 2:38I could have imagined, even if it means going through difficult
- 2:44times. You see, God always works it out
- 2:47ultimately for our good, whether on this side of heaven or that
- 2:51side of heaven, and for His glory, even if we don't
- 2:55understand the why. So today I want to answer this
- 2:59question for you. How can you know God's plan for
- 3:06your life? How many of you, by show of
- 3:08hands, would like to know God's plan for your life?
- 3:10Anybody. Oh, good.
- 3:12OK, all right, great. That is good.
- 3:13If not, then I'll just shut my Bible and we would just move on
- 3:16with our day. But that's good.
- 3:17So here's what I want you to do is if you will go ahead and grab
- 3:20your Bible. And we're going to be in
- 3:22Proverbs chapter 3 today. And what we're going to do is
- 3:25I'm going to take two very familiar verses, and we're going
- 3:29to use those two verses to simply answer the question, how
- 3:33can you know God's plan for your life?
- 3:35So if you're able to do so, will you please stand in honor of
- 3:38reading God's Word? And we're going to be looking at
- 3:41Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6.
- 3:45And I'm going to be using the New Living Translation only
- 3:48because I'm not that smart and I understand it better.
- 3:52Here's what it says. Trust in the Lord with all your
- 3:56heart. Do not depend on your own
- 4:00understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and
- 4:05He will show you which path to take.
- 4:08Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you for
- 4:13your word and Holy Spirit, we ask that you would speak clearly
- 4:17to us this morning through your word.
- 4:19And Lord, may your word be a lamp to our feet and a light to
- 4:23our path as we discover what Your plan is for our life in
- 4:28Jesus name, Amen. Thank you.
- 4:30You may be seated. As I look around today I see
- 4:34several kids have joined us. So adults, teenagers, would
- 4:37y'all give it up for the kids that are in the room this
- 4:39morning? Thank them for being here with
- 4:41us. So here's what I want us to do
- 4:43OK, I know some of you are are note takers, but today I want to
- 4:46encourage the kids to draw. OK, I'm not a good artist.
- 4:50I draw stick people. My kids are very good artist.
- 4:53But adults, if instead of taking notes, if you just want to draw
- 4:55today, that's cool too. But I'm going to be giving some
- 4:59things for the kids to draw to help them understand what we're
- 5:02talking about. But here's the first thing that
- 5:04I want everybody to write down. God has a plan.
- 5:08Write that down. God has a plan.
- 5:13You see, when God created the heavens and the earth, God had a
- 5:18plan. When God sent Moses to rescue
- 5:21the Israelites out of slavery from the Egyptians, God had a
- 5:26plan. When God sent his Son Jesus to
- 5:29earth to save us from our sins, God had a plan.
- 5:36And when Jesus returns to defeat Satan and bring an end to this
- 5:40world, God has a plan. God has a what?
- 5:44He's got a plan. And here's what I need you to
- 5:46know today. God has a plan specifically
- 5:49designed for each one of you. So how can you know God's plan
- 5:56for your life? So on this map, kids or adults,
- 5:59we're going to have four different points.
- 6:01And on that first point, I want you to write these words, Trust
- 6:04God. We're going to keep it simple
- 6:06today. OK, keep it simple.
- 6:09Trust God. Verse 5 says this.
- 6:12Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
- 6:16And this word trust means to rely on someone or something
- 6:20with complete confidence. I remember back in my teenage
- 6:24years when I would go to church, youth camp, we would sometimes
- 6:27do these things called trust falls.
- 6:29OK Anybody do trust falls before youth camp?
- 6:31Yeah. OK.
- 6:32And you live to tell about it. That's amazing.
- 6:34So the first step that you do, there's about four different
- 6:37levels that you do. The first one is you would
- 6:38interlock your fingers in a really weird way, and you put
- 6:40them against your chest. And there'd be a person behind
- 6:43you who's kind of leaned back with their hands up and there'd
- 6:45be called the spotter. And so you would be the person
- 6:48you'd go spotter ready and they would go redder and you say
- 6:51falling and they would say fall on.
- 6:52They kind of gently put, you know, catch you and push you
- 6:55back off step one. Then you go to the next one and
- 6:58and you get in a circle and they pass you around, which is really
- 7:01weird, OK? Because like you're rolling
- 7:03around and you got your eyes goes like, who is that?
- 7:04Did somebody just stick their finger in my ear?
- 7:06So you're getting passed around. That was level 2.
- 7:08Level 3 was you would graduate to a chair, right?
- 7:12And then your youth group would kind of interlock arms and they
- 7:15would you would fall onto them. But then only the bravest, only
- 7:19the bravest of souls would get up on the platform, right, the
- 7:22four foot tall platform and fall off into the arms of your youth
- 7:25group. But there was always that one
- 7:27person that I knew would probably have the just the, I
- 7:31don't know, we'll probably remove their arms.
- 7:33Tyler Heath, I think you would be one that one of those people
- 7:36would remove their arms and just let that person maybe fall
- 7:38through. It never happened.
- 7:39But if you were that person's shame on you.
- 7:44But in order to do any of the trust falls, you had to rely on
- 7:49that person who is spotting you or that group of people.
- 7:52You had to have complete confidence that they would catch
- 7:55you. And this is the picture the
- 7:58author is trying to paint for you about trusting God.
- 8:01So I want you to write this down.
- 8:02OK, here's what trust in God means for a Christian.
- 8:06It means to have confidence that God is in complete control in
- 8:12every situation. To have confidence that God is
- 8:16in complete control in every situation.
- 8:19So kids, if you're drawing or adults, what should you draw?
- 8:22A person with some muscles. OK, all right, we can do that
- 8:25muscle arm emoji. One day I'll have one of those
- 8:27when I get to heaven, but not today.
- 8:30So muscle is what I want you to draw.
- 8:31But King Solomon, the author of these verses, says that we must
- 8:34trust God with our whole heart, which it means it's full trust,
- 8:39not trusting God in some situations but not in others.
- 8:43It's all or nothing in this situation, in this trust.
- 8:48So after a couple of years of trying to have kids with no
- 8:51success, I will never forget the night that our hearts took a
- 8:55turn. I was sitting next to Lauren on
- 8:58our couch in our starter home on Country Meadow Way and we were
- 9:02watching something called live TV.
- 9:05It's before the days when you choose when and what you watch.
- 9:08Kids. That's these things called
- 9:10commercials, not ads. And then all of a sudden I heard
- 9:13my wife start to cry and I think we were watching the Braves
- 9:18maybe, which can make you cry sometimes.
- 9:23But after a waiting a minute I asked her what was wrong and she
- 9:27told me that one of our friends had just text her to let her
- 9:31know that they were having their second child.
- 9:34So she got up, went into our bedroom while I sat there and
- 9:39stood an anger at God. It was the first time in a
- 9:42couple of years that I've been mad at God about this situation
- 9:45because I tend to be a glass half full type of guy.
- 9:49So I went into the bedroom ready to be on Lauren's side to be mad
- 9:53at God. But before I could say a word,
- 9:55she said this. She said I have to be OK.
- 10:00It was great confusion. I replied, you have to be OK
- 10:04with what? And she said these words that I
- 10:09will never forget because she said them with confidence.
- 10:14She said I have to be OK with whether God wants me to be a mom
- 10:18or not. And I was speechless.
- 10:23But then all of the sudden, God brought to my mind the prayer
- 10:26that I've been praying for Lauren for a couple of years.
- 10:28And I would pray this almost daily.
- 10:30I would say, God help Lauren to be OK with the situation of, of
- 10:35us not being able to have kids, help her to be OK, help her to
- 10:39be at peace. And God had answered my prayer
- 10:43two years later in his time and in his way.
- 10:47And instantly in that moment, we both felt a peace that God was
- 10:51in control of our situation and we knew in our hearts that He
- 10:54had a plan for us. We had seen Him work many times
- 10:58in our lives up to that point and we had complete confidence
- 11:02that God was in control and He was at work in this situation as
- 11:06well. He had brought us to this point
- 11:11where we trusted Him and His plan for us.
- 11:14Isaiah 26 verse 3 says this. You talking about the Lord will
- 11:21keep at will, keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all
- 11:28whose thoughts are fixed on you. So my question for you is this,
- 11:37do you trust God with your current situation, whatever it
- 11:40might be? It might be you have a kid going
- 11:43off to college, you might have some marriage issues right now,
- 11:46you may have some health problems.
- 11:48But do you trust God with your current situation?
- 11:51Do you have perfect peace that He is in control?
- 11:56So step one to knowing God's plan for your life is to trust
- 12:00God. As to what?
- 12:02I can't hear you as to what? Trust God.
- 12:05That's exactly right. And here's step #2 OK, here's
- 12:07point #2 on your map. And it's this surrender control,
- 12:11Surrender control. I told you, I said keep it
- 12:13simple today. Surrender control.
- 12:17The second part of verse 5 says this.
- 12:19Do not depend on your own understanding.
- 12:23I've watched my fair share of cop shows, usually comedies
- 12:27where the police always catch the bad guy or bad girl when
- 12:29they when they finally get to him and there's no way out, they
- 12:32always go freeze. Put your hands what?
- 12:35Put your hands up. That's exactly right.
- 12:37And then the bad guy or bad girl, there's two options they
- 12:39have. They can either try to run,
- 12:41which never turns out well, right?
- 12:42They always get caught and something bad happens, or they
- 12:45can put their hands up. So we're going to focus on that
- 12:47part for the sake of this next illustration.
- 12:50OK, so why do why does the bad guy or bad girl put their hands
- 12:55up? Why?
- 12:56That's exactly right. Because they are giving up or
- 13:00surrendering control of the situation.
- 13:03So I want you to write this down for a Christian to surrender
- 13:08control means this giving up control and trusting God.
- 13:14Giving up control and trusting God.
- 13:17So kids or adults, if you're drawing, I want you to draw a
- 13:20picture of somebody with their hands up.
- 13:21OK, somebody with their hands up right there.
- 13:26But surrender also requires this word called humility.
- 13:32And here's what humility says. Humility says this, I don't know
- 13:36everything, but surrender says this, I will trust God anyway.
- 13:43Humility says I don't know everything, but surrender says I
- 13:49will trust God anyway. As most people do, Lauren and I
- 13:56tried to figure out what God was doing in our situation, but we
- 13:59were unsuccessful. But as we surrendered control of
- 14:03our situation of not being have being able to have children, we
- 14:08began to see God use us to work in the lives of impacting
- 14:12teenagers. At Cartersville High School, I
- 14:15began discipling some of my baseball guys.
- 14:18My wife Lauren was substituting there at the time and some of
- 14:22their girlfriends came to her and said, hey, would you mind
- 14:24discipling us? And then in the summertime,
- 14:26Lauren and I would take a group of FCA leaders to FCA camp.
- 14:31But Lauren and I got this front row seat to watch God bring
- 14:36teenagers to Christ and watch them grow spiritually right
- 14:41before our very eyes. And it was something that we had
- 14:43never imagined. But of course, we hadn't
- 14:46imagined it. It wasn't our plan.
- 14:49It was God's plan. See, we had tried to depend on
- 14:53our own understanding for so long.
- 14:56And when we finally gave up trying to figure out God's plan,
- 15:00he began to do some pretty crazy stuff that brought glory to
- 15:04Himself, which is the purpose we were created for, to bring glory
- 15:08to God. Proverbs 28 verse 26 says this.
- 15:14Those who trust their own insight are foolish, but anyone
- 15:19who walks in God's wisdom is safe.
- 15:23Anyone who trusts what they think is foolish, but anybody
- 15:27who walks in God's wisdom, the Bible says it's safe.
- 15:30So here's a question for you. Is there a situation in your
- 15:35life right now, right now, that you are hesitant to fully
- 15:41surrender control to God? I want you to think about that
- 15:45situation. We all have got something right.
- 15:47We all got our fingers most of the way open, our hands most of
- 15:50the way open, but it's still holding on to something.
- 15:53But here's what I want you to. If you got something in your
- 15:54hands, I want you to put it down just for a second.
- 15:56And I want you to hold out both fists in front of you. close
- 15:59your fists if you can hold them out in front of you.
- 16:01And I want you to do this with me, OK?
- 16:02This is something that I do every morning during my prayer
- 16:05time. And I want you to imagine that
- 16:09inside your fists is that situation that you are
- 16:12struggling to surrender to God. And on the count of three,
- 16:17here's what I want you to do. On the count of three, I want
- 16:20you to slowly open your hands and say this, Lord, I surrender
- 16:24this to you. So on the count of three, we're
- 16:26going to go. We're going to open our hands
- 16:27and say, Lord, I surrender this to you.
- 16:29Say it out loud with me. OK, All right, Ready. 123 Lord,
- 16:34I surrender this to you. And I'm telling you every
- 16:38morning that I do this, you can put your hands down.
- 16:42Every morning that I do this, God gives me this peace that I
- 16:47can't explain because what I know is that I when I put those
- 16:50situations in God's hands, they're in the best hands they
- 16:55can be in order to have control of that situation.
- 17:00So Step 2 in knowing God's plan for your life is to surrender.
- 17:04Control is to surrender what? That's exactly right.
- 17:08And here's Step 3 on your map. Step 3 on the map is this Pursue
- 17:13God's best. Pursue God's best.
- 17:17Verse 6 says this. Seek His will in all that you
- 17:23do. Seek His will in all that you
- 17:25do. Back in the day, I went to
- 17:29Shorter College and I remember seeing this pretty blind girl in
- 17:32several of my classes and I didn't know who she was, but I
- 17:36was determined to find out. I remember before fall break my
- 17:40freshman year asking this girl if I could help her with her
- 17:44computer assignments. You see, I'd kept an eye on her
- 17:47in computer class and I noticed that she never did her work
- 17:50because she was too busy messaging people on AOL Instant
- 17:54Messenger. So to my surprise, she agreed to
- 18:01meet me. So when we got back on campus
- 18:03after fall break, I met her in the computer lab to help her
- 18:07with her work. And for the next 4 hours, I see
- 18:09a lot of students over here for the next 4 hours.
- 18:12Do you know how much work we did?
- 18:14None. But it was the best 4 hours I'd
- 18:17spent a long, long time. It really, really was because I
- 18:19learned so much about this girl. She was good looking, which I
- 18:25already knew, OK, but she came from a strong Christian family.
- 18:29She was a strong believer. And she liked baseball, which is
- 18:32what I played at Shorter. So for the next four years, I
- 18:36continue to pursue her, which led us to getting married in
- 18:412004. And 21 years later, I'm still
- 18:44pursuing her. But there were some other pretty
- 18:48girls out there. But Lauren was God's best for
- 18:52me. So I want to take just a time
- 18:55out, just real quick and just a quick commercial for people that
- 18:57are in the dating scene. OK, can I, can I give some of
- 19:00you teenagers and young people some dating advice?
- 19:05Good. You're going to have to listen
- 19:06anyways. Don't just settle for anyone.
- 19:13Don't just settle for anyone. Pursue God's best for you.
- 19:18And it might take time, but I promise you this, the waiting
- 19:23for God's best is worth it. It's worth it.
- 19:28Commercial over. But the word pursue means this.
- 19:33It means to actively and intentionally go after something
- 19:36with focus and effort. And for me, oh man, I was
- 19:40actively and intentionally finding ways to go after Lauren
- 19:43with extreme focus and effort. Probably more than my studies,
- 19:46sometimes even more than baseball.
- 19:48But this is what King Solomon means when he tells us to seek
- 19:52God's will for your life. You see, when you were a kid and
- 19:56you played hide and seek, or maybe some adults played it
- 19:58during Christmas, I don't know. But when you played hide and
- 20:01seek? You didn't just stand there
- 20:03waiting for the people that you were looking for to come to you,
- 20:06right? What did you do?
- 20:08You actively and intentionally went out to find those people,
- 20:12right? So I want you to write this down
- 20:16for a Christian. Here's what it means to pursue
- 20:19God's best. It means to actively and
- 20:23intentionally seek God's plan for your life, to actively and
- 20:29intentionally seek God's plan for your life.
- 20:33And if you're drawing, I want you to draw.
- 20:35A running person, OK? Person running OK, because
- 20:38you're being active. So in 2011, I was approached by
- 20:46a friend after an FCA event, and my friend asked me this.
- 20:50He said, Drew, have you ever thought about doing something
- 20:53besides teaching and coaching? And I literally lol like I
- 20:57laughed out loud. I laughed in his face as I
- 21:00confidently told him heck no man, I got all my education and
- 21:03teaching and Cartersville High School, that's my mission field.
- 21:07So no. But then he said these words
- 21:12that sent me on a journey that I never saw coming.
- 21:17And he said this. He said, Drew, I want to
- 21:21encourage you to ask God to open and close doors as he sees fit.
- 21:29So I went home and told Laura what my friend had said.
- 21:32And we began praying that simple prayer for God to open and close
- 21:37doors as he saw fit, not knowing what God was getting ready to
- 21:42do. And within a period of eight
- 21:45months from that conversation with my friend, God had called
- 21:49me out of teaching and coaching, which I thought I would do my
- 21:52whole career, and he redirected my path to full time church
- 21:56ministry, which I've been doing for the last 13 years.
- 22:00I didn't have a seminary degree. I had no experience working at a
- 22:05church. But I clearly remember the peace
- 22:08that I felt when I said yes to God's best for me.
- 22:13Did I see it coming? No, I didn't see it coming, but
- 22:16God taught me through all those years and all those
- 22:19circumstances that I could trust Him.
- 22:22But I must surrender control, and I must pursue His best for
- 22:27my life. See Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9
- 22:31says this, and you may be very familiar with it.
- 22:34It says my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the
- 22:37Lord, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
- 22:43For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my
- 22:47ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your
- 22:51thoughts. So Step 3 to knowing God's plan
- 22:55for your life is to pursue God's best is to pursue God's what his
- 23:01best for you. And then here's the result.
- 23:05The result is this, when you draw, draw close to God, He will
- 23:11show you the next step. When you draw close to God, he
- 23:17will show you the next step. So kids, draw an arrow or maybe
- 23:22on that last dot, maybe a couple different arrows just signifying
- 23:26the next step that you need to take.
- 23:28But the end of verse 6 simply says this.
- 23:30He talking about God will show you which path to take.
- 23:33Not your Mama, not your grandpa, not your auntie or your uncle,
- 23:38but God will show you which path to take.
- 23:41But here's what we've got to understand.
- 23:44When we read in the Bible and story after story, we see that
- 23:46God never reveals His whole plan for anybody, Not at one time.
- 23:51He only lets you see one piece at a time.
- 23:57Why? Why does He do that?
- 24:00Because He wants you to keep pursuing Him.
- 24:02That's why He wants a relationship with you.
- 24:06He doesn't want a transaction. It kind of reminds me of the
- 24:10Waze app. OK, if you're looking on your
- 24:12Waze app while you're driving in the car, at the very top, the
- 24:14banner simply gives you the next instruction, right and 1.5
- 24:18miles, turn left, blah, blah, blah, road right.
- 24:22OK, it's probably, you probably have a much better person saying
- 24:25that than I do, probably the British person or whatever it
- 24:27might be, But it only gives you the next step.
- 24:30It never gives you all the steps, but you never see the
- 24:35final destination until you have completed each next step that
- 24:40you're supposed to take. God doesn't promise to show you
- 24:45the entire map of your life, but He does promise to show you
- 24:50which path to take as you trust Him, as you surrender control,
- 24:56and as you pursue His best for your life.
- 24:58And sometimes God's best will surprise you as it did me.
- 25:04So James 48 says this. It says draw close to God and he
- 25:09will draw close to you. If you heard that one before,
- 25:11draw close to God and he will draw close to you.
- 25:14So can I give you 3 quick practical ways that you can draw
- 25:17close to God so you can know what the next step is for you?
- 25:20All good with that. Just real quick.
- 25:21OK? They're very simple.
- 25:23Not hard, very simple. But here's #1 read the Bible.
- 25:27So if you're drawing, draw a book.
- 25:28OK Draw a book right there. Read the Bible.
- 25:33The best way to get to know God is to read the letter that He
- 25:36wrote to you that tells you all about Himself and His plan for
- 25:39you. It's the best way for me.
- 25:41Here's what I do. I get up early in the morning, a
- 25:44little bit earlier than I would really like.
- 25:46I get a cup of coffee. I sit down in my chair with my
- 25:49Bible and my journal, and I read and I take notes.
- 25:53That's what I do. And there are more people that
- 25:56are, that are probably far along in their relationship with God
- 25:58that still struggle with this and they just, I get asked this
- 26:00question all the time. Hey, what do you do?
- 26:02How do, where do I start? Well, here's what I would say a
- 26:05simple place to start is by reading the proverb a day.
- 26:07There's 31 chapters in Proverbs. So just read 1 proverb a day.
- 26:11Or maybe you can pick two or three Psalms and read some of
- 26:13those and write down some notes that you that you learned.
- 26:16Or maybe you can start in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
- 26:18and John and learn about the story of Jesus, but, but find
- 26:21some of those simple places to start.
- 26:23But can I tell you this? The best way that you can learn
- 26:26to dive deeper into scripture is by being a part of a Sunday
- 26:31school class. It's the best way because here's
- 26:34what Lauren and I found is that as we were in that stage of
- 26:39life, we were looking for people to do life with and in Shep
- 26:43Hilton Sunday School class and then eventually, eventually Adam
- 26:46Baker's Sunday school class and and so on, we found friends to
- 26:50do life with. Friends that would challenge us,
- 26:53friends that would help us know God better, friends that would
- 26:55pray for us, friends that would help us in difficult times and
- 26:58friends that held us accountable.
- 27:00But if you're not in a Sunday school class, I'm just telling
- 27:01you this, you're missing out. And I would encourage you today
- 27:05to find someone as you get into the new year.
- 27:07Make it your goal to go. I'm just going to try to find a
- 27:09class that fits us. But listen, life was not meant
- 27:13to do alone. Read the Bible.
- 27:16Jesus wasn't alone. He was with people.
- 27:19The disciples were alone. They were with with others, life
- 27:22was meant to be done in community.
- 27:25But join us study school class and get that's the best way to
- 27:27get started and diving deep into the Bible.
- 27:29And then through that, you can help yourself on your own.
- 27:33So that's number one, Number two, Number two is talk to God.
- 27:35OK, talk to God. So if you're drawing, draw a
- 27:37picture of a phone, OK, draw a picture of a phone, talk to God.
- 27:41So after I read my Bible, I always take a few minutes to
- 27:44talk to God. And the cool thing is, is that
- 27:46you can talk to God about anything, anything.
- 27:50And here's what prayer is. Prayer is simply having a
- 27:54reverent and real conversation with God.
- 27:58You have to understand who your authority is and he's the
- 28:01authority of you, right? So therefore, it's having a real
- 28:04and reverent conversation with God.
- 28:06So if you go, man, is there a way that you can kind of help me
- 28:08learn how to pray? Well, I am so glad you asked
- 28:11because I asked ChatGPT and it gave me a couple of great, a
- 28:14great answers for you. OK, I did ask, but I didn't know
- 28:17these. By the way, here's an acronym
- 28:19for you Ready, Pray, pray, PRAY. Here's what the P stands for.
- 28:24The P stands for praise, praise. And what you want to do is just
- 28:29take time to thank God for who he is and what he's done for
- 28:33you. Write down some some things that
- 28:34God's done for you and make sure you go back and you tell him
- 28:37thank you for those things, but praise him for his character,
- 28:40for loving you, for not treating you as your sins deserve.
- 28:43Praise God for who he is and what he's done.
- 28:46The R stands for repent and repent is just a fancy word that
- 28:50means to to ask God to forgive you where you've messed up and
- 28:55to help you do what's right to ask God to forgive you where you
- 28:58messed up and help you do what's right.
- 29:01The A means ask and this is where you get to bring your
- 29:05request to God for yourself, for your family and for your others.
- 29:10So you get to talk to him about God.
- 29:12This is I just want to pray for this friend.
- 29:13I want to pray for this family member.
- 29:15God, this is something I need to ask you to help me with, but
- 29:18ask. And then the why means yield.
- 29:21This is what we kind of been talking about a little bit this
- 29:22morning with surrender, right? And this is where you surrender
- 29:25all of your plans, all of your worries, and all of your
- 29:28situations to God. You yield.
- 29:31So pray, praise, repent, ask and yield.
- 29:36And then the last one is this. Listen and obey.
- 29:40Listen and obey. So if you're drawing, draw a
- 29:43picture of a person with some really big ears, OK, Listen and
- 29:47obey. So as you spend time reading the
- 29:51Bible and talking to God, He will begin to speak to your
- 29:54heart. I had somebody in between
- 29:55service ask a great question. How do you know when He's
- 30:00speaking? Well, here's what I've
- 30:02experienced. The more time I spend with God,
- 30:06the easier it is for me to recognize His voice.
- 30:09I'll give you an example. When I was in preschool, OK, all
- 30:12the parents at the end of the day would come and get their
- 30:14kids, and I couldn't wait for my mom to show up at the door.
- 30:17But there was a crowd of parents, and so sometimes I'd
- 30:19get nervous and scared my mom coming for me.
- 30:21But every single day I could hear my mom whistling a song
- 30:25coming down the hallway, and I knew that it was her coming to
- 30:29get me. That's what she'd whistle every
- 30:37day. And I knew that was my mom.
- 30:41But how did I know? I heard it every day.
- 30:45And the more time you spend with God, the more you'll be able to
- 30:49recognize His voice when He speaks to you.
- 30:51It may not be an audible voice, but you will know it when you
- 30:54hear it. And God speaks to us in
- 30:56different ways. He speaks to us through His
- 30:59Word, right through the Bible. He speaks to us through prayer.
- 31:02He speaks to us through other believers, And He also speaks to
- 31:05us through our circumstances. So when God prompts your heart
- 31:09to do something, you will have a choice to make.
- 31:12And here are your two choices. Are you ready?
- 31:14It's pretty rocket sciency right here.
- 31:16OK, obey or don't obey, right? Two choices that that's all.
- 31:21That's all you got. And when we read the Bible, we
- 31:25read story after story after story.
- 31:26Here's what we find out. When you obey, that produces
- 31:31blessings. When you disobey, that produces
- 31:34consequences every single time. So the choice is yours, but I
- 31:40highly recommend that you choose to obey.
- 31:44So in closing, want to take us back to the very first thing
- 31:48that we talked about. God has a what?
- 31:53He has a plan and he has a plan specifically designed for you.
- 31:59And by the way, God eventually allowed my wife Lauren to get
- 32:03pregnant and she had Price in 2010, then followed by Henley in
- 32:092013, and then followed by Ellenie Kate in 2015.
- 32:14And then we had one more surprise in 2017 with Beckett.
- 32:19But here's the deal. If God would have allowed us to
- 32:23have kids when we wanted to have kids, I just don't believe that
- 32:29we would have had the opportunity to have such an
- 32:33impact in the lives of the countless teenagers that he
- 32:36brought our way. I just don't.
- 32:38And what's cool is, is that right outside after the service,
- 32:42I got to see several of those, a couple of guys that I coached
- 32:45baseball in in in high school years ago come out there.
- 32:49They're dads, they're here in church, they've grown up,
- 32:52they're serving the Lord. We just hired one at North Star
- 32:55Church, helping with our college ministry, and she's doing a
- 32:58phenomenal job. But just to see the fruit of
- 33:00what God allowed us to experience by just trusting in
- 33:04his plan. But in hindsight, Lauren and I
- 33:09are beyond grateful for the waiting and even for the
- 33:12difficult circumstances because God taught us that we can trust
- 33:17Him. But here's what I want to just
- 33:18make sure you hear before I finish today, OK?
- 33:21Listen to me. God loves you and God is
- 33:26faithful, and God has a plan for your life.
- 33:31But you must trust Him. You must surrender control and
- 33:36you have to pursue His best as you draw close to Him.
- 33:41Will you bow your heads with me? I have a couple of questions for
- 33:48you as we come to this time of response.
- 33:52And question number one, is this, What action do you need to
- 33:59take today after hearing this message?
- 34:03Immediate action. What is it that you need to do?
- 34:06The Bible says that we're not just to be hearers of the Word,
- 34:08but we're to be doers. So what is God telling you to do
- 34:11after hearing his message today? Is there a situation in your
- 34:15life that you're struggling to to surrender to God?
- 34:19Man, as we sing in just a minute, take that time to sit in
- 34:22your seat or come to the altar and surrender that to God.
- 34:25Or just ask a friend, will you pray for me about this?
- 34:28Or maybe you're, you're going man, Drew, I really need to
- 34:31start reading and, and talking to reading the Bible and talking
- 34:35to God more and listening to him and so I can obey and know what
- 34:38he's saying. Oh, man, I'd encourage you to,
- 34:42to ask God to help you with that as well.
- 34:44Or come talk to a pastor, or even if you're not in a Sunday
- 34:46school class, ask them how you can get connected to, to one at
- 34:49the beginning of the year. But maybe, just maybe, God's
- 34:55speaking to your heart about surrendering your life to Jesus,
- 35:00which is where a relationship with God truly begins.
- 35:04And it's the most important decision that you'll ever make
- 35:07in your life because it will determine where you will spend
- 35:10eternity. And there are pastors down front
- 35:14that can help you know how you can start a relationship with
- 35:18Jesus. But whatever God is asking you
- 35:20to do right now, I encourage you to be obedient.
- 35:25Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word.
- 35:28Thank you for the power that comes through it.
- 35:31And Lord, you tell us to trust in you with all of our heart.
- 35:37Don't depend on our own understanding.
- 35:40Seek your will in all that we do and you will show us which path
- 35:46to take. Thank you for not leaving us
- 35:48alone. Thank you God, that you're a
- 35:50Father who loves us and who wants what's best for us and
- 35:53who's willing to show us what our next step is.
- 35:55So as we trust you, or as we surrender to you, as we pursue
- 35:59you God, show us what that next step is in Jesus name.