Good to see you. Well, I say it's good to see you. These lights are so bright. I really can't see you, but I can hear you.
Yeah, there you go. Let's fan to our feet. Are you ready to worship the Lord in this place? All right.
Let's give the Lord a big hand clap. I want to give you a personal invitation to my Bible study class. I mean, the book of James, I'm just starting that book of James. It's going to be Wednesday night at 6.30 at the Connect Center.
I would love to see each and every one of you there. And hey, let's give the Lord another hand clap in this place because I know that the Lord can make a difference in our lives. The praise team, they have a fantastic set. And the first song is, yes, he can.
The Lord did it before and he can surely do it again. Give the Lord another hand. He understands. Sometimes I question and he's able to ask you, can you save me?
They can end again. When I'm looking down to DSC, DSC, DSC, DSC, DSC, DSC. Sometimes those voices try to tell me, oh, yes, he can. Every single from the beginning.
It's been you say that's what the God said. The grave you see, the daughter. When I'm at my scene where the future starts. Why you make a way?
I ain't getting a lot of shout-out praise this morning. All right. Well, good morning. You may be seated for just a moment.
So glad that you're here. If you're here for the first time in a long time, I want you to know that we are so glad that you chose the worship with us. And if my chance, you didn't get stopped by one of our great volunteers when you came in, make sure you fill up one of those blue cords. Just let us know how much we want you to know how much we appreciate you worship with us today and that we have a special gift for you all.
So Pastor Dale will be there at the end of the service. A couple of things I want to mention next week, we are doing baptisms. Yeah, give God a hand clap of praise for that. Yeah, that's right.
If you've received salvation, you've never been baptized. Your next step is baptism. Okay. So if you haven't done that, I would highly encourage you to go sign up for baptisms today.
Get on the list and in next week we'll baptize you right here. It'll be a great time. Love for you to be a part of that. Also, Church 101.
We're coming up. If you are new to the Church and want to know a little bit more about Church and get involved, maybe you're ready to take that next step. You want to get a start serving or whatever it may be. Go to our Church 101 class.
We'd love to have you be a part of that. You just learned a little bit about it. It's only a two week class and just go to the Connect Day and answer any questions that you have there. Deny, I'm excited because we start our brotherhood.
That's our six weeks, kind of intensive for our men. I think we've got about 17 guys that have signed up. So we're still running for about three more. So if you're interested in that, go to the Connect Day because I start tonight.
And so we need to get you the information so that you know where to go. And we'd love for you to come be a part of that as well. A couple of things yesterday, a lot of you showed up and showed out for our community and for the benefit for Heath Conner and they raised $48,000 over that. Yeah, give God a hand clap of praise in our community.
Great to be a part of this community. Sometimes you know they want to, I don't know, I won't get out of that. I'll let the pre-trano that kind of stuff anyway. But you know, when we can come together and do it, and listen, there was all kinds of churches there, all kinds of people there, and we're doing it for one purpose and that was the help somebody and they said, you know what we were doing?
We're doing just what we said. We were going to do this church. We were sharing, showing and spreading the love of God to everyone. Amen.
So I'm excited about that. A couple of other things you may have saw when you came in the corner over there. We had our camp sponsorships up. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, send them to the Christian camp, the ambassador camp and welcome all we're excited to be partnering with them again this year.
They said they already had like 10 kids signed up already. We would love you to do that. If you have a kid that might be interested in that, you don't need to wait and get them on the list. It feels pretty quick.
But one of the reasons we're so excited to partner with them is because they're in our four to three area. So that's kind of our focus. This year is really focusing on this area that we're called the Minister to, the four to three that are in Columbus County and all over the world. But those are our three main spots.
Speaking of that, last week, after service, somebody handed Pastor Dale a check for $1,000 for our four to three foot. Amen. You've got a hand clap price for that. And a lot of you have committed to give over the next year or thousand.
Like I said, you can go into our app, set that up as reoccurring and just have it come out every month, $100 for whatever you want to do. There's all kinds of ways that you can give. But that's what goes for our parking lot and our kids expansion. We are excited about that.
We're excited about what God is doing. We believe we're growing, making room for more people to come here and more people to encounter Jesus. Amen. Amen.
You're excited about that? How many of you want somebody else to sit inside? Maybe this far from God and you can see their life changed radically. Would you like to see that?
But that means sometimes you got to slide over. You'll know that, right? That was a sad up for you. That was a sad up there.
You're right. You're right. I mean, sometimes when you come in here, we got to scoot it in. We got to get a little closer.
We got to make room for new people because a lot of people say, hey, I won't, bros. But when it starts making an inconvenience for them, they don't want it. That's just a little rant. I went on there just wanted to free a charge.
I wanted to go to the preachers to the sermon, right? But hey, I'm excited about what God is doing in this community. I'm excited about what people we can reach. I'm excited because there's somebody out there that's far from Christ that threw the ministry, a new light church, and threw the ministry of you and you and you and you giving and supporting what God is doing.
They're going to get to encounter him and they won't spend eternity in a place called hell. No, those men eternity in heaven. Amen. You're excited about it.
How many of you all believe we're just getting started? How many of you all believe we're made for more? If you believe that when you stand to your feet and let's get ready to worship the one that says we're made for more, we're not called to just in the grave. Right, Josh?
We're called them to minister to people, to reach more people. And so that's what we're going to do. So as we sing this last song, I want you to worship like you've never worshiped before. I want you to lift your hands.
I want you to sing and I want you to proclaim today that you were made for more. I know who I, cause I know who you are. The cross of salvation was only the start. Now I am troubled, I'm free and living.
I have a future and it's worth living. You all say I'm good. I am with a thousand love grace, It's running my way I know why it looks. I was great for more.
I am with gracious servant father. We thank you for your presence, Lord. We thank you for this community that we live in, this loving family that cares for each other and helps greater the prayer Lord. Somebody just come here today and don't think that we're made for anything, but we know that we're made for more and they were made for more dear Lord.
We thank you for all the provisions that you give us. We only need one provision dear Lord and that you're blood on the cross. Your son's blood on the cross that gives us the opportunity that's been We're turning it with you Lord. We just thank you for that opportunity.
We thank you for this church and for this pastor and this community. We're just ladies and gauders and directors and protect us and everything we do in your order. And your name we pray. Amen.
There is nothing you cannot do with God. No matter who you are, where you come from, what your past may be, you were made for more. This new road set before you, God already has a plan for you. This season of light you're walking through, Jesus wants to walk with you.
This is your moment to do more than you have ever imagined. The more that God has prepared for you, more of his presence, more of his goodness, more of his kindness, more of his peace, more of his joy, more of his power breaking through ordinary circumstances with extraordinary strength, more of him. So when you stand before your goliath, you don't shake with fear, but have more strength in your spirit and more courage in your bones, more of him. So in seasons of darkness around you, you can declare more of his promises over your life, more of his presence filling you, more of his Holy Spirit walking with you.
Jesus is calling into more of him each and every day. So stand up in your spirit, put on the full armor of God, and declare the authority that Jesus is more than enough. Speak it over your life, over your family's life, over your future. Make this the declaration that marks the next chapter of your incredible story that you were made for more.
Well, good morning. How we doing? What a great job the praise team has done. Give them a hand, would you do that?
Yeah, fantastic. I could just call them back out if you'd like me to let them go again. We could do that. Welcome this morning.
Thank you for coming. Before I get into this arm of a couple of things, I want to thank all those who worked at the Benefit Committee this yesterday. What an outstanding job they did, what a blessing to a family that needs it. In fact, there's a lot of people, not just with this church, but other churches, but all those who work yesterday, stand up, just stand up right where you are.
Would you do that? The Bible says, give honor to whom honors do look around. Yeah. What a great job y'all did.
Thank y'all so much. Yeah. We have a little issue. We're going to take care of our promised Charles Ray.
I would do this. He kind of heads that thing up. We have a problem with people cleaning stuff at the end of the deal. They're tired.
They start at five o'clock in the morning and they have a problem. So I'm going to make a commitment myself, I have to go wash the dishes the next time by myself, I will. But if some of you want to help me, you can do that. We're going to clean those up so they don't have to worry about them.
We'll get involved and do that, right? We'll do that. What a great job you did. I want to remind you, on Tuesday night, deeper dive, the reason we do deeper dive is because I can't cover everything I need to cover on this platform this morning about the sermon.
So we'll deal with some of that on Tuesday night at seven o'clock on the Day of Hester Facebook page. If you want to deeper dive into the sermon today, we'll do that. I think Pastor Bob is doing the book of James down at the Connect Center on Wednesday night. If you want to Bible status, a great place to be.
Help me welcome the radio and the internet minister. Let them know you love them. Welcome them to the U lot church. Yeah.
Let's jump right into this thing with a current series called Living on Purpose. Have you enjoyed the series? Yes. Yes.
We're going to close that out today. Today will be the last sermon in this series. We've learned that we were made from all. We understand that and we learned what our true identity was.
And we learned last week how to shine on purpose, right? All that's a lot of good information. I mean, it was good stuff. It was some of it was revelation knowledge to me, how it works in our life.
I trust that it was to you as well today. As we wrap this series up, I want to talk about finishing well. I want to talk about finishing well. It's something, but it's another thing to finish well, right?
So when you think about finishing well, the context of what I want to talk about is finishing your walk with the Lord well, your relationship with the Lord. I want it to be good. I want it to be strong. I want you to finish well.
That's a priority how you serve the Lord and finish what God has called you to do. I think every one of us would understand that we have gifts and talents from the Lord, right? We have resources that God has given us of what God desires for us to do is use that for his glory. In other words, what we said last Tuesday night on deeper dive was a man was made to glorify God to give God honor in every aspect of our life.
So when we talk about our Christian walk, I want you to add to that as well. Your occupation that God has you in right now, whatever the career may be, the family, the marriage, whatever it is, if your mother or father, I want you to finish well, how many want to finish well in this life? A few of you want to finish well. How many of you want to finish well in this life?
Yeah, you want to do that. So I want to talk about that today and I want to talk about our service to the Lord. I want you to do well in this life. So when you think about that, when life ends, I want you to hear well done, thy good and faithful servant.
That's the new words I want to hear. Now, in my pastor's role, that's what I want to hear. I want to hear that about me being a husband. I want to be that way about everything I do.
I want to hear well done, thy good and faithful servant. I'm going to use today the apostle Paul. Now, I want to talk about him a little bit because some of you may not be familiar with him. I want to tell you a few things about him before I get into the sermon.
When you think about him, you understand that before he was Paul, his name was Saul. And he was a Pharisee. He was a sad, you see, he was a religious person, you might say. He didn't know the Lord, but he was a religious person.
You can be very religious and not know the Lord and you can miss the Lord. Wow, if you're not careful with that. So he was a religious person, but his issue was this. He wanted to persecute Christians and he wanted to kill Christians.
In fact, he was at the stoning of Stephen. He was there with Stephen, who was a deacon who had a great testimony about the Lord. Saul was there. He wasn't named Paul at that time and he watched this thing happen.
And then he leaves there and he's on the road to Damascus and on the way to Damascus to persecute Christians. He had papers in his hand from the authorities that he could persecute and kill Christians. And he was on his way to Damascus and he had this encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. How many of you had an encounter with the Lord?
How many of you know it will change your life forever? I mean, he'll turn your world around that quick. That's why it's so important. Well, Saul has this encounter with the Lord and I don't know if he was on a donkey or not.
They say some people say he was not to the ground off of his donkey. The Bible doesn't necessarily say that. He did go to the ground. So I don't know if he was walking or riding, but the fact of the matter is he had this encounter with the Lord and the Lord deals with him and he's blinded for three days and he goes to the street called straight and then someone is sent an anisles and he's sent over their lehans on him and his sight would come back and he would get direction from the Lord and the Lord tells anisles he's going to use this guy Saul.
He's going to change his name to Paul and he's going to use him for a great work. Now, the reality of that encounter with the Lord is simply this right here. When you look at your Bible, Paul wrote most of the books in the New Testament. He was a great man of God.
He was used by God and minded. This is the guy again that was persecuting Christian. So he wrote most of the books in the Bible and he gave us the UC, where we're saved by grace through faith. God gave him that person.
So he was a man of God. He was used by God. So I want to use him as an example so we can see how God desires to work in our life because Paul actually finished well. And in fact, this recorded in the Bible, he writes this letter to Timothy who was a young preacher in 2nd Timothy 4 7 and 8.
He's talking to a young preacher. He's trying to encourage him and he's trying to help him. So this sermon really, when you think about it, it would apply to people who are working in ministry well. At the same time, I'm going to connect with your life because all of us are gifted and called by God to do something, right?
So I want you to finish well in that. So here's what he says. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
I have remained faithful. That's important, right? And now the prize awaits me. The crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return.
And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eager look forward to his appearing. Now this is a letter that the Apostle Paul writes. It's important that you understand that he's in a prison in Rome when he writes this letter to this young pastor. And I want to give him instruction about what he ought to be doing.
So here's what I want to do today. When I look at Paul's life and I look at what he says in this one particular scripture out here, I want to know what we can learn from the Apostle Paul. I want to understand that about finishing well. I want to know what you can learn and I can learn.
I want to know exactly what Paul knew that maybe I don't know or maybe I haven't considered. I want to do that. So I want to give you a few things. We'll run through it pretty quickly.
And here's how it goes right here. The first thing I want you to see is this. Those who finish well embrace suffering is worship. Now I want you to think about this a moment.
All of us, the Bible is very clear. We're going to go through times of suffering. We're going to go through trials. We're going to go through difficulties.
How many of you have lived long enough that you understand and know that this world is a tough place to live in? And we're going to face suffering and trials and difficulties. They're going to be on every turn. But I also want to tell you this, the Bible is very clear that these trials are a lot of time used to build your uni-spiritually, right?
So when you think about that, they develop endurance in our life. They develop the first appearance in our life. They develop character and our lives. So God uses trials and sufferings to do that.
But there's one thing I want you to see about a trial and a suffering you make me go through right now. I want you to begin to understand that when you are suffering, you need to begin to worship God about what you're going through. That's so important. If you're going to get through it, you've got to learn how to worship God through the suffering.
So here's what Paul did. Paul understood that he embraced suffering as worship. He looked at his opportunities and he looked at what was happening in his life. And I don't know if you studied him very much, but he was in prison and everywhere he went.
He would either go when he went to a town. Either a revival would break out or he would go to jail or a fight would break out. That was who he was. He was a strong man of God, but he understood that he had to make sure that when it come to suffering, that he processed suffering right in what he did.
He said, look, when I'm suffering, it's an opportunity for me to worship God. And that's what you need to know. If you're going to finish well, you can't let the suffering get you down. You can't get kind of pour them out about your suffering and you can't go around complaining about that thing and talking about it.
And you can't begin to worship that thing. What you have to do is you have to begin to worship God in the middle of the suffering and watch what God begins to do in your life. Are you with me this morning? Am I preaching to the right people?
Second Timothy says it this way. As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I want you to think about that a moment.
Now when you read some translations, the word drink offering appears where he says his life is poured out here. Some translations say I poured out like a drink offering. How many of you have ever felt like you've been poured out like a drink offering? You don't even know what a drink offering is?
Well, here's what it looks like. When you think about a drink offering, it goes this way. It was part of the Old Testament worship. After the main sacrifice, wine was poured out on the old.
You read that in Numbers 15. It was the final act, nothing held back. So here's what it was. Paul sees his impending death as a, not as a tragedy, but as a completion of his worship to God.
I want you to think about this the moment. We are, our lives are sacrificed to God. As we say yes to him and we follow him, we offer him a sacrifice of praise. We offer our life as a sacrifice.
We say that everything that we do for the Lord is a sacrifice to him because of the goodness and the mercy and the grace of God that he's placed in my life and he's placed in your life. In fact, God has been so good to us. We order sacrifice everything we do for him. Somebody help the preacher right there.
That means if I'm in my workplace, I'm working as unto the Lord as a sacrifice to him. When I'm raising children, it's a sacrifice to him. When I'm married to my wife and I do a treat her like the Bible says I ought to treat her. It's a sacrifice unto the Lord.
Everything that a child of God does is a sacrifice. Some of you came in this building this morning. It was raining outside. When you woke up this morning, it would have been easy for you to lay in the bed.
But no, you sacrificed the time to be in God's house. You have made what he said. He said do not forsake the assembling of yourself together even as you see the day approaching. You got up and looked in the mirror and got it all together and you walked in here with a sacrifice of praise in your heart and in your hands.
Everything a believer does is a sacrifice to all mighty God. Can I get amen and a hand clap to the Lord? Yeah. So Paul had a perspective about suffering that you and I need in grace because we go through some stuff.
We go through stuff well. Ask Donna. She said I'm the biggest baby in the world. I don't need amen from none of you out there.
Paul's perspective about suffering was this right here. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. Wouldn't you love to experience that? When I pray a lot of times I'll use that right there.
The same power that raised Christ from the dead. I want him to touch the person I pray for because that's a mighty power right there. I want to suffer with him, Sherry, in his death. Now none of us want to say that right there.
None of us. We don't want to say that. But here's the apostle Paul who had much suffering in his life and he said, look, I want to make sure I'm sharing in his suffering and his death. I want to be close to him.
I want to know what he did. So finishing well for some of you that you need to understand this. It doesn't mean you're going to be comfortable. It doesn't mean things are going to go well.
Whatever you start for the Lord, it doesn't mean it's going to be a comfortable deal and it's all going to work out okay. It doesn't mean that at all. Suffering well sometimes is a tragedy in our life, right? So I'll give you this thought so you can understand that as a true new God, we don't run from hardships.
Somebody say to me and right there. We see it as part of our calling. Did you ever notice that the hardships in your life come as a part of your calling? How in the world will you ever grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and how ever will you become the spiritual person that God desires for you to come if God doesn't allow you to go through some things.
So here's why we worship God. When I'm going through these things, I got to remember that I am called by God. I am a child of God. I need to be more Christ like in my life.
I need to trust God more. My faith needs to grow there for when I'm going through some stuff. I see this as part of the calling of God on my life. The question is how do I avoid suffering, but how can I worship through it?
Your heart is seasoned. Maybe your greatest offering to God. Some of you are going through a difficult time right now and you're ready to give up and you're wondering how in the world you're going to get through. I want you to understand the Lord has never left you.
He's right there with you. And while you're going through that, he's walking alongside of you. Sometimes he'll carry you through that. But all the time he's walking right there with you trying to grow you and do something great in your life.
Some of you may have walked in here today and I know you personally, you're suffering from some kind of chronic sickness in your life. You would have rather stayed home and not done anything today, but you push your way through it. I want to tell you the greatest thing you could ever do is push your way through it, show worship and honor to God and give him all the praise for everything that's going on in your life. And when you do that, God gets the glory and the Holy Spirit gets the minister to you right there.
You're still serving, you're still worshiping God. Say amen to those who got up this morning, sick of their body. They didn't feel like getting here today. When you think about that, there's some of you I know this.
You are caring for some sick person in your family and as they get older and you have to care for them. And how many of you know that's the taxing thing to do? It's the toughest thing you ever do. It's become a caretaker for somebody who is elderly and they're sick or even not elderly, but sick of their body.
But I want to tell you, I know many of you who have taken that on as they work into the Lord and you've worshiped God through that. You didn't let it get you down. Maybe you complained a little bit, but you got back on the track and understood that God was giving you an opportunity to serve him. He did say, whoever you give a drink of water to in my name, that you're doing to me also.
So the next time you want to complain about it, the next time you want to have the penny party, I want you to understand that what you're doing for that person, you're doing it to God himself. It is worship. It is honoring God. It is glorifying God.
And God has given you that opportunity because he has equipped you to get through that and God desires to grow you and for you to become the person you never dreamed or thought or imagined you would be God. It's working in that thing. And you and I, oh to begin the gift, God, praise honoring. Lord, for all is doing in our life and the opportunity for God to do something greater in my life.
I meant the teach this today. And I think I messed up already. So when you finish well, you see suffering, it's worship, right? You got to do that.
Next thing I want you to see is this. Those who finish well stay faithful when others fall away. See other people are going to fall away. Other people are going to leave you when you say yes to the Lord and you commit your life to the Lord.
How many of you have realized that some people don't want to be around you anymore? So those people you thought would be when you think you're thinking thing and you know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about? What Paul says right here.
He's talking again to young Timothy's having a hard time in this church. For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and hold some teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their ancient years will hear. They will reject the truth and chase after me.
So when you dedicate your life to the Lord or you start on a journey and you open a business or you go to work in a particular place, I'm telling you right now people are going to leave you. They're not going to stick with you. They're going to fall away. This happened to Paul who was right here doing the work that God had called him to do.
I'm never going to tell my this window when you decided here it is right here. Let's be transparent that you're going to come to New Light Church. They look at you and said you're going to that church. It's absolutely true.
You go into the church and don't have to stay in glass windows as if the staying glass windows are going to get you closer to God. You mean you're going to that church that has no light in there? They got those theater seats in there. They got that black there.
You know it doesn't like black last time I checked on it. God created red, yellow, black and white and all over precious in his sight. You mean you're going over there with that preacher who don't wear a suit and tie? I'm being a little facetious now.
Your family began to mock you because you go over there. Oh, when you serve the Lord, let's get it back on the Lord. Okay. Let's put it back where you started serving the Lord and you got dedicated to the Lord.
Your friends and you started coming to church. Your friends stopped hanging around you. They started talking about you. Somebody help me right there.
You still stay faithful. You were still worshiping God through the trial and the tribulation and through people abandoning you and leaving you there. Some of you have been mocked by your family, but you're still faithful. I'm telling you when I got called in the ministry, I was mocked by other people and all my friends abandoned me because we were all real good sinners.
And I said, this boy was touched. He told me that he got some religion. I don't know what he's got, but he's different. I'll tell you what I got.
I got Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. He gave me a new life. He gave me a new beginning and most of all, he forgave me for everything that I'd ever done, thought or imagined. He wrote my name in the Lamb's book of life.
He gave me a new life. He gave me a new name that was written down in glory. He gave me the art. He put a new heart in me.
I walked away, not the same person. That's who I want to brag about, but you do know when you get there, people will mock you and walk away from you. When you get there, you got to have that. Some of you are still here.
You're still standing. You're alone. I'll tell you how that works for you young people. Maybe when you go to school, you're trying to live for the Lord and you have these values in your life and you got godly values.
You're trying to live for him. And when you go to school, you're standing there alone. You're the only one talking about the Bible verses and what happened on Sunday. You're talking about what God's done in your life and you're praising the Lord.
There's nobody else around you. You're alone. I want to tell you. Some of you are doing a fantastic job.
You ought to worship God because you're still standing. You are still faithful. You are still coming to church. And the beautiful side of that is God is doing something great in your life when all those things are happening.
Could we give all the young people that took a stand for the Lord? Can we give them a hand clap of praise right now and encourage them on? Yeah. You ought to understand some people are going to fall away.
Now Paul understood that people were going to walk away from him. He understood that. They were not going to be faithful to him. He understood when he said yes to the Lord that they would betray him and they would have abandoned him.
He understood that. In fact, here's what he says in Scripture in 2 Timothy 14 and 14 and 16. Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and it's gone to Thessalonica. Anybody ever deserted you because they want to do what they want to do and you said no, I'm going to be a Christian now.
I'm going to serve the Lord that's going to happen. Alex Zander, the coppersmith, did me much harm. The Lord would judge him for what he has done. The first time I was brought before the judge, no one came with me.
Everyone abandoned me. He was talking to a young preacher that was having a hard time and people were abandoning him and turning their back on him. What I'm telling you to do when you start out in the business that God gave you or when you are starting out in the marriage or the relationship that God gave you or anything else that God has done in your life, there are going to be people who you thought were your friends or really not your friends. You're going to find out where the rubber meets the pavement on this because they will abandon you.
They'll desert you. They'll turn their back on you. But you got to learn from Paul right here. Paul wasn't a bitter man at all.
He didn't get upset about that. He didn't spend time wasting it on that. He said this about that in 2 Timothy 4 and 16. May it not be counted against them.
What is Paul teaching us right here that you and I have a job that is greater than we can imagine. We have work to do and God is working in our life. We don't have time to get bitter. We don't have time to compromise.
We don't have time to have self-pity regardless of what we're going through. Everything that God allows us to go through. God is trying to build us and do something great in our life. What we do have time to do is worship God and praise him and give him all the glory and do what we were made to do.
Glory to God. Somebody help me right here. I know I have got carried away right here already. You got to keep standing.
You got to stay focused. Paul stayed focused right here on the mission. We learn from Paul so many things. We learn so many things that God wants us to be sure that we get this.
Watch this right here. You lose people on your journey to finish well. When you say yes to the Lord and it's all dedicated to the Lord, there's people you're going to lose on your journey. Some would choose comfort over calling.
Have you figured that out? I'm telling you right now when you say yes to God and you get committed to God. Some people around you are going to choose comfort over calling. Some would choose popularity over the truth and your job isn't to keep everyone is to keep the faith.
Somebody say amen about that right. Straight from Paul right here. And here's why I want somebody to know today and this is going to speak to you. If you're a young person and you're saying yes to the Lord and everybody else is going their way and doing what they're doing and you think you're all lonely and you're getting left out.
Let me show you what the truth about that is long and this doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. Sometimes it means you're doing it right. God has separated you for a call greater than yourself and God is trying to do something great in your life. He wants you to dedicate it all to him and depend on him and the truth of the matter is when you're going through it like that and they do abandon you and it does feel lonely.
You are in a great place because God himself has your deepest attention right there and God can do great things in your life. Sometimes you're going to lose people. You got to embrace suffering as worship. You got to do that and worship God through it.
Then you got to stay faithful when people abandon you because it's going to happen. Isn't that real good? Next thing I want you to see is this. Those who finish well trust God's presence more than human support.
What he was telling this young preacher was simply this. That you better desire my presence more than human approval. If you're going to accomplish what I desire for you to accomplish, I want you to seek my presence. I want you to love my presence.
I want you to depend on my presence. I want you to depend on other people. Now let's face back some moment. How many of you like to do life with other people?
Isn't it better with other people? It's much better with other people. More comfortable. Feels better when you've got other people around you.
But there are times that you find yourself in an isolated place. There are times that God is using when you get there where he can grow you in a way that you couldn't have grown in any other way whatsoever. In fact, Timothy says it this way. Paul writes you on Timothy again.
Here's what he says. The first time I was brought before the judge, no one came with me. Everyone abandoned me. May it not be counted against him.
But here it is right here. He stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the good news in its entirety for all the gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death. I want to tell you that there's nobody around you that can rescue you from certain death other than Jesus Christ.
His presence is better than human presence. We all need human beings. The Lord said it wouldn't be good for man to be alone. We got that.
But there are times in your spiritual walk with the Lord that God will bring you to a place where he wants to deal with you on a level that he's never dealt with you on. And I want you to understand this. While it may feel like you've been abandoned, I've got some good news for you. The Lord's presence is right there with you.
So you are never alone. Somebody ought to give him some praise right there. You may be walking through the most difficult part of your life right now. You may be thinking you can't endure this thing.
You can't get through this thing. You may be thinking Lord, this is way over my head. But when I've come to tell you, you are in the best place that you'll ever be in. Because when you get there, then God can really begin to mold you and God can really begin to make you and God can really begin to bring you up and lift you up because the Bible tells me he's the one that brings promotion.
Anyway, he needs to work on you to build you to a place where you can do what he's got ahead for you to do. A lot of times what we do is we look at what's happening right now. I remember when we started building this, we're talking about coming to this building right here. I remember this distinctly.
Randy Carter was preaching at the old building down there and he'd come in for homecomings. We did homecomings back then and he was there preaching and we were out here and this was a fellowship hall. This was a basketball court. We were in the fellowship hall in there and he was talking about what was happening at the church and we were so excited about what was going on.
Here's the words he said to me. I never thought about this. He said, Dale, look at what God's doing now. Can you imagine what he'll be doing 15 years from now?
See, too many times we as individuals look at what's happening right now and we think that this is it, but God doesn't think that way. There's a future out there, but for God to take you and me where he needs to take us to, there has to be some work done in our life. If you're going to embrace what God's about to bless you, you've got to be prepared to do that. And while you're growing as a church, I've got to be growing as a pastor and God was preparing me the whole time.
I often say this, I'm looking for a thousand people to be a part of a new light church here, worshiping with us all Sunday mornings. That's what I pray to God about. That's what I talk about. But do you know what that has to happen in my life for that to happen?
God has to grow me to be able to minister to a thousand people. So here's the deal while we're sitting here today. By the way, this is 15 years later. Give God a hand clap of praise, right?
Yeah. I'll show you this. All of you got one of these. I hope you're praying about this whole of the ministers we're involved in.
I can tell you this right here. This is 15 years later. In other words, God is doing a great work in our life. But I want to tell you, you can't just look at where you are right now.
You've got to look at what you need to be when God takes you to the place that he wants to take you. Are you all hearing me today? Paul was not confident in other people. He was confident in the presence of God.
He didn't depend on his own strength and other people to get where he needed to get. He was confident in the faithfulness of God to help him do what God only can help him do. And that's where you got to be. You got to trust God and you got to trust his presence.
You got to know that people are going to leave you. You got to know you're going to go through sufferings and difficulties. You got to worship God. But here's what I want you to see.
When you look at Paul's life in his darkest times, now he wrote this letter here. Remember, there was a lot of things going on in his life. I mean, he was facing death for sure coming up. He already knew that.
But in his darkest moments, you know what he continued to do? He continued to preach God's work. He continued to do what God called him to do. You got to continue.
You got to continue doing what God's called you to do. Don't get sidetracked about all that stuff. Don't let the devil take what God is trying to do great in your life and turn you around and you start worshiping the situation and you start worshiping the people around. You don't do that worship.
It's who you show your allegiance to. No, open your eyes and begin to understand that because I'm here today and these things are happening in my life. I'm going to worship God because we're going to another level. I'm going to trust God because we're going to another level.
And every time somebody drops out of your life and drops off your radar and every time people leave the church, we got to start praising God and giving God glory because those people that are dropping off cannot go where God is about to take you. It's anybody in the house that wants to give God some praise and glory for that. There's just some people can't go where God wants you to go. So when you think about that, he continued to preach.
He continued to reach the loss and he continued to trust God. And that's what everyone of us have to do. No matter what's going on in our life, we have to continue to do what God has called us to do. We trust God's presence.
We depend on God's presence. We look to God's presence and we trust that more than we trust anything else in our life. Isn't that good? You know I had another point, but I'm not going to share that point where you have to preach enough because here's what I want you to say.
You see in this life, you're going to suffer. In this life, people are going to walk away from you. And in this life, you have to learn how to trust God's presence more than you trust the people's presence around you. If you'll get those three things out right there, I'm choosing our best accord.
We will deal with the rest of this sermon. But I think the Lord just check and said that's enough. Start right there. So when you think about your older call today, here's what I want to ask you.
I want to ask you, are you trusting the people around you more than you're trusting God? Have you lost people in your life and you lost them and it hurts? Yes, it hurts. Sometimes they tear your heart out.
Have people walked away from you? Has family members walked away from you? Because you said yes to the Lord. Are you getting mocked for your faith?
Are you going through some suffering right now in your paradigm about this suffering needed to change? See the secret is that you, the secret's him. That was Paul's secret. Have you got that?
That was his secret right there. The Lord stood by his side when nobody else wouldn't and he'll stand by your side. He gives you strength and he'll rescue you. Paul would say that he rescues me.
He gives me strength. He does everything I have need of in my life. Paul said that about himself. Paul said that you and I can say that he brought Paul home safely.
Paul was saying this again. Remember, he was facing death for sure. He was on death row in this prison right here. And God just sent me to say to you today, are you suffering without worshiping?
Are you focused on the people who walked away from you more than you're focused on God? Do you understand what God is trying to prepare you for? And are you seeking God's presence more than you're seeking the presence of other people? Every head bowed, every eye closed.
What a powerful word for the Lord today. I know that there are people suffering in this building. I know a lot of the suffering. I don't know it all, but I know a lot.
Are you trying to rely on the structure around you? Are you relying on the Lord? Are you hurt because people have walked away? Are you still being faithful?
Maybe you're here today and you're not being as faithful as you need to be for some other reason. Well, God sent me along to tell you today that when you have him, that's all you need. He'll bring you friends back into your life. He'll bring you out of one situation, but the truth is you're going to go into another.
Seasons change in our life. So I want to ask you today, are you positioned to finish well? Do you need to make some adjustments in my life? What is the Holy Spirit said to you while I was preaching this sermon today?
What is He said to you? I want to ask you this. You're here today and the Holy Spirit is dealing with you about a certain situation. I don't know what they are.
It doesn't matter to me, but you and the Lord are doing business right now, but you want this preacher to pray for you so you can finish well. You see some things in your life that you need to address so you can complete the task that God has given you. Would you raise that hand and I'm not going to call you out and embarrass you? Yes, yes, yes.
I'm going to pray for you. Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Maybe you've never said yes to him and what does that mean? That's if it means that you've never had an encounter with the Lord.
Where you and the Lord did business in a spiritual way and when you walked away, you were different. Not just joined the church when you were younger or baptized in order when you were younger, but you had this encounter with the Lord and when you walked away, you knew you were a different person. In fact, the people around you knew you were different. You didn't like the things you used to like and you didn't want to do the things you used to do.
You wanted to serve God and please Him. You've never said yes to the Lord, but you think today is the day you do that. Would you raise that hand? I'm not going to call you out and call you for what I'm going to pray for you right where you are.
Would you just raise that hand and say yes to the Lord right now? Is there one that would say yes, Lord? I want you in my life today. I want to learn how to worship you through suffering.
I want to learn how to live this life depending on your presence and your power. I want to do all that, Lord. That's me today. I'm tired of living the way I'm living.
I'm tired of life turning out like it is. I need you in my heart. I want to be saved today. I want to be prepared for the rapture of the church.
I want to be prepared for heaven. I want to live the abundant life that you said I could have in your work. Is there one that would say, preacher, you're talking to me right now? I need that.
I'm not going to call you. I want to call you forward. This is between you and the Lord. Is there one that would say yes.
Many of you have said yes that there's something in your life I want to pray for you. We thank you God for the ability that you give us to worship you through our sufferings. And Lord, I know that there are many people here and online that are suffering right now going through difficult things. Lord, our feelings and emotions get involved in all that and our likes and our dislikes.
And we get our eyes on the wrong thing. So God, from this day forward, would you help us to worship you as we go through suffering? Could we be like Paul and just our life as being poured out like a drink offering? That I want to end well, Lord, and I want to complete the sacrificial life that I've lived.