What Joseph’s Story Teaches About Obeying God’s Word | Behold | Week 2

Hey, welcome to Flatirons Church Online. My name is Joe. I'm one of the worship pastors here at Flatirons, and today I'm your online host. I'm so glad you've joined us today. If this is your first time joining us, welcome. This isn't just a service to watch. We'd love to connect with you too. Follow us on any of our social platforms or on YouTube. And a great way to stay connected with us is to text the word NEXT to 80857, which gets you into our texting community. We'll send you a few encouraging texts every week, but what's really cool is that you can text us back. Ask a question. Ask for prayer about something in your life. We've got real people ready to connect with you. Our Christmas service is coming up soon. We'll be streaming it live on Sunday, December 21st at 9 a.m. And of course, you'll be able to watch it on demand later as well. Well, hey, thanks again for joining us. We've got an awesome service today, so let's get started. My true love gave to me What's a partridge? What's a pear tree? I don't know, so please don't ask me But I can bet those are terrible gifts to give On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the twenty-sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Woo! Letters, we're so glad you guys are here. Let's stand up together. Thought we'd have some fun in our Christmas series. We love to sing with you all. We love to worship. So let's sing together today. Loyal to the world That Lord has come

Let earth receive her King ♪ Let every heart prepare Him room ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven and heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ So take the Lord as God ♪ ♪ And let the world receive the King ♪ ♪ Joy to the world the Savior reigns ♪ ♪ Let men their songs employ ♪ ♪ While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains ♪ ♪ Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy ♪ ♪ Repeat, repeat the sounding joy, the Lord is mine ♪ ♪ The sounding joy, the Lord is mine ♪ ♪ Let every heart prepare Him room ♪ ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace ♪ ♪ And makes the nations prove ♪ ♪ The glories of His righteousness ♪ ♪ And wonders of His love, and wonders of His love ♪ ♪ And wonders, wonders of His love ♪ Sing of your love, Jesus. Hey, He rules the world. ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace ♪ ♪ And makes the nations prove ♪ ♪ The glories of His righteousness ♪ ♪ And wonders of His love, and wonders of His love ♪ ♪ And wonders, wonders of His love ♪ ♪ His love ♪ ♪ His love, amazing love ♪ ♪ So we sing of His love ♪ ♪ Let every heart prepare Him room ♪

♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven and heaven and nature sing ♪ Amen. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord. And He is worthy of our praise. He deserves all the glory, all the honor, for He is holy. So come on, let's continue to praise Him and worship. We lift our voices and sing. ♪ A thousand generations ♪ ♪ Falling down in worship ♪ ♪ Sing the song of ages to the Lamb ♪ ♪ And all who've gone before us ♪ ♪ And all who will believe ♪ ♪ Sing the song of ages to the Lamb ♪ Come on, we lift Him up. ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ All thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels cry holy ♪ ♪ While creation cries holy ♪ ♪ You are lifted high holy, holy forevermore ♪ ♪ Forever ♪ ♪ If you've been forgiven ♪ ♪ And if you've been redeemed ♪ ♪ Sing the song forever to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Oh we sing ♪

♪ If you walk in freedom ♪ ♪ And if you bear His name ♪ ♪ Sing the song forever to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Oh we'll sing the song forever and amen ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy our creation Christ ♪ ♪ Holy You are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Hear Your people sing ♪ ♪ Holy to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Holy You will always be ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ Come on we're lifting up in this place. ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name descends above them all ♪ Yes it does. ♪ Of all the realms and the millions of all powers ♪ ♪ And positions Your name stands above them all ♪ Jesus. ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name descends above them all ♪ Above all the realms and the millions of all powers ♪ And positions Your name stands above them all ♪ And the angels cry. ♪ Holy, all creation cry ♪ ♪ Holy, You are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ All we ask of You is be holy ♪

♪ May we both sing You are holy ♪ ♪ To the King of kings ♪ ♪ For when You're so holy You will always be ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ You will always be holy ♪ ♪ Holy forever ♪ ♪ Holy, You are holy, holy ♪ ♪ You are holy, holy ♪ ♪ Oh come let us adore Him ♪ ♪ Oh come let us adore Him ♪ ♪ Oh come let us adore Him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord, the King of kings ♪ ♪ We'll praise Your name forever ♪ ♪ We'll praise Your name forever ♪ ♪ We'll praise Your name forever ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh precious Lord, we adore You, we adore You ♪ So we adore you, Jesus Maybe we've made this complicated More than it was ever meant to be Hasn't it always been about the same thing? Lord, bring us back to simple things You be the center of it all My heart belongs to you My savior all in all You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of your name My soul will live to say Jesus, I love you Teach us to discern the moment

When to serve And when to sit here at your feet Keep us awake to what's important Just like Mary chose the better thing Oh, for you are the center of it all My heart belongs to you My savior all in all You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of your name My soul will live to say Jesus, I love you Oh, for you are the center of it all My heart belongs to you My savior all in all You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of your name My soul will live to say Jesus, I love you Oh, how I love you Oh, how I love you Jesus, I love you Oh, how I love you Oh, how I love you Jesus, I love you My whole life for your glory My whole world for you only Everything for the honor of your name And if my days tell a story Let it be of you only Everything for the honor of your name

My whole life for your glory My whole world for you only Everything for the honor of your name And if my days tell a story Let it be of you only Everything for the honor of your name My whole life for your glory My whole world for you only Everything for the honor of your name And if my days tell a story Let it be of you only Everything for the honor of your name We'll praise your name forever We'll praise your name forever We'll praise your name forever ♪ The Lord will give you all the glory ♪ ♪ Will give you all the glory ♪ ♪ Will give you all the glory ♪ ♪ He is Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Will give you all the glory ♪ ♪ He is Christ the Lord ♪ Yeah, Flatirons, let's pray together. God, thank you so much this morning. Lord, for a space to just tell you that we love you. Jesus, thank you for your love. Thank you in a season that sometimes can feel dark. Christmas can come with a lot of weight for some of us. Lord, I pray today, would you just release the pressure of this season? Lord, thank you for your spirit.

God, thank you for the hope that is available because of your son, Jesus. God, thank you that all we have to do is receive your spirit. God, I pray this morning, Holy Spirit, would you move in this room? But God, would you help us to just receive your love and your joy and your peace and the hope because of who Jesus is, because of him coming as a baby, eventually making his way to the cross for us. And so today we just say, Jesus, we love you. Thank you for this morning. Thank you for worship that we have the chance to respond to who you are, God. You are so worthy. You are mighty. You are powerful. You are so worthy of all of the praise, all of the honor, all of the glory. God, today we just say we love you and we trust you. It's in Jesus' holy and mighty name that I pray and all God's people said together, amen. Amen, Flatirons. Yeah, if you're glad to be here, would you put your hands together with me? I am so grateful to be here with you guys. My name is Lindsay. I would love to say hi to you after service if we have not met.

Would you take a second and say hi to the people that you sat by today? Shake somebody's hand, tell them your name. Tell someone happy Sunday morning. And you guys can go ahead and have a seat today. So good to see ya'll. Well, Flatirons, it is so good to see all of you. Students in the house, how are you guys doing? Y'all doing well? Our students, do you know what weekend this is? This is weekend December 6th and what? Hey! If you're new here, hopefully I'll be here next week. My name is Steven and I'm the campus pastor here. We're so glad that you are here and you are surrounded by some amazing people and we would love to help you to get connected. And a lot of people that you're surrounded by are also Broncos fans. Come on, Broncos fans, make some noise. 10 and two. All right. The easiest way to get started is by texting next to 80857. You'll get a few encouraging messages this week and some easy next steps. And before you head out today, I wanna encourage you to stop by our new here area. We've got some amazing volunteers that would love to answer any questions that you have.

We also have a very special gift and I'll be out there after service as well as a number of people on our staff and would love to be able to say hello in person. And you may have noticed when you came in this morning that we have some Christmas shopping available this weekend. We are joined by several of our global partners who are selling locally made items from the communities that they serve. And so I wanna encourage you after service to linger a little bit. Please take a moment to go out, visit the tables, learn a little bit more about some of the organizations that we partner with together as a church and pick up a Christmas gift that supports the mission this season. And finally, our Christmas service is gonna be coming this, actually in less than two weeks. Anybody excited about Christmas? Excited about Christmas? Christmas is one of the most amazing times for you to invite a friend, a neighbor, a classmate or a coworker to come sit with you. Our service is gonna be December 19th through 21st. We have services on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. and Sunday at 9 and 11. Now if you consider Flatirons your home, we would love for you to consider joining us on Friday or Saturday to make as much space as possible for all of our guests and our friends on Sunday morning. RSVPs are open and they help us to prepare for you and your family. For those of you all that are watching online, you can do so at flatironschurch.com slash christmas or by scanning the QR code.

Today we are continuing with part two of our series, Behold. Would you all join me in welcoming our executive lead pastor, Jesse DeYoung, as he comes up. Let's show him some love. Oh, man, it's so good to have all of our campuses watching together. We got Aurora, Longmont, we got West, Denver, online, everybody around. And I just want to say this is the month. So what we've been walking through for the last maybe three, four months, this entire Be Free initiative, this is the month where everything that you give during December of this year all the way through December of 2027, it's all going to go toward what happens here into the Be Free initiative. So that all goes in. So here's the thing. 2,800 families filled out pledge cards and we are just blown away and so thankful. And if you filled out a pledge card, I just want to encourage you this week or next week would be the time for you to go online and to adjust your giving to match the pledge so that we can see everything God is going to do through our generosity. If you didn't get a chance to fill out a pledge card, you can still jump into Be Free. You can just head online and set up your giving there. But make sure that you do that this month and everything that we give together for the next 25 months is going to go to Be Free. All right, let's get started today. If you have your Bibles, open up to Matthew chapter one. I hope you got your Bible. If not, we got free Bibles in the back of every one of our campuses and would love to just get one of those in your hands. That's our gift to you. But we're going to pick up with what we read last week in verse 18 in Matthew chapter one, verse 18, just in case you missed it. So it starts out in Matthew 118. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. So they're engaged to each other. And her husband, her fiance Joseph, being a just man, he's unwilling to put her to shame. He resolved to divorce her quietly. I thought Carl did such a great job last week. Can we give it up for Carl last weekend? I thought the picture he painted of Joseph just being this quiet man, this faithful man. He's not a preacher, not a priest.

He's just this humble, faithful man doing what God told him to do. He's honoring God while he does it. And it's very similar to a lot of the people in the room today. And then God interrupts this normal guy's plan. We continue in the next verse, verse 20. But it says that as he considered these things, as he thought about, okay, I'm going to leave Mary, just divorce her quietly. Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She'll bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So Joseph gets very specific instructions here. The instructions are, take Mary as his wife, trust that the child is from the Holy Spirit, and then name the boy a specific name, the name Jesus, God saves. And here's something, I was doing research this week, and I found this out. I never knew this before. Jesus was actually a really common name back then, 2,000 years ago. Like a lot of parents back in Israel would name their kids Jesus, because their hope was, I'm going to name him Jesus, and God's going to use our son to save us from Roman oppression. So they call him Jesus. But the angel doesn't tell Joseph, he doesn't say, hey, Jesus is going to save them from Rome. The angel says, he's going to save the people from their sins. And if you think about it, all throughout Jesus' life, people kept wanting something different from him. It's like, Jesus, hey, thanks for the forgiveness, but what I really need is I need the raise, I need the healing, I need the fix, I need the help. And we want Jesus to solve our problems, and then we kind of treat forgiveness as a nice bonus to have. But what Matthew is saying, he's saying, hey, something way bigger is happening. In verse 22, it says, which means God with us. So the prophet Isaiah said this. 734 years earlier.

Jesus has two different names here. One is Jesus, that's God saves, but the second is Emmanuel, God with us. So one name, the first name, that tells us what he does. The other name tells us how he does it. Jesus saves us by being with us. Because the perfection of God could not live in the imperfection of people. And so what God did, God took on flesh to close the distance between you and him. And God wants us to get this so much, he's gonna leave clues in here, because this is one of the last things that Jesus says to. If you've read through the book of Matthew, at the end of Matthew chapter 28, verse 20, it says this right here. Jesus says, hey, I want you to remember, I am with you to the end of the age. I came to be with you then in a manger, and I'm going to be with you forever. And so he wants all of us to know, he is with you. He's with you in the conflict at home. He's with you in the pressure at work. When you feel overwhelmed, he's with you. When you feel like you've been overlooked, he's with you. He's not far off. Even though it might feel that way, he's with you. And so what does Joseph do? We see next in verse 24. When Joseph woke from sleep,

he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. So Joseph obeys what God said, even though it would have been so much easier not to. I mean, Joseph's reputation was on the line. He was gonna carry a bunch of shame that actually wasn't his, and his future became so much more complicated. And if you've read through the Christmas story, Joseph never gets any of the spotlight. If you read through it, he doesn't even get a line. Joseph doesn't even get to say anything in the story. So Mary gets the story. Jesus gets the glory. Joseph ends up pretty much being forgotten. And so walking away would have been just simple and easy, but at the same time, he didn't. He obeyed the word of God. So let me ask you a direct question. What do you do when God's word tells you to do something you don't want to do? So when God's word tells you to forgive somebody, but they're not sorry, they haven't apologized, and quite frankly, they don't deserve it. When God's word tells you sex is designed for and reserved for marriage, but you just can't find a guy who's willing to wait, and you just don't want to be alone for your whole life.

When God's word tells you to not just give generously, but to give sacrificially, but you start doing the math, and the math just doesn't add up. When God's word tells you to genuinely love your neighbor, but they voted for the wrong person, what do you do when God's word tells you to do something you don't want to do? Here's what most of us do. In those moments, we just do whatever feels right to us in the moment. I'm not throwing stones, okay, because this is my story too. But the tension of when we don't go with what God tells us, and we go with our own judgment, here's the tension. We're constantly proving ourselves wrong. I mean, I want you to think about this. Even the experts are proving themselves wrong regularly. Let me give you some examples, okay? Who in the room grew up with Pluto as a planet? Just show of hands, okay? Apparently, you can just erase planets. They don't exist anymore or something. Okay, I'm living in denial. Or here's another one. I want you to think about the diet advice you've seen on social media over the last 10 years or so. Like 10 years ago, caffeine is bad. Now, caffeine's good. Okay, it used to be fat is bad.

Now, there's good fats. Good fats are actually good. You know, red meat's bad. Now, red meat's good. And I'm just waiting for the day that donuts are good, okay? Like, I believe it can happen. And Carl and I have talked about the protein donuts before. Or maybe, maybe you have a guy in your life who won't stop yapping about his cold plunge. Like, anybody have that person? No show of hands, okay? But they talk about it like cold water is this amazing new discovery to the planet. They're like, you would not believe cold water. Well, get this now. Cold plunges are medically linked with heart issues in young men in their early 30s and their 40s. So, a year ago, cold plunges are gonna cure cancer. Now they give you heart issues. No wonder people have avoided cold water for thousands of years, okay? They knew something we don't. But here's what I want you to think about, and here's why I say all this. If we are proving ourselves wrong every 10 years ago, then why would you ever trust what you think is right today? Because what you think is right today on your own, it's just gonna be proven wrong tomorrow. That's why we need a source of wisdom

and a source of judgment and a source of guidance that transcends time. It transcends fads. It transcends whatever the talking heads are saying today. That's why we need the unchanging anchor of God's word in a constantly changing culture. Because here is the truth that you'll come to see at some point. Science always catches up with the Bible. Let me tell you a couple ways. Harvard, Stanford, they're productivity experts. They're now saying chronic exhaustion leads to anxiety, depression, and physical inflammation. But they said, hey, we found out a weekly rest resets the brain and the body. They're acting like it's a breakthrough, but God told us, take a Sabbath 3,500 years ago. Or studies on hookup culture. They show that constantly swapping partners, it actually leads to anxiety, depression, and to long-term loneliness. Studies show that couples who live together before marriage, they're twice as likely to divorce. And they've shown that the most sexually fulfilled marriages are those that follow scripture. So science is catching up. Research now shows that bitterness, it increases inflammation, it increases anxiety. It can even give you heart disease. But forgiveness brings not just emotional,

but it brings physical healing. Solomon said this 3,000 years ago. He said, bitterness will rot your bones. It'll rot you out from the inside out. And now science finally agrees. One more. I was doing some research this week. Several European nations, they're reversing course on gender reassignment surgeries for kids because long-term studies show higher regret, worse mental health, and overwhelming requests to have reversal surgeries. When we live outside of God's design, it doesn't lead to flourishing. But when we live inside God's design, we're gonna find this peace and this identity. It doesn't need to be rebuilt every few years. So science is catching up. God's design is not oppressive. It's loving. All that to say, if you wanna know how to have a good life, read your Bible. If you wanna know how life actually works, read your Bible. If you want to hear God's voice, read your Bible. It's not the only way that we hear God's voice, but it is the primary way that we hear God's voice.

That's why our first church value is this. We know God. How do we know God? We know God through his word. Another way we say this is biblical authority. The Bible reveals who God is and what he's like. Tells us how he leads us into freedom. And here's the truth. What we believe about the Bible reveals what we believe about God. Because we think the Bible is optional. We're gonna treat God as optional. We think the Bible's outdated. We're gonna treat God as outdated. That's why how we approach the Bible matters so much. There are two different postures for how we approach the word of God. The first one is this. We put ourselves over the word of God. So we look at the word of God like it's a consultant manual. It's full of advice. God, you tell me what you think I should do. I'll decide whether I do it or not. We pick and choose what we believe and what we don't. We'll say things like, I know what the Bible says, but in whatever you say after that, it doesn't matter. We take the holy word of God that was given to us from God himself so that we could know him

and we put ourselves over God's word. Now some of you guys are offended. You're like, Jesse, you just dropped the holy word of God to the ground. Don't be offended by what I did figuratively. When we do this literally all the time. Here's how you know if you're living in a posture over the word of God. When we put ourselves over the word of God, number one, we decide what we agree with. This is when we read the Bible and instead of asking, hey, what's God saying? We're asking the question, do I agree with that? In a second, we've done that. We've placed our. ourselves in the seat of authority. We've made our feelings, our logic, our worldview, the filter through which the Bible must pass. And if the Bible's gotta pass through our approval, then you're the authority, not God. This is a posture that says, hey God, you can speak so long as you say what I already think. We open the Bible not to be shaped by it, but we open it to see if it matches what we already believe, what we believe about love or justice or morality. And when we do that, we're not submitting to the Bible at all. And here's a warning.

If you find that the Bible always agrees with you, you're probably not reading the Bible. You're just reading your own opinion with a leather cover. The Bible should disagree with us at times. That's how we know it's God's word. Here's the second way that we put ourselves over the word of God. We redefine what God actually said. When we're over the word of God, we don't change ourselves, we change the meaning. We make scripture say what we already wanted it to say. It's like, I know that God says that marriage is between one man and one woman, but it was different back then. I know that God told us to love and care for the immigrant, but it's different today. I know that God tells us to flee from sexual immorality, but he knows my heart. And we do spiritual gymnastics and we twist the scripture so that we don't have to obey it. Here's the third way that we put ourselves over the word of God. We just ignore the parts we don't like. Like the miracles of Jesus. I'm not sure those ever happen. The Bible says God created the world in six days. I just kind of skip over that part. I mean, Jonah and the whale, come on. Okay, that is a fairy tale. So what happens, we ignore the parts that we don't like.

We just ignore it. But man, we gotta be careful. We gotta be careful when we pick and choose. Because if Jesus doesn't have the ability to heal people back then, what makes you think that he can show up for you now? If Jesus couldn't do the miraculous then, then how is he gonna help you now? And if Christ has not been raised, Paul says this, he says, then your faith is futile and we're still in our sins. So if you're saying that God couldn't back then, you're saying he can't right now. It's either all of the Bible or none of it. Thomas Jefferson, there's a legendary story about him. He literally cut out every miracle and part of the Bible he didn't like. So he came to the Bible and he had a razor, he had glue, and he would remove the virgin birth, the miracles, the prophecies, anything that he thought shouldn't be in there. He even cut out the resurrection. So the Gospels end with Jesus' burial. And so you're left with this Bible, it's a book of moral teachings and ethical sayings, but it's a book with no power. And the truth is, you can't follow the teachings of Jesus without the power of Jesus. You can't love like Jesus, forgive like Jesus, be pure like Jesus, unless you've got the spirit of Jesus

empowering you to do what you can't do on your own. And so if you ignore the miracles, you ignore the power of Jesus. So it's either all of the Bible or none of it. Here's the fourth way that we put ourselves over the word of God. We apply the Bible selectively. You can't claim the promises of God if you won't follow the commands of God. You can't claim when God says, hey, for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. You can't claim that promise and not follow the command to repent from the sins that are holding you captive. You can put Philippians 4.13 on a mug all day, okay? But you can't claim, hey, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength and not follow the command to be content in all circumstances. Because that's what Philippians 4.13 was actually talking about. And here's the thing. The commands of God are deeply connected to the promises of God. And so often, it's following the commands of God that leads us into the promises of God. So we obey what God says, and in obeying what God says, that's what leads us into the life that he promised. God said it this way to the people of Israel.

He says this, he says, be careful to obey, to do what I told you, so that it may go well with you. You'll increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord promised you. Be careful to obey so that you can experience my promises. If you want the promises of God, you gotta follow the commands of God. When you stand over the word, you treat it like advice and you decide whether or not you agree with it. You cut and paste, you highlight the things you like, you ignore the things you don't, and you become the editor and God becomes the author that you're correcting. When you're over the word, you use phrases like, I don't know if I agree. I don't know if God really would. I think this means this. And so we reshape Scripture instead of letting Scripture reshape us. And when you're over the word, you come to it asking, hey, does this fit my feelings? Does this match my preferences? Does this line up with my politics? Does this make me look good to other people? And if it doesn't, we twist it, we tame it, we ignore it so that it fits. But when you stand under the word of God, when you stand under the word of God, you come to the Bible with a highlighter too, except this time you're the one being highlighted.

Instead of asking, do I agree with God's word? You're asking, hey, where does my life disagree with God's word? Because that's where I need to repent. That's where I need to submit. That's where I need to change. When you're under the word, the posture, it shifts. You don't evaluate it, it evaluates you. You don't conform this to you, you conform to it. We don't bend it to our preferences, we bend our lives to its authority. When you're under the word, you don't follow it because you completely understand it either. You follow it because he said it. And if God is who he said he is, it makes sense that we wouldn't understand everything that's in this book about God. God says it this way, he says, for my thoughts, they're not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Parents, I want you to just think about this. You'll get this analogy. Think back to when your kids were really, really little. When my kids were little, I asked them to do things that made no sense to them. It's like, hey, don't touch the stove. You can't touch the stove.

Don't run across the parking lot. Never buy a cat, okay? You're waiting for that. It's been six months, guys, so okay. From their perspective, it's random and restrictive, but from my perspective, it's protection. They don't need to understand the reason to obey the instruction. They just need to trust. Their father sees something that they don't. And if that's true with a human father, how much more with a heavenly father? So he says, hey, trust my word. Obey what I tell you. Even when you don't understand, even when you disagree, trust that I see things that you don't. This is what it looks like when we put ourselves under the word of God. Number one, we submit to its authority. When you're under the word of God, you make a decision before you ever open the Bible. The decision's this. God, whatever you say wins. When I don't like what it says, the word of God wins. When I don't agree with what it says, the word of God wins. When it doesn't feel right to me, the word of God wins.

And I don't negotiate with God because he's not my consultant, he's my authority. And so when I disagree with what he says, I assume I'm the one who's wrong and he's the one who's right. That's what it means to be under the word of God. Here's the second way we're under the word of God. We sit under its shelter. When you're under the word of God, you begin to realize something. God's commands are not a cage, they're a covering. Every point about how we approach God's word, that is Jesus being with us and Jesus saving us. Saving us from sin, saving us from pain, saving us from regret. The Bible's not a list of restrictions. It's not a list of restrictions meant to kill your joy. It is a shelter that protects you from some of your own worst decisions. Culture has been saying this for decades. It says, hey, follow your heart. The scripture says this, the heart, it's actually deceitful above all things. Your heart is gonna lead you astray. Every time that you follow your heart apart from God's word, you walk into storms you were never meant to face. I mean, think about all the worst moments of your life, those moments that you wish you could have back,

the ones that are affecting you even to this day. Didn't most those happen because you stepped outside God? God's word, we did what we thought was best and we ended up in a storm we could have avoided. But when you're sitting under the protection of God's word, storms are still gonna come, wind's still gonna blow, waves are still gonna hit, but your house stands because the foundation holds. God's word is a shelter to protect you from yourself. The third thing that happens when we're under the word of God, we stand on its promises. When you're under the word of God, you don't just read the promises of God, we put the weight of our life on them. We stand on them, we depend on them, we lean against them. That's what faith is. Faith is saying, I'm gonna lean my life against what God says is best. I'm gonna lean my life against what God says and I'm trusting that this is gonna hold. You don't trust a bridge, you don't test a bridge by looking at it or reading about it, you test a bridge by walking across it. So we stand on the promises of God, not trusting in ourselves, but trusting in his promises. There are over 850 promises for followers of Jesus in the Bible. And I was thinking about our time today and thinking about the people I've had conversations with

and what so many of us are walking through in the season. And I picked out a couple of the promises that maybe somebody in this room needs to hear. So here's the first. If you feel abandoned right now, you feel alone and abandoned, you can stand on the promise. Jesus says, I will never leave you. He will never leave you, never. When you feel overwhelmed and like it's all just too much and you can't take it anymore, you can stand on the promise. He says, my grace is sufficient for you and can keep you going day after day after day. My grace, I've got you. When you don't understand what God is doing, it's like, God, I don't know what you're doing, I don't like what you're doing, I would be doing this completely differently and you don't understand what he's doing, you can stand on this next promise. He is working all things for good. He promises, he's working it all for good. When you feel tired and exhausted and weak and like you just can't take it anymore, you can stand on this promise. He says, those who hope in the Lord, he will renew their strength. So he will give you strength when you feel tired, when you feel weak and you feel weary. He promises, I will give you strength. When you feel guilty and ashamed

based on something that happened this week, based on just life and you feel like, I should not be in here right now. When you feel guilty and ashamed, you can stand on the promise. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He says, you belong here and there is no condemnation for you in Jesus. And when you feel like it's all over for you, when you feel like it would just be better off if things were done, it is over, there is no coming back from this. You can stand on this promise. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. What he started in you, he will finish. He's still working. Now these are just a few of the promises of God. There are so many more available to us. And as followers of Jesus, we live with the belief and the conviction that the promises of God are true even when they don't feel true. When they don't feel true, we don't stand on our feelings, we stand on his promises. When we're under the word of God, we stand on its promises, we sit in its shelter and we submit to its authority.

And you might not be able to see it right now and you might not be experiencing the promises right now. You might not understand it right now. You might even disagree right now. But when God's word is our authority for life, obedience is better than understanding. Obedience is better than understanding because there are some things that we can't see yet. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So even when we don't understand, we trust, we obey, and we hold onto the promise that he will be true to his word. Let me tell you a little bit about what this has looked like a few years ago. for me lately. Throughout the last few months, Kara and I, my wife, we've been praying about Be Free, and just asking God, praying the questions that we challenge you guys with, and saying, God, is there a specific number that you want me and Kara to give over the next two years? And I didn't get an audible voice, didn't get a sign, but I got this prompting a few different times. Like, Jesse, this is the number I want you guys to give. I didn't really like the number, and so I was like, God, I need a little confirmation on this, and I said, God, if that's the number, I need you to actually put that on Kara's heart, too. I need that to be Kara's number, too.

And so a couple weeks from Commitment Sunday, Kara and I were just talking, having a conversation, and she brings it up, and she talks about our number, and it's the same number. And so on Commitment Sunday, we write down the number, we turn it in, and then we start doing the math, and we're figuring out, like, what do we need to give up? What do we need to rearrange? What needs to change for us? And then, have you ever had a week where it feels like everything in your house breaks? Like, anybody ever had that week before? This was a couple weeks ago for us. First, the TV breaks, and we're like, well, that's probably good. We watch a lot of TV, so it's good. We should watch less TV. And then the shower starts leaking upstairs. It leaks through the ceiling below. It leaks on the fridge. The fridge stops working. And then I take my car into the shop for a checkup, and they call me, and they say, hey, are you sitting down right now? And I was like, that's never a good sign when your mechanic asks you if you're sitting down. And they're like, hey, the transmission is going bad. There's metal in the fluid. And we're like, this is on our newer car. And then this stupid cat that I never agreed to,

I never should have agreed to, starts clawing up the carpet, and he's just sitting there like, and don't feel sorry for me, okay? Because there are people who have multiple cats, all right? Feel sorry. Feel sorry for them. Now, this is not meant for you to feel sorry for me, not at all, because here's what I know. There are many, many people in this room who have had way worse weeks than I've had. I met with two of them just this week. But I want to tell you what I was thinking as everything in our house was breaking. Because as all this is happening, my first reaction, maybe you've done this before, my first reaction is just take this all into my own hands and try to fix it on my own. I was like, okay, I gotta call Michael, the CFO. I gotta call Michael. Michael, we gotta change the number before it's too late, because that number's not gonna work now. And then Cara and I, we were chatting, and we paused, and we remembered, and we were like, wait, we could do that, but we didn't come up with that number. God gave us that number. And if God's the one who called us to it, he's the one that'll bring us through it. And we realized we could change the number.

That'd be totally fine. Everybody would totally understand. It'd be completely fine. But at the same time, if we changed the number, we would never be able to see what God could do on the other side if we trusted him. I'm at a point in my life where I don't wanna see my math anymore. I wanna see God's math. I wanna see provision when I can't see it from here, when it doesn't make sense. And guys, I'm telling you, over the last couple weeks, I've started to see God provide in little ways here and there to let me know he is with me. And sometimes people will email in when we start telling stories or making challenges like this, and I totally get the heart behind it, okay? They're warning us about not telling people to be safe. You gotta tell people to be safe. Tell people to be responsible around generosity. And they always mention Dave Ramsey. Okay, I don't know why. He's a Christian, financial personality. I love Dave. I've met him. He got through his program. And I agree. Most of the time, we should be responsible. But I want you to listen to this.

When you're responsible, then you're responsible for the outcome. But in moments where God has called us to do something that seems irresponsible, then what we get the opportunity to say is, hey, God, you called me to this. And I don't know how I'm gonna get there, but God, if you said it, I'll do it. And God, now it's your responsibility. Because quite personally, I'm tired of my math and I wanna see God's math. I'm tired of seeing what I can do on my own. I wanna see what God can do. I'm tired of just seeing something natural. And I wanna experience something supernatural. And I don't just wanna see what I'm capable of. I wanna see what God's capable of. I wanna experience the promise that he made where he said, Jesse, I can do immeasurably more than all you could ever ask or imagine. He promised that to us. And even when the math doesn't make sense and the path isn't clear, the math I'm talking about, it's not just about. about money, okay, it's about everything. It's about trusting God with whatever we're trusting God with, we don't base our trust on what God does next, we base it on what he's already done. The truth is, we already have proof of God's love and his faithfulness, and that's his son, Jesus Christ.

You don't have to wonder if God is good. You don't have to guess if God is for you, because he settled that question once and for all in a manger and on a cross. And I wonder sometimes what it must have been like for Jesus growing up in Joseph's home. He's watching this quiet, steady, faithful man carry the shame that wasn't his. I mean, Joseph didn't deserve the whispers. He didn't deserve the reputation, but he bore it anyways for a child who wasn't even biologically his. He took on shame that didn't belong to him so that Mary could be protected and so that Jesus could be brought into the world. And I just imagine Jesus watching as he grew up, and he's watching Joseph get misunderstood. He's watching Joseph live with rumors. He's watching Joseph walk through the village with a reputation he didn't deserve, and he's watching Joseph carry shame that somebody else caused. And then 33 years later, Jesus steps into Joseph's story, and he fulfills it. Where Joseph carried the shame of one child, Jesus carried the shame of the entire world. Where Joseph protected his family at his own expense, Jesus protected all of us at the expense of his own life. Where Joseph took on a reputation he didn't deserve, Jesus took on a sin he didn't commit. Joseph foreshadowed what Jesus would ultimately perfect.

On the cross, Jesus did what Joseph could never do. He took on all of our shame. Paul said, he who knew no sin, he became sin for us. The sin wasn't his, but he carried it anyway. The shame wasn't his, he bore it anyway. The punishment wasn't his, he took it anyway. Why did he do that? To set us free. So when you wonder, does God see me? Does God love me? Does God care about what I'm walking through? You don't look at your circumstances, you look at the cross. Because there is your proof, there is your answer, there is your eternal evidence for the goodness of God. And to remember that, today we're gonna take communion together. It's a moment for us where we just take these little elements, a little piece of bread. It's a symbol of his body that was broken for us. We're gonna drink a little juice as a symbol of the blood that was poured out for us. In communion, it's this reminder, Jesus didn't just take on shame, he took our shame away. Communion's the reminder, forgiveness wasn't cheap, but it was paid in full. It is the reminder, God keeps every promise he makes, even the ones that cost him everything.

So as we take the bread and the cup, I want you to hold on to this truth. You may not see the answer yet, you may not understand what God is doing, you may not know the plan, but you know the heart of the Father. You know the son who came near, he took on flesh, he walked with us, he died for us, and he rose again, and every promise of God is fulfilled in him. And so I'm gonna pray, then at each of your campuses, the campus pastors, we'll lead through communion together, and then we'll sing one final song. So God, right now in this moment, God, we remember. We remember how your son, Jesus, who knew no sin, took on all of our sin. God, a king who had nothing to be ashamed of, took on all of our shame. A man who had done nothing wrong, took on all of our guilt. And so God, whenever we're walking through a situation that we don't understand, God, you're doing something we don't agree with, God, you're telling us to do something that we don't like, and we're wondering, God, where are you in this? God, why is this happening? God, are you still with me? God, won't you save us?

God, in those moments, we look to the cross. In those moments, we look to Jesus, who hung on a cross until he breathed his last so that we could be reconnected back to you and so we could be with you forever. So God, in these next few moments, we look to the cross, we remember your son, Jesus, we take communion in his name, we sing in his name, and we pray in the name of Jesus, amen. As you receive the elements, just take a moment, pause, reflect on what Jesus has done for you, and you can take the bread and the juice and stand with us this moment. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ How deep a father's love for us ♪ ♪ How vast beyond all measure ♪ ♪ That he should give his only son ♪ ♪ To make a wretch his treasure ♪ ♪ How great the pain of searing loss ♪ ♪ The father turns his face away ♪ ♪ As wounds which mark the chosen one ♪ ♪ Bring many sons to glory ♪ ♪ Behold the man upon the cross ♪ ♪ My sin upon his shoulders ♪ ♪ Ashamed I hear my mocking voice ♪ ♪ Called out among the scarves ♪ ♪ It was my sin that held him there ♪ ♪ Until it was accomplished ♪ ♪ His dying breath has brought me life ♪

♪ I know that it is finished ♪ ♪ Oh, it is finished ♪ ♪ Thank you, Father ♪ ♪ It is finished, oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ It is finished, oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ I will not boast in anything ♪ ♪ No gifts, no power, no wisdom ♪ ♪ But I will boast in Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ His death and resurrection, oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ What should I gain from His reward? ♪ ♪ I cannot give an answer ♪ ♪ But this I know with all my heart ♪ ♪ His wounds have paid my ransom ♪ ♪ What should I gain from His reward? ♪ ♪ I cannot give an answer ♪ But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom. Jesus, we thank you for the price that you paid. You sacrificed, you laid down your life. Took our shame, took our sin, took our dead and put it upon your back. Carried the weight of the world. So that we could be free in your name. We thank you for that today, King Jesus. That it's more than just tokens of bread and juice, but it's a reminder of who you are and what you've done for us. And we thank you for that today. In Jesus name, amen. And hey, so good to be with you this weekend. If you would like some prayer, we have a prayer team down front. They'd love to pray with you today. Make sure on your way out, check out some of our partners, support them. You guys have a great rest of your Sunday.

See you next week. Amen. Amen.