Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Beautiful. Beautiful. It's just so good to worship with all of you for here. All of you on live stream, it's so good to worship with you this morning. We are seeing friends that we haven't seen for a long time, and it's really, really good to see you here. Flo and Ernie are back from Mexico. That's good. And Sandy, it's good to have you here and we are praying for you and your family. I was thinking this morning when we were worshiping and you came in, I thought, well, I know that Jesus, he is hearing us. I know he is worshiping with us. I wonder if John's near the throne and he is wishing being with us too. We joined with the saints in heaven and worshiped the Lord together. John was a saint. Brian, it's your birthday. It's your birthday today. They are clapping at home too.
Brian: Thank you.
Jacque: I can hear the clapping at home too. I just want to thank you for letting me journey with you all these years.
Brian: Well, you know, those people who have the most birthdays live the longest.
Jacque: They do.
Brian: It has been a great journey with you, and I feel like we've got a lot more journeys to do together.
Jacque: We have a lot more journey to do, and it's kind of a milestone. It's a big thing.
It is. Yeah, it is because it is interesting as you get older how people's perception about you change? Some people think that you are more valuable because you've gained a lot of experience and a lot of wisdom. There are some cultures, believe it or not, that when an infant dies, they hardly do any morning at all because that infant never accomplished anything. In America, of course, we look at a lot of grieving over the loss of a child because of the potential that was lost, but in some cultures they just think of the opposite way. And then when someone that's elderly passes, they spend a whole week mourning their lost because of all the wisdom that has not been lost in this person,
It's interesting getting older and people have opinions about what we should or shouldn't be doing anymore and stuff like that, but the only real opinion I really listen to is what God's opinion is. God has opinions about stuff. You know, he does. We are just going to be faithful to what God puts in front of us to do and keep doing it. God gave tasks to different people in the scriptures. The people that stand out to me the most are the ones that saw those tasks through the end.
Jacque: To the end. So we will do that.
Brian: We'll do that.
Jacque: We are determined to end well. Amen, with the help of the Lord. I want to tell you as your wife who gets to see you every day, 24/7, 365, that I have never seen you with stronger focus and stronger vision and energy. Yeah, I kind of get lost in your dust. I'm always falling asleep on the couch a lot earlier than you. Let me tell ya.
Brian: Well, I'm thankful to the Lord for the health that he has given to us. There is a passion in my heart to really finish well and to not have a legacy that is tainted at the end of it, but to really— I don't know how long I will live. I pray that I have a lot more years left because I’ve got so much that I want to experience and do for the Lord. I just want to make sure that our legacy is great. I’m very committed that.
Jacque: I do have to say this. I heard this spiritual leader, he actually was a priest. I was listening to a podcast and I heard him say— he was talking about why he needed to take good care of himself like in his forties. He said, "I have to eat right. I have to exercise. I have to rest. I have to take care of myself now because in 30 years I'm going to be so much more good to you and I need to be able to be a strong man." So I thought that was really cute.
Brian: Yes. So thank you. We have some gifts for everybody after the service today to celebrate.
Jacque: Gifts and food.
Brian: Well, they are what I would call a gift.
Jacque: Yes. I was thinking when the boys had their birthdays at school, I always brought a treat. So I brought a treat for everybody today to celebrate Brian's birthday.
Brian: If you are watching by live stream, I'm not sure we could get you anything, but we'll see.
Jacque: Drop by the house.
Brian: Drop by the house.
Jacque: We'll have extra, I'm sure.
Brian: We can leave it on the porch. I would like to share a little bit on this topic today of— how many of you know that criticism will find you even when you don't leave a forwarding address? Criticism will find you no matter where you go. Oftentimes, almost all criticism will come from people who are actually doing less than you are doing. Jacque and I have had a lot of discussions about this through the years, and we've asked ourselves this question as we've gotten older: why do we give criticism such a strong voice in our heads? Why do we listen to criticism so much? Why do we allow it to almost dictate our choices or how we think about ourselves or whatever? There have been times where I think we've tried to live life in such a way that nobody would ever criticize us. Well, that's an exercise in futility. Let me tell you something.
Jacque: It's exhausting.
Brian: It's exhausting. If we would just kind of go back to the life of Jesus, we would recognize, and maybe get a little bit more settled in what our expectations should or should not be. I would like to start by reading a portion of scripture found in Mark chapter 6, the first six verses. Jesus, of course, ran into controversy. We read this a little bit last week too; in his own hometown, he wasn't honored and so forth. This is kind of another one of those explanations of that, and how Jesus responded to this criticism. So let's read it together.
Jacque: Mark 6: 1-6 from the Message Bible: He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good," they said. "How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?" But in the next breath they were cutting him down. He is just a carpenter, Mary's boy. We've known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers: James Justice, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is? They tripped over what little they knew about and fell sprawling, and they never got any further. Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown among his relatives and on the streets he played in as a child." Jesus wasn't able to do much of anything there. He laid hands on a few sick people and healed them. That's all. He couldn't get over their stubbornness. And he left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.
Brian: Jesus gives this great sermon. Wouldn't you have loved to hear that sermon? Some of the people in the synagogue were really impressed, but then others began to question. I mean like, who is this guy? This is just Joseph's son. We know his brothers and sisters. He grew up around us. He is nothing special. At the end of the day, their negative critical spirits hindered Christ so much that he could hardly do any miracles, except heal few sick people. Jesus' solution to this was he left and he made a circuit of other villages and he went to other places, teaching. I think one of the things I've learned from this portion of scripture is just don't waste your time engaging in conflicts that don't matter to your destiny. Just don't waste your time, engaging in conflicts with people that don't matter to your destiny. Every single one of us have a real destiny, a purpose that God has called us to and it's uniquely different.
Most of us aren't going to get our names in the front pages of the paper. We are not going to be known very well, but it doesn't mean that what we have to do for God is insignificant at all. The fact of the matter is that our critics can't keep us from our destiny. Your critics can’t keep us from our destiny. What critics say about you, don't define who you are. These people in Jesus' hometown, they didn't define who he was. He wasn't going to allow them to define who he was. It also doesn't have a bearing on your value and your self-worth on what other people say about you. It really doesn't. One of the things that's kind of a rebooting place for me, I think we can all understand that term; 20 years ago, none of us would have known what that meant, but now we kind of know what it means. One of the kind of reset, rebooting things for me is to keep reminding myself that I'm a child of the most high my God. I'm a child of the King of Kings. And one of the things that—
I heard this great story about a prince who was kidnapped, stolen from the kingdom. Obviously, his father was the king. He was put in a dungeon and he was forced to do all sorts of really hard labor work. He was mistreated and he was abused, yet in his heart he knew something really incredible, and that was this: he was still the son of the king. He was still the son of the king. That was something that these people who despised him and despised his dad, the king, that was something that these people could not take away from him. He was a child of the king. When you get criticized for either what you do, or more often than not, criticism is about what we didn't do. But whenever you get criticized, it's very important to just remember who you are, who you belong to. We are sons and daughters of the most-high God. The creator of the universe breathes life into us.
Jacque: You said it early when we started the spirit of God lives in us. Yeah.
Brian: That's right. Even that concept, Jesus in you, the hope of glory, and yet so much of my life I've thought about, well, when I received Christ, I got Jesus and that gave me hope for a future, but what I didn't connect with that incredible experience was that all of the attributes of Christ who now is living in me is available to me. So if I lack wisdom, he is living in me; he can give me wisdom. If I lack strength, if I'm feeling hopeless or if I'm lacking faith, the spirit of Jesus can help empower me into doing these things.
We all have seeds of greatness within us. One of the things when we are going through difficulties and struggles or disappointments, lost, like Sandy, one of the things that's so easy to forget is that we've been crowned with favor. Even in the midst of loss, even in the midst of disappointment, even in the midst of criticism, God has still crowned us with favor. He has equipped us and he has empowered us with all that we would ever need for things in this life. I think one of the things that Jesus understood was this: He accepted the fact that not everybody was going to celebrate him.
I've had this awakening and that awakening is this: If not everybody was going to celebrate Jesus, how naive of it, of me to think that everybody would celebrate me. What's the color of the sky in my world, right? The fact of the matter is some people may never recognize the gift that you are and that you have, and the value that you can bring to this world and to your company or to your neighborhood. Some people may never value that, but that's okay. Don't be distracted by it because God has already lined up the right people to celebrate you. God has lined up the right people to celebrate you and to cheer you on and help you fulfill your destiny. If you want to live in victory, which I'm sure all of us do, I know I want to live in victory, and there has been a lot of disappointment through the years, and there has been criticism towards us through the years and I've had to rise above it because I want to live in victory. One of the things that I've had to do is ignore, to some degree, what people say about me.
Jacque: They say you are supposed to ignore the good things too.
Brian: Yeah, you get a big head.
Jacque: Yes. Not just the bad things.
Brian: There are times where it's true that we just don't get the credit for things that we deserve. It's true. We don't always get the credit that we deserve, but we have to remember that the real approval that we really need to look for comes from God. The real approval that we are seeking comes from God. We don't have to be upset because of what someone said. We truly can, and this is a challenge to all of us, but we can't ignore it. By ignoring it, not that we don't hear it, but by ignoring it, I mean that we don't let it affect how we think about ourselves, how we think about what God has called us to do and what God has purposed for us. I'm convinced we would enjoy life a whole lot more if we could get really good at knowing what to ignore.
If we could get really good at knowing what we should ignore, I think we could become real good. In this portion of scripture, I think Jesus got really good or it shows Jesus was really good at the things that he knew what to ignore. He had people that didn't believe in him and he could have just tried to stay there. There seemed to be something in the spiritual realm with all of this negativity, all of this criticism that it prevented Jesus from being able to do the supernatural. I remember another portion of scripture. We don't have it for you today, but Jesus was going to pray for a girl who had died. And he came into the house and he just said, “Well, she is just asleep.” And everybody was kind of almost like mocking him or ridiculing him. But what did he do with those people who were ridiculing him?
Jacque: He asked them to leave.
Brian: He asked them to leave. He separated himself from that unbelief. I know there is a balance here because we are also to go into the world. We go into the world as a mission. But when it comes to what God has called us to specifically do and believe in and so forth, there are times where we have to guard who our friends are. I did an "I promise you" video this past week and read a portion of scripture from the book of Proverbs. The first half of the verse talks about how unsurly friends can really bring demise to you. To hang out with really the wrong people all the time, more than likely they are going to bring you down; you are not going to bring them up. It goes on to say, "There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." And that friend of course, is Jesus to us. We have to learn how to, in a sense, pick our friends.
One of the things that happened here is, I think these were religious leaders, but maybe some of them were just people in the community. They got together and basically they said something like this: well, Jesus, he has done some good things. I mean, he healed a guy. Well, I saw him heal the guy with the withered arm. I saw him; the arm grew. But he did it on the wrong day. Can you imagine this incredible miracle? This guy without an arm, it doesn't work, it's withered. We've got some friends; our daughter-in-law, Jessica has some uncles that when they were born, their arms were broken in the birthing process many years ago, and their arms just never grew. Maybe that's what happened to this fellow and his arm just never grew properly. Jesus says, "Do you want to be healed?" Well, like a duh? Jesus said, "Well hold out your arms." So he did this; whatever little thing was there, he put out and all of a sudden it just grows. You would have thought that everybody there would be doing handstands. Yet the people who were jealous and critical of Jesus said, "Okay, I grant you this; this is a good thing, but you shouldn't be doing it today."
Jacque: Not on the Sabbath.
Brian: Not on the Sabbath.
Jacque: It's against the rules.
Brian: Yeah. And of course, we know that the Sabbath was made for man; man wasn't made for the Sabbath. So even in doing these incredibly wonderful things, and you might do an incredibly miraculous, wonderful things, and there will be people who will find your address and start criticizing you for it. Just like some of those Pharisees, there are people that will condemn you no matter what you do. Even if you did everything they asked of you, they would still find fault with you. Let me, maybe help save you a little heartache here, and part of this is what we've experienced through the years. We've learned a few things. Ignore your critics because you actually don't need them. You don't need them. I was remembering; this happen many, many years ago, but there was a gentleman who, I don't know why, he just didn't like me.
Jacque: I cannot imagine why.
Brian: I can't imagine. I just can't fathom that. Can you? There was a guy and his daughter was in our youth group. When we first started in the ministry, we were junior and youth pastors. One of those 200 kids that we were youth pastor to got older, found a nice guy, and they asked us to sing at their wedding. I think it was because I had some theological beliefs regarding the sovereignty of God and the freewill of man and whatever that he disagreed with. But nevertheless he said to his daughter, "Well, Jacque can sing at your wedding, but Brian can't." And of course, Jacque, you know—
Jacque: I'm not singing then.
Brian: Jacque was singing "Stand by your man." She was going to just say, "Well, I'm not singing." And I said, "No, I tell you what, we are going to do. You are going to go and bless them."
Jacque: You always make me do the right thing.
Brian: We are going to go and bless them. And you know what, Jac, I don't need his approval. I don't need his approval to know what God has called me to do. The more he talks negatively about me, I believe the more God will bless me. I believe the more he tries to take me down, I believe the more God will lift me up; if I don't try to do it myself, I just let God do it. And so you went and sang, and I'm really happy today. This fellow is now gone be with the Lord. And he likes me now. He is in heaven, so he likes me now.
Jacque: He is sorry.
Brian: He is sorry now. There used to be a song about that: who's sorry now. We are, today, good friends of his daughter and that couple. They are very special to us. I believe it's because I didn't let criticism cause me to go down, take the low road instead of taking the high road.
Jacque: Back to the high road.
Brian: Yeah, back to the high road again. The view is so much better.
Jacque: Sometimes I say, "Get back up on the high road.” I'm talking to me; not you.
Brian: Yeah. How did I get down here on this low road? Anyways, there is another great scripture; we find it in Romans chapter 12. I would like to read it: verses 14 through 21.
Jacque: My favorite scriptures. I'm sorry I interrupted you. When they just specifically tell me exactly how I'm supposed to be living, exactly how I'm supposed to act. I just love reading those because it's— I like lists.
Brian: You know what, the scriptures are in that regard, like a mirror, aren't they? You get up in the morning and you think you look so beautiful and then you get in front of the mirror and boy, it shows you all the flaws. That's what the scriptures do. I'm okay. I'm living great. I'm okay. And then you started reading the word of God and ooh, maybe I'm not okay. This is one of those portions of scriptures that actually show us how we are to be living.
Jacque: Romans 12:14-21. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.
Brian: See that. I know that sometimes we have had to bless our enemies and we do it through clenched teeth, but clenched teeth really is hard on your jaw. So let's just bless with a smile. Bless with a smile.
Jacque: But just start blessing however you can.
Brian: Just bless them. No cursing under your breath.
Jacque: Every time you bless, I always say this, that grip just keeps loosening.
Brian: Yep. It does. It's so great.
Jacque: Bless your enemies. No cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they are happy. Share tears when they are down. Get along with each other. Don't be stuck up. Make friends with nobodys. Don't be the great somebody.
Brian: Isn't that good? We have to be careful not to look at somebody as a nobody, because God doesn't think of anybody as a nobody. Maybe a better way to look at this is become friends with people in the way that the world might think are insignificant.
Jacque: Or people that maybe can't do something to push you ahead.
Brian: Yes. Just be friends with them and then—
Jacque: Some people are always looking out for people that can do that.
Brian: Yeah. And don't feel that we have to be the great somebody.
Jacque: Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone.
Brian: That can be a challenge at times, to discover beauty in everyone, but if that was our goal to discover beauty in everybody, I think our whole perspective on people that we have controversy with, that we disagree with, that we don't like, I think our perspective would change a little bit and it would be easier to bless those people.
Jacque: If you’ve got it in, you get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. I'll do the judging, says God. I'll take care of it.
Brian: Isn't that good? I still love what Deb said when she was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago, "God's got this." God said to her, "I'll take care of this. I'll take care of this." It was a rough road, but God was with her through that whole thing, and Dave and their family. God promises not to take all the roughness out of the roads that we walk on, but he has promised to walk with us on those roads. He has got this. He has got us.
Jacque: It is such a faith building phrase.
Brian: It is. It is.
Jacque: We keep using it. Our scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch or if he is thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you. Get the best of evil by doing good.
Brian: I like that. They get the best of evil, how? By doing good. If you see evil, try and bring good into that evil situation. If you see negativity, try and bring positivity into that situation. I think many of us would see our lives rise to higher levels if we would just ignore our critics and repay evil with good. We would see our lives rise to such higher levels if we would just ignore critics and repay evil with good.
Jacque: It's so important to me that we live in peace. That's how you live in peace.
Brian: There is another story that I find very fascinating. It's about the first king of Israel, King Saul. The scriptures are very clear that God picked Saul to be king. We see the story of that selection process in first Samuel chapter 10. God has picked Saul and he sends Samuel to go bring instructions to basically the nation of Israel about it and to anoint him and set him apart for this new role that he is going to be functioning as king of Israel. We see a short portion of scripture here in first Samuel 10:23-27 that I think really has a reflection on what we are talking about today in regards to people who will criticize us. So let's read that.
Jacque: They ran and got him.
Brian: That's Saul; they ran and got Saul.
Jacque: He took his place before everyone, standing tall, head and shoulders above them.
Brian: He stood out in the crowd. He was head and shoulders above virtually everybody else. He was an imposing figure. He had a lot of chutzpah, I guess, is what they might say in Israel. Obviously, he reflected something of authority and power, which is what you want it to have in a king. So it was one of the reasons that God selected him for that.
Jacque: And Samuel then addressed the people and Samuel was the prophet of God who was telling them what God was doing. So Samuel then addresses the people; take a good look at whom God has chosen: the best.
Brian: This is what Samuel said, "Everybody, now take a good look at who God has chosen here. He is the very best." It wasn't intended to put anybody down. It was like, God's gift to you is the very best. This is why God chose him. He is the very best.
Jacque: There's no one like him in the whole country. Then a great shout went up from the people, "Long live the king!"
Brian: Long live the king."
Jacque: Samuel went on to instruct the people in the rules and regulations involved in the kingdom, wrote it all down in a book and placed it before God. Then Samuel sent everyone home.
Brian: So they all came together; Samuel anoints Saul, he gives everybody instructions. They all shout, "Long live the King." Basically, Samuel said that there is no one like him in the whole country. This is why God has chosen him. This is God's pick, God's man of hour and power.
Jacque: Saul also went home to Gibeah, and with him some true and brave men whom God moved to join him, but the riff-raff went off muttering.
Brian: There are always people that don't like the selection.
Jacque: And they said, "Deliver, don't make me laugh." They held him in contempt and refused to congratulate them.
Brian: Now, can you imagine a more, I think disrespectful thing to be done? The prophet who speaks for God at this time says this is God's man, this is the very best of all of Israel, and there was a group of people that was defined as the rift rap who went off muttering and saying, "deliver," just real demeaningly; don't make me laugh. Don't make me laugh.
Jacque: You say it better than me.
Brian: And they held him in contempt and refused to congratulate them. And this is Saul's response.
Jacque: But Saul paid them no mind.
Brian: Saul paid them no mind. Saul paid them no mind. They were jealous. I think they were insecure. I think they were probably small minded. Why would Saul want the approval of jealous, insecure and small-minded people? Why do we want the approval of insecure, jealous small-minded people? The fact is he didn't; that's why he kept silent. That's why he kept silent. Small-minded people are not going to take you where God is taking you to just not. Jealous people of you aren't going to get you to where God wants to take you. People who are critical of you aren't going to get you to where God wants to take you. We know from Isaiah 40 verse 31 we are to soar like what?
Jacque: Eagles.
Brian: Eagles. We are to rise up with wings as Eagles to do great things for God. So let's not be baited into conflicts with crows and chickens. Let's not be baited into those conflicts that can happen and those ways. Don't get drawn into those battles. We have an advantage and that advantage is this: When we are honoring God and we are living for God, we can fly above at all. We can fly above and we can fly at heights to which no other birds can soar. We can soar above the pesky, squawking crows and leave them behind.
Jacque: And hopefully on our journey, we'll meet back up again.
Brian: That's right. Now let's remember God hears what your critics say, and if you stay in faith, God will make it up to you.
Jacque: Sometimes we need to hear what our critics say and look and see if there is even a small percentage of what they are saying that's true, and listen humbly.
Brian: I think what I'm trying to address here, and that's really good, but what I'm trying to address here is to not allow what the critics say about you to form your opinions about yourself, your value in what God's calling is on your life. Sometimes all we have is his promises to us. Sometimes that's all we have. Sometimes there is nothing tangible to touch. So there is nothing tangible for us to truly believe in just the promises of God. Even like Sean, this past year; you had a promise from God that he is going to take care of you. But there were a lot of moments during the past year where I'm sure that promise felt hard to hold on to at times, right? Sometimes when there is nothing tangible for us to hold on to and to believe in, we just have to have faith. We just have to say, "I am not going to give up my belief that God is good and that he is fond of me and he will take care of me." His word is eternal and true, and he can be trusted.
There has been many times in the last 20 years when there have been setbacks for some of the things we've wanted to do here at hope community and some of the development we would like to do in the city and so forth. There have been setbacks and delays and decisions that would maybe dash that dream, or at least delay the dream. At times it could be frustrating. It could be disheartening, and yet God is coming through. There is a great scripture about not growing weary in well-doing, for in due season will reap if what? If we faint not. If we don't faint.
I would just encourage you today to not pay any attention to small-minded people who try to bring you down because they don't control your destiny. You and God control your destiny. You and God control it. Stay focused on what God has called you to do. God has called all of us to very specific things for all of our lives. The fact of the matter is, when we come to the end of our life, and turning 70 today gives me cause to think that— I have less life to live than I've lived. I have less life to live than I have lived. If I live to be the age of my dad, I have 18 more years. If I live to be the age of your dad, I have 21 more years, but if I live to the age of John, I only have 3 more years, 3 more years. None of us are promised tomorrow, really. The fact of the matter is we all are going to die. When that happened, when we come to the end of our life, we are not going to be giving an account to our critics. We are going to give an account to the Lord. We are giving an account to God. I want to look in the face of my savior and say I didn't quit, I didn't stop too soon and I did let a negative report or something negative said about me stop me from doing what you asked me to do, Lord.
I can say to the Lord, I did my very best. I finished my course. I'm not going to be like the half tribe of Manasseh who stopped. We want to stop here. We don't want to go any further. Moses allowed that to happen and Joshua allowed that to happen, but they, I believe suffered from that. I want to become all that God has created me to be. That's when the real rewards are going to be handed out. So even if we don't leave a forwarding address, criticism is going to find us. Sometimes the worst critic is ourselves. Isn't it? Self-criticism. And you said something. I think you are listening to Bobby Schuller the other day. And he says something really, really good.
Jacque: He says this a lot. He says, "You are doing better than you think you are."
Brian: You are doing a lot better than what you think you are. And you know what? We can be so critical of ourselves. I just know this, that we can't live our life trying to avoid being criticized, so let's just be true to God. Let's do what is right. I believe we'll all be glad we did. When that self-criticizing voice tries to raise its head inside of our minds, I think it's really important to reflect on the words that I believe Jesus will say to us: well done: Well done. Good and faithful servant, well done. Doesn't that bring a smile to your face to think of that?
Jacque: I want to thank you too because I’m so critical of myself. I never can do enough and I don't do most things right. I'll say it to you and you always come back, yet think about this; think about this. You are just such a positive voice. I'm so grateful for that.
Brian: I think it's because Jesus is living in me. I actually think left to myself, I'm a very negative, critical person. If anybody doesn't believe that God has made a difference in the world, they should have seen my life before Jesus really took control of my life. But my attitudes have been modified through the years because of the presence of Christ. I think it's just really important for us to remember that we don't answer to our critics. We give an account to God. He is the one that has called us to the things that he has put in our hearts, the dreams that he is given to you. I know that if you are 70, like I am today, there are some things you can't go back and change and undo, but God is never finished with us. He is never finished with us.
One of the great examples of this in scriptures is the life of Moses because at the age of 80, he was commissioned to lead all of Israel out of Egypt. So if you think you are too old or too worn out or too done, just look at the life of Moses because I think— I understand that as we get older, we physically aren't able to do some of the things we used to do. It takes me a lot longer to split a cord of wood now than it did 20 years ago. That's why I bought a machine to do it now. There are some things as we age and we get older, we lose some of our strength, but I don't think we should ever lose our passion. Our passion for Christ and our passion for life should keep growing every day in our lives. I know that there are all sorts of voices that would try to discourage you from walking into your dreams, your destiny, your calling. Any voice that tries to discourage you from doing that is not a voice that comes up from heaven. It's not a voice that comes from heaven. I want to pray for you. Jacque, come with me and let's just pray. I just believe that God wants us to do a deeper dive into embracing what God has called us to do.
And so father, I thank you that Jesus, you gave us the right example when people don't believe in you, when people question you, when they don't think you did something good the right way or at the right time. I pray that Lord, we would follow the model of Jesus, that we will encircle ourselves with other people that will believe, we will listen to those who will feed our dreams. We will, like we said, last week, we will encounter a Mary who will kick-start our dream again, a divine encounter with someone who will believe in us. And so father, I pray today that our hearts would be encouraged and our resolve would go deeper to complete and finish all that you've called us to do, that we would not leave anything undone. And just as Jesus, when he was hanging on the cross, he uttered those words, "It is complete; it's finished," that when we breathe our last, we won't have any regrets of things left undone, but we will say I completed the task.
I just bless these people today, Lord. Bless those who are here and bless all those who are watching on live stream. I just thank you, God that you are at work today and that you are believing in us and that there are negative voices that speak into our lives, but your voice is so voice of encouragement and strength. You are the one that sent that cloud of witnesses to encourage us, to give us the attaboys to pat us on the back, to clap for us to say, you are doing a good job; keep moving forward.
It's so encouraging when people say to us, "I'm so proud of you." It was so good to hear that when I a child, how it encouraged me when my parents and my friends or teachers would say, "I'm so proud of you." Lord, you say that to us, you are proud of us. We are your children. And so today I pray that there would be a release in our hearts, from the critical voice, that the criticism that we receive, and we will never get away from it, the criticism we receive will not dictate how we think of ourselves and those things that we do. This, I pray Jesus in your name for your sake. Amen.
Let's raise our hands together. I would like to bless you. And now may the Lord bless you. And may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turned his face toward you and give you his peace. May you know that you are doing good. This, we pray, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you for being here today and thank you for watching on live stream. Thank you so much for partnering with us. We value you. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 2-21-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.