There's also child care on Thursday nights. Kids ministry

meets with junior Bible quiz and the youth meet on Thursday

nights. And they'll be kicking back up this week, too. So a lot

to be plugged into. If you've got capacity, I encourage you to be a part

of that. Well, good morning. Are we awake

this morning? Well, praise God. I'm glad that we're awake.

It's a new year. How did we get to 2026?

Oh, my goodness. Grace. Barbie says grace.

Don't say that, Kevin. Okay. Sometimes

things fleet in your mind, and it's like, I'm glad that didn't come out of

my mouth. Thank you, Lord, for the power of

filters. God is good. God is good.

And I am excited about this new series that we're getting

into for 20. A

couple of disclaimers before we get into this. First of all, this is now a

thing. So. Yeah,

thank you. Talk about

20, 26. So, you know, I feel like I'm in a

fishbowl, because I am. These are bifocals, you know, so, you know,

I can see both directions. So I'm gonna be taking them off and on. And

so if I have them off and I don't say a word the right way,

now I'm being trouble, right? Okay, so you know why. And I promise they're

gonn much more stylish than this come next few weeks. Okay? But

these are my starters. And so, anyway, so

we're gonna start with that. And then also,

you know, I was getting into

this last quarter and just thinking about the

things, and I was so excited about John 15. And

the operative word was is key there, because.

And I am excited because God's doing things. But have you

ever gone to class, clean out a room, and you gotta make

things messier before they become better? Well,

welcome to Springhouse Church. We are about to go through a season of

making some things messy before they get better. And

so for those of you who are new to Springhouse, or even if you've been

here, I'm gonna ask you to do me a favor. If

I say something that offends you, if I say something

that maybe you don't even agree with or just kind of hit you the wrong

way, if you would wait till the first week of February to leave Spring

Springhouse, but kind of like a gym membership, keep paying your tithe

all through the year, that would be great. Okay. You know,

but no, seriously, if you choose to leave Springhouse, please wait

a little while. I just want, you know, I just want to get through these

first couple of weeks because we are going to get messy because I think God

has some real truth and some real revelation in his word for us.

And, you know, can you look at your neighbor right now and ask them this

question? Why are you here?

Now, on the cuff, that answer. On the cuff, that answer might

seem something. That's natural. On the cuff, it might seem

something. But let me tell you, how many times, how

many times do people dawn the doorsteps of the

church and have no idea why they're in the

house? And I believe that this morning,

January 4, 2026, God has a

powerful word for us. And it's going to open

up and start a ripple effect in our lives if we will

grab hold of it and we will allow him to mature it

in our walk this week as we nudge forward week by week

into this year. Now, last year we got off on the

greatest stories ever told, and we started a message

and kind of capped it nicely at the end each week. This series is

gonna be an evolution. We different at the end of this year than

we do at the beginning of this year because of this principle of abiding in

Christ. And so my encouragement is that we really lean in

this morning. And I'm gonna pray something that I don't usually pray after we read

the Word. Are you ready for this? I'm actually gonna pray that the Holy Spirit

of God will convict our hearts in this room.

I'm not here to entertain. I don't wanna be entertained. I

wanna be changed by the word of God. Anybody with me? So let's go on

the journey together. Stand with me. We're gonna read from John, chapter 15. This is

gonna be a baseline scripture for us through this series. And let's read

it like we mean it with some passion today. Here we go. I am the

true vine, and my father is the gardener. He

cuts every branch in me that bears no fruit,

while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes

so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already

clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must

remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit

unless you remain in me. I am the vine,

you are the branches. If you remain in me and

I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. Let's read that last part

again. Apart from me.

Father, we believe that today, and Holy

Spirit, I'm asking for you to convict

our hearts today. I'm asking you to give

us eyes to see things that we haven't seen before,

ears to hear some things that we haven't heard before.

That we would make some connections this morning that we weren't

necessarily expecting to make when we came in. But by the grace

of your Holy Spirit, you met us. You were preparing the

atmosphere in our spirits before we even knew it, Lord,

for this moment in time. So may we hear your

word. May we respond to it today in Jesus name. And

everybody said, amen. Amen. Amen. You may be seated.

So I was getting into the Word and I was preparing for this series, Abide.

And like I said, I thought, hey, I'm gonna jump in and

this is gonna be easy. This is gonna be. I didn't really think easy. Cause

nothing about it is really easy. But I thought, you know, I'm familiar with this

word, so I'm gonna be able. We're gonna be able. Like a roller coaster. And

boy, after pages and pages of notes, the Lord had me set

that aside and he gave me something different. And I believe the

Lord said, we're gonna have to unpackage some things. Do you know

that it's just as important for us to unlearn things than

it is to learn things? And I believe that there are

some things that we need to purpose to unlearn so he can

open some crevices to teach us some things that actually come from him.

Some of us are wearing the residue of the world, the

stench of the world. And we have no clue. Have you ever been around somebody

that stinks? The most loving

thing to do with somebody who stinks is to go up to them.

Not in an unpleasant way, but if you love them is to say

you have a stench. There's a smell about you.

Okay, I'm reminded of a story I don't have time really to tell, but I

went through a whole two periods of high school with a sugar smack on my

cheek because I didn't have friends who cared. Cared enough about me to tell me,

you got breakfast still on your face.

We need to be a people who are willing to say the truth in love.

And the Lord has some real things for us today. And so I

was asking the Lord, okay, where do we go? And he took me back to

the Old Testament. He took me back to the Old Testament. And

I wanna take us back to the Old Testament to a moment in

Israel's history. A moment that maybe some of you have never

heard about, but one that will feel strangely

familiar as we kinda unfold. Open what

happened in the Old Testament with God's people? God had chosen

Israel to be his people, not because

they were perfect, not because they were polished, but because

he loved them. And he called them to live differently

than the nations that were around them, to worship him alone,

to practice justice, to care for the vulnerable, and

to reflect his character all around the world. But over many

generations, something started to happen. They began to back away

from this call, from this directive, especially the leaders.

They started to chase gods of the other nations.

They started to mix faith with idolatry. They trusted

in political alliances more than God. They opposed the

poor, and they ignored God's commands.

And God didn't respond with anger at first, like he

usually does. And in keeping with God's character, he was patient

and he was kind. And in his great patience and his sovereignty,

he sent prophets, prophets like Isaiah

and Micah and Jeremiah, to render the true

word of the Lord. And this is what these prophets would say. They

would say, turn back to the Lord.

Stop sinning. If you keep going this way,

destruction and exile will surely come.

Now, just like some of us, the nation of Israel did

not like this word because this word caused

them to have to do something and change behavior that they didn't want to change.

And so alongside Jeremiah stood some other people

with a voice that became louder and louder than that of

Jeremiah's. And this voice, these voices would say

this worry, God will never let

anything happen to Jerusalem. God will fix your issues

quickly. Now, Israel liked this word

because this word was comfortable, this word felt

good. This word didn't necessarily cause change

and put all the onus on God and nothing on them.

But the biggest problem was, is it wasn't true.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, he brought a very different word. He says,

this path will not end well.

Babylon will rise, exile is coming, and it will

not be short. And because Jeremiah's message was uncomfortable,

the people rejected him. They mocked him, they

treated him poorly, they threw him in a pit. They labeled him

negative, unpatriotic, and unfaithful.

And then it happened. The Babylon empire invaded

Jerusalem. The city fell, the temple was destroyed.

The very place where they worshiped God was destroyed. And a

large portion of God's people were taken captive and carried

far away into Babylon. I want you to

imagine that moment. You have been fooled to believe

that your God is going to take care of everything.

Yet here you are finding yourself in a different

place where you've lost your land, you've lost your security, and

you've lost every semblance of structure. Of your life.

And in that confusion, the false prophets that

communicated this message continued to run their

mouths, as often false prophets do. And they

said, don't unpack your bags, because God is gonna

rescue you out of this exile. God is gonna take you away. God is

going to come and serve you on your

behalf. Their message sounded hopeful.

Jeremiah's message sounded painful. But

Jeremiah was the one telling the truth. So

God speaks through Jeremiah again. This time he sends it in

the framework of a letter that we read in Jeremiah chapter 29.

And it says this. This is what the Lord Almighty God of

Israel says to all of those carried into exile from

Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and

settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they

produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find

wives for your sons and give the daughters in marriage so that

they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Do not

decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of

the city to which I have carried you into exile.

Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too

will prosper. Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty

God says to Israel. Do not let the prophets and the

diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you

encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in

my name. I have not sent them, declares the Lord.

And so there is this letter, and the God of the universe is saying,

I have sent you to this exile place.

It tells me that the Lord God Almighty, in his

mission, in his love for you, in

his mission, in his chasing after your soul, will allow

hardship to happen in your life, to bring about change.

He will allow you to be in uncomfortable situations

and live there for a season of time so that you will

come to a place to acknowledge him as the

Lord, as the Lord. And so God says,

build, plant, get married.

Increase, do not decrease.

In other words, this is not going to be short. You're going to

be here for a while. Don't put your life on pause.

Don't hold your breath waiting for rescue. Live

faithfully, right where you are. Seek the peace and the prosperity of

the city to which I've carried you into exile. Pray for it. Because if it

prospers, you're gonna prosper as well. This

wasn't about the Israelites blending in

with Babylon, and it also wasn't about them fighting

against Babylon. It was about learning how to

live as God's people inside a culture that did

not share their faith. And I want you to understand,

friends, that we live as God's people inside of

a Culture that do not share our faith.

We live as exiles in Babylon,

learning how to live, work our jobs, build our houses,

have our families within the construct of the world,

living in the kingdom of God.

The exile was not God discarding his people. It was

God's way of reshaping them. He was teaching them how

to remain his people even when the world around them

did not reflect the kingdom. And that's where our story

meets us today. Because like Israel in

Babylon, we live in a world whose values don't

always match the kingdom to which we belong. We build families, work

jobs, live lives here, but our identity is somewhere else.

I like to say it like this. In America, we have a constitution

that gives us rights. And there are people who have given their life,

people have laid down their life for the Constitution. And the Constitution

of the United States gives you the freedom to speak, gives you the freedom to

do kind of whatever you want to do. That's kind of, I guess, the purpose

of the Constitution. But if you belong to the kingdom of God, the word of

God is the constitution of the kingdom. And the word of God

supersedes the Constitution of the United States every single time.

You belong to a kingdom. And guys, I hate to tell you this, you have

a king. It's not a democracy, it's not a presidency,

it's not a negotiation. You have a king who is sovereign and

sitting on a throne and wants to be the king of your life. The

difference about this king, unlike other kings, is he actually knows

your name and has a purpose and a plan for your life. Because

later we see what God says to the people.

Hey, build your houses, get married,

live your lives. Because here's the thing, and we like to quote this verse,

I have a plan for you declares the Lord, plans to

prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a

future. This promise was in the

context of exile. We like to parade that

truth around when things are going well, right? We like to parade that truth around.

This was in the moment where God Almighty lent way

and gave permission for his people to be in a place of

captivity in exile.

So the question becomes, as we begin this series on abiding

in Christ, we have a question that we need to grapple with. And here's the

question we need to grapple with. Will we be

formed by the world we live in? Or will we

remain rooted in the kingdom to which we belong?

Will we be formed by the world we live in?

Or will we remain rooted in the kingdom to

which we belong? I'D like to suggest this morning,

as I click this button that's not working, hit that

next slide. The greatest danger

in the world is not persecution. It's deception.

Let that marinate for just a moment. I'm

called to pick up my cross. I'm called to a life of

suffering. I'm called. The greatest danger in our

world living as Christians, is not that we are going to be

persecuted, not even to the point of death. It's

deception. It's deception.

Now, deception can come in various forms. In

my experience, deception often comes from the person who

always has something to say. Have you ever known a

leader who's got an opinion about every single thing that's said or done?

Have you ever followed somebody who just every single time there's something that

comes up, they've got something to say about it? Here's what I've

learned as I've matured as a leader in the Lord Jesus

Christ. It stands to reason, when you become a leader, you would think, man,

I've got to learn what to say and when to say it. But what I've

learned as a mature believer in Christ and what I'm learning as a leader

is that it's more important for me to learn when to shut my mouth.

There's a man by the name Bruce Kobel, served on staff here for decades.

And let me tell you, Bruce had a lot of opinions. He

had a lot that he could have said.

But Bruce rarely spoke. But

when he opened his mouth, the room was silent

and everything changed. I admire that

man because he knew from the Holy Spirit when it was time and

place and appropriate for him to insert

his thought or his opinion. And also more

than that, I've heard that man come back many a time and apologize,

even in the vein. Even in the vein of not saying much at all.

Come back and say, you know, what I considered and I had

weighed what I said to you, and I don't believe it was rightly placed. Would

you forgive me?

Be leery of leaders you follow who always have to say something

about everything, because you won't

know very clearly what the Holy Spirit's saying and

what's just their opinion. First, Thessalonians

4:11 says this. Make it your ambition

to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and work with

your hands so that your daily life may win the respect of

outsiders. You know, there are a few people that I think about when I read

this scripture. And in this gathering, the couple that I think about are Michael and

Rhonda Frazier. Do you know what type of

a powerhouse couple Mike and Rhonda are?

Rhonda has a gift of teaching that would literally, I

think, ripple and change generations just in one setting.

What the deposit she carries, whether it's with students or adults or

whatever, whatever Rhonda puts her hand to, it's done with such

excellence. Have you heard Michael compose anything? Do you hear him

play the anointing he carries from this platform? And whenever he gets behind

the keys or whenever he's involved with composing or orchestra, all those.

The weight and the gravity that this couple carries. But here's the thing. Most

of you in this room probably don't have deep connections with Mike and Rhonda.

They are not vying for the spotlight. They are not vying for time in the

stage. They're not looking to say, look and see what I've got to say here.

They just lead their lives. And they step into places where the power

of the Holy Spirit meets them. And he says, speak and do. And they speak

and they do. This is the type of

lives we're supposed to lead. We're not supposed to be

looking to elevate ourselves in the world's eyes. We're not supposed

to be looking for great grandiose platforms to speak from.

And if the Lord gives those places, those places should be met with a huge

degree of humility.

Are you glad you came to church today? The next

verse says this. If it's possible, as far as it depends on

you, live at peace with everyone. I don't

know where we got this idea as Christians that we're supposed to declare war

on the world. The Lord God

Almighty. Listen. He has placed us

contextually in this world bubble to live

as a servant of the kingdom. He has placed us here, which

tells me if the world's got stuff going on, he's going to take care of

the world. In fact, some of us have succumbed to the

notion that God is about trying to make the world a better place.

But God is going to come and destroy this world, and he's going to establish

his kingdom. So if you're under the illusion that the

world's going to become a better place, it's not becoming a better

place. Allow yourself to be undeceived in

that. Okay, as foreigners and

exiles. This is Peter. Okay, one Peter. This tells me, as

foreigners and exiles, what does that make us? Foreigners and

exiles abstain from sinful desires which

wage war against your soul. Stop sinning.

Let's pray. No, listen. It says, live

such good lives among the pagans. That

though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your

good deeds and glorify God. Now let me give you the.

The shallow Christian version of this scripture. Are you ready for it?

Though they accuse you of doing wrong, that they may watch

your Facebook post and hear what you say to glorify God.

No, it's not what it says. It says, see your good deeds and

glorify God. That means that what you say, you better be walking.

What you preach, you better be walking. Let them see

you actually model the faith. Remember a few weeks ago we talked about, do

you believe what you really believe? Let the world see you

model your belief by your faith. And that will change

people's lives

as foreigners and exiles in the world. And so this is what we

contend with. We have the context. We have this

world that we live in. But here we are in the middle, in

the kingdom of God. And so what does that

look like? The world says, hold on a second.

The world tells us to seek approval. The kingdom of

God tells us to seek the king.

The world tells us to build our platform. The kingdom of

God tells us to humble ourselves.

The world tells us to strike back. The kingdom of God tells us to

turn the other cheek. Are you with me this morning? The

world tells us to fear losing control. The kingdom of God says,

surrender. The world tells us to walk

away. You know what the kingdom of God says, forgive.

The world tells us to secure our future by

any means necessary. The kingdom of

God tells us to store up treasure in heaven. The

world tells us to seek comfort and what feels good. The kingdom of

God tells us to take up our cross. The world tells us to run

faster. The kingdom of God is telling us to slow

down. The world tells us to follow our

heart. The kingdom of God says, follow Jesus Christ.

Jesus says this. He says, my kingdom is not

of this world. Would you say that my kingdom is

not of this world? And so we are succumb

to. To deception.

Deception. And deception creeps

in every single day of our lives. And

deception starts like this. We know we belong to this kingdom. I

can delineate clearly between myself and the kingdom and the world.

But as deception creeps in and nothing's done about it, you

realize that slowly, slowly and slowly, all of a

sudden, you look no different than the world.

And I wonder how many Christians are in this place

looking no different than the world we live in.

There's that scripture where we read in John 15 and it talks about the tree,

and there's a branch on that tree, and it says, when the branch doesn't bear

fruit. He cuts it off and he throws it away.

You know what's interesting about that? For a branch to be

connected to the tree. It tells me at one point in time it had life.

At one point in time, it had life. See, you can be

connected as a dead branch waiting to be cut off the

tree. And I'm wondering if there's any fruit being

born in your life. Is there any fruit being born in my life?

But deception begins to lead us towards sin, leads us toward

destruction. Deception always promises an

easier path. Deception always promises an

easier path. Some of you have bought 1999

subscription to something that told you were gonna lose £100 in three days.

Some of you invested money thinking in two weeks time

it was gonna blow up and exponentially increase. You know why? Cause it's not

enough to trust the Lord God, the one who owns the cattle on the hill

with your finances. So we resort to the world's schemes and

listen when it prospers. When something happens, we go, oh, glory to God.

When it backfires on us and we didn't hear from the Lord, then we go

to God and say, what happened? I don't understand. He says, I

didn't tell you to do that in the first place. Deception always

promises an easier path.

So here are two of the greatest deceptions I believe we can come under.

The first one is, I'm not deceived. Conceived.

The Bible says this. The Bible says, he who says he is

without sin is a liar.

Where is sin conceived? It starts with deceit.

It starts with a thought. So

congratulations, every one of you. You have been deceived.

I have been deceived at one point and the other. We've been

deceived. And the deception is. Grows exponential every

day. Every day. And it's not glaring that,

oh, I wish I had a sign. I have props. I don't have this prop.

I wish the enemy's holding a sign saying, here I am to deceive

you. No subtle ways. In

fact, what the devil does is he puts on that Christian T shirt,

he carries a Bible with him. Are you with

me? He literally says a

version of the truth that will lure you in and get you

off course enough so that you begin

to become more familiar with his voice because it's more comfortable

than the voice of a holy God. The second

greatest deception is I know more

than I really do. Listen to me.

If this right here is everything you could possibly know

about God, Everything, I mean everything.

This is God. It's everything. You can know.

That's how much I know. This is how much

Justin knows. This is how much Barbie knows.

We'll give Ronnie two stones. This is how much Ronnie knows.

Listen to me. This is super important to me.

Some of you will walk in here and build your entire life based on this.

When you've got access to this,

you will build your entire foundation. And not only will you build

your foundation, you will try to build your kids foundation on this.

And this is only what I think I know. This

is what I think I know. Now, I'm not trying to dissuade you from

coming to church and listening to the teaching here, because God the

Holy Spirit can do exponential things with just a little bit. But when we

come here, when we come here, we're coming here

to enthrone him on our praises, to be

reminded about what he did on the cross and to be nudged

along in our faith. What happens here should

affirm what you are already learning and walking in through

the week. The best thing that you can do

is get a Bible, dust it off, and start reading and

learning about the God you say you love.

We have to not build our lives on hollow

deceptions. We have to not be deceived. And

I am afraid with a holy

righteous fear that I walk in places where I think

I've got it right, but I've got it so wrong because my spiritual

ears are not cleaned out enough to know. This is the voice of the Holy

Spirit. Spirit. This is the voice of the

Holy Spirit.

And so.

Jesus says this, not everyone who says to me,

lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only

the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

This tells me that there are people who attend church faithfully

who will be casting out demons who will be worshiping all in his name.

And they're going to get there that day and he's going to say, I

never knew you.

You cannot live your life on

the coattails of my faith. You

cannot live your life on the coattails of your parents.

You cannot live on the coattails of your faith

alone. You must have a relationship with this

holy God. The reason he went to the cross was because

he wanted an intimate relationship with you. And it

is available right now, today.

Have you forgotten your first love? Have you forgotten your

first love? Why are you here this morning? What were

you expecting? Besides chicken after church at a restaurant? What were you

expecting? What did you expect to happen when you walked

into this place? Are you looking to be transformed by the truth of

God's Word to be encouraged with other believers. Why are you here

today? What's the point of this?

So what do we do? God? Lord,

am I being deceived? Lord, I'll tell you how Kevin's

wired. Lord, if I'm being deceived, I want to start doing something right now

to make sure I'm not deceived. Get me in the driver's seat. I want to

figure out what I'm doing. I'm turning every stone. I'm messing things up.

Because we have a propensity. Every single time some type of

conviction comes our way, the very first mistake we make is that we feel

like we got to do something. And what we don't realize is what we did

is what got us in the first. Got us in the situation in the first

place.

So the very first place that we have to look at

is something. It's a commodity that every one of us have.

Every one of us have this commodity. It's a precious commodity. And

believe it or not, you're actually in control with what you do with it, and

that is your time. Why do we

have to start here? We have to start here.

Not start by trying to dissect what the word abide

means and all of these things. Oh, I got. I need to clean out this

drawer. No, we need to stop so that

we understand. Clear. Have you ever been in a situation where you're

giving instructions to multiple people and the person over here is on their

phone not paying attention, and these people are talking and you have to repeat yourself?

Any teachers in the room,

you would have gotten the correct instruction had you listened correctly

the first time, but you were distracted. Well, how

do we address the distractions? We have to carve out

capacity to learn his voice.

Lord, do you want me to do this? I'm talking about

everything. Lord, do you want me to go to breakfast with that person?

Do you want. What do you want me to say at this breakfast? What do

you want me to do at lunch when I read my Bible? I see Jesus

wake up every morning. This is what I see. Daddy, what do you want to

do today? Kevin, how do

I do that? I got a job. I got kids, all that stuff. You wake

up and you start with, daddy, what do you want to do today?

And then he takes your everyday, ordinary, step by

step, going to work, all that stuff, life as you place it

before him as an offering, and he meets you right there, and he speaks to

you. We are creatures of habit. We start getting in this

habit, and then we say, I don't need you, God, anymore. I've got

this down. Let's

start with this. Busyness is not a badge of honor.

Busyness is not a badge of honor.

God has given grace gifts to every

person in this room. The grace gifts in

quantity that he has given me are not the same

quantity that he's given Justin, that he's given Wyatt, that he's

given Vonda, that he's given Carol, that he's given

David or any of you. The grace gifts in quantity and what they

are differ from person to person. And so what that

means is if I'm. If God has grace gift me in

this season to do a lot of things, then if I

do short of what he's asked me to do, I'm walking in disobedience.

If God has only graced you in this season to do two things

and you try to do seven because you see somebody else doing seven,

you're headed toward destruction and walking in disobedience because God

hasn't graced you to do seven things he's graced to do too.

Read the Parable of the Talents. Five,

two, one. It's up to him. He's the

God of the universe. He knows what he's doing. I actually trust Him,

Do I?

May my actions model the truth that I trust the Holy Spirit.

He's given each of us grace gifts. One of the things I

particularly thankful for about our eldership and you learned about this

last week, was that every year the elders pray

and ask the Lord, should I actively serve in the year to come?

Why? Because seasons change.

The grace gift. Listen to this. This is important. The grace gift he

has given you right now is temporary.

It will be there for as long as he chooses for that grace

gift to be. And when you continue to run doing that

thing. Listen. There are had a grace gift for 10 years and they

ran in that 11th, 12th, and 13th year. And they caused more damage

in those three years than any fruit that was caused in those first 10 because

they outran the grace season they were in.

This is why it's important that we are constantly in check with the

Holy Spirit. Lord, am I doing your will? Am I following

your purpose? Am I supposed to be saying yes to this? Am I supposed to

be saying no to this God? What do you have for me and what's the

evidence? The evidence is in the fruit. The

Holy Spirit of God is not going to be involved with something he's not called

you to do. So there is no way for you to bear the fruit of

the Spirit, if you're doing things that don't have his covering, does that make

sense? And so we learn

this. A calling without grace becomes striving without covering.

A calling without grace becomes striving

without covering. So we don't measure it by

productivity or busyness or opportunity or visible success. We look,

if peace disappears, gentleness drains. If joy dries up,

we are living beyond grace capacity. Guys, I have to tell

you, abiding requires the capacity to hear him and hear him

clearly. Abiding requires the capacity

to hear him. We just read Luke, chapter 10, Mary and

Martha. Martha is out doing all of the things and just

making all of the effort of preparing the room. And Mary is

resting at Jesus feet. And Jesus says, what is best?

Was it that Martha, the things that she was actually doing, were they wrong? Were

they bad things? No. But what was

needed at that moment was to be at Jesus feet.

Oh, may we not be a people who miss the times that we're supposed to

sit at Jesus feet.

And so the Lord gave me an object lesson several years ago,

and I'm gonna do that object lesson again here

because I really felt that the Lord had given me something profound and

he had shown me this. And maybe some of you have seen this, seen this

illustration before, but so many times in our life, when we get to the beginning

of the year, we look at restructuring and reprioritizing. And what

happens is, is we will fill our life up with those frivolous, frivolous

little things that don't really matter, that aren't really important, because

we like those. Those taste good, feel good, look good,

very little responsibility with them. And so we'll just kind of fill up our life

with these frivolous little things. And then behind those things,

we'll graduate to some of those, maybe perhaps a little bit larger

things in life that carry a little bit more gravity,

a little bit more importance. And so we'll be there. But then God

gives us these big boulders in our life that are real important. The priorities,

like reading the word, your marriage, church, going to

church, prayer time, stewardship

of your funding, rest. What's this one say?

Obedience. Okay. And these may be different for every person, but there are

boulders, there are real staples. And then after doing all this, we try to

fit these things in, and. And they don't fit.

And so we go, man, I'm out of line here. I'm out of priority.

God, Lord, would you help me? Help me to structure and

reprioritize? And he says, okay, well, the first thing that needs to happen

is all of the things that are the big boulders, we need to put them

in first, right? And so we go in here and we put work and prayer

and Bible reading and going to church, marriage and family all in first.

And look. Oh, wow, they all fit. That's great.

Okay, so now we go behind that and we say, well, let me put

in, like. Let me put in these. Let me put in these kind of

slightly bigger things here.

We'll take that one out.

Slightly bigger things here.

We'll put him back in there. Okay. Slightly bigger things,

okay. And then all of those small things, we

put those in. And isn't it interesting

that when our priorities are in line and the big things go

in first and we pay attention to those bigger boulders,

everything fits. Everything fits.

Same amount of stuff, but everything has a place.

And wouldn't you know that when you get this at the beginning of

the year and you achieve a lifestyle that mimics this

right here,

We take that and we go,

Look at me. Aren't you proud of me? I fit

all of the things in my jar. I can do

all of these things because they're in proper order. Aren't I so

good? Isn't this great? It's all

priority. And then God says,

but what about the unexpected?

Some of you have red balls around you. Would you hold those up in the

air for me if you got them? Hold them up high. Look

around at any moment, this many unexpected

things could happen in a day's time.

God, I don't have room in my organized,

packed, wonderfully organized

life to fit any unexpected things. And God

is saying, well, here's the problem, Kevin. You don't need me in this. You

need me in this. And so I'm willing to let this come

about because this is where you're gonna find me. Not in here.

And I go, God, what do you mean?

All my life I've just learned that you've got to put the priorities first.

You got to put them in order. God, this is. Isn't this what

you want from me? Like, this is all these are desires of my heart and

all this stuff? And he says, yes, there's nothing. Listen to me. There's not

necessarily anything wrong with what's inside here.

But he says to me, kevin, I don't want you to wake up every day

like this.

I want you to wake up every day like this.

And when you wake up every day like this, then you give

me the opportunity to reach into your stuff and say, I want you to

do this today. I want you to do this today.

And when that unexpected thing comes, look at all the capacity you

have. Because your life was spent

making me the priority, says the Lord. Not

your desires, not the big boulders, not all those things. Listen,

what happens is we get really busy. We get really, really busy.

And then we say, I'm so busy, I'm gonna start creating boundaries.

Let me tell you something about boundaries. The Lord has not called you to

put boundaries in your life. He's called you to obedience. And when you

obey, the boundaries will fall where they're supposed to be.

Obedience is the call. Listening to the Holy Spirit,

that's the call. Putting boundaries, fashioning them for yourself because

it feels good and it makes sense in your life is only another way for

you to exert control in your life. Obedience

is key. And so I'm looking at all of this as we're

getting into the abide series, and I'm saying, God, what about it?

How do I. What do I do? God? Because we are creatures of doers.

We don't like being. And God says, I

actually have something for you to do.

I want you to repent.

I want you to change the way you think

about your time and your calendar.

And then, and only then, will we begin to get to a place

where you will actually hear my voice clearly

and do what I'm asking you to do on any given

day. Guys, we do the same thing with our finances. Barbie was up here talking

about the tithe we get in this place. There are several of you who have

been faithful tithers for years, and God's taken care of. But this is what

you do. 10% check. 90% is just

as packed as that jar was. And then what happens?

I want you to give $1,000 to that person. Well, God, that

doesn't fit in my budget. That doesn't fit in. What I. That doesn't fit in.

There's no margin for God to move.

Stop taking what he's given you and packing it

out and walking away from the one who gave it to you.

The very first thing he wants you to do when he gives you something is

give it back to him. Because it says, God, thank you

for what you've given me, but I trust you more with it than I

trust myself. Repentance,

changing the way that you think. Girls, come on out here.

These are my daughters. I want you guys to stand right

here, and I want you to actually face me. Okay? I just

need to talk to you for just a second, okay? Don't worry about them. They'll

Talk amongst themselves. Listen,

I love you, Ruby. I love you, Nora. I love you,

Lucy. I love you.

And I want to ask you to forgive me this morning

because I have not been always a present. Dad.

I have oftentimes chosen the people that are

sitting behind you before. I've chosen you not because the Holy

Spirit's told me to, but because I felt some type

of way that I've got to lean in and make sure that they know that

I'm here for them. And I have sacrificed my time with you.

And I want you to know that there are a million people that God could

raise up to be a pastor of this church, but there's only one

daddy in this universe that can be the dad to you.

I'm tired of my cell phone coming between us. I'm

tired of my calendar coming between us. And I know that

from this point, I'm gonna mess up because I'm not perfect. But,

Ruby, you know how many times in the last week you said you wanted cuddles

from me? I love cuddling with you. I love seeing

your laughter. I love seeing you grow in the. The Lord,

you are a priority in my life. And the Holy Spirit

has given you as gifts to me. And so I repent to you.

And I ask you to forgive me as your dad

for not being the dad I'm supposed to be. And if you will

help me on this journey. I want to be present for everything.

I want to spend more time together. I want to laugh together. I want to

love together. And I know that if I walk in obedience to him,

him in this, everything else is going to fall in place like it's supposed to.

I love you this morning. Will you forgive me, Hadassah?

Will you forgive me, Lucy? Will you forgive me? Will you forgive me?

I love you, girl, so much.

Okay, now give me kisses. I got a. Bless the people.

I love you.

Repentance leads to life.

Changing the way you think leads to an abundant

form of life that you have never experienced.

And so this morning, the invitation. The

invitation is to surrender your time

to him, to allow him to align everything. And

it's not a surrender on January 4th that you just walk away

from, but it's a surrender to say, God, on January 5,

I need to surrender on January 6, I need to surrender on January

7, and so on and so on. The call that this morning

is to say, I'm done being in control.

And I need you, God, your grace, in my life

to begin this journey of hearing your Holy Spirit.

And, guys, if we will make that commitment to him, I promise you,

he will start to take things out of the drawers we didn't even know were

there, all of this stuff. And we will begin to clean up things

that need to be cleaned up. Would you stand with me

this morning, with those who are going to minister this morning and

pray with people, Would you come?

Living a life for the Lord is no joke.

Committing yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ is the best thing that you will

ever do in your life. And so if you're here this morning and you would

say, I want to render control, I want to surrender control, I know we're going

to need many more prayer warriors than this. If you're in leadership here, come on

down. If you want to surrender this morning,

take that step of faith. The God of the universe is here. Remember, we prayed

and I said, lord, would you convict our hearts? He's here this morning,

and all we have to do, it's not about going, you don't have to have

the answer walking out the door. It's taking a step of faith that says is,

it's me, God, I surrender to you. Come and pray with these

brothers and sisters as we worship.