Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: I had some very influential people in my life growing up. The most influential was of course, my father, who was a wonderful gift from God. He himself did not have earthly father. His father abandoned their family when he was about six or seven, somewhere in that age. My dad came into relationship with God and he knew what a father was to be like because of his Heavenly Father. He was a tremendous influence in my life. He had a tremendous work ethic. I had a couple of coaches that were very instrumental in teaching me some really good hard work ethics, as well as my college piano professor who was a Juilliard graduate, who is still alive, and I still have some music lessons from him from time to time. He was a real stickler for detail. I've taken a lot of these principles in my life and worked hard.
A lot of times when we work hard in our lives, and use the gifts that God has given us, it's very possible that we can become successful in what I would call in the eyes of the world. If you work hard, you take the gifts that God has given you and you live a life of integrity, oftentimes, there are blessings that go along with that, and you can be very successful in life. One of the ironies of becoming a success is that often you can become the target of some people who want to either use you for your successes or they want to bring you down because they are jealous of your successes. We have an interesting story about that, many stories about that. I've picked a couple out of the scriptures today as a model for that.
The title of my sermon today is False Friends and True Enemies. How many know that you can actually have false Friends? You don't have to go too far to know that you can actually have some true enemies as well in our lives. We have to learn how to be like Jesus as we navigate through life with false friends and even true enemies. We are familiar with the story. I'm sure most of us are of Abraham, who was very old, and God blessed him with his son, Isaac. Abraham gets a lot of the focus here. But there is a really wonderful story about Isaac, his son that was born. Isaac became very successful. If you ever wondered where the animosity between the Philistines and the nation of Israel actually originated from, it actually started with the son of Abraham, between Isaac and the Philistines. We are going to see a little bit about that today.
There was a famine that was in the land. We'll read this in a moment. There was a famine in the land, and what oftentimes people did when there was famine in what is now the land of Israel, they would head on down to Egypt. Actually, Isaac's son, Jacob and his sons-- remember the story. They ended up in time of famine going down to Egypt. Of course, Joseph had been sold into slavery prior to that by one of his brothers. Joseph was one of the people who actually brought salvation, or, or, or basically to his family. They ended up living in that area. It was an area called Goshen. They lived there for over 400 years and became this wonderful nation. Later on, of course, there was a Pharoah that came to power that knew not Joseph. He became concerned about this large group of people and he then took them into captivity, made them slaves. That's how Egypt began to even prosper even more. How many know it's easy to prosper when you have free labor? But free labor is called slavery, you know? Anyways, back to Isaac. I kind of went down a rabbit trail there. Sorry, you’ve got to keep me on track here today.
Jacque: Okay. I did give you a look.
Pastor Brian: Okay. You did. Gimme a look. I thought you were saying you loved me. Love believeth with all things, right? God told Isaac, don't go down to Egypt, but remain in this town called Gerar. This was a town ruled by a king. His name was Abimelech, who was a Philistine. During this time, Isaac then began to plant crops, and God prospered him greatly. Let's read this. We find it in Genesis 26, verse 1 through 6.
Jacque: A severe famine now struck the land as it happened before in Abraham's time. So Isaac moved to Gerar where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you, live here as a foreigner in the land, and I will be with you and bless you. I hereby confirm that I will give all these lands to you and your descendants just as I solemnly promised Abraham, your father. I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. And through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. I will do this because Abraham listened to me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees, and instructions. So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
Pastor Brian: We see some really interesting things here in this passage. One is that the blessings that God had promised had some conditions to them. How many know that many of the blessings of God have conditions to them? If you want to have a blessed marriage, you need to be honorable in that marriage like Dave and Deb were. If you want to get a promotion at your company, you need to be a person of integrity. You can still be that and not necessarily get promotion, but I can guarantee you, if you are underhanded and deceitful and a cheat and a lie, you will not ultimately end up getting promoted. So there are conditions that go along with even many of the blessings of God. Isaac stays here, he begins to plant crops. Let's just read verse 12 through 22 and kind of get the bigger picture of this whole story here.
Jacque: When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted.
Pastor Brian: That's pretty good return on investment. That's a good return on investment. Like, when I make a deposit, I'd like to make a hundred-fold, 100 X.
I buy a stock for a hundred dollars. I would like that a hundred dollars to be multiplied by a hundred, not five or seven or 10. 10 would be a good investment. But a hundred times, anybody in their bad mind would say, that's a good thing, right? Let's go on.
Jacque: For the lord blessed him. He became a very rich man, and his wealth continued to grow. He acquired so many flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle and servants that the Philistines became jealous of him.
Pastor Brian: Ah, you see, here is this success. He worked hard, he worked properly, he honored the Lord, he followed the Lord's decrees, God blessed him, and those looking at him said, why him and not me? And became jealous of that.
Jacque: So wait till you hear what they did.
Pastor Brian: So what did they do?
Jacque: So the Philistines filled up all of Isaac's wells with dirt.
Pastor Brian: These wells were dug during Abraham's time. This is like the little kid who's pouting at the birthday party because he didn't get the presents instead of the kid whose birthday it was. That's really what it's like.
Jacque: These were the wells that had been dug by the servants of his father, Abraham. They were historic. Finally, Abimelech ordered Isaac to leave the country go somewhere else, he said, for you have become too powerful for us.
Pastor Brian: This is the same king that just a few verses earlier had made a decree, if anybody lays a hand against Isaac or his family or his wife, they will lose their life. The same king just a few verses later, sees all the blessings, and instead of saying, how can I be blessed like this, how do I get blessings like this, they were jealous and envious. And he basically kicks Isaac out of the area that he has planted and cultivated and worked hard to get.
Jacque: Aren't people fickle?
Pastor Brian: Yes. Here is this king that says, anybody who hurts Isaac and his family, they will lose their life. And now, just a few short verses, which was probably a number of months later, that same king is kicking Isaac out of his home.
Jacque: So nobody held him to his word.
Pastor Brian: Yes. I think he would be called a false friend, a false friend. Okay.
Jacque: So Isaac moved away to the Gerar Valley where he set up their tents and settled down.
Pastor Brian: Did he pout?
Jacque: No, he just kept moving forward.
Pastor Brian: He just kept moving forward.
Jacque: He reopened the wealth and he kept working. He reopened the wells his father had dug, which the Philistines had filled in after Abraham's death. Isaac also restored the names Abraham had given them. Isaac's servants also dug in the Gerar Valley and discovered a well of freshwater.
Pastor Brian: So now they move; they move further away to the east. And now they found they dug another well and found a really nice new well and what happens?
Jacque: But then the shepherds from Gerar came and claimed the spring.
Pastor Brian: That's our well.
Jacque: This is our water, they said. And they argued over with Isaac's herdsman. So Isaac named the well Esek, which means argument.
Pastor Brian: Let's go to the well argument. Ooh. How many wants to go to the restaurant called argument? What do you think happens there? Let's have a nice intimate argument.
Jacque: Isaac's men then dug another. Well, but again, there was a dispute over it. So Isaac named it Sitnah, which means hostility.
Pastor Brian: They dug a second well; they claimed that one. They argued over that one. So Isaac named that well hostility.
Jacque: Abandoning that one. Isaac moved on and dug another. Well, this time there was no dispute over it. So Isaac named the place Rohoboth, which means open space, for he said at last, the Lord has created enough space for us to prosper in this land.
Pastor Brian: Now, I would say that Isaac actually was prospering all the time. God was giving him a well; someone took it. Okay, God will give me another well. He got another well; they took that one. God will give me another well.
Jacque: It sounds like he gave them strength to dig all those wells.
Pastor Brian: That's right. And there is an interesting principle for us to learn here. There is a scripture that says the Lord is our defense, and the holy one of Israel is our God and our king. The question is, who do you want to defend you? Do you want to defend yourself or do you want God to be your defense? In this life, we will have injustice; we will have unfairness. We will have a handful of people that will talk about justice and try to bring justice. And there have been some champions of that in our history. But they seem to have very little effect because injustice doesn't come because we don't have the right laws against it. Injustice happens because injustice is in people's hearts. Until the hearts change, injustice will always be here.
I'm not saying we shouldn't try to fight for justice and do the right things. I'm all for that. But what I am saying to you as a person and an individual who might be on the receiving end of injustice, let the Lord be your defense. Let the Lord be your defense. Because just like Isaac, he said, okay, God, gimme another. Well, even if I have to drill into this rock here, water can come out of this rock if God wants it to and to allow God to be our defense. And what Isaac kept on doing was, in spite of the fact that he had false friends and true enemies, he kept on pursuing success anyways. Don't ever let anybody discourage you from moving forward into a place of success regardless of what they say about you, what they do about you, or what they do against you. Because God is for us; he is for us.
We have to live that way. We have to think that way. We have to believe that way. Because when you are on the receiving end of injustice and unfairness, can you imagine? There are some possessions I have that belong to my dad. I have his trumpet that he played for many years. There are some things that my dad made me in my home. They have virtually no dollar value to anybody, but they have so much significance to me. If somebody came in and just destroyed them and vandalized them, it would be very easy for me to get angry. Abraham, Isaac's father, had dug these wells. This was what was done under his time of being a patriot of the family, shall we say. Just think how it felt to Isaac for people to come in and desecrate and fill in, throw garbage and junk into those wells to destroy them. They were really doing that against Abraham as well. Yet Isaac's response was, I'll go somewhere else. God will bless me. I will be successful.
Jacque: They also opened those old wells before they moved away. That's going the second mile.
Pastor Brian: Yes. Let's go onto another story. This is a bittersweet story, I call it. It's the story of Sampson. We all know him as this mighty warrior. Sampson is another example of someone whose success brought him the attention of those who did not wish him well. As a result, he won false friends and he also had some really true enemies, didn't he? I'd like to read one verse. This verse is very similar to the verse about the angel coming to Mary. And we read this in judges 13 verse 5.
Jacque: You will become pregnant and give birth to his son, and his hair must never be cut for he will be dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.
Pastor Brian: Do you see the similarity to when the angel Lord came to Mary and said, you are going to give birth to a son; you are to call him by this name, and he will save his people from their sins. In the same way that Samson's mother. The angel came to her and said you are going to give birth to your son. You are not supposed to cut his hair, and he will be dedicated to God. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines. By this time, this was about 450 years after Isaac. It's a long time. It's longer than our nation has been a nation. Israel comes into the Promised Land, and they start to possess the land. There was confusion as to what tribes were going to do what. Moses took care of all this. Then, uh, there was one tribe that said we don't want to go any further. We want to stay on the east side of the Jordan. So the half tribe of Manassas stayed there, and the rest of them went over there. There was just not a lot of unity. They struggled to ultimately get possession of the land. The conflict with the Philistines had now continued for 500 years.
Sampson, who was one of the judges, and it's really a sad epitaph because it says, "and everyone did what was right in their own eyes." It kind of feels like America today, doesn't it? Just whatever you want to do. No real moral compass, no absolute right and wrong. No real way to have a north star to navigate by, in a sense. God kept raising up these different judges around the different lands of Israel and the tribes of Israel to help keep order. Deborah was a female judge. Sampson was one of these judges, and he was, geographically, in the lower part of Israel, southern part. Let's call it the southern part of Israel.
We know the story. He was set apart by God. He ruled as a judge for almost 20 years. As I was reading this particular verse, it said "and he will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines," or he was going to bring deliverance to Israel. I asked myself the question, who does God want me to bring deliverance to? Who are we supposed to touch every day to bring deliverance and freedom to bring, to lift some of their burdens in life? How can we do that? Sampson had done a really good job of doing a lot of that. And then his eyes started to wander. We know the story, don't we? Let's look at chapter 16, verses 18 to 21. He fell in love with this woman called Delilah, and she began to, more than one time, betray the secret of his strength. And when he was asleep, when he finally delivered the goods. What happened?
Jacque: Well, let's read the story. Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth. Just a second. I need to comment here. She had done this before. She was trying so hard to get him, and he was oblivious.
Pastor Brian: How many know that when we start to willfully live in disobedience to God, we begin to get blinders on our eyes
Jacque: We can become deceived.
Pastor Brian: We've become deceived, the scriptures say, that basically black has become white and white has become black or what is evil, they call good and good is called evil. That happens because we have willfully not been willing to walk in obedience to the Lord.
Jacque: He was given such a purpose to be born. And he knew so clearly what his purpose was. Yes.
Pastor Brian: It's important that when we, I remember we studied with, man many years ago, Juan Carlos Ortiz. He was a great theologian pastor, teacher from Argentina, I believe he was from. He was single. He was praying about a wife. And God said, "These are the things that I want you to look for in a wife." And he wrote them down. He kept it in his wallet. One day, he met this very attractive young lady and asked her out on a date, and they were going for a little boat ride in one of the little canals down there. He's out in the middle of this canal in this boat. And God says, "I want you to look at your list in your wallet." In the middle of the boat, he took this list out and read it. This girl that he was with had none of the qualities that were on this list. And I remember this story. He said, "I rode back as fast as I could." because he was committed to following what Jesus had asked him to do.
There were many years that Sampson was committed to doing what God wanted him to do, but then his eyes wandered, and he was attracted to Delilah. I'm sure she was a very beautiful woman. And we see what happened.
Jacque: He wasn't intentional, was he?
Pastor Brian: He wasn't.
Jacque: Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth. So she sent for the Philistine rulers, come back one more time, she said, for he has finally told me his secret. So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands,
Pastor Brian: Kind of like Judas being betrayed. Delilah betrayed Sampson, false friend. She got money for this.
Jacque: Delilah l Sampson to sleep with his head in her lap. And then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way, she began to bring him down and his strength left him. Then she cried out Sampson, the Philistines have come to capture you. When he woke up, he thought, I will do his before and shake myself free. But he didn't realize the Lord had left him. So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza where he was bound with bronze chains and forced him to grind grain in the prison.
Pastor Brian: Sampson is now in the hands of his true enemies. Delilah was a false friend and she betrayed him to true enemies. They gouged out his eyes and he was put in prison, and there he ground grain for the Philistines. Many weeks and months go by, and he's still grinding away. It would be easy for Sampson to think that I blew it and God has left me. How many times have maybe we thought that, that God is nowhere to be found? Yet he prayed for strength.
The Philistines are having a, some kind of celebration and someone got the bright idea, let's go get Sampson and make a mockery of him. They got him out of prison, brought him dungy, dirty, stinky, smelly. His hair now had grown back and they led him out into this temple. Sampson asked one of the slaves or servants that were leading him, can you bring me to the two pillars that hold up the temple? Unknowingly, they did. And while he was there, he prayed for his strength to come back and he pressed against these two pillars. And as the story tells us those pillars caved in and the whole temple caved in and 3000 people were killed that day of the Philistines.
On a personal level, I struggle with the taking of lives in that way. and yet this was the way that God wanted to establish the nation of Israel. And there are times, unfortunately, in our lives where taking a life is the only alternative that we have before us. I pray that none of us are ever in that situation. I pray that that is never something that we would have to live with. I've heard so many stories of people who justifiably had to take the life of somebody else and they were mentally tormented for years afterwards. I would not want any of us to have to suffer that. But we live in a fallen world where things aren't perfect. This is not heaven. There is a heaven we are going to go to. Deb is there already. We are going to join her there someday.
This world is not perfect. As much as we are trying our best to make it perfect and make it a better place, this is a fallen world with a god of this world, small G who's hell bent on destroying all of our lives. Is it okay that I said that? We have to understand that we get snippets of heaven here from time to time. Jesus prayed that the kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven would be on earth as it is in heaven. Every once in a while, we'll get places like that. We'll get moments like that here, but that future kingdom that God has promised us isn't going to happen until Jesus returns in its fullness. Because of that, we are faced at times with a scenario like this where lives would be lost even in doing something for God. It's a paradox. I don't understand it all. I confess that. It bothers me that people have to die in this way. But at the end of the day, God strengthened Sampson to do something great so that Israel would not be continually harassed. The scriptures say that even though he had been blinded and imprisoned, he was successful. Let's read that: verses 28 to 30 really quickly.
Jacque: Then Sampson prayed to the Lord; sovereign Lord, remember me again. Oh God, please strengthen me just one more time with one blow. Let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.
Pastor Brian: And this sounds like vengeance, but I think it was much broader than that personally.
Jacque: Then Sampson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple, pushing against them with both hands. He prayed, let me die with the Philistines. And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime.
Even though Sampson drastically failed, and there is this black mark, in a sense, against him, I love the scripture that Paul writes in one Corinthians 13 where he says that love doesn't hold account our sins against us, remembers no wrongs. When Sampson cried out to him, God didn't say, listen, you made your bed sleep in it. I've heard people say that to other people. You made your bed; now sleep in it. My heart grieves when I hear that because it's just not the way of Jesus. It's just not the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus is, even when you've had a terrible failure, even when you have betrayed your calling that you are set apart to do from your birth, God will always reach his hand out to us when we ask him for it. That's the kind of love that God has for us.
I just want to finish by saying, you know, the epitome of someone who had false friends and true enemies was Jesus, wasn't he? He was the epitome of people who were false friends. People wanted him for all the things he could do. He certainly had true enemies. He did all the things that we know that he did, and yet, Judas was a false friend. Many came for just the provisions. The religious leaders were true enemies. But he didn't let any of these things get in the way of him doing what he was called to do.
God has a calling on every single one of our lives. He's got a calling. It's different from everybody. That's why it's very important not to compare ourselves with ourselves. But God has a calling on every single one of our lives. And if you are not aware of what that calling is, just ask him. He'll begin to reveal that to you. A lot of it has to do with the giftings and the skills that you have. He made you with giftings. One of the things that God gave to Jacque and I was the gift of music. Well, it wasn't so that we could just sing love songs to each other around the piano in my living room, which is something we enjoy doing. But it was to honor him and to sing praises to him and to hopefully cultivate an atmosphere of worship for people like you and others to join us in. Our callings have to do a lot with our giftings.
What Jesus did was he didn't let the false friends, the people who came for just the bread, the people who came for just the miracles, the people who came for just the deliverance or his real enemies, his true enemies, the people who were really trying to kill him, he didn't let any of them derail him from his purpose. He didn't let any of them get him off course. I wonder at times what was going on in his emotions because he had feelings. He cried over Jerusalem when they were so astray. I imagined that he had to just do it afraid at times. Do it in the face of, "well they are going to reject me, but I'm going to do it anyways" because it was the right thing to do.
When you are successful, you may win false friends; you may create true enemies. Sometimes when we experience success that may bring out the very worst in other people towards us because they are envious or they are trying to take us down or whatever, they don't appreciate your example, et cetera, et cetera. I would simply say this: be patient with those false friends and even your true enemies and treat them as potential allies because you'll never know when God might change their heart. You never know when God might change their heart.
It's so easy to go through life building up walls around us. common word we have in the last, I don't know how many years is borders and boundaries. I built a boundary around my life. I don't see Jesus ever saying that personally. I actually don't see Jesus saying, hey guys, I got this boundary here. Aren't you glad Jesus actually didn't have any boundaries? And he's letting us cross that line even at times when we don't treat him right and treat him properly? I know that what I'm saying here is, I'm probably very politically correct. I might get a lot of dislikes when we put this out on social media. But the fact of the matter is, if you want to live a life of a servant like Jesus is a servant, the last thing we should be talking about is our boundaries. It really is.
I'm not mad at anybody here, by the way, but I am serious that if we are going to truly represent Jesus, we can't be focused on our boundaries. We need to be focused on how we can do what God has called us to do and be the people God has called us to be. Regardless of whether or not we have false friends or true enemies, or people who support us or people who are against us. We just have to do what God has called us to do and be successful at it.
Jacque: Oh, and we have to do it for him.
Pastor Brian: And we do it for him. Absolutely.
Jacque: Do you remember that love and respect series? It's so good for marriage. But at the very end he talks about, well, if your mate is continually mean or not kind, you don't stay in a situation where you are being physically harmed. He has this picture, he says, your mate's right there and there is a problem. He said, just imagine Jesus right behind them saying do it for me. Be kind for me.
Pastor Brian: It's like if you and I are arguing, and I want my way and you want your way, and I'm not treating you very loving l and you are not being very respectful to me--
Jacque: I see Jesus right behind you,
Pastor Brian: What he says is this: the more mature one of the two of you. The more mature one of the two of you, look over the shoulder of your spouse and see Jesus behind there. Jesus is saying, do it for me. Just do it for me. Be respectful for me, or be loving for me. But she doesn't deserve it. I know she doesn't deserve, but do it for me. do it for me. Isn't that how we are supposed to be living as followers of Jesus? Just do it for Jesus. Let's go out and be successful for Jesus regardless of whether we have good friends, false friends, true enemies. Let's just do it for Jesus. Whatever happens, I would encourage us always stay close to your family. You are going to have false friends. Stay close to your family. Stay close to your family. There are true friends out there. Remain faithful to your purpose. What has God called us to do? Remain faithful to your purpose. We are on this planet to love people, not just love people who are loving us.
Jacque: Oh, would you say those two sentences again?
Pastor Brian: We are on this planet to love people not just love people who are loving us. We are on this planet to just love people and to help people make a difference in their lives, to help make a difference in people's lives. No false friend or even true enemy can actually deter you from your purpose. They can't. only when we let them will that happen. my fear is that there is a lot of people that don't walk out into the blessings and the prosperity and the successes that God has for them because they've been told false lies or they've been surrounded by false friends or even true enemies. But you know what? They didn't stop Jesus. And they don't have to stop us. They didn't stop Jesus. And they don't have to stop us either.
If you are successful, I can guarantee you that you will have some false friends win the lottery. Your friends will come out of the woodwork works. And you'll have some true enemies too from it. my word of the Lord to you today is this, be successful anyways. Amen. Be successful anyways. This is what God has called us to do. Don't let those things distract us. Let's stay focused. Because you know what? Even when we have false friends and true enemies, when we go out and do what God's called us to do and we are successful in what God has called us to do, you know what that means? We are being like Jesus.
Jacque: Amen. My takeaway, I'm going to forgive another thing is we have got to lay down the things of the past. When people have hurt us, we have to forgive.
Pastor Brian: We do.
Jacque: We have to forgive. And I'm going to keep my eyes on Jesus.
Pastor Brian: If you keep looking behind me, I'll know what you are doing.
Jacque: It's not you. People that maybe I don't trust or people that I feel have hurt me, I'm just going to keep looking for Jesus behind them.
Pastor Brian: Yeah. Keep looking for Jesus. Keep looking for Jesus. Jeff, I think the mic you want is right over there. There you go. Let's just open up our hearts to receive what Pastor Jeff has for us. God bless you. And Adrian, would you please come.
Pastor Jeff: Oh my goodness. That's a great analogy. The more mature one of the two of you. One of the things that I've heard Pastor Brian say often is-- This is a great message, Isn't it? Challenging? Does it make you want to go out and do it anyway? Problem is, as Pastor Brian says, it's really hard to be a Christian when you are not one. And so part of our response to a message like this is to respond to Jesus and to say, yes Lord, for you, but I need you. You might be here this morning, you might be watching online, and you've never told Jesus that you need him in your life. And now is the time to do it. Yes. And it is as simple as saying, Jesus, I need you. When we say those words, Jesus, I need you, he gives us what we need to do, what we've been challenged to do.
Let's just take a minute and pray for people that need Jesus to help them do what they need to do right now. If you are in a situation right now where you really do need the Lord's grace, you need his strength, you have enemies you are dealing with it could be at work, could be family members, could be neighbors, could be church members, but you've got to navigate some issues and relationships and difficulties, and you need Jesus to help you just put your hand on your heart and let's just trust him to be with us right here, right now. Holy Spirit, we thank you that these enemies are tools that refine us, inform us and change us. And Lord, sometimes we are just at the end of ourselves and that's when we need you. That's when we need you.
We open our hearts, Holy Spirit, and we repent of our own way. We have it all figured out. What we are going to say, what we are going to do, how we are not just going to stand for it. We ask you to come right in the middle of all that and teach us your way, your words, your response. You have a pathway to victory and we want to take your pathway. We open our hearts to receive your help in this hour, right where we are at when it seems like there is just no way out. But we'll walk with you right through it. Amen.
Pastor Brian: I'm so thankful for Jesus. He didn't come to start a new religion. Jesus actually came to deal with all of the misunderstanding that religion creates to allow us to have access, to be reconciled with our Heavenly Father, our creator who has a heart that's so big for us, none of us can truly comprehend it. Probably the biggest lie that has ever been stated has been about God more than anything else. More people misunderstand how God is, what he's like, what his heart is for us than probably any other topic in the universe. But we who have known him in such a wonderful way. We have the privilege of being able to help people come to an understanding of who God really is and what he has done for us. I encourage you to just hear from the Lord, how does God want you to take this wonderful understanding that we have and begin to share it in a way that would begin to impact others so that what we have, they may have also.
Father, I thank you for this grace that you so freely have given to us in Jesus. And we pray that you will help us to look for and even create ways that we can break through the walls and the barriers that so many people have built up through the years because they are angry with the church. They are angry at you, God, because they don't understand you. They are angry with their circumstances. They haven't found the path on how to walk into your blessings. They are lost; they are wandering. And Lord, you love them so much that you will allow us to cross their paths. Help us to know how to bring your grace to them. It's grace that we are bringing. It's not more rules. It's not more laws. It's not more guidelines. It's your grace that we are bringing, your love that we are bringing that will change them from the inside out. Fill us as we prayed earlier today with your Holy Spirit. Fill us with your grace, and we pray that we will be your hands and your feet extended this we pray in your name.
Before I give the blessing today, I just want to let you know Sean and Sherry will be serving communion today. for those of you who want to receive communion, we will have people to pray with you at the altar if you have any prayer needs. Don't forget about Deb's celebration of life service this coming Saturday. All of you that would like to bring a dessert, just talk to Sherry or talk to Rob and Hoppy after the service and we'll get your names and we really appreciate you doing that. Let's lift our hands together now.
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his grace and face to shine upon you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you be blessed today with the knowledge that no matter who is for you or who is against you, you can always be like Jesus. This, we pray in the name of the Father, son, Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 4-30-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.