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Hey there! And welcome to the City Lights Podcast City Lights is a church located in the northwestern part of Richmond, Virginia. For more information about city lights you can visit us at we are city lights dot com Now enjoy today's message. We're starting a new series called Faith, Hope and Love and I'm so excited to kick it off. And what we're gonna be talking about in those three things is that those are pretty big topics, right? Those air pretty like keywords that we hear in our faith. But we're really gonna be diving in and figuring out what those mean to us what they mean for us on a daily basis and how we can live our lives out based on those three things. So the verse that we're starting the Siri's in is found in first Corinthians 13 specifically verse 13. But as we read this, many of you guys might start to recognize this as the wedding chapter. Right? Love is patient. Love is kind. We all know that we have been to a wedding with somebody has read this verse. At least it was posted on like a plaque. It was on the on the program, and that is really the reputation that this first has. But as I was reading and studying about this verse and what it really means for us, you know, this is a verse that I totally think that you should approach your marriage with, and it's a great verse to go into that with, But it's also a great verse to approach your life with. And so we're gonna talk about that today. So sorry I'm talking so fast. This energy Sunday lots of caffeine. We have slowed down. So in this letter that we're gonna read from So you see that Paul is speaking to the Corinthian people. So he's talking to a group of people that have become Believer. So Paul was there and and, you know, it's sharing the good news of the gospel. They have got it. They were like, Yes, I'm interested in knowing Jesus. And so this is where they started. But as Paul left and they started to, you know, continue toe live out their faith, they started t get what I think. It's very common in our culture is that culture came in, and the way that they were thinking about their wealth and their status and their families, their relationships, where they were at in their social circles. Ah, lot of influence started to come in and pressing on the ways that they were viewing the teachings of Jesus and the pure teachings of their faith, and it started to get confusing and a little fuzzy for them. And I don't know if you guys have felt that way, but I have felt that way that culture comes in or people come in or situations in my life come in my own insecurities and and the teachings of Jesus can get a little fuzzy. So what, you know, what am I supposed to do with that? How am I supposed to live it out? So Paul is using this letter to address that and to make some things clear to this group. So let's read through first Corinthians 13 with that context in mind. So it says, if I could speak all the languages of the Earth and of who and of angels, but didn't love, I would only be a noisy gong are clinging symbol. If I had the gift of prophecy and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge. And if I have such faith that I could move mountains and I didn't love others, it would be nothing. If I give everything that I have to the poor and even sacrifice my body, I could boast about it. But if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing. So you guys, these air people of wealth and of skill and of resource and Paul is explaining how really, truly, honestly, even the things that you value in your culture are nothing compared to the love of Jesus. And if you don't do it in love and then he goes on to tell us what that really love looks like. And this is not just your love to your wife or to your husband or to your future spouse, but this is the love that we live out. And we love our neighbors with its love, that we love our kids with our co workers, that that get on our last nerve. So think about that as we go through. So love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable. It keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses. Faith is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance, prophecy and speaking. An unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever. Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture. But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. So here Paul is reminding us, guys that the world that God's not done with it, God is not done with this world and what we see right now, there is more to come. So, Jesus, you know, we we right now are living in what we call the already and the Not yet. So Jesus has already come. He has already brought salvation and the ability to live out our lives and freedom. But this world is still broken, and he is planning to come back. But right now we're operating in that middle section where we are only seeing half the picture. So Paul goes on When I was a child, I spoke and I thought and I reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put childish things away. Now we see things imperfectly like puzzling reflections in a mirror. But then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete. And then I will know everything completely. Justus, God knows me completely. I don't know about you guys, but every time I would read this verse, I always had this, like hard time with understanding why Paul is calling me childish. I don't know if that's just meet. Maybe I'm being childish, but I would get offended. Unlike Paul. No, I'm I am an expert in several things. I am highly qualified. My job tells me that I'm highly qualified, expert in certain things, subject matter, expert. But when I take that away and I really look at what this is saying and honestly, it didn't happen until I had a kid of my own. My sweet Kingsley is one and 1/2 and she is so incredibly smart, right? Like I don't know much about the market is really, really smart. I know everyone thinks so. She is really, really smart, but it's not like a discounted or like a like uh, like I'm speaking down to her No, for her age and for her ability to think she is so incredibly smart. And I think that that's what God is telling us. He's not discounting what we already know, the knowledge that you have. You may be in tow, you know, researching things and really trying to gain an understanding, theology and science and intellect. And he said, those air good things for what you understand now. But we can't pretend like we've totally got it because Paul said, Don't get too confident with what you know now because right now it's only partial. But he says, as he continues, these three things will last forever. Faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. Other translations of this say that these three things will remain and they will endure forever. So Paul is saying to some of the smartest, most affluent people that he knows. I know that you know a lot and that is great and you should continue in those things. But these are the three things that when it all fades away and it will. These are the three things that you can really build your life on. You know, we can hang like, ah, 1000 hooks on the wall, right? My job, my security, my friends, I'm really cool. I got an education, all these things, and we do. We build our life, you know, with all these things. And they really are great. But Paul said, when you go toe hang the weight of your life on those things on Lee, these three things will be able to hold the heaviness that comes with life. And again, I don't know about you guys, but I have experienced some heaviness in my life. And when that weight comes when the real weight comes, he's saying thes three things. I want you to ask all the questions, get all the knowledge you want in your free time, but trust in these three things and pursue them with all that you've got. This is it, guys. Faith, hope and love. So today we're gonna look at that First took that we can hang our life on which is faith. Can I be honest with you guys? Because if I can't be honest in church. Really? Where can I be honest? I'm We decided that I was gonna take this first part of this message, and I was all excited for that. Um, but then I like it's like picking out of a hat, you know, like, Okay, I got faith, right? When I think about faith, I think, Okay, Faith. It's just so vast. Like faith. What? What I'm gonna say about faith that I can concisely say in 30 minutes, it just seems so big and isn't important. And all the theology that goes into our faith And why should we trust God and who is God and what is matter made of. And I don't know about you guys, but that's where I start to go with the word faith. So to me, it just seems so vast. Sometimes it can seem a little Christian e, you know, and I didn't grow up in the church. So the word faith sometimes gets a bad reputation. For sometimes we just say, Oh, just have faith. Just have a little faith is like a magic pixie dust that we Sprinkle on stuff that we can't solve. Just the faith and people say it and doesn't really mean anything. So it could be so vast. And in our culture, it can feel so empty at the same time. So what is faith? And then I really started to think, you know, Okay. God, Well, I'm stuck with this one, So why don't you give me some practical application, right? And as I sat with God and I pleaded with God to change the subject, um, he gave me a clear relation of faith. So faith, just like Jesus. And just like the Bible in the Gospel, we can make that real complicated. We cannot layers, we cannot questions. We can make it really, really difficult. But the truth of the gospel the story is simple. It's not that long. It's not that complicated. And it is straightforward. If we want it to be, it can be simple. So when it comes down to faith in its lest, fluffy form, faith is trust. Faith is the word trust and trust in God. Trust in who he says that he is and trust that he will do what he has promised to do. So as I was reading through and preparing for this message. I started replacing the word faith in the Bible with the word trust and letting that speak to me because I can understand trust, right? I've had we've broken it, different people of doing different things. But what I've learned in my studying this week is my big idea for today, and it is that faith is logical. Faith is logical. And I know it's not described that way very often. It seems like a risk in a big thing. And a and a big you don't know what, but you just do it, you know. But faith is actually a logical response to who God is, and we're gonna dig into that today. But first, I do have a story for you guys. Have you ever just going to put your faith in something that should just be like simple, right? It should just be no brainer. Totally Got this. This is gonna work out. So last year, our sweet Kingsley turned one in May, and if you have had a baby recently, or if you have any form of social media, you will know that first birthday parties, they are a big deal. I don't know, they've always been that way, But they are big deal now, and I know that they will remember it. They can't appreciate it. They don't really care. Most of the time they cry. But we do it anyway because we're gonna celebrate our kid. And Jake and I we are no exception. We thought about well, maybe want therapy. Part is really just a party for us. Well, we will celebrate what we did last year, which was awful, and the rest of the year was fine, and I'm sure it'll get better, but it's all going to be celebrated today. So I'm throwing this birthday party, right? It's gonna be awesome. Birthday party. Get this theme doughnut. Grow up. Doughnuts, Sprinkles, glitter balloons, the whole thing. Confetti. We're doing it at my mom's house. Hadn't had to clean up. Um, so if I'm gonna pull, throw a party. And of course I waited. We planned this thing, dreamed it really big for a little while. But I waited until pretty much last week to get the decorations for him. Totally. Okay, so I'm gonna throw a party, and I'm needing to get decorations now, preferably in my own city, I would go to party. City right party, City, party depot. They're just selling party supplies, right? And doughnuts. They're incredibly trendy right now. Everybody should carry the required supplies for donut party, right? Wrong. Terribly wrong. Totally not true. Party City did in fact not have what I needed, but never fear y'all. There was free two day shipping on the website. If you spend $75 do we need $75 of doughnut napkins? Balloons, plates? Absolutely not. Did we do them anyway? Yes, yes, we did. Because of the free two day shipping. If anybody has a family member that frequents target, you do understand this logic. You'd be like, but you just spent $600 right? But it was on sale. You see the math There it was on sale. You'll know what I'm talking about. So I order everything going great. I wait a few days. The party's at my mom's house in Virginia Beach and I'm here and I'm like, Well, she should have gotten the party's. Let's just make sure that the whole party is there in a box at her house. So I call. She's like, nope, nope, haven't seen a haven't seen a party. City blocks, not here. I was like, Are you sure to check the neighbor's house? She did. Nobody has it. And we cannot let Kingsley down. This is the biggest day of her tiny life. Okay, so I called Party City. I said, hello. It's me. I order party supplies for a party that I'm throwing in my city. You guys have the supplies. They're supposed to come to me, but they're not here. You see the problem. And it's especially important that I mentioned Joe. This is a one year old's birthday party, so you can see the important wait here, somebody to find out what happened. He says, Oh, yes, Miss games. No problem. Let me take a look at your order. So he was meant hold Todo Joe comes back and he said, Well, I do see why it didn't get to your house yet. Well, it looks like you canceled the order and I said, Joe, that's not good, because the party's not canceled. So I still need the supplies. And I did not cancel this order and I never got a notification that was canceled. So we're gonna have a bigger problem here in, like, five seconds. Just No, no, no, Don't worry. I'm gonna check on it, See what happened. More hold music. Do you? Did you? Joe comes back. He said not to worry, miss games totally on us. So this sometimes happens. Um, and it doesn't have anything to do with your payment method, which is which is gonna want to reassure you of that, but it looks like we cancel the order. Oh, is that the solution, Joe? Joe, What? What in the world And he's like, well, sometimes happens. We're not exactly sure why it happens, but if an order is flagged as a high risk order, we then have to cancel it. So you see, that's how the procedure works. So we canceled the order. I said, Joe, I ordered $75 worth of doughnut party supplies from a party supply store. What is high risk about that? They're doughnuts for a one year old's birthday party. And he said, Right, right. I I see where you're coming from, but any time it's just flagged as high risk, it doesn't have anything do with your payment. It's if we cancel it Oh, I know. I don't know why you didn't get any mail. Oh, good. So this party's tomorrow, Joan, Today's Friday tomorrow is the party. So what we're gonna do about that? And he said, Put me on hold comes back. He's a great super brother. Apparently so, you know, Miss games. What we can do is you can go online and you can re order all those supplies, and all you're gonna have to do is pay the difference between the two day shipping and the overnight shipping to get it to your house. But I do have to make a disclaimer that depending on the care depending on what time you order it may or may not be there tomorrow and may not be there before the party. Joe, If you can't trust a party city to supply party supplies to a party in your city, who can you trust in this world? Joe Amazon. Y'all Amazon? Can I get a Amen? Anybody? Amazon one day shipping. Thank you. Jesus. That is right from the Lord. So I hung up on Joe. I got in my Amazon app and thinks Amazon one day shipping the party went on and you can see that Kingsley will fully remember this day for the rest of her life. And we did it. We did it, guys. She didn't like that cake at all. It only costs a lot of money, but she hated it. 100% hated that cake. You can go the next picture. But we did get the party supplies in the background and it looked great. She will remember via all the 1000 photos that I took. So what does all that have to do with us guys? What? Isn't this so relatable? Sometimes this is what happens in our life. We have things that should make sense. We should be able to put our faith in and to trust in certain people in certain relationships, in certain stability of our job. Some of these things we go to put our faith in and they should make sense, and then they don't. And some of us have had hurt from the things that we have tried to put our faith in, and it never worked out. We tried to put our faith in something, and it fell through, and there's nobody that I can trust except myself and sometimes we all feel that way. I think every single person in this room has felt that way at some point. And you may be in here and you may be single, and you may be praying that God brings you that one person that you haven't waiting. You've been waiting and there ain't nobody to mingle with. And you're starting to feel like that. This is not the trust that I was looking for. Maybe you're really hoping that somebody in your life and in your family will come to know Jesus and to hope in Jesus. And it's been years and years and years of praying and hoping, and that's not coming through. Trust can be really hard, guys. And and sometimes we get that mixed up. We are hoping, Jesus, we reflect that all the hope that we've had in other things of this world and other people, and we just don't know if we can trust trust does not sound like a good option. But I can tell you that trust in Jesus when we look at it, when we look at who he is, we look at his character. It is logical and Jesus is Amazon. He is not Party city. I can attest to that. So today I want to look at a story in the Bible where there's an ordinary man and he puts simple trust in Jesus. So if you'd like to follow along with me in your Bible would be up on the screens as well. We're gonna go through Matthew 85 reading from the message paraphrase that says, As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, Master, my servant is sick. He can't walk and he's in terrible pain. I want to pause here in and highly, the fact that this is a Roman captain. And in the time that Jesus you know Jesus was walking around, he would have been extremely highly regarded. He would have been a person of significant influence, the servant that we see here in certain translations of the original language. It's either reference has a very dear servant who would have worked very closely with him, or it could have even been his own son. So this would have been a situation that was incredibly difficult, an incredibly important request that he's bringing to Jesus. We can also assume that this man is not necessarily a follower of Jesus. He didn't necessarily grow up in the faith, certainly not the faith in Jesus. And he has heard of him and he knows that he can do something. And I also want to emphasize that in the original language we see the description of this illness is not just your typical flu or a backache, or he's having a cramp. This is something severe. So this the way that they describe it, was something that would have created a palsy so he would have been laying down, unable to move in an excruciating pain. So they described him as near death. And as I was reading that and thinking on it, I think that there are things in our lives that are just so far gone there, so far gone, and they're on the verge of death. And you cannot possibly see how anything could come from that situation. Not one thing, and Jesus is still faithful in those things. He wants you to bring them to him because we next see in the next verse, Jesus said, I will come and heal him. Jesus doesn't hesitate. Jesus doesn't say anything else. He's already willing to go and heal. Please know here that the that The captain has even asked him anything. He just simply told him about the situation and Jesus. Response immediately. I will come and heal him. Oh no, says the captain. I don't want to put you through all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I am a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier. Go and he goes Another common he comes and to my slave do this and he does it. So we see here that the faith of this captain is simple. He says I understand how power works, how authority works. The one in authority has the power to make things happen. And I don't know much, but I know that Jesus. You have the power and the authority And I have seen you doing things. And I know that it will happen if you just speak it. He says I know that he will be healed. And for some of us and in here we do not get it. We did not get all of it. We do not have all the answers to our faith and and how to understand God. But if you can understand this, if you can understand this simple fact that Jesus came to earth as a man he lived a life, a perfect life, that we can follow an example but that we could not live on her own. And he died a death that we deserved in our place. And he rose again to reconcile our relationship with God so that we could just like this Captain, approach God in boldness and in weakness and say, God, I need you here and God responds immediately. I want you guys to see that this is not a hesitation. And did you read your bible? How long you been coming? A church. Do you meet all these requirements? God said no. I will come and I will heal him. He wants to heal your soul. Your situation, your insecurity is God wants to be in your life. Guys. So the story continues. Taken aback. Not a lot of things surprise God. But Jesus said taking a back. Jesus said I have yet to come across this simple trust in Israel. The people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. The people who have had faith for for years and years and generations and generations. This man right here he is the vanguard of many outsiders, people who didn't understand the faith before. But Aaron, meeting Jesus who will soon be coming down from all directions streaming in from the east, pouring in from the West, sitting down at God's Kingdom banquet alongside Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and then those who grew up in the faith but had no faith, never never activated it. Never trusted in Jesus. Never put their faith in him. Will find themselves out in the cold outsiders to grace and wondering what happened. You guys When I when I was reading this I picture this as Jesus is jumping up and down moment. He's like this man gets it. He totally understands. It wasn't complicated. There wasn't this need toe to feel led to go to Jesus. There wasn't this, you know he didn't preach a great sermon and then he responded out of the emotion in his heart, which is also fine. But in this moment, he just simply came up and he said, I know what logic, how this works in this world. If you have the power, you can make this happen. And I trust Jesus that you can make this happen. It's about simple trust in action, guys. So then Jesus turned to the captain and said, Go, What you believed could happen has happened. And at that moment, his servant became well, So we see this amazing and simple act of faith. And I love it because it just doesn't have the extras, right? It doesn't have the qualifiers. It doesn't necessarily have the emotions. It doesn't say that He read his whole Bible and then he asked Jesus to the specific thing that he knew about us. He read it. Jesus just said, This is this is it guys, this not that hard is not that complicated. You just trust, but the big old butt. I do not always respond this way. I just cannot my own faith. What I know gets in the way my own ideas, my own insecurity sometimes get in the way of having this logical faith that this captain did. And you know, there's there's moments of deep hurt and of deep insecurity. And in this last couple of years of my life, that's really been the season that I've I've personally been in of loss and of, um, you know, tons and tons of layers of grief and and depth that have just gotten in the way of my ability to hear God clearly. And it's hard to have logical faith when those real things come in. But I want to break down this story and we can look at the three points of what this man does and how he puts his logical faith in Jesus so that we in this room can take those and get out of our own way and have logical faith in God. So 0.1 this morning, if you guys are following along 0.1 is logical. Faith approaches Scott. So we see in the story that the Captain approaches God and he presents his problems. He doesn't look for other options. First, it doesn't say that he went all the best doctors. M. D. Anderson. He looked it all up. He just says he went to Jesus and he presented his request. He actually again didn't ask for anything He just said, God, this is the honest truth of my problem. But what stops us right from approaching God first, what stops us for from taking that step forward? And I think that some of the biggest things that can stop us are doubt. We doubt that God really is who he says he is now. Today in 2020 as he was back then, we doubt that God can really do what he says he does. And he has the promises that he hid. The heat declares in the Bible that he has for each and every one of our lives weaken down. Our feelings could get in the way. We may not feel faith filled. You know, we may not feel inspired. We may not feel like we have the enough energy to approach God. We may not feel worthy. Why would God even care about with all the stuff that I've done in the life I've lived? Why would God even care about me and my problems and then our trust? This can get on our way. Our trust in ourself I am the most guilty of this guy's our trust in ourselves. When we believe that we can solve our own problems. Well, at least let me give it a try. I'll do like, you know, a couple of options, and then I'll go to God, right? Or sometimes we believe that we got ourselves into it. So we trust that we got ourselves into this situation and we should be able to get ourselves out. It's not God's problem. It's my problem. I have, ah, the responsibility to get myself out. I deserve this. And let me tell you this morning, friends, you do not God says that he gives his life and his grace freely. And it doesn't matter what you've done where you came from, but he cares about where you are right now, how he can meet you and where we're gonna go together because God wants to meet you here. And guys, I'm a do er like I am like, I like to think of myself as Joanna games the same last name, totally on purpose there. Um, I could just fix anything, right? I can fix all my problems. I have a lot of answers. I am highly skilled in problem solving, and that is a really hard thing to let go of on your face journey to know that somebody else has the solutions. And I want you guys to know this morning that these things that we talk about doubt and feelings and trusting in ourselves they are normal, so normal you are not disqualified. You are not any less to God because you have those feelings. But this is where we get to choose. So we get to choose here in the midst of that doubt in those feelings and that trust in ourselves and that self reliance that God, we can approach him with confidence with the request that we have and the troubles that we have. So the Bible tells us in James to 17 in the same way faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. It is dead. So you can sit in here and you can say that you have faith. You can say that you've been to church for a long time. You can say that you have read some things and I'm sure that you have. But unless we go to God, unless we approach him with our problems, unless we allow him to be part of our situations. All the things that you know about God are dead doesn't help you at all to know about God unless you know about God and what he will do for you. He wants you to activate your faith. So faith starts with that action. And let me be clear, crystal clear that you may not feel like taking action. I have had so many moments in, especially in the last season in my life where I did not feel in any way about trusting God. I want to trust other things. I wanted to not believe. I wanted to feel like maybe I will fix it. But God is good guys. He's faithful and it says in Hebrews 4 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious Scott. And there we will receive his mercy. We will find Grace to help us when we needed the most. God said, Yeah, you're gonna be in in some things. This world is not easy. Tow. Walk through, but step towards me. Approach the throne boldly with your requests with your honest feelings and know that that's there is where you're gonna find mercy and grace. And there is what you're gonna find what you need. So we have to approach God because faith is not the lack of fear or doubt. But it is the decision to trust and take a step forward. Anyway, it may never go away. Let me tell you guys that too. It may get easier, but honestly, whether you've been on a faith journey for 30 years, are you been on for three minutes? Because I said something really good three minutes ago. You're gonna have to choose this every single day. It's not that I'm more qualified because I've been doing this for a while because I'm a pastor. No, I have to choose to put that into action every single day. Or my faith is just his dad. As somebody who doesn't even believe if I don't activate it. So we see in this story that approaching Jesus is the first step that we need to take. And second, that we seem is that logical? Faith declares truth. The captain expresses in that moment that what he knows, this is how power works. This is how authority works. And if this is how it works and you have the power. Jeez, I know you can do this up on my trust in you because of the things that I know. But what stops us right from declaring the truth? Because I don't always do that either. This captain, he's got it down. But I think the biggest things that can stop us from declaring that truth over our lives is control. What's it gonna be honest? This control? I'm fixer because I liked it. I like to control things like to know how things are gonna go. I'm not a big fan of not knowing what the plan is, and it's really hard to declare that somebody else has the answers even when we so desperately want to be the ones in control. So we don't want to declare that God might be able to fix our problems. I want to be able to do that. I want to be ableto have that at my at my fingertips anytime that I want. But let me tell you that God is available anytime you need him. And the second point that gets in our way is the fear of let down. We're afraid that's not going to turn out the way that we wanted Thio. And that is the hardest thing both of these things deal with. Like a pride of like, this is how I see it. This is how I want it done. I'm gonna do it myself, right? But God doesn't operate that way. So we're afraid that things won't turn out. Those big asks won't turn out the way that we hope. But the on Lee way that we can get past this that we can really declare The truth is we have to get to know Jesus and his character. You have to know who is speaking So three things that I do that really helped me to understand God's truth in my life is praying, guys, Sometimes I don't feel like praying, especially on daylight savings time. It's exhausting in the morning and I don't wanna pray. I'm tired. I wanna go back to sleep. But preying on a daily basis gives you the opportunity to not just make your requests known to God, but that God will respond and you can hear from him. You haven't had that experience yet. Please try it. Please try and pray and see that he won't speak to you. Second is my devotionals. So devotionals is just a fancy word for reading the Bible or reading a commentary, a reading, You know, somebody's summary of what they have gotten from the Bible and really reading that on a daily basis and reflecting because, like I said every day, have to choose that God's voice is gonna speak louder than the insecurities than the stress than the business than the weight of my life. And the only way that I can do that is if I fill up on the things that he says to me and serving, serving in a church that you can call home. I know I mentioned earlier about having a community of people around you that just understand what you're going through before you even ask. So serving like one like on our plus teams, it really just gives you the ability to see your purpose tow. Walk that out to taken actionable step towards God. You do not have to have it all together to serve the church. Let me just tell you that I don't have it all together, and I'm up here with microphone so you don't have to have it all together to serve the church. So when those challenges come and life will get hard and those things will come, serving really gives you the opportunity to continue to have a positive outlet where no matter what your circumstances are at home and at work or at school, that no matter what, you haven't outlet where you are actually stepping out and serving other people in the name of Leon, and that also brings you people around. You are teams around each other to support one another on a daily basis. There's people texting each other. There's people checking in on on one another. Like I said, I was flooded with different people just checking in to see how I was doing. And that comes from serving alongside these people who just sit there and put the Children's mats together with me. And that bond allows us have that community that you're going to need at some point. We all need a good community around us, and they point us to the truth that God says about us. So the last thing that we see in this story is logical. Faith sees God's results, so we see that in the story Because of the captain simple trust. He saw the results that Jesus healed his servant, that he met his request. But what can stop us from seeing those results from God like maybe you have that feeling. You know, I've been living for God. I've been doing, you know, the right things. I've been trying my best, and I'm praying prayers. And I'm not seeing the results yet. I don't know where he's at in this situation. And sometimes the biggest thing that stops us from seeing well, gotta suing is relying on our own perspective, relying on the way that we see things. So what I mean by that rely on our perspectives. So what I really mean is that when we on leave you God's results through what we want to happen, right, how we expect things to turn out. But sometimes when we asked God for something, he's doing so many other things inside of that situation, and he wants to give you the perspective to step back toe, look through his lens and to see everything else that is going on. But we have to choose toe, have that perspective because Naturally, we're gonna have our own our own self interest, our own and secure their own needs. Because usually when we're approaching God for a need, it's it's a neat right. And really, in these last two years of my life, it's been like a hodgepodge of all those things We talked about Tao and feelings and not understanding and not being able to see what God is doing. And I learned very quickly that it's a lot easier to trust God with our prayers that don't have a lot of weight to them. Am I right? It's a lot easier Toe asked God for something that you know. I'd be all right if I don't get that job. I kind of like my current job, but that wouldn't be better option. So I'ma pray for that, and then that would be great. You know, if that relationship doesn't work out, you know, I'm sure there's other things, you know, I'll pray for it, but it would be all right if it didn't. But when we really start to pray, these prayers like this captain approach on a thing that was nearly dead and very dear to him. Oh, man, That is when that's when it starts to get tough to trust God. But he actually has the ability to do what we're asking him to do and that he cares enough about us to listen. So 20 months ago, we had our Sweet Kingsley. But it was also 20 months ago that I lost my dad. So, yeah, I do that math. So first time Mom just became apparent. Just lost a parent, like, literally the same week. And trust me, parenting is already hard, right? Am I right? You got any variance in here? All right, amen to that. So my dad, he was this incredibly kind kind of person. Like the best and only way to describe him, in short is he's the kind of person that there's not one thing I don't miss about him. He was just that good. He was kind, and he was wise, and he was patient. I'm not really sure how he did all of it as a parent trying still trying to figure it out. Um, And in 2014 he was healthy as anyone you knew. Healthy going, Jim working all the time. He was older. He was in his late seventies, but he was killing at the gym more than me. More than my sister. We're all very strong. But he was killing it. And then by the end of 2014 he was diagnosed with untreatable. Incurable. Nothing you could do. Terminal illness, and, man, that will make you feel like day. I can actually not fix this. Actually, there's nobody that can fix it. How about that shoot? That was hard. And there were a lot of times in those three years. So we got three years that he battled this right, And I did not feel like approaching God with most things. I was like, Mmm. I didn't really want to hug him. Feel inspired. I didn't feel the excitement of like, yes, I'm gonna ask out for this thing, and then it's gonna be really great, and it's gonna be awesome. No, it was It was a pleading when I did go, and there were a lot of times in that season that I didn't feel like myself. My faith certainly didn't feel as like jazz up and energizes ever felt before. And I struggled with that. I said, God, is this even real if I don't feel it the same way that I've always felt it. That's why I love this story about the Captain. Because there was nothing else. It was very straightforward. And this was the season. That was incredibly straightforward. Faith. What? I know. I'm just gonna walk in that I don't feel like it. I don't feel good about it. I'm just gonna keep walking and keep walking and see or God's path Ghosts. And I can't pretend even now. Even now, you know, we're 20 months into this, this grieving journey and this loss journey on. I can't pretend now that I have all the answers that I wanted from God and that I understand it. But what I knew about God outweighed what I didn't understand about my situation and what I chose to believe about his character and what I chose to believe about the promises that he had for me in the plan that he says even after this, even with this. But I have a plan and a purpose for your family, and I am who I say I am. And so I just love that story of the Roman captain because it just this season of my life is painted with this where there's nothing fluffy to it. There's nothing. But I felt like high and joyful on like this going to great. He's gonna get hell is gonna be awesome I want I wanted to feel like that but I didn't and I prayed for his healing all the time, and he was so grateful that I did. And he was the most joyful. And the only way that I can explain is that we just kept trusting God. We just kept trusting when did make any sense. When doctors reports came back and they did not make any hope, there was no room for the hope. God's hope and his love is beyond our circumstance. So here's what I learned in that season that I chose to approach God. I declared his truth, and I chose to look for the results through his perspective. So what I learned is that you approach God with your real and honest feelings. You do not have to hide them. You do not have to sugarcoat them. You do not have to, like, Sprinkle some faith on it first and then say, Well, I know you're gonna do it. No. God. Well, what are we gonna do with this? This is sucks. You can say that to God. He is bigger than your problems. He is bigger. He is. He is gone. But we don't approach him that way. But God says approached me with your honesty. And I did learn that you can on Lee declare the truth that you know. So for some of us in that that means that we have to dig in and we have to get to know God. There is an urgency behind this because he says you will have troubles in this world. I'm not trying to speak anything negative, but there's gonna be a time that you come to you and you're gonna say dengue. I need to hear God speak right now, and sometimes he's gonna speak things to you in the light seasons of your life that are gonna minister to your soul in the dark seasons of your life. And if you do not let him speak to you when things are going good and you're on the mountain top and it's all going awesome when you were in the valley, you are gonna feel alone. You're gonna feel like God's not real because you do not recognize his voice. Jesus talks about in a difference that part of the Bible. It talks about his sheep, recognized his voice and they follow him. I know them and they follow me. Get to know him now. There's no time to wait on that guy's if you have any interest in God's speaking into your life, you get to know him now because he's going to say something important. That's that's you're gonna need later. And the biggest thing that I learned is that the results do not always look like what we hoped for. From our perspective, right? Healing doesn't always come the way that we want it. Sometimes it does and those air really awesome times. But for my dad, he never did experience total and complete bodily healing from this illness, right? But it was an amazing and beautiful thing, man. To see the way that God healed his heart. He healed relationships. He healed that self reliance and the full dependence on God. And it was something I was so grateful toe witness. You know, we chose to be intentional. We chose to trust God. And as it would start, not not looking so great. What we didn't do is back down. We approach the situation with intentionality with honor and gotten every moment. If God's gonna give us this time, we're gonna potential. But I'm asked every question You ever heard to my dad. He thought I was his paparazzi. His personal journalist. I was just writing all sorts stuff. I was like, Tell me about your favorite food. Tell me about what time you went to bed last night. Tell me about your favorite great aunt. Who is she? Let me know. And we were just intentional about time. And I asked questions that I would have got to ask. I trusted God with the first thing that I couldn't really fix. Honestly, that was probably the first time in my faith that I really trusted him with something that I couldn't do or I thought I couldn't do by myself. And ultimately it strengthened my faith. It strengthened my faith because I had to get really honest. And some of us need to get really honest and start asking the questions that in the back of your head you know, if something were to come down the pike, you don't really know where you'd stand. Well, I like God during the happy times. It's all good. I gotta Sundays when it's convenient. You guys are the best. Could you come to Sunday's when it's early? But get to know God now pressing to him now? So let me tell you what I know about faith. I was the ultimate skeptic before I encountered Jesus eight years ago and being the kind of person that needed to see something to believe it you got show me. Yeah, Show me God, Where's the man that you're gonna make it fall from the ceiling, you have to show me. And what I learned now looking through faith, is that that's just not how faith works. The seeing is believing thing. Faith isn't blindly walking into hope. Just that's what those Christian will do they to blindly walk around trusting some God in some place. No faith is what gives us site. Trust in God gives a sight. Seeing isn't believing, but believing gives us the ability to see what God is doing. From his perspective, it's like when you have a microscope, right? I could not see things with my abilities. But if I lean in, if I take action toe lean into that microscope, I'm going to see things under there that I would not have been able to see their riel. They're really even when they're on this table and you can't see it. But if I look at it through a microscope, I start to be able to understand. And that's what God wants to do in your life with your faith that you put in him today is he said, There's more going on here and I'm gonna start to explain to you why you hurt like that and how we can heal it. And while you feel like that and how we can fix that relationship and God is going to say there is MME or for your life, then what you came in here with and if you want it, you can take it right out that door. Today you buy, you bring home God said today if you wanna have that faith, it is not complicated. That Captain walk up, he said, This is the problem. This is how it works. Jeez, that trust you. So if you came in here today and you want to do that, all you have to do is respond to God, and I'm gonna give you guys that opportunity right now. But I want you guys to also know that this morning is much more about freedom than just faith. That's what that means. The freedom to let it go. And if you are in here and you were just holding on to this wall that you built half that, I'm not gonna trust nobody. I'm not gonna rely on anybody. I'm not gonna trust God. What does that even mean? God said, I'm gonna break that wall down. You don't have to keep holding it up. It's very heavy and you're doing a lot to make that happen. And this is easier. God's yoke is easy and his burden is like he's had come to me and I will give you rest. So this morning is about freedom. Guy's freedom from the doubt for gain from it doesn't make sense. Freedom from God. I just don't know. He said this. Okay, it's simple. You just trust you just trusting you will see the results. So let's pray guys bow your heads with me. Jesus, We just ask that your Holy Spirit would just come in this place, Lord, that she would just rest on each and every person in this room. God, that you say that they amaze you that they're important to you and goddess speaking to your heart. So God, I pray that with those bricks those brick walls learned that she would just start to remove the bricks one at a time. Because God doesn't come in forceful. He doesn't come in and invited, but he will remove those things That that self reliance that doubt that insecurity that hurt that past relation a ll trust issues. God, we ask for your healing right now in Jesus name that she would bring relief trust gone Help us with our unbelief. Jesus says he will help you Trust he will help you trust You don't have to have it all together. Just ask him. So if that's you and you're in this place And you said all right, Aaron, I want I want to give that a try. This is between you and God. You can pray this in your prayer in your in your head or in your heart, or you can say it out loud if you want. But just follow along with me. You say Jesus. Thank you for dying for me, for taking my mistakes, for taking my shortcomings. Today. I trust in you today. I trust that you have a plan for my life that is bigger than I can even hope or imagine. Aside from all the questions that are still gonna have after this, I trust in you in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for checking out the city lights podcast. If you'd like to partner with us financially, you can go toe. We're city lights dot com slash give or you can text any dollar amount to 84321 Thanks for joining us today.