Lissa quotes it: behold I stand at the door and knock, anyone who opens it
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.
Brian reads it as a parallel vision of end times alongside Matthew 24
1 “At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 Those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the expanse. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars forever and ever.
4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge will be increased.”
Brian reads it about the sons of Issachar understanding the signs of the times
32 Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their heads were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their command.
Brian references God placing lights in the sky to mark signs and seasons
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
7 God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
8 God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
10 God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good.
11 God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth”; and it was so.
12 The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
21 God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.
22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.
31 God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Ella reads it: darkness fell across the whole land from noon to three during the crucifixion and the temple curtain tore
1 The whole company of them rose up and brought him before Pilate.
2 They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
3 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “So you say.”
4 Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
5 But they insisted, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee even to this place.”
6 But when Pilate heard Galilee mentioned, he asked if the man was a Galilean.
7 When he found out that he was in Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem during those days.
8 Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard many things about him. He hoped to see some miracle done by him.
9 He questioned him with many words, but he gave no answers.
10 The chief priests and the scribes stood, vehemently accusing him.
11 Herod with his soldiers humiliated him and mocked him. Dressing him in luxurious clothing, they sent him back to Pilate.
12 Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before that they were enemies with each other.
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people,
14 and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and behold, having examined him before you, I found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.
15 Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him, and see, nothing worthy of death has been done by him.
16 I will therefore chastise him and release him.”
17 Now he had to release one prisoner to them at the feast.
18 But they all cried out together, saying, “Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas!”—
19 one who was thrown into prison for a certain revolt in the city, and for murder.
20 Then Pilate spoke to them again, wanting to release Jesus,
21 but they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify him!”
22 He said to them the third time, “Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.”
23 But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed.
24 Pilate decreed that what they asked for should be done.
25 He released him who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus up to their will.
26 When they led him away, they grabbed one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it after Jesus.
27 A great multitude of the people followed him, including women who also mourned and lamented him.
28 But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
29 For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
30 Then they will begin to tell the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and tell the hills, ‘Cover us.’
31 For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?”
32 There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death.
33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots.
35 The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”
36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar,
37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
38 An inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
39 One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”
40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Don’t you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
43 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.
45 The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
46 Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last.
47 When the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man.”
48 All the multitudes that came together to see this, when they saw the things that were done, returned home beating their breasts.
49 All his acquaintances, and the women who followed with him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
50 Behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man
51 (he had not consented to their counsel and deed), from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was also waiting for God’s Kingdom:
52 this man went to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body.
53 He took it down, and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was cut in stone, where no one had ever been laid.
54 It was the day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath was drawing near.
55 The women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid.
56 They returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The Sunday after Easter, Brian preached a message he called "Filtering the Future," using the next day's solar eclipse as a live example. The question on the table was how Christians should think about big, potentially significant world events without either dismissing them or losing their heads.
What was said
Brian opened by setting two goals for the message. He wanted to pull anyone who rolls their eyes at eclipse prophecy talk a little closer to "we might want to pay attention," and he wanted to pull anyone already convinced the sky is falling a little closer to "let's take a breath." His word for the posture in between was "maybe," and he asked the room to practice saying it out loud.
Before getting into the argument, Brian introduced a principle he said was key to wisdom: knowing whether a situation calls for a "problem to solve" strategy or a "tension to manage" strategy. He told a story from his days as a children's pastor in Tulsa, where he and the facilities manager were constantly at odds over the mess ministry makes. Their senior pastor eventually told them both they were wrong, that the situation was not a problem to solve but a tension to manage. The point was that wise people know which approach fits which situation, and that applying the wrong one keeps you stuck.
From there, Brian laid out three filters he said every Christian should run events through: God's word, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and a sound mind. He was quick to say these only work together. Scripture alone, he said, can be used to say almost anything if it isn't held alongside the Spirit's living guidance and the rational mind God gave you. Using all three at once is what keeps you from ending up in a ditch on either side.
The sermon opened up into a back-and-forth with the room about what God's word actually says about signs in the sky. People brought up Genesis 1 and God placing the lights in the sky to mark signs and seasons, the star of Bethlehem, and the darkness that fell during the crucifixion in Luke 23. Brian let those observations build on each other. The picture that came together was that atmospheric events have a biblical track record of coinciding with significant spiritual moments, which means they are worth noticing, but noticing is not the same as knowing.
Brian drew from Daniel 12 and 1 Chronicles 12 to press home why this matters. The men of Issachar understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take. He said you don't get to be that kind of person for your family or your community while keeping your head down and ignoring the world around you. He also read from Matthew 24, where Jesus warns his followers not to be fooled by people claiming to be him, and says birth pains and signs in the heavens will increase before his return.
One thread that came up more than once was the difference between a word from the Spirit that is for you personally and one that is for everyone. Brian said that in prophetic ministry, people often take something that landed powerfully in their own heart and try to force it on others, and that's where things go sideways. The question to ask, he said, is whether it's just for me or whether there's something here for anyone with ears to hear.
He closed the argument by describing the three filters as an open door to God's office. Whatever tomorrow's eclipse does or doesn't mean, he said, if it gets you on your knees asking God a question, it will have been worth it. He told the room to spend a little less time on TikTok and YouTube and more time in God's throne room, and said that is what sets a person up to shine bright in days of increasing complexity, which he said is what 2024 looks like from where he stands.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
Before you scroll through your news feed about the eclipse or any other unfolding event this week, spend a few minutes in God's word and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about what you are reading.
When something in the world feels either alarming or easy to dismiss, practice saying 'maybe' and hold it in tension rather than landing hard on one end of the spectrum.
Identify one situation in your life right now where you have been trying to solve a problem when it might actually be a tension to manage, and ask God for discernment about which approach fits.
If fear or anxiety is sitting on you this week, don't pray alone a thirteenth time in isolation, reach out to someone in the Tribe fam and ask them to stand with you in prayer.
Find a few minutes this week to step into God's 'open office hours,' as Brian put it, and simply tell him what is actually weighing on your heart, eclipse or otherwise.
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 the difference between a 'problem to solve' and a 'tension to manage,' and used his experience with Dick at the Tulsa church as an example. Where in your own life have you mistaken a tension to manage for a problem to solve, or the other way around? What happened?
Brian suggested three filters for walking in wisdom when looking at events around us: God's word, the Holy Spirit, and a sound mind. Which of those three do you lean on most naturally, and which do you tend to skip? Why do you think that is?
El domingo 8 de abril, Pastor Brian comenzó reconociendo que al día siguiente habría un eclipse solar visible en gran parte de los Estados Unidos. Usó ese evento como punto de partida para hablar sobre cómo los creyentes deben interpretar los eventos del mundo, ya sean señales en el cielo o cualquier otra situación de incertidumbre. Su mensaje central fue que los cristianos están llamados a caminar en sabiduría, no a ignorar lo que sucede a su alrededor ni a entrar en pánico, sino a mantenerse en un punto de equilibrio reflexivo.
Para ayudar a la congregación a llegar a ese equilibrio, Pastor Brian presentó dos estrategias que usamos para enfrentar los desafíos de la vida: tratar algo como un problema que hay que resolver, o tratarlo como una tensión que hay que administrar. Explicó que la sabiduría consiste en saber cuál de las dos usar en cada situación. Luego propuso tres filtros con los que los creyentes deben examinar los eventos a su alrededor: la Palabra de Dios, la voz del Espíritu Santo, y la mente sana que Dios nos ha dado. Usó estos tres filtros para guiar una conversación abierta con la congregación sobre el eclipse, invitando a todos a participar con sus pensamientos y preguntas.
También hubo una dedicación de bebé, donde Pastor Brian explicó que en Tribe este acto no representa la salvación del niño, sino una bendición sobre su vida y un compromiso de la familia y la iglesia de ayudar a criarla en el conocimiento de Dios. La mañana incluyó momentos de oración intercesora, un tiempo de adoración profundo, y una ofrenda. Pastor Brian cerró pidiendo a Dios sabiduría y claridad para los días que vienen.
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Pasajes bíblicos usados:
Mateo 24:32-36
Daniel 12:1-4
1 Crónicas 12:32
Génesis 1 (sobre las luces del cielo para señales y estaciones)
Lucas 23 (la oscuridad durante la crucifixión de Jesús)
Efesios (no se citó el versículo exacto, pero se hizo referencia a orar por todo)
Romanos (referencia al Espíritu Santo que habla a nuestros corazones)
Jeremías (referencia a entrar en el consejo del Señor)
Levítico 8:22-24 (leído durante la dedicación de bebé)
Proverbios (referencia a la Palabra como lámpara a los pies)
Read the full transcript11,632 words
Good morning, everybody. Let's rejoice together this morning. Let's think about these truths that we have in Jesus.
Come on.
Could hold his body down. Amen. If you walked out of the grave, I'm walking to everything that Jesus did. You walked out of the grave I'm walking to. He said you'll do these things and greater.
You walked out of the grave I'm to. Oh, yeah. You walked out of the grave I'm walking Let's sing this part again, that there was a battle. Just think about this. There was a battle, a war between death and life.
There on a Hallelujah. That we worship a risen savior. Amen. So I was gonna ask Lee to share something this morning. I'll let you preface it, Lee.
Do you wanna just come up here so everyone can see your handsome face this morning? Come stand right here. No. No. Look.
Wear the hat. It's good. We all. It's good. Just come stand right here, lean and you'll be in the livestream.
Perfect. Thank you, sir.
Well, the lord put something on my heart early this morning and I tried to avoid it. But he kept me awake until I said, okay. I will speak what you want me to speak. But it's gonna be up to Lisa. I put it on her.
If it's appropriate and whenever the time is is right. So he's reminding us that several months ago, he encouraged us and told us that his tribe family, us, that we are a special cadre that he has assigned for us to be spiritual warriors to take back what's been lost in our communities, to take back what's been lost in our our families. But he said there's more. And he said, I want my tribe people to worship me in spirit and in truth. And he said, my servant, pastor Brian, has encouraged you to participate in this sermon.
There's an exchange, a back and forth. And he said, I delight in hearing this exchange, this conversation. It's it's not the typical church, but it brings us, all of us, out of our shell. It brings us out of that comfort zone. And he said, that is the good thing.
But there's more. He said, I want my people to worship in spirit and truth, to worship boldly, to worship with intent, to worship with direction. He said, your worship is not is not for him. It's not for god. It's it's for us because as we worship in spirit and truth, we enter into his presence.
We enter into his glory And we when we are in his presence, when we're in his glory, there is an exchange. There's an impartation. It's mysterious to us, but he wants us to know it's real. It's valid, that he imparts to us things that we don't even know that we need. And he wants us to be aware of that even though we may not feel any different.
The truth is there is impartation as we enter into his glory, as we worship his spirit and the truth. And he says, shout. Shout to me. Step out of your comfort zone. He says, I've not given you a spirit of fear, a spirit of timidity, but I've given you a spirit of love, a spirit of power, and authority, and a sound mind.
And he said, just because you get out of your comfort zone and worship loudly and raise your hands and do things that is a little uncomfortable to you, It doesn't mean you don't have a sound mind. He says, I'm telling you, you have a sound mind because I am the God that created you, and I gave you a sound mind. And don't be afraid of being embarrassed. Don't be afraid of stepping outside of the comfort zone in a time of worship. Lord, we bless your name.
We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for these things that you speak to us. We thank you for our family, for our tribe family. We thank you for the unity. We thank you that we are a cadre, a special cadre, a special group of people.
You've called us in into this place. We thank you for that. We bless your name. We bless your word. Amen.
Amen. Let's do
Let's sing that verse again. Sing that out. We're going in We're the to to in of Jesus. Fear and anxiety this morning. I just ask that you would be bold, be courageous because the spirit of God is here.
And maybe you just need someone to lay a hand on you and intercede. So if that's you this morning, just put your hand up and people around you will lay their hand on you and pray for you and speak the name of Jesus over you today. Sometimes, we just need intercession. We need other believers to stand with us. So, if that's you, if you need some prayer assistance this morning, as we sing this, just raise your hand.
Just be bold.
Yes,
Lord. Yes, Lord. Right now, I just break off the fear that would keep someone from even raising their hand because maybe they've seen the enemy raise its ugly head. So someone put a hand on Mark back there, put a hand on John. Anybody else need to be prayed over this morning.
Maybe you've prayed a dozen times and maybe a lie in your mind is right now is like, well, I've asked for prayer for that a dozen times. Well, you know what? Maybe the thirteenth time is where the enemy says, oh, they they mean it. They mean it today. There's freedom.
Prayer for fear and anxiety today. As they you. The Bible tells us over and over to lift a new song unto the Lord. That's a song that comes from our spirit to him. So today we just lift that prayer up as a song.
Just lift a song up to him and if you're not a singer, it does not matter. You have the spirit of God living inside of you today. You open your mouth and if all you can say is thank you, that's enough. So we're just gonna lift our voice as they pray for just a minute. Just practice, just practice lifting your voice to him.
Him.
That's right. Just open your mouth and just praise him.
That's right. You got it.
One more time. Jesus, we love you. Let's just lift the love song to him.
Oh, how we love.
Let's make it personal.
You are the one my heart adore.
Say, Jesus, I love you. Your constant grace remains the cornerstone. Just believe these words this morning. Just like the woman that came in with the perfume and poured out everything that was precious to her. She didn't care what the men around her were thinking.
She didn't care the setting. Her one desire was to be close to you, Jesus, to pour out her affection. Lord, let us be those people who would throw everything off, who wouldn't care what anyone around us thought, but we would just desire so deeply to be close to you. It may look like we don't have a friend in the world, but Lord you are worth it. We feel like we stand alone sometimes, but to be at your feet pouring out our affection and our gratitude is the best posture we could ever be in.
So just as we sing this last part, just don't hold back from him the affection of your heart. Maybe there's anger mixed in with it. Maybe there's a lot of tears mixed in that affection. A lot of questions, just pour it out, your affection. It's what he longs for, to be close to you.
One more time. Let's lift our voices. Let's fill this room with praise. We sing that to you today and you sing a love song back over us. Oh, we just long, long for your presence.
If there's anyone in this room under the sound of my voice right now who Jesus is still an idea, Jesus is still a story in a book or a story you've heard. If God is still a concept to you today, What you need is an encounter with Jesus because once you meet him, nothing anyone can say can ever talk you in or out of anything else. So, Lord, we ask today for every heart in this room to encounter you by your spirit. That's what changes us. Not good songs or a good message preached well.
It's meeting you. That's what sustains us. Is that knowing, that deep knowing that we are known and we are loved by you, God. That you would come and meet me in this place. That I come in with these idle sticks, dragging myself in and I open my mouth to give you praise and you're like, there you are, my beloved.
Encounter us today. Continue. And maybe there's a decision on your part that needs to be made this morning to give him permission to come in because he's a gentleman, his word says. Says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. Anyone who opens it, that's our part.
We have to open it. Maybe you've prayed a prayer, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, do this thing. But you've never opened the door to give him permission to go into that dark closet of depression or anxiety or the trauma for him to come in and just move. So let me give you permission this morning. We give you permission.
You are the safest, most wonderful, trustworthy counselor we could ever ever put our hope in. Thank you for your spirit in this place today. Continue to move in this room and in our hearts as we get into your word and move in a different kind of worship of honoring you and honoring your word and the word preached today. Change us. Let's just kinda stay in this attitude of worship.
Go ahead and just have a seat. You can just get your Bibles out and just continue to speak to the Lord. Thank you, sir. Totally.
No.
Yeah.
Feels good. What that is is the presence of the lord. Perhaps, many of you are accustomed to that but maybe some of you are like, what's that? I mean, the coffee is good but the press that that's the presence of the lord. As we get started, you know, one of y'all, yeah, you're on a roll.
Just keep keep your locomotion and come right up here. Let me go over here. We have a baby dedication. Stand right here. I'm gonna come out in just a moment.
But I knew this was coming and then I waited. Just behold, baby, she got a special dress. Oh my gosh. Her great great grandmothers. Hi.
Did she, oh my gosh. Okay. Okay. Let me find this. Let me find this passage.
Why did I wait until just now? I've had all of worship and we've known about it. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, last baby dedication, I totally read from the wrong spot. Y'all remember that? Oh, come on.
Okay. So we're gonna do a baby dedication this morning, and from time to time, we do baby dedications. And here's how we do baby dedications and the meaning behind it. Perhaps, the denominational or church background that you've come from, baby dedications were a a symbol or a sign or an act of salvation and or the removal of sin so that they would be saved unto salvation and as as sentimentally sweet as that sound, there's just no scriptural basis for it and I don't want to step on your like theological toes but there's there's just no foundation in god's word for for praying for a baby to be saved. Right now, this child is essentially covered under their parents policy if you will and there is a scriptural foundation for that that until they reach the age of accountability.
So, what we do whenever we do a baby dedication here at Tribe is we pray a blessing over this baby. We pray a blessing over the family and the extended family and by extension, we as a church family, by witnessing this baby dedication, what we do is we take our share of responsibility for helping raise this child in fear and admonition of the lord and the whole goal and you hear me say this maybe a few times, is that the earliest possible age. As soon as baby Helen is old enough to realize that she's broken god's law, she falls short of hers of his glorious standard In the best way that she knows how whether that happens at five fifteen or let's just let's aim for five. But at the earliest possible age, she will invite Jesus into her heart and make her the leader of her life. That's what we're praying over.
Does that make sense? Okay. So, now, I'm going to read from god's word something that we do here at Tribe and I found the the right place. I I actually underlined it this time so I don't like get off on in the weeds on something else. This is what I intend to read in Leviticus chapter eight verse 22.
It says, then Moses presented the other ram which was the ram of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the ram's head and Moses slaughtered it. Then Moses took some of its blood and applied it to the lobe of Aaron's right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. Next, Moses presented Aaron's sons and applied some of the blood to the lobes of their right ears, the thumbs of their right hand, and the big toes of their right feet. Then he splattered the rest of the blood against the side of the altar.
So that's what I want to read. We'll now have the ram come in. Just kidding. But it's a it's a it's a bit of like a oh what moment? Like why is this happening in the Bible and why is there blood that is being applied to these like odd and unusual like like places on a on a person's body and here's the idea.
In the Old Testament, blood was something that was very special and sacred and it was symbolic of god's covenant with man. The promise that he made to man and the promise was so strong that the only symbol that could represent the strength of the promise was blood and the reason why blood was applied to these different places. I know I'm hurrying. The reason why blood was applied to these places has some really cool symbolic connection to the the right big toe because it's really hard to stay balanced if you don't have your big toe and the idea is that the steps of the priest in in this case, baby Helen, would be ordered and ordained by the lord. Her right thumb so that all the works of her hands would be inspired and blessed by the lord and then her right ear so that she would always have an ear to hear the voice of the lord.
The work of her hands would be pleasing and honoring to him and that she would all always follow in his footsteps. Cool. So we're not gonna apply blood, but I do have some oil here. We're going for it. I love it.
I love
it. And
I'll just put it on the back of your hand because your hands are probably gonna go in your mouth numerous points during the service today. Let's pray for this family and it's so great that they have grandmother and extended other family here today and so, let's pray for this family And I'm gonna be still for just a moment as we do. Jesus, thank you so much for Braden and Meredith. Your word says that children are a blessing from the lord. We thank you for the blessing of Helen that you've given to this family.
Right now, we lift up baby Helen to you and we ask that her footsteps would be ordered by you, lord, that the work of her hands would be to bring you praise and glory and honor and that she would always hear your voice. Lord, we thank you for the legacy of faith in this family. And god, we ask that at the earliest possible age that little Helen would surrender her life and her heart to you. God, we pray for Braden and Meredith. We thank you for for what you're doing in their hearts through this.
We ask that you would provide for them financially. You would provide for them emotionally. You would provide for them with needs for bigger housing as their family grows and give them wisdom and favor for raising this precious little world changer. We pray all of these things in Jesus name and everybody said, amen. Thank you, guys.
You did really good. Yeah, you did. Yes, absolutely. So it's not it's not Helen's birthday, but I thought we would do one more thing just really quickly. Connor, I meant to text you this for Laura.
On the little Virginian iPad, would you look up that Beatles song for me really quick? Birthday and then let let's just do a a quick little sound check because we gotta do one more thing as we get going here today. Let let's do a sound check on it just to make sure it's the right song. Yep, you can bring that volume up more because we'll we're gonna do a little thing but like, little more, Little more. I mean, it's church not a funeral home.
Give me 25% more. Oh, it's louder out there. Okay. Okay. You can press pause.
Restart it, and today is my buddy Chip's birthday. He's back in Virginia Beach. So what I thought we'd do, and even if you don't know, I'm just pretend like you do. What I thought I'd do is I'm gonna give him a little birthday greeting, and then I'm gonna say to some other folks that wanna say happy birthday to you as well. And you can like hoop and holler, you can say happy birthday, and it'll be cute and he'll feel loved.
Can we do that as a Tribe fam? Okay. And then when I when I say there's some other people that wanna say happy birthday to you as well, then we'll queue the song. Alright.
Alright.
We go. Hey, Chip. Happy birthday, man. Just wanted to tell you I love you. Hope you have a great birthday today.
And there are a few friends that wanted to say happy birthday as well. And We'll be back here same time tomorrow. Yep. Lanisha has a birthday tomorrow. Oh, I should actually send that to him.
Here, will you send that to him real quick? And then Well, yeah, because like the moment will be gone otherwise. If you have your Bible with you this morning, would you turn to Matthew chapter 24? Here's something that you need to know about the vibe of tribe and about me personally. And I get this aspect of the culture of our church modeled for us by the Beastie Boys.
My favorite band growing up. And here's what's here's what's amazing about the Beastie Boys is that they took their music very, very seriously, but not themselves. And I think that is I think we can take that cue from them about how how we approach a relationship with god and it's just who I am. I take my faith very seriously. It is the most important thing in the whole wide world to me.
But I don't take myself too seriously. And I think that's a pretty good, unreligious approach to take to church. And hopefully you've picked up on that vibe here. We can sing a birthday song just after a moment of of prayer and encounter with the lord and we can be lighthearted, dare I say silly, and then jump right back into the seriousness of god's word. It's when we think that we have to be staunch and and proper.
I'm not talking about being disrespectful or or lacking proper decorum or irreverent. Thank you. But I think that we can take our faith in what we're doing here as a community very seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. Can we do that? Mostly because a lot of you know me, and you know I ain't perfect.
And I know many of you and I know you ain't perfect. So, we're not fooling anybody. Let's just be ourselves and love Jesus genuinely and authentically because he loved us genuinely and authentically and he chose us despite us. Oh. We love you.
Okay. Matthew. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 24 and if you're familiar with Matthew chapter 24, woo hoo hoo. It's a power packed chapter in god's word. Titled Jesus Foretells the Future and we'll put that passage up on the screen, Matthew.
Oh, yeah. We're going to read Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24 verse 32 through 36.
Anybody wants a paper Bible, see this one.
And if you want a paper Bible.
If you like to click through the pages, just come back. And
we have the mic in the room and I'd like us to take turns reading and so, we'll we'll whoever has the mic can start reading and then just hand it off. We'll take turns reading and we're going to read Matthew chapter 24. Well, this is just a few verses. So, maybe one one person, one shot. Oh.
Oh, I I'm hearing I'm hearing a request that Matt Grabowski read it. You gotta give the people what they want. Send that mic back. It's going all the way back.
All the way back.
Yeah. Warm it up. Warm up the pipes. Here it comes.
Ugly dogly.
Leticia thought we were chanting for the book of Matthew.
Matthew
twenty four thirty two through 36. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly, I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Oh, I gotta keep going. Sorry. Yeah. Come on.
But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the son, but only the father.
Okay. Keep your finger there at that passage. If you're taking notes this morning, you can write the title of the conversation that we're gonna have at the top of your notes. The title of the conversation that we're gonna have this morning is called filtering the future. Filtering the future as a title of this morning's conversation.
And I'll get to the bottom line right right now. We're gonna talk about the eclipse that's gonna that's gonna sweep across the kind of the eastern part of the nation tomorrow. How many of you know that there's gonna be an eclipse tomorrow? Around here in Jackson, it's it's projected if we have clear skies that there'll only be about maybe 63% covering the sun, but I just wanted to tell you the the the bottom line real quick. Here is the wisdom straight from my mouth to you.
Here's the bottom line. Tomorrow, don't stare at the sun. Don't stare at the sun, okay? So I think that about covers it. That's the end.
Have a great week. You got this. No. I I I do wanna I do wanna have a conversation about that. How many of you know that there's an eclipse tomorrow?
Pretty cool. How many of you were here for the eclipse in 2017? How many of you about lost your mind when that happened? Woah. Was incredible.
How many of you have heard all kinds of spiritual things associated with the eclipse tomorrow? How many of you have wondered, I wonder how like, what do we do with this? So that's what we're going to talk about today. We're gonna wade right into this. And the desire of my heart is is twofold with this message.
Number one, I want us to be people of wisdom. I want us to be a company of people that walk and speak in wisdom. Number one, number two, my goal is twofold to seemingly do two opposite things at once today. If you lean to the side of hogwash and hooey, I wanna pull you more towards we might wanna pay attention to what's going on. And if you are on the spectrum of, oh, here we go.
This is it. I want to pull you towards the center of let's calm down and take a breath because you also probably freaked out at y two k, and nothing happens. Nothing happened at y two k. The computers, they just went to zero zero. All that food you stocked up, like my grandmother, that that bunker that you had buried in the side of your hill, like, nothing happened.
How many of you remember that? I'm not gonna ask you how much food you had stocked up for that. Hey. Hey. If something happened, then we would have been the idiots.
Right? So so two my I personally have two goals for our conversation today. Number one, that you would grow in wisdom. Number two, that if you're on one side, far end of one spectrum or the other, I want you to be able to move more towards the center, not not being moderate but holding things in tension. And so we're gonna be talking our our conversation today is gonna be about filtering the future.
With that in mind, let's first turn, well, I guess we've already turned to Matthew. Let's next turn to a passage in Daniel. Daniel, Daniel chapter 12 and you can follow along on the screen and I want to read this to you. Daniel chapter 12 and we're going to look at verses one through four. Interestingly enough that in Matthew chapter 24, god is talking about things to come and in Daniel chapter 12, Daniel has seen a picture and a vision of things to come.
And he says this, in verse one through four. At that time and we'll put it up on the screen here. At that time, Michael, the archangel, who stands guard over your nation will arise. He's speaking of Israel. Then, there will be a time of anguish greater than any since the nations first came into existence.
But at that time, everyone of your people whose name is written in the book of life will be rescued. Many of those whose body lie dead and buried will rise up. Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace. Verse three, which I have underlined, but those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever. But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret, not hidden away as if you need some type of special understanding to decode and and gain this knowledge but mysterious, mysterious on the Greek word is Mysterion, not hidden from but hidden for.
Keep these things a secret. Seal up the book until the time of the end. When many will rush here and there and knowledge will increase. So, look at verse three. Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky.
That is my goal for you. If you call tribe home or really for anybody with ears to hear, I want you to be wise and have understanding so that you will shine bright in the day of confusion, confusion, and calamity, and uncertainty. One other verse, first Chronicles chapter 12 verse 32. We'll throw this up on the screen as well. From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives.
All of these men and women understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take. Well, what's the let me ask you this. What is the prerequisite for knowing the best course to take for Israel, others, people you're leading, and even yourself? What is the prerequisite? Understanding the signs of the times.
You don't just get to put your head in the sand and be ignorant and oblivious to the world around you and still get to lead yourself, your family, your coworkers, and the world around you. If you are a Christian, if Jesus is the leader of your life, there's an invitation for you to shine bright and to be a leader in this generation. But in order for you to do that, you must accurately interpret the signs of the time. How do you do that? With wisdom.
A key principle of wisdom is knowing when to use one of two strategies in life. A key principle to growing in wisdom to help you filter the future is to know when to use one of two primary strategies in life. Here's the first strategy, what I would call a problem to solve strategy. You identify a challenge or a situation in your life, and you're like, oh, this is a problem to solve. You attack the problem, you solve the problem, and then you move on.
The other strategy to take when it comes to navigating life's challenges, obstacles, or whatever is attention to manage. And if this is sounding like, I'm I'm not quite following you. Let me give you an example and then we're going to take this principle and we're going to apply it to god's word and to current unfolding events. Okay? So, we served at this we served at this church in Tulsa, Oklahoma and it was a big church.
They actually bought an old abandoned like shopping mall from the eighties and it was really cool like something like fifty five thousand square feet of like ministry space. Can you imagine if we had that? We'll do, we'll we'll be happy with 3,000, lord. Okay, fine. 2,500, lord.
But it doesn't even matter because church is a people and not a building. Thank you, lord. So, they had this huge space and Lisa and I were on staff and I was the children's pastor. So, I was responsible for kindergarten through fifth grade and to give you an idea, we had five full time staff, a team of 200 volunteers that would make this ministry work in almost a thousand little world changers running around in the environment. And we would do regular big events, and we would go all out.
Like like, we would bring we would import, like, a full petting zoo into our children's ministry area, like, all the animals that you can think of, turtles and llamas and koalas and zebras and lizards and dolphins. I don't know. Like, whatever. And we would do this huge huge petting zoo, and we would make a huge mess, or we would have, like, like, a indoor slip and slide or, like, shaving. We'd bring vehicles into the children's ministry environment and we would do a lot of great ministry and we would make a huge mess and the facility's manager, his name was Dick McDonald and he and I, needless to say, we're constantly like this because his job was to keep the facility pristine, and he had a mentality of, like, church should look like a museum.
He loved to to honor and please the lord by keeping the church clean. I kinda had a completely different strategy, mentality, and mindset but Dick had he had a a strategy of a problem to solve. What's the what's the don't point at me like that. I'm attention to manage, not a problem to solve. So Dick approached.
His strategy was this is a problem to solve. The problem is the children's ministry is wrecked. Smudges and ice cream and whipped cream and goat droppings and all of the things and the the problem, how does he solve the problem? The problem to solve it would be just be no kids, no ministry in that wing of the church. And he would solve the problem.
The it would the the floors would be clean. The bathrooms would be clean. There would be no graham crackers ground into the carpet. There would be no smudges on the wall, and there would also be no what? People.
People or ministry. I, for a while, adopted the same problem to solve strategy and the problem was Dick's my enemy and he is getting in the way of effective ministry and he needs to go because he was always coming after me and I was like, hey, we gotta like do the work of the lord here and that means getting our hands in the floors dirty and I had the same but opposite strategy. Both of us were wrong. It took our senior pastor, Alex, to sit us both down and be like, listen, you're both wrong. This is not a problem to solve.
This is a tension to manage. Dick, you need to understand that in order for effective ministry to happen, the walls are gonna get smudgy, the carpet's gonna get dirty, and praise the lord. Let's increase Brian's ministry budget so that every two years, we can completely replace the carpet. If that means that dozens and dozens and dozens of children are getting to hear the good news of Jesus and growing deep roots into the things of god and being equipped with wings to sprout and to fly and to flourish in their relationship with Jesus. And Brian, Dick's job is to keep this gigantic facility clean.
You need to give him a heads up. You need to ask him. You need to partner with him. Hey, we want to bring a monster truck into the school gymnasium for a big event that we're doing. Ask him, how can we do that and keep the facility as clean as possible?
We both shook hands and hugged, and we had, like, a a pretty good relationship after that. It was attention to manage. I was really trying to push. So wisdom is knowing which of the two strategies to use in life. For how many of you the example that I just gave is is making sense.
Like, okay. I I can see that. For how many of you, maybe even now you're realizing, there's a situation maybe that happened recently or a long time ago. I was approaching that situation with a problem to solve mentality, and actually, that might not have been the best approach, but maybe I should have used attention to manage strategy. Yeah.
Okay. And we're also gonna talk about having attention to manage strategy when, really, there just needs to be some decisive action, and it actually is a problem to solve. And what you did is prolong your time in that situation because you were trying to manage tensions instead of being decisive and make a decision. I would suggest to you that people who operate in the greatest level of wisdom have figured out the best time and place to use either a problem to solve, strategy, or attention to manage, strategy. Wisdom is knowing which approach to use in any given situation.
Now let's talk about the the principle, and let me check-in with you. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these two strategies. And then we're going to so you can't apply that to my situation with Dick. You can you can think of it and put yourself in my shoes. Okay?
But we're all about to be in a situation. And before we get to that situation, I thought we would use the situation of the coming eclipse tomorrow or really fill in the blank with any number of world events that are unfolding right now that that potentially could have some very serious ripple effects and consequences. Before those things play out, let's use it as an example. So with that in mind, let's talk about the principle first between these two different strategies. Do you have any questions or thoughts I'd like to hear from you?
Just raise your hand, and the mic will come around to you in the room. Maybe you're in absorption mode. Okay. Tomorrow, I think around 11:30 ish. Don't quote me because I don't want you to, like, take your break from work and go out at 11:30, and it was actually one I don't know what time.
I think 11:30. As the as the eclipse goes across kind of the Eastern Part of America, Here in Wyoming, if we have some decent cloud cover, I mean, clear skies, we might be able to see something. But there is there's a a a a a lot that there's a lot of people along the East Coast that are gonna get to be in the zone of totality, and there are gonna be a lot of people that, like, think that think either this is attention to manage situation or it's a problem to solve. And by problem to solve, they may disregard it completely. Meh.
Doesn't mean anything. Or the other side of the spectrum is, that's it. Sky is falling. This is this is the end. So how do we operate in wisdom?
Well, I'd like to suggest to you, and this is gonna go up on the screen here, that there are three filters, like if you're gonna look with your oh, these are dirty. John's got a cleaning cloth probably in his pocket. Here, Gretchen, come deal with these. Could you see it from here? It's like, we got a problem to solve here.
Thank you for your gift. How do we grow in wisdom? I'd like I would like to equip you with three filters that we as Christians should view the world around us to help us walk in wisdom. Three filters that every situation you might find yourself in personally or at work or with family or when things are happening in the skies above. When we look at the world with these three filters, it can help us walk and operate in wisdom.
And I'm gonna put them all up on the screen at once. Three filters. When we examine events around us or in our own heart or in our own life through these three filters, it can help us walk in wisdom. When we use god's word, when we allow the voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to us, to lead us, and to guide us, and to use the sound rational mind that you have been given. When we operate in these three things thank you.
I can see clearly now the rain is gone. Okay. Getting some real time data fed to me. Begins 11:31 here in Wyoming. Maximum occlusion at 12:42, and then it ends around 01:55.
We'll get about 62% coverage here in Wyoming. Okay. Thank you. So, I wanna talk about these three filters, god's word, god's holy spirit, a sound mind, and then what I wanna do just really quickly is run, use the eclipse but you can fill in the fill in the blanks with with anything through these three filters to help you to to operate in in wisdom. God's word.
In Proverbs, it says, your word is a light to my path and a lamp unto your unto my feet. This book is alive, and it will guide and instruct you. I would also warn you that these three things must be used in conjunction with one another. Because how many of you know that if apart from the living inspiration of scripture breathed into your heart, if you just take this as a religious text, this is a great tool to start a cult with and get get off into the weeds with because you can make this book say anything you want. You can deceive millions of people without the the breathed inspiration of the scripture but just take the words from this, right?
And so, god's word is is important and it's alive but it also and it's a light into your path and a lamp into your feet but it also must be used in conjunction with god's holy spirit. The Bible says in Ephesians, don't worry about anything but instead pray about how much? Everything. Everything. Everything.
That is what it says. And then god's peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. The Bible in the book of Romans says that god's holy spirit speaks deep to our hearts, and the message that is spoken deep into our hearts by god's holy spirit is you belong to me, says the lord. You're my child, and I'll not leave you or forsake you. I'm not gonna leave you out in the cold and surprised by events that unfold.
The book of Jeremiah, god is speaking. He says, who has stepped into the council of the lord? Who has inquired of the lord? And the idea implicit in that verse is there is an invitation for you to come dig into god's word about what you see in the world around you and ask god's holy spirit to illuminate his word and speak to your hearts about these things. Are you allowing the voices of the world around you to speak to your heart about them?
Fox News, CNN, Joe Rogan, fill in the blank, whoever, your crazy aunt Carol. Love you, aunt Carol. Or are you digging into god's word but then also inviting the person of the holy spirit to speak to you about what you're reading in conjunction with the world around you. And then finally, the sound mind that you have been given. We have not been given a spirit of fear and worry and running around like Chicken Little with our head cut off but we have been given a spirit of power and love and of what?
A mind. Chicken Little with his head cut off. Oh, yeah. You know. It's like rocket surgery.
It's easy. Those three things, when used in conjunction, act as a great filter to help us navigate circumstances in life and help us respond with wisdom. Now let's let's let's look at the let's set the eclipse. So now you know the like, think about it as a teacher in school. You explain the principles, the concept, and then you say, alright.
Let's do some problems. Let's put this into let's work some equations here. Let's use an example. The eclipse tomorrow. Is this a a problem to solve or attention to manage?
If it's a problem to solve, we either completely dismiss it, or we go crazy like Chicken Little with their head cut off. Or maybe it's attention to manage. So let's use the eclipse as our laboratory. None of us have been to the future to know what unfolds tomorrow. K.
No time travelers here. And so so it's it's going to the events that unfold tomorrow are gonna be new to all of us. They're not new to the lord, but we can preload our response by using these three filters to help us walk in wisdom. Does that make sense? Alright.
So, in regards to the eclipse tomorrow, let me ask you, what does god's word have to say? Okay. That is great. Kate said, god has given us signs in the heavens. Now, let's talk a little bit more about that.
Either you elaborate or somebody else elaborate. God has given us signs in the heavens.
Don't be fearful.
Oh, but don't be, oh, sounds like attention to manage. Don't be fearful but there will be signs. Let tension to manage. Let's talk a little bit more about these signs. What are the signs for?
Why did god put them there? And you can elaborate or or somebody else can jump in if you're like,
Okay.
Say say it. End times. For end times. So, god is pretty clear in scripture throughout scripture, the Old Testament and the New Testament that we can know the return of Jesus is approaching by signs in the heavens. And there are many verses that would that would confirm that.
Is that the only thing that signs are given to us for according to god's word? They can mark I'll I'll give you a little hint. They can mark the time of the end. They can mark what? Seasons.
Seasons. What kind of seasons? Earthly, natural seasons?
We
know that when and the reason why I'm repeating you, we can pretty much hear your voice in this room, but for all of our families that are watching on the livestream, we we can know seasons by constellations that are that we just see in the sky, and there ain't nothing mystical about it. The the stars and the planets in the heaven are like a a like a an a calendar or an analog watch. It just you can you can rewind it forward and know when full moons are. You can rewind it backwards and see last time the comet came through or last time Jupiter was at this place in heavens. So so we use signs for times and seasons.
It could be the end, but it could just be it could be fulfilling prophecy. It could be for, oh, next week, we'll see Jupiter come up. Oh, and there's Jupiter. Cool. Or, oh, it's gonna be a full moon.
Could be more animals on the road this evening as I drive home. What else are signs for according to god's word? There we go. Thank you. That's what I'm looking for.
A spiritual season. There could be signs in the heaven for spiritual seasons that that mark and indicate the beginning or the end of a spiritual season. Something very spiritual and insignificant could happen in association or in conjunction with a sign in the heaven. Now, can anybody think of a biblical precedent for a sign in the heaven that was a clear direct indication of something big supernatural unfolding on Earth? Hey, the star of Bethlehem.
One of the signs of the first advent of Jesus coming to planet Earth was a star. And the Bible says that astrologer, people who were scientifically smart and kept their glasses clean somehow, someway, saw a unique astrological event cross reference that with the Bible says their their texts and references which did Daniel give that to him while he was in Babylon? Yay. And said, they made the connection between an occurrence happening in the heavens and something very significantly profound happening in conjunction with prophecy. The wise The wise men coming.
Now, keep your hand up. Is this is this almost said comma. Is this eclipse an indication of something spiritually profound happening in America or around the world? Perfect answer. That is a perfect answer.
Maybe. What that tells me is and you probably are already are mature, but you're holding this event in tension. I did not hear you say, oh, yeah. Yep. Yep.
Yep. Yep. A 100%. I also did not hear you say, no. Remember, my goal is to bring both of you, if you if you fall on either one of those sides, into tension so that you would say, maybe.
There needs to be some other conditions and some other things, but maybe. Let's go over here to, Ella, if we haven't already run past your comment.
It was just a thought when you were asking about, like, what star heaven signs have happened with something very, important happening down here. And in Luke 23, when it's talking about the crucifixion of Jesus, it says, by this time it was about noon, and the darkness fell across the whole land until 03:00. The light from the sun was gone, and suddenly the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn down the middle. So, I mean Hello. Eclipses are kind of important.
It's very good. So in the book of Genesis we'll send the mic over here. In the book of Genesis, not from our own thinking and ideas, but right from the very get go. You can go back to Genesis chapter one and you will see from god's own mouth the reason for why he put the greater light in the sky to govern the day and the lesser light in the sky to govern the night. Which one is the greater light?
The Sun. Sun. The yellow one is the sun. And then the lesser light, the moon. To govern, and it also says that they are for what?
To mark signs and seasons from God's own mouth. Things that happen in the stars and in the sky above is for signs and seasons.
There was a very good idea that she mentioned. And I kept thinking about the rainbow as a sign. And maybe the I'm not sure if it happened before Jesus died, but maybe the solar eclipse is actually also a sign to remind you what happened then. One of the things that I felt for reading articles and watching videos and stuff, it was that on the path there would be a lot of towns or cities that will be called Jonah or Nineveh or something like that. And then they made the relation the connection with when Jesus said what happened in the days of Jonah, what happened in the end days.
And while you were preaching, we're talking. I was doing a little bit of research on, I didn't find any Maybe I'm wrong. If somebody knows that. Salem. Okay.
So I'm picking up what you're putting down. All of those videos have come across my news feed as well. So how should we, as Christians, in in interpret and and what should we think about all the videos that we've seen? Are is there a direct spiritual correlation for us that we need to pay attention to? Answer is Maybe.
Omi, yes, yes, yes. We should pay attention. Yes, we should pay attention. Okay. May I I tricked you with my own question.
Yes, we should pay attention. But then is there significance to it? Maybe. Maybe. Let's all practice saying that word together.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. There could be. It is certainly to be noted.
Why? Because God said. God said that he put the lights in the sky to mark the signs and seasons in special times, not Kronos time, but in addition, Kairos time, special events. And we've already we could go through example after example of atmospheric phenomenon occurring simultaneously with events that have great strong spiritual significance unfolding on planet Earth. So I know that we're we're gonna go quickly through the last two thirds of these filters because I'm aware of the time as well.
Like, Brian, the eclipse will be done before we get there. But Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter twenty four, one of the ways that we can know, we were just here in Matthew chapter 24, that birth pains, birth pains, and then tribulation, and then great tribulation before the day of the lord's return. Within that generation, we can expect to see all kinds of things getting wobbly, not just world governments and within the church but also signs and things in the heavens. As an an increase of atmospheric phenomenon as one indication that we are getting closer to the generation of the lord's return. But then Jesus says, he also says this in Matthew chapter 24, don't be fooled.
Don't be fooled. Many will come in my name claiming to be me. Don't be fooled. Jesus is trying to equip us and wants us to operate with wisdom. You hear the voice of a prophet out in the desert?
Is that Jesus? It has Jesus come back maybe. I gotta look at god's word. I gotta invite. I have to have that relationship cultivated with the holy spirit and then I need to use my sound mind.
Meaning, my own faculties. I can look with my eyes. Jesus saying, many will come in my name. And if you hear reports of there he is out in the desert or there he is hiding, he goes, don't listen to that. Oh, okay.
Well, not gonna listen to that. But there are other things that I need to pay attention to. And then I I just got a text message. What about wise counsel? Oh, that's good.
That's part of sound mind. We're gonna get to that. Okay. God's holy spirit, as we use that as a as a filter. Now here's something interesting.
And, Jonathan, you kind of touched on this, is that as we allow events and circumstances around us to to as we use these three filters to operate in wisdom, we've we've run it through god's word. Yep. He does use atmospheric phenomenon to get a hold of a world, a generation, or an individual and then I filter it through god's holy spirit. God's holy spirit may say, I want you to pay attention, Jonathan. For example, every time you see a rainbow in the sky, the rest of the world may be like, oh, a rainbow but god's holy spirit speaks to you, Jonathan and says, remember my covenant and so, tomorrow, when this, when the eclipse happens, god's holy spirit may be speaking to you specifically to remind you of the time when Jesus was crucified and darkness fell across for from from from twelve to like three.
And it will be super duper impactful to you. The trick is is to not take what god's holy spirit said to you and force the rest of us under the same revelation. And that's tricky because it could be very very important and potent to you. But it may only just be for you. Walking in wisdom means something that that is pertinent to you and it's good, right, and true, and found in his word may not have the same meaning and application to me.
And I think that sometimes, especially in prophetic ministry, we try to take something very, like, personal and powerful to ourselves and force it on other people. And then it just just just just doesn't fit well, kinda like David wearing Saul's armor. Like, I mean, it's good, right, and true. And where he's doing it's just not quite fair. And then it could give you a bad taste in your mouth for other prophetic ministry.
Now there is time when when it's for you and the holy spirit would say, and if you keep this shut, it's gonna be like a fire closed up in your bones. This needs to be shared. There's a time for that. Is this word for just me, or is it for anybody with ears to hear? Depends.
This is why walking in wisdom is so important. And speaking about a time for that, each of us, we are here for a time such as this. You know, Jesus could've come back anytime previously or whatever, but should should something happen, each one of us, we are living in this time for a purpose.
And he knew who's supposed to be when and where. And there will be people. There are people that are fearful when they hear all this stuff on the news. We are here to give them hope, to let them know who's in control, that, yes, these things are right, but, you know, maybe you need to get right with the one who's in control of all of this. Whoo.
But we are here for this very purpose at this time of this life.
Absolutely. Imagine being here at this time during this pivotal season in human history and being oblivious. That's why I want us to be people of wisdom. Like it says in first Chronicle, they understood. They could read the signs, and they knew how to lead them their themselves, their family, and the nation of Israel.
I want us to be people of wisdom that shine bright to know how to accurately navigate the days ahead. What has the lord whispered to my heart to share with our tribe family and anybody with ears to hear about twenty twenty four? That we can expect to see days of increasing complexity, but at the same time, god is going to release increasing Clarity. Clarity. God's like, give me your glasses.
Might help you out. Finally, the sound mind. In light of what I read in god's word, in light of what I see going on around the world around me, in light of what I hear god's holy spirit whispering to my heart about these things, And as Clay mentioned, in light of considering things with wise counsel, when we use our sound mind. And here's what Lisa always says. Okay, yeah, like an eclipse is happening.
When's the last one? And when was the one before that? And when was the one before that? And are reasonable there historical events that can be overlaid with those occurrences that that that I could look at in retrospect to help give me some insight into what potentially could unfold? Are you seeing what I'm saying?
Like, that's brilliant. That's using your sound mind and talking to wise counsel. And, boy, you guys are just chiming all kinds of things in. I just fact checked the eclipse during Jesus' crucifixion theoretically on April third thirty three AD, and NASA has recorded one to happen in Jerusalem on that day. Everybody go.
Thoughts or questions? And then up comes the band.
I can apply this to a college class that I had at MSU where I was studying two things, a PhD in skiing which was the easy part. The bachelor's in mathematics was brutal and I wish I'd known Diane Gilmore as a tutor and Josh Gilmore as a friend at
the time,
but I didn't. But what got me through and I had God's Word which I think at that time was my textbook which helped, particularly hard classes. And then I had a sound mind which was my growing up and taking grade school and junior high school. That was all part of it. But what really I told Kate just this morning, what really got me through my degree was going to every office hour I could and plead and just to say, will you help me?
And my professors, two in particular, would always give me guidance and they would always help me pass the test and they were it was about relationship that got me through my degree. Same thing happens with the with the lord. And so with this eclipse, yes, if nothing else, if it does nothing but draw you into his office, and you get to be with god, it is a a great thing. Hallelujah.
I am so glad that twenty four seven, despite being as busy as you are, you have open office hours. And if the only thing that happens as a result of atmospheric phenomenon tomorrow is that we poke our head in your office, it will have all been worth it. Speak to us. Help us. Help us.
You don't look over the top of your glasses in a condescending manner. I've already covered this in class. Your office is not empty. You are imminently available if we would just knock on your door and ask, hey. Do you have a moment?
He sets everything aside and says, come on in. Come on in. He comes around from his desk, invites you to seat in a big old leather chair across from him, knee to knee, and then he says, what's on your mind? And then he bounces the ball into your court to open up your heart and to open up your mind to him. Pour out your heart to him.
And more than likely, it's completely un eclipse related. Right? That was just our example. What's what's weighing on your mind and on your heart today? He's not only a wise professor, but he's a physician.
He is a counselor. He is a miracle worker. He is a provider. What do you need from him today? Assurance, peace, clarity.
Help us, Lord. God, I ask that you would help us to operate, to live our lives in wisdom. But in this particular example, this is not a problem to solve. Ah, this is this is it. Nor is it for something does for us to ignore, but this is attention to manage.
We wanna operate in wisdom. But give us discernment so that we know what strategy to employ in what situation. Give us these filters with which to see the future. Take a look at me just real quick. We're gonna worship the lord in one other way, but I would say applying the three filters that we've been talking about.
There are some very dynamic events unfolding here in The United States and really around the world that that could have a dramatic impact on us, especially within this coming week. And I'm not gonna tell you what they are, how we should think of them, or even what to do because I feel like that's overstepping my bounds and not the best use of this position right here. There may come a time when the Lord's like, use this position right here to say this, and and pray for me that I would have the strength and courage to do that. But what I am telling you from this position is spend a little less time, and I'm this is not an accusation. Spend a little less time, Brian, on TikTok and YouTube and a little more time in my throne room.
That's gonna do the best to set you up for success for these days ahead so that we can operate with brightness. With that in mind, why don't I just roll into the next way that we worship the lord, alright, with while we worship the lord by opening our mouths singing to him. What a beautiful time of worship we had. Let's worship the lord in one other way before we get out of here this morning with our tithes and our offerings in the same way that you open your mouth whether you got a pretty voice or a voice like mine, it don't matter. We worship the lord with song.
We worship the lord by honoring the word that's preached, and we worship the lord with a portion of our finances. You really think that you earn that money that's in your account? Who got you that job? Who equipped you with those skills and passion? Who gave you that favor at work to be able to earn that paycheck?
It's all the lord's anyways. He's inviting you to give back to him. And if you have if you're having challenges with your finances, like too much month left at the end of that paycheck, come on. That's all of us. It's Jackson.
And we're asking the Lord to bless our finances or to come through for us financially. How can he how can he do that if we don't give him something to work with? A portion of our finances. So when we give, we tell him we love you. Jesus, we tell him we trust you.
And that's the heart at which we give. And when we give here at Tribe, we don't pass buckets, but
to
that. Be We're We're We're texting a friend. You just open up a new text message to 84 it's been so it's been so long since I've done it. I'm rusty. 84321.
I've gotta check the screen out. A little rusty. You type in an amount. It's the first time you're giving. They'll ask you to enter your bank card information.
After that, it's easy as texting a friend. And so I'm gonna pray over the offering. We'll share just a few quick announcements, and then we'll get out of here. Okay? Lord, you're so good to us.
Even if we were like Chris Bates when we first moved to this valley and we're live living out of our land yacht in a big old gas guzzling suburban. You're good to us because here we are. Thank you. We tell you that that we trust you and that we love you. And as a demonstration of that, we surrender a portion of our finances to you, Lord.
God, I ask that you would receive these tithes and offerings. You would use them to make your name famous right here at Tribe in Jackson Hole, the surrounding region, and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen. As a result of a portion of your giving, we get to do things like Facebook ad campaigns.
We get to put a big banner up at Albertsons. We get to specially rent the space that we used last week for Easter. And I just wanna tell you that because of your giving and the space that we're renting and all that went into it, didn't we have an amazing Easter service last week? Thank you. Thank you for volunteering leading up to the event.
Thank you for all the setup that went into Saturday. Thank you for the day of helping to make Easter like, like, such a great time. I was so happy to, like, go to church on Easter, not like like, I say this all the time. I love being a part of Tribe even if I weren't the pastor. Somebody else, you come be the pastor and and if I like you, I'll still come, like, come to church on Sunday.
I I love this church, and I love, like, like, what you guys pulled off last week on Sunday. Eight public professions for Jesus in this valley to to take a stand for Jesus in this valley. I mean, if you've done that here, you know the cost that had to be paid for a person to just stand up in in that room yesterday. Food or last Sunday, the food was awesome. Thank you for giving.
So so one more time. Thank you, Jesus. The donuts? Are you kidding me? The donut wall?
Yeah. If you're if you're new or visiting, there's a little connect card in your seat. We'd love to have a record of your visit and or there's an opportunity to write out a quick prayer request. Would you take a moment, fill that out if there's anything that we can pray for you for or if you'd like to be added to our, text blast that we do so that you can, find out and stay in touch with all that's going on with our tribe fam here. Either leave it in your seat or you can also put it in that box or put it in a staff member's hands.
I think I've covered all the important announcements for this week. Would you stand up, and can I pray for you? Before I pray, I wanna let you know that there will be prayer in the back. We'll just commandeer that last booth over there. Lanisha, the Micas family, anybody else that she's recruited for prayer today.
If there's anything that you need prayer for, just get over there and look like you need prayer. This is kind of the universal symbol for I need prayer. Hands up like that. They'll get the idea. And why don't we all hold our hands like this?
Because I know you all need prayer, and I'm gonna pray for you right now. Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over our tribe family. God, I ask that you would give a special grace of wisdom, clarity, sobriety, and vibrancy for these days ahead. For every single person under the sound of my voice, I command a blessing over them. God, help them to have a great week.
Give them favor with their children, with their parents, with their bosses, with their family members, and help them to shine bright like the stars in the heavens. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of god. And everybody said, amen. I love you guys so very much. Don't forget to get prayer.
Don't stare at the sun. You'll go blind. Have a great week. And remember, Steven, you got this.
