Sand Castles

I do want to make a request before we pray and we'll read one passage of scripture. I'll have you be seated after that. But I I want to make a request. I I even talked with Pastor Brad about this this morning. The Lord and I well just me.

I wrestled with the words that I'm going to attempt to share today. I struggled not because I believe that they're not in scripture. They are. It's from the book. We're going to read a lot of scripture.

But because of what it means for the life if we were to accept what the word of God says. I feel the burden of the Lord today. He's going to call us to some things. And so I have a request. Would you pray with me in just a moment that the Lord would give us soft hearts?

We can caveat a message like this to death. But if we'll have soft hearts so we can hear the voice of the Lord, we're going to receive the implanted word of God that is able to save. And so I want to ask us to pray together that the Lord would just soften our hearts and that we'd be ready to receive his word. Can we do that together at the outset? Jesus, your word is quick and powerful.

It is true. It is sharp. It cuts deep. It gets to the point in our life and it teaches us. It instructs us.

It leads us and guides us. And Lord, we need your leading, God. We don't want to shun your word. We want your word. We want your voice, Lord.

And so we pray give us soft hearts today. Give us soft spirits, Lord, to receive the implanted word of God with meekness that is able to save us, is able to heal us and redeem us, God. Give us soft hearts. Help me to speak wisely. Give me clarity and boldness.

Yes, Lord. But give us soft hearts most of all. Let there be a move of your spirit, God. We pray and ask this in the name of Jesus. And everybody said, "Amen." Just going to read one passage of scripture while you're yet standing, and then I'll have you be seated.

Colossians 3 1-2, Paul says, "Since then, you have been raised with Christ." And thank God that we have been. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above and not on earthly things. And everybody said, "Amen." Amen.

You all can be seated in the presence of the Lord. Lord's going to help us fix our hearts and minds on the things above this morning. That's what I believe. I want to tell you a story really quick about the world's largest sand castle. It stood more than 69 feet tall.

And this creation, it required over 5,000 tons of sand. and it beat out the previous largest sand castle by more than 10 feet. It was in Germany, so Denmark beats Germany in this case. The sand castle's in Blokus and it features local ties to the surrounding areas such as you'll see in some of the artistry, beach houses and lighouses and wind surfing and kite surfing and there's even some CO 19 stuff going on in there because that's the time period it was built in. You'll see big syringes and other things and to make it durable because again it's made out of sand. The sand castle is made up of 10% clay and a layer of glue was applied to help it stand through the winter and maybe some storms and all that, but it it was really only expected to last for about seven or eight months.

And that's all the more stark when you look at some of the other details. A wood structure had to be used underneath to stabilize it because it's such a massive piece of sand. Doesn't that look crazy? That's sand. A wood structure was used to stabilize it. 30 professional artists were hired to come in and sculpt this.

And it cost approximately in 2021 half a million dollars to make this. With inflation in mind, you can imagine that we're probably approaching that million-doll mark for a sand castle. Now, admittedly, that's pretty cool, right? Who wishes that that would have been the sand castle you built on the beach? That admittedly, that is that's awesome. that that's an excellent feat of human engineering.

I don't think I could do that even with 30 professional artists. It just wouldn't happen under my leadership. And so that's really cool. But I think the reminder that this serves as or the what we should be reminded of is that that is still sand. That's still sand.

In fact, it's I'll return to this later in the message, but it's no longer standing at this point. And so with this image in mind, I feel a spiritual reminder that if we're not careful, we can spend our whole lives building sand castles that are ultimately a waste of time. Are they beautiful? Are they impressive? Do they catch the gaze of people walking by and saying, "Wow, that's really amazing." Yeah, but at the end of the day, it's just sand.

It's just sand. So, with the help of the Lord, I I just want to preach to you a simple title, sand castles. Talk about sand castles today. There's a hard truth in scripture. It goes something like this.

Some things are eternal. Some things are eternal. Some things last forever and have more importance and more value than other things. Right? Some things are eternal.

And I know that our culture and our society would try to tell us that all things are equal or that it all comes out in the wash or even that secular pursuits are more valuable or or more sustaining than eternal truths. But the truth is that some things are eternal. Some things we can leave behind and we should leave behind. Other things we must never leave behind. We have to hold on to the eternal things.

In fact, scripture in 1 John 2:15-17 draws a hard line when talking about this. John says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, it comes not from the father, but from the world. And the world in its desires pass away.

But whoever does the will of God lives forever." Now I want to make one big caveat here at the beginning and that is that this does not mean that we are not meant to reach our world. Doesn't mean that we're not meant to reach those around us. Please understand me that I'm not saying that we should abdigate our responsibility to reach those around us, our neighbors, our our our schoolmates, those that we work with. But in our efforts to reach the world, in our efforts to shine a light in our world, let's make sure that we do not adopt the practices, priorities, or values of this world. As the people of God were entering the promised land, Moses is instructed to say to the people in Deuteronomy 18:9, "When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, when you find success under my rule, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

Don't be like the people around you. You have to be different. And why was this command given? Well, Jeremiah 10 tells us, for the practices of the people are worthless. They're worthless.

And it gets specific as to why their practices are worthless. It's because they cut a tree out of the forest and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. It's describing the creation of an idol or another thing that we can worship instead of the one true God. And notice what they do. They they also go on to adorn it to beautify it with silver and gold and then they have to fasten it with hammer and nails so that it will not totter or tip over or fall.

Humanity has a long history that we see in this Jeremiah passage of propping up their own priorities and their own image in an effort to make them seem sturdy or reliable and of preeminent value. But at the end of the day, if they are not fastened down and watched over, they will ultimately fall. The truth is that there is only one set of values. There's only one way of truth. There's only one way of life that will stand the test of time, and that is a life built on the forever standing truth of God.

And I know that this is not popular, but the prophet Isaiah says it clearly. The grass withers and the flower fades. Things are going to fail. things are going to fall out of style. But the word of God, the truths of God, the ways of God, they will stand forever. Our lives, they're not meant to mirror the priorities and pursuits of this world's value systems.

They're not meant to mirror how the world goes about doing their business. Our lives are meant to mirror and reflect the desires, plans, and glorious ways of God. And when we get that in our spirit and our lives align with the word of God, that is when our lives take on eternal importance. When we get in line with the eternal God and his eternal word, our lives inherit eternal value. As 1 John 21:17, our opening text says again, the world and its desires, they pass away.

They will pass away. But whoever does the will of God will, some translations say it this way, never pass away or will go on for eternity. When our lives take on that eternal purpose that I believe God has for us today, we begin to see ourselves in the world in a new way. We begin to see that while we may be in the world, we are certainly not of it. we begin to see that our lives are not meant for secular pursuits, but instead they are meant to glorify God and to call others to God's ways and to God's kingdom. In other words, we may walk in this life, we may rub shoulders with people in this life, we may be in the upper echelons of society, but when our lives get in line with God, we take on the eternal mission of God.

And that eternal mission is to see his kingdom grow and expand and take over. His kingdom should grow through us. In fact, Jesus would pray this very type of missional living over his disciples and by extension over us. Jesus prays this. He says, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

I don't pray that you just rapture all the good people out and leave the world to its own devices." No. But I do pray that you protect them from the evil one that so easily exerts his influence over the values and priorities of this life that so easily entreats us and tricks us to chase after temporal things rather than the eternal. And he says they are not of the world. They're not like the world. They don't share the same values.

They don't share the same priorities. They don't have the same goals just like I'm not of the world. So here's the prayer of Jesus. Instead of taking them out of the world, sanctify them or protect them, make them holy, set them apart for the things of God. Sanctify them by the truth.

Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world on a mission to seek and save the lost and to see lives changed and healed and brought back into relationship with God. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. A life that measures up to Jesus's prayer over it is a life full of eternal value. A life that is in love with and committed to the kingdom of God.

It's a life that is obsessive about the kingdom of God. It's a life that shows up to church whenever we can. It's a life that invests in kingdom things whenever we can. It's a life that is obsessed with teaching Bible studies. It's a life that is obsessed with teaching our children and our family and our loved ones the ways and wisdom of God.

That's a life full of eternal value. And I understand that we can hear the call to be eternally committed to the kingdom of God. And and we can feel the stress of life. A life that's trying to provide. A life that's trying to make money.

A life that's trying to be a good steward and take care of all the things that life requires. And life requires a lot, doesn't it? Life requires a lot of us, doesn't it? So, I understand the stress that we can have trying to manage our life and then throw kingdom living on top. And I freely admit that the Christian many times is asked to do twice the work that we've got to live and be successful in this life and take care of the bills and take care of family and all that stuff and propagate the kingdom of God.

You better believe that's twice the work. But please hear me and hear the caution of Christ. Missional, intentional kingdom living should not be thrown on top. It should be the first thing and then everything else should follow. And that's not Peter saying that.

That's Jesus in Matthew 6 when he says, "So do not worry." Saying, "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans, one of my favorite words my youth students know, the unbelieving pagans that don't trust God, they run after or they chase after these temporal worldly things. And your heavenly father knows that you need of them.

He's he's not saying that they don't matter. We need clothing. Thank God y'all have clothing on today. We need clothing. We need food.

We need Chick-fil-A. We need all of those things. And the Lord knows. He knows that we need that. And more than just knowing, he promises to provide those things for us.

But here's the order of operations in verse 33. But seek first. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and then all these things will be given to you as well. Now, we cannot pretend that those words of Christ are easy or simple. They're they're neither easy nor simple.

Absolutely not. But neither can we pretend that they are not on the pages of scripture. We either believe that God is our provider and therefore give our best to kingdom pursuits or we take onto ourselves a worry that God has rightfully claimed for himself. That's the choice that we're presented with. We either believe God and say, "Okay, you're going to provide for me, so I'm going to chase after your kingdom." Or we say, "You know what, God?

I want that worry back. Let me worry about that." And well, hopefully the kingdom stuff will get done. No. Jesus says, "Seek it first. Seek it first." And I I know the church that I'm speaking to.

I I know that APC is a high functioning, high capacity group of successful individuals that work hard and are excellent in everything that they do. And I am for excellence. I am for hard work. I am for shining the light of Christ through a hard work worth ethic and pursuit of quality. I am for all of those things.

But please hear the caution of Jesus again when he says the kingdom should be at the forefront of our minds and at the forefront of everything we do. We cannot get it confused. If we get it confused, we forsake the teachings of Christ. If we get it confused, we get our priorities out of whack. If we get it confused, I promise ultimately you will not be happy.

It will never be enough. But if you seek the kingdom first, if you seek it first, if you seek it first and all these other things, they'll take care of themselves. We should continually be asking questions like this. How does my job fit into the kingdom? How does my job aid the building of the kingdom?

How do how does my education fit into the kingdom? How do my relationships open doors to the kingdom? How do my giftings bless the kingdom? How do my choices bless and build the kingdom? How do my priorities reflect my commitment to the kingdom?

How has God blessed me? And how have I used these blessings for the kingdom? How can I build the kingdom? How can I ensure the kingdom is built into my family and into my children and into my friends? How can I make sure and if we don't have answers to these questions?

Maybe we need to rethink our priorities. Or if we say, you know what, my job really doesn't fit into the kingdom, then maybe we need a new job. I know that that's hard preaching, but Jesus said it first that if we don't have the kingdom at the forefront of our minds, we really got to rethink some things. And I know that that that sounds obsessive. That sounds strange.

That sounds dogmatic. That sounds like that's going over the top. But that is the point that Jesus was making. Seek first. Seek first.

Not second, not fifth, not 10th, not 20th, but seek first. Let everything else be peripheral. Let everything else be a byproduct. Let everything else be seen for what it is. It's temporary.

It's passing. It has an expiration date. Let everything else be revealed today as sand castles. Maybe maybe they're impressive in this temporal moment before kingdom come. But I promise you the day will come and it will be revealed for what they are.

They are only sin. I know you might get praise in this life. I know you might get promotions. I know you might have a lot of friends. I know you might get the letters behind your name.

I know you might make a lot of money, but it's sand. Oh, somebody hear the burden of the Lord. It's just sand. It's not lasting. It's fading.

It's not going to be here at the end of the day. It's just sand. But at the same breath, let the kingdom be seen for what it is. It is the only lasting thing of any value, of any worth, of any glory. It is the only thing on the face of the planet that promises eternal change and salvation for the broken, healing for the wounded and purpose for the empty.

The kingdom of God is no sand castle. It is the eternal city of God that gives life to the rest of the world. Can I say that I am so thankful for the kingdom of God? Church doesn't get old to me. APC, the kingdom of God doesn't get old to me.

That word of God doesn't get old to me. Moves of the spirit of God don't get old to me because it's the only thing that's going to stand the test of time. It's the only thing that's going to be here at the end of it all. It's eternal. It's eternal.

It's eternal. It's eternal. Please don't hear me saying that I think we should be lazy. Please don't hear me saying that we should be antisocial, that the world around us doesn't matter. Please don't hear me saying that.

I don't think we should do or think any of those things, but we should. We should. Somebody hear me. We should have our priorities and values in order. Her opening text, I read again Colossians 3 1-2.

Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above and not on earthly things. It doesn't say 50/50. It doesn't say 7030.

It doesn't say 80 20, 9010, 955. Doesn't say any of that. It says set your mind and heart. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. Jesus in the New Testament is all your mind.

So our hearts and our minds, our entire beings should be on the things above and not on things of the earth. I know that's hard. I know that's difficult. And I'm not here to condemn. I'm in the same boat trying to have a moment of serious self-reflection.

I've had a good measuring stick in my life to find out if I've shifted my thinking from the things above to the things of this world. And it goes something like this. If kingdom life becomes a burden that frustrates me, my heart and mind are somewhere else. Man, pastor keeps telling us, pastor keeps telling us that we need to teach more Bible studies. I just don't have time for that.

Pastor keeps telling us in order to grow and stay faithful to God, we've got to be here on Sunday and Wednesday and join a connect group and and volunteer and give our time. And I just I just don't have I'm just so busy. If I could just focus on my work, if I could just get my mind back on my work, if I could just get my attention back on the things that I need to handle, then maybe I'll get to the kingdom stuff. That's where we're at. Maybe we have given our allegiance to someone else.

When we spend more time equipping ourselves for worldly excellence, and I'm for worldly excellence in so far that it blesses the kingdom. But if we spend more time equipping ourselves for worldly success than we do, as the scripture instructs us, growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, maybe, just maybe, our minds in the wrong things. And perhaps we need an alignment or an adjustment to get our hearts back on the things of God. and God help us to do it. There could be a million reasons for why it's quiet in the church. I'm not going to guess as to why.

Just want to admit something. I know that this is hard preaching. I know that it's not enjoyable. I know that it's not entertaining. I know that it's not pretty.

But it's the truth. If our minds have wandered, God, help us to get them back on the right thing. Here's the truth. I don't know where any of you stand today. I don't know if you're wasting your life on sand castles or if you're quietly building the kingdom of God through faithfulness in 20 areas.

I really don't have a full picture like the Lord does. I'm simply here to echo what Paul said as I work to stir a moment of critical and necessary reflection. Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4. Says, "Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time." What is the appointed time? Wait until the Lord comes.

When he comes, he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God. Again, I I'm just pushing for a moment of honest reflection this morning because the truth is that there will be a day where our labor in this life will come under the judgment of God for good or for ill. First Corinthians 3 says it this way, "But on the judgment day, when this day gets here, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder, each life has produced. The fire will show if a person's work has any value.

The Lord returns, he's going to look at our lives and he's going to say, "Either maybe we made it to heaven and he says, "I'm I'm glad you're here, but your life didn't have a whole lot of value in the kingdom. I don't want that to be my story. I'm thankful for making it to heaven. I hope everybody makes it to heaven, but I don't want to walk in and say, "Woo, barely made it. I want to walk in, as this scripture says, that everyone's praise will be from God." I want to walk in to the face of Christ.

I made it to heaven. He says, "Thank you. Thank you for your efforts. Thank you for your kingdom mindedness. Thank you for your sacrifice.

Thank you. I know that sounds weird that God would praise us, but the scripture says it. Our life will have eternal value to him. As we search the scriptures for what the Lord would consider valuable, I think passage of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 helps encapsulate what would be considered a valuable effort in this life. He says, "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.

Let nothing move you. always give yourselves fully fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord. You know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. I said at the beginning, you could caveat this sermon to death, but please just hear my heart. Everything else in this life, you could have every house you've ever wanted. You could have the nicest car.

You could have worldly success. You could have fame. You could have education. You could have a life of leisure, a life of selfish, selfishness that you just focus on yourself the whole time. But at the end of it all, if it has nothing to do with the kingdom of God, it will be all in vain.

Feel this morning that I'm trying to pull back some people that have decided to pursue some sand castle building in their life. I'm saying, "Hey, I know it looks good now. I know it looks good here, but ultimately it's going to be a waste of time. I know it's getting attention from the world right now. Now, I know you're popular right now.

I know all eyes are on you right now. But I promise you, on that day, it's going to look very different. I promise you, on that day, it's not going to be so pretty. I promise you on that day, it's not going to be worth all the time and all the effort and all the energy that we poured into it, I feel like I'm pulling back some people from the edge. Try as we may to fool ourselves into thinking that our vain pursuits of self-indulgence are of any eternal value, we will find out one day the extent to which we wasted time on trivial, temporal, and earthly matters.

But to a greater degree, but to a greater degree, we will be overjoyed to see that our work for the eternal things will last forever. We will be caught up with the greatest of joys when we realize that thing that cost us so much energy and we were unsure about and we had to look at it through eyes of faith because we didn't know if it was a worthy investment on that day. We're going to meet Jesus and we're going to realize that was an eternal thing. We're going to realize that that Bible study that we taught that brought somebody salvation, that was an eternal thing. We're going to find out that faithful financial giving is an eternal thing.

We're going to find out that to bring our children and our families to church no matter what is an eternal thing. Even if we've got to fight, even if we're late because it took us longer to get ready, it's an eternal thing. That opportunity that we have to turn down because it would pull us away from the house of God and the people of God, we're going to find out that that decision was an eternal thing. That prayer life that takes a little bit of extra time in the morning. You got to wake up and rub the sleep out of your eyes.

You're going to find out one day that it was an eternal thing. That family devotion that you decided to instill in your family and it it took time and they'd rather be doing other things. They'd rather go outside or play video games or hang out with friends or whatever. That family devotion is going to be seen for what it is. It wasn't just a family fight.

It was an eternal thing. It wasn't just a Bible study. It was an eternal thing. That decision to prioritize the things of God in your life. It's an eternal thing.

That decision to weed out everything that has nothing to do with the kingdom. That was an eternal thing that mattered. That's going to last forever. It's all forever. It's all eternal.

It's all eternal music. You can come, you know, I I tried to find what happened to that sand castle that we were all blown away with. Even this week, I went to the Google, the all knowing Google. I was like, what happened to the block Denmark sand castle uh new report? I even like itemized it by date.

You know how you can do that in Google? You I only want things from 2023 and forward, you know? Do you know I found nothing? They're like, "Look how great it is." Anyway, so you're telling me all that attention? You're telling me all that attention, all that effort, all those eyes that were fixed on this event, all that money, all that resource, all that professionalism, the 30 professional artists, all of that stuff. and nobody cares anymore.

In fact, the only thing that I could find was from the older post and it said it will likely be taken down early next year. It had an expiration date that people knew about. I couldn't find anything. They had to tear it down because as the weather warmed, it posed a danger to the area around it. It started to decay and fall apart.

They're like, "We don't need a sandslide. killing somebody walking by. So, they take it down. But I want to tell you about another building as we close out. Really two buildings, but it's one story. William Seymour was an early 20th century African-American pastor and he was called to the California area to take over a local church pastor.

Now, unfortunately, the pastorship didn't work out. Long story. But William Seymour came to believe that God was really trying to do something of eternal value in his generation and through him and those working with he became convinced of that. And so instead of becoming discouraged to the point of surrender, he actually started a Bible study and a prayer meeting and it was held at 214th North Bonnie Bray Street. There it is.

Just started a Bible study. Hey, I believe God's going to do something. Let's just gather together. Let's pray and let's let's study the Bible. The home was small, but it held the potential for the revival Seymour believed God wanted to pour out.

Now, Seymour's message, it was really simple. All the Bible studies went something like this. God wants to pour out revival in California. He wants to pour out of his spirit just like the book of Acts says in California and in the world. And he he emphasized you can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost as a sign that God is pouring out his spirit even into your life.

He also taught that God was a God of miracles and a God of healing and he could supernaturally work in your life. And some people actually called his ministry into question for believing God could do the miraculous. We would all be in question. Now, as visitors to the prayer meeting and the Bible studies began to receive the Holy Ghost and experience miracles of healing and supernatural power, they quickly outgrew that little old house and they had to move to 312 Isuza Street. It was a white dilapitated abandoned church that had been left and been repurposed as a storage facility.

And believe it or not, in the bottom floors as a horse stable. There's William Seymour to the left of it. Now, it wasn't much to look at. In fact, they had to tear it down a few years later for safety reasons. Wasn't much to look at.

And even the $8 a month rent that the congregants had to pay was probably too steep for the state of the building. But here again lay the cradle of the greatest revival the modern world will ever see. So, no one looking in that building in 1906 would have thought anything of it. In fact, the newspapers, the newspapers, they considered it, oh, it's just some local fanatics and they just really love God and they're getting together. Nothing will come out of it.

And sometimes the newspapers, both secular and Christian, by the way, sometimes they disparaged Seymour and those gathering at 312 Isuza, they said that they're embarrassing and they're out of their mind. They really need to give up. But none of that, none of that intimidated or dismayed those believers in the forming church from committing their lives to the eternal things. So instead of falling prey to what everybody else thought it looked like, they held services for three years straight almost every day. Y'all want to go for it?

But they believed God was trying to do something. So for three years, every day held services and people begin to seek after the spirit of God in their own life and healings begin to happen regularly. The miraculous became normal. And even even the racial division so prominent in the early 20th century was all but washed away. Every ethnic group known at that time in California sat under the same power of God and the same building and worshiped the Lord together.

As one theologian once said, "It seems like the color line was washed away in the blood at a Zuza Street revival." Now soon news would spread about what God was doing at Isuza and thousands and I mean thousands would flood to the area and begin to attend the services and check out what was happening and and many of them experienced the healings and the miraculous power of God and most of them like 95% of them left filled with the spirit of God and as they left and went their own ways and and went back to where they were from soon that we started seeing churches pop up everywhere somewhere in Chicago and New York a lot of the South and Midwest a bunch of churches were either being converted to the apostolic message believing that God wanted to be active and moving in the life of the church or these were new churches that were planted preaching the apostolic truth by those who experienced the power at Isuza Street. But not only was the United States affected by this revival, but globally missionaries flooded into Europe. Coming from Isuza, they just said, "Yeah, you know, from here, Europe." That's the next time they fled into Europe preaching the apostolic message. Missions churches were started all over in the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, South Africa, Egypt, Liberia, Toronto. By the time researchers got wind of how crazy this event was and they started recording the numbers of people that have been affected by the Isuza Street revival, their number was 50 million people had been affected by the revival that took place in an old horse stable.

Modern numbers, the best I could do looking them up, range from 300 to 600 billion. Y'all, it started as a Bible study. Started as a prayer meeting. No investor would look at that and say, "They've got it going for them." Nobody without eyes of faith would see this happening and say, "You know what? That's going to spark the greatest revival that's going to affect maybe 600 million people for the kingdom of God." Nobody looking at that.

Not even today if they don't know the story would say, "Yeah, that's where it all happened." This great impact is also the beginnings of this church. This moment that we're all experiencing, sharing a long-winded preacher message, worshiping together, hearing wonderful music, all this stuff. You realize that this doesn't happen without that Bible study. This doesn't happen without those few believers at the beginning saying we believe that God wants to do something in our generation. We believe that we were not meant to build sand castles.

We believe that our lives are not meant for temporary or temporal or worldly pursuits. No, we believe that our generation, we believe that God wants to use our generation for the eternal things. They became so taken by the eternal that everything else began to look like sand. It began to look worthless. It began to look meaningless.

And maybe to the world what they did seemed unimpressive. Maybe to the world that those that house that 312 Isuza Street building, maybe all that looked silly. Maybe all that newspapers calling him crazy. All that stuff. Maybe to the world it was unimpressive. to God.

To God, he's looking down and saying, "I'm about to pour out my spirit. I'm about to impact 600 million people. I'm about I'm about to plant churches here and there. I'm about to give hope to that community. I'm about to give strength to that family.

I'm about to heal that whole country that needs the light of the gospel. I'm about to do that." And and all the while, you've just got a few people knelt down in an old house saying, "God, we need your eternal work. God, we're not wasting our time on anything else. God, we're not looking anywhere else. God, we're not building sand castles.

God, we're not wasting our time and talent on worldly pursuits. We want you. We want the kingdom. We want the good news. We want the kingdom of God.

All while that was happening, if we could just see in the supernatural, I believe that God had battle lines drawn and a spiritual map laid out saying, "I'm about to change the world." And I wonder today if we could get the same spirit of faith in our minds and in our hearts and say, "It might just be a Bible study. It might just be a decision to start talking about the Bible with my kids. It It might just be a decision to start prioritizing the church a little bit more. It might just be a decision to walk away from some things that look promising and look good like they're going to bring value to my life. It might just be a decision.

It might look silly to the world. It it might not make sense. You're really going to church again. You're really reading the Bible again. You're really going to walk away from that school opportunity.

You're really going to walk away from that workplace opportunity. You're really going to do this. People are going to laugh at you and they're going to think that you're silly. you're really going to do that. And the whole time, God is saying, "Please do it. Oh, please do it.

I know it doesn't look like much to them, but trust me, it's sand if you follow them. I know it doesn't look like much to the world, but trust me, you choose this path. It's an eternal thing. You choose this way, it's an eternal thing." I would to God that the weight of eternity would rest on every heart and every life and every mind in this place. Because what I felt the Lord leading us to today is a moment of decision. moment of decision.

Will we stay steady working away at our sand castles, beautiful as they may be, you might tell me about it and I'd be like, "Wow." But we stay working on those sand castles. We say, "You know what? Ultimately, this is really just a big waste of time. God, I'm stepping away and I'm turning to you and I'm turning to the eternal things. It might look as simple as this.

Walking down to the front of the altar, lifting your hands and saying, "Lord, I want my life to be about the eternal things." That doesn't look like much, but if you could see in the spiritual, it's a moment of turning for him. It's a moment of revival that's going to begin to fill your heart and your life. and then will begin to spill out into the lives of others. Would you stand with me across this place? I have tried to convey a difficult truth. Now ultimately we are left with an opportunity to choose.

Will we remain where we are? Keep chasing the things that we're chasing. Will we turn fully to God? Say, "Lord, I'm yours." If your desire is to turn to the Lord and make your life about the eternal things, these altars are open. It might not look like much, but as you come forward, I promise you, the Lord will begin to speak to you.

Begin to do a work in your life. Begin to change some things. Maybe you have to lay some things down. That's okay. Lay it down.

It's sand anyway. Maybe you've got to pick some new habits up. That's okay. Pick them up. Those are the eternal things.

Oh, let the weight of eternity fall in this place. Let the weight of the call of God fall in this place. Let it be here. Let it be now. Let it be in this moment.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. God, lead us.

God, speak to us. God, stir our hearts and our minds. Lead us away from the sand castle. Lead us away from the temporal. Lead us away from the earthly and the worldly.

Lead us to the eternal. Yes, the Lord's hearing this. He's hearing this. He's hearing the cry. He's hearing the request.

And he's responding. He's answering. He's moving. He's going to use you. He's going to use your life.

He's going to use your family. He's going to change you. He's going to change your family. He's going to change your priorities. He's going to change your values.

Oh, but they're going to be eternal. They're going to be eternal. They're going to be eternal. They're going to be eternal. That's good.

Cry out to the Lord. Jesus. Jesus. Bring us to the eternal things. Bring us to the eternal things.

God, help us to lay down the sand. Help us to step away from the sand, God, to turn to you with our whole heart, with our whole minds. Set our minds and our hearts on the things above, God. Lead us to that place, Lord. Lead us to that place, God. Yes.