I was telling them in first gathering, in first service,
I could just sit and listen to Michael and just
go exactly where you need to go in your spirit to worship because
of what he carries. So I'm just going to ask you to play
for just a second while I share that with him.
I will exalt you, my God, the King.
I will praise your name forever and ever. Every
day I will praise you and extol
your name. Great is the Lord and most worthy of
praise. His greatness. No one can fathom. One
generation will commend your works to another. They will tell
of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious
splendor of your majesty. And I
will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell
of the power of your awesome. And I will proclaim
your great deeds. They will celebrate your
abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all.
He has compassion on all he has made.
All you have made will
praise you, O Lord. Your saints will extol you. They will tell of
the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might
so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the
glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your
dominion endures through all generations.
His kingdom. His kingdom. The Lord is
faithful to all his promises and loving toward all
he has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of
all look to you and you give them their food
at the proper time. You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living creature.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all that he has made.
The Lord is near to all who call on
him. To all who call on Him. In truth, he fulfills the
desires of those who fear him. He hears their cries and
saves them. The Lord watches over all who love him.
And all the wicked he will destroy. But my mouth.
My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
forever and ever and ever and
ever and ever. And that is why we are
here this morning. We have come to worship
a holy God. That's why I'm here.
Thank you, Michael. Father. God, I thank you so much.
You know how to recenter us. You know how
to bring us back to what is important. You etched it through the
pages of eternity, Lord. And you released it to us.
This is about you, Father. May it always be
about you. We love you, God. And
we Will sing of your great love and your greatness and your
goodness and the way that you open your hands. We will speak
of your kingdom, God, because it all belongs to
to you. Thank you Lord for letting us be in your field for a
while. We will bless you and give you all of the glory. Let my stuff
fall and your stand in Jesus name. And
the people said, amen. God
is so faithful. God is so
faithful. You know, I don't think any of us plan to
be here like this. The last two weeks have been very
interesting and
I've had my own struggles, I'll be honest. But this is
what I know. This is what I know. God is
good. God is good and he is faithful.
They just said he opens his hand and satisfies the
desires of every living creature. God is good. And
nothing changes that. Nothing changes that. Ro and
Kai, our five year old grandson, walked into the.
Hal and I were sitting on the porch and Rowan walks in. He and
Nora are playing in the grass and Hal and I are talking
and Rowan walks up on the step up on the porch and he goes,
hey, good news. The bees
have pollinated your front yard.
And he said, that's always a good thing. Listen,
good news is anything that comes through his hand. Amen.
Anything that comes through his hand is good news. So good
news, the bees are pollinating your front yard right now as
you speak. Because you know what? The work of God continues.
It's his kingdom, it's his field. And I'm so
grateful for that. Do you know how much pressure that takes off?
You have no idea.
You know, when I took this job about
25 years ago, however long, and
God, yours is kind of like dogs. I think I've been here two centuries.
But anyway, I knew
what the Lord had assigned me to do. Hal and I both felt that the
Lord had called us to hold up Pastor Ronnie's arms and support
him as he carried out the ministry that the Lord had given him. And
I was 110% certain that I
was going to leave when past Ronnie retired. And I told
Pastor Ronnie that for the last 10 years that I served with him.
And when Pastor Kevin came into this position,
I actually started to pray
and felt like the Lord told me to stay.
And Hal felt that too, that we were to stay and we were to support
Pastor Kevin. And I went to Pastor Ronnie and I said, pastor
Ronnie, I've lied to you the last 10 years. And
because I told you I was go when you left. And
that was my heart's desire in all honesty, And I said, but
I believe the Lord's told me to stay. And he went. I
knew that. He said, the first
time you told me you were leaving, I knew you hadn't prayed about it.
Oh, that gift of discernment can come back to bite you from time to time.
And. And, you know, so it didn't end with Pastor Ronnie the way
that I expected. And when I began to serve with Pastor
Kevin, I thought I knew how that would end. And this was not it,
because I'm 61 years old, and
I know. I just made the
assumption. Boy, you get in trouble when you assume anything with God, isn't it? Except
for his goodness. And so my assumption and, you know, to share with Kevin,
you know, my heart's desire is to pour
into this house. As long as you have me, pour into this house. And then
when it's time for me to go, my prayer would be that the Lord would
raise up somebody behind me to serve and lift your hands and all of
those things. But see, that was my plan.
And at some point, God has to giggle, you know,
don't you think? God has to go, I so trust him, guys.
I just trust him. I just trust him. And it
didn't seem like I trusted him as I was weeping and wailing in my car
driving home the other night. And the Lord just began to minister
to me. God is still present,
and he is still worthy. God is present,
and he is worthy. He hasn't changed his mind.
And I said, lord, what do I do? God,
what do I do there? I've got about 100 voices coming at me
right now, things I should do or shouldn't do or should be or, this is
a good idea. And why did you ever do that? And I'm like, lord, what
do I do here? And he took me back. See, the Lord taught me to
dig wells a long time ago in the Spirit. And
so he took me back to my first well. And my first well that he
taught me to cultivate in my life was this. Seek
the Lord, trust the Lord, obey the Lord,
seek the Lord, trust the Lord, obey the
Lord. And I wasn't in any of those categories. In my car that day,
I was in Lamentations. And
he said, pick another book.
Seek the Lord, trust the Lord,
obey the. Is that not the most simple thing you've ever heard?
It's easy to read, it's hard to do, but it is
the truth. And that's the first well he allowed
me, even as a child, to learn. Okay, Lord, if I will seek you
If I will find you in your truth and dig
myself into that place in you, I will come to a
place that I can trust you. No matter what. No matter what.
And when I can trust you, Lord, I can be set free to
obey you. And see, that's my heart for this body,
always has been. That we would seek him,
that we would trust him, and that we would obey him. Because
it's about Him. It's not about who's standing on the
platform. It's not about me. It was never about Pastor Ronnie, and it wasn't
about Pastor Kevin. It's not about the elders. It's not about any of it.
It's about him. It is about him. And you know
what gave me great comfort? I'm like, lord, this was an un. You did not
tell me this was coming. All the days
ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Even the unexpected ones. All of the days ordained for
you were written in his book
before they happened. Here's the thing. God is never surprised,
confounded, caught off guard, or taken aback by our circumstances.
I do not see anywhere in the Word, or would it be consistent
with the Lord's character for him to go? Man, I did not see that coming.
Uh, we might not have seen it, but not only
did he see it, he prepared us for it. Do
you know how many amazing pastors you have in this house?
Let's see. Pastor Will. I'm so scared to do this because I'll miss
somebody, and there'll be somebody new standing up here
next week.
Seriously, man, there's, like, nine of us. You are
surrounded. If God didn't have you surrounded. Well, if God didn't have you surrounded,
there would be no need for the nine. He's got you.
Pastor Will. Pastor Jonathan, Pastor Allen, Pastor
Justin, Pastor Carol, Pastor Doug,
Pastor Robert. I mean, all of them. If I missed
you, please just stand up and shout. Do it now in front of everybody. Go
ahead,
Pastor kurt.
Oh, Lord, help us.
I appreciate your boldness, my brother. I
love that, though all the days ordained for us were written in his
book. And so, as I decided to start moving out of
Lamentations, I was like, lord, what do I do?
God, what do I do? Because I don't have answers on all of this. The
Lord has given me great vision for about three weeks going
forward, and then I'm trusting him for the next one. Okay, but he's good. But
you know what he said about this? This next, like, two to three weeks
is this worship anyway.
Worship Anyway, when he gave that to me in the car,
my first thought was, I gotta get a T shirt.
Did you know that this is a thing? Did y' all know this? I went
to look for a T shirt. And it's a whole webpage. I can buy a
30 by 60 flag if I want to
that says worship anyway. And that is my heart,
guys. It should never be about a human. It's about
him. And he is worthy. He is
worthy for us to anchor ourselves in worship and get to
the other side of this, whatever that looks like. Worship
anyway. And you know what else? And guys, I'm just taking you down this path
and trying to be as transparent as I know to be. Cause that's all I've
ever known to do with you all. And. And I just want
to be honest. And so as I was, you know, struggling my way through it,
Lord, you know. Cause what are you going to do about this? How are you
going to fix this? What are you going to do about this? And you know
what he said? I love when the Holy Spirit speaks. So
shepherds do not own the field. They merely tended under the direction
of the owner.
We don't own it. I'm basically working a 7 11.
And if you've got problems, I'm going to refer
you to the owner.
I'm like, you're gonna need to see the owner about that.
I have such peace in that, because I know the owner,
and he is good, he is faithful,
and he has never, ever, one time in 61 years
let me down. Not one time. And I don't expect him to.
That's just who he is. He's that good. And not only is he good,
he knows how to humble you, too. If the field's. If this was not
enough, I said, lord, you know, what if I need to do
this? Or, lord, what if I need to do that? Oh, my gosh,
guys, the word cracks me up in the way
that it just pierces straight to the heart. And I said, lord, you know,
what do you need of me? And here's his answer. I have no
need of a bull from your stall or goats
from your pens. For every animal of the forest is mine. And the
cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains.
And everything that moves in the field is mine. For the world is mine and
everything in it. I am going to use that so
often. I have no need
of a cow from your stalls.
We don't have anything to offer him that he
doesn't already have. But he gives us the Privilege of
bringing our worship, of participating in what he is
doing in the earth. That's what I want. I want a
sovereign God who needs nothing from me, but
allows me to be able to work in his field. Allows me
to walk with his sheep in the pasture. And if that isn't enough,
know that the Lord himself is God. It is
he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his
people and the sheep of whose pasture
His. It's all His. It's all his that
should bring us great peace. Actually, I was real peaceful about
that until Pastor Jonathan shared last week that sheep are flammable.
And I'm having to ponder that one a little bit. But you know what?
We are. And I've seen a few fires in the last two weeks.
Cause sheep are flammable, but the
owner of the field isn't. He is fire.
He is. He is sovereign and he is good. So
here, say this with me. His field,
his sheep. Isn't that peace inducing?
His field, his sheep. And let me tell you
something. He is not an absentee owner. He just
isn't. He isn't an absentee owner. His word
tells me this. I will never leave you
or forsake you. He will never leave us
or forsake us. Elvis has not left the building.
I mean, seriously, we sometimes. It's
just one of the things the Lord told me many years ago
was if it ever becomes about you, I will remove you.
And I pray that he does. I pray that
anybody, if it ever becomes about anybody or
anything other than him, that the Lord would just
watch over his church, cover his church,
minister to his church, regardless. Because it
can never be about anything but that. Now I had a couple people
going. I'm really struggling to, you know, sense God's
presence. Doesn't matter if you sense his presence.
Presence is not about a feeling. It is a promise. I will
never leave you or forsake you. And he took me to the best passage of
scripture. After the last one, are you looking forward to the next one?
The sheep and pins and bulls and things. I love that. The
Lord took me to this passage and I know it's familiar. The King Nebuchadnezzar
leapt to his feet. Did we not cast three men bound into the
midst of the fire? I see four men loose
walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt. And the form
of the fourth is like the Son of God. We have read that passage. We
know that story. Ch. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they were told that
they would bow to the king, and they refused to bow to
the king. And so the king had the furnace heated up
just all so powerfully that even the men that were
taking them up there were killed. You know, died because of the heat
of the flames. And so they throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
into that fire. And this is what happens after a
period of time. King Nebuchadnezzar, he looks in and he
sees four men walking in that
fire. They are loose and walking in the midst of it.
And for some reason, it just struck
me, nowhere in scripture,
nowhere does it tell us that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
saw him. Nowhere does it. They.
I'm making some suppositions here, but like if you were thrown in a fire and
there was a fourth man in there who loosed you and looked like the Son
of God, don't you think that might be the first thing you said when you
came out? Did any of you see what I saw?
Now, they might have, but that wasn't what they came out with. Or it wasn't
important enough for God to have it put in the Word. Because sometimes you're
not gonna see him. Sometimes you still gotta carry the
testimony of God's goodness and his faithfulness. When you don't
even know he's been walking through it with you,
it doesn't say, I would have told somebody, did you see
him? Did you see him? But God doesn't give
that portion to us. Because sometimes we're called to walk by
faith. Because God's presence is not determined by our
awareness of him, but by his promise to never leave
us. It's his
promise. It all goes back to him.
Whether you feel him, whether you see him, whether you're sensing
his presence or not, he is here and he is
with you, and he will not leave you. Whether you are at
Springhouse or Lifepoint or wherever it is that
God has for you, your assignment is to seek the Lord,
to trust the Lord and obey the Lord. That's all.
I believe that would be all that any pastor would ask of you.
Seek the Lord, trust Him and obey Him. That's what we do.
His presence is not a feeling, it is a promise.
And here's something that I think if we can
grab hold of, it is super important. Because sometimes
we so expect the woo hoo moments and, you know,
deliverance from fire moments. But you know what one of the greatest gifts in the
fire was? Sometimes our deliverance looks like
companionship. We want out of our mess, but he wants to
walk into the middle of it. God deliver me.
This is not what I wanted to do, Lord. This is not where I wanted
to be. This is not my decision. Aren't you so glad it wasn't?
Aren't you so glad it wasn't? We went out and he could have
just delivered the guys out of the fire, but he walked in it with
them. He walked in it with them. And I'm so grateful that
we have a God who does that. A famous
philosopher once said, Barbara Jean Price, my
mother. God ain't scared.
God ain't scared of this. He knew it
was coming before we did. He planted our
feet deep in faithful soil.
And he is sovereign and he is good, and God ain't scared
when life shifts and God's presence remains. The
faithfulness of God is not subject to the fluctuations of our
circumstances. It just doesn't. And this is going to. I mean,
I know this is going a little bit quick. I'm just trying to share with
you what he shared with me. Okay? Though the
clouds obscure the view, the sun is still right where it
is supposed to be. He hasn't changed.
Now let me give you the paraphrase of yet another
philosopher, my papaw. It don't matter
what the clouds are doing. The sun's still exactly where it's supposed to be.
It doesn't matter what's going on around us. It does
not matter how distracted we are and how many things that the
enemy would love to get our eyes on instead of what's important.
The sun's still exactly where he's supposed to be.
God is still sovereign and he hadn't changed.
And you know what one of the things about clouds is? They change from day
to day. The sun remains stable. And
he is still worthy. He is still worthy
of worship. He's worthy of praise. And my heart's
desire would be that when we come together, that would be the focus.
To worship him, to exalt him, proclaim
him, to magnify his name, and then to go out and do
it outside the doors, tell people about the goodness of
the Lord and what he's done.
This is the God we serve. For the Lord, your God is the
God of Gods and the Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty
and awesome, who shows no partiality. He defends the cause of
the fatherless and the widow. He is he. He
is your praise. He is your God. Now
to the King, Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God.
The only God. Be honor and glory forever
and ever. Amen. Then I Heard
every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the
sea and all that is in them, saying to him who
sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be praise and
honor and glory and. And power forever
and ever and ever. We don't worship because our lives
are consistent, but because our God is.
If we're waiting for our lives to have no change, there to be
nothing that's inconsistent in our lives. We gonna be waiting a while. That
sounds like another philosopher. I know we're gonna be waiting
a while. We do not worship because our lives are consistent, but because God
is. And he is worthy. And you
know what else he reminded me of? We're just going down this path. Worship that
depends on blessing is worship that has not yet dropped its anchor into
trust. If you can only worship
when things are good, then there's an issue. Do you know
how much in the last two weeks I have drugged the anchor behind
me? But we're not designed for that weight.
Drop that anchor into a place of trust. That
says the God that I just read to you about. That's the God
we're going after. That is the God who is worthy of worship and
praise. That is why we are here. Worship
anchored. Worship says the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's not about Kevin,
that's not about me. That's not about Ronnie, and it's not about
you. Whatever comes into your life is a blessing of the lor,
whether you have it or you don't have it. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That is the call in my heart. That is what the Lord
has worship just planted in me because that was the
first place I met him as a child. That was the
second well, the second well he allowed me to dig in my
life was to learn to worship him in spite of what was going
on in the world. To go. God, you are good. I don't understand any of.
I don't even like any of this. But God, I love you and I know
you are good and know that you're going to work this out. I know that
you are going to give us beauty for ashes. I know, God, that you are
sovereign and you are faithful and this is your field.
May I hear your voice so that I can work it well.
And that's not just for me, guys. That's you. We're all in this field.
We are all in this field. Worship team.
Here's another thing I might want to mention to you, we're probably not going to
last until 1230 most of the time. Because I feel like God is
pretty concise. One of the things that I feel like he has birthed in my
spirit is for the next three weeks, I want us to
press in worship. I really do. He allowed me to write a song
this week, and the line in the song that is pivotal for me was, let
worship start its healing. Let worship start its
healing. It worked for David. When David lost his son, and he
mourned, and he threw ashes on his head and he mourned
for a season. But the day came when he had to get up and
wash his face. And his first act was what? Go worship.
Go and worship. And that's what I believe the Lord would have
us plant in for the next three weeks. That's as much as I got, guys.
And we're going to trust him beyond that. But fortunately for you, I
need no bull from your pen.
I have a feeling I'm going to hear that back at me many times.
I told him, I said, that's going to be my quote this week on social
media. It's not unless
Courtney overrides me. But anyway, here's
the thing, guys. True worship remains
anchored in who God is. Who God is.
Not on how we feel. Not on how we feel.
It's about him because he is present
and he is worthy. He is present
and he is worthy. So here's
the thing. Yet another transparent moment. Just
because this is how I work things out with the
Lord, I just said God, I'd really like
to do a fast song at the end of service, but
some people might not be in a fast song kind of place.
And you know what he said?
Worship. Anyway.
Worship. Anyway, so I'm
gonna read you one more passage. And as I'm reading this
passage, I want you to grab it in your spirit
as you make your way toward the altar space.
Cause you know what we're gonna worship through? We're gonna worship
because he's worthy.
The hundred and third Psalm.
Guys, here's your weapon right here.
Praise the Lord. O my soul, all my inmost
being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul. And
forget not all of his benefits, who forgives all your
sins, heals all your diseases, redeems your life from
the pit, crowns you with love and compassion, satisfies
your desires with good things. So. And I need this one so that your
youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord is
compassionate and gracious, slow to
anger, abounding in love, and he will not always accuse nor will
he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sin
deserve. Can we hear an amen
or repay us according to our iniquities? For as high as
the heavens are above the earth, so great is
his love for those who fear Him. As far as the east from the
west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us. As the Father has compassion on his
children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
Jump down to verse 17. From everlasting to
everlasting. The Lord's love is with those who fear him
and his righteousness with their children's children.
A little further. And his kingdom, his
kingdom. His kingdom rules
over all his kingdom. And so would you join me
and. Can we just worship him for a minute? Because the thing is, is we
got a thousand reasons to worship him and we need to
draw from those wells just a little bit and. All right,
you, let's go. Let's go.