How To Work With God(From Our 12-1-24 Worship)

Watch The Video Version Here: https://youtu.be/Z8PNeg5MVnATranscript: It was another,  it was another gig on another night for  famous blues magician Darrell Davis.  He didn't realize that this night was going to  change the course of his life.  He was used to, after the show, people coming up to him and giving him compliments and talking  to his adoring fans. But  on this night,  He would meet a man who  wouldn't, wouldn't really be classified as an adoring fan. You see, on this night, a white man walked up to  Mr. Davis and said,  I can't believe that a black man can play that good, play like Jerry Lee Lewis on the piano. And the reason he said that to him,  his next sentence was, is because I'm a member  of the KKK.  Mr. Davis laughed at him  and said, you can't be serious. And he says, I am serious.  And from that point on,  for the next several hours,  Mr. Davis and this man  sat in conversation.  Darrell asked him, he said, how can you hate someone that you don't even, you don't even know them? Like, you really need to know somebody to be able to hate them.  And over the next several hours and then several days, Mr. Davis and this man  formed a friendship.  And that friendship would lead to this man renouncing the KKK.  But it wasn't just this man.  Over the next several years, Mr. Davis would work with some 200 members. This gentleman would introduce Davis to his friends.  And one by one,  They would begin to build a relationship and they begin to work together.  And over 200 members of the time of the last research that I can get a hold of, over 200 people have renounced the KKK.  All because Mr. Davis  sits and has a conversation. Talks with them, becomes their friend.  You wouldn't think,  it's unlikely pairing, isn't it?  It's amazing sometimes how people that you, you don't think would work well together sometimes work the best  together.  And this morning, if you have your Bibles, I want us to look at another unlikely pairing.  Two, two groups that you wouldn't think would work well together, but in fact, when they do work together, it's magical. If you have your Bibles, go with me to 2 Corinthians. We're going to We're going to stay in 2 Corinthians the entire, entire time this morning.  And we're going to start in chapter 6 and look at verse 1.  Paul says, Working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in me. Now you look at that sentence,  and I ask you who the him is. And you have no other choice but to say, well that's God.  Paul is talking about us as human beings working alongside God. You want to talk about an unlikely pairing?  There it is.  God and man working together. How does that even, how does that even work? What does it, what does it look like?  How can it be so? Isaiah 55, 7, 8, and 9. My ways are above your ways. So are my thoughts above your thoughts, says the Lord. We're not even on the same level  as God.  And yet this morning I say to you, it's possible.  It's possible for us to work together.  But how do you do that?  What's it look like?  Well, to answer that question, I want to back up  a chapter to chapter 5. I want us to go through chapter 5 this morning and look at some things and ask the question, What does it take?  for us to work together with God.  What's it look like?  What's required of us?  And I believe that these things could be helpful to each and every one of us.  So  we back up into chapter five and Paul here is going to start with this. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, he's talking about our body.  We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this tent, in our bodies, physical bodies, we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.  If indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened.  Not that we should be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed.  So that which is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee.  You see, the first thing you're going to do, you have to do, if you're going to work with God, is you have to be prepared. You notice here that God is the one that does the preparing.  You think about it. He has done things for us that we cannot do for ourselves.  How would I ever pay for my sin debt?  God's taken care of that.  How would I ever provide all the material blessings that I need for my life? God has already done that.God has done so many things to prepare for me and for you.  But I want you to notice here, it's not just about the preparation, is it?  You see, with this preparation, along with it comes, comes with a desire. You notice all the words I've underlined.  We groan.  We long to put on the assembly dwelling. We groan being burdened. You get this idea that  not only is it just the fact that God has prepared us, but for the faithful Christian  who, who believes God follows God wants to be with God. There is this real desire to be with him.  And I wonder,  I wonder this morning  you look at the desire and the preparation,  those two elements together. I ask you a question this morning. Do you desire to go home?  And if you don't desire to go home, does that mean  you're not prepared?  That's a hard question.  It's not a simple 30 second, well, yeah, yeah, of course, maybe.  That's a deep question.  It's got a lot of facets to it. It's got a lot of, a lot of things tied to it.A lot of emotion tied to it.  We're talking about our lives and our families and our homes and everything that we know here on Earth. But do we desire God more?  I can't answer that question for you. I have a hard enough time answering it for me.  But you notice the two things here go together,  and I wonder if we don't have that desire, what is standing in our way?  What's keeping us  from desiring God that much?  What are we hanging on to?What stands in our way?  What's keeping us from being,  walking into and stepping into the preparations that God has made for us?  We're going to work with him. We have to be prepared. But next,  if you're going to be prepared,  it changes the way that you live life.  It changes your actions. It changes your decisions. I'm going to tell you what, being a Christian at times is scary.  It's hard to do the right thing.  In fact, quite often times, if you want to know what the right thing is, you can almost ask yourself, what's the hardest thing to do?  That's probably the right thing  If you're gonna if you're gonna work with God, you're gonna have to take some good courage to do it.Look at verse 6 13  So we are always of good courage  We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight  Yes, we have a good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good  or evil.  You see...