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Cultivating the Heart
40 Plays6 months ago
In this sermon, Jon Ballard talked about cultivating the heart through prayer, obedience, and faithfulness. The discussion emphasized the significance of personal intimacy with God, drawing from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and the 10 commandments as a blueprint for a spiritually enriched life. Pastor Jon announced a 24-hour prayer opportunity and shared God's covenant plans paralleling the Israelites' journey to the promised land. He urged the congregation to shape their children's worldview by committing to daily faith discussions, and highlighted the role of perseverance and grace in shaping godly influence. Personal anecdotes and scripture underscored the need for pursuing God's plan over our own, culminating in a prayer for submission and unwavering devotion to God.
Timestamps:
00:00 Fear and obey God to prosper greatly.
06:27 God's plan prevails despite difficult circumstances.
08:49 Deuteronomy written around 1400 BC near Jordan.
11:41 Strive to follow God's plan, not ours.
16:34 Dive deep, grow, honor God, Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
18:08 Love and obey God with full effort.
24:32 Love God with uncommon love, leading others.
26:12 Parental influence shapes kids' world view.
31:49 Believers endure hardships, God shapes and guides.
36:03 New Christian artist sings about positive message.
39:29 Gratitude for opportunities, influence, and faith.
43:30 Privileged to witness generational promise and submission.
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Transcript
Introduction to Deuteronomy Chapter 6
00:00:02
Speaker
If you would, turn with me and your Bible's digital or paper. I like the paper kind a little bit better, but ah it's the word of God. So Deuteronomy chapter six is where we're gonna be at today. Deuteronomy chapter six.
00:00:27
Speaker
want to make you all aware of a ah really cool opportunity we have here in the next a few weeks. ah September's here. It's September. Can you believe it? Yes. I know some of you who love summer are probably like, eh, you know, because it starts to get a little cooler, starts to get a little bit more campfire weather. that's That's my jam. That is my jam. ah Those young adults who are coming to our house, they know that's my jam.
Community Prayer Event
00:00:57
Speaker
ah This opportunity, though, that I was gonna mention to you is about a prayer opportunity in about three weeks. And it is called Worship in the Waiting. And I want you all to, if you have opportunity, that Friday and Saturday, ah we're gonna designate 24 hours of time to where we're just intentionally praying.
00:01:22
Speaker
about what God's doing in this church, what God's doing in this community, and what God's going to do across the world. Because we believe that the gospel does not need to stay where you're seated. We we know that the gospel needs to go to the ends of the earth.
00:01:40
Speaker
segue to anybody who is wearing a green shirt yesterday was awesome was an opportunity for us to raise funds for missions domestic and international because again at Grove Hill we want you to know and we want everybody to know in this community and beyond Jesus made famous Jesus needs to go to the end of the earth. And I so appreciate Kelly always intentionally helping us focus our prayers for these unreached people groups. All right, Deuteronomy 6, verses one through nine. Deuteronomy 6, verses one through nine.
00:02:21
Speaker
um Parents, maybe some of you grandparents, get a deep seat. We're about to take a ride. It's a good one, though. It's a good one. I promise.
Understanding Deuteronomy 6:1-9
00:02:35
Speaker
All right, Deuteronomy 6, verses 1 through 9. This is the command, the statutes and ordinances the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands.
00:02:57
Speaker
I am giving you your son and your grandson and so that you may have a long life. Listen Israel and be careful to follow them so that you may prosper and multiply greatly because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.
00:03:15
Speaker
Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I'm giving you today are to be in your heart, repeat them to your children, talk about them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.
00:03:37
Speaker
Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
Cultivating the Heart and Spiritual Growth
00:03:47
Speaker
This morning I wanna focus on this thought of cultivating the heart. Think about the heart, it's the life of a human being.
00:04:02
Speaker
That has been put at the very forefront of what our culture is dealing with right now. Whether it's the heart of our children, whether it's the heart of an unborn child, whether it's the heart of someone one who wants nothing to do with God, which has been glorified lately. People have elevated any anything that opposes God in our culture today.
00:04:28
Speaker
So I want you all to, as we go through this ah time, and by the way, thank you for designating this hour because you could be doing a lot of other things, but you chose to join us today because you feel like, and and I think you know that what we put in begins to cultivate the hearts of ourself, our spouse, our kids,
00:04:56
Speaker
our sphere of influence. There is always something cultivating our heart. One of the things whenever we see Deuteronomy chapter 6 is we're realizing that God has brought you to to a certain place in time, but He doesn't want to leave you there. I think to this portion of Scripture, and we're in the fifth book of the Bible in Deuteronomy. um And by the way, I'll let you know, Ridley said, hey, dude, you want you want to tie on to Acts? And I'm like, no, dude, I'm not doing that. I'm not taking i'm not taking that mantle. You go ahead and you keep rolling in Acts. I'll get a standalone that I'm a little more familiar with. So I'll do that. you're You've been going at this a little bit longer than I have. so
00:05:45
Speaker
The one thing, though, that I think is really cool of how Deuteronomy 6 and the Acts, what we've been going through the last few months, kind of ties into each other as a theme, is that guess what? Life's hard. Life's hard. But you have not been left alone.
00:06:07
Speaker
God says, I've got something for you and I'm gonna go with you.
Obedience to God's Laws in the Promised Land
00:06:12
Speaker
So the first point today is that we know God because we know His commandments and His covenant.
00:06:24
Speaker
Isn't God good? God's pretty good. I i remember six years ago almost, a little more than six years ago, we rolled into this little town called Chapel Hill and I thought my wife was gonna kill me. I thought there is going to be a strong possibility that she's going to hate me because she now does not have a 15 minute commute to work. She has a hour, sometimes hour 15 commute to work.
00:06:59
Speaker
um But the cool thing about all that was that God had a plan in placing me, in placing our family where He wanted us. There was a plan and a purpose in all that.
00:07:17
Speaker
Moses conveys a recap of the law as we've seen right here in Deuteronomy chapter 6 to a new generation that was about to enter and to seek what was in the new and promised land of Canaan. They were going to cross the Jordan River and they were going to see what was next. But what had they just gone through? 40 years of searching in the wilderness.
00:07:44
Speaker
Whenever I tell you that life is hard, whether it was in the early part of Genesis and Adam and Eve faced struggle, or whether it was in the early part of the early church, or whether it's in your life today, you're gonna face hard.
00:08:04
Speaker
you are going to face hard, and I'm assuming that the children of Israel, whenever they got out of Egypt, they exited and they crossed the Red Sea that they were probably thinking, whew, we made it. Like, okay, it's good. Moses and Aaron, thanks for the lead. All right, we're good, God.
00:08:26
Speaker
No, that was just the starting point of what God was going to take them through. And I believe he's taking each and every one of us through in this season of our life. Some of you may be in a high season. Some some of you may be in a ah season of God grinding it out right there alongside you. You may be going through a divorce. You may be going through a loss of a family member. You may be going through something that God is taking you through for a reason.
00:08:58
Speaker
Deuteronomy was written, most scholars like to think, right around 1400 BC, and the setting of where they're at is near the Jordan River and on the plains of Moab.
Intimacy with God
00:09:10
Speaker
Like I said earlier, Moses is conveying this reiteration or this second statement of the law that was just seen in Deuteronomy chapter five, but it was the 10 commandments. ah You look at the first four of them, and even the fifth, and it points exactly to Deuteronomy six. If any of you are familiar with those first four commandments, they say,
00:09:37
Speaker
God, God, God, God. Every one of them involves an encompassing relationship with how we have our life and God's design. Our life and God's design.
00:09:55
Speaker
The one thing that God has given us is a blueprint for life. How many of you have ever built a house Throw some hands up. I know y'all. Hey, I probably didn't even have to know that you were built now. I could probably see it on your face. Hey, I've never built a house, nor do I want to, but I can see sometimes on spouse's faces, they're like, wouldn't the type of cabinets you picked out? I'm not talking to anybody specifically, I just know several people that are building houses.
00:10:37
Speaker
But whenever we think of building those houses, there has to be a blueprint. There has to be a schematic of all the things that are gonna go into that. There has to be the detail, and by the way, I'm not a detail guy sometimes, as much as I need to be. Sorry, babe. But we have to have the details to get the foundation right.
00:11:05
Speaker
We sometimes look at these commandments, specifically in verses one through three, in the blueprint that God has designed and set apart for us. We look at that as almost a negative sometimes, but God says, no, I'm giving this to you so that your life can be enriched spiritually. I'm giving this to you because I care about you.
00:11:29
Speaker
I think about the mall. We've gone to Opry Mills, it's been a while, but I remember we had Rosemary one time, my little six, almost seven year old little girl, and there were certain points in time in that last trip to Opry Mills that I remember her pulling at my hand because she wanted to go a certain direction.
00:11:57
Speaker
How many times do you and I pull at the hand of God and say, no, I really wanna go my way. I wanna do my thing. It feels good to do my way. And how many times continually do we end up with regret and sorrow because we followed the plan that we had in mind and not the plan that God had? god God has given us the greatest blueprint we should follow it. One of the ways that we follow that, even in dark times in our life, is by knowing the voice of the Father.
00:12:40
Speaker
Sometimes we don't even care to throw, but like I mentioned to you earlier, maybe just that hour of time, and I'm so glad each and every one of you are here, but it takes a whole lot more than an hour a week to go deep with God. That cannot be the standard.
00:12:59
Speaker
I didn't mention this in the the first service, but college football fans, how many of y'all are happy now? Hey, baby. I was very excited. It also helps that my team won. ah But one of those things that I've heard a lot, don't kill me, I'm an Oklahoma fan.
00:13:20
Speaker
I know, I know, I know. A lot of you, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, all the above SEC teams. By the way, thank you for letting us in the conference. um
00:13:33
Speaker
hey Hey, the paycheck, I'll take the paycheck. Actually, it's not me, but the school I'm sure appreciates that. But one of the things that the Oklahoma coach in some of the the video outlets that he puts out, and I'm sure you could probably go throughout coaches throughout America, even in Forest.
00:13:52
Speaker
Some of the things that you see whenever you see men on Friday night, and I say men because some of them are bigger than me you know as far as stature, but what they're doing is they're trying to meet a standard of excellence. And one of the standards that this Oklahoma coach has set out is for there are to be certain goals that are bare minimum. This is the standard.
00:14:20
Speaker
You and I as believers are called to a standard.
00:14:26
Speaker
We are called to follow in God's commandment, not because of a a legalistic lifestyle, but because God wants best for your life. The same way that you direct your child in a parking lot, or the same way that your marriage gets guided because of God's word,
00:14:48
Speaker
The same reason we do those things is so we don't fall off the edge of the mountain. We have to follow this blueprint for our life. And we do that because we know God, we know His commandments, and we know His covenant.
God's Faithfulness and Personal Obedience
00:15:05
Speaker
I just said to y'all earlier that God's been faithful. How many times has He been faithful in your life whenever things got tough? Whenever things weren't easy, God was still good.
00:15:17
Speaker
I know for a fact because I've heard your stories. And that's one of the biggest joys in my life. Other than my family and leading my family, one of the biggest joys in my life is to have people come into my office or to have people in the parking lot, sometimes late night after a men's fellowship, talk to me about what God's doing in their life. We only know what God's doing in our life because we know the voice of the Father.
00:15:48
Speaker
That leads me to my second point. Personal intimacy with God coincides with personal obedience.
00:16:00
Speaker
Personal intimacy with God. Sometimes us guys freak out whenever we hear intimacy. Share my feelings. I don't i don't know about that. I'm pretty good at that. Sometimes I feel like, you know, Becca's over here, baby okay, you shared too much. We're just unique in that way. Whether it's the husband or the wife or whether that's intimacy and a friendship, we have to have submission
00:16:31
Speaker
to the mission, to that blueprint, and we have to go deep to dive into those things that maybe no one else has ever seen before to grow deeper with Christ, to grow deeper with Yahweh. The children of Israel for 40 years neglected,
00:16:52
Speaker
the intimacy that God had waiting for them right there. It shouldn't have took them 40 years to get where they were going. But they said, ah I'll throw a golden calf over here. I'll throw the fact that I'm not getting this in my timeframe. So I'm gonna do this my way. Personal obedience and personal intimacy with Christ go hand in hand.
00:17:21
Speaker
husbands and wives, parents and children. What does that look like in your home right now? Is it surface?
00:17:36
Speaker
Is it transparent? Or is it to the court, are you getting vulnerable? There's been a lot of times where I've seen families strictly on the surface level.
00:17:50
Speaker
And guess what, you get surface level results. When we go deep with God and we honor Him by giving Him 100% of ourselves, we get that. Let's read verses four and five. Deuteronomy six, four and five. Read that again. Listen Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
00:18:15
Speaker
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. You want a layman definition, layman term definition on that? Love him with all you got. Every aspect of your life needs to be encompassed with loving God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
00:18:41
Speaker
I think there are a lot of times that when we approach different elements in our life, whether it's our work or whether it's the raising of our children or whether it's the the striving to create intimacy in our marriage, sometimes we're not putting forth full effort and we're getting the result that we're putting out. God's saying, if you follow what I'm asking you to do, I'm gonna give you fruit.
00:19:12
Speaker
Doesn't mean that things are always gonna be good, because guess what, what do we say? The exodus from Egypt was just the beginning of the hardships. This season of your life may just be the beginning of the hardships that God is asking you to go through, but he's cultivating your heart. He's chiseling the stone, maybe the rough parts that are a lot of ugly,
00:19:40
Speaker
God is chiseling because he loves you and he cares for you.
00:19:48
Speaker
How many of you think of brand name things that you like, that you love, you trust in? I think about the old Chevy commercial, correct me if I'm wrong, like a rock. Yeah, you trusted in that. There was proof, proof in the pudding, so to speak.
00:20:10
Speaker
There's been proof, although not healthy proof, in McDonald's business strategy. They're billionaires. you know There's proof in the pudding. There's proof in God's covenant faithfulness to his people. And God will continue to forever be in the middle of your family if you're loving him with all your heart, your soul, and your strength.
00:20:39
Speaker
Men, I know we compartmentalize things. Sometimes you look at the wire makeup of ah of a brain and we try to separate certain things out, but we have got to realize that we can trust in God for every aspect of our life. We don't have to say, you know, my child's going through this thing. God, I know you can't handle this. I don't really trust in this prayer thing.
00:21:10
Speaker
I'm just gonna hope for the best and try to visit all the doctors that I can. Know what we should be doing is praying. What we should be doing is seeking God's word for the difficulties, the hardships that life throws us. God calls for personal obedience and he calls us to that because there's a dipper deeper and enriching sanctification, not a prosperity gospel.
God's Goodness and Human Actions
00:21:38
Speaker
You see, God was good to the children of Israel, not because they did what they were asked. God was good because God is good. God's always going to be good because he's good. He just asks that you join him in the same mission that he's always been about, to be obedient, to be submissive. I know that's hard,
00:22:05
Speaker
I think about some of the constructive criticism that I've received in life. Sorry, but it's not good. It doesn't feel good to get a buttchew sometimes. It doesn't feel good. But sometimes we need that from God to say, okay, I messed up. I've submitted to my own plan and I want to spiritually go deeper with what you wanted to do in my life so that I can get a better grasp of what life is all about.
00:22:37
Speaker
Psalm 37, 31.
00:22:42
Speaker
Love the Lord your God, or the instruction of his of his God is in his heart. His steps do not falter. Psalm 40, verse eight. Psalm 40, verse eight. I delight to do your will, my God, and your instruction is deep within me. That does not happen by accident.
00:23:02
Speaker
You think of famous athletes, you think of people that are in prestigious places, CEOs that are at the top of the food chain. You think about people that have been doing the grind, they've been going through the processes. They didn't get they did not get there by accident.
00:23:22
Speaker
I like to call it grinding with God. Like we're grinding away in the everyday of life trying to figure out where God has us. And sometimes God just asks you to keep your head down and keep moving. Keep grinding away at what I've got you to do. You're in this place, you're in this season for a reason. Colossians 3.16. Colossians 3.16.
00:23:54
Speaker
Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom,
Scripture Memorization in Modern Churches
00:23:58
Speaker
teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your heart. One of the things that I believe that the Western church has done a terrible job of is emphasizing the memorization of scripture. We have been guilty in our circles of not putting this in our hearts.
00:24:25
Speaker
And yet we come here one hour a week and say, God, what you got for me? And we don't put any effort in that same vein of, oh yeah, oh that's right. i love I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and strength. But do we? Do we? When Miss Lori needs somebody to teach that first and second grade class, and we've got experience and we've done it before,
00:24:54
Speaker
And maybe we feel God's tugging on our heart and we say no to that. You loving the Lord your God? You loving Yahweh? No.
Imparting Faith to Children
00:25:07
Speaker
We have to get so serious about our faith that we say, God first, self second. This directional thing where it's a vertical relationship If we're always looking out, we can never see what God has because we're not seeing the vertical, we're seeing the horizontal. God wants better for your life and it only happens by loving Him with an uncommon love.
00:25:43
Speaker
Thirdly, and this is where the deep seat comes, we have a directive to lead those in our care to a better view of a relationship with God. See, every one of these things, the first point talked about knowing God, knowing his commandment, and knowing his covenant, and secondly, having a personal intimacy with God and personal obedience being accompanied with that. We can't do the third if we haven't done the first two.
00:26:19
Speaker
What's really sad to me is whenever someone comes to the end of their life and I've been in those places to where they don't know what good to say because they haven't seen good in their life.
00:26:34
Speaker
You and I as believers in Christ are commanded to leave something. Let's read verse six through nine in Deuteronomy chapter six.
00:26:48
Speaker
These words that I'm giving you today are to be in your heart, repeat them to your children, talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.
00:27:07
Speaker
Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. I want to read you all something that I got a hold of through Barna research and bear with me. It's two paragraphs, but I believe it's very, very good and informative of what our kids are facing today.
00:27:29
Speaker
Kids these days are shaped by watching their parents. That's the takeaway from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University's latest survey. Young children are watching their parents, they're listening to their parents, they're listening to their parents and they're trying to put those two things together. The problem is they're seeing a contradiction between word and deed.
00:27:56
Speaker
The conclusion we discovered that children draw is, what a shame my parents seem as confused as I am. So this faith that they're talking about must not have the answers. The statistics are appalling, and I want you all to listen very intently on this. Among American parents of children under age 13, only 2% have a biblical worldview.
00:28:21
Speaker
And even among self-identified born-again Christians, the number is only 8%.
Parents' Influence on Children's Faith
00:28:28
Speaker
15 to 18 months of age is when most children start forming their worldview. Explain Barna. By the age of 13, it's almost completely in place. You wonder what is biblical worldview. it is their thoughts about biblical inerrancy, the character of God, the life of Christ, absolute moral truth, and salvation by faith. Eight percent among Christians. I say that to you not as a
00:29:09
Speaker
thing that we have to lay in as far as where we're at in the sad state of families in America. But I say that to you as a charge and as a commendation of we can be better. We can do better, we can go further in teaching our kids who God is. Don't you want your kids to have something? It says right there in Deuteronomy chapter six,
00:29:39
Speaker
Verse seven, repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house. Wherever you go, talk about it.
00:29:50
Speaker
Some of us are embarrassed when we get in certain circles that we're gonna offend somebody that maybe we've been friends with for a while because the standard of our relationship is we don't bring up God.
00:30:06
Speaker
Why don't we break that standard and create a new standard that God has? You remember that whole following our blueprint versus his blueprint? God wants your life to be radically changed and it only happens by following his design and by following the fact that we are going to love him. You know, scripture says that we love because he first loved us. He loved us.
00:30:38
Speaker
I can about guarantee you in this group, this room right here, you're probably going through something that you haven't told a soul about.
00:30:52
Speaker
But your kids see it. The people in your sphere of influence see it. They know.
00:31:01
Speaker
God desires and wants best for us, and best is by leading those because we have been led. We have been led by God's design. I'll give you three points as we conclude this third third point.
00:31:26
Speaker
Savor the process.
00:31:30
Speaker
You ever seen somebody that loves what they do? It's not a job. They love to go do it. They love to to be in the middle of that. Even in the difficulty, I see business owners that love what they do, and it may seem so stressful from the outside looking in, but man, they love what they do, and even whenever they go through the hard times, they savor it because they know that's a part of the process.
00:32:05
Speaker
That's the same thing with us as believers, that as God is chiseling, as he's cultivating your heart, that he's chipping away all the crud in your life, and he's able to form something so beautiful.
00:32:19
Speaker
God wants beauty for your life and he's gonna bring that even from ashes because you said, God, I submit to your will, I'm gonna do what you've asked me to do, even in the hard times. Just like the children of Israel had to be hit over side the head probably time after time after time and God says, I love you, I've chosen you, I want you to follow me. God has something in store for you to go deeper spiritually and it's not by staying where you're at.
Dedication and Spiritual Growth Analogies
00:32:53
Speaker
One of my favorite athletes, don't kill me if it's not your favorite athlete, ah that was just because I loved the game of basketball, was Kobe Bryant.
00:33:04
Speaker
I did not liken to his ah spiritual things, but as far as his work ethic and if far as far as his love for the game of basketball, I found a great, great just example of what things could look like. Kobe Bryant used to wake up at three o'clock in the morning to train. He would go get a bite to eat, shower up,
00:33:34
Speaker
another training, he would get at least two, sometimes three trainings in before lunchtime. Go back to the grind after lunch. That was his job, but he enjoyed the process. He savored the process. Because guess what? Once you hit the pinnacle, once you hit that high point in your life,
00:33:57
Speaker
that's not it. It took all these little things of faithfulness of following God's example of faithfulness to get you to that point. Don't neglect all those moments. I think about times of graduation. We just saw graduation a couple months ago and I looked at all these parents and I'm sure the thoughts that were swirling around in their mind
00:34:26
Speaker
were all these little moments. That graduation ceremony didn't last two hours. It was those little moments. Don't look back on those little moments and say, I wish I would have. Savor the process of leading your children. There are only five once. There are only 13 once. So what are you doing to lead them? Secondly,
00:34:55
Speaker
Commit to them daily. Do they want what you have? I'll go a step further. You can't give them anything that you don't have. You can't give them something you don't have. That hurts a little bit.
00:35:20
Speaker
If you want your child to have a knowledge of scripture, if you want them to have a knowledge of God's plan for their life, and they've been never been told it, and they don't see it in your life, you get what you put in. And sometimes whenever we give surface, we get surface. Whenever we get vote or whenever we give vulnerability, we're gonna get vulnerability and God can use that.
00:35:52
Speaker
Commit to them daily. Talk about it wherever you go. If you have 10 minutes in the morning, I know how it is. My daughter wakes up and she's like, Daddy, I don't wanna go to school. And I'm like, get your tail up. Let's get some stuff on. Even in those windows. Our habit lately has been Forrest Frank. If you're somebody that's young, you may know what that is. It's a new Christian artist that's out. And he sings this song about it being a good day. Our kids will feed off of us.
00:36:29
Speaker
If you put out a attitude of despair, of gloom, of my life is terrible, most likely you're gonna see it in your kids. Every day, commit to your children. Commit to loving them. Commit to showing them what it is to get in God's word. Do it for five minutes. At night, before they go to bed, pray over your kids. Pray over your kids.
00:36:58
Speaker
we have got to commit because God has committed to us.
Living with Love and Without Regrets
00:37:04
Speaker
And lastly, love with an uncommon love. And I mentioned that because God loved us first.
00:37:16
Speaker
So now we have the design and the blueprint to love others. You know, we are a conduit of grace. I think about this because I used to do a little bit of plumbing on the side at my previous job, but you always want the water to get to the faucet. Can't get to the faucet without the pipe. You and I are those avenues for people to get the gospel and your children are first.
00:37:49
Speaker
Your children are first. they They need that. They find stability in that. I'm gonna go on a rant real quick. Your kids don't find stability with fancy vacations. They don't find stability with having the nicest things. They don't find stability in any big house. Their stability is in Jesus Christ.
00:38:14
Speaker
Whenever all else fails, I've told this woman down here, I said, if we lost this house, if we lost everything, I don't care what it is. If I've got God and I've got my family, I'm okay. In that order, if I've got God and I've got my family, I am okay. We should all have that mindset. We've got God, if we've got the vertical right, the horizontal, all these other things, our relationships,
00:38:45
Speaker
Our jobs are going to fall into place and our kids will be better for it. They will be better for it. Third John, verse 4, I have no greater joy than this to hear that my children are walking in truth.
00:39:08
Speaker
ah
00:39:12
Speaker
A decade ago, I don't know if my parents could have looked at my life and said that I was walking in truth.
00:39:20
Speaker
ah But God's a God of restoration. God is a God of restoration. And I ah just think about verse 8 and verse 9. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
00:39:43
Speaker
I'm so thankful that I had a mom and dad who made it evident, even in the hard times, even whenever they probably weren't the best parents, they were parents that loved God and I got to see a taste of that. And I'm thankful for that.
00:40:05
Speaker
I hope that what we see in our own lives is that we have joy because we didn't live in regret or the what ifs, but we said, thank you God for giving me the opportunity to go through this process, to be given these kids, to be given this influence. We may not have kids. We all have a sphere of influence that God designed us to be the conduit to.
00:40:33
Speaker
We all have an opportunity to be a display of God's grace and God's mercy.
00:40:42
Speaker
Lastly, Jayden, if you want to come on up, I ah thought about this last night, this example. How many of you women have diamond rings, earrings?
00:40:59
Speaker
Okay, come on now, be honest. All you women know there's a little affinity for some diamonds occasionally. of What did it take to get on your finger? Probably took some extra shifts from your husband.
00:41:17
Speaker
let A little bit of extra work from from dad to maybe buy that Christmas gift. It took something for you to have possession of the diamond.
00:41:33
Speaker
I really think about the extra step before the diamond got to the jeweler. The diamond had to be mined. Many places throughout the world, that can ah there could be diamonds found.
00:41:50
Speaker
But it had to go through a process before it went to the jeweler, before it got to where it was going. And it had to have a few things to create that diamond. Few elements, if you would. Some of those elements, probably some heat, some pressure, some hard times.
00:42:19
Speaker
But man, is it beautiful. And it's hard to break. I think God's building and shaping some diamonds in here that are gonna be used to glorify the kingdom generations and generations and generations down the road.
00:42:44
Speaker
But are you willing to choose your plan or choose His plan as He bold you. I really believe that if we submit to God's design and all this, He's going to create something a beautiful.
00:43:08
Speaker
Let's bow our heads.
00:43:20
Speaker
God, I believe that your word is incomparable.
00:43:30
Speaker
There's nothing like it. There will never be anything like it. God, I'm so privileged that we got to look into it today and to see the truths of your love of your compassion and your grace to us when you didn't have to give it.
00:43:55
Speaker
We talked about the children of of Israel and we talked about this instance of them attaining a land that was promised to them. But God, you're promising something to us today. Not that we can always have the easiest road in life, but God, that we would have life with you.
00:44:16
Speaker
And God, the only way we have that in abundance is if we submit under you as Lord of our life. The only way that there will be a generational effect is if we submit ourselves and then submit our families to you.
00:44:39
Speaker
God, I pray that if there's someone in this room that is questioning or maybe they know without a shadow of a doubt that they have not been doing what it takes to follow and submit their life to you, that they've been kind of standing on the sideline.
00:44:59
Speaker
I pray that today would be the day. that they would step out of the shadows, that they would raise their hand and say, God, I want you to use me, I want you to use my family, everything that you have, because God, it's already yours. I pray that there would be a submission to everything, everything Jesus.
00:45:27
Speaker
We thank you, God, for meeting us in this place today. Continue, continue. to do what you've always done. Be faithful and God help us to in turn be faithful to your word and to your people.