Latest / Trinity Tinley Park Sermon Podcast / “Living Freely by Giving it Away” with Pastor Paul Strand | September 26, 2026

Transcript

“Living Freely by Giving it Away” with Pastor Paul Strand | September 26, 2026 · Trinity Tinley Park Sermon Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love what the video said, particularly one sentence, particularly one sentence.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: God reroutes the path that you walk for his purpose.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: God reroutes the path that you walk for his purpose.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is a third week of living freely and finding our true treasure in Christ.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: The third week.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about living freely.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that means breathing freely, not gasping for air because a panic attack has just come.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's living freely.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's called walking freely.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not walking all hunched over, like it's the twenty-fourth mile of the twenty-six-mile marathon.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't know whether you can move much further with what's going on in your life.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's breathing freely and it's walking freely, and it falls under the title of living freely.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Discovering your true wealth in Christ.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a series that says you'll discover your true wealth in your investments.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a series about you'll find your true wealth in your bank account or in your summer house or in your vacation plans.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say you'll find your true wealth in the children that God has given you, God be praised.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nor is it the team that you root for.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's discovering your true wealth in the one named Christ.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Paul put it this way, 2 Corinthians 4.18.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do not think you'll find your true wealth in anything that your eyes can see.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find your true wealth in the one who is not seen.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you understand enough through the Bible, through his promises, through the circumstances in your life, that you do not see him.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you know he's there, 1 Peter 1.8.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Though we have not seen him, we believe in him.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Though we do not see him now, yet we find our joy in him.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: For he is real to his children.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Those storms that came, three of them in three weeks.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: The storms that came, could you see the wind?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You not see the wind.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: You could see the effect of the winds.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Can you see Jesus not now, not till you get to heaven?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: But is he real to you?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: The circumstances of your life.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 6.19, it was not Paul who wrote these words, it was Jesus.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said what Paul said 40 years later.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe remember remembering Jesus' comments.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 6.19, do not store for yourself wealth on this earth where fluctuating stock markets and health issues and unexpected storms can come in.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that which you have accumulated in the form of wealth, it can dissipate quickly.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can find that you have all that you want in the form of earthly wealth.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: The bank account is pretty decent.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: But when the storms come, you don't even look at that anymore.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: You look somewhere else if you want to live freely, if you want to breathe freely, and if you want to walk freely.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do not store for cells treasures on this earth.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Store for yourself wealth that comes down from heaven.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is his word, his promises, and his presence.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Store up the wealth that comes from Christ.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one who said, Lo, I'm with you always.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Lo, I am, the one who is the great I am.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I am is with you always.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: The one who creates a universe that you'll never, ever, ever, ever be able to fathom its size and its extent.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: The one who created you, shoving 206 bones and major organs and minor organs and blood vessels and a brain into your five foot ten inches or whatever you are.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one who says, I am with you always.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's promised two things.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: The first you're not going to like, the second you'll like.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing he promises, if you live long enough, storms will come.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you live long enough, storms will come.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then the promise that you do like.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm the one who's with you in the storm.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was 36 years ago, a major storm going on in my life.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I did not know if I would survive physically the storm.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to see Dr.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Alex DeYoung.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, Paul, I will guarantee you that three or four storms will come into your life.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I hope no more than that.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: But you're a man of faith.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this storm, the first one you've ever had to face, this storm you'll survive.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because God is with you.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't know what would happen sixteen years later with Jonathan.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that storm is survived.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't know the storms that happen in a congregation this size.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But those storms are survived.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I look at the people in this congregation for 39 years.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the storms that you have had to go through are beyond comprehension.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And here is Kevin Carson on a Christmas Eve night after he'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And here's this person just gone through a divorce.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And here's this person whose house was foreclosed on on Monday and on Saturday night.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's sitting here in church with his family.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: You live freely, you breathe freely, you walk freely, discovering your true wealth, not in anything your eyes see, but in the one you can't see.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I want to throw a verse at you, Isaiah 61.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the third verse says, They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: The first part of Isaiah 61 is a message of comfort for the people who are sad, they are brokenhearted, and they're grieving.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, I'll turn the ashes into beauty and I'll turn your sadness into joy.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then comes that verse.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Planted where God will put the planting for the purpose of bringing forth his splendor.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: An oak tree in the Old Testament.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: An oak tree is strong, it is deep-rooted, and it is long-lasting.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: You have to know something about oak trees before it makes any sense.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: An oak tree is a very unusual tree because usually a tree will either have a taproot that is very deep, or it'll have a lateral root system, like a sycamore tree that extends very far.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oak tree has both.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: It has a very deep taproot.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And besides that, it has a wide lateral root system.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let a storm beat against that tree, it's got major work cut out for it.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't an oak tree lose branches?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because oak trees have a slightly twisted trunk, and the branches are slightly twisted.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like a rope system holding that tree together.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And let the storm winds come and it just slides through the rope system.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: No damage done.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And an oak tree has a very low center of gravity.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is wide and it is squat.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: How is a Christian like an oak tree?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have a deep taproot.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that Bible said in front of you in the pews.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: The source of our being comes from that word, which is why Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: But your taproot will never pass away.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: My word will never pass away.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is why we sing hymns that are 300, 400, 500, 800, 1,000 years old.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because they had chaos back then.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I've told you many times when I'm singing a hymn that's 400 years old, I'm trying to figure out why they write this hymn, what was going on at that time?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And here comes the hymn.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: The taproot system a Christian has is the word of God.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: What is the lateral root system?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's what's in the word.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Your lateral root system are 7,000 promises.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Which one do you need at this particular time?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the lateral root system are the 3,000 biographies in the Bible.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know about Daniel and the lion's den.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know about David against Goliath.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know that David was chased for nine years by King Saul, who sought his death.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know that a leper was cleansed and the blind saw.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know that the people who were in poverty, that's who Jesus came to.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know that Zacchaeus' life was transformed.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: That the thief on the cross, his life was transformed.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus could do a lot of good in the next 30 years after he was transformed.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: What good could the thief on the cross do?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: His story.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: His story.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: His story.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's never too late.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if he could say, if Jesus could say to the thief on the cross, today you be with me in paradise, what does he say to your loved one who's been called home to heaven?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Who when I hear about them, I hear about their kindness and their grace that was extended to so many others.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: What does he say to them?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: If he says to a thief on the cross, today you be with me in paradise, what does he say to your loved one?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: What does he say to Jonathan?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Today you be with me in paradise.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your root system is the promises of God.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: They are the biographies that God places in the Bible so that when you sin grievously, you look at King David and he was forgiven.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: You look at Moses, he was forgiven.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: You look at Simon Peter, he was forgiven.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know how much strength I get from the promises of God.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know how much strength I get from the biographies in the Bible.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's one other thing that is your root system.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's the 83 miracles in the Bible.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're your root system.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: What's your Red Sea?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: What's your lion's den?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: What's your crippledness?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: What's your blindness?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: What's your leprosy?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is your root system.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a twisted trunk?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I dare say.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have twisted branches?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I dare say.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let Satan come when you have the breastplate of righteousness.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let Satan come when you have the belt of truth.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let Satan come when you have the shield called faith.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let Satan come when you have the helmet of salvation.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let Satan come when you have the sword of the Spirit, namely the Word of God.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let him come.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let him come.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have five defenses mentioned in seven verses.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And wherever he seeks to come and get you, God's got that base covered, your health.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: God's got that base covered, your finances.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: God's got that base covered, broken relationships.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let him come in any area.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And God is sufficient.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Are you?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a low center of gravity?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Luther said this.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Here's my low center of gravity from Luther.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Goods, fame, child, wife, let these all be gone.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I still have the victory one.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom ours remaineth.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about living a simple life.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about getting rid of all the clutter at our house and in our garage where we haven't parked our car in 15 years.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about being a minimalist.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be looking at your husband on that one.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about being a minimal minimalist.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we are.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: This four-week series, this four-week series is perfect for the comment that has been made.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: If I have everything but have not God, I have nothing.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if I have nothing, but I have my Lord, I have everything.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Stay small and squat and short.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just have one thing above all else.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that is your Lord and your Savior.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: You are a planting of the Lord.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning that God roots you, He puts Himself in your life, and then He plants you where He wants you.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the purpose of God planting you where He wants you is not for your glorification, it's for His.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're a Hall of Fame athlete, a poet, a writer, an artist, an economist, an architect, a car mechanic, a video game wizard, a surgeon, a social media superstar.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: God has planted you not for the display of your glory, your skill set.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: He has planted you for the display of his glory.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: To show the world how good he is, how powerful he is, how loving and wise he is.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you show forth his splendor by living it and by speaking it.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: I drove by a house the other day.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: A tree had come down in a storm five years ago.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I drove by that house, part of that tree, the trunk, had been carved by someone with that skill set.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was a bear that had been carved into the tree.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: A storm had come and destroyed the tree.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: But the guy with that expertise had carved a bear into that tree.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: What does God carve into you?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: What do you become when Satan has done his worst?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you're short and you're squat and you have twisted branches and you have the word of God.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: What then?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: He shapes you into a form that he himself desires.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 18, 4.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: The pot became marred in the potter's hand, and he reshaped it into a vessel as seemed best to him.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: When someone asked me, you got a good car mechanic.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: When someone asked me, you got a good tax preparer.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: When someone asked me, do you have a someone you could recommend for surgery?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Who did yours?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: When someone asks me to recommend someone, I just don't give them a phone number and say, give them a call.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: I tell them about that person.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: I tell them what they're like, what the personality is like, how kind they are, how they've walked the second mile.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Stephen Hanauer, Joshua's surgeon 22 years ago.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: When I say to him, I'm so glad God brought us to you.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: He looked up and he held up his hands and he said, I'm only God's servant, seeking to heal those he brings across my past.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Seventeen-year-old son Stephen Hanauer, the kings come over from Saudi Arabia so he can do surgery on them.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he says to a 17-year-old boy, here's my cell phone number.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you need to talk, you call me.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Don't have your parents call me, you call me.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And a 17-year-old calls him and and he returns the call within ten minutes.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I tell people about Stephen Hanauer, I tell them what he's like.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you are planted by God to display his splendor, do you all know him well enough to desire to tell others about his compassion, his mercy, his forgiveness, his ability to turn the worst into that which works not just for your good, but for the good of others.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know him that well.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Has he done miracles in your life?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Had a gentleman tell me recently whose whose wife had passed away.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And for these last weeks he's just been stricken by grief.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when I saw him last, there was a difference about him.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I was sitting there and I just had the presence of my wife come to me.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And there was such a warmth and such a peace that came.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to him, God knew that you needed that.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And your dear wife knew that you needed that.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: These are things I'm talking about.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: The things that God has done in your life.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do you recognize his hand?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: You recognize his fingerprints.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you recognize his miracles, not in the life of Daniel or Moses, but in your life?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly do.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Discovering true wealth in Christ, living freely.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Last verse, 1 Peter 2 9.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're a chosen generation, a holy people, a special nation called forth by God to sing forth his praises.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you, that's all you need to say.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'll pray for you.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's all you need to say.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they know to whom you belong.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe in that precise moment of time they will say, as did the gas station attendant last week, thanks for reminding me that my circumstances are not the determining factor in my life.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for reminding me that I have my Lord and my Savior.