Tried By What?

Hey, I just want to give greetings from glow church in Omaha. My name is Pastor Matt, my lovely wife, Christine, I've been pastoring glow church for five years up and coming church. God is doing amazing things in the young life of our church. But I just got to say this to you. I believe with all my heart that many of the things we're seeing right now would not be possible without God utilizing people in visions and places trained for this church, and that would not be possible without pastor Matt, Pastor Carrie, you mercy City Church. Can you give it up for your pastors? I know they're away. But man, we honor them today. Hey, listen, if you are a guest, come back. And listen to them. They are incredible. They are incredible pastors, and we just honor and we love them. Well, hey, I want to introduce you to my family real quick. Actually, one of my family members is here. My son Levi is on the front row with me. And my whole family just got back from motion conference with your kids. Yeah. And so they're that he's y'all were all the motion students in the service. Come on, man. You guys stink. I mean, like, literally, you stink. I'm glad you're gonna shower later. No, let's show this picture. Come on. I'm gonna show you my family. There's leave now leave. I looks all dressed up there. Come on. So that's Levi on the left there. 19 years old young man and God called the great things. There is my beautiful wife Christie in the middle. She and I celebrated 23 years of marriage yesterday. Yeah. So we're gonna go out on a special date this coming week. Come on, right? And then there's me. And then there's Lacey. Lacey is the 16 year old junior in high school fireball, she got to change your high school for Jesus this year, like so many of your kids. And we're just so glad to be in covenant and connection with your family here. And so glow church is better because of you. And our family is better because of you. Are you ready to get into God's Word this morning? Come on. Now. I heard a rumor that this is a holla back church. Come on. So I need you to shout now here's me, can I just tell you what's gonna happen? I'm gonna get you thinking, okay. But you can still shout if you're thinking, Can you do that. So you can be like a, it's like walking and chewing gum at the same time. You can do it, you can do it. And it's going to be good. But hey, let's get into some scripture. And then we're going to tie this thing up. And we're going to walk out of here, and we're going to grow in our relationship with God. So we're going to start in the book of Genesis chapter 22. And we're going to start in verse number one. And this is the story of Abraham, verse 22. Sometime later, God tested Abraham's faith. Now, let me give you something here, we're going to continue. But this is Abraham, the covenant that God had generationally with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is father, Abraham, were all of my church kids that grew up. Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons have father Abraham, I am one of them. Yeah, y'all know, there you go. So let's just okay. Okay, okay. I got to preach. If you're in the room, and you're like, what, in tarnation we did this song and children's church. It had hand motions and everything. It was like the Christian Hokey Pokey. That's what it was. This is that Abraham Okay. All right. Let me continue. Yes, he replied, here I am God. Hey, take your son, your only son. Yes, Isaac, whom you love so much. And go to the land and Mariah, go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you. Aren't you glad we don't do this today? Okay, cool. Me too. You'd be on the world news. If you did that today. Verse three. The next morning, Abraham got up early, he sat on his donkey took two of his servants with them along with his son, Isaac, then he chopped wood for fire for a burnt offering set up for the place God had told them about. And on the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Stay here with the donkey. Abraham told the servants, the boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back. So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac shoulders, and while he himself carried the fire in the knife, as the two of them walked together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, Father, yes, my son. We had the fire and the wood, the boy said, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering? Verse say, God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering my son, Abraham answered, and they both walked on together. When they arrived at the place where God had told them to go Abraham built an offer altar and arrange the wood on it. Titus son Isaac laid him on the altar on top the wood in Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. I got a question for you. Have you ever asked God? Why? Maybe this morning, you've asked God why? Maybe you haven't asked God why but you've asked some why questions in your day? If you were ever four years old? You know, you've asked the question why? When I was younger, we would ask questions we get in these conversations. And this is really corny. So you can laugh when I say these things. Okay, but like, why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?Why do we pay money to drive on freeways? Why do they call them apartments? If they're connected? God, why have my prayers not been answered yet? God, why does it seem like everybody else around me his prayers are getting answered. Mine aren't God, why does it feel like I'm being overlooked? under appreciated? passed up? I'm sure I'm not the only one in the room that has asked God those questions before. How about you? I'm pretty sure Abraham in this moment, might have been tempted to ask God. Why? Why is a question that requires a process. And I'm going to get into that with you today. Are you ready? All right. So at glow church, we've been doing this summer study about the names of God, it's been so amazing and powerful. And actually, I'll let the cat out of the bag a few weeks ago, I actually taught this to our church. And usually I like to teach something fresh when I go somewhere. But I couldn't let this one go. God kept downloading new stuff into my heart about this message. And I'm like, God, I don't think we're ready, ready to to move on from from teaching this? What is this? And he said, I want you to share the 2.0 version of this and mercy City Church is I believe there are people in the room today that have been asking that question. Often. I believe there are people who have been struggling with the questions of why in their life, we have temptations of things. Like Like in my case, I'm 42 years old. And I've been tempted to ask God why certain things haven't happened in my life yet. Do you know God has an answer to that? Why question. And it's found in his names, and it's found in his attributes. And so I want to share this with you today. There is a Old Testament name of God that we use often in the in the spiritual world in the church world, and it's the name Jehovah Everybody say, Jehovah. This is what old language translates the word Jehovah to you today. It is the God who reveals Himself to me. It is the God who reveals Himself to you. In this story where we're going to complete in just a minute with Abraham, God reveals Himself to Abraham as Jehovah Jireh, the revealing one who brings provision. There are so many names of God connected to the name, Jehovah, there's Jehovah shalom, which is the God who reveals peace. There is so many others that we can study and get revelation on courage. If you've never studied the names of God, here's the deal. When we call him by his name, he unlocks his heart. When I call him out, when my wife calls me by my name, it puts her hand on the back of my neck. I opened my heart up to her same way with God because God didn't create you and I to lord over asserted dictators. He created us for a relationship. And then there's another Jehovah name that I'm going to camp on for just a couple of minutes and it's not a very common one, but I'm not even sure that I know how to pronounce it correctly. So forgive my pronunciations of Old Testament words. I don't know if you get there but but this one is Jehovah. Maka, or Jehovah, Macare? I don't know. But it is the God who molds us kinda like this. You've heard it said that. He is the potter and I am the clay. Right? That is the God who molds us in the Book of Ezekiel. I'm gonna give you a real old covenant verse here. And it's an interesting one, but I'm gonna bring it into today. But verse nine of chapter seven says in mind I shall not spare, neither will I have pity I will recompense thee according to the ways and on abominations that are in the midst of the and you shall know that I am the Lord, that smiteth I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of being smiteth or smoke either smitten or smelted. Whatever that is, right? Because when I think a smile, I mean, like the powerful god that's like, and Matt's gone. Like, there you go, you had been smoke touted, right? But listen, we live in a new age because of Jesus, a new covenant. And it's the Age of Grace, because of what Jesus did. So if you translate Old Covenant to New Covenant, what I'm going to do here in a minute, is scripture interpret Scripture, right? While I just got really deep with you, but stay with me, right? But here's the deal. This another way you could look at this and modern day in this new dispensation is that he is the Lord who molds us. He has a plan and a purpose in his molding of us, but for us to be molded into the image of God, it's going to require something of us. And what it requires is the very thing that will answer the question why? Another name of God that we find in the Old Testament is actually found in Molokai chapter three, verses two and three. And it is the name refiner that he is a refiner, or he is a purifier. He is a refiner or a purifier. We read this in chapter three, verse two and three America, but who can endure the day of his coming? That's a big word, isn't it endure? Who can endure 2024 Who can endure an election year hallelujah. Who can endure the circumstances that I'm facing in my life today? Who can endure the health, the financial challenges and who can stand when he appears for he is like a refiners fire? He is like a laundry soap that our motion students will use this afternoon when they get home. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to the Lord an offering of righteousness. Righteousness is an offering. And righteousness means a place of right standing with God. It is in a place where our hearts are now in pursuit for purity and holiness. And we want God to do the work that he needs to do in our life. Can I get a yes? Come on, right? So here's the word that I can never pronounce. Right? But I'm going to try. And this is a Greek word that we find that is pulled out of this verse, and it is known as the word doke mod. Zo. Say that five times, right don't Komodo, which is described as the process of purifying and refining metal. In the ancient world metal was put through a multiple degrees of fire and heat to expose those impurities. Because those impurities can significantly weaken a piece of metal, therefore testing it to prove its purity. And trustworthiness was very important. God is our refiner, he is our purifier, and he has a process that he is designed for you and I to go to through. Here's the thing, that process is happening in your life right now. Did you know that if you call yourself a follower of Christ, you are in that process right now, the bigger question is this has Have you identified it as such? Because a lot of times we'll wrestle with the question why, and we struggle with where the results are at. And we struggle with where the answers to prayer are. But what we're not seeing is that God has a bird's eye view on the plan and purpose of our heart and His plan for His kingdom. And if I don't pay attention, I'm gonna miss the fact that every time I asked a question why it requires a process of what God what do you have for me? What do you desire of me? What must I go through for you? And for the purpose and for the people that you have created for me to make a difference? If you live this life nine to five for yourself, Career Money, retirement, whatever, and you don't reach lives along the way, then it's been wasted. It's been wasted Come on. And that's what's what what doc a mod XO means?Right here. Now let's take a look at this in the New Testament, shall we? In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 20, and 29. So I said the first words, or the first name was Jehovah mucca mucca that word, and then I said that the second thing that God is, is he's a refiner, and he is a purifier. But here we go in the New Testament, and Hebrews 1228 and 29 It says that God is a consuming fire. Sacred Fire, we're just saying it. Right, man, a consuming fire. Now, natural circumstances would say don't get consumed by a fire. When fire ignites, go the other direction. Don't get burned, right? But this is a different kind of fire. This is a fire that God intended. This is a seasoned Had he designed for us to go through God, Matt and Pastor Matt, if God was a good God, then why would bad things happen to me? Listen, God doesn't cause the bad things. But within the process of bad things, he's refining us. He's a good God because He lets us go through hard things. He's a good God, because we need to go through some pain. He's a good guy, because we need to be challenged, he would not be a good God, if he just answered every one of my prayers immediately. And let me get spiritually fat and lazy, and it was still all about me. Come on. Right. So he's a consuming fire. Hebrews 1228. And 29 says, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, come on unshakable kingdom, let us have grace by which we may serve God excessively with reverence and godly fear because our God is a consuming fire. In the Old Testament, fire represented the burning away of the sacrifice, in the blood of the sacrifice was the blood that atone for the sin in that time. So here's how that would break down because of the covenant that God struck with Abraham. Every time we would sin, this was the law. If we lived in that time, we would at times we would take our animal, we would take our sacrifice, we would go to the place of holy, we would burn it up, and it would atone or cover the sin that we committed. But it was not a perfect covenant, which is why Jesus had to come. The flaw with that covenant was this in the Old Testament, the fire consumed the sacrifice, through a process, a procedure or a ritual of law. When Jesus came, consuming fire switched, because in the Old Testament, I could go to the altar, burn my sacrifice, get atonement for my sin, walk back out, go back to my everyday life, sin again, sin again, burn the sacrifice again, sin again, and try to stay in good graces with God Almighty. I don't know about you. But if I lived in that day, I would have to be a wealthy person to have as many animals as I would need to atone for my sin. I don't know about you. Thank God for Jesus. Because the consuming fire that comes now. It burns up the impurities of my soul. Because see, God doesn't want me just to go through a routine, or ritual to be in good graces. I know. God wants my heart. He wants my soul. And I can wrestle all day long with my plan. And my thing and stay in the cycle of wondering why even as a follower of Jesus wondering why. And God is saying, Son, Daughter, it isn't about the Y. It's about the what? It's time to zoom out on your life. Look at the big picture and see what I'm trying to do. Right. I want to talk to you for the next few minutes about two tests that God takes us through. You may say tests, every great teacher I've ever had took me through some tests. How about you? I didn't like him. Are you seeing their times pastor Matt, you haven't liked God. But I still love him. And I trust him. There were times David didn't like God read the Psalms. Yeah. Let's just be real. That's not holy pets. It's real. It's real. Right? So so we go through tests from good teachers. I was in St. Louis yesterday for a wedding of a young guy that used to intern under me when I worked at a church there. And his mom was a teacher for me in the eighth grade. And I saw her and she hugged me. And here I am. 42 years old. She was my eighth grade teacher. And she put that teachers face on, you know, like, as she put her arm around me, and she says, Well, Matthew, I think it turned out, okay. And I look back here, I said, we'll see. We got a long way to go. Still got a long way to go. But even though the hardest teachers were hard, and I didn't like him, she gave me detention and it wasn't fair. You know what? I appreciate her. I appreciate the pain. I appreciate the process. I appreciate the pressure, right? Here are two tests that God takes us through. I want to make sure you see this in Scripture though. First. So let's take a look here at First Thessalonians chapter two verse four. Everybody doing okay. All right. But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. There it is. God is testing you right now. Do you realize it? He's testing you right now? Do you realize it can I give you some examples? Okay, so when I was preparing for this a few weeks ago to teach at our church So, I was I decided on a Monday morning that I was going to get in my car, and I was going to take a prayer drive. Now if you know me, praying and driving should never be in the same category. Because driving is the thing that I get refined with more than anything else. How about you? Right? And so I decided I was going to drive a little bit out of the way on the way to church and then I was going to get to church. And so I turned on this worship song maybe you're familiar with it? It was four years ago Maverick city, wrote this song called refiner, a powerful song here's how the chorus goes, I want to be tried by fire. Purified you take whatever you desire. Lord, here's my life. What a Bible Jesus thing to sing. But can I tell you how that looked at my car that day? I'm driving our songs on I want to be tried by I had my eyes open by the way. Bye. Bye. Pure Why is there far machinery on the side of the road off dodge street? What is this? Pure you take whatever you okay, why is there that large of a pothole? What do we live on the moon? De Sire. Lord, here's my life. What is up with all the detours? Do they think people in the city need to get places? I don't think so. This is my heart. Right? And then I get a phone call from Christie. And she's like, Hey, I'm on like, minutes from church. She's like, Hey, um, I hate to say this to you. But I totally left my bookbag and my keys in my wallet in your car. And I got places to go. Do you think you could turn around and bring them back to me? Oh, wanna be try. It took me twice as long to get back to the house.
And I'm singing this and I'm crying and I'm saying some words I probably shouldn't say. And I hear the Spirit of the Lord speak to my heart. Do you really want to be tried by fire?Because the way I see it, Matt, if you really wanted to be tried by fire, you wouldn't let little things like farm machinery trip you up so bad. Okay, a few weeks ago, maybe a couple of months ago now. We had some next door neighbors move in. And and it's a group of bachelors. I don't even know how many live in the house. 1213 27 of life. No idea. Right? We don't know. We haven't figured that out yet. It's a mystery. Right? But they moved in now. Now we live on like happy quiet street. Right? You know, Leave It to Beaver suburbia. Everything's good. Right? Wave it your neighbors. How's it going? See, these guys move in. First weekend. It's a Saturday night at 11 o'clock. I promise you. Like, I'm waiting for Dominic Toretto to come out of that house. Like him and all his family. And they're like barbecuing chicken on the backyard drinking Coronas. Right? Like, like family. Like I'm like, yo, you could do with your family. Right? Like, that's how I'm feeling right? Motorcycles, big trucks the whole night. It's all there. Right? And I'm like, laying in bed. It's Saturday night. We got to get up early for church on Sunday morning. And 1130. Starts starts banging hard. And they're whatever they're playing is on that side of the house. And I'm on this side of house. So like, we're, we're right there. Right? And we're laying there and it's 1111 3012 12 Three people shouting in the back. Like, you know, smells of weird things are starting to creep into my house. And I'm like, okay, and my my wife is like, are you going to do something about this? And I'm like, Heck yeah, I am. But so I like I've never I'm too nice of a guy like I've never called on a noise complaint ever in my life. And I'm too chicken to go out there and be like the old guy. Right? So she's like, Have you done it yet? I'm like, I'm working on she's like, Fine, I'll do it. And she calls noise complaint. And I'm like, Are we actually call it noise complaint? Like, I've become that guy. What happened? I'm one step away from Get off my lawn. You know? God, why did these guys have to move in next to me? Because here's the deal, family. God tests us in the little things, to see if we'll be faithful with the big things. And if I can't have a good attitude about Toretto and a few Coronas. I'm definitely not going to have a good attitude. When God approaches me and says, Son, you know that outcome you've been hoping for? Would you lay that at my feet because I got a better one. You know that purpose you think that you have? I got a bigger one. Right? So let's go back to the story of Abraham. And I'm going to talk about these two tests. I just realized that never gave you the title of my message. So I'm gonna give it to you right now. Tried by what? Tried by what? You mean, I gotta be tried by y fire? Because this is what happened with Abraham. Let's look at it right here. We're going to rewind to that point in time that we're at. And here's the first test that I want you to write down to test God takes us through Number one, he takes us through the test of failure. Everybody say, failure. Have you ever been there before? No matter what you seem to do, no matter how hard you pray, no matter what's going on. It just seems like everything blows up and smoke. Come on. Right? Right. I was reading that verse in Isaiah 61. And it talked about beauty for ashes. you've maybe heard that verse before. And God spoke to me one time and said the ashes are everything you've tried on your own that have blown up in smoke, exchange those for beauty, his beauty, his process, his healing, amen. Okay, so here's Abraham and here we're at the beginning. So his name isn't even Abraham yet. It's Abram. Are y'all tracking with me? Okay, so Genesis 12, one through four. I'm gonna breeze through this for the sake of time. Now the Lord has said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, your father's house to a land that I will show you, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you. And in all your families of the earth, they shall be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord has spoken to him and Lot went with him. And Abraham was 75 years old, Never Too Late family to give receiving a call at 75 It's never too late. You got oxygen in your lungs, God's got a purpose for you. He was 75 when he departed from harangue. I can see Abraham if Abram was like me, I can see what happened. After this conversation with God. He's now got this promise that he's going to be the father of many nations. If it were me, I would have been like, oh, oh, who's the man? Are you the man? Nope. I'm the man. I gotta promise. I gotta call him. I'm gonna be the next name. Fill in the blank, right? I'm going to be the guy that God does it. He's going to do it. You see? Abrams, all like it's gonna happen. And it's gonna be awesome. And I'm gonna be the father of many nations. So God, why don't we do this? I know you said this on let's pretend it was on like a Sunday afternoon, right? Like Tuesday morning. God, let's set up a meeting. Let's get the executive staff in here. And let's have a meeting. And let's start talking about strategy you have for me being a father of many nations. And Tuesday passes, and it's Friday. Hey, God, I didn't hear back from you about that meeting. Like, you know, you think we can maybe sit down to have a conversation. Crickets chirping a couple of weeks go by, and a few months, and then a couple of decades. God Remember that promise? Back in 1986? Hello, wait a minute. So, so time has passed. And some other things have gone on that we read about in Scripture like Sodom and Gomorrah being blown up, and Lot's wife turned to pillar salt, like all that jazz, right? And then, and then we get back to this part of the story. And God speaks a second time everybody say a second time. Genesis 15, one through six after these things. The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying don't be afraid. I am your shield. I am your great reward. Abraham said, Lord God, what will you give me seen I go childless. It wasn't that simple. He's like, I don't understand God. Like you said, Father, but like me, and my wife can't even get pregnant. We old. Like we can't get pregnant. And so you see this guy Eleazer of Damascus, like maybe we could set something up there. Because it seems like he's being blessed it like I'm not being blessed. So Abrams, looking around. Have you ever started to look around when your promises and being fulfilled the way you thought it was supposed to be? And then you wonder why everybody else is getting the promotion. This was me why everybody else's churches are growing, why everybody else's ministries are expanding, can I be vulnerable with you? Okay, right. And so he promises him a second time. And behold, verse four, the word of the Lord came to him saying this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body and be your heir. So God is sticking to the main plan here. It's going to come through you. You just got to be able to believe it. And you got to let me take you through it. Because right now it's not about the promise. It's about the process. It isn't about the outcome. It is about the season. And so here he is going, well then God, when is it going to happen? When is it going to happen? up. So then we fast forward to Genesis 16. And I'm not going to share this, I'll just reference it but Genesis 16, his wife, Sarah has this idea. And it's like this idea where they're going to have him sleep with her maid service Hagar. And that's going to be the promise fulfilled through that son, that son Ishmael is born. And he caught that whole situation causes a lot of strife and confusion within that whole setting. That was never God's intention. However, what I love about this part of the story is God's still made promises to Ishmael, which tells me that he always have has a plan for people even if it's out of illegitimacy. Because just a sidebar, by the way, okay, so so he's still reassuring, Abram and Sarah that this is going to happen. He comes to them a third time, everybody say a third time. Listen, when when God speaks three times, you better pay attention. Barely, barely, barely, I say unto you, one gets your attention to maybe I should consider it three. I'll probably die if I don't. That's where we are. Okay. So it comes to him a third time. I'll promise you all this stuff, whatever. In this third time, Abraham. He changed his name and everything he's like, really got? Is it going to happen? Because like, I've been waiting for this like a really long time, even as why Sarah, like, laughed. And God had to correct them. And I believe they were just one small step away at that point, one small step, and it was this, you're in the ballpark? You just need to let me change your attitude. You see, this is the test of failure family. This is the test of failure. Can we keep the right attitude? Can we keep our trust in God? Can we continue to stay faithful, obedient, operate with integrity when we don't see results? And how about this one, when we don't see the results on our timeline?Who, if anybody got anything from that it was me. Amen. Come on. But then there was a second test, because it eventually happened, family, Genesis 22, the promise was fulfilled, Isaac was born, the promises there, here we go, it actually happened. Now we can get this ball rolling. And then when he grows up to be allowed a young guy 789 10. Somewhere in that range, we get to the second half of the first scripture, and here's how I want to finish with you. The second test is the test of success. I've endured a lot of failure tests in my life. Testing of failure, doesn't really scare me anymore. But you know, what does success because I'm terrified that if God really started to fulfill the promises that he's placed in my life, that I'm going to screw them up. But somewhere along the way, I'm going to take the glory for it. Somewhere along the way, I'm going to say look at how great I am. And because God is faithful, and he's good. He asked Abraham to take the promise, go to the mountain, and sacrifice it. So here we are, we're in that moment. And he's got the knife and the boys tied down. And it says, Any picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice, verse number 12. Don't lay a hand on the boy, he was like, Stop, Abraham, stop. Don't lay a handle on the boy. Do not hurt him in any way. For now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld for me your son. And Abraham looked up and saw ram in the thicket. And they took that RAM and they sacrificed it in place of the sun. And they came down the mountain. And Abraham said that is Jehovah Jireh the Lord by providing and what God had to see what I want you to see Abraham had to see from God. Well, what I want you to see, what I want to see is that God has something so great for us. So beautiful, so purpose driven, so fulfilling, so much bigger than what we can imagine. Where we see one way God has an infinite amount. We try to put them on origin to our timeline, our outcome and he's saying son, daughter, I don't want you to get caught up in the agenda, the outcome or the timeline. I want you to get caught up in being a son. I want you to get caught up and being a daughter. And I want you to understand that when you trust me with the process. I got something great for you because the greater the calling, the longer the process and you've got to get in and you got to welcome here's the secret family. We run from the fire. We try to avoid the fire we try to shortcut away from the heart, but it isn't until I say God. I want to be tried by fire. Purified because I have a rebel nation, that it is not about me. It is about his glory and His plan. It is not about this great plan that God has put in my life. It is about the great story that God has written when he's placed plans and purposes in the lives of his people to advance his kingdom collectively. And when I submit to God and say, fit me in your family, the way you have purpose, me too, without outcome or concern, that's where the real blessing starts family, because now you're fulfilled, now you're full of peace. Now you're full of joy. Now you don't have to look over your shoulder anymore, because you're a son and a daughter of integrity, and you've been bought by the blood of Jesus. And now you don't have to get caught up in purpose, you get caught up in his presence. And when I understood this for myself, God began to do things in my life, our churches growing in the summer time, my family's getting healthier, and it's nothing I'm doing. I just had to get out of the way and say, God, refine my heart, purify me, purify those areas of secret sin, purify my objectives and my outcomes. God, I don't want to serve you, because of what you can do the way I want it done. I want to serve you. Because your ways are higher than and then in a myself, I will be smoking. smitten. snouted Oh, my God, is a consuming fire that burns away the impurities of us. It sets me up in a place of righteousness. And now I don't have to perform any longer. Now, I don't have to try to please people. I don't have to try to help God anymore. Have you ever tried to help God? Just like Ishmael? Right? I don't have to get on Facebook. Your I go again, and complain about all my problems. And pray that I need a financial miracle and then drop my GoFundMe link. Because God is bigger than GoFundMe. Sometimes God doesn't want us to ask, he wants us to trust.

And listen, family, this is an everyday process. You won't you won't make that decision to walk out and everything will just you're just magically like, hey, no, you're gonna get in your car was in traffic, and you're gonna have to ask God to try you by fire. Because it's great on Sunday, when we're all sitting together like, hey, Jesus Church, it's a lot different on Wednesday morning, isn't it? You're gonna be tested, you're gonna be tried. But here's the key. You need to want to be tried, where you stand with me. Let's bow our heads for just a second. I want to throw two things out to you. I know we have a lot of new people in the room. And so I want to throw this out. If you would say, Pastor Matt, I've never given my life to Jesus before. Listen, that's where this whole thing starts. When you realize that you can't do it on your own, you're going to continue to try continue to feel empty. When the Bible says, And Jesus said, I'm the way the truth in the life. I am the way no one comes to the Father but by me, no one finds true peace, joy, fulfillment, eternal security apart from me, he lived a perfect life and died the worst form of death, resurrected three days later, to create a bridge that the gap of sin had been created between us and our Heavenly Father. And because of Jesus, I can accept and believe in my heart, it's step one in that bridge can be restored. Or you would say Pastor Matt, I'm in the room. And I know what I've been wrestling with. I've been wrestling with the why. And today, I know what that thing is, I need to lay it down, I need to lay my agenda down. I need to lay my outcome down. I need to lay that thing that sin, that secret thing I need to lay it down. But when I lay it down Holy Spirit, I'm going to ask you to help me to walk this process. God, I want to be tried by fire if you're in the room, and you're either one of those slip your hand up when we come home that Solomon asks you to do. If you have your hand raised, or you're just in the room, we want to pray this to encourage those. So I want you to repeat this prayer after me say this with the Heavenly Father. I know that I'm a sinner. I know I've tried it on my own. But today is my day. I believe in my heart. And I confess with my mouth that Jesus is lower than my life. Today is a new day. I am a new creation. Now God, I choose to submit to your process of refinement. I recognize it. I submit to it and I asked you Holy Spirit to help me walk it out. I want to be tried by fire. In Jesus name. Amen.