[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Good morning, everybody. Happy Sunday to you. I'm so glad you're here. Let me look right into that camera and say good morning to all of you watching online. Come on, High Ridge family. Let's give them a big, warm round of applause.
We're so glad, glad that you could tune in today. Welcome. Welcome to church from wherever you are. Grab your Bibles if you would. First Samuel chapter 23. We're going to go to First Samuel, chapter 23 as we continue on with our series called First Things First. It's all about laying out the rest of our year based upon what the Lord is showing us through the authority of his Word. I think that keeps it from being just another year. Just another year. Just another year. And come on. First things first, Lord, what do you want to happen this year? And how can I make sure that I'm aligning my life according to your godly biblical principles? That's what we're doing here today. So first things first, as you're Turning there to 1st Samuel 23, let me say thank you so much for being a very generous church. It's such an honor to be a part of a group of people that are willing to stand behind the work of God. And I'm so appreciative of each of you and your gifts, your tithes, your offerings, those of you that are supporting us. It means the world to us. Also today we have some special things happening. We have baptisms in third service. It's going to be awesome. If you are interested in getting baptized, we have shorts and a T shirt for you. Nobody's business has ever been in those shorts. You're welcome to keep them when you leave. They are your shorts. We have towels for you. The water's even heated up. Come on, somebody. We make it so easy for you to get baptized. If you need to do that, come back after third service. Right across the street in our kids building, we will be doing baptisms and it's a beautiful thing if you just want to see it. Hey, you're more than welcome to come and see that. It's an awesome thing to watch us hold people down until the sin bubbles stop coming up. It is. I'm Just kidding. It's a beautiful thing. We want you to be a part of that and see it. Also, groups have launched, and it's an awesome thing to be able to connect and to find your tribe. We want you to be a part of groups. Those groups are filling up really, really quickly. And so we want to make sure that you get as much as you want to get involved. We want to make sure that those opportunities are available to you. It's a beautiful thing. All right, First Samuel, chapter 23. Let's get on into God's word. If you're unfamiliar with the story, there's a young man named David who was about to be king of Israel. But before he becomes king, the original king, the OG King, if you would, has a major problem with the guy that's going to be king. So he is the literal boss from hell. Makes David's life a living hell. David is now on the run, running from King Saul in fear of his life. In the middle of all that, David gets word something is happening. And in that process, and in this obscure, little, tiny chapter tucked away in the Old Testament, we find things that God is still speaking to us. I want you to pay attention to what happens the moment that David receives some news.
What happens when David hears about what is happening in some other place? David's first response is to say, is any of this my responsibility?
And how would I know? He inquires of the Lord. You're going to notice the pattern that happens as David hears some news and say, okay, Lord, I'm talking to you right now. Lord, what do you want me to do about this? How many people know that some things you can simply say, that is not my circus, not my monkeys. It is time for me to mind my business. And other things God is saying, this is absolutely your circus. These are your monkeys. This is your business. How do we know the difference? What things are we supposed to say? Can I get involved in this? What things are we supposed to say? That is not anything for me to put a hand to. The importance of hearing from the Lord first is still something that is critical in the life of every believer today.
So as we're digging into God's word, I want you to see this in chapter 23, when David was told, look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are looting the threshing floors. Keilah is a city that is surrounded by bars and gates. It's a fortified city. But the Philistines had attacked it and they were robbing it of its. Of its threshing. Floors.
Look what David did. Here's its. Here's his first response. He inquired of the Lord, if you have a paper Bible, you're going to want to underline those words. He inquired of the Lord, he hears the report. First response is to pray. This is what he asked God, lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? Is this my responsibility? Did you tell me this because you want me to get involved, or is it just news?
Should I go and attack these Philistines? The Lord answered him, God, attack the Philistines and save Keila, save the city.
Now look at the second, the second part. But David's men said to him, wait a minute now, hold on. Here in Judah, we got enough to contend with. There is enough on my plate. I don't need to be adding anything else to my list of responsibilities. I'm already afraid for the stuff that I do have. I can't do that.
They said, here in Judah, we're afraid. How much more then if we go against Philistine forces? Like, there's not. We're not an army. We're just a group of guys. We're going to go fight an army. Are you kidding?
That's not our circus. That's not our monkey. Notice, they didn't pray. They just said what we were not willing to do.
I wonder how many of us have that response when something comes up. Instead of telling God, lord, what would you have me to do? We say, lord, that's not my business.
I've got enough to worry about. They said this. We're already afraid here. How much more then, if we go against an army? Look at this once again. Somebody say, once again, what does David do? He inquires of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, go a second time. God said, go, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand. So David and his men went, I love that. The men went, even if they were afraid, even if they didn't understand, even if they didn't hear it like, okay, I'm going to go.
Because God said, so. David and his men went, look what happens. They fought the Philistines. They carried off their livestock. Now we got your cows, we got your goats. Nanny, nanny, boo, boo. Spiritually speaking, he inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and he saved the people. What a great story. He attacked the city, saved everybody, had an awesome victory. And here's the second part. Now, it was told to Saul, King Saul, that. That David had gone to Keilah, and Saul says, look at this. God has Given him into my hand. This is an opportunity from the Lord. Look at this. God must love me. God has given me his favor because he has trapped my enemy in a city that has bars and walls. This is a divine opportunity. Does he pray? No. Does he assume something is a divine opportunity because it's there? Yes.
Saul says, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.
So when David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to his priest, bring me to Ephod. I've got to talk to the Lord again.
David said, okay, Lord, I'm hearing. I'm hearing. News Part 2. Lord God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come. He's going to destroy this town on account of me. Will the citizens surrender me to him? Like, after I saved them, after we had this great victory, I saved their life. Are they going to turn me over to my enemy? Will Saul come down as. As. As I'm hearing? And the Lord said this. He's coming.
Absolutely. Here he comes.
He will. Again, David asked, will the citizens of Keila surrender me and my men to Saul? And the Lord says, yep, they absolutely will. I always wondered when I was reading this, this little story as it's tucked in here in First Samuel, of all the exploits of David, like, why doesn't God just say, I'm going to give you another victory against Saul?
Because David could have sensed that with this momentum, nothing that I will do will fail. This must mean that I have the favor of God on my life. And so if something is coming to attack me, well, bless God. I'm just going to stand and see the deliverance of the Lord. But instead of assuming that God was with him, David did something that many believers still don't do. He asked, lord, what do you want me to do? Help me, Lord. David inquires of the Lord four separate times in this few amount of scriptures. He is led by the spirit of God. God, what are you saying? What do you want me to do? Let me ask you a few questions. What happens when you hear something surprising?
What happens when you're scared?
What happens when you get bad news?
What happens when you have what the kids call today a jump scare? You have those moments in your life where you get jump scared.
You know, you might be watching a movie and you can feel the tension in the movie. You can hear the music, like, leading up to it. You're like, okay, there's a jump scare coming. Somebody's gonna jump out here's. The killer, here's the murder. There's gonna be some scary moment where you're gonna look in a mirror and somebody's standing behind you. What's your response to the life's moments when you get confronted with some news? Now, I don't know about you, but each of us, when we're scared, we might react differently than the person sitting next to us. Now, some people are, are, are. Let me just say they reveal what's going on inside of their hearts, because the first thing that comes out of their mouth when they're scared is a cuss word. And I don't care how holy and sanctified you are, there's some parts of us that we're like, okay, perhaps I. Perhaps I'm not as saved as I thought I was because I get scared of, like, blah, blah, blah. Some of us, like, you're more holy than us, and the first thing out of your mouth is just, jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Now, for me, my first response to being scared is, I punch.
I swing.
So where's my punchers at? Where are we at? In first service, I said, where the swingers at? And people are like, ooh, no. Help, Jesus, help us.
Now, some of us, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but your first response to fear is, I'm going to cuss, I'm going to scream. I'm going to punch. I found that at the beginning of my marriage that we had to figure that out between us. Like, what do you do when you're. When you're scared? And so to keep the spice in your marriage, you got to scare your spouse a little bit every once in a while. Come on, somebody. That might be the word that you need. And so, you know, if your wife goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night, she turns off the light to come back into the room. You got to stand behind the door and just go.
And so my wife is so cute because the way that she responds is the silent scream. It's just.
But I realized very early on, like, we got to be careful, because when she does that to me, I swing.
And I'm not trying to go to jail today. But I told her, I said, look, you know, you could do a lot of things, but if you jump, scare me. I just. I cannot be held responsible for the fact that I just. I throat punch people.
Some people are paralyzed with fear. Like, you just freeze. You curl up into the fetal position. You know, some, like me, you just start swinging because I'm I just. I want to fight.
What's your response? Notice this, that in scripture, David's first response to any sort of bad news, any sort of shocking scenario, is to pray. His first response is, lord, what is this? What does this mean to me? Am I supposed to be involved in any of this? What are you saying, Lord? Let's talk about what it means to put God first in the middle of my fears. What does it mean to put God first in the middle of my anxiety and my worry. What does it. What does it mean to actually do it? Practically speaking, I think most of us would say, I put God first. I put God first in my marriage, I put God first in my business. I put God first in my finances. I put God first in my day. What does that actually mean?
More than words, what does it actually mean?
As we learn about the story of David, we see that his response to put God first means, I'm going to have a conversation with him. Before I start worrying about something, before I start making my plans, I ask the Lord, what are you saying?
We see this pattern happen over several major biblical figures. Some of them have. Have we could see the story. They learned some important lessons.
Take Jacob, for example. The Bible says when Jacob was traveling back to the land of his father, he hears that his brother Esau is coming to attack him. And of course, there's a long rift that you need to read there in the first few chapters of Genesis, where Jacob and Esau are going back and forth against each other. And Jacob's so afraid that Esau is coming to attack his family. And the first response of Jacob is not to pray.
His first response is to strategize. So he divides up his family. He divides up his flocks. He said, I'm going to send you guys on ahead. And then you guys on ahead, then you guys on ahead, then you guys. And then my second favorite wife, I'm gonna send her there. And then my real favorite wife, I'll keep her till last. Cause if they kill everybody else, at least maybe my favorite wife, like, this is a crazy thing, but it happened. Read it.
And then when all that is over and Jacob is left by himself and he's like, maybe I should pray.
I wonder how many of us make our plans, execute the plan, and then pray for God to bless it.
It's very biblical. You're not alone. As a matter of fact, I find myself a lot more along those lines than the lines of David.
More often than not, I will come up with a plan because I'm afraid And I have to get organized, I have to get structured. I have to figure out what are we doing, how do we make this happen? And then, lord, would you bless that? What does it mean to put God first? I want to give you three things that are important in this scripture. Three things that will help you to navigate through this season of your life through 2025. Here's the first of three keys that we see is so critical. Number one, pray first.
Pray first. When bad news comes along, when the jump scares of life hit, the response is to pray first. Let that be our goal. It's going to take a while to discipline myself to actually do it. But more than just say, I'm putting God first, let's actually pray first. So before I come back with lashing out in anger, before I make my plans, before I make my strategies, before I throw punch, somebody let me pray.
Maybe my first prayer needs to be, jesus, help me not to throw punch this person, but start somewhere.
Now, I had a roommate early on in my life, and this is. There's something crazy about him. He introduced me to a friend of his back on MySpace. Long before TikTok was canceled, there was MySpace that was canceled. And. And I was talking to this friend, and she says, hey, has he ever told you that he does strange things when he's scared? And I said, what are you talking about? She says, he might not tell you this because he's a little embarrassed, but if you jump, scare him, grown man, he will faint.
And I said, what is this news of which you speak? Say more words. Say more words. I said, no, no, no. He used to be in a band, and his bandmates would. Had bandmates to figure it out. Even if they scared him on stage in front of people, he would just.
I'm like, oh, thank you, Lord. I sense divine opportunity in this moment.
And so I thought, you got to test this out. Don't look at me like that. You would have done the exact same thing.
Lord, is this the truth? Is this the gift that you're giving me? So I remember crawling underneath his bed. He had gone out on a date, he was coming back in, he's getting ready to go to bed. And just as you see those ankles cross in front of the pole, you reach out and grab those ankles. Ah. You know.
And in the next few moments, I saw a grown man just fall completely backwards. Boom. Lay down on the floor cold for about 10 seconds. And the only regret I have is not having a video camera to show you.
It was epic. And then from that Moment on, I thought, should I keep this to myself and enjoy this, or should I spread the news of the great gift that God has given me and my friend group about the guy that will absolutely faint if you scare him. And of course, like all of you would do, I shared it with everybody.
I had people coming over my house. Can I scare him? Absolutely you can. What should I do? You know what? Climb inside of his laundry basket when he comes in to do his laundry, Jump out. It was great. We would jump out from all corners. Ah.
Because his response to anything surprising was to just absolutely play dead. Lose all control of bodily functions. I'm just done. Some of you, how could you be so cruel? I was barely saved. Let's just be honest.
What's your response to those things in life?
What does it look like?
Pray first. The Bible calls David a man after God's own heart. And I believe one of the reasons why he's called a man after God's own heart is because he asked, lord, what is your will for my life? What are you doing? What do you want for me? What are you saying? What's the direction?
What's next? He constantly, we find this as a pattern in David's life. The man after God's own heart asks the Lord, what are you saying?
So how do I find the heart of God for my own life? How do you find the heart of God? I want to make sure that you see this, so I'll put it on the screen for you to see it. The Word of God reveals the heart of God. The Word of God reveals the heart of God.
So God speaks through his written word, and God speaks in a host of other ways. All of those ways will tell you what God's heart is. But if you're not having a conversation with God, if you're not getting into his word, if you're not seeking after his will, then you get what you get. And like many of us, we'll just have to pray on the back end, hoping that I made the right decision.
Okay, Lord, now that I've done all that I can do, would you fix it?
So we're talking today about the importance of praying first. And I found that many believers understand the word prayer. Do they actually do it when it matters? And no, I mean, I'll pray before I eat. That's what it matters the most, right? Lord, thank you for this food. Bless it to the nourishment of my body. Thank you for 12 large pizzas.
But what about when it really matters, when I have real Decisions to make. What does it mean to pray first and to pray like I mean it, to ask the Lord for help. And what we found is that people will shy away from prayer because they don't really understand how to do that practically. And I want you to see that David's prayers, here's the good news, they're not complicated.
I found this to be true, that prayer doesn't have to be complicated. It needs to be honest.
David just says, lord, is any of this my responsibility?
Do you want me to do anything about this or should I just let it go? Is it just news or is it a challenge?
Is this a statement or is this a promise from God? What are you asking of me, David? The man after God's own heart simply asked the Lord, lord, what do you want me to do? So we find God's heart by having a conversation with him, by learning how to distinguish his voice just from our thoughts and seeing that this situation that David was looking at was more than just an advantage. It became a direction from the Lord. Here's the second key that I want to share with you. Number two. Obeying God is always right, but never easy. Come on, somebody say amen. I wish I could say that every time you obey God, it's going to get really easy.
If you ever hear a message preached about how easy it is to follow God, you just need to get up and go to the bathroom, check out for a little bit.
Because those of us that have walked with God for more than about five minutes recognize that obeying God, walking according to his principles, it may be right, it may be good. But easy is not what word I would use to describe that easy? No. Notice as soon as David hears from the Lord, God says, go and attack this city. What happens? Tension between him and his men. His men said, no, no, no, no. Let me, let me tell you all the reasons why we can't do this. Let me tell you the reasons why that cannot be the Lord. Because we ain't an army and we're going to attack an army. That's that we're, we're scared as it is.
We've got enough to worry about. We're on the run. In case you didn't know, I have found this to be true. And please, please hear me that this is a really common thing among believers, that a common first response to fear is to attack authority.
We see this in marriages, we see this in ministry, we see this in life. That when I get jump scared, the first thing I do is doubt what God is Saying, doubt my spiritual authority. I will attack anything that has to do with authority. It's a very, very common thing. It's the throat punch that we see that was barely buried on the inside.
Fear reveals what's happening and doesn't lie to you.
A common first response to fear is to attack authority. So what does David do when there's tension between him and his men? When they say, no, no, no, we can't do this, what does he do? He asks God again, God, are you sure? And I am so thankful that the Bible doesn't say, once you ask God one time, you just need to obey it and that's the end of it. It doesn't say that.
It really doesn't. We see multiple people asking, God, God, are you? Are you sure?
And I'm thankful that there are people like Moses that said, God, I don't see it. I don't understand it. I can't figure it out. I'm not sure. I know you keep telling me this. I know that you're telling me the truth, but God, it's hard for me.
It's a struggle that we see. What does David do? He asks God again.
As a matter of fact, in this chapter, he asked God four times. I'm so thankful that God isn't upset when we keep asking. And as a matter of fact, he encourages it. God, are you sure that's what you said about my marriage? God, are you sure that's what you said about my finances? Are you sure that's what you want me to do in business? Are you sure that's how I should treat my enemy? Are you sure, Lord? Because I'm going to do this. But I got to know for sure. God encourages us to keep asking. As a matter of fact, when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray in Luke 18, it says, I want you to keep on praying and never give up.
There's multiple parables of Jesus telling his disciples, seek and ask, keep going. That persistence pays off. He gives them story after story about you just keep asking.
Even after God has spoke.
Any doubts, discouragement, any of that stuff God says, it's okay, keep asking me. I want you to know. Because here's the thing, it's not only important that you actually do it, but it's important that you learn to distinguish his voice. Ask him again, Lord, are you sure? Because I feel like I'm hearing you. Can you tell me one more time?
So what does this. What. What does David's men do? When. When David has heard from the Lord, he prays and he says, this is what we're going to do. They attack him.
And I want you to see that. If my first response is to tell God what I'm not going to do, I'm never going to see victory.
This is where we find many of us today. I don't want to talk to God because I'm afraid of what he's going to say. Or when God speaks, my response is, mm, mm, mm, mm. That can't be God. That's the devil. Because that requires something of me. Because the God that I serve should act a lot more like Santa Claus and not like any father that would ever challenge me or discipline me. Oh, no. God forbid.
If my. If my first response is to tell God why I can't, I'm not going to see victory. But I love that these men, even when they were scared, even when they didn't understand it, even then common wisdom says, don't do this.
They still went and they saw victory in spite of their fear.
This is why I want to make sure you see this. The faith of those I surround myself with matters.
It matters. You know, there's an amazing group of people that lowered a paralyzed man through a ceiling when he couldn't get to Christ himself. The faith of the people you surround yourself with, it matters.
You know, long before these men, David, became mighty men of valor. There's so many stories later on in scripture about the great military exploits that they did and these, These huge heroes and the fantastic things that they accomplished for the. For. For King David. Long before that, they were just a group of men that the Bible described them as in debt and distressed and discontented.
So how did they go from being a ragtag group of people that were on the run and in debt, discontent, depressed, left alone, to mighty men of valor.
And I believe it's because they see what happens when David prays. They see that David hears from the Lord and he's faithful and obedient to do what God is actually telling him to do. So they learn to trust the voice of the Lord. I wonder, what can God do with your life if you started believing him? What could God do with your marriage if you stopped, started believing and trusting the power of God's word, stopped listening to the voice of our own fears. That tells me it's not my business, not my circus, not my monkeys. I got enough to contend with.
What could God do?
Here's the third and final thing I want to share with you. Number three. Praying first pays off. We see a massive military victory. We See him route the Philistines. We see that they are carrying off their livestock. They're saving the people. And the legend of David's ability to hear God and walk through fantastic victories begins to grow. Because this is the first of many things that David will do, it pays off in a huge way. But in this story, there are kind of three characters that we can focus on. And honestly, I find myself identifying with all three of them at different points of my life. We see David that hears the news of what's happening, and his first response is to say, lord, what's my responsibility? Do you want me to do anything? Do you want me to serve in any way?
There have been times in my life where I see a need and I'm like, okay, Lord, is that for me? Are you showing me this? Because I can help.
But then there's another perspective, David's men, that says, I'm not really sure we can do that.
I'm not sure that this is smart.
I'm not really sure that this is good for me. I'm not sure that we're able to do that. You ever been at that point in your life where God showed you something and God's moving on your heart? You're just like, lord, you're going to have to raise up somebody else. You're going to need. You're going to have to raise up somebody with a lot more faith than me or Lord, I'm busy.
I've got. You've seen my kids. Lord, you know my husband.
Lord, you know my wife. I don't have. She will not let me. Before you give God a list of excuses, you ever been there like David's mighty men? Hey, I'm afraid right now. I don't need more things to be afraid of. We will come up with all kinds of excuses to not obey. But then there's a third character, King Saul, that hears what is happening to David and says, ah, this must be. Please hear me, a divine opportunity.
God is with me. God has given him into my hands. I'm going to take this as a word from the Lord. Did he pray? Nope.
I want you to see that one of the scariest places that you could ever be as a believer is to assume that the Lord is with you when he's not. To assume that God is giving you something just because you see an advantage. Well, the favor of the Lord is on me. Here we go.
But God's spirit had departed from Saul for that very reason, and it was resting on David because David was a man after God's own heart. It's important that we don't just take the opportunities in life and assume that God is blessing everything that you do without taking the time to say, lord, is this you or is this not?
We found this to be true. I want to put it on the screen that advantages without prayer become disappointments.
Lord, this looks like a huge advantage. I can cheat on my taxes. Thank you Lord for your provision.
Did you pray about it? No, I'm afraid of what God might say.
Oh, but Lord, he divorced her. That sounds like it's my husband. Did you pray about that?
Because I want it to be true, not you people in third service, we would never do that. Of course, advantages without prayer become disappointments. God, that just didn't work out the way I thought it would work. It looks so good. Did you pray about it?
No.
I want to encourage us as believers to hear from the Lord. I want to equip you to do that as a pastor. I want you to know that God is leading you, that God cares about you, that God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly. Above all that you can ask or imagine more than you could think. Our God does incredible things for those who are willing to listen and obey.
You know, in spite of the report that David's giving saying, you know, we're going to go attack the city, his men said, man, there's a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea. But I love the fact that they went anyway.
God still gave them victory in spite of the fact that they didn't pray, but they trusted and they went.
What does that show me? It shows me that I can, I can have fear and still obey.
I think that's something that has kind of crept into a lot of modern day theology, that if I'm afraid, I must not have any faith.
That's just not true. As a matter of fact, I've seen so many people in God's word that were scared to death but still did it, that were afraid but still obeyed. And the same is true for me. And the same is true for you. I don't have to be full of faith and never have a single bit of doubt. No, no, no, no.
I can have doubts, I can have fear, I can have anxieties and worries and still believe that God is good and what he has told me to do, I can do it.
And God gives us the courage to follow through. And there are victories that come for those that are willing to listen to the voice of the Lord and be obedient in Spite of their fears.
You know, at the end of the day, when all this was over, in the city of Keilah, what happens is David becomes a legend. And the people begin to switch their allegiance from King Saul over to David because they recognize that he hears from the Lord that God is with them.
They recognize that God's power is still at work in their country.
They recognize that when somebody listens and obeys, God begins to give victory. What could God do with your life and your situation? What could God do in your finances if you would listen and do what he says? What could God do in your marriage, with your children, with your grandchildren if we would just listen and say, lord, what is my responsibility in this? Lord, what would you have me to do? Am I supposed to say something, or should I shut my mouth, Lord, am I supposed to step in and pay for this? Or are you going to provide from some other source?
I don't have to assume that everything is my responsibility, but to say that none of it is is a mistake as well. But there are things that God has uniquely purposed each and every person to do. There are things that you're supposed to get involved in. And the only way that you'll know if it's something that you're supposed to do or something that you're not supposed to do is pray first.
Pray first.
Otherwise you'll do things like me, where you end up just doing it anyway. And in the middle of it, you're like, okay, Lord, I have made a massive mistake. Will you please help me to get out of this? Where are my people that have prayed prayers like this? Okay, I have messed up. Yep.
What could we avoid if we would simply ask the Lord? Front end.
Let me finish up with a question today. What are you worried about that you should be praying about?
What is life giving you? That's scary.
Are there opportunities that you're looking at in the future and saying, lord, I need your help on this. Would you help me?
And I wonder, maybe instead of asking for advice from someone, would you? We could ask the Father first.
Cause I found a pattern emerging within believers that we would rather just go from person to person until we find someone that tells us what we want to hear. Because they love us, they just want us to be happy. Like, that's awesome. Have great friends around you that want you to be happy. But your life's mission, that's too important to just leave it to anybody. Let's ask the Lord and develop a relationship where we can hear him and do what he says. Can you receive that, everybody? Is that okay? As we finish up right there, I want to just say to all of our people and friends watching online, hey, if you like what you heard, if you believe that this message is important, would you do us a huge favor? Would you share this on your social media platform? Now that TikTok has been banned, people are coming back over to awesome little old Facebook. And when you share this on Facebook, when you share this on YouTube, when you share this on your platforms, it's going all around the world. People have more time.
So perhaps this is the week where God reaches out and finds someone that's in the valley of decisions, saying, I need to hear from the Lord. My message to you would be, yes, you do, and let me tell you how to do it. Pray, ask him for help.
For everybody else, would you bow your head and close your eyes?
How many of us are walking through situations that we would say, I need God to help me with this. This is what I'm facing. If you're facing a particularly difficult situation right now in your life with heads bowed and eyes closed, would you simply lift up your hand all across this place? We're going to pray for you together. I need some direction from the Lord. I need some help, Lord. I need your word. I need your direction. I need your comfort. I need your peace. I need your provision, whatever it may be. If you're watching this online right now, just type it in the chat. I need your help, Lord. Help me.
And we're going to pray for you right now. If you raised your hands in any response to that, would you do me a favor? Would you go ahead and just open up your hands and maybe just set them on your knees like I do when someone's praying for me as a sign of being open to whatever the Holy Spirit might be doing in my life.
Let's pray, Father, right now, for every single person in a valley of decision, for every single person walking through a difficult season, for those that are needing direction, for those that are needing hope, for those that are needing clarity, for those that are just needing a word from you, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would begin to move right now, that you begin to touch their prayer life and help them to hear with clarity exactly what to do, where to go, what to say, what not to say, when to walk, when to rest. Lord, let us be people that are led by your spirit, people that are full of the direction of the Lord. Because we've prayed, we seek your face, we ask you for help, and we're diligent to be obedient to whatever it is that you say for us to do. Let us be people that are led by you.
Father, would you bless my friends, strengthen them, help them, Lord, in Jesus name, with heads bowed and eyes closed, perhaps you're listening today and you're saying, pastor, I need a relationship with Jesus. I am so far from God right now, my friend, if that's you, you're in the right place. And God led you here for this moment.
If you could see it right now, God himself is reaching down his hand to you. The question is, will you respond? You may say, I don't know how to do that, Pastor. Then let me help you like somebody helped me one time. How do I respond to the fact that I need a savior? I need Jesus, my friend. It starts with a prayer.
So with heads bowed and eyes closed all across this place, I want to invite you. If you want a relationship with Jesus, I want to invite you to pray this prayer with me. I'll tell you what to say and I'll help you. Like somebody helped me one time, pray with me. Just say this, Jesus, I believe you're the son of God.
I believe that you came and died and rose from the grave so that I could have life and forgiveness for all of my sins.
Now say this, my friend, Jesus, I've messed up.
I've made a mess of my life.
I ask you to forgive me.
Save me and I'll give my life to you right now.
Thank you, Jesus, for what you did for me.
And now with heads bowed and eyes closed all across this place, if that was you and you prayed that prayer, just those of you who pray that, would you look up at me? Would you raise your hand all across this place and say, that was me. I pray with you. Yes, I see you. Good for you. For those of you that prayed that prayer and those of you that might be watching online, there's a number appearing on your screen right now. There's a number appearing on the screen behind me.
Would you do me a favor? Would you text me? Text the words I prayed to that number on the screen, and I'm going to send you some things that will help you understand what just happened inside of your heart and what to do next. It's a beautiful thing to have a relationship with Jesus. Let me help you do that.
Good for you. High rich family. Go ahead and look up at me if you would. Then let's stand to our feet together. As we finish, I'm going to invite our elders and their wives forward to be able to be available to pray with you about anything that you might be walking through.
As I was talking today, perhaps there's some things that are coming up in your mind that you've been worried about, things that you're in distress mode over. You know, the Bible tells us that we can ask the elders of our church to pray over us. And the Bible says that God will hear, that God will deliver, that God will heal. And so if you're walking through one of those places today, these guys will stay right on the front of this platform as the service ends to be available to pray for you about anything that you might need to help with. That's an awesome thing. I want to remind you. Hey, groups are launching this week. Growth Track is part of our membership class. If you guys are interested in finding out what we believe or how you can join this church. That's happening in Growth track, that's at 12 o'clock, right behind me in the offices right behind us today. And that's happening every single Sunday. And then also baptisms are going to happen after the 12 o'clock service across the street. We'd love for you to be a part of that if you want to get baptized. And then for everybody else, I'm going to pray for you and bless you as we go. So, Father, I thank you for my friends. I pray that you'd bless them, lead them, Lord, Let your face shine upon them. Let their prayers bear much fruit. Speak to them, Lord, in a way that they can understand. And we ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus and all of us said together. Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv. Or you can check out our
[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.
