John 14

Today we're going to do a Bible study. How fun is that? Okay. Um there's lots of ways we can study the Bible.

Um we can use cross references, you can do word searches, you could take a line and and study it. Um one of my favorite ways is just to read the word and then because it is from God speaking to me, okay? And see what he wants to show me today and what he wants me to do today, okay? and what he wants from me today and um you know what can I learn from it today?

What can I apply to my life today and what challenge is he calling me to today? So this is a loving father talking to his son or his daughter. Okay? Teaching, correcting.

And uh today I just want to show you example of that. We're going to read the word. Um so if you have your Bible, you can open it to John 14. We're just going to take one chapter of scripture and then read it and see what God can teach us from this chapter of scripture.

Um it's going to be a lot of fun. I've had a rough week and uh and uh I'm just going to be honest, I've been under a lot of attack. Okay? So, I appreciate your prayers.

Okay? Um but uh I'm so thankful that my sermon today is just reading his word because that's fun and easy. And so, we're going to start in John 14. We're just going to read verse one for now.

I just want to read it. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. So, right off the bat, Jesus is telling us not to be troubled.

Okay? Not to worry. Okay? He's saying, Brian, don't worry.

Don't trouble. Okay? He's saying, Richard, Robbie, you know, so so I ask you, what what is troubling you today as you come into this this place? What's troubling you?

What are you thinking about? The Lord is telling you to not be troubled. Okay? The Lord is telling you, don't worry.

All right? In Matthew 6, he says, "Don't worry. Look at the those sparrows. They don't worry.

You don't worry." Okay? So, when we don't do that, we're actually disobeying, aren't we? When we when we worry and we're all caught up in ourselves, we're actually disobeying.

Okay? And uh we've got to do what he says. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

Believe in Jesus and take it down and lay it at his feet. All right. What a beautiful place to be. So that's the first sentence, right?

All right. This is going to be fun. Um so John 14. Now we're just going to read 2 through six.

I'm going to read a couple extra verses and we're going to talk about it. In my father's house are many mansions. This is red letters right now. Jesus Christ is speaking.

In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

And where I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me. You missed it. Um, so he's preparing a place for us in heaven. How cool is that?

Okay, that's where we get to go. That's what happened when we got on our knees, asked him to forgive our sins, and took him into our heart and let the Holy Spirit come into us, we get to go to heaven. It's a promise from Jesus. And not only that, he promises he's going to come back and get us.

Okay? How beautiful is that? Um so that where he is, we we will be. He wants to be with us.

Okay? Do you want to be with him? It's so we've got a good thing to look forward to. In chap in in 146, he says one of the most important phrases in the Bible.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. All right? That means there's not a lot of ways to get to heaven.

It's not an Oprah thing. God's on top and there's a lot of ways to get to heaven. No, there's only one. Okay?

Truth is by nature exclusive. People say, "Oh, that's exclusionary." Truth by nature is exclusive. Two plus two is four.

It's not five. It's not 15. It's four. There's only one answer.

It's four. Okay? There can't be a Muslim way to get to heaven and a bad Buddhist way and a and another way. If so, think about what Jesus did.

All right? So, as you study Jesus, for those of you who've done it in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you don't see a guy who's who's like uh crazy. You see a guy who is healing people, saving people, teaching very sound principles, loving, etc. You see one of the the the smartest and and most amazing people to ever walk the earth.

Okay? If there were lots of ways to get to heaven, he wouldn't have to go to the cross. That would be the dumbest thing to do. Why do that if you don't have to?

If I could just be a Buddhist and get to heaven, why do that? There is no reason. Okay, in other words, there is only Jesus. His whole life shows that there is only one way to get to heaven.

We we were I had an opportunity to witness to a Muslim yesterday and I blew it. Okay, I blew it. I uh and uh in thinking about it, I'm like the Muslims believe, you know, Muhammad, right? We believe Jesus.

Muhammad, there's a grave. Okay, where he's buried. Our savior has no grave. Okay, that's all I needed to say.

But I but I dropped the ball. I didn't say it. I wasn't in my right mind. I wasn't in my place.

But I'm not going to let that opportunity drop again. Okay, I learned. I learned. And um there's only one way.

Okay? If there was another way, Jesus didn't have to die. But he did have to die because there is only one way. Me and you can't get there on our own accord.

Only through Jesus. It's the only way. Um so when anyone asks, you know, or thinks there's another way, man, you got to tell them. We got to tell them about Jesus because he is the only way.

All right. 14:7. I'm going to read through 14. This is chapter 14 again.

If you had known me, you would have known my father also. And from now on, you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philillip?

He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, "Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? He's claiming his divinity right there.

You see that? He's not. He's God. All right?

Yeah, he's walking around and he's flesh and they can touch him, but he's God. Okay? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me.

Or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these he will do because I go to my father and whatever you ask in my name that I will do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name I will do it.

So he's clearly claiming his divinity there and and we know there's God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit. Okay. But I want to focus on 12 through 14. Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also.

And greater works than these he will do because I go to my father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. And so it's okay to ask questions to God.

He's not afraid of your questions, okay? He's not afraid of of of of any concerns you have. So when you look at that and you say if you ask anything in my name is that true happened. Has that happened in my life where everything I've asked for I've gotten?

No. Okay. So what is Jesus a liar? No.

No he's not a liar. What's the disconnect? Me. What did Jesus say here?

He is in the father and the father is in him. They are a tight close connection. Okay, they're connected. It's as if they're one.

All right, if if our prayers aren't being answered, well, we may be asking a miss, right? We're asking for something outside of his will. We're asking for something that might harm us down the road because we don't know what's to come and he does. Okay?

So, we may be asking a miss because he says if we're asking in the thing and and we're connected, he'll do it. All right? It's not something to to um doubt. It's there.

Okay. The So, if we're asking in his in his will and it's still not happening, then then what's the disconnect? Sin. We're harboring something that's blocking the connection.

Remember, God can't be where sin is. That's why repentance is so important. We've got to get down on our knees constantly. I mean, I'll have to get on my knees.

I had to get on my knees this morning for not witnessing to the Muslim yesterday, right? And so almost every day I have to get on my knees for something. All right? To repent, to turn it over to him, to lay it down at him, and to get up and restore the connection.

All right? I've got to be connected to God in that way. God can't be where sin is. This isn't um name it and claim it.

Okay? I'm not talking about that. All right? I'm talking about us.

That's not biblical. Us getting whatever we want, whatever we our hearts desire, that's just not biblical. Okay. The church general in America kind of has this belief that you strive for things and as you do these works and you have these successes, you're you're you're you're more biblical.

Not necessarily. Okay? The there's going to be people in that day that did a lot of works for Jesus, but they were doing them out of their own thoughts. Okay.

And I I've been there when I first got saved and I ended up in a Baptist church, man. I just was anything I could do to serve the Lord, I was doing. And I was just d, you know, going going going. God wasn't telling me to do a lot of that stuff.

I was doing that to try to prove that I was a good Christian. I was still trying to earn something that Jesus had already taken care of. Okay? So, so we do that a lot.

A lot of times God might tell you just to be still for a moment. All right? We're not all not everyone who's running and having ministry success is is in the will of God necessarily. They may just be a gifted preacher.

Okay. What is God telling you to do? Um it's not biblical to think that success and a great life are guaranteed once you get saved. That's just not biblical.

Okay. Every one of these disciples pretty much died a martyr's death. They got murdered. They got thrown into pots of boiling water.

They got they got hung upside down. Okay, if and they were following Jesus, I think a heck of a lot closer than most Christians in America today. And they didn't get Maseratis. They didn't get the nice cars.

They didn't get the nice house on the wherever. They got burned. They got murdered. Okay.

So, so to say that coming to Jesus guarantees success on the worldly horizontal plane is not factually true to what we see in the scriptures. Okay? In fact, what's more true is if you really get out there and get after it, you're going to get some attacks. Okay?

You're going to be um rejected and you're going to experience that. That's what's more true than you're going to get everything you want. All right. I was talking to a guy and uh he's a teacher.

He's a teacher of other people. And we were talking about the the pre-trib pre-trip post-trib rapture. She cuts it down when I if you haven't noticed this yet. When I go to take a sip of water, she cuts the thing down so that you don't hear on this stream me sipping.

Okay? So, sometimes she'll miss it or sometimes she'll go too quick or sometimes I I get one in there before she does it. So, uh these are the quirks of um me. So, uh but but we were talking I showed him a scripture.

You know, there's only one person in all of scripture that says when the rapture is going to happen, and it's Paul in First Corinthians, he says it happens at the last trumpet. And then I shared with him that Jesus said the last trumpet's coming when he comes at the end. Okay. At Matthew 24.

And he goes, "No, no, no, Brian. That's impossible. That the the preerttrib rapture has to be true because that's my reward for being a good Christian." Okay.

So, you're we don't deserve anything, man. We deserve death. Okay? Every single person in this room, including preacher boy here, is a sinner.

Okay? We have all done things that are deeply disappointing to a father who loves us. Okay? Deeply disappointing.

And so the wages of sin are death. We actually deserve hell. We don't deserve to skip things and get mansions and get whatever. We don't deserve that.

We deserve hell. But because of Jesus, that's not our destination. He's preparing a place for us. How beautiful is that?

We don't have to go there. We get to go up there. Okay? Why?

because of anything we did. No, man. Just because of Jesus. Just because of Jesus.

And it's so beautiful. If you wake up tomorrow morning and you have this morning and you had breath in you and and I'm assuming all of you did because you're here, okay? You're already blessed. You're already blessed beyond belief.

Okay? You don't deserve anything more than that. And if God chooses, you don't even deserve that breath. He can take that away today.

Right? So, we know this intellectually, but we live our lives as if our efforts are going to are are going to save us somehow. And and that's just not biblical. Okay?

Jesus lived a perfect life and he still got nailed to a cross. Okay? But what Jesus does promise is not happiness, but joy. And joy can be there in the sorrows.

Joy can be there in the struggle. I might be getting attacked this week, but I still have joy because of Jesus. Okay. Um, so no matter what you're going through, you can have that a peace that surpasses all understanding.

How can you get hit with things and then still be peaceful? Man, Jesus, that's the only way to describe it. Okay, what a miracle. What a great miracle.

And so Jesus calls us to die to ourselves and to live for him. And I'm not sure many Christians in America have really died to themselves. We're always wanting what we're wanting. We're always expecting to get things that we are are wanting because we're a Christian, because we deserve it, because that's just how we think it should be.

Okay? And it's just simply not true. God may give you good things, but he's already given you the best thing, salvation. Okay?

And you will be in places, especially if you start following the Lord. In fact, I can almost say if everything is going hunky dory in your life, money's flowing in, everything's going good, you're probably not really chasing after the Lord very hard. Okay? It's just it's just not the devil doesn't want a soldout Christian to be productive in any way, shape, or form.

So, you got to get attacked. Okay? And and you can overcome it with Jesus. But we have to get to a place where we are dying to oursel and living for Jesus.

Let me give you an example. Um, for my own life, I I uh I've achieved everything I've really wanted in life pretty much. Okay. When I was 17, sitting at the Waterway Cafe, I'd see Steve Cough.

Mike Mike who's watching this on TV knows who Steve Kauf is. Come up in his boat and get off and get drinks and and go back up there. And I'm thinking, man, I'm going to live on the water one day in a million-dollar house and have uh boats and jet skis. Okay.

Did that check. Okay. When I was young, I dream of being a millionaire. Um, you know, by 30.

Did it check by 31. Okay. I lost it all in 08, but that's okay. Um, the, uh, when I got saved and I started preaching or I started, uh, serving, I started a Christian mortgage brokers association.

And one of the guys in that association invited me down to preach to some some guys in a barn, a a barn revival or a barn meeting down in in uh Florida outside of Pensacola, man. And it was unbelievable. Three people asked Jesus into their heart that day. A hundred guys stood up saying they were going to get recommitted to their marriages.

Standing ovation as I left. I was flying on cloud nine. I'm like, man, I'm going to be a preacher one day. You know what I And then that was like 05, you know, and and and it never happened.

But here I am preaching, right? But there's one thing that I wanted more than anything else. And I didn't get it. When I was watching Little House on the Prairie, okay, not the reruns.

Like I was 10 when it was still on TV. That's how old I am, okay? And uh watching Charles and Carolyn Les and their marriage and the the way they raise the kids and everything else like that. man, I just wanted to be happily married to one woman for the rest of my life.

And that one didn't go okay. And it and it it hurts my heart. And for a guy who's always striving to succeed in everything, there's a piece of me that still wants to to nail that piece. Okay.

And um and there's people here that are praying. I mean, there's girls here, you know, over there that like hope God sends him someone. I don't need a woman. Okay.

However, it wouldn't be wouldn't, you know, wouldn't be bad, right? But God's told me not to right now. Okay? I'm absolutely sure of it.

Um, and so this is the thing. The average Christian is going to look at that and say, "But God wants me happy. But he who finds a wife finds a good thing. You could support it in here.

There's nothing wrong if I were to go on Christian Mingle and and uh uh go whatever. I'm not breaking the law. I'm a single man. I'm allowed to date.

Okay. But God called me to be a pastor while I was single. And I feel there's big stuff coming over the next four months. And at least for the next four months, God doesn't want me even worrying about it.

Okay? He wants me focused on him for whatever reason. And maybe that's part of my struggle is that I have to die to that desire. Okay, that's a good desire.

There's nothing wrong with having a wife, but not for me if God tells me not to right now. Do you understand? We're so often what we do is we do what we want. We support it with scripture and then we ask God to just bless what we want.

But that's not what Jesus is telling us to do. He's calling us to obey him. Okay, that's dying to self. Doing what you putting on the shelf what you want because Jesus told you to.

Even though it's a good thing. He may tell you sometimes to do things there's nothing wrong with. They're just wrong for you. Okay?

Because he told you not to. You get it? You get what I'm sharing? Okay.

So, I see a passage like this. John 14. Good job, Kian. Um, as a challenge, he's saying whatever I ask for, I'll get.

Okay? So, if I'm asking to heal this person, you know, if I'm praying for that person to get healed, they're not getting healed. I got to I got to go deeper. Okay?

I got to find where the connection is. I got to find something that's a challenge to me to to to grow my relationship. Okay? So, Jesus can challenge us.

If this were just Brian Pier in the morning reading, I probably wouldn't have even made it this far. I'd have been I'd have spent an hour dwelling on the first part, you know, let you not your heart be troubled. And I and by the time I'm done writing and all that stuff, I'm already an hour into my Bible study because it's so much and I only got through a couple sentences. Okay?

But God wants it's not my will be done, it's God's will be done. Okay? I have to allow I have to live for him. He doesn't exist for me.

I live for him. Okay. Um that's the way it should be. We have to get the right focus.

And what is that focus? John 14:15, the next verse. If you love me, keep my commandments. Simple obedience, man.

Simple obedience. I don't have to storm a giant out in a battlefield, per se, okay? I just have to do whatever God tells me to do this day. Now, he may tell me to face a giant.

That's fine. I'll go face it. Okay? I just have to obey what he says.

And if he tells me to do something, I can trust that he's going to be with me to whatever it is. But we we often run run. Remember those algorithms that keep you even scrolling through a ton of Christian reels and stuff. If if it keeps you looking at that and not actually going out and doing what God told you to do, it's actually the devil's tool to keep you from being productive.

Okay? Sometimes God may tell you just to be still for a period. Just sh chill out for a minute. Okay?

Sometimes he may tell you just to simply deal with your own mental issues that day with your own struggle, with your own disobedience instead of trying to save the world. Okay? Now, he may use you, but but this is the piece we got to remember, man. God doesn't need me.

He doesn't need me. He doesn't need me to preach to you guys. He can find someone else to preach to you just as easy. I get to join him in what he's doing in your guys' lives right now.

Okay? That's a privilege and an honor that I don't take lightly. And um it could be as simple as him telling you not to fear and you learning how to stop fearing, stop being fearful. It might be as simple, he may tell you just to start living in the new creation that you are.

Okay? Start living as if you truly are saved because you're still trying to earn it and you don't need to earn it. You already laid it down. Okay, these the he may tell you something as simple as that.

It's a simple way to live. Hold the door for the lady. Do whatever. Okay, whatever Jesus tells you to do, just do.

I use the example all the time, man. I love Forest Gum. You know why'd you do that? Because you told me to drill sergeant.

I mean, that's all you got to do. Whatever God tells you to do, just do it. It's a beautiful, beautiful way to live, and it's all Jesus is asking of you. If you love me, obey me.

Okay? That's all he's asking. So, let's let's go to uh the next verse 16- 21. And all we're doing is reading just one chapter of scripture.

And you could do this every morning if you want. And I will pray the father. This is again Jesus Christ speaking. and I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper.

That's a capital H. That's a person. It's the Holy Spirit. That he may abide with you forever.

The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you a little while longer and the world will see me no more.

But you will see me because I live. You will live also. At that day you will know that I am in the Father and the Father is in me and I am in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them.

It is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and I will manifest myself in him. Such a hot word, man. Manifest myself in him. Here he's talking about the Holy Spirit.

All right. In the Old Testament, the guys in the Old Testament, only one or two at a time would ever have the spirit. Okay? It wasn't something that was inside of everyone.

That didn't happen. The Holy Spirit being sent didn't happen till Pentecost. Jesus now, now God would send his spirit in the Old Testament to individuals, but it wasn't that everyone got. So, you got to have grace for the Old Testament people when they did stupid stuff like the golden calf.

You just got to give them a little grace, man. They didn't have Jesus. And the disciples had Jesus next to him while for the three years he was there. But Jesus himself said, "It's better if I go because you're going to get a helper."

And that helper actually lives inside of us. Okay, this is a magnificent, unbelievable concept. And I think most of us miss it because we can't believe we're good enough to have God inside of us. But that's actually literally what he says right here.

Okay, the Holy Spirit. Imagine it's like and granted it's not very few people when they ask Jesus in their heart just there's a boom and explosion. The Holy Spirit is going crazy and they're speaking in tongues and all that other stuff. That doesn't happen very often when you get saved.

So if you didn't have that experience doesn't mean you're not saved. Okay? What often but but the Holy Spirit is in you. Okay?

You got to feed it. This is what it feeds on. This is what the Holy Spirit feeds on. Okay?

You got to spend some time in this word. This word will The Holy Spirit is our teacher. He's the one who's going to teach us from this word what's next. Okay, man.

We got God inside of us. Even me tearing up this morning over stuff. Brian, man, God's inside of you. You know, what are you thinking?

Why Why are you moping? It's better than having Jesus right next to us. We've got God inside of us. All right.

The power of God is inside of you. The Holy Spirit is in you to teach you and guide you. You read the word of God and and and what happens is the more you read, the more you pray, the more you spend time, the more that Holy Spirit will grow in you. You ever come across a believer that like they enter a room and it just feels lighter because they just entered the room?

Okay, they've been walking with God and the Holy Spirit is morphing into them. Okay, and they're becoming more and more light to people. That's an amazing place. Rejoice.

You're saved. You're saved. He's preparing a place for you. You're saved.

But now you got to spend time and let that Holy Spirit teach you. And you've got to stop walking like you're still a mess trying to clean up. Okay? You got saved.

You're a new creation. Stop thinking you're still the old person. It's time to walk new. It's time to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit that's inside of you, man.

And I know sometimes life is hard. Rejoice. Rejoice because the Holy Spirit of God is inside of you. Wow man.

If we really understood that, there shouldn't be ever a tear. Okay, there just shouldn't except for tears of joy. Okay, tears of joy. All right, let's wrap this.

1423 through31. Where am I? Okay. If anyone loves me, this is Jesus.

Again, almost all of this has been Jesus, by the way. This isn't Brian Pier. This is Jesus Christ. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.

There again, what's Jesus saying? Just obey me. He goes even deeper with the next line. He who does not love me does not keep my words.

So, if you're not obeying him, you're showing him you don't love him. Think about that, man. Do you love Jesus? Does he make you cry sometimes with how blessed you are and and and and and whatever?

Why aren't you obeying him? It's not that much he has. He saved you. He's preparing a place for you.

You can obey him. Some simple things. He doesn't ask much. He says what?

Love him by obeying him. Then love others. It's really all he's asking. And reach, make disciples.

Don't hide from the Muslim when you have a chance to to witness to him. Okay, we can do this. He goes on, um, he who does not love me, he does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the fathers who sent me. These things I've spoken to you while being present with you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Let's say you're in a situation and there's someone there and you you've never witnessed before and they're sitting there. God's going to give you the words to say. The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say.

Romans 8:26, my ver birthday verse actually says that um the Holy Spirit will groan when we don't know what to pray. The Holy Spirit will grown with the prayers that we need. God already knows what we need. Okay, how powerful is that and he will teach you all things.

Now, this is verse 27. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give you.

Let not your heart be troubled. He repeats it again. Neither let it be afraid. You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you.

If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I'm going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I've told you before it comes that when it does come to pass you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you. For the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me but that the world may know that I love the father and as the father gave me a commandment so I do.

Arise and let us go. He's on his way to Calvary at at this point in scripture. He's on his way to Calvary. Okay.

He's on his way. And he modeled for us doing he did not want to get beat like that. He did not want to have nails put through his hand. The flesh that was him.

There's no way he wanted that. Oh yeah, you know, let's do that. No, but he wodled for us how to be obedient to the father. Even obedient to death.

Okay, so he's next level, but we can certainly obey him in the little things that he asks of us, can't we? Shouldn't we? I mean, I think so. He tells us, don't be troubled.

Okay, he says his peace will be with us. Okay. He'll send us peace, love, joy, and peace. You wake up, you got a chance every morning to wake up and you open up, you can open up this book okay?

This precious book. And you can read it. And you should read it. Read it.

Just like it's God talking to you because guess what? It is God talking to you. Okay? Don't skip it just because you're tired.

Don't hit the snooze button and then again, ah, I don't want to get up and then again, oh, I don't want to get up. That's not dying to self, is it? You're really doing what you want to do, which is sleep as late as possible. Todd, I'm not rising on you.

I'm really not, man. I love you, Todd. Todd's one of my favorite people in the world. Um, so but you get to read it.

It could be just a chapter like we just did or it could be a psalm or a proverb. Okay? It doesn't have to be you don't have to spend five hours reading all of Leviticus, you know. Um, it can be simple to start just the habit of every day in the Bible.

Just a little bit will change who you are. It'll change your life. It'll change the man. The man I am is so different than the man I was even a year ago because of this book.

Not because of anything I've done. Because of this book and the Holy Spirit telling me, Brian, oops. You know, Brian, oh man, calling me out, making me feel like I I could do better. I know I could do better.

Holding up that standard of Jesus and then showing me where I kind of slipped up, you know. Um, and we're going to slip up. The Holy Spirit's going to correct us and then we repent. and and God forgives us and we get back in the game.

It's such a beautiful thing. He didn't just save us that one time, you know. Well, he did save us that one time, but but he gives us repentance as an opportunity to reconnect with him every time we we slip up. Okay?

And that's a beautiful thing. This is the key. This is the sword. You got to spend time in this thing every day.

I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. Okay? And everyone's searching for their plan. What is What do you want from me, God?

What do you want from me, God? Spend some time here. He's going to tell you what he wants from you. I know the next four months what he wants from me.

I'm just not happy about it. But I know what he wants for me to do. So, I've got to do it with joy in my heart. Okay.

The Bible in prayer is how you get to know him. It's how you deepen that relationship. It's how you get to that place where you're in so in sync with him that you can ask and he delivers. Okay?

He knows the good and perfect plan he has for your life. Amen. Okay. As the band comes up, I want to ask you, what challenged you today?

What things are troubling you that you can lay down today? Don't carry him with you. Jesus said lay him down. Jesus said don't worry.

Jesus said don't be troubled. We heard him say it twice just in this one chapter. Okay. So why are you disobeying him?

Lay it down. Lay it down. I feel so much better now than I did at the start of the sermon. Okay.

Because I'm I'm speaking to myself. Lay it down. All right. It's no big deal.

Lay it down. He's got me in the palm of his hand, man. I'm safe. This world is a safe place if you truly trust God.

It's not a crazy world. All the crazy shenanigans going on with the politicians, it's not it's not anything for us to worry about because we know who holds the key, who holds the the thing. So, where are you not obeying him? Where is he challenging you today to lay it down?

What secret sin are you harboring that you haven't brought out into the light? Okay. The good thing about if you if you ever dare to come up and just lay it down is that when you come up and you lay it down at an altar, you now have a physical thing in your mind that you can point back to and say, "On August 23rd, I laid that down. Now I don't have to pick it back up again."

All right? Don't pick it back up again. Um where are you disobeying him? Come up and lay it down.

If you don't know him, let's settle that today. All right, come on up. I'm right there.