Greater Serving
by Sam Hodum
August 23, 2026 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: 2 Kings 6:24-30, 2 Kings 6:31, 2 Kings 6:13-17

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--greater-serving-4
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Well, welcome to the house of the Lord. So glad to see you here today on this beautiful Sunday. It's I'm tell guys it was a little bit of a chill in there this morning again. I'm telling you I I almost got cold teasing us. That's what it's all it is. It's going to be a thousand degrees for in next month we'll be in the middle of September being man alive be like snowbirds and have to go up to Michigan for the summer. God forbid. God forbid. So glad to see you in the house of the Lord. Thank you. Thank you teachers. Thank you. Thank you security. Thank you greeters. Thank you musicians, singers for helping us to I don't know ushering us into the presence of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you.

I do want to say and and you can go ahead and be seated. I'm I got to I got to ramp up today. I got more than 15 minutes this week. So, y'all probably going to wish I just took 15, but no, I do want to say thank you so much, church, for those that put in the work, the preparations, getting the things. I mean, guys, we have a bathroom. Did y'all know that? >> Yeah. We worked we worked Dan Johnson so hard on that bathroom, he had to go take a cruise after just to just to get away. He was like, "They're going to work me to death around there." Uh just I mean all the That's just one piece of all the preparation that goes into a building of this size.

Uh who who in here's helped remodel a house or remodeled a house? Yeah. You know, like your average house is like 2,000 square feet, right? We've got 14 of those in here. So, it's a lot of work. Thank you so much for for the for the the for that and also for dedication weekend for for attending for being there uh hosting our guests and all those things the work that goes into that that's always a uh events are always just that little bit of extra that sometimes I don't know if we got left in the tank or not and somewhere along the line God just kind of puts it in there. So, thank you. Comes it it it it it's uh I enjoyed it. I I did enjoy having my grandparents here. Had my other family.

I had my sister and I didn't even talk about them. I wasn't even glad to see them. I was just glad to see my grandparents. Don't tell my sister though cuz she's got a temper. Men's conference men. Man, did they did they like walk up one side and down the other and all over? I mean, just good stuff. Brother Danny Hood, I thought he was JH Osborne in the flesh. I mean, he was just storytelling. I was like, who's this guy? And like he was a pastor from uh oh, >> Denver. Just I mean, honestly did a great job just teaching about teaching to teaching us Daniel. I mean, just up one side, down the other. It just fantastic men's conference and the men that were able to go. Uh, thank you for taking that time.

Ladies, I know you were glad to see them gone. So, this this past summer, I had I had had the opportunity, we had the opportunity, we went out to Lake Tahoe. Yeah. California. Believe it or not, I know that was the most time I'd ever spent almost. here. I'm not going to make any political jokes. I'm just going to pick on California today. Will you believe it or not, you guys? We got several of y'all y'all from California. Like people, it was a pretty side of the state. It was beautiful. I mean, we went out to Lake Tahoe and and there was a particular park right there at Truckucky. It used to be called Truckucky Lake. And sometimes you want things named after you, but not all the time because it's now called Donner Lake.

And you're like, "Oh, that must be a cool story." It is not. It's like, "Oh, I want something named after me." Well, the price these guys had to pay to get this this place named after them. It was wild. They were like a wagon train back in the 1840s. All right. They were they left from from Illinois. They left from Illinois and were like, "You know what? We're going to California." Can y'all imagine that? People moving to California. Told y'all I got some California just going to slide it in there, guys. I y'all spread out like I mean it's a little bit of everybody in here. It's like Arkansas. Everybody's got a cousin in Arkansas. I don't know why or how. >> >> I got to stay focused today. I'll never get through this.

These guys left around April, May time frame of from Illinois and they started heading to they were trying to get to California. They got through Wyoming and then they decided to take a cut off. It was a shortcut in the path. added like six days to their journey and lost a lot of cows, a lot of supplies and that. These guys had no idea what they were doing. They just it was such a we at this pastor and I we actually went to the the museum and like every station in the museum is just like it gets worse and worse, right? The Donner party, if you've heard of them, you know where this is going. If you haven't, hang on. It just goes from bad to worst to the worst. They they they just left late in the year. They they got hung up.

They didn't take the right stuff. They they left the clear path. They went off and they was like, "We're going to find a shortcut." Wound up going through the Salt Lake desert. Like, how do you accidentally go through a Salt Lake desert? Surely you would be like, "Nah, we just turn around and wait till next year." Not these guys. Talk about a story of perseverance. like they were doggedly determined to get across the Sierra Nevada mountains. Now, if you haven't seen these mountains, uh they're not like here. They're not like the Appalachian Mountains at all. We have green, lush creeks everywhere. Uh the Sierra Neadas is like a desert and you've got you've got lakes. Um but that's about it. Like Lake Tahoe there. And just just so you're aware of this, geographically, Lake Tahoe sits about 6,000 ft above sea level.

So that's that's as high as as the highest mountain in Tennessee. That's like their baseline. It gets cold and hot there all at the same time. I don't know how. All right. Doesn't make any sense. You go and it's like cold in the morning. you know, it noon and it's like you're like you feel like bacon in a frying pan and you step in the shade and you're like, "Man, this is nice. No humidity." Step back out in the sun, you're like, "Oh my lord, I just blistered." And then you go try and swimming in the water and the water's like 60° and I'll just tell you, you don't get used to it. I tried. I was bone. I was chilled to the bone.

I was like, "This is awful." I said, "What is happening?" I was like, "I'm just If you know, you stay long enough, you'll get used to it, right? That's what happens. You go creek swimming." Not not there. It was just cold. I mean, just straight up cold. This was in July that I went. These guys were headed to that place by July. So they they get there about October, the end of October, and they're trying to cross over these 14,000 11 12 13,000 foot pass in the mountains. And I'll just tell you, I drove up that pass. I don't know how in the world I would hate to walk up the hill with a road, much less try and get a wagon, my children, my family, and cows and horses and everything over that hill. It was just rock.

It was it wasn't I don't know how familiar yall are with this geography, but it it is not hospitable at all. They come through there and before they even get to the pass, the snow starts to fall and and it's not like a light dusting. It's like 10 ft at a time snow. Like that winter these guys started up this pass. They're down in this valley. Beautiful valley. Beautiful lake there. It's called Donner Lake. beautiful. And they get trapped there by the snow. There was 20 something foot of snow that winter. That's a crazy amount of snow. These guys, this is 1947, 46, 47. 18 194 1900s, 1800s, whatever. Y'all listen. These teenagers don't even know what it was just yesterday and it was a long time ago to them. So 1800s. Thank you, babe. 1800s. 1846.

So they didn't even have a Buick or a Cadillac. They didn't even have a 40. That's a 57 Chevy. They didn't even have a Model T. All they had was a wagon. All right. And they're stuck there all winter. And the winter started in October. By November, they're like, this is a writing from one of their one of their journals says, "The snow came on so suddenly that we be we had barely time to pitch our tent. The snow was in up to the mule sides. The further we went, the deeper the snow got, so the wagons could not go. All lay down on the snow from exhaustion. We're soon asleep. Springing up, I found myself covered with freshly fallen snow. The camp, the cattle, my companions had all disappeared. All I disappeared. All I could see was snow everywhere.

They were just trapped in snow. It sounds great as long as you have skis, but if you got mules, it's not a lot of fun. This was early on. That's like November, December. One excerpt from a diary said milk got back who went to the lake yesterday brought 18 something of beef or hide snowed all night and cleared off cold may God send us help soon this is December 21st by February by February now they built shacks to live in by February Mrs. Murphy said here yesterday said here yesterday that thought she would commence on Milt. You remember Milt and Edim. Yeah, like I said, those that know the story, you know where I was going. And Edim, I don't that she had done so yet. It is distressing to say the least. Milt had died and so desperation drove them to desperate measures.

This was February. There were 87 people that were in that group. 48 survived. And if you if you read into it a little bit, they were eating. By December, they were uh the the anx. They had started to pull hide straps, shoes, and bones into jelly. And then that started running out and there was nothing left to eat. And so they started on each other supposedly after they were dead. That was a real thing. Like that really happened. It's like what in the world? That's a context that's in the context of America. And I say that because there's there's an excerpt in the Bible, 2 Kings chapter 6, that we look at this and we kind of think of this as a different world, but the reality is this happened in our world, too.

There was and it came to pass after this that Benad king of Syria gathered all his host and went up and besieged Samaria and there was a great famine in Samaria. Behold they besieged it until an ass's head was sewed for for four score pieces of silver and the fourth part of a cab of Doug's dove's dung for five pieces of silver. Anybody ever had hog jaw? You ever had hog jaw? >> It's actually pretty good. You ever had donkey jaw? That's cuz there ain't much there. Why would you eat a donkey's head? Cuz you ain't got nothing else. These guys in Samaria, they were in desperate times in desperate measures. They were looking. They were eating dove's dong. It was interesting.

And as the king, verse 26, and as the king of Israel passed by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, "Help my lord, oh king." And he said, "If the Lord does not help thee, whence shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor or out of the wine press?" He said, "If God's not going to help you, how am I going to help you?" The king said unto her, "What alth thee?" She answered, "The woman said unto me, this woman said unto me, give me give thy son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow." So we boiled my son and did eat him. And I said unto her, "On the next day, give thy son that we may eat him." And she hath hid his her son.

And it came to pass when they her king heard the words of the woman that he rent his clothes, and he passed by on the wall. And the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. I don't know why it took him to that point to put sackcloth on, but it's very interesting. desperation. What desperation drives us to >> very I we we would all we would all in in this instance in this moment in this setting and and Lord God forbid if that we ever would incur something like that but we would all be in that sense of we would never do that ever. Somewhere along the line something switched off in their brain. desperation, desperate times. I don't know about y'all, but I didn't live through the Great Depression. I don't know what that looks like. All right?

I'm not trying to get there. I hope we never experience that. That's not something I'm trying to get to, but I do want us to think about this for a moment because I do think this has spiritual implications. There's so many things in this life that we physically we physically start to come across. But then in the spiritual world, in the spiritual realm, we get to a point that we do not know what to do. We are like the donor party. We're like the Samaritans. We get trapped in our own decisions. Can't dig our way out. We can't find our way out. We can't and we're stuck there. And can I tell you when we are stuck in desperation, I'm going to say this spiritually, okay?

When we are there spiritually, we start to make decisions that have consequences far beyond what we would ever think normal. >> Out of desperation, we will we will do things because we've I'm I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to pick on the donor party here, but they every decision they made led to the fatal decisions that they made. Okay? Every decision they could have stopped along the way somewhere, but they didn't. And so many times we find ourselves in the same situation that they find themselves entrapped, overwhelmed, suffocated by the by just the things around us. And it comes down to these were the decisions we made. We've got to live with them. We made our bed and we lie in it and becomes overwhelming, suffocating.

And can I tell you in that we start to make decisions that sacrificed our future and the future of our children. >> That's right. We would never knowingly do things that would kill our kids >> ever. But can I tell you in spiritual desperation and spiritual desperate times there are decisions that we make things that influ motives that we have that they cut off our nose to spite our faces. You following? You with me? You understand where I'm going with this? Because because it looks a little practical sometimes. But can I can I talk about this is a month of greater serving. Can I tell you what I have seen? I've seen people get desperate spiritually. And so they hold God at ransom. God, I'm not going to eat until >> There is a thin line between subjection to God and holding God to ransom.

I don't see any of us fighting with that. >> There is a thin line between God, well, I served you this week. I gave. Where are you at? There's a thin line between demanding of God and serving of God. There's a thin and it comes out in moments of desperation in times when the pressure is really applied. It's not a reminder. Let me let me let me help. Let me let me just put that to the side for a minute. We should, right? That that's biblical to remind God, I've done this. I've done this. I've done this. I just want to I want you I just want to remind you. I've been faithful and few. I've been faithful in this. There's there's that mentality, but then there's the there's the ransom mentality of God, I've done this. WHERE YOU AT?

WHY DON'T YOU do this for me, God? It's for me. And no, NO, NO. CAN I tell you the desperation of that? Then what that does is that leaves an imprint upon our progeny. That leaves an imprint upon our spiritual children. That leaves an imprint upon our future walk with God BECAUSE WE HAVE NOW sacrificed the future >> to try and get through the present >> the look of this. I I will say this because I I don't want to leave us here, but but we we get to the point to where we've consumed everything around us spiritually and we have nowhere else to turn. And can I tell YOU THE KING DID not react properly. >> The very the the very next verse he's got sackloth and ashes. He looks like he is in mourning. He looks like he is humble before God.

BUT HIS VERY NEXT WORDS SAID THEN HE SAID GOD DO SO MORE so and more also to me if the head of Elisha the son of Shapath shall stand on him this day. In his desperation, HE DID NOT TURN TO the things of God. He attacked the things of God. >> Can I Can I get real practical for us for just A MOMENT? HE CUT OFF THE HAND THAT fed him. >> He He He He miracle that God had on the way for him. He shut the door on. I I listen I'm not going to leave us here, okay? I'm not trying to leave us in Don or Lake, but I want us to I want us to realize what desperation will do to us and where it will get us.

>> I want us to understand that if we haven't faced it yet, we will face it. >> Okay? This is not this doesn't make you a good or a bad person. Just makes you a person. But what we do when we're there matters. >> I very a very very succinctly. It it it doesn't always happen this way. I wasn't even wor guys. I wasn't even being spiritual. I just lifted up my hands and and and in worship and God just this is where somebody needs today. This is what somebody Okay. And we're going to get there. 2 Kings chapter 6. A story before this. I want us to look at this 6 and13.

He said, "Go and spy where he is that I may send and fetch him." And I was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan." This excerpt here is a king that's trying to capture Israel. He's trying to And he finds that the man of God is telling the Israelites where not to go, >> right? >> He He finds it. He He finds He's like, "Oh, who's spying on us?" And he said, "Oh, it's it's Elisha is spying on us. He's looking at us. He knows what you say in your bed chamber, king." Is what one guy told him. Now, somebody was spying or that guy wouldn't have known Elisha was doing it. So, there was a spy somewhere, but the reality is God was protecting them.

And there and so this king said, and whatever, he was a few few fries short of a happy meal here. He said, he said, "Therefore, he tithether horses and chariots and a great host, and they came by night and compassed the city." He went to Dothan. This was in Alabama, in case y'all y'all didn't know, Alabama was in the Bible, did y'all? There's a different different Dothan, I hope. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and going forth, behold, a host combassed the city with horses and chariots. And the servant said unto him, "Alas, my master, how shall we do? Can I tell you this was not Gahesi. This was a new guy. All right. And honestly, he may have been He was probably a Bible school graduate. All right. He was like, "Wait a minute.

Thought we was in church." I I told Bri today I was going to pick on Bible school on Bible college. Bible college kids was like, "Wait a minute. I didn't sign up for the army. What are all these guys doing here? What are we going to do?" All right. I'm gonna pick on a I'm gonna pick on a little bit more here. We got several. All right. I'm not just picking on her. But what are we going I didn't sign up for this. I'm just supposed to I'm just supposed to open the door for people. Like no, no, no. This is this is what happens when you sign up to serve the man of God.

And the servant, he said, "What shall we do?" And the man of God, I think I think Elisha scratched his head here because he had he'd already had Gahhesi that had went away. And this was a new guy, I guess. And he was just like, "Man, come on. God, what you doing? What you saying to me here, God? Can this guy not see this?" He said, he answered, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they be that with them." And Elisha prayed, verse 17, "and said,"Lord, I pray that he opened his eyes that he may see." And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around about Elisha.

Can I tell you the difference between the way the servants reacted and the way the king reacted was who he turned to. >> We find ourselves in dire situations all the time. We're real good at it. We are, y'all may not be. I'm real good at it. How about that? I'm real good at making bad and dumb decisions. And I find myself in saying, "God, I need your help to bail me out here." But can I tell you in those moments that we don't hear from God immediately and when we don't know what what if help is coming and we don't know what's going to happen and we're surrounded by all the things in this world and and we HAVE NO PHYSICAL WAY OF coming out of this. >> There is nothing that we can do in desperation. We must turn to God. Hands down.

Fear not. This is it. BECAUSE I WILL TELL YOU THIS RIGHT NOW. WHEN YOU'VE GOT THE FAITH to When YOU'VE GOT THE FAITH TO SEE PAST WHERE YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU'RE SURROUNDED BY, YOU'LL START TO SEE THE THINGS THAT God has lined UP. HE SAYS, "CAN YOU OPEN HIS EYES? CAN YOU SHOW HIM WHAT HE CANNOT SEE?" AND THE MOUNTAIN WAS FULL OF HORSES AND CHARIOTS OF FIRE ROUND ABOUT ELISHA. ELISHA HAD BEEN THERE BEFORE. HE HAD SEEN THE CHARIOTS OF FIRE. HE HAD SEEN ALL THOSE THINGS. BUT THE SERVANT HAD NOT. CAN I TELL YOU SOMETIMES THERE ARE THINGS THAT WE CANNOT SEE THAT THE MAN OF GOD CAN. HE HAD HAD THE CHARIOT OF FIRE EXPERIENCE. I'M GOING TO PREACH ON THIS FOR JUST A MINUTE AND I YOU KNOW I'M GOING TO BE AN evangelist today. All right.

You know how evangelists just pop in and out and they just mess everything up. Let me be an evangelist today. All right. WHEN THIS SERVANT IF HE HE WAS RUNNING AROUND OF HIS OWN ACCORD WONDERING WHAT IN THE WORLD HAD HAPPENED TO HIM WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS GOING ON AND HOW HE WAS GOING TO GET OUT OF THIS HE SIMPLY ASKED THE MAN OF GOD CAN I ASK OF YOU TODAY CAN I IMPLORE OF YOU TODAY WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO YOU'VE PLED WITH GOD AND YOU DON'T MAYBE SIT DOWN AND ASK YOUR MAN OF GOD MAYBE JUST SAY YOU KNOW WHAT HE MAY HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE MAYBE HE SEES SOME THINGS IN THE SPIRIT THAT You can't see. I told you I'm going to be the evangelist today. I'm a hit and run guy. All right.

It doesn't It doesn't MAKE HIM MORE THAN A MAN. IT DOESN'T MAKE HIM LESS than a man. What it does IS IT IT ALLOWS HIM TO OPERATE IN THE OFFICE THAT GOD HAS HIM OPERATING IN. >> AND CAN I TELL YOU, IF HE IS WRONG, GOD WILL HONOR IT. >> AMEN. That's true. >> I'm I'm just going I'm going be honest WITH YOU HERE. THERE'S THIS CULTURE. THIS IS NOT PUSHED in this culture. THIS IS ABNORMAL. THIS IS COUNTERCULTURE BECAUSE QUESTION EVERYTHING. Can I tell you the what I do in my life? I'm just going to tell you. I treat the word from the man of God as word from God himself. >> And when I take it that way, YOU KNOW WHAT THAT DOES? That alleviates me of the responsibility of it. And that means God takes care of it.

>> Good, bad, or ugly, >> IT'S BACKED UP BY GOD. THAT'S BETTER THAN THE That's better than the US GOVERNMENT TREASURY BILL. IT'S BACKED UP BY GOD ALMIGHTY. CAN I TELL YOU, SOMETIMES YOUR SALVATION IS NOT IN THINGS YOU CAN SEE. IT'S IN THINGS THE MAN OF GOD CAN SEE. AND ALL YOU GOT TO DO IS JUST LISTEN. >> AMEN. All right. >> All right. I I listen listen when I tell you about all the things I I've seen good, bad, and ugly in all of this. And I know you have, too. But can I tell you in this in the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his SEED BEGGING BREAD. I'VE SEEN GOD HONOR the word. I've seen God take care of the word. IT AIN'T ON MY SHOULDERS TO DO IT.

IT'S NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY. IT'S GOD'S. AND WHEN IT'S GOD, I'LL JUST TELL YOU THIS RIGHT NOW. HE'S CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. AND I'M NOTHING COMPARED TO THAT. HE'LL TAKE CARE OF IT. >> All right. >> All right. Bible college kids. >> Very interestingly, the donor party was trapped. There were three or four failed attempts to come and get them. And you know who they were led by? They were led by the very people that they had kicked out a few months earlier. And their desperation to get back and save some of their friends. They they braved the winter. They climbed the mountains and their final their actual salvation came from the person they had kicked out. Here or there. You can draw whatever parallel you want.

What I do know is sometimes the things that we've kicked out of our lives and the voices that we've written off and that we won't allow in our lives. All right, hang on y'all. Y'all y'all let me evangelize for a minute. All right. SOME OF THOSE THINGS THEY'RE TRYING THEIR BEST TO GET BACK in our lives into our homes to help us get out OF THE MESS THAT WE'VE CREATED for ourselves >> of our own doing. BUT GOD'S A KIND AND GRACIOUS GOD. HE HE'S NOT HE'S NOT JUST THERE TO LEAVE US IN OUR MESS. CAN I TELL YOU there is hope, there is grace. THERE IS MERCY. AND SOMETIMES IT LOOKS LIKE THE THINGS YOU'VE TURNED YOUR BACK ON. SOMETIMES IT LOOKS LIKE THE WHEN YOU NOW YOU'VE WRITTEN THAT OFF. CAN I TELL YOU GOD'S STILL KNOCKING AT THE DOOR.

HE'S STILL SENDING A MESSENGER SAYING, "FIND AN ALTAR OF REPENTANCE." >> That's right. >> Hallelujah. Some good oneliners there. Get those written down for me, babe. In all of our lives, we face all these different things. And if we have it, we will. That's the simple truth of it. We have a very easy way to respond to it. And and I called this greater serving because it was the servant that turned to it. It's the month of serving. Part of learning how to serve God is learning how to listen to God. >> There was a there's a there was a there was a man that that was a he was a warrior. It was in the Bible. He was a fast runner. Aussie. If Aussie wasn't asleep, it would be Aussie. I did a good job today, y'all.

If it wasn't, it'd be It'd be Ariana. Where you at? It was probably as fast as you. I don't know. I don't know if y'all seen Ariana run, but good lord, it's so fast. I'm so scared. She loves She loves being called out, too. So you you can just tell this guy was fast and and they called for a runner to send the message and this guy was chomping at the bits and he said, "Let me go. Let me go. Let me go." He said, "I can make it quick." He's like, "Did you see what happened?" "No, but I can go." He said, "All right, go." And then they sent a guy that had the message, but he was a slow runner. He wasn't as talented. wasn't as gifted, but he had saw what happened.

When they got there, this guy that was running, he actually passed him. And he got to the city where they were waiting for the news because they couldn't send text messages. All right, this was the way they communicated. They couldn't send text messages. They're waiting for the runner. The runner, the fast runner gets there and they said, "What what news of the battle?" And he's like, "I I don't know. I was just running. I was just running, boss. Coach, coach just gave me the ball and I just kept running. He's like Forest Gump. All right. Sorry. I don't My accent's too close to even like do a good accent of Forest Gump. So he's got there.

He's like, "Well, who's that coming?" He goes, "Oh, that's the guy with the message." He's like, "What?" And so that guy comes and brings news of the message and and he says, "All right, let's kill this guy because he wasted our time." And they did. Can I tell you a lot of times in our serving of God, we like to run before we get the message. >> We're real good about be being busy bees about the things of God. So we think. And we're serving and we're running. Chief center here. All right. And we're serving and we're running. We're doing We're trying our best to We're trying. Yeah. I'm going to do this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this.

And someone stops to ask us what the gospel is and we can't quite get it out because I gotta go. Gotta run. And we left someone sitting here on the side of the without the gospel in their hands because one, we weren't prepared for it because we were just busy doing. I'm just doing. I'm just doing. And I love I love doing. I'm not preaching against doing. But can I tell you, we've got to do with a purpose. We've got to serve. That's right. >> We've got to hear first. We've got to listen for the voice of God. We've got to hear for the call of God. We've got to listen to the word of God. We've got to submit to the word of God. We've got to hear it. We've got to have it in our heart through and through.

The only way we can serve is IF WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE SERVING. >> >> I SEE A LOT OF I I I'm a I'm I'm probably going to pull on this just a little bit, but sitting down with my grandfather and brother Ellingsworth and and and pastor was such an honor to do. And there there was a saying in there my pop said he he went to Colin when we were talking about church planning just a little bit. Okay. And and I man I left that note upstairs but I I sure need it. He said, we were talking about quitting and he said, 'Well, you know, I I I went and when it didn't work, I just stayed until it did. >> What a wild concept. >> That's hard.

>> If you knew half the story of what they went through to establish a church in the middle of nowhere. But what can what can I tell you something? He was called. >> He had the the voice of God. He said, "This is God. If it works, it's on him. If it doesn't, it's on him. Can I tell us today, if we're ever going to serve God the way God wants us to serve him, we've got to know the voice of God. We've got to know the word of God. We've got to have a relationship with him that goes deeper than surface level. It's got to go deeper. It's going to have to sustain us when when all the things of life come in. When the enemy attacks us, when there's snow 20 foot deep, the word of God will sustain us.

The call of God will pull us and it will keep us trudging on and keep us WALKING ON. CAN I TELL YOU? I I'M I'M gonna I'm gonna step all over myself and ALL OVER SOME OF Y'ALL. >> Jesus never talked about burnout because HE JUST WENT AND HE JUST DID. NOW, IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN. All right? BUT WHAT IT DOES MEAN IS THAT WHEN IT HAPPENS, IT happens with purpose. It happens with meaning. CAN I TELL YOU IN OUR SERVING AND OUR DOING FOR GOD, WE IT DOESN'T MATTER IF WE'RE THE FASTEST, MOST TALENTED MESSENGER IN THE WORLD, THE FASTEST RUNNER, ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT WE'VE GOT THE MESSAGE AND WE'RE WALK WE'RE PLOTTING ALONG WITH IT. WE'VE got the word from God and we're doing it. We're living it >> RELATIONSHIPS WITH GOD. HERE'S the thing. All right.

We we live in in our culture, and I'm I'm going to get off on something here for just a moment, but but please allow me. There has to be balance in everything we do. >> Is that fair? >> Y'all with me? >> There has to be balance and diligence and and and discipline in the things of God that we do.

Can I say some of us we don't have it at home and it bleeds over to the things in in the church and then sometimes when we we we feel like we've got our things in God discipline but then and then in home and I'm I'm using home as as an all-encompassing outside of the things of God picture here but like we we we're good at church but we don't have our discipline at home and then and then there's an imbalance in our lives and we want to blame it on this and we want to pull it on that and we want to talk about this but CAN I TELL YOU THAT'S Not it >> because the gospel goes through to every part of our life. >> OUR WALK WITH GOD MUST PERMEATE THROUGH EVERY bit of our being.

IT MUST SOAK INTO EVERY PART OF OURSELVES. >> You see, when we're SERVING GOD, WE DO NOT limit God and where we're serving him. AMEN. >> WHEN WE'RE SERVING GOD, WE DO NOT PUT PARAMETERS ON WHAT GOD CAN SPEAK INTO AND WHAT GOD HAS CONTROL OF AND WHAT GOD HAS INFLUENCE ON. WHEN WE'RE SERVING GOD, WE ARE SERVING MIND, BODY, AND SOUL, and being and our fullness OF WHO WE ARE. WE ARE SUBMITTING OURSELVES UNTO THE WILL AND TO THE PLAN AND TO THE WAY OF GOD. CAN I CAN I JUST WALK IN IT FOR A MINUTE? CAN I TELL YOU, I'M AFRAID SOME OF US ARE OKAY SUBMITTING this part of our life and this part of OUR LIFE, BUT WE CAN'T GET IT ALL UNDER THE BLOOD OF GOD. AND CAN I IMPLORE OF YOU TODAY? >> CAN I ASK OF YOU TODAY?

>> YOU MAY BE IN A DESPERATE SITUATION. You may be IN HOPELESSNESS AND ALL THOSE THINGS, BUT CAN I SAY, GET THAT PART UNDER GOD. GET IT UNDER THE BLOOD. ALLOW GOD INTO THAT PART OF YOUR HOME, INTO YOUR PART OF YOUR JOB, INTO YOUR PART OF YOUR LIFE, IN YOUR MIND, IN YOUR HEART, in your soul. >> If you would stand with me, I told Eli I was going to try. I don't know if I got there, Eli. I was going to try and and get to greater serving. I didn't want to get caught up in the abysmal the abysmal because I know exactly I know that when I start talking about our our donor party experience, our desperation that we get caught up in that. I know that. And what I don't want is to stay there.

God did not intend for us to be trapped there >> and to die there. >> Faith is the evidence of the things not seen, of the things hoped for. The substance, not seen, but hoped for. Not seen. But hoped for. Not seen. but hoped for. >> Talking to a church of saints, and I mean that in the deepest sense, God's most precious people. And I came to ask of you today, a little bit of faith. Little bit of faith. Just can't see it. And I'll tell you this, yesterday I walked into maybe the most hopeless situation I've ever walked into in my life. Not for me personally. God had already given me what was what what I felt was the word for today. And I started God, I can't even see it for this. I baldled like a baby because the situation was dire.

I ain't just saying that I bald like a baby because of the hopelessness of the situation. And it was no fun. But you know what it did? I prayed. But I don't know because I can't see I can't see it for these people. I can't see it for them. I'll just tell you. I've done all the reading, all the research that I cared to do on that particular situation, and I'll just tell you there's no hope. I can't see hope. But you know what? God had already put in me the message for today. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not seen. I don't know what that is in your life, but can I tell you when I see that in your life, it hurts me. I and I'm not an overly empathetic person, okay?

Like I mean that in the spiritual it hurts me. But can I tell you I have prayed for you. I have prayed for you that in your situation that you would find God in it AND THAT GOD WOULD OPEN YOUR EYES TO SEE WHAT HE HAS planned for it. I have prayed for you. Not just me but others have prayed for you. And what I ask of you today is to find some faith. God, I am your servant. I am both willing to spend and be spent. And whatever it is, I'm your servant. Would you find a place to pray for just a moment? Would you find an altar? I don't know where your life's at. I don't know what you're looking at. But can I ask you to find a find some faith? It may not be for you.

It may be for someone else. Can I ask you to find a grain of faith for someone? Can I ask you there there's some people that need rescuing. There's some people that that even in the hope in the last minutes of in the coldest of the Februaries, they still But God God may have God mercy on our soul. May God have mercy on us. There's somebody that needs some prayer. There's somebody that needs a lifeline. That somebody And can I ask you to turn to Jesus today? Can I ask you to turn and listen to his word? Can I ask you to turn and trust in him? He didn't He didn't bring you there to leave you there. Unless he did. And if he did, God, I serve you and I am yours and I am willing to spend and be spent. I DON'T KNOW.

BUT GOD, I'VE GOT FAITH. I'VE GOT FAITH IN YOU, GOD. I'VE GOT FAITH IN YOU, LORD. I'VE GOT FAITH in you. I AM TRUSTING. I AM HOPING. I am knowing. I am believing. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.