Seek The Lord | Tyler McNeely

you are. Lord, we thank you. Lord, for the gift of today. God, we thank you. Lord, for breath in our lungs. God, we thank you that today is a new day, that whatever happened yesterday, Lord, you make all things new. Lord, we thank you for who you are in and out of every season, in and out of every week. God, in and out of every day, Lord, we just thank you for who you are. We worship you today in spirit and in truth. And we pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, good morning. Good morning. Let's go. I got a packed house. Turn to your neighbor, give them a fist bump this morning and say, I'm glad you made it. Turn to your other neighbor, give them a fist bump. Say, I'm glad you made it. Here's the deal. I don't know what you walked through to get here this morning. I don't know what your week looked like. I don't know what your morning looked like. I don't know how many demons you had to fight in the car this morning to get here. I'm not talking about your kids. Maybe I'm talking about your kids. I don't know. But I know this. I know that you have traveled through your life to be here today for such a moment as this. And I know that God has a word for you. And so, here's the deal. This is the 11 o'clock. Like, let's go, man. The 11 o'clock. Here's the deal. I've done this twice already, and I'm going to freaking bring it. And I need you guys to be with me. You ready? Because today's going to be good. A couple things. Number one, my name is Tyler McNeely. I get the privilege of serving here at Momentum as our creative director. And I'm grateful to be in the house. I get to serve under Pastor Tim and Pastor Stephanie and their incredible leadership. Number two, obviously, I'm not Pastor Tim. Pastor Tim was asked to preach at a huge men's conference up in New York. And then he was asked to stay and preach at this really big church in upstate New York. It's dear friends of ours. Incredible church. Pastor Todd Bishop. He's with them. And so, he's preaching four times today. So, pray for your pastor. And he is just, man, God is doing some big things through him up there. And some of the stories have been just incredible. I know he'll get back. He'll share a lot of it. But, man, it's been so cool. He's having a blast up there. And he sent a picture last night. He's hanging out with Spike Lee. Anybody know who Spike Lee is? Okay. Some of you do. And you're the real ones. If you don't, you're kind of telling yourself a little bit. But he's a director from like the late 80s, early 90s. He did a lot of stuff. You remember the commercial with MJ? Like, want to be like Mike? He directed that commercial. Kind of fun fact. Awesome,

awesome, awesome stuff. And he's having a blast. And of course, he's up there like New York wins game two of the series. Anybody basketball follow along? No? Okay. But yeah, Go Knicks, of course. Absolutely. I grew up watching the Bulls. But Ewing was my guy too. So it was a great time. But he's having a blast up there. God is doing big things. And man, it reminded me, sending these pictures, it kind of took me back a little bit to 2012. I'll tell you the story real fast and we'll jump into it. I had just gotten married to my wife, Deidre. And at the time I worked for, yeah, how come she gets like more applause than I do? I'm not surprised. I would like to think I'm surprised. I'm really not. It makes a lot of sense. She's awesome. But we just got married. And at the time in 2012, I worked for this incredible family, Robert and Pam Kimball, Chuck Kimball and their company. I worked for them for many years. It was just an incredible time in my life. I look back all the time and I'm so grateful. Like every time I see Pam, I always give her a big hug because I'm like, thanks for not firing me every time. You probably should have. But I learned so much. They were incredible leaders and just irrationally generous people in general. And so, and many of you know them, but if you don't, you probably got to meet them for the first time. We did our series a few weeks back called This Is My Story. And they were up here and they told their story of this miraculous healing through their son, Robbie. It was incredible. If you missed that message, go back and watch that message. It was so good. And at the time working for them, we had just gotten married this 2012. And because of their irrational generosity, it was crazy. They paid for my wife and I to spend a few days up in New York City for our honeymoon. They paid for flights, hotels, everything, spending money. It was just incredible. It was so generous. And so, we went up there, but I was really nervous to go because this was the first trip we had taken as husband and wife and all that stuff. And so, there's a lot of nerves in that. We're up in New York City. And I was like, if something happens to her, I've watched enough true crime documentaries and podcasts and they're coming for me no matter what. I'm the one that's going to prison. It's documented now. They know I have her. And so, we're together. It's official. And so, I was super nervous about it. And we had an incredible few days up there. We had a metro car. So, we were zipping on the subways everywhere. We didn't sleep a lot, but we had a ton of fun. And I can remember the cab ride from the airport. We flew into LaGuardia and then we stayed in lower

Manhattan. And that cab ride was like $60. And that was in 2012. So, $60 is $60, but that was a lot of money back then. And I remember being so blown away, like, what in the world is this, man? So, we were kind of frugal back then. I was kind of frugal back then. And at the time, that was like a fourth of our budget. So like, you know, I'm kind of kidding, not really, but like a little bit. And so we had a ton of fun and we did that. And then we had an incredible few days. And when it came time to fly back and fly home, Deidre was like, hey, let's, we'll just take a cab to the airport. And I was like, nah, babe. I was like, we've got a MetroCard now. I was like, bump that, I've got a new plan. Here's the plan, buckle up. We're going to take the subway as close to LaGuardia as we can get. And then we'll just get out and we'll take a cab. And that way it's not a $60 cab ride, it's more like a $10 cab ride. And I grew up thinking like cabs were everywhere in New York because I watched like Aristocats growing up. And so I'm like, this is how it has to work. And so we get out, I think it was the Broadway station in Queens. And we get out. And if you are familiar with that area,

you know that it's not the nicest, safest place in the world. And so we got out and I was like, there's no cabs. I was like, this is a problem. And we are like, I mean, we had all of our luggage with us, all the bags and everything. We're hauling on the subways and we're getting off. And I'm pretty sure one of us was even wearing like an I heart NY t-shirt. Like it was not a good look. And it would have been like the easiest robbery of all time. But even like the bad guys in Queens were like, hey, we're going to leave these guys alone. Something seems fishy here. Like, I think there may be cops. Like, I don't know. And all that was left was a three mile walk for us from Broadway station to the airport. And so we get there, we're drenched in sweat. And like, it's hard to remember because it was so long ago. So some of these have to like fill in the blank on some of the memories. So I'm sure like Deidre was like super supportive and encouraging. And I'm sure like she never like, you know, it was like, why didn't you ask somebody? You know, you should have asked somebody. I'm sure she never said anything like that. But we got back and it's one of those moments

that I look back on and I laugh and it's funny now, wasn't funny then. And it was kind of the first, I would say the first big mess of many messes I've made in our marriage and while we were married and all that stuff. Because, you know, sometimes often we just kind of jump into things and we rush through things and we look back and it's one of those moments that had I just hit the pause button and asked, I don't know, literally anybody, they would have been like, hey, dummy, don't do that. And, but instead I rushed through it and kind of made this mess. And maybe you're here today or you're watching online and we laugh at that story now, we didn't laugh then, but you have like stories of messes in your life and it's one of those things where maybe you've got moments in your life and things you look back on with regret and maybe if I hadn't rushed through it a certain way, maybe I could have avoided a mess in my life. Or maybe for you it's different than that. Maybe it's the anxiety of a big decision you have coming up, right? Like maybe you're here and like you're single and you just met a guy and you're like, I think he's a good guy, I don't know, but I don't want to get hurt. And so like, what do I do with this tension of this moment?

Or maybe it's different. Maybe you just graduated high school and now like college is in front of you and you're like, am I going to the right school? Am I majoring in the right thing and all the stress? Or maybe it's different. Maybe you're here and you're a business owner and you've got a company that you've built and led and it's kind of coming time to the end and to let it go and to trust somebody else. And you're like, how do I handle this right? I want to leave it in the right hands and the timing has to be perfect. And it's this, you're faced with these really, really big decisions in life. And just wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to make big decisions, right? I think all the Enneagram nines in the room are like, preach, amen, let's go. Or even the indecisive women, they're like, I don't know where to eat. What do you want to eat? I don't know. But it'd be nice, right? To like avoid big decisions and not have to make big decisions. But you and I have adulted enough in life and life has lifed enough to know that it's not possible to avoid big decisions. It's one of those things where it's inevitable.

You and I, we go through life, you know that we have to make big decisions. And while it's inevitable and we have to make big decisions, we don't have to make bad decisions. Isn't that encouraging to know that we can't avoid big decisions, but we can avoid bad decisions. And as we dig into God's word and as we go through some of this, what you find is this time and time and there's wisdom and there's truth and a lot of the stories that we can actually pull from and learn what it means to, when we have to make a big decision, we can avoid making a bad decision. And I'm gonna go through two stories today. And these stories are actually kind of eerily similar in a lot of ways. They're both from the Old Testament. And there's a lot of cool stuff we're gonna pull out of these two stories. And while they're eerily similar, two different people, two completely different times, but a lot of the details kind of line up to the same. And while the details can be similar, the outcomes are actually really, really different. And so we're gonna jump in today. This is 2 Samuel chapter five, 17 through 25. Now, if you have your phones,

you can download the book. upload the YouVersion app, you can literally follow along to the scripture, you can even go to more and events and all of the notes are gonna be there. You can even jump ahead to find out where we're going at the end of the message, it's kinda fun. The scripture's also gonna be on the screen, you can follow along there. Or, get this, 2026, you can even bring your Bible to church. It's kinda crazy, I know it's wild, but it's possible. But we're gonna dig in and learn this together and kinda jump into the story. Before we do that, let me set the scene. Now this is King David, and King David is king over a recently united Israel, at the time. This is around 1004 BC, or a thousand years before Jesus comes on the scene. And Israel had been kinda split up in different points, different sectors, so finally, in the first time, in a long time, they're united, they're one Israel under one king, his name is King David. Now, if you grew up in church any amount of time, this is the same King David that used to be like Shepherd Boy David, who killed a Goliath, and that Goliath was a what? He was a Philistine, okay? So there's this connection between the Israelites and the Philistines. And so in this moment, what's also happening around 1004 BC is there's kinda this power grab

in the region, and this is happening in a place called Gibeon, and in this moment, there's all these different people groups that are trying to take control of this land in this moment, and what happens is there's a history between the Philistines and the Israelites. So they kinda know all about King David, King David knows all about them, and they kinda see the writing on the wall. They see that Israel's coming together for the first time in a long time under King David. They know what King David is capable of, and so the Philistines start to make a move, and they're trying to snuff this whole thing out before it even gets rolling, before it even gets started. This is really young in King David's reign or his kingship, his time of leading Israel as king. This is right at the beginning of that, so that's where our story jumps into today. This is 2 Samuel 5, verses 17 through 25. It's gonna be on the screen, let's read it together. So verse 17, when the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king of Israel, they mobilized all their forces to capture him. But David was told they were coming, so he went into the stronghold, which means he kinda took a step back to get everything together, to get everything ready for battle, because he knows what's coming. In verse 18, the Philistines arrived,

and they spread out across the valley of Rephaim. So David asked the Lord, should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me? The Lord replied to David, yes, go ahead, I will certainly hand them over to you. Now let's pause, here's what David doesn't do, and if anybody in the world had all the authority and experience in the world to do this, it was David. Because this is the same David who had military victory after military victory, had victory after victory, all this experience, all this subject matter expertise, like David had all of the past in the world to help him make great decisions when it comes to military and battles, but what David doesn't do is David doesn't rely on his past victories or success, David does this thing where he just asks God what to do. It's crazy, right? He just breaks it down, and I love how basic this is, because David, there's not this great religious process, there's not these great pillars or great altars that are built in the name of the Lord, and then we're gonna pray at this time to this direction, and then fire's gonna, it's none of that. I love how basic this is, because I need it to be this basic. In my life, when I'm making decisions, I just wanna ask God what to do, and that's what David does in this moment. He breaks it down, and I love how basic this is.

David just asks God what to do. He says, you know what, God, should we attack the Philistines? Is that what I should do? Or what, in this moment, he asks God, should I go out and fight the Philistines? And when he hits the pause button, and he asks God what to do, here's what God does. Get this, verse 20. So David went to Baal-perizim and defeated the Philistines there. And I love this. The Lord did it, David exclaimed. He burst through my enemies like a raging flood. So he named that place Baal-perizim, which means the Lord who burst through, and the Philistines had abandoned their idols there. And in my notes, I said, I bet they did. So David and his men confiscated them. In verse 22, get this. But after a while, the Philistines returned, and again spread out across the valley of Ephraim. Let me stop right there. So here, let me unpack this for you a little bit. So again, the Philistines come back. God brings David to this moment where David has to depend on God, and David asks God clearly what to do. God tells him, and then God gives him victory. And then what's the very next thing that happens?

They come back again. And when you're new to walking with Jesus, like that word again can be really intimidating, because ultimately we think we're never gonna face trials. Once we get through this, like God's always, everything's gonna be always so good and so like sunny, and I'm not gonna have any issues, and I'm not gonna have any problems. But what that's not true is that's not a great reflection of what it looks like to follow Jesus, because God will bring you to moments where he brings you victory, but then the enemy comes back again. And that can be really, really intimidating to think that what's on the other side of this victory is a victory. is another giant, right? We think like, I'm just gonna get through this and what, but that word again is actually not an intimidating thing. That word again should actually bring us comfort, and here's why. Because the same God that brought us through what he brought us through yesterday, surely again will bring us through what's coming tomorrow. If we will pause and bring God into the process and bring God down to our level of what we're doing and we begin to acknowledge God in all our ways, we learn that there's a confidence that comes with the word again. It's not intimidating, it's not scary,

because we think we're gonna have victory and that victory's gonna last forever and there's no other trials, there's no other challenges, there's no other enemies. When I love this, when David killed Goliath, you know what was on the other side of Goliath? More giants. It's not this thing where it ends and it's over, it's the word again. Again, the enemy comes back. I love how immediate this is. There's not a pause, there's not a pizza party, there's none of that. It's literally the word again. And again, the Philistines come back and here's what happens, because even though, and then verse 22 again, but after a while, the Philistines returned and again, spread out across the valley of Rephaim. Here's where our confidence comes from the word again, verse 23, and again, David asked the Lord what to do. Do not attack them straight on, the Lord replied. Instead, circle around behind and attack them near the poplar trees. When you hear a sound like marching feet in the tops of the poplar trees, be on the alert. That will be the signal that the Lord is moving ahead of you to strike down the Philistine army. In verse 25, this is so big. So David did what the Lord commanded

and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Giza. Now this wasn't in my notes, but this is really important for you to understand today. Because what happens is when we come to the moment again, we see God's faithfulness again and again, but what hangs in the balance of God's faithfulness is this thing called obedience. Because it says right here, it says, so David did what the Lord commanded. What hangs in the balance of God's portion of all this is clarity. God will meet you where you are. God will give you what you need for today. But what hangs in the balance of us seeing victory in our life is the word obedience because to actually do what the Lord says. Because what's often, we think like, man, this is 2026, why would I read the Bible? Why would I think about these things? Why would these? You would be shocked to know the specificity of the details of your life. God knows. And exactly what you need for your circumstance, while it feels way personal, it's not unique. What you're going through is not unique. You're not the first person in the world to struggle with finances. You're not the first person in the world to struggle

and ask God, what should I do about my job? Should I go here? Should I do that? Where should I go to school? Should I marry him? Should I marry her? It's personal, but it's not unique. And God has a word for you in his word. If and only if we hang up, we hold up our end of the bargain which is obedience. But the obedience is the problem. And this is where so often you and I get this messed up because obedience costs us. Because there's moments where obedience costs us because it's uncomfortable. Because I've got to learn to trust God with my money and I don't know, like, he doesn't know all the detail. Or I've got to trust God with my time. Or I've got to trust God with my kids. Or I've got to trust God. And that trust and that obedience is uncomfortable. And oftentimes if we're honest, it's actually offensive because I've got to lay down what I think is right. I've got to hang, I've got to let go of my pride. I've got to let go of my past experiences and the things that happened to me. And he hurt me and she hurt me. I've got to lay all that down on the altar of obedience. God is always faithful to hold his end of the bargain. He will bring clarity to what you're going through.

But what hangs in the balance is our obedience. What hangs in the balance of our obedience is actually the victory that God brings. And it's this big idea and it's huge. And I love this because he does it again twice. And I love this because I'll be honest with you, like, sometimes I'm not the smartest crayon in the box. Like, I've got to figure it out sometimes. And I love that when you read this, it's like story with the same principle. David asked God what to do. God came through for David in a big way and David saw victory because he was obedient to what God did. And then immediately, again, the Philistines come. So you see the story repeated after repeated. And it's this emphasis of this idea where you and I so often find ourselves in the messes of life. And you've got messes and I've got messes. And oftentimes they're just because we don't bring God into the process. And we don't ask God what it is we should do. And you would think like a military mind like David, if anybody had the subject matter expertise to make these kinds of decisions, it's David. This is the same David that said that the same God that delivered the lion and the bear will surely deliver the head of this uncircumcised Philistine.

And he brought down Goliath. This is the same David that had experienced all of that. And he saw military victory after military victory. So if anybody had the ability and the history and the experience to be like. I'm gonna make this decision. It's David But what David does is he humbles himself under the mighty hand of God and he just asked God God What should I do God? What should we do? What should we do God? I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you And I look at my life and how many how many messes I've made in my life How many relationships went south how many business deals didn't go the right way how many job opportunities that kind of squandered or I let? Go, I mean, I almost got kicked out of middle school. It was a public school middle school. It was in public school. That's hard They don't just give those out like you got to work for that And I've made messes and and don't look at me like you haven't made messes I know some of your stories I'll testify right now But you have stories and you have messes and I have messes And What hangs in the balance of our messes is our ability or our inability? To do this simple thing or we just kind of sit back and we pause and we say God I don't know what to do But my eyes are on you and what changes in our messes what changes in our life? What changes is our in our decision making is when we bring God into the process because what we're doing is actually bringing the creator Of the universe the one who set all of this in motion who knew knew who knew you? Before you were even in your mother's womb How encouraging is this to know that the creator of the universe knows every detail of who you are? it knows every detail of what you need and you can find what you need in his word and He brings it to us as such such compassion and such clarity and this is beautiful moment That's what happens when everything changes and when God comes in To the process when we when we break it down and we ask God what it is We should do and we see God come through our faith rises our hope rises and victory comes but check out this again

So David did with the verse 25 so David did what the Lord commanded and he struck down So there's obedience and then here's God coming through and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Giza From Gibeon to Giza now when you seek the Lord like we think sometimes following God brings us to moments We're like victory looks like we barely survived We think like if I just been faithful to God I'm obedient to God like yeah, I'll have victory But it's like victory to barely get through the day It's victory to get to the end of the day where I'm gasping for air thinking God How did I do this? But when you read the story what you're reminded is that God is not a god of barely surviving His victory is not victory for you to barely make it and by the skin of your teeth you got through this He is a god of complete and utter dominance His victory for you. Listen his victory for you is Everything it's not just a little bit because it's big when you read this when you seek the Lord He doesn't just give victory. He gives dominance read this again So David did with the Lord command and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Giza from Gibeon to Giza Here's what you need to understand about those two places Right when you look on the map and geography and go to that time of place What happened was it was about 15 miles they say as the crow flies in a direct line but when you actually study the Geographical routes and especially specifically the army routes that they would take back in those times. It actually wasn't 15 miles It was actually closer to 25 miles because of the mountain ranges and the routes and things that they had to take So what that means is that David was not given victory to barely survive David was given victory to drive his enemies back 25 miles This is not a barely make it kind of situation This is like God has God has completeness for you. God has control for you God has God calls us to thrive to not barely survive barely make it God calls us to thrive He has a hope and a future for you a plan to prosper. You says the Lord This is not a plan that if I barely kind of barely get by no This is complete and utter dominance when we seek the Lord God does the miraculous and God's come through now Here's here's the deal. Okay, I promised you two stories. That was the first one the second one

We're running out of time But here's the good news. I'm committed to finish this and bring it if you're committed to stay with me. I Promise you I promise you this is good stuff. Check this out. This is from the book of Joshua Now Joshua was leading Israel at the time and it's important to understand Joshua was not like king of Israel This is before they had Kings. This is right after Moses And in this moment Joshua is like a military leader He's a prophet, but he's leading the people of Israel and in this particular moment He had just led them through this big victory at a place called Jericho Now if you grew up in church, you know about Jericho, you know The big walls that they marched around it. And so the story goes that that that Josh Joshua I call I call him Josh, you know That Joshua asked God what to do and God gave him this really crazy set of instructions didn't make any sense We'd like no military Leader would ever be like that sounds great. In fact, they'd be like that's insane. Don't do that And joshua heard from god And joshua does that and part of the strategy was like I want you to march around all your men to march around the city A certain number of times for a certain number of days and at a certain point the walls are just going to fall down And so joshua foolish enough to believe that foolish enough to obey Does that and and god does what he said he would do the walls come down they take the city They defeat jericho. It's this huge victory. So this is where this moment happens because it's right after that It's I mean you imagine spirits are high. It's this big moment of like, you know victory and all that stuff complete and utter victory And then they come across this next town that god calls them to take but the problem with this moment Is something is a little different. This is where our story picks up. This is joshua chapter 7 verses 1 through 9 in the nlt Verse 1 but israel violated the instructions about the things set apart for the lord. This is referring to jericho A man named achan has stolen some of these dedicated things So the lord was very angry with the israelites achan was the son of carme a descendant of zimri son of zarah Of the tribe of judah joshua sent some of his men from jericho to spy out the town of ai East of bethel near bethaven verse 3 when they returned they told joshua. They told joshua They told joshua there's no need for all of us to go up there

There's no need for all of us to go up there It won't take more than two or three thousand men to attack ai since there are so few of them Don't make all our people struggle to go up there. So approximately three thousand warriors were sent So joshua, obviously listen to those people three thousand warriors were sent but they were soundly defeated The men of ai chased the israelites from the town gate as far as the quarries and they killed about 36 Who were retreating down the slope? The israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events and their courage melted away Joshua and the elders of israel tore their clothing in dismay Threw dust on their heads and bowed face down to the ground before the ark of the lord until evening Then joshua cried out. Oh sovereign lord Why did you bring us across the jordan river? If you're going to let the amorites kill us if only we've been content to stay on the other side Lord what can I say now that israel has fled from its enemies For when the canaanites and all the other people living in the land Hear about it They will surround us and wipe our name off the face of the earth and then what will happen to the honor of your Great name now you read that did something jump out to you You read this moment and I can remember being about three years ago. I was I was I was in this I was reading this I happen to be reading both of these stories kind of at the same time And I remember in that moment something jumped out to me And it was this big moment and you probably noticed it too something really interesting joshua never asked god Joshua did what so often you and I do with our decisions and our big choices and the things in front of us Joshua relied on his past victories. Joshua relied on his past successes Joshua relied on everything and did everything he leaned on other leaders. He trusted their expertise. He trusted their opinion, but joshua Never asked god what to do and because he didn't he found himself in this giant mess People died. It was messy. He's stressing and wondering what am I going to do god? What are we going to do? This is the end And I would encourage you today go back home and I want you to finish reading chapter 7 today It'll encourage you Because it'll remind you and it'll let you understand that god is not the god to smear our faces in our messes The enemy and culture and like people who don't know god. That's their mo

They just love to smear our our noses in our messes, but that is not who god is God is not the god to let us wallow in our mess what happens in in this story You go back and finish reading chapter 7 I promise you it'll encourage you especially if you're here and you've got this big mess in your past Or maybe you're still walking through like like decisions and repercussions and circumstances and things like that have followed you from a mess in your past What you find in the end of this story is that god reaches down and he sets up joshua again It's not this moment of like god abandoning and I mess this up and it's so bad. And by the way, this is a giant mess Most of your messes probably don't involve 37 people dying Most of our messes are messy and they're personal but again God has what we need for this moment. God has what you need for this moment Because what happens is god reaches down and he brings up joshua and they walk together forward God is always a god of forward God is not a god for you to like to smear your past in your face and your mess And this is what you do No, no, no He is a god who reaches down to the lowest points the worst version of yourself that you hide from everybody That's who god knows intimately. That's who god Loves and that's who God died for So God is not like so whoever told you that God was the guys you're gonna meet the church You're gonna throw your nose. That's not who God is. God is a God of grace And so for those of you today and you're facing big decisions and you have anxiety about it What do I do and I don't want to make the wrong thing I want you to understand a couple of things number one your success is not dependent on your past It's not dependent on your past successes or your past failures Your success our success is determined by our dependence on God point-blank end of the sentence You have no past that God cannot cannot walk you through and walk you forward out of and maybe you're hearing you like But you don't know my story if you knew my story you'd say something different. You don't know my story. I Don't know your story, but God knows your story and God wants to walk with you walk with you out of your mess But you need to understand that he is a God of forward. He is a God that will walk with you forward

So if you're only interested in dwelling on the past and wanting to ruminate on everything that happened and went wrong like like God wants to heal you, but God wants to heal you forward and The next time you and I have big decisions, it's not enough to avoid big decisions It's actually enough for us to avoid bad decisions and God in his Word gives us everything that we need to do that And here's one thing. I didn't share about these stories that I think is important. I Told you that King David was around a thousand four BC that about thousand years before Jesus the story of Joshua and the Israelites This is about fourteen hundred BC or fourteen hundred years before Jesus comes on the scene. It's about four hundred years Before King David and why that's relevant why that's important is because while King David and Joshua were two completely separate Separate people who live separate lives the Israelites walked through it all and their family and generations were able to move forward and their past Did not determine their future And you need to understand that today Just because you've messed something up before does not mean that you don't have hope for tomorrow Because God in his Word gives us everything that we need to depend on him completely Joshua got this wrong It caused this big mess people died It was awful fast forward four hundred years King David is able to reflect and he brings God into the process And he's in this basic way. He just humbles himself under God's mighty hand and says God. What should I do? And I don't know where you are today, but I know that God has a hope and a future for you and That whatever your past is whatever mess is in your past or maybe whatever mess is in your morning Because you're still walking through this and there's still repercussions and there there's consequences of things that you've done I want you to understand something God sees you God knows you and God wants to help lift you up out of the mess and walk with you forward But it is dependent on one thing and one thing alone and that is our obedience his part is clarity He is faithful to provide clarity But it is up to us to obey with our kids I've got three kids and All of them since they were babies and I've got is two six and eight that's right. Thank you Lord Could if I got that wrong be it'd be a problem, you know But when they were little it was always the same thing. It was like listen and obey listen obey listen obey And it's it's a reflection of my adult life again, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box. It's just that's how basic walking with Jesus is It's my responsibility to listen and obey

He'll guide he'll guard he'll protect he'll direct He'll provide this most specific of moments and I could give you story after story that we don't have time But it is on to me is on me to listen and to obey And he'll do the rest you stand to your feet on a prayer of you today before we get out Before I do that If you had bowed your eye close your eyes closed right now if you're here and even as we talk through all of this you're like That's all great. But I don't even know who Jesus is Maybe this is your first day or your first day in church in a long time Once you know that you're welcome here, and we're so grateful you're here This is a safe place But if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior, I want to give you an opportunity to do that right now and So in just a second, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer and give you that opportunity But before I do that you kind of need to understand why this matters and what's and what hangs in the balance of all this If you've ever messed up if you've ever lied if you've ever cheated if you've ever stolen something If you've ever looked at someone else and lusted after them or what they had like the Bible says that that's sin Which makes you a sinner? But the good news is you're not alone Scripture that goes on to say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God all And all, when you even translate it back to the Greek, it still means all, everyone, all of us in the room, you are in great company. We're all sinners in need of a Savior. And Scripture goes on to say that the penalty of that sin, the punishment of that sin, the payment of that sin, the atonement of that sin is death. But it's not the death that you and I think of. It's actually a bigger death. It's a more eternal death. It's an eternal separation from God when we die in a place called hell. So to recap, you're a sinner, I'm a sinner, and because of our sin, we have earned eternity in hell without God.

And that's an awful place to end the story, right? Thanks for coming. Have a great day. That's an awful place to end the story. But it's actually where your story begins. It's where life begins. It is where your hope begins. It's where your future begins. Because while we were yet sinners, Christ, Jesus Christ, died for us. And Jesus lived a perfect life, 33 years, and then laid down His life, bled on a cross, and died and rose again for your sin and for my sin. And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. All you have to do is accept Jesus for who He is, and ask Him into your heart and into your life. And right now I'm going to give you an opportunity to do that. So I'm going to lead us in a prayer, and I'm going to ask everyone to pray this out loud together because we're going to support those in the room that are about to pray this for the very first time. So all together say, Dear Jesus, I admit I'm a sinner, I've messed up, I've made mistakes on purpose, and I need You. And I believe that You, Jesus, died on the cross, shed Your blood, and rose again for my sin and for my life. And I confess that You, Jesus, are Lord and Savior of my life. Come into my life, come into my heart, and teach me how to live. In Jesus' name. Everybody look right up here. If that was you, if you prayed that prayer for the first time, here's what's not going to happen. We're not going to embarrass you, we're not going to single you out, we're not going to make you get up here and tell your story, no, that's going to happen.

But here's what is going to happen. I'm going to count to three in just a second, and I'm going to ask you to have one second of courage to raise your hand, just one, and you leave your hand up long enough for our host teams to find you, because they're going to put a little gift, a little blue bag in your hands that are full of resources that are going to help you on your journey of following Jesus. And then here's the second thing that's going to happen when you raise your hand. Everyone in this room is going to go nuts, because that decision is the best decision that you have ever made or will ever make in your entire life, and we want to celebrate that together. So, when I count to three right now, have one second of courage if you prayed that for the first time, and let our host teams find you. You ready? Here we go. One, two, three. That's you. We see those hands. Keep those hands up. Awesome. So good. Awesome. Keep those hands up. Awesome. So good. Look at everybody. Awesome. If you're watching...