I don't know about you, but I'm so happy and tickled that we can come back to church. Amen? I get to see all your wonderful people and all your wonderful smiles. Let's stand to our feet and let's give the Lord a big hand clap in his place.
The first song that we're going to sing is, The Only King Forever. You know what that says? That the things of God will stand forever and ever and Jesus Christ is the only King that will remain forever and ever. Let's give the Lord another hand clap in his place.
Great thing. For foundation, I'm round the only side of the ground. The nations rise and fall. King comes once stronger and shaken.
We trust forever in your name. King of Jesus. We trust the name of Jesus. Jesus.
Jesus. I missed you. As a matter of fact, turn around and look at the people say, I missed you. And then you can have a seat because I got a little bit.
I got to make up some time. First off, let me say this. Don't say that ball game last night. Anyway, the last being blue today, promise you.
I promise you. The Lord only works these things out. I promise you. I did not know that.
Anyway, a couple of things I want to make your first time, I want to make your first time a long time. I want to make you feel welcome. We're so glad you chose the worship of us. You're IVI.
If you didn't get stopped by one of our great volunteers coming in, make sure you stop by that VIP area. Grab one of those blue cars out in front of you. We got a special gift for you. Thank you for worshiping with us today.
You know, today's also another game just happened and I don't know if you're aware. It's called Super Bowl. We have a little fantasy football league in the church here about 12 guys or in the first winter. She's fell off like a cowboy.
A lot of cowboys. She was good in the 90s, but it's been a long time. Sorry, Karen. Sorry.
Anyway, this year I want to give our champion. We got a nice little ring. You all see that? You all see that ring?
That's nice. Okay. Nice ring. Jeff Atkinson back there in the back.
Go ahead and wave out of Jeff. He's sitting a very back right. You're right. My left.
Okay. Back there. He's our champion. That's a good one.
This year we decided we do something a little different. We give out a few more trophies. Usually we don't give anything for second place, but I thought we needed to give a second place trophy this year. That's the biggest trophy we've ever given away.
And Jordan, come here, Jordan. You were in the league, weren't you? Who's names on that trophy right here? That's right.
Corey Hester, second place right there. Yes. Yeah. Second place, baby.
Whoo. Look at that trophy converted out. That's all I'm going to say about that. And just so you all know, I can really bring today.
I'm not going to. My own money. The church fund isn't going to. I just say, you know.
But we do have one more award. And the winner of this award, I want to give another award. Just say, oh no, I'm sorry. I'm taking a little time.
I want to give a like a spoiler alert because we've had a back to back champion. Benji Tyler in one of two years in a row. And this year, Jared just knocked him out of the playoffs. Wouldn't even let him get into the playoffs.
So Jared, get Jared in the game. But anyway, we have one more award. And this person, they were so ashamed to get this award that they left the state. They went all the way to Florida.
But our last place award, the toilet bowl trophy. I don't think it's, I think last year somebody else got it. But this is his second time getting this last place trophy. And I'm talking about Pastor Jeff Goss.
Okay. So Jeff, I know you're watching this from the comfort of your own little boat hiding somewhere. Getting this far away from the game. We've got you this.
We'll make sure to sit on your mantle when you get home. All right. So anyway, so just having a little fun here today. We do come and have fun and believe that God likes joyful and happy people.
You know, you want to leave your best life, all right? So if you can't smile a little bit and laugh a little bit, then I don't know. This might not be for you to squeeze something. I don't know.
But I believe it is. And I believe God wants you to be happy and satisfied. And so we're going to have a little fun from time to time. I want to say this, we do have a couple of serious things.
One is that we do have our impact and our ignite, which is our high school and young adult. You want to know what young adult is? 25. Okay.
25 and under. So if you're like me and 40 and still consider yourself young adult, you're delusional. All right. So we have our high school.
So high school to 25. They're having a super ball party night down at the connect center starts at 6.30. They're going to have a great time. Great food.
We'll watch the game. They'll have a devotion and all that kind of stuff. So I would encourage you to go to your vice in high school or 25 or under send them down there to the connect center and not as it's going to be a great time. A lot of this stuff happened.
We started to celebrate recovery this week. We started a marriage class this week. Pastor Cory, Pastor Nathan, we're down at the connect house of day with Church 101. We got several people to sign up for baptism.
If you want to be part of the baptism, go ahead and sign up today. We got some big things happening. When you came in today, they probably gave you one of these four to three cards. You heard Pastor Dale say last week that we support over 50 ministries.
There's a lot of them right here on there. Not everyone on the phone here. Sometimes we give stuff randomly out to different events or things that happen, different tragedies that take place. We give those as well.
We want you to see what your money is going to. We want you to be a part of this mission that God is doing. Pastor Dale told you last week about our parking lot expansion. We're trying to get more parking so we can get more people.
Every number has a story. Every story matters to God. Do you believe that? We're going to do everything we can to get people here and get them saved and get their family saved and their loved ones saved and their friends and their coworkers saved.
We believe that we want to pray out here. Amen? A lot of mission, a lot of stuff happening. A lot of you have pledged over the years to give and be a part of what God is doing.
Pastor Dale gave the first 2000 last week. I'm going to pledge a thousand to give this year as well. Many of you will do that. You can go to the new light app or the kiosk and sign up to give that.
A lot of ways you can give me a part of what God is doing here. I don't want to say one thing though. We had somebody contact us this week and say they got their given statement. They were like, hey, my given statement was a little off.
I didn't look right. What happened was they got a new credit card. When they got a new credit card, they forgot to update their information or what something happened. They thought they were given and they were not.
I would encourage you, if you have recurring gifts like we have set up, go in there and check it. Our account is going to look and just see if we've had any more people to set that. We'll probably send a letter out if that's you. Just check it and make sure that everything is up to date.
I just have one more thing about missions. Pastor Dale, you anchor good and that's the better. Pastor Cory's got a whole lot of them. Somebody gave me a check today.
Pastor Dale, for missions? Ten thousand dollars. Ten thousand dollars a day for missions. So God is good.
There are more missions that we want to be a part of. There are more people we want to help. We want to do everything we can to reach people with the love of God. We want to share a show and spread the love of God with everybody.
So there's a lot of missions that take place. Kids going on right now. We've got new light outdoors next week. We will please sign up for that so we can get a head count.
We'll have a land quarters and barbecues. We just want to get a head count on that. We'll also give you that dress where we'll be meeting. It's going to be a great time.
It's fellowship fun. We'll just need to sign up. We've got brotherhood starting at the end of the month. A lot of great missions that ministry happen.
We couldn't do any of it if it weren't for your faithfulness to give weekend and week out. I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for giving to this church. I want to say thank you, thank you for giving to this church. I want you to do that.
Amen. I thought it was too long today. Y'all ready to worship a little bit. How many of y'all are thankful that we're here today?
How many of you are glad to be back in the house of the Lord today? Amen. If you are what you say to your feet? Well, you get ready to worship.
Here's the great thing about our God. We get to give back to Him and bring our tithes and our offerings and all that stuff. But listen, it's all His anyway. So what can we bring?
This song says we bring our hallelujah. We bring our praise. We bring our worship to Him. He created us to worship Him.
So that's what we're going to do here today. So as the worship team leads us, let's sing it out. Let's not like we have men together in two weeks. Let's just sing to the top of our lungs, our gratitude, and our hallelujahs to Jesus.
I've got nothing but could I express. I could sing these songs as I often do every song I stand. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. It's all that I have is a heart.
Except for our hearts and hearts. I've got just one look with my own stretch. Why I wear the worst of you. It brings you again and again.
It's a heart. Get your hands up your son. Cause you've got a lot of hands up. You can't try to heal.
It's a heart. Oh don't you get your hands up your son. Cause you've got a lot of hands up. It's all that I have.
Just the voices. S fford me. I think your Church this officer has opened up. Thank you, I'm just doing everything to the Lord.
Good night to you!! Thank you for this day and the opportunity to be back in your house together as a family to worship you, Lord. We just thank you for all the things you do to remind us of your great power. This is not this way, the glory, the beauty of it and the power that you have to control the weather and do what you want to with everything you will, Lord, makes us understand and have peace that you have control in our lives and you have control in our situations, Lord.
All we have to do is what I faith in you. Whatever the outcome, Lord, we just thank you for your guidance and your protection, your peace. The Lord thank you for just being with us and giving us the opportunity to worship you. We ask you to do what the pastor today during his word, Lord, that somebody, somebody's heart will be preek that will become close to you and accept you, Lord, we just thank you for all these things and your precious knowledge.
I mean, you might be safe. 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 it. This season of life you're walking through, Jesus wants to walk with you.
This is your moment to do more than you would ever imagine. 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 beer, but have more strength in your spirit and more courage in your bones, more of him. So when 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 you to more of him each and every day. So stand up in your spirit, put on the full armor of God, declare the authority that Jesus is more than enough, speaking 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. Good morning.
How we doing? Good to see you. Are you happy to be back in the house of the Lord today? Come on, yes, are you?
Yeah. So good to see you. Thank God for the last couple of weeks of the media ministry. We were able to continue what God has told us to do.
This year and you were faithful to attend and we were blown away how you responded. And thank you so much for being who you are. And thank you for coming out today. It's always good, good to see you.
I want to remind you now, when I preach today, I can't cover this entire sermon today, but Pastor Coronat, myself, we'll deal with the rest of it or some of it on Tuesday night at seven o'clock on the Day of Hester Facebook page. Be there. We'll take a deeper dive into the sermon. Help me do this.
Let's welcome the radio minister and Internet Minister. Let me know you love them. Welcome to the new light church. Yeah.
Thank you for joining us today. Current series will jump right into it called living on purpose. And I tell you, we start last week and we learned some things about it. It was good.
Deeper dive was great and I trust it will be this week as well. So I want to talk about something today that looks like this. I want to talk about knowing your true identity. Now, this is so important.
I'll just give you a couple of things that will help you understand why this is important. So now, even in the nasher, we have a problem with identity in the world we live in today, right? So how many of you would have ever dreamed, maybe let's say 10 or 15 years ago, maybe 20 years ago, how many of you ever dreamed that we were having trouble distinguishing between man and woman today? Is that an identity problem?
Absolutely. You look in the world. Look in the nasher. We have a problem determining who is a male and who is a female.
Well, the only ones that don't have a problem determining that is when the baby is delivered at the hospital, or the nurse's doctors and whoever's in the room in there, mom and dad, when the baby comes out, nobody has any problem identified. Male or female. Only as we walk away from that, do we have problems identifying? So there's a problem with identity in the world today, but do you know that there is a bigger problem in the church with our spiritual identity?
Who we are? Did you know it's bigger? In other words, when you look at the church and you look at the world, the Lord talks about, it starts in the house of the Lord. So if we would understand who we were in the body of Christ, who we were as children of God, then probably the world wouldn't have so many problems identifying who they are.
So when you think about that, I want you to think about this statement right here. Not knowing your identity in Christ, at least to an insecure life, but it's not going to be a problem. In an insecure life, anchored in worldly approval. Well, that's sad right there.
Resulting in anxiety, fear, and emotional instability. Without this foundation, individuals tend to define themselves through performance, appearance, societal labels, leading to deep disappointment and spiritual emptiness. And what I'm going to tell you today, while we may profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and we may sing all the right songs and say all the right things and read the right word, I'm telling you, there are a lot of Christian people who are living spiritually, spiritually empty lives and they're disappointed in their life. And when you look at the body of Christ, we are so divided in the church.
In other words, it goes like this, a lot of us identify as Pentecostals, we identify as Baptists and we identify as Methodists and Presbyterian and holiness and Pentecostal and on and on and on. Do you see the division in the body of Christ? Well, can I just bring that to you? There's nothing about any of that in the word of the Lord.
All that is man-made stuff. Here's where we need to be as the body of Christ. We are the children of God. We belong to God.
He is our Father. We are servants of the Most High God. In other words, when you read the scripture from this day forward, I want you to understand when you're reading up this scripture that first of all, you are a child of God. Nothing can change that.
Nothing in this world can move that. I want you to understand we are servants of God and we are called to do the work of the Lord. We're never called to put this title on anybody. We're never called to run over here and get with this group right here or that group over there.
We are a body of Christ. We are united in the Lord. We stand together. We spread the gospel of one Savior.
His name is Jesus Christ. We talk about His death, burial, resurrection. We talk about the spirit of God and how God wants to save everybody out there and how God can give everybody a new life. All you got to do is call on the name of the Lord.
There's no division or disunity in that whatsoever. We are the body of Christ's children of the Most High God. You ought to give Him a shout and a praise up in here and let Him know you believe that. I know that we were raised to be baptized and some people say I was born a Baptist.
I'll die Baptist and I'm going to be a Baptist. And Pentecostals are no different. Good people love them but the truth is the devil has come in and stolen our identity. I'll prove that to you in scripture.
I just gave you that so you can see there's a physical problem in this world but there's a spiritual problem as well. So three things I want you to know about identity today. I want to go through that. I want God to speak to you today.
So the first thing looks like this right here. Your identity is not what you do. Now this applies on every level of your life. Your identity is not wrapped up in what you do.
See I'm a pastor. I pastor this church. It was a calling that God gave me. It was a gift that God placed in my life.
But that's not who I am. I'm a child of God first and I'm a service Lord second. That's who I am. I'm married to Donna and I'm her husband and she's my wife but that's not who I am.
And here's why that's important because you see today my help could go away and my identity if it were in being a pastor guess where I would be. I would be in trouble. If my identity were being her husband and that's good and I appreciate that and that's what I kind of put all my efforts into and that's how I live. And then if she went away for whatever reason guess where I would be.
And here's where we are in the body of Christ today and as individuals. We place our confidence and faith on this right here and what we do but the truth of the matter is we order place our faith and confidence in who we are in Christ and we ought to trust that because see that can never go away. So I want you to understand your identity is not in what you do. Here's a scripture right here.
Since you have been raised in you life with Christ. Set your sights on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven. That's our number one priority right there.
Not in this world but about the things of heaven. Not the things of this earth. For you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ who is your life is revealed to the revealed to the whole world you will share in all his glory.
Now that scripture right there. So our life is hidden in Christ. Our attention our focus ought to be on the things of God and the things in heaven and not on this earth. That's who we are.
That's our true identity right there. So when you look at this I want to talk about the Colossian Church, the Church at Coloss for just a moment. Here's the problem they had an identity problem. That's why this letter was written right there.
Now watch this right here. They had a problem because they were lost in what we call legalism. They were lost in that. That's what they focused on.
They really focused on the do's and the don'ts and the religious activities and trying to prove to everybody that they were who that they said they were. And the problem with that is that's performance based. There's no security in that whatsoever. What God sent me to tell you today is you don't live a life of performance based religion.
That's not what God has called us to do with this church. We steeped in that. And so anything that would come along could rot their world and turn them around. They were not real stable.
People are you hearing me right now. So you can't earn anything from God. You got to stop trying to earn God's approval. You got to stop trying to earn other people's approval.
And you got to stop trying to prove to yourself that you are who God said you were. You can't do that. They were always trying to prove their faith to themselves and somebody else. And I'm telling you right now, things haven't changed the whole life in the church world today.
Somehow the devil has tricked us into believing that I got to prove something to everybody. And I got to prove to myself. So when I get up every day, if I'm trying to prove that I have what I have and I am who I say I am, then I got to try to prove that every day. So when I get up, I prove it in the way I dress.
I prove it in the way I talk. I prove it in the things I do. And I become this person who believes all that. But when it comes right down to it, I don't have to prove anything to anybody.
Somebody say amen. I have to prove it to God. And I have to know that God is satisfied with it and that God thinks it's okay. I don't have to put on any errors in front of anybody anymore.
I don't have to be the Pentecostal. I don't have to be the Baptist person. I don't have to be the holiness person anymore. All I have to be is a child of God and a servant of God.
And it doesn't matter what anybody else says. What really matters is what God says. Somebody helped the preacher this morning. That's what really matters.
When you think about that in Christ, we have God's approval. What other approval do you need? When you have it in Christ and you trust Him and His finished work, here's where it works. You get in by trusting the grace of God and what Christ did in the cross of Calvary.
That's how you get in. You stay in by trusting the grace of God and what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. Not by what we do or not by any label. So when you think about that, I want you to know today that everything you get from God is a gift.
Everything I get from God, everything you get from God is a gift. You can't earn that. You don't have to prove that. You just have to accept that.
You just have to accept that and believe that because it's a gift from God. Ephesians 2 8 9 says this, God saved you by His grace when you believed and you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done.
So none of us can boast about it. Everything is a free gift from God. So if you begin to look at your life and understand that your salvation is a free gift from God. It's not based on performance.
Guess what? Your identity as well is not based on performance. Your identity is in Christ Jesus by faith in what He did for you. Romans would say it this way.
For everyone who has sinned, we all fall short of God's glory of standard. Yet God in His grace freely makes us right in His sight. Everybody say freely. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty of our sins.
Everything we get from God is a free gift. We just have to receive it and accept it and not try to add anything to that. Live a simple life. The Bible says the gospel and the message is a simple message.
But this church had it all wrong. They were trying to prove everything. It's not what we do, but it's what Christ did. Do you see how much freedom you can get when you believe that?
Think about if you get up every day. It's really not about what I do today. It's about what Christ already did for me. It's not about my performance today.
It's not that I got to read this much of the word. It's not that I got to read the Bible through in a year. It's not that I got to fast and I got to pray. It's not that I got to cross every tea and not every eye.
Now here's the bottom line on all that. As you mature in the Lord, all these things are going to increase in your life naturally. They'll do that. But it's really not about that.
If I got up today and I didn't read one scripture today, if I didn't say one prayer today, this will hurt some of you. If I didn't even acknowledge God in any way today, if I got up in the days of busy day and everything broke loose around me and I don't have time to do that. And I don't know which way is up, which ends up, which ends up. Which ends down and I get through the end of the day and life has been a complete disaster around me.
Can I tell you? I'm still just as secure in the Lord as I was when I laid my head down last night. That's how God works. We depend on Jesus and what He did and not what we do.
And that's where our identity is found right there. So when you think about that, think about this statement right here. Stop trying to earn God's approval through your accomplishments. Your identity is pastor, teacher, businessman, parrot or anything you want to add to that.
These are roles you feel not who you are. Who you are as a child of God. I want to tell you right now. I am a pastor and I'm glad God called me to be a pastor, but I'll tell you right now.
That's just a role. That's just a little part of my life. I am a child of the most high God. And I love that about Him.
I can trust Him. I can depend on Him. And here's what happens with pastor. So this is why I put this in here.
What happens with pastor is we get up there and we get used to people calling us pastor. We get used to ministering to other people. We get used to do what God has called us to do. And we begin to depend on that for our well-being, our security, our purpose and all that kind of stuff.
And God sent me to tell you today, don't you do that because that role can change. Somebody say amen. Things can happen. Life can change.
Help can go bad. And you may not be the pastor anymore, but you are no less God's child and you are no less who God called you to be. You are still a servant of God. You are still a child of God.
No matter what role changes in your life. That's why you got to understand. It's not what you do. It's not what you do that makes you who you are.
Now somebody will ask me, how in the world do I apply that to my life every day? Preacher, how do I do that? I understand what you're saying. Maybe I'm a little confused.
Maybe it's a little gray over here. Well, let me show you what you can do every day of your life. Every day of your life, you can identify one area where you're trying to earn approval. Now, all of us do that.
How many would say amen? Every one of us tried to earn approval. Look, if you're married, we just started to marriage class on Wednesday night. The first thing we dealt with was approval.
And identity and acceptance and all and security and all that. And here's the truth. In a marriage, a lot of times, and Donald will tell you I was guilty of this for many years. In a marriage, I try to get my acceptance, my approval, my identity as a husband and all those stuff.
I try to get it from Donna. And for years and years and years, I depend on her and I still depend on her. But you know, God had to kind of build me and work with me over this. That's not where my security is.
You cannot place security in another person. And the truth that came out in the very first video that we watched on Wednesday night was simply this. We looked a lot of times to our spouse to be Jesus in our life. Somebody ought to get that right there.
And I want to tell you, they are good spouses, but they are terrible. Jesus is right. And I'll tell you when Donna looked to me to get her security in me and look, the number one thing that a woman needs is security in me. And the number one thing women that amandies is respect and we ought to respect them and we ought to give her security and we ought to make things secure around us.
But the greatest security you can give her is to tell her that Jesus Christ is her ultimate security, that he is her God, that he died for her, that he'll never leave her or forsake her, that he'll be there when nobody else will be there. She ought to understand that I'm human and I'll fail and I'll mess up and I'll make dumb choices, but the truth of the matter is there's a God in heaven that never messes up, never makes a bad choice. It's always there. You can't offend him enough.
You can't turn your back on him enough. You can't say enough bad. I'm telling you, he'll always be there. He never leaves us or forsakes us.
So when you got to think about your life in this regard, where you're getting your security from and you got to be so careful in these roles because some people are securing their work and they ramp everything up in working and it's good to work and the Bible tells us it's a blessing from God to enjoy what God has given us. But the truth of the matter is work can go away. Health can go away. Peritone can be good, but they can step on your heart when they're young, but when they step on your feet, when they're young, but when they get old, they step on your heart.
They'll make some decisions that will turn your world around. If you plow everything into them, some might have better hear this. They're going to grow up and they're going to go away. They're going to grow up and they're going to do things that you wish they hadn't done.
And sometimes they go away. Period. Ministry the same way. So you got to pick this area in your life where you're trying to find approval.
Then you got to maybe get you a daily reminder. Put it on your phone if you want to listen to this right here. My worth equals God's grace. No matter where I'm in life, no matter what's going on in life, no matter how bad life may be, no matter what kind of turn life may have taken, my worth is still in the grace of God.
And the last time I read my Bible, his grace is sufficient for me. His grace is sufficient for you. It's not in my work. It's not in what I do.
It's in the grace of God. Somebody say amen about that. Second thing, your identity is not what others say about you. This is so important because see as a pastor of this church, can I get real with you?
I'm not just a pastor in town anymore or around other church people and religious people. I'm that pastor. I can go places and people say you that fast. And I say, yes, I'm that pastor.
You know what I'm glad about being that pastor. I'm glad about that because that means I'm not like you or your pastor. I'm not trying to be ugly. I'm just being honest.
Can I be honest this morning? You see here's where it works with me. People, I don't know if you don't know anything about them burn pages and scanner pages and all that kind of stuff. You don't know anything about that.
Some of your own that stuff. Listen to me. Look right straight at me right here. Look at me.
If you are a Christian, you have no business being on any of those pages. That was too weak. That was too weak. Let me tell you something.
That is nothing but gossip and destruction and division and tearing everybody up and your coward's self has to be an anonymous person to put anything on that you yell it back. Does the Bible talk about gossip? Does the Bible talk about division? Does the Bible say there are seven things that God hates?
And that's one that stirs division up among the brethren. So you good born again, believer, sleep is all good to sit there and take all that garbage. I can say it another way where you can understand me. But I've done to tell you today, if you're a believer in Christ, you ought to stay away from that stuff.
You ought to denounce that stuff. You don't have time. If you want to read something, read the Bible and let the Bible tell you about who you are and what you are and what you can do and let the Bible tell you how you treat other people when they do good and when they do bad and let the Bible tell you to let your life down for a cause greater than yourself and let the Bible tell you that you're creating the image and likeness of God. And if you understand how you're created, you'll treat other people just like they need to be treated because you understand they are created just like you are created.
You'll get out of the garbage cesspool over there and you'll get into the life of the Word of God. I pray today that God shuts everyone up now. You know how you would do that? If you Christians would get off of them.
I'm meddling now. I think I was talking about me being that pastor. I'm totally off course right now. You understand?
They talk about me because they don't talk about me because we are priests because they can't argue with the word. They don't talk about me about the people getting saved and lives getting transformed and the church growing. They don't talk about that. They don't talk about the way I preach the Word.
They don't talk about the way I live my life. I will some of them do. They claim you built my house out there. Terry, man, you in good shape.
The town built your own church built mine and then when somebody comes in and gives $10,000, watch what he does out there next. Yeah, good preaching this morning. I love it because they can't say the word. They can't say nothing to me right now.
I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.
They forget Terry that you and I had homes before we ever built a home. They forget that we were in the furniture business 30 years in the construction business all our life. They forget we're builders, right? They don't consider that stuff.
They don't consider that we spent a career somewhere doing what we were doing, right? They think we just started today and the church done all that stuff. Get a life. Boy, I'm middling bad now.
But I get tired of reading that stuff. Can I get tired of it? So anyway, they don't talk about me about what I preach. They don't talk about me about me about that church.
Oh, they got the eight of their seats in there. They got black seats in there. They got a screen here and a screen there. They got technology here and they talk about smoke, but I don't ever see any smoke.
They talk about all that and they talk about it because we're not like them. I don't want to be like you. Now, if you love the Lord and you're giving your life for the Lord and people are getting saved in your church and the gospel is being preached in your church and you have a children's church that's growing and God is the word of the Lord is being poured in. Oh, I'm off course now.
If the word of the Lord is being poured in their little hearts and you're living every day to get people saved and that's your number one priority. Then I want to be like you. But if you have a holy huddle and you're just satisfied with checking a box every week and not doing nothing for the Lord and you're not worshiping God and ministering the God all out the world. I don't want to be like you.
Talk about me. Here's the day of my identity. We're in this church or in or in me being a pastor. I'd be in trouble, right?
I don't care what people say about me anymore. I don't care what others say. You know what I care about? I care about what God says.
I care about serving God. I care about pleasing God and I want to tell you that's where you ought to be as a believer today. It shouldn't matter to you what anybody says anymore about you. You ought to realize that the heart is wicked and deceptive above all things and you ought to realize that there are carnal Christians out there and just because they carry out Bible and quote a few scriptures.
Listen to what's coming out of their mouth and then you can discern this right here. If it's living word that's coming out of their mouth, you can trust that. But if it's division and divisive and disunity, you ought to run from it and mark them as who they are. Boy, y'all can't handle that kind of preaching today.
I really, I didn't intend to do this. Colossians 3 and 3. For you died to this life and your real life is what? With Christ in God.
There's a double, there's a double protection right there. You're in Christ, but you're hidden with God also. A double protection of that good. He speaks of security and safety.
When you're in Christ, it's safe. When you're depending on what other people say, boy, you are so vulnerable. You got to be careful about that. When you think about this, watch this right here.
This truth protects you from human opinion, providing a stable foundation for your mental and spiritual well-being. I will be honest with you. When I first started this and we started going down this road and God started blessing. I like to lost my mind.
Because I was the fair here and boy that came back, everybody, you mean I could go to all restaurants and I said, hey, how you doing man? Good to see you. How's everything going? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Now I can't even go to a restaurant. You know why I don't go at them because when I come out, I'll be the top. I got to go and say that's him. But you can't worry about what other people say in Christ, you're secure.
And I want you to get that. You can't depend on that. Human rejection can sting, but I want to tell you it does it. Defeat or stop what God is trying to do in your life.
They may reject you. They may talk about you. And what I'm telling you is truth today. I'm not mad about anything.
I'm sick of some things. I'm not mad about anything. But what I'm trying to tell you too many Christians are defeated because people are saying things about them. I want you to get to the place where they say it about you.
You say, well, some of it's true, but all of it's not true. I still am a child of God. I want your confidence and your happiness to be in who you are in Christ and not what other people say. Send a poll to watch this right here, how this works.
First Samuel, I'll read and explain it to you. But the Lord said to Samuel, don't judge by his appearance or height. For I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.
People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. What is the context here? The context is simply this. Samuel, the prophet was sent to Jesse's house.
Jesse has eight sons. The prophet is told by God, I want you to go there. And I'll point out the one that's going to be the next king. I want you to lay hands on him in the morning.
He goes up there. There are seven kids lined up there. One tall drink of water in the rest of what they were. And then little David's out in the field out there somewhere tending sheep.
He's in Sanhific. Can you see that? He doesn't really matter. So Jesse begins looking at what he's a prophet of God on an assignment from God.
He stands right in front of the first one. He's a tall drink of water. He looks real good. He's handsome.
He's tall. I hate tall people. Jeremy Dallas, if you hear, I want to tell you something. This is a compliment to you.
I was working with a family this week and I'll preach a funeral on Tuesday. They don't come to this church. The guy lives in Orem. I remember him from years ago, years and years ago.
And he asked me if I'd preach his mother's funeral on Tuesday. He watched his pastor go and I, on Tuesday night a little bit. And I went and I said, yeah, I'll go and I met with the family on Friday. And here it was what he said.
And Jeremy, I tell you, this was a high compliment son. I walked in there and we just started talking and we talked about your daddy. We talked about all the people I knew. He went to school with.
And I could, you know, we went on through this conversation. He said, you know what happened to me one day. He said, I was in the bank there at Blakenborough. And he said, I walked in there and he said, I don't know why I'm telling this.
You need to hear this, Jeremy. He said, I walked in there and there was a young man sitting there, one of the nicest looking young men I had ever seen in my life. He said, he was slim and kind of tall, clean cut young man. And he said, I walked outside and he said his truck was sitting out there at the bank and it was spotless clean.
He said that thing was immaculate. He said, I got my truck and started leaving. I said, no, I want to find out who this young man is. He said, he walked out outside and he said, I looked at Jeremy and he said, I didn't know who he was.
So I didn't know who he was. So I looked at him and said, I said, young man, who are you? And he told me who he was. He said, who was your daddy?
And he said, I knew it. That's why that truck was so clean. And he said, that was a nice looking young man. And he kept his stuff clean.
That ought to make you feel pretty good, Jeremy. Give him a hand. He does a good job, right? Yeah.
Why not tell that story? I thought it was a good story. The point is this right here. When you think about this Jesse had his sons there, the prophet of God, the man of God thought, the man of God thought that this tall handsome guy was the one.
And God said, let me tell you something. And this is what everyone of you need to see because all of us don't look alike. Some of us are short. Some of us are tall.
Some of us are smarter. Some of us are blessed. Some of us are not so much. Some of us are not so much.
Some of us are not so much. Some of us struggle. But I want to tell you, God looks at the heart. Man might look at the appearance, but God always looks at the heart.
Are you hearing me church? And God tells the prophet right here. He says, look, his appearance is high. You can't look at all that.
For I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. I want you to get that right here.
It's good to look good. And it's good to get compliments like Jeremy God. But everybody can't be successful. Everybody can't be this.
But God looks at the heart no matter where you are in life. And I want you to agree with me today. It's God's opinion that matters more than man's opinion. And when God says that, you got to trust that proverbs would say this right here.