Build the Future Ep #1

this month we are building for the future everybody say the future everybody say the future the future there's a lot that can be said about direction and guidance where we're headed and so forth i believe that we all are on a path are we not we're all making headway headed someplace none of us are where we were right we've all progressed even if it's just today right and you'll keep going when you leave here tonight if it'd make you feel better you can you want to really feel progressive don't hesitate tonight during this bible study to get up and move chairs if that would help you feel like you're logan just you know your shot thing you can say look at her i did you know you can feel better about what you need um because we all want to move forward i believe the future is bright for the church or where somebody believed that i believe the future for the church is bright i also believe that there will be troubles amen perilous dangerous don't you dare be dismayed or disgruntled or be deceived things are not going to get better unless you fall in love with jesus more and more all right that said we are going to over the next several weeks on wednesday nights we are going to use this as our as our background we're going to use this book there are seven points mentioned here we're going to touch five of them over the next few weeks so i will reference a lot of information out of this particular book okay this is not a life change book it's simply a reference okay uh jeremiah if you have your bible we're going to go old testament jeremiah we'll read all of it or at least the verse that we're gonna look at we got enough is he we good buddy all right you can sit right there on that front that way if somebody comes in they've got one or if you didn't get one all right that's on re that's on purpose we want you to guess what we're saying yeah all right jeremiah chapter 17 verse number nine chapter 17 verse nine of jeremiah can somebody with a really loud outside voice read that verse for me please okay someone else can you help loud the heart is deceitful thank you to him above all things and everybody say it desperately wicked wow that's just a we're going to stop right there we won't talk about it or anything that's just that's just food for thought for the rest of the night now when you feel good with that one the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it tonight first session again we're talking building for the future this is what i felt like in prayer several two three months back i was praying about this session of course you guys know how i do it as pastor i have a whole year laid out monthly topics and themes and then i start digging out materials or i find materials last year and i lay them okay that's just how i keep my sanity of some sort um and when i was putting together the material for building for the future it was very profound almost that the lord was very kind to tap me on the shoulder and say you need to go talk about some things in the past i am i am convinced y'all listen pastor real quick i am convinced there is not more holy ghost for you to have now there are experiences in the holy ghost amen there are depths and heights but the holy ghost is the spirit of god so for those who in their life of five years know in the lord five minutes or 50 years don't expect that you know what god's going to get bigger he's god you can't put him in a box you can't hold him in a jar you can't put him in a pouch he's god coolest thing about god is you didn't build him he did not consult you when he made everything around everybody understands the power of our god so in in putting together this lesson this series of lessons i came across this material and i began to read it and man my heart was convicted i said lord if i'm in my walk with you if i am doing things incorrectly i i can't have a bright future because i got stuff that i need to settle i believe that our god has got a victory everybody believe that come on you believe god's got a victory then why is it you pray every day why do you have struggles every day because in the midst of the victory we still realize the battle is very real and so you got to get up and you got to pray and how many want to quit sometimes yeah sure but you know that's not the option right you see what i'm saying stay with me tonight to build for the future over the next five wednesday nights we're going to look at some things about our past and i'm hoping i really felt the holy ghost while i'm reading this book and i'm trying to get this material together pull it out of here this author is a pastor of a church he's a minister of of you know he's thought out and studied he's a lawyer he was and and you'll find out in the book if you read it that he gave that practice up while he was in his law office going to the break room stop looked out the window down the road and saw a church and at that church he looked and the window the light was on and that in the lighted window was a desk and at that desk was a minister and he said if god ever spoke he did there and he said that needs to be you and so he walked away from his law practice and god began to use him note to self god still speaks amen now lesson number one cynicism what does it mean to be cynical anybody got siri out there go ahead syria okay doubt what else anybody what does it mean to be cynical not clinical cynical trust okay lack of hope yeah isaac you're sitting there with your phone ask ask siri go ahead i'll wait read it you have a slow phone or like me fat fingers anybody cynical say it again real loud read it they are motivated by self-interest cynical anybody here ever experienced that feeling anybody care to raise your hand identify is anybody smack in the middle of it tonight we've got an altar three-way here right um again when i started into this book a month or so ago and i began to look and and i slowly read it because it really it really um it really it really spoke to me there are things that god desires to do in people there are things that god desires to do in the church but friend of mine many times we have become great judges of the people that god puts in our lives how many have ever thought maybe never said it with a loud voice but you thought it oh they don't want god they're just they're just out to get more money anybody yeah i'm gonna raise my hand that way if anybody else raises it there'll be two of us no they don't want truth i have as of late believe it or not i have heard pastors say people don't want truth anymore y'all hang on to me man okay i'm gonna help us for the future we have just come through a month of revival anybody enjoy it i believe god planted some incredible seeds in our lives but friend of mine if we're going to put feet underneath the discipleship that we need to do and the things that we need to do to reach our community of chattanooga we're going to have to deal with some things cynicism being cynical question number one on your paper i want to give you some time to answer have you or do you struggle with the bible and its stories because the information is so real second part of this question hang on to it do you sense a loss of hope in the events that are recorded there in those stories let me give you a couple examples how many has ever read the the story of noah knowing the big fish right anybody knowing what yeah the the lion's den that's it's in there but it's not connected no in the ark how many believe that that happened question have you ever prayed to god for something so incredibly magnanimous like noah did and wonder how in the world did noah deal with that for over 100 years while he built this heart god i'm just asking you for an answer and god not come through and the way you thought he would causes you sometimes donut to lose hope i mean he's ever felt like well i messed up and so now i'm paying the penalty for it or how many's ever said this i know i have and i've had to re-look at it a hundred times god only helps those who helps themselves i've said that to myself so i got to get up and go help myself friend i have learned in my life as i grow older that there are sometimes i can't even help myself but i still think god loves me cynical daniel the lion's den how incredible of a story is that huh isn't it anybody here feel like you're in a lion's den what can happen with biblical stories from the time you learn them as a child as you grow up what can happen with those stories is although you read them and although you try to understand them the older you get or the more experiences in life that you go through you can actually face the challenge of what was so better greater more whatever with the three hebrew children or with daniel or with noah or with moses or with abraham or any of these guys what is so different about me come on i preached stories what would make god tell abraham to kill his son and we stand here in 2022 and we shout and we say because god knew what he was doing and but abraham didn't and guess what we can begin to lean on the but abraham didn't and we can remove god's plan from it because of our cynical attitudes that we can have when you go to reach for your neighbor just try to help somebody how many believe there's people out there trying to take advantage of you sure they do it every day yesterday man i was taken advantage of i don't mind saying i almost called the police i i had to spend five dollars or something on a gallon of fuel man now somebody took advantage of me because i know it didn't cost that much tim to make i'm going to get a gallon of milk for i'm like wait a minute a dozen eggs here's one y'all go hell here we go pastor's on the all he had were like 69 cents a dozen like two months ago and this week i'm like three dollars a dozen i'm like the chickens are the same am i alone fine here reach for me now just a minute hang on to me here's what can happen we can become very cynical about the way people do things and we can think only they are out for themselves they don't want god they don't care about god they are simply looking for themselves they they they don't trust human nature they don't trust what people's doing listen friend every one of us are full of sin except for the blood of jesus christ the power of the cross changes us but the beauty of that work on the cross is this you're still here you would have thought by now that that i mean in my mind by now i would have thought that my wife's wings would have come and then she doesn't get a cup of coffee in the morning no that explains it right there i'm joking i mean you know you you would think that you're as close to god as you'll ever be when you receive the gift of the holy ghost speak in tongues when you're baptized sins are washed away you would think that go right no that's not how it works why because you have to learn as a child of god to go through the day in and the day out believing and trusting in the power of the word of god and as we're hurt and as we face problems and as people come against us and as we stumble and fall and as we are disappointed and we don't make the goal that we need to we can begin to develop this attitude of i i just don't trust them i don't know who they think they are and we can watch them come through the doors of this church just in his example and before we ever go shake their hand we have judged them by our past experiences and by what we've been through and all the while god's saying you prayed a prayer that i would send sinners to your church look at you why don't you believe in the in the nature of jesus more than the nature of man well because men will hurt you you absolutely right they will men will hurt themselves that's right i mean i'm talking about come on men will hurt themselves for whatever reason when i was young man i would jump off a roof i didn't i do all kind of dumb stuff i mean i hear tell people in here run 20 30 miles and i'm sitting there going what in the world are they thinking i didn't point to anybody did i huh everybody's like who that is know i i hear tell that there's people here that that go and do things and i'm like what in the world i mean some folk will even tear up their van just to get spent a night in a hotel that's just hard to believe ain't it i didn't say nobody's name just for a breakfast bar you knew i was gonna do that right her you knew i was do you struggle then with the stories that you read in the scriptures you know the bible's true don't you well then why didn't god come through for you but it came through for them huh we read about this much of moses's story and we're not there for the day in and the day out are we and we'll judge everything about that man off of that one story i'm convinced that when his father-in-law came to him he was standing there doing the best he could and his father-in-law said you better listen buddy we didn't get all that story all we got was things were out of whack you got to still believe listen to pastor not you still have to believe the bible is the bible the word of god is still true there is still hope there is still hope there is still hope look at your neighbor and say hope so the question is thank you for saying that to your neighbor number two hopefully you're writing on this piece of paper don't feel bad i don't want to take this back up you can have it okay just no airplanes what does hope mean to you right now the word hope what does it mean to you right now and has it changed the meaning of it changed over the years what does hope mean to you here's the thing if we become so cynical that we don't think hope can ever reach anybody then we ourselves become hopeless i do believe that hope takes on different meanings don't you i i really do has anybody here ever hoped that you'd make something or get something or attain something huh well i remember vividly sitting in my class graduation when i graduated high school man i was hoping that they would call me up for the student of the year and i don't even know why i thought that because i knew i wasn't that person but i was hopeful i didn't even know how to spell salutatorian or valedictorian so i wouldn't expect in that dakota now if i could have spelled it maybe um anybody ever been disappointed that you didn't attain something and you stand back go can you believe i didn't hit that i knew i could and i mean when everybody else in the whole world was looking at you going no we knew you wouldn't i don't know why you thought you would i should have got that raise i mean i'm the one that should be in that position not that other guy because i hope i hope they see how valuable i am and therefore they they give to me a raise or another job or another position right and then then our hopes are dashed against the stones of life and we walk away mad and cynical and i don't even then you know what they don't even know they missed a good opportunity i've said that before when i lost jobs they don't even know they don't even know it's sure they knew they knew i wouldn't be there the next day now it may not have been great for them or whatever i was still out on the street looking for another job here's my point friend of mine if you believe in the word of god you better believe acts 2 38 as well as you do all the other ones and if you ever let the enemy come in and let your humanity rise up and begin to lose hope for those standing around you friend you are in the same condition they are because you can as we learned sunday you can be in the father's house and still miss it because the view from the field and the view from the pig pen is the same the trip back is different stay hang on to me a minute number three here's something that my wife and i we chatted a moment about it today just it's just interesting that this author brings this out what is your level of curiosity concerning life concerning living are you still curious about things anybody or are you just kind of in in the mode and you're just kind of living life they get up you know you know where breakfast is you know you just kind of finish kind of there have you lost your ability to be curious because that's one way that can help you overcome your cynicism is think about you know what i'm gonna i wonder how this works i wonder how that is i wonder what this would look like now all you guys know as pastor i have a really strange imagination i'm thankful that i still have one i am because a lot of folk have lost their imagination things are very black and white sum of they have no ability to imagine things you know i still believe that this can be a gun because when i was six it was a great one and i never died i shot you first i mean i'm talking about i thought i shot you first no i dodged it how did you dodge a bullet that wasn't there from a gun that's not up real but the imagination does what all right show of hands men how many of you guys as a young person as a kid jumped off the roof with an umbrella hoping to soar huh did you soar yes i was sore the next day went right into that bush man i tore out that bush went to pieces on me i had no idea that a bush wouldn't catch me yeah i don't even just boom curiosity i wonder what happened if i did this huh me and my brothers we used to be very curious okay i'm gonna sock you in the arm and then you sock me in the arm and we'll see who can take it anybody remember playing licks huh did you ever win no no i didn't my brother was so sinewy and all that i'd whacked the snot out of him he'd go whoo he hit me and he called me solid pow and i'm like whoa you know i'm not going to cry i'm not going to cry right curia curiosity have you lost your ability to be curious about things listen to me hang on to me as adults i think we become smarter no you're not going to punch me in the arm you're not why because that's dumb durran and i were talking a few weeks ago about the infamous yard darts anybody remember that game and then the shooting the bow and arrow and the arrow up in the air and you had to stay put into anybody else play that man my brother and i and all know it was so much fun until somebody got hurt we used to run with scissors just to see if now i'm joking i'm joking a joke kids are in kids church right look what i'm doing sorry curiosity let me listen to me carefully this is what can happen to us have you ever been curious about the ability god has to do things but you weren't able to trust him for it because your cynicism caused you to think well god will never do it for me as god ever verbalized his voice to you where you heard it now god don't do that maybe god does but you won't be curious enough to go deep in your prayer life to see if it will have you lost your curiosity about life huh my wife and i we used to love to do roller coasters anybody else a roller coaster fanatic y'all are just all up in the air these guys over here are sleeping no we we we watch we watch i bet y'all watch those youtube videos of kids opening their christmas presents don't lie don't you you ain't that cool look living my life through them anyway roller coasters michelle and i used to ride them oh man they were great and then we got older logan and we got hurt my wife and she can't be and i can't because of her now i would now i would but you know i got to make sure i take care of my wife because they said if she hurt her neck you know again with her stroke that and so because of that honey she's anyway cedar point anybody ever been there great i think great roller coasters scary as all get out there so cool the last time we went the only time we went first time we went i could say any of those we waited in line about five minutes for one of these roller coasters that went 120 miles an hour and i'm standing there watching my son's standing there we gonna write that we're gonna ride it your mom your mom won't uh we probably need to go i thought you were going to ride the roller coaster i thought i heard you calling for us go ride it sorry son now we missed the line you know what i'm saying not that curious hang on to me hang on to me the reason some of these are are are somewhat comical is because we have developed habits and things in our lives as we grow older and we have missed so many things that god has for us i'm gonna talk about the roller coaster i'm talking about the ability to be curious god i wonder are you really a healer if i can pray a prayer god in mountains move am i curious enough to have the faith to believe god can do it am i willing to do something that i've not done because i'm curious about what will happen you understand because i don't know and i don't want life to sneak up on me and pass me by next thing you know i become like i am now no i just soon have a cup of coffee and watch it hang on to me hang on to me do you feel yourself number four becoming busy in your day-to-day activities and in so doing you have lost your ability to wonder about what's out there in this big world not wander but wonder do you ever think and mull over things in life things happening in your world man i do and sometimes it's very silly but you know i wonder sometimes how does that happen how does an airplane really fly i mean this dude weighs tons and it supersedes all the laws of gravity and it flies now of course my degree i understand it scientifically i know how it flies i can explain it right now but in my mind i wonder sometimes how those things came about here's one i do this a lot because of again my my brain works a little awkward i sit sometimes in in complete silence and i just wonder about things we have geese in the pond next to our house and i wonder a lot about those why are they here i wish they weren't because i have no idea what they're saying this morning i'm trying to have my quiet prayer time to code out on my swing right right right right and i'm like how does that breathe there's got to be air coming in but all i hear is why why why now how is air coming in when you're waiting sooner or later you'd run out and i'm like guy's lung can't be this big well then the cool part is is now 42 of them chime in and it's all the same language right and i'm wondering if i shot one shot could i hit them all joking a joke joking mostly now here's my point just wondering about that they had six little ones running around now i wonder how that happened i want anybody understand these geese i'm bum-fuzzled by it there's two geese that take care of the little ones that's all the same too that i notice and all these other guys are out there and i'm like why don't y'all swap tag off with them over there and then i figured it out they don't have a hand you can't tag you're it like they would sorry i'm trying to figure i wonder about these things who tells them when they can get in the water and when they need to get out y'all think i'm silly i'm wondering about these things and after a few minutes of this wondering i'm don't tell my mind settles itself i'll tell you i'm praying my morning prayer out on the porch or by chair depending on whether and i wonder some of these things and then i don't mind saying i back up and i say lord i don't understand why but i'm thankful that you do and i settle the fact that me wondering about it stretches my mind enough because if if god cares enough about why why why why he cares enough about me some of us have lost the ability to wonder about things we're not curious about stuff anymore therefore we become cynical why are they this and why and i how many are in the position on your jobs that you want to be in how many you want to advance on your job okay are you expecting they're going to come in and say you know what we flipped a coin and you won because by and large that would be the only way that you would deserve that is by the flip of the coin because you're probably not trying to better yourself and get that degree or get that training or apply yourself for that certificate in order for them to look at you and say well it's the verdict's in you've got this and they don't so you get it and then we get mad we only graduated high school we wonder why we don't have a college job but we think we deserve it because we know things come on i've been caught in that got fired from a job i had to go find another one man i could be any of these guys out there and i said what kind of degree you got and i have nothing to do with this but listen but we think more of ourselves what god is trying to help us to do is to enjoy life day in and day out grow learn people learn how god loves people for who they are and then somehow allow ourselves not to prejudge them but to love them and to excite ourselves with the things of god look at number five here's just a couple of points i'm watching my clock we're okay do you still ask open-ended questions to those around you with hopes that they will engage in the conversation as your focus changed and now you simply look at your life and how you are doing somebody give me an example of an open-ended question what is an open-ended question yeah but give me an example what time is it no because they're going to say 7 48 just closed what did you do yesterday and if they respond and say nothing huh what's another open-ended question what is there an in end to space wait ready i wonder are you curious sorry good one what's another oh here we go because by and large listen to me what the world of texting and social media has done for us is to be very short and to the point i tell you this all the time if you ask me a question or you give me a statement on text what will i give you back and i've said everything i need to say if i if i ever respond to you ooh tell me more you need to wonder if it's my me on that phone that's how i've developed my life is that the right way i don't know but i do know this i have most likely listen to me confession good for your soul right mine too i know that i have missed a lot of exciting moments in people's lives because i simply wanted to cut to the chase and get the word are you guys okay yes end of story am i i didn't ask an open-ended question to where there could be engagement of conversation to ask them what they really think or how they really feel because the problem is this now y'all don't have to identify with this in fact if you'll just look at me it'll keep you out of trouble i have to decide if i care enough to want to know you know you go to a doctor and he asks all these questions and i'm sitting there going i don't know how to answer so a scale of one to ten how you feeling how's your pain level wow um a lot so how did you get to this place or what happened why is your arm broken or why did you and somehow i have to give a logical explanation to them hang on to me do you know why i have to do that because he's a pretty smart guy and if i say an alien came and punched me in the arm he's going to look at me but if i tell him the truth i was trying to jump off the porch and i broke it then he would think i'm an idiot so i have to kind of weigh the two out so what i have done is i have developed a system of my own that lets me ask the question get a response and i can go on to the next one anybody else guilty because the truth is let's be very honest when you ask somebody so how you feeling today do you want to know it all so how was your day today somebody somebody asked me when i come in how was your day today and i always answer the same it's good fabulous fantastic and they say yeah me too now 92 things have happened today but i did not go through all of that with him why no that's not why what well no not that honestly my my point of view is i may have to listen to their 92 things i mean i shared my 92 and i already know when they get to about number 12 or so i'm gonna be going i'm sorry what were we talking about again just because of the way my mind has generated itself in this day and age so here's the question this past sunday afternoon we went out to the park did anybody go to the park for the memorial day picnic that is a great place for open-ended questions because you can sit in the chair you can breathe a sigh and you can converse with people and you can get to know them interact with them and not feel like you're in a hurry to get up and run away what we've done in our cultures we have done what we have timed everything we have exacted things we expect the best and we do the best we can and then we move on and when we lay us down to sleep we pray the lord our soul to keep and all of that that happened in that day many times we have missed the most important things dads have you ever missed something that your child did you regretted it well i know i have i didn't do it on purpose i'm sure but i had to make a decision or i was too busy or i was too caught up what that can do then is that can make me cynical about all the other dads well they're no better than i am hang on to me man hang on question number six kind of attaches to question five when was the last time you asked somebody how they're doing and then you stayed connected to them until they answered here's what will happen dakota how you feeling today see that that's it and he knows i'm probably going to respond the same right but this is what will invariably happen dakota how how was your day today and if he starts to tell me about his day guess what he stands to lose his reputation with who probably not with me but with everybody else that's listening it's always fun to be in a deep conversation with somebody and somebody walked by do you know what they just said i've seen it i've seen it in our church was he just talking about that you know as my dad used to say this is an a b conversation see yourself out of it so do not be put in that position what do we do we build walls we put zippers in and we zip them up and we put ourself in a shell and we simply live life the fact of the matter we can become very cynical about things i don't trust people i don't have confidence in who they are what they're doing i believe their nature their motives are bad and they're just going to look for themselves to and how they can gain on themselves and and if they do that then then i don't want to be privy to that i don't want to be involved with that listen to me friend what tell me how many sundays have you been in this church and i did not and you did not hear me say reach over and grab somebody's hand and pray with them how many sundays i could probably count on three fingers you want to know why because you need to break down barriers by reaching over and praying for somebody why because it could very well be that you're standing in a position to become cynical they don't want me praying for them or they i can watch some of you i do i'm just telling i'm not going to point to anybody but i'll say everybody go get out of your chair and go pray with somebody and invariably some of you are up and you're gone you're beeline then there's a whole stack of you that do this see i was gonna go pray with them but i'm praying myself or you do the other one the one that moms and dads can win at just grab your kid yeah i'm gonna pray with them yes lord yes lord or your spouse you know your spouse is not going to pray for you likes you need somebody to pray for you because they don't want to hurt your feelings huh what would it be like if you if you finally you grabbed a hold of your spouse and they prayed like somebody else oh god they sinning lord i wish you'd do something you're about oh i ain't never praying with them anymore uh we go look because we're cynical as humans and we do this in our lives we go look for the easiest route to where we don't have to feel conviction and we don't have to feel things because that's what we do as humans years ago i was at a minister's conference in louisiana some of you all may have heard it because of the times it's been years back and uh and one of the elders preached and at the end of his message he said i need all you young preachers to go find one of these elders there's probably 12 or 15 lined up across the stage and you get them to pray for you you need god's anointing on your life you need the elders to pass something to you so man i took off g.a mangan i saw him friend of mine we sat next to each other real good friends he took off brother billy cole remember him man the place is blowing up with worship and prayer and just there's an anointing in there and it's breaking walls and things are just crashing to the ground you can hear it in the spirit man it's 30 minutes just to get up there waiting in the line and get prayed for and come back somehow find your way back to your chair 45 minutes later so my friend comes back and he's just wet with he's just sobbing he just he just tore up and i'm like whoa brother g.a the priest and he he prayed for me and wow he you know what he said and i'm told him you know god he said you know you can be a mighty man god can use you and i'm like whoa yeah i said who'd you have her said billy cole i said well that was probably cool yeah he told me that i'm not studying enough and i'm not applying myself you should have went with me that was our conversation and as he blew his nose and wiped his face he looked at me and i said hey phil and he said he's exactly right i just didn't want to hear it and i said to myself i should have went with him now listen to me when things are happening in life we can very easily put pieces in our life we can put obstacles in the way to where we don't have to come up close to somebody and i wonder sometimes we all allow pastor to be pastor for a minute here i wonder sometimes if that is not where our greatest obstacle is at the church and why people are not receiving the holy ghost like we feel like they should have we come to the altar to pray them through and we come with pre-existing conditions and if so and so were really spiritual enough they would know i have no doubt some of you in here have probably said my name to the lord lord i wish the pastor was more spiritual so that he could see these things and fix all this and i pray the same prayer lord if i'm the one help me know but if i'm not help us as a church trust you and not become so cynical that we decide you know what they just didn't want it we just dropped the gavel on them because the question is simple are they worth fighting for do we need to get ours i told y'all we're building for the future do we need to get ourselves into a position to where god can use us and we throw out the preconceived notions and we remove those come on i know i know sometimes it's a challenge just because of disappointments and things that don't happen but i'll tell you i i've been probably as guilty as anybody in here we have a guest that walks through the door one of the first thoughts we have about him is i wonder why they're here and we probably won't see them next week because there's a lot of folk that come and go and when our minds we establish that and so that affects the way that we introduce ourselves to them does it not because i'm convinced that if we could remove the cynicism and we could literally see them through the eyes of jesus we would almost tackle them at the door throw them to the ground hogtie them drag them to this altar and say god got you here because this is the best thing since sliced bread and you're not getting up until you receive the holy ghost you're like oh that's a dangerous church that's a crazy church y'all are just beating people up and all that no here's my point i'm not gonna do that because i'm terrible at hog time people y'all are like i wonder how he knows that because here's the here's the facts i have never convinced somebody into doing something that they weren't already determined they were not going to do the love of god can overcome a multitude of things how many agree the power of the holy ghost can work but i believe the scripture does reveal and we just learned over the last few weeks on sundays i'm watching the clock guys is that we are his hands and his feet and if that is indeed the case then everybody that walks through that door let me use this as an example and you don't know them they need to be the hottest prayer you pray that day god don't let me become cynical with them they are messed up their lives are confused they've come through so much junk and garbage god help me somehow today to reach past that and simply love them number seven i'm bringing the wheels are coming out they're not landing yet but they're coming out number number seven concerning life when was the last time you dared to dream about possibilities see some of us we no longer share dreams because we've been disappointed by the way the people responded my wife and i we were newly married we had as much money as everybody else done you know i've shared that story in the house we live now your younger generation getting married and y'all already have houses and furniture and cars and debt but anyway um we would we would go on dates occasionally we would just dream look at that furniture in there that'd be pretty in our house my wife would say yeah we don't have a house oh okay okay okay okay but if we had a house would it what kind of house okay okay never mind can we just get a chair we want to minimize this and for fear of the dream world things you begin to quiet down and you become cynical i'll never have it i'll never get it and that's how you live your life i'm i'm convinced that every book you've ever read on every baltimodillion jillionaire out there they probably had a dream i got a picture in my office of the wright brothers that's one of the most craziest dreams i've ever seen that two brothers would say we can fly and after multiple multiple crashes and mistakes and i'll guess what they did they flew that's to me is one of the greatest stories of yeah and we're not going to stop until because most of us would acquit it about the third time and we would become cynics can't nobody fly it ain't ever going to happen have these words ever come out of your mouth our church won't ever have that revival now we'll never see that here but you know your mom and dad probably used to say never say never number eight do you ever ask why do you ever ask why not i'm not saying you're doing this out of rebellion i'm just saying do you ever sit and wonder and then ask why why why do geeks act that way i mean i may not get an answer ever but i'm okay to ask why when we have a great holy ghost field powerful move of god in our service i don't mind telling you when i climb into my car and i'm headed home i'll say that god why were you there today in such a powerful way and i've also asked why not god what am i doing to myself i'm allowing myself to ask god the questions that he's well able to answer and then i'm understanding more about humanity imagine yourself number nine at 80 years old remember your imagination right has your heart grown has your heart hardened is your mind flourishing are you alive and still learning imagine yourself 80 years old can anybody do that some of us are closer than others i don't told y'all man when i'm a 80 i'm going to be hateful mean that's why i'm going to look logan i'm just going to look that way just mad if you were 80 years old today what would you turn around and tell your self today what would you say to yourself right now oh that's silly pastor it don't happen that way sure it does go visit somebody that's in a in a nursing home or that's growing in age and ask them some of these questions they'll say you know what if i would adjust you know what i've learned or experience has taught me or you know what it's going to be all right or you know you don't probably want to do that why because here's the thing again my my bride and how we because of her job she has a lot of clients and some of them are in their 90s and they're still driving and mowing their own grass and playing golf and and i'm standing here drawing i'm going playing golf i can't do that at my age now they're 90 years old out there swinging a club now they might take them nine hours but they're out there or she'll come home and say i had this client in today they're 97 they drove and i'll go well i'm glad i wasn't on the road but some people their lives are that way they're just active they're just learning they're going what's different between them and you many of us could come up with the excuse well i got this nerve thing just right there and you know i i used to be able to i can't just you know i first want to say it the more i get up i test everything i have to before i ask y'all to raise your hands in worship i stand back watch me next sunday i'll be standing right there going okay i can do it all right come on y'all lift your hands now if i ever get to the point where i can't all right everybody just put your hands down for the lord today or or if you ever find me going over to the doorpost i do this a lot too raise your hands to the lord come on straighten them up gotta have a little help you understand durham would you come number 10 has life brought you to this point listen carefully please has life brought you to this point have you become cynical and doubtful about things our evangelist mentioned this in a couple of ways we talked about some of us have embraced our sicknesses and illnesses and our medications and our things that we do and take we've embraced those things we just kind of live with them we've learned learn to adapt our lives to them and it's just it's what it is and everybody around figures that out about that person and that's kind of well yeah i know how you are you know so i'm not going to ask you to go get coffee because you know or i'm not going to want to you know eat lunch with you because i don't want to do salad again but but people get settled in their ways and then life becomes such a chore such a heartache a gentleman used to attend our church a couple years ago brother shannon everybody remember shannon anybody sister ethel's husband shannon stewart stewart remember him 82 years old my son-in-law says to him hey you want to go skydiving guess what he said you better know it let's go now they didn't invite me tim because they knew what i'd say what's wrong with y'all wrong with y'all he was gonna go it's a medical thing's come up and he couldn't and i said bro you're going to go scott he said well yeah he said a few months ago i did zip lining up in the smoke as i went he says great strapped you on i said what'd you do that whole way scream i said dude you could have had a heart attack i know in the great anybody remember him so he and i would talk about something like do you what is wrong with you he said my life has been full i refuse to stop living so we go see sister ethel now we try to go about once a week something else thank you sister kim she's a she's interesting you got to be careful she's probably gonna watch this tonight and get on to me you gotta be careful around her because she will tell you what she thinks and all of us identify that with elderly people and we just wish we could tell you what we think but we've learned not to huh because we you know we have to be presentable we have to be kind and then as you get older you just kind of figure out you know what i'm kind but i'm just going to tell you like it is those shoes don't match that's what some of y'all would do you go i think they match she still like my shoes we get our feelings hurt and so we don't want to hurt people's feelings so what do we do we just don't say things now if y'all notice that i say something sometimes i probably ought not my wife she can tell you some of them somebody'll ask me you like my tie yeah it doesn't match what it doesn't match what i have on it looks great with what you've got on what is the difference does that make well you asked if it matched you didn't say match what i just need a little clarification right here's my point guys chapter one and two of your book cynicism how not to become cynical we read in the beginning here jeremiah 17-9 i'm done the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it i think jeremiah's words for us today are god knows your heart and god is willing to work on your heart but there are things in our heart that we have to make sure that we keep in check things in our walk with god that we have to make sure that we hold on to things that we need to let go of i'm convinced tonight that there are some sitting in here under the sound of my voice that someone hurts you and you have yet to turn loose of it there's probably some sitting here tonight that somewhere in life somebody said something did something or you were treated incredibly wrong and you still remember every detail and it has formed you and shaped you and the love and the grace of god has not been able to work because you become cynical something i have to watch out for for myself all the time because as pastor i see folk come in i hear their story and then they go out and i'm standing there going god is still the answer they just didn't want it and then i watch myself when they walk in i'm like all right here we go again and automatically i do this i think that there's a reason that the scripture tells us that there are times when we will entertain angels unaware stand with me tonight would you this lesson tonight this this topic of discussion is not to get on anybody it's not to make anybody feel terribly bad or anything i'm not i'm just telling you we have to watch ourselves with everything going on in our world and all the terrible things that we can look around and we can see guess what we can do as a church if we're not careful we can gently step outside we can reach up to our sign and we can pull the cord no longer in service and we can come back inside and hope that we can just hang on to the few that we got we do that in our attitude and our preparation and how we present ourselves if you're a sunday school teacher in here are you still giving it all you got if you're a singer or a musician are you still pouring yourself into early to the practice ready to do excellence for god are huh are you still preparing yourself getting i mean reading a good book i have old stack of these by my bed i'm trying to get through them and and then i catch myself chasing rabbits and only like rabbits and i take off after them i'm glad that i'm still letting god work on me we're going to build for the future there are some building things materials that have come up in our lives that we need to take inventory of one of them is this have we become cynical i don't trust them next week topic we're going to go into chapters three and four and five didn't see it coming great challenge of compromise anybody feel like an altar time tonight it's 8 17. just some time to talk to the lord anybody jesus i love you i'm so sorry lord if i've seen it wrong or looked at it in the wrong eyes so sorry lord if i didn't see it the way you intended for me to i don't want to become cynical lord i want to write things write people off write ideas and dreams and passions off what i want to maintain lord the ability to grow be curious about things and try things lord that maybe i haven't tried yet getting closer to you or reaching to my neighbor tonight lord we do some self-examination we look inside of our hearts and our lives we desire you the heart of man is very wicked lord very deceitful but only you can know it only you can know it tonight lord i'm praying and i'm believing young david lord prayed that prayer search me o god and know my heart try me and know my thoughts see if there be any wicked way in me lead me in the way everlasting come on is there anybody willing to pray tonight come on open your mouth and pray jesus savior we are building lord for the future we've got to take care of some things lord god within ourselves so that we can dare to dream so that we can dare to wonder lord god and to reach and to ask and to try lord and to believe you and let our faith multiply and grow so that things can happen the way you design them in the church on is there anybody that'll pray tonight prayer lord i need you i need you jesus every hour of every day i need you jesus i trust in you my hope is in you my hope is in you jesus my hope is in you jesus jesus jesus jesus lord i know you're a healer sorry lord if i doubt you i know you're away maker i'm sorry lord if i doubt you i'm i'm certain god you can do anything help my unbelief we love you jesus we trust you jesus lord be with us this week anoint us god for the journey ahead let us find hope in you let us build upon the rock christ jesus a solid rock help us oh god to look through your eyes to understand the way you would give us the wisdom the knowledge and the understanding required for this hour for this time for this culture for this society the name of jesus i believe the lord's working on us said i believe the lord's working on us help us oh god help us oh god thank you jesus lord go with us as we leave this place let your glory lord shine round about us let your word be the lamp to our feet jesus we trust you we trust in you i love you jesus oh my god thrawn's playing an old song singing jesus how i trust you how is jesus jesus praises jesus for grace to trust him more can you sing it one more time sing it loud jesus jesus how i trust to trust him more thank you guys so much for coming out tonight encourage one another believe in one another believe in our church believe in our church family none of us in here perfect we all have issues we're dealing with huh some of them are in our families i mean uh well you know love one another or at least act like it that's i used to tell my brother growing up i love you enough to get to heaven i don't know how much that is but i had to love him that much shake hands be friendly i love y'all greet one another we'll see you this weekend amen don't forget sunday's pentecost sunday there's going to be a invite somebody there's going to be a great move of god you don't want to miss it love y'all have a good rest of your week