The Warrior, The Worshiper, The Wilderness - Journey to the Heart of God

Tonight we're talking about the warrior, the worshiper, and the wilderness, but I gotta start with an important theological question here. Who knows what an Ebenezer is? We sing it right. Here I raise my Nebu near. It's not Scrooge. You'd be forgiven to think so with all of the Christmas stuff up here. But it's actually literally a stone of remembrance. Samuel did it first when there was a great Israelite victory and literally just put up big old stone, said we're gonna remember this day. We are not gonna forget this. And really, it just it's memorializing a specific time when God really came through. We've all got him in our lives. And if you guys will allow me, I want to share just for a few minutes here about one of our family's great Ebenezer's Ebenezer Stones First, let me start here. My wife loves when I bring attention to her. That's why she's sitting there behind the Christmas tree Anna, could you give everyone a wave please? I won't say anything. There we go. Just celebrated 30 years marriage. Found each other on the on Eagles Wings team. That's not why I went. But that's how it happened. Um so we had been married a few years. We decided we want to start a family. And uh Swanna got pregnant after a while and and um and actually ended up uh where we couldn't hear the heartbeat anymore, a miscarriage, a DNC, if you've ever had one of those not fun. Really devastating, um, really terrible time in our life. Uh then God blessed us with the daughter, Noelle, who's about to finish up at Wheaton College right now. Then tried again, third try, and um we were at a doctor at a at the OBGYN and we were right at the end of it he said you know what guys I think I might see something here And it didn't sound like he was saying it in a good way. Um send us to a cardiologist, and sure enough, uh the the baby that Anna was carrying had what what the cardiologist called a very rare and deadly heart condition. And uh said sometimes uh you we don't really know what happens with pregnancies like this. I remember just thinking Lord, please not again. We can't go through this again, if I'm being honest. Um and the uh I remember The OBGYN suggested termination and and thought it was that serious, of course, never an option. And then actually that got suggested again to us as We got closer to the birth and um an MRI showed that there was some very serious brain bleed happening, which they really feel like at that point with the heart, this is not good. So we prayed a lot, and some of you all prayed a lot and still do, and we're so grateful for it. But through a series of miracles, we end up at like the best hospital, children's hospital of Philadelphia. If you're gonna have a hospital famous for surgeries, don't call it CHOP, please. Uh but that was the name of it. And I I'll tell you the story sometime, but through more miracles, there's no way to look these guys up in the yellow pages. We end up with the unquestionably the world's best. Renowned pediatric heart surgeon who is going to be, hopefully if Taylor makes it out, uh is is operating on a heart that is the size of a nickel at this point. Uh I remember five or six metal pulp medical professionals coming to us at at CHOP. They kept telling us we just want to make sure you're ready for the worst. We don't feel like they were being very honest, I guess. There's a great chance he's gonna make it out of the birth canal. If he does make it, just be prepared. He will be in a wheelchair. He will be on feeding tubes, using feeding tubes to eat. And just to be clear, we would have loved Taylor the same amount if that's what happened. We would have loved God and honored God the same amount if that's what had happened. But that's not what happened. I remember dad kept reminding us When I'd call him and just be like, I can't believe this, he would say, just remember, doctors don't make those decisions. Dr. Jesus does. So it's time for his arrival. Um his heartbeat actually they're monitoring Anna, and his heart his heart rate starts to go down very quickly. They say we gotta get him out of here, out of out of Anna. And they did And um this was funny because when the he he made it out okay. The nurse said when Taylor was born he actually made a fist and bopped her in the chin. He said, she said, we got a fighter here, and indeed we did. It was funny to watch all the medical professionals that had told us all of the problems you would have. And they all rushed over to him in the ICU with all their notebooks ready to take all their notes. And one by one, you know, they took in their pens, lifting up his arms, looking everywhere. They put their notebooks down and shrugged and left. Because our our God had spared our son from the very worst of the predictions And when he was born, first one of the first things they did looked at his brain and it the bleed was completely gone. It's not there anymore. One of many miracles in his life. So we named Taylor after another fighter. This guy was a fighter for souls, Hudson Taylor, who started China Inland Mission. One of the great missionaries of our day. Then while Taylor would need a heart surgery at two days old, God had spared and healed our son from the worst predictions. Yeah, there were still challenges, there were still emergencies. There happened along the way occasionally. That have kept us in a state of dependence on God. But I cannot tell you how many times over the years I have looked at impossible situations through the lens of this Ebenezer going if God could do that then if He did that then He'll do it now. That's an ebb and user. Taylor had his first year on the On Eagles Wings team this year and just started. Yes. Huge joy to my heart, we we started playing worship music together, and he helps lead worship at Warrior Leadership Summit, along with my other son, Sam. And this year he he said, Dad, I really think I want to be in ministry more. I want to apply for the Leadership Center. And God accepted and is now there. As I'm convinced, just as an aside, God, that God's people. The prayers made the difference. Some of you may have been here when we were praying for Taylor at one of the first president's retreats. When it was a much smaller room, not many of us God heard them and delivered as he does. So thank you. Also got us through it was an incredibly strong wife. whose beauty is only matched by her wisdom and courage. They say, I'm embarrassing you again. You're welcome, hon. Love that s I love that song. He's been faithful through generations. Why would he fail now? Great question. He won't. He won't. Charles Spurgeon said, I bear willing witness that I owe more to the fire and the hammer and the file than to anything else in my Lord's workshop. So tonight we're talking about worshiping God in the wilderness. Everyone has them. Maybe you're in one right now, a financial wilderness, a health wilderness, a job one, maybe a child. It's running away from the Lord right now, so heartbreaking, a parental one, an emotional one, dealing with depression. Life's darkest times will bring you to one of two places I have found in my life. Closer. to God or farther from him. You never just stay where you are. You either praise God during the wilderness or you blame him. We've all seen it even with believers that we thought were were strong believers, and maybe they were, but they just We're getting hit so hard with this season, with this wilderness. And they blamed God. And before you know it, their faith is shipwrecked, and it is so, so sad to see. So someone here today, or maybe someone that you know, really needs to hear this. So think about maybe a name of someone who might need to hear this to share these scriptures with. God has not forgotten you. I know you know that, we know that in our head. But he's he's this this is the God, this is not an impersonal God. This is the God that repairs broken hearts, that that captures our tears. right there, who intercedes for us. Do you believe that? That Jesus himself intercedes for us with the Father. And not only walks ahead of us, Scripture says he walks ahead of us, beside us, and he's even our rear guard for the stuff that we can't know is coming. Is anyone watching the Book of David series? I mean it it's like chosen is that level of Of uh quality. Now they're just starting to get into Saul's angry jealousy time. So David's gonna have to start running soon and hiding. And if you read the Psalms, there are a few Psalms that Dad and I have started to call the cave Psalms. It's um Let's see, Psalm 34, 52, 57, and 142, where he's literally in a cave writing this. Psalm 18 was written later in life. His dad started to share his almost autobiographical and includes some ref reflection on the wilderness years that he was in, some terrifying time. And you start to get the picture a little bit what's going on, how bad things are. Because if you read the scripture here, the Psalms, listen to some of this language. That he uses for what he's going through. Cords of death around me, entangled on me, torrents of destruction, overwhelmed, cords of the grave coiled around me. Shares of death. I don't know about you, but I I have been there. I've just described a time when I was there. I'd use words like terrified and feeling helpless. We've all been there. there. We've all spent time in some of those caves. You might have come here in one of those caves. The older you are, maybe the more caves you've been in. And you agree with David's words. These are words of great peril and pressure and pain. But here's the crazy thing. So you're reading all these awful things that are going on and he and and and the language he's using, but then something fascinating happens. He starts using this language too. Along with cords of the grave and entangled and torrents of destruction destruction, he says, I will praise the Lord at all times. I will trust in his good name. I trust in your unfailing love. All through these Psalms. And then check out David's names for God in Psalm 18. This is significant because he's he's he's like I said sharing kind of autobiographically what has happened in his life. These are the words he uses to describe God. My rock, the one place I can stand that never moves, my fortress. My one safe place. My deliverer. My rescuer. Then he goes back to my rock again, in case you missed it the first time. My shield. Like my protector, the horn of my salvation pointing ultimately to our Messiah as his strength. And finally, my stronghold, his hiding place. You wait, what happened to the cords of death and torrents of destruction? I'll tell you what happened. One word happened. Praise happened Praise happened. Even in the midst of all the chaos and all the pain, he was worshiping God. What in the world is going on here? I want to know when Dad mentioned that he was into um This this uh amazing study in the Psalms, he was like, You've got to check this out. And the more I started to read the Psalms, I'm like, what's going on here? Dad said, You'll have to look for yourself, because I want you to speak at the president's treat. Uh C. S. Lewis said this, a good way to put it. God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain. It's his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. I have been those deaf ears. Something amazing has happened here in the caves. Desperation has drawn God close. Has anyone been there before where you just have, you wish you had gone to God before then, but just you're so desperate you end up crying out to God, I need you. I need your help. You are my rescuer, my deliverer, my fortress. Those were our experiences in those hard months leading up to Taylor's birth. And by the way, I want to mention this about Taylor. I forgot to mention this. He's he is the seriously, I'm not just saying this because he's my son. He is the most courageous person I know. And the things that he went through have also made him a man of God, very courageous. So I guess the way I put it is the cave somehow is God's workshop to draw us close. Somehow amazingly, hurt is the road to God's heart, to his heart. Our darkest moments Are transformed when they become intimately personal moments with God. The condition that's going to pass, the connection forged by it will last forever. Your cave can be holy ground. We're going to talk about that and look into that here. Let's just talk for a few moments here about the transformative power of worshiping in your wilderness. So we all agree that praise is important to God. We go to church and we sing the songs and it's all through God's word. It's why the Lord, why Jesus started the Lord's Prayer with it. It's why the Israelites marched with the worshipers up front, the army. It's why we enter his courts with it. But then there's next level praise. And you find it in Hebrews 13, through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God, here it is, a sacrifice. of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. The sacrifice of praise, this is praise that sacri That I offer to God regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the hard times, regardless of what's going on in my life. Lord, I am worshiping you simply because you are God, simply because I know you keep your promises. And this is potent stuff, the sacrifice of praise. Big things happen in our relationship with the Lord and in our prayers when we offer the sacrifice of praise. It's easy to praise Him on the mountain. It's the values we have a little harder time with. Paul says We glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance. And let's just stop here for a second. We glory in our sufferings. Wait, this is a good thing? Because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. And this is one of the biggest Deceptions and lies of the prosperity gospel that somehow, if you're being blessed, it means you will have a lot of money and you'll be completely healthy. How does that theology tackle Philippians 1. 29? For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, the gift in some translations, but the gift of suffering from him on the surface this is kind of a head scratcher how is that possible um I had a well-meaning friend tell me when Taylor was uh uh this was actually after Taylor had uh been born, and he started to have some other very serious problems I'll share in a minute. He was about four years old and One of his ventricles, this ventricle has just always been the issue with him. And it was too small, it wasn't getting blood to us, but he was just he was just always um He w we have pictures of him and he would just be lying at we'd be at Target or wherever and he'd be in the bu in the uh in the the what do you call those things that you push Carts. Yeah, he'd be in the cart and just completely laid out, and it turned out it was because he's he wasn't getting enough uh oxygen to his body through this ventricle. And this was happening, and my well-meaning friend said, I'm sorry, but I don't serve a God that would ever allow a situation like that. So my my brother he does in his chess it in his loving kindness it might sound crazy but he actually authors it Sometimes. Sometimes you hear people pulling the punch and you say, well, God allowed it. The devil wanted to do something and God allowed it. Don't be afraid of God's character and what he does to shape us. Yes, with Job, he allowed it. The devil came and said, Let me do this. And he said, Okay, here are the parameters. With Paul He just gave it to him. He said, I'm I am giving you this thorn in the side in your flesh. So you will learn dependence on me. And I'm preparing you, by the way, for some other things I'm going to ask you to do. In his loving kindness, he authors it. And we smile and we nod, okay, yeah, I guess I can buy that, but then the storm hits, then the child wanders from God. Then the financial shock hits us. We get bad news from the doctor. And it's so easy then. I have done it myself to give in. To the grief and to self-focus and despair and anger, but oh, if we would just praise him instead Praise has the miraculous power to turn my heart from my pain to his power Have you ever noticed when you go to church? Sometimes I show up to church so stressed out. It's my own fault. Somehow I've forgotten how to tie a tie in the moments before church starts. Um I'm just kidding, I don't wear ties. Um but maybe it's happened to you. Uh or this is the one I'm famous for, you can ask Anna. I will forget to put gas in the car the night before. Well you say, okay, we've got forty minutes to drive up to Branson and and it's saying you have eight miles left. Okay. My fault. But you get so you get there stressed out and in this happens to me all of a sudden you're the worship music starts And for me, I I I start singing it, letting it permeate my heart a bit. And I and I start to see situations and people and things I've gone through in my week. And I just start to feel a release of those stress points. Does that happen to anybody else here? It's this amazing thing. It's not, maybe some of it's emotional, but What's happening there is you have just 1 Peter 5-7 my dad has made up words his whole life, so I figure it's okay. You have just 1 Peter 5-7 did did. In your life. You've cast your cares on him. That's what's happening. You're going, I'm releasing this now. That's what's happening when the music and and and uh and and the words and the truth and you're believing it. Anna and I on the way home, I'll never forget this, and it's not because we're especially that at that age, but um twenties, early 20s. And on our way home, uh there was a new song that had come out. This will tell you how old we are. I am, I am, not we. This is the it is there was a new song, a new song at that point from Matt Redmond, and you've probably heard it, blessed be the name of the Lord. And there's a part in it where it says you give and take away. You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name. We sang that song. For an hour and a half from Flagstaff back up to the Hopi Reservation at the top of our lungs and remember going, we're gonna have to pull over because we're crying so hard 1 Peter 5, 7, casting our cares on him. Something about worshiping in the middle of the madness, the chaos, unglues the anxiety. That we've decided to carry ourselves and put it squarely on the shoulders of the one who's told us to put it there. And maybe in those moments, if you've had them, you get glimpses of that beautiful promise that somehow this this we know this scripture and and it you know it's on nice cards we give one another and and it but it has been blowing my mind and I'll tell you why. So yes God works all things to the good For those that love him. We believe that, right? So how is this possible? What kind of God is this? Trillions, we got 8 billion people, or whatever it is. So at any point in time, trillions of conversations, trillions of motivations happening, and God is somehow in the middle of those. working all things to the good for those who love and oh and by the way at the same time he is he is governing the galaxies I just re- I'm like, how many are there now? Because every time I look, NASA is saying, well, we use the Hubble is there's about a trillion more than we thought. A trillion galaxies So now they think there's two trillion galaxies. We have not in all of our scientific advancement gotten to the end of our one. Aren't we something? One galaxy I read, the biggest galaxy there is, is sixteen million Light years from one end to the other. One galaxy. So you'd have to go the speed of light for 16 million years to get from one end to the other. And there's black holes and there's all this, there's the oceans, and somehow God is governing it all. That's why David said, who are you, God? How powerful are you? That's when when we say he's working all things to the good for those who love him, that's the kind of God that's doing it. All those big words for God I learned at Wheaton, omnipotent, omnipresent. Layman's terms just wow So Lord, you're working all things to the good for those that for me? Even the hard stuff? He says, especially the hard stuff. My dad is a history buff. Um he knows more about Everyone hated playing trivial pursuit with dad when we were younger. Because if especially oh we landed on history. Great. Could never stump dad. Until, and yeah, I'm gonna share this, Dad, the one day where I beat Dad at Trivial Pursuit. Once we never played it again for some reason. Uh but he a real history buff and got got us really interested in history. Um he wanted us to be so into history too that he would kind of cleverly disguise vacations. And and and would say uh or or cleverly disguise an educational trip as a vacation. Do we call them historications or something? Was that it? Let's see. Do we have all yeah, so that's about the age where dad and mom are are doing this. And dad would actually so we would remember he would act out he would act out so like if it's the Minutemen and and the British Army were totally acting out people are very concerned why is that man chasing his children across that bridge there we were just learning history With dad. So we went to Valley Forge. You know what Valley Forge is famous for? Remember? It's where that awful winter of 1777, 1778 Where we almost there almost was no Revolutionary War because we lost a fair amount of the Continental Army No clothes. Uh not enough clothes. Um not uh even even like think about in all the snow and all the cold uh Boots, um food, clothing, shelter, even disease. But as they were going through all that, something bigger was happening. Remember what happens while they're there? George Washington brings a guy in and he's like, you need to train these guys. They are not an army yet. So while all this is happening, they have the time To uh learn how to actually be in army. They drill, they train, they develop discipline and tactics, and somehow by the time it's June. They are an army powerful enough to take on and beat what at that point was the most powerful military there was. The British Army. That's what the Lord was doing, I think, with David during his exile. Um, with Moses, I mean for Moses to get to the promised land, what God had, the ultimate God had planned for him. 40 years, um Joseph 13 years, Joshua, 40 years. And the lessons David is learning in those years in exile is shaping him into the man he needed to become. And he does that. with us. Um the hard stuff was preparing David for a holy future, really. I was talking about this with Anna and and uh I said, hon, you know, I I think if Taylor's situation, this this this uh time Before he was born. Had happened three years earlier, I would not have been able to handle it. It was difficult enough at that age, but I just was immature as a Christian, and I don't think I would have been able to handle it God was already teaching us a lot about depending on him by uh being on the uh on the Hopi reservation. When I moved there, I was told There was no there wasn't one hopey young person living for Jesus. That's what I was told. I said, that can't be true. It was Um and somehow amazingly God just when you love people genuinely something amazing happens And when you get a great team around you, something amazing happens. And Anna and Brad and Sarah and now Going stronger than ever 30 something years later because of few folks I called my heroes the other night. If you've met Tiffany and um and Erica and Noah who are running things there. And still every year there are hope of young people, sometimes a bus of them, at Warrior Leadership Summit because of the faithfulness represented back there. But I I I was learning a lot, but I had a whole lot more to learn. And as God was sustaining us through our wilderness there. Uh I also feel like he was preparing us for the missional work ahead of us, because I had a lot to learn. What the position I'm in right now is it never crossed my mind growing up or in ministry on the reservation. And I'm grateful to God that He's given me this opportunity to. to uh have the leadership of this incredible ministry and that the board trust me like that it's just it's it's it's just the humbling thing it's an amazing thing but I'm gonna tell you this if If um it it's it's tough work sometimes and it's serious work, it's eternities, and and an amazing team of people that that you work with together and hope that you can encourage and Sometimes it's very challenging, but I told Anna, I'm telling I am convinced without that time with Taylor, I never would have been ready for this time. And here's why. I was completely dependent on myself. I had a lot to learn about the body of Christ who sustained us. financially and in their prayers and and just out of nowhere God would bring these gifts and I'm finally realizing that it's the body of Christ that is the big shot and not me Um the team. The most daunting times that that the most powerful position was not me racking my brain till 3 a. m. until I can't stand it anymore. I fall asleep exhausted. It's being on my face sometimes, literally. Before God, crying out, saying, I need you, I can't do this. And that's where he wants us. But I wasn't there. Um that before I saw the the I've seen some did I really see what I just saw miracles In my life. I had a belief before our son Taylor came along. I'm going to be honest. I had a belief in that God still did miracles in my head, but it wasn't here. It's the best way I know how to describe it until I started to see some of the things he was doing. So before I saw that, did I really see what I just saw, healing power for God to change things? Um the head belief had to change to to God really does still do miracles today. Um Where my heart was wasn't going to cut it until I had a heart conviction that with God all things really are possible. That time in our lives gave us a crash course. And maybe you have been here too. The fact that God's promises are always greater than the problems, even though sometimes the problems are big. Um these promises, a few particularly blow me away. Think about the reality of these. even as we sit here, even in the situations we're in, that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. You get encamps around. This is not our guardian angel on our little shoulder here. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. The lions may grow weak. And weary, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Isn't that right? The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed. In spirit, the Lord will rescue his servants, no one who takes refuge in him. Will be condemned. Praise God. This other one, I I this Psalm fifty-two eight. When was the last time you all looked into olive trees? Was it today or yesterday? No? Well, I looked into them a little bit because I I said, well, this is kind of a strange The more you read God's word, the more you realize there's nothing random in there. When when there's an example of something, you go, oh, I need to look into that. What does that mean? So I did with this. My pal Google helped me out. It was on the internet, so you know you can trust this information. No? Okay. I don't even think I knew what an olive tree looked like till I looked it up. But listen to this. So apparently olive trees are like the all-stars of trees. They're evergreen, they're known for their long life and ability to withstand harsh conditions like drought and still produce fruit. Sound familiar? Even when they're cut down, a stump can create new sprouts. Uh they have a very, very deep and complex root system, consistently yielding a valuable crop of fruit. and oil and I want to be an olive tree. I don't know about you guys. Think about a human olive tree, the Apostle Paul, the same guy who was beaten and eventually murdered for his faith, imprisoned. He says, like we shared before in 2 Corinthians, uses the word light affliction. He's in prison. For a moment, uh far exceeding the weight of glory. And all our our earth issues and our and our pain and our victories, I guess, our struggles need to be measured by what Dad is called a number of times on the eternity eyes. You've got to put your eternity eyes. What is God doing in the long run here, not just in the moment? But the enemy, man, he wants us to focus on the cave. He wants to focus us to focus on the circumstance. Instead of God's character, because when you focus on God's character, you just spend a little time reminding yourself who He really is and how many times He has delivered you, just who God is. And focus on our trouble instead of his track record, well then the enemy's got us right where he wants us. But the God-seeking heart, the response when in a cave is this: defiant praise, what we call defiant praise. We've talked about this at this president's retreat before. This is Peter and Paul singing. worship songs in in prison and waking up the jail and um sa uh Psalm thirty four let's look I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Notice the afflicted are listening and hearing something about our God. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys. Here we go again. The joys, the joys of those who take Refuge in him. This is not some powerless mantra that we just keep repeating. This is the reminding ourselves of the reality. Of who God has been, who he will continue to be yesterday, today, and forever. But defiant praise is important. Defiant praise is a direct result of defiant belief. No matter what's going on, I believe what I have seen with my own eyes. What I've experienced about this God, Lord, no matter what the circumstances are, I know you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Back to our our life with Taylor here. We uh uh i i we had a defiant belief moment and if I've shared some of this with you all before and just appreciate your patience if you've heard this before, but some of us haven't heard it, and it's important for for what we're discussing here. Um just briefly Like I mentioned, he's four years old, his heart is deteriorat deteriorating, and uh we met with the cardiologist And she was trying as nicely as she could say, his heart is failing. That's problem one. Problem two is we've done all the surgeries we can do There's nothing that is going to open up this ventricle. We have tried. We said even it what if we went back to CHOP? No It can't be done. He probably needs a heart transplant, but he's very small, and that is not a good option, but it's the only option we think that's there. Or we can try this other thing that that's kind of dangerous, but uh we have to try something. We can't keep going the way it is, or he won't. keep going. And it was this uh this uh balloon okay that they put in the ventricle that is supposed to uh open up the ventricle spread it out some so that the blood can can go through there and so that the oxygen can get to the rest of his body and he can live um But they said it's dangerous and and his ventricle and he is so small in this balloon, the smallest one we have is so big, we are concerned that it's going to burst his heart. When we put it in there, but we have to do something. If you remember what I've shared before, the surgeon, there were some I'll tell you I if you can ask me later if you want, but there are some some previews that something like this was about to happen. The surgeon went in there and um to to do this and he shared with us all the issues and And uh um and he came out and I'll never forget because he he he just kind of collapsed on, I don't think he was a believer, was using kind of salty language and And he kind of collapsed on on the uh, you know, just relaxing on the couch there. And he said This is a strange question I know, but I'm going to ask it. I wrote it down so I'd remember because it was so weird. Are you sure this procedure hasn't been done before? What what do you mean? What do you mean? He said, I went in there and it was already open. What we were gonna do with the balloon, it's open wider now than it would have been if that worked. And uh and these are one some of the really fun and uh the moments with with doctors when they don't know what they know all the answers, they don't know what to do with that. And uh one uh line I'll never forget Because I uh we asked our cardiologist, um, who I think was a believer, we said, how in the world did this happen? And she said, I have no idea, but his heart is beating very strong now and it's very stable now. We said, okay, doctor, can we do you mind if we say praise God? And she said, if you don't. I will. I think that happened because of some defiant belief. I don't know how you're raised in the things you believe and I don't know, but we read in James. We were so desperate, desperate enough to follow God's word. You know, we read in James to go to the elders of the church And have them pray over him and anoint him with oil. That's what we did. I've never done it before. And it was just two weeks after that that Doctor's appointment happened. Defiant belief. So, defiant belief. Book starts Defiant Praise, a direct result of Defiant Belief. Defiant belief starts with having a great memory. I'll tell you what I mean by that. We humans are a forgetful lot. You ever notice when Moses would talk to the Israelites, he always started Have you forgotten? Don't forget. What's wrong with you? He just delivered. Do you forget? Remember what he did? What about when he did that? When he did that. He has to always remind the Israelites, and I guess we're We're kind of the same way. Defiant belief starts with having a great memory. How quickly we forget. John Piper calls it spiritual amnesia. And the Lord says, have have you forgotten when I was there next to the hospital bed when your child was running From me and I and I called him back or her back and I brought forgiveness to your heart when when you thought you could never forgive that person that had hurt you so badly. Have you forgotten? Have a great memory. So we regularly share with each other, with our kids, with our grandkids. And we remind our own very human hearts that he is still who he has always been, no matter what the circumstance. We've all got Ebenezer's. I think I've got time to do this. Another quick, if you if you allow me, Ebenezer stone that we go back to. There's a reason I'm showing you this. So I was on my way up to Branson from a rehearsal for Warrior Leadership Summit for worship And this happened. Um something jumped in front of me. I turned too hard and the car just flipped. I don't know how many times, but I distinctly remember You know that weird thing they say, well your your life flashes before your eyes? It really was happening. Seeing my family and praying God I I really thought this was it. God please take care of them. Help this not to be too awful. As you can see here, there's really no room for a head or a torso there. The ambulances all show up and the The uh one uh one of the guys who is the uh who is there to clean up the mess, he said, brother, can I tell you something? You should be dead. Right now. Not a great bedside manner, I realize. But he said, I've seen much less than this. I had a few bruised ribs. Um That was it. Didn't need to go to the hospital. Uh dad has a dear friend who said she thought that that That the enemy may be asked, you know, can I do this and you can go this far? I don't know if that's what happened, but I do know God spared my life. That day. And about every year we go and we share those pictures to our kids and we say, your daddy almost wasn't here, so clean your room. But especially during a difficult time. Maybe start your worship times. That's what we're doing when we do this with a spiritual scrapbook. Just Those pictures, whatever reminds you, maybe it's a conversation, letting God know you have not forgotten his goodness, his power, while reminding yourself this is the kind of God that I serve and who he will always be this way. So I'm gonna wrap up with with some really good news here. If you're living in his unfailing love, chess it, you can not only survive your cave, you can light up your cave. And maybe even rescue someone from theirs. I was talking with a friend today, Hannah. Are you Hannah Harness? I asked her if I could share this. Where are you? Hannah Hannah's right there. Alan, uh so I uh uh Hannah's a uh uh dad, Mel Harness, and if you live around here you know him because he was an extremely respected pastor, man in the community. And um and did it and really helped us with the Leadership Center doing some amazing things there. And the Lord took him home fairly young. I uh I asked Hannah, I said, well, how's your mom? How's Darla doing? And she said, well, it's funny. She said she felt like that she should uh go and spend some time with family. And Hannah shared, I asked if I could share this, that most of them aren't believers. And maybe a couple are are are and have kind of really fallen back. And she said, so mom went to go be with them for a month. That was three months ago. And I said, has this kind of turned into a get the conversation going kind of a ministry trip for her? She said that's exactly what's happened. She said her family is just marveling at how are you handling this grief that way. Remember, we don't grieve like other people grieve. And somehow seeing Darla deal with her grief in a way that is respectful and honorable to God, still being able to have joy Has really blown their mind. This I I I I asked, is this a direct quote? And Hannah says it was. I believe her. So there's something different and amazing, as we said, about your handling this grief. One of our family members looked at Darla and said, I'll listen about your God now. I'm ready. We are surrounded by a world, by family members, by friends. Co-workers that are so desperate to know if this God is real or not. Trying somehow, I don't know how you how they do it, trying to navigate the hardships of life without this amazing savior. And not knowing that there is a Jesus who can get them through it. Even though they probably know, and are close to maybe even a few folks who do know that. But they don't. And if if that's true, and it is, 2 Corinthians 5:20, we are Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. God saying it it gets deeper than that. We plead with you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. We plead with you. I feel like You know, someone grabbing onto someone's legs or running into a fire or throwing them a life preserver. I beg you. There is a God who loves you and he wants you to be reconciled to him. But they gotta know that he's real. There's a God that can purchase you joy in this life. And paradise for the next. But they gotta know that he's real. And if we're as Christ's ambassadors, when we are Praising God in the middle of our hardships, and they notice they are going to want to know what makes us different. And this is how they'll know. Psalm 34, 5. One more quick one that blows me away. Those who look to him are radiant, their faces are never covered. with shame. In the middle of the storm, praise God, he is a God who always delivers. Dad said We were having this conversation, he said, one thing we got to remember is the hand from heaven is now and always will be the deciding factor. You look at Psalm 46, God's our refuge and strength, our ever-present help. And Psalm 50, call on me the day of trouble. I'll deliver you. You'll honor me. He parted the heavens and came down. He reached down from heaven and rescued me. He drew me out of the deep waters. A lot of us, I'm gonna wrap up with this, probably saw um the service when after Charlie Kirk had been murdered and saw his wife. Erica, publicly say to millions and millions of people watching, I forgive him, an incredibly powerful moment. Incredibly powerful moment. But listen to what she told the New York Times. They were interviewing her. They asked her about Charlie's assassination, and this is what she said I said, thy will be done. I'm serene in saying thy will be done. Do I like it? No. That was the love of my life. My soulmate, my best friend, but God's plan is greater than ours. I don't know if you're on a mountain right now. If you're in a valley, maybe you're here in a really tough season. God hasn't forgotten. He's not on a cloud somewhere. They want you to cry out, to depend on him, to know that he will deliver you. Wherever you are right now, mountain or valley, cave or the beach, let's just believe that together. Let's pray it back to him and submit ourselves. To this loving thing that he's doing for us in this season