Hope

man is't it amazing what happens when we put God where he belongs in our life when we say you have no rival you have no equal God you are God and I am not is that not the struggle of humanity every day we wake up I've got this and then we have to realize real quick you know what you're God and I'm not well what a blow to our pride that is what a blow to our pride to think that we're not in control oh we can't just give up and be helpless and say well no I'm not going to do anything but we have to say God I don't know what this next step is I'm trusting that you're you're building the ladder or you're placing the stone as I'm taking a step man I uh as you're going back to your seats I I often I wonder why we get so emotional sometimes I don't know about you guys but on a day-to-day basis I don't I don't just try and cry my eyes out or you know what I'm saying like some of you guys might enjoy that I don't know I'm not criticizing I'm just saying me all right and sometimes I wonder and and and others I would say would look at look at a service that we would have and like man you you guys are just so emotional there is something about the breaking of our will there's something about the breaking of our pride there's something about the breaking when we realize when we truly realize man I just that's all I have I've just summed up what I have in life and I have laid it before almighty God and how poultry if I may I use the oldest word known to mankind how poultry is that little bit that I've just laid before God you know that right there in and of itself he he doesn't want that he doesn't need that he made us he just needs us to understand that he did that's hard you know I I thank you guys so much for being here on the warmest day of the year Freez and cold I this year I have attempted to ride my motorcycle year round yeah um today I did not ride my motorcycle I begged my wife to bring me to church instead uh it was cold I'm so glad that each and every one of you have gotten out you you've braved the weather you've survived and honestly Pastor I don't know that everyone just wanted to be here Wednesday night I don't I don't know that I think they were just tired of being at home yeah there's nothing like just being cooped up to oh oh you oh yeah we got church we can't we can't sit here any longer but I want I want to say thank you to pastor and sister Sloan for allowing me to to preach today and to my my wife if if today goes well she did it and if it doesn't I did it um I mean you know thank you so much dear I I was in in in studying preparing for this week obviously this warm weather makes you think of honestly I don't know drinking a lot of coffee hot chocolate and then it also made me think of a time that before heaters some of you may have remember those I don't know four electric heat you had to like just wood heat everything um I did that as a child like that was my job to keep the wood pile stocked and all that and you know it wasn't a pleasant job like busting wood chopping wood all those things but if you go even back further before that uh to the very founding I know wild wild concept very founding of our nation you come to a point the the our nation in 1775 we started a war with the pre preeminent world power at that time the British Empire and said that we we not going to be taxed without representation okay and these guys bunch of farmers they got together they it's like yeah I mean honestly let's just be real bunch of rednecks got their mus get out these were Northern rednecks too so where's Don at uh oh Northern rednecks at that different they was probably walking around in sandals and shorts and negative you know four degrees temperature over there going hey man you know whatever you guys you guys and uh they're like you guys want to just go like fight the British you guys I don't know I don't have a good Northern accent obviously and and as they were they were going into this and they literally had no clue what they were doing they were using muskets and that's about it they would take a pot shot and if okay I do need to explain what a pot shot is because times have changed y'all don't know what a pot shot is it is not a drug okay pot shot's like I don't know where the term comes from but it's like when you're like playing dodgeball and you're like okay and you like throw something you just like some random shot and then you run away for some reason that's called a pot shot I don't know okay they were just shooting at at these these British military guys just at random they they would they had a quote unquote army with General George Washington this was before he became president and these guys were like he was not a he was working with what he had honestly he was not known for his military might he was known for not getting killed that was it every time the British thought they had him surrounded every time that he was outmanned and outgunned he somehow or another just escaped I mean seriously that was that was it so three years into this these guys literally were losing on all front they were losing every battle they just lost their capital of Philadelphia thank God I'm so glad our capital is not Philadelphia right now okay I'm just saying but they'd lost the capital that was the Continental congress's Capital at the time and George Washington and his 12,000 men decided to Winter now this is a northern winter okay this wasn't the week of winter we get this was a Northern winter up near Philadelphia in Valley Forge all right well cool D has anyone ever heard of Valley Forge yeah somebody anybody anyone not heard of Valley Forge raise your hand okay well you guys You' ain't got there yet that's fair all right good deal this was a this was a critical and crucial moment in the founding of our nation this was a time that they were literally by the by the pair their chinny chin chins escaping from the British and getting just far enough away to to build winter headquarters and and and a place to stay in the winter time and they got there and they didn't have they didn't have food uh 10% of them didn't even have shoes or jackets I mean it was it was crazy they they didn't have they had to dig out holes in the ground and kind of build like little Shacks to try and stay warm and and rumage for it it was it was just not a this was not a Victorious Army these were some people that had they were like well you know we left the farm because they couldn't think it we didn't think it could get worse than that and then it got worse than that they were not winning they were just surviving they got they get into this they they they get to Valley Forge setup Camp right before Christmas obviously they did not celebrate a very happy Christmas that year except that we're alive and then then the winter really sets in January February March April they were there for 6 months in the middle of that winter there was there was a man that came along he was a German he was a Prussian guy couldn't even speak he couldn't speak English he only spoke some like weird French no one spoke German so he had to speak French to someone who spoke French and then they would interpret to English it was just a whole was a whole mess he shows up and General Washington he makes him the Inspector General of this Army you know like I don't know like I don't even know what An Inspector General does so they do something basically he was a warm body in Washington was like dude you've got some military training all right and so what he did was he put these guys he he instituted some training all right he put them through drills now I we we are blessed with the best here at CAC we've got some guys that have been in the military we've got some guys that have not been in the military all right so Ian Israel do y'all mind to help me I know y'all had been in the military I know I need y'all's help for just a minute yeah I didn't even ask him about this yeah Connor how'd you get away with it man Connor got out of it he was he was working just let that be a lesson to you if you guys don't mind come up here Dylan's going to now I did give Dylan a heads up on this he's going to give us a him and him and brother Nate here are going to help us out okay they're going to demonstrate yeah y'all y'all stand right there I I don't know what they're going to do to you this is like you just been recruited fresh off the bus you know like basic Camp right here go go right ahead yeah like put put them through some drills this is this is military drills okay like no no no no they don't yeah yeah just do what you think think of what you're supposed to do we should have done that I'm glad I'm glad he's not yelling like a drill sergeant about body and around this is 8 weeks of basic training right right here summed up right I'm going to make EAS sure all right now hang on hang on this these guys have no experience for the Nate how long were you in the military 10 years okay I wish I had that chicken third element two steps forward March right this is going to be a long long sermon guys this is this is it this is the only Point here arms order arms right that's good thing of it El forward give him a hand guys this this is what Baron von stubin okay that was the Prussian Guy this is what he was tasked with doing he had to take a bunch of guys that had no clue what in the world military order military discipline looks like and he had to train and drill them when they were at their lowest point to that point they were in the M they were starving seriously 10% of these guys died that winter of of not just ah they died they didn't die in battle they died because of the elements they they died because of disease okay one of the first things he did was when he came in he did one of the most maybe Common Sense things I would hope that was Common Sense was he said the latrines or the bathrooms he moved them to the other side of Camp away from the kitchen you would think that would be the first thing we would do right you would you would hope but this is just imagine with me you went hiking with just yourself and maybe you're out there a couple days you're like well I'm out here for a couple days now imagine 12,000 of your closest friends are out there with you it's gonna get real messy real quick and then you're trying to cook food see disease dissenter all kinds of I mean just infections who knows it was awful I just be like y'all it just stinks I'm leaving you know like this is awful but this this was killing this Army it was not the battle it was not the it was not the enemy it was how they kept him it was their lack of understanding the cause and effect of if I put this here put my latrines by my kitchen I'm going to get sick and die I don't know honestly massive cities used to have that problem there so let's thank God for knowledge now but that that army that ragtag group in their lowest point this man introduced hope he didn't say you're going to win this battle he didn't say you're going to win the next battle he did not say that you're going to you're going to be the greatest army ever he did not say that he didn't pump them up all he did with them for a good four five months was drill them he made them find Hope in the discipline of War he made them find Hope in learning the tools of their trade he made them he he gave them Hope by by helping them to learn how to work together as a cohesive unit he gave them Hope by helping deliver them from the from the the situations that were killing them while they had no idea this hope didn't even win their next battle but what it did do it was it gave them a discipline to be able to say you know what we didn't win that one but we got the next one I see what we did wrong here because now we're learning I last last week pastor preached on war and I and he said this he made this statement he said I know what is coming I know what is going to happen and I am prepared to pay the price and I don't know if you had the same type of week I had but I think we all may have paid a little bit of price this week you see when you declare war things are going to happen people are going to get hurt things are things because you're not iddly sitting by anymore you said I've declared war I'm going to do something about it but in this this time I might add it wasn't the things that we declared war on that probably hurt us it wasn't me it wasn't the things that I thought that I was I it wasn't it wasn't a direct hit from where I was imagining something would come from but it was something with me it was something in the cing if I may today I'm not going to preach super hard I am going to lay out some things because if we are going to have War our greatest casualty is going to come from our own Camp it's going to come from the things that we have not put in order in our own house these things will destroy us and take us out before we ever make it to a prayer room they will destroy us and take us out before we ever get to an altar they will destroy us and take us out before we ever lift our hands in worship if we do not set our camp in order if we don't take care of our house we will not make it to the Finish Line we will not have hope at the end of the day we will be we we will think I'm ready to go I've got my war cry on I am battle ready and then we will be taken out by denter and that's a terrible way to go yeah we will be taken out by the thing that we did not take care of I I guys the there is hope when we find our disciplines in war okay the disciplines of War are what these guys were doing right here that is not dodging bullets is it but what that does is over that course of eight weeks of boot camp over that time their mind is is is literally focused in home that when the bullets start flying that my only thought is what is my order because in the moment of of the explosion in the moment of chaos the one that wins is the one that has their head screwed on straight is the one that says I have taken care of this I have my house in order I have my Camp I know my disciplines I know I I am am comfortable with the tools that I am equipped with to fight this war this war in case you had figured it out is not against someone this war if anything is against our own selves it's against the spirits of the darkness of this world that come against us and if we do not have our houses in order this war will take us out our weapons of war okay now now hear this 1 Timothy 4 and 6 it said if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed have nothing to do with irrelevant or irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness I want to I want to talk today just a little bit about some godliness about about some things that we need to do disciplines that listen I I'll be the when when when I have a conversation or I have a prayer uh something I need my grandmother to pray about I know that she's been doing these things it's a way of life for her but guess what I don't have the 8,000 years of experience that she has I don't have I don't have the years of ingraining these disciplines into my daily habit but these things will save your family and they will save your home your hope will come from your disciplines here there's there's a extensive list of spiritual disciplines and I'm not going to I'm not going to go through a whole whole million of them but there is I've got 12 today the disciplines of abstinence not that kind got you there that is self-denial these disciplines include Solitude you know I was sitting with some guys at breakfast this morning and we actually got on this topic of sitting and Gathering our mind sitting letting every everything else fall aside having some meaningful time with God this Solitude is not you can find it in if you if you any of you know the 23rd psalm the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures he leadth me beside the Steel Waters he restoreth my soul he leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake I don't know if you've sat outside in the middle of a city before and just tried to sit there and all of a sudden you're you know like just everywhere and everything is moving all over the place and it feels like there's nowhere to be alone but find that place sometimes it's doing something sometimes it's some and and by something I mean just something you can just you guys with children good luck but you still have got to find it you've still got to find that moment of Solitude now Elders I know you're going to look at me on this list and say yeah I've been doing that for 80 years like I get you some of us ain't ain't been doing it for 80 years all right so then there's silence not speaking in a quiet place this is this is paired with Solitude honestly doesn't even involve listening to music silence makes some of us real uncomfortable silence scares us because we haven't learned how to quiet them the voices in our head and I don't mean crazy voices I mean I mean the conversations we have with ourselves we haven't figured out how to bring those thoughts and subjection to the to the knowledge of the Holy that silence that discipline of silence in a world of chaos of every voice trying to be louder than the next discipline of Silence you see the prophet there was in first Kings there was the prophet there was the Whirlwind there was the earthquake there was everything that was shattering and then he covered his head he wrapped his head in his robe because he knew the presence of God was there not by those things but by The Silence by the peace I I don't know I don't know what in our world has everything so stared up okay I'm not spiritual enough to to be able to pinpoint and say it's this and it's exactly that but I do know that as much as the devil wants to he is stirring the pot and the best thing we can do is just with God meaningful time with God there is hope in the discipline of War fasting we're going to get a taste of that this week this is a discipline of self-denial the very thing that keeps Us Alive food what do we do not today why because I'm I I am acknowledging that my appetites my desires the things that I think I have to have come in subjection unto God these things these spiritual disciplines guys there is a reason why we are working through the book blessed there is a reason why pastors he's he's doing these podcast and and guiding us and helping us because he's he's developed some spiritual disciplines that he's trying to to teach us but I want to bring them out I I do because I'm afraid sometimes we assume them and we don't say them there's a there's a discipline of secrecy do you know that now this can go a couple ways but honestly loose lips sink ships is the Old World War II saying and I don't I don't mean that in any gossip is not good all right that's that's something that is fueled by our fleshly Desir gossip that that will that will tear you apart and tear everybody else apart all right that's and and and in secrecy then there's also the side of it of not making your good deeds public of doing good things just to do good things wow that's amazing that's a wild concept you mean I don't make a video about it put it on social media like hang on hang on let me pose you know like right I know we've all seen those videos you're like dude that that's not good there's nothing good about what you're doing now like there there is a secrecy was the word but of just you know maybe some privacy we don't all need to know everything about you and and better yet maybe every you know maybe you don't want everything known about you well then just maybe have some discretion I don't know this is a discipline and how ises how does that make sense trust me operate in it okay this is not this is this is where you'll find hope when everything else shatters all around you this is where you'll find you'll look back at this and say you know what that prepared me for that bomb just exploding right in front of my face submission that song we sung there's you have no rival you have no equal when we submit our will unto God I honestly guys and and and and this may be just me anecdotally pulling this out but when when one God is preached and when songs of of acknowledging the highness and the greatness of God I I don't know of any other time that God moves more power Y and more amazingly in our lives that's because we're putting him in we're acknowledging who he is and we're putting him in his proper place in our life there's hopes in the disciplines of War there's disciplines of Engagement or or how we interact with one another all right I I want to take a in Bible reading do you know how much is in the Bible it's crazy there are some ancient wisdoms in there God inspired wisdom that will guide us and direct us I want to I want to in 1 Timothy 5 all right I I want to read this because it was so weird you're like why is that in the Bible That's not about one God that's not about salvation it's about how to treat one another what says do not rebuke an older man and I'm reading now the ESV but encourage him as you would a father or younger men as brothers older women as mothers younger women as sisters in all Purity and then it says honor widows who are truly widows but if a widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn to show godliness in their own household and to make some to return to their parents for this is the pleasing in the sign of the Lord then in in verse seven says command these things as well so that you may be without reproach but if anyone does not provide for his relatives especially for the members of his household he is denied the face and worse than an unbeliever who knew I'm serious that's that's code of conduct right there of how to be a Christian you see in a postmodern world the first thing that died was the truth No One Believes there is a truth now okay that killed science No One Believes In Science anymore it K it killed religion in some people's minds because there is all truth is relative so you know the only thing that people are going to be able to look at is us they're going to have to know us by our works they're going to have to know us by how we treat and love one another they're going to have to know us by how we interact and we love them we can say look at the Bible and they're like well it's just relative it was just an old book but why is your life so peaceful why does it seem like everything that happens to you and it's bad it may be Terri terrible but you're able to survive it and you're able to retain your sanity not because you're some superhuman but because you've set your house in order you have hope in Christ Jesus there is worship guys I think we do this one as well as and better than anyone but there's also worship alone I think worship and acknowledging God Isaiah 63 holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty the whole earth is full of his glory you see there is no one like my God and then in prayer we pray and and and and once I I want to add here the principle of this prayer was not like the Hypocrites it was to pray in secret to pray and spend some Solitude silent time with God then there's Soul friendship do you know that a discipline is to have a friend that you you just knit with and and and it's so easy for us to be like you know what everyone's just this and that and everyone's got their own thing but when you find that friend and you can be that friend then you can help each other that friendship David had that with Jonathan Jonathan knew that he wasn't he was in line to be king potentially but his friendship was so his soul was so knit with him that he realized that David God had given the Kingdom to David and he preferred his friend over himself that's a discipline of War that's where we find Hope knowing that I've surrounded myself with these disciplines knowing that I've surrounded myself and exercised in the godliness of God and the last one is service how can I serve someone how true religion unde undefiled before God the father is this to what to visit the widows and the orphans in their Affliction now guys this is not rocket science this is this is in no way comprehensive all right but I I want I want to caution you if you've been raised in church all your life this is your first first time in church if you've it it doesn't matter because I I I promise you so many things we we we we build a culture and we hope by osmosis but sometimes we miss things spiritual disciplines will set your house in order now I'm not this is this is I want you to understand this I'm not not saying your house is I'm not meddling in your business understand that but I am I am saying this you've been doing these hundred years we know it and if you haven't been doing these 100 years we know it I know that if I really need a prayer a prayer answered I'm going to I'm going to call my grandparents I know because I know the disciplines that they've lived the life that they have lived and I hope to God that I can do the same thing I pray and that is my prayer today that God give me the fiber give me the strength because discipline is not pretty sometimes it's even pointless what good does it do to less than I don't know whatever they were doing okay it doesn't do much good until the bullets start flying as as I'm ending and brother D if you don't mind sir I know I know that this week did not go as Victorious as you thought it might be my wife and I received one of the more disheartening calls on Monday just what was well there was no need for it there's no point to it it was just a disheartening call from a friend and in those moments God I need to be near he you if you don't mind as you as you're standing sister Bonita was telling me her experience this past week as Logan was in the hospital as most of you know he had a he had a he had a rough week of it and she was telling she was telling Lauren and I as she was standing there waiting on them to just tell them something and I I I did ask her if I could could share this because honestly it fit right in she said she didn't have the time pray she couldn't even think to pray she couldn't think to really do anything the the shell shockness of it but she had said for several days before that she'd felt God moving on her and she'd been doing her best the spirit of intercession to intercede on something she didn't know exactly what it was but in that moment when her when every when when when the bomb exploded and man government's going to really love this one I've talked about bombs and everything when the bomb exploded and she could not think she had already had those disciplines she couldn't sit and meditate she couldn't sit and read the word and and and and just well here's the word and meditate on it no she couldn't she couldn't just sit and like I mean you know she could pray but what what order is there to it at that moment but her disciplines had been put in place before it happened guys I don't I don't have a giant emotional appeal to us today other than this can we set our camps in order can we pray for God to give us the fiber to instill disciplines in our life oh it's hard I don't know about you I got behind on my blessed reading y'all all May y'all may be on it I'm just going to confess right now I'm going go pray right now over that all right got behind and it's hard to catch up once you get behind on a discipline you see it's not something you can just skate by on got to be kind of like a well y'all don't even know what mules do I don't I don't even know how to I don't even know how to be relevant here got to be like a mule a mule is just dumb enough to keep going they just you can I mean a horse if you're riding horses and you're like oh these are fun ah and then you're riding the rest of the day the HSE is going to fall over the meal just keeps going it just you're like are you going to stop and it just keeps going I want my prayer today and I want our prayers today God give us the fiber to just keep going God give us the fiber to the fiber to discipline ourselves if you don't mind if we can gather around the front for just a moment there's going to be more battles there's going to be more issues there's going to be more problems and I don't want us to just survive I want us to make it and I want us to be victorious but we are never going to be victorious if we do not instill the discipline iines of godliness if we do not instill the disciplines of right living if we do not instill the disciplines of prayer if we do not instill the disciplines of reading the word of fasting of self-denial God give me the fiber Lord to be a holy man to be a righteous man Jesus give me the fiber Lord that when the winds and the storms and the issues come God that I am steadfast and I am right there I I don't even have to worry about where you are God because I have positioned myself next to you yes Jesus give us the fiber Hallelujah come on somebody pray Jesus Jesus Jesus holy God holy God Jesus I Need You Lord I need you Jesus