Longer than Your Lifetime - From Overwhelmed to Overcoming

Well, I'll tell you if uh Scott Wesley Brown has a theme song.

It's he will carry you.

Wow.

Two songs for our time.

And uh when answers aren't enough, there is Jesus.

Isn't that awesome?

Um now Uh let's talk about something I know very little about.

Let's talk about flowers, so it won't be long if I don't know much about it.

But my wife did, and um uh every spring, every April, what is beautiful is that these, oh man, there some of them are purple, some of them are pink, some of them are yellow, but all of a sudden we start to see these fantastic iris blooms.

And they're they're just, they say, they shout spring.

What Karen told me was that the most beautiful of them, the purple ones, are a hundred years old at least.

I said, well, how do you know that?

She said, my grandmother first planted those in Kansas.

When they moved here a long time ago, she brought them and replanted them here She said, they bloom, they're perennials, they bloom every year.

Now her grandma's been gone a long time, but she's still beautifying our world Let's talk about that.

How to live a life that plants the kind of seeds that will beautify people's lives.

Long after you're gone.

This is we're in a home stretch on our anchors.

We've been talking about uh the the four anchors. that are bigger than our battles and and bigger than our problems and elevate our lives to be attached to and lived for things that will be there, that will s that that transcend in importance and worth and significance all of the things that really occupies in a time of loss I love this quote from William James.

They call him the father of modern psychology.

The greatest use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

And the Bible kind of spells that out for us.

In the quote from Psalms you see here, he commanded our ancestors to teach the next generation so that the next gener to teach their children so the next generation would know.

That even that the children yet to be born and they in turn would tell their children and then they would put their trust in God.

See it?

Generation, generation, generation, generation.

The flowers are still blooming.

Now, we talked about these four anchors.

Let's review what we've been so far.

First of all, we said that, and I just want to make this point.

We can either be defined by the storm we're going through, which means you will forfeit peace, or we can be defined by these life anchors that transcend all of the storms are bigger than the storms.

Now where have we been so far?

First of all, we talked about our first night together, a life-refocusing visit with God every morning, where you refocus on his greatness and you download his mercies for that day.

Then we talked last night about a life-saving mission. that lifts our focus from our day's battle to the eternal futures of the people that we know Now you say, well wait a minute, Ryan.

You said four anchors.

What are we going to extend this thing?

We're going to have another night?

Nope.

I'm going to talk fast.

Machine gun mouth here. is gonna go like crazy.

We got two more anchors and let's hit let's hit that next one.

And it has everything to do with the flowers that bloom after you're gone.

I'm talking the word legacy right now.

And let's nail down that anchor right now.

It is a life-building passion.

Investing in a next generation legacy.

That becomes a a passion for you to invest in a next generation legacy.

Now When you think of legacy, some people think about their will being the last will and testament.

This is not something about what's in your will.

This is what's in their hearts long after you're gone.

You're sowing seeds that will be reaped in a thousand tomorrows.

Psalm 102 and verse 18.

Talks a little bit about that long view.

Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created May praise the Lord.

Man, that is flowers to keep on blooming.

So when we're talking about investing in the next generation, let's talk investments.

What's your capital?

Well, your capital that you're investing is the learning of your lifetime, all these years.

See, when you're younger, all you see are the threads.

They're looking at the threads.

You know what those threads make now.

You see the tapestry.

You've got a perspective that they need to hear.

They'll understand the threads a whole lot better.

What's your stock?

Well your stock is the next generation young people, whether they're blood relatives of yours or other young people that are in your sphere of influence.

What's your vehicle for investing?

It's your personal God stories.

And what are the dividends on your investment?

lives that will carry your faith, that will carry your Jesus to a time you will not see.

There was a movie several years ago called Mr.

Holland's Opus.

It was about a high school music teacher.

And he had one great goal in life was to write the Great Symphony that would make him famous and perhaps make him rich.

Never happened.

Well, not the way he thought.

Until near the end of the movie, one of his students says this, there is not a life in this room that you have not touched.

And each of us is a better person because of you.

We are your symphony.

We are the melodies and notes of your opus.

We are the music. of your life.

Don't you want people to say that about you?

Well, it means consciously investing and saying this is a goal for the rest of my life.

It transcends whatever else I'm going through.

I can always be doing that, whatever my situation.

So a spiritual legacy is built actually on two commitments, and it's modeled by two wonderful examples in the Bible.

Let's start with the first one, which is intentional investing.

Notice I said intentional.

This is a you make up your mind.

This is part of what my life is going to be for.

See, we talked about this last night.

We remember truth that is embodied.

The truths that really stuck with us are ones that we can associate a person with.

For example, if I said to you, just finish this sentence, when I think of generosity, I think of Person come to mind?

When I think of unconditional love, I think of.

When I think of patience, I think of When I think of real faith, I think of when I think of a servant leader, I think of When I think of joy, I'm guessing that for many of those things there is a person that embodied it.

You know what it looks like, so you know how to be it.

So how do we do this intentional investing thing?

I'll tell you where it starts.

It starts with faithful and fervent interceding for them.

We can't talk about building the next generation while talking to Paul and Timothy.

Two very different personalities, Paul, Crusader, bold, aggressive.

Timothy apparently a little more shy, a little more introverted, a little more timid based on the things Paul wrote to him.

And uh listen to a couple things that Paul said, 2 Timothy 1. 3, when he writes his final letter to him, he says, I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did. with a clear conscience as night and day, Tim, I constantly remember you in my prayers.

Is there a young person in your life you could say that about?

Is there a next-gen person?

I I pray for you day and night.

And uh in John 17, I'll just kind of go there because I remember it.

Jesus is, he's praying for his disciples Here you see it.

He says, as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

And look, my prayer, this is a great prayer for you to pray for. for any young person, especially children or grandchildren, is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

That's how Jesus prayed for those who he said to the Father, you have given to me.

So fervent intercession for them because the battle for young lives is in the throne room of God.

That's where swen or lost.

And You say, well, I don't know who to who who would be that young person.

Listen, everybody knows a young person to pray for.

At least be an intercessor.

And by the way, There is no we I ran out of time.

We can't do all this, but you've got a supplement in your notebook that's got a lot of stuff about how to do these things.

Very practical steps.

So take a look at your supplemental material later.

Not now Here's one thing though, I want to cover a couple right here.

Affirm their worth.

Boy, I'll tell you what, their worth takes a beating on social media.

Sometimes even sometimes even from family members, from peers, in school, it is cruel.

It is cool to be cruel.

And uh they know what's wrong with them.

They need somebody who will affirm their God-given worth.

And I tried to begin that process with my grandchildren the day I first held them in my arms, the day they were born.

As I told them Ephesians 2. 10, beginning with Jordan, our oldest, minutes after he was born, I said, Jordan, you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.

For good works, God prepared in advance for you to do in.

I think he's doing them.

That's where they are God's workmanship.

Now that identity is going to take a beating.

And they're going to be tempted to believe a lot of lies about themselves.

But our job is to help them understand that God given worth.

You know what they need to know?

that you believe in them.

You say, well Ron, they got a lot of problems.

Yeah.

You know why you believe in them?

Because you believe Ephesians 2.

10.

That's your job is to see what God sees and help them see it.

Hold, you're their mirror.

You are God's workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works you were prepared in advance to do.

You tell who what God sees, because it's who God thinks they are, is who they really are.

And when you affirm them, don't just affirm the things you get awards for.

You know, they're a musician, they're an athlete, they're a scholar, whatever.

Tell them their qualities.

Affirm their qualities.

If they're generous, if they've got leadership qualities, if they're a good listener, if they're sensitive and can pick up the vibe of other people's hearts Help them, their smile.

Help them see their great qualities, not just their great gifts.

You know what one of your most powerful life-shaping tools is that really makes them feel worth something?

Doug spoke about it one time.

He said, Dad, you know what's the most important thing you and mom did raising us?

I said, what?

He said you trusted us.

Wow.

You know, trust elevates you.

Trust makes you feel truly valued.

2 Timothy 2.

2, Paul says this to Timothy.

He said, I'm putting it all in your hands, man.

He said, the things that you've heard of me, I want you to commit to others who are faithful men.

Who will teach others also?

There's four generations of faith in that one verse.

Now, you don't just affirm their worth, you address their weaknesses.

But you know how you address their weaknesses?

First of all, you have to affirm their worth.

The person who can tell me. . .

Where I need to improve is somebody I know who believes in me.

They're not attacking me.

They're not criticizing me.

They've already proven they want the best and they see the best in me.

You address their weaknesses and you win the right to do that by believing in them.

I talked to guys in charge of the pilot safety training program for For uh the FAA in the New York City area where there's 10,000 private pilots, a zoo in the sky.

And um And he said they have studied the private plane crashes all over the country.

That's one of their jobs, to do case studies to avoid others.

And they said in most of the cases It was because of pilot error.

And that pilot error wasn't at least half the cases because of a weakness in the student pilot that either wasn't confronted or not dealt with.

And later on, it killed them and maybe other people.

Every one of us has those weaknesses.

We need somebody with the mirror who loves us and has proven they see value in us to say, man, I just don't want you to sink.

This is the one thing that could sink you.

Show them, based on your belief in them, show them what might make them crash someday.

Let's not leave them with that part of the job undone.

And you know how they're going to do that?

If they feel safe with you That's the most important thing.

Now , that's intentional investing.

That's what it looks like.

There's a lot more in the supplemental notes that you have there.

The other part of that is what I call magnetic modeling.

You got to see it to be it.

Yeah, you got to see what it looks like.

Moses and Joshua, here we go.

Joshua 1 tells us that Moses, my servant, is dead.

But Joshua was ready immediately to lead after that because Moses had invested in his life in two ways.

Infectious communication, first of all.

Uh and uh and he had embodied what Joshua needed to become.

Uh let me ask you this.

Um, if they copy you , will they be like Jesus?

So uh what's infectious communication look like?

Well you do it first of all through your personal God stories.

They need to be intentional about telling your God stories.

Your walk with God When was your Red Sea?

Tell him about your Red Seas.

When was your Jericho when the obstacles were huge?

And God showed up.

Tell them about your Jericho.

What was your manna?

God's miraculous provision.

They need to know about that God.

Where was your burning bush?

Where God spoke your name and.

Change the course of your life.

And then infectious communication comes through your passion.

You know what teachers you remember?

The teachers who were passionate about their subject.

That's who you remember.

This is about more than your words.

And one passion that was clear that Joshua got the message on is described in Exodus 33. 11, where it says this.

The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend.

Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave.

The tent.

You see, Joshua caught it.

He caught Moses' passion to meet with God face to face.

And that same Joshua, very different than Moses, and yet knowing the source of his wisdom and his leadership was meetings with God.

So be passionate about the things you want them to catch.

I remember this beautiful picture of Doug, when they were on the Hopi reservation, and he is sitting there reading his Bible in the morning, having his Jesus time?

Noelle was like two years old She she couldn't read, but she could she came went and got this little kid's Bible and literally was sitting down right next to his desk copying what she saw her daddy do.

They are watching you and your consistent passion will catch.

And the other thing that will do that in is situational opportunities.

Remember Deuteronomy 6, it says, these commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts, but the way you get them through to the next generation is as you walk along the road and as they're getting up in the morning and as they go to bed at night.

It's not, it's not, uh, I put I wrote this down.

This is not um teachable moments. are more important than teachable meetings.

Let's have a meeting.

Let's have a study and we'll talk about it.

Good?

That's not bad.

But it's it's the stuff that comes right out of their everyday experiences or yours.

Look for, pray for, capture those teachable moments.

That is infectious communication But the single most powerful truth, yep, I'm gonna tell you there is one, that more than any you need to pour into their hearts.

Those four words, it's all about Jesus That's more important in this world than ever before.

It is not about the religion called Christianity.

It is not about his followers called Christians.

It is not about Christian leaders.

Who will disappoint us sometimes.

It's not about church.

It is about Jesus.

So if they rebel, they're not rebelling against you, they're rebelling against Jesus.

If they sin, they're hurting Jesus.

They're breaking Jesus' heart.

If they say yes to what God wants, it's Jesus they're saying yes to.

It's Jesus they're saying no, Jesus.

They need to know it's all about Jesus.

Because everything else can disillusion you.

Christianity, Christians, church, rules, and a lot of that's happening to the next generation right now.

Help them remember whenever there is doubt, whenever there is struggle, walk up a hill and stand at the bottom of a hill called on a hill called Golgotha. and see how much you're worth to him, see how much he loves you, see how much he spent on you.

It's all about Jesus.

These young men and women are your living legacy.

Living legacy.

So what's our job?

To help the next-gen people in our life know they are deeply loved.

They are divinely gifted.

They are decisively trusted.

And they are dependably prayed for.

And if you get your job done and they respond, You get the checkered flag.

Crossing the finish line.

A winner.

And the flowers just keep on blooming.

Well that's one anchor.

We've got one more.

And you'll see in your notes, it's greater than your fears, it says.

I've shared this with some of you before, but there's a story from the second century BC when a Roman soldier, a Roman uh officer is leading a mission and unfortunately that mission takes him into an unmapped part of the world.

Now if you've looked at the ancient maps, you've seen they had dragons and monsters where people hadn't gone.

Like I'm not going there.

But his mission took him there.

He sent back an emergency message to Rome and simply said this, we have just marched off the map.

Please send new orders.

Man, I thought that story's come back to me this year.

Yeah, we've marched off the map, haven't we?

I mean, we're really an unmapped territory.

And I said one of the great losses has been the loss of certainty.

We just, I don't know what the future is going to be for any of us.

Because There's nothing really that sure right now that we can see.

Well, listen to Joshua 3 verse 4.

This jumped off the page.

Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.

Sounds like the Roman officer.

You have never been this way before God says, then, well I want to know what then is, don't you?

Then you will know which way to go.

So how do you look at a world of uncertainties?

How how can you have a sense of security?

Well let's let's let's go in the home stretch with that.

Like your notes say, there's so much unknown, unprecedented, unpredictable Our confidence about the future has been shaken.

But this fourth anchor in times of loss is exemplified in a story that literally shows why we don't need to be afraid.

That's why our title is Greater Than Your Fears.

And how we can be a confident, listen to this, of a road we have never traveled and for which we do not have a map.

And I'm guessing even before COVID, you had some things like that in your life.

There is a part of your life, if not your whole life, it's kind of up for grabs and it it's unmapped and uncharted and it's scary.

I love the hymn from that line from an old gospel song.

It says, we cannot see what lies before.

And so we cling to him the more.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Isaiah 42, verse 16, is one of my anchor verses.

I love this verse.

I think you will too.

It's all about the unknown.

He said, I will lead the blind. along ways they have not known.

Along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them.

I will make the rough places smooth and the crooked places straight before them.

I am the Lord, and this I will do.

Isn't that beautiful?

He said, I will lead the blind along ways they have not known.

You have the promise of his leadership.

Now, Isaiah 43. 18 is a verse that's come to me a lot, again, in the last few months.

It says this, I actually taught it to our OEW team.

Forget the former things.

Do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing.

It is springing up in front of you.

Don't you see it?

Don't you perceive it?

Well, don't be afraid of God's new thing.

I'm just going to guess that each one of you, we're scattered across the land right now.

But in some part of your life.

There is a new thing God wants to do. .

He says, don't be so busy looking out the rearview mirror to the way it's always been and the way you want it to return to.

Don't miss the new thing.

Well how you gonna how are you gonna get there?

How you gonna how are you gonna make that journey and and find it?

Joshua chapter 3 verses 1 to 5.

Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shidem and went to the Jordan where they camp before crossing over.

They're about to claim the promise of going into the promised land.

Only problem is in between them and the promised land and the wilderness is the Jordan River.

Oh it just happens to be at flood stage So the question is obvious.

We're supposed to cross the Jordan River.

We can't cross the flooded river.

I got a million people I'm leading.

Hello?

After three days, the officers went throughout the camp.

Giving orders to the people, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, which obviously was the symbolic residency of God, his presence represented by that among them, and the Levitical priests carrying it.

You are to move out from your positions and follow it.

Then you will know Ah, there's the then.

Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.

Keep a distance of about 2,000 cubits between you and the ark.

Do not go near it, but just keep your eye on it.

Joshua told the people.

Consecrate yourselves.

For tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among us.

Among you.

Yeah.

Let's make that you.

Now, how does this work?

What what does this tell actually that tells us right here?

Going into a way we don't know.

A place that we don't even know how this is going to end up and what process will get us there.

Well Here's what I see.

Four keys.

Four keys to heading confidently into a future that's full of unknowns.

Number one, focused eyes.

This is kind of an anatomy.

There's a lot of anatomy here.

Focused eyes Keep watching the presence of God.

Keep your eyes on where God is going.

Follow that.

Well, that's the fundamental command of Jesus.

The invitation of Jesus.

Follow me.

I don't know what's distracted you right now.

But if you're distracted, get your eyes on Jesus.

You've got to focus on the one you're following.

The other thing you've got to do when you follow, it involves flexibility.

You know, I don't want to cross three lanes.

I don't want to go this fast.

I don't want to go this slow.

I don't want to go this.

It doesn't matter.

If you're following somebody, you cannot be rigid.

Say, well, I I got my way here.

I know how I want to go.

You gotta go with the one who knows where they're going.

So you've got to be able to move when and where your leader moves.

So Flexibility and focus.

You know what that says to me?

Hold your plans loosely and hold his purposes tightly.

Back in Jesus' day, they uh used to have a rabbi.

I mean, if you wanted to be discipled into ministry and and uh into the Jewish faith, you would follow a rabbi.

Literally, you followed him Because you'd walk behind them, because they were your elder.

And the saying back then was, may you be covered with the dust of your rabbi.

In other words, you walk so closely to him that when he stirs up dust with his sandals, you get covered with his dust.

Stay that close.

So focused eyes are critical.

And John chapter 10, and this is my one of my favorite images of Jesus.

No, my favorite.

John chapter 10, the gatekeeper opens the gate for him, the shepherd, and the sheep listen to his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

By the way, in your um little uh gift bag, your white little uh bag there , got a sheep.

Hello.

And uh this sheep is for you to keep to remind yourself Me sheep.

Him shepherd.

And you know what that tells me?

You know why I love the sheep example?

Sheep are safe.

Not because they know where they're going.

But because they know the voice of the one who does.

You just don't have anything more important to do. than to know what the voice of Jesus is like in your heart.

To recognize they know his voice and they follow him.

You ready for the fourth anchor?

It's always there.

You'll always be safe.

A life-shaping commitment to follow one voice.

Your shepherd.

No matter what all the other voices are saying, including your own, I respond to one voice.

My shepherd.

That's part of the staying the keeping the focus on him.

By the way, God's will is not about following a plan It's about following a person.

So you're fine whether you know the plan or not.

If you know the planner.

Secondly, after focused eyes is a saturated heart.

Remember what God told Joshua before he took him in?

He said this about his source of strength.

Be strong and very courageous.

That's a tall order given what he's got to do.

Be strong and very courageous.

Be careful to obey all the law, the word of God, my servant Moses gave you.

Do not turn from it to the right or the left.

And that'll make you successful wherever you go.

And then he says, keep this book of the law always on your lips.

Meditate on it day and night.

So that you may be careful to do everything written in it.

Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Now here's what I mean by a saturated heart.

Basically, he's saying here, when you read God's word, you've got to process it on three levels.

This is not about checking the box saying, I read my Bible today.

No, no.

First, you process it in your heart.

Meditate on it.

You know what that does?

It gets it out of your head, gets it into your heart.

And meditation to me is connecting the verse you read with something going on in your life right now.

That's meditating.

So you don't just run words past you, Bible words past you, you feel something when you read it.

God says in one place, the one he will use is the one who trembles at his word.

There's an emotional connection As you process God's word.

Secondly, he says you should have it in your mouth.

Don't just feel something with it.

Tell someone about it.

I try to do that.

I don't get to do it every day.

But if God has spoken something to me, I try to text somebody with it.

Not not like a sermon.

Just in the course of the day, tell somebody, verbalize it, because it's more mine if I tell somebody about what he said to me.

I've I've really made it mine.

And thirdly, He says, live it.

Put it in your life.

Do it.

It's a Nike principle.

Just do it.

Don't just read it.

So feel something with it.

Tell someone about it.

Do something about it.

I really found this quote to be pretty right on from my utmost for his highest.

It is not study that brings understanding.

But obedience.

All of God's revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience.

You don't really understand it until you do it.

So can I suggest to you, don't be busy today, until you're still.

Be still and know that I am God.

That needs to be how that be it has to be at the beginning of a day. to be saturated by God's truth because you know what?

We have been bombarded all day long with junk and and dueling voices and dueling priorities.

We got to get our God think back on at the beginning of each new day And you know, Joshua asked a question when the commander of the army of the Lord, who probably was Jesus, the Son of God, appearing before Bethlehem.

Because he accepted worship.

And Moses asked, or Joshua asked him this question, what message does my Lord have for his servant?

Listen, with your Bible in your lap.

Every new morning, ask him that question, what message does my Lord have for his servant?

And then your feet in motion.

What do we got?

We got focused eyes.

And we got a saturated heart and we got feet in motion.

Did you see what he said in John in Joshua 3 there?

He said, start moving Get moving, but but the waters haven't changed.

Nothing's changed.

We still have a flooded river.

Get moving.

Start walking.

And you know, as they went into the river, the waters parted You know, I asked our friends, one reason daily time with Jesus is more important now than ever.

I liked what they said.

I realize that I have no power of my own and to live in these kind of times we have to be above what's actually going on surrounding us and we have to be In Christ totally.

And so I feel like you're not going to get that power if you're not in his word and drawing from him every single day I think that we allow ourselves to be bombarded by the fear and negativity of the world, and we have to have that daily time with him. to combat that.

And I wanna be walking in the spirit and I have to have that daily encounter with him.

It's it just starts me off Really in in my solid start today in my walk with the Lord.

Being in God's word is is my compass, you know, because we are bombarded with um so much to know what God says is paramount.

We gotta get our heads straight, get our hearts straight, in order to because God's will is revealed on a daily basis.

And if you get it daily, you're gonna walk into the life that He wants you to have.

But you take a step and then you see a step.

And you take another step and you see another step, which means we do this thing daily.

Maybe you're the kind of person you're already worried about what's going to happen next week, next month, next year.

Corey Tenboom had a lot of wisdom when she said, worry.

Let me get it right here.

Hold on.

She said, worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows.

It empties today of its strength.

Take a step, see a step, and go with the light you have.

God may not be showing you anything else to do because there's something he's already moved you to do.

Take a step and you haven't taken it.

You say, well, I want to see the rest of the plan.

Does it work that way?

Take a step, see a step.

Go with the light you have.

Quit waiting for more.

You want more?

Start walking for more.

Feet in motion Because you've got promises from God and you're staking everything on his promises.

At the empty tomb, the angel said , Give this message to the disciples.

Go to Galilee.

Didn't say why.

That's like 90, 100 miles away.

Why wouldn't they stay in Jerusalem?

The center of everything.

The angel just said, go to Galilee.

That's what Jesus wants you to do.

Go to Galilee.

And I will meet you there.

The Lord may not be explaining everything to you, probably isn't, usually doesn't.

But all you need to know is when you get there, Jesus will be there.

There is nothing to be afraid of.

And finally, and where we come down, is a dirty face.

I know that sounds weird.

Let's go to Joshua chapter 5.

Outside the walls of Jericho.

Joshua looking at these towering walls.

How in the world is this going to happen?

When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.

Joshua went up to him and asked, are you for us or for our enemies?

That's what I would want to know.

Neither, he replied, curious, but as commander of the army of the Lord I am now come.

Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and asked him, What message does my Lord have for his servant?

The commander of the Lord's army replied, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.

And Joshua did so.

And by the way, when he finally got up again , He had new courage, new confidence, and he had orders from God as to how to take that city, which were strange orders for sure, but he knew what to do.

But not until he was face down on the ground.

I was at the Bill Graham Training Center at the Cove teaching and I mentioned this passage and a man came up to me afterwards.

He said, you know, I have six black belts in six different martial arts.

And he said, I can defend myself from any position you put me in.

Except one.

So when I'm face down, I'm powerless.

Here's the mighty general, General Joshua.

And he chooses to be face down in the one powerless position you can be in.

The most powerful position you can be in is to be one in abject surrender to Jesus These trying days that we have been through have ripped out of our hands a lot of things that we were counting on.

And a lot of us, if we were to be honest, it's God plus.

I depend on God and these people, these meetings, this way of doing things.

It's whatever And right now I think he is asking for both hands to be empty So that you are willing to surrender in a brand new way things that somehow you're still in charge of and to receive from him.

The future he wants to give you.

Not the one you want him to give you.

Adrian Rogers, one of the great preachers of our time, was talking to Joseph San, who was a great hero in the brutal days of the communist regime in Romania.

I've been there since then in Romania.

And I heard some awful stories.

Joseph Son was tortured, almost killed so many times by the communist authorities.

And one day Adrian said, can you tell me, what do you think about American Christians?

What's your impression?

And Joseph said, no, I I I don't need to.

He said, no, please tell me.

He said, well, Adrian, you know, sometimes we change words in the Christian world.

And he said, I hear you talk in America about commitment a lot to Christ.

And he said, that's good, but he said it replaced another word.

Adrian said, what word is that?

He said, it is the word surrender.

Adrian said, commitment, surrender, what's the difference?

And Joseph smiled and he said, commitment means you're still in charge.

Surrender you're not anymore.

I 'm pretty sure that it may have been a time, maybe several times of surrendering anew to the Lord in your life.

But this life right now?

The you right now?

At this point in your life?

Is it time for a new surrender?

God has brought us into a time of uncertainty where we might be just desperate enough to empty both hands.

And offer him a white flag.

Unconditional.

Surrender.

That's the key to a life that will be more significant, with more peace and fulfillment and impact than you've ever had before.

I'm going to ask you if you would bow your head to pray with me.

I want to thank you for walking this trail with me.

And I hope you find encouragement in these anchors.

But in so many ways, the commitment. to a daily meeting with God where you focus on his greatness and take his mercies for that day and depend on those A life that is about mission?

And that mission is not anything for you It is above all the battles you are fighting and is focused on the eternities of the people around you, which you can help change.

Where the people you are with on any given day are your mission.

That involves surrender.

So does the commitment to live your life for the next generation.

And to unselfishly, sacrificially.

Consciously invest in them the flowers that will bloom when you're gone And it sure takes surrender to say one voice.

There's a lot of voices, want me.

One voice. that I focus back on every day in his word not to just be informed but to be transformed by what I read.

And saying, I'm the sheep, and I don't need to know where I'm going.

I just need to know the one who does Maybe God has spoken to you during our time together.

Yes, I hope, words of encouragement.

Yes, I pray, words of hope.

But maybe it's time to hold those hands up and empty them.

You've accumulated Some things that need to be surrendered to him to do whatever he chooses, to take them, give them back to you, change them, multiply them, subtract them.

Let's do what we would do if we were together.

Which I trust all of us might be in a year from now.

Well let's take a moment for you to talk to him because this is between you and him, not you and me.

Maybe this is a moment for you to say.

Unconditional surrender, Lord.

Here are my plans.

I want your purpose.

This is you and him time right now.

I'm going to pray for you in just a minute, but um winner at Big Cedar Lodge for the uh in-person president's retreat.

On occasion I have felt led to give people an opportunity to, well they used to in the old days call it come to the altar.

We don't have an altar there, but It's an outward declaration of an inward surrender.

What that does is it puts you on the line for it, makes you accountable for it.

And solidifies it.

Well, there's kind of no come forward here, but Perhaps as an act of affirmation that this is a new start, this is a new beginning.

Both hands are empty both to give it all and to receive whatever he wants to put in them.

As an act of affirmation There's a chat box there.

Would you go there and write the word surrender?

That's your white flag. enables me to pray for you and for you to have a distinct turning point This night, this place.

The altar is right there in your living room or wherever.

Or you can go to the contact box in the upper right-hand corner.

And write it there.

I pray you'll take this finalizing step.

Let me pray for you.

Oh Lord.

You have walked with us all through pandemic, politics, conflict, struggle, loss, grief.

Lord, you have proven if nothing else, and you've proven so much else, we can trust you.

We don't need to know the plan.

We need to know you and trust you to make a plan we couldn't imagine.

Now Lord, I don't know what the next step is for each person right now.

But you do, and I'm praying right now you would reveal to them what it means to take another step.

To take a step.

And see a step.

To take a step and see a step.

And there's a step of obedience right now.

I believe you want each of us to take.

Would you show that to me?

To us individually?

And then I pray, Lord, you would help them to either write this to someone or tell it to someone.

There's something about verbalizing it, expressing it.

That makes it real.

I pray, Lord, that you would bind the enemy in his attempt to snatch this seed from their heart.

I pray you would replace fear with peace, disappointment and hurt, with joy Confusion with confidence and doubt with faith Having marched through this wilderness, you have land you want us to take.

Even if there's a big river in between.

So here we go, Lord.

On your great adventure.

We've written our last chapter.

You're writing them all from now on.

Thank you, Lord, for this holy ground across the miles, through technology.

Still Holy Ground.

In Jesus' name.