Blessed Are The Meek

- Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Tim Powell and I have the privilege and the honor of being the campus pastor at our new life church, Greenbriar campus. We are a non-denominational church located in the state of Arkansas with 19, about to be 20 campuses across the state. Our heart behind partnering with Pando through God Behind Bars is to allow your family an opportunity to connect to biblical community so that they can be growing in their walk with Christ at the same time that you were growing. So if you do have family in Arkansas, encourage them to check out newlifechurch.tv to find a campus that fits them. Thank you so much for being here. Now let's listen in to today's message. (soft music) (soft music) - Well, good morning new life church. Do me a favor and help me welcome everyone that is listening in with our God Behind Bars ministry this morning. Can we give them an NLC Greenbriar? Welcome today. Thank you guys so much for joining us and thank you for being here today. I cannot tell you how good it is to be back in Arkansas. You know, there's something special when you get to travel out of town

but there's something really special when you get to be home, amen. And we got to take a team of 16 to Peru this past week and I will tell you, I'm just so thankful for the heart of this church. Are you guys thankful for the heart of your church? I do want to tell you if you're visiting with us, maybe you're in town for vacation or maybe you're listening in and your family does not have a church home. We just want to let you know we have 18 campuses currently around the state of Arkansas and about to be 20. We're about to launch our Sherwood campus as well as our Bentonville campus. But if you have family that lives in one of these locations, I want to encourage you to have them check out one of our new life churches. Our heart is to see our friends and our family become fully devoted. Everybody say fully, fully devoted followers of Christ and this is an opportunity for you guys to get connected and get your family connected as well. If you've got your Bibles with you, don't you do me a favor and turn to the book of Matthew chapter five? We're going to continue our series this morning on kingdom culture. Jesus gives us a very clear example that the culture we live in may look different than kingdom culture, amen?

We know this week as we travel to Peru, it's always nice to go on a mission trip. It's special, I've been very blessed to travel around the world in several different locations. But I will tell you this week has been extremely special to me and Pastor Adam, I know we got to go back to the same place that we went in 2017. We traveled with a team of 16 this year on a medical focus mission trip. When I went back in August of this past year, one of the areas let me know that some of the most improvement that they saw in their children was when we had brought a team of doctors and nurses over to focus on vitamins and different medications. And through prayer, our team decided that that was going to be our focus as we went back this year. And I'm excited to let you know that we were able to treat 625 people in Peru. That's a great place to give God some praise. With anti-parasitic, as you can imagine, most of the water that they drink and that they wash with and they bathe in comes directly out of the Amazon River. And I don't know if you've ever seen how clear and clean the Amazon River is, but it's loaded with parasites. And so through the research and through this team, I just love how God put together such an amazing, incredible team from all different backgrounds. You know, when God's called us to be the hands and feet of Jesus, amen, but when you bring people together with one focus and that is to share the love of Christ,

God can do something very special in those moments. And that's exactly what happened. And though our focus may have been medical outreach, the true focus was Christ-centered. We know that that medication with the particular anti-parasitic that we were administering it last six months. And because of your faithfulness and the way that you guys have partnered with us, we were able to leave them enough medication for the missionaries that are on the ground there now to go back in six months and re-administer this medication. So when we go back in a year, we'll truly be able to see the benefits from that, but we also purchased antibiotics, vitamins, prenatal vitamins, but every person that came through got to see a nurse or a doctor. And not only did they get to see a nurse or a doctor, but when they left that station, they went into our prayer station and that was our focus. And these families, they got the Word of God. We purchased Bibles in Spanish and handed it to them. They got prayed over. We saw people healed this week. And God's the only one that can do that. Amen, but they left there. They came into another room and they had an opportunity to pick up their prescriptions, but we had two of our members that made the decision to transport sunglasses. got a photograph that we can show you. The sunglasses were an absolute hit when we were there and I'm so thankful for them. But I've got another photograph I want to show you.

I believe there's something that we can learn from this. There's a couple that was in the location of San Francisco. I want to tell you kind of a common thread that we noticed. The entire trip, we started out in Iquitos and we traveled to a city called Nauta and as a church, New Life Church as a whole, we've been supporting and building a church and a school there in Nauta for quite some time. It's officially open now and the outreach that they're able to do, it's right at the port at the river where most of the boats come in when they're needing supplies and different things. So it's an incredible location. But we started there in Nauta and then we traveled from Nauta into a community called San Francisco and San Francisco was actually an area that we supported back in 2017 and we've been sending teams there for several years. But we had the privilege and the opportunity to go into a new community that we've never sent a missionary team into and the name of that community was Pyarote. At each location, the last couple of days, we had an opportunity to go into the mission school. The ministry that the Erin Borgoes are doing in that community or in that region is incredible and it's been happening for generations. But as a church, we've also been supporting a jungle school or a missionary school there in the Amazon jungle and people come for three years and they're trained to be pastors and they're raised up to be leaders in their church and then they're sent back into the communities. There are hundreds if not thousands of communities up and down the Amazon River and the way that they are sharing the gospel and the way that they are reaching their communities is absolutely incredible. But the common thread that I noticed with each one of these communities was the joy that these people had. Our joy is not based upon what we possess. Would you agree with that? It doesn't matter what we own. It doesn't matter how big our house is. It doesn't matter how much money is in the bank. You could tell that when these people had a touch by God, it didn't matter the possessions. What truly mattered was the posture of their hearts. We had an incredible opportunity to speak into these families and to pray with so many people and I just want to say as your pastor, thank you for those of you that have supported this mission. We're already preparing for next year. We saw some things that we can make some adjustments. Optometry is a huge need. We started tracking. We know that it was 625 people that we treated because we filled out a medical card for each one of them so that's not an estimation. We know. And then we were also getting some research

as we were interviewing these families to see what their needs were. Vitamins, as you can imagine, are huge but the vitamins are a need because the parasites are so bad. If we can treat the parasites and then get their bottom and count back up, then we can start seeing improvement in their health. But I'm going to tell you what, there was something all of us could learn from the people that we came in contact with. It's just their heart was unreal. Each location has their own government and there was a mayor in San Francisco and he kind of pulled me to the side with a translator and he said, "Pastor, I took my leadership and we went fishing for you last night." Well, I got nervous. I don't know if you've seen the Amazon but I don't know what kind of fish you're in Amazon but they're ugly. I'm just telling you. But he said, "I want to let you know," and I asked him twice and the translator said it the same both times. He said, "We tried to catch you big mama but big mama got away but we got you the next best thing." So they had caught a fish and they had wrapped it in some kind of banana leaf or some kind of leaf and they had cooked it all day. So I got a little nervous come time for lunch and I sat down and we prayed. We may have prayed twice just to make sure. And I told Pastor Adam and Pastor Brian, "Y'all aren't getting out of this. Sit down." Well, I will tell you, it was some of the best fish I've ever eaten in my life. It was incredible. They had caught piranha for the rest of our team. So everybody got a little bit of an experience that was outside. Here's a photograph of it I believe. That wasn't big mama, by the way, but it was big mama enough for me because that was all I could handle. But it was just an incredible, incredible opportunity. And I just want to say thank you. I want to thank you for this team, the team that went. I see some of them are here today. And just thank you for the way that you guys serve so selflessly. The heart, when you see a group of people from all different backgrounds come together and you see their heart align and you see the Holy Spirit leading them every step of the way. Oh my goodness, it is incredible. I tell our team every time, there's no way that you can go experience something like that and come back the same way that you leave. And the ones that this was their first mission trip, they were like, "Okay, will we kind of come back different?" You know, and yes, every one of them would tell you today that you did not come back. You did not return the same way that you left here. One moment Amen.

Well, while we were going, you guys came together and boxed 150 food boxes to distribute to this community. Thank you for that. This week, our staff came together and we were able to deliver some of those food boxes as well as some additional food in conjunction and partnership with South Side School District. We were actually able to deliver these meals to the homes for people that weren't able to come pick them up. And I just wanna say thank you. You know, I get asked a lot as a pastor, why local mission outreach is so important to us? Well, we know that the calling that God has given us is to go from the neighborhoods to the nations. We know that. And local mission outreach is huge to us. It's part of our heart. It's part of our vision for our church. But I get asked why, and I believe the teaching that we are in in this series best describes the reason behind the heart that goes along with the outreach. You know, in 2023, I had the opportunity to travel to Israel and I was given the privilege of standing before a group of pastors and teaching a lesson out of the Beatitudes, standing on the Mount of Beatitude, overlooking the Sea of Galilee to a group of pastors that I'm sure have taught out this message many, many times. But in preparation for this,

the same word kept coming back to me. And that was with every Beatitude, there is hope. Well, you don't know why outreach is so important to us as a church is because I believe that's what God has commissioned us and called us to do. Because there is a hope when you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. It's a hope that you cannot find in possessions. There's a hope that you cannot find regardless of your circumstances. But it's a hope that meets you right where you are. No matter where you're at right now, no matter what the situation that you may be dealing with, there's a hope that God provides us, that you can find with a relationship with Jesus. Well, that's the reason that outreach is so important to us. And that's the reason that it's a focus for us. You know, in Matthew chapter five, verses one through five, Jesus has sat down on the side of the mountain. And he tells us, now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain side and he sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them. He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." He said, "Blessed are those who mourn, "for they will be comforted. "And then blessed are the meek, "for they will inherit the earth." I wanna stop right here. We're gonna teach how these first three this morning.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. That just goes against our culture, doesn't it? That's why we're calling this kingdom culture, because the culture that God has created us to carry with us and to be a part of is opposite. It's almost upside down from the culture that the world tries to sell us. The world tells us it's all about happiness, whatever we can do to make ourself happy, whatever we can achieve that makes us happy is what we're going to do. And Jesus teaches those that are present that day and I believe he wants to teach us today that our happiness is not based upon our circumstances. Our happiness is based upon a relationship with him. And some of you here today or some of you listening in, you may not understand what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus. And my heart for you is that by the end of this service, you understand a little bit more. And I'll tell you this too, regardless of where you're at, regardless of the mistakes that you've made, it does not identify who you are. God's got a plan and a purpose for your life and you may not be fulfilling that plan and that purpose at this point, but God's not finished with you. And I promise you that. But he tells us that blessed are the poor in spirit

and we have to understand that Jesus is teaching here that without him, we have nothing. When we get to a place that we comprehend and we understand that where we are and what we possess and what we've accomplished has nothing to do with us, but has everything to do with what God has blessed us with, that's what he's referring to. And then there's a spiritual mourning that Jesus is talking about in verse four or says when your heart breaks because of the sin in your own life, you realize that you're nothing without him. Then, and that is only when God can truly begin to use you. So here's the process. It's first poor in spirit. I humble myself. I realize that it's not all about me. Then the kingdom of God opens to me and I taste and I see that the Lord is good because let me make something very clear to you. If you understand and you believe that there's a God, you better understand and know that there's an enemy that wants nothing more than to still kill and destroy everything that God is trying to do in you and through you. And then I immediately get confronted with two things. How amazing God is, but how broken I am. And I say this all the time and I want you to hear.

that's preaching from my perfection. Now I pastor from my brokenness through God's grace and his mercy and that's what and how we are able to carry the gospel into every place we enter into whether it is a jail cell, a workplace, a home, or a school classroom. God has commissioned us to carry the truth and his word into every place that we enter into. When you begin to realize that it's my sins that nail Jesus to the cross, it changes the way that we live, doesn't it? When we comprehend and understand we can't do it without him. You know I tried for a really long time to do it on my own. I tried chasing success. I tried finding fulfillment. I tried finding happiness in all the material things of the world, only to find myself empty. But God says I have a new way. I have a different way and it's a kingdom culture. You know we can chase joy and happiness and fulfillment on our own and never find it but if you study scripture very much you read about a gentleman by the name of King Solomon. In the Old Testament King Solomon was a great man of much wisdom. He had wealth. He had everything anyone materialistically could want. And from the outside you would think he should possess the most happiness. He should have the most fulfillment. But King Solomon tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes that that's just not the case. He explains that he does this personal happiness experiment that he conducts. And he said I did not deny my eyes anything. So he had the resources. He had the funds. He had the ability. He had the power to possess anything that he put his eyes to. Anything that he wanted. He could possess. But then look what it says. Says but then he said it was like chasing after the wind. None of it mattered. Meaningless. If that is our only focus in life is how much success we can have how many materialistic things we can accumulate. At the end of the day you're going to find yourself empty. At the end of the day you're going to find yourself wishing you would have spent more time investing in relationships. More time investing in your relationship with God. More time sharing the light that God has emplaced inside of you with the people that you come in contact with. Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 14 he says I've seen all the things that are done under the sun. He's seen all the things. All of them are meaningless. Meaningless. Chasing after the wind. But the reality is is I don't think Solomon is the only one that has had this experiment in his life. I think we all chase it a little bit to a degree. We conduct our own happiness experiment and we search for the perfect blend of factors that will make us happy. The right job, the right car, the next home, the next opportunity, the next vacation. And what Solomon shows us is we're just chasing after the wind. It's going to leave you empty. But what I want to tell you

today is Jesus has a better way. All of the emptiness that you found yourself holding on to grasping the wind. Jesus shows us a different way. He offers us an invitation to true happiness. And what that looks like. Nine times he uses the word blessed. That means happy or fortunate or favored by God. Having true and lasting joy. But let me paint a proper picture for you. When you get to blessed are the meek. I don't know about you, but I've never prayed. Lord just make me more meek. Anyone ever prayed for that? Like I read it, understand it kind of, but it's just not an attribute that I'm seeking for. They're holding on to. Well, the main reason is because the English translation of what it means here is misunderstood many times. The English word paints a misleading picture of what it means. If we just look at the dictionary and you see meek, you think that means a weak person and that's not the case. So the first thing is what Jesus does and he means by meek is many scholars say that the Greek word used here is almost untranslatable into the English of being just one word. But the most common synonym used in the Bible is gentle. Now let me be very clear. I don't believe for one second that we need to raise up a bunch of weak men. Would you guys agree with that? I believe we as a man, we're called to be strong, we're called to be the spiritual leaders in our home. We're called to have convictions, personal convictions in our life, we're calling may think. You see, gentleness describes a person who treats others with consideration, with kindness and compassion. And I want to go back to a passage of Scripture that I taught a couple of weeks ago. And I want to say this, and I'm going to preface this teaching with this statement. If you're going to call New Life Church Greenbrier, you're home. You're going to have to get this in your spirit. I need you to get this in your spirit. And I'm going to tell you what it is. Matthew chapter 25 verse 34 through 40 says, "In the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my Father. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you, since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him. Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? And

the king will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Let me tell you what I need you to get in your spirit. And I've taught this with every mission trip that we've went on. What Jesus is referring to here, when He says the least of these, the least of these does not mean less than me. And we need to comprehend that. You need to understand that every person that you come in contact with has a story, and that story goes much deeper than the circumstances that they found themselves in. Each and every one of us have seasons in our life where we went through difficult times. Every person in this room, including the pastor standing before you behind this podium, has sinned, has made mistakes. We've all fallen short. But it's in the circumstance that we like to draw a conclusion and somehow rank someone lower than our current standard. And I just pray to God that our church is one that understands this in their soul. That the least of these does not mean less than me. And if we can grasp that and we can understand that every person, regardless of their financial status, regardless of how much success they've accomplished, or regardless of the circumstance that they found themselves in, they are created in the image of God. And Jesus gave His life to pay for our sins, also gave His life to pay for their sins as well. Every person that we come in contact with. In other words, the Gentiles describe someone who has a calmness in their spirit that shapes how they deal with others. That's what He's meaning here. But this is, most importantly, it's the character of Christ. Jesus only made one clear statement about His own character and moral disposition, only one throughout Scripture. And it comes from Matthew 11 29. It's very clear. He says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn." Everybody say, "Learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart." And you will find rest for your souls. This first shows us that a gentleness is actually essential to our walk with God. It's essential to what God's called us to live. If we're motivated to become more like Jesus, the question is, is how do we do this? How do we become meek? Well, I believe the Holy Spirit is going to help us this morning. If you would buy your heads, I want to pray for you. And Father, I thank You for Your Word. God, I thank You that we don't have to walk through this life just wondering if You're there. But You're with us in the lowest valley and the highest peak. And Father, if there's been times when we drifted astray, God, we just, we repent this morning and we come back and we ask You to give us direction in every

step that we take. But God, as we continue to grow in our relationship with You, would You allow us to begin to see each other through Your eyes and not through the eyes of condemnation, not through the eyes of judgment. We'll see each other the way that You see us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, amen. You know, I think it's important to understand that this be attitude. It doesn't have anything to do with our natural personality. And we kind of misunderstand this a little bit. Some people are just born more laid back. Would you agree with that? I mean, some people, they just have a disposition like Corey. I mean, that brother's just cool everywhere he goes, you know? It's like he's got a constant peace sign he's throwing with. Everybody comes in contact with it. But no, some people are just born with a relaxed personality. Some people are born, man, they're wound tight. Y'all know what I'm talking about. So this has nothing to do with a personality trait. But I want you to write this down. Meekness is not weakness. In fact, it's the farthest thing from it. I believe it takes more strength to be gentle in spirit than it ever took. Or took for us to just fly off the handle. When the Bible talks about gentleness, it's not talking about the personality trait. The Bible calls it a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's evidence of God's power working in someone's life. You ever been around someone that just one thing would just set them off? It's like they're on edge at all times.

I believe this is the challenge that God is sending us today. That's why Jesus places this one third, though, is I believe He wants us to communicate that before we can be gentle. We have to treat other people correctly. And there's some foundations in our life that we need to establish before we're able to treat people with the consideration and the gentleness that He's called us to treat them with. First, you have to be born in spirit. First, you have to understand that you are spiritually bankrupt without Christ. You have nothing without Him. Because of my sin, I have nothing of spiritual value apart from God. I need Him for everything. Second, when you allow that to set in, it breaks your heart. So there's a spiritual mourning that follows that. So where does that leave me? Well, after we get that right, it's very important that the foundation has been laid for the beatitudes as a whole, but especially for maintenance. So that foundation is humility. And if we allow pride to drive the way we respond, it's never going to end up good, is it? Those first two beatitudes, they open my eyes and it gives me the truth about God and myself. But it's humbling now because I understand that because of sin, I'm 100% dependent upon God's grace and favor in my life. We can't make it without it.

We can try. And unfortunately, some people try the majority of their life to accomplish it on their own. Nobody's going to tell me anything. I'm going to do it my way. And it leaves them empty. It's like King Solomon said, chasing after the wind, like you're grasping for something that's just not there to be founds because the only place it can be found is the relationship with Jesus. You see, there's strength in meekness. You go, how is that possible? Well, if you look at the examples that we have through scripture, if you look at Moses, for example, Moses was called meek and he stood before Pharaoh and led the Israelites. What about Paul? He was called meek. This brother would preach. They would stone him. He would get up and do it again. That's not weakness. That's strength. Jesus was meek. We know His resume. So what does that mean for us? Well, every person we see in the Bible associated with the word meek is strong. So meekness cannot be a lacking of strength. It can't be a lacking of conviction or boldness

because none of these people had it. Number two, let me tell you what meekness truly is. Meekness is strength under control. Meekness is strength under control. You know, in the ancient world, they would use meek to describe a wild horse that had been tamed for battle. The horse hasn't lost any of its power. He hasn't lost any of its strength. He hasn't lost any of its speed. No, not at all. It's submissive to the one who's holding the reins. A meek person is someone who has fully submitted their life to the Lord, someone who gives up the reins and gives control to God. That's what true meekness is. Now this is where most people struggle 'cause they don't want to give up control. It's hard to let go of control, isn't it? Anyone ever struggle with letting go of control? You people are lying up in church. Don't be lying up in church. I have! I've all struggled with letting go of control because we want to be in control. I'll prove it to you. Just get in a car with me, Pastor Adam, and Pastor Barnard. And I'll drive. You see how good of backseat drivers they are.

Sometimes I turn left when I know we need to go right just to see how they respond. I mean, that's just how men are wired. That's just how we're built. What I'm saying is letting control of the things that we have no control over and we give them to God. We let him take control of our life. Some of you are here today and you'd say, "You know what, I've been trying to control it my whole life and it's left me empty and it will." Number three, this is important, meekness is not ignoring your convictions. The Bible tells us to be bold in the face of persecution. To spread the gospel without being frightened of opposition, you need to understand when you make the decision to put Christ in the center of your life and to make him a priority, you're going to face some opposition, it's going to happen. This is where the meekness has to be accompanied by the strength. You have to be willing to stand against the darkness of this world because whether you realize it or not, there's a lot of darkness in this world, amen. But we also learn from Jesus that there are certain situations where our strength, it won't glorify God. We have to restrain ourselves. We see an example of strength under control in Matthew 26. We see the betrayal of Judas and angry mob of people with swords and clubs that come to take Jesus to trial and Peter decides to take matters in his own hands. I like Peter, but sometimes Peter just doesn't make wise choices. Peter pulls out a sword, decides to start cutting people's ears off. And Jesus shuts him down, I love the way that he responds here. He says, "Put your sword back in its place." Jesus said to him, "For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

But how then will the scriptures be fulfilled that say, "It must happen in this way?" Jesus is telling Peter, "Peter, I got this one, buddy, put your sword up. Let me fight this battle." Sometimes the battle is not yours to fight, sometimes the battle is to be given to God and let him fight it for you. We all are going to face those days. I receive a podcast from a good friend of mine, a pastor in South Carolina every Sunday morning and I can't help but almost chuckle sometimes when I listen to it because it's always speaks into something that I'm dealing with or I'm praying into or I'm thinking about. He sends a word of encouragement to pastors around the United States and when he begins to talk he speaks of, "There's not a pastor out there that hasn't had people that have turned against them and said things that you would never think they would say, do things that you would never think that they would do," and it's really easy for us to sometimes to try to take matters in our own hand and sometimes you just have to step back and let God take control and then through the Holy Spirit God takes care of it, he handles it. But if we react to those moments out of anger then we end up severing relationships that are really hard to rebuild. Sometimes you just got to let God have control of the situation, amen? We have ability versus God's will and just like Jesus we'll find ourselves in situations where our strength could be used to lash out at someone who's wandered off or offended us but just because I have the power and the ability to do something doesn't mean that I should do it. It requires self-control, it requires prayer. You know one of my favorite things to do is when I'm not on social media a lot but when I get on and I see someone just tearing someone apart and I happen to notice the name and it's somebody that comes to our church, I like to just walk up and go, "How do you think that brought them closer to Jesus and then just walk off?" None of those people have come back to church, no I'm kidding, y'all don't ever do that. I'm just going to encourage you the next time that you want to tear someone to pieces just because you can, listen, I can tongue whip the mess out of you.

Does that point someone to Christ and how I respond and how I react to difficult situations? This is what the meekness of Jesus is referring to, it's control. If we have control and we understand that God is the one that truly has control of our future our destiny. It changes. "Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city." Wow, that goes against the culture of this world today, doesn't it? It doesn't take strength to go off on someone, though it's tantrum. So if we've established that meekness is not weakness, meekness is actually strength under control, and it's not ignoring our convictions, how do we respond with meekness in a world that's taught us our entire life, the total opposite? It begins with a relationship with Christ, and it's the only place that we can truly begin to understand the magnitude in what it is that God's trying to teach us here. That relationship begins with a decision that grows commitment in our life. There will be times that you excel at this and times that you fail. You see, the thing that I love about God's grace and His mercy is the Holy Spirit will give us conviction when we get off track. But you need to understand that condemnation is not of God. It's not. Yes, you need to receive the conviction and the correction of the Holy Spirit when we get off track. But God's saying, "I don't want you to stay there. I've got a plan and a purpose for your life and I need you to get back up and I need you to move forward." And that's a choice that we each have to make on our own. You see, God loved us so much that He gave us free will to make a decision to love Him or not. I want you to hear my heart a minute. If I never spoke another word to you and there was one thing, one piece of advice as your pastor that I could leave you with, just one, it would be, "Give it all to God." All the pain, all the disappointment, all the control, you're going to make mistakes. Everybody's going to make mistakes. But He loves us so much that He sent His Son to die on a cross to pay for our sins that we would never be able to pay for on our own. We couldn't pay for Him. But when you understand that it was your sins that nailed Jesus to the cross, it's at that moment that you grasped the magnitude of His love for you. I want to tell you something else. If 35 minutes on a Sunday or a Saturday night is the only time you're spending growing in your relationship with God, you are going to starve.

That would be like me feeding you a five-course meal today and then expecting you to go the rest of the week without anything to eat. You're going to get hungry. And when you get hungry, you begin to turn to things that are never going to fulfill you and they're never going to fill you up. You can continue to chase the things in this world just like King Solomon describes, like chasing the wind, and you'll never grasp them. But God gives us the free will to try. So my challenge to you is this, wherever you're at, if you're in this room or if you're listening in halfway across the United States, God loves you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life. And I can warn it for you until I take my last breath. But you have to decide yourself. And you have that opportunity today. Are you going to continue to grasp the wind like King Solomon said? Are you going to continue to spend every day of your life with a happiness experiment only to end up empty and bankrupt? Are you going to make a decision that you're going to leave your past in the past And starting today, you're going to work on the future. You know, see us, Lewis. But starting today you can change the ending And you have that opportunity. I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads around this room. I Don't know where you fall When I talk about this it may be that you're here and you've had a relationship with Jesus the majority of your life It may be that you gave your life to the Lord as a child or it may be that You've spent the majority of your life Chasing that fulfillment and chasing that happiness. I don't know But if you want to know where it begins it begins with a personal decision and it's a personal decision that only you can make If you're in this room right now, and you'd say I've never made that decision pastor You may be listening in and you say I've never made the decision to invite Christ into my life to be forgiven of my sins You can make that decision today And it doesn't mean that you're never gonna face adversity does it mean that you're never gonna make mistakes absolutely not you're going to We're all going to make mistakes But what it does mean is as you walk through those valleys, you don't have to walk through them alone He's right there with you So if you're in this room and you've never made that personal decision to invite Jesus into your life to be forgiven of your sins

Word of God says if we believe in our heart and we confess with our mouth, then we'll be saved But if you've never made that decision Or maybe you've made that decision and for whatever reason you've drifted off course and you found yourself Grasping and happiness grasping at something that you thought would fulfill you and you know today is the day that you need to Rededicate your life if that's you I just want you to slip your hand up all around this room is there anybody here? That says I've just got off track pastor maybe it's you listening in There's an option at the bottom of your screen right now To make that decision to follow Jesus You can make that choice And if you did there'll be somebody that comes on to walk you through the next steps But if you're in this room, I just want to pray for you and I want to pray for those that are listening in father We thank you so much for your presence in this place and God we thank you that your presence is not limited by walls or location But you were right there with us in the deepest darkest valleys of our life or the highest peak of the mountain top So Lord this morning as we come before you and we submit our lives to you we invite you in to have control We repent of our sins And father we know that we can't do it alone. It is in Jesus name We pray and everybody said amen. Can we give God some praise in this place? You you You [BLANK_AUDIO]