Scripture referenced
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
-
Isaiah 62 Main passage read aloud and discussed throughout the sermon as the basis for the 'choose your own reality' conversation
1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning lamp.
2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name, which Yahweh‘s mouth will name.
3 You will also be a crown of beauty in Yahweh‘s hand, and a royal diadem in your God‘s hand.
4 You will not be called Forsaken any more; nor will your land be called Desolate any more: but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land will be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
6 I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
7 and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored;
9 but those who have harvested it will eat it, and praise Yahweh; and those who have gathered it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”
10 Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.
11 Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.’”
12 They will call them The holy people, Yahweh’s redeemed. You will be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Song of Solomon
Congregation member cited 'one glance of your eye ravishes my heart' as scriptural grounding for God delighting in our worship
Keep this versePsalm 150
Congregation member cited various ways to praise the Lord including loud clashing cymbals as an example of coloring outside the lines in worship
1 Praise Yah! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!
2 Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness!
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!
5 Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise Yah! Praise Yah!
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Revelation 5:9
Congregation member read verses about a new song being sung declaring Christ worthy, redeemed from every tribe and tongue
9 They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Hosea 1:2
Congregation member quoted God telling Hosea to marry a prostitute as an illustration of God redeeming Israel despite her unfaithfulness
2 When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Zechariah 3:1-6
Used to illustrate two parallel realities: Jeshua's filthy garments representing sin and the Lord's choice to reject Satan's accusations and claim Jerusalem
1 He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.
2 Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel.
4 He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.”
5 I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.” So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and Yahweh’s angel was standing by.
6 Yahweh’s angel protested to Joshua, saying,
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 8:33-34
Read to show that God has given us right standing and Christ pleads for us against any accusation
33 Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Deuteronomy 9:4-6
Read to show Israel was given the land not because of their goodness but because of God's covenant promise and the wickedness of other nations
4 Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land”; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.
5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 Know therefore, that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Isaiah 50:8-9
Read as a declaration that God is near and no accuser can declare his people guilty
8 He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. The moths will eat them up.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The congregation gathered around Isaiah 62, specifically the parallel realities contained in verses three and four: that Jerusalem is both forsaken and the Lord's delight at the same time. Pastor Brian used that tension to ask a practical question, which he framed as "choose your own reality." The message worked through scripture to show that God's delight in his people is not earned by their performance and cannot be cancelled by their failure.
What was said
Before the message began, worship opened with a long, participatory stretch where Lissa Hunter encouraged the congregation to sing their own song to the Lord rather than only follow the words on the screen. Pastor Brian picked that up and turned it into a teaching moment, describing it as coloring outside the lines. He used the image of a child's scribbled artwork going up on a parent's refrigerator as a way of saying that God does not require polished or dignified worship. He invited the room to find that picture in scripture, and the congregation offered examples from Second Samuel, Psalm 150, Song of Solomon, Revelation 5, and the stories of blind Bartimaeus and the woman with the issue of blood.
When the message proper started, Pastor Brian read Isaiah 62 together with the room and then focused on verses three and four in the NLT. He pointed out that the same verse holds two contradictory descriptions of Jerusalem: forsaken and desolate on one hand, and the Lord's delight and his bride on the other. He said those are not sequential, as though one replaces the other, but genuinely parallel realities that exist at the same time.
To develop that, he moved to Zechariah 3, where the high priest Jeshua stands before the angel of the Lord with filthy clothes while the accuser brings charges against him. Pastor Brian said the filthy clothes are a fair description of Jeshua's condition, and he noted that people tend to manage that kind of awareness by comparing themselves to someone whose clothes are dirtier. He illustrated this with a story from his family's time in Mongolia, when after fifty-four days without a shower they walked into a hotel in Ulaanbaatar and were immediately hit with the smell of clean clothes, shampoo, and floor cleaner. The point was that the standard of comparison matters, and when we place ourselves next to genuine cleanliness we see our own condition clearly.
But alongside that honest reckoning, the Lord's word to Satan in Zechariah 3 is a flat rejection of the accusation. God has chosen Jerusalem. Pastor Brian connected this to Romans 8:33-34, which he put on the screen: "Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? For God himself has given us right standing with himself." He said the enemy's goal is to get us to agree with his accusations so that we disqualify ourselves from being God's prized artwork, and that Jesus functions like the watchman on the wall in Isaiah 62, crying out day and night on our behalf.
He then read Deuteronomy 9:4-6, where Moses tells Israel plainly that the land is not theirs because they are good. God says directly, "you are a stubborn people." Pastor Brian used this to push back against what he called a religious attitude, where closeness with the Lord goes up and down based on personal performance. He offered a line he asked the room to write down: his sin does not change his righteous nature any more than his goodness changed his sin nature before he was saved.
He closed the argument by returning to Isaiah 62 and naming the choice directly. The two realities are both present. One is that we have failed, are desolate, and deserve condemnation. The other is that in Christ we have been given right standing, God delights in us, and Jesus has applied his shed blood to our account. Pastor Brian said those realities do not cancel each other out, and the question is which one we decide to live in day to day. He also noted briefly that this passage has a future dimension for Israel, and said he wanted to continue that thread the following week.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
- Read Isaiah 62 this week and sit with the two realities in verses 3 and 4, the forsaken city and the city of God's delight, and ask yourself honestly which one you are living in day to day.
- The next time you catch yourself excusing a pattern in your life by comparing yourself to someone doing worse, stop, name the excuse out loud, and ask the Lord to search your heart instead.
- Try coloring outside the lines in your personal worship this week, whether that means singing something unrehearsed, praying out loud in your own words, or simply telling God something specific you love about him with no script.
- Spend a few minutes with Romans 8:33-34 and read it as a direct answer to whatever accusation you have been agreeing with about yourself lately.
- Come to the prayer gathering at 8:45 on Sunday morning and pray with Lanisha before service.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brian talked about coloring outside the lines in worship, and the congregation shared several Bible stories of people who did exactly that. Which of those examples stuck with you, and why?
- Brian described two parallel realities in Isaiah 62 verses 3 and 4: being forsaken and desolate on one hand, and being God's delight and bride on the other. Which of those two realities do you find yourself living in most days, and what shapes that?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Resumen en español
El mensaje resumido, en español.
El sermon giró en torno a una idea central: hay dos realidades paralelas que coexisten en nuestra vida espiritual. Por un lado, la realidad de nuestro fracaso, nuestra desolación y nuestras ropas manchadas, como las de Jesúa el sumo sacerdote en Zacarías. Por otro lado, la realidad de que Dios nos escoge, nos delicia y nos llama suyos, no porque lo merezcamos, sino por su propio pacto y su gracia. Brian usó Isaías 62 como texto central y señaló que Israel, y cada persona, carga con ambas realidades al mismo tiempo. La pregunta es cuál de las dos elegimos habitar cada día.
Una imagen que recorrió todo el mensaje fue la de un niño que colorea fuera de las líneas y entrega su dibujo al padre, quien lo pone con orgullo en el refrigerador. Así es como Dios recibe nuestra alabanza, no importa si es perfecta o torpe. También se habló de cómo tendemos a justificar nuestras fallas comparándonos con personas que creemos que han fallado más que nosotros, en lugar de acercarnos a la santidad de Dios para que él nos revele y limpie lo que necesita ser limpiado. La sangre de Jesús, y no nuestros propios esfuerzos, es lo único que nos da una posición correcta delante de Dios.
Al final, Brian invitó a cada persona a rechazar las acusaciones del enemigo y a elegir vivir en la realidad de que son el deleite del Señor. Mencionó que Israel, como nación, tiene aún por delante un momento en que reconocerá a su Mesías, y que esa misma reconciliación está disponible hoy para cualquier persona que se vuelva a Cristo tal como es.
---
Pasajes bíblicos usados:
- Isaías 62 (texto central, especialmente versículos 3 y 4)
- Isaías 50:8-9
- Zacarías 3:1-6
- Romanos 8:33-34
- Deuteronomio 9:4-6
- Salmos 150
- Oseas 1:2
- Apocalipsis 5:9
Read the full transcript 10,628 words
I heard you, but, like,
you could see it. Sounded like I was like, my gosh. That's so cute. Like, in a you guys It
was so bad. I'm here just with you here happy. Yeah.
Oh,
g g g oh, g sorry. E e g d. G
e l.
Yeah. If everybody didn't notice, we moved the coffee and the donuts down to this end.
I was wondering.
Did everybody notice? We moved the coffee and the donuts down there. Don't cry. It's still here.
It's still Everybody
find your seat. Let's worship together. Let me pray for us as we get started. Thank you for joining us. If you're joining us on the livestream today, we're glad you're here.
Lord Jesus, we come before you today. We tell you this is all for you, to meet with you, to draw close to you. Let these not just be words to songs, but a sacrifice of praise to you this morning. We put aside how we feel this morning. Maybe we come in here singing your praises and maybe we drug ourselves in here today feeling like we're empty.
We put all of it aside and we just say again today, you're worthy. You're worthy, Jesus. You're worthy of every song we could ever sing. You're worthy of every breath that we could
ever
breathe. And we just state right now that there is no voice allowed to speak in this place today except the voice of your holy spirit. And we bind anything that would come in here to attack or to destroy, to come to just steal today from our worship and from our joy that's found in you. We say darkness, have to go. Sickness, you have to go.
As we enter the presence of the Lord, there's freedom today. In Jesus' name. We worship you.
I won't be shaken my fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in your love my fear doesn't
Let's just declare that my fear,
am not a captive to the last I'm not afraid to leave my past behind and I won't be shaken there's power that can empty out of grace there's resurrection power that can save there's power in your name Yes,
Lord. We are free indeed today. I just feel that chains break off today. The chains would just fall to the ground today as we just declare what Jesus did for us today. K.
Whenever we do this song, we used to do this in kids church a you. You. You. Gonna gonna I'm always do that. So you can join in
with him. Yeah. Shake it off.
Shake it off. I mean, we do sillier stuff at a football game. Right? I mean, I'm, like, lifting my hands doing the skull thing thinking, man, like, we raise our hands for all kinds of crazy stuff. Right?
Whom the
sun sets free is free indeed and the rain all chains that can hinder me. Hallelujah. Hey, hey, hey, hallelujah. On
Just worship him. Just with your eyes closed, just fix your heart, your mind on him Kat, do you have that microphone? She's gonna pass it forward.
When Lissa said, like, sing your own song to him or is that what you said? Yeah. The picture that I got in my mind's eye is that of a child and a coloring sheet or a blank piece of paper. When when we're children, we have to teach kids how to color in the lines and teachers as amazing of a job as you do at educating our children, when kids are little, they just like to, like, scribble all over the page and outside the lines. And the teacher is like, well, let's try coloring inside the lines and it's great and it has its value.
But there are times when it's okay to color way outside the lines. We spent so much time being told by the world, like color inside the lines and any scribbles outside the lines, like, well, it's no good. So think of worship whenever we have the words here and we're singing verse and chorus and bridge. We're doing a great job of all coloring inside the lines together. But just like your parents did for you when you were coloring, they would put your artwork on the fridge with colorings all outside the lines.
And, for you last week, well, that's just great. Your parents are so proud of your coloring that's on their fridge. They just they just love you just how you color. But when we when Lissa says lift your own song, it is like having permission to color way outside the lines. And in fact, you can even do your own drawing.
The Lord loves to hear you express your creativity in worship to him. And so I I just wanted to teach into that a a little bit. I know that for some of your personalities, coloring outside the line is just like the worst possible thing that could happen. But did you know you were taught that? Because when you were little, you just colored all over the page.
Right? And we can approach our relationship with Jesus with childlike innocence and faith. And so if you naturally are not a very if you're not very prone to being a color outside the lines, this is your chance to practice. Right? There are no words on the screen.
Just allow a song or words of adoration to come out of your heart towards him. You can tell him you love him, thank you, or just sing an off key little ditty. Let's color outside the lines.
Now let's color inside the lines. Let's sing that. We just thank you that you came for each and every one of us. Let us never forget the truths of what you did for us. Let that be the place that we start that our worship rises from just a thankful, thankful heart.
Sing this. How great the chasm.
Jesus Christ.
Let's think about these words. One more time, let's sing that you're worthy. Lift your voice.
Oh, Lord, where do we where
do we even stop when your presence is near?
You're in the
Lifting our voices to you. Knitted together with you in your presence is where we belong. Lord, we thank you for your presence in this place. We just ask that you would continue to speak to us today as we honor and dig into your word today. Let our hearts be soft before you.
Let our hearts be clean before you. We just ask that you come and change us today because your presence is here so all things are possible. We ask for healing in this place today. Just for just even while we just press into your presence that as your spirit comes, healing of bodies, healing of hearts, healing of mindsets, your light would just come and dispel the darkness and break the lies off of our lives. I just pray over anybody right now that's carrying around a lie today.
That the enemy would speak over you today. That the Holy Spirit would speak truth over you today. Renounce that voice that you've listened to, that lie that you've held on to today. And let the Holy Spirit come and set you free because you're worthy. You're worthy of us being set free, of allowing you.
It's why you came. And the only bondage we have is that which we've allowed the enemy to get in. All freedom is available today in you, Jesus. Let's just sing that one more time. Thank you, Lord, for the breath in our lungs to worship you today.
Thank you that we are allowed to gather like this in this place today. We do not take it for granted. Thank you for our freedom today. Thank you, Jesus. In your son's precious name, Jesus.
Everybody said
Amen. Amen. If we had
gone into day and night, night and day, I don't know that we would we would have been here all
and night and day. All day. Maybe at the end.
Yeah. I got it, baby. Okay. They can alright. Great to see everybody today.
So good to see all of you guys today. Alright. Well, glad you're here and listening and ready. Know, Lisa fussed at me this morning. Well, I'll tell you.
Liz, I'm gonna tell a I'm gonna tell a story about you this morning. So Lissa Lissa told me this morning. She's like, I know sweetie. I know. I know.
Nobody has to set their clocks ahead anymore like like that just happens for all of us automatically. When I was your age, used to used to have to set my clock back myself. But now everybody's clock gets set for them. And I said, Lys, they're gonna have a whole extra hour to get her on time. And I and Lyssa said, do not do not fuss at anybody who squandered that extra hour and is still not on time for church.
And so you know what? I'm not gonna. Because all of you guys did such a good job and made the best use of your extra hour that you had. So did you enjoy a little extra sleep? What?
They
are. They know who they're probably still sleeping. If you have your bible with you this morning, would you turn to the book of Isaiah? We're gonna be in Isaiah 62. If you remember, this is where we've been for few weeks and where we're going to remain for a few more weeks of conversations.
And I'm so glad that you are with us this morning. So I wish that I could like talk to each and every one of you to find out like and you don't need to raise your hand but did you experiment a little bit with coloring outside the lines that you don't need to raise your hand But for those of you who are like, I like the lyrics, I like the thing, it's okay. Sometimes you can just color outside the lines. And the picture that I saw in my mind's eye was this big giant refrigerator in heaven, and you color outside the lines and you scribble around. It's even okay if you get off the page and on the table.
He can clean it right up. There's no stain too dark that he can't erase.
Thank
you, Liz. And even if you got off the page and onto the table, he just takes that, and when and when you turn it into him, like, look what I drew in church today during worship, he goes, oh my goodness. That is magnificent, and it is special to him. It's special to him. When we open up our mouth, that's why he gave us a mouth.
When we open up our mouth and sing to him, and it's okay to color outside of the lines. He takes that and he puts it right up on his refrigerator. Now where is that in the Bible? Where is that in the Bible? Let's think about it for just a second.
Cause sentimentally it sounds cute. It sounds great. But far be it from me that that that we would base relationship on just sentimentality. That's a good way to end up in the in the weeds right? But can we think of a place we've we've now begun the conversation.
Can we think of a place so I want to hear from you can we think of a place in the Bible where it says or alludes to God taking the artwork of our worship or whatever it is that we bring to him and putting it on his refrigerator on display where it's special to him. Liz, you you have a
I don't know the reference for sure. I think it's in Song of Solomon when he says, one glance of your eye ravishes my heart.
That's great.
Like just even just singing, like even just the smallest movement towards him, he's like, oh. Loves it. It.
Okay. That's good. That counts. Is there another verse that comes to mind? Let's talk about, just really quickly, a scriptural grounding for what I said.
Lindsay, are you looking? Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to call you out. Thought you were so into it. Was like, Oh, it's going to be good. Let's give her time.
Okay. What do you have?
It's throughout the Bible, L O V E. When you love somebody, you want to have them expressed near you.
Yeah, L O V E. There's a story, I believe it's when David is talking to or excuse me, there's this woman Abigail who's talking to David, and she talks David off the cliff edge from doing something really rash. And one of the things that she says is like David she tells David, The Lord has taken such great care of you all along. Then she says, David, you're special to him, and he has hidden you in the Lord's treasure pouch. In a treasure pouch, like back in the day when we walked around with pouches, you'd put all your most prized and special things in your treasure pouch.
Maybe like a fanny pack today, Cory. Yep. There it is. There's his treasure pouch right there. Maybe we could normalize calling it a treasure pouch.
But in a similar way, if using the metaphor of having a very special designated place for something that is special to that to whom it belongs, it kind of makes sense that we can translate it into today's modern vernacular and context by saying, when your child comes home from tribe kids or from school, and they've done a project and they are proud to present it to you, that instead of putting it in a treasure pouch, you would want to put it in a special place for all to see right on the fridge.
You know, Brian, I was also thinking of a story from the life of David.
Okay, Chris?
I don't have the scripture reference, but someone's gonna know where it is. It was when he was dancing and singing and jubilating and his wife looked in contempt at him. But he was definitely drawn outside of the lines with being a king just getting after it.
Yes.
Somewhere in the Old Testament.
The Ark of the Covenant is coming back into Jerusalem. David the king gets undignified by getting down. He is so excited about the Ark of the Covenant that he just can't stay in the lines with proper decorum. He's like, These kingly robes are a little restrictive. Off come the kingly robes, and he just has his normal underneath kingly robes clothes on underneath that.
He is dancing with all of his might before the Lord. There were those who were like, He coloring outside the lines. That's no good. Second Samuel? Yep, that's good.
Who got punished? It was not David for dancing and coloring outside the lines. It was the woman who was his wife McCall. I think maybe that's her name.
Renee's confession. Yes.
Had some consequences for that attitude that she expressed.
This goes along the lines of going outside of the lines. I was just thinking about the woman with the issue of blood that found Jesus in the crowd and touched the hem of his garment. That was so outside of the lines, but she had the faith. And so, I was just thinking about the encounter and the inconvenience. There's a connection.
She colored way outside the lines by a woman in her condition pressing through the crowd to just touch the hem of his garment. Maybe this is where the message is going today.
And you know something I was thinking about, and I've I've told this to Clay, football people that we are. You know, you see, and I have been one, I know, at football games, we are so outside the line in our behavior. And why can't we do that for the Lord? You know, we're so meek and mild and shy to do that but in front of hundreds of thousands of people in television we will all but strip our clothes off for a football team.
Want to see Clay with his chest painted one Sunday.
Jesus. You'd probably see me before you'll see him.
King of kings. I'm more of a face painter. Oh, painter. Face painter. Lindsay, and then over here.
And then, I know that you've got a good story that you're brewing on thinking from the Bible of coloring outside the lines.
So we were just talking about earlier this week Psalm 150 and it just talks about different ways to praise the Lord. Praising him in his greatness, praise him with sound and trumpet, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with strings and pipes, praise him with sounding cymbals, and praise him with loud clashing cymbals. And loud clashing cymbals are a little bit outside of the line.
Yes, yes, yes. He loves it. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. He just loves to hear your heart poured out to him.
When the blind man heard that Jesus was coming through, was radical. He was extremely outside of the lines because they was telling him to shut up.
Yeah, yeah. Son of David, Son of David, have mercy on me. And the disciples were like, Hey, hey, hey, color inside the lines. That's not what you do. They were trying to quiet him, and he just shouted all the louder.
Jesus goes, Wait, did I just hear somebody coloring outside the lines? Oh, come
on.
It is, I suppose, coloring outside the lines. But when the Lord gives you a new song to sing, that is praise unto him, where it is is before him and and how it moves his heart and it's it's everlasting. And I was thinking, yeah, outside of the lines is the overflow. And the verse that was coming to mind is out of Revelation in chapter five starting in nine is where I'll go. And they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and you have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and you have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth.
So I don't know a new song coloring outside the lines perhaps perhaps it's joining in with the songs that are actually already being sung. So there's nothing greater than to give him the songs that he places on our hearts. There's no fear singing outside of the lines. It's for him.
I love that. When we scribble on the page because that's about the quality and timbre of my voice is scribbling. And not even like this, like like little kid, you know, with the death grip on the crayon coloring. Who am I turning it into? I'm not turning it into Lissa.
I'm not evaluating it myself compared to some other artist. If we can just get it in our minds that he enjoys our artwork, and even if it's little meep meep, and then we go, here we go, and we turn it into him with one glance of your eye. You've ravished my heart, beautiful one, my bride. I'm gonna take this and put this in my treasure pouch, and look at your creativity. You are amazing.
So I was thinking about the people that you were talking about who like painting in the lines or coloring, water coloring, etcetera. And how that can be a godly desire. And I was just thinking about when God brings his government and his laws to the earth that it may be a perspective shift like Jesus did so often with his followers. That his lines and his limitations on the universe that he drew is so much larger than our humanly minds and governments can even understand currently.
And
how so coloring outside of the lines of what our flesh and what our human spirit has limited us to is really more about changing our mindset to what God is giving us permission to do and how to worship and love.
Man, that's good. You talked about perspective reality. So I was praying like, Oh, do we just stay on this? Then you said that, and it's in our conversation today. So let's proceed with our conversation today.
I told you earlier to turn to Isaiah 62. We're going to read Isaiah 62, and in your notes you can write the title of this morning's conversation called Choose Your Own Reality. Choose your own reality. That's the title of this week's conversation that we're going to have regarding Isaiah 62. If you remember, several weeks ago we started a series of conversations on chapter 62 of Isaiah.
I said that I feel like the Lord wants us to pull out and highlight different themes and concepts from this passage, not necessarily go linearly through verse by verse. So with that in mind, let's read Isaiah 62 together, and then we're going to jump into this topic of conversation. It's centered around this idea of choose your own reality. So whoever has the mic can start reading and then read a few verses and then hand it off. Isaiah 62.
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent. For Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication and all kings and all and all kings your glory. You will be called by new name that the mouth of the Lord will the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You will be a crown of the splendor in the Lord's hand, a royal
Diadem.
Diadem. Oh, great
Quick The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see a splendid crown in the hand of God. That's a great example of the artwork being given to Him, and He puts it on display for all to see. When your kid's artwork goes on the refrigerator, everybody that comes over gets to see their artwork. There it is. Boom.
Chapter. Verse. Bam. Done. Drop the mic, walk away, but we're going to keep reading.
You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate. But you shall be called, my delight is in her, and your land married. For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. As and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
On your walls, oh Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all all day and all night, and they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest.
Do not give him rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem the praise the praise of the earth. The lord has sworn with his right hand and his strong-arm. I will no longer give your grain to your enemies for food, and foragers will not drink the new wine for which you have labored. For those who gather grain will eat it and praise the Lord. And those who harvest the grapes will drink the wine in my holy courts.
Go out. Go out through the city gates. Prepare a way for the people. Build it up. Build up the highway.
Clear away the stones. Raise a banner for the people. Look, the Lord has proclaimed to the ends of the earth. Say to daughter Zion, look, your salvation is coming. His wages are with him and his reward accompanies him.
And they will be called the holy people, the Lord's redeemed. And you'll be called cared for, a city not deserted.
I'm gonna put verses three and four up on the screen from the NLT. This is where we're going to focus our conversation today. The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see a splendid crown in the hand of God. Never again will you be called the forsaken city or the desolate land. Your new name will be the city of God's delight and the bride of God, for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride.
What a silly, silly communicator of God's word I am that we got off on the beautiful tangent of the artwork of our praise being put on his refrigerator, and I didn't even intentionally say, Well, that's a great segue into what we're going talk about. I just totally missed it. The Holy Spirit lobbed me a softball, I just whiffed it. But look at this! It fits beautifully with what we are talking about in our conversation today.
What we're talking about is this idea of choose your own realities. Contained within this verse are two parallel realities. On one hand, we see Jerusalem as a city that is forsaken. To forsake something means to pass it over, to let it go, to take your picture down off of the refrigerator, and then it goes into the junk drawer. Forsaken.
There is a measure of reality that, in fact, that is what the Lord has done with Israel because of her rebellion, and what he has done with us. When we have turned our back on the Lord, when we have rejected him, when we have chosen to not walk in his ways, in a way we have forsaken him. And the land of Israel, spiritually speaking, lies desolate, and so does the land of every single human heart that is not in submission to, in obedience to the Lord. It is desolate. The things that you try to do in your own effort and energy fail, even if they're wildly successful.
Why? Because they have zero eternal significance and value. The efforts of our life feel, or in reality, are desolate. They have no lasting fruit. Sometimes we even feel that our life is desolate.
But then there is also an additional parallel reality. We see it in the second part of the verse: Your new name will be the city of God's delight and the bride of God, for the Lord delights in you. Pause right there. How can the Lord delight in us if there is a reality that we are forsaken, we have forsaken him, and there's nothing fruitful coming out of our life in regards to how God evaluates and measures something that is prosperous and fruitful according to God's standards. Elements and aspects of our life lie desolate.
That is a reality. But how do we reconcile these two different parallel realities? Because God says he still delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Can you see this is a nod, yes, or shake your head, no question for everybody Can you see these two parallel realities in this verse? I want to illustrate this principle a little further by going to a different place in the Bible.
If you have your Bible with you, hang aright, and let's go to the book of Zechariah. And if you go too far in Zechariah, or if you go too far you'll hit the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, and then you can back it up just a little bit until you land in Zechariah. While you turn to Zechariah, let's go to Zechariah chapter three. I'd like to this is a good opportunity to check-in with you on thoughts about what you saw in that first passage in Isaiah, and then we're gonna continue to develop this as we as we keep talking about this in Zechariah. So Kat has the mic here.
The reason why we use the mic so that we can hear your voice in the room, but then also for all of our livestream families that are watching online and participating in service, they get to hear your voice. So that's why we use the mic in here.
I just had the image of like an antique store. I know a lot of like antiquers that like go to their places like that and they find something and like it's just something you just probably would walk by or just like not even think twice about. But then you go to their house and it's like their centerpiece and it's the thing that draws out the most attention and just makes it wonderful in there. So I just think that's The former glory was there, but then it was cast away. I don't know, probably somebody died or something, and made it to the antique store.
And then like just taken it home and when nobody else realizes what a treasure you found but it's like then they come and see it once you finally like put it in its place.
Oh, alright. Great connection. That'll preach. Now, I'm going put these verses on the screen in Zechariah. Look at Zechariah three:one: Then the angel showed me Jeshua, and he is an actual historical figure during the time that the prophet Zechariah is speaking.
The Israelites have come out of exile. They've come back to the land of Jerusalem. They are rebuilding the temple, and Zechariah is a prophet during that day and age. He is speaking about the high priest in the land. He says, Then the angel showed me Jeshua, the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord.
The accuser, Satan, was there at the angel's right hand making accusations against Jeshua. This is what's unfolding as Zechariah the prophet is seeing it. Now let's go to verse three. It's on the screen there as well. Joshua's clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel.
So we see one present reality that is unfolding with two elements. Aspect and element number one is the accuser that is making accusations against Jeshua. That's in verse one. In verse three, we see that there is an acknowledgment of certain aspects of reality. Yep, his clothing was filthy.
Not even a little Tide pin could get that out. His entire clothing was filthy. He did not have, in his own effort and energy that place of clean garments or right standing with the Lord. The reality of his present condition is that his clothing was filthy, and that was symbolic of his acts, his deeds, spiritual condition, especially in the presence of a holy God. Here's what a lot us tend to do.
We tend to when we realize we've messed up and we've blown it, and we get some soil on our clothing. We tend to do, and I'm morally speaking, what we tend to do is compare ourselves with somebody else and say, Well, at least the stains, the grass stains on my knees are not as bad as the person Who do we always tend to compare ourselves with? Who? Somebody that is dirtier than us. They've got grass stains on the knees and the elbows.
Well I mean yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not as bad as and then the scale is sliding, and we tend to look at somebody else who who we either think has messed up worse, or maybe actually has messed up worse than us. We're living a lifestyle that is that is lower than ours. And that's how we rationalize, justify, excuse the filthiness on our garments. We say, Well, I mean I only sleep with my boyfriend. I'm not sleeping around town like eight other girls that I know that live in the house.
I only sleep with my boyfriend. I only smoke weed if I have some to share. Are you picking up what I'm putting down though? We all do it. We've all messed up and we've blown it.
And in order to justify our present condition, we tend to look at somebody else's lifestyle, and the lifestyle that they're living, and that helps us to feel better about ours. To justify the filthy clothes that we have. Quick story, Lissa and I, our family, with Salenkai when they were little, we spent two and a half months in Mongolia. There was a long stint that we went without a shower, but none of us had a shower. When we came into the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, we had been like fifty three, fifty four days without a shower.
We were driving into the city and we're like, I don't know, are we dirty? We're looking around at each other. We're like, I mean, I think it did pretty good for fifty four days without a shower. And we we had a hotel reservation at this nice hotel in Ulaanbaatar. Where we were going to spend a couple of days and shower up and refit and regroup before we continued on.
We hadn't gotten one step in the front door of the hotel, when all the way across the lobby, like from here to the entrance of the Virginian Saloon, all of us could smell the lady's laundry soap on her clothes. I could distinctly smell her shampoo and conditioner in her hair, her perfume, and the cleaner that was used on the floor. All of those smells distinctly came uniquely to our nostrils. We looked around at each other. We looked at the lady with the smiling hair at the front desk.
Crisp white shirt, and we instantly realized the reality of the condition of our clothes that we had been camping in and living in for fifty four days.
Not good.
Like Joshua and Ezekiel. I keep pointing back here because that's the screen that I can see. You reference your screen. Zechariah three:three, his clothing was filthy. But now let's look at the parallel reality by looking at verse two.
It's on the screen here. The Lord said to Satan, I the Lord reject your accusations. Yes, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire. What has the Lord done for Jerusalem?
Chosen her. In the midst of the reality that Jeshua's clothing was filthy, and he's a representative of Jerusalem. In the midst of his filthy, stained clothes, the Lord chooses Jerusalem. There's a great song that Billy Graham, the evangelist, would always use as his invitation to salvation. And the band would come up, and every single time without fail, they would sing this old hymn, Just as I am.
I come before the Lord just as I am. Now, it makes sense in our human understanding that we would say, Oh, I've got to get my act together before I come to church. I've got to get my act together. I need to take some coloring lessons before I scribble on a page and hand it to the Lord. But there is a reality that is parallel to the one that we try to construct about getting our act together.
That parallel reality is in the midst of our filthy garments, in the midst of our failure, forsakenness, desolation, the Lord delights in us and he chooses us. I would love to hear your thoughts on what I just said. Mike will come all the way over to you.
The story I thought of in the Bible to compare to that is in Hosea the prophet. And the Lord asked him to marry a prostitute. And he's like, why? And he said, well, here let me find it. So you don't get Amanda's version.
As colorful as it is.
It's too colorful for church. Okay. Hosea one two. When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, go and marry a prostitute so that some of her children will be conceived. This will illustrate how this is what God is saying.
This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods. But he wanted to have and it goes on, he wanted to have redemption. And so Hosea did it out of obedience. And there's a whole story, you should read it if you haven't, in Hosea, how Gomer the prostitute did her thing that she's always known to do even though she was married. And Hosea still took her back because the Lord asked for that.
And he said, I want this to be a representation of how I am taking back Israel and redeeming her despite her naughty behavior.
Fantastic connection. In in verse four of that passage in Zechariah, For the Lord delights in you, sometimes when we read that word in English, there is a significant difference between the Hebrew meaning but there's just there's acute little nuance nuance to the definition. In English we think of that word delight. We have our own understanding and definition that's commonly accepted for all of us: to delight in. In Hebrew, it means something very similar: to take delight to something, to delight in, to cherish it, to enjoy it, to appreciate it.
But the root word for delight comes with this idea of bending low, and it carries with it the imagery of two things. Number one, taking the time to bend down and look and consider. Not just like, Oh, I delight in that. That's really nice. The Lord does not take your sin and just sweep it under the carpet and say, Oh, well, I'm going to overlook that.
I delight in you. No, no, no. There is this idea of dealing with our sin so that he can genuinely bend down low and take delight. And the idea of bending in Hebrew carries with it this imagery like the tail of a dog that bends. And listener be warned that Pastor Brian is going to stretch the Hebrew definition just a little bit so that you can get the cute imagery of a dog's tail that's bent, that wags back and forth.
When a dog is taking great delight in something, boy, his tail is going and going and going. To take delight in. You make the Lord's tail wag? We'll consider it. Jay, what do you got?
I love in verse two at the end how it's talking about God's people being a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire. And that just reminds me of that comparison thing that you were talking about. Like we're just another stick in the fire. Everything around us including ourselves is burning. And that's like our environment.
So we're kind of like, oh, well we're all going down together. Like I keep seeing polls about our country and the world and everybody thinks it's going down the toilet. And everyone's just kind of throwing up their hands like, well what are you going to do? Like I can't I can't make a change. I can't make a difference.
And I just see how we're chosen. And I love that example you gave in Mongolia when you saw the hotel receptionist of when you were able to see not that she was necessarily holy or righteous Yep. But something clean like that. I see that as a challenge in my own life of am I encountering the holy and the righteous? Am I putting myself around those people getting into that intimate space with the Lord to where I'm able to encounter and and have my own sin in my life revealed to me?
And I think that's so important because a lot of us feel a sense of conviction and wanna distance ourselves and go hang out with the other burning sticks because we feel comfortable there. When in reality, we're called to be snatched from the fire and to be to encounter the holy.
I love that. Jay's personality is a challenger. And don't get too close to Jay or he will challenge you. Jay is saying, If there's nobody for me to challenge, I'm going to point two fingers back at myself and I'll challenge me. Do I have any grass stains in my life?
Instead of making excuses for the grass stains on my elbows by hanging out with other people who have grass stains on their elbows, I want to get around some OxiClean people. Bring me up. Challenge me. Lord, search my heart. Find out this is what I'm pointing to you because I know it's one of your favorite verses.
Lord, search my heart for anything offensive in you, and lead me in the way of everlasting. Purify me from that. Come on. Romans eight. I have it up here on the screen.
Romans eight. I only have three more verses. Romans eight thirty three-thirty four: Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? For God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us?
There is a reality that the world, the enemy, and perhaps even our own self sabotaging, self loathing aspect of all of our personalities would try to agree with the accusations of the enemy. But God doesn't even listen to us. Praise the Lord. No one, for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us. And he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand pleading for us.
On one hand you have the accuser of the brethren saying, but yeah she did this and she did that and she thought this and she said that. And there is a reality to it, but he takes it so far beyond into the realm of condemnation. And his goal is to get us to agree with those accusations. Yep. So that we disqualify ourselves from being his prized artwork on the refrigerator.
But God doesn't even listen to us at times. Praise the Lord. But he says, here is here is the reality. Here is the reality. The reality is if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation and he has been given right standing with me.
And Jesus reminds the Lord of that. Is Jesus not like that watchman that has been placed on the wall in Isaiah 62? Day and night they cry out, and he says, I'll give the Lord no rest until he until he fulfills all of his promises for Jerusalem. Is not Jesus the watchman on our wall crying out day and night for the Lord? But Lord, you said that they have right standing with you.
Not that he's forgetful or that he's like on the verge of like, well, I might take away right standing, but that Jesus is our watchman on the wall of our life crying out day and night. That will preach really good. Deuteronomy chapter four. I said I've got three verses left. Here's the second one.
Deuteronomy nine. This is so good. I'll give you a second to turn there in your paper Bibles because it's so good. This is for us, and it is for Israel today. Deuteronomy chapter nine.
I'm gonna start reading in verse four. It's so good. Take your little pen, put some brackets around it. Yes.
Did I
sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah.
Nine. Little dot dot, what's that called? Yeah, there you go, colon, shrink, dot dot shrink, four through six. Every week Joy and members of our staff team on Monday, I'll hear about it tomorrow, Hey, let me proofread your keynote. And I'm like, I don't know, I kind of feel like that might take away from like Look at Corey.
Corey's a feel he's feeling embarrassed for me. He's like, the joke was pretty good. Little grass stains on old Pastor Brian's elbows. Deuteronomy four-six. It's so good.
I'm so glad that you were able to turn there in your paper Bibles. You found it, because it's just worth putting brackets around it. It's so good. In verse four, he says, after the Lord your God has done this for you, don't say in your hearts, the Lord has given us this land, because we are such good people. Moses is speaking to the nation of Israel.
No. It is because the wickedness of the other nations that the Lord is pushing them out of your way. It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy the land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As a quick side geopolitical note, the land is Israel's because of God's eternal covenant with Israel.
He gave it is his to give every square inch of dirt that you could ever set your foot on, or water that you could splash in is his because he created all of it. He owns it, and he gets to give whatever he wants to whomever he chooses for whatever reason he wants. And when he makes a promise, he doesn't break it. And he says right here, this land that you're about to enter and occupy is the land that I have given you based upon a promise that I made generations ago. Verse six: You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you're not.
Then he just gives them a little reality deal. For you're a stubborn people. This is the last verse that we're going to go to. Isaiah chapter 50 verses eight and nine. Isaiah is speaking and he says, He who gives me justice is near.
Who will dare bring charges against me now? And it's on the screen so that you can read it. Where are my accusers? Let them appear. See, the sovereign Lord is on my side.
Who will declare me guilty? Man, if today, even just a little bit of that religious bent that you have in your heart that says, If I do good, the Lord will be pleased with me, and if I do bad then he won't be pleased with me. That's a religious attitude, and it needs to be broken off of you, because you get into this performance based relationship, and your your your nearness with the Lord ebbs and flows and vacillates based upon whether or not you've colored how well you've colored inside the lines or not. Let's just who will declare me guilty? All of my enemies will be destroyed like old clothes that have been eaten by moths.
Let me just let me just say this to you. My sin doesn't change my righteous nature anymore than my goodness changed my sin nature back before I was saved. Yeah? Say it one more time. Alright.
Here, you can write it down. My sin doesn't change my righteous nature anymore than my goodness changed my sin nature. So there's two parallel realities that we get to choose which one we live in. Do we choose to live every day in the reality that there's nothing that we can do to earn God's favor and kindness on our life, but that if we accept his free gift of an unmerited favor, which is only achieved through the applying of the shed blood of Jesus to our life and on our hearts. That's what it means to be saved.
I realized that I got grass stains from knees, elbows, on the seats of my jeans and everywhere else, and no amount of, like, trying to cover it up or hiding it or or being with a bunch of other people who have grass stains on their knees and elbows will change it. Only the shed and precious blood of Jesus is how I can attain that right standing by asking for forgiveness, laying down my life, and receiving his life. That's how that right standing is is bestowed upon us. But if we've done that, if we've done that, there is a constant battle to continue to reject the accusations of the enemy that would try to bring us into that other reality that we're forsaken, that we're desolate. Well, I don't deserve to be the Lord's delight.
We have to choose reality that we live in. The reality that we've been forgiven, the reality that we are his favorite, and that you have rightfully before the eyes of the law have been found innocent in light of what Jesus substituted on your behalf, his life. And that's why Israel can say that and that's why that's why God sees it right now as the Lord's delight. And there is coming a future melding together of these two parallel realities where Israel the the Bible says that there's coming a day when Israel will look upon the one whom they have pierced and each one will weep, each in their own tent and men separate from women. They will realize their Messiah has come.
Two thousand years ago, as a carpenter from Nazareth, the suffering servant, who in the book of Daniel, it says that it will appear as though he accomplished nothing. But they'll look and realize, oh, it was him. And they'll turn to him. He will calm all of their fears. He will rejoice over them.
He will bandage up their wounds. And I think maybe why don't we go here next week in our conversation that he will lead them back. Let's go there next week thematically in our conversation in Isaiah 62. He'll lead them back to Israel and to Jerusalem where commander where Jesus, commander of the IDF forces. How about that?
Jesus, thank you. Thank you. Maybe somebody in here today needs to repent of their sin and invite Jesus into their heart. And either for the very first time or for the first time in a long time, you turn to him. Ask him to forgive you.
Come to him just as you are, and then allow Jesus, the king of kings and the lord of lords, to apply his shed blood to your account so that you may experience the present reality that he delights in you. So just talk to him. You deserve the glory. So I get this picture in my in my mind of somebody that has they've got a court date. And on the day of their their court appearance, the judge is there, and they come in with a a broom and a rag and some Windex.
And they're, like like, spraying down the tables and, like, trying to wipe down the tables, and they got the little broom, and they're they're sweeping. And the judge is, what are you doing? And that person 's like, I mean, I got a court date today and, yeah, we're gonna talk about what happened. But I I just I don't know. I just thought maybe, you know, I do a little sweeping, you know, kinda you know, maybe that would, you know, kinda move the needle of your heart, judge.
And the judge is like, man, appreciate that, but you're kinda just spinning your wheels here. Like, that's I don't base my decisions on, like, you've messed up, you've blown it, and you're, like, trying to be, like, nice to me by, like, sweeping the floors. I appreciate the lint roller on my black robe, but like that's not gonna have any bearing on what's about to happen here. In a similar way, for a person that realizes that they've messed up and they've blown it and they're like like trying to like sweep the courtroom floor real quick that has no bearing on the judge's decision. And if you have invited Jesus into your heart in a similar way, it's as if, Jesus, you died on the cross for me that that that first time, but I've messed up and I blown it and, like, I don't wanna put you back up on the cross.
You you come down from there and let me put myself up there. I mean, I I that's a reality that you need to abandon and step into the reality that you are the Lord's delight. In Jesus' name, step into that reality.
As we close service, we're just gonna stay in this attitude of worship just a few minutes longer. And this is the time where we bring our tithe and our offering to the Lord. And you hear this all the time here at Tribe, but this is not bringing our tithe to him is not like an active service. Like, oh, it's church. It's what you do.
It's like a heart posture. If you've had an encounter with the living God, there's nothing off the table that you wouldn't give to him. And so the measuring stick we use, kinda like what we were talking about today, it doesn't matter how dirty you are or how dirty your friend is, the measuring stick we use is the word. What does God say? That's the measuring stick or the the compass, the North Star that we use as God's word.
How am I compared to what the Bible is saying? So when we when we bring our tithe and our offering, it's an act of worship to him. And when your heart is calibrated and postured correctly, you say, God, it's all yours anyway. I live my life with open hands and an open heart. Stuff comes, stuff goes.
There's highs and lows. That sounds like a poem all the right.
I don't
have another rhyme. But man, it's a heart posture. It's an act of worship. You say, Lord, what do you want me to bring to you today? Why do we bring I mean, we can tithe our time, our talent, and our treasure, but that stuff is valuable to us.
That's why God asks it of us, because it shows him how much we love him. I had the most random thought sitting over there, and I think it ties in. If not, it just we'll just pray and go. But I think it's from the Lord. When I was very little, one of my earliest memories, and it's so random, was my mom asking me, she said, somebody at our church's house burned down.
They had a fire. We're like, let's let's give them stuff. What do you want to give them? And I remember my my most ungenerous tiny little heart. I was little, maybe three or so.
I was like, oh, okay, their house burned down. I'll give them some stickers. And you know, like a kid brain, that's cute or whatever, but like, not the whole sheet. I remember getting my little scissors with my chubby hands and cutting out just like a portion of the sticker page to give to a family who's post burned down. I've changed since then, thankfully.
But I don't remember feeling stingy, like that's all I knew, I guess. I'm giving my mom credit. She's probably like, okay, for that answer, we're giving everything away. But that's all I knew. That's where I was at.
I was like, oh, sure. This is what I'll give. And I'm just thinking of that as we bring our tithe and our offering. What does that mean to you? What does that mean in your life?
You don't just kind of give what you want, I guess is what I'm trying to say. You be obedient to the Lord and what he's asking of you with your time, your talent, and your treasure. So let's pray over the offering. Ways to give, you probably know, but here on our website, tribegh.com, there's a giving link. You can give cash or check.
If there's anything tangible, there's a little box right there on your way out. You can put it in there. And then you see on the screen, the easiest way to give is just by starting a text to 84321, and you type in the amount you'd like
to give, and it gives you
some instructions for there. So whether you're giving now or another time, whatever your rhythm is, let's just close our eyes together as a family while we're here together corporately, and let's pray over this. Heavenly Father, we just come to you with open hands and open hearts, and we just say it's all yours anyway. The very breath in our lungs that we were able to wake up with today is yours because of you. You gave that to us.
That's a gift. So, father, our time and our talent and our treasure, we realize is also a gift from you. I pray that we will steward that those things well. Help us to be good stewards of the
gifts that you give us.
And, father, as we bring our tithe and above that our offering to you, we just say, Lord, thank you for who you are. Thank you that you let us be a part of what you're doing and how you're moving. Thank you that we get to be a part of the local church who is your hands and feet in a tangible way to people who so desperately need you around us and around the world. Thank you that we get to be a part of the gospel and what you're doing and how you're moving and how you're wooing people to you. Man, what an honor to be a part of that.
So we say thank you in advance for the fruit that's to come of our obedience, whether we get to see it or not. We just trust you in that. In Jesus' name we say, amen. Shall I give an update of the Israel Fund? Yes, You can do that?
Okay. Perfect. So just three quick announcements, and then Brian will come back up here and let you let you know that. Sorry. Was that a surprise or okay.
So three quick things. In two weeks from now, we're having pecky day. Pecky day is not something you'll see on your Google Calendar, but you will see it on the tribe calendar. It's not a national holiday yet, but it is something that that tribe celebrates. Don't worry about it.
Just come and you'll see. It's about being thankful. It's intentionally right before Thanksgiving, and it's a beautiful story of God's goodness and how faithful he is. And so we'll celebrate that big in two weeks. If you want to be a part of something bigger than yourself, come at 08:45 here to the saloon and meet with Lanisha.
She comes at 08:45 and prays just for about an hour every Sunday before service. And it just gets your heart right. I mean, praying is not a bad idea ever. And it you we just pray for all of you who are coming in, that your hearts will be ready and all kinds of stuff. So come and meet Lanisha at 08:45 here and just pray.
This is your church. Invest in this. Spend your time. It's worth doing. And then the last thing, we have some new tribe merch up on the bar.
Go and scan that QR code if you'd like one of those sweatshirts. Scan the code, pay the money, and be on your way. Feel free if you're not sure what size, feel free to run-in the bathroom and try one or two on that. That's no problem. They run a little bit small.
Special sign that's hard to say. Special sign up sheet.
If there's, like, a color you want with the sizes in there, just write it down more. Wonderful.
It's very accommodating. How nice of us. Brian, please.
Today's theme, sticker sheets and coloring pages. I like that. I like that. So quick update, Daniel, stand, pray for you. Last week, we received a special offering for a specific family living in Israel that are dear friends of ours.
Our our offering goal, per the needs that they have shared with us was $5,000. I wanted to let you know that we have reached that goal, which is wonderful. And a couple of things, we have service on Tuesday night at 6PM. We do a meal, and typically a lot of young adults come to that service. And I wanna let you know that more than half of that amount came in on our Tuesday young adult service.
Give it up for our young adults. On Tuesday, over half came in from them, and they're the ones that cram 10 to a house and are like eating top ramen on peanut butter and jelly or whatever it is that they're doing to like make it in this valley. Over half. So not only that, but we also exceeded that $5,000 goal and we're close to $6,000 as of this Sunday. The the fund will stay open and beyond that $5,000, we will let that accumulate.
So if you haven't been and you would like to give, you can still give to that fund. And it's it's our Israel Relief Fund. I have no idea how you'll find it. There was a QR code last week that you can scan. Oh, it's under the it's on our website under giving.
There you go. Woo hoo. So that's that that well, looky there. That will that will stay up. Nina.
Next week, I wanna share a a baptism video with you. We didn't get to, like, prerun that in service for the audio check. So we'll share a really cool baptism that happened in the Snake River last week, and yes, it was cold, but man was it glorious. We'll share that story with you. Above any funds that come in, beyond that beyond that $5,000, we'll stay in that fund for additional needs that come up, and and we'll let you know about that.
Please stand up. Please be continuing please continue to keep Israel in your prayers and for the hostages that are are that are exactly known of their location to the Lord. IDF soldiers, innocent civilians in Gaza, just pray a lot for Israel and all of those associated and connected. And have a childlike heart this week. Color outside the lines with your little chubby fingers for the Lord.
He loves you. Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over each and every person here today. Lord, allow them to reconnect with that innocent childlike heart that you place them with. Help them. Help them.
Help them. Help them to just see your delight in them, that they would choose to live in the reality of your great delight in them. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, amen. I love you guys so much.
I want you to have a great week. Either get the brown down or get your skis out and get out there. The snow is coming. And remember, Maddie, you got this.
Share this message
Every word on these came out of the message. Download one and post it anywhere.
