 Isn't that a cool roll-in? I know, right? It's like we've been doing this series for a long time. I'm still not tired of that. Listen, I leaned over and told my children that. And they were like, what are you doing? So, hey, welcome to Radiant. My name is John, welcome to Portage Campus. They're joining us live. I hope the camera is slimming. Anyway, I'm John. I'm the campus pastor here at the Richland. And we're excited about what God's doing in our midst. And we're in the middle of this, well, almost at the end, actually, of this series called Tuned In. Pastor Lee is actually in Omaha, Nebraska. He's ministering at a great church there. He's actually part of the presbytery that you're doing. So if you were here, or that they're doing, if you were here in August, we had a similar one. And he's one of the presbyters. So we're sewing him into their church body. And we know that he's gonna be a blessing to them. And obviously, I'm usually here on holidays. So I made a joke yesterday about, it's probably like National Hug of Squirrel Day or something like that. If you really dig deep, and someone sent me a text that it's like, be nice to an elephant day or something yesterday. So hopefully you've celebrated that. And speaking of celebrating, yesterday was my wife, Kendra and I's 18th wedding anniversary. So thank you, it's amazing. She's obviously a saint. People are like, what, John, would you get married when you were 11? I'm like, no, 12. And I'm just kidding. 18 years, and then her and my oldest daughter went to go get a dress for homecoming. Keep it together, John. But they didn't find one. And I was like, see, that's the Lord saying you're not even supposed to go, Kendra. Untuned in, Eva. No, I'm just kidding. But again, super honored to be a part of what God's doing and our midst excited to see at the movie series. So make sure, again, you grab some cards, you invite some people to that. This year is going to be incredible. So if you brought a Bible, turn to John. Chapter 10, as you're doing that, I'm just gonna pray, ask the Lord to bless this time, Father. We are in your presence, God, because you promised to inhabit the praises of your people. And so, God, we ask by the power of the Holy Spirit that you would illuminate your word. You said that the entrance of it brings light and it gives God clarity and knowledge to your people. So we pray that you would reveal yourself through your word that just as you said in Isaiah, it would not return void when it sent out, but it would accomplish all that you have ordained to do God. Holy Spirit, work in our midst. We invite you and we honor you in Jesus' name and everyone said, amen. John 10, verse 27, one verse, Jesus is speaking and he says this, my sheep, they hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Three things that he says. And he's saying this really in response to the Pharisees, to the religious leaders who are accusing him and they're coming after him and they're saying, why are you keeping us in suspense? If you're really the Christ, just tell us. And Jesus is saying, look, look at the things I've done. And they're just like, no, I want you to tell us plainly. And Jesus doesn't. He says, this is what I wanna tell you about my people, my sheep. These criteria, they hear my voice. And so this entire series has been about hearing the voice of God that God indeed is still speaking, that God did not spin the world into existence and then step back and kind of just see what happens. No, he's intricately involved in the world and in our lives and we hear him. And that's kind of a, that can be an odd thing for people. You know, if you say, hey, I talk to God, nobody really bats an eye. You know, prayer is considered virtuous and most people have no issue with that. But if you say, and I believe that God talks to me, well, then you've really, whoa, he's up there, man. This crazy talk and unfortunately, many people believe prayer to just be a monologue where we just say things to God instead of a dialogue. So God speaks and then the second part Jesus said is, I know them, I have relationship with them. That word no is not like, hey, I know about them or I know a few facts. No, it's an intimate word that Jesus uses about the relationship that he wants to have with us. This is not God speaking in a vacuum where it's just like, whoa, what was that? No, it's through relationship. It's through transparency. It's through experiencing the love of God. Jesus knows us. So we don't wanna be people who segment our lives or sort of compartmentalize, and this is the God part of my life, but then I have family or then I have work and then I have my friends. No, we want God to be a part of all of our lives. Bible says in Acts, in him we live, we move and we have our being. We don't wanna be just, you know, help us, you know, in those moments of relationship with God. I heard a story once about an atheist who was walking in the woods. He was walking along a river and it was a beautiful day out and he's on this trail and he says, wow, look at those majestic trees. Wow, look at this mighty river. He keeps walking, look at the beautiful animals. And then he hears a rustling in the bushes and he looks in a huge grizzly bear, comes out of the bushes and starts chasing us. So the guy turns and he's running, he's running for his life, he trips, turns around and just as the grizzly bear has his paw ready to strike, he says, God, help me. Everything froze, forest froze, time froze, bear froze. And he hears a voice saying, oh, I get it. You don't wanna acknowledge me in anything else, but all of a sudden when you really need me, you want me to treat you like you've been a Christian your whole life, huh? And the guy says, no, God, I'm sorry. That's hypocritical, I'm not asking you to do that. Maybe you could just make the bear a Christian. And so God says, very well. And then time unfreezes, sounds of the forest resume. The bear's got his paw ready to strike. He brings it down, grabs his other paw and says, dear Lord, thank you for this food. Bless it to my body, right? Christian bear, that's not what we wanna do. We don't wanna be, oh, God. Listen, God does help, and God does care, and God doesn't want you to be eaten by a bear, I promise you. But it's a relationship that gives us access to God. It's a relationship where we say, I know, God says, I know you. This is eternal life, John 17, 3, that they might know you. The one true God in your son, Jesus Christ, whom you sent. And then the third part about that that we're gonna look at today is so they hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me, and they follow me. That is the response of us, the sheep, to the first two criteria, so they hear my voice. I know them, I have relationship. And in response to that, they follow me. There's an obedience, there's a transaction that happens. How many of you have children? Raise your hand. How many of you know sometimes there's a disconnect between what children hear and what children do? Raise your hand if that's true in your home, yes. Believe me, it never happens in my home, once in a while, but where you come and you're just like, okay, I asked them to clean their room, I asked them to just kind of keep the house clean when we come home, and then you walk in and you're like, what, why? Why is your backpack in the middle of the kitchen floor? Why are your socks on the dining? Why is the dog in the oven? Why is this happening? And my five-year-old son's favorite thing to say is, but dad, I didn't hear you. It's like, yeah, you did hear me, son. You're not following, you're not listening, you're not obeying, so there is a response that we have as Christians to follow Jesus, and that's what I wanna talk about today. What did Jesus mean when he said, they don't just hear my voice, I don't just know them, but they follow me. There's a response that happens in our lives. So what does it mean to follow Jesus? And I believe even that word has kind of been hijacked in 2018 because we've associated, at least some generations do, many times with social media. Or it's like I have this many followers on Instagram or I follow this many people. And when we hear follow, we think, well, I know a few things about them. I know what they had for lunch. I know they were taking picture or whatever. That's what following means, and that's not obviously the biblical definition that Jesus meant when he said, follow me. So what does it mean? I want you to write this down. I did this on purpose, this definition I'm going to give you, what it doesn't mean to follow Jesus because I was hoping there would be some shock value to it. So if I say it and you want to like gasp or something, it's fine, I'll be okay with that, okay? You ready? What does it mean to follow Jesus? I'm kidding, you don't have to gasp. Absolute surrender resulting in radical obedience. Not even one, okay, good. Listen, I'll say it again. Absolute surrender resulting in radical obedience. And I worded it that way on purpose because I wanted to be like, whoa, wow, that sounds pretty heavy. That sounds kind of wild, that's pretty intense. And that's because making a decision to follow Jesus is radical. It is intense. It is life changing and life altering. And my fear is many times we associate following Jesus was something that he never intended it to be. John, or I'm sorry, Luke 9, verse 23, this is what Jesus said about following him. He said, if anyone wants to come after me, here's what they need to do. They need to go to church a couple times, at least pray over your meals, come on people, and try to be good. No, he didn't say any of that. He said, if you want to follow me, this is what you do, you deny yourself. You take up your cross and then you follow me. There is a cost that has to be counted to following Jesus. It is not some decision that we just flippantly make to say, well, I guess it's better than the alternative. That's never the intention that God had. It is a radical, radical obedience, birth in a place of absolute surrender. Even when we were singing the song, I surrender all, I'm just thinking to myself, what does that even mean for me? What is that? Sometimes we sing things and we don't even really realize the gravity of what we're saying, but a decision to follow Jesus is an absolute surrender that leads to radical obedience in every arena of our lives. And many times what we do in our societies, we say things like, well, I don't want to be over spiritual. How many of you have ever heard someone say that? I don't want to be over spiritual, two people, that's it. Okay, well, I'm going to talk about it anyways. What do we mean when we say that? I feel like, what's the alternative? I want to be under spiritual. I want to be less spiritual. No, I want the spirit of God, the living, breathing, moving spirit of God to affect every single thing that I do, every relationship that I have, every conversation, I want to be over spiritual. I want to hear God in every facet of my life, but I think what people mean is we don't want to be weird. And some people are weird, but it's not because of the Holy Spirit. Like if you're one of those Christians who's like, well, I can't use a dirt devil vacuum because it has the name devil in it, you're weird. Okay, if kids in Halloween dress up like Elsa and come to your door and you're like, witchcraft, you're weird. You don't need the spirit of God to be weird, you're weird anyways. But we want to be over spiritual. We want the spirit of God to affect every single thing that we do, so don't say that. Do you know how many times in scripture Jesus warns about being over spiritual? Zero times. Do you know how many times Jesus warns about us being carnal? About us reacting out of the flesh, about us looking like the world looks, thinking like the world thinks, time after time. And so the oneness is on us. If we're gonna follow Jesus, it's not a few areas of our lives, it's not when it's convenient, it's an absolute surrender that results in a radical obedience unto God. And Jesus warns, the Bible warns us, just like our own children, we don't always connect what we hear to what we do. James 1.19 says, don't be hearers of the word only, but be doers of the word or else you're deceiving yourself. There's times where we're like, yeah, I know, I know I should do that, I know that's what God's saying, I know that's what, and we don't do it. Bible says we deceive ourselves. In Luke chapter six, Jesus says something powerful. He says in verse 46, to his disciples, why do you call me Lord and then not do what I say? And he likens, he tells this example, he says, I liken the person, I compare someone who hears my words and then does them to a man who builds his house on a rock, on a foundation. But I liken someone who hears my words and doesn't do them to someone who also builds a house, but he builds it on the sand and he builds it without a solid foundation. And listen, the houses can look similar on the outside. Nobody when they're building a house sees the foundation, is like, wow, that looks amazing. Are you done now? No, no one does that because we know that there's a lot more to come, but when you don't build it on the foundation, Jesus said, the wind and the waves, they come and they beat against the house. Both houses suffer experiences that are hard, wind and waves and trials, but the one who builds his house and does the word of God remains and the other one falls and the Bible says, great, mighty, is that fall. So what does it mean to have obedience, to walk in full obedience? I'm gonna give you three things. Number one, obedience has to be the result of love for God. Obedience, when you follow Jesus, it has to be because you love God and you want to serve him and you want your life to reflect that in every arena. If your idea of following God is I have to go to church, I'm supposed to read my Bible, I'm not supposed to swear, I'm not supposed to do these things and you have this sort of duty mindset or obligation to follow God, it will never last. Duty and obligation, even guilt, can motivate you for a little while to change your behavior, but it will never change your heart. It will never change your spirit. Jesus said in John 15, abide in me and I will abide and you remain in that relationship and you will bear fruit that remains, you will bear fruit that lasts. And in John 14 verse 15, Jesus said this, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. So it's love for God that motivates us to be obedient, that motivates us to surrender our lives. And many times we flip that around and think and read it this way, if I keep his commandments, God will know I love him. And so we try harder and we do more things and we stop doing other things instead of letting the relationship, the fact that God loves you unconditionally, that God's love is never contingent on you, that's what changes us. And so if you do have that mindset and that's sort of laborious or sort of I have to do these things or I don't get to see the movies I used to now because I'm a Christian or I'm not supposed to do that, I'm just gonna say you haven't truly experienced the life-changing love of Jesus Christ, of the God, because it changes you and you never look back. I'm telling you, as a young man in my 20s, I lived that lifestyle of partying, of drugs and we're gonna have so much fun and we're living it up and this is awesome and inside I was empty. And then on March 14th, 1999, I gave Jesus my heart in this very church and God rescued me and he filled me with his Holy Spirit and I'm telling you, I've never looked back one time and said, man, I really miss those party days. I really miss what I used to be able to do, never, never no turning back. The Spirit of God has filled me and it's love for God now and for who he is and what he's done that motivates me to live in obedience, amen. Amen, so listen, if you find obedience to the things of God difficult, it's not a try harder problem, it's fall more in love with Jesus. Go into the Gospels, read about the crucifixion, read about how they spit on him and beat him and he hung there and he said, father, forgive them and you begin to be moved. You'll see, this is what Jesus did for me and now I'm going to reciprocate just by giving him my life, by giving him all that I have, by surrendering my all. It's love for God that motivates. The second thing about obedience is it's always a choice and it's a choice that leads to blessing. You choose, you decide, am I going to, even again, we say, I surrender all, am I going to do that? And I'm telling you, just like Corey Russell was here on Wednesday, amazing message was talking about, sometimes when God does things, it's conditional. It's based on how we've prepared the way for God to move and our salvation isn't conditional. I'm not saying we do things, our works somehow qualify us, but when we've really encountered God, it does something inside of us and we decide to say, I'm going to, for instance in Isaiah 10, break up the fallow ground. That's what it says, you do that of your heart and then I'm going to rain down righteousness. I'm going to do this when you do that. So fallow ground of your heart are those places that you've let hard or callous or apathy come in. You break those up and then God does something. Bible says in Joshua chapter three, when Israel was gonna walk into the Promised Land, Joshua came down and he said, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. He said, you do something, you prepare, you make a decision and God's gonna do something so powerful in your life. Jeremiah 29, 11, we know it, it says, I know the plans I have for you, the plans to prosper, you're not to harm you, to give you hope in a future. Verse 12, it says this. It says, and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart, when we seek after God. So there's conditions, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, will turn from their wicked ways, will seek my face, then I'll hear from heaven, I'll heal their land, I'll do these things. And so I wanna remind you that our obedience is always up to us. God has given you free will and go to the Holy Spirit and say, where are the areas of my life that I need to give you more access? Are there areas of my heart that I've blocked off, that I've not let you be Lord, I've not let you be my leader and my captain. Because that's what surrender is. We say, I walk where you walk. I do what you do. I surrender to you, it's a choice. And it always, always is followed by blessing. Deuteronomy 30, God said to Israel. He said, I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. And then he says this, and choose life. You don't have to, you can choose the hard road but choose life wise so that you and your descendants might live in the land that I have prepared for you. Obedience always comes with blessing. Third thing is this, is Jesus who last week, Pastor Lee said as our prototype, set the ultimate example. Jesus is the ultimate example of absolute surrender and radical obedience. We see it all through scripture. People whose acts of faith are highlighted, Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac and God stopped him and said, now I know I have your heart. We see the man who was a paralytic and his friends ripped the roof off and lowered him down. We see these acts of, I'm gonna obey even when it's hard. We see Mary who was told, you're gonna be the mother of Jesus. And she said, okay, be it unto me according to your word. We see this obedience but nothing compared to what Jesus did in absolute surrender. The Bible says in Philippians 2, he laid all of his divinity down. He was in heaven, he was there. Colossians 1 tells us when all things were created, Jesus was there. He's at the right hand of the Father. He's never experienced anything except absolute community with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, three in one in heaven. And he lays it all down because God saw that Adam and Eve had sinned, that the serpent had been led into the world, that sin was going to be a curse. And he said, I have to have a spotless lamb without wrinkle and without blemish. And Jesus said, I will do it. In Philippians chapter two, it says this. It says, Paul says, in your relationships, us have the same mindset or attitude as Christ Jesus had. What was that? Jesus being in the very nature of God didn't consider being God something that he used on his own. He didn't hang on to that. He didn't make it his advantage. Instead, he made himself nothing. He surrendered. He took the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. He was fully man. And being found in appearance as a man. So he didn't just come as a man. And it was like coming to America with King Jeffrey Joffrey or whatever. You guys know, fleet of benzos, the huge lion thing. You guys remember that? And rose petals everywhere that he walked. And it was James Earl Jones going, and it's this huge moment where everybody's like, look at the king. No, he didn't even do that. He humbled himself and became a servant. Born in Bethlehem, in a little obscure town where they didn't even have room in the inn. He's in a stable. And it says, and he became obedient. If they have that verse, put it up there. He became obedient to death, even death on a cross. That is absolute surrender, church. That is saying I will do what God's asked me to do even when it's hard, even when it's difficult, even when it doesn't make sense. He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is. He knows he's about to go to the cross and he prays, drops of blood are coming off of him. His heart is exceedingly sourful, the Bible says. And he says to God, if there's any other way we can do this, if there's a plan B, if there's any way that this cup can pass from me, do it. But nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. That's what absolute surrender looks like. And Jesus said it was for the joy that was set before him, Hebrews 12.2 says, that he endured the cross, that he suffered the shame, and that he now sits at the right hand of God the Father. It was you that was on his mind. It was me that was in his heart when he said, I'll humble myself, not just to be a person that I created, but to be put to death by the very thing that I gave life to. That's the ultimate sacrifice. And that's the model that Jesus set for us. So that's the first part about following Jesus as obedience. The second part is this. We allow God's truth to become our compass. So absolute surrender. And then secondly, allowing God's truth to be your compass. You say, well, what is God's truth? John 17, 17, Jesus said this, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. This in a culture, listen to me, that is constantly shifting, constantly changing its stance on this, constantly saying, this is what we believe now. This is truth. This is what is PC politically correct. This, if you do this, then you're a bigot, you're a racist, you're whatever it is. Constantly truth is shifting. And as Christians, we have to have a compass, a true north that is our truth. And I'm telling you it's God's word. This is it. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. If we're going to know Jesus, if we're going to know God, we have to know what he says. We have to know who he is. And this is how God has revealed himself. And so I'm going to say this boldly. You cannot truly know God apart from his word. You can't. This is what God has given us as a gift to say, this is who I am. This is who you are. This is the 4,000 promises that are available to you. This is the identity I've given you in Christ. But when we don't know it, we don't know Jesus. And I'm not talking about just HUD knowledge, I'm talking about entering into the truth and a culture that's constantly shifting and changing and saying, Jesus, your word is my compass. Your word will guide me. I want to know you. I want you to be the one who directs every facet of my life. This is the way God speaks primarily. And I get it. Some people are like, I want to have a vision. I want an angelic visitation. I want doves to fly into my room and give me messages. And I'm not against any of those things. But we had a prophetic presbytery, as I said a month or so ago, and people got words and people were blessed and it was awesome. But I had some people who were legitimately disappointed that they didn't have a word for them. And I get that. And I'm not minimizing the importance of that. But what I did tell them is, listen, God has a word that is available to you every single day of your life. The Holy Spirit speaks through the word of God and it's how we navigate our lives in a world that's constantly shifting and changing. So I'm gonna give you a couple of things about the truth of God's word. I want you to write down, I want you to live out. I want you to remember. The first one is this. God's truth is greater than your heart. Everybody say heart. God's truth is greater than your heart. And I'm gonna explain that to you because you're like, well, what does that mean? Listen, we live in a world that follows their hearts, their feelings. In fact, Roxette wrote an awesome song, listen to your heart, right? When it's calling to you, listen to your heart. There's nothing. Pretty good, not bad, B minus, B. There's nothing else you can do. Listen, there is something else you can do. The world says, listen to your heart. God says, no, listen to my word and lead your heart. Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flow all the issues of your life. So we have a culture that literally thinks, and many Christians do, that following your heart is a good thing. It's not a good thing. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17, verse nine, that your heart is desperately wicked and it's sick. Who can know it? Our hearts many times want to lead us into things that aren't ultimately truth. Not all the time. Sometimes our hearts are hearing from God, but many times our hearts are out of the truth or out of the realm of what God is communicating to us. And we hear it all the time. Well, my heart, my heart's telling me this. My heart's telling me that he's the one. And I know he doesn't love Jesus or have a job or no English, but I'm telling you. My heart, it's my heart's telling me he's the one. And in my heart, my heart's telling me that God wants me happy. And I'm not happy in this relationship. And so God doesn't want me in and our hearts are sick and they need Jesus bad. And God is greater than our feelings. And we can't always listen to our hearts. We have to have truth. We have to say, this might be what I feel, but this is what is true. My heart may not be leading me in the direction I want to go, but God will never lead me astray. God is greater than our feelings. Pastor Richard, who I love, who was leading Worship Days from New Zealand, she has an Australian accent, telling you when he says heart, good things happen in the spiritual realm. That's all I'm going to tell you. Because he's like hot. And I'm telling you, you could put Pastor Richard in like a embassy room with all of the world's leaders and he would just go heart and there would be peace. I almost believe that. Peace in the world. Richard could tell you, I'm going to rip your heart out of your chest and you'd be like, really? Thank you. I'm going to rip your heart. And just the way he says, but even as well as Richard says the word heart, he doesn't want to follow his heart. It's not good. And we don't want to follow our God. It's greater than our feelings. But listen, the other part of that is our hearts will condemn us. Our hearts will tell us God's mad at you. God doesn't love you. You've gone too far. You've done too much. You can't have relationship with God. You can't come to God boldly. Are you kidding me? Look at all the issues that you have. And 1st John 3, verse 20 says this, when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. And he knows all things. You need to remember God is greater than your feelings. God is greater than what you might be thinking in your head. That's why we don't conform to the world around us. We're transformed by changing the way that we think, renewing our mind to the word of God. So God is greater than our hearts. Second thing is this is God's truth, his word guides you in your everyday life. God doesn't leave us in some sort of void where it's like, okay, figure it out. No, he says this will lead and guide your life into the good things that I have for you. He said the Holy Spirit is going to come and he's going to lead you into truth. John 16, verse 13, Jesus said that about the Holy Spirit. And on that day when he comes, the spirit of truth will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority. And so the Holy Spirit, listen please, is the spirit of God taking this from just words on a page to God's speaking directly to your heart, to God revealing the power of his word. Hebrews 4, 12 says this, God's word is alive and it's powerful and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of our hearts. So this is literally reading us as we read it when the Holy Spirit's involved. And so people are like, I don't know the Bible's boring and I don't get it, I'm telling you, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal scripture to your heart. How many of you have ever been reading your Bible or singing a song? You've sung it before or you've read it before, but suddenly in that moment, God speaks to you through it and you know that something new is being said to you in that moment. Raise your hand. Yes, that's the Holy Spirit. And that's why Romans 10, 17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Not faith comes by having heard. We don't say, well I read the Bible, I read John 3, 16, once. No, it's hearing the spirit of God speak to you, causing scripture to come alive for your situation. I'll never forget when I was a fairly new Christian, I went to Meyer and I bought a bunch of things, but one of them was like a sweet coffee maker before Keurig's. This was, it was like 69, 99, I was gonna spend the big bucks on this bad boy, right? And so she's ringing up my stuff and at the end of the transaction, my bill's only like $20 some dollars all together and I had other things. So it was weird, but I just went home and I was like, ah, I didn't really kind of dawn on him, but then I went home and I looked at the receipt and for some reason the 69, 99, 99 coffee maker only rang up for 99, 99. And of course I was like, well thank you, Lord, right? It's not my fault I'm living under the divine favor of God. This is Jehovah Java smiling on his servant because I didn't do it. It's not like I was deceived, I didn't like switch stickers or anything. It's, you know, I was good. So I made some, I could have put ground cork in that coffee and it would have tasted amazing. I was like, this is my $9 coffee maker, come on now. And then the next day, no lie, I'm reading my Bible, I read a Proverb a day for the day. There's 31 Proverbs, 31 days. Proverbs 13, probably read it dozens of times. Verse 11 said this, wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase. And I'm telling you, it just jumped off the page and I heard the Lord say, you gotta bring that coffee maker back and you gotta pay for it. And I was like, well, get behind me Satan. I'm just kidding, kidding. I knew it was the Lord. I really did. It was the Lord. And I just was like, okay. And so I took that coffee maker, I took my receipt, brought it back to Meyer. And I said, this rang up wrong. I need to pay the full amount. And literally the lady was like, why are you here? Why are you doing that? I said, well, I'm super holy. I don't want to brag. You see my halo? I'm like, Beyonce. No, I didn't, but I did have a conversation with her. I said, this is gonna sound crazy, but I was reading my Bible and I felt like the Lord told me. I know the Lord told me to bring this back and to pay full price. And so her and I had a conversation. And then it wasn't like in that moment that, you know, the $50 changed my whole life, but the obedience in that moment led to opportunities in the future where God was speaking and I obeyed and my ears were more attentive to when God was speaking to me. It was so powerful. And I just remember, and listen, it's not always correction. It's not always bring that back to Meyer, you crook. No, many times it's God speaking to you a word of affirmation, a word of love where you're saying, man, I've blown it. I've messed up and you're reading your Bible and you just read in Micah seven verse eight where it says, don't rejoice over me, my enemy. Though I fall, I may rise again. And though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light and the Holy Spirit just downloads that into you. And when you feel unworthy and you feel like you're not good enough and God says, nothing can separate you from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit awakens the scriptures and speaks them into your heart. And that is one of the most powerful things that can ever happen in your life. I love conferences, I love worship experience, I love all of that. But in those secret place moments where you know God is speaking to your heart, God is revealing who he is so that you can know who you are, those will change your life forever, forever. Truth has a name, it's Jesus. The grass withers and the flowers fade but the word of the Lord endures forever. God's truth is our compass. God's truth is greater than our heart. It's guiding us in our lives. And the last thing is this, is God's truth is greater sometimes than facts. And here's what I mean. There's many times in your life where circumstances want to overwhelm us, where things we're going through seem more powerful than our ability to believe God. Sometimes we have situations that are causing fear and anxiety and doubt to just grip our hearts. And it's in those moments that God's word promises to sustain us. God's word promises to be illuminated by the Holy Spirit and truth of who God is and what he says trumps the facts that are going on in your life. That's the beauty of God's word. God will speak to you in an impossible situation. He spoke to Abraham and Sarah and said, you're gonna have a son, a son of promise. His name's gonna be Jacob. No, no, no, I'm old. And my wife is well along in years. How many of you know that's a good thing to say? I'm old, but not my wife. She's just well along in years. Jacob was a wise man and they didn't believe it because the fact said it's never gonna happen. But truth, God spoke to them and said, no, listen, you will have a son. By this time next year, you're gonna give birth and generations are gonna be changed because of this miracle that's happening in your life. The facts might be saying to you, I'm never gonna make it. I'll never get through this, but truth, truth says my grace is sufficient for all of your needs. Facts might be saying I don't have enough. Truth says my God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches and his glory in Christ Jesus. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. The truth is greater than the circumstances. Truth is greater than facts. You say the enemy's surrounding me, I don't know what I'm gonna do, I don't know where to go. Truth says even when the enemy comes in like a flood, I will raise up a standard against him. I'm for you, I'm with you. You're never alone. You may be walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but you don't have to fear because I'm with you. My rod, my staff, they comfort you. Fear, anxiety try to come in and you remind yourself, God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind and you confess the word of God over your situation, over what you're going through and you say, no, no, I believe the truth of who God is and what he said over my circumstances, over my heart, over my feelings. I will not be moved. The Bible says thanks be to God who always gives us the victory in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15, 57, verse 58 says, therefore be steadfast and immovable. Don't let Satan move you off of the truth of who God is and what he'll do in your life because it's only by faith that we overcome. It's only by faith that we please God. There's those times and I get it where it's much easier to walk by sight, but God says, no, walk by faith, I'm with you. Truth is greater than your experiences. Truth is greater than what you're facing. Truth is greater than the facts that are around you. You stand up with me this morning. I just wanna pray over you collectively. And even as I was just preparing for this, I felt like there's people in this room, many probably who are experiencing just a weight, just a heaviness and the enemy's coming and he's bringing anxiety into your life. He's bringing fear into your life. He operates in that realm. And I'm telling you, I was reading Philippians 4 where it says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication, let the peace of God ruin your heart. I really believe that is one of the most broken scriptures that there is. I mean, anxiety and fear and things like that, they grip us. I mean, so many people. And I felt like God just wants to release his peace in this place today. God wants you to know you can trust him, that when you surrender your life, you're not risking anything that God isn't going to supernaturally guard and protect in your life, that there is a cost and there is something that has to be counted, but God says it will always be worth it. I'll always be with you. And if you're here and you're saying, look, there's some overwhelming things in my life and I need the peace of God to come and to fill me in this place right now. I just want you to raise your hand and we're gonna pray. Awesome, there's hands all over. I know, I know, just close your eyes and just receive the presence of God into your situation right now in the name of Jesus. We silence the voice of the accuser and the enemy who will come with doubt, come with fear, come with, well, you didn't see the doctor's reports, well, you didn't see the bills. You don't have faith for that. We silence that voice. And we release the spirit of peace into this room that passes understanding, that's greater than our fears, that's greater than all that we've done wrong, God. Your love surrounding us in the battle, Father. Bring your peace to this place. Bring, let faith arise in this house, Father. Increase our faith, our ability to trust you. Help us see the way you, Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 4. I love it, I say it all the time. Just listen to it. He said, these are the facts. I might be hard-pressed on every side, but the truth is I'm not crushed. And I may be perplexed. There may be some things I don't understand why they're happening, but I'm not in despair. And I may be persecuted. There may be some things I don't understand why this is happening, but I have not been forsaken and I may be struck down, but I will not be destroyed. For greater is he who is in me than he that is in the world. Faith rising up in our hearts to be salt, to be light, to impact, culture around us. The enemy wants us to hang our head in shame and in guilt, but Jesus says, I am your exceedingly great reward. I'm the lifter of your head. Right now, lift your eyes unto the Lord, unto the hills. That's where our help comes from, God. You are our provider. You are our source and our strength. And I pray that radiant church would be a place where faith overcomes fears, God, where joy is given for mourning, God, where light overcomes darkness, Father, and we're moving into the spirit of God in every arena of our lives, Father. We love you. We praise you. We thank you that if God is for us, who can be against us in Jesus' name? And everyone said, amen. Amen. Let's give the Lord a huge hand clap. Can we do that?