COHORT WEEK 4

Well, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for your love and kindness.

We say this is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it, Lord.

Gratitude is our attitude today.

And we pray that you will speak to us from your word, that you will challenge us, that you will change us, that you will transform us, Lord, every day from glory to glory more into the image of your son, Jesus.

Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this room, Lord.

We invite you to poke at those issues in our own hearts as these words come forth that may need some addressing in our lives.

And we pray, Lord, that you will shape us more and more as vessels of glory and not of dishonor.

We pray this in Jesus name.

And all of God's people said, well, good morning, saints, and good morning, sinners, and, happy to see you all.

It's, good to see you all back in the saddle again.

I'm back in the saddle again.

All right.

We're going to talk today about being dependent and as a result, being favored.

you cannot be favored by God unless you are dependent on God.

because this is symbiotic back and forth between you and God.

God calls us into partnership.

And I want to start off with Psalm 44, verse 11, which I.

Excuse me.

Verse 1, which I read before, but I'm going to read it again.

Psalm 44, verse one.

Sisters.

O God, we have heard with our ears.

Our fathers told us the work that you did in their days, in the days of old.

For by their own sword they did not possess the land, and their own arm did not save them, but your right hand and your arm and the light of your presence, for you favored them.

How many of you would like to have the favor of the Lord on you?

And so when you walk into a room, that demonic forces will just know that you are different.

You know that the atmosphere will begin to shift and change because you are there.

you want to be a person who is favored of God.

I don't know if you've met those individuals that just has a little something different about them.

There's a ding.

I call it the ding.

This is the ding about this person.

to them, Jesus is real.

To them, the kingdom of God is present and alive, and they inspire us.

And so I want each one of us to ultimately, good morning for you to be people who light up the room and shift environments for the better.

Somebody say amen.

Be sure to get a name tag.

Let me give you an example.

So we need to be known, to be different.

That, there's something very, very special and different about us.

And so I want to start out with Jesus, and let's see if we can get.

Because it says there that these people didn't do it of their own strength, didn't do it of their own right arm, didn't do it of their presence.

Now, they said, we've heard about this.

Our fathers and grandfathers told us about this.

And it says in the Psalms that we are supposed to be telling our children about the miracles God does for us.

And so none of us are exempted from that.

All of us need to talk about.

Pat just did this morning.

But how?

The Lord saw her through a hospital ordeal.

Richard told me this morning about his mother in law coding on Friday.

But she's doing better.

God got her through testifying to the goodness of God.

God did it.

God gets the glory.

Not me, not you, not us, Him.

We all are, pointing.

We are signposts.

Jesus says this in John, chapter five, verse 30.

Look, I'm reading from paper today, so if I take a little time, it may.

It may be for a good reason.

John 5, verse 30.

I can of myself.

Jesus speaking in red ink in my Bible.

I can of myself do nothing.

Now, that is a pretty powerful statement.

I can of myself do nothing.

But wait a second.

You are Jesus.

You're powerful.

You're both man and God.

How.

How can you say I can of myself do nothing?

Jesus is making a very powerful distinction here.

If you want to follow Jesus, you need to live like Jesus lived.

If you want to see the results that Jesus saw, you need to live like Jesus lived.

And Jesus and his mentality is, I can do nothing of myself.

As I hear, I judge.

So he has to hear from his Father.

And my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.

So there's this thing.

There's this, dedication to the will of God as opposed to his will.

There's this dependency and submission under something that's more powerful than your own preference.

We all have preferences.

We all want comfort.

We all want safety.

We all want security.

But Jesus says, I do what I'm told to do.

I do what I do in dependency on him who sent me.

And so he says, I did nothing of myself.

I did nothing of my own initiative.

I didn't just come up with some great ideas and say, well, that'd be a great idea to go out of town today and go to the next village.

None of that.

He had this thing where he did things when God told him to do it.

John, in the book of John or even in the other gospels, we hear about, about Lazarus dying or being sick.

He didn't die yet.

He was sick.

They come.

Lazarus is sick while Jesus is the healer, right?

That's what he said.

That's his gift.

He's supposed to do this.

And he says, no, I'm going to wait four more days.

Why would he do that?

Because he had instructions from above.

And so he needed for things to get worse before they get better.

Now, how many of you want to do that?

For our own children, for our own friends?

No, we want it to get worse for you before we come and show up and pray for you.

We want you to be on the slab in the morgue before we show up.

Right?

But no, we want to wait for you to be in the mausoleum before we come and pray for you.

And now, you know, be in a grave, in a cave, and they have to roll stones.

Why?

Because Jesus says, I cannot raise the dead by myself.

I cannot do these signs myself.

And this is a very key lesson for any of us who wants to follow Jesus.

If you think it's your qualification, your knowledge, your know how, your wisdom, you are in the wrong team.

It's not your ability.

It's not by might nor by power, but my spirit says the Lord.

Zechariah 4.

6, if you want to look that up.

He was totally dependent on his father.

And so likewise.

Likewise, we are totally dependent in the same way.

Because in John 15, verse 5.

I'm going to go to John 15, verse 5.

look at me.

I'm, using my paper Bible.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing.

How much is nothing?

Well, if you break the word up, it says no thing.

You can do no thing apart from him.

you're going to do stuff, but it's going to be worthless.

Because ultimately, this is the thing.

Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord?

And don't do what I said so you can sing.

He is Lord, he is Lord he is risen from the dead and he is Lord.

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And then go home and do whatever you want to do.

Think about it.

How many days have you done what you wanted to do?

I'm sad to say, probably more days than I did.

What he wanted me to do well.

Why do you say that?

Because you need to see some transparency in your leadership.

You need to see that.

I'm saying I struggle with this thing as much as you do, because I have got some good ideas as to what you should be doing right now.

my wife, my kids.

You know, how I should address them?

I have some great ideas.

How many of you have great ideas?

But there's a difference between a good idea and a God idea.

And Jesus says, if you don't stay in me, you can do nothing.

Well, I can do some stuff, yeah, but it's worthless.

It will burn like wood, hay, and stubble.

First Corinthians, chapter three.

All of your works will be taken together and they were thrown into the fire of judgment.

And.

And it'll be revealed for what it is.

Wood, hay, and stubble.

It'll be burnt up, and you'll be saved by the skin of your teeth.

But if your works were done in accordance to the will of the Father, it'll come forth as gold or silver or precious stones.

Wow.

Somebody said wow.

Say it upside down, Mom.

We must be convinced of this.

This is the beginning of any disciples walk with God, that you cannot do a thing.

Now this.

This is what we use as our excuse why you know I can't do a thing.

go find somebody else.

I'm not qualified.

No, God calls you and he qualifies you.

you say you don't know My message.

You don't know my secrets.

Well, he does.

And he is able to take those things and transform them for his glory.

All right, so.

So we must come.

Be convinced of us.

Romans 7:18.

In my flesh, in me nothing good dwells.

So in.

In nothing good dwells.

In the flesh, in the natural.

Everything about my personality, my thinking, my predisposition is contrary to the will of the Spirit.

When I submit to the Spirit within me, suddenly I can do something.

I cannot do everything, but I can do something.

And when I do that something, it's going to have eternal value because it is tied to the will of God.

In my own flesh, nothing good dwells.

This is Paul writing.

He's saying, you know, I want to do this and I don't do it, you know, and I don't want to do that, but I do it, you know, and he's saying, what am I going to do?

What?

There's no condemnation.

Romans 8:1 for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And when you do things by the Spirit, you do them right.

But you have learn this dependency.

And for us as Americans, And I'm a naturalized American.

We love to be independent from the, from the British.

But what we forget is, is that you may be independent from the British or another government, but you are super dependent on God because we say in God we trust.

Well, the thing is, it's not enough to just trust in him, you need to obey him.

And so as much as you want to be independent, the true strength comes from being totally dependent on him.

And this is totally opposite of, everything you've been taught in culture.

I'm going to be an influencer.

I'm going to be a big deal.

I'm going to be the big cheese.

I'm going to be the boss.

I'm going to be in charge.

I'm going to be on top and you're going to be below.

I want to be the head and you're going to be the tail.

That's the American way.

And so if you don't like that, then I'm going to bully you and I'm going to intimidate you because I am the boss.

Jesus says, no, no, no, no.

That's how the world does it.

Now give me your stinky feet.

I'm going to come underneath here, I'm going to wash your feet.

This is a different kingdom.

This is a different way of doing.

This is.

So you need to make a decision whether you want to be part of this culture or, or whether you want to be part of the kingdom of God.

And so this comes kind of cross as a strong message because I'm in it myself every single day.

I have to constantly take off bad things and put on good things.

Go read Colossians, you know, put off this, put off that, put off these things and put on, put on, put.

You have to dress yourself every single day.

So, I am totally and completely dependent on him for everything.

When you are still full of yourself, there's no room for him.

You have to empty yourself of yourself, of your agenda, of your dream.

You have to die to your dreams.

When you come to the bottom of the cross, I need to dream.

You know, it's important to dream.

Well.

What you need to do is you need to present your dreams to God and say, I submit this to your approval.

Now let them flesh out in any way you want to be.

Remember, Paul was trained under the best scholars in his day.

He was a pharisee.

He was doing all of this stuff.

And God says, I want to empty up all of that stuff.

For 13 years.

He's in the backside of the Arabian desert.

He's been trained on how to be a Christian after he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.

And so now this peel is falling off of his skin, and he's seeing that the Old Testament is the shadowing, the foreshadowing of what was to come.

And he has to retrain everything, because in the Jewish faith, it's about following the rules.

It's about doing the right thing.

It's about your effort.

It's eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

It's.

It's this law.

It's this trying to fulfill the law.

And Jesus says, hey, I got a better idea for you if you need to close the door.

You can close the door if you want to, if it's not a problem.

They just pass you by here every so often.

so you have to understand that this is a whole new way of thinking.

So I want to talk about the first kingdom principle.

The first kingdom principle is in Matthew, chapter five.

You, all know this part of the Bible as the Beatitudes, you know, and so in verse, five, chapter five, verse one, he says, and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain.

When he was seated, his disciples came to him, and then he opened his mouth, taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

the poor in spirits are like beggars.

Okay?

What is being denoted here is blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs is not will be, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So you have to understand that when you.

When you totally become a beggar, I want you to imagine somebody is totally.

There are places in Africa and India where you see people who are totally deformed.

They didn't have any medical help early on.

So they are twisted in.

Their bones are twisted.

They are really, really disabled.

And so they sit there by the side of the road and they beg.

And they are waiting for somebody to give a little bit of their wealth to them so that they can continue to live this life.

And so until you're in that person's body with those limitations, it's really hard for all of us to kind of imagine that.

But we can use our, you know, our brain and begin to imagine what is it like to wake up in the morning and your legs and arms don't cooperate and somebody has to come and pick you up, put you in a little cart, maybe push you with a little handcart to a corner of a street and put you down there.

Just imagine it's in India and there's like ox carts and motorbikes and cars and buses.

And there's just this tumult around you.

And you are there with a little bucket and you're saying, alms, please.

Arms for the poor.

And somebody in their benevolence come by and open up a window and drop a coin.

This is the picture Jesus is using.

Blessed are the beggars in spirit, for this is the kingdom of God.

They don't have to earn it.

It's theirs.

Because in that thing where they understand their total dependency on mercy drops to drop on their head to see them through this next day in that they have access to the full power of the kingdom of God.

Peter needs to pay taxes.

Can't pay taxes at the, at the, at the temple.

And Jesus says, hey, take a line, take a hook.

Let's go fishing.

Like what?

We're supposed to go to the bank.

We're supposed to go sell something.

No, let's go.

Let's go to the lake.

What?

Go to lake.

How are we going to pay for this stuff?

They said put it in there.

Puts it in, pulls out a fish.

The fish has a gold coin in his mouth.

Can you imagine getting a, you know, like a golden eagle.

It's worth $5,000 and whatever.

And you're able to, you know, it's one ounce of gold.

And you can pay for your taxes for this next year, or if you're a little behind, or whatever your story is.

Can you imagine that?

Like, well, I want to go fish in that pond.

But.

But Jesus allowed that story to be there to show the total dependency of that happening in the life of Peter, even when the disciples, denied him.

And now they go fishing in Galilee.

And so they out the whole night.

They couldn't catch a thing.

Jesus is on the shore, you know, getting some breakfast ready, and he says, hey, boys, put the nets out on the other side.

They put the nets out on the other side.

And they could barely bring it in.

And then Peter recognized, that's him.

Because that's how it started for him.

Remember in the beginning.

Can I preach from you both?

And then he's go put your nets back.

Well, we already cleaned the nets.

Go put the nets in on the other side.

Boom.

And they had to get several boats to fill it in, right?

And Peter says, I'm an unholy man.

Please stay away from me.

Here we see the dependency.

And you say, well, why are you beating on this drum?

I'm telling you, this is the thing.

This is the first kingdom principle.

Is blessed are the poor in spirit, the beggars that have a total absence of self assurance.

So let me just give you a real review of the scriptures we've covered so far.

John 15:5.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Romans 7:18.

In my flesh, nothing good dwells.

Now here's Second Corinthians 12, 12M, verse 12, verse 9.

Let's go there.

In my Bible, 12.

Got a lot of sticky notes inside my Bible.

Verse 26.

Say that again.

there will be second Corinthians 12, 9, almost at the end of Corinthians, verse 9.

Okay, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

He's talking about the affliction.

He had the thorn on his flesh, remember?

And he said to me, the Lord said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

I want you to understand that your weakness, your inability, is what qualifies you to be used by God.

he says, therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmities, in other words, my insufficiencies, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

See, when you come to the place where you don't have what it takes, and you submit that to God, suddenly the resources of heaven now descends upon you or rises up within you, and now your very weakness as an opportunity for God to show himself strong.

So I don't like that.

You know, I want to be qualified.

I want to be able to qualify for this job called being a Christian, an effective Christian.

And you know what?

His strength is made perfect in weakness.

So let's talk about God's selection process of people just for a little bit.

Okay, so what are some of the criteria for choosing us to do stuff?

You guys are here because you feel like there's more.

And you're right, there's a lot more.

In fact, you have not even imagined how God can still use you.

My mama is 91 and she's still being used of God.

And, so let's go to First Corinthians 1:26.

And, I'm going to break this down and I hope that you are having a good time.

it says here for you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

I'm going to read that again for you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the World to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised.

God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are.

God is at work to bring to nothing what is in you that you feel qualifies you.

And he will bring those things down to a level where you begin to say, uncle or father.

You know, father, God, I need help.

This is too much for me.

It says there's a reason for it, that no flesh should glory in his presence.

When we go out there and we sing our songs and we worship God, there's nothing for us to glory about.

There is when I preach out there.

There's nothing for me to feel good about afterwards.

Because I honestly believe that between the dumb thing that comes out of my lip and your ear, something happens to the words and God does something supernatural.

Because I know what was on my notes.

I know what was on my research, and I know what finally ended up being spoken, because I went and watched some of it last.

Last night.

I watched on Friday night, I was watching my sermon.

I'm like, who is that dude?

I don't know who that guy is.

Okay, listen.

But of you, you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom, from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

That as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

I know this stuff, Pastor India.

Okay, but then you got to do it.

It's not good enough for you.

Just know stuff.

You got to go do it.

And you have to watch your flesh every single day.

I would say every hour, because you can get one phone call and you are back in the flesh again.

I, You know, if you have an accident or whatever, what comes out of your mouth, and it's like, man, why?

Why was that the first word that came out of my mouth?

You know, I know none of you ever cast.

You're all perfect.

You never think about it.

Hey, Mark.

Come on in.

You never think about saying bad words?

Well, I grew up in a military home.

I spent some time in the military, so I learned some words along the way.

So sometimes when something bad happens, I may say something bad.

And then I'm like, Holy Spirit, I'm so sorry that you had to hear that.

I'm so sorry.

But even in my mind, if I say something in my mind, I now learn to say, I'm sorry, Holy Spirit, because He hears all my thoughts.

So when you think nobody hears you, he hears you.

When you think nobody's hearing your thoughts, he's hearing thoughts.

So see the level of dependency that now is kicking in, that even my thoughts now, not for you to feel bad.

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You guys got that right.

But here's the thing.

When you see weakness in yourself, bring the weakness to him.

Instead of hiding your weakness, instead of, covering up your weakness, instead of, you know, flexing and posturing in the midst of your weakness, why don't you just bring your weakness to him?

And so here's God's selection process.

His criteria for choice.

Weak things to shame the strong.

Foolish things to shame the wise base and despise things so that Christ can get the glory.

Somebody say praise the Lord, that means you have some hope.

Hallelujah.

And so why is he choosing all of this?

Because it prevents human boasting.

And how many of you know we have a lot of that, A lot of that.

In fact, sometimes we feel like this is a self promotion culture.

How great I am.

I guess as long as I did it my way and how great I am, how great I am, how great I am.

That's our culture.

And, and we, we, we shout us from the rooftops how great we are because that makes us more promotable.

Promotable.

That makes us more, we get attention and God doesn't share his glory.

If you're into the glory of God, then you will be okay with that.

And you have to crucify the flesh to the point where you saying, I'm willing to become nothing so that he can become everything.

You see, this weakness that he chooses ensures reliance on grace.

Not how good you are, but how good he is, how good he is, not how good you are.

And if you can make that adjustment.

And here's the thing that we sometimes struggle if we want our leadership, our pastors and people, I'm not saying they have any excuses for doing stupid stuff, but when they do stupid stuff, please understand that God put his goodness, his mercy, his grace on flesh.

He poured his spirit out on perfect people.

No, go read Joel, chapter two.

Go read Acts, chapter two.

He poured his spirit out on, flesh.

Flesh.

And then that flesh was somehow sanctified, transformed, being motivated and activated to begin to witness to the goodness of God.

Because the flesh understood.

It's not good enough.

Honey, you're not good enough.

Sir.

You're not good enough.

Sister.

You're not good enough.

Ian, you're not good enough.

When I drive up here on Sunday mornings, I'm not good enough.

But I present what I have and say God somehow flow through me and say what needs to be said.

I've already said things in this first 30 minutes that I did not have on my notes.

Okay, not because.

And I'll probably go watch and go like, that was, that was much better than I was.

Let me take notes, you know, so what are some biblical examples of weakness, being used by God?

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11, which is kind of like the hall of faith.

And you all know this, but just kind of explore the latter part of that because the beginning it talks about faith.

You know, without faith, it's impossible to please God.

faith is the, you know, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And so we understand that he begins to talk about Abraham, he begins to talk about Noah and all of his wonderful people.

Now he gets to verse 32 and he's running out, you know, of time.

And he says, what more shall I say?

Verse 32 for the time which fail me.

In other words, there's not enough time here.

It's like a Sunday morning.

At a certain point I need to stop.

Time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms.

Listen to this.

They literally subdued kingdoms with God's help.

Okay?

Worked righteousness, in other words, turned unrighteousness in the, in the culture, their culture, to righteousness obtain promises.

God promised some things like Abraham, you're 70 something years of 80 years of age.

You're have a boy, your wife has been buried her whole life.

He obtained that promise by faithful faith in God.

It says here, stop the mouths of lions.

Come on, somebody, right?

Quench the violence of fire.

Those are the three Hebrew sons literally in the middle of a fire and not being burned.

Okay, now listen to this.

Escape the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong.

that little thing there is so key to all of that.

None of these people were fantastic when they started out with God.

Okay?

Out of weakness, became strong, were made strong, became valiant.

They weren't brave to start with, okay, they became valiant, in battle, turned to flight the army of the aliens.

Okay, now, and he continues to say women received, the dead to life again.

Others were tortures, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.

That goes on.

But I want you to go to Their weakness were turned to strength.

And then I want you to think about yourself.

And now we're going to reel some things in.

Let's go to Moses.

He's a fugitive now.

When he started out, he was an orator.

He was trained by Egyptian courts.

He spoke the languages of the region.

He was 40 years old, and he was on top and rising.

And he was the man.

He was man enough to beat somebody to death.

Okay?

And he says, I'm gonna be the salvation.

I'm gonna be the savior.

I'm gonna be the superhero that get my people out of slavery.

And boom.

God sends him to the backside of the desert to take care of some smelly sheep.

For how long?

1 year?

2 years?

Hm?

10 years?

No.

20?

No.

30?

40 years to drain this cocky guy of, everything there was in him.

And now he's walking there with his smelly sheep, and he sees the burning bush.

And God says, step up, your boy, and take your shoes off.

Because this is way beyond your.

This is another grade.

You're not ready for this.

You're not good enough for this.

Take your shoes off.

So he steps up and God says to him, and I'll go tell my people to go.

I said, no.

I can't talk.

Can't do this.

Now you're ready.

Now you're ready.

Now you're ready.

I will even send somebody along to your brother Aaron to help you, to talk for you.

I'm going to give you supernatural signs and wonders.

Sit your hand into your bosom.

Pull it out.

It's leprous.

Put it back in.

It's healed.

What you perceive as a heart, that is not right.

And leprous I can make clean.

But you just see as a staff, as a shepherd, I can turn that into a weapon.

The snake that consumes the snakes of all of these other witch doctors that's around.

Pharaoh.

I can take your weakness, Moses, and turn it to strength.

And now who gets the glory?

Moses?

Mo.

The superhero?

No.

God let my people go.

And he says, who?

He's sending me.

What's your name?

He says, I am That I am.

you need a deliverer.

I am a deliverer.

you need some signs and wonders.

I am a worker of signs and wonders.

you need some wisdom.

I am wisdom.

God is everything you and I need.

That's the kingdom of God.

He is the resource that is abundant, overflowing more than you will ever need.

But if you don't come to the end of yourself, you will continue to think that you are doing God a favor, that, look at my big sacrifice.

look at me.

I didn't watch the final episode of Fill in the Blank TV show that I really followed the whole year because I went to church and went to worship night.

And God is saying people were sawn asunder, people were killed, were burned at the stake.

And you are thinking that I'm impressed of you not watching your TV show.

God is not impressed, folks.

What God is impressed with is when we sacrifice our preference, when we submit, when we say, not my will, like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

Not my will, but your will be done.

And to be peaceful about, nobody here should feel bad.

Nobody should feel like you cannot.

It's too late for you.

No.

How many people are 80 years old in here?

Any 80 year olds?

Okay, good.

any women that want to have children at, where you are right now still have children that, you know, whatever the age is?

Sarah, Abram, these people were called to do stuff that were just plain nuts, okay?

But God was showing his glory.

God was saying to the world, hey, there's a God out there who cares about you, who's willing to do amazing things.

And Jesus says, I can't do a thing without him if I don't have him sign off on it.

It's not happening.

It is that Jesus came in the form of a servant, did not consider, equality with God, something to be grasped, but he came and he was obedient as a servant.

And he came obedient to the point of death.

In other words, he emptied himself out as a drink offering for us all.

And this is the King we're serving.

So he, by his example, he leads.

And this is the one we are following.

And Jesus says in John 14:12, the things I've done, you will do, and greater things than you will do, because I am going to my Father who is in heaven, y' all are gonna do what I've done.

And one of the reasons why it's greater works is because we are spread by the millions, by the, hundreds of millions, all over the earth with the Holy Spirit inside of us.

Jesus was contained and constrained by one location at a time.

He couldn't be in America, he couldn't be in Britain, he couldn't be in Rome.

He could only be wherever he is, in the flesh.

And he's saying, guys, you're going to be all over the earth.

You're going to be my witnesses and you're going to do greater things than I ever did.

Because you're going to have access.

Somebody talks on the radio and thousands pastor preaches here on nine, o', clock, whatever the time is.

He's going to be a local TV station and thousands of people are going to watch him.

Jesus didn't have that.

So what the Lord is saying to us, my work continues out of your weakness, being made strong.

But you have to be dependent on me.

Gideon.

Least in his family, most likely to be chosen, least in his clan, hiding out, weak, pathetic.

Gideon, the Lord greets you a mighty man of valor.

It's like, what?

This is the wrong address.

Amazon man from heaven.

I am not your mighty warrior.

And I want to let you all know you are a mighty warrior.

If you will submit, you will be a mighty reformer in your family or different people or at work.

You may bring sunshine on somebody's shoulder and they will say, I need God, only you.

And you don't know if that person that you pray with at work has like 600 relatives behind them in their people behind them, that there's going to be babies and babies and babies and babies that are all Christians, and that'll be your harvest.

So Samson the dude has a problem, okay, Besides that.

They tried to figure out why he was strong.

If he had like these old big old arms and big old chest.

And if he looked like, like he was a bodybuilder.

He looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his best of days, okay?

That's why he's so strong.

Look at the muscles.

Look at, look at the legs.

Look at, look at his skill of the sword.

They couldn't figure it out.

She's laying on his chest.

What's his secret?

What is his secret?

Maybe he was skinny in his arms like I am, I don't know.

But he confused people because they didn't expect that kind of.

What was his strength?

God's anointing.

God's anointing was on him.

And so Samson is mentioned here, by the way, in the end, he killed more in that last event of God's enemies than he did in his whole life.

So God can redeem you even at the latter end of your life.

A, David not chosen.

When the prophet came to the house, the dad called all of the sons and left the little guy out there.

He was not invited.

Now, don't you think that he could have sent somebody to send David in?

He didn't.

Why?

Why was David on the outside of the circle of trust?

He was not.

And the Lord says to the prophet, listen, you don't look at people like I look at people.

I choose the outcast.

I choose the forgotten one.

I choose the excluded one.

I tell you about my dad, you, know, smoking like a stack and doing all the stuff that he's done.

But then God gets a hold of him, and God uses him for years before he's delivered of his smoking.

But he's got more people safe as a smoking man and on fire for Jesus than many people were ever with perfectly pure, you know, lungs.

Okay, so why did God do that for my dad?

Because my dad knew his weakness.

Okay?

My dad knew that he was not qualified.

He was a military guy.

He was retired.

He was on medical.

they released him medically because they said he's losing his mental faculties.

Then the next year he went to Bible school and aced every single class.

After he couldn't pass the other mental acuity tests that they did on him in the military, they gave him a full, retirement and paid him medical, you know, blessings.

And so he got blessed by the military, and then he went to Bible school and his mind was fine.

You don't know what God is going to do for you.

You don't know, man.

But David was not qualified to become the king.

He didn't look like a king.

He was not considered to be a candidate to be anointed to be king.

Jephthah.

Do you know who Jephthah is?

He's right there in that thing.

Okay, Jephthah.

Samson and Jephthah.

He was one of the judges.

He was the son of a prostitute and he was despised in his community.

And you can read about Jeff that, judges 11, verse one, if you want to go check out Jeff.

That is very interesting.

And then he, you know, he had some.

He wasn't even feeling strong enough to go fight the battle.

He needed a lady to come along with him.

He says, I need Deborah if you don't come with me to the battle.

It's like, can you imagine?

you're on the school grounds and there's a bully and you need to go fight the bully.

And he says, no, my big sister's not with me.

I'm not going to fight for the bully.

It's like, come on, dude, why do you.

Penny, there's nothing wrong with the sister.

She may have been a martial artist, I don't know.

But here's the thing.

You don't usually expect men in that culture, male dominated, to say, hey, I need a lady to travel with me to the war.

And So a most unlikely fellow.

Son of a prostitute, despised by his.

By his tribe, his elders did not consider him.

Nobody wanted him but God.

Somebody say but God?

So, I want to say the same thing for you.

What are the practical implications?

So if you want to be used by God, what is the deal?

So, I would say you have to understand that prayer is access to all of this.

Jesus went aside in the mornings and he prayed.

He went on the mountaintop and he prayed during night.

Jesus talked to his father.

He made sure the connection was constantly tuned in.

Remember the old days when we had car radios and you had to tune the radio?

Okay, Mama, find us a station.

I mean, we driving through the Mojave Desert, like, no, we don't want to listen to that stuff.

It's a mariachi band, so we don't want to listen to that.

We want some rock and roll.

We want some love songs.

man, it's just static out here.

You have to stay in contact.

So the disciples noticed this about Jesus, and they said, hey, how do we pray?

Teach us how to pray.

We don't know how to pray.

you seem to have an angle on this thing, but you don't have an angle on this thing.

So he teach them the Lord's Prayer.

But in, in Luke, chapter 11.

Oops, there goes all my pieces.

another piece.

Luke, chapter 11.

There's a little bit of a different angle on it.

I want to tell you about it.

He, He.

He tells them the Lord's Prayer.

He teaches them the Lord's Prayer, right?

But then something else happens that's really, really interesting.

Luke 1107.

Seven, eleven.

It's the same thing, man.

Come on, get some.

Some ice cream.

Okay.

So he.

He tells him in verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, he tells him about the prayer.

And then he says, okay, right after the prayer, he says this.

And he said to them, which, of you shall have a friend?

And, go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, please.

For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me.

The door is now shut.

My children are with me in bed.

I cannot rise and give it to you.

I say to you, though, he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be open to you.

For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds.

And to him who knocks, it will be open.

can you imagine this person?

Maybe they knew a relative was coming in from out of town.

But now they come early, they come at midnight.

Knock, knock, knock.

They're here.

They are hungry.

Maybe they have children that are hungry.

And like, my goodness, you know, we, we're all out of bread.

We didn't know that you're coming today.

But I need to go ask my neighbor.

I need to go ask my friend, who I always know has ample supplies.

Everything I need is next door.

But I need to go and ask and go and knock on the door persistently.

And this is the picture of the Father.

The Father is in this house and that he has the bread, he has the thing that you need.

But when you don't have it, you need to come to him and ask for it and persist in it.

No, no, I don't need to persist.

I just need to want to ask one time.

But if he doesn't want to give it, well, bless God, then I'm out of you.

That's not how it works.

I'm sorry.

Maybe you have a lot of faith and he answers your prayers, always at the very first drop of a hat.

But as you grow up in the Lord and as you go down the road of the Lord, there are some prayers where you have to persist on them.

Now, when I was a young Christian, I saw things happen fast because God was still developing my faith.

But as an older Christian, as a more mature Christian, God doesn't just give me stuff because I ask him.

Now that my faith is established, I need to be able to persist in that prayer.

Like the woman who comes to the unrighteous judge and say, you know, I need my justice.

I need my justice.

And finally, the unrighteous judge says, man, I just want to get this woman out of my hair.

But we don't have an unrighteous judge.

And God, he wants is a friend.

Somebody say a friend.

He's our Father, he wants to bless us.

But he also needs to see.

Because if you look at the Greek, of that verse, okay, which says, if you knock, it'll be open to you.

If you ask, you will find.

And to him.

Okay, here we go.

For everyone who asks receives.

But the Greek for ask is not just ask, it's keeping on asking.

It's a present perfect tense, okay?

And it's not conveyed in the English text.

For him who asks and keeps on asking.

He who knocks and keeps on knocking.

And he who seeks and keep on seeking.

He will find the woman of the coin that is missing.

the.

The shepherd of the sheep that's missing.

I mean, he goes and seeks until he finds.

You supposed to ask until you get.

You're supposed to knock until it's opened.

you're supposed to seek until you find.

And the lazy faith of a lot of people will not permit them because they're so distracted and they are so dependent on their own effort, they are not willing to trust the Lord with all of their hearts and don't lean me on their own understanding.

And so he says, in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path.

So if I need to walk another six weeks in this direction to get the answer, then I need to walk six weeks in this direction.

Elijah is underneath the broom tree.

I want to die.

I want to die.

He gets food, but he has to travel 40 more days before he gets the answer, before God tells him who the three people are that Elijah is supposed to go and anoint.

He said, well, why was that necessary?

Well, that's just.

Guess what?

It's not your world.

If you want to go create your own world, go and start with nothing, because God is not giving you anything.

If you want to be God, you got to be God on your own terms.

So, you know, you can't start a new universe.

This is his universe.

It's his rules.

He's in charge.

Well, I have a hard time of that.

Well, so do we all.

But we will have to keep on asking and knocking.

So, number one prayer is access.

Number one.

Number two, you need to have empty vessels.

to the degree that you're still full of yourself.

That's the degree that you need to be diminished.

You need to be diminished.

You need to be emptied.

So there's a story in Second Kings, verse four, and I don't want to read the whole story because I just have a few more minutes to go.

but it's the story of the prophet Elisha.

and there's a widow woman, and she's in trouble, and they're about to take her two sons and make them slaves.

And he says, what do you have in your home?

And she says, I only have a cruise of oil.

And he says, go find all the empty vessels.

He didn't say, the full vessels.

The empty vessels that you can find, and then bring them in here.

See, when we are empty vessels, we can be filled with the Oil.

But if we are still full of stuff, that happens is you can't pour the oil in there when it's still full of stuff.

So she found as many vessels, she went to her neighbor, she went everywhere and brought the empty vessels to the Prophet.

And then she poured it in.

And when there were no more empty vessels, what happened?

The oil stopped.

For many of us, the oil of the anointing stops pouring out in our lives because we don't bring any more empty vessels to the Lord.

Your empty vessels may be the issues that you're fighting.

And you want God.

You say, God, I give up on this thing, but I give it to you.

Submit your request to the Lord.

submit to him.

Cast your cares upon him for what he cares for you.

But we don't cast it.

Sometimes what we do is we go to the front and we cast it.

And then after we say it and we wiped out tears, we take our little backpack and we.

We load up all the rocks again that we came with all this stuff and zip it together and put it on our back and walk over like this.

Go the way back home because we haven't learned to empty ourselves.

And when he fills us up to not fill us up again with the same stuff, the empty vessel emptiness allows new fullness.

It's stripping away of the natural talents in our lives that sometimes needs to happen.

Just because you sing prudently doesn't mean you need to be in the worship team.

Maybe you need to serve of the kids.

See, sometimes God works in the opposite direction of your strength.

I was an introvert.

I wanted to read books.

And I want to be left alone.

God says, no, you're going to preach.

No, no, no, no.

Until I was empty of myself and he could fill me in with new things.

And he changed me.

See?

But you have to present your lack to God.

Bring your empty vessel.

Bring your empty cup.

Let him flood up.

Let him flow over.

Remember what I talked about last week at the table?

My cup overflows.

My head is anointed with oil.

Because you come to the place where you've just gone through the valley of the shadow of death.

And now you sit down and you put your feet underneath the table, and you sit and you receive from him what only he can give.

Not your education, not your family, not your pedigree, not your years of experience, not your wisdom.

I don't know about you, but I have some things in my life that confounds me.

I have no way of figuring them out.

And they, are totally in God's hands.

Because every time I take it out of his hands, it gets worse.

It just does.

Because I need to stay empty before him.

It's not.

You cannot be full of yourself and still expect God.

You need to empty yourself of all of your virtue and how qualified you are and how sweet and how pure you are.

Because guess what?

You're not a pure stream.

You're a mix and mixed stuff.

Didn't make it into the tabernacle, didn't make it into the temple, because God was trying to show us, hey, it needs to be me.

And so the last thing I want to say, two more things.

I just want to say this.

When John, the beloved, was leaning on the chest of Jesus at the Last Supper, it seems, it seems a little weird.

No, he.

He saw Jesus like, almost like an older brother that he was so dependent on.

The other disciples, recognized there was something different about his relationship, because that's why Peter says in John 20:21, he said, well, what about him?

You know, what about this favorite of yours?

Not that he really was a favorite, but there was just a very special thing about John where he didn't care what people said.

Maybe he was younger.

I don't know, Maybe he was like a teenager that just needed that nurture, from a holy man that could just love him where he was.

And he understood that.

I don't know what that thing was, but he leaned on the chest of Jesus and he says, lord, in other words, he was comfortable being that proximate, that close to the Lord.

And so, when we abandon our independence, relying on the Father's strength instead of our own, amazing things happen.

King Uzziah was a very interesting king.

In Chronicles, Second Chronicles, verse 26.

I'm going to go there if you can find it in my Bible.

Second Chronicles, chapter six.

26.

There we go.

look at me doing.

My fingers are doing the walking through the yellow pages.

No, the Holy Pages.

Remember the old yellow Pages?

Y' all like your fingers through the walking through the yellow pages.

And verse five talks about King Uzziah.

Now all the people, I'm just going to read from verse 1.

All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father, Amaziah.

He built Elath and restored it to Judah after the king rested with his fathers.

And Uzziah was 16 years old, and his mother's name was Jechuliah of Jerusalem.

Now listen to verse four.

And he did what was right in the Sight of God according to all his father Amaziah had done.

Now listen, verse 5.

He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God.

And as long as he sought the Lord.

Listen, the Lord God made him prosper.

As long as he sought the Lord, the Lord made him prosper.

Did he prosper because of what he did?

Who he was especially?

No.

As long as he obeyed God.

Excuse me, as he sought the Lord.

Actually not.

It doesn't even say as long as he sought the Lord.

In other words, he's seeking him for counsel.

God made him prosper.

Now let's jump down to verse 15, verse 15 through 21, because now remember this 16 year old starting out right now, verse 15.

And he made devices in Jerusalem, invented by skillful men to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and large stones.

So his fame spread far and wide.

For he was a marvelously helped till.

For he was marvelously helped till he became strong.

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.

For he transgressed against the Lord, his God, by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

Now listen.

He presumed that because God favored him, blessed him, took care of him, brought him up, everybody is talking about him.

He assumed, presumed, assumed that he can just go walk into.

Remember how I talk about how communion is holy and the sacred things are never common.

He went into sacred spaces that belong to God and violated protocol.

And so it says to Amaziah Azariah.

The priest went in after him and with him were 80 priests of the Lord, valiant men.

And they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense.

Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed.

You shall have no honor from the Lord God.

Then Uzziah became furious.

And he had censer on his hand to burn incense.

And while he was angry with the priest, leprosy broke out of his fore before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense of altar.

And as Zariah, the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there on his forehead he was leprous.

So they thrust him out of that place.

Indeed, he also hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him, the Lord had struck him.

So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death.

He dwelt in an isolated house because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord.

Then Jotham, his son, was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.

Somebody just say, wow, friends, the Lord is called the Lord because that means he's in charge.

He's not called my buddy, my pal.

yes, he is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

But he's God.

And so we need to have a holy.

That's why Paul says some of you have fallen asleep.

Some of you have died before your time.

That's why Ananias and Sapphira died in the temple.

Excuse me?

In the meeting.

Because they lied about their giving.

Why would God kill people after Jesus died for everybody's son sins?

I guess we were in the dispensation of grace.

Why is God punishing people like that?

Because there are some things that, that are set aside for God.

The glory is a set aside for God.

The praises are set aside for God.

There are things the dependency needs to be on God and not you, not on your leader.

And if you put your leader on a pedestal, God will bring him down.

Don't do that.

There are people they are serving.

They're doing their best.

Pray for them.

As if your prayer is going to make a difference.

Because your pastors need your prayer, I need your prayer.

We need each other's prayer because we are all trying to please him, trying to be dependent on him.

And so with that, I close this session and then we're going to have some discussion.

Okay?

Let's just pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the many examples in your word of, people becoming strong from weakness.

Becoming strong.

We also thank you, Lord, for examples in scripture where people didn't get away with stuff, God, because you showed us that you are true to your word, that you are not a man, that you should lie.

And if you warn us against things, then you will be faithful, Lord, to discipline us.

Thank you for not killing Uzziah, but thank you for humbling Uzziah.

And Lord, I pray that you will continue to remind us of our weakness.

Because this is what qualifies us, God.

Not our strength, not our ability, not our knowledge, not our Rolodex or people we know and how many followers we have on Facebook.

It is ultimately our relationship with you.

If Jesus couldn't do anything without you, Father, if there was that relationship there in the Godhead, how much more us, your people, Lord, we need you.

We desperately need you.

Help us to please you and help us to know that when we are weak, you are strong.

And help us to bring our weaknesses to you.

Because we need you every hour.

Just as that song says.

Lord, we pray this in Jesus name and everybody said amen.