Amen. Thank you, Angela. Thank you so much. Just a quick reminder as well, too, that this Walk for Life is this coming Saturday, this coming Saturday, and we usually have a pretty good team. I know we're a church of a whole bunch of last-minute Lucys, and not everybody has signed up, so I need all the last-minute Lucys to connect with Jimmy and Laura. Raise your hand. There you go. There you go. There you go.

And they will not condemn you for being a last-minute Lucys. They just want you to help participate. It's only two miles. You walk around the track. You can even cheat if you want. Just say you did two, okay? They just want a good... The pastor shouldn't tell you to cheat, should they?

But yeah, what time is it? Again? There you go. There you go. And bring some, like, old bread, because all the ducks will chase you around there and just throw some bread.

And if you're smart, you'll throw it behind you. That way the ducks attack the group that's behind you walking, okay? And so it works out well that way. So anyway, that way you're feeding God's kingdom and you're... Yeah, I can't think of anything spiritual about that.

So at that, we want to dismiss our children, K-5 through 5th grade. Follow Mr. David, Mr. Taylor.

Wow, we've got a whole gaggle. That's awesome. Amen.

All right. Today. Today, today, today, today, today, today. Today we should be in Genesis chapter 42. And we're not. We're not. We are, but we're not.

Now, this has been a really hard week for me. I just, you know, sometimes I just think I just need to share with you and you to understand.

I know everyone has hard weeks and stuff, but I take my calling very seriously because I understand that every word that I share with you guys at one point in time,

I'm going to be held accountable, whether this side, if you guys don't hold me accountable, this side, guess who's going to hold me accountable, okay?

But there's so much weight to that. I spent Sunday afternoon, Monday, and Tuesday praying and studying and getting ready for Genesis chapter 42.

And I had the message all put together and began to look at it. I'm like, oh, it's a little too long. So I need to do one of two things.

I need to shrink it down or just go ahead and divide it up into two. Today's going to be a different day.

If you're visiting with us, if you're visiting with us today, we're normally in Genesis. I just got a text the other day from someone in our church that said,

hey, Pastor Curtis, this coming April will be two years that we've been walking through Genesis.

And now we have taken a couple of breaks with a few small series and then Christmastime and this, that, and the other.

But they also said that they have been challenged in a lot of ways that they never would have studied the word in a way they never would have studied it before.

So with that being said, we're not done with Genesis yet.

So if you haven't, if you're visiting with us today, we didn't get into Genesis, don't worry.

We'll have plenty of time because there's 50 chapters in there.

And we're only getting to 42.

Anyway, so I prepare everything.

I'm either going to shrink the message down or I'm going to go into two Sundays for this message.

And I begin to go through it on Wednesday morning to try to discern how I'm going to break it up.

And God just begins to speak to me and says, this is great, but you're not preaching on Genesis 42.

Okay, well, what am I speaking on?

Crickets, crickets, crickets.

And I'm begging God.

So I get, I'm a planner.

I'm a planner.

I like to have things in order to a certain degree.

I'm always open to the Spirit, absolutely.

But I also want to have a plan.

And so anyway, I begin.

And so Thursday morning, I wake up at 1.30, 1.45, and I'm wide awake.

So I was at work by 2.15.

I'm in my office.

I'm sending emails to the elders at 2.30 and to the staff.

And then so I'm studying.

I turn music on.

I start worshiping.

I'm trying to figure out.

And so what I believe the Lord has laid on my heart is a whole bunch of stuff.

And I'll just try to unfold it as best I can this morning.

Because some of what we've gone through, we've gone through a lot of stuff within Genesis.

And I think we've blown through some things that God's calling us to slow down on a little bit

and look at some character things.

Look at some things in the life of Joseph.

Because that's where we're now in the life of Joseph.

And Joseph is the star of the rest of Genesis.

Okay, from this point on, it's really important.

Joseph's character. And we see, we've gone through already. We saw where Joseph was the favorite son. He had a coat that said I was the Mac Daddy favorite son. Okay? He had the coat that said it. And he didn't have to work because his dad said, I want you to go spy on all your brothers. Right? Spy on all your brothers and come back and tell me if you find them doing anything wrong. Now, those of you who are siblings, you know, if you had a younger brother who did that to you, what do you want to do? You want to dot his I. Okay? Okay? You want to take care of him. Right? And so, it created a lot of

consternation within the family. And so, what happens is Joseph has this relationship, this very volatile relationship. And the brothers decide, look, it's not just enough that we hate him. We want to kill him. And so, all of a sudden, they're like, well, let's not have his blood on our hands. So, I know what we'll do. We'll throw him in a pit until we can figure out what we can do. Now, we're going to sell him off. They sell him to these Midianite slave traders. And he ends up in Egypt. So, he finds himself as a favorite son.

Now, now he's a slave. And now, all of a sudden, he's in Egypt. And this man named Potiphar buys him. Takes him to his house. Potiphar is a captain of the guard. He's somebody very powerful in Pharaoh's household. And so, he ends up in this situation. And so, Potiphar ends up giving Joseph in charge of his whole household.

He sees that God's hands on him. So, he lets his Hebrew. He's over all of his affairs, all of his goings on, over all of his little servants and slaves in his household. He says, you're in charge of everything except for one thing. It really turned out to be two. But one thing was, don't touch the food I eat. Don't touch my food. Alright? Second thing was, obviously, don't touch my wife. Alright? That wasn't obvious. But, we find out that that's the case.

Because the scriptures are very factual with us. In the candor of the scripture, we understand that. Joseph was a very handsome young man. Very strapping young man.

Miss Pauline said, yes he was. Like she saw him. Yes he was.

That's awesome.

John, when Pauline didn't get that picture of Joseph.

I read it in the scripture. There we go.

Yes he was.

I love it.

It's going to be one of those Sundays. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you.

So, anyway, he's a very handsome.

So, he catches the eye of Potiphar's wife.

And Potiphar's wife is coming on to him.

But Joseph wants nothing to do with it.

Won't listen, won't listen.

Finally, she gets tired of whispering in his ear.

So, she grabs him by his garment.

Doesn't tell us which piece of clothing it was.

Doesn't matter.

But he runs.

Joseph does what we think we would hope he would do.

He runs out of the house.

Right?

He exits.

We only wish that he would have kept all of his clothing.

Alright?

Because she has a piece of garment with her.

That gives her the opportunity to say,

He tried to rape me.

He tried to rape me.

And so, when her husband comes back home,

She's got that piece of clothing, what?

Sitting right beside her.

The man that you brought here tried to come in here and rape me.

And so, we know, though, that Potiphar doesn't really believe her story completely.

Because, in essence, what should have happened to Joseph?

So, done.

Done.

But he has to save face somehow with his wife.

Because I've got to live with her.

Right?

So, we're going to put him in prison.

But it's not a prison like we think of.

It's really a holding place.

A holding place until Pharaoh decides what's going to happen with these folks.

Not in the sense of prison like we think about.

Where it's for misdemeanors and felonies.

That kind of thing.

What happens is now Pharaoh gets upset with two other guys.

And sends them to the same holding place.

The cupbearer and the baker.

And in that, these guys have dreams.

Alright?

I'm trying to move through this quickly.

But these guys have dreams.

Separate dreams.

But Joseph is able to interpret them.

And they come out just like he said.

The cupbearer gets restored to Pharaoh.

And back to his position.

And the baker gets hung.

And the birds eat his flesh.

Just like Joseph had said.

And Joseph says to the cupbearer.

Please, when you get back to Pharaoh.

What?

Remember me.

Remember me.

I don't deserve to be here.

I was a Hebrew taken from my family.

I was a slave.

But then I don't deserve to be here either.

Because Potiphar's wife has falsely accused me.

Please remember me.

And the cupbearer.

But there's a arrest.

Now Pharaoh has these dreams. Okay. And the cupbearer finally says, I remember my offenses. Now I remember my offenses. There was a Hebrew who can interpret. Blah, blah, blah. They bring Joseph. They clean him up. Shave him down. Because all the Egyptians are shaved. Head to toe. Okay. Shave him down. Dress him in a garden. He stands and he interprets Pharaoh's dreams. And he says, you're going to have seven. The two dreams mean the same. Seven years of plenty and seven years of great famine. If you don't. If you don't set aside things right now.

Now it's going to destroy the whole country. And you won't. You won't. The Egypt will cease to exist as a nation. And so Pharaoh says, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going to put it all together. And we need somebody who can, who can oversee this. Joseph, you the man. Because if this whole thing turns out to be a farce, guess what we're going to do? Joseph, you the man. You're out. But we look at the life of Joseph and Joseph had such a, such resiliency.

I don't want us to lose sight on that. There's, there's a couple of things here that I think we're supposed to touch on. But he had such resiliency, you know, going from, going from his father's house to despised by his brothers, to being a slave, to being a potter for his house, falsely accused, blah, blah, blah. Now he's in the palace, you know, all these things.

He was so resilient. And we talked last week a little bit about this, but I believe that, that Joseph is probably the greatest biblical example of Romans 8.28.

He, he, he, he, in my opinion, okay, he is the greatest example of Romans 8.28, that we know, that we know that all things work together for good, for those who love the Lord and are called accordingly to his purposes.

And we said last week that so many of us love that text, and we should love that text, but so many of us, we turn a blind eye to Romans 8.29, that says that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.

And in that, in that confirmation, as we are being conformed into Christ, guess what happens?

There's a lot of shaping and molding that has to take place in Curtis' life, and in your life.

And in that, that shaping and that molding into the image of Christ, and in your life, and my life, what, what happens is, that is usually done in the midst of trials.

That shaping and molding is usually done in the midst of pain, in the crucible of pain, in the crucible of, of, of, of events that go on in our life,

that we think are just not helpful whatsoever.

But Romans 8.28, there are two interesting words in that verse, okay?

The words work together.

All things work together.

Those, it's not two words in the original.

In the Greek, it's one word.

It's one word, and the Greek word is synergo.

And synergo is, is where we get our term synergy.

Where, that's where we get synergy from in our language.

And if you were to look it up, synergy means this.

The working together of various elements to produce, to produce a result greater than the sum of those elements.

Now, I know that's a mouthful, but listen again.

The working together of various elements to produce a result greater than the sum of those elements, okay?

God does that with the sum of all the elements in our lives that seem not to make sense.

That seem, in the midst of it, synergo, causing a synergism that result, that the result is greater than the sum of all of those events.

Even though you would swear that what you were going through right now, there is no way this could possibly be any good for me.

There is no way this is helpful in my life, you know?

How can this be good for me?

Because it hurts.

This is uncomfortable.

This is not good, okay?

But God is able to take certain things that happen, certain events that fall, it would seem, fall into place in your life,

and cause them to be so related to each other that they're actually beneficial to you.

Wow!

God does that!

And we stand, we can see it in hindsight, right?

But He does that.

Now, keep all this in mind, because we're not going to get to it, we're not even going to sniff it today,

but at the end of Joseph's life, He's going to give this great statement of faith,

this Romans 8.28 great statement of faith, because He's going to say,

As for you, my brothers, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for you.

falsely accused. But now I get it. All things work together. All things work together for good. Ruben A. Torrey once said that Romans 8.28 is a soft pillow for a weary heart. I've always loved that. A soft pillow for a weary heart. It's a great verse, isn't it? Okay? And it is a great verse, but do we know it? I mean, do we really know it? I mean, we would really wrap, this is why I wanted to pause this week. We would really wrap our minds and hearts.

around Romans 8.28, if it really read, most things work together for good for those who love the Lord and call it accordingly to His purpose. No, no, no. Most things that I can put together, I can deal with that, okay?

You know, and go back in your mind. Let's go back a little bit in our minds. Again, this is all preparatory for chapter 42 once we get there. But I want you to think about, do you remember Job?

Okay? You remember Job, and when he was suffering, he was struggling with an episode of suffering in his own life, and he was trying to find out where was God in the midst of all of it.

Have any of you ever had that in your life where you're struggling with something, and you're wondering, where is God in the midst of all this?

And those of you who don't have your hand up, or your pants are on fire, okay?

I mean, even those with strong faith, amen, you have moments like that in your life. Let's be really honest, really candid this morning.

And Job said something like this. He said, I go forward, and He's not there. And I'll go backwards, and I don't perceive Him. I don't perceive Him.

I go to the right, and He's not there. I go to the left, and He's not there. He is nowhere to be found. I cannot find God.

That's what Job says. But then he says, but He knows the way I take. He knows the way I take.

And when I am tested, I will be brought forth as gold, or I will come forth as gold.

I don't know where God is, but God knows where I am. God knows where I am. I don't know what He's up to, but He knows what I'm up to.

And moreover, He is synergizing everything for my highest good, so that I will come forth as gold.

I will come forth as pure gold.

Job also says something else in the midst of his suffering. He said, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.

I hope you really get that this morning. Though God would kill me through this trial by the will of God, that's His will. I still trust Him.

And that leads me to a question that I've had to ask myself all week this week, and I want to push before you this morning.

What is your limit to trusting God?

Let's be really honest this morning. What is your limit to trusting God?

Job's limit was, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.

That was his limit. His limit was, you know, the sky's the limit.

Even if I die, I trust the Lord.

Even if I die, okay?

What is your limit in trusting God?

Are you saying secretly in your heart, you know, I'm going to trust the Lord as long as I have good health?

Man, if I was ever diagnosed with that debilitating disease over there, I think my trust is out the window.

Let's be really honest.

Let's be really honest this morning, you know.

As long as I'm maintaining this level, this standard of living, I may not be a billionaire or whatever, but where I'm comfortable, as long as we're maintaining this standard of living, I'm going to trust God.

But I've seen some people really have to live in some hard places.

If I ever got called to that, I don't think my trust in God would survive.

Secretly, in our hearts, we have these conversations.

Am I the only crazy person that has these conversations with God?

You know?

Or this.

I think about Jim and Cheyenne who just got engaged.

Amen.

Yeah, they're getting married and married.

Yeah.

But what?

God, this relationship.

This relationship.

I trust.

What is your limit to trusting God? You know, again, Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Let me be, this is, this is one thing that God's called me. I'm going to try to do this this morning. I'm going to be very transparent with you this morning. This is something I've never even shared with my wife.

Where is your limit to trusting God? A year and a half ago. Maybe a little bit over a year and a half ago. Our family was in the midst of a court case where we knew that we had to step in and fight for a little girl that we were caring for. There were some entities that were trying to do some things that were just wrong and sideways.

And so we had to expend every financial resource we had to fight for this. It's not about finances. It's not about finances. But we had to fight for this little girl. And in the midst of this, in the midst of this, I remember taking Caroline. And I remember walking her on the beach when she was one year old. And I walked her on the beach. And I took her off away from the family. And I had a prayer to God and I promised her. I said, Caroline, she didn't understand me.

She's one. But God heard me. I said, I promise you, Caroline, if God gives you to us, I will love you. I will care for you. I will be a protector for you. I will be a shield for you. I will provide for you.

And if God calls me to, I will lay down my life for you. Because Jill and I both believe that God is placing you. We felt, we heard God say, this child is going to be part of your family.

And in the midst of this, we had some situations come up in the court. We had some situations that came up in court that weren't good. That weren't good.

And it looked like things could maybe go south. And I remember in my, in my moment, I said to God, I confessed it before God. I can confess it before you.

I said to God, God, if you take this little girl away from us, I don't know that I can trust you.

I say that because don't ever think you're past the point where you can, you, you're trusting God is so secure.

I don't care who you are. God knows where to push, where to push.

Let me tell you something else about trusting.

A little bit, some of you have heard our story before. I'm going to really shrink some things down too,

because I think there's some application that God wants us to hear this morning.

We were just, we were just a, we were just a Sunday night Bible study meeting at Holiday Inn.

And we knew that God was calling us to do something.

We had some leaders gather around and we prayed and we fasted.

We felt like God was calling us to plant a seed, to be a church.

To, to help us, to make a difference in the lives of this community and to help us look, live and love beyond ourselves.

Just like it says up there.

And to, to, to, to operate in a way that we were being led by the Spirit of God.

And nothing against any other church. I'm not, I'm not saying that.

But for us. For us.

And in the midst of all that, we're trying to find a place to, to rent.

We're three months into being, getting our 501 C3, 3C.

I always get those backwards.

From being non-profit. How, there you go. How's that?

We're three months into that.

Most banks don't want to touch you and give you a loan unless you're three years into it.

Okay?

So, we're, we're in the midst and I came in and I peered through the window here and there's all little offices here.

And I called the guy who owned this and I said, hey, um, would you be interested in renting it out?

Hey, we actually knew each other.

Hey, what's going on, man?

Wait, what's, no, no, I'd love to help you out, but I'm not going to rent.

We, we need to sell it. I've got to get out from under it.

Long story short.

Um, I'm, I'm, we're trying to get this church started.

I'm traveling back and forth to, to Florida, still working for a missions organization.

I'm gone Monday through Thursday, away from my family.

And I'm home Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

We're doing this, trying to make this thing work, right?

You do what you've got to do to provide for your family.

renting the place over there on Cornerstone, blah, blah, blah.

What's the deal?

And so he says, tell me what's going on at Ramah.

I've known him for years.

We used to go to church together.

He says, what's going on at Ramah?

I hear some stirring in the community.

I told him what we were being called to do.

I told him what we were trying to do.

He said, can you call me tomorrow?

Can you call me tomorrow around noon?

I'm out with my family.

We're skiing in Colorado.

It's just before Christmas time.

I said, sure, absolutely.

So I have to drive about 40 minutes off the reservation to get one bar.

Stand there with your leg like that, you know.

You're in the middle of nowhere.

So I get out there, and I had somebody with me in the van.

They were sitting in the van, and I called him back.

And he said, long story short, he said, Curtis, he said, look,

we're not looking to change churches or anything,

but I've always wanted to be a part of something that was undeniably the Lord.

I've known you for many, many years, and I know your heart.

And you know what?

I've talked to my wife.

We're going to buy the property.

We're buying the property for the church.

We don't want to make a nickel on this.

And soon as you guys are able to get this in your own name,

transferred in your name, I just want to do this on the DL,

because I believe God's hand is on you and on this ministry,

and we want to do that.

I began to just, I hung up the phone.

I was at a place called the Little Painted Desert.

It's a small version of the Grand Canyon.

And I was like, are you serious, God?

Are you serious?

And I had a Joseph moment where I was like, clear the room.

Clear the room.

I've just got to weep.

I've got to weep before the Lord.

God, you've been so faithful to me and my family over the years,

but when you do this for the body of Christ,

it's so magnanimous.

It's so amazing how it all comes together.

And I just wept like a three-year-old.

I was like, this is a holy moment.

And the person sitting up there and is watching me going back and forth.

I want to just cry like a three-year-old, wondering what's going on.

But God is showing me, trust me.

Trust me.

Can you trust me in these things?

I saw no window for this to ever come about.

No window for this to happen whatsoever.

What else do I can talk about?

You know, and I was like, God, you do this all the time.

Remember those conversations with the Lord?

You do this all the time.

And so we put the banner on the ground.

We spent a whole bunch of money, probably $70,000 to get everything renovated.

We paid cash for that because God had blessed us with this.

And I'm still traveling back and forth because the church can't afford to pay me a salary

because we're just getting started.

I'm still working Monday through Thursday out of town, coming back on the weekends.

We're doing church.

And in the midst, I'm down there one weekend and finances got tight here

because we're just getting things started.

See, that was another thing I was going to talk about where our giving has been really terrible

the first two months of the year.

And have this whole sermon on that and try to wake you guys up and start being faithful.

But you know what?

I don't need to say that.

Just be faithful, please.

Our giving is not what it should be.

There you go.

There's your two-minute sermon on that.

So in the midst of it, in the midst of it, I get a phone call down there.

I get a phone call.

It says, Curtis, hey, one of our leaders calls.

He says, hey, listen, we got some thing in the mail.

There's an organization in Atlanta that if you want to make a donation to a nonprofit,

you can make it to them and they'll make it to you and it'll be anonymous.

And I had to call them.

It took me a day or two to track them down.

I had to call them and make sure, but we got a check in the mail for $15,000 for the church.

And I was like, are you serious?

God, are you serious?

You always do this.

You always do this.

And man, to say that our leadership was so giddy would be an understatement.

But to experience these things, what I'm trying to get to over to you is that when we step out in faith,

when we step out in faith and we trust the Lord, when we actually do something,

that's why we're involved with so many ministries.

It's not about works.

I get that.

But something beautiful happens when we serve together.

Something beautiful happens when we put our hands to the plows together.

These relationships, you begin working with somebody and you think, I can never get along with Shannon. Day one. But by day three you're like, I love Shannon. She probably thought that about me.

But that's how it comes together. That's how it works. When you're stepping out in faith. And you know what? Let me just...

And so, I have these people that say to me, Curtis, you share these stories and I get that. That's all well and good. But I just have to be honest with you.

I don't want to experience God like that. I've just never experienced God like that. And I want to ask them, I want to say to them,

Well, are you making disciples? Are you discipling people? When we say that term, what's it mean to make a disciple?

Somebody want to be brave and answer that out? What's it mean to make a disciple? Come on.

Say, be a witness. Okay, good. What else? Come on.

Recreate yourself.

That's good. What else?

Teacher. Okay.

Model it, right?

Bring somebody else up in the faith.

That means we've got to get in proximity with folks, right?

Did you know we can't make disciples apart from each other?

But did you know we're called to make disciples?

Do you know whether that's a mandate?

We are commanded by the Lord to make disciples.

That should be a priority of the church, not programs.

To make disciples.

You know what?

So I ask people, are you making disciples?

Are you stepping out in faith?

Well, I just don't feel Jesus next to me like you're sharing in your stories.

You know, Jesus said, I will always be with you.

But what's the context of that?

The context of that is Matthew 28, right?

I will always be with you.

He says, go and make disciples, okay, of all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, okay?

And teach them all that I've commanded you, right?

Teaching them all that I've commanded you.

And I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

Okay?

And people say, well, I don't experience Jesus.

Are you making disciples?

Are you pouring out into someone else's life?

It's back to that whole trust factor again, okay?

And people say, well, you know, I hear these stories about you experiencing Jesus,

and this, that, and the other.

But I just don't experience the Holy Spirit.

Oh, I get so tired of when people say that.

Are you being His witness?

Because why did God, why did He send His Holy Spirit?

You will receive power, okay, when my Holy Spirit falls upon you, right?

To what?

To be my witnesses.

That's part of discipleship, right?

You got a testimony.

Are you sharing with people?

Are you drawing people to the Lord?

God, there's something powerful that happens in you and with you when you begin to share about the Lord.

God is so good.

We sang these songs this morning.

I want to stand up and say, you people need to wake up.

God is so good.

We should be busting the roof down of this house this morning.

Amen.

We should be tearing the place apart, okay?

You know, but you know, I want to feel Him.

I want to feel the Spirit.

I didn't feel the Spirit.

I want to feel Him when it's nice and safe in this room.

Oh, I think I felt Him this morning.

No, that was Bobby telling me to get out of the way.

I can't see the screen.

Right?

I think I felt Him this morning.

You know, He gave us His Spirit so that we would be on mission with Him.

So that we would be His witnesses.

And we will experience His Spirit.

And I'm not saying you can't experience His Spirit in this place right here.

But when I look into the Scriptures, it's when people went and did something.

When I look at the Scriptures, they went and did something.

And then what happened?

Suddenly, they experienced the presence of the Lord.

Look at the Scriptures.

The presence of the Lord.

Listen.

I got so frustrated about four years ago.

Preaching week after week after week.

Not preaching at this church.

I'm not saying that.

That's not the frustrating part.

The frustrating part was I was praying week after week.

And I was telling, I was talking to Bobby about this earlier.

And I was praying to the Lord,

Lord, I believe James 5.17.

I love James 5.17.

Elijah was a man just like us.

Man, that should make your world float.

Elijah that called me.

The ground begins to shake. Please, Lord, let the people be so moved by the fire that comes down, the holy presence of God to where people, when people leave, they don't talk about what a good message that was. Well, I thought Pastor Curtis did a great. No, they talk about you, Lord. They talk about you. They're so consumed with you. And I begin to pray, Lord, why isn't this happening? I believe James 5.17. I believe that I'm a man just like Elijah was. Why aren't you answering this prayer? And I'm crying out. Why can't we see this miracle for all these people?

And it's like one day God opened up my eyes and it's like one day God opened up my eyes and He revealed to me through the Scriptures. He said, listen, Elijah was on Mount Carmel and he was facing the prophets of Baal and they were going to take his head if I didn't show up. You're preaching to a believing church. See the difference?

And I said, okay. And I said, okay. But I can still pray for the fire, Lord, to come down, right?

Listen, I have a few more things to say here. I'm not closing. I'm not closing. For all you haters,

out there. When we talk about discipleship, true discipleship, we have to really take a hard look. Let's take a sincere look at some things. Let's look at church history. We talked a little bit about this in our Thursday morning men's Bible study, which is a great study, by the way. You men, if you're not coming, Thursday mornings at 6.30, we meet in this room back here now. Phenomenal group of guys. Meet for an hour. Usually some good breakfast, too.

Good muffins. Anyway, you look at church history. And we know what the church is supposed to look like. We've read the book of Acts. We see that. And how did they start? They started in these little groups and they were very disciple-oriented. Were they not?

Sharing their faith. Sharing their faith. Teaching each other what the Word of God said. How to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were so in tune with that. Were they not? Because they weren't so far removed from Jesus, right?

But we look at church history from then, and it's not so good. Let's be really honest. Church history is not so good. Listen. Even if you go over in Europe, even in some of the architecture, we see hints of some of the sins of the past.

Because we have in some of the architecture you have in the walls, what they call squint holes. It's these little areas in the gaps of the wall, and to where people would peer through.

And look, that was for the lepers. We want you to hear, but we don't want you in. We don't want you to part of it.

And that's ridiculous, right? We hear that. And then you have just some of the wars that the church was involved in. Look at that church. That's pretty dumb.

Some of the things that the church did to kill people in the name of Christ. It's embarrassing, right? We can look back in hindsight. That's embarrassing.

And then you have the indulgences, okay? Where basically you paid for forgiveness. You wanted forgiveness? It's going to cost you this amount.

I mean, this is serious stuff. This is what was happening. Church history. Not discipleship. Alright? And we can look back on that and say, that's ridiculous.

We even had situations where the church, the church helped fight for slavery. What? Yes!

And we can look back on it in hindsight and say, that is so stupid. Yeah, I said the S word. Okay? Stupid. That's stupid.

Why would anybody fall for that? But when you're in the middle of it, you don't see it.

When you're in the middle of it, you don't see it. So maybe start to think, what if everything ended today?

What would this stretch of church history be known for? Okay? The last 30, 40 years, what would it be known for?

And I believe, I believe that if everything ended today...

before our fingertips, with the internet and everything else. We can have all that knowledge and everything. But I want the Word taught to me, in a way that I want to hear it, and I want an orator that piques my interest, and I want to sing the songs that I want to sing, okay, in a way that I want to hear them, alright? And I'm going to bring my kids, and I want you to disciple my kids. I want you to disciple my kids, and then I'm going to bring my friends and family to church, and I want you to disciple my kids.

And I want you to introduce them to Jesus, and get them saved. Alright? I'm going to do that, because you get paid to do that. That's your job, Pastor. And you get paid to do that, and if I don't like it, I'll pick up my marbles and go somewhere else. And when I explain that, you're like, that's so stupid. We're knee deep in it. We don't see it. We don't see it.

Let me show you how discipleship, the lack of discipleship, destroys what God intended to be the church. Two examples. Let's take Russia. Let's take China. Two areas where communism comes in, and communism is about, they are all about killing Christianity. They're going to do Christianity under.

So what happens in Russia, is the Russian government comes in, Russian government comes in. Am I off task here? I don't know. It doesn't matter. The Russian government comes in, and the Russian government takes all the church leaders, those teachers. They take the priests, and all that. And they take all the church assets.

And what happens to the church in Russia? It basically dies. It basically dies. China. China, same situation. Communists comes in under Mao Zedong.

And China comes in, and Mao Zedong and the leadership, they take all the pastors out of the church, all the leadership out of the church.

They take all the church assets. And what happens to the church? The church goes from about 2 million to 80 million under Mao Zedong.

Why does it thrive? Because those everyday attenders of church were taught how to share their faith.

They were taught the truths of scripture. They were taught the things they needed to be able to pass along to someone else.

So once the orator was taken away, the word, the message never died.

That's why we take so much painstaking time to go through the scriptures the way we do here in the life of this church.

So that we can create disciples so you can turn around and disciple someone else.

We can't lose sight of that church. We can't lose sight of that.

I get excited when I see this is happening in some of your lives.

You're sharing with co-workers. You're sharing with neighbors and all this stuff.

Sharing about the love of God. So I mean, there's some good things happening.

I'm excited that we had 12 baptisms this past year.

That's great because now those 12 are going to start telling their friends, right?

About what it means to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be discipled and to teach others.

And you know, I'm not being prophetic or trying to scare tactics or anything like that.

I'm just using my simple logic, okay?

And I think the way the U.S. is going, the way this nation is going probably sooner than later,

where I do think that what I do in a public forum is going to be seen as hate speech.

And what we teach here in the midst of this church is going to be determined as hate speech.

It's going to happen.

So if I disappear, this church should flourish even more.

It's not about me. It's not about your elders.

It's about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And each one of you have a testimony to share and to give.

But the Scripture tells us that we are overcomers, right?

And we have to help others understand to be overcomers.

And how are we overcomers?

We are overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

Even unto death, it says.

And we just went back to...

And it's real to you? Share it. If you don't know the answer, I think it's okay to say, you know what, Terry, that's a great question. I don't know the answer to that. I'm going to find out. And go, go to your pastor. Go to someone. Go on the internet. Don't go on the internet. I shouldn't say that. Wow. Strike that. But we operate from such a place of fear that we're not sharing the way we should. The church is not sharing.

And I believe that as this gets closer, as this gets closer, all that we're going to be consumed with is winning the war against those people and we're not really preparing for the future. You hear me? All we want to do is win the war. No, no, no. The war is going to come.

But how am I helping to prepare folks like Ben and Angela to be disciples? Because they're going to reach people I can't, you can't. How are we going to help people to be infectious? How are we going to help people get to the point where they're trying to lead a simple song on Sunday morning and they can't because they're so broken over the goodness of the Lord?

And I confess. And I confess to the Lord and I confess to you, Jill Holmes, I'm sorry. We should have stopped everything right then this morning and just began to just pray and to call it a service.

So, in closing, I know I've thrown a lot of thoughts out there to you and a lot of things, but discipleship is so key. And so for me, when things get discombobulated and things go sideways, I always go back to basics.

I'm a basics guy. Okay? So back to basics. Back to basics in Matthew chapter 22. I think we have a slide for that, don't we? I actually landed where I wanted to land. Praise the Lord.

And it says, teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said to them, you shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second one is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

All of these, on these two, I'm sorry, on these two commandments depend on all the law and prophets.

Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, and soul. What does that mean for you specifically?

We talked about what does it mean, the whole trust thing. What does it mean for you specifically to love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, and soul?

Listen, for me, it means that if something crazy were to happen in this world, and my wife, and my daughter, and every person that was next to me just decided they had an epiphany,

and they just couldn't follow the Lord anymore, I would have to just explain to them, I hear you, but as for me, in my house, God's been too good for me.

I can't turn my back on Him. I'll pray with you, I'll be steadfast, but nothing is going to come between me and my Savior.

Nothing is going to come between me and my Lord.

Can you say that? Can you really say that?

That even when your spouse, even when that significant other makes you so irritated,

it doesn't change. It doesn't change.

When your kids defy the true living God that you spent so much of your life pouring your life in,

when they begin, you're still going to stand fast on that?

You're still going to be steadfast in the things of the Lord and love them well through that?

Yeah.

To love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, and my everything, and my whole being.

And the second one is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.

I hope no one is sitting in that third row

on the end seat

because that's where I hear

from Jesus

that's where the spirit of God moves me

let's be real folks

come on

we can be so

in this consumer age

we get so consumed

that we really

don't love others well

we care for them

it doesn't say

what does that scripture get

you can't read that one never mind

let's read this one

and the second is like it

you shall care a lot for your neighbor

as you do for yourself

no

you shall love your neighbor

well who's my neighbor

who's really my

that's your neighbor

you're my neighbor

that's your neighbor

that's your neighbor

hey Brad

I don't know who that guy is

on the way back there

on the last row

he's your neighbor

just so you know that

just wave to him

say hey neighbor

got it

that's your neighbor

that's your neighbor

when that mindset changes

then true discipleship

begins to just explode

within the life of the church

we care for other people

we care for other people

last week

Angel gave a testimony

it was a beautiful testimony

I had to like

halfway not listen to her

so I wouldn't start crying

but she talked about

how this church

from the very beginning

when she walked through the doors

she's moved back to Chicago

now

has always

loved

well

please don't lose sight

of that church

please

let us continue

to love well

and be the disciples

that God

has called us to be

and I promise you

I won't do this to you again

we'll be in Genesis

next week

let's stand to our feet

Father

we just come before you

in the name of Jesus

we ask you Lord God

to teach us

how to be your disciple

Lord

because just as

the songs we sing

on Sunday morning

you are a good good father

it's who you are

and you have loved us

so fiercely

and we praise your name

for that

God

God I pray this morning

that you would teach us

to trust you

truly trust you

not with just our words

and not just with simple actions

but to trust you

with our whole heart

even when it hurts

for you are worthy

of that

God we come before you

in total humbleness

thanking you

for your beautiful son

for it's in his name

that we praise

it's in his name

that we praise

and all God's people said

and all God's people said

and all God's people said

and all God's people said

and all God's people said

and all God's people said

and all God's people said

and all God's people said